The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's Castle, Emily's bedroom]

Beck swung the door open carefully, hoping that he wouldn't wake Emily up. Poking his head in, he took a quick glance around the room.

The room was dimly lit, relying on a mere lamp to keep the room lit up, and laying on a bed near the lamp was Emily, his fiancé.

He walked to her and bend down slightly to gently grab the thick book off her ŀȧp.

Just then, he noticed that she was huffing heavily, as if she was struggling to breathe. Her face was covered with beads of sweat and that sight really troubled him.

"Emily?" Beck called out as he shook her once.

Unfortunately, there was no response.

Just as he wanted to go for the second shake, she screamed abruptly as jolted up from the bed.

"Emily, you oka--"

Before Beck could finish, Emily ramped her body into his and basically melted in his arms, crying.

Beck's wound throbbed, but he could couldn't care less, especially seeing Emily like that. He hugged back as he stroked her back comfortingly, "Hey, it's okay. I'm here, alright?"

Emily went on to sob for a while more before releasing her fiancé. She apologised for her sudden breakdown and told him about the wonderful nightmare that she had.

"There was blood everywhere. You guys were dead... laying there with your eyes rolled back and--" Before she could finish, she buried her head into her knees, "And... I don't know what to do."

Her voice seemed to crack in the last sentence, as if she was about to cry again.

Hearing that made Beck reached out to give her hand a comforting squeeze, "We're... not going to die, alright?"

"Emily, why don't I get you something to drink?"

Just as he stood up, wanting to release her hand from his grip, Emily just wouldn't release him, "...Stay, please."

He really wanted to leave, but she was making it so hard for him. If she already said that, how can he say no to her?

Sitting back down, he ȧssured her, "I'm not going to leave if you don't want me too—"

Just then, he started coughing profusely. A sharp pain stabbed his ċhėst repeatedly with every cough.

Emily rushed to him and she swore that she saw his face was pale. Concerned, she asked him if he was okay.

Beck shifted his gaze onto his ċhėst as he suppressed his urge to clench onto it. He nodded, and it almost unwillingly, but she didn't question it but instead, she gave him a long and worried look.

He smiled softly as he pushed her chin up with a finger.

"Don't look at me like that. I'm fine, really. I'll just get changed first."

That itself reminded her about the nightmare. She just froze there, not knowing what to do as her thoughts began to went wild once again. "...Should I call Mary? Or something? Why is he coughing up blood? Is he going to die...?"

Beck noticed that she was bothered, so he decided to give her part of an explanation, "...It's just some side effects, but I'm going to be all r—"

All of a sudden, his eyes rolled back and he just collapsed.

"OH MY GOD! H--HE JUST... WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!"

"Beck! Hey! Wake up!" Emily called out as she shook him frantically, "Don't scare me!"

"Emily! Calm down! He can't suddenly die like this, so he might still be breathing! I should just check if he's still breathing!" She slowly reached out for the bottom of his nostrils with her trembling hand.

A sense of relief when through her, when she felt hot air grazed against her finger.

"Thank goodness! He's just passed out."

"But, why did he passed out? Should I do something? I have no idea what to do... I wish Erica was here... Maybe she know what to do."

Upon hearing it, her heart just jumped into her throat. However, after a few seconds, she felt a little more relaxed, knowing that it was just Erica.

"So, I ȧssume you need my advice of some sort?"

"...Yeah, what am I supposed to do here?" She asked the voice in her mind.

"Hmm... I can't really help much here, I haven't replenished most of my energy from before. But, I think someone else can help you out. Besides, it's about time for her to be awaken from her slumber... Remember to cube I gave you?"

"Yeah."

"Inject some of your energy into it and 'she' should appear."

"Um... Okay." She replied out loud as she grabbed the cube from her bedside table. She focused on the cube and let her energy flowed into the cube. After doing it for a couple of minutes, nothing happened. "Erica, I don't th--"

Just she wanted to give up, she cube lit up. The gemstone and symbols on it glowed brightly and the box began floating up. Afterwards, it came to a halt and hovered in midair. The cube separated itself into two parts and a brightly lit ball of warm orange light manifested itself.

That made it so difficult for Emily to keep her eyes open. Despite that, she still could not get her eyes off it. Slowly, the light got dimmer and dimmer, revealing a... Tiny person?

The fairy had her eyes closed and it appeared to be sleeping.

After that little 'magic show', the fairy just fell onto the, thankfully, soft bed. She blinked for a few times, before she stared at Emily with her bright orange eyes. She flew up, so that she could face Emily eye-to-eye. Closing the gap between them, she inspected her face.

"Erica!" She called out in her high-pitched voice.

"Oh my god, It spoke!" Emily yelled as she fell off the bed. She then dragged her buŧŧ across the floor, a few distance away from the mystical creature.

The fairy then flew towards her once more, "Erica! Don't you remember me? I'm your companion, Elizabeth. Okay, maybe you forgotten about me. Let's see, I'm the fairy that followed you everywhere. Remember that time we visited Rosavalley? We got a couple of beau--"

"Wait, hold on." Emily stopped Elizabeth, "I'm not Erica."

"You're... not?" She replied with hint of disappointment, "Then... who are you?"

"No, I'm Emi-- Wait, who are YOU?" She asked as she jerked her chin towards her.

"I'm Elizabeth, the best companion you can ever EVER find!" She introduced with a smile, "Now, tell me, who are you?"

"Hmm, Emily. Where am I?"

"The Fiore's Castle." She answered, "Or more specifically, the Fiorentina's Castle."

"Oh... I see-- Hold on, if I'm here in the Fiorentina's Castle. Then, you're..."

"...The fourteenth princess." Emily completed her sentence.

"Ah... The fourteenth princess..." In the fraction of a second, her relaxed face was then filled with shock, "THE FOURTEENTH PRINCESS?! How long was I asleep?!"

Seeing how panicked Elizabeth was made Emily feel the same way, "I-I don't know."

Elizabeth landed onto the floor and started paced back and forth on her tiny feet. She rubbed her chin like a detective and mumbled to herself about something that Emily could not hear.

Just then, Emily remembered about Beck. "Hey, Elizabeth? Can you help me with something? I have a friend there, who passed out, and I was hoping that you can treat him."

Elizabeth stopped and looked at her for a moment, debating whether she should help her.

"Erica? She asked? Okay then, I'll help!" She accepted instantly, after hearing Erica's name. She flew over to Beck as Emily followed back.

She then paused and inspected him. After a good minute of looking, she turned to Emily.

"So... How is he?" Emily asked as she kept her eye contact with Elizabeth, "...Please don't tell me that it's something bad..."

"I don't know." The fairy replied, "I need to take a closer look..."

Her eyes then trailed down his torso, "Remove his shirt."

"WHAT?!" Emily yelled in response, "I-I c-can't do that!"

Elizabeth turned and looked at her, without showing the slightest knowledge on why it was weird to do that. "Why not? I need to check on him. I would do it myself if I could, but as you can see, I can't. My hands are too tiny."

"But... I can't do that. It's way WAY too weird for me to do it." Emily refused.

"Well, if you don't want to do it, then give me your body. I'll do--"

Before Elizabeth could finish, Emily interjected with her warm reddened face. "My... body?!"

She then subconsciously covered her ċhėst with both of her hands, "W-Why?!"

"Yeah, if you could actually open the cube, it means you should be a suitable person for me. So, I need to get into you."

"...WHAT?!" She replied loudly, as she backed away from her. "I'm not into that..."

Puzzled, Elizabeth asked, "Not into... What? I just need you as a medium."

"Oh..." She gave herself a face palm, shaking her head a couple times as her mind started screaming at her, "OF COURSE! EMILY! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT?!"

"So...? Can I?" Elizabeth asked as she stared at her and her weirdness.

"...Ah, yeah. Sure."

Elizabeth flew behind her and focus her energy to her back. It was focused at a tiny area, but she could feel an apparent tingling sensation and before she knew it, she could not move her body like before.

"Oh, it worked." Elizabeth's voice echoed throughout Emily's mind.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Emily asked as she noted the tone used by the fairy.

"Well, I didn't thought that there will be another suitable medium that I could use, besides Erica. Maybe you're-- never mind, we can't be sure." She replied.

Emily wanted to persuade her to continue her sentence, but she did not, since her priority as of now was to make sure that Beck is fine.

Elizabeth then used Emily's body to do what she needed to do. She went closer to Beck and started to unbuttoned his shirt. Even though Emily was not in controlled of her body, she could see every movement her body made... Including the unbuttoning.

Emily placed her hands over her eyes, "This is so wrong. It's as if I'm-- you know what?...Never mind."

"What's wrong? I mean, that's nothing to get embarrassed of, right? Besides, it's not as if his body is bad looking. It's actually pretty well trained and--"

"Save the description!" She yelled across her mind to stop Elizabeth.

"Alright, geez. Hmm, let's see. Emily, he is injured. The person who attacked him, is a ability user with a dark element. Shadow, to be exact."

"Is that... bad?" Emily asked as she slowly removed her hands a from her eyes, "Is he going to be fine? ...And how do you know in the first place?"

"Well, I see that there's still a little dark energy in his system." Elizabeth explained. She then remained silent for a while as she removed the bandage from Beck's ċhėst to reveal a fresh wound. Afterwards, she took a deep breath before she spoke, "Well, attacks that involve dark elements are extremely fatal, but he seemed to be doing okay. Not great, but not too bad as well. He definitely need plenty of rest. However, I can heal it if you want, using your energy of course. Do you want me to do that?"

Without giving a second thought, Emily immediately agreed, "Yeah, that will be great."

"Are you sure? I've never used you as a medium before, things can go wrong." Elizabeth asked once more, just to confirm. "I might just accidentally destroy your whole energy system."

Beck did a lot for her, without worrying about the consequences, so the least that she could do now is to return the favour.

"...If the backlash is against me, then it's fine."

Elizabeth was momentarily surprised by her determination, but soon she let out a laugh, "Okay then, I guess I'll began then. If you're tired, just tell me. And if you want me to stop, I will. Let's began, shall we?"