Derina: The Frozen City

The Unwanted Son

“Lora, please, let me explain, its not….” Nerel began before James cut in, “ Don't talk to her, you have no right!” he yelled, Nerel flinching at the harshness in james’ voice. Lora watched Nerel, she couldn't pretend she didn't see the hurt in his eye as they met hers. But why would he not tell her?

 “James, i do believe that is enough.” Paxton's voice rang out calm but stern. James looked at him in disbelief. “Did you know?” he asked, clearly hoping he would say no, but instead Paxton nodded. “Yes, I did know, I've known for years. And I can explain if you would be so kind as to put the sword down. You may be the prince, but this is still my home.” there was a hint of superiority to his voice, the kind that made you listen to what he says without him needing to even try. James seemed to waver for a second but he did not lower his sword. “I need proof that he is not a threat.” Lora looked at Paxton, he was still standing in the doorway, his hands clasped behind his back, his face was blank, like this kind of situation happens all the time. She then looked at James, his anger clear on her face, and Nerel, who still watched her, his eyes pleading for her to give him a chance. She remembered her dream again, the way Nerel had clearly loved her, and went against his own father. For some reason, this calmed her. The Nerel in her dreams may not be the man standing in front of her, but who is to say he won't be? Her instincts told her to trust him. “James, your getting ahead of yourself, You do not know him. I have spent most of the day with him, if he had wanted to give me to Safield, he would have. I trust him with my life, and even if his word means nothing to you, mine should.” james looked back at her, his face twisting in confusion. She stepped towards them, Amanda lowers her bow and throws out her hand to stop her, but Lora just gives her a hard stare and she drops it. In three steps she is next to James, she grabs the hilt of his sword and slides it out of his hand and away from Nerel’s neck. James just stares at her and doesn't resist. Once the sword is out of his hand he drops it to his side, defeated. Lora looks at Nerel, he looks relieved, her heart clenches when she she's a small line of red where the blade made contact with his skin, it was just starting to pool with blood. Lora sets the sword down on a chair and turns to grab the bag she left next to her seat. She kneels down and pulls out her dirty torn up shirt, and without thinking, she uses her magic to make some nice clean bandages out of it. She stands back up and walks back to Nerel, and without warning him, she pushes one onto the wound on his neck. He flinches at the contact, but then just looks at her strangely, and she hears Paxton chuckle from somewhere behind her and she could see James glowering from the corner of her eye. “If you keep pressure on it, it will stop the bleeding.” she explains. Nerel smiles at her kindly and gently grabs her hand pulling it away from his neck along with the bandage. Lora is shocked when she sees there is no evidence of the cut other than the blood on the bandage and his skin. “It's ok Lora, elves heal rather quickly.” he says, with a hint of humor in his voice. Lora's' face flushed and she looked down, embarrassed. “ oh right.” she says and backs up. Nerel doesn't hesitate, “but thank you anyway Lora, that was very kind of you.” he says. Lora smiles slightly, just then James speaks up. “Alright enough already, can we get to the problem at hand now?" He says, clearly irritated, but Lora could hear the exhaustion in his voice and nods in reply.

The five of them sat around a table in the garden, the delicate perfumes of the various flowers filling their noses, and seem to have a calming effect. Nerel is the first to speak, “As you now know, I am indeed Safield's son, though, I personally do not consider him my father. I know he is a monster, and even though I lived with him for the first 15 years of my life I could never accept what my father had done to this world. He has never loved me, and when I was a child, I thought it was because I reminded him of my mother. Now I know that it was because I was not strong enough in his eyes. I left when I could no longer stand by and watch as he ruined so many lives.” The entire time he talks, his eyes never leave Lora's. “I came here to Paxton, hoping I could give him some useful information for the rebels to use before my father found me and had me killed. Instead, Paxton welcomed me into his home, let me live here, train with the rebels, and practice my magic the way I was meant to.” the room was silent for a moment. Nerel dropped his gaze, seeming to be unable to look at Lora any longer. James stared at Nerel, his own gaze piercing and skeptical, but he said nothing. Amanda, on the other hand, stared at her father with what could only be a look of wonder. Paxton addressed Amanda and James, “Look, I know you think you understand what has been happening over the years, but the truth is, you don't. You only just arrived today and your already making assumptions about someone you have never met. Many times, in war, things are not always as they seem. James, if you are to be king one day, you need to learn to think before you act.” James hung his head, his face flushed scarlet with shame. “I understand you wanting to protect your friends, but you can't blind yourself to the facts that are in front of you. If you had just taken a moment to think before you acted, you would have realized that if Nerel had any malice intent, he would not have brought Lora here. You should also know full well that anyone influenced by daemon can not enter this city. he could not be sitting here right now if he was working for his father.'' James nodded, clearly understanding what Paxton had explained, but was too ashamed to say anything. Lora looks at James, trying to see past her anger at him. “James.” she says softly. He looks up at her, waiting for her to continue. “you need to learn to trust me. I may have grown up as a human, but I am not helpless. thanks to Nerel, i have not only learned a lot about my past, but also about my magic.” Lora meant to for this to help, but instead she sees hurt flash across his face. “Fine I understand, it won't happen again.” he said simply. Paxton nods and stands up. “ now if that is all, i do believe dinner should be done soon, if you would like to eat, please follow me to the main hall.” Amanda stands up and stretches, letting out a large yawn, “why am i the only one who isn't overly dramatic?” she asks, giving James a pointed look. Before anyone could reply she turns and walks with Paxton out the door, James stands up and quickly follows without a word. Lora and Nerel give each other a look before proceeding out the door as well. Back in the entrance hall Paxton speaks up. “I'm going to have some of the servants take you to your rooms.” he says to James and Amanda as two small girls enter from the room to our left. They are both only about five feet tall, with long flowing blond hair that seems to ripple as they walk. They both had sharp vibrant green eyes, like sunlight filtered through the leaves of a tree that has just bloomed back to life in early spring. Their faces were soft and kind and They wore simple white dresses that just touched the top of their feet which were bare. They made no sound as they moved, and Lora couldn't help but notice their ears were pointed like an elf's, but short and close to their head. Nerel leaned in close to her ear. “They are vita fey, protective nature spirits, originally they were often found with the Vitadele elk, but once they disappeared the vita fey found refuge in many elven homes. They are extremely loyal and love to help, so they act as servants of a sort. they can be very playful, like children, even though they are centuries old. I must say, they are also great cooks.” he says with a small laugh. Lora would have never guessed that the girls were over 13 years old, let alone centuries.  The two approached and each took the hand of either james or Amanda. “Once you make it to your room, you will find everything set up for you, along with an appropriate outfit for dinner tonight. Get ready and meet me here in an hour.” Paxton says before turning to Lora and Nerel, “would you be willing to show Lora to her room, Nerel? I had the one next to yours set up for her.” Nerel nodded, “of course, that's no problem. Follow me Lora.” he says before heading towards the doorway on the right. He led her through a series of hallways and staircases, Lora couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of the place. Her favorite part was the bridge connecting the back tower to the front one, completely enclosed with glass. on one side she could look down on the beautiful garden bellow, and on the other, she was blessed with the most breathtaking view of the castle. She wondered what view the bridge on the other side had to show, maybe she could get Nerel to show her some time. 

“The two back towers are mostly living quarters, back before the freeze, the towers of knowledge, as we call them, were a sort of school for people to come and learn. Anyone who lived in the villages or towns could come and stay here while they learned from the mage of knowledge. After Safield took over, people stopped coming, either out of fear of associating with a mage, or because Safield did not allow them to come to the city. Whatever the reason, many of the rooms are now vacant. Paxton offered to let the vita stay in the empty rooms, but they prefer the garden, it reminds them of home.” Nerel explained. Lora thought the fey girls were fascinating, she had never heard of vita fey, but neither has she heard of Vitadele elk. She imagined they were not well known by humans, or perhaps no human has ever seen them. “I believe Paxton had Amanda and James put in the other side so that James doesn't feel threatened by me.” Nerel said, almost sounding hurt. 

“Don't worry, he will come around, he doesn't know you, and James has never been very trusting of anyone he doesn't know. He's probably even more wary after the whole thing with that daemon, Derek, that took me.” Lora explained, hoping to cheer him up. 

Nerel shook his head, “I doubt he will trust me even after he gets to know me, I'm Safield's son, I will always be an enemy in his eyes.'' Then he looked at her. “You don't really know me either, I didn't tell you anything about myself, and yet you followed me through the woods. why do you trust me?”

Lora was quiet for a moment, then she sighed, “well, you were kind to me, you helped me when i was lost and scarred. Your right, I don't know you, but you have been honest with me from the moment we met. Of course I noticed that, though you told me everything I needed to know, you never said anything about yourself. I assumed you had your reasons, you saved my life, you don't owe me any sort of explanation. Not only did you help me out of the forest, you brought me here, and even now, you’re still helping me. James and Amanda have been my best friends my entire life, and yet I knew nothing of this world, and maybe it's better that I didn't, but it still hurts to know they lied. You have not lied to me once. sure, you didn't tell me who you were, but that was your business, not mine.” she explained. 

Nerel watched her carefully, “but that's not all is it?” he questioned, and Lora found herself avoiding his eyes. They walked in silence for a moment but Lora said nothing, “you knew my name Lora, before we even met. Is that how you knew you could trust me?” He ask, and still she stayed silent. Nerel sighed. “That's the one thing I have been wondering since I met you, at first I thought someone must have told you, but if they had you wouldn't have trusted me, you knew my name but not who I was. I guess as the most powerful mage alive, you would have your ways of finding out things like that, except, you had no idea how to even use your magic. up until then the magic you used you were unaware of.” he looked at her then. She was staring at her feet, and her face was tinted pink with embarrassment. “It's ok Lora, you don't have to tell me, though, I hope one day you will.” he said quietly. 

Lora nodded, “everything has been so confusing since I got here, everyone expects so much from me, and  yet I know almost nothing about how to help. I have all this magic, but I don't know how to use it, and I can't even do more than make a change of clothes and make a bath without getting sick. How am I supposed to go against Safield?” she expected to see a look of pity on his face, but instead Nerel gave her a warm and encouraging smile. “It's going to take time, Lora. No one expects you to stop him any time soon. First you’ll need time to train. Learn to use your magic, sure, but you're also going to need to learn to use weapons. you’ll be taught to fight, Safield has never bothered to learn any weaponized arts, he depends solely on his magic, that's your advantage. You can learn to infuse a weapon with your magic, so you can use it without using up all your energy. since you can't get a conduit crystal, i feel that's probably your best option.”

“Are you going to teach me?” Lora asked, “I've seen you use a sword, you're very impressive, and you're also a patient teacher.” 

Nerel laughed, “If you would like, I could teach you swordplay, though I don't know how much James would like that. Amanda will probably teach you archery, and I imagine Aris will teach you hand to hand.”

Lora cut in, “I already know hand to hand.” Nerel looked at her in surprise, “what?” she asked, “my mother insisted I learn a type of self defense, she was always worried about other people hurting me.” 

Nerel smiled, “I guess Marlene thought ahead a little, that's good, your already farther along than we expected you to be.'' Suddenly he stopped, they stood in front of a door that had Lora's' name engraved on a golden plaque that hung at eye level. “Well here we are, you best get ready for dinner, Paxton may be patient, but he likes people being on time for dinner.” he said with a wink. Lora smiled and opened the door. Before she walked in though, she turned back to Nerel who had just started to walk to the room next to hers. “Oh and Nerel,” she said, he turned around and looked at her. “Yes?”

She smiled at him, “thank you, for everything.” he returned her smile without hesitation, “your welcome, little mage.”

As she stepped into her room, she couldn't help but remember Derek, who she had left in the forest, with broken arms and dying. He had called her the same thing, “little mage”. When he said it, he spat it out like it was poison, when Nerel said it, it was soft and kind, and she found that she didn't mind it. As she walked to the massive bed in the middle of the room, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Derek.