It was a good change for Mahnu, from questioning why Eliza didn't care that Thelmos was there lazily slumping or sleeping in the same room that Eliza was 'busy' in. Having thought of having someone else in the room when she was like that with Richard, made her think that those times wouldn't haven't happened like that at all!

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, she was surprised that it had taken so long to find them. It was already dark now as she came in through the window, near William, and searched for ink and parchment.

Mahnu wrote to Marcus and then woke William up, telling him to not give the letter to anyone else and to ride as fast as he could.

"I know you are probably hungry and in need of rest. But..."

"Understood, I will go. You can count on me." William nodded before picking up the bag, that was prepared earlier, and left. Luckily, he was able to get a couple of hours sleep...But he felt very tired still, unable to go quickly until he splashed cold water on his face when he got downstairs.

Wanting to read the letter, to find out the situation, William could only sigh and remember Mahnu's face and urgency in her voice. He had to ride now, and he had to ride as fast as he could!

 

Mahnu turned to the town, that now had so many mindless people, and knew that she was heading towards something that could result in torture...But she was resolved to try and talk things through first. She also needed some time to figure out what was going on...

If by chance she could find out if there was more God's or if they had found a way to open The Chest of the God's and anything else that was on the tablet, it was something only she could do. As...If they tortured her, she will heal and continue to try and find out as much as she could.

Not many times had she been thankful for her power of being able to read one’s mind, but on this day, she was indeed thankful of it because she was sure they would not tell her what she wanted to know in words!

 

Their residence was quite unusual but Mahnu didn't care to waste time and continued through a window.

It had been over a thousand years, and now, she finally stood before two of her own kind…And they recognized her straight away.

"So...It was true...One of our own kin..." Eliza stuttered.

"Mahnu?" Was all Thelmos said, neither surprised or emotional. He yawned but did look and start to walk slowly towards her with a lazy, small smile.

Eliza stopped Thelmos walking towards her, and said, "Why are you here?"

"I want to ask you to stop using humans as slaves and live together with them as..."
"What? Friends?" Eliza interrupted Mahnu, and then spat on the floor. "We are their master's! They need to beg for mercy from us, their God's!"

Mahnu sighed in her head and continued, "Is there anything that will change your mind, sister?"

Eliza charged at her, "I'm not your sister!"

As Mahnu lost consciousness, due to her neck breaking, she heard Eliza spit again and say, "You...Betrayer!"

 

During the onslaughts of pain from her own kin, Mahnu stopped talking again. They tortured her to a point that humans would have died countless of times and that God's could not stop feeling an enormous, unstoppable amount of pain. Their thoughts and feelings went through her as well, making her wish that she wasn't immortal.

Thelmos didn't have many thoughts, but when she heard them, they did state what she feared that they would think. Why did Mahnu want to help the humans? What are we doing wrong?

But then, Eliza would bombard her with many questions, both inside her head and out…

How could you? To us!? With those puny humans! Break her for every God she betrayed! Break her for every human she saved! Make her hate the humans, that's right Mahnu, if you want to blame someone for the pain that you feel right now, it's the human's fault!

It wasn’t just torture to her body, but her mind as well. Those tormenting questions had already been asked by herself before, throughout all these years, now only to hear it from her own kind made her feel even worse!

Mahnu didn’t regret what she had done in the past, but she did feel bad about it. Even though her choice had been made and all she could do was stick to it but…She sadly had a small hope that she could have been happy to have others like her still here. And that sad hope had already vanished, leaving an empty part in her icy heart.

With every wound that they created, Mahnu wasn’t sure whether to apologize for what she had done or to take pity on them. With every bone that had broken, Mahnu wondered if this was the type of punishment that she deserves for her past act…

 

Having no one like her around for over a thousand years had made her feel terribly lonely and now that Eliza and Thelmos were one of her and saying these things, Mahnu was defeated.

She wished that they could have all gotten along, that God’s and humans could have coexisted, at least then she wouldn’t have been alone and had to betray her own kind. But, since it wasn’t like that, all she could do was try to harden her heart and act along with her own problems of feeling the suffering of the people.

…There was just no other way but to be selfish and hope that the sufferings would come to a stop!

…A small spark of hope ignited in Mahnu when she heard Richard's sufferings and it helped her calm down. She was able to ignore their pressure to hate the humans and to start thinking rationally about her next step.

Again, Richard had helped her...Through the power of feeling the humans suffering, he had helped her.

It wasn’t easy to be thankful for this type of power, but at this time when she needed it to not lose herself, she was indeed thankful…

 

***

 

William rode to where the King was with Marcus, inside of the palace. Even though horses weren't allowed, he rode until the door, and ran to Marcus with Mahnu's letter.

Marcus waved to the guards chasing after William and hurried to open up the letter.

"What is it that someone rode a horse here?"

William bowed to the King, "I apologize Your Majesty."

The King was silent, seeing Marcus not yelling at these events, and when Marcus finished reading, he knew something was wrong.

"William, ride to Havlish and gather the army. Ride to Brackan and I'll meet you there. I will expect to see you within four weeks near the river just outside of the town, understood...Wait!" Marcus looked over William's face and saw that he was already exhausted. "Bring another to me, I'll get them to do it, then you can go and have a rest."

William? The King thought.

"Yes, Sir!" William said, running off.

Meeting another of the Loyal Royal Knights just outside of the room, William told them to go inside for the leader's orders.

Leaning against the wall, William fell limp against it and then found himself falling to the ground. He had stopped minimal times and had very little sleep. And because he had ridden so fast, he had to change horses three times because they had gotten too tired to continue further. William had never been so hungry, or tired, in his life but when he had heard his leader say something about the army, he knew that he had done the right thing. It had been that important that the whole Loyal Royal Army is getting involved and he couldn't believe he still didn't understand what was going on!

His head found the ground, and William felt himself drift easily into sleep. It didn't even matter that he wasn't on a bed, that was how tired he was...

His last thoughts were of Mahnu and why she had stayed behind...

 

 

Marcus sighed and shock his head. After giving such an order, it still didn't seem real, that the land of Kralaide was slowly getting overtaken by God's once again.

"What is it? He was the one with Mahnu wasn't he? Let me read the letter!"

Marcus hesitated but gave His Majesty the letter.

 

'Marcus, it has been confirmed that in Brackan there are two God's. It is unconfirmed if there are more or if The Chest of the God's has been opened or found. The people here are slaves to them, and I have not found the governor. I am going to try and talk to them, as a war as big as The Siege should never happen again.  I also want to try to get more information and to keep them here so that the Chest of the God's will be safe. On the case that I am unsuccessful at obtaining information, please, you must get a lockable box made from both gold and silver. As long as it has those key ingredients, it doesn't matter where you get it from or how big it is. Bring that up to Bracken so that I can use it against them, just as in the past with The Siege. I will meet back with you as soon as I can. Mahnu.'

 

The King looked up at Marcus, "…What? She intends to…Talk to them?"

He had read it twice, before her beautifully written words made any kind of sense to him.

Marcus sneered, "She is a fool! If they have the tablet and find out who she is, they will not talk! Peace will not happen!"

The King stood up and started to pace. "Are you saying...They will torture her?"

Marcus sighed, "Yes, I would assume so, Your Majesty."
"We have to save her!" The King said, stopping his pacing and looking at Marcus in alarm.

Marcus still didn't quite understand the relationship that His Majesty and Mahnu had. Had His Majesty spent so much time with Mahnu, to worry over her to this extent? If that was the case, how could I not know? Even if they were torturing Mahnu, His Majesty shouldn't panic over it, as she was a God, an immortal, someone that doesn't die...Surely His Majesty remembered this!

"Yes, Your Majesty. I have already dispatched someone to get the Loyal Royal Knights Army. As you saw yourself."

"I will join you!" The King said in determination.

As Marcus knew Mahnu's immortal, and now so did King Richard, there still wasn't something that the King wanted to state…And that was, he just didn't want her to take on any more pain!

Even if she does live through being tortured, wouldn't that mean that she would be inflicted so much that she wouldn't talk again and go back to completely staying away from humans!?

The King was extremely worried about Mahnu, especially if right now, she could be getting tortured by her own kin that she had betrayed! The idea of it made him feel weak and sick to his stomach!

"It's dangerous! They are immortal and strong, Your Majesty!" Marcus said, dumbfounded upon His Majesty, the King of Kralaide, being so worried about someone that was an immortal.

"I don't care! I'm going to retrieve her!" The King said stubbornly.

 

It was somewhat of an odd situation...Marcus thinking the King should stay here, yet the King unwilling to do so in the slightest!

Marcus breathed hard, "Your Majesty please reconsider! You are this lands King! If something were to happen to you..."

The King interrupted, "And you told me that without Mahnu, Kralaide would not have any free humans! How can I sit idle, when she is in danger!"

How will she endure the pain? How can I not try to save her!? The Kings thoughts were going red with anger and blue with sadness. He was scared...Scared that Mahnu might be doing all this to go backwards, and he didn't care for it! He didn't want her to stop talking again, he didn't want her to...Disappear...To become part of the scenery of Kralaide once again...No!

A sudden different voice stopped both of them out of their discussion and thoughts, "...What are you speaking of?"

Marcus and the King turned to the Queen, that was now standing in the doorway. They hadn’t even known how long she had been there for, especially with such a delicate conversation…

"Im...Immortal? Free humans...I don't understand. Mahnu? Is that..."
"My Queen, please don't repeat what you have learnt here and leave." The King said, sighing loudly.

"But...Your..."
The King interrupted her again, staring at her intently, "I will not repeat myself!"

The Queen stared at him, dumbfounded…She had never seen him this harsh before…

Not once had she seen or even heard of the King being angry to such an extent like this. Previously, if he had gotten angry, she had heard that he had severely punished the person who had done wrong and walked away from everyone afterwards. Even when she had forced drugs and herself at him, he had only placed a rule upon his chambers and stayed away from her afterwards…

In a stunned silence, she bowed and left, not having the courage to stay longer…

...What...?

The Queen slowly walked away and tried to understand what was going on...But none of it made any sense.

 

***