Eva's Journal

CHAPTER TWENTY

In this chapter and more chapters to come, I will be writing in Latin. WARNING! it is not perfect as I am just using an internet translation.

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The morning was cold and crisp. The mood was bitter and sorrowful. I could hardly breathe. It was the day of the funeral. I groaned and got up with the knocking on my door.

Opening the door, I found Anna on the other side. She was changed in the black gown.

She whispered, hardly audible, "It fits perfectly. The whole thing is perfect." I grabbed and her and embraced her in a hug. She wept slightly before pulling herself back.

"Can I read out my speech to you? I haven't heard it properly aloud yet." I smiled and welcomed her inside.

As she read out the words on a very crumbled piece of paper, I got changed into my black dress. I listened intently to every word, every pause in her sentence.

By the end of the speech, the two of us were close to crying. I held her hands and squeezed them before we walked through the castle to the church.

As we walked through the castle gardens to the church on the top of the hill, the crowds gathered to pay their respects to the fallen Queen. My mother stood behind me and behind us was the casket of the Queen. Atlas was one man who stood among those carrying it.

We arrived at the grave and the men placed down the casket, which was covered in the royal cloth. It was black with the beautiful hues of blues and purples. Everyone around us was carrying orchids and they placed their orchids one by one on the casket or around it.

The priest spoke up and told the crowd about how the Queen would be on the right journey towards her heaven. She was buried next to the king like all royal families are. The priest then instructed Anna it was her time to talk.

She shakily walked up to where the priest was standing. I smiled and tried to reassure her.

"I would just like to start by saying thank you for everyone coming to pay their respects to the Queen. To me, she was my mother. She was the person who would soothe every fever, withstand every tantrum and console every nightmare. She got me through every setback in my life and helped me to achieve my full future. My mother wished for me to be my best self and to always keep hope in my heart. That is exactly how I will be. I will lead by her example, to make her proud. Hope will guide us all through this troubling time and towards a brighter future. The gods will watch out for my mother in heaven as she deserves. She was a just and wise queen, someone who leads in the way she believed was best for her people. I don't think anyone else would have been able to withstand it all. Rest in peace, mother." She stepped away and stood back by my side.

I was incredibly proud of her and everything she was. She would make an excellent queen one day, in a few days in fact. Everyone prayed and the place fell silent. I prayed that the queen would find happiness in her next life and that Anna would find the push to carry on and be the queen she was meant to be.

People left slowly one by one. The grave was covered and the bunches of orchids were placed on the mound of soil over the casket. Anna stayed staring at the grave of her mother, and her father just beside it. Soon it was just the two of us.

We held hands looking at the graves close together.

"I wish I could talk to them, one more time." I smiled at her and nodded before feeling my magic surge from my fingers remembering the words my mother wrote for me.

"Ex mortuis resurrexerit credent." [Rise from the dead.] I spoke loudly towards the graves. The magic surged from me and created a large, heavy mist over the graves. From the mist, the late Queen and King of Borealis rose up. They were dressed in royal clothes and appeared to be made of the mist.

"Mother? Father?" The two rulers smiled at their daughter and embraced her. She cried lightly, just glad to be held once again.

"You have grown up so much, my child. You are going to make a great queen." Her father spoke. She backed off and told him she knew what he did. He sighed and his head hung low.

"Why did you do that to me? To Eva? To Atlas? And Agatha?" I watched him try to justify his actions but Anna shut it down every time. She was a strong one.

After a few back and forths, the queen decided to step in and stop it.

"Anna, why did you want Eva to summon us?" She took her daughter's hands.

"I just needed to say goodbye so I could move on and maybe you can, too."

"You are the most amazing daughter I could have asked for and I hope you find your soulmate one day, my love." The king coughed and spoke up.

"Well, Anna. I ordered my men to kill your soulmate." She gasped and started to weep. I couldn't comfort her as I was busy keeping the rift open. He went to reach out for his daughter but the queen stopped him. She told him to explain.

"I told them to steal Agatha's magic and use the locator spell and it led them to a house. They told me they killed the sons in the house. I am sorry, Anna."

"Close the rift, Eva. I don't want to see them anymore." I knew I was running out of energy but I didn't want to leave it unsolved.

"Anna, say your goodbyes. Don't leave it this way, not for him but for you." She agreed reluctantly and grabbed her mother's hands, ignoring her father entirely.

"Mother I love you. I cannot believe you stuck by a man such as my father. I promise I will be a better ruler than you can imagine and I will make you proud." The queen smiled and tucked Anna's hair behind her ear. She kissed her forehead and disappeared. Her father stood there and knew he wasn't deserving of a goodbye. He followed his wife and soon the light died down and I collapsed. 

Everything went black.