An Eternal Wintre

Chapter 15

Everybody in the feast hall stands at once, their chairs falling, Anai included. Her hands shake as she tries pressing them close to her body to hide the fact that they tremble in fear. It's too early. If it's not Cain, then who is it?

Mal notices Anai's distress and places a warm hand on her cold shoulder. A hiss escapes him from the burning cold but he doesn't release his grip. "Don't worry Anai. We will protect you, as well as all our people," he says, eyes hard. Something glints behind the prince's eyes. Was it courage or determination? Bloodlust?

Swallowing becomes problematic as his hand releases her and he storms out of the hall. An air consumes the king and it is not one of light or dark but a sort of grayness. A raven cries out somewhere.

King Mason leaves right after his son, telling Anai to lock herself in her room while they fought off the onslaught of enemies. Guards followed right after, coming from hidden places and through doorways to keep their royals safe from harm. As she watches them all leave her alone, her jaw clenches tightly and she leaves. But she doesn't go to her chambers. She goes to find the professor.

***

Professor Kol wasn't aware of the goings outside as he sits, bent over a book with reading glasses pushed high up the bridge of his nose. Anai manages a slight laugh, just a breath of air, as she takes in his appearance. Even with her disappearance, he seems as normal as ever when he looks up at her. A sad but warm smile spreads across his face. "Ah, you've returned I see," he says, motions to the chair across from him. Anai sits in it, unable to hide her smile from seeing her old friend.

"Yeah. I've missed you professor," she admits. The old man chuckles and shakes his head before continuing his reading, letting the presence of Anai soothe him.

When Anai first arrived at the Lutenian court, she was a newly made orphan with nobody to look to for guidance or help. She was lost in both soul and body. One day she wandered through the halls of the castle without any guards and ended up losing her way. She eventually found a large oak, double door and pushed it open. Dust crawled up her nose from the old room and she sneezed. Somebody laughed at her from behind the shelves.

An old man with white hair and a white beard pokes his head out from behind a shelf far away, a green leather-bound book in his hands. His glasses were pushed to the top of his head where sweat shines under the dull lights. The widest smile she's ever seen –since Cain's- spreads across the man's face as he takes her in and nods approvingly. "You'll do just fine," he says before going up to her and placing the heavy book in her hands.

The small girl almost falls face first when the book weighs her arms down but she struggles to stand straight and stare at him through glaring eyes. "Hm, don't look at me that way!" he declares. "From now on, we are friends you and I, and must be friendly yes? Friends do not glare at one another do they? No. So wipe that ugly look off your pretty little face and let's get started." With a clap of his withered hands, and a shine in his eyes, he sits at a desk and rolls out a map. Intrigued, Anai follows, book in hand.

Her eyes widen at the large capacity of the map. It shows all of Vlarion, including not only Lutenia, but its smallest villages, lakes, rivers, streams. Islands dot all around the mainland of Lutenia and Ulikar, even some she's never heard of or thought existed. The island of the trolls, the giants, the mermaid's ocean far to the north and south –two tribes?- and one small island in particular at the farthest tip all the way to the north, barely kissing the edge of Lutenia's lands, water separating it. That water was labeled as The Teeth. Anai never knew why. She asked what the name of the island was. Professor Kol never answered her.

After that fateful day when he taught her of the worlds far across the oceans, Anai grew to love the man like the father she's always wanted. Her mother never told her about her father and she never asked. She was glad she didn't. Professor Kol was the only real father she needed or even wanted.

Now as the two, aged through years of learning together, sit across from one another; Professor Kol reading, Anai watching him, she asks the question again from all those years ago. "Professor," she gets up and retrieves the map, knowing exactly where she hid it ten years ago, "Tell me the island's name." Unrolling it across the large table, it takes up almost the entirety of it, pushing the professor and his book off. "Please."

Pushing the glasses to his forehead and pinching the bridge of his nose, Professor Kol closes his eyes and sighs heavily. "Why the sudden interest my child?" he asks. She tells a half- lie.

"The shifters were speaking of creatures from Lutenian lore that have been extinct for centuries and I'm curious where they've come from." She gulps down air and waits, fists clenching slightly in the folds of her dress.

"And what, pray tell, are these creatures you speak of?" His tone was tired. Anai only plows ahead, unafraid of revealing anything deep.

"Nymphs." The word echoes back at her in the large room, bouncing off walls and wood. Speaking the word feels forbidden, turning her tongue sour.

Professor Kol visibly shivers at the mention of the Nymphs and actually slumps further in his chair, his shoulders falling lower. A gnarled finger taps the island to the far north of Lutenia, gently taping it several times. "That island," he shivers again, "is called, Nymphos Anaia. Hell's Prison."

Silence takes over the room and their vocal chords. The professor rolls the map up but not before Anai's eyes look straight at the island. "That's where they come from," it was in the form of a statement, Anai already accepting the fact as it is. Was she from there then?

With the map gone, the air grew loose again, the tension dispersed with the Nymphs forever gone. Professor Kol sweats profusely, sweat dripping down the side of his forehead. Anai is smooth as ever, no perspiration dotting her skin. The professor notices this but says nothing. His knowledge he'll have to bear on his own.

With a strong hug, one that says goodbye, Anai leaves the professor. "Thank you professor, for everything that you've given me and for helping me with this." Her words were full of sorrow but resolution all the same. He knew he'd never see her again, at least, not with light shining in her eyes.

***

After Anai has left, Professor Kol burns the map, burning the existence of Nymphs and lands of mystical beings that shouldn't ever have existed. All the Nymphs burn in the fire, all but one. Looking at the oak doors, he smiles a small smile. "This knowledge, will I bear on my own," he says to the door, to Anai, to all of Lutenia.

It hurts his heart as he opens the window and looks out at the shape shifters approaching. Only one clan and they're quickly dealt with, the prince leading the army that bans them away. As the shape shifters recede, the professor leans out the window and watches as the sun reaches the earth, longing to rest. The day has already come and gone. Professor Kol takes off his glasses and leans out the window further. "Such a beautiful night."