“Finally you are awake, hurry we must prepare for your coronation.”
Uuuggghhh! I have a headache. Sitting up, I squeezed my eyes shut due to the luminosity of my room. “How long was I asleep Leth?”
“Just over a mark. Now hurry you must bathe and dress in your coronation dress.”
A whole hour. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” After another bath, Leth helps me with my dress. My dress’ primary color is white, with a secondary color of blue, and a tertiary color of gold. The bodice was white with royal blue facings on sides, and a thin, golden pattern along the breasts. The bodice had a plastic stay sewn on the inside with a gusset sewn over it. The dress had a seamless waistline, that flowed into a very full skirt at formal length. Over the waistline I wore a blue lace belt, four inches wide, with a gold buckle in the shape of an eight pointed star. The skirt was a crinoline, with a fade into royal blue to the tail. Though the dress was very beautiful, I hated it. Okay, maybe not the dress itself, because it was gorgeous! I hated the reason I was wearing it.
Normally the coronation is a benchmark for a Princess, letting the kingdom know she has been prepared to take the throne if necessary, and to express she is a woman. A woman who is free to do what she desires, till she decides to take the throne, or when the previous Monarch lays deceased. But my father has turned it into a chance to present me to the nobles as a trophy to be won.
Lethiel put my hair up into a plaited chignon, and gave me diamond earrings to complete the look. Exasperated I leave my chambers. The palace is a grand building, obviously, it being a palace, opulence is key. Functionality always ends up second in buildings like these. I won't bore you with all the details but suffice to say, I had Leth show me the servant passageways, this saved time, and kept me from running into my father.
Am I prepared to be the next Elven queen, yes, it is how I was reared. Prepared, yes, ready and willing? No, I am finally free of all the court nonsense, I have no interest in jumping right back in. I need time to do my own thing. Walking toward the royal balcony A guard to my right stops mid salute, so does his counterpart to my left. Why did they stop? I turn to Lethiel and she is frozen mid step. “Strange.” I remarked
“I guess from your perspective it would be, but for me, this is the standard operating procedure.”
The being was grey with a head the shape of an upside down egg, its mouth small. Its nose was without form, its two nostrils were flush with its face. The eyes were most intriguing, they were large and oval, black as the void and they seemed to entrap you.
He wore a nondescript onepiece jumpsuit and alien looking gloves. “What are those?” I ask pointing to the gloves he wore.
“Interesting, a strange being appears out of nowhere and bends time around you, and the first thing you ask concerns his attire.”
“You are Mithrin. Don't be so misogynistic.” I state definitely.
“Peace, I was merely intrigued, but, yes. I am mithrin, and, I am Jevorahcildren, but you can call me Jev. We go by many names, the Ancients called us the Glaskurairut, the Dragons call us Koravsadonmirav, you know us by Mithrin, and the Forgotten call us the Grays.”
“You said the forgotten, who are they?”
“Normally I would give you a clever prophecy, but the Dragons are defiant, where the Dashad obey. One of each kind saw this prophecy and were told by me to forget, but alas, we can not control, merely guide. So, go, ask them about the Forgotten, and while you're there, could you please tell Aracor that the Soulchains do not bind blue.
At that the Mithrin opened a door to a side room and time resumed. “Your highness?” Leth looked at me questioningly, “are you alright?”
“Yes, let's just get this over with.” I started moving again, the guards had finished their salute, their right fist, firm over their heart.
After a brief fanfare, the Herald introduces my presence. There was another musical performance and then a show of dance. When the dance ended, the High Sage began. The act of coronation was done in complete silence as was tradition. For a Sage only spoke when answering a question. And only a Sage can speak during the coronation. When the diadem was placed on my head the Sage turned and faced the crowd. This was symbolic, a chance for someone to question the High Sage on his decision. No one questioned the High Sage. After a few beats the entire audience proclaimed, “Who is She, High Sage?”
The Sage replied with the voice of a thunderclap. “Alinehdarwen, Daughter of Maelwen, Wife of Renden, Daughter of Lorahnwen, Wife of Manen. Queen.”
The High Sage left the balcony and my father approached the edge and spoke, unlike the sage he used a magical device to project. He started with congratulations, but then, he prattled on about how I was now a woman ready to be wed. He even said that “I was looking for a husband.” If my mother were still alive she would have smacked him so hard for that.
My father finished, and then it was my turn to speak. I refrained from using the device and used my own Ri to amplify my voice.
“Thank you all for coming to my coronation ceremony. This is a Tradition marking my maturation, and my completion of the studies and knowledge needed to take the charge that is this mighty kingdom. I shall not be taking the throne today, for I must still find myself. Then, also, find myself a husband, but I can't do that while I'm talking to you now can I? I hope you all enjoy the celebration, unfortunately I cannot attend, an important matter has just arisen and I must attend to it.”
I quickly left the balcony and returned to my suite. I quickly changed out of my dress, and into a high neck blouse, black leggings and a half length jacket dress, all black, and my violet cloak to go over it. It was then Leth came bursting into my chambers. “Leth I don't want to hear anything, I'm leaving, I need to get to Draegamor.”
“I wasn't going to say anything.”
“Really?” I sniffed, as I turned my back to her. “No comments about how I need to be present at this party.”
“Nope.” She said simply as she undid my hair. “You have been crowned, officially graduated from Queen's school, besides, I know you wish to see your Bondmate.”
When she said that I felt guilty, I hadn't thought of my Bond as a reason to go to Draegamor. To be honest, Mirikest felt much closer than light years away. “You know me too well.” I said covering for myself.
“Very well.” She said, but with one of those signs that says “I don't believe you.”
“You say that as if you don't believe me.” I try my best to sound shocked, but Leth knows me better than that.
“Do you really want to play this game? I am giving you a way out, so you don't have to tell me the truth. Do you really want to give me the opportunity to dig for the answer?”
“It sounds like you already know the answer.” Haughty was a position I often took when I felt Leth was backing me into a corner.
“Well, you know I've been alive for a long time, I'm even older than Aracor, and you know that's the exact reason I want you to find someone.”
“I know, but it isn't that.”
“Alright I won't ask anymore about it.” She concedes, just as she finishes braiding a simple ladder on the right side of my head.
I left the room and walked briskly down the servant corridors, exiting through a side door at the private spaceport that held my personal starship. The design is based on a Ramlay. A plant creature from the planet Vjatar Let. The creature took a similar shape as a bird in that it had wings a body and a tail. Its wings were but single leaves on either side. Its body a third leaf perpendicular with its broad side forward, and a blade of grass as its tail.
The ship may seem vulnerable, with only a single engine on the end of a long tail, but, like the ramlay, my ship has thick hollow wings. Technically they aren’t hollow anymore, they house an extra engine on either side, and measures and countermeasures in case someone thought to attack me. The loading ramp was located underneath the tail, where, on a ramlay, the blade of grass met the leaf.
Personally I felt it was kind of gross. Though the ramlay is a plant, I couldn’t help but feel like I was entering the bowels of a monster. Just thinking about it made my skin crawl a little. My ship was smaller than the others belonging to my family. Mainly because I insisted on a singular level, and a drastically lower crew. I got all the way down to a four pilots, two engineers, and a cook. I kind of wanted to cook for myself, but Shayla really, really likes to cook, it’s a little scary.
“My Queen,” Mareth, one of my pilots greets me as I complete the last few steps up the loading ramp. “What is our destination?”
“Draegamor, Mareth, and I’ve told you before, I have a name.”
“Yes, but I could not pass up the opportunity to address her Magnificent Royal Highness with her new exalted title.
I let out a small giggle, Mareth had given an over exaggerated bow, he could probably tell I was a little tense, and did his best to lighten the mood. “How do you always seem to know how I’m feeling?”
“Ah, well you see, its an ancient elven art. It has this really long name, but in more modern words, it’s called unequivocally candid, with perhaps a small amount of cantankerousness.”
“You can’t pull one over on me, you used ancient, and cantankerous, to subtly highlight that you view yourself as a grouchy old man, and it also doesn’t answer my question.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well, my lady, you generally have two modes, happy and cheerful, and unhappy and cheerful. It becomes an easy task to differentiate the two. Today you are neither, in fact you seem to have a great weight on your shoulders.”
“You are insightful as always, Maretoh.”
“Likewise, Alineh.” Mareth reached into a small pocket in his sleeve and pulled out his wand. Wands were thaumatech* devices used for just about everything. In this case, Mareth was using his to communicate with the bridge, telling the current on duty pilot to get us under way. “Looks like it will be a little less than a mark.”
“I’ll be in my quarters.” I said with a nod.
Throwing myself onto my bed, I lie there thinking of the implications of today's events. Though I originally loathed the thought of the coronation, I walked out of it slightly giddy. Defying my father in public, and, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted. A Mithrin appeared to me! A path has been laid out for me, and better yet it doesn’t include my father’s machinations. Mirikest! My little dragonling. She felt near me, so close, even now so far from Draegamor. I wonder what she is doing, where she is, right at this moment.
*cough*
I sat up immediately. How had someone snuck up on me. But as a glanced around my room, no one was there. “Come out.” I tried to use my best commanding voice. I had worked really hard at sounding Qeenly. My command seemed to work, just not in the way I expected. Instead of a person, stepping out of whatever method they were using to conceal themselves, there lay, right next to my hip, a little dragonling. Our eyes met and the cutest little cooing escaped from her mouth. I giggled, and the poor little one must of thought I was laughing at her, for she hid her head in embarrassment.
“Mirikest, no!” I couldn't help but giggle a little more as i scooped her up and held her to my chest. “That was the cutest sound I’ve ever heard!” At that the little saphire reared its head and blew out a puff of smoke, just as I started laughing, throwing me into a fit of coughing. She was obviously perturbed at being called cute.
“Awe, come now, don’t be like that.” I say, and a small part of me is a little perturbed that I sounded like Lethiel. “One, day you will be a great, big, powerful dragon, but never be upset at being cute. Mirikest seemed to understand every word, and a determination grew in her eyes. She settled into my chest and resumed her cooing, well maybe it was more of a purr. A let out another short laugh. “Tch, see what you made me do, now I sound just like her.” This time I wasn’t refering to Lethiel. I was only five years old, it was my mother who told me that.
I was a little girl, many of the other royal daughters made fun of me. It was one morning, Lethiel was trying to do my hair. At first she thought I was being defiant because I was woken at sunrise instead of a more proper hour. My mother walked in and demanded to know what all the fuss was about. It was then I fell in a heap, tears running from my eyes. “All the other girls are mean to me, they say I’m frail and weak, that I won’t be good at magic, and that, that I’m ugly.” I sat there with my hands covering my face.
My mother scooped me up and held me in her lap. “Awe, come now, my sweet little girl. I see jealousy is rampant within these halls. All of those things are untrue. In fact, they are quite the opposite.”
I stopped crying and turned to my mother, a defiant streak in my eye. I’m not going to Vjatar Let, I'm not training with Master Sojek, and I’m not letting her do my hair!”
My mother’s eyes softened, I expected her to match my defiance with her own, but instead her eyes looked on the verge of shattering. “That would be most saddening. You see, beauty is a blessing not all are born with, one might say it is unfair, and many will envy, but, to squander such a gift is the highest insult. If you are blessed with strength, the best way to give thanks is to strengthen yourself. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, it is your responsibility to improve yourself, and become the most beautiful you.” When she finished a single tear escaped her eye.
It was at that moment my grandmother came in, Mother cast a spell, one to relay recent events. It was then I was a single tear escape her as well. Grandfather Mannan had once told me, that in all his time, he had never once seen her cry.
It was a little over two years before I truly understood, what truly had happened that day. I was being sent to the maelstrom planet to train in magic, for my mother could no longer teach me. She had to go and fight a war, one in which the mithrin told her she would lose her in. She cried because she was afraid, afraid I would give up all the blessings I had been given. It was then My resolve strengthened like iron.
“My lady, Alineh, we…” It was Mareth, of course, he was the only one, besides Shayla who needn’t knock. It was then I noticed a single tear rested on my cheek. “What’s the matter?”
I shook my head, partly to assuage Mareth, and partly assuage myself. As if the action made it all better, and, in its own way, it did. “Nothing, I am much better now.”
I think, something in my posture, told him i spoke the truth. “Well that makes me glad, I have never seen you quite distraught.”
“No, not distraught, bittersweet. Tears don't come from only sadness. It's a mixture of the two, for sadness is just mediocrity without happiness.”
“That is a very wise statement, one that takes many far too long to understand.” At this he seemed truly mollified. “Well, I came to inform you…”
“We've arrived.” I interrupted.
“No, we are out of snow pudding. You shouldn’t be so impatient, if…” His eyes widened a little, signifying he got a personal communication.
“Now we've arrived.”
“No! We are also out of thrift cake.” Mareth again received a notification. “Also, we have just touched down. Welcome to Draegamor.”
I rolled my eyes. “This isn't my first time here, not like you.”
“Who do you think carried you back to Galdor.” Mareth scoffed
I scoffed back, “Don’t say that like I’m sooo corpulent!”
Mareth smiled and turned around, over his shoulder he said, “Hey I didn’t say anything, you my little lady will have to take that particular issue up with my aching back, I think he would disagree.”
He left me there with my mouth hanging ajar. I promptly closed it with a little chuckle. I knew he was joking. He did say little lady after all. It turns out my chuckle woke my sleeping friend. I got a slight stink eye, before a calming stretch. Then Mirikest shimmied up my chest and came to a rest on my right shoulder. Her tail coiled halfway around my neck and her head up and alert.
“Okay Mirah, it's time to get some answers.” Mirikest let out a soft bark. As epic as I made it sound, it was actually quite dull. I had to wade through three hours of compulsory civil processing, it was a lot like the time I went to get my starship license. You would think being princess, or in my case now Queen, these things would be alleviated. Nope, not until I officially took the throne.
I sat in a small office, surrounded by floor to ceiling bookcases that left only a singular wall visible behind a desk. That wall had a fireplace and a large painting of a grey dragon above it. A man entered the room, he had blazing red hair and he was tall, just over two meters. I knew this because I myself stood at two meters in height.
“Ah I see you have found your bondmate.”
“Don't play dumb with me Aracor. And don’t even think about taking her back, otherwise she may think I came here to return her.” To say I had a scowl on my face might be understating things.
“No need to worry,” Just then a woman came in, slightly shorter than I and with blue hair.
“What he means to say is that the whole “Dragons must first be raised by dragons is a lie. They only are trained by dragons when they get older.”
“Sarissa is correct. Dragonlings are allowed to ‘escape’ while their bondmate is unconcious” With that Mirikest let out a sharp hiss. “Don’t misunderstand little one, you actually did escape, in fact you did so faster than any other dragon, in history.”
Mirah puffed up her chest and blew a puff a smoke, but I noticed something. “Why do you seem so surprised?”
“She has a right to know Aracor, it applies directly to her.”
“Technically it's indirect, but you are right.” Aracor sighed, and I grew a little impatient. I was close to speaking up when he continued. “We believe the reason she was so successful is her strong connection to her mate. When a Grey and Blue are birthed in the same year, the other is fired when one’s bondmate is found.”
“What does that mean.”
“It means that she has a strong bond with her Grey partner, in fact, her escape is evidence enough that she has the natal bond in recorded history.” Sarissa seemed extra excited. Then she seemed a little sad. “You know she is lucky, one day she will turn white, when she meets her mate.”
“You don't seem to be surprised.” Aracor said.
At first i wondered what tipped him off, and then I realized I had the barest hint of a smile on my face. “Well, that leads me to why I’m here, I was visited by the Mithrin.”
“I knew it!” Aracor boomed. Then, a little timidly added, “not that you were visited, though I guess part of me did, seeing how it is the only way I could be right. Please, tell Jev he has my sincerest apologies. It is not right one of my ancestors chose to keep his memory on the prophecy. I personally think it disgraceful. It is not our place to be prophets. Unfortunately, every oldest since has passed it down, because the only way for us to forget is to give the memory to another. And whom would we trust?” At that He reached out his hand and a beam of light connected to my forehead. There was a dizzying feeling and then…
A Vitality without Vitiation
To navigate the light
A secret Manifestation
To peel back a terrible blight
A forgotten people you must remember
To find the Forces that guide creation
A sacred sword of perfect timber
To cut the final thread of Ascension
A lasting friend of ancient lauding
To destroy the enemy whom They did bequeath
A perfect match to strengthen your body
To be crowned together, unending peace”
There was a brief flash of light and I came back to the room. “Who are the forgotten.”
“Man.” It was all Aracor said at first.
“I know a lot of men.”
“No, you know a lot of males. It is the only thing of there’s which we still use. The nominations of Man and Woman, com from the forgotten. Humans, they call themselves. They look like us, or as we are now, much like you as well. They have one physical distinction, their ears are round. They have other differences too, both few and many at the same time.”
“Well, I think the Grey dragon’s bondmate is a, what did you call it, Human?”
“My fire, it really is beginning…” Aracor seemed lost in thought. “Where have they been all this time, and how will he ever get here.”
“I don’t know, but I have this feeling he is supposed to find me. So, I must become as visible as possible.” I don’t know where the thought came from, but in my heart I somehow knew it to be true. I looked over at Sarissa, she seemed a little out of touch, as if she was conflicted inside. It took me a few beats, but then, it all came to me in a rush.
“Oh, I can't be-lieve I almost forgot. Jev told me to tell you, and he mentioned you by name Aracor, ‘the Soulchains don’t bind blue.” I laughed excitedly. “I get it now the tension when I called you lovebirds, the slight downcast looks Sarissa gave about the fired Grey, the intense conflict I can see in her eyes. You two are in love, and have been for a really long time, but you thought it was impossible to be together, because you thought Blues could only be with Greys, but in fact, it’s the opposite, kind of like all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. In that metaphor the Blues are the rectangles.” Throughout my building explanation, the faces of Sarissa and Aracor turned to shock, then anger, then hope, and I think I am seeing the burgeonings of joy! “I sense… no we haven’t hosted one in almost a century… can we do it,,, we must… I feel it… Oh, it’s wonderful… it’s… it’s… time for… DRAGON WEDDING!!!”
I reached out and grabbed Sarissa’s hand and yanked her out the door, laughing and cheering, I could hear Aracor stumbling to catch up, and he would, but he couldn't see Sarissa right now, we had girl talk and wedding plans to create, she was going to be a bride!