Fate and Destiny: Different Similarities

The destiny of every person is said to unfold through the positions of the stars in the sky, according to some "amateur" astrologers, a.k.a. fortune tellers. Our fates and destinies entwine in a never-ending cycle of rebirth through the "resurrection" of the soul.

The Recurring Versions

I'm not sure i people ever read this, but I'm sorry for those who do. When I changed the pages and posts - basically editing the entire blog - there were a lot of revisions made.
Sorry for the inconvenience! (Cliche)
\(>_<)/

excerpt from Moonlight Tears: Chapter Two

    Maria felt her body go limp when the woman touched her arm. This time, she could clearly see her face. Her hair was silver, not like the gray strands Maria saw on her aging mistress, but more like Selina’s shining locks.

The slight contact with the ghostly figure sent shivers running down the maid’s spine; she looked at Abigail, who was in the same position. Selina and Kalelle were the only ones that were unaffected by the sudden coldness the woman brought into the room, even though it was already midday. When the woman walked toward Abigail, Maria felt her senses come back to her, and immediately ran out of the door.

                “Who a…who are you?” Abigail stammered, taking a step backward with every word until she felt herself hit the wall. In a flash, Selina was in front of her. Folding her hands as if she was praying, she murmured words in a language her mistress didn’t understand. The figure stopped in her tracks and disappeared. Immediately, the gaping hole in the wall was gone, almost as if nothing had happened.

                Selina let out a tired sigh and looked at Kalelle, who proceeded to take a necklace from her dress pocket. “I guess it can’t be helped,” she said, turning around, making her long, white, hair sway with her every move.

                “What are you?” the mistress asked them, keeping herself near to the wall in fear. “You couldn’t have driven away that ghost if you were hu-” Abigail didn’t have a chance to finish her sentence, because right then, she felt drowsy and immediately fell into deep slumber.

                Selina picked up a vase from the corridor and started to dust it with a handkerchief. “I’m as human as Kalelle,” she answered, focusing on the intricate patterns on the glass container in her hands. She waved her hand, and in an instant, she was holding a bunch of sweet-smelling rose geraniums. The intoxicating smell started to fill the entire house. Selina soon found herself the only one left awake inside the Desdemona Manor.

                A cool breeze blew over the rooftop of the Ethelred University library. A single student was on the rooftop. She sat on the cold pavement, surrounded by dozens of student files. Her waist-length blonde hair fluttered in the sudden gust of wind. Sapphire ignored it; she had already spent three hours scanning the documents in her hands, looking for a student who matched Flame’s descriptions.

                “I can’t believe this,” She said, slamming another folder full of important student papers onto a growing pile on her right. “I’d rather go to the human world than search for a girl who may not exist! At least there, I can get any piece of information with the click of a button,”

                “But is the information credible?” someone said from behind her. It was Flame, carrying what seemed to be her school bag. He placed it carefully on the ground before taking a seat beside her, “You left this in class. It’s not like you to forget things, you know, but I guess the mission was a little harder than I thought. Can I help?”

                Sapphire grinned at him, “Do you really want to mess everything up?” she joked as she slammed another folder onto a pile of rejected documents. “Trust me, even with a dozen helpers, you won’t be able to find a single bit of information about the girl you’re looking for. I’ve been trying to search the archives for hours before I found this stack…and not one of them turned out to be successful.”

                “How can you say that? You haven’t even finished all of them yet,” Flame told her. He took the folder Sapphire had just put down. “Why’d you thrown thisaway?”

                She sighed, her blue eyes gleaming in the sunlight. “I just don’t understand it. The girl’s practically a genius – she’s in every single honor’s class in Almira Academy – but after she graduated valedictorian a few years ago, she disappeared, and besides, I’m not throwing that file away. I checked the Archives for even a single bit of information on her, but all I know is that she’s from Alez,”

                “Why don’t we check the Merchants’ Guild?” they heard someone say. It was Rowan, holding a thick envelope embedded with the Royal Insignia. “If she’s an immigrant, then she needs to check with the Merchants’ Guild before settling in. We’d have to go to Sairi, though, that’s where they store all their documents,”

                “Since when did you know that?” Flame asked, “That would have been very useful information,”

                Rowan smiled, “Well, at least we won’t have to worry about transportation. There’s a caravan heading to Sairi tomorrow to pick up Nathaniel Celestia. He’s supposed to be visiting the Merchants’ Guild right about now. I already asked Asrai if we could go,”

                Sapphire grinned at him, “The prince of the Fire Elementals asking a water spirit for help, that’s a sight to behold,” she told them, “You do know Asrai is a spirit, right?”

                “Wait, you’re not talking about the Asrai who works for the Celestias, aren’t you?” Flame asked Sapphire. “I mean, isn’t it impossible for a water spirit to work for humans? It’s against their rules, you know,”

                Sapphire rolled her eyes, “The Celestias will kill you if they hear you say that. Do you really think they’re just ordinary humans? They’re as human as the three of us are,”

                Kalelle’s eyes briefly fluttered open as she opened her eyes as if in a daze. She recognized the strong scent of roses in the air, and immediately assumed that she was in her mistress’s bedroom, which had always filled to the brim with elegance. However, she discovered that she had been asleep in a servant’s room – or more specifically, Selina’s room – her head lying on a smooth mahogany table.

                She felt a sudden gust of wind enter the room. Kalelle tilted her head to look at the open window, expecting to see it open. Instead, she saw Kalelle, staring right at her with a smile on her face. “It’s two hours past noon, Kalelle. You need to wake up, the guest is already waiting for us outside the Manor.”

                “Selina? What happened?” Kalelle said, rubbing her eyes to wake herself.

                “Do you still remember the flowers a merchant brought for the mistress a few days ago? He forgot to tell us that the scent was intoxicating…and also known for creating hallucinations,” Selina explained, “Maria is helping Lady Abigail get ready in her room. The only thing we need to do is to entertain the guest until the mistress is ready.”

                Kalelle raised an eyebrow, “Who is this guest exactly?” she asked, doubtful. Usually, their guests were merchants from other towns, which also mean hours of conversation about their businesses. They started making their way toward the patio.

                “I have absolutely no idea,” Selina answered, hearing the soft tapping of shoes on the floor of the lounge. “But I guess the mistress is in a hurry to know. She and Maria woke up an hour ago feeling in a daze. Poor Maria’s been up trying to fix milady’s dress ever since.” She paused. “Though it makes you wonder, who would be so important that the mistress would risk letting only the two of us do the preparations? She’s trying to make the best impression possible.”

                “Selina, Kalelle,” Abigail called. She walked toward them, followed by Maria and a tall, well-dressed young man.

                Selina took one look at the man and whispered to Kalelle, “Could you excuse me? The guest’s already here, and Pierre hasn’t come with the food yet,” she started making her way into the house, but Abigail stopped her.

                “Now, now…If you’re worrying about the preparations, don’t. Maria has taken care of that already,” she said calmly. Abigail pointed toward their guest, “This is Nathaniel Celestia, second in line to the head of the Celestia noble family,”

                Nathaniel kept looking at Selina with an expression that was halfway surprise and worry. Even when Abigail asked him to sit down for their meal, he kept staring at the white-haired maid who served their tea. “Milady, may I ask how many helpers are in this estate?”

                “Selina takes care of most of the records in Desdemona Manor. Personally, I wouldn’t mind taking care of the documents, but my schedule wouldn’t allow me. If you like you can talk with her for a while. I'm afraid I have to take care of something in the kitchen," Abigail said before turning around to face her maids, “Selina, if you please,"

                “Three maids serve at the Manor,” she answered. “Four servants help in the Guild and two take care of  the gardens,”

               Nathaniel ignored what she had just said, and instead, narrowed his eyes at the young maid, "What do you think you're doing hiding out here? Every Celestia in Ethelred is worried about you,"

               Selina frowned, "Every Celestia is worried about me, but except for you, no one else wants me back. Thy're not trying to make me go back to the estate."

               "We need you there -"

               "That's true, but who wants me there?" Selina said, angrily. "No one. I may be a member of the family, but no one treats me like one. Mother disappeared, father's on the verge of death. Even my grandmother doesn't want me around! What was I supposed to do?"

                Nathaniel held her shoulders, "So you let the Moon Spirits take you away?"

                "Yes!" Selina blurted out. She tried to retain her composure, "And no one can convince me to come back. Not even you, my dear little brother,"

Excerpt from Moonlight Tears: Chapter One

              Ethelred was world of magic and sorcery, originally inhabited by sorcerers and the creatures we now regard as myths. Ever since the day humans gained enough scientific knowledge, they have endangered the very existence of magic. This caused a widespread loss of magical powers among the sorcerers, leaving behind thousands of ordinary humans.

                Now, humanity has begun to believe that they are near to discovering the essence of life itself, and this belief has taken its toll on Ethelred. Before, sorcery was a common thing, but after the Human Revelation, which started after the discovery – or, rather, invention – of science, it was highly regarded as a talent possessed only by the direct descendants of the five sorcerers who discovered Ethelred – Ronefin, Celestia, Vale, Carn, and Zephyr. The descendants of Ronefin, the lead sorcerer, became the royal family of Ethelred, and together with their fellow nobles, they became rulers of the five provinces, and sorcery became a symbol of royalty. They maintained the safety of both the Incantares beings that possessed magical powers – and the humans.

                Then came a day when even the Incantare families started to lose their powers. Only a few retained the ability to use magic. The number of Incantares in the noble families decreased by the passing of the decades, until the time came that the entire idea of sorcerers in Ethelred were considered absurd in the human’s perspective…except to  a chosen few.

                Rowan Sol Ronefin sighed as he took a last look at Ethelred University before stepping onto a nearly forgotten road that led to the Ronefin family estate. Most of the students and faculty in the university knew that Rowan was the heir to the throne of Ethelred, and he did not like the publicity he got from it.

In order to keep outsiders from getting into the palace – mostly by following him – Rowan stayed in the school until there were only a few people left. By then, most of his stalkers had already given up and retreated. It was a foolproof plan, or so he thought. As he came nearer to the estate, he saw a boy wearing an Ethelred university uniform waving to him from the gate.

Oh no, did someone follow me? Rowan thought, worrying that the boy might be a member of the school paper staff. He stopped walking and stared at the boy. His uniform was neatly ironed, as if he was just about to go to school, even though it was already dusk. The boy’s crimson red hair covered part of his face, making Rowan unable to identify him.

“For Pete’s sake, Rowan, don’t be so paranoid,” He heard the boy sigh as he swept his hair away from his face. Seeing him clearer, the 18-year old prince was overcome with a feeling of recognition.

“Flame Robert Ronefin, what a surprise!” Rowan smiled and came closer to his cousin. “What are you doing here? I thought you were still on a mission in the human world,”

“They sent Harold Flynn to take over,” Flame scoffed, “The Avalon Council gave me another mission, and this time, you’re coming with me.”

Rowan breathed a tired sigh as they walked toward the royal chambers, “I can’t believe them. Well, at least I’m coming along with you. The last time you were alone in a mission, you ended up in a hospital,”

Sairi was one of the busiest towns in Ethelred. It was the nearest town to Osphar, the capital city, so it was the most practical pace for merchants to buy and sell goods, since the capital was a dangerous place for traders. There were merchants making their way to and from Sairi at almost every single hour of the day, but the noise from the dozens of people setting up shop didn’t bother anyone, since most have already gone used to them.

                The only things that bothered the citizens were the rarer sounds they were not accustomed to hearing – like Abigail Herald yelling at one of her servants inside her house. Abigail, as the head of the Merchants’ Guild, was one of the most influential people in the entire dimension, and hearing her get angry was a cause of worry because her decisions usually affected everyone. She lived inside Desdemona Manor, which was mansion that housed the office of the Merchants’ Guild, and had only a handful of servants to do her bidding, and right now, one of those servants was in trouble.

                Selina Moonwater was an immigrant from Azalea who had only been a servant in the Manor for a month. Normally, she would be out of bed by dawn, but for some reason, she was still asleep when noon came. Her best friend, Kalelle Glider, who had been with her when she came to Sairi, watched helplessly as Lady Abigail tried to wake Selina up.

                Abigail gave up when, several minutes later, Selina was still asleep. She motioned toward a maid who was standing behind Kalelle, “Maria, get the pot of water I told you to boil earlier,” Abigail said, keeping her eyes on Selina’s sleeping form. Maria came back, holding a porcelain bowl while wearing a pair of leather gloves. “Pour it on Selina,” Abigail ordered mercilessly.

                Maria hesitated.  The last person Abigail had ordered to be thrown at with boiling water received severe boils all over her body, and was bedridden for the rest of her life. Selina had been the best friend and the worst enemy, and it was a great disadvantage if she were to blame Maria for her injuries. However, at that moment, it was either Selina’s life or hers, so she reluctantly splashed the boiling water over her friend.

                Kalelle rolled her eyes in annoyance, “Why does this always happen to us?” she whispered to herself. She turned to her mistress. Abigail was usually kind and patient, but the only things that made her angry were lazy servants and people who overslept. Selina was slowly beginning to look like both of those. “You’re going to regret this,”

                Selina didn’t move an inch when the water touched her skin, in fact, it seemed like ice was thrown over her. When Abigail touched Selina’s hand to make sure she was still alive, she stepped back in fear. She stared at Selina, who lay on her bed like a princess in a deep slumber, as if she was a monster that had come to eat her alive.

                “This is getting too redundant,” Kalelle muttered under her breath. She bent over Selina and put her hand over her friend’s eyes. “This is the thirteenth time in six months, Selina. You’ve broken your record,”

                Selina brushed away Kalelle’s hand as she sat up from her bed. To everyone around her, she seemed like an albino, with her pale white hair and pastel skin. A few strands of her hair looked like mirrors; the sunlight that streamed in through an open window glinted off them as if they were made of silver. For a moment, Abigail forgot about her anger as she looked at Selina’s angelic face.

                “It’s inevitable, I guess,” Selina took a deep breath before reaching for a comb on her bedside table. Abigail’s jaw dropped at her servant’s reaction. It was as if she had woken up on her own, without someone throwing water over her. “Was it just boiling water or tea?”

                “If only it was tea,” Kalelle smiled, but it quickly disappeared once she caught a glimpse of her mistress’s shocked expression. “We’re sorry for not telling you earlier, madam, and for causing such a nuisance, but Selina has a habit of spending the first night of a full moon in a lake on the Radiare Mountains. It has always been awfully cold there, but it’s either Selina endures it for one night or spend the rest of the month in regret and show symptoms of schizophrenia,”

                Selina gently shook her head, before starting to comb her hair, “You always take it too far, Kalelle. Just because my nerves were damaged a while back, it doesn’t mean I’m a mental freak. True, I can’t sense temperatures, but your idea of my condition is too farfetched,”

                Rowan narrowed his eyes at his cousin, flashing a horrific shade of red. “Is everything a mission for you, Flame?” he said, keeping his voice low. He would have screamed at him right there and then, but he was in school, not exactly the place to exhibit bad behavior, especially for a crown prince. “When you told me you have a mission, I didn’t expect your mission to be –”

                “-going to school?” Flame finished the sentence for him. He sighed as they continued to walk deeper into the grounds of Ethelred University. “Well, the Council wasn’t too specific about it, but they said to look for someone with a royal. They said it was a girl, actually, with a pale complexion, and silver hair; she has the mark of the Celestias on her left wrist, with a sense of authority. They also said that she’s mysterious and too smart for her own good. The girl they’re looking for is also hiding from them, a sort of fear of her own abilities, which she can use perfectly, by the way,”

                “Based on your descriptions, that really isn’t something I could label as ‘unspecific’. You just described an entire person, including her physical appearance and emotional sentiments.” Rowan sighed, “Could you at least try to avoid paradoxes?”

                “He should be avoiding this school,” They turned around to see a blonde girl staring at Flame with ghastly eyes. “This is the worst decision of your life, Robert,” she ran toward Flame. “What do you think you’re doing, coming here unarmed?”

                Rowan caught a glimpse of metal in her hands, and blocked her way. Apparently, the metal object was a knife. “Sapphire, you know you shouldn’t dare to hurt him, it’s going to affect the future of your family after all,” he took the knife from her and placed it on a patch of grass a few feet away from them. “Besides, he’s here to fight…well, not you, at least,”

                The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, feeling her pride as the heir to the head of the Zephyr family melting away when she saw Flame’s smug look on his face, but somewhere in him, in a part only she could see, there was a hint of remorse. “We’re going to work withhim? I’d rather let myself get killed that work with this mindless goof.” She said, looking at Rowan as if he was someone who had just escaped from the mental hospital, “Did you get run over by a horse? That lunatic almost killed my cousin on our last mission together!”

                “Granted that Vincent was the one we were actually trying to kill,” Flame muttered to himself, but he said it loud enough for Sapphire to hear.

                “But he was family, nonetheless,” Sapphire told him defensively.

                Rowan shook his head. It was a hopeless case to try to break up Flame and Sapphire during one of their long debates, “Before you answer, Flame, could we at least go inside the classroom? Standing here is going to take its toll on my energy,”

                Maria, still recovering from her shock, watched on as Selina tied her hair with a strip of black ribbon from her closet drawer. She watched as her mistress returned to her usual cheerful demeanor. Abigail breathed a sigh of relief, “At least it’s something that can be explained, but Selina, you really gave me quite a shock back there. Your skin was so cold, and when I saw your hair and eyes – they’re almost gray – for a moment, I thought you were a ghost.”

                “Well, mistress, I admire you. It usually takes quite a longer time for people to recover when Selina acting like this. We’ve been to twelve different households before, and only two of our previous mistresses have gone out of their confused states.” Kalelle told her in a matter-of-fact tone.

                Selina moaned, slightly annoyed, “Too formal, Kalelle. You’re not acting in a play, or writing a book. Such flamboyant behavior is unacceptable outside the phantasm of fiction,”

                Kalelle laughed, catching the humor in Selina’s words, “You really love making things more complicated, don’t you?”

                She answered Kalelle with a mysterious smile plastered on her face, “It’s just something I’ve grown used to. People have to train their minds with logic and common sense if they are to survive in the worlds of both the nobles and the commoners, of the masters and the servants. You get the idea. It’s a universal rule of thinking.”

                “Excuse me, girls,” Abigail interrupted, “But don’t you have chores to attend to? We have a royal guest today, remember?”

                “The silverware has been polished, the floor have been swept. The windows are all in good shape, without a single speck of dust. I’ve told the cook to prepare the dishes and the gardener has taken care of the floral decorations.” Selina said, checking things off in a list she kept in her dress pocket, “However, there is a certain problem in the lounge that is impossible to fix by the time our guest arrives, so, all the preparations have been laid out in the patio. A tailor has already prepared milady’s dress for today. There is only two hours left to make sure that everything else in order,”

                Maria’s jaw dropped. She seemed to have returned to their previous states of shock. Abigail turned to Kalelle, who was looking at Selina with admiration, “How could she have possibly done all of this when she has been asleep for twelve hours?”

                “Actually, I woke up at dawn, as I always do.” Selina explained, “I can’t sleep well when I feel that there’s still something that has to be done. It’s an ordinary thing to organize events, you know. It’s another thing to attend them. I’d rather spend days preparing for a grand celebration than dancing in a palace ballroom with the prince for two hours,” she scoffed, “You have to always watch your manners, and makes sure everything you’ve prepared for the evening are still intact –“

                Kalelle lightly tapped Selina’s shoulder, but she didn’t notice it, instead, she was looking at a large gap in the wall behind her. It was too late before they saw a feminine figure, but it was as if it was just a shadow, for they could also see the scenery past the woman’s body.

                “A ghost!” Maria screamed in response as the newcomer walked toward her. 

Blue Moon, Red Moon

People say that the next blue moon will be this year...
But there for some reason, I can't stop saying that there's also a red moon. Let me describe the situation...

I was going home on a bus as it passed by a seaside village. I looked out of the window, and there it was...
At first, I thought it was the sun, but as I turned to the other side of the bus, I saw a small, glowing orb of orange - the sun.

But how could the moon be so large. In my view, it was ten times larger than the sun, tinted a light orange that seeped into its surroundings. I couldn't imagine how it could have happened. I mean, you've got to be kidding me.

A RED MOON?

Please tell me I'm not crazy...

Quotes from "The Tears of the Spirits"

• The light of a thousand worlds can exist in a single sphere of creation, and so, the love a whole universe can exist in a single being.

• I left you in hopes that I won't lose you forever. What a paradox...for in the end, I realized that the moment I left you, I lost myself.

• Just because you've never been wrong, it doesn't mean that you're always right.

• How can you know what true happiness is, when you haven't known true sorrow?