"AVEM?" I yell in shock as I run up to the bars of the prison cell she was being held in.
"HAHA, it is you Oliver, fancy seeing you here," she said weakly, trying to make it sound like she was completely fine.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN FANCY SEEING YOU HERE, WHY ARE YOU HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" The guards, the door, the secrecy - it made sense now that these would be the chambers, but why was Avem here? Seeing her like this ate away at me, and the longer I stood there, the more I felt time slow down as the highly distinguished sense of morality in this world faded upon seeing Avem of all people down here.
"You see Oliver, us black winged Harpies get special treatment," she said as she fixed her posture and spread out her withered wings pretending like she felt accomplished. Her crimson red hair was completely messed up and slightly brown because of the dirt. Blood trickled down her face and her entire body was covered in purple bruises.
"THIS ISN'T A JOKE AVEM, YOU ARE THE QUEEN'S DAUGHTER AND THEY TREAT YOU LIKE THIS?"
Suddenly her proud demeanour changed to one of annoyed and almost disgust, "The QUEEN, isn't my mother, what kind of mother abandons their child just because they have black wings. What kind of mother throws their 4 year old daughter into The Aether Forest just because they can't use magic?" She yelled while trying to hold back her tears, realizing her sudden outburst she quickly turned around in embarrassment
I stare at her as her battered wings fold back, I think about who Queen Siren actually is, there must be a reason why she treated Avem the way she did. Maybe Venus would know. I wanted to reach out to her and calm her down, but I didn't know what to say. We both sat in silence. I tried to contemplate what was going on, Avem was right. What kind of mother gives this treatment to their child?
"What happened to your arm," she said as she slowly turned her head to look at my disfigured arm.
"Haha, that fucking door is stronger than anything I've ever versed, at least I came out victorious." I say trying to cheer her up.
"It's called Celestine Metal you shinster, it's the strongest metal in the world and yet you still broke it by just punching it, you've made your teacher proud." She slowly started regaining her confidence as she looked at me in distress.
"Listen Oliver, forget you saw me here, when you punched Ovis in the face it made me happy to know you would defend me, but I knew the consequences. You can't defend me this time, you have a good reputation here, and the queen loves you." She paused and looked away from me, she covered her mouth and squinted her eyes.
"Thanks for being my friend Oliver, I couldn't ha-"
"Shut up for one second," I said aggressively, purposely cutting her off. "If you think I am just gonna walk away without confronting The Queen about this abuse, then you are a shinster yourself, you saved my life, I would have died out there without you. Now it's my turn to be of some help." I said as I let out a sympathetic smile and reached out with my right arm to grab hers.
"You can't do this Oliver, first of all you wouldn't even be able to approach the queen if you give off even a little bit of ill-intent. And if you say one wrong thing you could be exiled forever." She said as she panicked and begged me not to go.
"Well, at least we would be exiled together, plus I know Venus would follow me." I said keeping my smile, "Just take my hand, I'm getting tired.
*Sigh* "You are crazy, you know that Oliver, I'll never understand you." She said as she smiled and grabbed my hand.
"OWW FUCK," I pulled back my injured hand as we both fell back on the ground. We both laughed and felt relieved by each other's company.
"Before you go Oliver there are two things I must tell you," she changed back to a serious tone as she fixed her posture and looked at me.
"I am not sure if you have been taught this in school, but even though all races share the same elements, and all elements have the same spells attached to them, each and every being that lives on this world has a unique magic."
"Ok? But why are you telling m-"
"Shhh shut up and let me speak," she said, reminding me of when we first met.
"Unique magic can be anything and I mean anything. They can go from being slightly faster to being a unique elemental skill that only that person can use. Every person is born with a different unique magic."
"Again, I don't understand why you are telling me this."
"PROBABLY CAUSE YOU NEVER LET ME FINISH HMMM." She said as she got increasingly annoyed by my increasing questions.
"Sorry," scared, I responded quickly to annoy her further.
"You've met Headmaster Nayaa right? Well you know he used to be a general for the queen. Well each Celestial being has 4 generals, they are like their bodyguards and also make decisions for the kingdom when it comes time for war. Like Headmaster Nayaa, they are extremely strong and all 4 of them have really strong Unique magics and they have mastered their elemental magics."
"You can't beat them Oliver, that is one thing I can say. In this world, level and unique magic almost means everything. The only thing worse than having a low level and bad unique magic is being A Graceless." She said, slightly getting saddened by her awful black wings.
"Don't worry Avem, I don't plan on fighting them. And if this helps, your black wings look pretty cool, you know." I said as I got slightly shy.
"HAHAHA, shut the fuck Oliver, don't try and act flirty with me." She said as she laughed hysterically, not long before her body reminded her of the pain she was in.
"HEY I WAS JUST TRYING TO BE NICE." After spending a little more time together we decided it was time to go have a chat with the queen. Since both of my hands were completely useless, I had to figure out a different way of breaking the door. Since there was concrete surrounding the celestine bars, all I had to do was break the concrete around the bars and they would fall.
Then after thinking for some time I came up with an idea. When I threw that piece of concrete and the guard that was imbued with magic I didn't receive the recoil, the piece of concrete just shattered upon impact. So what if I do the same thing again.
"Avem, move back a bit," I said as I picked up a piece of concrete with my right hand.
[Mana Punch, 100 mana]
The sky blue magic surrounded the concrete just as before, since the concrete got heavier it severely hurt as I still had two broken fingers, but I had to deal with the pain. I threw the concrete towards the concrete holding the bars. Right upon impact the concrete brick and the concrete wall shatters instantly. The celestine bars crashed onto the floor.
She struggled to get up due to being weak, those guards seemed to have been beating her and starving her. She was extremely skinny and her feathers seemed to be withering away. This is unacceptable, what kind of mother would allow this for her child.
"Oliver relax, your anger is giving me chills haha," she said, frightened and weakened more.
"Oh sorry," I said as I tried controlling my anger.
"Its o-," suddenly she crashed to the floor.
"AVEM?!" I checked her pulse and put my finger under her nose, she was still breathing. She probably fainted from exhaustion and all the torture she seemed to be going through.
I tried picking her up, but the pain was too much. There needed to be some way I could get her out of here. I opened my menu and looked around for anything that could maybe help me. I looked through my abilities, anything please anything. There has to be something.
I clicked on the "King of Familiars" ability description and noticed a new tab had been added named Familiars. I clicked on the tab and saw that Venus was there. On the bottom right of the menu it said "Summon Familiar."
I clicked on it.
Suddenly a red rune was formed in front of me, seconds later Venus appeared from the rune almost as if she was teleported.
"Master you su-," "MASTER WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU," she said as she ran at me panicked by my roughed up shape.
"Don't worry about me Venus, I need your help to take Avem with me to The Queen.." I struggled to say as I was straining from the pain.
"BUT WE HAVE TO ATTEND TO YOUR WOUNDS FIRST." She yelled again in panic, she wasn't herself.
"LISTEN TO ME VENUS, WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. CALM DOWN AND JUST LISTEN TO ME." I yelled at her in anger fighting through the pain.
She almost instantly calmed down and kneeled on the floor.
"I apologize for my behaviour." She said with her usual monotone voice, she then picked up Avem and we walked out of the dungeon.
As we made our way to The Queens hall I looked around at the beautiful scenery, the sapphire blue moon lights the entire campus while the turquoise grass and Avery trees blew in the wind. There was almost no need for the floating lanterns. The scene was enough to distract me from my pain, it was almost paradise.
But that paradise didn't last long as right when we reached the queens hallway I noticed all the harpy nobles looking at us in disgust. I heard whispers, insulting and ridiculing Avem.
My face turns sour as each noble that walks beside us is scared out of their minds. Soon they all run into the nearest room. Good that they did, or I would have beaten all of them dead.
I stand in front of the giant celestine metal double doors in front of me.
"Venus, open the door," I said, gritting my teeth with extreme anger.
"Who dares enter The Queen's hall," a deep and terrifying voice reaches out to me as I enter the room.
"Queen Siren, we need to talk."