Page 7 of Emergence of Fire
“Delilah, it is done. I didn’t see this coming. What I thought was an act of goodwill turned out to be my own downfall, and my mates. I can only hope that our children can fix this one day.” My mother’s voice was laced with sadness and regret. I’m still not sure what is going on, but I know it is only a matter of time until it is all revealed.
“Until we meet again, my Queen”, the woman Delilah said behind us as she left with the mystery boy.
The door closed behind us. My mother reaches into the crib and picks up a small bundle, then holds it in her arms. I realize I am looking at myself when I was a baby. It feels surreal to watch this happen in front of me. I have no control over what I see, but I find myself wanting to move closer, to look over her shoulder at myself. There aren’t many pictures of me as a baby, so to get a tiny glimpse of my three-month-old self is a treasure I will hold in my heart, to see my mother hold me is the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. Of course, I am asleep. I see tiny little pouty lips, chubby cheeks, and long beautiful eye lashes, it’s all I get to see but it’s worth it.
My mother carefully walks out of the room making sure she doesn’t wake me as we leave my nursery and go into another room. This room looks more traditional in style with red plush carpets, heavy gold drapes over the windows, and rows of what look like ceremonial robes lining one wall. In the middle of the room on top of a white column, nesting on a white velvet pillow is the most spectacular tiara I’ve ever seen. Black metal forms peaks, shiny like hematite but darker in the shape of bats wings, with sapphires, emeralds, and rubies set inside the top. I try to take in as much as I can while my mother hands me over to my aunt.
The look on her face is one of devastation, this is a woman who is struggling. I can see the pain it’s causing her to let me go but she still manages to hold her head high, and reign in her emotions as best as she can. I find myself crying again. Even Aunt Twyla is crying in the memory as her fingers reach up and wipe away her tears. I’m so lost in my own emotions that I don’t hear a knock at the door. I startle as I look up into my mother’s eyes as something passes between the two of them. My mother looks concerned and slightly alarmed, but she quickly masks her emotions and nods her head at my aunt. A shimmering light passes over us with a wave of my aunt’s hand and suddenly the room becomes hazy. Almost like a transparent wall is placed in front of us.
“Enter,” my mother calls out and a man walks through the doors. The first thing I notice is his long black robe, with a train dragging behind him. He kneels before her, bowing his head. He doesn’t acknowledge my aunt and it dawns on me then that she has somehow made us invisible to him. The man in front of my mother looks up at her with such tenderness I almost wonder if he is my father. She called him Thaddeus. He spoke passionately about protecting her and even I felt his sincerity. Then I hear his words, “I promised your mates that it wouldn’t come to this, that they didn’t die in vain, Thana. I made a promise! I told them that if it came to it, I would get you and Cordelia out of Arcadia.”So, this guy is not my father. Wait. Did he just say mates? I think back to the strangeness of the four rocking chairs in my nursery and my own thoughts begin to spiral. How many fathers did I have? They’re dead, I think to myself as I try to focus on what is happening once more.
Things have jumped ahead and I missed a lot apparently. We are now hiding in the shadows behind a large gold Corinthian column in a circular shaped room with a domed ceiling. My mother stands next to her throne in the middle of the room where Thaddeus escorted her. My mother chooses to stand in a room full of men who are arrayed in semicircular rows all around the amphitheater. Most of the men wear red and gold robes but I can’t help but notice the ones in the long black ones with hoods that cover their faces. One of the men approaches my mother and bows slightly. My mother stands proudly amongst these men, looking down on them all, making sure she locks eyes with each one as her head turns to survey the room, before bringing her attention back to the man.
“The vote is unanimous, Queen Thana. You will no longer rule Arcadia, no woman will ever rule this Realm again. Women will know their place from this day forward. Henceforth, the rules of our society will be rewritten in favor of the patriarch, as it always should have been. We thank you, Queen Thana, for your service.” He steps away from her with a stiff nod as the room erupts in chaos. The men in the red and gold robes begin to knock over chairs, some of them even try to get to my mother. I can hear someone yelling about injustice and votes not being counted. The men are all yelling over each other, the tension is heavy in the air. It’s a clear divide in the room. One male voice can be heard yelling and pointing that the chaos was the Barons’ plan all along. Everything happening here seems to be tragically wrong.
I see Aunt Twyla begin to retreat further away from the scene in front of us. Suddenly, the men in black throw off their hoods and draw daggers from their sleeves. They start to kill the men wearing the red and gold robes. Killing is too nice a word. They were slaughtered—they were unarmed, and didn’t stand a chance. Blood stains their robes, pooling at their feet, spreading like a slow-moving river over the white marble floors. A few indistinguishable body parts go flying. Their screams and cries were short lived. I am just a passenger, and this isn’t real, at least, to me it isn’t, but I still find myself feeling sick at what I see.
My mother watches it unfolding in front of her in horror, her hands cover her mouth, as if to stop her cry escaping as men fall all around her. Thaddeus moves up beside her, and just when I think he is going to get her out of there, he removes his own dagger from his sleeve and stabs her in the back. My mother grabs hold of his hand and turns to look at him. There is no surprise on her face, just a look of resignation. She knew. She knew he would betray her. This is some Shakespearean-type of shit. I scream, and I know it isn’t a scream in my head. It is a scream that echoes throughout our house. If we had neighbors living close by, I am sure they would call the police.
I watch as each man in black robes approach her and they all take a turn to stab her. Her beautiful white dress is now red from blood loss. She turns, looking right at my aunt before she collapses to the ground. They killed her. Those treacherous assholes killed her, and Thaddeus is the biggest betrayer of them all. I open my eyes and the kitchen comes back into focus. I snatch my hands away from Aunt Twyla’s as tears stream down her face.
“I can’t.” My throat is so sore, I take a sip of wine to ease it, “I can’t watch another minute of it.” I stand quickly, knocking over my chair. I am hurt, shocked, scared, and furious about what I saw. I pace and try to breathe but I feel like my blood is boiling, I turn to face my aunt.
“Thaddeus was supposed to be her friend. Or so it seemed. He was the ringleader. Why would he pretend to be close to her?” I shake my head in disbelief.
“He was her friend. Thaddeus was the reason your mother allowed the delegates from the Baron Lands to join her council. It was an act of goodwill because she wanted her Realm united completely. No queen had ever done this. The Baron Lands are where the black Dragons, predominately male, live. Almost all of them were banished there, stripped of their elemental magic, turning their scales black for various crimes committed. I don’t know much more than that.”
“So, he used her. He was never her friend. Did he kill my fathers too?” I stop myself, trying to recall more of the vision. “How many fathers did I have? He mentioned mates. What does it mean?” I huff and wrap my arms around myself, as if I can contain my rage somehow. I was starting to sweat; my face feels like it is on fire and my skin has a crawling sensation.
“There were rumors that it was not an accident that killed your three fathers. There was no proof, at least that is what my father told me.” My aunt looks tired as she puts her head in her hands, her distress from recalling all that she saw is taking a toll on her. I am reeling over the fact that my mother had three husbands, mates, or whatever they were to her. One man was enough, what the hell do you do with three?
“What do I do, Aunt Twyla? I have seen so much. I have so many questions I can’t begin to process it all. I’m a Dragon? She is inside me. I am a queen of a place I don’t remember and by the looks of things I can never go back to.” I’m so tired suddenly that it sounds more like a whine than panic. My emotions have been riding me hard all night and I don’t think I can take anymore.
“We wait.” She sighs and stands up from the table, grabbing the wine glasses and dumping the contents in the sink. “Things for you are about to change. You are Emerging and your powers are already starting to manifest. Your Dragon will want out eventually, and to be honest, I know next to nothing about an Emergence.” She turns and crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the sink. I reach down and pick my chair up off the floor and grip the back of it so tight I feel it groan under my fingers.
“What are we waiting for?” I feel my panic start to rise, I know nothing about Arcadia, I don’t know anything about Dragons, magic, or any of this crazy ass shit. I’m just Cordelia, I own my own soapmaking and natural products business. I’m not as sociable as I would like to be but I’m grateful for the life I lead. My “human” life. Everything is crashing down around me and it’s only taken six hours for it to crush me.
“If I felt your magic, my only hope is that they felt it too.” Aunt Twyla says, sounding so weary I know her bed is calling her name.
“Who?” I asked, hoping she doesn’t mean someone wishing to do us harm.
“Your mates.” She smiles softly and shrugs.
“My mates,” I shriek. I can feel my anxiety spike at the idea of strange men who I don’t know trying to stake claim to me. I’m an independent woman who has spent my entire adult life so far on my own. This is just too much change too fast.
Where’s the reset button on this game? I don’t want to play anymore.
CHAPTERSIX
ADRIAN
We are no strangers to the Earth Realm. All three of us trade with the Shifters who now live here on Earth. The sights and sounds don’t bother us. All of the Realms have their own variations of what they consider modern. Arcadia has no need for cars, so we don’t have them. The Fae and Druids have no use for electricity, opting to use their magic to power their towns and cities. Dragons love creature comforts. Every time something new is invented in this Realm we find a way to make it better and suit our needs.
At least Cordelia won’t miss the things she is used to when she comes back with us. If she decides to come back with us. She doesn’t know us. Who knows what was going through her mind at the moment. She is probably terrified by the extreme emotions she’s feeling. Right now, she is possibly being bombarded by her Dragon’s emotions, which I know from my own experience feels more aggressive. If she can feel just an inkling of what we had felt when we Emerged, then she’s probably overwhelmed by it all. Just moments ago, the three of us stood in front of the portals in the forest outside Saphir, unsure of where to go until we all felt a rush of her rage, her fear, and her panic. The need to take away all of those negative feelings from her will be my life’s mission. I swear it.
For most of my life Cordelia was a whisper in the back of my sub-conscious, a woman I would never meet. We had all accepted that our bond to her would never allow us to seek another mate, so we all consumed ourselves with the preservation of our regions. She was a void that could never be filled. Until I felt her. One moment there was nothing, then suddenly she was there, like a second heartbeat. Her presence felt like a familiar song that I can’t remember the words to. The lyrics were right on the tip of my tongue but just out of reach. The joy was when it all came flooding back, the melody, the words, and the orchestration, like it never left. Cordelia was a part of me that lay dormant, I can’t wait to meet her. She is alive and now we need to find her.
The portal spits us out at night on an empty sidewalk that looks like a major city street. It must be really late or early morning before dawn because I can hear a few cars in the distance and one heading in our direction. Time varies in each Realm, so when we first felt Cordelia, to us it was a day ago but here it’s been two days since the event.
