Trial Three~Birth286Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjU8wYxjn8
Illya's confused expression was replaced with a look of sheer panic. She fell to the ground and wrapped her hands around the wound in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding but she knew it was futile. She had used an arrow with a special restrictor property. Which meant, once it made contact, it's substance would prevent the victim from healing. This was to ensure a definite kill. Araht, who had also been put under Sana's spell, snapped out of it when he released his magic completely. Araht watched in horror as her sister collapsed onto the floor in a pool of her own blood. Takeru and Themis rushed to her side when Li stopped her attacks and went over to her place beside Sana. Araht ran over to Illya and gently took her hand. The Dragon Queen shook with rage.
"My baby...My baby...SOMEONE SAVE MY BABY! I CAN'T DO IT! I CAN'T HEAL HER!" She screamed, consumed with panic. She took a breath, forcing herself to focus her thoughts. The most she could do was use her own time magic to freeze time for the baby, so that she could maintain her condition before she found a way to save her.
"I told you. Join me and I'll save her."
"FUCK YOU SANA! TAKE YOUR STUPID FUCKING IDEALS AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS. I WANT NO PART OF IT!" She roared.
Sana shrugged. "Alright. Have it your way." He stood with Li, watching her bleed out.
Takeru opened another portal. Illya was beginning to loose conscious when something hit her. She could have sworn Sana called her Princess. The only people who call her princess are those from Aruma An because over there, she would still, in fact, be a princess. As the crowd in front of her blurred, the one thing she was able to make out was a shadowy figure right behind Sana...and...he was smiling. She felt herself being lifted and carried through the portal but the image haunted her every thought before she finally lost consciousness.
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Illya's eyes fluttered open slowly. Her entire body felt heavy. The first thing she noticed were the drapes around the bed that told her she was in her room. She turned her head weakly to the side to see Callisto holding her hand.
"You're awake!" He said softly.
She could tell by the shakiness in his voice and the redness of his eyes that he had been crying. Memories of what happened gradually came back to her. When she remembered what happened, she shot up. All the colour drained from her face and beads of sweat slid down her forehead as if she were waking up from a bad dream. Callisto gently put his arms around her and pushed her back down.
"Don't move so fast. You lost a lot of blood..."
"H-How long have I been out?" She rasped in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used for years.
"Not long. A couple hours at most. Sana called back his troops after Takeru and the others brought you back. The court physician has been really pushing it to try and stabilize you...I was really worried...after I lead all the citizens to where they were supposed to evacuate to, I came back here and you were already covered in blood...things had escalated so quickly. We...found out that Avarice double crossed us. He knocked out Phoebe and immobilized Nikiro so he could let enemy troops in."
Illya's eyes widened, but she couldn't say she was entirely surprised.
"Where is he now?" She asked worriedly.
"With Ea. The boys detained him and have him waiting outside right now."
The door creaked open and in walked Tekina and the court physician. Tekina walked over to Illya's bedside.
"Hey...how are you feeling?" Her voice was nothing more as a whisper.
Tekina's furrowed brows and tired expression mimicked that of the four physician and Illya could tell that it wasn't just Callisto, she had given everyone a scare.
"I'm sorry..." Were the first words she thought to say. "If I had been more careful then...if I had been more attentive..."
Callisto gave her hand a squeeze. "Illya. No. Don't talk like that. Everyone here knows you of all people pay the most attention to detail. No one's going to blame you just because something slipped your mind. You may be a goddess but you're not invincible. Everybody has weaknesses and no one's judging you for having one." He reassured.
Illya did feel a little better after listening to him, but that relief didn't last long as her hands traveled down to her stomach and she shot up from the bed once again. Tekina had to hold her back to prevent her from hurting herself.
"The baby! What happened to the baby!!" She panicked.
The court physician removed the covers to show her where he had removed the arrow. He knew Illya hated beating around the bush and he knew she would only get more riled up if he tried to sugar coat it so he decided to just tell her.
"When you passed out, the time magic you put on her stopped working. The arrow got her...but that not what killed her. A lot of the blood was hers too. She died from intense blood loss. I'm sorry Illya."
Illya went deathly silent. Callisto never once let go of her hand, almost as if he could tell what was coming. Before and after the birth of the triplets, Illya had suffered numerous miscarriages before her marriage to Callisto and it left her with permanent damage, so when she was able to have Astrid, it was like a miracle. However, getting pregnant was easy, it was keeping the babies that she had trouble with. Even with Astrid, she had an issue with excessive bleeding and all the previous miscarriages made her all the more paranoid and worrisome. Now to hear that her child had died, not because of a miscarriage, but because she herself, shot the arrow that killed her, it was too much to take. She was overcome with unbearable guilt and turned to Callisto in tears.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so so so so sorry! Oh my god! I'm so sorry!!!" she repeated over and over again.
Callisto pulled her into his arms. "Shh. It's not your fault. It's okay."
She looked up at him and through her blurry vision, narrowed her eyes and frowned. "What do you mean it's okay? I killed our baby!! YELL AT ME! GET MAD! IT'S MY FAULT!"
She begged him desperately. Almost as if she wanted that resentment to make herself feel better, to punish herself. Perhaps in knowing that he hated her, she would feel less guilty because she felt like she deserved it. However, he did not give her that relief. He simply shook his head and held her, stroking her hair soothingly. Then something clicked. The man she saw smiling before she passed out. She knew that man. She had seen a vision of him when she was young. She recognized him as the old King of Aruma An and immediately realized that Sana's sudden descent into madness wasn't because he had been consumed by his ambitions, but because Li must have allowed for the old King to posses him, hence amplifying all of his beliefs in the worst way possible to create chaos.
Her first thought was that the king wanted to destroy everything related to Salem, since it was her father that defeated him. His wretched smile flashed in her mind and a wave of rage filled her.
"No...no...no no no no NO! I KILL HIM! THAT BASTARD CAUSED MY BABY TO DIE! I KILL HIM!" She screamed.
Everyone was taken aback by her sudden outburst, but not Callisto. Callisto held onto her tighter to make sure she didn't get up and hurt herself, or anyone else. Upon hearing her screams, Raehar bursted into the room. He immediately rushed to her bed and grabbed her other hand.
"Rosie, please! Calm down!"
He could tell that she was getting caught up with thoughts of revenge again and knew that those thoughts had never served her well in the past. She was always quick to anger and not even the flames of hell came close to the destruction she could so ruthlessly bestow. So he tried to persuade her to calm down before she made another mistake, but with her explosive nature, he knew it would be damn near impossible.
"Rosie, please! Listen! Don't let your hate consume you! You remember what happened all those years ago when you burned that village down? Remember how you were punished? Remember all the other times you caused a ruckus and later said you regretted it? Don't let your want for revenge hurt you like that again!!"
His pleas continued to fall on deaf ears. She was too far gone and continued to drown in a sea of pain and sorrow.
"I SWEAR! I'll AVENGE MY DAUGHTER IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!" She choked out through tears. As soon as the words left her lips, a wave of magical energy ran through her veins and her body heated up.
An intense surge of pain shocked her out of her trance and everything went silent. Then it happened again, and again. If it weren't for the intensity of the pulses, she would not have been able to bring herself back to a coherent enough state to notice that the bed under her became wet. The court physician immediately threw the blankets off of her.
"Illya. Breath. The baby is coming."
Her eyes widened in horror as everyone looked at each other in confusion. With trembling lips, Illya looked him in the eyes with a look of sheer panic.
"But...isn't she dead?"286Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BWvLPHaC0
