I looked at her. “Wha—?”
But she turned back to her tent and again busied herself with setting it up.
I walked toward Dresden. Once I had reached him he turned toward the castle and started walking, too. I looked back at the girl in confusion. She put up a sign and went back into the colorful tent.
I read the sign, “Fortune telling?”
“Hmm?” Dresden said. "What was that?"
“Nothing,” I said.
We were pretty much right in front of the castle now. It was made out of the same grey stone as that of the surrounding wall. I hadn’t seen many castles in my life, but it wasn’t as tall as I imagined most were. It had substantially more floors than an average building, but it was more wide than tall. The entire outside wall seemed to be comprised of large round turrets covered in windows. The tops of all of them weren’t pointed; they were rounded, sort of like the buildings in Russia but without the embellishment.
We walked up a wide staircase to the big wooden double doors. Dresden used a metal knocker on the left side to hit the door three times. I was wondering how many people it took to open and close the giant doors when a smaller door within the left door opened. He gestured for me to enter first.
I walked through the smaller door and was surprised to find that the room I stepped into was very well lit. Knowing that the entire outside was made out of stone I assumed that one would feel very enclosed inside. Though the inside looked just like the outside, the windows in the turrets filled the gigantic room with natural sunlight. Apparently the turrets weren’t real. The inner wall was quite flat and fell into the turrets where they occurred, so they were obviously only half turrets.
“Miss Larnex,” a voice said when I entered. “It is a pleasure to have you home.”
The sunlight bounced off of the long, bright blond hair of a man approaching us. It was streaked with white but still suited him very well.
“I am Professor Elias,” he said with a kind smile. “I will be conducting your learning process.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand. “What exactly am I going to be learning?”
“Everything,” he said. “Well, I suppose not
everything
. There really isn’t enough time for that. For right now you will be learning everything that is crucial for you to know at this point in time. Perhaps when all this war stuff is behind us you can learn about Aetheria in a proper manner. For now we are going to have to settle for a crash course on, well, everything.”
“Ah,” I said. “So you mean like history and stuff?”
“The bare minimum of it,” he nodded. “Time will not allow us to go into too much detail, but it’s important that you understand where Aetheria is right now. Who we’re fighting, how long it’s been going on, why it’s going on, things of that matter.”
“I see.”
“Things seem to be going well here so I’ll leave and let you get to it,” Dresden said. “I’ll return later to take her back to camp.” He walked back out of the castle.
“Certainly,” Professor Elias said, walking to the door with him. Dresden exited out the smaller door and Professor Elias closed it behind him.
“You know, years ago he was one of my best students,” he said, placing a metal beam into holders that secured the door.
“Hmm,” I nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me in the least.” I stopped nodding my head and looked at him. “Wait, what do you mean
years
ago? He looks like he should still be in school.”
“Ah, well that’s one of the perks of having the ability you two have, isn’t it?”
I stared at him.
“You know,” he said, seeing my confusion. “Those with wings have the ability to heal themselves and don’t die until they are done fulfilling everything they need to in life.”
I still stared at him.
“Which causes the body to age much more slowly than an average person’s,” he said.
“Oh.”
I thought about Ms. Riley and the fact that she was a couple hundred years old and yet didn’t look older than someone’s grandmother. Then I remembered my father telling me Dresden was some sort of commander in the army.
“That would explain why I’ve never broken a bone and why cuts and bruises heal so quickly.”
He nodded at me.
“Exactly how old is he?”
“You know, I don’t quite remember,” Professor Elias said. “He must be pushing thirty by now.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “He looks like he’s still a teenager.”
“Yes, well, people with wings start aging more slowly once they reach their teens and continue to age slowly until their time ends.”
I stared at the door where Dresden previously had been standing.
“He used to be one of the funniest, most fun-loving boys in his class.”
I looked back at Professor Elias. “You’re kidding.”
“War changes people, Miss Larnex,” he said. “The change varies from person to person, and a lot of the time it is a change you never wished to see.”
“That is why this one has to end,” said another voice.
I turned and saw Ms. Riley standing in another doorway.
“Yes,” said Professor Elias. “This war needs to come to an end before it changes us all. This way please, Miss Larnex. We have a lot to discuss.”
He started walking toward her. Ms. Riley stood aside and let us into the room. The room looked much like the classrooms I was used to with a few exceptions. The walls and ground were made of stone, there were maps of places I had never seen or heard of before, and there were diagrams of strange creatures and a few strange rodent-like or buggish creatures in jars and tanks. I tapped on the glass of a furry looking beetle that was about the size of my palm. I normally was not one for bugs, but the one I was looking at could pass for a pet.
“Please have a seat,” Professor Elias said, indicating the rows of chairs in the middle of the room.
I sat in the center chair of the front row. I felt extremely unprepared. I had no idea what was going to be taught to me; I didn’t have any textbooks or a notebook to write in. I sat there with nothing to look at but my teachers.
“Now, Emma,” Ms. Riley said, “we are going to do this a little unorthodoxly so it would probably be best not to go into too much detail when asked what you are learning by others outside of this room.”
“All others?” I said. “You don’t want me to tell anyone exactly what I’m learning?”
“Right,” Professor Elias said. “It would actually be best not to tell anyone anything. It wouldn’t be taken well.”
“Why?” I was starting to become alarmed about what was going to happen.
“Well,” said Ms. Riley, “when we heard what role they want you to play in the impending war we were a little rattled. We feel it is necessary to take some measures to make sure, for lack of a better way to put it, that you don’t become the person they want you to be.”
“Wh—what are they planning on doing with me?”
Ms. Riley looked over at Professor Elias. I did the same.
“They want you to take a military position,” he said.
“Military…? As in fight and kill people?”
“Not quite,” he said. “More like order and lead people.”
“They want to put me into some sort command post?”
“Something like that,” he said with a nod. “They want to make you some sort of a high ranking officer to help command the troops.”
“Are you kidding?” I said. “I wouldn’t know how to take command of troops. I wouldn’t have any idea what to do or say.”
“This is exactly why Dresden agreed to let us take over your training,” Ms. Riley said. “Everyone thinks he’s the one handling things so let us also work on keeping that thought going. Though they weren’t planning on kicking out a general and having you take his place, they realize that you wouldn’t have a clue what to do in a post like that. They want you on the sidelines.”
“Why? I honestly don’t think I’d be any help at all. What can they possibly gain from having me there?”
“Inspiration,” said Professor Elias.
“What are they hoping I will inspire?”
“How to win the war, of course,” said Ms. Riley.
“I still don’t see how they are expecting me to do that.”
“They have legitimate reason to think that you will,” Professor Elias said. “And that is where your education begins. We are going to start by teaching you exactly who you are. Tell me, Miss Larnex, what is your ability?”
“I—,” I looked over at Ms. Riley who smiled and nodded at me. “I have Dragonfly wings.”
“Right,” he said. “Dragonfly wings are only born in times of war. Excuse me, not in times of any war, but in times of substantial war or other extreme situations in which the people of Aetheria are in need of one. It has to be a heavy-hitting war to require the aid of a Dragonfly. Has Celeste explained what a Dragonfly
does
?”
“She said I was a protector,” I said, thinking perhaps I was more prepared than I thought I was.
“Ahem,” Ms. Riley cleared her throat. I looked over at her and she raised her eyebrows.
“Right,” I said. “She said I was the
People’s
Protector.”
Professor Elias laughed, “I’d expect nothing less. The thinking that the Dragonfly is the protector of the
people
is a new way of thinking. What is normally taught is that the Dragonfly is a military muse. This is believed because one of the requirements to be a Dragonfly is that the person in possession of the wings is a particularly inspired and insightful person. They think, feel, and know things that others may not.”
“I don’t feel particularly insightful,” I said. “Maybe there was a mistake in giving me the wings.”
“There are no mistakes in the handing out of abilities,” said Professor Elias. “There is a predetermination when it comes to the abilities of Aetherians. There is a sort of order as to what abilities are present at any given time.”
“You mean it’s planned?” I found it hard to believe that something like that could be coordinated in any way.
“Somehow, yes, it is,” he said. “We don’t know how it is planned, but knowing what we do about our abilities makes it very hard not to believe in some sort of higher power. As of right now Aetheria is split in two: North Aetheria and South Aetheria.”
“As of right now?” I said. “Meaning that the split is new?”
“Relatively,” he said. “It happened three hundred years ago.”
“And that’s ‘relatively new’?”
“Well, yes, cosmically speaking,” he said. “Up to then for the many, many years Aetheria had existed, it was one country.”
“Why did it split?”
“That’s a very good question. The answer will show you why this world is not as different as the one from which you have just come to us. As you have noticed, all Aetherians are born with blue eyes and blond hair; but as geography changes one other aspect of the people changes with it. Can you guess what that change is?”
My mind immediately snapped to Oak. “Skin color,” I said.
“Yes,” he said. “The people of South Aetheria have a significantly different skin tone than those of North Aetheria because of the climate change. It is colder in the north and much warmer in the south much like what you are used to. This castle has housed every king and queen of Aetheria. Since the split it has become sort of the central nervous system of North Aetheria.
“The most obvious difference that sets Aetherians apart lies in what ability they have. But when that gets old they start to look for other differences. The difference that is now being focused on is skin color. Kingship usually runs through a bloodline. It isn’t often that there is a need for it to waver from a bloodline and develop elsewhere, but it happens. Your father will be the last king of your family’s bloodline.”
“Wait, so why will my family stop ruling?” I said.
“Because you are the only heir to the king,” Ms. Riley said. “And you were born with Dragonfly wings.”
“So it’s my fault?” I said. “For not being born with Butterfly wings?”
“It’s not any fault of yours,” Professor Elias said. “We can’t control these things. You were chosen to be the Dragonfly and Arabella was chosen to be the Butterfly. It very easily could have been reversed, but it wasn’t. If you were meant to be the next queen then you would have Butterfly wings, but that is not your destiny. You, I am afraid, have a much more troubling road ahead of you.”
“So, let’s go back to the whole military thing,” I said. “If you guys don’t like what they have planned why did you agree to take part in all of this?”
“I’m obligated,” said Professor Elias. “I’m one of the royal tutors, so you, as a part of the royal family, must be taught by me.”
“But I’m not. Don’t you need Butterfly wings to be considered royalty?”
“Technically, you’re right,” he said. “But you are still the daughter of the king. Although, you are not a future queen, your bloodline is still that of royalty and will be until another bloodline takes its place.”
I looked at Ms. Riley. “Are you obligated, too?”
“I have no obligation to this process,” she said. “I could merely sit back and wait for you to be ready to take my place. But I didn’t wish to do that. As we said, when we heard what they were planning for you we decided to step in and do something. I am of the generations who have believed that the Dragonfly is supposed to take military action. Although, I no longer believe it myself I was made to do so when it was my time. While I did what I had to, it didn’t feel right. I knew something was wrong.”
“Celeste and I have been researching Dragonflies over the past years,” said Professor Elias. “It was always a passion of mine to study legends and myths so she came to me and asked why the so called Enlightened One felt like she did not do the right thing. That is why she started to study Dragonfly folklore with me.”
“One group of stories struck me,” Ms. Riley said. “In the Main Aetherian Library there are published accounts of stories told about Dragonflies spanning an unimaginable amount of years. These particular stories focused on the Dragonflies’ wingspan in particular. Do you remember how long I told you your wings were?”
“You said they were six feet, right?” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “Six feet is not bad for a beginner. My record wing span is ten feet.”