The Past

Context from "The Mirror"

This is an excerpt from a chapter in The Mirror, titled "Journey to the past"

"Alura, will you tell me a story?"

The dear child was exhausted. The hours of a newly wedded princess did not suit such a young girl. Little Ilwa had rather taken to spending her time in my sitting room the past two days.

I beckoned for her to come closer and glanced at Gabi as I began to speak. "Once, long ago in the Forgotten East, there were three young friends, two boys and a girl, not all that much older than yourself. Their names were Zalta, Arke, and Doran..."

"Kirmar, you cannot possibly mean this, she's hardly twelve."

"She is old enough to wed young Doran," Zalta's father insisted.

"Why will no one ask me?" Zalta snapped. "I'm old enough to have a say!"

"You are my daughter, you will do as I tell you."

"You are not being just."

"You will shut your mouth, Lithinia." Zalta's father was the head of the village, and not a kind man. "You will wed him. And soon. And you will bear him a child."

Zalta ran off, to speak to her best friend. Her brother, in some ways.

"Zali, we have to tell Doran. You can't keep this from him."

"Arke, we need to run away. My father won't change his mind."

"What's this I hear about running away?" It was Doran.

"Oh, Doran, the worst possible thing has happened." Zalta told him what her father had said.

"That's the worst possible thing? I must say I am somewhat offended," he laughed. "But yes, I agree. We have to go."

"Where?" Arke asked. And he was right. No matter where they went, their parents could find them.

"We'll cross the water," Doran said.

"By ourselves?" Zalta had many doubts.

"No Zali, we'll get everyone else. Everyone whose parents have lost it. We'll steal some boats, I don't know."

"Do you even know how to steer a boat?" Zalta snapped. "It's hopeless."

"No it isn't, child." A woman stood in front of them, one they didn't recognize. She was the most beautiful being they had ever set eyes upon. "My name is Alarithe, and I will help you."

"No offence, but you on your own is about as helpful as the three of us together."

"Doran! Sorry, he's stupid. We would much appreciate any help." Zalta said to her.

Alarithe gave them all a gift, a great power. The power of the elements. "Your children, their children, and their children's children will all carry this gift."

"Who are you?" Zalta asked, forming a miniature tornado in her palm.

"I am the one responsible for love. And my Fates have told me that great great love will come from your bloodlines. You must vow to always be friends and allies."

"We swear it," the three said simultaneously.

"I will leave you three boats capable of taking themselves to a new land. Gather your things and your friends."

"Weeks passed as they sailed across the ocean," I told Ilwa. "You see, Zalta, Arke, and Doran were all from different parts of the Forgotten East. Zalta was small, with brown hair and brown eyes, and tan skin from generations of the sun. Arke's hair was orange like the sun, his eyes as bright as grass in the spring, his skin splattered with dots. Doran was a giant, whose hair was pure black like the night sky and his eyes were as blue as a bright sunny day."

"And their friends?"

"They each brought friends from their own tribes, friends who looked like them. That day they met Alarithe, they parted ways, each heading back home, where a boat was waiting for each. Tiny little toy boats that, once they made contact with salt water, became the size of an Aldoran battleship.

They each set sail with their ten friends and landed on different parts of our little sliver of Githor. Back then, there was no Vjenkar or Kerta. It was just those thirty-three kids. Decades passed. Alarithe sent her gods to Zalta, Arke and Doran.

"Doran married Zetha, creating an even more powerful bloodline. Zalta and Ethon fell in love as well. Arke and Erisin were the last to find each other, but they did. Centuries passed and the Kingdoms grew, from three powerful families that, for centuries, breeded only with gods. Eventually, they began marrying the friends' children, diluting the bloodline and the powers. No intermarriage between the three bloodlines ever occurred, until my parents. That's why the people from each Kingdom look so different."