Disclaimer: Nothing is mine and mine only except for the plot, Amber Academy, the headmistress, Princess Dermia, Gracia, Ryu, and so on so forth . . . Everything else is CLAMP's creation and I have no intention of fringing upon the copyright. Got it?
Chapter Eleven
"Sakura! Sakura! Sakura, wake up!!" A frantic voice cut through the dreamy haze Sakura was floating through. Sakura felt herself remerging from deep, deep slumber, still in Syaoran's arms.
Meiling and Tomoyo hovered in front of her, their faces anxious. "Are you alright Sakura?" Tomoyo asked, concerned. She didn't like the look and aura Sakura was giving off. The air around Sakura was just so—so relaxed but tense at the same time.
Syaoran practically shoved Sakura off of him.
"Hey!" Sakura yelled at him and she crashed into Eriol, who quickly steadied her, with every intention of flinging this heavy stone that was near her foot.
"I'm sorry, but you're wet," Syaoran said apologetically, as he wiped traces of water from his clothes.
Sakura glanced down in shock. She couldn't believe she didn't notice it before, her hair was dripping water, and her clothes were soaked. She felt a draft going through and chilling her through her bones.
"It's s-s-so cold," Sakura tried to keep herself from whimpering, but the ice chill froze her heart—it was the most abnormal cold in the world. It seemed to be coming from inside of her.
Meiling gave her a strange look. "What do you mean, it's cold? The sun is shining full-bright."
Sakura looked up at the sky. All she could see were darkness, and grey clouds rolling over and over across the sky. She felt thunder reverberating through her legs.
"It's not sunny—look, a thunderstorm is coming!" Sakura said, she jabbed her finger upwards, hysterically.
Meiling and Syaoran exchanged a look that screamed 'this girl is crazy.'
"Are you okay, Sakura? You're not acting like yourself," Meiling moved towards the hysteric girl. Sakura moved away, flinching all the while.
Sakura was creating such a commotion; a crowd drew around the girls. Princess Dermia pushed and elbowed her way through the throng of people and got to the front. Meiling groaned at the sight of Princess Dermia. Tomoyo hissed to Meiling, "Get her away from here!"
Meiling shot back, "How?! Wherever Sakura goes, whatever she does—she always draws a crowd for good or bad!"
"She's right," Eriol pointed out.
Ryu spoke up. "There's no way we can shield Sakura like this. Besides why the heck is she like this? Did she take some drugs or something in the middle of the night?"
"Sakura would never take drugs, you idiot!" Tomoyo joined in with a death glare that was quite fierce.
"Don't call my fiancé an idiot!" Meiling nearly bit Tomoyo's head off.
"People, calm down!" Eriol tried to mediate the situation. The bickering stopped the minute Princess Dermia finally managed to get to the front of the crowd.
"Look at this," Princess Dermia drawled. She smirked as she walked toward the maddened Sakura who began failing her arms about. Dermia laughed coldly and advanced again towards Sakura.
Dermia suddenly stopped.
"Why aren't you moving, Dermia? Scared?" Syaoran taunted.
"Uh, n-no," Dermia murmured. Her demeanor changed, Dermia was staring at Sakura like she was her Queen. Syaoran followed Dermia's line of eye direction. It ended near Sakura's neckline. A beautiful necklace that was a hundred times more gorgeous and exquisite than any stupid medal that he won in the tournaments.
It was crafted of delicate silver necklace, a pendant hung from the silver. The pendant was a heart carved from amethyst, white diamond wings hung from the heart, and a ruby crescent moon pressed to the center from the heart. Minimalist than most pendants, but so extraordinarily wonderful, still and emitted a strange and powerful presence.
"Where did you get that?" Dermia demanded, pointing at the pendant.
Sakura seemed to snap out of it and come back down to Earth. "What necklace?" She demanded.
"The one around your neck," Syaoran said sarcastically.
Sakura grabbed the necklace and pulled it up, examining it at every angle. "This is so beautiful," Sakura breathed.
"Hold on, you didn't know you had a necklace around your neck? Did you steal it or something?" Dermia raised an eyebrow.
"I don't steal stuff!" Sakura retorted back, her voice filled with acid—yep, she was definitely okay now.
Dermia looked skeptical, but her head snapped towards Headmistress Garcia who was looking at her intensely. Dermia turned back to Sakura. "What?!" Sakura said who was getting freaked out by Dermia.
"Come," Dermia gestured towards Sakura.
Sakura looked really pissed off. "And what makes you think I'm going to listen to you after to insulted me to the last of the seven hells yesterday?!"
"You will follow me because you will," Dermia locked eyes with Sakura. Sakura felt a jolt of energy strummed through her body, she couldn't help it. She stepped forward.
"Don't go!" Meiling said exasperatedly.
Sakura tried to talk, but no sound was wrenched from her throat. When Dermia and Sakura reached a private edge of the forest, Sakura found she could move voluntarily again. So, the first thing she did was glare at Dermia.
"What did you do to me?" Sakura growled.
"Sit down," Dermia gestured at log. When Sakura didn't comply, Dermia spat, "Do you want me to control you again?"
Sakura's eyes widened in shock, she promptly sat down.
Dermia smiled satisfactory.
"Thank you Dermia that will be enough."
Sakura whipped around, her eyes widening at the sight of Headmistress Gracia coming out from the shadows.
Dermia bowed and left.
Sakura opened her mouth but immediately closed it when Gracia gave her a look. Sakura waited impatiently as Headmistress Gracia sat down carefully on a log.
She opened her mouth again, but Gracia beat her to the chase. "Where did you get this necklace?"
Sakura shooked her head angrily, "I did not steal it, no matter what Dermia says! You know I didn't! I don't know where it came from!" Sakura protested defensively.
Gracia just looked thoughtful, and stared out into the distance. She looked back at Sakura. "It is about to thunder-storm today."
Sakura just stared completely clueless. What did the weather have to do anything?
"Yet, you can feel the vibrations hours before the actual time of rain," Gracia continued.
Sakura froze. Was that what happened during her episode? Oh, crap. This can't be good.
"Dermia," Gracia called out. She suddenly appeared behind Sakura, scaring the shit out of Sakura. "Please fetch Miss Kinomoto a towel from your bag."
Dermia murmured 'of course', and came back milliseconds later with a towel. She lowered her head, and handed it to Sakura.
This was another thing that completely bewildered Sakura.
"Do you not want to dry off?" Gracia gestured towards Sakura's present state.
Sakura shooked her head firmly, "Not until you tell me what is going on! What does this necklace have to do with anything? Why's Dermia being nice to me? How do you know what my insane craziness tactics really are? I even didn't know! Tell me!" Sakura demanded, not even bothering to be polite any more.
Gracia sighed. She gently placed her hands on Sakura's shoulders, being able to reach up to Sakura's 5'8" frame while sitting down, and forced her down. Sakura landed with a plop, not at all graceful. Sakura scowled, but got the hint. She began running the towel through her hair, blotting out the moisture.
"First thing is first, do you know my real name?" Gracia looked at Sakura seriously.
Sakura stopped her movement. "Isn't Gracia your real name?"
Gracia sighed. "I supposed you do not know this," she looked back up at Sakura, "My real name is Renalia Tresten."
Sakura's jaw dropped. There's was no freakin' way the person that made her parents betray her was standing in front of her! This was the woman that framed Sakura for the murder of the most respected governor and her uncle in her kingdom! Sakura never felt so much hatred for a person well up inside her. Her cold façade broke, and to her horror, angry tears filled up her eyes. She wanted to punch Renalia into pulp—even better cut her in half with a knife to draw Renalia's death out.
Sakura took in a shaky breath. She didn't want to stand next to the biggest bitch in the world. She didn't want to lose control. She abruptly stood up, and flung the towel to the floor. She made to storm off, but found she couldn't move her limbs. Through her peripheral vision, she spied Dermia lurking in he woods.
"Come out here!" Sakura screeched with anger, glad that she could, at the very least move her jaw.
Dermia came out into the clearing, her hands still up, and crackling with electric blue magic. She pushed Sakura with magic back onto the log, and the energy dissipated from her hands. Sakura strained to get up, but it was like she was frozen to the log!
"Don't bother," Dermia said easily. "That spell lasts for how ever long I want it to last."
Sakura couldn't snap Dermia's disgusting jaw in half due to the fact she was immobile, but glaring at her was just as satisfying.
"What do you want with me?" Sakura growled. "Here to frame me some more, to get more people to disgust and hate me?"
"Would you come down and listen?!" Renalia that was formerly Sakura's favorite headmistress Gracia, erupted.
"So, this is your true self" Sakura sneered. Sakura could felt heated hatred burning at her wrists, and ankles which were as un-moving as they would be encased in a block of ice. Her face was flushed with anger.
Sakura looked carefully at Renalia, who was standing tall and proud. How could she miss such a thing? Renalia had the same lithe, tall body build as Sakura, Tomoyo, Nadeshiko and Sonomi all had in common. Her eyes held the same laughter. Her mouth curved the same way in smile or smirk. Even her hair had the precise same curl to it. She should've known it from the minute she looked at Renalia—heck, she even guessed it from identifying:
While Gracia was reassuring the teachers of Sakura's aunt's decision, Sakura studied Gracia's features more carefully. She nearly laughed, Gracia looked so much like a headmistress—the top ranking position, in a top ranking academy—that she almost looked royal; Gracia could be Sakura's distant, distant long-lost cousin of her mother!
There were a few exceptions, her hair wasn't as wild and curly as Sakura's but still had a slight wave, and was more brown than auburn. Gracia's features were also a bit too soft, and not delicately sharp as Sakura's, but still very beautiful. Her eyes were also much narrower than Sakura's large emerald eyes. She looked more like Sonomi or Tomoyo.
Even though Renalia was not of the same blood, she looked very similar to all of the female line of Avalon Kingdom. When she was small, Renalia was around her all the time, long before she married her mother's sister's brother. Sakura berated herself for not recognizing Renalia's true nature sooner.
A memory hit Sakura as clear as day. When she was about 6 years old, the days of clear sunshine and happy family days before any of her scorning began, her mother showed her their family tree. Nadeshiko let Sakura's chubby 6-year-old hands trail the delicate parchment. As heir to the throne, Sakura was to memorize the entire family tree, and she did it with ease since her mother taught her how to memorize it easily. Sakura visualized the frail, colorful tapestry in her head. Sonomi and Nadeshiko's brother was Blake Tresten. He married Renalia, a commoner.
Sakura's eyes turned into glittering emerald ice remembering Renalia's betrayal. Of course a commoner would betray her royal family, she probably only wanted to marry Blake because of the money involved.
"That is just the thing. I did not kill you parents, and frame you." Renalia crouched before Sakura, and said softly, looking into Sakura's eyes. Sakura couldn't wrench her eyes away from Renalia's tantalizing silvery-blue eyes.
"Yeah, uh-huh, sure that's right." Sakura snorted.
"Why don't you let Renalia talk, and you listen?" Dermia broke in. "Bitch," she added as an afterthought.
"When you turned 7, I married Blake. Then you turned 13 Matthew, my father, who was a very vengeful person and held personal hatred against Blake because he was a so much better governor than my old man, killed my husband," Renalia broke off, as her voice turned like she was choking. "Sonomi and I managed to stop him in time from killing your parents. The hatred blast of magic that my father sent out managed to kill Sonomi's husband and seriously harm your parents."
Renalia paused to catch her breath. "I was 3 months pregnant at the time with Blake's baby."
Sakura sharply exhaled.
"You were out playing in the gardens when this happened, and the rest you know is history . . ."
Oh, it was history all right.
Sakura told Syaoran a very bare-bone skeleton of her past, but there was so much more involved. She remembered all too clearly the police arresting her, after she accidentally let out a burst of magic as she fell to her knees, which the police think killed Blake and Sonomi's husband; Luke, even though he was already dead. That glassy-eyed look that only belonged to the dead that still haunted her several times a week.
She remembered being handcuffed, and being led away like a dog, and no one was there to see her captured. She remembered seeing Sonomi's face in the window, but Sonomi was not doing anything to save her. As well, as seeing Renalia scurrying out of the palace through the tall garden hedges, with a slight bulge in her stomach. She remembered playing with Tomoyo the day just before her arrest. She remembered breaking out of prison. She remembered being moved around in the uncaring foster family system.
The rest of her life led up to Renalia's current confession.
"Sonomi contacted me later on, saying she understood why I ran away. The only reason why I left was not because I wanted you to be framed, it was because my father escaped, and I know if the police found out my father killed Blake and Luke, I would be sent to jail. I didn't want the last reminder of Blake to die."
Sakura nodded. The justice system had only come into being in Avalon Kingdom a couple of years ago, right around when she was 15. But, it was incredibly harsh—any direct members of killers would be sent to jail if the actual murderer could not be found. Sort of like the old Roman justice system. Sonomi being her aunt didn't get sent to jail.
"Sonomi told me how she didn't save you because she was concentrating very intently on trying to save your parents."
Renalia tilted her head back, letting her fingers run through her hair luxuriously, with her face towards the sun. She turned back to Sakura who just looked back at her, her face void of strong emotion.
Sakura was in jail for 8 months—they didn't have a strong justice system, so juveniles were sent to jail for 8 months. When none of her friends came to bail her out, then she was shipped around to foster families. Sakura learned that her parents died the second week she was in jail.
"Tomoyo had no idea about your situation and was extremely worried about you, that is what Sonomi told me," Renalia smiled.
"I asked Sonomi that if you ever get caught, to bring you to Amber Academy. After all, it was a good legit excuse to see you again. I was the heir to the headmistress throne since my mother came from a long line of headmistresses at the Academy, and I was actually the headmistress when you were 5. So, after you got caught, she told me and I finally was able to use that slot I'd been saving for years."
"How did she contact you?" Sakura interrupted.
"She became a judge when you turned 15. As you know, before she was already one of the few successful lawyers before the justice system was secured. Luke was the manager of their company that combines legal and commercial products—very hard to do."
"The Academy was originally named Midnight Sun Academy, but I renamed it Amber, as that was what color Blake, Luke and Fujitaka eyes' were. And I tried to teach prince and princesses the proper way to use magic, so they would not abuse it like my dad did."
Sakura smiled thinly to show she was listening. She had actually been wondering about the origins of Amber Academy after it was burned down.
"Where's your son, surely you have given birth by now?" Sakura inquired, managing to somehow raise her eyebrow even under immobility.
"Oh, Evan?" Renalia looked surprised the Sakura would question her about her son. "He lives with my mom right now. She's still alive and kicking, I'm in my late 20s and I'm a headmistress, so I can't live with Evan all the time right now. But, when the Academy was still intact, I pop in on weekends."
"Um, can I move now?" Sakura questioned awkwardly.
"Of course, Dermia?" Renalia nodded towards the Princess.
Sakura stretched out and began clenching and tightening different muscle groups to get back use to the sensation of moving. It was really quite weird now. Able-bodied people were truly lucky people. After she was done, she turned back to Renalia.
"Why is Dermia under your control?"
"Control?" Dermia butted in. "Um, no. Not likely. More like Miss Isaki's daughter."
Sakura looked horrified. Dermia couldn't help but giggle. "You poor, poor child," Sakura shook her head and returned her attention to Renalia who looked hopeful, like a vulnerable child.
"I believe your story." Sakura simply crossed her arms.
Renalia looked relieved, and bursted into tears. Sakura just stood there, feeling weird. "Um, are you al right?"
"To think about the horrible things my dad did, and what I did to you—how could I have scarred you for life?!" Renalia sobbed into her hands.
"It's all right. Really, it is all right."
Renalia looked up at Sakura, tears running down her cheeks. "Really?"
Sakura nodded then added on, "But . . ."
Renalia looked nervous.
"I'm grateful to you for clearing up the air for a lot of things, but what does this have to do with my heightened emotions, Amber Academy's melt down, my parents, or this necklace?" Sakura pointed at the necklace.
"Oh, that. Okay, that I can answer!" Renalia laughed, looking relieved. "You might want to sit down again."
Sakura winced. "No thank you, I had enough of that log for the rest of my life."
"You are the heir to the throne, are you not?" Renalia looked pointedly at Sakura. Sakura nodded, having no idea where this was heading.
"Then that necklace proves it's time for you to step up to the plate and serve your initiation test."
"What initiation test?" Sakura asked, shifting nervously her weight from one foot to another.
"Oh, didn't your mother or Sonomi tell you about this?" Sakura shook her head.
"That necklace is the most precious inheritance in the entire kingdom. It's been passed through all the Queens in Avalon for centuries. Whenever the Queen steps down from the throne, the necklace is taken off and somehow disappears. When the kingdom is in gigantic trouble, the next Queen in line somehow finds it again and then that is the time to show what she truly is made of."
"The necklace has found you. The kingdom is now in trouble. This is your official initiation test. If the necklace is still on your neck when you go to coronation, then you are allowed to step up to the throne. If not . . . an alternate is chosen. Your mother, grandmother, so on so forth had to take this test."
"Some of your magic powers are completely dormant until your test time. That's why the necklace makes you feel so weird. The necklace heightens all your powers, and since your powers are starting to come out—the whole combination makes for some really overflowing sensations."
Sakura fingered the necklace, shocked that such a beautiful necklace could hold so much importance in the world.
"Shit. My coronation is in a month, this isn't good." Sakura cursed. Crap. This isn't good. She had no freaking idea how the kingdom was in trouble. She replayed that to Renalia.
Renalia looked sad. "I think I know."
"What is the destruction that's doomed upon Avalon?" Sakura demanded.
"My father is back on attack." Renalia said, plopping down on the log, and staring sadly at the ground.
"Oh, fuck," Sakura cursed. "That can't be good."
"No, it is not." Renalia agreed.
"He wants to take down every single person who has ever stood in his way of getting to the top, or wants him to change."
Sakura snorted. She knew from experience people shouldn't change themselves to please others, but this was just downright crazy! If you have psychological issues where you would murder someone who was better than you—you should change.
"When I went home one day, mom said her close friends had received threatening letters from my dad asking where her location was. I was scared for Violet (Renalia's mom), and Evan so I told them relocate. Anywhere. I told them not to tell me where they were, in case Matthew (Renalia's dad) intercepted the letter."
"Matthew has been outraged ever since Violet divorced him, after I told her how he killed Luke just because Luke was better than him!"
Sakura completely agreed with Violet. There would be no force/way in the seven hells that would make her stay with an ego-maniac assassin freak.
"So, then, he attacked Amber Academy—he knows where I am, since being headmistress is a long tradition in my mom's family."
Sakura's jaw dropped, "Do you mean that black fire was him?!"
"That's what I'm thinking. And yesterday night when I went to check out survivors and ruins, I found something extremely disturbing. Do you remember me showing you the small power jewels in the training center?"
Sakura nodded.
"They all disappeared . . ." Renalia didn't have to complete her sentence, Sakura filled it in her head—that ain't good.
"I'm guessing he is headed off towards Clow City."
Sakura gasped. "B-b-but that's a myth," Sakura stuttered. Syaoran was right! "But, how would Matthew find it I thought that only Clow's reincarnation knew where it was?"
"He has enough dark magic, with the jewels; to find it. It's obvious he would go there so he could kill off all the magic sources to all the dimensions because Clow City is the capital for ALL magic in all forms," Renalia said calmly, but Sakura could see she was panicked.
"Hell no is he getting away with destroying Avalon—no, my kingdom—or the entire dimension," Sakura said firmly.
Renalia smiled proudly. She stood up and hugged Sakura. "This is what your parents prayed you would grow up to be. You'd make them so proud." She whispered in Sakura ear.
Sakura blinked back tears, and hugged Renalia back. She did. She did hope she'd make them proud. She hoped that she'd make the entire kingdom proud. She never wanted anything more in her whole life. Those haters would have such a sad look on their faces when Sakura goes to her coronation. She felt loved, she was strong, he air was clear, the skies blue, and she just prayed that her whole being was up to the challenge. She's going to be the best Queen the Kingdom has ever seen since Nadeshiko. She'd make her family and friends proud.
END OF CHAPTER
This is sort of like the turning point in the story. It ties up so many loose strands. I'm really happy with this chapter—it's probably my favorite chapter to write in the entire story so far, even though it was the hardest!