Ebony & Ivory in love

Chapter I

~New Beginning~

"It is a curious fact, and makes life seem very interesting, that, generally speaking, none of us have any expectation that things are going to happen till the very moment they do happen. When we wake up some morning with no great happiness at hand, and before night it has come, and all the world is changed for us; or we wake up bright and cheerful, with never a guess that the clouds of sorrow are lowering in our sky, to put all the sunshine out for awhile, and before noon all is dark. Nothing whispers of joy or grief. No instinct bids us to delay or hasten the opening of a letter or telegram, or the lifting the latch of the door at which stands the messenger of good or ill. And because it maybe and often is, happy tidings that come, and joyful things that happen, each fresh day as it dawns upon us like an unread story full of possible interest and adventure to be made outs as soon as we have cut the pages and begun reading."

                  The wind nor any other entity whispered to Adelyn what were to become of her or what she was about to face, if it had, she would've jumped off of the ship and swim to shore as fast as she could and never turn back. But she wouldn't have heard either way, she was to distracted in puzzling over all the events that had taken place in the last 3 months. All of it had happened so fast she had no time to think about it till now. The breeze that blew her hair nor the sea water that splashed at her could have taken her thoughts elsewhere.
                "Come Princess, you have much to learn, and to practice. We have at least a month's time before we get to our destination, which isn't enough." An elderly looking woman said taking her out of her trance.
                "Vivian, the war, how did it start exactly?" Adelyn asked quietly still looking out to the open sea.
                "We weren't always at war..." She said with forlorn look. "Once, long time ago, we were all living peacefully, all four races. That is until the chosen one was murdered.
                 We sometimes call the chosen one, 'The Guardian" or "The Protector" since she/he is the one we would go to solve disputes, even trivial ones, to seek justice. She/he has unlimited powers, except, of course, changing the past. These powers will be passed onto his/her only child, but if the chosen one is murdered before a child is born, then the powers will go to someone else in another race.
                 At that time, the chosen one was Queen Eliza of Diomean, she was beautiful inside and out, just and loved by all, or so we thought. There were some who wanted the power in their own races, or who had grudges on her, and so she was mysteriously murdered. To put it simply 'all hell broke loose' after that. The people of Diomean accused us, the Esquiltians, of slaughter. We denied and the Cerynthians went against us as well. Queen Eliza's sister, Coraline ruled Diomean and waged war against all four races.
                20 years later, the Queen of Esquiltine gave birth to your father, and Queen Coraline gave birth to Regina. Later it was declared that your father was the new Protector. When this news reached Queen Coraline, she wanted revenge and her daughter, Regina, wanting to please her mother went to fetch your fathers head."
                "Was she the woman I saw with the people dressed in black attires?" Adelyn asked.
                "Yes, I believe so"
                "And my father, with the people wielding the elements?"
                "Yes"  Vivian looked at her, a little worried, but Adelyn was looking out into the sea. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful Adelyn looked, with the wind blowing her hair. She was taken out of her daze when she remembered why she came to get Adelyn in the first place.
                "Come now, since we are on sea, we can only practice air and water." Adelyn finally looked at Vivian.

~3 Months Earlier~
                Adelyn walked into her uncle, James' study and found him frantically searching for something. James sensing that someone was in the room, turned around to find her.
                "Oh! Hello, Adelyn, is there something you need?" He said smiling before getting back to searching.
                "In fact I do, though I need is an answer, and I don't know whether that implies to that 'something' you mentioned" James looked at Adelyn expecting her to continue, when she didn't, he sighed and spoke,
                "Well, go on then!" Adelyn looked at James dubiously, mentally debated whether she should go on or not. In the end she decided to go on with it.
                "Two years back, when she passed away, how did you know where to find me?" Adelyn started it slow but when she got to the second part, she just spilled it. He smiled, it wasn't a sad one, and it wasn't what Adelyn was expecting either. His eyes suddenly had a distant look, like he was watching something that Adelyn could not see. He saw flashes of every happy moment with her. He sighed again, it was a happy one, full of reminiscent.
                "Your aunt and I, we don't keep secrets from each other. We promised each other we wouldn't, when we got married." This time Adelyn sighed. James seeing the frown on her face asked what was wrong.
                "Nothing is wrong really, it's just that I'm not comfortable talking about love, that's all". James was a little surprised, two years and he never knew this, but then again, she did change the subject quickly whenever she knew that it was leading to that.
                "Oh, why is that?" Adelyn ignored this question-she didn't know the answer herself-but rather asked another question,
                "Do you know what love is? How do you know when you are in love with a person?". James was a little taken aback by this question, but was not hesitant to reply,
                "Once in your life, if your very lucky, you will meet the person who divides it to the time before you met them and the time after." Adelyn seemed satisfied with that answer, yet she didn't understand the deep meaning behind it.
                "Do you not miss her?" she asked confused.
                "Of course I do. But I believe things we lose always have a way of coming back, just not the way we expect it to."
                "You really loved her, didn't you?"
                "No, I still do!" He chuckled halfheartedly. There was silence and he noticed that something was still bothering her, he asked her about it.
                "It has been long, and I still haven't found someone I love, and I don't think I ever will" she said exasperatedly.
                "You are only eighteen, you still young, there is time," he paused for a moment, looked around before continuing, "and anyways, to find a great truth, or even a lost pair of reading glasses..." He suddenly reached out and lifted a bunch of papers on his bureau and took his glasses and said before putting them on, "finally, I found you...now, where was I?"
                "You were saying something about finding something"
                "Ah! Yes, to find something, anything, a great truth or a pair of glasses," he gave a dramatic pause pointing at his glasses, "you must first believe, that there is an advantage in finding it" Adelyn pondered about it for a while and just when James started going through some papers, she spoke again,
                "Then, what do you think 'destiny' is?" James chuckled at the emphasis she put on destiny.
                "Destiny...is the...bridge you build to reach the one you love" he replied. Adelyn frowned once more.
                "Well, then...I believe destiny has spoken and to alter it will be wrong. Some of us are led to believe that we have this certain destiny and it just gets snatched away-" Adelyn was cut off as a maid knocked on the door, came in to the room and proceeded to tell her that her mother wants to see her immediately and is waiting for her in the west drawing room.