Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

A Daughter's Strength

After she had been formally apologized to and thanked for her service to Clairval, after the Princess-Heir had explained to her all that Clairval was doing to improve conditions for those in need, Treasa looked at the Queen and thought of her mother, which she hadn't truly done in years. 

Not that they looked anything alike. Her mother, in her memories, was far more beautiful than the woman sitting before her.

She had not thought about her mother in years, couldn't think of a time when she could picture the woman who had died in an inn when she was only a child. A woman she had blamed for pulling her out of the safety of the village, where she had learned so much from the Feysha. Her mother had been sick shortly after they had left, and as Treasa thought more on her past now that it was blooming in her awareness, she remembered that her mother had been sick in the village as well, though the Feyshan magic had been able to stave off the worst of it.

Treasa felt an odd peace build in her as she remembered her mother as a beautiful woman who had been a healer, and had taught her some things Treasa had assumed she'd just done on reflex.

But she saw that frail, cold, tired looking body and the look of draining strength, and she remembered her mother. She looked with her power, and saw the poison, the drug, the addiction that was killing the Queen, and remembered seeing that same thing in her mother.

It scared her for a moment until she also remembered in that moment what her mother had told her.

Her mother knew how to cure it, but could not cure herself.

Treasa didn't know when she had forgotten that piece of information, but it settled into her mind right about the time she heard the Queen telling her no. Right about the time the woman expressed her doubt, she felt sure that she knew and could cure this illness.

"It's not that I don't think it can't be done." Treasa frowned and shook her head. "And it's not that I don't know how to do it. It'll be tough, it's like unravelling a knot of thorns, but if I don't do it right, or do it all at once, or if I get tangled up in it, then things won't work very well." She paused, biting her lower lip. "I think it will hurt you, too. If it doesn't hurt, I'm not doing it right. And I know I'm not supposed to hurt the Queen."

There was an odd, confused silence in the room, and Treasa felt all eyes on her, measuring her, wondering, the weight of questions pushing down on her shoulders.

But then she remembered Darya, and how the woman believed she could do it, how the woman had fought for her, even when it ripped her wounds open and caused half healed bones to grind apart once more, and she realized she could do this small, scary thing.

"How much energy do you think it would take?" It was Prince Davanos who asked, from behind her, and it was then that she paused to take stock of how much energy she had, as well as his steadily burning power behind her.

"We may have enough." She hazarded, wondering where she could even find that information, but it was on her tongue, and she felt it right. "Or I may need a little more than what me and you have."

Davanos was quiet for a moment, before he murmured. "If that's the case, and you burn through both of our stores, we can send someone for my sister."

"The Princess has some." Treasa said, nodding to Princess Akina. "And your friend, Lord Cansal, even Darya does too.. But I don't think we should bother her."

"You're both forgetting that I have declined your offer of help." The Queen said, pulling Treasa to look at the woman again.

Her voice was weak but used to being listened to.

"Mother." Princess Akina frowned and took one step forward, stopping when her mother held up a hand.

The Queen Regent of Clairval shook her head. "I will not endanger so many lives, because I am too much of a coward to meet the fate I sealed for myself. I have been weak for too much of my life. I will not die weak, preying on a child."

Treasa frowned and spoke before she could think twice about it. "That's stupid."

She knew why the room went silent, but she pretended not to notice, crossing her arms over her chest. "You have a chance. I think you'd be a coward not to take it. I didn't come here so you could tell me 'thank you'. I wouldn't come here for that. I don't even want to be here." Treasa met the woman's stern gaze again, forcing herself to be unwavering. "I came here cause I thought I could help, and now I know I can. I also came here to meet Captain Darya, and she's the only one who seems to believe in me, and I know she knows what being brave is all about. I don't remember all of how I know what I know, but I know this. It's possible, and if I don't, then the bad guys still win."

The Queen watched her for a long time, that stern expression never changing, before suddenly, it seemed to crumble, making Treasa feel guilty about the fact that she had argued with the woman.

But Queen Solara nodded, glancing over to Lianza. "If your Guardian consents, and if we have safeguards in place, that will protect you if things go wrong."

Treasa smiled and nodded at that, letting out a slow breath. "You may need someone to hold you down, Regency." She winced at her own words, remembering a half whispered warning from the shadowed lesson her dying mother had whispered into her ear, watching as the Queen ordered Sir Reynald to follow her direction.

Her mother, writhing in pain herself, had told her that healing hurt far more than dying at that point, a thing Treasa didn't understand as a child.

Treasa turned and gave Lianza a tight hug, closing her eyes and breathing in his scent, letting the returned embrace soothe her worries and bolster her for what she was going to do.

He bent down and kissed her forehead before murmuring softly in her ear. "I believe in you, kin-daughter. And I will protect you. I promise."

Treasa nodded firmly at his words, hugging him tighter for a moment longer before turning back to the Queen and stepping up to her, taking the woman's hands in her own and letting herself fall into the process of healing, untangling and fighting the dark, embedded thread that was wrapped through the woman's life force.

She forgot the room, the doubt and the pain that saturated the air. She just untied the barbed, sharp tentacles that threatened to drag her and the Queen down into death.