Aurora

4

Arrabella

eight

I walked at a brisk pace, trying not to trip over my golden floor-length dress. Slone and Claire walked beside me as we hurried to the other end of the castle, where our next sibling was being born.

I didn't understand much, me being eight years old and all, but I understood enough about this political game called royalty to hate it.

My sisters are supposed to be dead because of their illegitimacy. Only Acira and I are supposed to be alive; we are the only two legitimate heirs. Since my sister's are bastards, I'm supposed to hate them.

I don't. 

“Open the doors!” I commanded as we arrived at the room where the Seelie Queen, Skaia Cornaith, was giving birth to our new sibling.

The first thing we hear when the doors open are the queen’s screams of agony. I winced at the dissonant sound, but walked in anyway. The three of us had to pause for a moment from the magical pressure surging around the room like a dense cloud.

Claire held me back as she raised the temperature around us, thwarting the magic from coming near us to cause us any harm. A dull pain resonated in my chest and I had to gasp for air. She's weak.

Immediately, I rushed over to her bed, avoiding her lashing arms before hovering my hands over her body. Inhale deeply and reach into you; pull on that light inside of you. Make it bigger, then release it, just like she taught you.

Slowly but surely, I felt power surge through my veins, concentrating in my hands. I changed its nature, into healing instead of any other, before flowing out of my fingertips and into the queen's body. Heal. I thought.

Steady… steady! I mentally chanted, making sure I had complete control of the output of healing energy I was filtering into her body. Eventually, her breaths became easy and less labored. Knowing this, I stopped the flow, leaving myself feeling empty and depraved.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead before stepping back. Queen Skaia grunted at me before, seemingly out of nowhere, a baby appeared in her arms, silently staring up at her with deep, violet eyes.

“Shaelyn…” Queen Skaia whispered lovingly.

I tilted my head to the side in confusion. Her appearance was new to me. Her skin was a dark tan but it seemed to have a violet shimmer to it. Her hair was pitch black with violet overtones. The most intriguing part of her were the faerie wings coming from her back. They were interwoven with carnation white and a deep violet. They seemed soft to the touch, so much, that I couldn't resist the temptation to step forward and poke one, causing her to coo softly and look at me.

“I don't think she's supposed to open her eyes yet.” Claire called from behind me. I turned towards her, bewildered.

“Don't you know that faeries grow faster than Lioans?” I asked and she shook her head.

“I didn't.” Claire said.

“Would you like to hold her, Princess Arrabella?” Skaia asked me and I nodded softly. She smiled before gesturing for me to take her and I obliged. I sat on the edge of the bed as I took her into my arms.

“Shaelyn right?” I asked her and she nodded. I looked down at the newborn in my arms and smiled softly. She's so precious.

I felt Claire and Slone walk over and I glanced up at them, smiling, but neither of them were looking at me.

“You do know what this means, correct?” Slone told Skaia, frowning and she nodded.

“I won't get to raise her, right?” She asked.

“We don't want to do this to you. If we had a choice, we'd let you take her home with you.” Claire paused. “Our mother and father would have us executed if we let that happen.”

I sat quietly as I tried to process this new information.

“After all, it's what happened to us. We've never met our biological mother's before.” Slone blinked. “Though I'm pretty sure they hate us both. We're halflings anyway.”

“What?” I croaked out and both of my elder sisters whipped their heads around to look at me.

“Shit…” Claire cursed.

“Arra don't-” Slone began but I cut her off.

“Why did no one tell me? You were forced to stay here? How… where's father?” I asked, anger ready to boil over. I gently placed Shaelyn back into her mother's arms before standing.

“It doesn't concern you Arra.” Claire said and I gave her a glare with as much anger as I could pour into it.

“I'll find him myself.” I snarled before turning and stomping out of the room.

I angrily made my way to the throne room first, hoping he was there. Luckily, he was.

“Father!” I yelled as I slammed the doors open.

“What is it Arrabella? Can't you see that I'm in the middle of an important meeting.” My father, Aramis, sighed loudly before turning to me.

“How dare you do that to Slone and Claire?” I screamed and he quickly dismissed whoever was with him.

“What are you talking about?” He asked me.

“You've held them prisoner here for their whole lives! They've never even met their mothers before!” I glared at him.

“Why would they? They'd never want to meet them anyway; they're useless.” He shrugged.

“How could you say that? They're your daughters! You're just a stupid old man, that's what you are! You deserve-” I was cut off as I felt a hand squeeze my throat and lift me off the ground.

“Listen here you little brat. First of all, you suck at insulting people, and second, you're still alive because of me, you little bitch. Your mother wants you dead, but I couldn't let that happen. I needed an heir, whether I like it or not.” He squeezed harder and I struggled to breathe, feeling lightheaded. It was slowly becoming harder to move and keep my eyes open. “Don't forget that, now, you have a little sister, so I don't need you anymore. Do let that remind you to stay in line and out of my way.” He snarled, not letting me down. If I knew any better, I'd say that he was squeezing even harder.
My mouth moved to speak but no sound came out. Spots appeared in my vision and I instantly wished that I hadn't confronted him.

“Arra!” I heard someone shout. Heat passed by my face, most likely hitting my father, seeing as he screamed in pain, before I was thrown away from him. My lungs burned as I took in a deep, shaking breath.

“Gotcha!” I heard as I landed softly into someone's arms. “Idiot.”

“Hey Slowy.” I croaked as I looked up at her, already feeling slightly better.

“Wench.” I heard from my right and I immediately looked over to see me father rising to his feet, glaring at Claire.

“Luckily, I don't have to kill any of you myself; the Erathiahn Empire has allied themselves with our enemies, and they're going to attack us and make sure we're all dead.”

.