Ruel smiled at Ellowen, his blue eyes shining with excitement.
"Oh man, you don't know how excited I am to meet you, Sir Ellowen, and Lady Zyphira," Ruel said, giggling softly.
Ellowen wasn't used to being called *sir*, much less addressed with this much respect. Ruel sounded young—heck, he looked pretty young.
Davalin smiled.
"Ruel here is seventeen. Back then, I met him a year after all the facilities blew up. Not sure how he ended up outside, but he did. He was only seven—super tiny—and just growling at me like a baby wolf."
Davalin laughed, and Ruel laughed embarrassingly.
"I was in a different facility from both of you. The one I was in had beastman angels, while you guys had regular angels," Ruel said with a sigh, looking up at Ellowen nervously.
"I didn't grow up in the facilities like you and Davalin, so I don't have the basics of being an angel and whatnot… but I still hope we get along."
Ruel smiled, his wolf tail swaying behind him—when Zyphira suddenly pointed a folding fan at him.
"Yes, I hear the introductions. That's over with, so let's get the patient treated, shall we?" Zyphira said, sounding slightly annoyed as she pointed at Linda in Ellowen's arms. Linda was shivering, the remaining ice on her body refusing to melt—in fact, it seemed to be spreading.
"Oh right, my bad," Ruel said as he showed Ellowen over to a hospital bed.
Ellowen placed Linda gently on the bed. Without his body heat, her shivering grew worse.
Ruel brought over two large white boxes plugged into the wall. He placed one on each side of Linda's bed. The boxes started blasting heat toward her. Then, he pulled out a defibrillator.
"Wait… where did you get that fan from? You didn't have it before," Ellowen whispered to Zyphira.
Zyphira smirked, making the fan disappear and reappear again.
Ellowen just whistled, surprised.
"Now, everyone, watch the magic happen," Ruel said as he stepped closer to Linda with the defibrillator.
Linda dreamed of the past.
A younger Linda ran through the decorated halls of a facility, her long blue hair flowing as she moved. Her jeweled dress shimmered as she reached a large door and stepped inside.
"Hi, Mommy," Linda said, closing the door behind her. She rushed to the woman lying in bed and hugged her.
The woman was beautiful, her lush blue hair like the ocean—her eyes the same. But her body was weak, fragile, as if it would break at any moment.
"Oh, how is my little princess doing?" the woman asked lovingly, kissing Linda's cheeks over and over.
"I'm doing fine. I'm still taking my lessons, still working hard like you wanted me to," Linda said with a smile. But soon her smile dropped, and she fidgeted with her fingers.
"Will Daddy ever go back to being the same?" she asked.
Sadness filled the woman's eyes.
"I'm sure Daddy will go back to being the fun, loving man you remember," she said softly, pulling Linda into bed and kissing her forehead before looking out the window at what had become of her kingdom—Velvande.
The king, Richard Abel, had once been wise and kind. He cared deeply for his people, always striving to be a better king. He even married a woman of the Water Race and had a daughter with her.
But then the queen grew ill. Her body weakened, her bones turning to dust. The king grew desperate, calling every doctor he could find, but none could cure her.
Then came the magalite—falling from the skies, driving people mad. And no one fell deeper than Richard.
He became obsessed, convinced the magalite could cure her. But it only clouded his judgment.
One day, Linda overheard them.
"YOU'VE BECOME CRAZY, RICHARD!" the queen cried. "These things are not cures. They won't help us!"
"You don't understand, Merlinda," Richard insisted. "They are the future. With the stones, we can open a gate to heaven itself—a place where you can be healed! All we need is a way to cool the stones during the device's startup."
Richard's blond hair blew in the wind, his once beautiful blue eyes now murky with madness.
Tears streamed down Merlinda's face. When they fell onto the magalite, the stones cooled. Richard's eyes lit up with hope, but Merlinda only glared in anger and disbelief.
"Mommy? Daddy?" Linda whispered, stepping inside the room.
Merlinda turned to her. "Me and Linda are leaving. We can't stay here with you anymore."
"If you leave through that door, I'll no longer consider you my wife—or her my daughter," Richard growled.
He called the guards. Panic set in as footsteps rushed their way. Merlinda grabbed Linda's hand, running despite her fragile body. Every step broke her heart—the Water Race were deeply loyal to their lovers, and breaking that bond was agony.
The guards caught up, clad in magalite armor, their eyes wild, their bodies mutating with scales and feathers.
Merlinda summoned a pond of water, broke the wall, and transformed their legs into mermaid tails. They swam away, but a crown of thorns shot out, latching onto their heads. Their magic faltered, and they crashed at the kingdom's edge.
As Merlinda fainted, clutching Linda, a woman with orange hair and black eyes appeared.
"Come on," she urged, dragging them inside her home.
"Linda, I didn't expect to see you and Merlinda again like this," the woman said warmly. She dried them both, restoring their human legs.
"Who are you?" Linda asked.
"Me? I lost my name a long time ago. Just call me Midwife. I was your mother's midwife," the woman said with a smile.
Days passed, and Linda watched her kingdom crumble. Magalite worship consumed the people. Her father ordered mermaids captured, their blood and tears drained to power his devices. Those who resisted were tortured.
When Merlinda awoke and saw what Richard had done, she knew she couldn't allow it.
"Please take care of Linda for me," she told Midwife. Then she transformed, fins and scales spreading across her body, and flew toward the castle.
What she saw was horror. The castle ran on the blood and tears of mermaids.
"Merlinda, you came back," Richard said, smiling madly. "You didn't leave me."
"No. I left you," Merlinda said coldly. "I came back only to end your insanity."
Richard sneered. "You just don't understand. I've found a cure—and a way to make us APEX PREDATORS!"
He activated the device. A rift tore open above the kingdom. Monsters poured through. Richard's body mutated into a massive worm-like abomination, wrapping around the castle. His roar shook the skies.
Merlinda summoned spears of ice, launching herself into battle. Richard unleashed a devastating beam. Their clash exploded, raining ice and flesh across the kingdom.
Midwife grabbed Linda and fled. As they escaped, Linda's crown shattered. She looked back at her kingdom—her family—burning in chaos.
Linda gasped loudly. The ice on her body shattered.
She looked around, seeing Ellowen, Zyphira, and two strangers. Heat blasted from the devices at her sides. A defibrillator sat nearby.
Linda laughed softly, a tear running down her face as she sat up.
"Go back to lying down, you're—" Ellowen stopped mid-sentence, staring at her. "You okay?"
Linda wiped the tear away and smiled. "I'm fine. In fact, I feel better than ever."
"Good," Ellowen said. "Because we've got plenty of 'getting to know each other' to do. And I ain't planning on carrying you again like this."
Linda sighed. Those were memories of a life she missed—of a father consumed by madness, and of a mother who loved her to the very end.
Now she was back. Back to her mission of cleaning up her father's mess, surviving one day at a time… and maybe, just maybe, finding a way to be happy again.