Shadow & Light

Chapter 6

Gasps of shock, confusion, and outrage erupted, but most seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. More guards, men and women, filtered into the arena, going to speak with families, gauging which would be coming willingly and which wouldn't.

Malichi turned back around to me, looking into my eyes for a few moments, before speaking, "You, my dear, are coming with me. How about we go back to your home and gather your belongings?"

I nodded, dazed and overwhelmed by everything that had occurred in such a short period of time. That's when movement behind my mate caught my eye, and I looked over to see the stranger who had addressed Malichi earlier stepping towards us, looking as dazed as I felt. He too placed down his armour so he could approach without dying by the light that seemed like it would never go away.

"James, what's wrong?" Malichi turned to the stranger.

"She-" He shook his head, seemingly unable to figure out what to say. He cleared his throat and tried again. "She just looks so similar to mom...the same eyes, same hair, same nose. What is your name?" He asked, turning to me.

"Alina. Alina Winters" I spoke tentatively, worried I might startle this very dazed...James...who looked more and more like he was seeing a ghost.

"Her name was Alina.” He turned back to Malichi.

Malichi tensed too, a small gasp escaping him, and after a pause spoke up. "You don't think..."

"Okay, both of you need to explain right now." I snapped, and my bubble of light seemed to grow, affected by my intense emotions I assumed.

"When I was about five years old my parents left on a trip. My father was the top advisor for our king, Malichi's father, so they were sent to do business in one of our neighbouring countries. They brought my two sisters with them while I was grounded back at the castle for a prank I pulled the day before. On the way, their carriage was ambushed by a herd of elves who had some grievances with our kingdom. Those elves with their f*****g magic sent the carriage flying. Both my parents and my three year old sister Delia were severely injured, but they never found my baby sister, Alina. They searched for months, never gave up hope, but it was no use."

My heart ached watching James tell this story, eyes glittering with unshed tears.

"Do you know who your parents are?" He asked a question I wasn't used to answering. Everyone here knew who I was.

I shifted awkwardly and shook my head. "No, I never knew my parents. I'm told I appeared at the edge of the kingdom as a baby, the only thing I had was a blanket wrapped around me, embroidered with my name."

Both men were looking at me now, blinking in unison, quite creepily in fact.

James stepped forward and stuck out his hand to shake mine, "My name is James Winters. You look almost identical to our mother and sister."

My head snapped up, eyes meeting his eyes that now looked more and more like my own, then to his hand, then back and forth until I felt my neck cramping. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, stepping back and wrapping my arms around my torso.

I had a mate. This I was still coming to terms with. But now? I possibly had a family? A brother, a sister, and parents? No. It was too much. This was some absurd coincidence. So we had the same last name. So they just happened to lose a daughter named Alina. This proved nothing. I opened my eyes to the two men's concerned faces, and my light was shining brighter and brighter by the second. My feet did a 180-degree turn and I began a swift walk through the courtyard, trying to keep this stupid nuisance bubble from hurting anyone. I could hear the men calling after me but I didn't care. I was going home, going to crawl under my bed, and pretend none of this was happening. What were the odds that any of this was true? I just happened to look like him and happened to not have parents. So what?

The gravel crunched under my feet, then the sand squished under my running shoes, then I felt the spring grass tickle my ankles, until the long walk of silence was over and I arrived at my little cottage. I fumbled to pull my keys out of my pocket and unlocked my door, slamming it open and hurrying down the hallway and into my sanctuary. The cozy bedroom didn't feel safe anymore, not while my entire life was doing somersaults down a steep hill, and certainly not while the two six-foot-something giants who sent my life down that hill were now standing in my safe place.

"You live here?" James spoke up and Malichi followed with, "You live here alone?"

I couldn't look at them, opting to stare at my pretty walls hoping they would swallow me whole and just nodded my head.

Both men began emphatically and angrily talking about how unsafe it was for me out here alone, trying to get details of my life, and I tuned out all of it. I stared at the bubble of light around me, desperate for it to go down. My lack of control over this new power surprised me very little given how long I had to train to get my first power under control.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath in, worked to relax every muscle in my body, calmed my racing heart, and pictured the light bubble around me. I pictured it shrinking, pictured it tucking itself back into my heart until I needed it next. When I opened my eyes again, the light was gone.

I turned and walked to my bed, hoisting myself up into it and shifting around until I was tucked between my many pillows like they were bodyguards who would protect me.

Malichi rounded the bed and sat on one side at the foot while James walked over and sat on the other. Taking a deep breath I looked at both of them, finally seeing the worry that had lines marring both of their foreheads and their brows furrowed. "Ask your questions"

They both looked at each other, then James spoke up first, "Can you tell us about your life? I don't like that you've been out here alone. Have you always lived out here alone? You said you showed up as a baby so who took care of you?"

I hesitated, this was not a good story, and if they were upset about me living alone how upset would they get when they found out everything else? Did I tell them the truth? The neglect and loneliness? Did I tell them a more watered-down version of the truth, one that didn't seem so bad? Or would my best bet be to outright lie to them and tell them a happy version? Did I even trust these men enough to tell them my life story? After all, I had only just met them. These men cared an awful lot about me for having barely known me. But then again I was Malichi's soulmate and might have been James's long-lost sister, so I guess worry would be normal. You are not James's long-lost sister. That was crazy. I had hit my quota of crazy for enough lifetimes.

I decided that the watered-down truth would be better, I could deal with the fallout better than if I lied and they found out later. Not to mention it could help explain my hesitation about all of this enough to satisfy them, so I steeled myself.

Starting from the beginning, I talked about the orphanage, explaining the incident that had them sending me out at only five years old–the fact that the king felt it was safer for everyone if I lived at the outskirts of the kingdom, and the prepackaged meals that kept me fed. I moved on to my tween years, leaving out all the details of how hated I was and how severe the bullying was, and told them how I left school at twelve and found my safe place at the library. I raved on about Mrs. Tillett and how she became family. Mentioned training as a fighter, and how I taught other people how to defend themselves.

I left off at that, looking up to see a mix of horror and anger in both James and Malichi's faces. In fact, they sat there silently for so long I worried I broke them. Great, I would now have to go tell everyone that I broke the king. Our new king. That would go so well. Wait, the king! That's when I remembered the new knowledge I had, that we weren't the only kingdom of fae. I rushed over to my bedside table, stumbling ungracefully out of my mountain of pillows and pulling out the book about the Dark Kingdom.

"I found this at the library the other day and have been trying to do my own research," I spoke and handed the book to Malichi, who flipped through it while James read over his shoulder.

"You say you are from the Dark Kingdom, so that means it's real. You said there are elves? We were all told that this kingdom, the one we are in, is the only one in existence that is inhabited by fae."

They both looked up at me, puzzled at my statement.

"Alina what do you mean?” Malichi interjected.

"Well there was this big event around 77 years ago, where every faerie in the kingdom lost their memory, the only people who seemed to be unaffected by this event were the royal family. From what I am told, after that there was a huge town hall meeting where the king and queen at the time told everyone everything about us fae, powers, etc. and we could always go look at history books to help, though most of those have huge sections covered in black lines or many pages ripped out." I took a deep breath and tried to slow down, realizing I was talking a bit too fast.

"Anyways, I found this book, and realized it was strange that there was talk of a kingdom outside of ours, so I did some research, though most of that turned up empty."

"Alina there are many kingdoms around this one. This kingdom is called the Kingdom of Wrelia, named after the first king, King Samel Wrelia. The Kingdom of Wrelia sits at the bottom of the map, with a connecting portal on the Southwestern border that used to allow for travel to the human realm. We are unsure what Astor Wrelia did with the portal." I had my head resting on my hands as I listened to James talk, nodding for him to continue. "There was a war 78 years ago between the Dark Kingdom, properly known as the Ilecron Kingdom, and the Istolian Dynasty–located to the Northwest of Wrelia–against the Kingdom of Wrelia. We had all once been allies but the Wrelian king three generations ago was a greedy and selfish man. This kingdom holds the only entrance to the human realm, where we had fae living there that imported goods to our fae realm. King Astor wanted the Ilecron and Istolian land, and he wanted sole control over trades from the human realm, so he orchestrated the kidnapping of both the ruling king's wives as leverage. We received a prophecy warning about the kidnappings but the kings ignored them and King Astor succeeded. When the Istolian and Ilecron troops attacked and Wrelia lost, King Astor made a deal with a dark witch, who put impenetrable walls up around Wrelia, effectively blocking all trade to the human realm."

My jaw might have been unhinged by the time James was done speaking.

"How many other kingdoms are out there? Where is that dark witch now?"

"There are 18 other kingdoms in this realm, all with fae that specialize in certain powers. The Kingdom of Crovaria is home to elemental fae, the Sazarian Dynasty is home to a variety of more handy fae who specialize in carpentry, welding, and even have fae with telekinetic abilities. There are a few others as well. Fanna is home to the elves, Alolicia is home to the Witches, Myritia is home to the ogres, and Aedaria is a mixed bag of many species. Your kingdom is unique in that each fae born here has many varied abilities from different kingdoms." As Malichi finished, I was very excited, how many fae was that? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? We weren't alone in this little kingdom. But I was still alone. A little anomaly.

“As for the dark witches, they have kept their location mostly illusive for hundreds of years. They have been a major opposing force of the fae kingdoms and there have been rumors of an uprising for centuries. Some fae are suggesting that the witches aim to eradicate the fae kingdoms, enslave all fae, and create their own rule.”

That was terrifying. If the rumors were true then we would all become slaves to evil magical beings who wanted to take over the realm. It sounded pleasant. But there was the possibility that all of this was just speculation. I guess until concrete evidence of this uprising came about there was no point in worrying about it.

I wondered what other kinds of magic were out there. Malichi said that Wrelia was a melting pot of magical ability, and that other kingdoms had specialized fae, but he never said what his kingdom's people specialized in. "What magic does the Ilecron Kingdom have?"

"Dark magic, or death magic. Ancient lore tells of a curse on our king hundreds of years ago that led to the fae in Ilecron being born with death magic. So, we are referred to as fae of death. Our magic is the reason why everyone calls us the Dark Kingdom or Dark Nation. Over the years our kingdom has become more mixed as fae meet their mates and move to and from the kingdom." Malichi finished. This meant I really could be from the Kingdom of Ilecron.

"Alina, the magic we saw from you today has never been seen before. Lumos fae can wield and create light, but that's not what you have. Your magic is similar, but it burned our soldiers, as if reacting negatively to their death magic. The magic from Lumos fae doesn't react like that, they can only create light and manipulate light waves. You said in your recount of your life that people hated you because of your magic, though they looked bewildered by you, as if they had never seen it before." James was speaking out loud, processing his thoughts more than asking a direct question. “Why were they so astounded?”

“That would be on account of the fact that until today I had no idea this power was inside of me, and neither did anyone else.” I responded while picking a loose thread on my comforter.

I could see the confusion marring their faces, the same confusion swirling inside of me.

“How could you not have known your own powers?” Malichi spoke up.

Shaking my head I back tracked, “No, I know what power I've had my whole life, I guess I'm a ‘fae of death’ like both of you.” I held up my hand and summoned little black tendrils that slithered up and down my arm. Both men were silent, but James’ eyes lit up like the sun, tears brimming them. To him it was sealed, I was his long lost sister. I myself was unable to make that connection just yet. I couldn't wrap my mind around a possible family. This was just magic.

“This is unprecedented. Alina in any history book I have ever read there has never been a recorded incident of a fae with multiple powers.”

“I thought so.” I sighed, the weight of my new…disparity…settling in. “Well, one good thing from this is that I now know the root of King Elrick's hatred for me. IF I am from Ilecron then I am an enemy to the king."

"Which explains his isolation of you from everyone, unless he needed you to train his people." Malichi spoke with his teeth so clenched I worried he might break one or more.

"I just don't understand how you have two powers." James queried, clearly hung up on this, though I couldn't blame him.

"I wish I knew."

Suddenly I remembered Malichi's words, that everyone had three hours to pack up their belongings and meet back at the courtyard.

"Malichi you said we had three hours to pack our belongings and get to the courtyard."

My reminder seemed to set off a lightbulb in Malichi's head and he checked his watch.

"We have an hour, can we help you pack up your things Alina?"

I nodded and got to my feet, trying to figure out what I would use to hold my minimal belongings. Speeding out of the room I headed to my storage closet, grabbing a few cardboard boxes located there before heading back to my bedroom. I opened a few on the bed then went into my walk-in closet with the men on my heels. Together we spent the next half hour packing everything we could. I made sure to gather all my swords and weapons, packing away any small ones while I kept my sword holster perched on my back.

I paused and looked around the room I had called home for three quarters of my life, a little ache in my heart blooming at the idea of leaving this place. But another feeling formed next to it–hope. The hope that came with the dizzying amount of possibilities for my life. A life not trapped in the confines of this hateful town.

We grabbed my boxes and I walked out, saying goodbye to each room, little tears trailing down my cheeks. As I locked my front door one last time I tucked the keys in my pocket and we started the walk back to the courtyard.