The visions plagued Serena relentlessly. She was caught in a current of nightmares, drowning, and there was nobody to save her but herself.
Her mother, standing in front of her throne as a group of dark soldiers rushed into the room with weapons bared. Triana lifted her hands, not needing forged weapons to fight them off. They ran at her, and she blasted them with magic, threw them into walls, burned them alive, turned them to stone before cracking them into thousands of pieces. She was hurling her powers left and right, channeling them to so many different uses that it would make any Fae's head spin.
But as soon as she had defeated the first group, another rushed in. Then another. Then another.
They did not stop coming, and it took a long time to happen, but eventually, Triana's store of magic depleted, or perhaps she had simply lost the will to keep fighting. Regardless of how it happened, Triana collapsed on the dais, and Serena was forced to watch as one of the soldier's arms sliced down, blade in hand, until her mother was no more than a bleeding corpse.
She could not tell if it was reality or a dream, if she was really sinking into the black depths of a sea she had never seen, or if her sleeping mind was speaking to her. Speaking to her in a language of death and despair that she had never known until now.
Azure, burning. Burning with black fire that swept through any material like it was paper. People writhing in the streets as the flame consumed them, as they breathed it in and could no longer scream as the fire literally burned their lungs. Serena saw her people turn into skeletons in moments, and piles of ash in minutes. She saw her castle burning even from the wall, a great beacon of black replacing the white stone towers. She could feel the heat of the fire on her face, and when she looked down, she realized that she, too, was about to be consumed, and she was glad of it.
She surfaced for just a second and tried to suck in a large breath of fresh air, but something hot traveled down her throat instead, something that scorched her down to her very core. Then she was sinking again, and no matter how much she flapped her arms, she could not lift herself up again, could not even tell where the surface was.
He was the only one left standing. The queen was dead, the city was burning, the castle, a great stronghold, conquered by this enemy. He stood and faced it now: the dark army. He had skills, oh, so many skills, so many weapons, and so much yearning. Yearning to kill each and every creature that opposed him. Each and every creature that had taken the things he loved from him, leaving him nothing but this husk. This loathsome, deadly husk.
He twirled one of his knives between his fingers and whistled a happy tune, as if he had not a worry in the world. And he didn't, anymore. He was about to leave this world, and he had never been happier to embrace that end. But he had every intention of taking as many of these soldiers down with him as he could.
And so he started forward, shouting out a war cry that he knew would go unanswered, slashing through the soldiers in front of him like they were nothing. And they were. They were nothing to him; not human, not immortal, not even any sort of living creature. They were monsters, beasts of darkness, with no souls, no hearts, nothing to feel with, nothing to give them morals or emotions or anything that mattered.
He chopped through their bodies with tears streaming down his face. He hated them. He hated them. He had never hated anything more than he hated these things that had destroyed his entire world, everything that his life had stood for, everything that made his heart sing with meaning and purpose and love.
He was in the very midst of the dark army when he met Serena's gaze. His shock in that moment was immense, so immense that it caused Serena's feet to move towards him, her arms extended in front of her to try to stop what was about to happen. She had just watched her mother die, she could not see this, could not watch Tarin...
But seeing her had distracted him, and one of the soldiers plunged his sword into his back, and Serena screamed as the point of it protruded from his chest, as Tarin sunk to the ground with a look of horror frozen on his face, as if he had not been the greatest warrior the Realm had ever known, as if his life had had no point to it whatsoever.
Then the army turned on Serena, and she simply spread her arms to her sides, waiting to embrace the tide.
Embrace the tide she did. She sank. She allowed herself to keep sinking, because anything was better than the world she just saw. She would rather die than learn that it was anything but a vision, an imagining from the harshest corners of her mind.
You want to stop these things from happening? a voice asked her from all around. She wondered briefly if it was the water speaking to her, as the current slowed before she answered. There was something familiar about the voice, but distantly, as if she had heard it in another dream before.
"Of course I do," she murmured, her eyes closed. She felt strange; horrified by what she had just seen, but also at peace. She had no idea what had sparked such a feeling.
Then you must surrender yourself to these waters, the voice stated, ringing in Serena's ears and mind until she could think of nothing but the words, until she accepted them as absolute truths. You must strip your identity from you like a cloak. You must give up who and what you are. Only then will the ones you love be safe from harm. Only then will Azure endure. Only then will you find this feeling of peace once more.
Serena drifted. Her mother covered in blood, her home aflame, the sword sticking Tarin through. She could not let those things come to pass. No matter what it meant for her. And was it really so much for this voice to be asking from her, if she would gain so much in return? She was so young... All she wanted was to save her kingdom. She did not really know, did not really spare much thought to what she would be giving up, especially as that vision of Tarin bleeding on the ground emerged in her mind again.
It's the only way to save him, the voice whispered.
"I will do it," she proclaimed. She could have sworn the voice laughed.
Then release your essence, little princess, it urged, a mocking edge to its tone. You will find so much more peace without the pesky gifts of your heritage, without the knowledge of the royal blood in your veins. You will be safe, and those visions of yours will not come to pass. Is that not what they would want? Is that not what you want?
"I want it..." Serena murmured, but by this point, she was convinced that this was all a dream. It had finally become relaxing, and she was so relieved that the nightmare was over that she did not attempt to argue with the voice in her mind as it whispered what to do in her ears.
But when she felt a wrenching sense of loss, something deep in her core shattering like glass, her eyes flew open, and the waters around her riled once more, dragging her this way and that, pushing her under with the crest and crash of each wave.
Serena fought back for a minute – a long minute, where she knew that everything she had, everything she was and wanted and loved and knew, was at stake.
She fought back for a minute, and lost.
The waters spit her back out, and then there was nothing.
Nothing.
-------------------------
The woman smiled as she felt the power flow into her. The plan had been much easier than she had expected. Who would have thought that the princess would be left with only one guard? Granted, that guard had been Tarin Wulf, and he had single-handedly decimated a good third of the large host she had sent before he went down. However, her men had still succeeded in snatching the princess, and now the woman had not a worry in the world besides building her army back up – though she had planned to continue that anyway. It was what the Mistress wanted of her.
If there had been no princess in the Realm, the plan would never have worked. As it was, Serena was beloved by some of the most dangerous people in the world. Now that she was in the woman's care, none of those people would dare threaten her, for fear of what might happen to the princess if they did. And Serena, being so young and so foolish, had just given her everything she needed. All of the magic in her veins, handed over to her from a Fae.
The woman inhaled deeply as she began to feel the thrum of the force inside of her, as she realized what a life those Fae must lead, if this was how they felt all the time. Why had they not conquered the world with such power? She felt as if she could do anything, though of course, the power she had just stolen was raw, the magic of an untrained seven-year-old. But she would learn, and she would become more formidable than any of the Fae could imagine.
She looked back down at the princess, squirming and whimpering on the floor below her. Bad dreams, indeed. Worse than the little girl knew.
In fact, worse than the little girl would ever know. The woman lifted the circlet with just a gesture of her hand, her eyes glinting as it was lifted from the nearby table by an invisible force and floated into her open palm as if by a gentle breeze. She gripped the delicate ends of the accessory with her fingers, her gaze locked on the beautiful crystal opal in the very center. The gem was cut into the shape of an almond and set into the center of the two intersecting rings of pure silver that would sit on the girl's brow, had she still been wearing it. Between the woman's fingers, the metal twisted and braided around itself until meeting the rings at the center, the part of the circlet that told whoever gazed upon it just who the wearer was: The heiress to the throne of the Realm of the Fae. Someone important. Someone they would move the heavens themselves to find.
The woman's lips curled upwards even more as she stroked the opal with her thumb. A shock ran down her arm, and she could not stop her gasp as a memory – not her own – flashed before her eyes.
King Agros' body lay on a bed of flowers as they cast him into the lake.
Lake Muiress sat on the western border of Azure and stretched out as far as the eye could see. It might as well have been the ocean, and until her tutor had told her otherwise, Serena had believed that it was.
The king, so pale and so still, drifted across the surface of the water and into the setting suns. It was the way the Fae said goodbye to their loved ones; or at least, the way Fae royalty were put to rest. They were sent into the embrace of the intersecting suns as they left the Realm, hoping that the suns would give the spirits of those who passed a light they could carry with them into the world beyond.
There were many legends surrounding the origin of the magic of Lake Muiress, but Serena had been told the real story in her lessons. It was important for her to know which of the stories was true, her tutors had told her, because Muiress had once been a Fae, and one of her royal ancestors, at that.
She had not always been royal, Serena learned. Muiress had been a water nymph, and lived in the lake of Azure, near the edge of Lymeryth Forest; close enough that she could make the trip into the city whenever she wished, to imagine what it would be like to live in the glorious white castle that shone in the light of the suns like the surface of the lake did on warm days.
Muiress held in her heart a deep and secret love for the prince: Prince Micah, who was good and kind and beautiful both inside and out. She knew that she should ignore the attraction she felt towards the prince, as it could come to nothing. She was a water nymph: these Azurian Fae, they thought of her type as their cousins, branches off of their ancient and pure Fae heritage. She was not a sister in magic to them, and though she was plenty welcome in the city and Realm, she would never expect to be accepted in the castle.
And yet, the tutors told Serena, who had been transfixed by the story, there came a day when Micah traveled into Lymeryth to pray to the heavens for his kingdom. They had grown too cruel to other races, he believed. They needed to remember why they had been chosen to wield magic, needed to remember that they were part of this world along with all other creatures. They needed to learn to be kind, to be generous, to be grateful rather than greedy.
Muiress heard him from where she sat on the shore of the lake, her feet dangling in the water. Heard him talking about the council he had just sat in on, where one of the oldest noblemen suggested that they expand their kingdom, wage war with other races for no reason other than conquest. But Micah knew their kingdom was already great, and shut down the meeting. However, there were still plenty of council members who desired war, and Micah was in the forest to try to find the good in the Realm once again.
Muiress could not help it. She stepped out of the lake entirely and approached him. She told him that his words had called to her heart like a beacon. She too had sensed for a long while the disturbances in the air, the tension in the magic that was meant to be their partner and friend. She too believed that a change was needed in the Realm, in the hearts of those who had forgotten the calling of their heritage.
They talked for a long while, and the next day, Micah came to talk to her again. It continued for days, then weeks, then months, and then it became something more than a companionship. Muiress could not believe it when the prince told her that she held his heart, but she just cradled his face in her hands and told him that he had always held hers.
More time passed, and when Micah came to her and asked her to marry him, she refused, though she did not want to. She was bound to the lake, after all; she could leave it for a day, perhaps more than one, but not forever. Her life force was bound to it, and she was not a Fae that would neglect her duties to nature, to the life of the Realm that she was honor-bound to protect since her very creation.
But Prince Micah insisted. It was as if his prayers had been answered, he said. She was the change the Realm needed. She was the kindness that had been dormant in others of their race for too long. She would remind the Fae of who they were, as their queen.
It was the deepest desire of her heart, and it was the will of the prince, and so one day it came to pass that Prince Micah married Muiress and the latter was crowned as queen. Yet more days passed in which Muiress and Micah had children: Boys, of course, as the Realm had never been blessed with a pureborn princess – not until Serena, that was, a fact that always made her feel smug and special.
And then one day Muiress faded away, and Micah and his two grown sons carried her back to the lake she had lived in even all those years, refusing a room in the castle because she would not turn her back on the place that she claimed needed her. They laid her on a bed of beautiful flowers from Lymeryth and cast her away from shore, watching until the enchantment struck.
Muiress' body, arms out to her sides, rose from the bed of flowers and shone with a glorious light. Micah and his sons watched with shock and amazement as the glow of magic – because of course that was the cause of this, magic acting on its own, for reasons only the heavens knew – formed a sort of almond shape, and Muiress, beloved Queen Muiress of the Fae, suddenly fit perfectly into the overlap of the intersecting suns behind her.
Then she was gone. The flowers floated calmly on the surface of the water, as if nothing had happened, but Muiress' body had vanished, though the king and the princes swore fervently every day after the event that the junction of the suns burned brighter than they had ever seen before in that moment.
Many believed that Muiress' spirit still inhabited the lake, which was why, of course, it had been named after her. And for every royal parting after Muiress, the same event occurred, as if Muiress' passing had laid an unbreakable enchantment over the lake, so that her bloodline could be honored as much as she had honored her home.
Serena resisted the urge to shield her eyes as her father was lifted into the air like a puppet, as magic burst from his every pore until it filled in the part of the overlapping suns that was represented in Serena's royal circlet as a crystal opal. Even before Queen Muiress' death, the royal sigil of the Realm had been the intersecting suns. It was because of the way the magic said goodbye to her, however, that the center of the sigil had become so important and – her tutors said – blessed.
Then her father was gone, and though she knew she was supposed to be sad, like her mother, Serena was mostly just fascinated. She had the mind of the child she was, after all; at five years old, she hardly knew what was going on, though her tutors tried over and over again to nail the history into her head, hoping that someday she would understand it as well as she simply remembered the words now.
"That will be me some day," she said. She sensed Tarin stiffen beside her.
"Not for a long time to come, Princess, if ever," he replied carefully.
"It looked so pretty, though," she said softly, her eyes still fixed on the spot where her father had disappeared. "When is my father coming back?"
Tarin was silent for a moment, a long enough moment that she glanced up at him. He was looking down at her as well, as he usually was. He squatted down in front of her, and before he could do anything else, she extended her arms. He smiled and gladly picked her up, and she hugged herself close to him, glad for the comfort as she heard her mother begin sobbing somewhere behind her back.
"Your father will be gone for a long time, Princess, but you will see him again," Tarin stated, his voice close to her ear. "Until then, you must be strong without him. You still have your mother, and you still have me, and you must be strong for us and your kingdom."
Serena tightened her grip around his neck, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. "Will you leave me, too?" she wondered, unable to keep the fear from her tone. She loved her mother, of course, and she had cared for her father, though she had hardly ever seen him. But Tarin was different. She knew, even at five, that without Tarin in her life, it would be as if a huge part of her was missing. She would never be whole again if he left.
But– "Never," Tarin swore, with a devotion and ferocity that she could not doubt. "You will always have me, Princess. No matter what."
Serena closed her eyes, drifting into a slumber that might well have been full of darkness, had she not so firmly believed that Tarin would protect her against anything that might come for her.
The woman stopped touching the opal, a breath catching in her throat. The legend of Lake Muiress – she had already known all of that, of course she did, given the Mistress' history. It was not important to her at this moment. But Tarin Wulf...
She had known that he was the girl's fiercest protector. The queen's most trusted advisor. The general of all the Realm's troops. The most gifted warrior that the Realm had ever seen, it was said. She had known all of this, but she did not realize until seeing it through the child's eyes just how much she meant to him. The woman had figured that it was his job to watch over her, just as it had been his job for so long to look after the queen. However, there was something more to his bond with the princess than a mere sense of duty; something others had warned her and the Mistress of but they had hardly believed.
She looked down at the child again and allowed herself a ferocious grin.
This young Fae meant everything to Wulf.
But when the princess woke up, she would not even remember him.