The Past

The scrolls

The next morning, I awoke to a loud knock on my door.

"Come in." I sat up in my bed, flattening down the dark tips of my hair before the intruder opened the mahogany door.

"Kinheal..." Remor looked down at me, lying in bed, and halted his steps.

Freshly awoken and in a state of undress was clearly not how he had expected to find me. A glance out the window told me it was almost midday, and there I was, still in bed with my thin sleeping gown falling off of my shoulders.

"My apologies..." He immediately turned back to face the door. "I had thought you were awake. Should we spend this day resting and begin our journey tomorrow?"

"No, I only need a moment. I'm sorry, I returned quite late yesterday evening."

He nodded, with his back still turned, and quietly stepped out of the room. After I had changed, I met him outside the door.

"Care to share your plan for the day?" Asked Athern, who had apparently joined him at my bedroom door. "Or are we going to wander until we stumble upon mountains?"

"Hilarious." Remor's eyes made a circular movement nearly every time Athern said something.

"Could the two of you play nice?" I pulled the two scrolls given to me the night before out of my trouser pockets. "The detour I took last night provided me with some clues."

I unfurled the first scroll and read it aloud to them.

"To a queen will be born a daughter
Matriarchs of a bloodline foretold
For a thousand years, the boy has sought her
The gods released to their slumber of old"

"What does it mean?" Remor looked over my shoulder down at the scroll, scanning it for any hidden message.

"I've heard whispers... This slumber, it is meant to be a release from our eternity. To make gods mortal."

"Why in the Realms would we want that?"

Athern slapped Remor upside the head. "You're such a fool. You haven't been alive nearly as long as most of us, and you do not understand what it is like to truly love a mortal. They all die, while we do not even age." A dark emotion sat in his eyes, which were now nearly brimming with tears. So he wasn't a heartless monster, was he?

"I hate to be narcissistic, but I believe this prophecy refers to me... I'm the daughter of a queen who is the matriarch of a new bloodline. Her land is even called the Motherland. And a thousand years is precisely how long the Mirror has been lost. Perhaps... perhaps there is someone waiting for me on the other side. Perhaps I am meant to marry him, and that is why Alarithe sent me on this quest."

"It would be just like Mother to invent an entire convoluted scheme a thousand years ago for the sole purpose of creating the perfect lovers." Although Remor's mouth sat in a stern line, his tone indicated a certain understanding.

"Yes, her favourite thing is manipulating humans to fall in love so that she can spy on them in the act."
My face burned as I realised that the relationship between Teirr and Paves had likely come from her will. She had, after all, been the one to suggest that I bring Paves with me to Orion, which then resulted in their relationship. How had I not realised it sooner?

"If your love remains behind the mirror, why would she instruct that I pay you special attention at court? She practically told Father and I that I was to marry you." Remor stood with furrowed eyebrows, nearly boring a hole through the parchment with his glare.

"And why–" Athern choked back some words. "I must confess, she instructed me nearly the same. Though the letter was a forgery, you were surprisingly close to the truth, Remor. Your mother has some... Interesting games she enjoys playing with everyone. For some reason, she chose to make Kinheal the heart of these games."

"I knew it! So you were sent to deter her?"

"No, I was sent to love her, to win her heart, and to bring her back to Orion once the Mirror is found. The Mirror must be brought back at all costs, and Kinheal cannot travel through it. I'm sorry, Kinheal, but I do not believe it is your lover who must be trapped in the Mirror for a thousand years."

"Then, who?" I asked.

"Perhaps this prophecy is not relevant now. You must be the daughter of the queen, yes, for you are the matriarchs of your new people. Perhaps the boy is the fated one for one of your descendants, in a thousand years."

"Would my descendants not be wedding people from our own Realm, Remor? The kingdom of Zalta will be much larger then. How could some boy from another Realm be destined for her?"

"How could one be destined for you? This gives us no clue as to our current search," Athern snapped, snatching the other scroll from my hand. "Perhaps this one can be of use."

Meher,
Ih heven dan est veou aaskev ande hydan de Mirar. Ich est fere den Oreane, ta de Vest, un e cevyrma, da es heren ta asce. De cles ih heven reft liid ta ich, fer de perances. Ih vil nau taiken va sverd.

"That's how our tongue was written, a thousand years ago," Remor said to me. "It says 'Mother, I have done as you asked and hidden the Mirror. It is far from Orion, to the East, in a cavern, that is hard to access. The clues I have left lead to it, for the princess. I will now take my sword.'"

"Alarithe was once called the Mother by mortals. That confirms our suspicion, that all of this is her plot."

"Yes," I agreed with Athern. "I'm afraid it is. I can only hope she spared us from too twisted a fate."