Forest of Kings

by Jack Knight

  Xion had never known much about any of the gods. He was not even sure that he could name them if he tried. Jorham had told him about one, the god of craftsman. He had said that a butcher had to honor him every once in a while, if he wanted to be successful, but that’s all that Xion could remember.

  Walking passed all the temples, Xion felt like he should have paid a lot more attention to the gods these buildings were dedicated to. He worried that they might find his ignorance to be disrespectful, which was the last thing he wanted.

  When they reached the temple Sapphire had led them to, she stopped and stared up at it lovingly, she had obviously missed it after being gone for so long.

  This temple was not as ornate as some of the others. It had a dozen steps leading up to solid gold doors, and two braziers, large bowls made of metal with something burning inside the create fires larger than a person, out front, but that was all.

  “I can’t wait to introduce you to everyone,” Sapphire said, looking at Xion. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. After a few seconds, her eyes went wide, and her face turned red. She turned to the others, who were all grinning at her like she had done something embarrassing. “I mean, all of you, of course.”

  Ava’s grin, which looked more sarcastic than the others, turned into a sneer. “I don’t think I should go in there.”

  Sapphire’s face fell, Xion could see the pain on her face. How could Ava say something like that when Sapphire was clearly so excited to show them where she grew up? All she had to do was walk inside and pretend for a few minutes, at the very least.

  The fire in Xion’s stomach, his link to his magic, flared with anger. He felt his blood grow hot, and the skin all over his body started itching like he was covered in ants. The braziers on either side of the steps of the temple made a creaking noise as the fires inside them tripled in size and started glowing black instead of the normal red flame.

  “Ava, why would you say something like that?” Xion demanded.

  Ava crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him defiantly. He saw her eyes flick to the braziers and back again and knew that she understood that his magic threatened to act on its own.

  “I pay homage to Dreskar,” she answered stonily.

  The fire in the braziers returned to their red color but were still burning much too high. Xion heard them groan, like the metal was upset by the heat the flames were giving off.

  Xion did not know what “Dreskar” was, but everyone around him obviously did. Laira took a step away from Ava, Sapphire gasped, and Warren gave a nervous chuckle and a forced smile. Whatever Dreskar was, Xion did not imagine it was a good thing.

  Sapphire gently laid her hand on Xion’s arm. “The god of thieves and assassins,” she explained, giving him a worried look.

  Xion’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that Ava was very private about her personal life, but he wondered why she had not told them all something like that before. Did she think that they would judge her?

  Sapphire pulled her hand back suddenly and gasped. She was staring at Xion’s arm, where she had been touching him. Xion looked down and saw that his arm was covered in small bumps. They were barely visible, and rose from under his skin, covering his arm from the tips of his fingers all the way up to where his shirt ended on his shoulder. It looked like scales had formed under his skin.

  The brazier’s fire returned to normal as the flame inside Xion died out in surprise. Once before, Xion had grown scales while using magic. Then, they had burst through his skin, and had been a patchwork of gold and black. This time, Xion could only see them because he was so close, they just looked like an extra layer of skin, no color at all.

  “What’re you guys staring at?” Warren asked, his voice nervous, and his eyes kept darting back to Ava.

  Xion moved his arms behind his back. “Nothing,” he answered immediately.

  The last time he had grown scales, they had disappeared as soon as he severed his connection to his magic. This time, they were not going away. He could feel them under his skin as his clasped his hands together behind his back.

  “Maybe, we should just go wait for Sarin,” Sapphire said. She looked into Xion’s eyes with such worry, Xion was sure that his heart was breaking, he hated to see her so upset.

  “No, I want to see your…” Xion started to insist, but he was interrupted when the doors behind him opened with a soft grinding noise.

  Xion turned to see a woman that he was sure was an elf, but somehow had been formed incorrectly. She was surprisingly tall for an elf, nearly as tall as Xion, her skin was a soft grey color, and her eyes a light green. She wore a plain grey dress that just barely touched the ground when she walked, with a hood that covered her head, and a band around her forehead that kept it from covering her face. The sleeves reached all the way down to her wrists, with only her grey skinned hands uncovered by the fabric.

  She looked at the group of people standing at the base of the stairs with worry, and then her face suddenly beamed with delight.

  “Sapphire? Oh, my dear, you’re home!” the woman cried.

  “Sister Azeral!” Sapphire gasped. Without hesitation, Sapphire ran up the stairs and wrapped her arms around the woman, who hugged her back just as tightly.

  Xion looked to the others, unsure what he was supposed to do next. Warren looked just as confused as he was. Laira looked surprisingly excited. She bounded up the stairs and stopped next to the woman and Sapphire.

  “Oh, it’s so nice to meet you, Sister Azeral! Sapphire’s told me so much about you,” Laira said.

  The grey woman released Sapphire and looked at Laira. Her eyes ran down Laira’s body and back up again. Xion thought he saw the woman’s smile flicker away for a fraction of a second, but he could not be sure.

  “Sapphire, you brought us guests,” Azeral beamed as she put a hand on Laira’s shoulder. “It’s so nice to meet all of you. Please come inside.”

  She waved them all toward the door to the temple excitedly and shuffled inside without waiting for them to follow. Xion looked to Ava and Warren as Sapphire and Laira followed Azeral inside.

  Warren shrugged at him, clearly just as much at a loss for what to do as Xion was. Ava sighed impatiently and walked up the steps to the temple, as if waiting for them would be a waste of time.

  Warren started to follow her, but before he passed him, Xion said, “Wait, just real quick, who is the mother?” He wanted to at least know whose temple he was walking into. He did not want another surprise like the one about Ava’s god.

  Warren grinned. Xion knew that being asked to spout of information was Warren’s favorite thing in the world. “Short or long version?” he asked.

  Xion was grateful he was given an option. “Short, I just need a basic idea.”

  “‘The Mother’ is what her worshippers call her, everyone else calls her Fremia. She’s the queen of the gods, and rules over the godly spheres of healing, children, childbirth, family,” he hesitated with a devilish grin on his face. Xion could tell he was trying to think of a way to tell him something that would make him uncomfortable. “And, uh, her worshippers believe in staying pure until marriage.”

  With that, Warren nudged Xion’s arm with his elbow and walked up the stairs. Xion was relieved that Warren had not seemed to notice the scales on his arms when they made contact. He wondered why Warren had found the last sentence so funny, but he had no time to worry about it.

  Xion followed Warren into the temple. Just passed the doors was a large, open room. Stone pillars rose around the circular walls, holding up the ceiling, with several doors between each of the pillars. There was a pool with a low wall in the center of the room, reminding Xion of the fountain that he and his friends had sat around when they were in Aur’in, except no water spouted from its center, and this one was not frozen over. Directly across from the front door, there was a large gold statue of a woman wearing the same dress as Azeral, with her arms outstretched i
n a welcoming gesture.

  Sapphire, Azeral, and Laira were already sitting on the wall of the pool. Sapphire was talking animatedly, while Laira was looking around the large empty room as if it was somehow very interesting. Ava stood against one of the pillars by the wall, with her arms folded over her chest, and a bored expression on her face. She absentmindedly scratched at her forearms but was otherwise completely immobile.

  Warren and Xion reached the women sitting by the pool as Azeral said, “Ah, yes, Glora has told me all about that.”

  “Glora’s been here?” Sapphire asked in surprise. “How?”

  Azeral smiled. “No, no, my dear. Glora sends messages. She discovered a spell that allows her to pass objects through reflections.”

  “What?” Warren shouted immediately. He knelt down next to Azeral and demanded, “What was the name of the spell? What branch of magic? Can you tell me what book it’s in?”

  Azeral smiled kindly at him, and Xion placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe we should let them talk,” Xion suggestion.

  Disappointment colored Warren’s face when he stood. “Right, yeah, time for that later.”

  “What has Glora told you?” Sapphire asked. Xion noticed that her eyes darted toward him and then back to Azeral.

  Azeral smiled knowingly. “Everything that she could, I’m sure. It seems that Anathia has given you more gifts than the Mother has, as of late.”

  Sapphire’s face flushed bright red in an instant. Warren laughed, and Laira looked at him, obviously seeking answers. Xion shrugged, he had no idea what they were talking about.

  For several seconds, Sapphire did nothing but stare at the pool of water beside her, trying to hide her face. Xion wanted to draw attention away from her and cast around his mind for anything he could to change the subject.

  “So,” Xion asked the first thing that came to mind, “has Sapphire changed much since she was here?” He knew it was nothing exciting, but he did not know what else to ask.

  “Not so much,” Azeral answered, moving her gaze to Xion. “She has only been gone a year.”

  “A year is kind of a long time,” Xion mused.

  Azeral laughed softly. “It is only a drop in an ocean, my dear. Sapphire lived here for over a hundred years before the recruiters came to test her.”

  Xion’s jaw dropped. “A hundred years? Sapphire, how old are you?”

  Warren laughed again, this time so hard he had to sit down on the wall of the pool beside Laira. “She’s an elf,” he said, between breaths, “how old did you think she was?”

  Xion had never put any thought into it before. She seemed like she was around his age, but he knew that elves aged much slower than humans, or half elves. It occurred to him that elves came of age at one hundred years old, so she had to be at least around that age.

  “I’m one hundred and twenty-two,” Sapphire said, her face still directed at the pool, and her voice squeaked with tension.

  “That would make her around nineteen or twenty, in the human equivalent of years,” Azeral added.

  “Wow… Ava!” Xion shouted so that his voice would carry across the room, “How old are you?”

  “Older than Sapphire, that’s all you need to know,” Ava shouted back lazily.

  “Wait, wait,” Warren said, wheezing for breath. “I just realized something. Xion,” he took a few seconds to steady his breathing, “How old are you exactly?”

  Xion did not know where Warren was headed with the question, but he had a feeling that he was not going to like it. “A little over seventeen, why?”

  Warren closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, he said, “You realize that makes you just about fourteen in human years, right?”

  “No,” Xion said immediately.

  “No, no, listen.” Warren started listing off numbers and equations that Xion had a hard time following. Xion got the point of it, though. If half elves came of age at twenty, a seventeen year old half elf would be roughly the same as a fourteen year old human.

  Xion did not want to believe it, but Warren’s figures seemed well thought out. It had been pointed out to him several times that he was not of age, yet. He had always dismissed it, but Warren had a point.

  “But, you are not just elf and human, are you?” Azeral asked.

  “No, I’m not,” Xion agreed quickly, jumping at the chance for anything that might make him seem less immature.

  “Some magical creatures mature more quickly, so that they can survive passed adolescence,” she told him. “I once met a man, a full grown adult, that was only seven years old. He was half vampire and half human.”

  Xion felt his heart drop out of his chest and settle in his stomach. He wanted to know that he was of age. When he lived in Fairen, he had thought that he, like everyone else around him, had come of age at sixteen. It was not until Sarin had told him otherwise, after he had left to train in Aur’in that he had found out that he was a half elf and would not come of age until he was twenty.

  He really hoped that, whatever his bloodline was, he would come of age sooner than the average half elf. Though, he had absolutely no desire to be part vampire.

  “Are there any other options?” Xion asked weakly.

  He looked to Warren for suggestions, who shrugged. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

  He looked to Laira. She did not know much about magic, but maybe she had heard of something. She just stared at him, her eyes wide. “You’re still a child? You’re older than I am.” Xion really regretted letting Laira come with them in that moment.

  “There has to be something else,” he said to Azeral. Then, the thought came to him. “What about this?” he showed her his arm. The scales still present under his skin.

  Azeral’s eyes went wide. “I’ve seen this before,” she said in surprise.

  “Really?” Xion asked.

  “Whoa, that’s new!” Warren jumped up in excitement. He brought his face close to Xion’s arm and poked at his skin. “You have built in armor.”

  Xion moved his arm away from Warren. “Where did you see that before.”

  “Just before Sapphire was left on the temple steps, a woman stayed here. She was with child at the time, she had those shapes under her skin. She said that her… partner,” she said the word disapprovingly, “had just noticed them, and asked what they meant.”

  “What did you tell her?” Xion asked, his curiosity running rampant in his mind. He could feel it, he was close to discovering what his bloodline was.

  Azeral shook her head. “I told her I had no idea.” Xion felt his chest deflate. “But, she was human and said that she had only had the one partner for a hundred years. She looked no older than you do now. Whatever it is, it definitely had an extended lifespan.”

  “Wait, Sister, you said that was just before I arrived?” Sapphire asked.

  “Yes, dear?” Azeral confirmed.

  “Was she still here when I was?”

  Azeral shook her head. “No, she disappeared one night. If I recall, it was not even a week before you were left at the steps.”

  “Could…” Sapphire began, hesitantly, “Could it have been my mother?”

  Azeral seemed surprised, like the thought had never occurred to her. “It is possible, but I’m not sure it’s likely. She looked nothing like you, my dear. As I said, she was human. She had black hair and black eyes, I don’t think she could have a child with red hair and blue eyes, like you.”

  Sapphire looked disappointed, but something flared inside Xion. The briefest notion of hope, and a hunger to know if he was right.

  “Do you remember the woman’s name?” Xion asked quietly. He was scared to know the answer, but he had to ask.

  Azeral nodded. “Her name was Xana.”

  Black hair, black eyes, scales under her skin. And, Xana did not seem like a common name. Xion had no doubt in his mind at all. His mother had been in Celemor over a hundred years ago. And, she had been pregnant, long before Xion had been born.

 
Chapter 5: Transformed

  Xion did not contribute much to the conversation after that. He kept getting lost in his thoughts. Could he be related to Sapphire? Was she his sister? Did he have a sibling out there somewhere?

  Paarathax had told him that his parents had known that he was halfborn before he had even been born. If he had a sibling, would they not have also been halfborn? Was he not the one the prophecy spoke of at all?

  With all those thoughts running through his head, he began to feel sick to his stomach. He sat down beside Sapphire and listened to her and Azeral talk.

  Azeral told the story of how Sapphire had arrived one morning on the temple steps. She was bundled up in a blanket, with an envelope tucked underneath her. It had a letter that said, “For her protection,” and a single sapphire inside. That was what had prompted the Sisters to name her Sapphire. Azeral continued, saying that on the anniversary of the day Sapphire had arrived, there would always be a letter, with the same contents, and the same note.

  Sapphire had insisted, even from a young age, that the sapphires be sold and the money kept by the temple, as payment for taking care of her. Which was a shame, Xion thought, because if she had kept any of the money, they could afford to eat more than just bread.

  They talked for a couple of hours before Sarin arrived at the temple. Sapphire introduced them to several other matrons of the temple while they were there. Xion tried to remember all of their names, but they all blurred together. Luckily, they could all be referred to as “Sister” and nobody minded.

  Xion also noticed that all the sisters looked completely different. Azeral was the only tall elf with grey skin. There were at least a dozen elves, though they all looked like the elves Xion was used to seeing, and twice as many of them were human. Even though they all wore the same full bodied robes that Azeral did, it was fairly easy to tell them apart, and Sapphire wanted to introduce Xion to every one of them.