Gil covered my hand with his, "That's the future. Don't worry about it right now, live in the present. Right here. With me. In the garden you love so much," he said softly and I looked up, meeting his golden, brown eyes. The ones that looked so much like Ignatius'. "No, don't go there. Don't go to that dark place in your mind. Stay here, with me. In this garden, with this beautiful Morning Glory vine that Enid absolutely hates because it's a waste of space and kills everything it touches," He crooned. He always seemed to know what I needed. Even before I did. My thoughts which had been little more than a jumbled mess in my head a few minutes ago had begun to dissipate, pushed back enough to give me time to breathe and relax a little. He knew I fought with the ability to prioritize my thoughts sometimes and always did what he could to give me a break from the constant noise of ideas and emotions in my head. "Don't think about earlier. Don't think about tomorrow. Just think about righ
"A little inappropriate, don't you think, now that you're engaged?" Sylvren's voice was icy and I could swear I could hear small crackles of electricity surrounding the Queen Mage. I saw Gil very slowly wiping his fingers off on his pants, his face as red as my hair. Which I was hurriedly trying to fix, as if losing the wind-blown status of it would erase what my mother had just walked in on altogether. "Technically," I breathed, or more like panted out, trying to cover myself with false bravado. "I'm not engaged yet." I said, my hand grasping for the contract. When my fingers only felt the hard stone of the bench, I looked over and saw the contract lazily making its way towards me on a soft breeze. It must have blown away from our lust tornado. I snatched it out of the air and whispered, "Thank you," to Gil out of the corner of my mouth. I held out the paperwork to my mother who ripped it from my grasp, "And why aren't you engaged yet?" The Queen asked, glancing over the documents.
I stared down at the names on the scroll in front of me. Twenty-seven. Almost thirty more of us, gone. Dead and abducted. There were twelve on the list that were found dead at the site. The other fifteen were unknown. Either captured or killed. Without bodies, we had no way of knowing. I rubbed at my eyes, the weariness of the past few weeks weighing on me heavier with this news. I stood up, pushing the chair back and my mother's eyes moved to me. She looked as tired as I did, but there was a determination there that I admired. "Your father and I can take care of this, go and get some rest, Lyra. I'll send word if anymore news reaches us." I nodded mutely, not trusting myself to speak right then. It had been weeks since I'd gotten a good night's sleep, and I knew tonight would be no better. Those names, their faces... They'd haunt me along with my past tonight. The halls of the Villa were quiet as I trudged down them. I couldn't think of a way out of this. Every time we tried to
"Lyra!" someone yelled as they shook me awake, my eyes flung open to find myself looking into Lilly's. Her eyes the exact same shade of golden brown as her father, Nael's. "You were sweating and tossing around, I thought you were seizing," Lilly continued, unaware of the inner turmoil I was fighting. She didn't know what I had just been dreaming about or what she'd saved me from having to relive again. She didn't know about that night where everything went wrong. Didn't know that the fire magic that I now wielded had once belonged to her brother. Or that I treasured it as much as I treasured Ignatius' memory. "Sorry," I gasped out, wiping away the sweat that covered my forhead. I was soaked through with it. "Bad dream again?" Lilly asked, backing up the respectful distance that all mages kept from their leaders. "Yea," I mumbled, swinging my feet out of the bed. "Same one as usual?" Lilly asked and I looked at her again. There was a pained look on the other mage's face and I nodde
I was standing on the balcony of the Southern edge of the Villa, my hands resting on an intricately carved banister, the wood sliding smoothly across my palms as my hands moved comfortingly over the familiar surface. I'd just arrived a few minutes ago, having sent one of the other mages to fetch mother while the wind I was heating up whipped through my hair. "Lyra," my mother said in greeting and I turned my head to the side to offer Sylvren, the Queen Mage a nod and a small smile. The events of last night still hung around her eyes and my heart clenched. "Good morning, mother," I offered soflty and the queen mage came to stand beside me, joining me in looking out over the expanse of swirling mist that separated the mages island from the mainland. "I've received a reply from the kingdom of Scepterfall," my mother began. Straight to business, like always. There was no need to fill time with small talk whenever Sylvren Belle was involved. "Kingdom?" I asked, shooting her a glance. "
I gave my mother a quick forced grin before taking the letter and looking down at it, my eyes skimmed it quickly. "So, these men will be here later today or tomorrow morning, and then what? If this guy decides that I'm," I quickly found the part I was referring to in the letter again, narrowed my eyes at the wording and read straight from the paper, "found to be favorable" I glared at my mother, "then what? He goes back to his King and reports that I'm good enough for the royal line and then I just pack my bags, wait for them to come and load me up and go live in a kingdom full of humans?" My mother took the letter back and put it in her pocket. "You'd be leaving with the King's men when they leave tomorrow," she said softly, looking away from me. My chest tightened. "I didn't see that in the letter," I said, unable to grasp the idea of leaving my home, the only home I had known my whole life so soon. "It was in the other letter. Your father and I thought that one was a little too
The small island that we mages called home, floated in the middle of a giant crater that held nothing but water below. It was connected to the mainland by a single land bridge that was just big enough for three horses to walk side by side comfortably. There weren't many people that dared to bring a wagon over it. I had lived my entire life in this magical place. Our ancestors, while trying to avoid persecution, were searching for a way to keep their people safe. They had found this small chunk of land in the bottom of the chasm and lifted the Little Haven up and held it there with some of the most powerful magic ever wielded. Magic that was long ago lost to the mages of our time. By doing this, they'd effectively made an impenetrable stronghold for their people to find refuge from the prejudices of their time. I reflected for a moment how I was similarly working on a way to free my people from the oppression that after centuries of peace had resurfaced over the past few decades. Only
Why did the day have to start off so early? I thought annoyedly to myself. I had barely gotten more than two hours of sleep by the time Lilly had woken me up from my night terror. I sighed, thinking about everything else that still needed to be taken care of. There was the council meeting that mother was supposed to be letting everyone know about right now. There was the possible meeting with the man from Scepterfall, if he decided to show up today, that was. And I still needed to find Gil and break the news to him, hopefully before the time of the actual meeting. I yawned, figuring I should probably get started on that first one and pushed myself off the banister. My mother had told me I should get more rest, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I headed out to the training field, where I figured I'd probably find Gil, but only Lorna, one of the oldest mages on the island who lived in and worked for her room in the Villa was there, fixing some of the leather pieces on the training