Heirs of The Starlight Kingdom

Chapter 4: Two Heartbeats

The words would not leave the room.

The Heirs. Not one heir. Two.

Healer Maela was the first to move. She scrambled from where she had knelt beside Aldric's unconscious body and pressed both her hands hard against Elara's belly, her face pale.

"Quiet! Everyone be quiet! I need to listen!"

Caelum did not breathe. He held Elara so tightly his knuckles were white. Elara had one hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and streaming.

For ten seconds, there was nothing but the soft crackle of the newly blue runes and the wind outside.

Then Maela heard it.

Thump-thump... thump-thump... thump-thump...

It was not an echo. It was two distinct rhythms. One fast and strong, like a war drum. The other softer, quicker, like a hummingbird's wings. Two heartbeats. Intertwined, but separate.

Maela looked up, her old eyes full of shock and wonder.

"By the Mother Goddess," she whispered. "It is true. There are two."

"No," Lord Varric said from the doorway. He had not left. He had heard everything. "No, that is not possible. The royal womb can barely carry one child with magic. Two? Two starlight children? It will kill her!"

"Varric!" Caelum roared, but Elara squeezed his arm.

"Let him speak," Elara said quietly. Her voice was shaking, but there was a strange smile on her face. "Maela, are you certain? Am I... am I carrying twins?"

Maela nodded slowly, tears now in her own eyes.

"I have delivered over three hundred babies in this kingdom, my Queen. I have never been wrong about a heartbeat. There are two souls in there. Two lights."

Caelum let out a breath he did not know he had been holding. He laughed, a short, disbelieving, broken laugh.

"Twins," he said. He looked down at Elara, at her belly that suddenly seemed to make more sense, how large she was for seven months. "Elara, we are having twins."

"We are having twins," Elara repeated, and then she started to laugh and cry at the same time. "Caelum, did you hear? Two! A boy and... what do you think? A boy and a girl? Two boys?"

But Aldric, who was slowly waking up on the floor, groaned.

"No," he croaked. "You do not understand. You do not understand what this means."

Maela helped him sit up. His white eyes were unfocused.

"Aldric, what is wrong?" Caelum asked, his joy fading. "Twins are a blessing. The kingdom has prayed for one heir. Now we have two. This is double the hope."

"This is double the prophecy," Aldric said, his voice hollow. "My King, have you forgotten the oldest law?"

Varric answered before anyone else could, his voice trembling.

"The Law of Stars. One throne, one heir. For when two stars are born of one womb, one shall be light, and one shall be shadow."

The warm blue light in the room flickered.

"What?" Elara's smile vanished. "What law? What are you talking about?"

Aldric looked toward her, his blind face full of sorrow.

"My Queen, the first Starlight Kingdom did not fall because of war. It fell because of twins."

Caelum frowned. "I have never heard this story."

"Because we burned it!" Aldric shouted. "We burned every book! The first Queen of Starlight, Queen Lyra the Bright, bore twins. Two boys. One was born with hair like the sun, his eyes blue as our runes. The other was born with hair black as night, his eyes like stars. One was named Auren, the Light. The other, Noctis, the Night."

Maela whispered, "I have heard this as a children's scary story..."

"It is not a story!" Aldric said. "Auren wanted to protect the kingdom. Noctis wanted to rule it with the creatures of the Void. Brother fought brother. The war split the sky. It is why our castle floats broken in the air. It is why the Dark Forest exists! The seal that holds the Starless... it was made from the body of Noctis himself! And his brother Auren sealed it with his own life!"

Elara clutched her belly protectively.

"You are saying... you are saying one of my babies will be evil?"

"No!" Aldric said quickly, reaching for her. "Not evil. Not at birth. The prophecy says one will be Light and one will be Shadow. But shadow is not evil, my Queen. Shadow is just... the other side of light. Without shadow, light has no shape. But the Void... the Starless woman in the forest... she will try to claim the shadow twin. She will whisper to him. She will tell him that he is unwanted, that his brother is loved more."

Caelum stood up, pacing like a caged lion. His crown was glowing brighter now, agitated.

"So that is why the runes turned red! She was not trying to take my son. She was trying to choose! She was trying to mark the shadow one!"

"Yes," Aldric said. "And your love, your bonding ritual, pushed her out. For now. But when they are born..."

"When they are born, what?" Elara demanded, her motherly fear turning into fury. Her eyes were flashing blue. The sigil on her belly flared with her anger. "Finish, Seer!"

"When they are born, we must take them to the Altar of First Light, in the heart of the castle, within one hour," Aldric said. "There, the ancient light will read their souls and give them their true names. If we do not... if the shadow twin is not named by light, the Void will name him first. And whatever name the Void gives, that is what he will become."

Silence.

Then Elara spoke, her voice as cold and hard as steel. A voice Caelum had never heard from his gentle wife before.

"Listen to me, all of you. Lord Varric, Grand Seer, Healer, guards. Listen."

Everyone looked at her.

She stood up, slowly, heavily, with Caelum's help. She stood tall in her blue gown, the double crown sigil glowing proudly on her belly, two heartbeats strong and defiant.

"I do not care about your old laws. I do not care about Auren and Noctis. I do not care if one is light and one is shadow."

She placed a hand on each side of her belly.

"These are MY sons. Or my son and daughter. They are not a prophecy. They are not a door. They are my babies. And I will love them both with the same heart. I will love the light and I will love the shadow. Do you understand? If the Void wants my shadow child, it will have to go through me. And I have just learned that a mother's love can burn even a Starless."

Caelum stared at his wife, and then a slow, proud, fierce smile spread across his face. He knelt and kissed her belly, first on the left side, then on the right.

"Did you hear that, my little stars?" he whispered to the womb. "Your mother is a warrior queen. You are already the most protected children in any kingdom."

He looked up at Varric and Aldric.

"My Queen has spoken. We will protect both. We will love both. Prepare the Altar of First Light. And double the guard on the Dark Forest. If that Starless woman wants to be a godmother..."

His eyes turned hard as diamonds.

"Tell her the father says no."

At that moment, from the balcony, where the blue runes were shining peacefully again, a second shooting star fell. But this time, it was not blue. It was gold. And it did not fall into the Dark Forest.

It fell directly toward the castle, and landed in the dead royal garden with a soft thud, making the silver flowers that had bloomed overnight grow taller.

Maela ran to the balcony to look.

"My King! My Queen! You must see this!"

In the garden below, where the golden star had landed, a small, white tree was growing at impossible speed. In seconds, it was as tall as a man. And on its branches, two fruits of pure light were forming.

Aldric began to weep.

"The Mother Tree," he whispered. "It has returned. It only grows when twins of starlight are coming. It is... it is a cradle."

Elara and Caelum looked at each other.

Two heartbeats. Two fruits.

Two heirs.

And somewhere deep in the forest, the Starless woman screamed in rage as she felt a power older than even her return to the world.