The Crystal by Jones M (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

Some of the castle workers were with her, and one of them held a grimoire in their hands.

The Queen pulled something out of her sleeve. "In my hand, I hold an ordinary crystal which will be used to appoint the next most powerful witch." She stretched her arm forward so everyone could get a good look at it.

The crystal shone in the low level of light, and people marveled at it.

The worker with the grimoire moved to the Queen and opened the spell book. She then started to chant a couple of ancient spells. We were all anxious as the Queen continued chanting the spell.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Selena asked beside me. I shrugged in reply.

"Look!" someone shouted as they pointed to the sky. We all turned to face upwards.

The starry sky had some stars, one by one, moving about in a circle. The wind suddenly picked up around all of us as we watched the movement of the usually-stagnant stars. In an instant, a rain of white-blue stardust fell upon us. It lit up everything in its path, including our hair, clothes and the ground. 

It seemed like a shower of light.

Sounds of exclamations filled the air. The stardust that had fallen rose off the ground as it was picked up by the wind, forming what one could call a glowing ball. The Queen chanted a spell on the crystal that she held before releasing it. The crystal remained floating in the air before all the stardust entered it. The crystal moved up towards the sky, twirling on its own before throwing the stardust that was contained in it towards a certain direction. Towards a certain person.

Towards me.

My eyes widened in shock. Before I had the chance to complain about why the universe decided to pick me as the next crystal, or possibly run away because I may have been blocking some other witch's fate, the stardust hit me in the chest. The force sent me flying with a loud gasp. Soon, I was falling to the ground, and I instantly passed out.

Selena's P.O.V

"Emery!" I screamed as I rushed towards the figure that lay on the ground. From my peripheral vision, I noticed the Queen, Justin, Emery's mother, Erick and the Ordinary Brothers move towards her form. The people around me were murmuring as they encircled around Emery. Once I was close to her, I knelt down and checked her pulse.

"She's alive!" I said, releasing a sigh of relief. Slowly, Emery moved her head sideways as she started regaining consciousness.

"Seeing the hit she took, she needs rest," the Queen said. "Someone take her to one of the rooms in the castle." Zane went to help, but he was stopped by Erick. He gave Zane a glare before kneeling down to grab Emery. Then he was walking back to the castle with Emery's mother in front.

"The next crystal has been picked! This calls for a celebration!" the Queen shouted. A collective sigh was heard from the people around us before they cheered. 

I guess nobody wanted to be the crystal.

I turned and left the scene, quickly following Emery's mother and Erick.

Zane's P.O.V

I was not in a partying mood. A few minutes ago, we had someone explain to us what the whole party was about. They looked at me like I'd grown two heads before explaining the whole crystal thing. When they were done, I had one thought in my head.

I hope it isn't me.

I mean, I was in a boyband. I believed it would be hard to juggle the responsibilities of a crystal and those of a musician. As luck would have it, neither did my fellow bandmates nor I was chosen. I was glad that the stardust hit someone else. I didn't expect it to be Emery, and when she hit the ground and passed out, I was worried. What surprised me the most was how the people were taking everything. 

They freaking sighed in what couldn't be mistaken as relief! What was wrong with them? She could have probably gotten a concussion!

I turned to leave, only for a hand to grasp my shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked with a frown.

"I'm going to follow Emery." His eyes widened at my answer.

"Cool! I'll come with you so that you don't make a mistake of offering her money again," Harry grounded out, making me wince at the memory and also wonder why Liam had told him that.

A few moments later, Harry and I were following Selena, Emery's mother and the person carrying Emery. We tried to be as silent as we could as we trailed behind them. They turned to a bedroom where they placed Emery's form on a bed.

"What do you want?" the person asked, startling Harry and I. Emery's mother shot daggers at us while Selena gave us sympathetic gazes.

"I knew you guys are around. I could even hear your feet following us," he said as he turned to face us. A look of recognition had crossed his face before it turned into anger.

He went to speak, but he turned to face Emery's sleeping form. He sighed before turning to face us.

"Let's talk outside," he said, ushering us out of the room. Harry and I moved out just as the person was talking to Selena and Emery's mother. Once we were all out, the person closed the door to the room and turned to face us.

"I know who you are, and I know what you did to Emery," he started. I froze in fear.

"Look, man. We accept that we have been major a-holes to her. We just wanted to apologize to her for all the damage we did to her in high school," Harry replied.

"An apology wouldn't be enough," the person said. "You have no idea of what you did to her, especially after landing her in a hospital!"

He sighed as he tried to control his temper.

"I'm destined to be Crystalia's next ruler. If I were a ruler now, I would have you jailed."

My heart stopped at the threat.

"Or even beheaded. But lucky for you, I must lead by example. And if I did keep you here, the world would, unfortunately, notice your absence. So here's what you have to do. Stay away from Emery."

With that, he walked away, leaving Harry and me speechless.

CHAPTER 08

A/N=> Erboon photo above. 

Emery's P.O.V

With a groan, my eyes fluttered open. I noticed I was facing a white ceiling. For a moment, I stared at it. After a while, I realized I was not in my room. 

I slowly got up as I tried to recall what had happened.

My eyes wandered across the room, coming to a stop at a window which showed the sight of a mountain that was familiar. The day sky had stars, and I realized I was still in Crystalia.

The door to the room opened as Erick came in. His attire had changed to his usual formal clothes which consisted of a blue cotton shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

"Good to see that you are up. You took quite the hit last night," he said, making me feel confused about what he was talking about. Then the events of the previous night came crashing towards me like a waterfall. It brought a slight headache, but that was the least of my concerns.

I was the crystal.

I groaned as I closed my eyes and flopped back to the bed.

"Come on, Emery. You can't just go back to bed, especially today," Erick said as I felt his weight settle on the bed. That made me groan even more.

After the selection of the crystal, Crystalia held a party to acknowledge the crystal and to celebrate the oncoming 200 years of peace.

I could not believe my luck. Why did the universe do that to me? I specifically said that I didn't want to be the crystal, and look at where I was then.

Maybe reverse psychology could have helped me.

I had two options; I could stay in bed and mope around all day and curse the universe for picking me to do such a task, or I would get up, prepare for the party and see what the future had in store for the new crystal. 

The former seemed more appealing to me, but I doubted Erick would let me get away with it. Maybe he would let me stay in bed.

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An hour passed. Half of that time was filled with a determined Erick trying to get me out of bed while the other was composed of getting ready for the after-crystal-selection party. When I was done, I moved through the hallways of the castle until I came upon a small dining room. It had green marble floors, brick-red walls and a large chandelier situated above it. There were also brown wooden chairs surrounding a table with the same features. The Queen, my mother, Selena, Erick and Justin had sat around the table. Only one chair was left unoccupied between my mom and Erick.

"Good morning, dear!" Erick's mother smiled at me. I greeted her back and everyone before taking my space at the empty seat. Once I sat, butlers came swarming around the room with our breakfast dishes.

About a minute later, they were gone, leaving the meals that we were about to eat for the morning. There were eggs, bacon and pancakes with glasses of fruit juice for every one of us.

"Isn't this great?" the Queen said. "I had a feeling that Emery would be the next crystal. She definitely takes after her father." 

My mother groaned at the comment.

My father was also a crystal before he died. Me being selected as the next crystal was confusing to many. Apparently, every crystal was chosen after 200 years. Also, witches could live up to 200 years, and so my father was (surprisingly) in his hundreds when he died. 

Since my father had been killed, someone had to be chosen earlier than the expected two-century period. In fact, many thought a crystal would not be chosen until the remainder of my father's 200 years were completed. However, they were wrong because I was chosen.

"That is what I'm afraid of, Elizabeth," my mother confessed, bringing my mind back to the room. "As a parent, I care about my child. Now that she is the crystal, I'm worried about her. She may attract danger towards her."

"Relax, Susan," Elizabeth said. "You seem to have forgotten that Eva is not with us. The only thing Emery will have to deal with is the erwiches, and they wouldn't even think of going after her. She's a crystal! They'll be afraid of her and avoid her altogether."

What the Queen said seemed to work for my mother, because she calmed down and began devouring her meal. She hadn't eaten before the conversation started.

"So have you heard of our new witches? They're in a boy band I believe," the Queen changed the subject as she sighed dreamily. We all turned to look at her with shocked looks.

"What? Just because I'm older than them doesn't mean that I don't fancy them." Erick and Justin momentarily stopped eating, probably disgusted with the imagination of their own mother dating one of the members of the Ordinary Brothers. The thought came to my mind, and I felt like gagging.

"What're they called?" the Queen continued as I took a sip from my glass of passion juice. "The Ordinary A-holes?" I instantly spat the drink I was about to drink and fell into fits of laughter. Erick and Selena laughed too while my mother, the Queen and Justin looked at us with frowns.

"It's not the Ordinary A-holes," Selena said once she stopped laughing. "It's the Ordinary Brothers. You know, the band consisting of the boys that bullied Emery when she was in—" she cut herself off before she finished the sentence. Just like that, the mood in the room turned sour.

There was silence in the room as we all replayed what Selena said. 

No one was shocked by what the words uttered by my cousin. Everyone at the table knew what I went through. Apart from Erick and my mother, the Queen and Justin knew about the