The Goddesses Throne

by A. Kingsley

  Clare watched carefully as the woman focused. A ball of blue light appeared in her hands and she held it gently like an egg, afraid to break the energy. She lifted up her palm and then passed the blue ball of energy to Clare. The girl held the ball of light, a tingling sensation rushing through her body.

  “What is it?” Clare whispered.

  “It’s a ball of energy and energy creates light. If you don’t have a flashlight on you and it’s dark, you should be able to use some of your energy to create light. However much energy you expel, is how big your ball of light will be,” she reached out and took the blue ball of energy back from Clare. “Go ahead and try,” she encouraged her.

  Once her hands were freed, Clare took a deep breath. She tried to think of that magic damn inside of her, she attempted to picture the energy flowing through her magic. For a while she stared intensely at her palms and nothing happened. She groaned in frustration, upset that this was a gift she did not have.

  Natalia interrupted her groans, “Try to think of your energy as a staticky thing, picture how much energy you have stored away. Picture yourself knocking on the door and asking your body for the energy, imagine your body handing it over to you.”

  Listening to her words, Clare sorted through the mental images she had been instructed to picture, her fingertips began to twitch and as she opened her eyes, she noticed a small green ball of light, it was brighter that Natalia’s.

  “Well done!” Natalia congratulated as she watched the girl’s look of concentration turn into a smile. “So you can leave the ball of energy out as a light as long as you’d like. Eventually that ball of energy will fade away into nothing. How long it lasts depends on how big the orb is. But, if you need that energy back,” she gestured to the blue orb in her hand, she pressed it to her stomach and the orb passed right through her. Natalia jolted up and her head twitched to both sides. “You can put it back in. It’s not terribly painful. Just a little cramp, a tiny shock.”

  Since there was no need for the ball of light in the middle of the day, Clare followed after Natalia. After some hesitation she held the green glow to her stomach and pushed it back towards her body. The energy was sucked back into her stomach with a small shock and a painful cramp. She doubled over a bit nauseous, but once the energy had settled back in, she stood up and felt restored to normal.

  “How odd, I never imagined I could do such a thing. Is there anything else?” she asked excitedly.

  “There is something else, but it’s a bit more dangerous, I don’t know if I should teach it to you,” Natalia said honestly, chewing on her bottom lip.

  “Please Natalia, what if I need it someday.”

  “Fine, but please don’t use this skill unless you really have to, or you can’t control yourself.”

  “I promise I won’t.”

  Natalia moved ten feet away from Clare. Once they were an appropriate distance apart, she took a deep breath. “This is a fight or flight response of magic users, this skill, is the fight response. Normally if you’re in danger, you can use a defensive shield, a bubble to protect you. If someone rams into the bubble, then they fall down.”

  “Yes I’ve discovered that,” Clare said.

  “Well this is a little different. When your body breaks down and believes it’s in danger, you are capable of many great things. This is a defensive tactic, but it’s a little more intense than a bubble and this often happens when you are in extreme pain. In a response to this pain, your magic damn can burst and you will become a ball of heat. Everyone around you will feel the warmth of a fire. It's meant to make them back off. This magic hurts, it’s not dark magic, but it burns. Normally this response happens out of instinct, but you can perform this skill on command if you’re well practiced. Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t wish to test it out. I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t want to make you hurt me.”

  “Well how does it work? How will I know?”

  “You’ll know if it is happening. You’ll feel the magic damn burst open inside of you like someone is stabbing your stomach. Then the world will spin and you’ll feel your skin become as hot as a burning flame. Let’s not practice that. In fact that was all I wanted to show you, you should probably go upstairs and get ready to begin your journey.”

  As Natalia started to walk away, Clare followed after her. “Did something happen Natalia? I understand why you don’t want to show me, but you sound a bit regretful that you shared this information with me.”

  “Forget about it please,” the woman said as she walked into her home. Clare was unaware that Natalia’s cousin had been killed because she accidentally used this skill. The people found out that she had magic, they thought she was dangerous so they imprisoned her. She died in prison from starvation. ‘Though this skill could possibly protect Clare, was it worth it? She shouldn’t have said anything. Clare shouldn’t have been performing this skill unless it wasn’t a choice, but a reaction. Maybe if she hadn’t told her Clare wouldn’t have made the same mistake as her cousin.

  Cassius was getting dressed when Clare walked into the guest bedroom, before she arrived she had taken some time to sit and think outside. Her thoughts spiraled and she was soon thinking of Antoine, dead. She had let herself cry before wiping her tears and heading inside. Cassius’s hair was still wet, he hadn’t done a very good job drying it with a towel. He had only gotten his boxers on, he was pulling a pair of black trousers over his toned legs. His face turned to meet hers and she gasped, quickly shutting the door behind her.

  “I guess I should have knocked,” she admitted sheepishly, heading to the corner of the room where her luggage was. She took a deep breath and started shakily looking through her clothes.

  Cassius had pulled on a plain black t-shirt over his head. He spun around to help her pack and pick out an outfit, but when he got a glimpse of her eyes, he noticed something was off. “Clare, look at me.” His voice was demanding and rougher than he intended it to be. She looked up from her luggage and gulped.

  “You’ve been crying. Why?”

  She bit down on her lip and blinked away the tears, she didn’t want to break down all over again. She picked up the training uniform that Natalia had washed for her and said she could keep. She folded it in her arms along with her under garments and looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t want him to die and I almost lost you. I know you’re mad at me for thinking about other men, but I am sorry, if I could control it I would.”

  He sighed and thought about his next words carefully while pulling her in close to his side. “I am jealous that is all. Though I would love to have a home in such a beautiful soul, I don’t own your heart. I will do my best to stop my father I promise.” He held her there against his chest for quite some time. “I’m going to start you a bath, finish packing up your things okay? There is a man who wants to meet his best mates daughter.”

  He moved out of the room to start her up a bath. She was like a rose, beautiful and kind on the inside, but she caused those who loved her to suffer because of her thorns. She made a distraught noise as she fought back more tears. If only she had Sage now, to pull her through this, to threaten to kill the demons inside of her. She folded the rest of her things and put the rest of her belongings away, aside from the outfit that she was going to wear for the day. She placed her luggage next to Cassius’s bag. She met him by the bath with the clothes in her hands and their eyes met, lingering and staring for quite some time, before she broke their gaze. “Thank you.”

  “Of course, are you going to be alright?” He bunched up some of his hair in his hand and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

  “Yes, I’ll be okay. Will you take my clothes back please?” Just turn around.”

  Once he was turned around, she stripped of her night clothes and undergarments. She tossed the bundle of clothes behind her head and he caught them instinctively. He didn’t turn around, he made his exit once she was submerged in the bath and didn't look back.

  Clare was rat
her quick. She wanted to start the rest of her journey and the only one holding her back was herself. Once she had gotten the filth off, she quickly dried off and got dressed. She didn’t bother to do her makeup or wait for the bath to finish draining. She got dressed in a day dress and boots and threw her soaking wet hair in a bun. She walked back into the room where Cassius was, she tossed him the brush and he caught it, tucking it in the front pocket of her luggage.

  He admired her for how she looked and she noticed a small smile tugging at his lips, attempting to poke through his stoic expression. He picked up both of their luggages and gestured towards the door. The two of them walked down the stairs. Antoine was waiting for them. He had the bag from Natalia that was filled with food and goodies, clutched in his right hand and his luggage in his left. Natalia had added extras as promised. The extras included a handwritten note and a fantasy book, a token of her love. Clare had not seen this yet. All three of them thanked Natalia and gave her a hug, Clare’s was long, Cassius’s was awkward and Antoine’s was brief but sweet. It was the woman’s turn to cry, she held back her tears as the three of them stepped out her front door and went to go grab their horses. “I promise to see you again,” Clare shouted. She waved to Natalia until she was out of sight.

  The three of them mounted their horses and departed, hoping to arrive at Jesses before the sun went down.

  A broken man

  Jesse wasn’t expecting a group of royal/royal related teenagers to come knocking on his doorstep at eight in the evening, actually, he wasn’t expecting anyone to come knocking on his doorstep. It had been years since he last had a visitor. After Gracielle, his last tie to Wade had cut him off, he vanished. From then on he became more and more anti-social. Natalia had reached out to him when he initially moved into the cabin. He kept their friendship up for a while, but he ultimately pushed her away. He was afraid of letting anyone close again because he was afraid that they would die, he was afraid that he had become a curse. Since then he locked himself away in his old cabin. He wanted people to think that he died, that like Wade had, he too had fallen in the war. The cabinets in his home were falling off the hinges and his curtains were outdated and frayed. He had an old hound dog in his home, the only bit of life other than himself in the dreary scene. But even the hound dog was on its last limb and soon he would truly be by himself. At the sound of knocking on his door, he grumbled. Though shocked, the first emotion that he felt was annoyance. ‘Who would come to visit him and why now after all this time?’

  He swung open the door, not bothering to peer through the peephole. He was too impatient after all of the time that he had spent alone. Though he had isolated himself, he knew who the current royalty was. He had to go down to the village market to get his groceries and when he was down there, he often picked up the news. His eyes scanned over Clare, ignoring the boys. She had the circular face shape of Wade and his same kind eyes. Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He pulled on the sleeves of his green button down and pushed up the oval shaped glasses that he had grown to need with age.

  “Clare Pax?” ‘Was he seeing this right? Was this one of Wade's daughters? Where was the other one? Had she tragically passed away? How did Clare remember who he was?’

  Jesse looked nothing like Wade. His skin was the shade of the midnight sky, his eyes were a wood brown, there was a curly tuft of hair on the top of his head and a large scar on his neck. The girl he assumed was Wade’s daughter spoke with the same sweetness that her father once did.

  “Yes, I’m Clare and you must be Jesse.” She fished in her bag for the letter Natalia had written and extended the note out in front of her. “This is a letter from an old mate of yours, her name is Natalia. I hate to meet you without my sister, but I’m on a journey and I need to know more about my father.”

  Jesse sighed at the sight of the letter, but took it firmly from her hand. He debated slamming the door on them, but instead opened it wider. Before he let them in, he had a question or two. “Who is that and why is the prince with you?”

  “Oh, Cassius is my fiancé and that’s Antoine, he is just a good mate of mine,” she told him.

  Jesse glared at the two boys, but welcomed them into his home. “Shoes off,” he prompted, letting the door slam behind them once they entered. The old gray and brown hound dog clumsily stumbled over to the trio and sniffed curiously at their legs. “This is Bella,” he grumbled, a smile escaping him as he looked at the old dog and fixed her pink collar. “She’s friendly. Also, your mother is a fool for having you engaged to that man. You’re too young to be engaged.”

  Clare sighed, she decided to ignore his comment and instead bent down to pet the dog, Cassius stepped away. “What, don’t tell me you don’t like dogs?” she questioned as Antoine bent down to pet Bella as well.

  Cassius shook his head. “That’s not it, these are just good trousers.” He looked to Jesse who was rolling his eyes at him.

  Jesse sat down on his torn cream sofa. He crossed his legs and raised his eyebrows. “It’s good to see that Wade still lives on, but can we get on with this a bit?” He had a bit of resentment for Gracielle, so seeing a girl who looked a lot like her caused him a little bit of pain. Clare moved to the sofa across from him and the boys flanked both of her sides.

  “Right, well I don’t really know much about you, but I would like to know a little bit about you and your relationship with my father. I know you two were basically like brothers. I’m sure it hurts to talk about him, but I need to know more about him and I mean everything about him. I am afraid my mum was holding back some information or that you know more about him than she does. I don’t want to keep avoiding the true subject, so I guess I will tell you. I have healing powers and I need to know where they came from. I know you know Natalia has powers and that you won’t hurt me, so please, tell me what you know.”

  Jesse sighed and slouched back against the sofa. “Right, well I guess I’ll start from the beginning. I wasn’t expecting to share my life story today.”

  “Sorry,” Clare winced.

  Jesse stood up from the sofa to go fetch them some water. When he moved, he dragged his left leg behind him as if it were dead weight.

  Clare hadn’t noticed this before. She wanted to ask him if his injury was from the war and she wanted to ask him if she could heal it. She had a strong urge to heal his leg, but from what she had observed, this would be pushing her luck with Jesse.

  Jesse returned with three glasses of water and set them down on the oak coffee table in the middle of the two sofas. “Your father and I were both drafted to fight in the previous war, the one against your folks.” He pointed to Cassius who stirred uncomfortably at the mention of his kingdom. “But there is a difference between your pa and I. He was training to be a soldier when he got drafted, he planned to fight in whatever war was next, so it didn’t make a difference to him, but me, I didn’t want to be involved in any war. I joined that damn thing against my own will because the kingdom forced me to fight on their behalf. Empires can do whatever they damn please. Anyways your pa was a good man,” his throat was beginning to strain, he didn’t remember the last time he had spoken of Wade. He couldn’t remember the last time he had spoken to anyone besides his dog.

  “I didn’t have a good relationship with anyone at the base when I first joined. I was a scrawny kid who was made fun of for the way he looked and acted. Most people who live in Europe are white. Some people like Prince Cassius, are of course descendants from other countries, but still I’ve hardly seen anyone here who looks like me. I grew up poor, but at the base I was getting money for my family, so that was a plus. Our symbol is the blacksmith, the worker. Our colors are gold and black and our symbol is the husky. My parents died of disease while I was at war, but that’s not too important to this story. Anyways, your father made it his mission to become good mates with the boy who spent all of his free time after training, reading instead of going to pick up chics. We shared a room with two other boys. It wa
s easy for him to wedge his way into my life. He was constantly asking what I was reading, though I’d never seen him pick up a book. He chose me for any partner activity. Eventually, I gave in and I decided that I wanted to be his good pal too. He became a good mate of mine pretty quickly. I accepted him because though I didn’t want to admit it, I hated being lonely. We ate meals together and were practically attached at the hip. Some rumors flew around that we were romantically interested in each other, but that wasn’t the case. Wade was one of the straightest men I knew. We had Sunday’s off for prayer, but we never spent them that way. Wade had more of a status than I did, he was well known around the base and his family had more money. I’m sure you know this, but in case your mother left out the details, I’ll explain. He came from a family of soldiers, their colors are white and olive green like the kingdom and their symbol was an elephant. If a family's status matches the kingdom’s, they’re well known, they’re liked in society, they’re allowed inside of the castle at any time as long as the queen grants her permission. That’s where Gracielle comes into play, I’m sure she never talks about me,” he said.

  “We were invited to a few balls before the war started. Wade had known Gracielle from a young age, he’d been invited to these types of events all his life, but I hadn’t. I became mates with her because he was seeing her. I supported their relationship, but I knew it wasn’t plausible. I warned him of the dangers of war and how their love might fade, but he always told me I was wrong. I met both of his parents before we were shipped off to fight. I’m sure you’ve never met them, they were older and lived a bit far from the palace. His mother died of disease when you were two and his father passed on quickly after. Not only did the war bring murder, it brought disease. This was a quick war, they shipped us out and we came back shortly afterwards. Your parents were quick to have Sage and then you almost two years later. But little did they know, they’d have six more years with you both before another war started. I was your guys’s uncle, your protector. But I didn’t do a good job. I am sorry I wasn’t around much after you were little.” He paused to see her nod that it was alright and then he continued.