The Evil Emperor's Fragile Heart

Mana moved in front of Jules protectively, but Raven was even faster. He caught Queen Sora's hand, but he was still a child, after all, and she was an adult. The flame dagger pierced his shoulder.

"Raven!" Mana and Jules cried out in alarm.

"Daddy!" Azar shouted.

King Jaren threw out a powerful wave of magic and Queen Sora was imprisoned in a cage of earth.

She laughed hysterically, until Grandma cast a calming spell on her.

"Papa! I can't heal him!" Jules called King Jaren, panicked.

The adults immediately gathered around Raven, who had lost his consciousness by now.

Grandpa cursed and pulled out the flame dagger from Raven's shoulder.

"Is it poisoned?" Mana asked him urgently.

Grandpa shook his head. "It's not," he said, with a heavy sighed. "It's worse."

Grandma's eyes widened in recognition as she looked at the dagger in Grandpa's hand. "Is that…is that the hellfire dagger?! How could it be in Sora's hands?!"

King Jaren cursed loudly.

"What's the hellfire dagger?" Jules demanded. "And, more importantly, how do we heal Raven?"

Queen Sora laughed manically. "You can't!" she said nastily. "That boy's going to die and you're going to lose all support from the Obsidian Kingdom!"

"Kindness is wasted on you," Mana snarled. Her eyes glowed fiercely and the earth under Queen Sora turned into a swamp, dragging her in.

Queen Sora screamed like a banshee, but Mana didn't stop until she'd sunken into the marsh up to her waist.

"Big Brother, Azar and I are taking Raven to my room," Mana told the adults. "Papa, Grandma and Grandpa – please find out how to deal with the hellfire dagger and heal Raven." Her eyes blazed with rage as she glared at Queen Sora. "If my Raven doesn't recover before sundown, I promise that neither you nor your evil daughter will ever be able to use magic – nor will you be able to die. You will live every minute painfully, wishing for the relief of death, but I won't let you die, either!"

"Mana…" King Jaren began.

"Enough, King Jaren!" Mana hissed. "If you want to protect your daughter Astra from me, you'd better get this despicable hag to talk!"

Jules stood up with Raven in his arms. "I'm with Mana on this," he said quietly. "Raven is infinitely more precious than a couple evil wretches who have repeatedly tried to kill Mana and I."

King Jaren nodded. "I understand," he said softly. "Go and take care of Raven. We'll find out what we can here."

Mana and Jules left with Raven and Azar.

Jules put down Raven gently on the bed.

"This little idiot," he murmured fondly.

"Daddy not an idiot!" Azar yelled. "Bad dagger evil curse for Mommy and Uncle Jules!"

Mana and Jules blinked in confusion.

"It is exactly as Azar says," came a hoarse voice from the bed.

"Raven!" the pair of siblings exclaimed.

"How are you?" Mana asked anxiously. "Big Brother said that he couldn't heal you…do you have any ideas?"

Raven laughed. "Big Brother healed me very well, and Azar ate the curse before the dagger touched my skin, so all I got was a knife wound; I was never in any danger to begin with."

Mana peeled off Raven's bloodstained shirt and found unbroken skin underneath. She narrowed her eyes at him. "What curse?" she demanded.

"I'd like to know that as well," Jules said. "And we have to thank you for saving us yet again, it seems."

Raven smiled slightly. "That flame dagger is the hellfire dagger – it is the most effective weapon in the world against children of the royal bloodline of the Amber Kingdom who possess fire magic. You do know that Grandpa's mother was the oldest sister of the previous king of the Amber Kingdom, right?"

Mana and Jules nodded. Azar sat on Jules's shoulder.

"The curse latches on to the fire magic of the people who possess this blood," Raven said. "It causes unbearable pain whenever you use your fire magic, and the intensity keeps increasing each time you use your fire magic. There's no known cure and most people are driven mad by the pain within a few weeks."

"How horrible!" Jules cried. He stroked the baby dragon's dark scales with gentle fingers. "Little Azar, is your stomach all right after eating this horrid curse? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

The little dragon shook his head. "Azar strong boy," he declared proudly. "Azar eat all magic, good, bad, big, small."

"You're definitely our family's blessing," Jules told him.

Azar preened.

Mana was still frowning at Raven. "You have fire magic, too," she pointed out.

"My fire magic is completely unrelated to the royals of the Amber Kingdom," Raven replied.

Mana wasn't fully reassured yet. "Then why was Queen Sora quite convinced that she'd killed you?" she demanded.

Raven shrugged. "How do I know what that awful woman thinks?" he whined softly.

"Maybe she thinks anyone who has fire magic will be affected," Jules suggested.

Mana stared at Raven for a long time and then grabbed the boy's arm and sent her own magic through him, checking for any damage. After two thorough checks and finding nothing, she was finally convinced that Raven was all right.

"You're really ok? Promise?" she asked quietly.

Raven nodded, the tips of his ears turning red. "Promise," he said. "Big Brother also knows that I'm ok," he added.

Mana raised an eyebrow. "So, both of you were pretending back there…?" she asked archly.

Raven and Jules exchanged an embarrassed look and nodded.

"Are you angry?" Raven asked, looking at Mana nervously.

Mana smiled and shook her head. "Of course not," she muttered. "I'm quite impressed at how you two came up with such a great plan so quickly. We needed a trigger to get Papa to take action."

Jules sighed tiredly. "I feel terrible about deceiving Papa and Grandpa and Grandma…but there's really no other way to sort out this mess," he murmured. "I'm reasonably sure that Papa still won't mete out capital punishment to either of them, though."

"Queen Sora will probably spend the rest of her life in prison…and Princess Astra will most likely be confined to her rooms for some time until she repents and wins back his favour," Raven guessed.

Mana rubbed her temples. "I think you're right," she murmured. "So…we keep pretending until the sentence is passed?"

Jules nodded. "I think that's best," he said.

Thus, Prince Raven remained in a coma for the next three days. King Jaren acted fast – the very next day, Queen Sora was put on trial with plenty of evidence and given a life sentence. All her identified co-conspirators who were in the Emerald Kingdom were sentenced to death. For the culprits in the Amber Kingdom, King Jaren issued a letter to the king of the Amber Kingdom, requesting that the criminals be sent over to the Emerald Kingdom to be punished. King Orion didn't send anyone over, but assured King Jaren that he would investigate the matter thoroughly, and a few weeks later, most of the named culprits in the Amber Kingdom lost their heads. A few high-ranking ones were severely punished, and some top ones, like the Grandpa's half-brother, Prince Mars and Prince Liam – they only received a mild punishment. But King Jaren couldn't really complain, because Princess Astra, too, had received a fairly mild sentence as well – exactly as Raven had predicted.

Still, Jules and Mana didn't create a fuss. They knew it was difficult for King Jaren – and moreover, they could see how worried King Jaren was over Raven's condition. He reached out to experts everywhere and tried everything he could, and didn't even try to dissuade Mana from letting Azar suck out Queen Sora's magic for good and Princess Astra's by half.

Queen Sora really didn't know of any cure for an attack of the hellfire dagger, and she believed that it would work on any fire user. Grandpa, on the other hand, knew a lot more, and he explained to King Jaren about the relationship between the bloodline of the royal family of the Amber Kingdom and the fatality of the hellfire dagger towards those who had it.

King Jaren went very pale. "You mean that if that dagger had touched Mana or Jules…they'd have died immediately?!"

Grandpa nodded. "It is good that Raven's fire magic isn't related to ours at all," he murmured. "We should be able to revive him. We just need to figure out how to dispel the curse."

"I still don't understand how the hellfire dagger ended up in Sora's hands," Grandma said. "I know she said that your half-brother gave it to her…but why would he do that?"

"If the Emerald Kingdom's royal family becomes unstable, who do you think would be the biggest gainers?" Grandpa pointed out. "Besides, my half-brother doesn't share the royal bloodline, and the hellfire dagger in his hands is a sore issue for King Orion, since it directly affects those in the royal family. By giving it away, he not only gains approval of his king, but also creates an opportunity to harm kill Jules and Mana."

"But isn't it fatal to Astra, too?" Grandma asked.

"Probably not, because Astra has only earth magic, despite having Amber Kingdom's royal bloodline.. In any case, wouldn't use it on Astra, and neither would anyone else from the Amber Kingdom. Aren't they planning to rely on Astra to gain the Emerald Kingdom? Once Jules and Mana are dead and Astra marries Mars – isn't the Emerald Kingdom theirs to take?"