BOOK TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Prince knew it was time to visit his mother, and his feet gained weight at the thought. He dragged them along anyway, remembering every detail of his time with her in the North Star. The event that turned him into an executioner in his own right.
He greeted the guards knocked on her door, received no answer, and opened it. His mother, who was sitting on the bed with her legs folded under her, straightened her back at his entrance. He couldn’t believe the change in her face since the incident – the same features, but so fearful, so vulnerable.
“Hello,” he said in a gentle tone.
“Hi,” she answered quietly, then cleared her throat. “I’m Alexandria.”
“Yes, I know.” He laughed smally. “I’m Wren.”
“I love that as a name.”
“Yes, I know.” He didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t know who or what she was now. How much had he destroyed? What was saved? How did this work? She looked at him expectantly.
“You must have a lot of questions,” he said, grasping. She nodded. “Why don’t we start there?”
“Why am I old?” she asked as steadily as she could, glassy-eyed. “Did the dragon do this to me?” The innocence of her question caught the Prince off guard, and he swallowed a glottal sob trying to make its way out of his chest. He took a deep breath, and steadied his gaze on her.
“No. I did this to you.” Her lips and eyebrows quivered.
“Why?” she asked…very calmly.
“You asked me to.”
“No I didn’t!!” The calm had run out.
“You don’t remember, but you did.”
“Why would I ask you to make me old?”
“I didn’t.” She gestured to her face as if that in itself was a counter argument. Wren clarified, “I made you young again. Inside.”
“Oh,” the revelation hit her. “I’m not old all of a sudden.”
“No. You’ve lived a life.” The tears came freely to her eyes now.
“Why would I… Why on earth would I…ask you to do this?”
“Because you wanted a fresh start. This is your fresh start.”
“I’ve lost half my life!!”
“So you make a new one. You’ll live with me,” she gave him a look of hatred, “…if you want. Or somewhere else…” She reverted into herself, curled up into a ball and cried hard. The Prince stayed silently nearby. This act felt familiar for him, from the days when his mother would thrash in bed from the fire in her head, and only he seemed to provide her any comfort. He couldn’t comfort her now, though. Eventually, the wave of grief subsided.
“My father, is he still alive?”
“No. I’m afraid he’s long dead.”
“I’m queen, then?” This stumped the Prince, after all this, she couldn’t rule again surely? But technically…? What should happen to her? Was he king now?
“We’ll talk about that later.”
“And who are you? Like an advisor or something.”
“No, uh… I’m your son.” The Queen froze, then squinted at him and dropped her jaw.
“Nico?”
“...is my father….yup.” His mother grabbed her abdomen in disbelief. She blushed almost purple.
“I—what? Is he…around? Nico, I mean. Can I see him? Or…”
“You will. He’s at the castle. May I ask, what is the last thing you remember? Before this place.” She got very still.
“Watching the dragon flying towards me.”
“Anything else? Anything after? Flashes?” She shook her head, her expression hoped that wasn’t the wrong answer. “I guess that’s…for the best.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Wren gave his mother a synopsis of her life as a tyrannical queen driven mad by an angry dragon in her head. He generously absolved her of as much blame as possible, but made sure she knew she did horrible things, things best forgotten. He effusively explained that through it all, he loved her and she loved him. He described the events that had led them here, glossing over certain parts, trying not to overwhelm her and sparing her unnecessary grief if he could. Then, she asked the question he dreaded. “And you say I asked you to do this?” she said, trying to make sense of everything. He nodded. “How? How does one remove memories?”
“I used the North Star to do it.”
“Can you use it to give me them back?” The Prince’s cheeks flushed from guilt.
“Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know.” She ruminated a minute. “Gosh, I don’t know. I guess I’d just like to know if it’s an option.”
“Normally it is, but not in this case. Your memories, along with other parts of your personality, were destroyed.” She looked disappointed. “It’s what you wanted,” Wren half-lied. Alexandria half-believed him.
After leaving his mother, Wren found Jove, Flori, Cicero, and Sasha back in the tree room laughing with each other. Zeus’s judgment must have been favorable. He bee-lined to Sasha, and wrapped his arm around her waist. After going so long not being able to get near her, he knew it would be sometime before he would pry himself away again. “How did it go with your mother?” Cicero asked.
“She’s 16 and innocent,” he answered, bewildered. “My mother. My mother. It’s bizarre.”
“It’s for the best,” Flori said comfortingly. The prince looked at her skeptically. “I’m serious. She’s the lucky one here.”
“Better than she deserves,” Jove declared, paining Wren. Sasha gave the dragon a dirty look. Flori changed the subject.
“Fill him on what Zeus told you.”
“Ah, yes. First of all, I found out so much about the gods and stuff, you have no idea. Mostly he wanted to know if I could still turn back time, which he asked in an incredibly rude way. Then I had to convince him to let us keep the North Star so you can fix everybody. He said we have two years, then we hand the thing off to his representative on Earth who will take it some place it will never be found.”
“Who’s that?”
“Me!” Chrysanthia said from the doorway. “I’ll be coming with you!"
Our heroes stayed at the temple another week, recovering and helping to get it back in order. Many of Chrysanthia’s watchers volunteered to join her on her journey, and the rest would stay at the temple to keep a light on in case Chrys or the others ever wanted to come home…or they might turn it into a bed & breakfast. Oo, or a spa!
When the day arrived to be on their way, the humans said their goodbyes to Jove and Cicero. The other dragons had left the minute the Prince had restored them, bitter that the humans had put them in such jeopardy, angry at the death of Orion, and swearing they would have nothing to do with human kind ever again. Cicero promised he would smooth things over, gave his hugs and flew away. Jove and Flori, who had bonded during her years in the valley, shared a tender goodbye before Jove disappeared, not bothering with Sasha or the Prince. Everybody mounted their horses, waved goodbye to those staying and began their journey.
Chrysanthia and her friends twittered and chatted with the excitement of their upcoming adventure. Wren filled in Alexandria on her other life now gone. Flori and Sasha rode side by side in silence.
“You know what I found this morning?” Flori finally expressed. “A grey hair. I have a grey hair.”
“Congratulations,” Sasha answered. “You’re dying like the rest of us.”
Flori thought for a moment.
“It’s the strangest thing,” she replied. “I suddenly wish I could live forever.”
The cavalcade weaved their way through the kingdom back to the castle. In every town they hit, the Queen would call forth all her loyal subjects, the Prince would meet each one and release him or her from the diamond’s spell. When they got back to the castle, they restored and released the people locked in the dungeon, offering them room and board in the palace for life as recompense. Most chose to go home with large pouches of money. Jon-Jon’s mother received a medal of honor on behalf of her son. Alexandria and Nico reunited and, once the Prince repaired his mind, he recognized the girl from his youth and pledged to serve her till he died. She had saved his life, after all.
The citizens of the realm demanded that the Queen be beheaded, but the Prince couldn’t do it. He had put the actual villain to death; she was an innocent now. Instead, she and Nico traveled far away and settled down in a cottage by the sea, determined to lead a quiet life together, woefully aware that people like them rarely attain a goal so pure, but that they could still try.
It took less than two years for Wren to heal the remainder of the kingdom. They hoped they got to everybody, but they couldn’t know for sure. They developed a plan to travel to the Underworld to heal Hades and affected dead souls, but Chrysanthia, thinking that plan overly risky for little reward, stole the diamond, and ran off without warning. She sailed to the deepest part of the ocean, and buried it in the sea.
Sasha and Wren married. For a wedding gift, the King gave his Queen a beautiful handcrafted lute, just like the one she had when they first met.
They didn’t live happily ever after, but they did live more happily together than they would have apart. As it is in life, they celebrated many joyous occasions, withstood many trials, and endured many tragedies on big scales and small. But those are different stories for different days.
Let me now skip ahead. Sasha the Queen is now old; her King has died. Constellation Day came once more, and Sasha dressed as one of her favorite characters, the bearded Zeus. She enjoyed the festivities with the same diminished pleasure with which she experienced everything since the death of her great love. At day’s end, she sat at her dressing table, picked up her lute and practiced. She looked in the mirror and a strange, powerful feeling washed over her. She held her breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she stood somewhere in the Forest of El, sometime many years before.
“Once a power of this kind has been bestowed upon you,” Zeus had told her years ago as she rode on his shoulder, “it cannot be taken away, not by the gods, not by anything. You may not remember how to use it at the moment, but you will. It lives somewhere in the back of your mind and will eventually find its way back to the forefront. But there are other powers in this world, stronger and older than ours, and they won’t abide you playing with time. They may not be able to take your power, but they can make your life miserable, and will.”
Sasha understood and swore she would never use her power again. She of course had not been able to keep that promise and had been punished duly for it. But this was different. This was out of her control. This had already happened.
She walked and walked. She knew exactly where to go. She took her time, enjoyed herself, realized in this time, her Prince was young and alive and living like a prisoner in the palace. But she wasn’t going there. She was going home to Reeza. She knocked on the great gates, and unnecessarily aggressive people escorted her to a cell to await a battle. That evening an unhappy young woman visited, and mistook Sasha for a man. What started as a rote interview to assess combat weakness turned into a life-altering conversation about music and freedom and the vast beauty of world outside. Sasha told tale after tale, sang song after song, and at the end of the night, she handed her lute over to the girl, who accepted the gift with a pensive gratitude before leaving. Finished, Sasha held her breath and closed her eyes, and found herself once again at her dressing table, the castle and the world unaware that she had left at all.
Sasha died a few years later unimpressively in her sleep. In life, she dreamed she would be reunited with her love in death, but, as is its nature, her journey to the Underworld was one of forgetting. She joined the other souls on the banks of the River Lethe, not at peace, not in torment…simply no longer alive.
He greeted the guards knocked on her door, received no answer, and opened it. His mother, who was sitting on the bed with her legs folded under her, straightened her back at his entrance. He couldn’t believe the change in her face since the incident – the same features, but so fearful, so vulnerable.
“Hello,” he said in a gentle tone.
“Hi,” she answered quietly, then cleared her throat. “I’m Alexandria.”
“Yes, I know.” He laughed smally. “I’m Wren.”
“I love that as a name.”
“Yes, I know.” He didn’t know where to begin. He didn’t know who or what she was now. How much had he destroyed? What was saved? How did this work? She looked at him expectantly.
“You must have a lot of questions,” he said, grasping. She nodded. “Why don’t we start there?”
“Why am I old?” she asked as steadily as she could, glassy-eyed. “Did the dragon do this to me?” The innocence of her question caught the Prince off guard, and he swallowed a glottal sob trying to make its way out of his chest. He took a deep breath, and steadied his gaze on her.
“No. I did this to you.” Her lips and eyebrows quivered.
“Why?” she asked…very calmly.
“You asked me to.”
“No I didn’t!!” The calm had run out.
“You don’t remember, but you did.”
“Why would I ask you to make me old?”
“I didn’t.” She gestured to her face as if that in itself was a counter argument. Wren clarified, “I made you young again. Inside.”
“Oh,” the revelation hit her. “I’m not old all of a sudden.”
“No. You’ve lived a life.” The tears came freely to her eyes now.
“Why would I… Why on earth would I…ask you to do this?”
“Because you wanted a fresh start. This is your fresh start.”
“I’ve lost half my life!!”
“So you make a new one. You’ll live with me,” she gave him a look of hatred, “…if you want. Or somewhere else…” She reverted into herself, curled up into a ball and cried hard. The Prince stayed silently nearby. This act felt familiar for him, from the days when his mother would thrash in bed from the fire in her head, and only he seemed to provide her any comfort. He couldn’t comfort her now, though. Eventually, the wave of grief subsided.
“My father, is he still alive?”
“No. I’m afraid he’s long dead.”
“I’m queen, then?” This stumped the Prince, after all this, she couldn’t rule again surely? But technically…? What should happen to her? Was he king now?
“We’ll talk about that later.”
“And who are you? Like an advisor or something.”
“No, uh… I’m your son.” The Queen froze, then squinted at him and dropped her jaw.
“Nico?”
“...is my father….yup.” His mother grabbed her abdomen in disbelief. She blushed almost purple.
“I—what? Is he…around? Nico, I mean. Can I see him? Or…”
“You will. He’s at the castle. May I ask, what is the last thing you remember? Before this place.” She got very still.
“Watching the dragon flying towards me.”
“Anything else? Anything after? Flashes?” She shook her head, her expression hoped that wasn’t the wrong answer. “I guess that’s…for the best.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Wren gave his mother a synopsis of her life as a tyrannical queen driven mad by an angry dragon in her head. He generously absolved her of as much blame as possible, but made sure she knew she did horrible things, things best forgotten. He effusively explained that through it all, he loved her and she loved him. He described the events that had led them here, glossing over certain parts, trying not to overwhelm her and sparing her unnecessary grief if he could. Then, she asked the question he dreaded. “And you say I asked you to do this?” she said, trying to make sense of everything. He nodded. “How? How does one remove memories?”
“I used the North Star to do it.”
“Can you use it to give me them back?” The Prince’s cheeks flushed from guilt.
“Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know.” She ruminated a minute. “Gosh, I don’t know. I guess I’d just like to know if it’s an option.”
“Normally it is, but not in this case. Your memories, along with other parts of your personality, were destroyed.” She looked disappointed. “It’s what you wanted,” Wren half-lied. Alexandria half-believed him.
After leaving his mother, Wren found Jove, Flori, Cicero, and Sasha back in the tree room laughing with each other. Zeus’s judgment must have been favorable. He bee-lined to Sasha, and wrapped his arm around her waist. After going so long not being able to get near her, he knew it would be sometime before he would pry himself away again. “How did it go with your mother?” Cicero asked.
“She’s 16 and innocent,” he answered, bewildered. “My mother. My mother. It’s bizarre.”
“It’s for the best,” Flori said comfortingly. The prince looked at her skeptically. “I’m serious. She’s the lucky one here.”
“Better than she deserves,” Jove declared, paining Wren. Sasha gave the dragon a dirty look. Flori changed the subject.
“Fill him on what Zeus told you.”
“Ah, yes. First of all, I found out so much about the gods and stuff, you have no idea. Mostly he wanted to know if I could still turn back time, which he asked in an incredibly rude way. Then I had to convince him to let us keep the North Star so you can fix everybody. He said we have two years, then we hand the thing off to his representative on Earth who will take it some place it will never be found.”
“Who’s that?”
“Me!” Chrysanthia said from the doorway. “I’ll be coming with you!"
Our heroes stayed at the temple another week, recovering and helping to get it back in order. Many of Chrysanthia’s watchers volunteered to join her on her journey, and the rest would stay at the temple to keep a light on in case Chrys or the others ever wanted to come home…or they might turn it into a bed & breakfast. Oo, or a spa!
When the day arrived to be on their way, the humans said their goodbyes to Jove and Cicero. The other dragons had left the minute the Prince had restored them, bitter that the humans had put them in such jeopardy, angry at the death of Orion, and swearing they would have nothing to do with human kind ever again. Cicero promised he would smooth things over, gave his hugs and flew away. Jove and Flori, who had bonded during her years in the valley, shared a tender goodbye before Jove disappeared, not bothering with Sasha or the Prince. Everybody mounted their horses, waved goodbye to those staying and began their journey.
Chrysanthia and her friends twittered and chatted with the excitement of their upcoming adventure. Wren filled in Alexandria on her other life now gone. Flori and Sasha rode side by side in silence.
“You know what I found this morning?” Flori finally expressed. “A grey hair. I have a grey hair.”
“Congratulations,” Sasha answered. “You’re dying like the rest of us.”
Flori thought for a moment.
“It’s the strangest thing,” she replied. “I suddenly wish I could live forever.”
The cavalcade weaved their way through the kingdom back to the castle. In every town they hit, the Queen would call forth all her loyal subjects, the Prince would meet each one and release him or her from the diamond’s spell. When they got back to the castle, they restored and released the people locked in the dungeon, offering them room and board in the palace for life as recompense. Most chose to go home with large pouches of money. Jon-Jon’s mother received a medal of honor on behalf of her son. Alexandria and Nico reunited and, once the Prince repaired his mind, he recognized the girl from his youth and pledged to serve her till he died. She had saved his life, after all.
The citizens of the realm demanded that the Queen be beheaded, but the Prince couldn’t do it. He had put the actual villain to death; she was an innocent now. Instead, she and Nico traveled far away and settled down in a cottage by the sea, determined to lead a quiet life together, woefully aware that people like them rarely attain a goal so pure, but that they could still try.
It took less than two years for Wren to heal the remainder of the kingdom. They hoped they got to everybody, but they couldn’t know for sure. They developed a plan to travel to the Underworld to heal Hades and affected dead souls, but Chrysanthia, thinking that plan overly risky for little reward, stole the diamond, and ran off without warning. She sailed to the deepest part of the ocean, and buried it in the sea.
Sasha and Wren married. For a wedding gift, the King gave his Queen a beautiful handcrafted lute, just like the one she had when they first met.
They didn’t live happily ever after, but they did live more happily together than they would have apart. As it is in life, they celebrated many joyous occasions, withstood many trials, and endured many tragedies on big scales and small. But those are different stories for different days.
Let me now skip ahead. Sasha the Queen is now old; her King has died. Constellation Day came once more, and Sasha dressed as one of her favorite characters, the bearded Zeus. She enjoyed the festivities with the same diminished pleasure with which she experienced everything since the death of her great love. At day’s end, she sat at her dressing table, picked up her lute and practiced. She looked in the mirror and a strange, powerful feeling washed over her. She held her breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she stood somewhere in the Forest of El, sometime many years before.
“Once a power of this kind has been bestowed upon you,” Zeus had told her years ago as she rode on his shoulder, “it cannot be taken away, not by the gods, not by anything. You may not remember how to use it at the moment, but you will. It lives somewhere in the back of your mind and will eventually find its way back to the forefront. But there are other powers in this world, stronger and older than ours, and they won’t abide you playing with time. They may not be able to take your power, but they can make your life miserable, and will.”
Sasha understood and swore she would never use her power again. She of course had not been able to keep that promise and had been punished duly for it. But this was different. This was out of her control. This had already happened.
She walked and walked. She knew exactly where to go. She took her time, enjoyed herself, realized in this time, her Prince was young and alive and living like a prisoner in the palace. But she wasn’t going there. She was going home to Reeza. She knocked on the great gates, and unnecessarily aggressive people escorted her to a cell to await a battle. That evening an unhappy young woman visited, and mistook Sasha for a man. What started as a rote interview to assess combat weakness turned into a life-altering conversation about music and freedom and the vast beauty of world outside. Sasha told tale after tale, sang song after song, and at the end of the night, she handed her lute over to the girl, who accepted the gift with a pensive gratitude before leaving. Finished, Sasha held her breath and closed her eyes, and found herself once again at her dressing table, the castle and the world unaware that she had left at all.
Sasha died a few years later unimpressively in her sleep. In life, she dreamed she would be reunited with her love in death, but, as is its nature, her journey to the Underworld was one of forgetting. She joined the other souls on the banks of the River Lethe, not at peace, not in torment…simply no longer alive.
THE END...FOR NOW
Coming Someday: Queen Sasha and The Furies!