Look how it sparkles, I thought. Ooo, feeling my magpie tendencies right now. With the shelves of books and the pretty window, this room had to be my favorite. So far at least. I couldn’t believe how many books they’d crammed in this place. You could only see glimpses of the white stone on the walls.
I must come back to look at this room properly, if we get time. Elena sat on a large ornate chair and indicated we should sit. We sat on two couches that ran parallel and looked to the Sorceress, waiting.
Elena smiled at the curious faces before her.
'I suppose you are wondering why I sent the Griffon Guard to bring you to me?'
The women nodded earnestly.
'I believe I will have this conversation with the women only,' she spoke to Alek who glanced at Catherine.
'Why don’t you men head to the Solar as you usually do. I will send them that way when we are done.'
The men stood and bowed to the Sorceress then left the room.
The four of us switched seats so we sat on the couch opposite Elena and waited for her story.
'When you four arrived in our world,' Elena arched an eyebrow at us. 'You each threw off a massive power surge. Something I haven’t seen in quite a while. As you might have noticed there are people in this world who are "gifted". They have special abilities and anyone with these abilities will have sensed your arrival too. Even more so after the incident on the griffons.'
Abilities? And what did she mean by power surge? All we’d done was freak out when we thought Sian was in serious danger. I interrupted her.
'Elena, I’m sorry but I don’t think we understand what you’re talking about.'
The Sorceress looked surprised.
'Are you saying we have abilities?'
'Yes. You must have. To give off such an energy wave is absolute proof.'
'But we didn’t do anything,' Sian said looking, like the rest of us, very confused.
'Yeah, all we did was wake up. And on the griffons just before we got here, we passed out.' Kassie said, 'That doesn’t sound like an impressive gift to me. Passing out when something scary happens.'
I agreed.
'Totally useless.'
Elena shook her head.
'No. What I’m trying to say is I believe you girls are gifted. From the elements.'
Nope. Still no clue what she was babbling about, I thought, then remembered something.
'Sian, our weapons we found when we arrived, they’re all engraved right? With designs that could represent the elements.'
Sian stared at me as she thought about it.
'Actually yes, I think they are.'
'Well there you go then.' Loi said to Elena. 'We have been gifted but in a more literal sense.'
There was silence as we waited for her response. She’d shut her eyes and had a hand to her head. We glanced at each other and Loi shrugged, settling back in her seat.
Elena let out a sigh.
'Let me start again. In Gar'nyse—the world you’re now on, beings can be born with special abilities. These are known as gifts. For example, some are born with the gift to foresee events. Others can change form and some can create illusions. Every time a gifted being uses their gift, consciously or not, it throws off an energy wave. When you four arrived you threw off a very remarkable wave.'
She paused, allowing us to digest this.
Before we could ask questions she continued, 'What you will not know, is that a person’s abilities can be drawn from them and absorbed by creatures whose abilities are very strong. This process kills you. Hence the need to get you under our protection quickly.'
We all sat up a little straighter at that.
Loi, a frown on her face, questioned Elena, 'Why do you think we’ll be of interest to such a person?'
'And how do we know you aren’t such a person?' Kassie demanded.
We looked at her in surprise then back at Elena.
'Yes,' Sian gave Elena a straight forward look.
'We’ve been informed that you have abilities and you do carry the title of Sorceress.'
It was Elena’s turn to look surprised.
'Oh. Well, I guess you wouldn’t know. Yes, I do have abilities. They are hereditary in my family and no, I have no desire to rob you of yours. I have all the powers I need.' She gave a light laugh, 'And I have no desire for world domination.'
World domination. My brain froze at that. What did that mean? We had powers strong enough to do such a thing? Surely not.
'Elena, we thought a love spell we cast brought us here,' Sian confessed blushing. 'Was it you who brought us?'
Elena's full lips twitched and the hint of a dimple appeared in a cheek, making her seem much younger.
'No. I didn’t bring you here. You simply appeared. What was the spell you cast?'
Sian spoke the spell while Elena listened and she had Sian repeat it a couple of times.
'Yes that sounds like it would work. As the spell says, it will create the right time and place for it to work and obviously that’s on our world, not yours. Did the consequences not occur to you?' Elena asked in surprise.
'Normally when we cast spells in our world it’s to draw positive energy to the cause,' explained Sian. 'I’ve cast many spells on Earth before, and none of them did this.'
'This only happens in fairy tales,' Kassie added.
And only in fairy tales are there magickal abilities, and griffons, and scary creatures like elgrids.
Oh God, I hope we can get home. The horrible butterflies returned to her stomach, somersaulting about and made her feel queasy. She spat out the question she knew they were thinking.
'How can we get back to Earth?'
Elena's face went slack with surprise, her eyes wide.
'But you didn’t ask for that,' she said in astonishment. 'You asked to find your soul mates and that is why you are here. There is no reason you’ll just ‘zap’ back when you find them.'
The four of us stared at her, aghast.
We can’t get home.
The answer to the question we’d been waiting to ask. But it was the wrong one. The realization hit hard. I felt like I’d taken a solid punch to the chest and leaned forward, trying to breathe. Beside me, Kassie began to cry, silent tears running down her cheeks, both hands pressed over her mouth. Sian stared at Kassie with an expression of agony and I reached out to her.
'We know it’s not your fault Siany.'
I caught her hand and squeezed it. Tears began to run down our faces as we wrapped our arms around each other.
'I’m so sorry.'
'It isn’t your fault.'
'We’re okay,' Loi’s voice was hoarse. 'We’re okay, we’ve got each other and we’ll make the best of it.'
'But our families,' Kassie moaned, pressing her head to my shoulder.
Our families. I’d never see Mum and Dad again. I started breathing hard.
Oh God that hurts. Images of them flashed through my mind and the tears flowed faster. We clung to each other tight while Audi whined and cried at our feet.
It was a while before we stopped and Elena sat silent, allowing our grief.
Wiping away the tears, I glanced at her.
'We’d been hoping that you might be able to get us home.'
'Yes, I gathered that.'
The Sorceress's eyes softened and she regarded us sympathetically.
'I’m very sorry I can’t. Inter-world magick is not easy. Almost impossible.'
There was a long silence as we pulled ourselves together, managing tentative smiles. Calmer, we shifted about on the couch so we faced Elena again but were close enough to touch, holding hands and leaning against each other.
It felt necessary.
A soft knock on the door broke the silence and Elena smiled and called out, her voice echoing in the large room.
'Come in.'
The door opened a fraction and a petite dark haired woman stepped into the room. She crossed the floor to where we sat. Elena gave her a look when she r
egistered our damp faces and she kept hers impassive.
'I would like to introduce you all to Ada. The castle’s newest and most gifted fabricer.'
Ada beamed at the compliment and bowed.
What is a fabricer? Is it like a tailor?
The atmosphere shifted from somber to curiosity as we waited to see why she was here.
'I’m very pleased to meet you all.'
We responded likewise and Ada took a seat next to Elena, quite comfortable with her.
'Ada is here to discuss ideas for your gowns. There is a ball at the end of the month,' Elena explained.
Well that was a change of pace. We go from never being able to return home to ball gowns. I just resisted the urge to glare at the Sorceress. Loi squeezed my hand and I gave her a rueful smile.
Can’t blame her I guess, it isn't as though it matters to her.
'What’s the ball for?'
'Alek’s birthday of course.'
My brain froze. Surely they didn’t throw a ball in honor of anyone’s birthday. Hesitant, I asked, 'Why? Who is Alek?'
Elena looked very amused.
'Elion’s Crown Prince of course. Did he not mention that?'
Suddenly the bowing and standing at the table made sense. I flushed.
'Apparently it slipped his mind.'
Elena let out a peal of laughter.
Sian watched as Cat flushed and spoke up, hoping to give her a few moments to compose herself.
'What is it you want with us then Elena? Or was it solely to keep us out of the way of those who would take our abilities?'
'I would like the opportunity to train you all to use your powers. If you do have the abilities I think you have then you would be very valuable allies,' Elena said frankly.
'How do we know you’re the good guys?' Loi asked. 'We could be allying with the wrong side.'
Elena let out an exasperated sigh.
'Here is the offer I make you. I will train you and provide for you. You will have free reign to explore as you like and ask what you like. All I ask is that you give it at least one month before you make any final decisions as to what you are going to do.'
'Why one month?' queried Kassie.
'Because it’ll take a month to develop your abilities to a level that will be of any use to you. Hopefully, a level that will allow you to defend yourselves if necessary,' Elena explained.
'What do you think we’re capable of? And are you saying you would want us as allies? And why would you need such allies? Who are you at war with?' Sian wanted to clarify a few more things.
'As I’ve mentioned, I suspect you have the gifts of the elements. And if you are blessed with these abilities then you would be a great help against our southern enemy and anyone else who threatened our realm.'
'Who is your southern enemy Elena?'
I figured I could safely join in the conversation now.
She gave me a sympathetic smile then answered, 'Her name is Jenviet DeNaga and her family’s treachery spans about nine millennia.'
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just my jaw that dropped at that sentence. Nine millennia. I stared at Elena in shock.
Elena shifted position and turned to Ada who’d been sitting there silently.
'Why don’t you create some concepts for the girls that they can look at later?' Ada bowed her head and left, closing the door behind her.
'And so, let me tell you, the story of my family, the Mestarn’s, and the beginning of the Royal Thalian lineage.
Nine millennia ago in the Southern realm of Vo Arum two families, the Mestarn’s, and the DeNaga’s, inherited special abilities. They were chosen by the citizens of the realm to rule Vo Arum jointly. Both families accepted and, at first, it was the perfect arrangement. The realm prospered greatly from their joint abilities.
Then members of the Mestarn family began to disappear in seemingly innocent accidents, a tehnear attack or a landslide.
But one of the bodies was found by a Mestarn who discovered that it had been drained of its gift, and they realized something bigger was afoot. Aware that the only ones with that kind of power were either a member of their own family or a DeNaga, they investigated and established it was the DeNaga’s.
The Mestarn’s knew that in a fight the DeNaga’s would win. As now, not only did they have higher numbers but greater abilities. The Mestarn’s did the only thing they could. They gathered the remaining members of their family and fled to Elion.
Elion had just come out of a massive civil war and King Thalian, as the successor, had ascended the throne. The Mestarn’s met with the King and after negotiations settled on an agreement which would be prosperous for both families.
The agreement was that the Mestarn’s would permanently hold the positions of Archduke and Archduchess’s of Elion, which made them second to the ruling monarch. In the event that a regent was required they would fill that position and no decision would be made without them.
In exchange for this, the Mestarn’s would protect the Thalian line at any cost and keep them on the throne as the foremost royal family in the realm. If, for any reason, the Thalian line was not on the throne then the Mestarn’s would lose their elite position.'
Loi whistled and the others had impressed looks on their faces.
'That’s one heck of an alliance.'
'Are you the Archduchess of Elion?' Sian asked.
'Yes, it is one of my titles. The alliance was swiftly put to the test when the DeNaga’s appeared on the horizon with a large army of Arums, gragnolls, elgrids, and trolls. That is how they came to be in Elion,' explained Elena. 'They aren’t native to our lands. Fortunately, the General Guard was already gathered at the castle after the fight for succession, and so a large fight between both sides ensued. The battle was fierce and several more Mestarn’s were killed, along with two members of the Thalian line. But in the end, it was the DeNaga’s who fled with only three remaining. Their severely decimated allies also fled although some hid in the forests resulting in some of the creatures you see now in Elion.
There was rejoicing throughout the realm at the success of the battle and the wisdom of their new King who had allied himself so valuably. Everyone approved of his choice of Archduke and Archduchess.
The next two and a half millennia were peaceful and prosperous, with only occasional skirmishes that were easily dealt with. Elion was, and still is, the wealthiest realm in the world, and people flocked to be a part of it. The Thalian line grew stronger, the Mestarn also, and their joint management of the realm proved extremely successful.
Within the space of a year four babies were born who at birth threw off an impressive energy pulse. Curious, the Mestarn’s used their powers to track the children and spent time watching them. They observed that the children emitted an unusual energy when expressing any type of intense emotion. At puberty, this developed into the ability to harness the skills of an element; each child aligned with one element.
The Mestarn’s were urgently recalled to the castle as it was under assault from dragons. When they arrived the dragons left, leaving everyone astonished. As they went to return to their study of the children they experienced a deep and wrenching pain. They suddenly realized the dragons had been a diversion and raced back to the elemental children.
They were too late.
They arrived to find the families' houses destroyed and every family member brutally slaughtered. The children’s corpses had been drained of their unique gifts. Devastated, the Mestarn’s returned to the castle and reported to the ruling monarch all the details and agreed that it would be wise to gather the General Guard and prepare for battle.
Less than a month later and with their troops barely in place their fears were proved correct, and a massive army was seen on the horizon approaching the castle.
The DeNaga’s had allied themselves with more creatures that appeared to have been enhanced with the DeNaga’s powers. The dragons which had assaulted the castle were also with the massive army, circling ove
rhead.
The war that commenced was vicious and hard, with both sides taking many casualties. The enhanced creatures were a formidable foe. Even a slash from one could mean death as many were venomous. Giant scorpions climbed the castle walls and shadow creatures flashed amongst the dim corridors. The four DeNaga’s who had absorbed the elemental children’s gifts exhibited the powers and even without the time to truly master them, they were able to utilize those powers with devastating results.
Several of the Mestarn’s whisked the members of the Thalian line to safety at the Southern Keep and kept guard over them. The remaining Mestarn’s were desperate. The fight was not going well and the chance of the DeNaga’s winning was increasing. Linking hands they sent out a call to all gifted and willing creatures asking for help in their time of need in exchange for alliance with Elion.
Several species responded and some troops of Goblins, who are renowned for their skill in archery, arrived along with Halenine Faeries. An exceptionally quick fae with a fatal bite. The odds appeared to improve for the Mestarn’s, then twelve griffons appeared in the sky and offered their services to the Mestarn’s. Astonished, they joyfully accepted the offer. The griffons tipped the scales in the Mestarn’s favor and the only surviving DeNaga’s with the stolen powers fled the land again.
The Mestarn’s watching over the Royal family brought them back to the castle. As neither side was in a position to finish the fight the DeNaga’s set to practicing with their stolen gifts while the Mestarn’s and the Thalian line worked on their relations with their new allies and set shields in place to warn them if their enemies attempted to invade again.
Due to the immense damage to the castle they decided to rebuild it and moved it to a more secure site, where it is now. Those gifted with the ability to work with stone were hired from all over the globe and the new castle was built from a gleaming white stone called Senolite.
The Mestarn’s kept a close eye on the four remaining DeNaga’s over the next millennium and while they learned more about their stolen powers and did horrific things to their realm with them, they did not risk another attack on Elion. They, instead, appeared to focus on bringing their numbers back up.'
The Arrival (Birthright Trilogy #1) Page 18