Way of the Knights

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Raven was stunned silly from the sudden outburst of the Moonlight Butterfly. 

Of all the reasons that he thought of, this will be the last thing that he could think of. Frankly, he didn\'t even know what he\'s supposed to do with this information. 

"I\'m sorry, what?" Raven asked once again, just wanting to confirm if what he heard her right. 

"You heard it correctly." The Moonlight Butterfly replied, "I can feel my husband in you."

"But…how?" Raven asked, "I\'m sure you\'re the first Moonlight Butterfly that I met. So how is that possible."

The wings of the Moonlight Butterfly fluttered as she answered: "Well, my husband is not a Moonlight Butterfly."

Hearing that made Raven raise his brow, he didn\'t speak and allowed her to explain herself. 

"He\'s an Ent. A Kind Ent to be more specific. His name is Elmar, or at least that how he introduced himself to me. Does this ring a bell."

"Well, I\'ll be…" Raven chuckled after being silent for a while. He then continued by saying: "Yes, it does ring a bell. I know who you\'re talking about already. I remember him telling me that he has a wife named Myrna, but he didn\'t tell me that she is a Moonlight Butterfly."

Raven doesn\'t know what to feel about this coincidence. He wasn\'t expecting to meet the Kind Ent\'s wife here and he most certainly wasn\'t expecting that his wife was a Moonlight Butterfly. He wanted to know how in the world that happened, but it wasn\'t his business to pry. 

He believed that the Elmar has his own reasons why he didn\'t tell him more information about her. He respected his privacy and didn\'t pry any further. Raven could also feel that Myrna is truly concerned about him, he didn\'t feel any kind of ill intent coming from her. In fact, he could feel her blissful mood.

"Oh. Oh, thank the heavens. He\'s still alive." Her tone became agitated as her wings repeatedly fluttered. "H-how is he doing? Is he well? Do you know where he rooted himself?"

"He\'s doing fine. He had taken root near my home, he had been a shelter for lesser beasts. In fact, I did have a talk to him before I left."

"I see." Myrna said, "That\'s good. And It looks like you received his blessings as well. He must\'ve considered you as his friend."

"Blessings?" Raven asked while tilting his head. 

"Yes." Myrna replied, "His life force is present in you. Though it has become faint, it is enough for me to sense it. That\'s why I called you here."

"Oh! Yeah, I remember now." Raven nodded and continued: "I did receive a cultivation boost from him. He gave it to me as thanks for taking care of his godchildren. Well, the daughter of his godson is my lover so I merely did what\'s natural."

"…" Myrna was silent for a bit, making the situation a bit awkward for the both of them. 

After a while of silence, she then mustered up confidence and asked: "I-If you don\'t mind. Can you, possibly tell me where he currently is? I-I\'m not asking for free, I-I\'ll give you something…"

Before she could even finish what she wanted to say, a beam of light was shot from Raven\'s forehead and flew towards hers. Myrna froze for a bit, her wings fluttering behind her. 

Raven already knew that she\'s going to ask Elmar\'s whereabouts so he was already prepared. He figured that it would easier to share his memories to her so that she won\'t get lost. They are close to the depths of the Red Zone, if he just told her the directions by mouth it might get pretty confusing, sharing his memories to her is a better option. 

"Thank you so much, child." Myrna said emotionally, "You don\'t know how much this means to me."

"It\'s fine." Raven waved his hand, "I can tell that you two misses each other. He told me that it has been centuries since you two last met. It\'s about time that you reunite. Though, I am curious about one thing though."

"What is it?"

"The Pixies." Raven brought up, "They call you…Mother?"

"That is right." Myrna replied, "I am their Mother." 

"But, how is that possible?" Raven asked, "I mean no offense but, I never knew that it was possible for beasts to conceive Pixies. From what I know, it is the consciousness of this land who gives birth to them."

"That true, but that\'s not the only way." Myrna replied. "In a sense, these Pixies are mine and Elmar\'s own children."

Myrna became silent but Raven waited, he knew that something must be bothering her and frankly, he had a guess that this might be one of the reasons why her and Elmar got separated. 

"You don\'t have to tell me if it\'s private. I\'m just curious that\'s all. After all, I did came here because I helped Aina and Aisha."

"No, it\'s fine." Myrna said, "In all honesty, you deserve to know since from what I understand so far, this concerns every living creature in this plane."

Raven\'s face became serious as he felt the solemnity behind Myrna\'s voice, he went silent and waited for her to explain what she meant.

"Since you know that this land is conscious, this makes my explanation easier." Myrna stated, "Elmar and I have a very long history. In fact, we knew each other even before we became who we are today - Him becoming a Kind Ent, and me becoming a Moonlight Butterfly. Meaning that even before we experience Demonification, we\'re already together."

Raven was surprised when she said that. Putting what she said in a simpler terms, Myrna knew Elmar when he was just an Oak Tree and Elmar knee Myrna when she was just an ordinary butterfly. Elmar was more than 10,000 years old. That is a very long time.

"We experienced Demonification at the same time. He took his first step as an Oak Tree and I started worshipping the Moon. I followed him wherever he went, and he watched over me as well as protected me along the way."

"As we grow stronger, our consciousness became more and more mature. I can still remember the first time we had a conversation. In this life of mine, I already swore that I\'ll only have him as my husband. I was very happy when he thought the same. But of course, even though we have each other it still feels a little lonely. It was this time that we dreamed of having children."

"We were envious of you humans, you see." Myrna admitted, "To your race, conceiving a child is a very simple process. But to us, we have to meet strict requirements. In fact, we already knew that it\'s impossible for us to conceive a child since we\'re not of the same kind."

"But one day, we heard the thoughts of this plane." She said, "It said that it is possible for us to conceive a children of our own. We were ecstatic to receive that information but we were also wary. Nothing\'s free, and that turned out to be true. The consciousness of this plane wanted something from us."

"It wants to borrow my Yin Essence and Elmar\'s Yang Essence. It said that those are the only requirements for our children to be born. Of course, we were both skeptical. But my desire to have children is greater than I\'ve imagined. Elmar on the other hand, was against it. Saying that there must be another way, he didn\'t trust the consciousness of the plane at all."

"We agreed to search for other ways, but we\'ve met one failure after another. In the end, desperation got the better of me. I placed Elmar on an illusion, while he delirious I stole his Yang Essence. I then flew far away and called for the help of the plane\'s consciousness. I offered my Yin Essence and Elmar\'s Yang Essence to it. It said that it would help me, and I saw it take the offerings. But then, I felt something amiss."

"I was attacked, that I know. As for who did it, I have no clue. All I know is that I fell into slumber for a long while, and when I regained my consciousness I was already surrounded by flowers. The plane\'s consciousness told me that our children will be born once the flowers bloom. And due to me being a beast, I am aware of the existence of the Pixies, so it didn\'t make sense to me why mine and Elmar\'s Essences would conceive Pixies."

"When I questioned it, the plane\'s consciousness told me that it merely fulfilled the end of the bargain. We wanted children and thus it gave us children in the form of Pixies. What bothered me the most is when the plane\'s consciousness told me that it created Pixies out of our Essences since it couldn\'t make one."

"I wanted answers but that was the last time that the plane\'s consciousness talked to me. When the flowers bloomed and I saw the Pixies for the first time, I became somewhat convinced that this is our children since I can feel our Essences in them.. But even to this day, I am still bothered by the plane\'s consciousness\' inability to give birth to Pixies on it\'s own."