by Cameron Jace
Although I hated him sometimes for leaving me, I knew he was right. In my short life, I had learned that happiness and peace were beautiful, but temporary. Nothing in this world, however hard we fight for it, lasts. And it’s usually not because we messed up, but because like Lady Shallot had said, the universe, in its most mysterious ways, demands balance. And someone’s balance is always someone else’s imbalance.
And then one day we lost our balance in the Kingdom of Sorrow.
We woke up and found a man dead. He was murdered, not bitten. It didn’t make a difference. If evil from the outside hadn’t pounded on the kingdom’s gates yet, then it had seeped in through the pores of people’s hearts.
After investigating the murder, we learned that people complained about the lack of light in the kingdom. It was true they had the glittering apples and fireflies, but they said they weren’t enough to light a man’s destiny at night when the creatures came out — and it was apparent we had some of those by now.
“We need to talk to Lady Shallot,” I said to Angel.
“About what?”
“The light,” I said. “Remember when she said the kingdom she was sewing needed a sun and a moon? We need a sun to light up the roads, or the darkness in this kingdom will arise.”
“I agree,” Angel sighed, and left the castle.
What happened to Angel after that remained a mystery to me. I only know bits and pieces of the story. I know that he dove into the ocean’s waters, and swam to find Lady Shallot’s rocky island again. I didn’t know what happened after he found her, although, I should’ve guessed when he returned to the castle with a baby in his arms seven days later.
“Who is it?” I asked, unable to see if it was a boy or a girl. “It’s so young. Was it just born?”
“About three days old.” Angel held it tightly, stopping me from holding it or seeing its gender. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Lady Shallot said that it’s only me who can hold it.”
“Why?” I loved children, and I was curious about this one. I swear I could see an orange light shimmering from between Angel’s hands. A lovely light. It reflected on his face, as if he were holding a shimmering candlestick.
“I have no idea,” he said reluctantly. I knew he was keeping something from me. “It’s her rules. You wanted light. I brought you light.”
“What do you mean?”
“This baby is…” he hesitated.
“Is what?”
“Our sun,” Angel said, as its rays shone onto his face. “The Kingdom of Sorrow’s sun,” Angel smiled.
“The sun is a baby?”
“Lady Shallot said that each world needed a sun, and that they were babies with special powers,” Angel explained. “And this one is our sun.” The way he said ‘sun’ sounded like our son for a moment.
“We only have to feed it and take care of it for a couple of days, and then there is a little ritual that Shallot taught me to perform — alone — so it will find its way up to the sky.”
“I’m a little uncomfortable with this ‘alone’ thing,” I said, even though I was happy with it. In fact, I was enchanted by the rays of light filling the castle. Angel was embracing sunlight in his arms. Would it have been possible to have our own sun inside the castle? I didn’t dare to ask.
“It’s just for the ritual,” Angel cuddled the baby, golden light passing through his fingers. “You will have your sun that will light up the days for our people, and prevent crime and darkness. This way, we’ll have no more murders in Sorrow.”
I nodded.
It’s hard to explain, even now, how I could feel jealous of the sun in my husband’s caring hands. Was it a boy, a girl, or was the sun sexless? Why didn’t he want me to know?
“So who will feed it?” I said.
“I will,” he almost pulled it closer to him. “That’s part of the ritual. Three days, and then we'll have a protecting sun in our sky.”
It was a promise he fulfilled.
Three days later, we were celebrating with the peasants and the honorable people of Sorrow in the Schloss. We celebrated the sun shining in Sorrow’s skies. It was a grand event, unforgettable and most enchanting.
At first, we all had problems opening our eyes in the glaring light, or walking beneath its heat softly kissing our skin. We had been living in the semi-dark for some time, only ushered by glittering golden apples and fireflies. Some people invented their own protective aid — like pulling a shawl down over their eyes — until they got used to it.
I had no problem staring at it for hours, knowing that behind that glaring light, there was a child, maybe tucked in its own golden cradle, bending its knees and arms like my future child would do in our royal cradle. It was a beautiful thought. I was so curious to know more about it. Was it going to grow up there, or was it going to stay a baby forever? Angel said I should never ask.
The sun proved it could protect the people with its light. There were no more killings under the sun, and no more crimes occurred — I had heard rumors that thieves and burglars feared it, and thought it was God’s golden all-seeing eye in the sky.
It proved to be even more beneficial for the crops and the trees, attracting birds and other magical creatures.
But sometimes it was me who felt skeptical about it — it may have been jealousy, but I’m not sure. “Angel,” I said. “Isn’t it possible that this broad light would make our enemies pay attention to us?”
“I’m not sure what you mean?” he said.
“I mean all this great light; we can’t hide from it. Earlier our island was a secret floating across the darkened seas,” Angel had told me the Seven Seas were in perpetual darkness when he swam back to Lady Shallot, now that the Moongirl had died. “But this sun will make us too visible now.”
“I agree,” Angel said. “But we can’t live in darkness forever. That’s why I am building the army.”
“I understand,” I nodded, not quite persuaded.
“Think of it this way, at least there will be no more killing in the Kingdom of Sorrow. With the sun exposing everyone each day, evil will not find a way, all but in the few hours of night when most of us are asleep.”
But Angel was wrong.
What happened was that the darkness in people’s hearts, although chained by the light of the sun, still found its way in the night. Darkness always finds its way, believe me I know, but so did the light. It’s another universal equilibrium of sorts.
But the sun, as usual, sank into ocean, sleeping in its bed by night. And that’s when the killing, stealing, and the rise of demonic creatures threatened Sorrow.
“So evil isn’t a point of view, like everyone tried to persuade us,” I said, staring at the cemetery we had to build for all the evil committed under the darkness after the sun had gone to bed each night.
“I am at loss of words,” Angel said. “Did we not rule in all fairness? What did we do wrong to have people killing and stealing from one another?”
I wrapped my arm around Angel, speechless. There was no way to explain why ruling a kingdom was so difficult. I’d happily downgrade my life to a peasant’s one and live happily ever after. Then I asked Angel if the sun could stay up day and night. He said that it needed to sleep just like us.
Of course, it was human after all.
“I think it’s time to ask Lady Shallot for a moon, then,” I said, clinging to my man, who I had missed so much.
“The Moongirl died, Carmilla. Do you think Lady Shallot still has a way to find us a moon?”
“How should I know?” I asked. “You never told me how you got our sun.”
“All right. I will swim to Lady Shallot tomorrow,” Angel said in a confident way. I had a feeling that he knew exactly where to get a moon. “You stay here, darling. It will only take seven days in the dark seas.”
Chapter 46
The Queen’s Diary
Having been cured of the curse of water, I made up my mind to follow Angel this time. It wasn’t a feeling of betr
ayal that moved me, but unquenchable curiosity, even though I sensed he may have been trying to protect me from something.
I followed him in an enchanted canoe that was immune to sinking in the ocean. I wished we'd had it when we spent seven days in the Seven Seas looking for the Tower of Tales. I owned one now only because I had learned witchcraft from the immigrants of Sorrow, and I was becoming quite good at it.
In the middle of the ocean, I followed Angel, climbing up the tower to meet Lady Shallot. Now that the tower had turned to normal, it wasn’t a hard climb. Only Angel was much stronger and faster than me — I thought that was incredibly unfair, since it was my blood that fueled him.
So I ended up arriving too late, hiding behind the door to Lady Shallot’s room. All the talking had been done, and all I saw was a bunch of flowers she gave him.
Flowers? What was going on?
The flowers smelled so good from where I stood. The kind I had never seen before. Later, I realized they were Rapunzel flowers, but little did I know their purpose back then. All I could think of was that some weird relationship was forming between Angel and the weaver.
I stepped into a dark corner when Angel left the room and then followed him down. I waited for Angel as he left the tower and used the canoe after him, wondering if he had seen it.
I tried to follow him, but the ocean grew angrier, its tides pushing at me and threatening to make me fail. I thought I had gained enough experience in rowing a boat from the time we had followed the Moon’s Path, but in those dark waters, rowing was incredibly different. I didn’t have Angel’s swimming powers, and so I ended up losing track of him.
A while later, the sea still as dark as night, I came upon a very small island. I stopped at it and explored it a little. It was dark, so there wasn’t a lot to see. However, a faint yellowish light shown in the distance. Another tower. A much smaller one.
My inner guidance told me I’d find Angel in there, so I walked to it.
Once I arrived, I saw Angel inside. He was standing next to a woman sleeping in a coffin, half-filled with water. I couldn’t see whether she was dead or alive. Was she his mistress? Was he being unfaithful to me? Why did Lady Shallot send him here?
I hated myself for feeling insecure and jealous. Little did I realize that this was part of the sorrow Fate had promised me.
I hid somewhere safe, so Angel wouldn’t see me. The woman sleeping in the coffin was most probably dead — sedated at the very least. She lay on her back, her hair floating on the water, like curvy octopus tentacles. I still couldn’t see her face, though.
A few cloaked men — maybe women — arrived in the hall where Angel stood. They were holding candles and began chanting a hymn of sorts. I watched Angel kneeling down to talk to someone standing next to the coffin. They were arguing. Whatever it took to have a moon baby, it seemed it wasn’t an easy process.
A small number of little children appeared, clinging behind the women in robes. I couldn’t hear all of the conversation, but I heard something about the woman having been asleep for a hundred years.
Then the woman in the water began to scream. Painful screams. Almost defeating, filled with longing and suffering. The women in robes never stopped chanting. A few of them neared the woman and held her hands tight. Then two of them spread the women’s legs.
That’s when I realized the woman was giving birth to a child.
Moments after, two young girls arrived and helped hold the newborn baby in their hands. I couldn’t see the baby’s face, not because I hadn’t a clear line of sight from where I hid, but because the baby was glowing in a strong white color, which was reflected on the younger girl’s faces.
The girls turned to face Angel, with smiles on their faces. Slowly they handed the baby to Angel. He held it carefully, the same way he had held the sun baby before. The glowering white light shone on Angel’s stubble, and for a moment, Angel looked like… well… he looked like an angel.
I had just witnessed the birth of a moon baby. The Kingdom of Sorrow’s moon.
“She is all yours,” an older woman appeared and spoke to Angel. She had that same good aura about her, just like Charmwill Glimmer. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” Angel said. “Thank you. Camilla will be so happy.”
“She should be,” the old woman said. “She has fulfilled her promise to the Moongirl after all.”
“I wish I could tell her that,” Angel said. “I don’t understand why Lady Shallot told me not to tell her.”
“None of it will make sense to her, you know,” the old woman said. “But it may later. For now, Carmilla can’t know that she has saved the Moongirl’s daughter by resurrecting her through this ritual you have just performed. Thank you.”
Angel brushed a tender hand upon the new Moongirl’s forehead. “I guess there is no point to giving her a new name.”
“No,” the old woman laughed. “This one had her name chosen by her mother, even before she had been born.”
And in one breath, Angel, the old woman, and me uttered her name. “Marmalade.”
Except that I had to whisper it to myself, a tear rolling down from my eye. We had fulfilled our first promise to the Moongirl who’d died for us. And even though I didn’t understand why I wasn’t supposed to know about it, I didn’t mind. I was happy that Angel and I could give back to the world and pay the first of our debts.
Chapter 47
The Queen’s Diary
Tears were still rolling down my cheeks, I didn’t want to leave yet. I was already in love with our moon. I knew I’d do everything I could for her. I wouldn’t give up on her after her mother had turned into dust to save us. I overheard the rest of the conversation between Angel and the old woman.
“What about her mother?” Angel pointed at the comatose woman floating on top of the water.
“She is dead,” the old woman said. “Giving birth to a moon is the noblest task. A girl who volunteers for it has to sleep for hundred years in a certain condition, much like the Field of Dreams you have in your kingdom. Then will give birth to a sun or moon, and be remembered in our hearts as a noble woman.”
“But Marmalade is the Moongirl’s daughter,” Angel seemed confused.
“She is. The girl who gave birth is more of a vessel to help the dead Moongirl have her promised child after she died,” the old woman said. “It’s hard to grasp, I know, but the moons and mermaids have their own rules in this mad world.”
“Mad indeed,” Angel said, still holding the baby.
“It’s time to take Marmalade back where she belongs,” the woman said.
“Back to Atlantis,” Angel smiled at the irony. “Where her ancestors had been once cursed.”
The woman nodded. “She will be honored with being the moon over Atlantis, known as your Kingdom of Sorrow, these days,” she rolled her eyes. “Marmalade will follow her mother’s footsteps.”
“Meaning?”
“She will not only be the light to your kingdom when it’s nighttime, she will also descend as a girl and save those in need at night, so your kingdom can prosper and evade as much evil as possible.”
“But she is a baby.”
“Soon she will grow up to be sixteen, even before her time,” the woman said. “She will do the job she has been assigned to do,” then she hesitated for a moment. “But she will be very lonely. It’s the price she has to pay in her cause against the Piper.”
“Forever?” Angel said. “I mean can’t she have a companion. Fall in love maybe?”
“Who falls in love with the night?” the woman said, then she rubbed her chin, thinking. “Although the prophecy does say she will fall in love with a thief.”
“Thief?” Angel frowned.
“A good thief,” the woman smiled broadly, the same way Charmwill did. I wondered if they were related. The boy seemed to mean much to her. “But prophecies don’t always come true.”
Angel hugged the baby tighter, feeling for her sacrifice. “One last thing,”
he asked the old woman. “Isn’t there a way to tell Carmilla? She has been through a lot, and this will really lift her spirits.”
The woman’s lovely and shining face dimmed, “No,” she said firmly. “If you tell her, the price we all pay may be too high. It’s not written in stone, but we can’t risk Carmilla knowing about Marmalade’s existence.”
“Why?” Angel pleaded. “The Moongirl asked Carmilla to save her child. It doesn’t make sense.”
The old woman stepped closer to Angel. She was much shorter than him, so she craned her neck up at him, tense veins showing on her neck. “Trust the universe with the decision it makes. The universe is trying to help us beat the Piper.”
“None of this makes sense.”
“Listen young man, your wife is a puzzle, a controversial woman, who may raise the world up to the heavens or bury it in the depths of hell.”
“Camilla?” Angel let out an objecting chuckle. “Of course not. I feel like you’re talking about me. I am the one who is leaning towards the dark side.”
“That’s just what you think,” the old woman said. “Why do you think Night Von Sorrow hasn’t killed her yet? There is so much evil in your wife you don’t know about.”
“Stop it,” he said, stepping back from her.
“So much evil she doesn’t even know she has in her.” The old woman stepped forward, taunting him. “If that evil arises at any point in her life, she will want to kill Marmalade at all costs.”
Angel couldn’t believe it himself, standing there while protecting the baby moon with his arms. Frankly, I couldn’t believe this woman was talking about me. I mean, me? I have suffered like no one I had ever heard of. Why did she think those things about me?
“I’m leaving now,” Angel evaded the woman’s intense eyes. “Thank you for the baby moon. I promise I will never tell Carmilla.”
The old woman watched Angel walk away, the tense look still filling her eyes. It baffled me because it wasn’t an evil look. It was the cautious look of a woman who knew too much, which really scared me.