The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Eighty Five

Unlike in my calculations, trying to convince the King that Nievo was innocent was not easy. He kept on saying that justice must be served and that it was already too late for him to save Nievo. Unless the other members of the Council decide to absolve him tomorrow, the execution will commence as planned and that also includes Rico and Troy Forresters. I had to show them my power in order for them to think about killing Nievo and the others, and while everyone was trying to calm me down there was something wrong with the King. he seemed to have closed both his ears. 

He was clearly drunk with the pain of losing his wife. I can see it in his eyes that he was a little different right now. He does not even give me the honorifics when he called me again. "Just leave," he told me after I tried to avoid the attack that one of his Royal Guards did. The Royal Guards were actually reluctant in fighting me (because they knew who was stronger) but the King kept on ordering them to attack me. The prison became really warm right now because of this, and I can hear the other prisoners complaining while the others were happy that some of the warmth came here. 

"I will only leave with Nievo!" I told him. "I am not going to save him and the Forresters!"

"One wrong move and you will be charged with treason and attempted murder too!" the King shouted to me before I could use my flames to intimidate them again. He was not mentally stable right now, which I can already confirm. But he was still the King, so he has a point. Attacking him right now will only make matters worse. Plus attacking him is a crime. Once people find out that I tried to hurt their King, I will be labeled as a criminal too. 

"You... You are doing this very cleverly..." I told him while their weapons are still pointed at me. "For someone who is in deep grief, you are still thinking about that, huh... And I must say, it works well in your favor."

I saw the King smirk. "I am not the King for no reason, Scarlet Phoenix. Surely you have realized that attacking me right now will only prove that you have murderous intent. That would not help Nievo and the others in the slightest... And not only that, you will lose the respect and adoration that the people still have for you.. You and your Gypsies could lose everything with one attack coming from you. It is not really a very good time for you to show me your fangs, my dear deity. The people of Aure had just made it out alive from the unstoppable volcanic eruptions that you caused us. One wrong move from you will make you the most hated deity in all of Aure!"

I closed my eyes, trying to think of what to do next because he was right. I could not make this matter worse. This was more than saving someone already. People will look at this event and use this to gauge me if they can still trust me or not. 

"Alright," I finally said after a couple of minutes of thinking. My flames disappeared and everything went back to the darkness here again. "You won, for now, King of Aure. However, this is not yet finished. Remember this for the rest of your life. I will try to find evidence that Nievo is not the murderer that you are looking for. So if I were you, I would postpone tomorrow's execution. Because once you kill Nievo and the others and it turns out that they are really not the ones that you should be punishing, I will put a curse on you and the Royal Family. I will see to it that your bloodline will end, KIng of Aure. You will regret not dealing with this with a level head." 

The King's face turned from confident to horror-stricken. "W-What did you say---?"

"Consider that my warning too. You have the guts to threaten me, right? Me? A deity who is a lot more powerful than you? Do you think I am scared to lose everything? Let us see who will at the end of this,," I added, laughing a little bit now. "So I hope you will still change your mind." And with that, I turned into a fiery bird once again and flew out of the dungeon. I feel bad about leaving Nievo and the Forresters, but I had no choice. I have to retreat for now. I l;eft the Palace just like that, but I couldn't help but feel sad for Nievo as he did not deserve this.

"They had moved the execution until the last day of the month!" said a happy Collette who came to where I was with a piece of paper. Apparently, it was a note from the Palace and she read its content for me. "The Council has unanimously voted to postpone the execution in the interest of fairness. Wow! You made it, my dear deity! You had saved them for being executed right now!" She was cheering with the other Gypsies loudly. "This is such good news!"

I took a deep breath. "I succeeded in scaring the King," I told them. "But that will not last long. He had his mind already fixed and focused on the execution. The King will try and find evidence of the crime that will point to Nievo and the Forresters, so we still have to be wary of them. I still need to think of a smooth way to absolve them from that accusation."

"Thank you, my dear deity!" said Collette gratefully. "I know that you will not abandon them! Thank you for saving them!" She was very happy that they were saved, for now, especially for Troy Forrester. Of course, I know that Collette and that young Forrester were a couple, that is why she was like this. She had told me that if Troy was freed, the two of them will get married and live together. I was happy for the two of them, but I can't also feel sad that another one of my followers is going to leave me soon.

"Collette... I have something to ask you..."

She looked interested at that. "What is it, my dear deity?"

"Do you know by any chance why Nievo was at the palace when the Queen died?" I asked because that was making me uncomfortable for some reason. Why did he go there in the first place? I could not think of a reason for the Queen and Nievo to see each other privately unless this was something about the two of them being both reincarnations of deities? Is that it? Were they talking about that?

Collette shook his head. "I am not sure why he went there, my dear deity. All I knew was that Nievo stayed at Troy's mansion after the two of you know..." she was hesitating to mention about the confession of Nievo to me which caused me to hide in my volcano for days and I feel ashamed for that more than ever. "He stayed there since he has nowhere else to go. Troy let him stay there, as the two became friends already... Then Nievo told Troy that he was going to try and search for The Rain Phantom... Abel, you know? And then when he left that was the last time that he would be there at the mansion. The next thing we knew, he was caught by the Royal Guards and that he was being accused of the murder of Queen Hayana."

"He was looking for The Rain Phantom?" I repeated because that was kind of random.

Collette nodded. "That's right, my dear deity. He wanted to know where Abel was hiding. I think he thought of something that's why he was so into it. Maybe his search pointed him to the Palace? I am not sure and that is just my theory, but I think he asked the Queen about something regarding The Rain Phantom?"

I nodded. Collette might be right. I think that was what happened too if I am going to based on his actions before he was captured. But what could it be? What could have they talked about? Nievo and the Queen weren't really close. They just met each other that day that the Queen and I went to Carmel to fetch Nievo. Before that, they were total strangers to each other. 

It was mind-boggling, but I remained composed. I still have to save them from the punishment so I had to make my move. I went to visit Nievo at the prison again but he was still not able to talk. The Royal Guards immediately wanted to block me from entering the dungeons as per the King's orders but just one glare from them and they let me in. It was Rico that I was able to talk with. He and his son were looking better than the first time I came here, so he was able to talk to me. "He saw something in the mirror again," he said to me when I asked him if he knew about Nievo's whereabouts the day he was captured by the Royal Guards. 

"Something? What something? What did he saw in the mirror? Did he tell you?"

Rico nodded. "When he came to our mansion, he told us that he wanted to use the mirror which you lend us so that we can protect it. Nievo told my son that he saw what The Rain Phantom was doing. Nievo said that he was here at the castle."

My mouth fell open. "What? Here? At the Palace?"

"That's correct. Nievo told my son who later told me that he saw the Rain Phantom in this castle, roaming freely as if he was allowed to stay here. Of course, Nievo was shocked when he saw that so he wanted to confirm if that was going to happen. And so he came here. And you know the rest of the story."

I nodded finally realizing what went down that day. Nievo saw something in that mirror again, and that concerned the Rain Phantom. He came here to check if it was really true, whatever he saw in that enchanted mirror. But I still do not know why he needed to talk to the Queen, but I guess that does not matter anymore. I have to talk to the KIng right now. 

After looking at the poor state of the unconscious Nievo at his prison cell, I went to where the King was. He was on the balcony, and he was laughing loudly when I came. I was even able to catch what he was saying. "She will come back, right? All I have to do is to kill him." There was a long pause before the King spoke again. I took a peek and saw that he was speaking to no one but the air around him. "I know..." he said, and I can't still see who he was talking to. It was as if he was talking to someone invisible. "She is the problem right now. I think she will do everything to save the young man." I silently gasped. He was talking about Nievo! I wanted to confront him right now, but I held back as he might say something important that I needed to know right now. "The Council is already afraid of her. They think that she might put a curse on us if we kill the young man. What if she really does that? I don't want that, you know."

I felt goosebumps all over my body when I heard someone respond to what the King said. The voice was unfamiliar, but I am sure that it was not the voice of an ordinary human. "She will not do such a thing. If she does that, I will put a countercurse that will wipe her followers out of the face of the earth. You don't have to worry about the Scarlet Phoenix, my King. I am more powerful than her already. I have managed to acquire the abilities that I needed in order to defeat them. All I need now is to wait for me to return as a deity!"