Royal Advisor Alexa Kodaline of Hosephia
Pearlreach, Vrinian
Waiting at the docks, Alexa scans over the letter again she received from Jemma. Apparently, she is needed immediately, and transport would be sent with the specific purpose of collecting her and bringing her to Hosephia safely. She is glad there would be no other passengers on board, other than her two children, because she feels the size of a whale. Even though Brighane is dead, she still gets suspicious glances and whispers behind her back. Her children will always be Brighane's blood, even the one growing inside her. No matter what, they will always have to face that knowledge. Still, she has taken steps to keep the tainted name of Rossi from darkening their skies. Thanks to Jemma, along with Alexa's last name, the two children and the unborn one, have been changed to Kodaline. With Betta eventual marriage to one of the bachelors following her about, the Rossi name will die out with Henry, though Alexa is sure that he might even change it.
Alexa gazes at her two children for a moment, as they chat amongst themselves in anticipation of the coming trip. Morgan is approaching her tenth birthday and losing her childish features. Her dark hair flows in a long braid down her back and her black eyes hold a joy that was rarely seen in years past. She is tall for her age, but brilliant and elegant. Luca, two years younger than his sister, is the average size of his friends, with kind dark eyes and an ever-present smile on his still childlike face. Alexa had not given much thought to either of her children being royalty when Brighane was close to obtaining the title, and they had not felt quite right for the titles of that of children of a baron and baroness. However, with Alexa now a Royal Advisor to Queen Jemma, though they held no title, her children could be given opportunities they would not have been offered before. Other than Penelope, Alexa's children will be the only children in the castle. One day, perhaps Morgan and Luca could be advisors themselves, or even guards should they wish to be trained.
The sound of the waves calms Alexa, like crickets in the moonlight. It is approaching sunset and has been a week since she received the letter from Jemma. The date and time are specific and unchangeable, with strict instructions to get on the ship bound for Hosephia. When they reached the dock an hour early, there were no waiting ships headed that direction, and so they must wait. As time wears on, Alexa pulls on a heavy cloak, anticipating the cooler temperatures that will be to come on board the ship.
"Mum." Morgan tugs ever so slightly on Alexa's cloak, pulling her attention with it. "Is that the ship?" She points to a near docked ship that had approached silently behind them. The only sound giving it away is the footsteps of a dockhand securing the tiedowns. It is a new ship, with a red tint to the dark stained wood and giant white sails being rolled up and tied.
For a moment she is relieved the ship has finally arrived, and then she reads the name of the ship painted in a yellow-gold script on the front side of it. "Oh, I hope not." She mumbles and knows her children look up at her at the sudden change in their mother's mood. If this is not who she thinks it is, it is a heck of a coincidence, but if it is than how dare he name the ship after her. Of course, with the ship being named Alexandra, it could be someone entirely different, but very few people know her full birth name.
Like an ape on a vine, a man swings off the ship and lands on the dock with great practice. Alexa groans to herself and momentarily feels like punching him. It is Leo. "Please tell me this is all a horrific coincidence and you are not the ship taking me to Hosephia."
"Do you want me to lie?" He questions with a hint of humor but still trying to keep himself professional. Alexa lets out a deep breath and motions for the waiting servants to start boarding their things. "For whatever it is worth, I didn't know who I was sent here to get. I didn't imagine it would be you, considering I dropped you off in Zistus."
There is something different about Leo from the last time she saw him. Last time, he was filled with guilt and defeat. Perhaps regaining his fleet and status renewed his faith in life, though he is not a pirate anymore. Maybe just being out on the sea again helped. Regardless, Alexa tries to ignore it. "We did not stay in Zistus long. My sister and her husband travelled to Rupsire to take up residency as the Baron and Baroness, thanks to Jemma, and I travelled around the kingdom for a while with my children."
At the mention of them, he glances to the two kids beaming up at him like a beacon of a lighthouse. She remembers their last trip on the boat, and how much fun they had. "Children." Leo smiles and it unsettles Alexa with a suspicious glance.
"You got a new ship." Morgan politely motions to it. "It is beautiful."
"Thank you, Morgan. She was a gift from Derrick and Serena. She is on her maiden voyage." Leo answers and the two children share a collective look of awe.
"Dare I ask who this one is named after?" Alexa questions with fake interest, knowing that at some point her children are going to ask anyway. "That is if you are still naming your ships after people."
"Indeed." Leo gazes at her in a way she had forgotten; a way that would have made her eighteen-year-old self blush. "I suppose I just never wanted to forget."
"Who is it?" Luca is bouncing on his toes. Morgan, however, shoots her mother a quick glance telling her she already suspects.
"For now, I will say it was someone from my past, long ago." Leo grins at him before looking back to Alexa. "She changed my life forever."
"Well, I hope you are not expecting to ever see her again." Alexa returns while keeping herself calm and collected. "I am quite sure that girl you knew is gone forever."
"I am not so sure about that." Leo returns with his blue eyes catching the light of the setting sun, giving the illusion of fire on water. Maybe he is right. Maybe that girl from years ago is still in there, but she cannot take the chance of him seeing her.
***
King Rory Fairmore of Vrinian
Imperial City, Vrinian
The grounds of the castle seem to be Rory's only escape from duties, but it is also where his mind runs without end. His escape from his escape is down in the crypt, where he talks to his grandfather, and the father he never knew. He had a bench placed in the middle of the walkway, so he can chat with them. Sometimes, when he travels down here, he finds his mother sitting alone of the bench. He usually walks away, but this time he stays to listen for a while. It is the only moment where he can witness a rawness in his mother. Even though she is different, she is more quiet than open. She still holds in her feelings, as if letting them out will start a flood, but down here she feels protected. After a few minutes, Rory moves to leave but is surprised by his mother's voice calling out to him. "I know you are there."
Rory decides to go to her, rather than run. "I am sorry, Mother. I didn't mean to disturb you."
"Nor, I you." She returns, though she remains seated on the bench. Rory notices how young his mother looks, something he had never noticed before. He knew she was a young widow when he was born, but she had always just been an adult to him. Now that he is an adult himself, he can see it. He walks over and sits down next to her, carefully, as though thinking she might get up and leave like she had done many times when he was a child. She watched him sit and then returned to looking at the crypt. "I know you come down here and talk to him. That is good of you."
Rory shrugs his shoulders slightly. "I don't know why. I guess it helps me feel closer to him. I never met him. I wish I had."
"I wish you had as well." She replies with a somber tone, but then she makes a noise that causes Rory to jump. He realizes after a moment that she is laughing. "He would have been a great dad and so proud of you. He would have done anything if he had only been given the chance."
It is so out of character for his mother that Rory just stares at her for a long while. "What was he like?" He asked the question so often, but the only one who would answer is Aunt Marina, but even she cannot answer without sorrow.
Aohlee Fairmore looks to her teenage son and Rory wonders if perhaps she does not see the little child anymore. "I had never seen faith and hope in anyone like I had seen in your father. He made us all believe there could be a future, even if we knew deep down, he would not be in it. I think I wanted to believe it. I thought that if I were his wife, I could save him; that by just making him happy would be enough."
"The faith of the innocent." Rory nods with a small smile and a glance at his mother.
"You used to have that faith too." She nudges him with her shoulder. "There was so much Lewis wanted out of life: me, you... He wouldn't want you to be unhappy, Rory."
"Nor, you, Mother." Rory returns with a side grin and a raised eyebrow. Aohlee's pale eyes shine through lined eyelids with a glare at her son. Rory, however, does not back down, and only returns the same look. It is Aohlee who back down first with a shake of her head and a ghost of a smile on her elegant face. After a minute, Rory shrugs his shoulders again and looks back at the tomb of his father. "I wouldn't mind, you know. If there was someone...someone who made you happy and smile again." He looks back at his Mother with a genuine smile. "I want you to be happy too. You deserve to be happy, with whoever is worthy."
"I suppose you think the General is worthy then." Aohlee grimaces but Rory can see that she is trying too hard to convince him she does not care.
"You know he has a name." Rory teases, finding it refreshing to talk to his mother this way.
"You know he was a criminal." Aohlee returns with equal amount of stubborn pride as that of her son.
"And he has made up for it, a thousand times over, by saving your life." Rory had intended it to be a teasing statement, but it came out as anything but.
Aohlee hangs her head a bit and then glances up at the tomb. "I am sorry, my son." Her voice is softer and fragile. "Sometimes the pain is too much."
"Is that what it is?" Rory questions. "Or is it because you would rather be with my father than with me?"
Aohlee looks at her son with a startled expression. "I would never...That isn't it at all."
"Well...can you at least promise that you won't do it again?" Rory feels a bit like a child now. "I do still need you, even when it doesn't seem like it...now more than ever."
"Because that girl turned out to be worse than I suspected?" Aohlee suggests, while trying to change the subject. Rory cannot look at his mother now. "She isn't." It is a mumble, but he still hears her. "She isn't the person I thought she was, she is better. She had so many chances to kill any of us. She may have been born to traitorous parents, but that girl doesn't have an ounce of hate in her; well, at least not for you."
"I know she doesn't." Perhaps he is more like his mother than he thought; so desperate not to feel the bad that he does not want to feel anything.
***
Queen Jemma Blythe of Hosephia
Iron City, Sarkin
Little Penelope takes off at a run with a squeal of terror and excitement, nearly tripping immediately, but catches herself. Behind her, Henry, hunched over and laughing, chases her about the room in some imaginary game of theirs. Neither of them has taken notice of Jemma standing in the doorway with a cocked eyebrow and a puzzled gaze at the pair of them. Jemma did not grow up with the imagination of a child and the freedom to play games like her daughter is able to. It is important to Jemma that Penelope has a childhood, and Henry seems more than capable in filling in where Jemma is stuck.
Henry catches Penelope easily and swings her about, but her foot catches the small table holding a glass bowl. It hits the ground and breaks. Henry and Penelope look at each other and then at the doorway where they now realize Jemma is standing. She cannot even get mad, but she forces herself not to laugh at the pure horror and innocence on their faces. Jemma sighs and moves over to the broken glass and starts picking it up. "Penny go put your slippers on please. I don't want you to cut yourself." Even as she warns her daughter of it, Jemma catches her palm on a sharp corner and pulls back.
Henry panics and grabs a cloth for her. He touches her hand and presses the cloth to the bleeding wound. It stings, but Jemma cannot tell if she flinched because of the pain or because Henry is touching her. Henry feels her try to pull away and meets her gaze, silently wondering if he hurt her. "Mummy, uh-oh." Penelope comes running but Henry snaps out of her gaze and picks her up before she can reach the glass.
"Yes, Mummy got a cut from the glass. That is why you need shoes on, please." She looks at Henry who is looking at her again, but he nods and takes her into another room.
The door opens and Marina walks in. "I am sorry to barge in, but I heard something break."
"Yes." Jemma motions to the table. "It seems Penny and Henry got a little too caught up in their game. I am so sorry. I will pay for it..."
"Nonsense." Marina comes and starts picking up the remaining glass and hands it to a servant who entered behind her. The maid is quick to clean up the rest. "If I worried about everything that broke in this castle, I would go grey." She laughs and Jemma relaxes slightly. This is Jaymie's mother, she must remind herself. This is the woman who raised her sister. She often wonders what it would have been like to be raised with her; to have a loving home and a loving family.
"Still, Marina, I can't..." Jemma starts, and Marina shakes her head with a teasing smile.
"You can and you will." Marina watches as Henry carries Penelope back into the room. "No harm was done, and it wasn't broken on purpose." The former queen looks at Jemma with a sigh. "And how many times must I ask you to call me Mother." Jemma hesitates with a fallen smile. "You are my daughter's sister and that makes you my daughter too. We have had this discussion, and it is final." There is a seriousness in her tone, but also amusement. That is a mystery with Marina, one never knows if she is kidding or not.
"Sorry, Mother." Jemma corrects, and remembers the conversation that many tears were shed within.
A knock at the doorway causes everyone to turn and see Matylda standing there with an unreadable expression. Jemma's birth mother knew nothing of calling Marina her mother, not that Matylda should care. "You are hurt."
"My goodness, she is right." Marina removes the cloth from Jemma's hand and inspects it. "I have had my fair share of scrapes, and I suppose this will need sewn shut. You best be off right away before it can get infected."
Henry steps forward, as he always does when helping. "I will take her, if you can watch Penny."
Even as he offers, Penelope reaches her arms out for Marina. "Nana." That is new, Jemma laughs, but accepts it. Marina beams and happily accepts the young child as one of her own. She does not try to argue with Henry about needing assistance, but she knows he will come anyway.
Both head for the door and Matylda allows them to pass by but catches Jemma's arm. "Are you sure you are alright?"
"I am fine." Jemma cuts in with a flat and emotionless tone. Matylda flinches back and drops her hand from Jemma's arm and nods once. "I have been through worse."
They are at the end of the hall before Henry starts in. "You don't need to be so heartless."
"You think I am heartless?" That is all Jemma heard and she pulls up short to look at him back-peddle.
"No, of course not." He shakes his head. "I only mean that you could be nicer to her."
Jemma blinks once and wonders why in the world she just reacted that way to what he thought of her. "I don't mean to be." She replies and continues walking with a frustrated expression.
Once the pair reach the main level of the castle, they pull up short, realizing that neither of them no where they are going. Muffled yells fill the empty corridor and Jemma can feel that Jaymie is in a heated discussion. The pair watch as Ezra rounds a corner and heads into the Great Hall with the doors shutting behind him. For a minute the yelling stops, but before Jemma can think of entering, the yelling starts again. Henry shares a glance with her, and both decide to give them a few minutes; after all, Jemma is not going to bleed to death before then. Ivory suddenly comes out of the room so fast Jemma barely realizes it is her, but still the yelling does not stop. Jemma can tell it is just Jaymie and Ezra in the room yelling at each other, and he might be having one of his fits. She glances at Henry who only shrugs his shoulders once, leaving the decision to intrude upon her. Jemma supposes she might help matters if she stops the shouting and decides to enter the main double doors on the level, which Jemma knows is the Great Hall.
As the doors open, the voices get louder. "Jaymie, I need the physician, can you tell me...." That is as far as Jemma gets in her question before she takes in the scene in front of her. The shouting has stopped between Jaymie and Ezra. Jaymie turned to look at Jemma as she entered but Ezra did something so completely unexpected that Jemma cries out to stop him. Ezra withdrawals a hidden dagger and plunges it into his stomach. It only goes in a small way before Henry can grab his arm from it. Everything happens so quickly that Jaymie only just realizes what has happened and clamps a hand over her mouth. "Oh, you idiot!" She screams. For a moment, Jemma thinks she is talking to Henry, but as Ezra collapses to the ground with Henry holding the bloody dagger, she realizes she is yelling at Ezra. "How could you?" She yells at him. Along with several curse words, Jaymie calls out to the guards down the hall who come running. She screams at them to get the physician and they leave immediately.
Jaymie places her hand over Ezra's wound and is so distraught Jemma has a hard time making sense of her rambling. "I can't bring you back, you idiot! How could you?"
There is blood everywhere and Jemma rushes to help her sister. "How did this happen?"
"You have to let me go!" Ezra shouts back, despite bleeding everywhere. "You know it is only a matter of time!"
"What is he talking about?" Jemma questions and looks up at Jaymie who is shaking her head.
"I will never." Jaymie cries out and tells Jemma to back away. Jemma, not really knowing what is going on, does as she is told and crawls backward a few steps. "I am going to save you no matter what."
"Don't you dare!" Ezra yells at her, and tries to remove her hands from his wound, but she holds firm.
"What in the world..." Jemma looks up and sees Ivory walking into the room. She takes in the chaos, but it does not seem to surprise her. "Jaymie, don't!" Ivory starts and Jemma looks to her sister to see her completely blocking the world out with her eyes closed as if her very will could heal him immediately. "Stop her!" Ivory yells, and Jemma reaches out for her sister. Jemma can only watch in horror as a fire pulls out of Ezra's wound and circles Jaymie's fingers. If only Jemma was a second faster, then perhaps she could have stopped it. Jemma, when reaching out for Jaymie, grabbed her sister's hand with her injured one. A searing pain went up Jemma's hand and she cried out with her eyes closed. It felt as though her arm is being burnt and she can not stop it. It courses up her arm and through her body, burning her alive. Somehow, she is able to pull her arm from Jaymie's and falls to the ground backward. The pain slowed and eventually stopped but she cannot tell how long she was writhing on the ground.
When she opens her eyes, she sees Henry absolutely terrified looking down at her. Jemma sits up suddenly and inspects her hand, fully expecting it to be burnt off. Somehow it is still there, though her fingers tremble. In place of the cut Jemma had received from the glass is a long thin scar, but with streaks branched out on either side as though the very fire that burned her, seared the cut shut. Henry is talking but she cannot understand him just yet, so she looks up to see Jaymie staring at her with a terrible fear. Ivory is standing behind her as though she had frozen mid-step, but stares at her in puzzlement.
Henry turns Jemma slightly and takes her hand in his and inspects it with much more attention than he had upstairs with the glass. When he meets her gaze, she can tell he thought she just died. There is a fear like none she has ever seen in anyone behind his eyes. "Jemma..." Jaymie's voice calls at her and she looks to her sister to see her guiltily afraid.
"What happened?" She questions, with the only evidence now that anything had indeed happened is Ezra bleeding on the floor and Jemma's scar.
Jaymie, who still has her hand out-stretched to Jemma, and one on Ezra, shakes her head. "I don't know...I don't understand..."
Ezra startles them all by speaking. "It's gone..." He mumbles and it seems to snap everyone out of their daze. "I can't feel it anymore. It doesn't hurt." Jemma immediately thinks Ezra is dying and banishes all worry about herself until a later time. She brushes off Henry and helps Jaymie keep pressure on Ezra's wound as the physician and several guards arrive to help.
Jemma stands up with assistance from Henry and backs away from Ezra, knowing that any chance of his survival resides with them and not her. Henry is in front of her with his hands on the side of her face. He is in clear focus and trying to get her to hear him. "Are you alright?" She finally realizes he is speaking to her and nods her head a few times. "Jemma, what..."
"I don't know, but I have never felt that much pain before." Jemma looks at her hand and then up at Henry. "What did you see?"
"I saw you grab Jaymie's hand and start screaming." Henry reveals as he removes his hands from her face. "I thought you just died right in front of me and I couldn't even save you." He blinks at her with an expression she has never seen on him, as he stares into her eyes. "When you looked up at me, your eyes were like living fire...like you were being burned from the inside out."
Jemma reaches up to touch her face. "Are they still like that?"
Henry shakes his head, but still stares at her. "No. They are back to the same blue-green." For a split second, she wonders how Henry knows the color of her eyes, but she decides against it when she sees the guards carrying Ezra out of the room.
Jemma takes in Ivory who still stands as she did when the incident happened but is staring at Jemma like a frustrating puzzle-box. "Fascinating..." Before Jemma can ask what is fascinating, she quickly disappears out of the room, leaving only Jemma and Henry standing there wondering what in the world had just happened.