CHAPTER 256: 256: CUE

They were silent again, dancing for over a minute without words.

And then Elvis said, his eyes down, "It’s not like that..."

"I know," Eden said. "It’s not." He forced a smile. "So you don’t have to mind me. Don’t worry about me. You’re the crown prince after all. You have responsibilities to keep. So you don’t have to worry about a wizard like me. The only obligation you have towards me is to have me dead."

Eden smiled as he spoke. Elvis, on the other hand, had a neutral expression. After a while, he wanted to say, "Well I..."

"You..." Eden interrupted him before he spoke. "You must have confirmed about it, right? What I told you about your mum."

Elvis hesitated before replying. "Yes. Though I can’t confirm the history behind the cold feud; it’s strangely guarded so well. But I did get some clues in the library. But.. I was able to confirm..."

His words drifted. He stared into thin air as though he was in thought. "To confirm what my mum’s been through. Asked around and..."

Eden didn’t let him finish. He nodded with a soft smile as he said, "That’s good. At least I achieved something."

"Now it’s up to you to know how to act about it," Eden stared at him. "She’s your mother. So you should give her the justice she deserves."

Elvis didn’t say any words. He had his head down in silence while they danced. And the silence grew between them as the minutes passed.

*****

Queen Lea and King Edward weren’t dancing. The two of them sat down on their royal seats, brought to them.

They observed the dance floor while sipping some wine.

Queen Lea had her eyes on Elvis, and she observed as he danced with Eden now. Queen Lea rolled her eyes as she drank her wine.

"That bastard..." she muttered. She had been watching Eden for a while now, watching as he moved from one of the male leads to another. And she had been watching to know the perfect time to strike.

And now seemed like the right time.

With a smile, she turned and looked at the Great Priest of Elzager, who was standing just behind her, not so far away.

Their eyes met across the dimly lit ballroom. They could see each other and could certainly read each other. And as Queen Lea nodded, The Priest knew what she meant.

And he knew it was time to strike, because the two of them had previously discussed this together.

*****

Queen Lea had met The Priest a few days ago. After she had made up her mind to make Eden pay for what he did to her son, she decided to work together with The Priest in making it come through.

The two of them had sat down and discussed their plans.

"... I want my son to take him down in the most subtle way possible," she had said to the Priest. "The two of them are close so he wouldn’t notice anything. So I want to use him for it."

The priest smiled. As though his plans were falling right into place as he wanted, he had gotten just what he hoped for.

"Perfect timing," The priest had said. "In order to make sure the wizard doesn’t miraculously resist my attacks on that day, because he’s rather unpredictable, I’ve always thought about poisoning him. Slowly."

"Tell me more," Queen Lea had requested as the priest handed her a pill.

He explained, "Mix this in whatever he’ll be drinking or eating. And have your dear son hand it to him. He’ll take it and not even be able to detect that it’s poison; neither will it show any signs till the moment I strike."

Queen Lea was happy with the pills. "So.. is this going to kill him or something?"

"Not necessarily," The priest had said. "This pill is going to weaken him until he’s rather useless. It’s going to slowly poison his powers until he can’t use them for a while. And then on that day when I attack, he’s going to be useless. He can’t defend himself at all."

The priest smiled. "He’ll be powerless then, which makes it easier for me to attack."

Queen Lea smiled too; she was happy with the arrangement. "Then that’s fine by me. As long as I can contribute to taking down that bastard for good, I’ll do anything."

She smiled at the pills. "I can’t wait to watch that devil be useless on that day. Too useless that he can’t even defend himself. Too useless that he’ll have no choice but to be killed. What a pleasure that would be."

And so she had taken the pill and given it to her son, Lysander, to execute.

*****

Now, Queen Lea stared at the priest with a smile, signaling him that it was his cue to take the wizard of EL down.

And the priest too had also agreed that it was time to strike, time to finally take down Eden, to take down the mistake he had made which had always lived with him.

The Great Priest of Elzager stared in Eden’s direction. He watched as Eden danced with the crown prince, watched as the two of them awkwardly moved to the rhythm of the music.

But that wasn’t his issue; his concern was how to take down Eden now.

He brought up both hands, holding his two palms together as though he was holding water. And then he stared into it.

The green pearl appeared, small and glowing. He watched as the green pearl dazzled in his hands for a while. And with a smile, his eyes also flashed in the colour of the pearl: Green.

The priest slowly took the pearl in his fingers, watching as it beamed brighter and brighter. He smiled as he stared at Eden, who was still dancing, unaware of what was coming for him.

"You’ve lived too long. Now it’s your time to leave this earth. Finally."