Ella was not pleased to see him immersed in the book he was holding. The book had all his focus, and she grudgingly sat on the bed, pouting and throwing expectant glances at him. And when she had enough, she stood up and walked inside the dressing room.
Shazan looked up at her when she returned with a pair of pajamas for him. He could see the smile on her face, it was not bright, but she didn’t seem mad at him. Ella could never get mad at him.
He smiled at her and got up from the couch. He let her help him change as if he was a kid, and Ella did her little job carefully.
She did not tease him or ask for any favors. She knew that he was busy with something important, and so she had put reins on her heart.
Just as she was about to head to the bed, there was a knock on the door.
Shazan did not answer the door, and so Ella put on her gown and opened it.
“Yes?” She asked as she saw three beautiful girls waiting at the door in their chemises.
She had guessed who they were, and her heart was dissatisfied at seeing them come to the room of her Master.
The girls were shocked to see such a beautiful girl open the door.
They had been informed that the Silverstein Lord was with his maid. Never in their wildest imaginations had they expected the maid to be as beautiful a princess.
“We have been sent to serve the young Emperor, My Lady…” One of the girls stammered and ended her sentence by calling her out as My Lady.
Ella wanted to refuse them, but she was a well-mannered Maid. She could not decide without asking for her Master’s permission when he was present.
“Master?” She turned around to look at him.
“Let them come in…” Shazan whispered and looked at them.
The girls felt their hearts tremble when they saw him. Their bodies instinctively warmed up in a blush. They were the finest of the Palace Maids responsible for serving the guests, and they had never before in their life seeing such a handsome man. He was half-laying on the couch lazily, but his charm was terrifying as ever.
Ella could not believe her ears when she heard her Master call them inside. Her heart ached, and heat in her eyes moistened those hazel treasures. But she did not say a word and walked back to the bed with heavy steps.
The girls struggled to walk up to him as steadily as possible, and as they arrived in front of him, they could not lift their heads in shame. These royal escorts could feel shame too.
“What would Master like to do to us?”
A girl braved some courage and asked.
“You have been trained in playing musical instruments, right?” He smiled and asked.
The girls felt the excitement in their hearts drop down at his words, but they were more than happy to nod to him.
“We have been trained to play all musical instruments, but I am best at playing Sitar, she is best at playing Violen, and she is best at playing Flute.” A girl answered him with a bright smile.
“I will be happy if you allow me to listen to your favorite tunes.” He smiled at them. “You can stop playing and take your leave when you are tired. And you can do anything you want when one of you is playing the song. Okay?”
“Yes, Master!” The girls happily complied and walked out of the room to bring their instruments.
They returned in a few minutes and closed the door behind them.
Ella had listened to his requests and felt a little better in her heart. But when he had said that they could do anything they wanted when one of them would be playing her instrument, she did not trust these girls on that.
She came to him, sat down by his side before snuggling close to him. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
Shazan inwardly laughed at her behavior. He affectionately planted a couple of kisses on her head and turned his focus back on the leathered book.
He had been trying every means to find its secret, but he could not. He checked out every single page with care, scanned for any clues, but everything was the same. The color, the weight, the texture, the veins, every page was the same as the previous one.
He was surprised to see that the veins were the same as well. It meant that all these pages were made from the same sheet of wood, but it was not much of a clue for him when he could not even recognize what wood it was.
The room was soon filled with soothing music.
The three girls took turns playing their instruments and took turns giving him massages. They wanted to do a lot more than to give him head and shoulder massage, but the beautiful woman soundly sleeping, half on top of him, made them keep their desires shut in their hearts.
After realizing that they would not get what they desired, the girls did not try hard for it. They did whatever he asked them to do, and after spending a couple of hours in the room, they left. They were disappointed, but they were not dissatisfied. He had asked them to serve him in some manner, and that was enough for them to earn points faster to gain riches and freedom.
“Tell me what you are hiding,” He was tired enough that he started talking to the book.
Of course, the book did not answer him. And he helplessly took his attention off the book.
The warmth emanating from Ella’s body was like a spell that dragged him to sleep once he turned his attention to it. He fell asleep right there, with Ella and the book on his chest.
He was back in his cage of red light, surrounded by infinite darkness. The inscriptions around him were the same as ever. They changed, lit up, dimmed down, revolved, and disappeared before new ones appeared. The cycle kept repeating itself, but Shazan still had his focus on the book that he had seen today. He wanted to understand it, and so, even in his dream, he only thought of it.
Suddenly, he felt a weight press down on his chest, and when he looked there, the book he had been thinking off was before him.
He grabbed the book in surprise, and what shocked him was that there were some inscriptions on the leathered cover.
It was a language that he had never seen before, but every Language of Amazeros was written in the same scripture. That was the only similarity it had with the language of Azeros that he knew. It was a language that belonged to another race.
Shazan concentrated on the words, and magically, his mind read them, in a tone that he had not known before.
The Diary of Life; The life of Zihanay Kulsekzar
It was the title of the book.
Opening the book, he started reading on the life of the owner of this diary. The descriptions were vivid, and it felt as if it was written by a force that could see all and everything.
It was a story of a young girl, who grew up with ambitions and goals, but one dark day, her life changed forever. She lost everything and everyone. As the Apostle of Annihilation descended on their Star and brought with it devastation, annihilating every living sentient creature with waves of his army of Annihilation Beasts, she was left with nothing. Her people lost the test of Annihilation.
They begged for mercy, but the Apostle only smiled at their end and left as its army unleashed hell on them.
With the last efforts of her people, she was sent away safely from that destruction. But her luck was lost. The Apostle appeared before her with its Aura in full display. She had never felt so constricted in life, and she realized that they had no authority to decide their fate against such power.
She was waiting for her end, but the Apostle only smiled at her.
“The Law of Annihilation demands the destruction of anything and everything. It is what I am, an Apostle of Annihilation. Little Fire, do you hate me for what I did to your Star?”
The question of the Apostle scared her. She shook her head hurriedly. Against absolute power, the weak did not have the right to hold grudges.
Her answer amused the Apostle, and he made a deal with her. He would make her strong, give her power, but she must serve him for 999 Star Years.
The little girl did not know why the apostle held an interest in her, but from its desolate gaze, she could deduce that it was just bored. To the apostle, she was an experiment to see if she could bring a surprise to it.
The girl agreed. She let go of all her pain and accepted the offer. After all, she had lived despite failing the test. She needed meaning in her life.
The Apostle kept its promise. It found her a human girl whose emotions and mindset were in sync with her. The little girl finally had a body, and she could control her powers even better. But the Apostle was not merciful. The human soul was annihilated by him, and the body now only belonged to the girl.
To give even more power to its toy, the Apostle snatched half of the girl’s soul. He bound it to the Sound of Destruction and gave the authority over it to the girl. She was now the Envoy of the Apostle of Annihilation.
She accompanied the Apostle on wars, episodes of Annihilation for fun, Tests of the Worlds, and she could feel herself losing the last bit of emotions she had within her. She understood what the Law of Annihilation meant. She understood that it was inevitable, and the Apostles had to abide by their code.
The Law of Annihilation required the person to annihilate the emotions as well. She could still feel those emotions, but they could never again rule her mind. It meant complete control over oneself. Or so she had thought.
A war resulted in the loss of Apostle of Annihilation at the hands of the Apostles of Emotions. The Apostle was killed, and as its Envoy, she should have been killed as well. But she was given an even worse punishment. Her emotions were returned to her, stronger than ever. Uncontrollable and unrestrained, those emotions devoured her.
The guilt, pain, disgust, sadness, everything she had forgotten came crashing down on her. She cried for years and years, but there was no one around her to soothe her pain, and she could not control her emotions anymore.
She walked aimlessly, Star after Star, and one day, she found a Star of her race.
The people there were weaker as the Star had not been that old, but they were her people. She started living with them as their guardian, and she thought that she could atone for pain in such form. But her peace was not long-lived.
The test of Annihilation came down to this place as well.
The little girl did what she should not have done. She fought valiantly, turned the annihilation beasts against each other with her powers. But an Apostle of Annihilation interfered. The Apostle called her a traitor to the Law of Annihilation. As an Envoy, she had no right to help anyone survive the test.
She did not know what she should have felt. Her heart ached, but she still kept fighting. Alas, the Apostle overpowered her. It was not even a fight. It was a slaughter.
The Apostle made her watch as the people she was protecting were all annihilated.
She was given another chance to Annihilate. The Apostle left her in command of the Annihilation Beasts on that Star and asked her to finish the job in a day.
The pain only got worse as she killed people, and then it got to a point where she cried tears of blood. She knew what she was doing was not wrong, but her emotions betrayed her.
And then she betrayed the Law she was the Envoy of. She saved a few people of Water and opened a channel to a faraway land that was only a Planet with no Mana. It was one of the lower worlds where a few Azeros and, majorly, Humans resided.
But to her pain, the people of Water brought destruction to the new world. The destruction as so devastating that almost all land was submerged in water.
The people of water got what they sowed for. She could only watch helplessly as a Powerful Magical Beast, that looked like a Serpent and lived in water, started devouring the people of her race.
She could not understand how such a powerful Magical Beast could live in such a weak World.
The people that she had saved, hated her, and they were crazed and hell-bent on destroying the weak people of this World.
And then she betrayed the people of her race and helped none as the Beast devoured every last one of them.
To her surprise, a few Humans survived the destruction. The world could return to normal in a dozen Star Years, and it would keep evolving with time.
She then slept in front of the channel that she had created, but the cycle of Annihilation of this World was coming close. She knew that she was Powerless against the Apostle of Annihilation, and so she sacrificed her body to seal the channel she had created with the power of Annihilation. A channel that should not have appeared.
All worlds had seven Dimensional Channels of Annihilation, but since she had created one more, it was not as stable as the ones that existed since the birth of this planet. She had to seal it, or the waves of Annihilation would arrive in the world before the set time.
She sacrificed her soul to give birth to a child. And for her child, she left behind her only precious treasure, a mission, and this diary of her life. She never wanted to put her child in danger, but she could not destroy the Sound of Destruction. It was made out of her soul that was baptized in the Law of Annihilation.
It was a weapon that asked for destruction, but she had a way to control it, and for that, she did everything she could.
My dear daughter, your mother bore you with the sacrifice of her life. You have no father, no kins in the world, and you would live a lonely life. But I hope that you will find a way to be happy, which is something your mother could not achieve in her life. But I was happy when I sacrificed myself to give birth to you…… I know there would be no one to teach you, and so I leave behind my knowledge to you. You are the last step of the work I have left unfinished. I love you, my child. Remember that your name is Aleena Kulsekzar, and you are the daughter of Zihanay Kulsekzar.
Shazan read the message the woman had left behind for her daughter with a heavy heart.
There was no one who could understand the pain of losing the loved ones more than him, but he could not imagine how much that woman had suffered in her life. She was all alone. Even to the end, she had no one.
The dream he was in vaporized, and his eyes shot open. His body felt drained of all strength. It had been a while since he had last been in such a state, and it made him uncomfortable.
He carefully picked up the book, but to his dismay, there were no words or inscriptions on it. It was as blank as he had last seen it before falling asleep.
Shazan doubted if the dream he had was just a dream. But the doubt only lasted for a few seconds. He could recall the language he had read and spoken in the dream.
In his shock, he recalled every single word that he had read in the diary.
The diary in his hand was only meant for the woman’s daughter, but he had, somehow, managed to read it.
He concluded that the reason why nothing could be written in the diary was that it was already full, and had served its purpose. Now it was just a remanent of a legacy.
“Aleena…” He whispered the name of the daughter.
“Hi!”
A whisper sent shivers down his spine, and he instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around Ella.
He heard a girl giggling in delight at his shock, but no matter where he looked in the room, he could not see her. He heard her voice from all directions.
And just when he calmed down a little. He felt someone ruffle his hair, and he shot up to stand with Ella in his arms.
His eyes were grave as they scanned the room. He didn’t have much strength in him, but there was something he had to make sure of.
He used the little power he had left in him and checked for any strands of life in the room.
To his relief, he was not hallucinating, and neither was it a ghost. She was an aura made of fire, a figure of a woman that looked quite young, and she was beautiful even if she was only fire.
Shazan checked for any hostility, but his instincts were not alarming him.
“Found you…” He chuckled and drew his hand to her.
The girl was shocked that he could see her, and in her frustration, she disappeared from the room at a speed he could not discern.
He was upset that she ran away, but he did not have the strength to chase her. He swayed as he found it hard to stand still, and it woke up Ella.
“Master!” She had only lazily opened her eyes, but seeing his state, she cried out in shock.
“I am fine…” He whispered as he placed her on her feet, but then a few drops of blood tricked out of his nose, and he fell forward in her embrace.
“Master!”
He heard Ella call out from afar, and then darkness enveloped his senses.
♛ Author’s Note:
To stay updated about the stories, do join my Discord. The link is on the ToC Page. See you there!