Asunder

Chapter Five: Stone Knights

When Lark was younger, her father let her to go down to the crypts below the castle. He never allowed the children to go down there, but Lark had been hounding him for a week straight, and he relented just once.

Her grandmother told her a story one night about an event called the Traitor's Rebellion; hundreds of years ago, the Starbornes conquered the realm with the Sprites at their side. But one day, the Sprites rebelled. They slaughtered everyone in their path; Fair Folk, the Banshees, Centaurs, the Goblins, the Humans, and everyone else.

The sprites enjoyed the kill. They saw spilling blood as giving life back to the Earth, a sign of respect to their own gods of the ground.

Rhalen'qar was the city of her ancestors. It was where the first Starborne decided to create the heart of their kingdom. The Sprites decimated everything in their path and they headed straight for the city.

Lark feared the sprites more than anything when she heard that story; she imagined them with sharp teeth and claws that would melt through her flesh like it was butter. She followed her father around constantly for the next week, asking him what they would do if the sprites attacked again, if he would protect her, if he'd send Griffin into battle.

Finally, he took her to the crypts. He held her hand with a firm grip while they walked down the long, spiraling flights of stairs down into the darkness. The light he held was dim and Lark trembled, but he told her she need not be afraid of the dark, nor the sprites. When they reached the bottom of the stairs she could barely see. He lifted the torch and touched the wall and ignited oil all along the passageways, of which there were many.

"When the sprites rose against our forefathers and marched on Rhalen'qar, our people were determined to keep the sacred city safe at all costs and finally repel the Sprites," Father had said, leading her down another dark hallway.

Suddenly, the hallway opened up and they were in a massive underground chamber. "Wow," little Lark exclaimed, spinning. There were hundreds of statues, ten feet tall, of warriors. They formed a horseshoe shape in the chamber and they stared ahead of themselves impassively, weapons clenched tight in their stone hands. Each little detail was immaculately carved, down to each single hair of their beards and the veins in their muscles.

"The first Starborne brought to the earth was given the gift of creation. He created the humans, created our oceans, created these very statues. When the Sprites rose against us, our forefathers roused these very statues from the ground and used them to protect the city and send the Sprites running to the North. The Sprites were trapped behind the mountains with a magic seal, one that can only be broken if the head Starborne allows for it. If the Sprites somehow escaped their prison behind the mountains and march on Rhalen'qar again, we will crush them once more."

"I want to see them move, Father!" Small Lark pranced forward, hanging onto the leg of one of the statues. "Move! Move!"

"No, my Larkin, they only move in situations of true danger. Even I do not know the words to awaken them."

"Then who does?"

"Our very own Priestess, Larkin. The Priestesses hold the keys to the kingdoms we own."

It was a situation of true danger. Or, Lark believed it was.

The castle was a strange place as light dripped through the cracks. Lark didn't sleep much that night upon returning to her home, but she found the room that was the least decrepit and attempted to clean the bedsheets of dust. It was cold. She could have sworn that through the night, she heard children laughing in the corridors and heavy footsteps, but it was just the wind.

Would the guards be coming for her? Were they waiting, just beyond the shadow of the castle, within the woods she slept in?

She walked through the ruins of her castle after she pulled herself from the sheets at the break of day. As she walked, she collected a few items. There was a stunning dress that her mother wore, a deep, orangey yellow that split in the front so pants could be worn beneath it for less restrictive movement. She found a necklace her sister Alissa loved to wear because it came from a servant boy she adored.