Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Lena
After the harrowing live performance of my recurring nightmare this morning, I made it through the last class of my first week, Gardening and Herbology, this afternoon.
Even though I’ve had absolutely zero free time, I can’t wait any longer for more answers.
Twenty-two years has been long enough spent in the dark.
Naomi offered to come to the library with me, but I turned her down.
This is something I need to do on my own.
The Koroleva library might be my favorite building on campus, with its grand entrance hall and high ceilings adorned with intricate carvings and detailed stonework.
The walls are lined with dark polished wood paneling, marble busts are tucked into quiet alcoves, and the scent of aged parchment and leather lingers in the air.
As I explored, I found ornate fireplaces and elaborate chandeliers casting soft golden light on the shelves, making every corner feel timeless and creating an atmosphere of quiet reverence for knowledge.
I may be undecided on my future at the institute, but I can’t deny the vibes are immaculate.
I settled in a cozy spot in the reading room.
My long oak table is stacked with books on the Solis family lineage that I’m apprehensive to read—an anxious tide rising in my center.
Tall, narrow lead-paned windows allow natural light to filter in, casting a tender glow across my table.
For a Thursday afternoon, I figured the library would be bumping, but it’s just me and the rows of towering shelves filled with ancient books.
I crack open the first book, House Histories of Convalescere, and flip to House Solis.
The Reign and Fall of House Solis
In the annals of Convalescere’s prolific history, few tales are as tragic as that of House Solis.
Once the reigning royal house, the Solis family, of the Seraphim Insignis, held the Throne of Light.
King Vasili Solis and Queen Viktoriya Koroleva Solis were revered monarchs whose rule was marked by prosperity.
I am sorry, what? The Solis House is a royal house? My family sat on the Throne of Light before Boden’s? Wait, shut up! Is this my Mia Thermopolis moment? Surely, I’d have known this, someone would have told me, right? My eyes fly back to the page.
However, in 1872, their rule came to a violent end when they were brutally murdered under mysterious circumstances. The assassination plunged the realm into chaos, and the throne was left vacant for a brief time (later taken up by the Lamont House).
In the wake of this tragedy, their teenage daughter, Princess Vladislava Solis, vanished without a trace. Rumors and speculation about her fate abounded. She seemingly disappeared entirely from the known magica world.
There’s a question that has been bothering me—flitting around the back of my mind—but I’ve been too afraid to bring it to the forefront and ask myself: Did Dmitri know?
Did he know about magicae? Did he know about this world, about our family history, about who and what he was, who and what I am?
I can’t imagine he would keep something like this from me.
But how we lived our lives, The Rules we followed, his death… all point to him knowing more.
He told me we had these Rules to stay safe.
For a long time, I just went with it. I was too young to question why, and I didn’t know any other way of life.
When I was twelve and we were in the middle of a particularly stressful move, I asked him why we had to leave again.
I pushed back on his cookie-cutter answer about safety.
The night is branded in my memory; we were on a dark highway.
I was finally allowed to sit in the front seat, and I was bawling my eyes out.
We had quickly left Atlantic City after only two months of staying with Uncle Sergey.
Sergey wasn’t really our uncle, we only called him that.
But he was a somewhat stable fixture in our lives—a bit like a faulty secondhand lamp, sometimes working, sometimes not, flickering on and off.
One of the only adult presences, however occasional, I had growing up.
He and Dmitri had gotten into a fight. I don’t know what about, but I could hear their rapid Russian cursing drifting through the walls even with my headphones on as I tried to sleep.
Dmitri stormed into my room and threw all my meager belongings into my duffle bag.
And we’d just left in the middle of the night.
I remember the blue-green lights of the dashboard obscured by my tears, the feeling of a humid high-pressure storm on the horizon and a buzzing in my diaphragm. And I pushed him. “Dmitri, why?” I cried. “Why did we have to go this time?
“It’s complicated,” Dmitri explained. “Our family is complicated.”
“I need to understand!” I screamed, clutching my stomach as pain rippled through my body. “Why do we have to do this all the time! I’m tired of it! I’m so, so tired of it!”
“Solinsko, calm,” Dmitri ordered in a tranquil voice.
But I kept crying, I couldn’t be calm. I couldn’t. I doubled over with a yell as a painful cramp at the center of my body propelled me forward in my seat. I must have been so exhausted, sick from anger and not sleeping.
“Vladlena, you need to calm down now!” His use of my real name cut through my meltdown, and I was able to come back to myself.
Once I’d taken some deep breaths, he finally gave me some answers, albeit vague ones.
He said that our ancestors had made controversial decisions.
Powerful people would always come looking for us, to use us for their own agendas.
That the only way to be truly free was for us to never be caught.
When I’d asked who these people were, he wouldn’t say.
He’d only explain that others would force their own ambitions on me.
He’d keep me safe, but I needed to always follow The Rules.
I was a preteen, full of angst, untethered from friends and family and had been shoved into a car in the middle of the night to be moved across the country for the fourth time that year. I was allowed to be upset. But after that night, I never unpacked my duffle bag again.
I turn the page and continue reading.
The Lost Princess: Vladislava Solis
In the following years, rumors circulated that the Lost Princess Vladislava Solis bore a child with Esfandiar Mirza, a member of the Fallen Insignis.
This union was considered not only scandalous but illegal, as the procreation between seraphim and fallen is forbidden.
This rumor would be later confirmed to be true by the Cross-Kingdom Council.
The child born of this union, Vsevolod Solis, was a figure shrouded in mystery.
His existence challenged the very fabric of society, and details of his life remain elusive.
The Rise of Adrik Solis
Later, Princess Vladislava bore another child, this time with Cornelius Archer, a noble seraphim from House Archer.
This child, Adrik Solis, grew to be a significant member of the court under the rule of Queen Sigrid Lamont.
Unlike his half-brother Vsevolod, Adrik was a prominent figure, but he harbored ambitions that extended beyond mere service.
Viewing himself as the legitimate heir to the throne, Adrik instigated a civil war, seeking to reclaim the power once held by his ancestors.
The conflict tore the kingdom apart, marking a period of great strife.
This conflict, known as the Sun Wars, spread to all four kingdoms. Approximately a decade before his death, Adrik fathered a child with a human woman.
It is rumored he fathered a second child, born posthumously. Little is known about his progeny.
The enigmatic lives of Princess Vladislava and her children weave a grand, albeit tragic tapestry. As the Convalescere Kingdom moves forward under the rule of House Lamont, the echoes of House Solis’s legacy remain a poignant reminder of the kingdom’s tumultuous past.
I run my palm over a family tree printed on the page.
I trace my fingers around the names of the king and queen, my supposed great-grandparents, and trace it down to my grandmother, Vladislava.
I wonder if I’m named for her? Her line branches off to two sons, one my uncle and the other my father.
A cold sense of dread—like a many-legged insect—skitters down the back of my neck.
This does not bode well for me. Not with everything I’ve learned this week in class and from my peers.
What did Dmitri know of his father? My mother? About me?
Frustrated that this book inspired more questions than it answered, I search the stacks for another one.
As much as it will hurt to read about Adrik’s betrayal, I need to understand; I need to know more.
I have already read everything in my history book about the Sun Wars, and nothing speaks to Adrik’s motive outside of his belief in a prophecy.
What of my other family? Teariki and Kian’s words from the hotel suite ring in my memory: “lost” and “thought to be dead.” But that’s not enough. I need confirmation.
I spend the next few hours reading everything I can find on the Solis family.
The records are vast—it will take me a lifetime to tread through all this.
And unfortunately, I have a curfew to keep.
The last thing I do before leaving for my Boden-supervised walk back to my room is request a text on prophecies from the archive.