Heir of Golden Storms

The faeries drink, sing and dance around the throne room to the sound of the musicians, celebrating their new king and queen. I am seated on the throne, drinking wine from a goblet. Thalia is dancing her heart out on the dancefloor. She dances with men, women, children, elders, and everyone who asks her. Breeze left to bed when the dancing started. Kalani stayed for two hours more, dancing with faeries of her age, until she left with some of them. I do not know where, but Thalia does not seem to mind.

One faerie says something to Thalia. She shakes her head as she smiles, but a faerie behind her tells her something too. She keeps shaking her head, ashamed. Faeries gather, telling her the same thing, until they start chanting her name. Eventually, Thalia agrees and starts walking towards the musicians. She whispers something to them and turns to face the crowd.

“As a request from my people,” she says as everyone pays attention to her, “I am going to sing a song.” Lights deem in the room except the ones near her. That is the magic of faeries. She closes her eyes and let her voice sing.

One endless night,

I found myself in your arms,

Blinded by your charm

And aware you were my blight.

I stand up when I hear her voice, giving my goblet to the servant who refilled it whenever it got empty. I move to the crowd, attracted to Thalia’s voice. Her voice is soft, perfect, and alluring. I could hear her sing all day.

“Excuse me,” I say to the first young lady I find, “Would you like to dance?”

She turned and opens her eyes when she sees me. Her light green eyes stay still for a second before she says, “It will be my pleasure.”

I take her by the hand as the faeries move from around us, giving us space. The light spots us as I move her around, her orange hair dancing. The violins join into the slow song.

I was afraid of your eyes,

And afraid of your games,

But the music called our names,

And I fell for your disguise.

Dancing with this woman is easy. She can anticipate my moves before I make them. I close my eyes, focusing on Thalia’s voice. I want to take it all in. I want to remember everything of the first time I hear her sing.

In your arms I laid,

Lying to myself

That your love was heartfelt,

Even though I was being played.

Even at the words, I could not help but smile. I am loving this. I love dancing, and now more with Thalia singing. I make my partner twirl around before I catch her again.

But as the music drew to the end,

You left me again,

Leaving me to feign

That you were godsend.

The music ends and I bow at my partner. The faeries applaud for Thalia and us. I move to where the musicians are and extend my hand towards Thalia. She takes it, and I pull her towards me. I plant a kiss on her forehead. Thalia might think that this is all for show, but I wanted to do that.

***

That night, I lay on the left side of the bed next to Thalia. I like to cuddle, but Thalia fell asleep on the right side of the bed before I could ask her. Of course, she would have probably laughed at my face, but it was worth a try. A knock interrupts my thoughts. Who would knock at the door at this time?

I stand up, walk to the door, and open it. Breeze is standing outside in a nightgown. She has a pink pillow on her arms that is almost bigger than her. Her dark hair is messy as if she is been asleep for some time.

“I had a nightmare,” she says. “Can I sleep with you and Lia?”

“Sure,” I say, but as I turn, she extends an arm to lift her. I pick her up, close the door, and walk to bed. I put her down and she kneels towards Thalia. She then lays next to her as I lay back down.

“Hi,” Thalia whispers, waking up, “Had another nightmare?” Breeze nods. “All right. Come here.” Thalia starts humming a song. In a few minutes, Breeze falls asleep. “Rowan?”

“Uh,” I answer, opening my eyes. I almost fell asleep.

“Thanks for letting her sleep here,” Thalia says. “She has had nightmares ever since mother passed away.”

“Do not worry about it. I do not mind,” I say as I close my eyes. “She is my family after all.” If Thalia smiles, I do not see it.

***

“Thalia, where is the castle’s library?” I ask as I walk out of the bathroom. I have not changed my night clothes, but I know that one of the dressers is filled with clothes that are mines.

Breeze is still sleeping on my side of the bed, one leg above the comforter while the other underneath. Thalia is seated on the bed, still with her nightgown. She has papers on the bed, and she is staring at them as if they are going to fly away in any minute.

“What are you doing?” I ask, walking towards her.

“Going over how the money at the court is spent,” Thalia says. “That was Oren’s job, but now he is gone. I have to do them until we find someone to replace him.”

“You know that you do not have to do it alone, right?” I say. “I am here too.”

“I know,” she says. “The library is at the east wing and it is underground. Why do you want to go to the library?”

“I need to research something,” I say and look at the balcony. Why tell her what I am going to search when I can show her? “Come. Let me show you something.” I grab her left hand, pulling her. She stands up. I open the balcony doors and step outside.

The view outside is spectacular. I can see the mountains and white clouds below. I can see part of the castle as it spreads to other mountains. I can see the waterfalls. I step against the ledge.

“What are you going to show me?” she asks bored.

“Just come,” I say. She stands at my right and I put my arm around her shoulders. I point one finger at the gray clouds above us. I move it in circles and the clouds above us start moving in circles at the same speed. Thalia opens her mouth in surprise. “This is not all.”

I take my arm off her and point both open palms towards the sky. I close my eyes, feeling the air. I try to feel the clouds above me, and I imagine that I am one of them. I imagine a sea inside of them, inside of me. I clap my hands as I open my eyes and it starts raining abruptly.

“What is this?” she shouts over the sound of the rain wetting everything and us. She is smiling, the kind of smile that no one can hide.

“I can create storms too,” I say. I am smiling too, staring at her. “After the coronation, I gained this magic. I do not know how, but I have your court’s magic. That is why I need to go to the library. I need to know about this.”

“Don’t you get it, Rowan?” she says, spreading her arms and looking up to receive the rain. “The court has chosen you. You are our rightful king.”

“Do you know what this mean?” I ask her and she lowers her head to look at me. “You do not have to procreate with anyone else. I am all yours, baby!”

She moves to push me, but I grab her by the wrist and pulls her towards me. I mess her wet hair with my hands. “You messed my hair,” she laughs as she kicks the water from the floor towards me.

“And you wet me!” I kick water towards her. I am laughing too.

“Why are you under the rain?” Breeze asks. She is standing inside. Her hair is flying everywhere.

“We are celebrating,” I say. “Come here!”

She does not think twice. She runs towards us and I pick her up. She opens her mouth, sticking out her tongue, to taste the water falling from the sky.

“What is it with all of your screaming?” Kalani is standing inside of our room.

“We are having fun! Come, Lani! Join us!” Thalia says while Breeze keeps telling Kalani to join.

“Oh, no,” Kalani says raising her hands. “I do not like getting wet.” I hand Breeze to Thalia and step inside. Kalani sees what I am going to do. “Rowan, don’t you dare! No. No. No.” But too late.

I grab her wrist and pull her to the balcony with us. She shouts as the cold-water hits her, but she laughs. Breeze stretches to mess with Kalani’s recently combed hair. Thalia places Breeze on the floor. Breeze begins throwing water from the floor with her hand at Kalani as Kalani tries to step back from her. I step beside Thalia and wrap my arm around her back.

“I could get used to this,” I tell her as I watch Breeze and Kalani throwing water at each other.

“Yeah,” Thalia says. “Me too.”

***

An hour later, I am sitting at a table in the library. It is smaller than the library of Miracle Castle. It has only four floors, but it still has many books. A pile of books stands beside me and one opened in front of me. I stare at the drawing of the Storm Castle in the book. Frustrated, I close it. There must be something, anything in these books.

I stand and walk towards the wooden pedestal with the research book. I open the research book and take the feather out of the ink pot. I have been looking for information about the Court of Storms. There must be another way to find how I received the magic of conjuring storms when I became king.

Maybe I am seeing everything wrong. Maybe this is not something that happens only at the Court of Storms. If I think about it, I cannot be the first person to be from another court and rise to king. I need to see it general instead of focusing on a single court.

When was I able to control the clouds? It started when Breeze laid the king’s crown on my head. Maybe my magic did not come from the coronation, but directly from the crown. I write on the research book Courts’ crowns.

The book on the tables start flying away while new books come. I close the research book, put the feather in the ink pot, and walk back to the table. There are around fifteen new books on it. I start opening them. Most of the books are specific about one court and what represent their crown, colors, emblems, and everything related to it. Then I find a book that is only about crowns. I sit down, shuffling through the pages. Then I find something that catches my eye.

The crown that the first king of the Court of Storms wore is identically to mine. It is drawn in black and white, but I recognize it. It has the same spikes and the jewels are on the same position as my crown. I pass the pages, looking for the crown of the first queen of the Court of Storms. It is the same as Thalia’s. The crown is more curved that the king’s crown and has more gemstones in it.

I search through the book and find the first crown of the king of the Court of Miracles. It is the same crown as father’s crown. I search for the Court of Autumn. It is the same crown that King Eustace wore when I went to strike a deal. I search for the Court of Summer. It is the same crown that the Summer King was wearing when I walked out from his castle yesterday.

Every single one of these crowns belonged to the first kings and queens of each court. They were not substituted, not even altered. Maybe my storm magic did come from the crown.

I stand up, closing the book in the process. I move back to the pedestal. I open the research book and write “Courts’ founders”. The books on the table float away while new ones come. As I return to the table, I count the books. There are fourteen books. I open the first one, revealing the title: Shaylee Spring, Founder of the Court of Spring. I close the book and open the next one, which is titled: Whit Winter, Founder of the Court of Winter. I close the book, knowing why there are fourteen books here. Thirteen of those books are for each individual court and the other one must be a general book, holding the important information of each founder.

I search for it, open it and start reading. It is titled “Founders of the Courts.” In the beginning, the land was one. There were no courts and no division of families. Faerim was only one place where every faerie lived. I skip pages and pages of the introduction. If I need a full history lesson, I will have searched for exactly that book. Then, I stop when I find the title: The Beginning of the Courts. It mentions the Great Faerie War and the thirteen sides with their leaders and the reasons for what they fought for. I do not care about that right now.

I skip more pages until I find a page titled “The First Rulers”. After the Great Faerie War, Faerim was divided into courts. Castles were constructed and kings and queens rose. Crowns were constructed by the best of smiths. The new kings and queens enchanted their crowns for their generations to hold their strong magic and gifted parts of their abilities to each of their followers.

I lean back on my chair. If this book is correct, the king’s crown of the Court of Storms, the same one that the first Storm King wore, granted me the storm magic. It also can mean that my storm magic and Thalia’s storm magic is stronger than anyone’s storm magic in this court, stronger than the storm magic of Kalani and Breeze. Is that even possible?

I hear footsteps coming from the stairs. I turn to see Master Nidd, the prophet, walking down it. He walks with his arms on his back, gazing at everything with interest. He almost looks surprised when he sees me.

“Oh, my king, I did not know that you were here,” he says.

“Hello, Master Nidd,” I say. “What are you doing here?”

“The greatest library in the court is right here,” he says. “I come here whenever I have free time to expand my knowledge.” He starts walking towards me. “May I ask what the king is reading?” He takes a glimpse of the books. “Ah, the first rulers of the courts. That is an interesting topic. My knowledge is limited, but, nevertheless, is there something that I can help the king with?”

“I was curious about the first rulers,” I say. I do not know if I can trust him with the information that the crown is more than a piece of jewelry. I close the books and say, “Return.” The books start flying back to their shelves.

“If the king wants to expand his knowledge, I suggest reading about religion,” he says. “It will explain more about the courts’ founders and the Great Faerie War.”

This impacts my curiosity. Religion was something that our ancestors used to believe. Now on day, no one has a religion. Why read about it now? Maybe the Great Faerie War happened because of it.

“I think that I can use your help with something,” I say as I stand up. Master Nidd was walking away but stopped. He is intelligent. He is the prophet. He might have more knowledge than I could ever get. “Is there a way to look directly at the past? I want to search the past for things that the books do not mention.”

“What does my king mean?” Master Nidd asks. “Like a way to relive the past?” I nod. “There is a place called The Isle of Memories. Faeries say that in this island, anyone can relive every moment from the past.”

“Where is it located?” I ask.

“North from here, past the Court of Depths,” Master Nidd says. “Unfortunately, is covered by mist. Only faeries who are lost within themselves can find it.” I nod and Master Nidd walks away.

***

Half an hour later, I am flying through the skies on top of a court’s raven and with the Cursebreaker beside me. I searched for a map and found the location of The Isle of Memories. I told a knight to lead me to the nest where the court’s ravens sleep and to tell Thalia where I was headed if she asks. I know that she would not like my idea of searching answers about my new magic at an unfindable island.

After another half an hour of flying, thick mist starts surrounding me. The raven starts to panic, flying out of control. It does not know where to go. I try to control him. The flying horses were easier, they knew how to behave themselves. The raven starts flying down towards the sea. I try to pull him up, but he does not move. Then we land, and not on the sea, in a real land. We made it to The Isle of Memories.

Master Nidd said that the faeries that are lost within themselves can find the isle. I did not know that I was lost until I arrive here. These last two weeks, I discovered that I am not the person who I thought I was. I am not the son of the High King. I cannot do miracles, but I can curse. I do not know who my biological father is, nor how I got this curse magic. I am lost.

I step down from the raven and start walking. I do not see even my hands in front of me. The more I walk inside the forest, the less dense the mist is. Then, in one step, the mist is gone. I am at a garden that I recognize as one of the gardens in the Miracle Castle. A kid, more like a pre-teen, with golden hair is climbing one of the trees with a wooden sword in his mouth. He reaches one of the branches and sits on it, taking the wooden sword from his mouth. I recognize him. That is Easton.

Below him and in front of the tree, a kid with raven hair and smaller than him tries to climb the tree. He falls hard on his back, but he stands up. He jumps, trying to reach Easton on the branch. “Give it back,” he says.

“Sure,” Easton says. He breaks the wooden sword in half and tosses it in front of the raven kid.

I walk around to see the kid’s face. I stay a second petrified. It is me. The raven kid is me from years ago. I remember this. It is a memory from my childhood.

The kid picks the broken sword from the floor and looks angrily at Easton who is smiling. He opens his mouth to shout something at Easton but closes it. He turns around and leaves furiously without mentioning a word to Easton.

I move to another place where the mist is. When the mist disperses, I am standing at the shore of a lake. I spot pre-teen Easton again and the kid me, both not wearing a shirt and wearing pants that have been folded to look like shorts. They are on top of a rock with another teenager with longer golden hair and without a shirt.

“Are you brave enough to jump into the lake?” Easton asks.

“Of course, I am,” the kid me answers. “I just do not want to jump right now.”

“He is not brave enough,” Easton says to the teenager. The teenager turns his face and I see him. That is Zephyrus.

“Easton, stop that,” I hear a girl say. A younger version of Marin is near them but not on the rock. I look around and find a pre-teen version of Ailsa reading a book under a tree.

“I do not need you to defend me, Marin,” the raven kid says.

“I always knew that he was a coward,” Zephyrus says to Easton. The same words that he told me days before my wedding. The same words that he has told me my whole life.

In that moment, I see the kid’s expression shift. He turns towards the lake and runs. He jumps into the lake with a splash.

“No!” Marin says as she climbs the rock. “He does not know how to swim, you fool!” Marin runs towards the edge of the rock and jumps into the lake. Zephyrus and Easton start laughing. Seconds later, Marin breaks the surface with the kid on her hand, gulping water out of him. After that day, I was afraid of going into the water, even when Marin was trying to teach me how to swim.

I step into the nearby mist again. I do not need to see this or any memories to know how my life was. I do not need to see more memories to know how mean Easton was, how cruel Zephyrus was, and how Ailsa did not care what happened to me.

I continue searching, and whenever I step out to another memories, I walk right back to the mist. I stop in one place I do not recognize. I am inside a room that resembles a room in the Miracles Castle. The fire of the lanterns is low. A woman is lying on a bed, her face and black hair wet. She has her legs spread while a servant is at the end of the bed. Another woman, who I recognize to be my deceased aunt and my mother’s sister, Aunt Sierra, is holding the woman’s hand. I look at the face of the woman in the bed. It is my mother and she is giving birth.

Mom screams at the top of her long, while Aunt Sierra is telling her to breath. A few seconds more, and a tiny cry comes.

“It is a boy,” the servant says. She folds the baby in a white blanket and gives him to my mother.

“He is not the king’s son,” Aunt Sierra says when she looks at the baby.

I move to see the baby’s face. He has black hair, brown eyes and a tanned skin. What surprises me to see are two small black horns on his forehead. Something in his back, that is folded inside the blanket, peeks out. It is a black wing.

“He is not a faerie,” Aunt Sierra says. “He is a monster.”

“He is not a monster,” mom says between breath. I have never heard her voice before. It is warm and it makes me feel safe, as if I belong with her. “He is my son Rowan.”

I take a step back. That cannot be me. I do not have black horns or black wings.

“He is not Auden’s son,” mom says. “We cannot let Auden know.”

“How can we hide this from him?” Aunt Sierra asks. “The baby has horns! No faerie has horns!”

“I am going to enchant him,” mom says. “I am going to make his horns and wings disappear until the enchantment is removed.”

“But for how long can the enchantment remain?” Aunt Sierra asks. “An enchantment like this can only last ten days, two weeks top.”

“Not if I cast a full enchantment,” mom says.

“No, you cannot do this,” Aunt Sierra says as she takes a step towards mom. “An enchantment like this cost too much magic for one person to withstand, unless…” She gives a look to mom and mom nods. “No! You cannot do this! Do not do this! We will find another solution!”

Mom shakes her head. “No, we will not.” She looks back at the baby, who has fallen asleep. “I hope that you know how much your mother loves you.” She looks back at Aunt Sierra, who has watery eyes. “Thank you.”

Mom waves her hand and the horns and wings disappears from the baby. She closes her eyes slowly, still smiling, and I know what is going to happen. I walk back to the mist. I do not want to see my mother die once more.