’Are you truly trying to bargain with me, child? I am the queen of all spirits of the wind. If I wished for it, I could take your spirit and trap it within my domain for all eternity. I could refuse to return the Elven Queen’s spirit, and have it cast into the River of the Afterlife! I could eradicate all of Arandelle with nothing but a thought! What gives you the right to assume that you can bargain with me~!?’
Gina was silent as she bared the full brunt of the Spirit Queen’s anger, but Gina refused to budge on her decision, and she simply waited patiently for the Spirit Queen to give her what she wanted! The Spirit Queen eyed Gina closely, and for a moment, the pressure in the cave seemed to increase! Gina honestly thought that she was going to be attacked at that moment, but she was shocked when the Spirit Queen suddenly threw her head back and laughed! Gina let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding as the pressure in the room vanished, and the Spirit Queen floated around Gina with a smile.
’You have quite the fiery spirit, young child. To think you would consider bargaining with someone who is so much more powerful than you! Haha... Very well, I respect your tenacity, so I will grant you your wish. But keep in mind that I am only doing this because I respect your desire to see your mission accomplished. Should something like this repeat itself, then it would be far less amusing.’
The Spirit Queen suddenly gave Gina a hard stare as she said that last part, and Gina swallowed silently before she nodded in agreement! The Spirit Queen smiled, and then Gina watched as the Spirit Queen’s appearance began to change! The Elven Queen’s skin slowly peeled off the Spirit Queen’s body in the form of light blue particles, and the blue particles gathered to one side and formed into a ball of blue light that zipped around the room excitedly! The Spirit Queen’s appearance had also changed, and now she had a much darker skin tone, and her hair had turned from blonde to a honey-like brown. This new appearance was still exceptionally beautiful, and Gina realised that the Spirit Queen was now using the appearance of another mortal spirit that she had collected. Gina could only wonder how many spirits the Queen had in her possession! The fact that the Spirit Queen was willing to give back the Elven Queen’s appearance so easily meant that she definitely had plenty of other options to choose from!
The Spirit Queen stretched out her hand, and the ball of blue light floated into her palm obediently. The Spirit Queen then turned to Gina and spoke.
’Well then, I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. Now hand over the fruit before you draw my anger.’
Gina noticed that along with her appearance, the Spirit Queen’s voice had also changed, but Gina didn’t comment on that, and she just handed over the fruit. The Spirit Queen grabbed the fruit with a wide smile, and she released the blue ball at the same time! The blue ball quickly zipped over to Gina, and it floated around Gina excitedly before it finally rocketed out of the cave! Gina knew that the ball was returning to the Elven Queen’s unconscious body, so she hoped that by the time she and Farlow returned, the Elven Queen would already be awake.
The Spirit Queen squealed happily as she cradled the fruit to her chest like a child who had just found a new toy, and Gina let out a sigh of relief as she finally finished with this mission. In truth, Gina hadn’t felt any sort of nervousness or excitement on this mission because it was nowhere near what she had gone through during the journey she had with Jason, but Gina couldn’t help but feel relieved that she could help Farlow and his family.
’Oh, yes, before I forget. Tell me, how are you and your spirit getting along?’
The Spirit Queen suddenly spoke up while turning to Gina. The Spirit Queen was still holding the fruits to her chest greedily, but there was a look of curiosity on her face as she wondered if Gina was getting along with her spirit. Once Gina heard this question, a sudden surge of anger rose from somewhere inside her, and she immediately shouted!
"Ulyn has been completely useless!"
The Spirit Queen raised a surprised brow, and another voice suddenly echoed from beside Gina’s shoulder as Ulyn appeared!
’What!? Who are you calling useless!?’
"You! You’re completely useless! Your majesty, can you believe Ulyn refused to help me against the Valkan! I was calling on her, but she refused to do anything!"
’And so what!? If you can’t handle something that weak, then how dare you call yourself a Spirit Arts User in the first place!! If anyone is useless here, then it’s you! Mom, this is why I said I didn’t want to be her companion! I knew she would try to blame me for all her failures!’
Both Gina and Ulyn suddenly turned to each other and began to bicker like little children, and the Spirit Queen couldn’t help but sigh like a mother who was tired of listening to her children screaming. In truth, the Spirit Queen wasn’t surprised that things had turned out like this. Ulyn was one of her most problematic daughters because of how high her standards were! Ulyn had so much potential, just like Gina, and the Spirit Queen had hoped that Gina’s potential would awaken the competitive side in Ulyn and allow both of them to grow together! But it was obvious that they were both too strong-headed to work properly together.
The Spirit Queen sighed, and she calmly spoke up to stop the screaming match between the two girls.
"Alright, that’s enough. Gina, I’m sorry about Ulyn. She has always been a rebellious girl, so I hope you won’t be too angry at her. But Ulyn is right about you not needing her for that monster. If you had to use Ulyn to defeat a monster of that caliber, then you would only be showing that I had judged your potential wrongly. So you should be proud of the fact that you didn’t need your Spirit in order to win."
Gina blushed slightly as the Spirit Queen both complimented and reprimanded her at the same time. It truly felt like Gina was just a child being lectured by her mother, and Gina simply nodded as she accepted the Queen’s words. The Queen then turned to Ulyn and spoke in a harder tone.
’And as for you, Ulyn. I am very disappointed in you –’
’But, mum-!’
’No buts! I told you that this was your last chance. You have insulted the sacred bond between Spirit and mortals far too many times already, and I will not tolerate any more of it. I am warning you, Ulyn. If your hubris leads to your partner breaking your connection, then you will be going to Harken.’
Ulyn gasped in shock once she heard this, and Gina wondered what in the world Harken was.
Harken was a special place amongst all Spirits that acted as the center of the Spirit world in the Primordial Expanse. It was very similar to the River of the Afterlife, and it was ruled by a Spirit Warden known as the Wraith, who oversaw the coming and going of all spirits. If a spirit is sent to Harken by their ruler, then that means that the spirit would become a servant of the Wraith, and the banished spirit would be condemned to working in the Spirit World for all eternity without ever returning back to the world of mortals! It was seen as one of the worst fates a spirit could encounter, mainly because of how monotonous and boring Harken was! Even though many spirits didn’t like interacting with mortals, there was no denying that the mortal world was far more interesting than anything you could find in Harken! Sending a spirit to Harken would be no different from sentencing a man to life in prison!