The King's Beloved

Slowly, Rania opened her eyes to welcome the morning dawn. Waking up, she gave a contented smile as she stood up and stretched her body. She felt so light and calm like never before in her life. There was this brimming energy and joy and confidence inside her and she\'s at total peace with herself. She figured it must have been because of her dream. She raised her arms towards her to look at her palm. The cross was not there but somehow she knew, and she felt it was there, engraved inside her.

"You\'re finally awake," Elliot greeted her. He was standing behind her, leaning on one of the dragon pillars, with his arms crossed. With his captivating but curious aquamarine eyes, he gazed intensely at Rania. How can someone look so perfect in the morning? A normal girl would already fall head over heels after a man like this.

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"Good morning!" Rania replied cheerfully. "You know, your glare is gonna put a hole right through me".

Elliot raised his right eyebrow. "Do you remember what happened last night?"

"Hm?", Rania thought for a moment. "Last night?"

"Yes. While you were sleeping, you glowed so bright and we could feel a tremendous power emanating from you".

"W - what? I … glowed last night? Like, literally?"

"Yes, literally".

Rania was shocked. She thought her dream was just a prophetic dream or something like that. She never thought it literally happened!

Lost in thought, she answered. "I - I see … Actually, I had a dream last night …".

And so, Rania explained what happened in her dreams. Ducis and the sprites arrived afterwards and she explained it to them as well. About her repeating dreams every 7th year of her existence, about her God whom she met on her dream, and about the planet, and all His words. She did not miss a single thing.

Ducis\' face grew paler and paler as Rania told her dream. It was as if he realized something from all the things she said. Elliot decided not to ask him since he knew he wouldn\'t get any answers. And the sprites were all amazed by Rania.

"For us humans, we also have a belief about the Creator of the universe and we call Him many names due to conflicting religions, but most commonly, to those who believe, He is known as \'God\'. I think it was Him who showed up to me last night. It was really marvelous! And His words … I recognized them at once." Rania explained to them as her face smiled in delight.

"I see ... So it was the Supreme Being, huh?" Elliot asked nonchalantly.

"Huh? Supreme Being?"

"Yes, the one who stands far above Guardians. If kings have Guardians to guide them, then the Guardians follow the Most High, Supreme Being. We don\'t have religion. It\'s a given fact that He created everything in this universe and everything in it".

"Ahh … I see. They must be the same One, then? Just, different names".

"Beats me".

Ducis was silent but a soft and warm smile could be seen on his face. As if all his worries were laid to rest and a warm glow surrounded him.

"But hey!" Luna interrupted. "I do respect the Supreme Being and what you dreamed about is really amazing, BUT - most importantly, it\'s your BIRTHDAY?!" Luna shook her head in disbelief. "It\'s your birthday and you never told us?!"

While everyone was pondering over the dream, this feisty sprite was concerned about Rania\'s birthday. But then again, why shouldn\'t she be?

"Well, uhm, I guess so, haha!" Rania laughed it off.

Luna shrank her eyes in skepticism. "You … Is Elliot rubbing off on you now?"

"Hey - " Elliot got back at her.

" - Shh!" she silenced him quickly. "We should celebrate! For us sprites, the day you were born is the most special day!"

Luna grabbed Rania\'s dress and urged her. Everyone agreed as well and so they all decided to do a little celebration.

Not even an hour passed and the sprites already decorated the whole room with cute and adorable flowers. It was too much for Elliot to handle so he went outside the drawing room for a moment. That same receiving area was where Rania almost got killed by Ducis\' fire. And now, there they were, celebrating her birthday instead.

Elliot was assigned to prepare the foods since he can conjure them with magic easily. But this time, as a sign of sincerity and gratitude, he decided not to use magic and to COOK himself instead!

Ducis saw him and was shocked with what he was doing. Surely, he never taught him how to cook, so how in the world could he do it? Elliot looked smug for a moment and said that he learned it from books. He was a really intelligent guy after all. He can easily remember things he read or listened to once. And Ducis discovered as well that the whole reason why he could conjure food via magic was that because he knew how to cook them in the first place. Ducis became more appalled - he never knew! After all those years, he always thought it was easy to do. He was only used to hunting food so he never could have guessed. Now, this whole mystery had been answered.

A few more minutes passed and everything was ready. The sprites sparkled glowing dusts all around the room to serve as a confetti and sang Rania her birthday song. Everyone clapped and happily cheered for her. They ate all the scrumptious foods that Elliot prepared, to Rania\'s surprise. Feeling his sincerity, she thanked her and everyone else too for being so kind to her.

For the longest time, Rania experienced a very blissful moment. A lot has happened, but with her renewed strength, and knowing that her God was with her as He\'s always been, and that everything was happening according to His plan, she just felt so happy and at peace. She knew nothing would go wrong and everything would be okay. And that she\'s very thankful to have met these people in front of her.

The invasion was not something to be happy about yes, but … not all Magi were bad people. As for the real reason for their invasion, she still didn\'t know … but what she knows was that everything will eventually fall into place.

"Rania, here\'s our gift to you!" Luna and the sprites surprised her. They helped each other carry an enchanting bracelet made of lustrous silver metal with engravings of flowers and adorned with blue gems all around it. "That\'s a communication device. You can use it to communicate with us or with these two -" pointing at Elliot and Ducis. "It doesn\'t require magic so you could use it. We linked it to their accessories already so they should be able to hear you even from afar".

"Wow! Really? That\'s amazing! Thank you so much! That\'s really sweet of you all".

"I have a gift for you,too," Ducis followed. He stretched out his hands to Rania afterwards and gold dusts started to shower on her body and sank through her skins.

Elliot was surprised. "I didn\'t know that\'s possible".

"Hmf? What was it? What did you do?" Rania asked.

"It\'s my blessing".

Rania was shocked. "But, weren\'t you supposed to give your blessing to the royal family only? I\'m a human!"

"Well, I don\'t really know if it worked - so don\'t thank me yet. I just wanted to try for some reason".

"Alright then. But still, thank you very much!"

And lastly, it was Elliot\'s turn. Everyone was curious what gift this unsullied baby could have thought of.

Alas, from his hands, he drew out his gift covered in a small black box, with a blue ribbon at its center.