The King of Stars and Storms

Chapter Two

Sun shone and the light beamed through the windows and onto the cobbled floor as crowds of elves, fairies and humans gathered in the throne room. Luca stood to the left behind his fathers, Gabriel, king of the Humans, throne. This was the first official meeting that he had been allowed to attend. He glanced around the room where there were a handful of faces that he recognised, from when he spied on his father's meeting when he was a kid. Stood on the right side of the room, in an elegant white and gold dress, hair flowing down her shoulders and a flower crown placed on top of her head, was the queen of the fairies, Diana Stonewall. Standing next to her was her son Max. Luca always thought that she looked way too young to have a son that age but he soon learnt from his mother that fairies age differently from humans. Directly opposite from the throne was the human section of the crowd, at the forefront of them was the Moon family, who Luca and his family have known basically his entire life and was now engaged to the eldest daughter, Aurora. Whilst he was looking around the room he caught her eye and gave her a small smile then he carried on surveying the room and noticed Katarina Lockleaf, who had Snow White like hair that cascaded down her back, conversing with her brother Mason Lockleaf, who was the leader of the Elves.

He had finished glimpsing around the room when he heard his father start to address the room. "Ladies and gentlemen I have gathered you all here today because I have decided to restart the search for the long lost princess." All of a sudden there was a lot of commotion. Then Diana stepped forward into the centre of the room. "Are you serious?" She said angrily and looked around the room. "Five years ago you hired my knights to ransack villages to find your long lost princess but we could never find her and you never even paid us. Can't you just accept the fact that she might be dead?" This comment shocked Luca, he knew that five years previously they had started to look for his twin sister but he didn't know that he had the villages ransacked and this also seemed to anger the king so much that he leapt from his seat. "HOW DARE YOU!" He yelled marching over to become face to face with the queen. The fairy queen didn't seem fazed by that. The king was getting all in her face. "You have no right to question me." She just stood still, unbothered by what he was doing or saying. Not letting his anger get to her. As he started to sulk back to his throne she spoke up. "All I am saying is that maybe you'll never find her, maybe she doesn't want to be found and she might not even know that you are her true father." Everyone murmured in agreement. "Maybe you should give up." The king scoffed in disgust. "I will never give up. Whoever took her will pay for what they did." He spat. For some reason that didn't sit well with Luca, he had a feeling in his gut that there was something that he didn't know, something that his parents weren't telling him. It was then when he heard a little gasp and his head snapped towards the door at the back of the room where he saw a small head poking through the gap. He immediately noticed the golden locks dangling down towards the floor. His father didn't allow his children to attend meetings until he thought they were old enough and his little sister, Emily, was only ten. For ten years after Luca was born, and his twin sister, Clarissa, was taken, his parents kept trying to have another child. It took them until he was 10 before they had Emily. Luca was glad that they were having another child, he was secretly hoping to have a little brother but was happy when Emily was born. He was hoping that they could have a bond that he never got with his twin.

The pair were close but they weren't as close as he had hoped. He would do anything to protect her. Their father treated her differently, the king was mostly cold towards her and scared that he might do something to her so when he would get angry Luca would put himself in the middle of the two before he could land a hand on her but sometimes it would collide with his face. He often wondered if that is what it would be like if his twin was still here, would he hurt her into submission or would he just ignore her altogether.

Luca was snapped out of his thoughts by arguing. When he comes back to reality to basically everyone in the room yelling at his father. Deciding that he didn't want to be in this meeting he chose to slip away while everyone was distracted. Emily sported her brother heading her way so she hastily pulled away from the door and tried to act as if she hadn't been listening. Luca noticed this and chuckled to himself and decided to play along. "Hello Em, what are you doing out here?" Acting innocently, she turned to face him. "Oh hey, big brother. I was just admiring the building work of this wall." Luca crossed his arms over his chest. "Emily I caught you. I saw you spying on that meeting. You should get out of her before dad catches you." Luca said sternly. "Yeah, but what were they talking about when the fairy queen mentioned they helped father 5 years ago?" "All I know is that dad asked them for help finding Clarisa. Now you should go before he catches you."She wistfully looked down and nodded in agreement. When she started to walk away another familiar long blonde-haired woman walked out the throne room.

"What was that about?" Aurora inquired. Running her hands up and down his arms, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I caught her spying on the meeting so I told her to leave before my dad catches her." He kept his head looking straight ahead watching his sister walk out sight before he turned round to face his fiancé. "What do you think?" Luca asked and she had a questioning look on her. He nodded his head towards the doorway beside them. "About what my dad is talking about." She let out a big sigh. "I think he deserves to know what happened to her but I see the way he is with Emily and I worry about what he would do to her if she were to be found." "I know I want to know if she's alive. But I'm scared that if she was here that bad things would happen." Aurora cupped her hands on her cheeks. "I know but you can't control everything." If only she knew what he was thinking. All he could think about was finding his long lost twin sister before his father does.

Later that day just before the sun began to set, Luca headed towards his father's office. Once he arrived he gently knocked on the wooden doors. He heard a deep mumble from the other side. Luca shoved open the door and spotted his father pacing up and down behind his desk with his head in his hands. "What do you want?" Gabriel grumbled. "I wanna know the truth about what happened five years ago," Luce stated confidently. "You know the truth." "I thought I did but when Diana mentioned that you had them destroy villages to find her. That was all new to me." his voice started to get louder. His father just stared at him. Luca could tell his father was getting angry and he gulped standing his ground. Gabriel marched round to stand face to face with his son. "Don't raise your voice with me boy. You don't get to question me. I am your father and your king." Gabriel screamed in Luca's face and started to walk back to his previous position. "That was before you were killing innocent men, women and children. Burning down their homes. Just to find a daughter that might not ever want to be found or might not even know that you are her father." Luca argued. "GET OUT." The king yelled at the top of his lungs. Luca stormed out and down the hall towards his room.

Across the kingdom, in faerie, a similar conversation was commencing. "Are we seriously going to do his dirty work again? Killing innocents just to find one stupid girl. Why can't he have his own men to do it?" Mason argued with his mother. She sat elegantly upon her glass throne upon a platform. "I know but we don't have a choice otherwise he is going to kill us all. Also, he wants a fall guy and we, unfortunately, are that guy." Diana spoke gracefully as she glanced around her. The walls of the throne room were covered in vines and flowers, it was like you were in a forest. Also in the room were some of Diana's closest advisors and the captain of her guards. The Captain then spoke up. "Why don't we trade her for the safety of our people once we find her?"Max knew the look on her face. She was actually thinking about it. She knew what the king was truly like, knew that once he got his hands on his long lost daughter, it wouldn't be good but then he knew that she had to think of her people, and what he could do to all of them if she is never found. Was one life worth it? Still, Max couldn't stand to think of what he would do to her once she is found? "Good idea captain." They both nodded in agreement. She slowly got up from her throne to address everyone. "We don't stop until she is found." There were mutters of the agreement before everyone scattered to do their jobs. Max just stood there unsure of what to do. He was part of the army of knights that were used to find this so-called long lost princess, he watched villages get slaughtered and burned to the ground. He couldn't stand by and watch it happen again. To him, there had to be another way.

ⒸSashabarrow1999