Chapter 225 - The Seal

"What are we going to do now?" Ivan of Kres asked.

Frustration marred his handsome face as he turned to Fredek and Alistair. He had initially thought he had quite a plan – but now realized how stupid it was.  

"Er…"Fredek cleared his throat before continuing. "I think it is best if we return the women to their respective homes."

The two arrived in Ritz with the eleven women bearing resemblance with the late Princess. It was in the hope that one of them was still the missing piece of her soul they were looking for.

"You brought them here?"

Alistair was beyond…amazed.

"Are you sure you have no blood connection with my twin?" the Ritz King asked, and Ivan looked hurt – not because he understood what Alistair meant though.

"What are you talking about? What kind of friend are you? Did you forget my mother's from Ovid?" Ivan of Kres looked offended that Alistair didn't know, which made Fredek's mouth twitch on the side.

Oh.

"That explains it then," Alistair muttered in realization.

"What? You really didn't know?" Ivan was aghast.

This time, Fredek had to cover his face. The poor guy really tried his best not to laugh.

"Your Majesty, I'm sure his Highness was just too worried lately that he forgot," Fredek covered for the veiled insult.

"Oh, of course," Ivan conceded.

"Let me arrange for the ladies to return to their homes," Fredek offered as he bowed, but Alistair raised a hand as if to stop him.

"Let them stay," Alistair directed suddenly, making the men stop and turn their attention to the king, waiting for him to continue. "You both already brought them here."

"But what can they do here? We can just tell them there was a mistake and send them off with generous gifts," Ivan, the mastermind who brought the women over said sheepishly.

He totally looked frustrated about the effort he gave bringing them back to Ritz and was already feeling pained about sending them back to their countries. He was an emperor; therefore, it was his duty to meet with the reigning monarchs of the land – each and every one of them to thank them in person for their cooperation.

"We can do that after," Alistair said.

For a while, the Ritz King looked as if he was contemplating something before he spoke again.

"I thought about what you said about Alencica's soul breaking into more pieces. Although that's not plausible at the moment, it was not entirely impossible in the future in case…"

Alistair took a deep breath. "In case we failed again in this lifetime."

Several seconds of silence passed before he spoke again. His last statement brought the men in the room's attention back into their grave circumstance, and they all couldn't help but feel ominous.

"We will try our best not to fail this time," Ivan of Kres promised his friend, who nodded.   

Alistair's mouth curved on the side in a semblance of a smile upon hearing his best friend's words in this lifetime. True enough, before the three of them found out about the spawn and Alencica's soul being broken into more than two, they were all already hopeless. They had given up.

The bitterness of the defeat they had tasted a while back still lingered in the tongue. It was something that they refused to savor again. Now that they were given another chance to redeem the fates of the star-crossed lovers and save the world, they'd latch onto it and would do everything in their power to make things right.

Since finding out who Alistair was, it was Fredek's and Ivan's dream to end the cycle of the curse with him.

"Of course," Alistair acknowledged their vow.

"What do you have in mind then?" Ivan asked pertaining to the women.

Alistair puffed out air as he straightened in his seat. "Do you both remember, Aurel?"

Fredek and Ivan exchanged glances before nodding hesitantly.

"Aurel? Isn't that the lightning bird Your Highness gave the Princess as her familiar?"

Fredek was away from the Ritz on a mission the time of the Immortal War, and so he only heard about this in passing.

Perun, the King of Heaven didn't have any elemental he did a pact with as his power was too immense, he had no need for them. However, this didn't mean that lightning creatures did not exist. They did, and the huge lightning elemental in the form of a crow was one of those who Perun liked to keep around.

During the Immortal War, when Alinea suddenly charged again and was nearly killed, Alistair was beyond scared and had tasked Aurel to form a pact with his child to save her. It was by Aurel's pact with Alinea that the Princess was able to utilize Perun's seal and manipulate lightning.

"What about Aurel?"

Ivan knew that after Alinea died, Aurel returned to the celestial plane where he originally came from.

"When elementals make pacts with people, they entrust them with their own seals – this is basic knowledge I presume," the Ritz King reminded them of the first information taught at school where they were all classmates.

Alistair was pertaining to the tattoo-like mark on a caster's skin when he formed a pact with an elemental. Depending on the creature's loyalty and presence – whether the elemental chose to stay with its master or to stay in the celestial plane until summoned, the mark changed in appearance. It could be just a birthmark, an ordinary tattoo, and to returners to ancestry, a living, moving one.

Ivan raised a brow. "Of course. You want to see mine?"

"No, thank you," Alistair and Fredek chorused.

Ivan was the master of twin vermillion birds who strangely loved to settle on his buttocks.

"Your Highness, what about Aurel's seal?"

It was Fredek who asked, taking the conversation back to the topic.

"Alinea has his seal. Even when her physical form was cremated, her new body should be possessing it now."

With this, the other two finally understood what the king meant.

"To prove that none of them was Ali, aside from not having a divine inheritance, none of them would be able to command Aurel."

Alistair was pretty sure none of the women would. But he had another purpose why he'd summon the lightning elemental.

"Also, since the new Alinea has Aurel's seal, Aurel can find her easily…"