Threads of Emerald

Ropes of Fate: Chapter 35

The world slipped from under my feet, collapsing my knees with a solid crunch into the slightly wet floor of the bathing chamber, and stealing the breath from my lungs.

"Father", I sobbed into my hands, scrunching my eyes in an effort to wipe away the hallucination.

"Seraphina", his voice was a symphony and an awakening, a lullaby and a calling, it cut through the my muddied brain, the sloshing of thoughts in my mind.

I looked up, finding father stood a few feet away from me, staring down at the puddled mess I was on the bathroom floor.

"It's me", at those words, I leaped up and wrapped my arms around him, so solid and sturdy, so whole.

"How?", the word came out more as a strangled cry as I buried my tear-stained face into the soft, sea-green fabric of his jumper and let his warmth seep into my bones.

"I'll leave you two alone", I hadn't even noticed Orion still standing at the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest, golden ringlets of hair falling over his silver-lined honey eyes.

"Come, Seraphina, let us sit by the fire", he didn't try and untangle me from his solid body as he wandered over to the luscious sitting area and gently guided me to sit next to him the sofa, the rich orange fabric falling slightly under both of our weights.

I finally released him from my embrace and stared into his eyes. I'd never forget the colour of his eyes, as if they had been crafted from an emerald stone itself, melted down and poured into his eyes. So bright. So ethereal.

But they were not the eyes I looked into now. They were dazzlingly bright, as vivid as the fire that blazed when a fresh log was popped upon it. Their colouring seemed off, as if the grief that clouded them had stole away some of the rich green liquid and mixed it with muddied water.

Grief. Of course, he'd lost mother. He'd lost Aphina and I for a time.

"What's going on?", my voice was barely a whisper as his eyes scanned my body, subtly checking for any signs of injury.

The man who'd loved me with his whole being. Who had loved mother more than he had loved himself. The man I'd mourned for and wept for and took a knife to the guards in Cupraem for, who I'd took a knife to Crius for.

"I'm so sorry, Seraphina. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. It was the only way."

I braced myself for the truth he was about to reveal.

"It all started around your nineteenth birthday. I had heard rumours in the Emerald Court that Nefta was looking for a girl with green and silver eyes. I'd had an inkling that you were different. You'd survived the Plutus Forest, the creatures there. I'd read about them, been told horror stories about the creatures there as a child. And then, you'd told me about the man made of shadows who had revealed the prophecy to you. As soon as I heard that Nefta was looking for a girl with green and silver eyes, I knew it was you, Seraphina.", he grasped my shaking hand slightly, it steadied as he took another deep breath and continued, "So, I waited until she came to visit the Emerald Court and approached her. I told her that I would help her find the girl she was looking for. I told her that I had seen such a girl when your mother and I had travelled the Kingdoms. That there was girl in the Kingdom of Passion and Insight that I'd once spied with such eyes I couldn't get the image out of my head. And she fell for the bait. She told me that a prophecy had been delivered to her doorstep. The Scroll of Stars, an object that was merely folklore, an ancient object that was supposedly destined to reveal prophecies and the fate of the world. I hadn't believed in the gods until she showed it to me. There, written in something akin to stardust, Find the girl with eyes of emerald and stars, the girl visited by darkness, the girl who will rediscover what was lost so long ago.."