Jameson
"Your mother keeps mentioning grandchildren." Iris stated blankly, her lips pulled into a thin line. "You know that isn't going to happen, right?" She continued to stare, eyebrows pulled together in accusation.
"Am I the one that is mentioning them?" I glared back at her.
"Just get her to stop. I'm over it." She snapped back, whipping me with her long dark hair as she turned to leave. I let my eyes roll into my head as I fell back onto our marriage bed. Well, technically her bed; I had been exiled to the floor. This was our nightly routine. We would retire to our room after a day of pretending to know how to rule and Iris would lecture me on things I couldn't do anything about, like my mother drilling her about children. I let my mind wander often - it was the only escape I had from this marriage and my situation. If there was ever a time to run away and join Violet in the ocean, it was now. Iris didn't need my help. She would gladly rule without me - heck, she was already taking charge and pushing me to the side - only asking my opinion at the very last moment as more of a courtesy than anything else.
While she studied the book of magic, I was studying how to survive in the ocean. What Iris didn't know was that along with the book of knowledge for magic, there were also a lot of other useful resources, diaries and encounters of all the faeries that had ever ruled and their stories. And in one of those diaries, just so happened to be the very detailed recount of a curious royal that fell in love with the ocean and figured out how to go there, survive there, and return to the Isle. I guess things were not as strict back then. Then again, these books were kept secret for a reason... to stop the public from finding out the secrets of old.
I lifted off the bed and put my head between my knees, threading my arms through my legs to reach under the bed. I flicked my nail at a ridged bump in the floor, finding a loose edging and using my nail to release the plank of wood that covered the diary that had been consuming my mind. Each room had different flooring - I had always found hiding places in each, over my time here. The book was was my secret addiction. Tales of sailors and boats, of consuming alcohol and bruised faces, of smashed bottles and rugged vikings consumed my life. There were tales of sea maidens and romance, yet not the kind of romance that consumed the minds of girls and love struck women. This was a romance that was dark and passionate and twisted. Forbidden. This was the kind of life that I craved. And what I would give to be alive when the author of this diary was here. To ask him endless questions about his adventures and how I could live a life like he did.
Each page carried inscriptions and maps, hand drawn by the one that had lived it. His words told a thousand stories. All of a sudden, I heard a soft knock at the door. My eyes flew up to the sandstone that was perfectly crafted around the sturdy oaks door, marked by the sun each time it moved up and down in the sky. I had been here for hours, flicking through the euforia filled pages, but it had only felt like minutes. I quickly shoved the leather bound book under my bed. "Yes?" I cleared my throat.
"Son." My mother pushed the door ajar. Her soft footsteps followed her voice gracefully as she entered.
"Mother." I replied, sitting up straight. She hated when I hunched my back and would always correct me. Now it was an anxious habit to straighten whenever I saw her. She sat next to me on the bed, pulling at the covers. I could see the urge to nag pulling at her eyes and forcing her mouth into a twitching line. "Mother." I placed my hand on hers to stop her in her tracks.
"Sorry. It's just, if Iris was more of a natural homemaker and wife rather than trying to change all the rules out there, and be a woman of business, I wouldn't have to say anything."
I rolled my eyes and groaned as I threw back my head in irritation.
"Okay. I won't say anything." She clicked her tongue, holding up her hands in defeat before placing them beside her, one landing on mine. "I just wish you were out there too, making some of the rules alongside her, or insisting that she keep some the same. They were there for a reason - They worked. Now she has people out there practicing magic all over the place."
