The Light of Elysium

42 - The Prophecy

Slumping down defeated, I bury my head in my hands. "If I am an elemental, then I'm a dud!"

"Do not lose heart." Sirius smiles kindly at me. "Torbjorn tells me that you lived until your twentieth solar in a world without magic. This could have held your own magic back." There is a slight twinkle of mischief in his eyes. "Perchance there could be a little siren instead of Elemental in you?"

"Siren?" I ask alarmed.

"I am only jesting. Your singing last night was enough to enchant the room."

Torbjorn laughs, then turns serious. "It may be for the best if she is not an Elemental. Even though Elissa obviously has nothing to do with the prophecy."

My interest piqued, I enquire, "What prophecy?"

Again, it is Sirius who responds, "About a millennium ago, there was a Great War. The Queen of the light elves created an orb of immense power, the Light of Elysium. The Light was wielded by Thor, who defeated the enemy. After the war, the Queen began to fade. Before she passed the crown to her daughter Princess Celestia, she made a prophecy."

I nod recalling Darish's mother recounting a similar tale.

Sirius takes a breath, his voice falling almost an octave, "A union of the noble houses of the north and the south will begat the golden one, to herald a golden era.  The King of Avalon, Guardian of the Light of Elysium, will hold the Light to banish the darkness once more."

All the hairs on my arms stand up and I shiver, reminded of the quest I was set to uncover this light. Why would I of all people be the one chosen to find a weapon of war?

It is relief to see Aren push his way past a servant and into the room. In the short time I have known him, he has come to mean so much to me. Sitting on the edge of my chair, he puts an arm around my shoulder and glares at his father.

"Good morning, my son." Torbjorn calls out, ignoring Aren's brusque arrival.

Soon after, Ulrica and an older woman with curly grey hair walk into the room. Sirius beckons the woman over.

"My dear, this lovely young lady is Elissa. Elissa, please allow me to introduce my wife, Aine."

Aine bends forwards to greet me and the motion sends a ring hanging on a silver chain about her neck, swinging forward. Drawn to it, I reach out a finger to touch it and the world tilts.

Finding that I'm underwater, I start to panic, until I realise that I can breathe, or more accurately that I don't need to.  I'm standing in what looks like a garden. Not far off, a handsome white elven male is stood amongst the swaying seaweed. He looks pensive and has something clutched in one hand.

Two figures, a male and a female, swim straight towards them. The male I recognise as Triton, only now he has a magnificent metallic blue/green tail and his torso is bare. The woman has long, dark, wavy hair and a silk dress, which billows in the currents.

The woman turns her head and I gasp, for the face is unmistakably the one from my locket.

"Mother?" The question bursts from my lips, but she looks straight through me, as if I'm not there.

Triton swims away, with a swish of his strong tail and the elf and the woman embrace. Feeling like an interloper, I glance away.

The elf speaks with a lyrical lilt. "Isabella, you are the brightest, the only star in my sky, the one who makes my soul sing.  Without you, I am not complete."  He opens his hand revealing a ring, the very ring hanging around Aine's neck, and slips it onto the woman's finger.

My vision blurs. Voices are calling my name, but they are muffled and sound like they are coming from far away.

.....

Blinking, I find myself laid upon a settee, my head resting in Aren's lap and all the others looking down at me with concern etched on their faces.

"You fainted again. Does something ail you?" Aren's voice is laced with anxiety.

Several strong arms help to right me. "I-I think I just saw my mother. An elf who gave her that ring called her Isabella."

The colour drains from Aine's face and she grasps the ring in a trembling hand. "T-this was Isabella's ring."

Sirius helps a very shaken looking Aine to sit, though he does not look so well himself.

"How... how do you know of Isabella?" Sirius asks.

"I was found as a baby with only a letter and a silver locket engraved with a tree and studded with diamonds. I recognised the woman in my dream from the image in the locket."

Sirius goes even paler, if that is possible. "Do you have them still?"

I shake my head.  "I lost them when I was captured."

"Our daughter, Isabella had a silver locket just as you describe," Sirius confirms.

Hope swells within. Could I finally have found my family? Is their daughter my mother? "Do you know where Isabella is?" I ask in a whisper.

Aine bursts into tears. Sirius holds her, though he too is shaking. Confused, I look to Torbjorn for an explanation.

His normally amiable countenance is grave. "Isabella was killed eighty solars ago."

Dead! I feel numb. The woman I thought was my mother wasn't at all. It is a crushing blow. Just when I thought that I was so close.

When I first found the locket, I was devastated that someone had given me away. However, once the shock and sense of betrayal eased, the words from the letter became a balm; that I was loved and that maybe, just maybe I had a family out there somewhere.

Arms wrap around me and I nuzzle into Aren's chest, comforted by his scent and warmth. Closing my eyes, I try to contain both the tears and the dangerous emotions threatening to well up. I don't want to fall apart in front of an audience.

"Father, I thought I was supposed to be the rash one." I can hear the anger in Aren's voice and entwine my fingers with his.

"I am sorry, Elissa. I did not foresee this meeting taking such a turn." Torbjorn's normally sparkling blue eyes are clouded.

Ulrica speaks for the first time. "Is it possible that Isabella had her child before she... before she reached Avalon? Could Elissa be your great granddaughter?"

"By the Light. Is it possible that something so precious was saved from that dreadful day?" Sirius asks like a downing man clutching at a branch of hope.

Torbjorn, possibly sensing my confusion, explains, his voice falling to a hushed tone, "Sirius lost everything that day, not just his children, but his title, his home and his brother Cosmos too. But that is a story for a day less fraught than this."

....................

AN - the song is Better Love by Hozier - I just love his smokey voice.

This chapter would go out to my son (if he wasn't too young) - he has just become a huge Percy Jackson fan, so Triton is for him 🔱