It was now time to face the music of the housing situation in the ruins beneath my window. There was finally a small tug of magic in the center of my chest and I knew it was time to rebuild.
The fighting leathers I’d worn from the keep on the night of the attack were folded at the end of the bed when I woke up that morning. Surprisingly enough, the clothes didn’t stink and seemed almost brand new. The magic knew that these were the only clothes I had to help rebuild a city, I guessed.
Reva braided my hair down my back and I steeled myself for the day to come. The only ones left met with me out in the ruins. Snow coated everything and I wondered why on earth I decided to do this today, of all days. But that tug was back in the center of my chest and I knew I couldn’t escape it. I knew that whatever this was needed a release or I would lose it like before.
The leather pants covering my legs did nothing to protect me from the cold when I knelt down in the snow. I didn’t know what else to do but get in touch with the earth and the soil beneath me. Maybe one day I would be able to release my magic in another way but for now, this would do. Closing my eyes, I reached down into the snow and a hiss blew through my teeth with the pain that came with it. The ground beneath the ice and water was hard and cold like rocks. But as soon as my fingertips met with the brown beneath, I could feel it again. There it was. I exhaled as I imagined in a home. It was a mixture of wood, vines, and caverns. I’d known nothing else.
The few memories I had from my time before, with my real family, were a blur but I could recall the home that was held together with mud and straw. The magic pulled me from my thoughts and forced my concentration on the task at hand. The pain from the cold slipped away as warmth drained from my hands and into the soil. My body swayed forward with each pull but I remained upright. It was as if there was an invisible tether connected to the center of my chest and every time my magic went out, that little thread connected to my soul was yanked on.
Vines and roots shot out of the ground around my hands. I could hear the shuffling of nervous feet behind me as the plants made an arch around my body, much like the cocoon that protected me against Ryven when my magic first manifested. This one wasn’t to protect me though, it was to house my people, so instead of shrinking against me, it only continued to grow until the people behind me were forced to walk several feet away.
There were whispers and gasps collectively as I pulled my freezing, shaking hands from the snow. The tug that was in the center of my chest was now gone and there was no more magic to be forced out. One home was all that would be completed today. I opened my eyes and stumbled, or rather, tried to stumble away from the structure, but I was tucked away insideof it. The vines and roots were woven together like a basket to form thick, insulated walls. It was an empty shell but it was something. It was a structure that hadn’t taken me much time to build with only magic. There was no mud involved, no tools, and the forest outside was still standing. The hardest labor that needed to happen was from me and then whoever lived here to make it a home. They would need to build their own cabinets for the kitchen and fashion their own furniture. The floors were still covered in ice and dirt but whoever moved in could eventually fashion their floors the way they wanted to.
The front door swung open for me as I tripped over my legs and made it out of the structure. Every single person in the party stared at me and then the house with their mouths agape. The axe that was in the blacksmith’s hands was lying in the snow beside his feet. I braced myself against the doorframe and smiled as Alric rushed to my side. He looked me over from head to toe and wrapped his fingers around my wrist. The magic took a lot from me but it was nothing like before. There was more magic here than anywhere else I’d summoned it. I waved him off and grinned at my work. At my magic’s work. It was truly magnificent.
The home was a good two story but now that I thought of it, I couldn’t tell you where the stairs were. Had my magic even fashioned them? I didn’t know. Maybe that would be another thing the people would need to figure out when they came to live here. I did most of the hard work, it wouldn’t hurt for them to put in some work themselves to finish fashioning the place. There were two places in the front for windows and a big place by the top of the roof for another window. I didn’t even know how the door came to be, but there it was.
Edna dropped the basket she’d been holding before scrambling to pick it up and offer it to me. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”
“Neither have I,” Luica muttered.
I accepted the basket of baked goods and picked a warm loaf off of the top. I didn’t bother with pleasantries or breaking pieces off, I immediately dug into the thing with relish. The exhaustion was right around the corner, I could almost feel it. With energy still coursing through my body, I was somewhat disappointed that I could no longer feel the pull of magic to finish this town today. I doubted I could finish the entire city in one sitting, but I could do a few more huts, that was for sure, especially with warm baked goods to help get me through.
Alric rubbed my shoulder and grinned at all of the people around us. Reva looked bored but her eyes didn’t leave Alric’s hand on me. She didn’t say anything and I knew nothing more transpired between them but I could practically hear her thoughts screaming at him. They would eventually end this tiff of theirs and come back together, it was only a matter of time. Especially with how lonely it would get. With Grove gone, she would need someone to talk to and though she knew she could talk to me, I knew it wasn’t going to be the same for her. Alric would always be the better person for her to talk to about war strife, loss, and whatever else they’d gone through while I wasn’t present. I also knew that our roles changed in this short amount of time too. As much as I wanted her to confide in me, I knew she felt like she couldn’t.
With my magic now present and my mark coming to be, I was the queen. She was my subject and when more people occupied this city it would become even more apparent. We were just waiting for the inevitable to happen at this point. Until I decided to marry, which didn’t seem to be anywhere in the near future, I would be alone. It was better that Reva came to find friends in other people. It was better this way for all of us, no matter how much I hated it.
I threwmyself into the reconstruction of the city outside my castle windows. Nothing else mattered besides having a place for the survivors to live in. The first home I created with my magic was now housing the blacksmith and his wife. They didn’t feel comfortable in the castle, I didn’t blame them. If the castle life wasn’t all I’d ever known, I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable either. In the beginning, I was terrified I would ruin something or accidentally break something important. Now that we’d been there for a while I was no longer afraid of those things or maybe I just didn’t care. The magic would take care of anything that went wrong. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to think of things, but it was what it was for the time being.
All I cared about was seeing that I got enough to eat and drink so I could continue every day with a new house to build. It was all my magic, or the gods allowed. There was no point in pushing it either, anytime I did, my magic was not accessible. The gods put a cap on me. As frustrating as this was, it kept me from doing something stupid and killing myself. But it left me bored and with not much to do afterwards. Alric fussed over me and Reva disappeared to do whatever it was that she did when Alric was in charge.
As of late, they’d begun to take shifts when it came to watching over me. They didn’t deem the survivors a threat but they could never be too careful either. Alric sometimes slept in the chair in my room or paced outside my chambers. Reva thumbed through books at night next to the fireplace when I could no longer stay awake listening to her tales of adventure and splendor outside of the walls of the keep. I knew she needed this time to talk about Ash without fear of emotions getting the best of her. She knew I didn’t judge so she dove headfirst. I didn’t ask where she went during the day when she didn’t have to babysit me and she didn’t divulge when we spoke at night. There were many times when I wanted to ask about herchambers or what she ate when I wasn’t around but I knew I needed to tread lightly with her or she would clam up quickly. She was like a ticking time bomb these days. I didn’t blame her. If I hadn’t had the outlet of the rebuilding of the city, I didn’t know where I would be either. Probably a ghost haunting the halls with nothing left to myself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
JUNIPER
Reva was practically prancing as she exploded into my bedroom. I was dressed for the day, even though I hadn’t planned on anything. Alric was out scouting and the castle was empty. Most of the city was rebuilt and just needed occupants, it was about time I took a break, if not for me then for my friends. Somehow I’d gotten used to the echoing silence that followed me within these walls. My friend grinned at me as she pulled me from my reading chair and the basket of warm biscuits beside me.
She bounced up and down with more glee than I’d seen on her face in a long time. Probably more joy than before Ash. “I have something to show you! Change into your fighting leathers and boots!” Her face was flushed as she didn’t wait for my response and threw my closet door open and then tossed my boots. They soared right over my head and landed with a thud beside the bed. My clothes were next though they didn’t fly as far as my boots had. They barely made it to the edge of the bed in a wrinkled heap.
“Hurry!”
After I was dressed in more practical clothing, as Reva called it, she grabbed my hands within hers and yanked me out of the castle. I didn’t know why this surprised me considering she’dbeen spending more and more time outdoors. There was only so much she could do cooped up in the castle and I could tell she was beginning to go stir crazy. She practiced her movements with her swords and daggers. She did her exercises, but it wasn’t enough. She needed more, she needed a purpose now that most of the city outside of the castle was rebuilt. There was much to do to get the area ready for people to live there, but that wouldn’t happen until we actually had people to occupy the spaces. The city couldn’t be made into a home just yet and I felt that void every time I gazed out of my windows. Would we rescue people? Would survivors come back with Grove, Leo, and Andre? Only time would tell and until that happened we had to wait. We would wait and prepare. That wasn’t good enough for Reva, which was fine. I wanted her to live her best life. I wanted her to enjoy the time she had. She deserved it.
Icy wind bit into my cheeks as I followed my friend up the steepest side of the mountain protecting the castle and the city that would eventually be filled with my people. Rocks skittered and slid under my feet as we trekked up the side of the summit. The farther we went up, the icier the wind and ground became and I was forced to relive memories I wasn’t ready to dive into yet. It hadn’t snowed again down at the castle but there was always a white top on the mountains. My breathing came out harder and harder the more we walked until I had to stop. My head spun slightly and my nose ran with snot and sweat. It’d been too long since I’d done anything physically exerting. I’d slacked on my training and no longer saw the point in it, most days. When was I supposed to use it? I didn’t know if it was the grief or the safety net of the castle and my magic but I no longer felt the need to train. I no longer felt the motivation to push myself like before. Maybe it would come back again.
I wasn’t so sure.
Training also meant thinking about Ryven and even though I did more of that as of late, I didn’t want to do a complete deep dive into it. Those feelings could stay hidden for a little longer. I wiped my nose with the back of my sleeve and rushed to catch up with Reva. We were almost to the top. What could possibly be waiting up there? I could imagine the views were spectacular, but I didn’t know why that would make her this excited. If I hadn’t been slowing her down, I was sure she would have run the entire way.
At the top of the mountain, waiting for us, were two birds. They weren’t just any birds though, these were massive beasts. Easily bigger than Leo by a few feet. But that wasn’t what made me pause, it was the saddles on their brightly feathered backs that drew me short.
Out of breath and barely able to speak, I forced a few words out. “What are those?”
Reva grinned and threw her hands up. “I don’t know what kind of birds they are, but they are domesticated. The first time I came up here,” She swallowed and closed her eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking but the pain was unbearable. So horribly dark that I threw myself off of the side of the mountain.”
What little breath I had left in my lungs went out. I gasped and struggled to know how to feel. She’d been up here all alone and tried to take her life.
