Vows and Bullets
Chapter 159 - 2nd week of September (Part 4)

Chapter 159: 2nd week of September (Part 4)

Please DON’T READ this Chapter yet. I will update this 2nd week of September!

Good news! My hands have healed now and I’m catching up on writing my missed Chapters. My apologies for all the delays. I will replace this Chapter with the real one soon, don’t worry, and upload a new one for the next day. I really apologize once again.

In the meantime, please enjoy the continuation of the story below titled "The King’s Beloved". This is the revised version I am planning to submit for paperback publication. Hopefully, I get a chance someday.

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(Part 22 - Continuation...)

Rania sat in front of the piano and prepared her hands to play. Thinking of what she should play, she suddenly remembered one of her beautiful memories with Zeid.

"Babe, I really don’t know how to play the piano!" Zeid complained.

"Oh come on. Please, for me? You can sing, but you can’t play? How in the world did that happen?"

Dun... dun... dun...

"Am I doing this right?"

Rania chuckled. "Yes! Yes, you are."

Again, tears began to swell from her eyes. Closing them, she reminisced about the memories she shared with Zeid, with Lailee, the people from the church, Hannah and her other precious friends, her family, and everyone that she loved. Like a movie being played backward, her memories of them flashed in her mind. Along with that were the precious feeling of love she felt from them and the love she had for them. They might be gone now, but she would always cherish them. They were the greatest treasure of her life.

And that moment, she decided to surrender that treasure to her God.

Because she kept holding onto them, she also held onto hatred and revenge. They were so precious to her that she wanted to make sure they didn’t die in vain. But she also knew very well that they wouldn’t want to see her become a slave of vengeance.

Her way and her plan was not the right one.

Accepting that and wanting to surrender everything, instead of performing for the king, she decided to play a song for God instead. Like she used to do at the orphanage with the other children—a song that echoed the secrets of her heart.

And so, she played and sang in the melody of Give Me Jesus by VOUS Worship.

"I’ve tasted and seen

Yet questioned it all

Still You remain

Chased empty dreams

Ran from Your call

And turned back again."

Aaaahh... Her voice was so soothing to the ears and so captivating and emotional. You could feel the great surrender in her voice as she sang the rest of the song, especially the chorus.

"Even if everything I know

Is taken away, I won’t lose hope

I’ll cling to the One who won’t let go

Just give me Jesus

Give me Jesus."

As she began to sing the climax of the song, sparkling lights suddenly surrounded her. Why? It was her dress! Her dress began to change its color! From the bottom of her dress, it started changing. Up and up it went until her whole Pandora dress was shining in blindingly bright white light!

"Even at times when I can’t see

I’ll trust in the hand that’s holding me

There’s only one thing that I need

Just give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, oh."

Everyone was awed as they witnessed such marvel.

Soon enough, Rania’s performance ended as tears filled her eyes. Her once pitch black asymmetrical dress was now a pure and delicate gown made of flowing fabric topped with chiffon. Decorated with laces and diamonds, it was divinely beautiful—as if it was a dress made by angels. Most of all, its color reflected a very bright and vibrant white.

Everyone, including the king, was left speechless. Some stood up on their seats, some gasped in astonishment, and some simply could not believe their eyes. At that moment, the king began to remember the events of that day...

"Your highness, one of the candidates was found to have an utterly evil heart. Her Pandora dress turned pitch-black when she wore it," Servus reported to the king as he showed an image of Rania floating in the air like a holographic memory.

"Black, you say?" asked the king, raising his eyebrows. For him, any dark color was expected from humans but pitch black? Not once in his life had he encountered a Pandora dress with that color.

"Yes, your highness."

"What does pitch-black mean again?" the king asked again, turning to one of his Judges.

A stunning young man with long bluish white hair and light blue eyes answered.

"It means many things, your highness, depending on the level of its darkness."

"And what are those?"

"A grayish-black means evilness and wish of death; black means death itself, either the wearer saw death, experienced it, or killed someone; and lastly, pitch-black, the darkest shade, means void—a feeling of nothingness. It can also mean an abyss and a wish for everything to end. But..."

"But what?"

"It can also mean the opposite, your highness."

"Opposite?"

"Yes," he nodded. "It can also mean the end and the start of new beginnings."

The king shivered from his own memories.

As the crowd continued to be astonished by what just happened and murmured amongst themselves, Rania stood up on her seat. She wiped her tears and slowly, very slowly... smiled.

She whispered to herself, "Thank you, Father."

And there she stood up in front of the crowd, a brand new Rania, with her renewed heart in surrender—hopeful and trusting. Not forgetting, but moving on the past, and ready to take on whatever battle comes ahead, with her head held high and a gentle smile on her face.

***

Chapter 8 ON THAT FATEFUL NIGHT

Once, in the history of Magi, there lived a very powerful sorceress—too powerful in fact that she was the first woman instated as a Judge. But even though she was compelling, her love and reverence for the king and queen of that time still ran deep. She wished to protect them in all possible ways she could think of. And from that same love, she thought of creating something that would prevent bad things from happening to her beloved king and queen.