Louisa's POV
"We'll always be friends, Will," Leo held him tightly in his arms.
His tail showed up again and wrapped around Will's shoulder.
Will looked very satisfied being hugged in this way. He stroked his cheek against Leo's tail and sighed with relief.
Leo flipped to the next page and said, "It is said that Star Chasers were the most powerful clan of all Gifted Ones. The origin of this clan was about a young witch girl chasing stars. When she met the full moon, she became a queen. This ancient anecdote was actually telling the matrimony between Wray Fay and King Czar the Great."
"What are those little ones?" Will pointed at the small blurry figures in the background of the picture.
"Those are children of King Czar the Great and Wray Fay. They had nine children together and all of them were offspring of the most powerful werewolf and the most powerful witch," Leo said.
"So King Czar the Great and Wray Fay lived happily ever after?" Will asked.
"Not really," Leo said, flipping to the next page.
I took a glance at the picture on that page and saw it was filled with striking red and orange colors suggesting blood and fire.
In the middle of the picture, there was a small black figure, holding something like a scepter toward the sky.
The figure looked so tiny in the ocean of fire and blood, yet it looked so determined and powerful.
Leo said, "Some of the Gifted Ones in other clans wanted to start their own kingdom. They cheated King Czar the Great to sign a peace treaty and wounded him in a fight. King Czar the Great felt betrayed, so he decided to kill all the Gifted Ones. The Gifted One lost in the battle and was driven away from the mainland into the Agier Sea. King Czar announced the First Ruling to condemn the Gifted Ones as traitors. That's why they couldn't return to this Kingdom for thousands of years in the past."
"But what about Wray Fay? She's a Gifted One," Will said.
"She loves King Czar. He's her beloved husband and the father of their nine children. But at the same time, as the Lead Priest, she also has to protect her people. Hundreds of thousands of Gifted Ones in her clan. They were innocent and they supported the King instead of the traitors during the battle." Leo said and looked at me.
"What would you have done if you had been in her position, Louisa?" Leo asked.
What would I have done? The question echoed in my head.
As a wife, I had to protect my husband.
As a mother, I had to protect my children.
As the head of my clan, I had to protect my people.
It was a tough choice.
Someone must have sacrificed their life.
"What did Wray Fay do?" I asked Leo. But the truth was, I could already guess what she actually did.
A kind, benevolent woman. A loyal wife. A powerful leader.
A mother.
It didn't seem to be very difficult to do the maths.
"She pleaded for her children and people's lives in front of King Czar the Great. She offered to sacrifice her life in exchange for theirs..." Leo said.
"...because that's what a wife, a leader, and a mother would do," I continued.
"But that's not something that you would have done," Leo looked at me and said.
"She thinks about everyone, but not herself," I said.
"No, she didn't," Leo said.
"When a King decides to randomly kill innocent people who have helped him, he is disqualified as a King and becomes a tyrant. This world doesn't need a tyrant King but..." I said and paused.
"But what?" Leo asked.
But a benevolent Queen. I thought to myself.
I didn't say it out loud, though. It didn't feel appropriate at that time.
But deep inside my heart, I knew exactly what I would have done.
I would kiss my children goodnight, take a knife into the King's bed-chamber, and cut off my husband's deranged head when he was still asleep. Then, I would have a good night's sleep beside his headless corpse and call it for the day.
The next morning, I would wake up as a Queen.
That was what I would have done.
"What happened next?" Will asked.
Leo said, "Before the public execution of Wray Fay, she learned that King Czar the Great lied to her and had already driven all the people in her clan into her tomb, which had been built for both King Czar himself and Wray Fay. He wanted to bury her people alive in their tomb. Wray Fay was outrageous and lost her mind, and that's why she took up her scepter and called for a meteorite attack from the sky."
"And that's why they said King Czar the Great was killed by fire from the sky," Will said.
"Yes. A huge meteoroid, along with millions of meteorites attacked the center of the Kingdom and destroyed everything. The current Reach Plain was formed by that strike. Tatra, Kanz, and Tien Mountains were formed at the edge of the plain. The shards of the meteorites spread all over the places and became precious moonstones. It is said the moonstones were of mysterious ancient power that can be utilized as magic. In the stories, only a few werewolves survived that attack, along with the Star Chasers, who had already been driven underground into the King Czar the Great's Tomb. But the meteorite strike ruined everything, so nobody knows the location of King Czar the Great's Tomb."
"Were the Star Chasers still locked in that tomb?" Will asked.
"Nobody knows. But people kept talking about the Underground City, especially after the earthquake triggered by the explosion of Kanz Mountain. Some people found ancient relics in the tomb. Others say they found the secret passageway leading to the tomb. My brother has mentioned it several times to me. It is said that tremendous treasures were hidden inside the Underground City. People are looking for it," Leo said.
"Darren mentioned it to me! He said he wanted to get to the Underground City and bring his brother back to life," I said.
"Nothing can bring a dead person back to life, Louisa," Leo looked at me and said, "The traveling druids were cheating him, just like what they had done to his brother Derek."