The Kingdom of Love
The four girls are in an unknown world. On the top of a small mount, the princess holds the injured braided woman, surrounded by the golden-haired girl and the purple-haired girl. Though a collective sense of relief for learning that the braided woman would survive the ordeal made the girls forget about their situation, soon the golden-haired girl returned to her senses.
"What will we do now? That rascal has left us alone in this planet we don't know anything about! Damn! What will we do now?" The golden-haired girl walks in circles.
"I think... we should... make the... telelemental's dream... come true..." The braided woman breathes with difficulty.
"Are you insane?" The golden-haired girl is baffled at the suggestion. "You are still weak, your mind is not clear yet."
"No, Anna... I'm serious..." The braided woman coughs. "I'm not.. talking about... dominating the universe... but of planting a seed..."
"You mean that we should try to build a kingdom here?" The purple-haired girl is curious about the idea.
"Yes... we should build... here... the Kingdom of Love... we already have... a queen here... the perfect queen..."
The braided woman raises her hand slowly and touches the princess face. The princess blushes at the suggestion.
"What should we do, then?" The golden-haired girl is skeptical.
"Remember... the telemental told us... there are people living... in this planet... We could... associate with them... and help them..."
"Well, that is not a bad idea. As we don't have anything else to do, maybe we should try." The purple-haired girl is content with the idea.
"I wonder if it will not be dangerous. We are in a planet we don't know anything about, we are just four women... you know how dangerous it can get."
"Oh, Anna... do you think any man... can be a threat... for such a strong girl like you." The braided woman laughs briefly, but stops as she feels pains.
"You are right."
"So what will we do?" The princess has the expression of someone who is completely lost.
"Well, first we must improvise a litter in order to carry her, as she is too injured to walk. I can do it easily, slicing a chunk of the trunk of a tree with my slashers. Then, me and you can carry her while Nei uses her special charms to scout the way for us. We must try to find these people or, at least, some source of water and food."
"You are right, Anna. It is a perfect plan." The princess smiles in satisfaction.
"And you doubted... you'd be... a great... leader..." The braided woman winks at the golden-haired girl.
"Hey? Are you talking about those fortunetelling predictions?"
"Yes... don't you... believe in them...?"
"Of course not, it was just a coincidence."
"What about... the telemental's... one... Didn't he... lose us... because he sought... the wrong thing...?"
"Well, thinking this way, you could say the prediction was right, but that is a particular interpretation of his message." The golden-haired girl is still skeptical.
"Well, just wait... and see..."
"Thinking about mine prediction, it may be true as well. I'm starting to learn how to share my love with the others... and... " The princess blushes. "I feel as if I'm starting to be loved as well..."
"Come on, Marlena. You too?" The golden-haired girl crosses her arms. She is trying to not believe that the predictions could be right.
"Do you mean I'll live a long life?" The purple-haired girl becomes excited with the prospects of the predictions being right.
"I... believe... I can help you... on that." The braided woman smiles at the purple-haired girl.
"Really?" The purple-haired girl starts shaking the body of the braided woman. "Really?" Tears start falling from her eyes. "Really?"
"Really..."
"Are you sure? Don't make promises you can't keep." The golden-haired girl is still skeptical.
"If I survive..."
"So the fortunetelling was right?" The princess is confused.
"Well... let's say... someone played... a trick... on you..."
"Do you mean...?"
"Yes... I've... invented... the messages... The real... ones were... just silly... things..."
"Oh, you devil! What about yours? It said you'd not achieve great things... is it true?"
"Impossible. She will be the ruler of the universe."
"Anna, hold your sarcasm for once!"
"Sorry, Marlena."
"Yeah... it is your time... to shine... Your powers... are needed... to build the... Kingdom of Love... mines aren't..."
"But you are so wise, so good..."
"I know... queen Marlena... but it is my time... to step back... and let you three shine... But don't worry... I'll be with you... always... as long as Lord let's me..."
"Lord?" The golden-haired girl turns to the braided woman. "What was that book you were holding while casting a spell?"
"This one?" The braided woman taks a book out of her dress.
"This book... how can this be possible? I used to own this book when I was alive back then... it is the book of my religion."
"Curious... isn't it?"
"Well, there are many things going on here and I still need time to digest them all. Your litter is ready. Let's get going..."
The girls started exploring the unknown planet. The planet showed no traces of big wildlife or humans, so the girls were a bit fearful at first, but the animal instincts of the purple-haired girl worked fast. After some hours, the purple-haired girl climbed a small mount and, from its top, she caught a glimpse of a small village, some miles ahead. The girls decided it would be safer to cling together, so the purple-haired girl started taking turns with the other two girls carrying the litter while they moved towards the small village. When they were near the village, they were seen by some of the inhabitants. They felt a bit of fear, but the inhabitants treated them exactly like the telemental had said they would. The villagers treated them as deities, providing them with the best they had available.
Though the girls didn't understand their language, in a few days they had already established a primitive language for communication. The golden-haired girl took the lead of the group and explained the people there that they were not deities, but the villagers still treated the girls as so. In a few days, the braided woman was fully recovered for her wounds. Almost at the same time, the purple-haired girl, during one of her errands in the wilderness, has found their belongings and the other things the telemental has teleported them. The girls were surprised and thanked the telemental's consideration. With these resources, the girls could live better. Besides, with the technologic resources the telemental has provided them, they started acting in the village, making it develop. As soon as the girls learned the people´s language, they started helping the villagers more actively.
The purple-haired girl, with her curiosity and energy, soon took the lead concerning technology, pushing the inhabitants to pursue new inventions and technological advancements. The technology evolved a lot in a short span of time and the village soon stood out among the other nearby villages. In a few months, people from the other villages took interest in the new ways of life of that small village and the small villages peacefully blended, creating larger towns, bringing progress to the whole country. Her actions earned her the nickname of the Progress Lady.
While the purple-haired girl acted in technological matters, the golden-haired girl was elected a natural leader because of her sharp rational sense. She was the judge for most of the legal disputes, protecting the weak and acting fairly. Her intellectual authority over the common people was so large that, though she never stopped practicing to not get rusty, she never had to use her combat skills again. Her rationality earned her the nickname of the Wise Lady.
The princess, on her side, inspired love and altruism on people. She taught people to work together, to do the things together, to live together, to dream together. Soon, most of the villagers had abandoned their rude means and their old beliefs and adopted the system proposed by the princess, of only doing to the others what they accepted the others did to them, to seek the peace, to help the others to achieve common goals. Her love earned her the too obvious nickname of The Loving Lady.
The braided woman stayed most the time reclusive. As she had predicted, her role was diminished compared to the other girls. She spent great part of her time feeling weak because she had to spend her energy to heal the girls, as they suffered from lots of cancers due to the revival process, which was not perfect. She was also trying to extend the short lifespan of the purple-haired girl. In both tasks she was successful; the girls never noticed they suffered from cancers and the aging rate of the purple-haired girl was considerably slowed. It cost the braided woman part of her health, but she didn´t care too much about that. She was resigned to her fate. She knew she was not of much use helping the people, as she had a terrible empathy, very low social skills and a twisted sense of humor, which would do more harm than good. When it was needed, she helped people with her healing powers, specially during plagues and epidemic surges. She also gave advice to the other girls and spent lots of time writing about the things she knew. This reclusive character earned her the nickname of the Mystic Lady.
After ten years in the planet, one day one mysterious letter appeared out of nowhere, addressed to the princess. The princess took the letter and opened it, trying to guess who could be the sender. She was surprised. Old emotions flowed through her mind.
"Dear Queen Marlena le Cille,
I know I shouldn´t be writing for you, I have no rights to talk to you after what I´ve done to you, but I know there must be, deep inside your heart, a small drop of compassion for this wicked man. I know I have made you suffer, I know I meant you harm, I know you despise me for that and you are right in hating me. If it is not too much of an effort, I beg you to, for the love of Laya, read this letter until the end.
I have been such a fool, the greatest fool of the whole universe. I was really thinking only on me. I was blind and I could not see anything besides my own interests. I wanted the girls because I thought I had the right to possess their bodies and souls all for me. I was the greatest rogue, an assassin. I´d harm people if they stood in my way. I´d crush all those who opposed my will. I was the most evil man in the universe. But, believe me, Queen Marlena, I´ve changed.
Through all those years, I never stop thinking about you all. I never stopped thinking about what that woman has told me. I regret doing everything I´ve done to you all. Now I´m trying to compensate for my crimes, though I know I´ll never be able to pay for what I´ve done. No matter what I do, it will not bring her back. No matter what I do, it will not bring you girls back to me. You were my biggest treasure, but not the way I thought. You are fantastic women and your company is the greatest blessing anyone can have in his life. But I had you and I didn´t care. In spite of rejoicing and doing everything I could for you, I wanted things I never had the right to want. I wanted you all for me and now I can only grieve how stupid I was back them.
As a feeble compensation, I´m dedicating myself, I´m giving my energies and using my powers to help people in need. There is no thing like helping people in need. I´m helping to reconstruct Motavia after the last traumatic events. From time to time, I pay a visit to your homeland, in order to help them there as well. It feels so good to be useful. Now I think I can consider myself an esper, though I know my name will always mean shame and vileness. It is imprinted in my soul, I will never be able to hide my crimes. I´ll never be able to hide myself from my conscience.
But the thing I wanted most, was to see you. I know I have no right of seeing you after what I´ve done do you. You gave me love and I payed you back with hate. You gave me trust and I betrayed you. I´m doomed, I´m the devil itself. Forgive me for the fragmentary letter, there are so many things I wanted to tell you that I can´t arrange my mind in order to write you a proper letter. But what I really wanted to do was to spend some time with you. I love all you girls, Nei, Anna, her... but now I know you are by far the best, you are the one I love most. I know I´m wicked and I don´t think I´m able to love anyone, but if there is something on my soul that can be faintly related to love, this feeling is for you. All I wanted was to be forgiven by you, but I know I don´t deserve it, as my crime prevented you to be really loved by the one who really loved you.
Telemental
P.S. I know I don´t deserve that, but if you wish to answer me, leave the answer in the place you have found this letter, in three days.
The princess felt strange emotions by reading the letter. She believed the telemental has become a good person. She could see he was still a troubled person, but now he didn´t mean any harm. She didn´t hate him, she knew he was just a sick man who needed to be healed. And, though she didn´t want to answer him for she knew it could harm him more than help, she knew also that she could relieve him from the cross he was carrying all those years without deserving.
Some days later, the telemental teleported back the reply given by the princess. The reply consisted of single sentence, but the message made the telemental cry. He cried of joy. He cried of relief. He cried because, though he should still be blamed, he had not committed the crime he would forgive himself for having committed it. He received a photograph of the four girls, smiling. On the back of the photograph, it was written We Forgive You and it was signed by the four girls. The telemental stayed crying for a long time, repeating the same sentence over and over. "She is alive! She is alive!"
The girls never heard of the telemental anymore. After some decades, when all the girls were middle-aged women, nearing the old age, the braided woman´s health started deteriorating. All the years trying to help the other girls had taken its toll on her own health. She passed away swiftly, thanking the other girls for having made her wish come true. Her wish of a place were love was the basis of every relationship and peace would be eternal. Some years later, it was the purple-haired girl who passed away, having lived many times more than the expected and having contributed intensively for the technological, cultural and scientific knowledge of people from that planet. She passed in peace, ready to meet the purple-haired man, who was the one who always loved her as a human. The golden-haired girl survived for some decades more, leading the people and establishing the solid foundations of a society based on justice, merit, honesty and use of reason. She passed away peacefully, happy for achieving things she never imagine she would achieve. And happy for being able to meet again the love of her life.
The princess lived on for some decades more. She lived to an unnatural old age. After a century on that planet she learned to love with all her heart, she prepared herself to another stage of her existence. She was satisfied to see how much that society had progressed, how majestic her humble Kingdom of Love has become, spreading through half of the planet, absorbing people and cultures without the use of violence and oppression, everything based on love, respect, friendship, altruism, peace and preservation of the nature. All the subjects of the Kingdom of Love treated themselves as real brothers. And the princess left the world knowing she had fulfilled her destiny by teaching people how precious is to share one´s love. She had learned what true love really was and she had lived it. Now she was ready to reunite herself with the great love of her life.
People mourned for a whole year the passing of the Eternal Queen Marlena Le Cille of the Kingdom of Love. Even without any of the Four Holy Ladies, as the girls came to be known, the society was built over such strong values that they kept living on the same rules, for centuries, always improving more and more the society based on love. After centuries, all the planet was living under the rule of the Kingdom of Love. The seeds planted by the girls reaped an wonderful result. It is just one lonely planet among the trillions of planets of the universe, but that was a start. As a sign of gratitude, every people from that certain planet worshipped the Four Holy Ladies and preserved the memories of all the love and the wisdom they had left. Almost everybody uses some kind of charm which contains a picture of them or has the picture of the Four Holy Ladies in their homes. The picture is the same they have sent to the telemental, showing the four girls young, pretty, with a lovely smile on their faces. But besides the symbol they considered holy, everybody held their teachings fresh in their hearts, which is the thing that really matters.
The end
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If you have made through all it, thanks for reading my story. I hope it is not so bad. When I started it, I never thought it would be so long, so full of changes. I hope you don´t consider it a waste of time.
Anyway, if no one made through all it or just a few people made through it, it doesn´t matter. I loved writing this story, so it had already payed me back the effort to write it.
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