And it’s time Dessin, DaiSzek, and I find our Neslanox.
Skylenna
Nine Hundred Years in The Past
“Why are you laughing toyourself and staring at nothing?” I ask Dessin.
We’ve camped here for three weeks. As far from civilization as we can get. Our children were worried about us not having a house to live in, but they soon remember that Dessin and I once slept under the stars when we ran from the asylum. We slept by a fire and kept each other warm.
This is where we are happiest.
I finish off the cooked wild turkey Dessin caught with DaiSzek. It’s an early morning with dew sticking to the grass and fog simmering around the trees.
His chuckling tapers off. “We’re probably almost a thousand years in the past, Skylenna.”
“You think?”
“I made you a promise in the Vexamen Prison. Do you remember it?” he asks.
I shrug. “I’ve worked very hard to not remember my time in that place.”
He challenges me with a look. I sigh, lying on my back and gazing at the way the warm sunrise saturates the fluffy white clouds.
I scan the conversations I remember, and one stands out. We were cuddled up to the bars, and he was telling me about all of his alters…
I instantly understand why he was laughing.
“You promised to build me a castle,” I say with a gasp.
“Yes.”
I scan the area. The land before us without any architecture. Without any trace of civilization that came from Alkadon settlers when the Chandelier City was built.
“And what would be the perfect name for a castle so special? If not for the heroic time-traveling creature that saved our daughter’s life,” Dessin says, looking back out at the horizon of endless potential.
I bring my hands to the top of my head, trying to wrap my head around this.
“The Dellilian Castle…”
“It seems as though we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I end up building that castle for you after all, baby.”
“It all started with us?!”
“They did promise her that they’d ensure her name would live on for a long time,” says with a slow smile.
I clap my hands, scratching DaiSzek’s head and whooping in excitement.
“You gonna help us build a castle, big boy? You’ll get your own room and everything!”
Dessin kneels in front of me, stroking the back of his knuckle along my cheek, memorizing the bliss painted on my face.
“You know what this means?” he asks.
I lean into his touch, my heart soaring at the way he’s looking at me.
“What?”
“We made it, Skylenna. We finally made it home. Out of captivity and to our Neslanox. And now, I’m going to build my princess a castle.”
