The Golden Child

Five

~~~
Syren
~~~

The exertion of holding a full-grown man up with tiny particles of gold I'd just made was ridiculous.

I could feel everyone's eyes on me.

"She's got a knife!" Said the original woman. "I was just walking.. and she pulled a knife on me! Oh my god! She's deranged!"

"That's not what happened at all!" I heard Elias begin to yell. He explained everything, I heard the King say he believed him. But as the King added in a son, which sounded very aggressive, I wasn't certain if he wouldn't punish me.

Then black spots swam in front of my vision. "Arrest them.." I mumbled, and collapsed. The last thing I saw before my eyes shut was Elias's worried face. "Don't worry," I tried to say, but my tongue was thick as cotton in my mouth.

And the dream began.

~~~

I flicked a tiny spider across the floor. There wasn't much in our house, a few pallets and a fire pit. I didn't mind. I didn't mind much back then.

~~~

I surfaced for long enough to see Elias's worried and pale face staring at me. I reached out a hand to touch his moon-glow skin, but my arm was only pain. I let it drop and the dream continue.

~~~

My mother was making us dinner. It didn't smell very good, but still I took our two bowls and let her fill them with thick, chunky stew. The unpleasant stench filled my nostrils as I swallowed and it slid down my throat.

We never had meat for stew like that. And mother would never make something so horrible.

So the stew became thin soup and the taste was decent. My memory rewrote itself inside the walls of my head.

A knock sounded on the door. I continued slurping my soup. We had no spoons.

My mother stood to answer the door.

~~~

"Syren?" Elias's choked voice asked. "Are you awake?"

He no longer seemed quite so pale, but he had a worried look on his face.

"Do not worry," I said, and slid back into sleep.

"Syren..."

~~~

A well dressed, clean shaven older gentleman-no, we were too poor for razors and clothes like that-A red-bearded and scruffy old man stood at the now open door.

"Nymphia," he said. "Calanyun is here-get in the cellar and hide."

"Syren," mother said suddenly, "Get in the storm cellar." She turned back to the man. "Chyron, you can hide here."

I had wandered over to the storm cellar and lifted the lid.

"Thank-" Chyron's reply was cut off by a small gurgle and my mother's quiet scream.

The moment was immortalized by the arrow in his throat, and the thick blood that ran from the wound.

~~~

It was barely a blink to see the king's red face by mine. "Do you love him?" But sleep reclaimed me.

~~~

I stood frozen to the spot as I watched a man enter our home. He approached mother- and began to club her with a big bat. Horrified, I tried to get to the cellar, but another grabbed me.

I watched through frozen eyes the light leave my mother, Nymphia's eyes for the second time in my life. And though this was a dream, and though it was a twisted version of reality, I felt the same wrongness.

~~~

"You must wake up, Syren. Tell me if you love him." Breath that stank slid along my face.

I was half in the dream still. I saw my mother's corpse. I felt the soldier's hand on my back. And in two worlds, I sent out waves of flames.

The king hissed in reality. Fire consumed the top of my tower. Anything that would burn was gone.

And my village, including everyone in it, was ash. Nothing was left. I was standing in a pile of gold ash, my eight year old body shivering.

~~~

I sat like that for a while, until a convoy of men approached. The king sat squarely in th middle, protected on all sides. His face was wrenched into a false smile.

He dismounted and crouched my me. "Did you do this?"

"Yes."

And a soldier-not unlike the ones who had caused this mess- put me on a horse. And we rode away.

~~~

This time I was awake. But I did not want to be. The king stood there, though he was covered in bandages. Burn marks showed in other places. His jaw was clenched in anger.

"I've retracted your time with Elias," he snarled. "You're clearly too dangerous." Then a sinister smile flickered across his face. "Unless-unless you love him. You wouldn't hurt someone you love. Do you?"

The horror of this choice. I was certain that Elias would die if I told him the truth. "I don't love Elias. I don't love anyone."

The king's face hardened to a scowl. "Then stay, stay in your tower until you tell me the truth. You'll do your shows out the window."

And with that he left, and I began to cry.

~~~

Time seemed to slow to a crawl- it had been two days. I couldn't go anywhere at all. I lived for when Alistair brought my meals. The shows that had once plagued me were now my favorite times of the day. I was doing something.

There was nothing but stone left. The king hadn't redecorated after my fire. I had no bed, no chairs. So I paced or I sat. I poured gold into giant stone vats that had been brought up.

The worst thing was that my power was limitless. I could have blasted the tower to pieces if I chose. But what would happen to Elias? He would be tortured. It wasn't worth any of the risk.

So I sat in my tower. I poured gold. And occasionally I looked out the window, searching for Elias in the crowds below.

He was never there.

~~~

Our day to leave came and passed. I didn't try. There was no hope. Days after that passed too, but no days mattered until Elias's birthday.

I'd known that his present- The one thing he'd ask for- would be to have everyone be allowed to come to the party. For that, it had been shifted to Gathering Square, outside my tower and the stage I had used to pour gold on.

So I watched the crowds. They'd been amassing all day, though Elias himself wouldn't show up until tonight.

It was all I could do, watch, and wait, see his tawny hair bobbing in a crowd of thousands. See his guards in Calanyun blue, see the king's massive form slide through the mass, surrounded by his own guards.

I watched. I watched as darkness fell, and finally- near black in the darkness, I saw them-ten guards. All in royal blue. In the center, Elias. He was chatting with the people the best he could. When ever done on got too close, the guards shoved them back. Eventually, Elias gave up.

Even from the top of my tower I could feel his disappointment. He wandered to the edges, watching the people dance and talk.

He was nearly beneath me. I stared down, to find he was staring up at me. I waved my hand, half-heartedly. He waved his back, then made a come down gesture. I shook my head. He looked a little disappointed, but then tapped on his guards shoulders, and pointed in the distance. When they all turned, he flung open the door and raced up the stairs.

A few minutes later, I opened the door to an out of breath Elias.

"Hi," he gasped.