A Small Spark

Amaris

There he was. He was just staring at her as though he could not believe she was really there. Amaris wondered what the others had told him about her. Amaris did not return his bewildered expression. Instead, she drained her face of all emotions and just stared at her. He looked like them. He looked so similar to King Jonathan. He looked like their parents in a different life.

He was looked like Amaris as well. Well, except for the hair. They had vastly differently hair. Hers was deep red, almost black, like Jonathan’s. Amaris despised him, she was not sure why she did, but she hated him. He did not know her and did not know her life.

He extracted himself from the crowd and stepped towards Amaris. Dimitri was still talking to her, but Amaris ignored every word that leapt from his lips. Her brother stood directly in front of her. He was slightly taller than her. “I’m Stephen,” he said. Amaris nodded in reply. What else could she do? She had never been in a situation of this caliber before. What was expected of her?

Amaris looked back at Dimitri. Even he had stopped arguing with her, which irritated her even further. She did not know what to do with her brother. She did, however, know what to do in a fight. She held her knife at Dimitri, ready for their battle. A smile crept onto Dimitri’s face, as though he had always wanted this chance to fight her. His grip on his sword tightened. “How was the forest?” he taunted as they began to circle one another.

“The best, you weren’t there,” she replied. He smirked at her, finding humor behind her words.

“I think I could use his talent,” Dimitri told her. She scoffed.

“How would you know of his talent?” Amaris inquired.

“He’s related to you, Mari,” he stated. Amaris’ jaw set at the nickname he had given her. She despised it and him.

“I am starting to get really tired of you, Marinus,” she told him honestly. He just laughed. Her eyes, unconsciously, shifted back to Stephen, he was standing there with a deflating hope and a supreme annoyance on his face. What did he expect of her? For Amaris to just simply embrace him and say how happy she was that she had a brother? That would not be true of her. He was nothing but a complete stranger to her. And she was nothing but a complete stranger to him, too.

But Amaris was distracted once again, and she barely had time to duck before Marinus swung his sword. She should have known better than to be distracted in a fight. She fell to the ground and rolled to a standing position. When she looked back at Dimitri, he was fighting with Stephen instead. She internalized her groan. This was just what she need: an amateur with a sword.

Stephen knocked Dimitri to the ground, startling everyone around into silence. He looked back at Amaris triumphantly, but she just burned with anger. Amaris strode forward and picked up the sword from the ground. If he had lost his fight, Dimitri would have lost his argument. But Amaris could see, even now, that Marinus was widely impressed. She refused to let anyone in her family join the Lykoi.

Amaris held the sword up in a defensive position. A confused expression replaced the triumphant glory on his face. “Come on, Mare,” she heard Kyne shout at her, but she ignored him. She did not loosen her grip on the sword before handing it to Stephen.

“I don’t understand,” Stephen said.

“You fight me,” Amaris replied. He was immensely outraged and began to say he would never fight his own sister. There was his first mistake. He would not last here if he truly believed that his family was the most important thing. Because he was wrong. To Amaris, if family meant anything, they would not have been meeting like this in the first place. They would have had an actual family.

She retrieved her knife and attacked him.

The entire time they fought, she gave him helpful tips about holding a sword and attacking with it. Amaris was trying to helpful to him, but most of all, she wanted to teach him and Dimitri a lesson. Marinus would be forced to relinquished the amateur in her if she claimed him.

So that was what she was doing.

Amaris was claiming him.

Unfortunately, he did not understand Atlantean traditions, and she was a fool to think for a moment he would have. Instead, Stephen was annoyed and hurt, Amaris could see it in his blue eyes. The eyes her mother had. He was sloppy, but she could see he was beginning to understand her. He did not hesitate when the pain hit him, just accepted it.

The Julie girl interfered with Amaris’ important lesson. She yelled at Amaris and Amaris knew that she was going to be a problem. She saw an opportunity, though. She grabbed the girl and pinned her against the nearest cabin. There was raw fear in her eyes. Amaris did consider telling her that she was in no real danger but before she could, she felt a stinking pain ignite on her left arm.

Stephen had swung the sword at her.

Amaris turned to him. She could feel the weight of a repressed sorrow weigh down on her. “You see?” she said. “Family means nothing here.”

He raised his eyebrows and asked a question she was not expecting to hear. He asked her about their parents. She kept her face stoic, considering the situation. He glanced down at the sword in his hand. When he dropped the sword, Amaris instructed him to follow her. It was then that she noticed the horrified looks on the faces of the audience that had been standing there, watching them so meticulously. John just looked sad and she felt as though she had let him down in a way.

Damon ran over to them with Audrey. The red-head was ready to address the wounds, but Amaris told her they were fine. Audrey did not look happy about it. But she did not argue as they walked away from the crowd. Amaris noticed, as they walked, that Damon was holding the translator. She led them to the empty mess hall, where the food would be served at various intervals throughout the day. Amaris plopped down at one of the tables while Damon walked into the kitchen, looking for bandages. They knew how to care for these wounds.

It was at this time that Amaris noticed Stephen’s faithful friends had followed them into the mess hall. Amaris stood up and ordered Stephen to remove his shirt. She knew he did not want to, as it was dreadfully cold in there, but he did as she asked anyways. His once-white shirt was not plagued with the blood that she had drawn. As though reading her mind, Damon handed her the cloths.

No one said anything as Amaris addressed the first wound. It had only been a little grazed by the knife. Amaris dabbed the excess blood away and placed a cloth over it for any blood that might fall later. His other wound was going to be different and Amaris knew that even before she looked at it. She knew specifically where she had struck him.

When Amaris did address it, she heard that Julie girl gasp from behind her. Amaris knew she was going to have to use the majority of her patience with this girl. In her annoyance with Julie, she rolled her eyes at Damon, causing him to smile, stifling his laugh as best as he could. He handed her the thread, as they both knew what needed to be done. Stephen’s eyes widened comically. “Stitches?” he muttered in disbelief. Amaris nodded.

“You have to hold still,” she instructed him. He looked panicked, but he motioned for her to continue. He barely moved as she began to sow the thread into his flesh. Stephen’s friend, the one with the dark skin, looked like he was going to be sick. He mumbled something like, “I feel like I’m in an episode of Arrow.” She did not know what that meant, so she just ignored him.

Julie regarded Amaris as if she did not trust her. Personally, Amaris did not care whether she trusted him or not. She just focused her attention on trying to patch up the would she had inflicted. When she was finished, she covered the wound with a cloth, hoping that would keep out any infection.

Amaris sat down, suddenly tired and ready for a sleep she had not had in a long time. Damon began to work on her left arm, Amaris granted him a grateful smile. Stephen had barely done any damage to her, still he looked guilty as he watching Damon’s work. It would only take him a few minutes to clean the wound. “What would you like to know?” Amaris inquired, her eyes on Stephen.

“Well, I guess I would like to know what happened out there,” he replied. His eyes glancing out of the mess hall window while the girl shot Amaris a hateful look again. She did not faze Amaris in the least.

“I claimed you,” she answered him truthfully. “Dimitri wanted you for the Lykoi, so I challenged him.”

“Yeah, then you got in the way,” interjected Damon. Amaris could not help the smile that flew to her face. Damon sat down beside her, finished addressing her wound now. She noticed the sky outside suddenly grow darker. It was going to snow later.

“I don’t understand,” Stephen stated.

“You are not on the Surface anymore, Stephen,” Amaris murmured. “Atlantis does things differently. By you attacking Dimitri, you challenged him. So, I challenged you. He’ll leave you alone now. Or, as much as Dimitri can leave someone alone.” For a second, Amaris thought he wanted to ask more about it but refrained. Instead, he wanted to know why she had attacked that Julie girl.

She glanced at Damon. He knew why she had done it. He offered no help, though. “Understand this, Stephen, family is taken for granted here. I attacked your friend because I knew you would not hesitated to stop me. We are strangers, Stephen. I don’t know you and you don’t know me. I don’t see the value in thinking, even for a moment, that we do.” He did not answer. “That said, I know you’re probably wondering about your–our–parents.” That grabbed his attention. Amaris had to glance back at Damon for support. He gave her an encouraging smile.

“I did not know them,” she continued, even without his prompting. “Queen Aralia died when I was six. A plague broke out that year, killing about a fourth of the population, including the queen. King Jonathan said at the funeral that she was always one step ahead of the rest of us.” There was a sadness that had fallen on him suddenly. She knew he was not going to be in favor of what she had to tell him next. She carried on, ignoring the sympathy clawing at her. “Do you understand, Stephen? King Jonathan was first in line for the throne. He inherited it from his father. But Ahab always wanted it. So, he arranged an ‘accident’ for King Jonathan. He was driving to the forest when the car exploded.” She took a deep breath, before admitting something she had never told anyone before. “I was there when he died. I saw it all for myself. That was ten years ago, Stephen.”

He did not say anything for a long while. Amaris could tell he was trying to process the news that she had just given him. “You see what I mean? Family means nothing here.” He was quiet.

“I only came here to meet them,” he finally muttered. His friend, the male one, seemed to be thinking hard. Amaris saw the logic working its way across his face. She knew what he was going to say before he did.

“But, if his father was the first in line for the throne, then that means–”

“Exactly,” she answered. “You didn’t come here for them, Stephen. You were meant to come here.”

“I don’t understand,” he replied.

“You are the firstborn, Stephen. You’re to inherit the throne. You’re to be the king.”