The Lost Girl... (Faith, Hope and Tranquillity #1)

CHAPTER 14

Lily’s POV

I was in shock but a part of me deep down was shouting out in glee… I knew it!. I had known, deep down, but it still caused confusion. If he was Celeb and all of this was actually true, why wouldn’t he tell me or help me regain my memories? I must have looked deep in thought as Silver, I mean, Celeb had walked towards me and put his hands on my shoulders.

“I…” He stopped, looking worriedly into my eyes. His eyes were completely silver now, like the silver in my dreams, no pupil at all. Not the usual icy blue he sported at work. The snow was slowly falling around us, but only around us and nowhere else. “I cannot tell you anything, Sere, I want to, but it would put you in danger, you need to remember yourself…” My eyes narrowed at him. This made me mad. If this person remotely knew what was happening, why wouldn't he want to help me? “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear."

"You got that right." I glared more, shrugging his hands off of my shoulders. "This is ridiculous. You truly expect me to believe any of what I'm "remembering"..." I emphasized air quotes to show him I was dubious. "...is actually real?" I glared and crossed my arms. I heard him sigh and he closed his eyes.

"The best I can do is show you one of my memories of us, one that won’t hurt you or put you in danger.”

“You can do that?” I asked in surprise, but doubt came over me again. "You mean giving me a dream? There's no way they're memories and you expect me to believe any of this is real?"

"I don't expect anything of you... Lily. But I can show you..." He seemed unsure of his words, which caused me to doubt him even more.

“Fine!” I breathed angrily. He sighed then slowly dropped his head to mine and I was dragged into a memory of how me and Celeb met. It was mostly from his point of view, seeing as it was his memory he was sharing, but I felt the connection we had and I saw the gold thread that connected us.

When I came to, my head was spinning again and it looked dark around me. I blinked a few times, clearing my vision. What was that blackness and why did I only ever see it when I was around Sil… Celeb? I blinked a few times and suddenly a golden light caught my attention. I could see the golden thread which connected us in the dream. I reached for it. I knew my eyes were wide in uprise as I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The thread headed to Celeb before disappearing. I looked up at his face from his heart where the threat had connected. He was smiling sadly at me. The snow had stopped falling but small silver flowers had started blooming around Celebs tree.

“I… I saw the thread…” I said, smiling but shyly, but... confusion had started clouding my mind again. “But I don’t remember us, I have feelings for someone else…” I saw the look of hurt on Celebs face before he turned back to his usual stone cold expression. “Sil… Celeb, don’t…”

“I understand, I won't jeopardise your life even if it means our love never comes to fruition again. I will forever have the memories.”

“But…” Before I could finish my sentence, Celeb grabbed me and kissed me. I pushed him away from me but as I did I knew I wanted more. My lips were tingling. I raised my hands to them. I instantly regretted pushing him away and raised a hand to grab his face.

“I’m sorry…” Celeb said before running to his bike and driving off. I stared after him, my hand still in the air, not knowing what to do. I had so many questions.

I got home and was absolutely exhausted. I wanted to talk to Hope and Faith… well, I guess they’re actually Voronwe and Estel but ...sigh, my head was a mess… Celeb had said I needed to remember on my own and I didn’t remember any of them. Celeb only confirmed through his actions that he was himself, meaning the chances of the others being Morna and my "sisters"... I slapped my head. Why didn't I connect the dots before? They looked exactly like the people in my dream. The only difference is they were humans and not elves. I clearly knew these people! But I still refused to believe elves were real!

I sighed heavily and decided it would be better to talk to a third party. David had said he would tell me more about what he had found out once I finished the book, so that’s what I decided to do. It was worth a shot, right? I text David first.

Sorry about today. I felt awful and had a bad weekend. I'm reading the book now; can I call when I’m done? xxx

The reply was:

Anytime sweetness, I think we need to sort this asap. I fear something bad is going to happen if we don’t. Read well!

I put down my phone, made myself a cup of tea and headed out onto the balcony to read. It was only then that I noticed the sliding door to the balcony was completely open. Had I left it open this morning? Nothing seemed to have been moved or taken and everything was how I had left it… but a feeling of unease crept over me. I quickly checked around the apartment. Nothing was out of place... I stuck my head into my bedroom and that was when I noticed that something had changed. I sighed and smiled. Nestled in my pillow was the swallow who visited me nearly every day. When I entered the room, he looked up at me and gave a happy chirp. He then hopped to the end of the bed towards me, tilting his head as if asking if I was OK. I chuckled and put out my hand, he hopped on.

“Oh Mr Swallow, did you make yourself comfortable?” I chuckled again. I took him outside with me, book under one arm and him on the other, I popped him onto my table and went back inside to grab my tea. He sat on the table happily and chirped at the empty bowl. “Is that the only reason you stick around?” I teased him, causing him to tilt his head and chirp at me again. I grabbed some nuts and took them out with me. I settled down and began reading the rest of the book, the swallow happily eating away at the table.

The three girls grew up at a normal rate but being elves, their bodies grew at half the speed of their actual age. So, a 15-year-old elf would only appear around 7 years old. Voronwe was to be groomed to be the future queen of the sun kingdom, as she was the eldest, even if only by a few seconds as Estel constantly reminded her. Estel was training as a healer to help the kingdom and lend aid to her sister. However, Sere, being the youngest, didn’t have a specific thing she wanted to do or that was asked of her. She spent her days doing whatever she wanted, which her father allowed her, as long as she studied. The king knew deep down he would lose Sere but didn’t dare tell a soul, so he spoilt her more than he should have. Therefore, despite her being the same age as her sisters she always acted younger, however, her compassion and empathy was through the roof, she had a gift for understanding how people felt before they told her, she would constantly shower everyone with love, no matter who they were, and she constantly tried to make everyone smile.

When the girls were around 8 years old the king was called away to fulfil a mission. No one knew what it was about, not even the queen, but the king was summoned to talk about the future wedding of Sere to the dark prince. He took with him only one trusted advisor. However, upon his arrival he found the dark kingdom under attack from an unknown force. Frightened for his life he and his advisor fled the kingdom but as they departed the king heard a small boy crying in the stables near the dark king’s castle. The boy looked around 5/6 years old, so he took him in and learnt his mother and father had been killed. When asked his name the boy said, Dae. Despite him leaving off his title, the king knew he was Sere’s future husband, but if his parents (the dark king and queen) had died, then surely that meant the pact was over? He took the boy under his wing and raised him alongside his daughters. However, Prince Dae fell in love with Sere, despite not knowing about the pact.

When Sere was 10 years old she had been collecting flowers for Estel’s room. She had stopped dead and dropped the flowers as she heard a boy humming a song. When she saw the boy, she immediately fell in love with him. She to9ld him they were meant to be together, despite elves not knowing who the fated one was until they reached 16 years old. The boy was Celeb, Prince of the moon kingdom and summoner of ice, he was 16 years old. Sere was besotted with him and they spent a lot of time together, so much so that Celebs father agreed for him to stay with Sere and her family.

I needed to stop reading there for a breath. It was unreal how Silver…no… Celeb had shown me this memory then immediately after, I read about it in this book. A book that David had given me… so Silver wasn’t to know it was written in here… was he? Had I secretly read this book when I was a child and needed so badly to fill in my past that I started seeing patterns between the people in my life. I’d lived without memories for over 15 years now and it had never been a problem, so why now? Was my need for excitement growing as I grew? My head began to hurt again but this time my left eye hurt too; it hadn’t done that for a while. I remembered David telling me to think about people I had met recently, the only new people I had met were Silver, Hope and the others. But my dreams and headaches had started a few weeks before I officially met them… then again, they could have been around, maybe I saw them, and my memories were bursting out like through a dam. Shaking my head, I realised I was being silly, they hadn’t done anything to me and if I was seeing them in my dreams that was on me not them. Sighing, I continued to read the book again.

Years went by with the three girls growing older, around Sere’s 12th birthday Dae confessed his feelings to her. She of course rejected him knowing she was deeply in love with Celeb. Yes, she was young and hadn’t gone through the ceremony to find her fated one, but she knew Celeb was it. Age didn’t matter to elves like it did Humans as nothing s****l would even be thought about until after they were betrothed. Dae became enraged and started doing spiteful things to her friends and sisters with his dark magic. One of his powers allowed him to control people’s minds. He made Morna show off to Voronwe, causing him to burn flowers with his magic, which Sere had created in memory of Dae’s parents. He also controlled Estel’s mind to make her create a tornado through anger directed towards Dae and Sere, Sere was left scarred after the experience and wouldn’t be around Estel when she performed her magic. He also made Celeb stop his magic during a skating adventure the two had, causing Sere to become ill after falling into the icy water. Dae was there to pick up the pieces when Sere was sick as well as Celeb. He tried to poison her mind that Celeb had done it on purpose to steal the throne. However, despite everything, she still rebuked him but cared for him deeply as a brother of sorts. She told him this and he shortly after ran away after saying that he hated Celeb and knew she was meant to be his.

After Sere turned 15 she was playing a game of hide and seek with Celeb, something they did often in the woods that surrounded their house. When Celeb was searching for her, he was unable to find her, despite hearing her giggle seconds before. She had disappeared completely, no one knew what happened and no trace of her could be found. Celeb blamed himself and set out to find on his own, searching high and low. Voronwe continued her training to take over the kingdom with Morna by her side. They had realised they were fated at a moonlight festival. Hope became amazing at healing as well as her magic which was air, and she became the town doctor along with her fated partner Alda. He was able to control the earth including rocks and minerals so created crystals to aid Estel in her healing.

Years on and the lost princess still hasn’t been found. Her father hopes she will one day be discovered and quickly as the Festival of Tranquillity draws nearer, and with no sight of Dae either he worries for her safety and the pact he created many years ago. Despite the dark kingdom being destroyed there was still dark magic in the world, and he wasn’t sure that Dae wouldn’t find out about the pact. Celeb is still searching to this day for his lost love. Rumors have it that he sings their song all over the various worlds, to remind her of their past and draw her out.

To say I was in shock was an understatement. Despite not having seen some of these memories, I felt as if I knew them. My heart hurt and I could feel tears threatening to tip over. The fact I feared heavy winds made perfect sense with the story's explanation. But it was all a story, a fairy tale. They didn’t come true…. Did they? I decided the best thing to do would be to call David asap and talk about this.