[2009 – October]
Taking a deep breath, Emma cleared her throat as she grabbed Elijah's hand and tried to school her expression, the turmoil in her heart temporarily suppressed by her unbending will.
"Th-There is something else that I wanted to talk to you about too.", she stated, forcing her thoughts to move again in the direction that she desired.
Withdrawing her hands from his after a gentle squeeze of reassurance, Emma readjusted her posture while Elijah's eyes returned to their original colour again, a slight smile settling on his lips as he listened to her words.
"Do tell.", her younger brother encouraged quietly.
"I have managed to contact the Wakandan royal family in the hopes of working out some sort of agreement in exchange for the head of Ulysses Klaue.", Emma informed him before she continued, "But I have a feeling that they might not be too keen on a fair transaction."
"I am not really sure about how they will act during this meeting but I don't wish to expose myself as a mutant or the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. They don't know of the latter's existence but they do know of the attempts at infiltration from foreign organizations."
"As such, I don't wish to use any of the Club's resources to avoid them connecting the dots, which includes some of my subordinates. Nobody knows of the Hellions though, so I tasked John to be there and act as my bodyguard since he isn't easily identified as a mutant."
"And for what do you need me?", Elijah asked with mild curiosity, a pondering expression on his face that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Laughing lightly, a somewhat mischievous smile on her face, Emma replied: "Don't worry, I don't plan to have you act as my bodyguard too. I know that you don't like to be involved in all this and I would honestly be too ashamed of myself if I couldn't handle such a simple deal. I am the White Queen, after all, and I have a reputation to uphold."
"I just mention this to you because Selene said something to me that might be the cause of some worry.", she ended on a serious note.
"Selene, huh … She is quite the troublemaker for an ancient sorceress.", Elijah stated without much surprise, shaking his head lightly as he continued, "So, what did she tell you?"
"She warned me to be careful as the Wakandan royal family might be protected by a being even more dangerous than Apocalypse. And she recommended that I stay away from them and avoid any direct contact, much less conflict.", Emma recounted heavily, remembering the Black Queen's words clearly.
"I have no idea if what she said was the truth, or if she just tried to sabotage my arrangement with them. I hoped you could shed some light on the matter.", she added and watched as a faint frown settled on her younger brother's face.
A rather pregnant pause stretched between them as Elijah appeared deep in thought. Eventually, he shook it off and answered her, though his reply was a bit surprising.
"The Wakandans are protected by the recipients of their faith, in other words – gods.", he said, "I am not sure by what rules they play and if they would dare to directly interfere in mortal matters but I can't rule out the possibility since they might act in protection of their sources of faith."
Having not expected things to be that serious, Emma pondered about her options for a moment before suggesting: "Should I take Selene's advice then and try to come to an arrangement with them through an intermediary?"
"No. If a higher being interferes, an intermediary would be less than useless.", Elijah shook his head, shadows coming alive in his verdant eyes, "Meet them. I will accompany you and see for myself if Selene spoke the truth."
…
The Enneads. A group of powerful beings that were worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians as gods.
My understanding of them was rather meager but I knew that Bast was one of them and that she acted as the patron of the Wakandan's Black Panther. She was also one of the gods worshipped by the Wakandans.
I wasn't sure what kind of higher being the Enneads were though, or if they even were higher beings.
Truthfully, neither Bast nor her companion gods struck me as particularly powerful entities but that was most likely the result of an unfair comparison and not a fact. Knowing what I knew about Agamotto, my 'spar' with him had shown me exactly what level of strength I possessed.
So, with Selene's words as a warning, my curiosity had been roused.
I was half-sure that neither Bast nor any other gods from her pantheon would dare to act willfully but meeting T'Challa myself might allow me to get a deeper understanding of the Enneads.
And on the off-chance that Selene's warning held even a glimmer of truth, I might soon find out what it felt like to tear apart a god, which would certainly be a memorable experience.
"Meet them. I will accompany you and see for myself if Selene spoke the truth.", I eventually said to Emma, a tinge of excitement blooming in my heart as the malevolent part of myself seemed to have been roused from its slumber.
Smiling at my words, pleasant surprise lighting up her crystal eyes, Emma replied: "I will arrange for the meeting to be in the afternoon two days later so that you won't miss school."
"Thank you.", I told her, grateful for her consideration of my timetable.
Her perfect smile widening a bit, Emma bend over while seated to grab her handbag from the floor, taking out a small wrapped package from it before turning back to me.
"Here.", she presented the package to me with a soft smile, "I came across this by chance and I thought that it would look good on you, so I bought it on impulse. I hope you like it."
Curious about what she was talking about, I took the small present that was wrapped in black paper with a black ribbon tied around it and unwrapped it with deft fingers.
In the end, a small dark wooden box was left in my hand and I opened it without hesitation, only to be greeted by the sight of a red bracelet. It took me a moment to figure out what it was made of after getting over my surprise.
It was red coral, better known as blood coral, one of the most expensive materials to make jewelry from as a single gram could cost up to a thousand dollars depending on the quality.
The one in the small box was made out of dozens of irregular red coral chips with a single bigger piece. The colour of the corals was rich and deep with different shades of polished red that seemed to be filled with a sense of robust vitality. The biggest piece of coral, on the other hand, was a flawless glossy red like a bright drop of blood.
All in all, the bracelet was an incredibly beautiful piece of jewelry and very much to my taste. It was simple and unadorned but undeniably beautiful.
And while I couldn't be sure about the value of the bracelet as I had no idea how to appraise jewelry, my extraordinary senses easily picked up on Emma's suppressed yet expectant stare, her slightly accelerated heartbeat, and her fixed posture.
No matter what she had said, I was sure that the bracelet wasn't a spontaneous purchase.
Not hesitating, I slipped it on as I said: "I love it. Thank you, Emma."
A happy grin drew up the corners of her lips for an instant when she heard my words before she hurriedly schooled her expression again and off-handedly replied: "Well, as long as you like it."
Inwardly amused at her stubborn refusal to act too sentimental every now and then, even after I had gotten to know her so well during the last few months, I just smiled lightly.
Still, I found this side of Emma rather endearing and it reminded me of the little black featherling hiding in my collar, who loved to act just as obstinately, which probably explained why they both got along so well.
Raising my hand lightly, I pointed it at the necklace that I had gifted Emma a few weeks back, drawing on the Darkforce Dimension's power and combining it with shielding powers as I did so.
Emma looked down when she saw what I was doing just as a small mass of nebulous fog erupted from the pendant and sank into her flawless milky skin.
Taking hold of the pendant, she looked at me in surprise and confusion as she asked: "What was that?"
"From now on every shadow will be a gateway as I endowed you with the ability to move through them like I can.", I answered her, "You won't need Clarice anymore to travel around this planet. You can even hide in the Darkforce Dimension, or move to my side like before if necessary."
"Try not to overdo it in the beginning though. Jumping through shadows takes practice.", I added with a smile.
In truth, what I had just done was less of a bestowal and more the effect of letting her tap into my powers by giving her the ability to connect with a program in my subconscious via the shield that I anchored in her, which would then allow her to use the faintest silver of my powers as the ruler of the Darkforce Dimension to move through shadows.
Granting her this ability required a rather complicated use of several of my mutant powers in conjunction, which would be an impossibility for any normal mutant. For me though, I had to concentrate to even feel the strain on my mental strength that this act caused.
Rather speechless, Emma sighed as she looked at the blood coral bracelet around my right wrist before just grabbing my hand affectionately.
"You make it very hard for me to be the older sister, you know that don't you?", she lamented while lightly shaking her head.