Avoid The Lead!

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Everything around Celia had been frozen in time and place, and she fell to her knees in the deafening silence which followed.

"I'm the one who started it all!" She cried as hot tears ran down her face, and her heart was awash with sorrow. "Taze-... He saw everything! He knows I caused everything!"

She could clearly remember the hatred she had felt from Taze's so-called 'alter-ego'.

"Don't see things that way." Mind Taze consoled, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You were under a spell. Also..." He gestured at the frozen Taze. "He guessed you were controlled, but he's just angry...

"Before the time spell took hold, he cast a counter spell, giving consciousness to me- the piece of himself in that necklace." Mind Taze explained. "The time spell always makes everyone but the caster forget, which is why it's too dangerous.

"Taze sent me here to safeguard your memories. I'm guessing he did the same with himself, so you both would remember, and that is the origin of his alter-ego.

"But the time spell was too powerful, and you were the only trigger, because though Vitav was the caster, he had to use your power, and he forgot as well. But you weren't the one in control, so you lost your own memories, completely forgetting Taze.

"That meant I had no purpose in your mind. The 'alter-ego' also had no purpose in Taze's mind, because Taze never met you again in those lifetimes.

"So all we could do was slumber... And watch your lives go by... watch you love someone else - someone who would only harm you, and then we die at seventeen, and wait in a dark void till you begin the Cycle again.

"Can't you understand his anger...?"

It wasn't hard to decipher, and tears ran freely down Celia's face, as she imagined Taze endlessly waiting and hoping she would overturn things each life, only to be disappointed every single time...

Celia had always believed she was the one who suffered her death cycle the most, because she was the only one with the consciousness of previous lives.

But Taze had been conscious as well, stuck in a cycle of suffering, all because she was chasing some fair-haired shadow.

But there was no time to dwell... She rose to her feet, wiping her tears. "How come you're not furious?" She curiously asked Mind Taze, and he sighed.

"At first I was... But I'm the one with you, and could clearly see the ways Vitav changed your fate, so it was easier to understand your choices.

"It all ties back to the reason Taze looked like Vitav in the flower fields, and I suspect that's why the cycle starts the day after..."

At the time, a nine-year-old Taze had just been named Crown Prince, but the people he held dearest wouldn't even speak to him.

"Mother has instructed me not to speak with you!" Vitav coldly said, cutting him off completely.

Crestfallen, Taze spent endless days at the entrance to the West Wing of the palace, where Lady Flora and Vitav stayed, but they refused to meet him, and Vitav completely ignored him whenever he passed by him on his way to his tutor.

To impress Lady Flora, Taze spent two months crafting the perfect flower... A crystal Lily which would never wilt, but Lady Flora wouldn't even see him, so in a desperate move, he chose a day when Vitav was out, and he asked the Grand Mage to turn him into Vitav, so he could sneak into the West wing and meet Lady Flora.

But Lady Flora saw right through him.

"My Vi will never miss a class for such a stupid reason! Hmph. You think you can be my son if you look like him?" She coldly sneered. "The 'Almighty Crown Prince' doesn't belong in such a lowly place. Be gone! And never return!"

A heartbroken Taze had run away in tears, and out of the palace. To protect him and his identity, the Grand Mage had followed, maintaining his appearance as Vitav.

By the time Taze calmed down, he was in the flower field and noticed Celia playing as she picked flowers...

"After Taze gave the Lily to you that day, he felt guilty for giving you a gift made for someone else, so he crafted the orchid and came to find you, and in this life, Lady Flora and Vitav never spoke to him again.

He scoffed. "I don't know how Vitav learned of that meeting, but he rewrote the story so he and Lady Flora 'forgave' Taze that same day, and Lady Flora demanded the same Lily, which led him to steal it back the next day.

"Taze avoided you out of guilt, and Lady Flora and Vitav spent even more time with him.

"Since you never met Taze again, you never had a reason to attend Elfsworth, and everything went according to the rules Vitav read when he cast the spell.

"You lost your foresight, so you would never foil any of his plans again. Novia Scarlett and her mother entered your lives so she could assist Vitav early on, while manipulating you and spying for him.

"He also subconsciously filled your core memories with himself. He proposed on your sixteenth birthday," Mind Taze's expression turned sour. "...kissed you on your eighteenth, and wed you on your nineteenth."

By now, Celia had experienced a whole flood of emotions, and she felt wrung dry, but somehow managed to calmly ask:

"If Vitav was crowned King in my first-... second life," She corrected herself. "... then didn't he get what he wanted? Why has it become a cycle?"

"You made it a cycle. B- but it's not a bad thing!!" He quickly added, noting her falling expression. "After you noticed Taze that night, your anger led you to place a curse on Vitav. He would never succeed, if he ever harms Taze."

"But Vitav and Lady Flora kill Taze, and he's still safe till my nineteenth birthday!"

"That's because Vitav doesn't 'succeed' till he becomes King and you die. Once he 'succeeds', your curse kicks in, resetting everything to the start of his own spell. Simply put, your curse and the time spell are countering each other, causing the cycle."

He placed a comforting hand on her head. "As I said, it's not bad. That is why we have a chance to overturn things... That is why you're here now!"

Celia's beautiful features settled into a determined scowl. "It took twenty-five lives of foolishness, but I'll make sure that fair-haired snake pays back a thousand-fold! Tell me how to undo the time spell!"

"Calm yourself!" Mind Taze shook his head. "There's no way to undo it without another time spell going further back. But that is too dangerous, considering you cast the last one, and have cycled for too many times.

"Besides, it's not as simple as it looked. Novia was the sacrifice to the spell itself, but the groundwork for the spell probably demanded more, as it would affect the entire realm!

"I don't know how many he has killed, but he must have killed quite a lot as a base for the spell."

Celia's expression fell, but he was quick to comfort her.

"There's hope. Your decision to avoid Vitav made you break his set fate and meet Taze on your own, so you can break it in this current life... If Vitav never succeeds, this becomes everyone's last life!"

He gave her a warm smile and snapped his fingers for the last time. "I'll soon cease to exist, as I've fulfilled my purpose. But before I send you out, there's something I must remind you of..."

Celia felt a brief sense of loss before the floor beneath her feet gave way again, and she found herself falling once more, braced for an impact...

But she gently floated down beside a bed... A bed with 'herself' crying in it!

'Tch! This is my last life. I don't need a mind spell to recall this!' This was the moment she had realized her foolishness for twenty-four lifetimes.

"My Lady! Please don't cry so much!" Sara rushed in with a tray of tea. "Here! I've prepared your favorite vanilla and honey tea!"

Sara set down the tray and poured out a cup. "My Lady, let's inform Lord Scarlett about this! He won't let it go! Since Crown Prince Vitav doesn't appreciate what is good, let's cancel the engagement!"

It was a few days after Celia caught Vitav and Novia in the garden, but Celia wasn't crying for Vitav... She loved him but felt sadder for the twenty-four Celias who had died because of him!

"You're right! I'm canceling this engagement!"

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