Prayer: In Father's Footsteps

I would reach for all you could not chase after, if it meant your happiness would be beside me.

* * * * * * * *

“The next prayer will enter now, Your Grace.”

“Please make haste and welcome her forward.”

Ilisandir stepped aside and let this blue-haired, blue-eyed girl step forward to their table. She looked all around the high ceilings, in awe of its splendor. When she reached the center, she brought her attention forward, to the five at the table, and kneeled down to join them.

“Your Graces.”

“Alea,” Anya greeted. “Welcome to Essensia, and to our Academy.”

Alea smiled shyly at Anya, the most respected of the Ashenborn. The most loving. The one Aideyllians called Mother. Everything Alea had ever heard about her had felt to have come true at this moment, and her heart eased when she had not noticed it to be tightened within her chest, before. “I hope to not disappoint,” she said with a gentle bow of her head.

“There are a generous number of possibilities for your future,” Aiana answered this time. “Disappointing us is not within any of your paths.”

Alea brought her eyes back up to the five.

All five returned her stare. She felt their silver eyes see through all of her, not only peeling back every layer, but seeing all of every piece she was yet to learn of herself.

But Aiana’s words. They breathed a calm into her anxiety, something so foreign to what she had known from home.

Essensia felt most peculiar, indeed.

“Well, go ahead,” Ayren urged. “I can feel your curiosity itching to take you out our doors. What questions do you have, so that you may be on your way?”

Alea turned to him. “Ayren, Your Grace. You are the Lord of Kinesis. How are you able to be in tune with thoughts that are only in my mind?”

“Ah, brilliant question!” Ayren smiled. “Should you choose for your muse at our Academy to be of the kinetic sorts, I look forward to teaching you exactly how to understand the mind through the physics of our universe.”

The other four turned to glance over at their brother simultaneously. Ayren bade them no attention.

“I do hope that makes your utmost important decision of what muse to focus on during your time here just that much easier.”

Alea was not sure how to respond, partly because there was no question to respond to, though a simple ‘thank you’ had felt inappropriate, as well. Ayren seemed quite happy, with a smile so bright and excited to have her as a potential future direct disciple, should she prove her resilience and diligence in the coming years. She decided to nod as she offered another bow.

“Do not feel pressured to study under any of Ayren’s musings,” Adrion eased. “There will be no consequence for what your final decision will be.”

Alea, again, nodded with one more bow, this time for Adrion. Upon this bow, her eyes fell upon an etching upon the onyx table top. A seven-pointed star. It was quite the beautifully intricate design. She brought her eyes down to the marble floors. Not a scratch upon its pieces of milky white and rosy pink accented by a dark, yet golden bronze.

Not a scratch, even though Essensia’s Hall of the Ashenborn had stood since the beginning of Aideyll.

Alea blinked and brought her focus back to her prayer.

“Does this mean you will not simply tell me what to choose, Your Graces?”

“Trust in your choices like how we trust in you to make the most of your life here, in our home,” Anya answered. “If it was best to only command you, then trust that we would have done that long ago.”

“Your Grace, I promise to choose exactly what you would want for me.”

Silence.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

None of the five responded.

Alea bit her lip. “I make mistakes.” She swallowed. How was her saliva able to feel so dry, she was not sure. “… a lot of mistakes.”

“And we will be here, with you, regardless of how many are made.”

“… I don’t want to make… mistakes, Your Graces?” Alea wasn’t sure how else to address this in her prayer. If nothing else, she felt like she was an immense waste of time before the Ashenborn, holding up all the prayers to come after her, just beyond those tall, heavy doors she walked through. Her fingers tightened into fists, anxious.

When she became conscious of her own hands, she wondered if that was what Ayren had meant when he said to learn how to read minds through movement.

“That is only a fraction of what I had meant,” Ayren answered aloud.

Alea looked up, reminded that they could see and feel and hear all that was in her mind. She wanted to be torn to pieces and disappear. It was a common misconception that only the Sisters could see in one’s heart. She felt so embarrassed to have made this mistake before the five. She bowed even lower.

Your Graces, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Not even a day here, and already, a mistake, please forgive me, Your Graces I’m so sorry, I’m—

“Alea,” Aiana called. “If your future was to hold no mistakes, I would not have advised my siblings to grant you a place in our academy. For, what is there to learn, then?”

“Of… course, Your Grace,” Alea said with a soft nod. She repeated what Aiana said in her head.

What is there to learn, then…?

It made more sense the second time around. She nodded again. “… I will do my best.”

“Make sure your new home is comfortable,” Anya smiled.

“My new home,” Alea repeated in a low whisper, looking off to the side. She looked back up at the five. “Aiana. Your Grace. Will my father be safe and healthy while I am away for three years? Will I see him, like he promised, at the end of my studies here?”

Aiana placed a hand on Anya’s before she answered, as careful as she always was with her words. “You will see your father again.”

Alea breathed a sigh in relief. “Thank you.” Tears lined her eyes. The more she thought of her father, the more they weighed and the more they blurred her vision. She wiped them away before they could fall. “I will do my best,” she said again.

She would make her father proud, the next time he’d see her. She would do everything she could to make that a reality. After everything he had done for her.

“Your Grace,” she said with after a deep breath to calm herself. “If I may ask… where may I find my father’s past research?” She turned to Adrion. “Adrion, Your Grace. He was your direct disciple, once before. Could I see what he studied when he was here, where I am now?”

“All published research of his can be found in our Library of Physiological Studies,” Adrion answered, albeit a bit unwillingly. In truth, he had hoped Alea would have chosen the path of not asking, but he knew that in the event she did, his sisters would have wanted it this way. “Work he left unfinished when he left Essensia are gathered in another library, Perplexia.”

“Thank you, Your Graces,” Alea bowed again. “I will do my best. Uhm… when must I decide my muse, again? I seem to have forgotten the deadline.”

“Be at ease,” Anya answered. “You will be ready when the time comes.”

“I… okay,” Alea said, partly in acceptance, partly in defeat. “Uhm… okay. Thank you, Your Graces. Until next time, then. I will make way so that others may have their time with you.” Another bow.

“Trust that we allow all to happen in perfect timing,” Aiana said, this time.

“Yes, of course,” Alea nodded. Of course. How silly of her to think she’d take more time than allotted for her, that the Ashenborn would not have foreseen it all and planned the day accordingly. She had much to learn.

She stood up and turned to leave. On her way out, she bowed to Ilisandir. “Thank you.”

“… you’re welcome?” Ilisandir answered with a raised brow. No one had ever thanked him, before. Who was he, compared to the Ashenborn?

He wasn’t sure what to make of this interaction.

Alea, too, had been confused by his answer. She wasn’t sure why he had answered with a question, as if he was not sure if she was actually welcome or not, but she decided against holding up the other prayers any longer, and simply nodded and left.

Essensia is most peculiar, indeed. This is nothing like home.

Ilisandir watched her leave, and when she was the usual distance away, he turned to the five.

“The next pra—”

“Must you try to persuade our new students to study with you as often as you do?” Adrion turned to Ayren.

Ayren smiled. “Yes.”

Adrion glanced over at his two sisters before he leaning further forward to get a look at Austyr. “How is this in line with free will?”

Austyr did not react, and showed no change in facial expression when he responded. “It is not a command without choice.”

Adrion sat forward, a bit defeated with that answer.

“It’s in my nature,” Ayren sighed. “Do forgive me, brother.”

Adrion turned to his brother. The request for forgiveness was in earnest.

“The laws of my gift exist in every corner of the universe. It is practically begging to be noticed by everyone.”

Yes, I should have expected as much. Adrion tried his best to not roll his eyes.

“It is a shame there are so few who care about the kinetic workings of our universe,” Ayren continued with a pout. “If only they knew—I am the reason this world is not falling apart on a whim!”

“Yes, yes, quite the shame,” Adrion sighed, patting his brother’s shoulder twice.

“Alright, you have caught me, dear brother,” Ayren said with hands raised in the air. “Perhaps I am focusing much too excessively on the sheer quantity of students in this era caring more for your musings, instead.”

Adrion said nothing to that. Yes, many in this era cared to learn about life—the creation, the healing, the mutability, and the limits of it all. Zyros, Alea’s father, had been one of them, once.

Anya turned to Adrion. “Her heart is not the same as her father’s. Do not fret.”

The statement was meant to be reassuring, though there was now an unsettled memory in the air that would not go away. Even Ayren participated in their mutual silence, though he fidgeted a bit on his cushions and pillows.

Anya turned to Ilisandir. “Please. Make haste and welcome him forward.”