Heir of Fire and Ice

Orynth

After six months (She had been told that they counted in months, not moons), Elentiya was at least feeling less nervous about going outside. Before, she had been so scared of not being able to communicate that she had avoided it, but Rowan was slowly teaching her how to speak the common tongue. She now knew the basics of the language, and could usually understand most of what was being said, and had discovered that she didn't need to know every word to gain basic understanding. However, speaking was much harder. Usually she was too nervous of mispronouncing the words to do much more than mumble, and even when she did talk, she didn't know enough vocab to say everything she needed to.

Despite all of this, she loved Terrasen, with its impossibly high mountains, the Staghorns, and the wide expanse of forest, the Oakwald. In her opinion, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, despite the signs of the earlier conflict. She loved the little folk - the way that if she sat very still for a long time, they would creep out, hesitantly at first, but gaining confidence, and sit near her. One very brave one had even sat on her. 

Of course, she didn't just get language lessons. She was taught how to control the ice and wind by Rowan, and the fire by Aelin. Aelin also taught her the piano forte, though it was clearly not something official - Elentiya had always loved music, and when she had seen Aelin playing had asked to be taught. She also learnt how to fight - Aelin, Rowan, and Aedion all taught her that. She enjoyed it most when Aelin and Aedion would fight. To the mortals, it must have been too fast to see, as she could only just follow the movements. They were mostly evenly matched, but Aedion, she had noticed, wasn't as observant of his surroundings. He was much more prone to tripping over, or crashing into something, or just making a stupid mistake. Aelin, though moved smoothly and gracefully, giving no indication before striking impossibly fast. Having never seen anyone move that way, Elentiya had almost begged to know how, of course in her stumbling, clumsy tongue. 

Aelin replied that it was partly through dancing, but mostly because of the time she spent with the silent assassins, and had said that she could arrange lessons in dancing and acrobatics, but the silent assassins would have to wait till she was older. She understood - of course her mother wouldn't send her off to some assassins after barely getting her back. That would be silly. She still looked forward to the day, though, when she could move like that.

The only real downside was that Elentiya had nightmares. Not every night, but at least one a week. It was worse than if they had come every night - that was predictable, at least. This way, she went to bed each night not knowing what to expect. Terrified to drop off, just in case. She never knew. The nightmare, however, was predictable. Maeve had taken her back, and Rowan and Aelin were dead. Maeve always said the same thing, too.

This is your fault. You could have - should have prevented it. Even after all your training, you're still a worthless half-breed. Nameless.

Then, the flames would start. Not like the ones she had finally began to stop fearing, but massive flames, hotter than they should burn. The iron manacles once again clamped around her arms and legs pinned her down - she couldn't put the flames out. That was the dream that was ruining everything.