“Do you know how I came to be at Bardot? I don’t even remember what my parents looked like and remember next to nothing of my life there.”
“I do,” Elena nods, “and I’m sorry we haven’t had this conversation before. The timing was never right.”
The Princess sighs to herself and then turns to look not at me, but at Stormfall sleeping on my shoulder. She gives the Bird of Ash a small smile as I wait in anticipation.
“You graced my visions about a year before your fourteenth birthday,” she states softly, “a young human girl with the biggest smile on her face who was always seen running through the forest. You were a happy girl, Alexis, so curious and filled with a sense of adventure that not many still had at that age. You lit the smiles on everyone you met, a rare sight to see in the lands that you hailed from…”
“But you were also a sheltered girl,” she shakes her head solemnly, “ignorant to the maliciousness that was around you. When I took to the task of finding out who you were and where you lived…”
She shakes her head again, not looking at me.
“Your parents did a good job at shielding you from the horror around you.”
I take a deep breath, needing the answer. “And where was that horror?”
“Etter,” she replies quietly.
My inhale is sharp as I try to still my beating heart…
I come from Etter.
My family lived and raised me in the small Woodlands village of Etter.
“I considered bringing you back with me to Alston once I found you. Considered offering your parents an explanation and offer of wardunder my protection. I didn’t know of your significance then, but I did know that Sianoa would not let you grace my visions if not for a needed purpose.”
“But you were so happy with your parents, despite everything around you. I couldn’t take you away from that. Not from the only family you knew…”
Elena looks out to the Bell Grove, “so I watched you from afar for a few months, curious about the young girl who caught Sianoa’s attention. I kept my distance and traveled between Alston and Etter, never announcing myself on my visits and just watching. Until fate decided to intervene…”
I stop in my walk, somehow knowing I needed to stand still for whatever she had to say next.
“I took you on the night of the attack…” she pauses as well, her voice quiet.
Attack?
“The Discerni of your village raided the homes of all the human men and women they suspected of harboring dissent to their rule. The force could not be stopped. It was something that culminated afteryearsof brewing.”
Elena watches me carefully in the next moment, her gaze turning sad.
“Your parents were at the forefront of that dissent, Alexis. Something that I found out too late in my months of spying. They had been rallying the humans of your small village to step out of Discerni rule and live their lives free and unburdened for years. They aimed to govern themselves, to live in their home without fear.”
He words bring a surprising smile to my face.
My parents were fighters.
They stood up for what was right.
Elena shakes her head, “they stood no chance, Alexis.”
My heart drops.
“I snuck into your home that night during the attack, hearing the screams on my ride in. The village was ablaze, homes burnt to the bare wood floors as humans were slaughtered and children pulled from their families without mercy.”
She looks away in disgust, “I didn’t know if you would be alive when I entered your home. The place that you were living,” she shakes her head slowly, “when I tell you that home was not fit for a family of three…”
“Alexis, even through all the flames burning down the walls, your home was little more than a hovel. I found you hiding under the only bed in the only room, your body shaking from the horror around you. Your mother lay slain on the floor not feet away, blood pooling from her gut and onto the ground. I don’t know how you kept quiet during the attack or how you stayed under the bed even as the flames took over everything around you, and I probably would have missed you had I not heard the small whimper you gave at the sound of my feet. The moment I reached down to grab you, you set your eyes on me and screamed. I can only suspect that yousaw too many familiar features on my face that resembled the men who destroyed your home…”
“I pulled you out from under the bed kicking and screaming,” she continues, lips tipping up in a small smile, “you immediately attacked me with a butter knife. You were so scared and angry that I couldn’t blame your actions, but I did know that I had to get you out of the village undetected.”
