by Jaime Marks
She felt a sudden current flow through her, a Darkness that was almost as familiar to her as her own but it snapped back as quickly as she noticed it. She rubbed the center of her chest where it stung, where the blade that she had thrust through Cymeryn’s chest had entered her own, but that wasn’t the only pain that had rippled through her and it scared her. She’d felt it several times over the last week and she was almost certain it was Cymeryn but he was blocking her if it was. Each time she felt it she tried to follow the essence or reached out to him, called him to her, but he didn’t come and didn’t respond. She kept thinking back to when they stood together in her mind. “I will likely be detained for a while.” Of everything she thought she remembered he had said, that phrase seemed to echo through her mind the most as real. It was if he were sending the memory to her in response to her requests.
She felt Marcus tighten and looked to him. “It’s alright, Reyana. It’s not you, I am just…concerned.”
“Because he can still reach me.” It wasn’t a question. She assumed he’d be afraid of their connection. He knew how completely she’d given herself to his twin and that he still held a part of her heart. It had to concern him that Cymeryn could reach her when he had promised them both that he would come for her no matter the costs.
“Actually, I’m more concerned that he has not.” She studied him. There was an odd look on his face. She wasn’t really sure what he meant by that, or what he was feeling. Her emotions were too chaotic even still to sense anyone without taking the time and effort to focus. It seemed like the more she exerted herself the more quickly she tired herself out and the chaos was still very much a part of her.
“I thought it would be a relief that he’s kept his distance.”
Marcus nodded with a heavy sigh. “In some ways, Reya, it is a relief. In others, well he is still my brother, my twin, and I know what hurts him, hurts you.” He met her eyes momentarily. “It hurts both of us.”
Her brows rose in surprise a moment but she didn’t push the issue further. Whatever was on his mind, he wasn’t going to volunteer it. At least not here. She’d started to wonder if Marcus had taken to keeping secrets from her. With his willingness to lie to their family to protect her, the sudden secrets he kept between them, and the connection she knew he had to still feel his twin she’d wonder if he hadn’t shifted in that room himself, but she felt him every time their essences touched. Every time he was near their essence merged. He was more balanced than she was.
He squeezed her tightly. “I promise, Reya. I will tell you all the secrets of my mind when I feel the time is right. I won’t deny there are some things I’m hiding from you for the moment; but it is only because I don’t feel you are ready to handle them quite yet. They aren’t of any urgent consequence. There are things that we must discuss and we will have to deal with but if I felt that you needed to concern yourself with them now I would tell you. Can you trust me enough, to allow me to protect you? To protect us just a while longer? Can you trust the things I ask are for your wellbeing and do as I say for now without trying to understand my motivations?”
She looked him over hesitantly. It was an odd request to make and one in their previous lives together, he would never have made. They had always told each other anything. Although she hadn’t told him about how much she had loved his brother or about the history she and Cymeryn shared. With all the secrets of her past how could she deny him her trust? He seemed insistent on this, that it was vital for some reason. After all she had asked of him, how could she not give him this? She expected him to share her heart with his own twin who had hurt them both. Cymeryn might not be physically here but his presence was always with them in so many respects. If she didn’t want to lose Marcus she had to start trusting in him again. She had to believe in their love enough to give him the chance to stand beside her and protect her. He would tell her when the time was right.
“Of course, Marcus. I trust you, just please, don’t wait too long…never wait too long.” She thought back to the lake and how she had waited so long to tell Cymeryn what she felt for him. She knew what damage secrets of the heart could do if they were kept hidden too long.
He nodded squeezing her tightly and kissed her head. “Never my love, I promise.”
They watched as the sashes combining their colors were added to Grifyn’s robes. He took Trina in his arms and kissed her spinning her around as Mythos proclaimed them bonded mates.
“I asked Mythos to put your coronation off until the morn. I thought you might need some rest tonight before it.” Marcus offered. “I know how much you tired yourself out between the ritual and the Redemptions.”
She smiled, “Thank you, Marcus. I really wasn’t ready for it tonight and this should be Grifyn, Trina and Byryn’s night. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of intruding on it.”
No sooner than she had spoken the words, bright silver balls of Light began to fill the ceiling and float down into the room. Reyana watched them flit and float and something began to stir in her memory. She turned as her brother groaned. Faeries. The Palace Lunya had always been tended to by faeries of the Gray.
One of the orbs floated to the ground and slowly grew to the size of a small child. She had wings and was dressed is silver sheers similar in coloration and fabric to the dress Reyana wore. Her springy blond curls danced, standing out from her head in various directions. She knelt before them. Her skin almost seemed to shimmer in Gray essence. Reyana remembered her.
“I beg forgiveness for the intrusion. Great blessings to this bonded union.” She bowed to Reyana. “Goddess Lunya, I do not mean to now besiege, but it is you I have been sent here to retrieve. The Divine Being will wait no longer, to see his long awaited daughter. He seeks to reopen the Realm of Gray so the animals may once more frolic and play, and your sanctuaries made available in case you must spirit yourself away. You must be instilled once more upon your throne. It is your essence that commands all here, and for now, yours alone.” The sprite turned quickly to Marcus, “Worry not chosen Protector of the Light, nothing is to be revealed. The entryways and all hidden secrets, shall remain safe and sealed.”
Reyana stepped forward. “Shala?”
“It pleases me that you remember your majesty, even if it is clouded in your memory.”
“Faeries.” Mythos grumbled.
“Why yes, your majesty we have been here the whole time, or did you think all you had accomplished was not some sort of sign?” She smirked as she chastised him. “If not for me, the Prophesized Young could not have found her way, and this Palace would remained unfound when it was needed to save the day. I am keeper of these grounds, my actions are only that decreed by orders that were the crown’s.”
Reyana placed her hand lightly on his shoulder as she walked past him to the center of the room before the sprite. “What is it I must do Shala? I don’t remember how to reach him and I have no idea how to open the realm.”
She motioned to the insignia of the crescent moon and sun in the middle of the hall. “Kneel my lady for all to behold, the Lady Reyn, Princess Reyana and the goddess Lunya of days of old. It is time for you to take your place, too long have you been denied your grace.”
She did as she was asked as the faerie snapped her fingers and a silver crown encrusted in diamonds appeared. In its center there was a small gold disc that was adorned with the silver crescent moon. The insignia of Lunya. The faerie approached and placed it carefully on her head. She bowed and stepped back as a silver beam of Light flowed through the round skylight of the throne room encompassing her and she felt warmth and love begin to fill her being.
“The power of the Divine Being flows strong and true. It is his gift and his acknowledgment of his blood in you.” The faerie spoke loudly her words echoing through the room.
Reyana closed her eyes and was suddenly in the presence of a powerful force that flowed around her. When she opened her eyes there was no one there but she stood on what appeared to be a cloud and it felt as if sh
e were wrapped in the arms of a loving embrace.
A voice echoed seemingly from everywhere and she felt incomprehensible love. “My beautiful Lunya, how I have missed your strength and courage. You have within you the power to create a dominance in either race and yet you choose balance. Your wisdom pleases me to no end. It is not an easy path for a being such as you to follow in her mortal form.”
“I only did what was right, Father.” She replied. “There was no other way.”
“There was, my child but in your wisdom you did not embrace it. You could have destroyed the Darkness burning it out but you may well have destroyed those it held in the process. It still would end the war and the struggle and it would have granted you vengeance but instead you acted out of love. You my child have always been my greatest pride for your heart knows no bounds and your forgiveness is unmatched.” He explained.
“My heart.” She scoffed. “My heart doesn’t know what it wants and has caused me nothing but pain.”
“No, Lunya. You’re very wrong. Your heart has allowed you to save not only a species but a world, a planet. You have freed the Night from the Darkness with your love as you will come to understand in the coming days. Your heart has brought you two great loves who will always protect and cherish you despite the courses that it leads you on. It is your heart and the love in it that gives you the strength to do as you must and grants that same strength to others. You cannot lose faith in it. The answers you seek are often simpler than the mortal mind can accept. You must remember, Lunya, everything happens for a reason, though the answers are often not known or seen. You must accept both sides of you and your heart, my child.” The love he sent her filled her with peace and despite her misgivings, at least for that moment she knew everything would work out as it was meant to.
“I’ll try Father. It’s not always easy to understand.” She admitted.
“You will figure it out in time, Lunya. Have faith in yourself and have faith in your heart. Trust those you love to care for and support you as needed. When you do not have faith in yourself, they always will, for they know your heart better than any save for I.”
“I’ve missed you so much, Father.” A small sob escaped her lips as a well of emotion released within her. It had been so long since she felt so loved in this way, a parent to a child. Her human parents had been cruel and abusive on the days they chose to even acknowledge her, on the days they hadn’t she was lucky if she even got to eat. Here, now though, she knew she had always been watched over and always been loved.
“I have always been with you child. You are my cherished, Lunya and despite the skin you wear and the name you carry you shall always be my daughter. I was always watching and I have waited a century to have you here with me again. Go, I will return you to your mortal family. Know I am always there to guide you. I will never desert you child. The answers will come, truths will be revealed, and fates shall come to fruition. Everything in its own time. Rule wisely with your wisdom, strength and love my child, and know that you have made me proud.”
Reyana felt herself drifting in the love held in her heart. Her Father had not abandoned the world. He had not abandoned her. He was always there watching, guiding. She hadn’t realized how much she missed him, how much she needed to know he was there, until he was with her like this again.
Marcus watched nervously as Reyana was encompassed in a beam of white and silver Light that appeared through the skylight above. Panic gripped him as she disappeared from his sight and he lunged forward drawing his blade as he advanced on the faerie. Byryn and Grifyn barely restrained him, holding him back just a few short feet from the little pixie.
“What have you done with Reyana, sprite?!?” He spat, the fury surging in him. He reached out in search of her essence but he knew she was no longer in the realm.
“Fear not chosen Protector of Light, she will return, there is no cause for fright.” Shala replied. “She has merely been summoned by he who is Divine. She will return to you in a short amount of time.”
Marcus ground his teeth. “Why do you call me that sprite? If she does not return…”
She cut him off in a warning tone. The caution in her eyes was clear. He could almost sense the meaning behind her words but it confused him. “You were chosen since your birth to serve beneath this very hearth. Careful what you ask me next, I am bound to answer what you bequest.”
Mythos looked to him with suspicion as he addressed the faerie. “You called him Protector of the Light? This is the Realm of the Gray. Are there more Protectors? Who are they and what precisely does the title entail?”
“You must forgive your majesty, but I cannot answer thee.” Shala replied bowing humbly. “I may only answer the true Queen and her chosen Protector what they ask of me.”
Mythos crossed him arms, “That may be faerie, but I want my sister returned to me, now.”
“I am sorry to upset, but only the Divine Being, Lunya can beget.” She explained. “A century he has waited. This day has long been fated. She is in no danger, her Father will protect her.”
“And this is why I deplore dealing with the faeries.” Mythos groaned. “Never a straight answer and nothing but rhymes.”
“There are real faeries?” Star stared at the being, still shocked as fear laced through her. She was worried for her Mother.
“Yeah Staryana,” Byryn grunted against Marcus’ strength as he pulled he and Grifyn a step closer to the faerie, “They’re real, and almost always a headache.”
She stepped forward studying the odd pixie. “Will you explain to me who the Divine Being is and where he took my Mom?”
“You are of the Prophesized Young. The truth for you shall always cross my tongue. Whatever you ask I may tell, but on certain things we cannot yet dwell. The Divine Being is the Father of all creation; the earth, the races and all foundation. He alone birthed the ethereal beings, those who rule creation beyond the realm of seeings. Lucerna, Lazurys and Lunya are his young, and through them all creation’s song is sung. Now Grandfather of the Prophesized Young he has become. And with all of us always he is. We are one.”
Marcus hesitated, stopping his forward advancement. Something she had said caught him but he wasn’t sure what to make of it. She held his gaze seeming to pierce through his mind as he replayed her words. Shala had said Star was of the Prophesized Young not that she was the Prophesized Young. The faerie was implying many things with her rhymes that were best addressed in private.
Staryana stared at the faerie seeming almost more confused now than when she started. “Alright. I’m not sure I really understand what all that means but you still haven’t told me where my Mom is.”
“She is in the Divine Realm embraced in Light and love that to most would overwhelm.” The sprite replied.
Star scratched her head and looked at him. “But you’re worried about her? You think she’s in danger.”
Marcus breathed deeply regaining control of himself. He needed to pull it together. Shala exuded Gray essence. She was obviously of this domain and she had yet to say anything that he hadn’t followed. It was odd, but he actually understood the pixie. He had never understood the faeries of Light. It spoke volumes to him. Both he and the sprite were of this realm though he didn’t understand how.
He eased and looked to Grifyn. “You can release me. Shala has no fear from me.” The pixie nodded respectfully. “She speaks the truth. Reyana is safe and will return soon. I do not know how I know but…I do.” It was the truth. He could feel the faerie’s honesty and devotion although it was an odd sensation. It was different than sensing another, almost as if the emotion was somehow his but not at the same time.
“It is of the gifted abilities that you share. More in time you will become aware. There are many things you will know, that others cannot because they do not feel the flow. All will be revealed in time. When Balance is restored, and the three are aligned.” Shala met his eyes and he knew she was trying to convey the answers he needed but either he wasn’
t able to follow or he couldn’t tap into them.
There was a sudden flash of Light and Reyana reappeared standing on the emblem. Silver Light flowed over her skin and her hair danced on some unseen breeze. There was a Balance and peace to her that Marcus could sense almost immediately. She almost seemed to glow from within with happiness, not merely essence, and it was a look he had not seen in many days.
Marcus broke free from Grifyn and Byryn who had yet to release him and rushed to her taking her in his arms. “Are you alright, my love?”
She nodded. “I saw the Divine Being. I saw my Father.” Pride and joy swelled within her and Marcus eased even further. The chaos that had plagued her mind and the exhaustion that fatigued her had been alleviated, for the moment at least. “Thank you, Shala.”
The odd sprite bowed. “At your service always are we, though you may not always see. The coronation will proceed, you need only offer forth the proper decree. If I am ever needed you have but to ask. For you both I am always up to task.”
The pixie shrank back down and flitted off. Slowly the orbs floated down and circled them before drifting to the ceiling. They illuminated the room in twinkling lights giving a serene feel to everything.
Mythos cleared his throat as the room looked on in shock. He approached slowly. And took Reyana’s hands in his. “Are you alright, mine blooded sister? Are you ready for this?”
She nodded and Marcus could feel a confidence in her that was lacking just moments ago. “Yes, Mythos, I’m ready now.”
“And what am I to call you? I would say that annoying sprite left no doubt as to the full extent of your lineage. As well as brought forth other questions.”
“Oh?”
“This is not the time nor the place for this discussion. Perhaps over dinner would be more appropriate for us to discuss these things, your highness.” Marcus was curt with the King, but he needed to get his point across. There were certain things that he could not have her thinking about now and he would not have addressed publically. There were other things that if they had noticed he needed to distract from until he was ready for them to be discussed.