The King's Beloved

~~~ Recap from previous chapter ~~~

"I did it!" she exclaimed.

Elliot, Ducis and Luna who were bickering a moment ago, stopped and looked at Rania's direction.

"You did it!" Luna congratulated her as she flew towards her and circled around her. "Yippee! You're amazing Rania! You did it in one go!"

"You're not feeling dizzy or hurt anywhere, are you?" Elliot immediately fussed over.

Rania chuckled. "Didn't know you're such a worrywart. I'm fine. I don't feel anything bad at all!"

Elliot nodded. "Good".

Unbeknownst to everyone, Ducis was observing Rania. While she was using her powers and with the water sphere conjured on her hands, his golden eyes glowed as he stared at her.

"I see …," Ducis murmured to himself. "So that's how it is".

~~~ End of Recap ~~~

"Rania," Ducis broke out the celebration as he called her. "Your power …".

"Hmm? Yes?"

"How do I say this?" Ducis crossed his arms and touched his chin as he pondered over it. "I observed the flow of your holy energy and … I noticed it works differently".

Luna fluttered towards Ducis. "What do you mean? They should work the same right?"

"I see," Elliot nodded. "She is a human after all. Ideally, humans can't use magic … unless they receive the life energy of a Magi - which happened to you - and by receiving holy power from the Supreme Being - which also happened to you".

"So … that means?" Rania couldn't understand where they were going.

"Ahhh! Now I get what you mean!" Luna blurted out. "Then that means she has both spiritual and holy energy. I never knew that was possible but isn't that amazing? If she runs low on holy energy, she can just use the spiritual one, right?"

Ducis nodded in agreement. "Yes, I think that's highly possible - the question is how? How will she differentiate spiritual and holy? How will she choose which one to use? Can she even activate both? Ideally, all this is impossible but when I observed how her energy flowed - I understood. And there's more to it".

"Woah! The flow is different from what we know? That's impossible!"

"Yes. Usually, when one uses magic, spiritual energy circulates in their body like blood. From the core of the energy, it continually flows and gathers to the 'point of release' like the palm. But for her, I observed that she does have a core now but the energy didn't flow 'IN' her body, it flowed 'OUTSIDE'. And I think it wasn't holy power that she used to create the water sphere but spiritual instead. It seemed as if … when she spoke or commanded …," Ducis was now gesturing his hands in a circular motion, " the spiritual energy in her surrounding … they gathered around her, then to her palm, and formed itself to a water sphere. It was as if … they 'obeyed' what she commanded".

Luna and Elliot were appalled. Rania was still dumbfounded as she couldn't understand what they meant.

"But that's … wrong," Elliot murmured as his mind was lost in thought of arguments. "Spiritual energy flows 'inside' the body and holy energy is the one that flows 'outside' - not the other way around. And everyone has their own reserve of both spiritual and holy energy, they don't just 'gather' in one place if we command it to. That's why excessive use and energy depletion causes death".

Luna nodded in agreement. "That's right! If that was the case then she wouldn't have collapsed and almost died back then".

"Yes, but back then, she just had holy energy. And it worked like how it was supposed to be since I observed it too. But now, she has both, so I'm not really sure how it's working out now. Maybe, if she tries to do it again, she won't collapse anymore".

"That's ridiculous, maybe you observed it wrong," Luna shrugged her tiny shoulders.

"Okay, do you want me to try?" Rania asked.

"Are you out of your mind?" Elliot was exasperated. "You almost died back then!"

"Well, we won't get answers if we just think about it, right? We have to try out our theories".

"Stop it, it's not worth it".

"But … he's right. This time, when I created the water sphere, I felt - nothing. When I tried to stop time before, I felt something leaving me - like it's depleting - like, my blood is draining. But now, I didn't feel anything. And I want to know, too. It might help us in the future if I know more about it right?".

Elliot wanted to argue further but he held his words back. "Fine. Do what you want. I'll just save you again in case anything happens".

"But Rania …," Luna got worried too.

Rania smiled at both of them. "Thank you for understanding and sorry for being pushy. It's just …," then clenching her chest, "it's as if … my instinct is telling me that I need to find out why".

Ducis breathed heavily. "Anytime you're ready then. And please, be careful. If you feel like your blood is draining again, stop immediately".

"Yes!"

Rania breathed in heavily as she looked at the skies. "Help me, God," she quickly prayed in her mind. She started focusing afterwards and after a few seconds …

"Stop!"

And indeed, time stopped again … for the whole planet.

Rania tried to feel if something was wrong. Elliot and Luna copied Ducis and observed the flow of her energy.

All their eyes widened in disbelief.

Ducis was right!

When Rania spoke, the spiritual energy gathered towards her and did her bidding.

It flowed outside!

Elliot's eyes, and Luna's and Ducis' all glowed bright with the reflection of all the spiritual energy Rania was gathering towards her. And Rania at that time, glowed so bright - golden glitter dusts of spiritual energy encircled her all over, from head to foot. And the whole surroundings twinkled and sparkled.

Then, Rania heard a small whisper. But this time, it wasn't in a language she didn't understand. It spoke directly to her, gently and warmly.

"Ask and it will be given to you …

Seek and you will find …

Knock and the door will be opened to you …"