by Laura R Cole
*
Phoenix paced her rooms irritably. She’d just barely made it through the rest of the party, and only because of Rhys’s constant presence on her arm. She still couldn’t believe that it hadn’t been cancelled in the wake of the day’s events. Not only had she been obligated to host the rest of the party, but her parents had disappeared for the remainder of the evening. No doubt they were discussing the ramifications of the visitors without her. The curiosity was driving her crazy.
A knock sounded at the door, and she opened it so quickly that her mother jumped. Her hand was still upright, about to knock again. Phoenix immediately began to pepper her with questions.
“How could you leave me alone at the party like that? Where are those people from? What are you going to do about them? Did you have a Council meeting?”
Her mother looked taken aback a moment and looked down at her hands. Phoenix’s eyes followed hers, and she saw that her mother was holding a small, wrapped package. She abruptly stopped her questioning and opened the door wider so that her mother could enter.
“Happy birthday,” her mother said, handing her the gift.
“Thanks, Mom,” Phoenix said, giving her a hug. Drawing her inside, they sat on the couch, and she carefully unwrapped the package. She forestalled her curiosity another few moments to enjoy their birthday tradition. Inside was a stone pendant attached to a delicate chain. She held it up and rolled her hair up in her hand so that it was out of the way so her mother could clasp it around her neck. When it was on, she held it up so that she could better see.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“It’s a magic amulet,” Layna explained. “The royal mages and I have been discussing your ability to read people and how ailments tend to disappear when you are near, and we thought that it could possibly be some form of your own talent. We formulated this amulet to hopefully help increase your natural empathy and healing powers.”
Phoenix smiled and looked thoughtfully down at her new necklace for a long moment. Finally, she spoke. “I don’t blame you, you know.”
“What do you mean?” her mother asked, drawing back so that she could better look into Phoenix’s face.
“For not having talent.” Phoenix shrugged. “Everyone knows that my talent was sacrificed so that the Bricrui plague could end when I was a baby.” Her mother was silent. “But I don’t blame you for that decision. I would have made the same choice, had I been old enough to make it for myself. You and Dad don’t need to feel like you have something to make up for.”
“We don’t- ” her mother began, but Phoenix cut her off.
“A necklace to increase abilities that I might or might not have? What about the multitudes of charms and stones that have been spelled so that I can activate them even with no magic?” She gave her mother a look. “The gigantic barn you built for me when I expressed that I had an interest in horses? I asked for a horse, and I got a whole herd. When I asked for a new dress, I got an entire wardrobe and a seamstress just for me.”
“You’re my daughter,” Layna protested. “You deserve every happiness we can give you. We happen to be very fortunate that we are able to offer you a lot.”
Phoenix eyed her mother shrewdly, fingered the necklace one more time, then dropped both it and the subject. “Well,” she said, “it’s beautiful, and I love it. Thank you very much.” Putting on a more mischievous expression, she poked her mother’s side. “Now, tell me all about the strangers already!”
Unfortunately, her mother didn’t have a whole lot more information than Phoenix had already pried out of Rhys. Most of the new news was simply what the Council had decided to do about it. As her mother had implied, they were making preparations to invite the strangers to come stay at the palace in hopes of learning more about them.
When her mother left, Phoenix was exhausted, but found that she couldn’t sleep. Instead, she paced the floor of her room trying to imagine the country where the strangers had come from. They had slightly darker skin than most in Elaeld, though she had no idea if this was a common trait with their people, or simply a coincidence that both the Heralds were so. Their speech was also strange. Though she had been whisked away before she’d heard much of it, her mother had described the accent to her. The majority of the terms they’d used had been shared by both their languages, though with an accent, but Layna had reported that there were some words that were completely foreign. Phoenix wasn’t sure which was stranger: the differences in their speech or the fact that an empire with whom they had no record of contact with spoke the same language at all. She had another pang of sadness as she thought that this would be an interesting topic to bring up with Wren. She had no doubt that he would have a theory on the possibility of a shared history between Elaeld and the Empire; two separated peoples sharing the same parent language.
Eventually her pacing drew the attention of Alisha, her maid, who slept in the next room over. She entered wordlessly and set a burning candle she’d carried in on the bedside table. Her eyes looked puffy and she squinted in the light as though she had recently been sleeping.
“There’s no need for you to lose sleep simply because I am up,” Phoenix told her.
“Nonsense, My Lady,” Alisha replied. “I would never let you fret in here without company. What’s bothering you?”
Phoenix sighed and contemplated ordering Alisha back to bed, but her desire for a companion in her frustration overruled this thought. “I’ve been going back and forth trying to decide where the strangers are from and imagine everything about them when really I just need to be patient and wait for them to give us the answers.”
Alisha nodded. “I know what you mean. But you’re right. We won’t really know anything until they get here and start answering questions.” She rubbed her tired eyes. “Perhaps you just need something else to think about for a bit? Or some warm milk?” She started to get up, but Phoenix stopped her.
“No, thank you, Alisha, but I don’t want you wandering even farther from your bed.” She took in the dark circles around the woman’s eyes and felt guilty for keeping her awake. “Maybe you’re right. What else shall we talk about?”
“Did you have a nice birthday party?”
“Of course,” Phoenix replied with a smile. “Did you see the size of the celebration? I don’t think there was a soul in the country who didn’t have a nice party today.”
“Indeed, My Lady,” Alisha agreed. “I must say, the cake was spectacular. I think I may have put on five pounds with the amount of food laid out.”
Phoenix laughed. “Well, I’m glad that someone enjoyed it. I admit that I was a bit too preoccupied once the strangers showed up to taste much of anything.”
“And what about the young Lord Wren?” Alisha commented innocently. “The dance between the two of you was beautiful.”
Phoenix’s smiled faded. “I’m afraid that Wren wanted our friendship to be something more.”
Alisha gave her an impish grin, missing Phoenix’s sadness. “Really?” she asked a bit too casually.
Phoenix pretended to glare at her. “Alright, yes, he has been a bit obvious about it. I was just hoping that he’d never actually decide to act on it, or he’d get bored with me and move on.”
“You don’t return his feelings then,” Alisha stated, her grin replaced by a disappointed look.
“I’m afraid not.”
“That’s too bad,” her maid lamented. “I always did like him. Much better than that Rhys fellow. He’s a bad influence on you, always trying to get you to sneak out and do who-knows-what.”
Phoenix snorted. “He’s not that bad. Usually he just wanted to go play in the gardens or go look at a forbidden book in the library. It’s not like we were being that naughty. And I’ve hardly seen him at all the last few years at all.” She laughed lightly. “Besides, most of the time Mother would show up before we even got out the door. I don’t know how
she did it.” She shook her head ruefully.
The two were silent for a few moments while Phoenix reveled in memories of her youth: when she still had free time. It wasn’t long after, however, that a yawn interrupted these thoughts. Her tiredness finally having caught up with her, she rose to get into bed.
When she looked back at Alisha, however, she found her snoring lightly in the chair. Phoenix debated whether or not to wake her, but she looked so comfortable she decided against it. She climbed into her bed and blew out the two candles.