Ever After

☾Chapter Nine☽

They made their way to a large balcony that wrapped around the back of the castle. Down a way Ever noticed a few nobles and what must have been court ladies, judging by their extravagant, over the top outfits.

June looked in the same direction. "The castle's balconies become quite popular in the evenings." He laughed before turning his attention toward the tree line. He rested his elbows on the carved wood railing and stared out into the distance.

"I love the naturalness of Rosenfelle." Ever sighed, trying to keep the silence between them from growing.

It was true though, being surrounded by trees brought back the memories of living with the rest of the coven in the woods. But it also reminded her of something she couldn't seem to place.

"Yes, what else would you expect from a kingdom of elves and fae." June laughed. "When I was younger," He turned around and rested his back against the railing to face Ever, "I would try to climb every tree possible. It made my father quite annoyed when I would come back with scrapes and bruises."

"I assume that meant you weren't the best climber?" Ever asked with a laugh.

"Not at all, is there anything you did as a child that your parents hated?" June questioned. Ever tried quickly to weave a somewhat truthful lie, but nothing came to mind. She never knew her parents, nor most of her childhood. In fact, most of her memories before the age of eight are foggy.

"Not that I can think of." Ever rested against the balcony. "In their eyes, I was perfect." It was mostly true. Ariadne thought Ever was gifted, considering she could master high level skills at such a young age. At 14 she was teaching the others spells they could never dream of succeeding at.

"Hmm..."

"What?! I was, practically." Ever scoffed.

"There wasn't anything you've ever done that hasn't irked your parents."

"I've never really lived with my parents." Ever just wanted him to stop questioning her about parents. In some ways, it hurt. The fact that she never got to know them or meet them in her case.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" June faltered.

"It's fine." Ever interrupted.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't know. That's the thing." Ever sighed and turned around to lean her elbows on the railing.

"Who did you live with?"

"My adoptive family." It was pretty close to an adoptive family. If of course, pretty close meant having a bunch of aunts.

"Wow, I could never imagine living without my parents."

"I survived." Ever smiled weakly as she stared at the fading skyline. An idea popped into her head.

"You know," She began," I don't know very much about Rosenfelle's royal family."

"What is there to say." June shrugged. "My mother was described as the Golden Queen. The people say she practically radiated golden light, and my father...." June rubbed the back of his neck. "He kept Rosenfelle in line, while my mother charmed everyone."

"Sounds like you have a lot to live up to." That wasn't the answer she was looking for. She just needed something about magic or charms, something to lead her to the artifact.

"Why hasn't there been a peace treaty between Siral before? I would expect there to be one with every kingdom." Ever asked.

"There was one, years ago." Ever hid a grin, she might have finally found what she was looking for.

"What happened?"

"I don't really know the specifics. There was a big war between all the kingdoms. It drove some of them to fall apart and leave Ethelia."

"That was the one with the Elledens, right?"

June snapped his attention towards Ever.

"How did you know that?" He asked.

"I like history."

"Most of the war has been erased from history though. How much do you know?"

"An amount." Ever tried to avoid the question with a vague answer, hoping he would drop the topic.

June sighed. "Every kingdom was close with them."

"It's a shame what happened." Ever added.

"But it's understandable." June refuted.

Ever contorted her face in confusion and turned toward June.

"What do you mean?"

"Then you don't know that much?"

"I know about the whole war."

"Well than you should know that it is expected from such powerful creatures to want more. If the other kingdoms hadn't broken their packs to fight against Ione Grove, who knows what world we would be living in."

Ever shook her head, Hex's words echoed in her mind "History is written by the victors".

"Was your father close with the king?" Ever tried to change the subject. She wanted so bad to let him know the truth. How all the kingdoms had committed genocide.

"Of Ione? Yes, to my knowledge. Back then it seemed that all the kings were good friends. My father would meet with them all the time."

"Very different from today." Ever sighed.

"Yes." Ever glanced over at June and noticed he had wrapped his fingers around an amulet of some sort that sat against his chest.

"How pretty." Ever pointed it out, even though she couldn't see what it was. June looked down startled and uncurled his fingers from the necklace.

It was a small wooden charm, carved to look like a leaf.

"Oh, uh, thank you. It was a gift from my father."

Ever hoped to the gods that the amulet wasn't the artifact. She didn't mind being cruel every once in a while, but... if it involved family heirlooms.

"Was it passed down to your father as well?" Ever asked.

"No, it was a gift."

"A gift?" Ever sighed. It was good news, she guessed. She didn't have to come up with this whole plan of finding the artifact, but now... now she was going to have to come up with a plan on how to take it. Ever stretched and let out a yawn. The sun had finally disappeared beyond the trees, and the stars started to shine against the black sky.

"It's pretty late, isn't it? I'm sorry for keeping you out so long." June sighed.

"I enjoyed it though, thank you. This trip has been lovely, but I'm afraid that tomorrow I'll be leaving."

"So soon?" June asked, and Ever nodded.

"I have business to attend to back home."

Without another word June led her back to her chamber door.

"Goodnight." Ever smiled before escaping to her room.

"Aubergine?" Ever whispered into the darkness that was her friends room.

There was a grunt in reply.

"We leave tomorrow." Ever continued. She then heard a muffled, "Ok," in return.

Ever settled underneath the covers of her bed. She raked her brain for any plan she could think of. Something that wouldn't make her feel so... guilty. She had never felt bad about the actions she was taking until now. She stared up at the ceiling. Her mind racing through a thousand thoughts. "Was it worth it?" As she finally drifted asleep, her head hurt, her heart felt heavy, and somewhere in the back of her head she heard a voice saying "You've done worse things."