The Flame of Wrath

by Christene Knight

  Maven arched her brow in silent query.

  Across the sovereign's face, Aurea's confusion spread. She ignored Angelos IV who rolled his eyes at his little sister's gift. Instead she drew closer to the angel in white. Her fingertips ran lovingly over the soft surface of the pillow.

  “Its cover is made of our finest silk,” Autumn informed the queen. Her voice was a soothing whisper found in dreams. “Beyond silk and diamonds, our home is also known to be the only place in all of Pyros in which the Djidjiga bloom grows.”

  Autumn removed a breathtaking white flower from a white leather pouch at her hip. Its magnificence glowed as brightly as a tiny star within her delicate hand. The scent it cast was a sought after perfume and one that demonstrated wealth if it was in one’s possession. She offered it to Aurea, tenderly placing it within her hand.

  “Do you know the story of Djidjiga, Highness?” Autumn's hands cupped Aurea's hand with all the softness of the cradled flower.

  Aurea shook her head with all the slow wonder of a spellbound child. “No,” she said, “tell me.”

  “Before our people knew peace, there was once a time of great sadness and war. People prayed for stronger weapons. They prayed for a means of defeating their enemy, but one small girl prayed for an understanding to fill those warring souls, for peace to touch their hearts. It was all she prayed for... this peace.”

  Autumn gazed into blue eyes unlike any she had ever seen. As she watched the flickering flames of Aurea's pupils, she felt the same hypnotic allure one finds while gazing into a fireplace. “The Dragon was so moved by this solitary prayer that She swooped down from the heavens to spirit the child away to peace, but the little girl refused.”

  Aurea focused the flames of her eyes upon the flower in her hand. She stared at it with a flash of the dream racing across her mind. This was her flower. This was the scent which brought about such rhapsody within her. As her mind traveled away from the dream, returning instead to the present, she frowned curiously. Why would the little girl refuse, she wondered.

  As if to answer the question, she saw so clearly inside Aurea’s eyes, Autumn spoke again. “She refused to know peace if her people could not as well.” She paused while allowing her words to resonate throughout the room, but more importantly within her Queen.

  “With a begrudging sadness, the Dragon respected her wishes. The next day during a battle, a fire spread across many villages and Djidjiga was killed.”

  The gathering of hushed nobles gasped. Autumn did not see or hear them. She stared only to Aurea, whom she found was a captive audience.

  “Taking pity upon the good-hearted child, the Dragon ensured that wherever Djidjiga's ashes touched, the most beautiful flower in all of creation would grow.”

  “The Djidjiga bloom,” Aurea gathered in a dreamy whisper.

  Autumn nodded. She smiled as she hoped that maybe, just maybe Aurea understood the true nature of the tale.

  “The bloom has many properties,” Autumn explained. “Its petals can be used as a tea to heal certain ailments. Its perfume can also be used for aromatherapy to induce peaceful sleep and dreams.”

  “So even after all this time,” Aurea voiced in understanding, “Djidjiga is able to grant her people the peace she always wanted.”

  The storm of blue-gray eyes died away. Their skies cleared to a gentle blue. “Yes,” she breathed. “Exactly.”

  The onlooking nobles all cooed over the tragic beauty of the tale, but inwardly two fumed. Angelos IV ----though he greatly loved his sister---- could not help but see this as yet another act in which Autumn had triumphed where he had only existed. One look to his father, who watched over Autumn with love and pride softening his face, assured him of this fact while Maven resented the silent exchange she knew to be happening between Autumn and Aurea. She comforted herself by remembering to be patient as she had been patient her entire life only to be rewarded by finally finding herself within the palace.

  Autumn allowed her fingertips to grant a lingering touch to Aurea's hands before drawing her hands away. She retrieved the pillow from her servant's hands. She lowered into a respectful kneel. In her hands, she held out her offering, the offering she had agonized over, the offering she had hoped would be appreciated despite its humble existence in comparison to the elaborate nature of so many others. “For you, my Queen.” Both her voice and her eyes revealed the vulnerability which had sent her soul quaking. In this moment, she was Djidjiga praying to the Dragon. “I pray for peace.”

  The young Queen could not speak. She stared to Autumn in disbelief. She ached to tell her to rise, to never kneel to her because such a thing was not as Nature had intended. No one as beautiful as Autumn should ever kneel to anyone less than a God. Still, she found herself unable to act.

  The stillness of the moment rose as the beginnings of awkward tension. Finally, awakened by the choking silence, Aurea blinked rapidly. She shook herself from her fog then graciously took the pillow into her arms, unaware of how that human act had granted a fearful Autumn permission to breathe once again. She held it close as she stared into the young woman whom she guessed to be no more than three years her senior. She was grateful that the majority of her face was concealed behind her mask because in that moment her emotions were all too clearly written upon her face.

  “Thank you,” Aurea spoke at last. Her voice was a throaty rasp. “Thank you... Lady Autumn.”

  Autumn flushed darkly. Slowly she rose to her feet. As she slipped her arm into her father's and her family gracefully dipped their heads in a final bow, her heart raced with the realization that Aurea Queen of Pyros knew her name.

  *******

  When other nobles reveled in their fineries, Autumn appeared to be humbled by their weight. Her wealth was plainly visible as the ornament running the length of her back. The luxurious wings made from Djidjiga petals had easily cost a small fortune, but to Autumn, their cost could never amount to the worth of Djidjiga’s story itself. The dreamy legends she loved were alive inside her eyes. She wished with all her might to be at ease within her fineries the way that her brother reveled in his, but it was simply not her way. She longed to be within a soft linen chiton, her feet bare as she raced through the cool sweet grasses of her home. She desired nothing more than to stare up at a star-filled sky. Those were the diamonds she yearned to be in awe of and not the jewels obscenely coveting attention. As she sat among the throngs of people, she realized that this was her brother's arena not hers.

  Sensing her disquiet, her father's hand came to lie supportively atop her forearm. Autumn graced the General with a tender smile. Her love shined brightly inside her eyes. She leaned close to gently bestow a kiss to his cheek.

  He was so like her. He was a simple man of simple pleasures. She knew that he was more at home on the battlefield than while lost amidst political joisting.

  “You seem to have made quite the impression,” Angelos III said. He spoke quietly into his daughter's ear, attempting to remain discreet.

  Autumn frowned with uncertainty. She was about to ask what her father was referring to when from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of someone looking in her direction.

  Aurea stared through the portals of her mask to the woman in white. She sighed heavily.

  To Autumn's side, three druids sat. They called her attention, engaging the young woman in conversation.

  The Queen turned her head in the direction of the siblings now addressing her at her right. She could not think of Autumn. She could not allow herself to ache for something so beyond her capabilities. What did she know of love or the feelings which accompanied it? It was clear that Autumn understood them. She conveyed them in her every expression.

  This life, this world of customs and politics, of status and power, these things made sense to Aurea. She understood these matters. Ambitions were not so far from her mental grasp, but to gaze into the eyes of another and yearn for understanding threatened to disrupt all she knew.

  Leave me, she
commanded her thoughts of Autumn. As they begrudgingly fell back into the dark recesses of her mind, she was allowed to return to the conversation at hand.

  The siblings were idealistic, but in them Aurea saw a yearning for a purpose. They were ships in need of a beacon to guide them home. They were four brothers and two sisters with hair the color of sparkling sand and eyes that matched the sea. They lingered near the Queen as though she possessed the keys to life in her words. They were dressed as various animals of the forest.

  The sister dressed as a falcon spoke the feeling felt among her siblings. “My Queen, please never forget that the Province of Shadow Reign is widely renowned for its martial skill. If you should ever need, our blades... our shields... our very lives... they are yours, Highness. We are your servants.”

  Looking between them, Aurea memorized the intensity of their eyes. “There is something,” she began. “I may have need of such warriors one day.” Her thoughts ventured to the design slowly beginning its genesis within her mind. Though she was not yet ready to speak of it aloud, she knew that one day the time would come.

  Their eyes widened in hopeful surprise as inwardly they prayed for the opportunity to serve a ruler of Pyros and one day become legends to rival those of their province's honorable past. “We will be ready when that day comes,” they promised. Much to their great delight, they were favored with a gentle smile.

  Moments later, Aurea wordlessly rose from her chair. She did not bother to excuse herself from the banquet table. The attendants around her made those remarks for her. Instead she wandered aimlessly through the crowd until she found herself standing beyond the reaches of her great celebration.

  She stood beneath a starry sky, deep within the valley of the sacred volcano. All the wonders of the garden were in every direction she looked.

  With both hands, the Queen removed her mask. She stood motionless, a dazed warrior at the end of her first battle. She searched the stars for the answer to a question she was yet to know.

  Swaying slightly, her world tottered. The mask fell helplessly from her grasp. It fell with an eerie slow-motion which claimed the surrounding night. As it impacted brutally against the grass beneath her feet, the dream came as the storm to cloud her mind.

  ********

  The white bloom sent out a bewitching perfume to seduce the innermost secrets from her soul. She exhaled. It was a shivering warmth that caused the flower to tremble in anticipation. As she leaned forward, her eyes closed slowly.

  ********

  Gravity commanded that Aurea obey. She knelt to her as forcibly she fell to her knees.

  ********

  Through the protection of her closed eyelids, she could see the intensity of pure blinding light growing stronger. Its heat grew stronger against her face. She inclined into it, moving away from the darkness abound everywhere but this flower's heart. Her lips parted. Her head tilted as she moistened her lips to bestow a solitary kiss so impassioned by all she possessed that it would sear the bloom.

  ********

  Her hands slowly scoured and groped at the ground in a feeble attempt at surrogate sight. Blindly, she tangled her fingers within cool emerald strands.

  ********

  “The stars.” A voice spoke hauntingly from the blackness. “The stars are destruction and rebirth.”

  A kneeling woman was no more than tantalizing shadows. She offered up the gift within her trembling hands. A star blazed zealously. Its white light flooded the horizon with blinding might.

  “Ash and bloom.”

  ********

  Somewhere in the distance, she heard the rushing footsteps of others approaching. Their voices seemed so far away. When at last their touch was felt upon her skin, they others felt no nearer to her. What was happening? Why couldn't she see?

  ********

  The intense light had fallen away. It glowed weakly inside the closed hands of the ghostly woman. Through her hands, its illumination was soft like a trapped firefly.

  The woman disappeared and with her so too did all the light of the world.

  She was alone now. It gripped her coldly, causing her entire body to quake and shiver.

  Once the horizon had been a blackened pane of glass through which no light could enter, but as she waited within that dark stillness, Nature's design morphed. She extended a disbelieving hand.

  To desperate eyes, tiny droplets of rain began to beat against its surface. First one came and then another until little by little, light filtered through the fathomless night. She cleaved to those appearing beads. They were everything.

  Timidly, light began to peak through. The ancient stars were born. Their voices silently announced themselves.

  Before her eyes, the cosmos was created. She watched it breathe deeply, drawing in its first moments of life. Her roving gaze settled upon the brilliance of a solitary star. She outstretched trembling fingers, straining to reach it. As her fingertip touched the surface of the tiny star, it collapsed into limp ash.

  Floating on a non-existent breeze, it swirled and changed the distant horizon.

  ********

  “Highness?”

  “Highness, are you all right?”

  ********

  A single ray of gracious light fell. It lit a pair of bewitching eyes. Those eyes stared up to her with a feeling she could neither deny nor escape. She felt the tears rise within her eyes as she stared deeply into their depths.

  Inside those eyes she caught sight of a newborn constellation. It burned more brightly than any constellation she had ever seen. She memorized its body, knowing that it would always remind her of those eyes, those beautifully haunting eyes.

  ********

  The voices slowly crashed against the rocks of her consciousness. With a weakness weighting her limbs, she opened her eyes.

  Surrounding her bed, she saw the faces of many she recognized, but only one face truly stood apart from the others. Her hand reached out for that one.

  In understanding, Maven immediately acted. She spirited the others from the room. She watched over her weakened Queen with agonized green eyes. She was consumed by the fear she felt for her sovereign. Then without a word, she too left the room.

  Confusion filled her now. The dark-haired woman took a timid step forward. Her right hand clutched at her left bicep. Nervously her thumb smoothed its surface. She darted her eyes to the sealed doors then toward the young woman staring at her with unwavering eyes.

  “Should I leave as well?” she whispered.

  “No, Autumn.” Aurea wondered if she had truly spoken. She felt outside herself. “I need you with me.” Even as the words hovered in the air, she wondered if she had actually uttered them.

  Autumn moved forward. She swiftly descended upon the Queen as if those words had granted her the act of flight. Sitting at the edge of the bed, she loomed protectively over the weakened blond. Her eyes were a darkened gray, their sorrow clearly seen.

  “My Queen, what happened?” she asked. Her hand gently touched itself to Aurea's fevered cheek.

  Aurea leaned into the hand which was so soft against her skin. She closed her eyes with a pained frown. “May I tell you something I have never shared with anyone?” she breathed.

  Autumn gave an intent nod which unopened eyes clearly visualized.

  “Since I was a girl,” Aurea began. “I have had these dreams. They haunt me.” She struggled to describe what she had always felt compelled to keep hidden. “When I have them, it's so hard to tell what’s real from what isn't. Even now, I find myself wondering if you are real or if you are the dream.”

  Autumn found herself lost in pools of blue.

  “You are beautiful... so very beautiful just as the dream is beautiful.” Aurea placed her hand atop Autumn's tender hand. “But you terrify me... the way the dream terrifies me.”

  “Why?” Autumn asked hoarsely.

  Aurea awkwardly fought to sit up. Her movements were slow and inspired electric pain to course throughout her head. She fo
und herself experiencing a bout of courage due to the fact that she suspected she might still be within the realm of dreams. “It's because of the way you see me, because of the way I see myself when I look at you. I think you know me. What's worse is that I pray for you to know me as no one ever has. In your smile, I see my sacred accomplishments and when you turn away, I know the reality of my most bitter failures.”

  Weakly, the Queen slipped out of bed. She walked to the windows, staring up to the dreamy twilight sky. Her cheek came to rest against the cool surface of the arching windowpane. She huffed a laugh which spat defiantly into itself.

  “Do you see what you have done to me, my Angel,” Aurea whispered as if accepting her defeat at Autumn's hands. “You’ve come as a swift end and cursed me to a world of hopeful longing.”

  Autumn stared to the silhouette of her Queen. She took in the breathtaking elegance in her every line as it was haloed lovingly by a glisten of lavender gray and amaranth pink.

  Aurea looked away from the sky. She peered over her shoulder to the woman gazing up at her with such tragedy around her. Was it sorrow or regret she envisioned so clearly inside those eyes? She felt her heart quicken as if to rush to its life's end. She knew those eyes. Her body slumped forward.

  Bounding the distance between them, Autumn caught the flaxen-haired Queen in her arms.

  Together, they sat tangled upon the chamber's floor. Their faces were agonizingly close. They were each too frightened to breathe or to move. As one, they wondered if it were possible to have one’s life so completely ensnared within the web of another.

  Soon, Aurea’s body began to violently succumb to fever's touch. She shivered helplessly from it. As she struggled to memorize every line of the dark-haired woman's face, she saw her world fade to black.