Chapter 7 - Severed

📝[1] 👈🏾Quick note by author

Third Person POV

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Tap…Tap…Tap

Azaelia sat on a chair as she held an unfolded sheet of paper in her right hand. Her finger lightly tapped on the nightstand beside the bed. Located on the nightstand was a glass half filled with red wine. Next to it was an open envelope, on which two names were written in script.

'To: Azaelia and Alex'

The candle lit on the nightstand barely gave enough light in the dark room to reveal the left side of her figure. Her curly midnight hair cascaded down her back, framing her beautiful, feminine facial features. The black bathrobe she wore teasingly covered her chest as it hung off her shoulders, almost threatening to fall off and reveal her upper half.

Azaelia stopped tapping her fingers on the nightstand and grabbed the wine glass, raising it to her lips, gulping down half of its contents, and then placing it back.

She released a sigh and crossed her right leg over her left. The light from the candle revealed her glistening red pupils. All the pain she was feeling currently wasn't coming from the contents of the letter, but rather the lack of a connection that she had always sensed prior.

Her older sister's presence was gone. A bracelet on Azaelia's wrist only held a cracked, grayed-out jewel, which once was a red ruby. One that used to pulse with the heartbeat of her now deceased sister.

Azaelia's gaze shifted to a young, dirty blonde-haired individual. On the bed lay Alex with her top half uncovered and wrapped in a bandage that went around her torso. Two red patches of blood soaked the bandages as Alex lay resting.

The sight of Alex in front of her caused Azaelia to sigh and crumple the letter in her right hand a bit.

"Damn it," Azaelia whispered to herself as she stared at Alex. "I can barely handle my own kid. How am I to watch over yours, Marie?"

Azaelia's thoughts wandered back to three hours before her current situation, when her young niece appeared before her.

The blood-red suns in the sky had begun to set, casting an orange tint over the sky with light purple clouds. Azaelia watched the sky slowly transition to night, leaning on the balcony of her two-story house. She grabbed a nearly empty cigarette pack from the small table beside her, shaking it twice to check if there was any left inside. It was light, but she heard about two to three cigarettes bouncing around within the pack.

She took one out and placed it between her red-lipstick-colored lips, then snapped her fingers.

Whoosh!

A black flame with a bluish tint appeared on her index finger, allowing her to light the cigarette swiftly. Once lit, she inhaled and released the smoke into the air.

"What the hell happened last night?" Azaelia asked herself, grabbing her head and groaning. Her head was killing her, letting her know that she had too much to drink.

Azaelia sighed and turned around, leaning her back on the railing, about to take another puff from her cigarette, but stopped. An unknown male figure lay on her bed, completely naked. The figure had horns protruding from its forehead, with grayish skin covered in tattoo markings all over. The ears were pointed and almost elf-like.

"Looks like I must've had too much fun again and got carried away," Azaelia began, placing the lit cigarette on the ashtray on the table. "Another Incubus demon thought they could handle my lust energy, hahaha. Dumb ass."

The Incubus demon was lying on its back with its pupils non-existent and mouth slightly open.

"He's most definitely dead." Azaelia voiced out. Once again, Azaelia snapped her fingers, but this time the body on her bed was the next thing to light up in flames. Not long passed until all that remained were the ashes slowly floating up before disappearing into the air. 

Noticing the sound of wings flapping, Azaelia turned her head in the direction it came from. She was able to see a young 16-year-old girl with black curly hair tied into a messy bun. The young girl's body was dressed in an academic school uniform, consisting of a white dress shirt tucked into a high-waisted skirt. Around her neck was a black bow, while her legs were covered in black stockings. To complete the outfit, there were black academic dress shoes.

"Welp, looks like Mika'Ella is back. Guess it's time to prepare dinner." Azaelia said, taking one last puff from the cigarette before putting it out to meet her daughter downstairs.

Azaelia took a step forward, flickering out of existence and appearing before Mika'Ella, who was removing her shoes by the front door.

"Welcome home," Azaelia said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "How was school today?"

Mika'Ella rolled her eyes, "Fine, mother."

"Are you hungry? I can make something while you go and freshen up in the bath."

"I'm not hungry, mother," Mika'Ella said, walking past Azaelia.

"It won't take long. I can—," Azaelia started to say as she grabbed her daughter's left hand.

"Don't touch me!" Mika'Ella yelled out, surprising Azaelia as Mika'Ella held the left hand that her mother touched to her chest with her right hand.

Mika'Ella looks away from her mother's gaze, not daring to make eye contact. "Sorry, mother. What were you saying?"

"Ahaha, it's fine," Azaelia began, forcing a smile." I was going to say I can make anything you'd like. Are you in the mood for anything?"

"Not really, anything is fine," Mika'Ella said under her breath as she headed upstairs to take a bath to freshen up.

Azaelia watched her daughter walk up the stairs with a slight frown. She looks down at her hand, which Mika'Ella had slapped away, and clenches it into a fist for a brief second.

"I wonder if I'll ever fix the issues between us." Azaelia voiced out in a sad tone as she headed to the kitchen to make a quick meal.

Once about thirty minutes passed, Mika'Ella walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Azaelia was plating the dining table.

"Hey sweetie," Azaelia smiled, "I hope you're in the mood for some pasta. It was the fastest dish I could think of making. Is that okay?"

"Uh-huh, sure," Mika'Ella answered, taking a seat, staring at the pasta that seemed slightly burnt somehow, with chunks of ham in various sizes. Clearly showing her how amateurish her mother's cooking skills were.

Azaelia sat across from her daughter, grabbing her fork and spoon, and waited for Mika'Ella to take a bite with anticipation.

Mika'Ella took some pasta on her fork and rotated it on the spoon until a bite-sized bite of pasta was formed, and tasted it. Azaelia watched as she chewed and swallowed, yet she didn't say a word about how it tasted.

All she got was Mika'Ella clearing her throat and reaching for the glass of water to take a sip.

"Well? Is it any good?" Azaelia asked, waiting for a response.

"It's…a bit salty, but not bad," Mika'Ella answered.

"Really?" Azaelia answered, taking a bite of the food she created and grimacing. It wasn't at all salty. It was extremely salty, almost to the point of being inedible. Yet her daughter continued to eat it like it didn't bother her at all.

"You don't have to keep eating it, you know. It's practically not edible." Azaelia said, chuckling to herself. "Who knew cooking could be so hard? Your father made it look so easy."

Mika'Ella froze for a moment at the mention of her father. She looked up at Azaelia with a frown.

"Don't you talk about him like you cared. Not after what you became after he passed."

"Oi, I did care for him," Azaelia said, scrunching her eyebrows once she heard Mika'Ella's snarky remark.

"That's a lie," Mika'Ella responded as she stared into her mother's red eyes with her own.

"Ella, I—,"

"Don't call me that! Dad gave me that nickname. Don't you dare use it!"

Azaelia clenched her left hand tightly, bending the spoon that she held in it, and forced a smile.

"Alright…I won't mention him." Azaelia said in a sad tone, causing her daughter to squint her eyes at her.

"Ha, I almost believed that sadness you showed for a second. Almost feels believable."

Azaelia softened her gaze and responded in a tone that resembled a pained whisper, "Does it now?"

"Eh?" Mika'Ella was surprised by the tone her mother used. It was such a first that she flinched at the sound of it.

' She's faking it. She has to be.' Mika'Ella thought to herself. 

Azaelia inhaled and released a breath to try to remove the sadness from within her.

"Anyways, have you decided on your Sinner's path or demonic profession yet?" Azaelia asked, trying to make her voice as cheerful as possible, in an attempt to change the subject.

"No." Mika'Ella flatly answered, "But I'm not focusing on the sinner's path of lust. The idea of sleeping around to gain power sounds repulsive. Wouldn't want to end up like you."

"ENOUGH!" Azaelia yelled out, disappearing from where she sat, grabbing Mika'Ella by the throat, and slamming her on a wall so hard that cracks practically formed. The impact caused the air to escape from Mika'Ella's lungs as she looked at her mother in shock.

Azaelia's eyes were glowing blood red with demonic horns protruding from her head. Her black hair transformed into black flames that burned red at the ends. 4 Black angelic wings with red tips as sharp as blades spread out from her back in their actual wing span that cast a large shadow over Mika'Ella.

This, combined with her mother's glowing eyes, made her more menacing and demonic.

"Enough is enough! As your mother, I deserve some respect." Azaelia said, holding up Mika'Ella with one arm before continuing, "You think I wanted this sinner's path after your father passed?! You think I enjoy sleeping around!"

"Wh-why," Mika'Ella grabs at Azaelia's wrist to try and loosen the grip her mother had on her throat. "Why this p-path?"

"It was the easiest and fastest way to get stronger, Ella."

"Do-Don't ca—,"

"You're my daughter! I can call you as I please!" Azaelia yelled, slamming her daughter on the wall again.

"I get that you're disgusted with me. I understand that you don't want to be around me, and I understand that you're ashamed of me. But we're all we got now! Whether you like it or not!" Azaelia said, releasing her daughter from her grasp.

Mika'Ella fell to her knees in a coughing fit while grabbing at her throat once air entered her lungs.

"That…what you did…that proves—," Mika'Ella said with little pauses to catch her breath. However, she didn't get the chance to finish her sentence when a red glowing diagram appeared next to them.

Azaelia squinted her eyes with a serious look, not knowing what would emerge from it, so she grabbed Mika'Ella's arm to get her up and put her behind her.

"What's going on?" Mika'Ella asked as both she and her mother watched the diagram. Both at the ready of grabbing their Gehenna forge weapon if something dangerous appears.

"I don't know… just stay behind me." Azaelia pushed Mika'Ella behind her back in a protective manner.

Soon, a dirty blonde-haired female appeared from the diagram. Alex raised her head up with extreme effort, trying to support herself on her arms. Alex's eyes looked hazy as she struggled to keep them open. Next to Alex appeared the black grimoire and a letter.

Alex's hair shifted from her face, revealing her facial features to Azaelia.

A ghost-like image of Marie's young face overlapped with Alex's.

"Marie?" Azaelia whispered her sister's name under her breath in confusion. What was her sister doing here? 

Marie disappeared after leaving on a mission with Alavion and never returned. The only thing that kept Azaelia thinking that her sister passed on was the ruby stone-embedded bracelet on her left wrist. A life bracelet connected by the soul. It gives reassurance to the person who wears it that the individual bonded to it is still alive.

"Marie?" Mika'Ella said, confused. Wasn't Marie her aunt that her mother used to talk about and say was someone she looked up to? That Marie? 

'Mother had said that she disappeared nearly 21 years ago. Has Aunt Marie returned?

Stepping from behind her mother, Mika'Ella saw Alex on the floor, trying to push themselves off the ground before passing out again.

"They're hurt," Mika'Ella said, running next to Alex's unconscious body and squatting down, examining the wound. Seeing how the individual was young and not the age an aunt should represent, she had concluded that it wasn't indeed her aunt.

"They seem to have recently grown their wings. We need to provide aid quickly. Help me get them to a guest room." Mika'Ella said as she grabbed Alex's left arm and passed it around her neck for support.

Azaelia just stared at Alex in a daze, wondering why this young girl had such a resemblance to her sister. If it weren't for the fact that they still looked youthful, she would've guessed that her sister had returned. Yet, she knew that wasn't the case at all.

"Mother!" Mika'Ella yelled out, bringing her mother back to the present. "I said, help me get her to a guest room."

"Without that magic word that sounds like a command rather than a service. I need you to use it if you want my assistance."

"This isn't the time, moth—,"

"Use. It." Azaelia said with brief pauses to emphasize her seriousness.

"Tch," Mika'Ella sucked her teeth and then rolled her eyes. "Pl…please." She whispered, not daring to look at her mother, and stared at the floor instead.

Azaelia smiled cheerfully and threw a ball of flame beside her daughter, which transformed into a bluish-black fire clone of Azaelia that assisted Mika'Ella in bringing Alex to a guest room.

While her daughter and her clone brought the injured Alex to the room, Azaelia kneeled down on one knee to pick up the grimoire and the letter, which was addressed to her and someone named Alex.

'Alex? So that's the name of your daughter.' Azaelia thought to herself. 'Seems like you've run into some trouble, sis.'

"Hmph," Azaelia begins, standing back up from her kneeling position. "You're not leaving your daughter here with me." She continued talking to herself as she headed to the guest room.

Then, out of nowhere, almost as if her sister had heard her words, boxes of various sizes started appearing and filling up the dining and living rooms of her house. Azaelia looked around her home with her jaw open in disbelief.

"What the fuck is this!" Azaelia yelled out pissed that her sister dumped her issues on her.

Mika'Ella poked her head out of the room when she heard the sudden outburst from her mother and raised an eyebrow when she saw all the boxes.

"Am I missing something? What are all these boxes for?"

"Nothing," Azaelia began as she walked towards the door of the room at a fast pace. "We're sending them back. My niece isn't welcome."

Mika'Ella snapped her head towards her mother, "Niece?"

"Who does she think she is?! Abandoning me without as much as a goodbye, and then suddenly dropping your daughter off. Hell no! Fuck you! I don't care how much trouble you're…"

CRACK

...in."

Azaelia looks down at the bracelet on her left wrist that now has a fissure crack across the ruby stone. The sight of it caused her to drop the black grimoire and the letter she had picked up earlier.

She raises the bracelet closer, thinking that she might have seen wrong, even though her eyesight allowed her to see things in extreme detail.

A crack was indeed there, and what's worse was that it kept getting bigger and bigger as the ruby stone lost its luster gradually.

"No," she whispered under her breath, grabbing the bracelet and turning it closer to her, not wanting to believe what she was seeing.

"No," she said again, a bit louder as she dropped down to her knees. The rising anger she had felt quickly shifted to fear as the bracelet on her wrist lost its vitality.

"This isn't real? You can't be dying. You can't!"

Then the confirmation of her worst fears hit her.

 Azaelia grabbed at her chest as her heart stopped for a brief moment, and froze reality. Turning everything to a grayscale tone. Her eyes dulled, becoming lifeless as the last moments of her sister registered into her mind like a vision.

She saw her sister coughing up blood and falling to her knees. She saw the look in Alavion's sad eyes, whose vitality, which was once diminishing quickly, was restored. Then she saw Vladimir and the other officers of the Veil and Shadow before everything went dark.

Time returned, and everything regained its color. Azaelia leaned forward in pain as the connection with her sister was severed. Leaving behind unimaginable pain throughout her being, that blood poured out through all her orifices.

"Mother," Mika'Ella ran beside her mother at the horrifying sight of her mother suddenly bleeding out. Then she looked at the bracelet on her mother's wrist that was now cracked and gray. Her eyes widened at the sight of the grayed-out jewel as she knew what had occurred.

Soul-bonded Jewelry was something created the moment that an individual's child was enrolled in an academy. Additionally, it can also be made for couples who are bonded in a marriage ceremony or close family members who share a common bloodline.

For not only does the entrance exam include fighting to the death, but anything at the academy can lead to death. Monthly duels, a failed assignment, learning a technique beyond your level, killing a royal descendant, etc. Death is a part of the academy that filters out the weak and hardens the strong.

In all honesty, if Azaelia hadn't been hard on Mika'Ella, she probably would've been long dead. Unfortunately, the cost of wearing a soul jewelry that is bonded to another individual is experiencing and seeing their last moments. If one isn't strong enough, the wearer can die.

"I'm...I'm fine," Azaelia said to her daughter as a bloodied tear trickled down from her right eye that she wiped away. Not saying much else, Azaelia stood up from the ground and lost her footing for a moment. Her body swayed a bit, so she leaned onto the edge of the bed for support.

When Mika'Ella was going to grab onto Azaelia to provide her some support, Azaelia only raised her hand to stop her. 

"Don't," Azaelia began, her face neutral and void of any emotion despite what she just experienced not too long ago. "Patch up, Alex, I'm going to go freshen up," Azaelia said as she picked up the black grimoire and the letter she dropped, and placed them on the nightstand. She looked at Alex on the bed with a frown and shook her head.

"Fuck," Azaelia whispered to herself and walked passed her daughter and out the door not knowing what to expect from here on out with a niece she never knew she had.

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[1] Last month has been one hell of a crazy and sad month for me, so I couldn't focus on writing. However, I hope to provide you with many more chapters.

Here is a chapter over 3,000 words long for you all. Hope you enjoy!

Please don't hesitate to comment or vote if you like. It motivates me to write more.

And wow, oh wow, we broke over 10k views, guys. Thanks so much!!!