The Keeper of Maraqua: Conclusion

Note: This is the sequel to The Keeper of Maraqua: Genesis, The Keeper of Maraqua: Fugitive, and The Keeper of Maraqua: Return.

Preword: Now before you begin reading this, there is something I wish you to know. This series started just over a year ago, and I am finally bringing it to a close now. You must know that a year ago, New Maraqua and the Curse of Maraqua did not exist. My work came before that, and so my wandering mind did not have those guildines to shepherd it. I apologize ahead of time for any time-caused mistakes, perhaps places where things about New Maraqua do not fit. But please, enjoy it anyways. I'm sorry my babbling is taking so long, and read on.

Melleia the Water Faerie pulled against her maractite handcuffs, straining lightly… but she couldn't break free. She gritted her teeth and pulled with all of her strength.

      They still didn't break. She should've known they wouldn't.

      Quietly, she groaned under her breath.

      Beside Melleia, Wyneb the Maraquan Acara-her ally in the quest to keep Maraqua alive-swam quietly and somberly, not even attempting to break free from his restraints. He was beginning to get on Melleia's nerves with his silence.

      Behind Melleia and Wyneb swam an armed water faerie, who held the chains that were connected to Melleia and Wyneb's handcuffs. The cackling guard was herding her captives toward a place Melleia knew well: her old home, the Palace of Maraqua.

      How can this be happening?! Melleia desperately thought. This felt so extremely surreal to her. She'd taken all necessary cautions against getting caught, and yet here she was, trapped and led to what was most likely her death.

      The small group was within sight range of the Palace's gates in moments and the closer they got to the palace, the further Melleia's hopes of getting free diminished.

      Finally, they passed through the Palace gates and Melleia's hopes vanished entirely.

      Head hung low in defeat, no longer struggling against her cuffs, Melleia swam wherever her "escort" shepherded her.

      Maraqua will die now because of me, Melleia thought bitterly. Aangeela was right, succeed or fail, I will be known through out Maraquan history as the Princess who killed Maraqua. What a reputation I'll have.

      All of her hard work to keep the kingdom alive... and it added up to nothing now . . .

      No, Melleia told herself. It is not over.

      She raised her head up now determined she would find away, sparked by Aangeela's memory. She realized quickly where the other water faerie was taking her.

      The throne room.

      They were already at the doors and just as that realization hit Melleia, the doors swung open . . .

      Melleia received a stiff shock. Sitting on the throne was a dark faerie with thick black hair, streaked with gray, with large, pointed wings and long, sharp fingernails. Even more mysterious, she had no breathing device that Melleia could see.

      But dark faeries can't breathe underwater...

      Melleia was pushed into the throne room by the "escort" water faerie behind her.

      "Hello, Princess Melleia," the dark faerie growled, spitting out her title like a curse. No bubbles escaped from her mouth, meaning there was no way she could be holding her breath. "I have been waiting for you."

      "I'll bet you have," Melleia snarled back, defiance coursing through her. "And, why, may I ask?"

      The water faerie who was shepherding Melleia and Wyneb stopped them in the middle of the room.

      The dark faerie smiled a decidedly evil and unpleasant smile. "Because you have something I want."

      Realization washed over Melleia like a tidal wave. This was the enemy she had been running from for a month, this dark faerie was the one who killed Aangeela, this dark faerie was the one who wanted to utterly destroy Maraqua . . .

      But Melleia had no intention of letting that happen.

      Her mouth felt suddenly dry even though they were underwater. "Whatever it is," she lied, "I don't have it."

      The dark faerie snorted. "Come now, lies will not work. You know what I want and you know that you have it."

      Melleia gulped. She was suddenly afraid, so afraid . . .

      Then she scowled and mentally reprimanded herself. This was no time for fear, for if she allowed fear to control her now, she and Maraqua would die. Now was a time for bravery and quick thinking. Now was a time for her to be a hero.

      "Yes, I know what you want," Melleia hissed. "But you cannot have it."

      The dark faerie smirked. "Another lie. I can have it and I will."

      She rose up off of her throne and swam to hover inches from Melleia's face. "I will have it," she repeated.

      Then her eyes and Melleia's met.

      Melleia saw in the dark faerie's glimmering eyes pure evil. She was going to stop at nothing to take the Heart of Maraqua from Melleia and kill the city. It was her mission, just as keeping Maraqua alive was Melleia's. There was no way to compromise this.

      Now on the other hand, the dark faerie saw in Melleia's eyes sheer will power. She would stop at nothing to keep Maraqua alive and keep the dark faerie from achieving her goals. Even if it meant her death, Princess Melleia would fight to keep Maraqua alive.

      Too bad for the Princess, the dark faerie thought, for she will inevitably fail.

      "You will not win," Melleia said, eyes narrowing. "I promise you: you will not win."

      The dark faerie smirked again. "I will make you break that promise. I promise you: I will make you break that promise."

      Melleia's eyes narrowed even further. "No, you won't."

      The dark faerie's smirk disappeared. Almost as if to prove her point, she reached out and jerked the Heart of Maraqua from Melleia's neck and fastened it around her own, another smile appearing as she closed the latch. This smile was even more vile and sinister than the others, if that was at all possible.

      Melleia was churning with anger and fear on the inside.

      Was this truly going to be the end of Maraqua?

      Even through her fear that it would be the end, Melleia had to stall the dark faerie until she figured out a way to escape. "So, now do I get to know who you are and why you want to destroy Maraqua?"

      The dark faerie backed away a few feet from Melleia and once again, she smirked. "I guess that it is time to follow villain suit and give you the whole plot."

      She semi-sighed. "Well, it all started with myself and a Koi many years ago. You see, I was once one of Maraqua's only water faeries and-"

      "You were once a water faerie?!" Melleia exclaimed.

      The dark faerie cocked an eyebrow. "Yes… You didn't think that I was magically given the ability to breathe underwater, did you?"

      Actually, at first, Melleia did.

      "Anyway," the dark faerie continued, obviously oblivious to Melleia's wonderings, "I was a top advisor to the Koi king and he frequently required my magical abilities. I was called Liveea the Magical Marvel."

      So her name is Liveea, Melleia thought.

      "Then one day, the Koi king tricked me into something terribly wrong. I was to kill out most of the kelp harvest of the year… He told me it was infected, and that killing it was necessary to the life of the Maraquan citizens! But the kelp harvest was all that most people had..." Melleia could see in the other faerie's eyes her silent self-accusation. "I did as I was told.

      "Queen Fyora discovered what I had done and was very angry with me. 'No faerie under my rule will commit such vile crimes!' she yelled at me when I was called to a court-martial of sorts. 'You will no longer be a water faerie, but a dark faerie! And you will now be called Enolive instead of Liveea!'"

      Enolive is a word from the ancient faerie tongue that means, "Evil One" and Liveea means "Pleasant." It seemed only logical to Melleia that Queen Fyora would do such a thing.

      The dark faerie pressed her lips together. "And then she turned me into this."

      Melleia quickly noticed that Enolive avoided certain details of her story. Then she took another careful look at Enolive. Melleia had heard of faeries who had been converted to dark faeries because of crimes, but she had never really seen one face-to-face. And now she wished she wasn't seeing this one face to face.

      "But why do you want to destroy Maraqua and where did Aangeela become involved?" Melleia insisted, once again stalling.

      "Patience, Princess," Enolive hissed. "I vowed vengeance on Maraqua for making me lose my beauty."

      Well, that makes sense, Melleia thought sarcastically.

      "But I could not destroy it then because of the protective Heart of Maraqua." She reached down and gently caressed the necklace. "So, after a year of trying, I finally captured it from the previous king."

      She made a nasty expression. "This is where your sister comes in: she stole it from me and forced my plans to a halt."

      Enolive the dark Faerie growled. "And she halted them for an entire decade." A corner of her mouth then lifted in a half-grin. "Then I located and . . . disposed of her."

      Melleia fought back tears. Disposed of her?! She saw killing a kind, gentle water faerie as only a necessary action to accomplish her goals? All hope that Enolive might find some reason in her heart to spare Maraqua left Melleia at that very instant.

      For it was then that she realized that Enolive was truly evil.

      But that was no reason to give up: it was only reason to try twice as hard.

      "But then YOU came into the picture . . ." Enolive trailed off. "But it is no matter now, because I have the Heart-and you!"

      She is persistent, Melleia thought.

      Enolive snorted, which underwater is a very strange thing. "And you and your sister have caused me so much trouble that I've decided to make you watch!"

      Melleia's eyes widened and she gulped. "You are?" But of course, she was not really scared of watching. It would provide her with another chance to stop the destruction of Maraqua.

      The evil smirk reappeared for the hundredth time. "Yes, of course! And now that you know the whole story, I'd like to begin the destruction of Maraqua that has been so long in the making . . ."

     *****

      Moments later, Enolive the Dark Faerie and bound Melleia and Wyneb (who had been completely silent during all of this) were in the Palace's highest room where Enolive had everything set to begin the destruction of Maraqua. She had dismissed the water faeries that had brought Melleia and Wyneb in.

      The room had been left empty for Melleia's entire life in the palace but now, it wasn't quite empty.

      In the room's center was a large crystal dome with swirling colors inside, which Melleia somehow connected with Faerie magic.

      The dark faerie locked Melleia and Wyneb's chains to a loop on the wall and swam to the crystal dome.

      But while her back was turned, Melleia began banging her wrists against the wall and bending her cuffs. She pushed and bent them so that she almost had them far enough to squirm out of… when Enolive turned back around. She hovered on the opposite side of the crystal dome, looking directly at Melleia.

      "I will waste no time explaining THIS to you," she said, raising her hands into the air over the dome. She began chanting words in the ancient Faerie tongue.

      Melleia's eyes widened and she realized that it was finally here: her moment of heroism. It was now . . . or never. And never would definitely not work.

      She wasn't about to let Maraqua die because of her fear.

      Melleia slammed her wrists against the wall as hard as she could with a grunt. She thought that she heard something crack, but her cuffs had bent far enough that she could now get them off.

      She yanked off her cuffs and darted toward the dark Faerie as rapidly as she could.

      It happened so quickly that Enolive still had a surprised, deer-caught-in-the-headlights look on her face when Melleia smashed fully into her.

      Melleia threw a punch aimed right at Enolive's left cheek. It connected though not nearly as hard as Melleia wanted.

      Again, she thought she heard something crack and her wrist ached. But she ignored the pain.

      Within mere seconds, Enolive threw a counterpunch that was three times harder than Melleia's.

      Melleia flew backward and crashed into a wall. It instantly became clear to her that the water in the room was moving far faster than normal.

      And that she only had one chance at defeating Enolive.

      Melleia began muttering words in the Faerie tongue that do not translate well into our own tongue and threw all of the magic that she could muster at Enolive in a powerful water tornado.

      Enolive was just rising from the floor when the blast hit her. She balled her fists and tried with all of her strength to withstand the powerful water blast.

      All around Enolive was the powerful water tornado that Melleia sent and for a moment, she disappeared from sight.

      But when she reappeared, she was no longer alive. She had turned into a foot-tall statue as Melleia had intended with her deceptive spell.

      Enolive the dark Faerie was now forever frozen with her fists balled, teeth clenched and the Heart of Maraqua around her neck.

      But it wasn't blue and green anymore. It had turned red and gold with Enolive's fury.

      Melleia smiled, satisfied at the small statue and then up at Wyneb who was still locked onto the wall by his chained hand-cuffs. "I did it, Wyneb," she said. "I saved Maraqua from destruction!"

      But Wyneb's usually green face was colorless.

      Melleia frowned. "What-"

      Then the walls fell in.

      The current carried Melleia swiftly away from the Palace and out into the sea.

      The whirlpool had begun.

     *****

      The 18th day of the Month of Hiding (August the 18th) marked the fourth anniversary of that day, of the Destruction of Maraqua.

      All of Maraqua was utterly destroyed in that whirlpool caused by Enolive the dark Faerie.

      Wyneb the Maraquan Acara perished in the whirlpool like hundreds of others.

      Enolive's statue was tossed about in the whirlpool but it remained intact and it finally settled on the outskirts of Maraqua. It remains in the ruins there to this very day. You can even go and see her.

      Melleia survived the whirlpool by sheer luck. She still lives in the ruined city with only a giant sea slug as a companion. Even now, she plots and plans Maraqua's revival.

      If she has her way, Maraqua will thrive again.

      I know you're thinking, "But the city has been rebuilt! Doesn't she know that? But why don't I see Melleia there when I visit the ruins of Maraqua?"

      It is because she hides herself from the outside world. She knows nothing of New Maraqua because she hides. She is afraid that she will be thought of forever as the Destroyer of Maraqua and the Princess who failed in her duty.

      But she doesn't know that the blame for Maraqua's destruction wasn't placed on her. Instead the blame was laid on the Koi king who took over in Melleia's month-long absence from the palace. For he was said to have dealt with a pirate, then did not fulfill his promises to the pirate. So everyone believed that the pirate vowed vengeance and caused the whirlpool.

      But I don't believe that it happened that way.

      Which story YOU believe is entirely up to YOU.

The End

Author's Note: This is the last story that I plan and planned to write in the Keeper of Maraqua series. Maybe (just maybe) I'll revisit the world of Melleia in a few years. It took me long enough to close her world.