Intertwined

Taking Flight

The next morning I awake to a light flutter on my face.

Opening my eyes I see one of the smaller butterflies from last night had managed to get through my canopy and was fluttering around inside with me. I lift my hand to push the water to the side and let it flutter out before I sit up, stretch, and go to open the window to let it out. As soon as it, too, disappears, and I turn away from the window, I hear a loud swoosh that makes me spin back around.

Muse sits perched on the window sill, smiling at me. His hair is in windblown, messy wisps around his face, his eye gems twinkling purple. "Good morning, beauty. Playing with butterflies I see?."

A smile breaks across my face and I walk back up to him. I wonder if I should mention how the butterfly even came to be, but before I can open my mouth to say anything, a dark figure glides past the window behind Muse, letting loose an excited cheer. Running up to the frame, I lean out and see the familiar scream belongs to no other than Jay. I blank.

Giant white wings sprout from his back, carrying him up higher than even the top of the castle itself. His flight isn't extremely graceful, wings fluttering to catch him when he tries to glide for long distances, but he seems to be comfortable.

"WHEN DID HE-?"

Muse's amused chuckle turns me to him, and I see pride in his eyes. "Jay's wings broke free when the sky first lightened. We've been outside helping him master flight since then."

I look down at the ground below and see Berwyn cheering Jay on, excitement obvious in his eyes.

Muse purses his lips and when I look over at him he looks...distraught. He's watching Jay fly, but beneath the pride there's a hint of intensity. "It's strange though." He says, looking over at me. "When my mother spoke of an arrival from her human family, she always referred to that person as 'she'. The netherling trait has always been passed through potential queens, residing in females."

Tilting my head to the side asI watch Jay attempt a loop, and give Muse a glance. "It would make sense, Jay has chimerism."

That catches Muse off guard, and he turns to me questioningly. "What is...that?"

With Jay's birth, he was supposed to be a twin. But somewhere during his mom's pregnancy, the second baby disappeared. She doesn't like talking about it but Jay's eyes being slightly different shades of blue hinted at what happened to his twin, the darker blue appearing in one of his eyes as he started getting older. One day we did take Jay to a doctor to test and the results came back with Jay having two sets of DNA. It's science mixed with a little bit of magic now, from the looks of it.

"He was supposed to have a twin, a twin sister now I guess, but she dissapeared early into his mom's pregnancy." I say, watching Jay land roughly then toss a smile up my way. I wave back.

Muse hums thoughtfully. "So he absorbed her life magic." He says.

I nod, "I guess so. That's the only way I could think of that explains it." Looking down at my own hands I start to think of the butterflies from last night, to the purple magic in my veins. Part of me wants to ask Muse but something says that the Queen would know more. "And Muse?" I ask, gaining his attention. "You wouldn't happen to know where your mother is, would you?"

He raises a single eyebrow but nods, "Aye, actually, I could take you to her if you'd like." He offers, holding out a hand.

I hurry and tear a piece of paper off the stack on my easel and grab my paintbrush, dabbing it with paint, before I go back to Muse and take his hand. Just like that, he suddenly pulls me into his arms, not giving me a second to brace myself before he drops out the window. My stomach flip flops once before his wings catch the wind, slowing our descent, before he carries me up, up, to the top of the castle. We come up to a flat, right outside something like an observatory of sorts filled with what looks like swirling smoke. Placing me down gently he takes my hand and leads me to the only glass door on its exterior and pulls it open.