Heirs of The Starlight Kingdom

Book Two: The Keeper's Shadow Chapter 13: Grounded

Being grounded by King Caelum Starlight was not like being grounded by other fathers.

Other fathers took away toys. Or said you could not leave your room.

King Caelum took away your magic.

Well, tried to.

"You will not use sun flares for a week, Solen Auren," Caelum said, standing in the kitchen. The kitchen, not the throne room, because Elara had insisted that family punishments happen in the kitchen where there were cookies. "And you, Lyra Noctis, no shadow walking until you can explain to me exactly what a Veil is and why my daughter thought it was a good idea to jump into it."

Solen, sitting at the kitchen table with his hair still full of moss from the garden, stared at his hands. He tried to make a little spark, just a tiny one.

Nothing happened. His sun mark on his chest was warm, but dim. Like someone had put a blanket over it.

"Father! You really did it! You sealed us!" he gasped, betrayed.

"I did not," Caelum said, crossing his arms. He looked tired. He had not slept since the eclipse yesterday. None of them had. "The Mother Tree did. I asked her to help you rest. She agreed. For one week. Your gifts are still there, just... quiet. Like you should be."

Lyra, sitting next to her brother, was poking at her own shadow. Usually, when she poked it, it poked back. Now it just lay there, like a normal shadow. She pouted.

"This is so unfair," she muttered. "We saved the world. We brought Uncle Auren and Uncle Lyen back. We gave the Eater a job. And we get grounded?"

"Uncle Auren and Uncle Lyen?" Elara, who was pouring tea, laughed. She looked exhausted but happier than she had in sixteen years. The castle was on the ground again. The silver flowers were blooming everywhere. "Is that what you are calling them now?"

"What else would we call them?" Solen asked. "They are literally the first twins. That makes them our great-great-great... a lot of greats uncles. Also, Uncle Lyen said he would teach me how to make a twilight sword! You cannot ground me from twilight swords! That is educational!"

From the doorway, a shy voice said, "Actually, I said I would teach you how to NOT make a twilight sword, because the last time I made one I accidentally cut a hole in time."

Lyen stood in the kitchen doorway, holding a plate of honey cakes that Auren had clearly forced him to carry. He still looked sixteen, with his mismatched blue and violet eyes, but he was wearing normal clothes now, a borrowed tunic that was too big for him. His black and silver hair was still messy. He looked terrified of the kitchen.

Behind him, Auren ducked to get through the door. He was too tall for the kitchen. His golden armor was gone, replaced by simple guard's clothes, but he still glowed faintly.

"There are no holes in time in this kitchen, brother," Auren said, taking a honey cake. "I checked."

Lyen gave a small smile and sat carefully at the far end of the table, as far from everyone as possible, even though Solen and Lyra immediately scooted closer to him.

"You do not have to sit far," Lyra said softly to him. "This is your home now too."

Lyen looked down at his hands. "I do not know how to be... not a lock. For a thousand years I was a door. Now I am just... a boy. I do not know what boys do in kitchens."

"You eat," Solen said helpfully, shoving a honey cake into Lyen's hand. "And you get grounded. See? We are the same now. Welcome to being a teenager."

Lyen stared at the honey cake like it was a foreign object, then took a tiny bite. His mismatched eyes went wide.

"It is sweet," he whispered, as if he had never tasted sweet before. Which, perhaps, he hadn't.

Auren watched his brother, his own blue eyes suspiciously bright, then looked at Caelum.

"You grounded them for saving the world," Auren said to Caelum. "You are a good father."

"I grounded them because they jumped into a void without a plan!" Caelum snapped, but there was no anger in it. He sighed and sat down, pulling Elara onto his lap like he always did when he was stressed. "Auren, tell me honestly. As the first Protector. Did you ever get grounded for being heroic and stupid?"

Auren laughed, a loud, golden laugh that made the pots rattle.

"Every week! Our mother, the first Queen Lyra, once grounded me from sunlight for a month because I tried to ride a starfall! I had to stay indoors! As the Protector of Dawn! The irony was not lost on me!"

Everyone laughed, even Lyen, a little.

Then Aldric shuffled into the kitchen, leaning on his Mother Tree staff, with Maela and Lord Varric behind him. And behind them, hovering in the doorway, not quite coming in, was the former Starless woman.

She had a name now. She had told them last night, after crying for an hour in Lyen's arms. Her name was not Starless. Her true name was Lirael. Lirael Noctis, the first Lyra, the older sister of Auren and Lyen.

She still looked a little scary. Her eyes still had stars, but now they were soft, like Lyra's. Her skin was mostly pink now, with only a few patches of starlight white left. She wore a simple grey dress that Elara had given her.

"I... I can go if..." she whispered, looking at the crowded kitchen.

"No," Elara said instantly, standing up and going to her. Elara took her hands. Elara, who had once screamed at her to stay away from her children. "You stay. You are family. Family eats together."

Lirael's eyes filled with tears that turned into little silver butterflies and disappeared. That still happened when she cried.

"I brought... I brought something," she said quietly, holding out a small black glass box. "From the void. I kept it. I thought... I thought Lyra might want it."

Lyra stood up and took the box. Inside was a tiny, perfect, sleeping shadow kitten, made of pure violet night, purring.

Lyra gasped. "For me?"

"It is a void kitten," Lirael said, shy. "They eat bad dreams. I thought... since you are the Keeper, you get bad dreams from other people. It could help."

Lyra carefully lifted the kitten. It woke up, yawned, showing tiny star teeth, and curled around her neck like a scarf. Her normal shadow, even though it was grounded and quiet, purred too.

"I love him," Lyra whispered, hugging the box. "Thank you, Aunt Lirael."

Aunt Lirael. Lirael made a choked sound and covered her mouth.

Solen looked at his grounded hands, at his sister's new kitten, at his parents, at his ancient uncles, at his reformed aunt, at Aldric who was stealing honey cakes when Maela wasn't looking.

"So... what happens now?" he asked. "The castle is on the ground. The floating islands landed. The Veil has a new Keeper who used to be the thing that ate stars. Are we... are we not floating anymore? Are we just... a normal kingdom now?"

Caelum stood up and walked to the kitchen window. Outside, beyond the garden where the Mother Tree now stood fifty feet tall with four glowing fruits still on it, he could see the kingdom. The villages that had been cut off for a thousand years by the floating gap were now connected by roads of light that the landing had made. People were walking those roads, coming toward the castle, carrying lanterns, even though it was midday. They wanted to see their King and Queen. They wanted to see the twins who had landed the castle.

"No," Caelum said softly, with wonder. "We are not normal. We have never been normal. For a thousand years we were a kingdom that floated to hide from its pain. Now we are a kingdom that has landed to face its future."

He turned back to his family, his strange, impossible, beautiful family of suns and moons and first kings and void kittens.

"And our future," he said, looking at Solen and Lyra, "is grounded for one week. After that, Protector, Keeper, you have a kingdom to help rebuild. Together."

Solen groaned. Lyra giggled and let her void kitten eat Solen's shadow's bad mood, making Solen accidentally smile.

"One week," Solen muttered. "Then we can have twilight swords?"

"One week," Caelum agreed. "Then we will see about twilight swords."

From the Mother Tree outside, a soft chime rang, as its four fruits glowed brighter.

One gold for Solen.

One violet for Lyra.

One gold and violet swirled for Lyen.

One gold and violet swirled for Auren.

Four heirs. Four keepers. Four protectors.

The Starlight Kingdom had landed.

And for the first time in a thousand years, it was not waiting for an ending.

It was just beginning.