A sad display

Acantha

Saira's spell worked without flaw. When she started to draw the symbols in blood, my skin began to burn almost. In the few times she practiced, it tingled a little, but it was never this intense. I made sure not to move nor did I say anything. I didn’t want to work her up or make it worse, I just hoped this didn't turn me into a frog like creature.

As the powders ran down my face, I could feel the features change. The look of satisfaction on her face gave me the confidence that the spell worked and I looked unremarkable. The ride to the gate was quick, but when we got to the gate we ran into a small issue.

For the most part the guards didn't care about letting a warlock girl into the city, but a young man had concerns. He even went so far as to threaten Saira. I could tell she was bothered by this and I planned to look into what that young man's problem was. We would have no room for that in the future of Aurelia's new kingdom.

I was grateful that there was no further issue on our way to the house we would be staying in. The sights on the way however, had my heart aching. To see the changes and the outcomes of my sisters' rule was devastating.

What was once a joyous and beautiful city was now dirty and its citizens looked afraid. There were no longer any fruit trees for the people to eat from. Only their stumps remained. All the windows were shut and any eye that I met looked away quickly.

I remember the fountain to be filled with children playing and splashing around, but there weren't any now. The streets were near silent. Ahead was the cries of a man and woman being dragged by a few guards, they had whips in their hands. Public punishment was common here as well. Everything was devastating to see. Our once great city, was now ugly. I vowed to make my sister pay for this, on top of all her other crimes.

When we finally made it to the house we would be staying in, I felt a wave of relief. It had been hard walking through these streets and it gave me pleasure to see such a beautiful house. The small doorway was made of the nicest dark reddish-brown wood. The glass in the windows was clean and glistened in the sunlight. Each window had a flower box with little white and yellow flowers.

When we were stopped long enough to be noticed, the door opened and an old woman walked out. She stood there in her door way staring at me for an uncomfortably long time.

"I was told there would be more with you." She finally said.

"My daughter and her knight will be here before the days end."

She nodded in acknowledgement and said,

"Come inside, my attendants will take your horses to be properly fed and groomed."

We all dismounted as two young boys walked out and took the horses to where ever the stables were located. The woman turned and walked back inside. We followed her and came to sit in a living room together.

Though she was an older woman, she moved with speed and grace. Her hair was silver and came down to the middle of her back. She had an elegant braid holding her hair off her face tied with a hairclip that had blue gems. Her outfit was clean and wonderful. The material of her dress had flowers stitched into a pattern of flowers that grew from the bottom upwards. The same design ran up the full-length sleeves on her arms. I longed for the day when I would have such treasures in my life again.

"You all need to wash and get changed. I don't not prefer the smell of horses and travel in my home. The maids will show you the way." She said with a hint of disgust in her voice.

Without another word we followed the maids to the second floor where we were shown to our rooms. I was grateful for the chance to clean up in a real and fabulous way. It had been years since I was able to soak in a bathtub and relax. I looked around the room taking in all the beauty.

Half of the room was set up for washing and dressing, the other half was set up for sleeping and had a desk in the corner. There was little art and decor in the room, but each peace was decorated with some kind of flower or plant.

I walked over to the bed and sat down. The bed was so soft and I was feeling like I could stay here forever. I laid down for a bit, even falling asleep. A knock at the door woke me. When I opened the door, there were two maids waiting. One had buckets of steaming water and the other had some clothing and little bottles of liquid in a box.

I moved out of the way and watched as they set up the bath. They didn't speak to me or each other. They worked quickly then left the room just as quick. The little bottles were perfumes and soaps for the bath. I chose scents that were orange and a kind of flower that I was unfamiliar with. I wanted to enjoy every second of the hot water as I hadn't felt anything this relaxing since my exile started.

I sunk in as far as I could go, the water almost covered the top of my head. While I relaxed, I planned to talk to Saira about her mother and how I met her. We haven't had the chance to really talk about the past in that way. She and I had grown close while we travelled. Saira was more accepting of me than my own daughter.

Part of me understood why she felt such anger towards me. Another part of me just wanted to move past it all and have time to build a bond. My plan to work on her own emotional schedule was becoming hard to stick to. Aurelia seemed to forget that I had feelings about this as well and she didn't seem to understand that a lot had been stolen for me to.

I gave up my dragon form to have her and then all we got was five years together. I would have to try and talk to her about it before we went to the castle. If we wanted to win then we had to mend our bond and become fully united.

The other side of it was if she wanted to be a good Queen, then she would have to deal with hard topics that made her uncomfortable. She would have to move on and fix her problems or she would doom this kingdom, the same as my sister had.

My bath water has long gone cold, my hair was washed and skin was scrubbed. I got out and had dried myself when there was another knock at the door. Saira was washed and ready, she looked beautiful. Her dark hair with left long and brushed out to shine. She had a simple light purple dress with short sleeves. The color brought out her silver eyes.

"Sorry to interrupt you." she said as she looked me up and down, still wrapped in my bath towel.

"Come in." I moved out of the way for her to walk in.

"I'll get dressed over here if you want to sit down somewhere, was there something wrong?"

"Not really, I was just a bit uncomfortable being alone after spending all these days together."

"I can understand that. I was going to talk to you anyways today before the others arrived. I was thinking you might want to know how I met your Mother?"

I got dressed as I was talking. My dress was black with a thick red stripe down the front. The black part of the dress was decorated with a vine leaf pattern. There were no sleeves and rested just above my breasts. It was such a wonderful dress and it fit me perfectly.

"I would love to know anything about my Mother, I miss her so much."

"We were very young when we met, it was before both of us became married to princes."

"I remember my Mother saying something about running away to a town over the mountains. I can't remember the name though."

"The name was Viketon, I was travelling with my Father, he worked at a bank and was travelling to collect taxes. It was late one night and I was awoken in my bed from the wind howling outside of my window. When I got up, I had walked to the window to look out at the storm. Instead, I saw her in the street, she looked like she had travelled a long way.

She was covered in dirt and her clothes were torn. I walked out of the inn to try and help her; she is unwilling to talk to me. After a bit I was able to get her inside after some promises of food. After she ate and slept a bit, I convinced her to come with me. She told me why she ran away and her reasons for not wanting to go back.

She was betrothed to your Father, the crown Prince at the time, and the King was getting ready for an attack on the Dragon Kingdom. She hated the discord between the kingdoms, but in the end, she decided to go back and to try and stop these problems from a seat of power.

We stayed in contact after that. As you know, your mother was great at her Magics and we developed a way to send letters through a teleportation spell. She was my best friend and I miss her very much everyday"

"Thanks for telling me that. I'm curious about the letters and the way you both sent them. I'll have to do some research on this, it could come in good use in the future for me and Aurelia."

We were both ready so we walked down to the main floor looking for our host. She hasn't told us her name yet so I had to remember to get it from her so I can thank her properly for the bath, the cloths and her hospitality.

We followed the long hallway that ended in an enclosed patio where Massell was sitting. He had bathed and changed into clean clothes as well. He was now wearing a white cloth shirt with a black leather vest. His blond hair was nicely brushed and had trimmed his beard. When we came to sit with him, he stood up and waited till we sat down before sitting back down again.

"How long has it been since we arrived here?" I asked Massell.

"It's been over an hour." My answer came from behind me. The old woman had walked into the patio and came to sit with us.

"Elnora didn't know about your companions, though there are many stories in the markets about a woman warrior and a knight relieving towns of their guard problem. It's said that they have three companions travelling with them one of them being able to wield magic. And that the magic was used to heal the towns people. I would assume it's the silver eyed young lady." all our eyes were on Saira and she blushed but said,

"I was trying to help, my name is Saira."

"Word is you're dead."

"Yes, according to my family, I've been killed by your current King and Queen." Her face changed from blushing and shy, to angry.

"How lovely." She said with a chuckle.

"My name is Lyanna." The old woman informed us.

We ate and chatted about her businesses and the changes over the years while we waited for Aurelia and Kairios to join us. While we waited and shared stories, I came to realize that this woman would be our biggest and best ally.