Tales From The Kronos

Silva, Emely, and Gwyn arrived in a lush forest. The air was thick, making it hard to breathe. The forest was wearing light blue colors instead of the usual green they were used to see on leaves. Silva took one of the squishy insects on the floor and showed it to her friends. Emely took a step back in disgust while Gwyn calmly followed her movement.

"Look! Is it funny-looking? It's really funny to hold."

Emely analyzed the insect from a safe distance. She had never seen anything like that before, it looked like a green caterpillar with butterfly wings.

"It's... Kind of cute. But I'm not touching it!"

"Your loss." Silva swallowed the creature without any hesitation, leaving a face of disgust on her friends "It tastes like candy."

"Oh, maybe I should try then!" Emely searched on the ground before being stopped by Gwyn.

"You shouldn't, they're called Slugflies and are poisonous. Don't worry you won't die, just feel weird in your stomach."

Silva let the creature fall from her mouth with some worries for her health. Emely looked around for the insects, to make sure she wouldn't touch one on accident.

"A-Anyway, we're searching for a soul. It's like a blue spherical thingy."

"I can't believe you just answered a scientific question that humanity wondered for millenniums in one sentence."

"Thanks?" Emely said, unsure whether it was a compliment or not from Gwyn "We should find it on a tree. It grows somewhere close."

"Let's go then!"

The group followed the engineer's lead through the thick forest, trying their best to not fall because of all the vines on the ground.

A giant tree towered over them. It was hard to see but Emely confirmed that this was the tree where the souls grew on. The thing that surprised her however was the town surrounding the tree.

"That's weird, they weren't here last time."

"When was the last time?" Asked Gwyn.

"I think... A year ago. It's a bit quick for a civilization to form."

The three of them approached the town only to be ambushed by a group of people armed with spears. Their clothes were primitive and quite distinguished at the same time, forming fancy uniforms with leaves and other plants.

"We found you! You're under arrest for love crime!" One of the men pointed their spear at Emely, accusing her.

"Love crime? What is that?"

"You can ask the court! You have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you!"

"But I'm innocent!"

"That's what you'll say to the judge!" The man looked at the other, talking with the same accusing tone he used toward Emely "Who are you? Accomplices?"

"No, we're not."

The man seemed to not believe Gwyn's words. Squinting his eyes at her.

"You're all coming with us! We'll sort everything out later."

Silva placed her hand over her gun, trying to find an opportunity to attack.

"There's too many of them, I can't deal with them safely!"

"We'll just listen to them for now. There's no need to take any risks."

The people who resembled guards tied their hands with ivy and took them away. Emely looked at the tree right next to them, frustrated to be so close, yet so far.

The three friends were locked in a cell carved into the tree, waiting for their fate to be decided. Gwyn kept trying to convince the others to leave for the Kronos and try again later, but they both argued the opposite.

"We're so close! We can always leave if we're in danger. And besides, I'm accused of a crime I never committed, I can't just escape without trying to understand more."

"I just hope we'll still have our heads on our shoulders by the end of the day..."

Sounds of footsteps approached them. A hooded figure faced them while hiding her face. It looked like it was judging them before finally talking.

"I can understand why they confused you with me, we're almost identical." The hooded figure removed the cloak it wore, revealing a girl with long ginger hair, looking identical to Emely "My name is Emelya, princess of the holy lake. I'm afraid that I'm the reason you're here."

"I'm glad you're here now, that means we can leave!"

The girl shook her head with a pained expression on her face after hearing Emely's words.

"I'm the culprit of the worst crime of all. A love crime. If I confess, they'll kill me. I hope you understand that I can't give my life to a stranger.

"But I'm innocent! And what's a love crime anyway?"

"You've... Never heard of it?" The girl had her eyes wide open, surprised by Emely's ignorance "It's when you fall in love, and alas, I did. My heart beat for this man, I cannot forsake him. I would do anything for him."

"Even kill us?"

The girl stayed silent, visibly hurt by her words.

"Yes... Even that..."

Silva stood up from the ground she was sitting on and walked toward the girl after hearing the conversation.

"Love's a crime? That's dumb."

"How dare you say that? Don't you know how dangerous love is?"

"Because it hurts and makes you so stupid stuff?"

"Precisely." Answered the girl to Silva "And even despite that you think that love isn't a problem?"

"A knife is only a problem in the hands of the wrong person, we're not going to take knives off people's hands are we?"

"Maybe we should then."

Silva and the princess stared at each other with aggressivity until they were interrupted by the engineer.

"Wait, aren't you in love?" Asked Emely with confusion "Why are you agreeing with this law?"

"I am a proud princess, and yet I've forsaken my kingdom in the name of love. My soulmate made me choose between him and my kingdom. I made my choice. Love shouldn't exist and I'm sorry you're paying for it."

"Sorry my ass." Silva said without an ounce of empathy "If you're ready to give up everything you hold dear for a dick, then you're not worth much, love or not."

"I do not allow you to use such a dirty dialect!" The girl said with a voice full of authority.

"Go suck your boyfriend, we don't need you. What you live isn't love, I hope you'll realize it before it's too late."

The girl seemed offended by Silva's rude words and put her cloak back on her.

"I don't know about your friends, but I hope you'll rot in hell."

"I already do, now leave. I need to find a way to get out of here."

Emelya left without a word while the audible sigh of Gwyn echoed inside the cell.

"Isn't she the princess of the holy lake or something? I hope we'll never go there."

"She gave up her kingdom so it should be fine."

"Why were you so rude to her, Silva?" Emely asked, trying to understand her friend.

"She calls herself a princess and seems to still love her kingdom, yet she leaves everything when a guy asks her to. I'm not going to quit painting for a guy, no matter how much I love him. Maybe I was rough but I have no respect for her."

"And she's okay with killing us." Added Gwyn.

"Yeah! See?"

Emely stayed silent, reflecting on her friend's words. Feeling that she felt bad, Silva caressed her head and smiled at her.

"Don't worry, it's not because she's your other self that you're the same as her. Don't change who you are, that's how I love ya dumbass."

Emely managed to cheer up thanks to her friend. Gwyn approached them, leaning toward them to talk in her usual empty voice.

"How cute, can we leave now? I don't want to risk my life for that."

"Are you kidding me? Now I'm mad at this world. We're going to win this trial and get the soul we need!"

"Silva, are you a lawyer?"

"No, but I can feel I have the blood of a lawyer in me!"

"You barely have enough blood to function, you're not winning a case in a world where you don't even know the rules. You didn't even know what a love crime was a minute ago."

"Come on, how hard can it be to be a lawyer?"

"Really hard. I have a law degree and even I don't fully know how the judicial system of my world works."

Silva and Emely looked at each other in confusion, surprised by her sentence.

"In law? Aren't you a doctor?"

"I'm a pharmacist, and I have a medical degree on top of my law degree. If I tell you that you can't win in a court, it's because you can't."

"Gwyn, you're the expert doctor, I'm the world expert, I know what I'm doing. We're going to innocent Emely."

Emely paused for a moment at her friend's words before confronting her.

"Isn't the first rule of the Kronos that we need to keep the worlds in order? I feel like we're doing the reverse..."

"Emely is right, our presence alone is changing everything. This princess should be in this cell instead of us."

"Then let's vote!" Propose Silva "I vote for staying here and get the soul."

"I vote against it, we should go home and forget everything for now."

The two looked at Emely with a look full of expectation. The pressure in her rose as she tried to know what she should do. On one side she needed that soul and wanted to be cleared of this unfair crime. On the other, she wanted to leave to not cause problems. Her eyes met Silva's, even despite the sunglasses she could see her confident eyes. She knew she could trust her and gave her answer.

"I want to stay here and win this trial!"