Esylle was there at all of their births and she had all boys. All of her sons had her violet eyes and some of her features, but resembled their fathers the strongest. Her child with Sono was lighter skinned than Sono, but had his glowing complexion. Every single child came out with more fire than Lisana did when she was born and seemed to be strong boys as she was cleaning them off. The older they got, the more they seemed to have gotten all of her gifts. All of them healed like she did, but that didn’t stop Lisana or Esylle from running to them when they were hurt. They didn’t know if they had the same gifts she had of creation and she kept saying it was too soon to try to see. She pointed out Frog wasn’t fully transformed because she may have been too young before.
Esylle thought she would be done after that. She had given everyone a king and had four strong sons. She shot her a confused look when she announced she was with child again after Rayne, her son with Neptis grew to his second name day. She noticed Leodos looking at her like he didn’t understand either.
She gave them all that impish look they hadn’t seen in so many years. “I’m surrounded by boys all the time. I’m hoping for a girl this time.”
Esylle didn’t have the heart to tell her she may end up with another boy, but she was also hoping for another girl. Liana was much older now and while she resembled Esylle and Lisana very much, she got Leodos’ height. She had nearly reached her ninth name day and was already both of their heights. Leo had already passed all of them up and had his father’s tall, lanky frame. Sono, Oris, and Neptis all helped her children through their first changes and they all had the same gifts Esylle and Leodos had, except for being able to heal. Lisana could pass the light on, but Esylle and Leodos couldn’t.
The light never came to her every time she gave birth and Esylle would have to be uncomfortable because she was. When Esylle finally asked her why it didn’t, because usually, she was never tired or in pain that long before she was refreshed. She explained she thought it didn’t come because it may harm or change the baby.
When the time came again, Esylle was in the room with her along with Sono, Neptis, and Oris. There had stopped being four midwives in there arguing after her first son. When she had Oris’ child, the Theran midwife was there and it was the same for the other two. She hadn’t said who the father of this child was, like she had with Divos. Esylle never asked because she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer. She wondered if she had a girl, it would be like Divos and look exactly like her.
This birth was not like her first one and didn’t take as long. Like all the others, the child’s cries were strong, as was their fire. When Esylle went to the basin and saw a flame-haired girl, she couldn’t help but announce it before she wrapped the child and brought it to her. She named the girl Auris, which was another name from the books from Inanos. Esylle learned reading them that it was what they called the light that they all had now.
When Lisana went missing, Esylle was starting to think she would never get her back again when she appeared at the pond. She never thought that day when she saw her and felt her call to her that things would change so much once she got here. Esylle had finally accepted who she was supposed to be. She was there when everything happened, but she still didn’t understand how this small girl ended so many centuries of conflict and brought peace without striking a blow.
Their family was now ruling as they should with everyone being represented. The humans and the tribes now mixed together on the streets like they hadn’t spent so many years hating each other. The palace was now filled with the sound of children’s laughter, unlike how it had been before. Esylle’s children and Lisana’s didn’t have to grow up away from everyone, hiding themselves. They were free to play in the gardens and just be children.
Lisana had changed the humans that asked to join the tribes after a few months of debating among themselves before deciding that was what they wanted. It took a while for her to gift everyone because it took so much out of her. Everyone who wanted to was changed and by all reports from Volaris, Terros, and Fluvis, they were adjusting well. Volaris asked her, since they no longer needed to spy, if she could gift those Farkhi who did the ability to become something else that flew. She said she would try and like everything else, she was able to do it. A few thought they should remain that way because they thought they should continue to watch the Lords, but after two years, the Lords seemed content to retire to their estates and they asked to be changed as well.
Esylle knew nothing about who she was supposed to be that day she appeared at the pond other than who she thought she was. Lisana wouldn’t talk about it, but Belisarus wrote about her fondly in his diary and loved her, even if he didn’t show her. She tried to bring up that day that he whipped her because he was both upset that he lost control like that and he did because he was upset she was already coming into her gifts. He knew it would make her ask more questions and he was conflicted if he just wanted her to be his granddaughter or prepare her for what she was supposed to do. Lisana still refused to talk about it seven years later.
Esylle didn’t know how she did it, but Lisana disliked it so much, she taught her children without taking their fire. Esylle did to Liana and Leo and they were used to it now. Lisana still wasn’t. Esylle watched her start them from a young age at making the heart flower and taught them the way Esylle had done on the beach that day.
Terros, Volaris, and Fluvis were all very proud of their grandchildren, even the ones that weren’t sired by their sons. Esylle watched as Terros finally softened and Grav and Auris had him wrapped around their little fingers. He spoiled them and always wanted to be there during their lessons. Volaris stopped looking at Lisana like he was worried she would hurt his son. Fluvis would sometimes forget to be rigid when one of the children would tackle him and he would end up on the grass with them on top of him.
Esylle learned to stop thinking about the years she missed and just enjoy the years she had with Lisana, her brood, and her new children. She learned to enjoy the new peace she had brought and it no longer seemed strange to not hide herself anymore.
The Spirus-Belisarus’ Diary: A Preview
Prologue
Esylle kept Belisarus’ diary just in case Lisana ever felt she was ready to talk about it. She tried to gently ease her into it after she read it, but years had passed and she still hadn’t asked. Lisana’s eldest child had reached his fifteenth name day and was an exact replica of his mother if Esylle had known her at that age. Esylle thought she would never discuss the diary, but there was a soft knock on her chamber door before she and Leodos went to sleep.
Esylle’s other children were getting towards the age they would marry if they had just been Tempris like Esylle used to be. Since they were gifted like Esylle was now and would marry into a tribe, she would get a few more years with them. The tribes didn’t marry until they were a few years older.
Since her other children were older now and had their own chambers, Lisana spent time with them in the gardens or over food. Esylle missed when they were babies and they were all in her chambers together. Lisana would fall asleep in the chair holding one of them while they napped.
Lisana still came to her chambers to chat and they often walked in the gardens together holding arms, but she never came this late. She looked uncomfortable, the way she had when Esylle first met her again and she was blocking her from feeling her. She hadn’t done that in so long. Esylle couldn’t imagine what was wrong when she sat down and told her she was ready to read the diary.
Esylle didn’t let her see, and tried not to let her feel how relieved this made her. She had been refusing to talk about him for so long, she didn’t even ask what made up her mind. She only hoped she got her answers and came to talk to her when she was done.
She watched her sit on the corner of the bed and read the note he wrote after she left that Esylle told her about so long ago. Esylle had read the diary several times and already had his note memorized. Leodos finally came in from his bath and seemed surpris
ed to see her there with the diary, but quickly hid it. Neither of them spoke to her while she finished the note and only embraced her as she left with it. Leodos had also read it. Esylle remembered the note before she fell asleep
Esylle,
I know you missed much when I took Lisana. I’m hoping you are here now and found this journal. I hope she learned she needed to end this where it started and brought you here. I meant to give this to you when she brought you here, but I couldn’t hold on long enough.
I’m sure you have questions she can’t answer and I hope this journal gives them to you. I stayed up every night after she slept, since the moment I arrived here, journaling her growth. This diary starts from the night I took her to the day she left to find you again. I hope it fills in the blanks, for both of you.
I regretting taking her and telling you nothing. Rivannus would not have allowed me to take her and I thought if I said something to you, that you would not either. She would have been in danger if she stayed while she was still young. If any of the Lords had watched her heal or any of the tribes found out about her, you would have lost her in worse ways than me taking her.
Don’t read this now. Bring it back with you and read it once you are back in the palace. She still has much left to do if she’s done what I think she’s done. What she needs to do now will sap her energy and she needs to learn from you to be a queen. Teach her and read after.
Belisarus
Esylle, I’ve arrived at Idric Island with your daughter. I’ve paid one of the guards at your door to send me ravens and I know Rivannus hasn’t explained to you who I am, what he is, nor why she needed to be taken. Rivannus and I knew who she was as soon as your midwife handed her to us. We had been arguing for three months about me taking her away where she could be safe.
I don’t want her to be who she is. I prayed, with the others, for her to return, but I wasn’t expecting her to come in the form of my granddaughter. I know Rivannus still hasn’t told you he is both Theran and Tark for the same reason I initially forbade him to. His secret is almost as deadly as Lisana’s. Your guard tells me he’s searching, but has not revealed that he knows I took her to the public. I’m guessing he hasn’t told you in private either, based on reports from your guard.
I’m sure you are wondering how I took her without a trace. I’m sure you’re wondering, if Rivannus is part Theran, how he didn’t smell me in the room and wake up. He got his Theran lineage from me and the Tark from his mother. He was not raised with the tribes because they sent us away. Mixing among tribes is forbidden. They didn’t kill us because I escaped and taught you.
On his tenth name day, if he had been raised with the tribes, they would have picked a form for him. One his tenth name day, I lit the fire and sang the words, but I let him choose. He was able to choose both a Theran and Tark form and that is why he’s such a good hunter. I didn’t intend for the two of you to meet and marry. He listened to me speak of you fondly growing up and always wanted to be allowed to meet you. He would try to get close to the palace, hoping to lay eyes on you.
He saw you as a child, by the pond with Leodos practicing the heart flower, and after that, he grew up only thinking about you. I forbade him from approaching you because I didn’t want to see him get his heart broken and I didn’t want him around the Lords where his secret could be found out. He disobeyed me for the first time the day he met you in the forest. He was out there on purpose, waiting for Leodos to leave you, as he had watched as you grew.
I had hoped Leodos would send him away, but he’s never been able to tell you no. I had hoped your father would deny you when you begged for a marriage, but he’s also never been able to deny you. I asked him to suggest me to come back to teach your child when you became pregnant because I wanted to be near my grandchild, but I didn’t want you to know you became my family when you married him.
We had argued to the point that I told him to tell you our secret. I asked him to tell you who she is. I’ve watched you grow and I knew how much you wanted this child, but I thought you could understand why she couldn’t stay. I thought you could talk sense to him. He refused and said if I pulled you aside and tried to tell you, he would make sure I was sent away, where I couldn’t protect her.
That’s why I knew I had to take her. Just seeing the way you were with her, I thought you would be the same. I’ve kept the tribe’s history since before Rivannus was born. I’ve traveled to places the tribes no longer go. I have to become small as a Theran to sneak into places and read documents. I’ve read some by the Lords that now give you counsel. I was able to slip through a crack at a place the tribes no longer go. I searched for this place for days. I stayed and read the tomes of who she was before and what gifts she may have. If any of the humans see just a slight portion of her gifts, they will either force Leodos or have someone else study her if they don’t kill her. If the tribes find out who she is to them, they will be at the palace constantly, trying to both teach her and touch her, and the humans will become suspicious.
I will tell you how I took her because I’m sure you wonder. I acted like I left, then I changed in my Theran form and hid. Rivannus couldn’t smell me and Lisana won’t when she is older. There is an old Theran trick I read in parchment from the first wars that you can hide your scent with castor beans. I used those, and then I put your jasmine perfume on me. There was a small crack in your wall big enough for a mouse for me to hide in.
I’m sure you’re also wondering why none of you woke that night. I waited for the night the kitchens were serving duck soup. I slipped into the kitchen and put valerian in both the soup and the wine that was brought up to you. It would have made all of you sleep until after she was gone.
I know they will not tell you this because they don’t want you to know and I’ve seen their letters. They didn’t want you to have an heir. I managed to get the guards outside your door drunk. They were asleep outside your door when I left with her. I was long gone before anyone realized and replaced them. I know they would never have told you she may have been taken due to drunk guards because they want her to stay gone. That’s another reason I took her.
I also put castor in your duck soup so that it would pass onto her when you fed her and make Rivannus tracking her scent impossible. He knows mine and hers is impossible to miss. I walked with her strapped to my belly and hidden under my cloak until I got to the boat to take me to Idric.
I hoped she would be safe from her gifts here. I hoped she could just grow up a normal child. I can’t raise her the way you would. I gave her a bottle filled with goat’s milk and more valerian on the journey so that I could hide her. It finally wore off as soon as we got here and I placed her in the crib. Everyone in my tribe knows there’s no magic here at Idric.
But she has it. As soon as she awoke screaming, she set her blanket on fire. I can’t get close to her like that the way you do, so I had to try to sing to her from across the room. I sang to her the Theran songs I sang to Rivannus when he was a babe. She eventually calmed enough for me to rock her to sleep.
Her fire is stronger than yours because of who she is. I’m not sure how to teach her without you or your father there to take her fire away, but I’ll manage. I’m not sure what else she can do yet because she’s so young still. Your guard is watching you and sending me ravens. When Rivannus calms and comes to understand why she couldn’t stay with you, I’ll send you a raven and let you know I have her and she’s safe. I have to tell her who she is eventually, but I’m not ready yet. I hope when she is older, I can at least tell her who you are and you can send ravens.
Other works
Literary/Psychological
Midnight’s Sonata
Feet of Clay
Bette, Unscripted: A Dark Psychological Drama
Crow Girl
The Flight of Crow Girl
Paranormal/Science Fiction
Flash-A Death Story (The Usas Book 1)
The Usas Bellum Justum-The Just War (The Usas Book 2)
Lilith
Romance
Salome-A Modern Retelling
Humor
Attack of the Lesbian Farmers
So Your Cat is Trying to Kill You
Special Agent Mauve-Origins (Book 1)
Special Agent Mauve-Mission: Naughty Horace (Book 2)
Special Agent Mauve-Mission: Viper (Book 3)
Fantasy
The Spirus (Book 1)
The Spirus-Belisarus’ Diary (Book 2)
The Spirus-The Lord’s Uprising (Book 3)
The Spirus-The Gifted Child (Book 4)
Coming Soon
Child of Fire, Child of Ice-A Sci-fi Romance
The Neighbors-A satire
Special Agent Mauve-Mission: Scorpions
Table of Contents
Soryn
Esylle
Leodos
Soryn
Esylle
Leodos
Esylle
Volaris
Soryn
Leodos
Volaris
Leodos
Soryn
Sono
Leodos
Volaris
Esylle
Oris
Soryn
Oris
Esylle
Soryn
Leodos
Soryn
Terros
Volaris
Terros
Joron
Esylle
Soryn
Fluvis
Soryn
Terros
Oris
Leodos
Soryn
Volaris
Neptis
Esylle
Sono
Soryn
Leodos
Oris
Soryn
Volaris
Esylle
Sono
Leodos
Terros
Joron
Oris
Soryn
Leodos
The Spirus Page 55