A gift from the stars

Saira

I felt bad for the young girl, she seemed so afraid. It was very impressive, the information she was able to obtain for us. We now knew where each of them stayed and what their schedules were like. It was going to be hard for us, they were all so spread out within the castle! We had the least information about the Prince before this, he wasn’t one who was well known to the city as he never traveled outside of the castle gates.

The King once had a greater number of appearances in public but had been seen less and less over the years. The young girl said she hadn't seen him leave the rooms on his floor. While there; the other maids informed her that it was this way for a few years now. Aurelia said she wasn’t that surprised the Queen and Captain Galorian had a meeting alone. The Queen had been very obvious, Aurelia said, in her affection for him. The feelings were definitely one sided from what Aurelia and the maid told us.

It was odd though that the girl found a room that sounded to me like it was used for magic. I looked at Aurelia as the girl was describing the room, she seemed bothered by it for some reason. It was one place in the castle that I wanted to see when we finally took it over. We talked about a few different strategies to get in, knowing the servant's quarters and passages was going to be very helpful.

The conversation changed direction when Lyanna stated she was going to leave the Capitol. She needed to keep up the appearance that she was trying to do what the Queen demanded of her.

“While it may look like I am doing the tax collection, I will in reality be getting the people ready for us to have some form of army. They will never be a true army but they will help in any case.”

She had a very good point in this. We would always need more support and we were on a limited time frame. Lyanna had twenty-six more days to return with some kind of sums, whether from the people or her own business. I wanted to start going around the city and get the support of those who still remained within the walls. A lot of the people here were sick or injured in some way. They needed my help. Being able to prove to them that Aurelia has their best interests at heart before she takes the throne and rules over them.

While on the road there was always someone willing or needing me to heal them. I felt so good and had a sense of worth when I helped the people. I was really missing that while being stuck in this house. I searched the home for Aurelia, having much to talk to her about. She had been out all-night having dinner with that Captain, so it made sense when I found her in our room getting ready to sleep.

She was standing in front of the mirror looking at herself with an expression on her face that I didn’t know quite what it meant.

“What's wrong?”

She was slightly startled by my question, I guess she didn't hear me enter. She didn’t turn to look at me when she answered the question.

“When I look at my scars and the way I want to dress and act... I don’t see myself as someone royal. I want to be a fighter, I don’t want to order people into battle, I want them to follow me into it.”

“I think that alone makes you the best princess that has or ever will rule this Kingdom. And I don’t think this Kingdom needs a royal. It needs a fighter. It needs you.”

She turned to look at me, she had no words for me and the beginnings of tears in her eyes. I wished she didn’t doubt herself so much and saw herself the way I did.

“You must be tired, I can help you get ready to sleep, if you like?”

“It was a long night for sure. Captain Galorian has expressed his interest in partnering with me.”

“Would he be a good asset for us?” I asked while grabbing a brush off the dressing table.

“I don’t think so. From what I have seen he is very manipulative. I think his main interests are getting as much money and position as possible. He may be of use to us one day, but I don’t trust him.”

“Well, we will just have to be patient and see what happens.”

“I couldn’t stand to be around him any longer, I left with so much anger. He is helping Adara sell and manage slaves. Stanger still, and don’t mention this to my Mother, but we were followed after leaving his ship.”

“Did you find out who it was?”

“No, whoever it was stayed far behind so there was no way we would have been able to catch them. We ran for it and lost them in the city streets. Hopefully they will resurface again soon.”

Her hair was now brushed and shone in the light. Aurelia moved over to get a nightdress ready.

“I wanted to talk to you about something that I want to do.”

“Will you be safe while doing whatever it is?”

“Yes and no. I want to go into the city and help the people. Theres a lot of healing to be done. I don’t know how safe I will be...”

“As long as one of us is with you as a guard, then I think it’s a great idea. This city needs something positive.”

“I will look into it some more while you sleep and we can talk about it more later.”

When she laid down, I walked up to her as helped her pull the blankets up around her. Looking at her this closely, in her vulnerability, I saw how tired she truly was. What a life she lived. So much had happened to her in such a small amount of time! She never had the time to grow up in any normal way.

I left the room in search of a small library that was in the basement of the house, it next to some small offices for privacy. I wondered where the healing shops used to be located in the city. It was probably the best place for me to start. After a bit of researching, I had three places I wanted to go see. Now I just needed someone to come with me. When I went upstairs to see if Kairios was able to come, however he was just as tired as Aurelia and was sleeping.

“I’ll go with you. I need to get out of this house.”

Massell hadn't really been around that much the last few days, or at least I hadn't seen him. I was really trying not to notice him these days. I left a note for Aurelia, telling her where I was going and that I had Massell with me for protection. I didn’t know how long we would be out and if she woke with me gone there would be hell to pay!

I still felt very insecure about people's reaction to my appearance. So, I took my cloak with me. We walked out into the mid-day sun. As usual the streets were not as busy as a Capitol city should be. Those who we did pass were busy with their work for the day. We went mostly unnoticed as we made our way to the first location.

From what I could find in the records we had, was that this place served as a hospital. There weren't any recent records from the last few years and from the state of the people I didn’t have much hope. Massell and I did not speak and he walked slightly behind me. As much as it bothered me at first, I now allowed it to fuel my resolve against him and to fuel my desire to be of use!

We came upon a building that had been set to fire. It had been a long time since any one had entered or cared for that place. It looked so dangerous that I didn’t even dare to enter. I would have to look into what happened here some more later, why was it never repaired or replaced?

Without a word I turned to continue on my way. I had to hope that the next place would have lasted better. It was a simple supply shop that sold herbs and had a few healing rooms. As we traveled along the roadways, I took stock of what I would need to do. Every person I saw was overly skinny and looked weak! I would need to set up a way to feed them, that way they would be able to go through their own natural way of healing.

Again, I was faced with disappointment. What used to be a shop meant for healing and had a genuine purpose, was now a brothel! I was so disgusted that I couldn’t stand to be there a second longer. What was wrong with this place? How could they allow these places to be left in such a despairing state? I was so frustrated with the reality in front of me! No one cared for these people, and if I started now, it would point straight to us.

“I feel like there is no point for us to even go to the last location. It will probably be the same result.” My voice was small, laced with my disappointment.

“Do you want to go back?”

“No, I have a lot to think about. There has to be a way I can make this work. I think I want to walk around, if that’s okay with you?”

This time Massell left without a word, leaving me to follow in silence. While we walked, I pondered what I had use of. I now understood that I would not be able to have a simple location to work out of. I would have to travel around the city, completely anonymous. No one could be able to recognize me.

Was I putting us all in danger by doing this?

The downside to moving around so much was that if someone was really hurt, then they would have a hard time finding me. It would be like I was making no changes. However, I would have to be content in helping them in the streets. We walked through the city for a long while. Many hours had to have passed by. Now that I was paying attention, the sun was about to set. And I didn’t recognize where we were.

“We should head back now.” Massell seemed to have noticed that I had come out of the trance I was in.

“Where are we?”

“We are at the furthest part of the city from Lyanna’s that we can go. There is not a lot over this way. Beyond the city walls over there is more forest and mountains. For the most part it looks abandoned.”

Looking around closer I could see that no one was living or working over here. The buildings, if they could be called that, were all run down and broken in some way. On the ground you could see that nature was starting to reclaim this area.

“This could be where you do your work. The guards don’t come here, no one should notice if some come and go from here occasionally.”

I realized he was right. I could make this place work out. I walked around a little while longer, looking for a good location. After some time, I found a suitable place. The roof was still intact, though it had some holes that would have to be avoided until they could be covered. As I walked around and envisioned where I would have things set up.

There was a loud noise coming from outside suddenly!

Massell and I ran out to see what was making that noise. My first thought was that we were about to be attacked, until I saw the sky on fire! Burning across the night sky was a ball of light. It was small but moving quickly, and right for us! We ran to get out of the way as it passed over our heads before crashing into the ground ahead of us.

The ground shook so hard that I lost my balance and fell to my knees! I was completely shocked; I'd never seen anything like this before! My curiosity started to grow as I wanted to get closer to see more. The air around the crash was almost unbreathable, it was so hot! I started breathing heavily as I got closer. Through the smoke and ash, I could see a new light glowing. Before me now was a pile of rubble with something glowing through.

I bent down to move the rocks out of the way. I was so focused on figuring out what was beneath that I didn’t feel the heat burn my hands as I dug through. Finally, what I saw as a crystal was now exposed. It was magnificent to look at. The base was round and was slightly larger than my hand. Growing from the base was spires of silver crystals. They grew small on the outside and taller as it got to the center.

As I held it in my hand, I noticed that my burns started to heal! It was astonishing to see! I stood and walked closer to Massell, not taking my eyes off the crystal. I knew it was meant for me! I knew I would be able to do great things with it in my possession. I looked up at Massell as he said,

“It matches your eyes.”