Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Words of the Past

Treasa had learned early in her brief life to read people.

She could make mistakes, surely, but she knew how to read people's body language and expressions to prepare herself for what was about to happen.

When she woke up that morning, she had heard soft talking, not abnormal, though there were more people there and awake than she would have expected for the period of the day, when the sun was just beginning to rise.

She took her time, slipping out of bed and getting dressed in the clothing she always wore to go out to do training, washing her face and slipping on her boots, grabbing her practice swords and walking through her bedroom door, frowning when she realized there were far more people awake and in the small common room of the suites of apartments within the palace complex than she had realized.

Lianza was there, along with Prince Davanos and Princess Mireyana, as well as Captain Darya, who looked half asleep, leaning in the corner off to one side, out of the way.

"Morning." Treasa offered quietly, glancing around the room, seeing Darya straighten and yawn, but the others looking at her, as if debating the weight of the world as they saw her.

"Morning little one." Lianza offered, "There's something we have to talk to you about, something you'll probably want to see."

Treasa looked to each of them in turn, seeing Darya offer her a bracing nod and a reassuring smile, though she stayed silent, half forgotten in the room of Rulin.

Treasa wondered why the woman was even there while also being grateful that she was, for some reason, "Ok."

Davanos stepped to the side, and she realized he had been blocking her view of the table she ate most of her meals at, which now contained a wood and leather box, which was open to expose an old, dusty book. "We found this while on patrols last night, Treasa. We think the inn we were at was the same place you stayed with your mother before she died."

Treasa froze then, frowning as she focused on the book, unable and unwilling to move or react to what was glaringly obvious. She couldn't even nod to acknowledge what he said, wanting to run away from the room at the same time she wanted to grab the book.

She recognised it, hadn't even remembered it existed a moment ago, but she recognised it now.

"You don't have to look at it right now, but we wanted you to know about it. We haven't looked at it, it's yours." Princess Mireyana offered gently, and Treasa glanced her way for a moment, before looking back to the book.

"That's my mother's journal." She said dumbly. "Why can I remember these things... so randomly, when I've spent my entire life fighting to remember anything, and not being able to?"

She wasn't expecting an answer from them, though their growing silence was telling, and finally she walked over to the table, reaching out to brush her fingers over the cover, causing something in the book to click, and the cover to shift open, as if it had been waiting for her.

"Can I take this into my room to read?" Treasa asked after a moment, glancing over to Lianza.

He nodded gently. "It's yours, Treasa. Do what you want with it."

She nodded then, picking it up in two hands and pulling it to her chest, before turning and bolting back into her room, unsure why she was suddenly so skittish around them, not sure what was in the book, but unwilling to share it.

She sat on the edge of her bed for a long moment, just hugging the journal tightly, before she forced herself to lower it to her lap, to open the soft leather cover and look down at the scrawling handwriting on the page.

My dearest Treasa,

I know that the first time you read this, you will probably be too young to understand what I'm trying to tell you. Just promise me you'll keep it until you're old enough. You'll know, or perhaps fates will know, when that time is. And hopefully by then, you'll have forgiven me for leaving you alone, with no answers.

You are more than the conditions of your life at this moment.

More than an orphan in the capital of this strange country I have brought you to. But that more, that difference, is something that you should not go searching for.

The power we have forms for the uses we need for it.

We are from a place that would have moulded you into a weapon, much like they did with your father. He would have been chief among those who would have trained you, and if he knew you existed, he would destroy the world trying to find you.

Not because of sentimentality.

Don't ever mistake me on that. No, he would find you because that is what is expected of him. The empire expects us to produce weapons to help it conquer the world, and if there ever was a part of him that belonged to Eskandar Anaxides, it had disappeared by the time I found out I was pregnant. Which was why I left before he found out. He is loyal only to his emperor, only to his mission of killing what is set before him.

I am dying, because he thought I would sacrifice our future child to those purposes, in order to survive.

Cercia is strong, but not that strong.

It is ironic, I suppose, that my gift includes healing that awful controlling device, but I can not heal myself of it. I have taught you how, but not for me. It is for when it comes here to Clairval, you will have need of the lessons I have taught you, and what is in this journal.

The decisions we make in the dark look far different in the cold light of day, but I know there are many that you will not understand, with the light and safety of years between us.

I had to choose between giving you a comfortable life that would end in pain, very shortly, or a challenging, tough, painful life that had the chance to be long and eventually full of love. I knew I was dying, and I took you away from our home in the Wild, because I needed to give you a chance to survive.

With you, all the world will survive. Perhaps.

It's never a guarantee. The choices you will make and the people you will find will all influence the outcome, but it is a chance.

Every decision I have made has been to give you that chance.

Please forgive me.

You are loved, more than you know. And you will be loved again, if you allow it back into your life.

The man you come from is not one of those who will care for you.

When he brings darkness to your world, he will try to tell you that you belong with him, but you are a brilliant star to his dark cancer, and the love you will find here will keep you safe. I believe that enough that I die with a slightly smaller burden on my soul.

I love you, dear heart. You are not alone.

Treasa put the book down then, closing her eyes and feeling the tears rolling down her cheeks.