The Facade of a Flame

Chapter Two

The Kingdom of Tides

Elora's eyes scan over the water, the sun setting into its lustrous veil above the vacancy of fierce waves, looking for something—a sign, a ship, a symbol. Anything that will bring her to him.

But what does she find?

Nothing.

So much sea, so much coast, so much nothing.

It's been two weeks since he left; two weeks since the kingdom went mad; two weeks since Elora's father placed a cobble of stones on her shoulders and forced me to carry it. But stones are heavy, and she's afraid she'll fall sooner than she should.

Find him for me, Elora. Father told her. And for some foolish reason, she nodded her head and vowed to keep her promise.

It's foolish because she will never find him. Elora's brother has finally left the place that had him clutched in shackles for years, the place where his neck was chained with a collar, and father tugged the leash. He was bound and now he's unrestricted.

The prophet was trapped, now she's free as well.

But what does that leave Elora?

Still trapped, of course.

A part of her wishes her brother would have just taken her with him, but another part scolds her head for reckoning such an intention. Besides, he wouldn't have taken her anyways. He always said she was, 'too sweet for the sea', whatever the hell that meant.

But each day she goes out to the docks and she sails. She's never been out of the Bentic sea, not yet at least. When she sails, her only ambition is to find him...to bring him home.

Elora sighs.

Benthia isn't his home. The sea is his home. It always has been.

But she keeps gazing. She still surveys the coast, and she stills scans the sea...even though she's looking for something that will never be found.