Please note: I am updating this draft of The Prisoner of Arlunn. The most important change is that the main character's name has been changed from Philip to Rian.
8
Evening finally came and it was time for the royal dinner. Shaz had personally invited Aldena and Anya. And Anya felt that he especially wanted her to be there. Her heart fluttered thinking about it.
On Earth, she'd always felt like an outcast, a stranger. Not that she was—but her parents had abandoned her at birth, left her behind a garbage dumpster in a box the day she was born, to be exact. It shamed her to think of it—that they cared so little for her. She'd always felt like a lesser being because of it, like everyone else had a better claim to life than she had.
Now, her life was like a fairy-tale. Her foster mother, Aldena, had turned out to the a princess from another world. And that made Anya a princess too, of sorts. She lived in a palace and had a closet full of the most fantastic clothes.
Maybe boys had never interested her because before she'd never mattered to anyone. None of them gave her a second glance; they just thought of her as weird. But not Shaz. He had kissed her hand and bowed to her. She'd never known a boy that she had felt this way about. Not one that had ever known she existed, anyway.
She tried on all ten of her new outfits and then tried them on again that evening, trying to decide just which one to wear. Aldena had ruled out several, which left three favorites: a delicate cream-colored three tiered Empire waist dress, that looked a bit like a wedding dress; an airy, sleeveless chiffon that looked like a waterfall, with swaths of light green fabric and dark green fabrics tightly gathering and flowing downward to the ground. The last was a cream and salmon colored three-tiered Empire waist gown with delicately woven pink flowers that lined each tier. The bottom tier and longest, of the dress, tapered in towards the floor, the other light, transparent layers built up from her thighs and flowed outward more. She smiled at herself in the mirror. She chose the last one.
The hour arrived and Anya followed Aldena from their apartment downstairs to the family dining room. Most of the Palace was inhabited by Shaz and his family, mainly his mother, Gwindle, who had been the High Regent before Aldena had returned. Now she was only the Regent of Chuness, to which Shaz was the Heir, as Aldena had explained to her.
Shaz had a younger brother, Blaine, who also lived at the Palace. Also Gwindle's brother Sian lived here, with his two daughters Chasianna and Jaunie, both close to Anya's age. Anya hoped that she would find them to be friends, as she doubted that she'd get much chance to go outside the Palace grounds.
Huge crystal chandeliers decorated the dinning room hung above a large, beautifully carved table. People stood around chatting, all dressed up in their finest when Anya and Aldena entered. Anya also recognized Powell among them.
Shaz and his mother, Gwindle, met them at the door. "Good evening," said Gwindle.
Aldena nodded. "Good evening." Anya got the feeling that they didn't like each other much—and, of course, Gwindle had stepped down from being High Regent in favor of Aldena.
One older woman stepped to the forefront. Her face and hands were wrinkled with age. "This is Evolyn of the House of Silverham," said Gwindle. "She is the Regent of Jarlan, for her son Chlan."
She introduced another young man, who looked a lot like Shaz, but younger. "And this is my son, Blaine."
They mingled for awhile. Aldena chatted with Powell for awhile. "I'd like you to meet my daughter, Jhenandra," he said to both Aldena and Anya. "She should be about your age," he said to Anya.
"Hi Jenandra," Anya said shyly. She noticed that Jhenandra wore a beautiful blue corset dress, with a flowing pale blue gathered skirt. She approved.
"Hello," said Jhenandra. "You can call me Jhen." Anya liked her immediately. While Powell and Aldena began talking, Anya and Jhen got to know each other. As it turned out, their personalities were well suited to each other and she felt that they were soon becoming fast friends.
Shaz stood talking to two girls that looked older than Anya. She felt jealous at once. And they were so pretty. One had long red hair that had perfect waves every few inches. She had on a beautiful deep blue gown, the sides of which gathered up to the center with a small bow. And the flowered lacework was beautiful. The other had on a similar red dress but it gathered lower, just above the knees and instead of a bow, it had a centerpiece of lace down the front that was exquisite. Both the girls glanced Anya's way and laughed and she couldn't help but feel they were laughing at her.
Jhen took notice. "Pay no attention to them," she said. "Those are my cousins, Chasianna and Jaunie."
A few minutes later, Shaz broke away from them and came over to Anya and Jhen.
"Hello, Jhen," said Shaz. Jhen smiled and said hello. He turned to Anya. "How are you this evening, Anya?"
"Fine," said Anya, excited that he'd come over to speak to her. She tried to act calm. Jhen smiled. "I'll talk to you later," she said, walking off to let Shaz and Anya speak alone.
"That's a beautiful dress," he said.
"Thanks," she blushed.
"You look dashing yourself," she said. He wore a beautiful red jacket with gold highlights in the pattern and dragons stenciled in throughout. The wide, black velvet lapel had eight silver buttons down each side.
"Thanks," he smiled.
After chatting awhile more, they all sat down to eat. Shaz sat at the head of the table on one side, with his brother, Blaine on the right and Anya to his left. The younger people sat near that side of the table with the older ones on the other side, with Gwindle at the the other end of the table. Though Jhen was closer to the center and so conversation with her was difficult. Instead, Anya sat next to Chasianna, whom, she soon realized, she couldn't stand.
Once the dinner started, she could only hear the conversation on their side of the table, for the most part.
"So, where are you from again?" asked Chasianna. Next to her sat Jaunie, her sister.
"I'm from Earth," said Anya.
They both stared at her blankly. "Where is that?" asked Chasianna, impatiently.
"I ... don't know," said Anya. She'd never had to explain or describe that to anyone.
"You don't know where it is?" asked Chasianna. She looked at Jaunie and laughed.
Anya felt embarrassed. "It's in another ... dimension or something." She really didn't understand all that mumbo jumbo about alternate planes or alternate dimensions and dimension doors.
"Are there very many people there?" asked Jaunie. "Or, do you not know that either?" Both Chasianna and Jaunie looked at each other and laughed.
"Of course I know," said Anya, annoyed. She hated people like Chasianna and Jaunie. There were too many of them at home in the school she went to. "There are over six billion people on Earth."
"What?" asked Chasianna shocked.
"Over six billion?" asked Shaz, as if he was sure he heard her wrong.
"Yes," said Anya. "Why, how many are here on Chuness?"
"About 400,000,000 said Shaz. "At the most on Chuness. Just over a billion on all our worlds combined." He shook his head. "Six billion on one planet— either it's a big planet or its very crowded."
"It's crowded, but not too bad. There are some big cities though."
"There must be," said Shaz, impressed. "Tell me more about your world," he said. She told him about the oceans and continents and the different kinds of people who lived there. She told him about America and how beautiful it was there. After awhile, Chasianna and Jaunie got bored and started talking among themselves, leaving Shaz and herself to talk alone, which suited Anya just fine.
"How old are you?" asked Shaz, when a lull occurred in the conversation.
"I'm almost 14," she said.
"Almost? I'm 15. Well, 15-1/2." He laughed. "We're almost the same age," he said. She smiled. "When is your birthday?"
"In two weeks," she said, excited. She couldn't wait to turn 14. He looked very adult for 15. Maybe people matured at a different rate here.
"Only two weeks away?" he said.
"Yes."
He nodded. "That's wonderful. I'm usually at the college on Arlunn. I'm in the Challenge, you know." He said that with significance.
She'd heard of it but wasn't really sure what that was. "What is that, exactly?"
"You don't know?" he felt surprised. "Well, it's a competition. A champion is selected from each of the Seven Worlds of Cathal. The winner becomes the King."
"I thought that Rian was the Heir to the Seven Worlds. Won't he become the King?" said Anya.
"He's the Favored Heir—because his grandfather, Athelas, last ruled as the King of Cathal. He and I ... and you are all second cousins."
"So Rian won't just become the King?"
"Not unless he wins the Challenge. And personally, I hope that I'll have that honor." He smiled.
"You won't have to fight each other, will you?" asked Anya, a little alarmed.
"That depends on the individual," said Shaz. "Any contestant can defer in favor of an opponent, if they feel that they are more capable."
"Rian's pretty good at sword-fighting," said Anya.
"It's not just his fighting ability that will be tested. Whomever wins must be able to handle any challenger during his reign. Every skill must be unparalleled, including his ability to use magic, both in combat and also in order to shape and control the magic contained in the Paravescea—that is the main function of the King of Cathal."
Anya laughed. "Rian doesn't know any magic," she said.
"Really?" said Shaz with great interest. Anya immediately regretted saying anything. She didn't want to sabotage Rian in anything as important as this. The thought of him becoming a magician just seemed so out of place.
"We don't have magic on Earth," she said quickly. "I'm not sure why. I heard the others talking about it. At first, Molan couldn't do any magic there, not until Kyran began helping him."
At the word "Molan" the whole table fell silent.
"The magic-spawn," said Shaz, at the mention of Kyran's name.
"Yes."
"It seems bizarre that he could consider that monster to be his brother."
"He's not a monster," said Anya, hotly. "Kyran's very sweet."
Everyone just stared at her.
"You mean, the magic-spawn?" asked Chasianna. "Sweet?" She looked horrified.
"Yes," said Anya. "He's always been a little odd, no one would disagree about that. He's not very emotional. He doesn't always laugh at jokes, and sometimes he laughs at the wrong things. But he's very reliable and kind."
To this, no one had a response.
"So, you helped fight Molan?" asked Shaz.
"Not me," she laughed nervously. "I helped a little. We all did. Mostly it was Rian. He had all the ideas, him and Ehina. But in the end, it was Rian who killed him." She wanted to make sure that Shaz knew that Rian could be dangerous.
Shaz considered this silently. "Defeating Molan is no small thing. He was a powerful necromancer. When he attacked ten years ago, many of the rulers of Cathal were assassinated, including Athelas, King of the Seven Worlds. My father, Makin, died then also."
"I'm sorry," said Anya.
"I think we're all grateful that Molan is dead."
She nodded in agreement.
From there, the dinner conversation continued quietly. Once desert was served the group dispersed.
Shaz smiled at her. "Good night. Thank you for your company," he said, giving her a smile and a little bow.
She smiled back. "Thank you." All the way back to their apartment, she thought of no one else.
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