LAVEN HEPHAESTUS ARVENALDI, II
Lilyana?” Maivena gently wakes the sleeping child.
Lilyana’s black hair is sprawled over her face and pillows as she sleeps. Finally, she stirs, awakening to the voice of Maivena.
Maivena quietly laughs as Lilyana rolls over in the large bed and pulls her blanket over her head.
“Is there a little girl named Lilyana under that blanket?”
Lilyana giggles quietly and Maivena quickly pokes her head under the blanket and Lilyana erupts in laughter before sitting up in bed.
I sit on the edge of the bed and smile as she grins at me. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes!” Lilyana stands on the bed.
“Let us wash this little face and get you fed.” Maivena pushes her fingers through Lilyana’s mane of hair repeatedly and her eyes close as she does so.
Lilyana pretends to fall backwards, and I laugh as Maivena catches her and she erupts into giggles again.
“All right, you.” Maivena smiles as she stands from the bed and Lilyana jumps down.
“Let me see this head of yours.” I nudge for the child to come closer and I fish through her hair to examine.
I could heal the tiny wound for her, thankfully it is already mending on its own without the need of an extra healing hand.
“Did you sleep well last night?” Maivena asks her while I check her head for any other injuries unseen.
“I did,” she nods. “Can I eat morning meal now?”
“Yes,” I laugh. “We can eat now before Ivella leaves.”
Quickly, Lilyana’s eyes turn for sadness. “Where are you going?”
“I will be back,” Maivena crouches down to her level and taps her nose. “I have to go home first, see through quite a few things with the Leaders of my Circles and I will be back.”
Lilyana looks around the large chamber and gazes through the windows of her balcony and back at Maivena. “You do not live here? This is not your home?”
“Not yet, but it will be.” Maivena smiles.
“You will come back?”
“Yes,” Maivena chuckles.
“You promise?”
“I will come back, I promise.”
* * *
Stravan looks on with satisfaction as he examines my new leather armor. The same person who built Maivena’s armor has built mine as well but in black with more stitching and firmer padding around my shoulders and knees.
“This is very well made.” Stravan says as he touches the leather stitched like the skin of a Dragon. The leather suit is now on the same figure that my attire to the gala was so we may see it. Next, I must put it on and move so the suit can be like a second skin.
“Have you tried using your force fields to bend elements?”
“How so?”
“Instead of just projecting a force field, learn to hold it, similar to a shield but you control it to move. Say you project a force field and knock down your opponent. You can do that same thing with water, fire, air, anything.”
Never in my life have I considered how far force fields have gone until now, I always saw them as a basic ability, now with Stravan here, he will be able to teach us a grand deal of what we never knew we could do. And now is the time for all of this.
“The abilities I have are sporadic ever since the Blood Bond Ritual with my brothers, there are powers I have that I did not know of until it comes out, though force fields will always be an ability I thrive at.”
“And your speed.”
“Is that really a power?” I turn and walk out of the Throne Room and he follows.
“Of course it is, the speed you run at is craved by many, you have like no other. That is a power. Some think you must have an extraordinary gift in order to be considered vigorous.”
“My father used to ask, ‘who would escape a barricaded room first? The strongest person or the person with the most knowledge?’ When I was young, of course, I told him the person who is the strongest. Then, he explained, you can put the physically weak person who has the most knowledge in a room with the strongest person and the one with the most knowledge will make it out first. They do not need to rely on their physical strength to get them far. Their knowledge will carry them through anything.” You can have strength, truly, anyone can. Though your strength is useless if you do not know how to use it properly.
“Your father sounds like my mother,” Stravan says as we walk down the hall leaving the Throne Room. “She would tell tales very similar to that, but ours was written in children’s books.”
“The Unlikely Warrior?”
Stravan laughs. “Yes, that exact book.”
“I spoke with Phyv over morning meal and he told me more about the child, Evryn, trapped on the Mortal Lands. He said that Evryn was not brought there, he landed there by accident. One moment he was playing with his friends the next he slipped through where the portal was drawn to take immortals from Galitan to where he is now.”
Stravan flinches out of perplexion. “If he has accidentally fallen through that portal he was not the only one, this could be happening all over Voschantai.”
“And that is what we need to find out. From the time that Levora, Phyv, and Greyce went missing with the others, how many more mysterious disappearances have happened? This revolving around the intrusions of rogues is not ideal. What if one of those rogues ended up in the Mortal Lands? What if the humans have found their way here by accident while walking through a portal?”
Stravan rubs his face as all the words process. “We need to get to the other realms, immediately. We need to find these portals and have them guarded. Portals should not just stay open, they should have to be opened.”
With a world as ours, there will never be such thing as anyone knowing exactly what transpires, especially when it comes to the realm of magic that can warp universes. There will never be just one way. “Whoever created them must have discerned a new way to form portals to stay open. Unless they are closely monitoring the portals and opening them when certain people near it.”
Leading us back to my study, I draw a piece of paper from the drawer of my bureau and the quill and ink.
“I will find Ezra and have this sent directly after it is written,” Stravan speaks beside me. “And I will find where Levora, Greyce, and Phyv are. They shall not go back to the Mortal Lands unless more of us go with them, we should not risk them being there alone without knowing of this.” He says just before ascending in a rush.
To Whom It May Concern:
Galitan, Ramana, Misonva, and Vosand, your presence is immediately requested in Vaigon where the Leaders of Vaigon, Provas, and Quamfasi will await. Grave matters regarding the Six of Spring must be discussed immediately. It seems more has occurred since the time of their taking to now.
Please send a response as soon as possible, this must not be taken lightly any longer.
Laven Hephaestus Arvenaldi, II – High King of Vaigon
Rolling the paper, I reach for another to write the next three letters to be sent. As I begin writing, Ezra walks into the study with Esme at his side, who stares at me with a horrid expression overtaking her face.
“When did you last see Ivella?”
I furrow my eyebrows and swiftly stand. “This morning when we ate morning meal with Lilyana, why?”
“Because,” Esme heavily breathes. “I cannot find her and she was supposed to meet me long ago. I have already asked our family if they have seen her and they have not and no one knows–”
“All right,” I try to calm her as I feel my own build of perturbation. “She must be somewhere and has just forgotten.”
“Laven,” Esme’s voice rises. “I have searched everywhere, I know my cousin, she would not just forget. You and I know this well, Ivella does not just not show up. She says something!”
Just as she shouts, Roaner falls from ascension screaming in pain.
His leg has been slashed through nearly to the bone and blood already coats the floor.
“Roaner!” Esme shouts as she and I tumble to his side to examine his leg, and Ezra helps Roaner to sit up as he grows lightheaded at the loss of blood.
“Roaner,” I grab my brother’s face and force him to look at me. “What happened?”
His bright blue eyes are dull and he tugs at his vest while grunting at the pain encompassing his body, Esme quickly rips the vest off of him revealing another wound and her hands begin to shake as she sees all the ruin over him. She attempts to heal him but his wounds fight against being healed.
“Ivy,” he coughs and blood seeps from his mouth. “Laven, they took–they took her. They took Ivy and the Dragons.”
Esme looks up at me and I rapidly blink as the words burn into my head.
They took Ivy and the Dragons.
“Who, Roaner?” Ezra asks while pressing against the gash in his stomach.
I go stoic, unable to comprehend any thought.
War.
War.
War is the only raging thought.
My brother.
My wife.
He chokes on his blood once more and grips my vest, yanking my attention, even on the edge of death, Roaner still has that fury in his eyes and I hold his cold wrist.
“Yaro.”
A name has become the worst thing to ever happen to me.
Holding Roaner tighter, I stare down at him.
“The war has begun.”
