Empress Khione: Her Revenge

Princess Electra

The Mountain Gale Pack was only about an hour away from the human town Khione was staying at by car. However, Khione needed to stop her ride short constantly because the road towards the Mountain Gale pack passed through a few other pack territories. She also needed to make a stop whenever the antidote's effects had worn out. 

So it had taken her a day between walking and catching a taxi to make it to outskirts of Mount Nerei, which was the mountain surrounding the Mountain Gale pack. And she had just taken her last antidote so she had desperately hoped the she would end up making it to the pack before the pain kicked in again. 

However, it seemed luck was not on her side because no matter how much she walked, she simply felt as if she was in a never-ending maze. To make mattes worse, the sun was setting and Khione could feel the onset of her pain begin to kick in. 

Khione took a step forward again and felt a devastatingly painful cramp hit her. It seemed the antidote had worn out faster than she had anticipated and for reasons unknown to her, the pain was even stronger than she remembered it being before. 

She tried to take another step but the pain was too much that she ended up falling to the ground with a loud, pained scream escaping from her mouth. Tears of pain streamed down her face as another cramp hit her. She started to pant out in pain, feeling completely and utterly breathless.

The pain was so bad that at one stage she even began to hallucinate. She began to hear a vivid voice singing the scariest tune she had ever heard. 

Khione lifted her heavy hands and forced them to press down on her ears, in desperate hopes to block out the sound. 

"P-Please," she begged no one in particular. "P-Please stop this."

Another wave of cramps hit her and she screamed so loud the birds in the trees surrounding her flew away from their homes in shock. 

Much to her horror, the sound of the music only grew louder and louder until Khione could no longer handle all the pain and sensation stimuli anymore. It finally gave out, not even trying to put up a fight anymore. 

***

Khione's senses began to awaken and the darkness around her turned to light only a few hours after passing out. She forced her heavy eye lids open and lay on the cold, hard floor until her mind was able to make complete sense of everything happening around her. 

She slowly sat up and was surprised to find that the fear she had been feeling earlier had entirely diminished. She lifted her hands up and although they felt slightly bruised, the heaviness was lost. In fact, her entire body felt lighter and free of pain. It was a miracle! Or so she believed. 

With a happy smile on her face, Khione slowly stood up from the floor, still slightly worried that the pain would surprise her with a sneak attack. She sounded silly but she was terrified. What she had been going through the last couple of days wasn't something she would even wish upon the most evil of creatures. She honestly would have preferred instant death instead.

"Instant death only sounds good until you're actually put up to it," an echoey voice said from behind Khione. 

Khione gasped and jumped forward, away from the voice. She slowly turned around to the direction of the voice and came face to face with a beautiful, fox-like woman. Her thin lips had a natural upwards slant in the corners which gave her a permanent smiling look and her eyes were large but slanted, which only added to her fox-like looks. She was very pale and her large eyes were a rusty persimmon colour. Her hair matched her eye colour. 

"Don't be scared, I don't bite," the woman said with a small wink as she stepped so close to Khione that she was sharing her breath. She then did the strangest thing and sniffed Khione's neck, and took a long whiff of her scent. 

Khione tried not to be creeped out, but it was hard to do so. Not only had she found herself in a strange area that she did not have any recollection of arriving to, but the woman before her had a strong evil aura that Khione just could not shake off. 

"You smell just like her," the woman stated as she finally took a step back and looked Khione up and down. 

Khione found it strange that she shared a scent with someone and that the woman before her even decided to comment on that of all things, but she couldn't find the courage to speak. 

"Cat got your tongue?" the woman said as she jokingly tapped the bottom of Khione's chin. 

Khione felt a cold shiver run down her spine as the woman's freezing cold fingers made contact with her skin. 

"W-Who are y-you?" Khione finally managed to ask, although her words came out in a stutter. 

"I'm the one you're looking for," she responded before she skipped over to a throne made out of stone and sat on it, crossing her feet. 

It took Khione a few long seconds to understand what she meant, but once she did, her mouth dropped. 

"Y-You're Princess Electra?" 

"The woman, the myth, the legend," Princess Electra grinned. 

"How did you know I was looking for you?" 

"I looked into your memories," she said with a shake of her head and small, almost fake frown. "You poor child really went through a lot these past few days, didn't you?" 

Khione's mouth dropped in shock once again. 

"You did what?" 

"Looked into your memories," Princess Electra said in a slower tone, as if speaking to a child. Khione was flabbergasted and it was obvious by the look on her face. "Oh, don't look so offended! I found you walking around on my garden. I needed to make sure you weren't an enemy!" 

"Your garden?" Khione asked, looking confused. "I was on the outskirts of the mountain!" 

"Yes, my garden! The mountain is my home and its outskirt is my garden," Princess Electra argued. 

Khione couldn't say anything in response. The whole sentence just sounded so ridiculous to her that her mind just rejected it all and thought about a different topic. 

"You're really Princess Electra?" Khione asked. "The evil alchemist?"

"Alchemist?" Princess Electra scoffed. "Do they think everyone who has magical powers is an alchemist?"

Khione didn't respond. That was exactly what werewolves thought.

"I'm a nine-tailed fox," Princess Electra continued. "I have powers but I have no hand in alchemy." 

"What's a nine-tailed fox?" Khione asked as she moved closer to Princess Electra, somewhat feeling more comfortable. "And how does my mother know you?" 

"Shapeshifters, just like werewolves. Only I turn into a fox," she simply explained. "And I owe your mother my life," was all Princess Electra said in response to Khione's second question, ending the conversation as soon as it started. 

"Are you really evil then?" Khione thought out loud. All the stories surrounding Princess Electra involved her being an evil alchemist. She already disproved the alchemist myth so Khione wanted to know about the evil part.

"I'm a nine-tailed fox. We're evil by nature."

Despite hearing her admit to it out loud, Khione still did not feel any ounce of fear. Silence passed between the two of them before Khione continued speak.

"Is mind reading your power?"

"No, mind-reading is a skill I cultivated in all the years I spent hiding in this mountain. By nature, I'm an illusionist. I play with the senses." 

Khione nodded slowly with a curious look on her face. 

"How have you suppressed my pain?" she asked the princess. She was sure Princess Electra has something to do with it because last she remembered, she had passed out from the pain. However, since waking up and finding herself in the mountain, she could not feel any pain at all. 

"I'm an illusionist," Princess Electra repeated. "I didn't do anything to your pain. I just played with your mind so that it stops perceiving the pain." 

Khione was surprised but grateful. When she had fainted earlier, she thought that had been the end of her short life. However, here she was, able to stand, talk and overall feel well all thanks to the Princess before her.

"Do you know why my mother sent me to you?" Khione suddenly asked the princess. Khione herself didn't know the answer to that question so she hoped the princess did. 

Princess Electra's bright expression fell and her gaze darkened. She looked straight ahead for a few seconds before her angry eyes turned to meet Khione's soft eyes.

"Because our fates were the same."