When Airya woke, her head pulsed with the beat of her panicked heart. She tried to look around and find Aesha, but instead, the king stood over her with his arms crossed. His golden eyes were haunting and troubled.
Something cold was pressed against her head. When she went to touch it, a hand wrapped around her fingers, squeezing them tight.
“See, she’s fine,” she heard Aesha whisper.
“She did not look fine when I pulled you back. You’re lucky we have this bond,” Sedeth was still glaring down at Airya, who had to blink to keep her vision clear.
“If we didn’t have that bond, I wouldn’t have gone. I know how to handle myself,” Aesha retorted. “You know that I do.”
“What I know is-” But then Sedeth stopped when Airya went to sit up.
The cold compress was taken away from Airya’s head. She wanted to shift and make sure that Aesha was ok, but she knew she was. She knew she didn’t have to look. It was Aesha who had saved her, not the other way around. “Aesha…. Aesha is unscathed. She…. She can definitely, with no doubt, handle herself.”
“Too bad she won’t need to in a situation like that again,” his arms still did not move from across his chest. If anything, he pulled them closer. It looked like he wanted to shout at her.
“Did she tell you why?” Airya looked down at her hands, but when a flash of pain came from behind her eyes, her hand automatically went to her head. The glass pyramid was not there.
“Airya,” Aesha pointed to the small pyramid set on the ground a few feet away from her on a light blue pillow. It was twirling a purple glow over the fabric that it was set on. “What is it?” The humor in Aesha’s voice made her cringe.
“It’s something to help your Kingdom,” Airya announced, trying to stand. Aesha helped her balance as she got to her feet. She ignored the black and white dots splattering across her vision.
Sedeth did not say a thing.
She went to it, trying to recall what she remembered in the manual. Ignoring them both, not caring what they would say or think, she opened a portal, took the pyramid, and walked inside it. When she was in Ausrine, she twisted the device, helping the glass fall into two uneven pieces, and then opened another portal to be taken to Aesha’s Kingdom outside.
She found herself in the middle of the hot city. In the middle of Nokia.
She lifted the smaller piece of purple glass high above her and then shoved it to the ground into the sand. Then she stood up and stepped away.
The shard she had put in the ground dug itself in deeper until she could not see it anymore. She would have thought it was gone and hadn’t worked, except that the sand began to turn lavender. The color shift started as a circle from around the hole the shard was buried in before it shot out all around and under her feet. She was sure that it had flared under the whole city. The piece she was holding in her hand grew a little more, shifting itself into a smaller glass pyramid than it was before. When the purple sand turned normal again, she opened another portal back to her home, then came out another back to Aesha and Sedeth.
Aesha looked angry. But there was a hint of trust in how her lips tried to curve into a smile.
Airya stomped over to the king and shoved the second piece of glass she did not get rid of against his arm, making him uncross them so he could take it into his hand.
“That is so you can see what’s happening in your kingdom. If there is stress at some point, it will show the scene and what’s happening in one of the pyramid’s faces. Then you can send guards to the conflict or go yourself. Aesha wanted to get it. She wanted to contribute in a way you may not have realized she could. She is worthy of being a queen and should be allowed to travel. She can travel and help your Kingdom. Maybe even more than you!”
Sedeth studied her, “I want to speak to Airya alone,” He slowly turned the small pyramid in his hand.
“No,” Aesha said.
Sedeth looked up only to her, “Aesha, go rest. You look exhausted.” There was a whisper of defeat in his voice.
But Aesha didn’t move.
“Aesha! As your king, I demand you go and get some rest.”
Aesha let out an exasperated sigh and threw her arms in the air. She went to head back up the staircase to make her way back up The Vizen.
"How come she has to take orders from you when you are both King and Queen? My dad never commanded anything of my mom. If anything, she usually made the decisions."
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“It is just the Brilia way,” Sedeth sighed. “It has been since we came from Brillia himself." Then he added without looking at her, “I know you’re lying.”
Airya didn’t know what he meant by that until he tapped his finger against the small pyramid in his hand.
“You didn’t tell Aesha about this. You only took her there to get it to try and help her prove herself. Why?”
“She deserves to be allowed to leave.”
He shook his head and then went and sat down on one of the two thrones, the bigger, more majestic one with the taller back of yellow-gold. It looked comfy and took him in slowly. She noticed that if he looked straight, he could see the entrance out of The Vizen to the sand of his Kingdom.
“Do you want the background of Nokia?”
Airya shrugged. If it would explain why Aesha wasn’t allowed to leave, sure. But she doubted that it would convince her.
“Nokia began its building process 3,000 years ago by the Brillia brother and sister after they found the mountains behind us called the Stone Mountains. People came called the Meshas in their travels and helped. Some say that the Brillia-born hypnotized them with their golden eyes, and others say it was out of love and respect,” he shrugged. “They took rocks from the Stone Mountains, worked them into bricks, and built this temple called The Vizen, visioning how the places of dreadful spirits and the heavens meet. The Vizen took almost 500 years to build and was only capable because of the strength of the first Brillia-born. Since it was built, the Brother and Sister of each generation, the King and Queen of the Brillia, have always lived in it. Over the years there have only been one older brother and one younger sister born of the male Brillia down the line. Each born with golden eyes and the responsibility to rule and protect this kingdom. Our parents died doing just that," he looked away from her, "The oldest son has the highest authority and responsibility of all."
She had no idea what urged her to say it. Maybe it was only because she wanted to chase away the silence that fell after his speech or because she wanted him to know how ridiculous he sounded. He thought he was alone in his responsibility, but she was the one truly alone. “I’m an only child. My parents killed themselves. After all our people died, I woke up and watched my dad take his life, and then the next morning woke up to find my mom had done the same. I’m the one with the highest responsibility to bring them back." She looked up at his eyes and let a few tears fall from hers, not caring to chase them down and make them go away. Not caring at this moment if she looked or acted like a brave queen. Her parents had been cowards just like her dad had said he was. They both left her and their kingdom. She had not been enough for them to be brave for. Real shame came from the fact that she wasn’t enough to keep her parents alive. “My mom and dad are supposed to be here. They are supposed to have the highest responsibility. Just because things say it’s so, doesn’t mean it works that way. Aesha deserves more.”
"Airya. Look at me,” he demanded. Airya looked. His golden eyes held hers, not letting go, "Your parents. They sounded broken. They must have gone through or seen some horrible things to do something like that. Do not think for a second that it reflects onto you. To a broken person, their idea of bravery is warped, like trying to piece together coherent thoughts and feelings from a broken heart and mind. To them, leaving you might have been the bravest thing they could do, although it was wrong and hurt you deeply. It’s not your fault. It wasn't you. You didn't break their souls. You weren't the one who killed your people."
Airya started to loosen up at his words. Knowing that she wasn't enough to help them see clearly, it still hurt, but she remembered how badly her dad had been hurting. She remembered his words. She remembered that Stilk had been the one to push them over the edge. It wasn't her. It was him. And he was gone now. Nothing to worry about anymore.
“Tell me about your parents,” she whispered. She was lonely standing all alone. She wanted to understand why Aesha and Sedeth were the way they were. Why they were so young, and yet forced to run a large kingdom all on their own.
He nodded, "There was a war. I was twelve and my sister was ten. My dad and my dad's sister died on the front lines defending our kingdom from invaders. Our mom and my aunt's maten were behind watching The Vizen and us. One of the invaders somehow broke into the castle and tried to kill my sister and I to end the Brillia line, but my mom intercepted and was killed instead, giving time for my uncle to kill the invader.”
“I’m sorry,” was all she could say when he stopped.
“Aesha is important. I can’t have anything happen to her. Besides being all I have left, only the male in the Brillia line can reproduce unless they die before they do, and it’s always only one boy and one girl, and that’s all. If I had died, Aesha would have been able to reproduce, but if the invader had killed both of us without killing our dad and his sister, that would have stopped the Brillia line. If something happens to her and me, the Brillia line ends. We have to make sure that Aesha stays here and is safe.”
They were the last of their line, like how Airya was the last of hers.
“You both have been ruling since you were twelve?”
He laughed, which startled Airya. “No. Our army did end up winning, and a few of the men quickly grabbed the bodies of the King and Queen and hid them. They had a very quiet burial just among the few of us. No one could know that we were unprotected. It was a very murky time for our kingdom. My uncle brought us up and taught us what he had learned from the Queen, his maten, on how to rule and run a kingdom until we were ready for him to step down and for us to take over. That was when I was sixteen. Afterward, he left to be able to grieve like he hadn't let himself do. We haven't seen him since. It has been about three years."
Airya didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. She didn’t know how Aesha felt about all of this. Obviously, she felt the need to still leave and be herself, even if it meant risking the end of their line, but she knew she cared about her Kingdom too.
“My point is that Aesha needs to learn to put aside her wants and do what is best for our people. Without us protecting this Kingdom, it will fall. Too many people want the gift Brillia left us in the mountain. This Kingdom is an important one. One of legacy. One of dreams. One that cannot fall on my behalf. Once I find a queen and have the next line of the Brillia, Aesha will be free to leave. Not before that.”
And that was something that Airya could understand. The need to not let her kingdom fall when she was its queen and the only one capable of getting it back. The one responsible for building back up her parents’ dreams and not letting everything fall away because of her. She understood that Aesha had to stay here and do that. To keep protecting the one thing that Airya did not have.