The Chronicles Of The Council #1: The Sun's Tears

Chapter 27: Laelia - Impossible

"There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened." - Douglas Adams

Alachna City, Ardam 1292

The pain in my ears rings through my head - aggravated by every stomp I give at the entrance of Mother's garden. Last night she told us to be here an hour before sunrise. I came here immediately after waking up in the forest. Aedan joined me a while ago, but I've been walking up and down for an eternity.

"Laelia, you know Mother knows you are pacing here? It is probably frustrating her."

"I know,"

Aedan looks fresh and wide awake, like crisp grass covered by dew. I scowl at him.

"You did not sleep at all," he states the obvious and canyons form on my forehead.

"I was too excited for our first mission," I answer with a truthful lie.

"What happened to your dress?"

I glance down and my mud-stained dress. I meant to change. I remember deciding that I needed to put on a new dress. It was the only thing on my mind until I arrived at the palace. Then I ran here because I feared that I missed our appointment with Mother.

"I don't know."

"Where were you last night? You just disappeared."

I frown. Did he forget his vision?

"You dragged me from the clearing and told me to go to the middle of nowhere."

He looks perplexed: "Why on earth would I exclude you from your own party?"

My eyes narrow. Something happened last night, and neither Aedan nor I can remember what happened. Aedan wouldn't deny his visions as an ill attempt at humour.

"I don't know."

He studies me: "Are you sure you are well? Did you not pick up a fever?"

I ignore him: "We should not let Mother wait."

The entrance to the Queen's Garden is situated on the second floor of the palace and is veiled by a curtain of vines. It is one of the only places that are off-limits to us. I have only been to Aylissa's garden once before, but Aedan and I were still toddlers and thus my memory of it is not tangible.

Aedan pulls the vine curtain out of the way and allows me to enter first into my mother's sanctuary. The garden is shrouded in a tangible, but refreshing mist. The sun's first rays sneak into the foliage giving the garden an ethereal beauty. The marble floor is submerged by moss and dark ivy with golden borders. Lilac orchids peep out through the vines.

I don't recognise all the plants in the garden as the majority of them seem to be alien to the forest. Knowing my mother, these plants have been carefully selected for properties such as poison and healing, and for things that I cannot yet fathom. But some of them would be here for their magnificent beauty.

Aylissa is standing in the middle of the garden in front of a silver tree that is decorated with leaves made from ice. The silver tree seems to be emanating frost and the mist is thickest at its base. The tree is breathtaking, but it pales to my mother.

Her black lace dress blends into the mist and her pale skin similar in colour to the frozen leaves on the tree. I blush when I study her revealing dress. I have never seen her showing off so much skin. The dark-of-night black hair Faolan inherited from her cascades down her back and melts into the mist at her invisible ankles. Dark purple berries are woven into her hair in clusters. Her translucent blue eyes, similar to Aedan, is looking past us to a vision in time only visible to her. Her pale eyes suit her so much better than the cobalt eyes of Faolan and my father. She would have looked extraneous with such bright eyes. The most baffling thing to me about her appearance is the crown of frozen leaves on her head.