The message of the High Priest had deeply bothered Lucia, to the point that she was not able to get any good sleep for days.
"Interfering the future comes with a cost…" She furrowed her brows in frustration, "I have been doing something to help my family whenever I receive a dream… but why is he telling me now not to interfere?"
"This is not good, I have to talk to the High Priest!" Lucia decided upon mulling over the matter for days.
And so, she had once again sneaked out and asked for an audience with the High Priest.
A man marked with the passing of time, with the eyes of wisdom and foresight - that was how Lucia could describe the High Priest the first time she saw him in person. It was far from the desolate appearance he had in that particular dream.
High Priest Enoch looked at her with an unfathomable gaze as he greeted, "Lucia, the one who was gifted to peek into the future. Don't you know that your gift was enough for you to become the next High Priest of Seirende Temple?"
Lucia was taken aback by High Priest Enoch's remarks. However, when she remembered the future she saw, her gaze lowered, and shook her head with a self-mocking expression, "What is it to train something that would not materialize in the future?"
"You have seen the future… and I knew of it directly from the heavens…" High Priest Enoch waved his hands and an old-looking scroll hovered in front of Lucia.
Her eyes widened as she realized the contents of the old scroll… "An Oracle!!!"
"Yes, it is… Your dream and the oracle speak of one thing… the chaos that will befall the Empire…" High Priest Enoch replied with a mysterious expression.
Although Lucia was shocked that her dream was really what the future would be, she was even more baffled by how the High Priest was not even perturbed by the situation, when he himself would be witnessing the chaos.
"You seem to be wondering, why am I not anxious?" High Priest Enoch asked.
"Indeed… Perhaps, you have accepted your fate?" Lucia's gaze turned colder, if that was the case then it was no use to listen to the High Priest… because she was unwilling to accept her fate… unlike him.
"We might know our destiny… We might know ourselves… But the heavens we could never fully understand. The ways of the One Above, were even higher than our ways… His thoughts are deeper than our thoughts…" High Priest Enoch answered Lucia as he looked at the view outside his window.
"The only thing I am sure of was that He makes things work together for the good of those who genuinely love Him. In short… If you abide in Him… You can trust that He will not let you go through tribulations without a purpose." He looked at Lucia with a calm and gentle expression.
"My child… you need not to do all these things and just trust that the heavens will not forsake us… I believe that what we both received was not the end of the road, for us and for the Empire…
Besides, if you do something to directly interfere with the Empire's fate… you will pay a cost that is too heavy to bear."
Lucia did not answer right away… she had many questions in mind, but even still the unwillingness in her heart was not able to quell.
"I have already done things that would have interfered with my and my family's life… Why say these things now?" She asked with a furrowed expression.
"Because the cost for this one was heavy for you… Have you not noticed that whenever you interfere in one's life hold on to something precious to you? Your friend, your health, and even your dreams… What could be the next young one?"
This time it was as if lightning struck Lucia's mind.
The High Priest was right… Everything had a cost!
The first time she helped her family change the future, her beloved pet cat suddenly disappeared and she never saw her again.
Another time, when he helped her brother, she became bedridden for a month without even a warning.
Then another time… for some unknown reason she lost the opportunity to attend the academy. This and many more… were all costs of her interference in the future.
"Did you know that interfering with something can also mean that you do not trust that the person would overcome the adversities well? Trying to do everything with your little hands… Do you think you can bear the world alone?" This time there was a hint of reprimand in High Priest Enoch's tone.
"..." Lucia seemed to have been realizing things on her mind and she gradually got the High Priest' point. "Then… If I was to not interfere… Why call it a gift then? I should have been better off not having this power in the first place…"
"That is something you need to discover… Truth be told, even I had gotten to the point of why I possess my own gift in the first place… Perhaps, we will find the day where we would smile and say… that our gifts were not a burden but a privilege opened by the heavens…" High Priest Enoch looked at Lucia with sympathy in his eyes..
Like her, he had a gift of clairvoyance… Most of the time, he had to see something that greatly troubled his heart, and yet he could not do anything. So just like her, he had once thought that his power was a burden not a gift.
Lucia came back to her estate more troubled than ever… the unwillingness in her emotions and the rationality that was brought by her conversation with the High Priest were constantly battling in her mind.
A few days had gone by and everything seemed to have been going well with Valentin and Tehila's side. They were also able to find a way to contact the grandmasters secretly and just as she had deduced, the Vesala's started to move.
Coercing Valentin to make Carolina the Empress in exchange for his men marching towards the blood valley for retaliation… The council was in chaos.
And even as she decided to just be on standby, the news she could hear from her father and brother was telling her that the Vesalas had really targeted the throne.
It made her shudder… The throne… the dream… Maxim and Carolina sitting on the throne and looking down at her and the vast people of the Capital… The Guillotine.
"Sigh… it would be nice if we could gather support for Lady Tehila… but … it was just not working!" Her brother Jeremy sighed in frustration… "If we could just find a noble lady who was willing to oppose the Vesala lady…"
"No noble man would let her daughter do that…" Her father answered, "Have you remembered how many young ladies had their lives ruined by Carolina during her younger days? Now that they have this power do you think that anyone would want to let their daughter be the cannon fodder?"
"Indeed…" Lucia muttered… there was no way but to let Tehila bear the burden… unless she would be willing to let Valentin go… but that would be the worst-case!
For her… Tehila had to survive at all costs… Her plan was once they got married, she would be willing to publicly declare herself as her ally and start to create a supporting faction for Tehila! That was the only way for Tehila to have an actual status in society and rival Carolina.
However, three days later… she had received a report from her deployed mercenary… Tehila has been taken hostage by mysterious men. He, unfortunately, was not able to catch up with them because one of them could use a portal.
"This is not good!" Lucia phased back and forth into her room as she received reports. The situation was becoming helpless because they had no clue where she really was.
It was until she received a summon from Valentin a week later… She saw the defeated look of Valentin as she guiltily held Tehila's hands and announced to Lucia…
"I have agreed to take her as my Empress…"
"No way… How about Tehila?" Lucia felt like her world crumbled… she gambled all of her energy for the two and yet… nothing goes in her way.
"I would take her as my first queen… this is my only resort… and even if there was an Imperial Law that says marrying more than one would mean that neither of the two could take political positions, but it doesn't matter because we all know that Tehila was having a hard time gaining support from the nobles…"
"It's a lost cause…" Tehila added, there is hopelessness and guilt in her eyes for she knew that this time she really could not do anything than stay beside Valentin.
Along the way, Lucia's mind and heart were filled with the unpleasant sense of defeat… her efforts had gone waste.
The way Carolina was taking power… explains why the dream happened for a decade… it would start once it was time for Valentin to go down!
Then there had to be someone who had to stand between her and Tehila… Someone who could rival Carolina and was willing to pledge her allegiance to Tehila.
"That was me…" She exclaimed upon realization.
