Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 575: Assurance ()

"You have not been very useful to me in these decades, Diandre. One must know when to be rid of a faulty equipment and I believe it is about time I smoothen the errors and replace the faulty part, would you not agree? Keila?" Celeste called.

At the mention of the familiar name, Lady Diandre’s eyes widened in a mix of horror and disbelief.

The look on her face even more horrified when she did set eyes on her niece, the last face she had expected to see in Celeste’s dark hall.

Keila stepped out of the shadows, a blank expression on her face. Her gaze slowly moved to settle on Lady Diandre, taking in her state, yet she remained unfazed.

"Naturally, if one’s use is no longer dependable, it would only be right to cast him aside." Keila replied to Celeste’s question.

Celeste clapped her hands in excitement, a bright smile lit up her face and her obsidian wings fluttered ever so slightly, briefly lifting her off the ground.

"Isn’t she just lovely?" Celeste lauded Keila in excitement.

She got down to her feet and walked over to Keila, gently stroking her hair in an adoring manner.

"You hid such a precious one from me, Diandre. I must say, you are not very reliable." Celeste commented, still laughing.

"I will leave you and your aunt to talk it over. Afterwards, you may return to your place lest Lodenworth begins searching for you." Celeste permitted.

With that said, Celeste took her leave, her steps as graceful as always with her black robes swishing around her ankles.

When Celeste was gone, the dark hall fell into silence once again and no words were said to break the silence for the longest time.

Lady Diandre was still in shock, she stared at Keila, her mouth opened and closed up once again as she tried to come up with the right words to say.

Lady Diandre had no such success and so Keila broke the silence first.

"Why do you look so surprised? You can be here and I cannot?" Keila asked Lady Diandre with a raised brow.

Lady Diandre was completely appalled, she just stared at Keila in disbelief.

"You cannot be here! Do you know what sort of place this is?! Do you know what sort of person she is?!" Lady Diandre hissed in a low whisper.

"She is my aunt, is she not? Perhaps a little farther up the generation, but she still is family... just like you are." Keila replied blankly.

"Fa... family? Family?!" Lady Diandre spat the words out like they were bitter on her tongue.

"Did I say anything wrong?" Keila asked, her brows raised curiously.

Lady Diandre was at a loss of words, she could only stare at Keila with her mouth agape.

"Do you realize she bears a grudge against the Fae royals? She would sooner wipe us out than be of help to us and what? Family? You can still consider her family?! She is a dark fairy!" Lady Diandre exclaimed in disbelief.

"Not just a dark fairy, she is the dark fairy! She was the very first to practice the art!" Lady Diandre added insistently.

"If she is so horrible, then why are you here?" Keila posed a question.

A question to which Lady Diandre had no answer. She knew well enough the grudge Celeste held against the Fae Royals, so why had she still come to her for help?

"Did you think I would never find out, that you have joined hands with the dark side?" Keila asked.

"I have my reasons, Keila. I can give whatever is needed to restore what is ours, but you cannot do the same. What have I always said? You cannot have anything tainting you!" Lady Diandre reminded.

"I have only done what I have to, to lift the curse and restore our rightful place!" Lady Diandre exclaimed helplessly.

"Why are you allowed to do so and I am not? Who are you to determine if I can be tainted or not?" Keila demanded.

Lady Diandre could not believe Keila was asking such a question. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"To protect you! To protect your sister! We are the last of the Royal bloodline! If anything goes wrong, I cannot afford to drag you two down with me." Lady Diandre reasoned.

"These are the words you have said for the longest time, and I believed you. I trusted in you and just waited... until I set eyes on Addie, pale and poisoned by the Ixora bloom." Keila said in a low, haunted tone.

"Addie was set for death... she was going to die and it was thanks to no one else but our own kind!" Keila hissed.

"That... it was not my decision. Adrienne is impulsive and stubborn, the Fae council feared she would reveal all she knew in her rage and it was a unanimous decision...there was nothing I could do." Lady Diandre defended herself.

"Adrienne made many mistakes, she was already paying for them in exile. You swore you would protect us, you should have done that! At any cost!"

"The Fae council has always been after us...to get rid of the royal line. You could not even protect Addie, how can I still trust and rely on you to do anything right?" Keila asked directly.

"I realized then that the moment I made a mistake, I would also be just as easily tossed aside. That if I were the one to be poisoned, you would only say the same thing to Addie... that there was nothing you could do." Keila murmured.

"I would never do such to you, Keila. You are not like Adrienne! You are perfect, unmarred, you are to be the next High Queen, I would give anything to keep you safe...so you have to walk away from this and never return." Lady Diandre reasoned.

"Do not tell me what I can and cannot do!" Keila exclaimed.

"I have lived my entire life following your every direction, your every order. The only reason you cherish me so much is because I do everything you say... unlike Addie, I do not act out."

"That is why you deem me more fitting to be High Queen, because I am the one you can control. You may not desire the throne for yourself, but you desire something greater and I have always known it..." Keila trailed off, tilting her head back to blink away the tears gathered in her eyes.

"To be Queen maker. To have the High Queen in the palm of your hands... everything you have done so far has proven it."

"You say you wish for me to remain untainted. But all you, Adrienne and the entire council has done is drag me down with you. Everyone looks at me with scorn, because I share your bloodline!"

"I cannot remain detached even if I wish to, and so I am done..."

"... I am done dancing to your tune and living quietly, hiding away my ambitions because you ordered it."

"I am done playing fair, or according to anyone’s rules."

"I will do things as I please now. I will do things in my own way, beginning with lifting the curse." Keila clarified.

"Lifting the curse is not so easy, Keila! Have you not watched me work towards that goal for decades? We have tried countless methods, yet to no avail. What makes you believe you will have more success?" Lady Diandre asked weakly.

Keila chuckled quietly, shaking her head from side to side.

"Whoever said it was not easy? It is only difficult because you are blind to the obvious solution...you thought you knew it all, but I have watched you fumble in your ignorance and I have grown weary of it." Keila muttered.

"You believe in merging our two races by irreversible bonds, till the curse is weakened enough. Addie believed having the Dragon King’s heart would free us of the curse...but not me."

"I came to Celeste with a proposal. We can fight it out afterwards, I will indulge her grudge...but first, we rid ourselves of a common enemy."

"The curse placed by the High Queen due to her love and guilt to Agardan, is linked to Agardan’s bloodline. There is one simple solution... wipe out Agardan’s bloodline to which the curse is linked,"

"With none left to claim the debt... the curse loses validity." Keila said blankly.

"You...you mean..." Lady Diandre stuttered.

"Kill the Dragon King... the last of Agardan’s bloodline." Keila finished.

"You... how could you even contemplate such a thing? Lodenworth will never forgive you!" Lady Diandre exclaimed in horror.

"He will... I have an assurance, you see..." Keila muttered, lifting a hand to rest on her abdomen.

"You are with child... Lodenworth’s child..." Lady Diandre realized.

"Soon, we will no longer be the last of the Fae Royal bloodline. Before my child arrives...it is my duty as a mother, to clear the path for her."

"I will not allow her inherit the curse of our bloodline..." Keila vowed.