mikrokosmos

39: CHANGE OF PLANS

Jade travelled to a familiar future that night.

She didn't dare change something about her grandmother's death because saving her there could mean a lot of alterations in the present. She did not want to risk the lives of the many just for her need of a family reunion.

It was the same in the first part, when she met her confused grandmother. What changed was how Astra approached her.

Astra looked more intimidating, more enraged than in her previous time travel.

"You killed my daughter," Astra said this time, "And I killed your parents but that doesn't satisfy me enough yet." She smirked at her. "You have to die too before I call it even."

Then Prince Theodore came as usual.

It was heartbreaking for her, seeing the way Theodore's eyes softened right before he situated his ice lance below her chin. Lyra Jade's tears fell as she expected the Prince's final words for her. "If you're so sorry, do as I tell you when you get back. Then I will know who I have to trust."

"I'm sorry," she told him before a strong gust of wind pushed Theodore away from you.

"Sorry, I'm late," an injured Justin appeared beside her. "So he's still trying to kill you, huh?"

The two of them were about to run away when Lyra Jade felt pain on her forearm. She checked it and saw that it was bleeding.

It's the same forearm he hit when we first met.

"We can't outrun them," Justin said as they continue to run, "I also have to go back to Reverie, Jade. You have to go back to the present. Fix your relationship with the Prince. Astra's not the biggest threat here. It's Theo."

Justin's words were what made Lyra Jade control her power for the first time.

Fix your relationship with the Prince.

So in that future, she never reconciled with Theodore. She never gained his trust again.

Lyra Jade got up from Lemuel's bed and held her forearm. As she guessed, she felt blood still gushing out of the cut. Since she's blind, she couldn't really do anything but wait for her father to check on them and clean the wound. With her other hand, she tried touching the next person close to her but felt only the blanket beside her.

"Jade, you're awake!" Lemuel said as soon as he entered the room with Philip. "Y-you're bleeding!"

Philip immediately sat on the bed beside his daughter and held her arm. "Did someone go here?!"

"I went to the future again," Lyra Jade explained. "Theodore did this. The future changed a little but he and Astra became angrier."

"You fought with him?"

"Who's Theodore?" Lemuel asked innocently. "He's going to pay for what he did!"

Philip tried calming the kid down by pulling him to sit down with them. "Lemuel, do you know where your father keeps his first-aid kit?" Lemuel nodded. "Can you get that for Jade?"

"Of course! Wait here," the kid said before dashing to the door to get the kit.

Without Lemuel, Philip turned to his daughter again. "What happened?"

Lyra Jade instantly cried when he asked her. The scenes from the future were still fresh in her memories. "Astra said Ira's dead. Theodore's still on her side because he doesn't trust me."

"You should meet him then," Philip said. "He visits you in your dreams, right? No visits from him yet?"

She shook her head. "He probably hates me now. Besides, I don't want to leave this place yet so going back to Empyrea to meet him isn't on my list of to-do's at the moment."