AN: The Piarari Key is below for reference. Be sure to drop some comments as you read. Enjoy!
Piarari Key
Vasia (vah-sia): snowflake
Knurr (ner): little
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I started in my parents’ bedroom, and Cyris started in my dad’s old study. Good thing that the sun was starting to rise, since there wasn’t any power. Their room looked exactly the same, just like the rest of the house and I felt that twinge of pain in my heart. I shook it off, and flipped the mattress to see if my parents had anything hidden underneath, but no luck.
I tried the dresser, checking every drawer, and found nothing. Then I checked my mom’s nightstand and found a hidden compartment in one of the drawers. I opened it and pulled out a journal.
“Cyris?” I called out.
He came to me immediately and looked at me with concern.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, I just...I found this,” I told him, holding up the journal. “I guess it was my mom’s. Maybe there’s something in here we could use?”
“Did you open it? What does it say?” He came closer to me and stood by my side.
I flipped through the entries. A lot of it was day to day things, but one passage caught my eye.
June 15, 1999
Dear diary,
Today the Gods blessed us it seems. Ray and I found a darling baby girl on our doorstep. I honestly couldn’t believe it.
A daughter. A little girl to call our own.
We weren’t sure what to call her at first, thankfully she had a locket with her name on it. Rosanna. Such a beautiful name.
I couldn’t read anymore. The rest of it seemed to be her gushing about having a daughter. I turned to Cyris and swallowed hard.
“What is it, Rose?” he asked softly.
“I’m…I was never really their daughter,” I told him shakily. “They…they found me on their doorstep a little over twenty years ago. They adopted me and they never told me.”
Cyris was speechless, but he reached for the journal, and I gave it to him. It took a moment for him to read the entry over, then he glanced up at me.
“What’s inside your locket?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never been able to open it,” I replied. “Something else doesn’t add up though. The house…this house wasn’t the house in my dreams…”
“A different house? Well, dreams can be distorted memories or images from a bunch of your experiences combined, sometimes. May I try to open the locket?”
I took off my locket and handed it to him, then I started looking around the room. And staring back at me, on the wall, was a photograph of Isabelle and Ray standing in front of the house I’d seen in my dreams. The house that Ilaria had left her daughter at. A soft gasp escaped my lips.
“Look Rosanna, I got it open!” Cyris had my mom’s journal under one of his arms, and my locket dangling in his opposite hand.
I looked closely at the locket and I think my heart stopped. Inside the locket was a small portrait of Marco, Ilaria, Mirella, and Kian Aster. The royal family of Riofalt. In the left hand panel was an engraving. The name “Rosanna Aster'' was carved into the gold and underneath it was a date, “April 15th, 1999,” most likely the day I was born. I started shaking.
Cyris wrapped his arms around me quickly, but I was too dumbstruck to hug him back. I didn’t know what to think, or how to feel… My whole life felt like a lie. Was it a lie?
“I…I’m an Aster…” I said shakily, having found my voice. “A Riofaltan Princess…”
Cyris pulled away and stepped back from me. He bowed, then peeked up at me through his bangs.
“Well then, Your Highness.”
“Oh Gods, please don’t do that,” I groaned. “Seriously…you’re my beloved Prince, you shouldn’t have to do that.”
“Yes I do,” he stood up and smiled. “You’re royalty.”
“I guess that makes us equals in a way,” I joked, trying to find humour in this. “Now I have a title to match yours.”
“Knurr Vasia, you were always my equal,” Cyris expressed. He pulled me close and kissed me deeply.
“Knurr?” I asked, trying to pronounce the word. “Are you calling me little? I’ve been reading up on Piarari, Your Highness. And I may be shorter than you, but I’m just as strong.”
He chuckled and planted another kiss on my lips. Then a thought crossed my mind as I recalled something from my dreams and I frowned.
“Wait, what? What now? Why are you making that face?” Cyris groaned.
“Mirella…she sacrificed herself,” I admitted. “In one of the dreams I had, she and Kian were running with Ilaria and, I guess, me, and she and Kian heard Marco die. They were really torn up about it and the Trillium caught up to us. Mirella begged Ilaria to run and save me.”
He gave me a look of understanding, and pressed his forehead to mine.
“She made a great sacrifice. I know she’s watching now, and she’s happy that you know the truth. She’s proud to see the woman her little sister has grown up to be.”
“Did you know them at all, Cyris? Kian and Mirella?” I asked. “I just…I want to know more about them.”
“To be honest, that was such a long time ago, I may have met them once at a ball. I admit their names sound familiar, but based on your photo, I don’t recognize them at all. I guess I just don’t remember...”
I brushed my thumb over the portrait of my birth family in my locket. Who were they? I mean…besides the Riofaltan royal family. What were they like? Maybe we’d find answers in Wintervale. As I looked at the portrait I felt a little stupid.
“Why didn’t I see it before?” I asked. “I have Ilaria’s hair colour and curls.”
“Maybe you didn’t want to see it?” Cyris told me hesitantly.
“Maybe…” I admitted. “Maybe I was just blind to the truth this whole time without even realizing it.”
“But you know now, and that’s a really good thing.”
I smiled and kissed his lips. “Thank you for being here with me.”
“There’s no place I’d rather be,” he said and smiled.
Unfortunately, our sweet moment was interrupted by a loud banging on the door.
“Cliffbarrow Police Department!” a voice shouted. I looked at Cyris.
“We need to leave, now,” I told him as I clasped my locket around my neck as fast as I could. He nodded. We quickly took Isabelle’s journal, grabbed our bags from downstairs, and hightailed it out the back door.
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AN: Be sure to drop some comments and vote!
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Storm's Rapture | Storms Series: Book 1 (This is a Co-Write)
Romance"The past haunts you, flowing through your veins like water..." Cyris Castellan is a young man with water magic and royal blood. When he was a child, his home was attacked and destroyed by gruesome magic users. They killed his family, orphaning Cyri...
