Chapter 13 - Training and History of the Princesses

            The chair of crystal lay deep in a cavern below the Princesses' Palace. Emily went over the information in Blossom's mind during the day of rest to get a feel for the training she was about to receive.

            Blossom's internment in the chair consisted of strapping her in, placing a black crystal over her forehead and laser-beaming mounds of information into it, in a matter of seconds. The education part of the process was over. Blossom took each education session like a hit to the head. She would have headaches afterward. Then, after an hour of rest, Blossom would begin training with the youma Ninjana - the very same youma who captured her by posing as a robber.

            Emily did not like that she was being held captive, but she understood Ninjana's desire for the large reward of being the head of training. Besides, Blossom seemed to grow with the new information every day by leaps and bounds. Her training was excellent, and Emily knew what to expect. (Emily figured the telepathic abilities were Metallia's trick, in case Emily decided to "slack off" after her inaugural ball.) She did not care for or about Metallia, for she knew her family was having trouble.

           There was one comfort there, too. Heliodor. There was the odd day that she hated him after a heated argument, of course. But the truth was, even on the bad days, she looked forward to the next day, when Heliodor would lunch with her all over again.

*****

            What Emily did not know was that her father, yes, the very same Lord Kunzite of the white hair and cape was calming and soothing the adoptive parents above, and helping them with the store that they had opened.

            He came immediately, once Emily had been kidnapped. He held the same powers Emily had, since it was actually a characteristic of being bound to the stone of kunzite. His involvement with the family came out of genuine love, and out of the Vaziri's understanding of the paranormal. They knew they were weirdness magnets, but they did not realize it was due to the guardianship of Kunzite's real treasure until adulthood. The store turned a great profit in the area it held, for it was in the crossroads between some very profitable thoroughbred horse farms.

            Lord Kunzite and the rest of the shitennou were under the guardianship of Endymion now, which in turn was actually helping them to rescue their children (and his two secret ones) from the contract they had under Metallia, and Queen Beryl.

            Queen Beryl started out as the younger sister of one of the Maenads, a shrine maiden who had competed against her for the position. In retaliation, she set out to gain the love and acceptance of the universe by winning the heart of Prince Endymion - the most eligible bachelor of the Silver Millennium - by any means necessary. She even carried his son, who was now Heliodor. But nothing could take Endymion's heart away from Princess Serenity, of the moon kingdom. She turned to Metallia, who came in an innocuous form of the occult, and eventually Metallia took over. Metallia destroyed civilizations on all the planets, except for Earth, called Terra, and killed Endymion, in hopes of capturing him. 

            Beryl was reborn as the British self-made millionaire Brandie Richardson. She was an explorer, extreme-sports enthusiast, and full owner of Immaculate Industries. Through her business ventures, she became fascinated with global climate change. And that is how Metallia found her again. She had given birth to a son, who was the reborn child she had with Endymion.

            And suddenly, nobody knew how these four daughters of the Shitennou existed. How were they born? And when? Why did they exist?

*****

            Emily began her own sessions of training. Her educational systems were not nearly as jarring as those of Blossom, for she already had some sort of training through Blossom's eyes. The training began, and it was good. It took three months, unlike one for the rest of the Princesses, the other two being inaugurated each a respective week after another.

            Ninjana taught her all martial arts the first day, then magic and teleportation, and finally the powers of telekinesis and wards. She could handle the swords on the bedroom wall, producing them at a moment's notice within one week.

            Her only desire was to complete training to use these tools. She simply blocked out any emotion until she was finally alone, safe in her well-warded bedroom. (Her father had done the same many centuries ago, but she never knew the inner minds of anyone outside the Dark Kingdom.)