The Sea of Change

by Tina Engel

  Kimberlite was smiling, and as I held the stone I realized that I had a connection with him. It was a weak one, but I could feel that he was here listening to what was being said. He was part of what was going on.

  I looked back up at Brett, and as he looked down, Brett reached out and held the diamond in his hand. Brett spoke quietly, but with a sarcastic tone, “So you just can’t stand to not be in the thick of things, now can you?”

  I smiled a timid smile as I looked up to see Jordan’s face, and he wasn’t finding this humorous at all. Brett let the necklace drop back down on my chest, and said in a quiet voice, “Please continue. Kimberlite is a friend and ally, and he is on the journey with us. He has been all along but it is just now that Emilee is aware of his presence.”

  I looked at Brett with a bit of shock and annoyance, that he assumed I was unaware of Kimberlite’s presence. I changed my expression and attitude quickly though, when I saw the look on Jordan’s face.

  Jordan’s anguish turned to despair and sadness as he saw that Brett was holding my hand. I hadn’t realized that we still were connected. So much was going on around me and inside me. I put my other hand on the table just far enough so that, I hoped, Jordan would allow me to join with him again.

  Jordan sat down, and this time, put his hand on top of mine. He said quietly, “I don’t know if I can finish this. I relived it for so many years and then shoved it so deep down inside of me, hoping never to retrieve it again.”

  I smiled a deeply understanding smile, and told him that it was going to be all right. I would be right there with him.

  Jordan continued, “As I shut the door I turned my back to this creature, not realizing he was there for just a split second. I was taught a long time ago to feel the presence of evil. My head was so full of love that I just wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. I deserved the punishment, I received.”

  Jordan stopped talking again, full of anguish and shame. I removed my hand from Brett’s and put it on top of Jordan’s, and having his hand between both of mine, I squeezed it tightly.

  “I’m right here with you. I won’t leave you!” I said.

  Jordan just starred at our hands, never looking up. He finished his story.

  “Suddenly, a look of terror filled Lena’s face. I felt the presence then, but it was too late. I threw Lena as far as I could, away from me and this fey. She yelled my name, as we both saw him walk into the room, and become the fey he really was.

  “I didn’t know who he was but could feel the evil emanating from him. He was a dark fey. One who wanted all Elders gone, forever. I had no weapon; it was put away in another room. I again was careless, feeling that nothing could interfere with this time and place. He lunged at me with his dagger and I twisted out of the way of the weapon. Not quite far enough though, for I had a gash across my arm.

  “Lena screamed again and was up on her feet in an instant, as I yelled for her to run. I grabbed the dark fey from behind to hold him while she escaped out the back.

  I didn’t realize, but again should have, that this fey wasn’t alone. I heard Lena scream, but this time it was a scream of shock and pain, and then all was quiet.

  “I released the dark fey, and as he turned towards me, he thrust his blade in my side. He then told me that he wouldn’t kill me, just wound me. Killing me would be a blessing, for me, and he wasn’t going to do me that favor. He was going to let the Council destroy me.

  “What he didn’t realize, and neither did the council later, was that the scream I heard from Lena’s mouth was the last sound I would ever hear from her, and that destroyed me. Nothing else could ever hurt as much as that moment, knowing that I killed her due to my failure as her protector.

  “He left through the front door, leaving me kneeling on the ground. I crawled out through the kitchen and the back door. There she lay on the ground, in a puddle of her own blood. They had slit her throat and she had a deep wound in her chest. It looked like they had taken one of her hearts.

  “As I wrapped her in my arms, I realized that she was still alive. Her eyes opened, looking up at me with fear and a plea to help her. She couldn’t speak, but her eyes were telling me it was not my fault, but I knew it was.

  “I took off my shirt, and ripping it in half, I wrapped part around her neck to try and slow the bleeding down. I stuffed the other half in the hole in her chest, hoping it would keep her alive until I could get her to the elders. I knew she was severely injured, but she was still alive and I had to save her.

  “I put her on a horse and rode as fast as I could, to the palace, where I gave her to the elders. They took her to one part of the palace and me another.

  “I don’t know how many days I was there recuperating because I was in and out of consciousness. I would ask how Lena was, but no one would answer. They wouldn’t even talk to me.

  “When I was healed enough, I was brought before the entire council. They had figured out some of what had happened and wanted me to tell them the story. They could go into my mind if need be, but wanted it from my mouth.

  “I asked if Lena was all right, but they just repeated again that they wanted me to tell them everything, so I did just that. I told them every detail of our relationship not leaving anything out, not even the very personal things.

  “I shocked some of the Elders with the intimate parts, but I knew that if I didn’t tell them everything, they would go into my mind and I didn’t want that. They can hear my story but I didn’t want them to see it.

  “I asked again about Lena’s well-being but I got no answer. I was taken to the cellar prison, and was held there for weeks before my sentencing. I suspected that Lena had died since no one would speak of her. I just wanted to die myself and figured that my punishment would be death. I just wished they would get it over with.

  “Finally the day came when I was brought before the council and the town’s people that surrounded the palace. I was to be made an example of. I had put an elder in danger and she was attacked and killed. That was the first time I heard those words. I sank to my knees and let out a cry of horror that I should have controlled, but I just couldn’t.

  “I was told my fate then. I would not be put to death. That would be too soft a punishment since they knew I wanted to die. They gave me the worst punishment that they could come up with, which would make me suffer for all of eternity, and I deserved this.

  “I would be turned as human as they could make me, be put into the humans’ world, never to be able to enter the fey realm again, and I would live forever with my knowledge of killing an elder, and my lover.”

  We all sat around the table in silence; Jordan’s shoulders were drooping and his head was hanging down so low that he almost touched the table.

  I could still feel the pain in his heart, and the deep sadness and loneliness, but most of all the hatred he felt for himself.

  Jordan stood then, removed his hand from between mine gently and said with his head still hanging low, “Adam can fill you in on the rest. He has been a part of my existence since my exile for most of it, anyway.” And he turned and left the room.

  I still felt the remnants of his deep pain and sorrow, hanging in the air. I could imagine the rest of the story without Adam filling me in but he finished the story anyway.

  Adam had met Jordan on a ship heading to the Americas from what humans call Europe. Adam had decided he wanted an adventure and had heard all about the different fey and humans that lived there. There were very few humans in the South and North American continents, so he felt confident that he could explore the fey dimension as well as the humans, and start a life there without the council tracking his every move. He was a rebel of sorts and like to do things his way, not to hurt others, but still, not having others tell him how to live.

  Adam’s love of the water took him too many lakes and rivers, learning all he could about the animal in these bodies of water, and what humans liked and didn’t like. He eventually made the Great Lakes his home and where
he eventually started his fishing business in the late 1800s. He, of course, was in his human attire and that was how Jordan first met him.

  Jordan somehow knew that Adam was fey, and thought he was a spy, sent to watch him and make sure he wasn’t successful in finding someone to kill him.

  Adam wasn’t a spy, of course, but Jordan didn’t know this. It didn’t take long before Adam suspected that Jordan was different from other humans, and in a drunken and stupid curiosity, approached Jordan one night and confronted him.

  “To make a long story short” Adam said, “we roughed each other up quite a bit before Jordan blurted out, he was aware, I was a fey and to stop spying on him.

  “I was taken aback by his statement and that was how our friendship got started. It was rocky at first and Jordan probably wouldn’t say it started out as a friendship. It took me a while to convince Jordan that I wasn’t there to spy, and Jordan finally believed me and told me his story.

  “I had heard the legend of a fey who betrayed the council and harmed one of the elders, but it was not told who the elder was. Everyone just assumed it was one of the older council members. The fear that was spread throughout the fey world, was put there to stop any other fey from harming an elder. It was the ultimate crime, and the punishment was the worst that could possibly happen to a fey.

  “Jordan, of course, had high hopes of me killing him when I knew his story, so he left nothing out. He did not leave any detail out, about Lena’s death, hoping it would stir such hatred in me that I would kill him, without even thinking of the consequences I would face after.

  “Well it didn’t happen, of course, and after years of following Jordan to keep him from finding someone who would kill him, I finally convinced him to join me on my adventures, exploring this new land.

  “Many more humans came to the America’s and things changed. I’ve always been up for new challenges, new people, new and improved technology, and more comforts. The human side of our existence, is at times, more fun than our fey world; it’s like the human’s Disney land. Lots of crazy things around, strange people, scary rides, but people like to go there anyway.

  “That’s how I feel being in the human realm. Do I want to live here forever? No, but for now I enjoy it, and I like keeping Jordan out of trouble. I fear that when I leave this place, he will find someone to end his existence. Jordan is like a brother to me now and I feel a strong obligation to stay with him, maybe for eternity, I don’t know.

  “Jordan often tells me it’s time for me to go home and let him finish with his sentence in peace. I thought for sure that he had succeeded finally in getting himself killed by the octopus, but this time it was for a good reason. It was to save you Princess, not to end his misery. I truly don’t believe he was even thinking about his life ending during that struggle with the beast, he just had this determination to not let another elder perish because of his carelessness.”

  I thought about this, and said, “But if he knew you were fey, then he knew that we were too. Why have we been hiding then?”

  “Over the years, his ability to tell fey from human had weakened. The longer he was human, the less fey abilities he could keep. His ability to see through our human veils was the last to go. I didn’t want him to know our guests were, in fact, fey because it was too painful to be around them.

  “I did find out early on, that he knew you, Princess, were fey. He knew the minute he met you. Why, we don’t know, he couldn’t see through Brett, Rose or Lily’s coverings, and I left it at that. He knew you were special somehow, and felt the need to watch over you and protect you.

  “Jordan also felt that there was some kind of danger down below, where Queen Widow is. He still gets those strong feelings about danger around us, or evil in a person. That is left over from his fey past. He was the one who unlocked the door to the room, but you and Rose interrupted his inspection of it. Jordan had been hiding in the crews’ bunk room when Brett and I came down and went into the room also. He suspected there was something going on, and that is when he told me he knew you were fey, but I insisted that he leave it at that, and ask no questions of me.”

  “But he saved my life, not for selfish reasons, but because he truly wanted to protect me?” I said more to myself, but out loud still.

  “So if the elders are watching over him, then they saw what he did. This should give him some brownie points, don’t you think? And they now know that he has shared his story with me. What will they do?”

  Before Adam could speak, I told Brett to let me out of the booth, I stood up and put my hands on my hips, and of course Brett got this smirky look on his face, but I didn’t care.

  I said, “I don’t care what they plan to do to him. I won’t let them harm him in the least. What else can they do to him anyway? He lost the love of his life, they took away his fey life and punished him with an eternity of being human. I was human and it wasn’t bad, but still, he is fey and belongs in the fey realm to rest in peace. His saving me should change his punishment some, I would think!”

  Adam and Brett just sat there, both with smirks on their faces.

  “What?!” I said.

  Brett, still standing, came over to me, put his hands on my shoulders and said, “Let’s not get all uptight Princess. We don’t need the council coming down on all of us at this time. Let’s just finish this little boat ride, get to New York, and see what’s in store for us there.”

  A movement caught my eye, just past Brett, over in the porthole and there I saw Andean. I had totally forgotten about him. He had been down in the depths of the lake, trying to save me too. Brett turned to see what I was looking at.

  “I forgot about him. He was there too.” I said.

  I walked over to the porthole and put my hand up on the glass; he did the same. His smile told me that he was safe, but I could also feel his thoughts. Andean reassured me he was fine and that the cave was closed for good. The poor creature that had been taken over by Stephan was at peace now, in a grave that no one would ever open. He made sure of this. The hole that led to the dark one, was closed for good.

  Andean apologized for his lake not being as safe as he had hoped. He reassured me though, I could enter the waters and he would be right there to protect me if I needed to do this one more time before we continued our journey on land.

  “Yes, one more time before we get there.” I said, and Brett then was right beside me.

  “Not without me you won’t!” Brett said, in a protective manner.

  Adam chuckled and replied, “Princess, it looks like you have many around here to protect you. How do you manage to juggle keeping them all happy?”

  I felt a humming sensation coming from my necklace, and reaching down to pick it up, there was Kimberlite staring back at me.

  I heard him say, in my thoughts of course, “Don’t forget me! I made sure the entrance in the back of the cave really is closed for good, to stop the dark one from ever entering Andean’s lake again.” He smiled from ear to ear and then was gone, and only the little lava pebbles remained.

  Just then, in came Rose and Lily. Rose seemed all up tight and Lily had the same; ‘I couldn’t care less attitude’.

  Rose started in first, “I waited as long as I could. Are you all done with your secrets so I can take care of Princess Emilee?”

  Of course Lily had to put in her two cents, saying, “More secrets and deception, I assume. Not healthy for a team. Remember?”

  Lily turned back into her cat shape, and turned and left the room.

  I started to follow her as I yelled, “Lily you get back here!” But Brett took my arm gently and said, “Let her go. She can’t get into any trouble, I hope. I think this day has been long enough and we all need rest before we reach port tomorrow. Go with Rose and get some rest. You can go into the water in the early morning before lots of commotion starts on the water, and in the boat itself.”

  Adam agreed as he stood. Just then, Trevor came in and said, “Are you all done with my kitchen? I wou
ld really like to finish cleaning it and get some shut eye before I have to start tomorrow’s meals. Now shoo all of you!”

  Adam reassured him that we were done and everyone left the dining area. Brett walked me to my cabin, with Rose ahead of us. Adam said good night and entered his room. I could see, just as he shut the door, that Jordan was there waiting for him.

  Rose opened our door and went in, leaving Brett and I alone. I turned towards him and he put his hand under my chin, lifting it up so our eyes could meet.

  “So Princess, now you know a lot more about the world you come from.”

  “Yes, but I also have so many more questions.” I said, quietly.

  Brett kissed me softly on the forehead and said, “Tomorrow is another day. Let’s get some sleep before we face anything else. I’ll come get you at dawn for one last swim in the lake.”

  Brett turned me around, gave me a little shove into my room and shut the door.

  There stood lily in her true fey form. She said, “I’m going to go back to my cat shape now, Princess. I sleep better curled up in this shape than trying to sleep on the floor as my true self. After all, there isn’t really room for me to sleep comfortably, unless you want to sleep on the floor and me in your bed?” Lily gave me a wink, and then a cat, she was.

  Lily crawled into her cage and Rose, saying nothing, sat down on my bed so I could feed just a bit more. When I was done, Rose got up still silent and went to her bed. I suspected Rose was a bit miffed that she was left out of the conversation that I had with the others. I felt a bit bad, but knew it had to be this way for now.

  I got out of my clothes and into my bed, and sleep came quickly, but I can’t say it was restful.

  Chapter 12

  Who am I really?

  At times I change not at all,

  At times I change too fast.

  With every day come changes,

  Small and large,

  Will I know who I am in the end?