Authors: J.D. Wilde
I wake up from the sunlight assaulting my eyelids through the window to see Kenley’s face staring at me. I jolt up, and immediately regret my reaction as a terrible coughing fit begins. The pain in my chest has not subsided, and the tight bandage around it is extremely uncomfortable to move in. Kenley hushes me and lays me back down onto the soft bed, with dark purple satin sheets.
I do not recognize this room, so it cannot be his own house. After pleading with him for information, he states we are currently guests in the palace, which is fine, but where is Adira? Part of me questions if this is an illusion, but the other part knows that cannot be. I’m laying down in intense pain from the wound she inflicted.
Kenley does not want to talk about it claiming I need my rest. I border on begging, and he relents when I promise to rest properly after he tells me. When he saw Adira stab me, his first thought was the same as mine. That somehow, someway Adira had become corrupted by darkness and betrayed me. In actuality she saved me, spared me from having to return to the Otherworld. The powers she took from me made her the master of life and death instantaneously, so she took full advantage.
I’m no longer the anchor. She killed me to take my other sister’s powers but left me and my own here in Nilohm. Adira returned to the Otherworld, so I can stay.
Kenley stresses I am still weak though, and he wants me to go easy on my body. Humans are not meant to be killed and reborn within the same body. It is going to need time to regain strength and return to normal.
I might be experiencing the wrong emotion here, but I begin to sob. It is the ugliest cry imaginable, and Kenley tries his hardest to comfort me. I don’t understand. I cannot fathom why she did it.
I was willing to leave. I had accomplished everything I set out to do when I arrived. Adira had the island, her people, and her own duties. “She had a life here,” I yell at Kenley. I’m not trying to say this is his fault because I know it is not. However, he is the only person in the room for me to direct my words at, so I cannot help but do so.
“I imagine that is why she did what she did,” Kenley says as he gently rubs head. I cry into his palm like a child being comforted by her father from the monsters under her bed. “She got to live before. You did not.”
“I didn’t ask…” I begin to say, but Kenley interrupts and shushes me. He is aware I did not ask. I’m not the type of person who would have. Adira did what she did because she believed it was the right call. Her people are fine without her and doing well. She was not needed and had already made her own memories. She wanted me to have the same opportunity to do so.
Kenley wants me to rest, and I admit I have grown tired. Between my body already being a mess and crying harder than newborn baby I am drained. I ask him meekly to stay by my bedside. I do not want to be alone. He promises to stay until I fall asleep and begins to hum a sweet melody until my eyes close again, and I doze off.
When I wake up, Kenley has left, but Isabella is in his place. It is dark, and a single light is dimly lit next to my bed. Isabella has not noticed I am awake and is reading some book, but it is too dark for me to make out the title. She looks up when I stir a tiny bit and apologizes because she thinks she has awaken me. I tell her she has done nothing wrong as the light is not why I am awake. I am no longer tired, and I have a strong urge to walk around. Isabella smiles but says she cannot let me get out of bed, Kenley’s orders.
I pine a bit which causes her to chuckle. She agrees, but only for a short distance. I really should not overdo it. Although our walk around the palace halls is quite short, it does not take long till I become winded. We head back to my room where I crash into the bed she has graciously provided me and talk for little while longer about nothing important or serious.
Eventually we get on the topic of what my plans are, and I immediately reply I have to visit Elsen then Briza for a little while. Grace and Adira’s people deserve to know what they did for them and me, and although Isabella agrees I should, she does not think I should go alone. The royal family owns a ship, and she knows its crew will be happy to take me.
I jokingly ask her if that is because they believe I am like their good old leader Jo, and she hushes me. According to her, the only thing Jo and I have in common is our desire to keep people safe. The guards do not respect me because I am their fallen leader's sister. They respect me because I saved Saphira when no one else could.
I wish to keep talking, but Isabella says I have already cheated enough. She refuses to converse with me any further and returns her attention to her book. After enduring some of my pestering, she threatens to grab Kenley. I have no desire to explain to him why I am up and ignoring his resting orders, so I lay back down, pull the silk sheets over me, and go to sleep.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I sleep peacefully. There were no bad dreams, no waking up every hour, just pure restful bliss. I do not for sure, but I am almost positive I felt Adira’s and Grace’s presences while I slept. Unfortunately, if they did visit me in my dreams, I cannot recall them.
I decide as soon as I get up in the morning that I will go to Elsen and Briza as soon as I am able, and if Kenley will have me, I will continue to train and study under him. I have no actual obligations to anyone or anything, and it is positively freeing. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and however I want, within the laws of course.
As I watch the sun rise above the destroyed temple where Adira and I destroyed Sethos together, I realize what will fit perfectly in that space. I want to build monuments for my sisters. Not just Grace, Adira, and Jo, but Elizabeth and Linette, too because I would not be here without them.
I doubt the queen and whoever else is charge of such matters will like the idea as much as I do, but maybe they will. Who knows? Maybe I can fix up the temples in the mountains and start preaching about the balance again. Perhaps I will take some classes and learn to dance like they did at the ball or play beautiful songs on an instrument. Maybe I’ll pick up the lute. I cannot say for sure what will happen next, but I do know I want to show this world what I, Lux, daughter of Oran the grand dragon of light, can really do.
Thank you to everyone who read this book. It has taken me quite some time to pen this idea down, but I loved bringing Lux, Grace, and Adira to life. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I would like to thank my mom and dad for encouraging me to work hard no matter what obstacles I came across and for being patient raising a child with an overactive imagination. It couldn’t have been easy lugging a child too afraid to sleep without a night light at the tender age of twelve, but you both managed.