Reign of Embers

Chapter 12 - Next steps

Rowan

We all sit gathered in the common room, waiting to here Josie's story. Everyone is here, even the kids, although most of them are playing with the many toys around the room. I've used my powers to enable us adults to be able to hear everything that's going on inside the bedroom, while inside Aelin and Josefin cannot here a thing.

In the centre of the common room is a fire pit, enchanted to make sure the children don't get too close, sunken in the floor. Cushions, sofas, and arm chairs surround it. The ceiling is a huge glass dome, designed to allow visitors to star gaze. The walls are decorated white with constellations painted on with blue and sliver paint. Toy boxes and doll houses surround the outside of the circular room, the toys inside already scattered all over the floor. One part of the room houses a shiny gold staircase that follows the natural curve of the wall up to a level just above with doorways leading off to bedrooms. A gold coloured railing protects the upper level, only intercepted by a silver slide that runs into a room just off the common room, filled with even more toys, and a climbing frame. The common room has two open archways leading out of it, on opposite sides of the room. These doors lead to the main playroom, and the library. The library holds the secret passageway to their den. The rooms designated to when the children become teenagers is behind huge oak doors in the library, sealed shut to everyone except Evangeline until they are old enough.

Our court is sprawled out over many different cushions and chairs. Manon and Dorian sit curled up on a love seat near the fire, Yrene and Chaol sit across from them on a sofa. Lysandra is in snow leopard form, curled up by the fire, and Aedion is sat on a cushion staring into the flames, Gavriel enveloped in his arms. I'm sat as close to the stairs as I can on a big squishy arm chair. Aislinn, Asterin, and Zephyr are pretending to be witches and wyverns, running all over the place screaming. Evangeline is sat by the fire with a book from the library. She grew out of the kids and teen area a few years ago, but she has so many fond memories of this place, that she often comes in here.

We all sit listening to Aelin and Josie talking, anxious to hear what happened in the Oakwald forest. We've already heard Chaol, Dorian, Asterin and Aislinn's explanations, but they don't know what happened to Josefin. After a while Aelin starts to talk about her experiences of the war and her life, I can tell that she's struggling, but I stay and listen. By the end of her tale, we are all crying, some of us cry because we forgot how young she was when she experienced all that trauma, some cry because of the memories it brings up, and some cry for their losses in the war. Either way, there is not a dry eye in the room. Aelin finishes and Josie asks her a question.

"Did you love him? Sam. Did you love him?"

"With all my heart." Aelin responds.

This makes me break utterly and completely. Chaol and Dorian break as well, they helped her through those traumatic years and are surely remembering the pain she felt.

Soon Josie starts talking as well, and we all fall silent to hear what she has to say. Everyone is in shock the entire time, and completely confused, what was that creature? why did it attack? I look around to Chaol and Yrene, both are shaking, tears running down their faces. She nearly died. They nearly lost their eldest child forever. No one here takes life for granted, we've all lost too much for that in the past few decades.

After a few minutes of silence, both in here and in the bedroom, we hear Aelin say that she is going to go and talk to us about it, and Josie asks for Gavriel. At this the young boy leaps to his feet and starts running towards her bedroom, I call for him to wait until Aelin has left, and for once he listens. Aelin opens the door, says some last words to Josie, and steps out onto the balcony. Face stained with tears she rests a hand on her belly and smiles. Gavriel rushes past her into Josie's bedroom, and we hear excited screaming before I lower the air bubble amplifying sound, and our hearing is back to normal.