Chapter Two
Vonetta
The next hours pass in a haze for me.
As if I am not in my body, but observing it from above. We walk to the Hills and raise a beacon that the northern Isle, the Isle of Men, will see. There, somewhere beyond the shores of my home, someone will be relaying the message to the priests that the dedicant of the Land has been chosen.
The Lady speaks in low tones to me as we travel past her dwelling, a quaint building not much larger than the one I slept in this very night.
Before we reach the hills of Naedra, she tells me what little she knows of the current highborn— the eldest son of the King and Queen of Elemyr.
He’s not much older than me, two cycles more.
He has only one sibling, a younger sister.
He has known his whole life that this day would come.
I have had but minutes to internalize this shift to my own future.
I have always imagined I was training to be Lady of the Isle someday, as Vestera has no children born to her.
At the very least, I had a surety that I would remain here, teaching the next generation of girls and learning everything I can about the spirits of our land.
But everything…everything will be different now.
In three days’ time, the messenger will reach Ilyora, the capital, with news of what took place this night, and I am afraid.
“Lady,” I pause, waiting for further assurance that I may address her. She nods her assent, and I continue, “I have always done as you have asked of me. But I feel…” I pause, searching for the right words. “Humbled by this task.”
Her smile now is wistful, not so dissimilar to the one she gave me at the mirror pool. She lifts her chin and peers into my eyes when she speaks to me.
“Child, this is not merely a choice. You witnessed Naedra’s wishes—as did I.” She takes my hand into her own as we walk onward. Hers are thin, each bone felt in my own hand. But she is strong in her grasp, grounding me.
“This is your destiny, Netta. You will meet it with grace. Just as you have been trained to do. There has been a fissure in this land for far too long. You will heal it. I have faith in this. The land has chosen you for this task. You will be made ready.”
I nod my understanding as we continue the trek back to her dwelling. I do not feel like grace, but I do not say it. When the Lady speaks again, it is to bid me farewell.
I’m permitted to return to my bed until the noontide while the rest of my sisters attend to our morning routine of caring for the animals and preparing the meals for this day.
I ponder how the next days or weeks will look different for me.
Am I to study the Rites and prepare myself for the trials ahead?
How am I to leave the only home I have ever known and take on the role of wife?
Of Queen? I walk back in silence, my hood up and my eyes as weary as my mind is.
As I lie in my bed, I try to recall the figures on that mountain. I know now that those men who looked so weary and cold will be my bonded. The women here on the Isle are raised as pillars, alone but supported by the women next to us. I do not know how to be…bonded…a wife.
As I drift away, I think of the eyes that stared back at me from the pool. Rich brown and ambers and icy blues float under my eyelids, and I wonder which of them they belong to.
…
The bell signaling midday comes, but I am already awake. I rested fitfully, replaying the images from the mirror and the Lady’s words to me over and over. ‘There has been a fissure in this land for far too long.’
I believe she was referring to the fallen Queen.
I know from my studies that the representative of Naedra died early in her reign, but so little is said about her, and I do not know for sure.
Why, Naedra? There are hundreds of women on this Isle; I can’t help but feel like I am ill-equipped to be a wife, much less a ruler.
I shake this doubt away from me as I don my day tunic and boots for the day.
I coil my braid and pin it at the nape of my neck, preparing for the work ahead.
I square my shoulders and take in a deep, grounding breath.
I will try to meet this with grace, just as the Lady instructed me to do.
I resolve to spend my evening in meditation at Naedra’s shrine.
What I do not anticipate, is the stares from my younger sisters the moment I emerge from the novice's dwelling.
Not jealous eyes, but excited ones, awe-struck.
Many of the older women knew my predecessor, I would assume.
As for the younger sisters, this is their first choosing, and their excited whispers follow me for the rest of the day.
I avoid their gazes and head to the Sanctuary to prepare for my own set of students today.
When I arrive, the Lady is already there, and the cold sensation at my core returns immediately.
I follow her into a small room, not richly decorated, but functional and warm. The table is filled with tomes, and there is a large drawn map at its center.
“Another sister will take over your teachings for the rest of your time with us. For now, you must prepare for your new role.” I sit down across from Vestera, and I’m still feeling overwhelmed by the way my life has changed in just a few short hours.
Gratefully, studying is one of my strong suits. The Isles hold nearly every text imaginable about Elemyr. What is not here is at the Isle of Men, just north of our home. I have always been a good student, though my studies have mostly been of a spiritual nature, visions, and water scrying.
The Lady waits for me to finish scanning the large map. How long did it take for a scholar to draw this? I wonder. Elemyr is massive compared to the two Isles to its west, the Isles of Men and Women.
I was born on the main Isle, Elemyr— but where? I do not know. I have lived on Naedra my entire life, as far as I can remember.
The Lady reaches for one of the texts and places it between us, but she doesn’t open it. This is not unusual; most of our lessons here are oral histories, passed between women in a sacred exchange.
“The land was wild and untamed when Caelestis, Naedra, and Nerine took form. Beings that were the physical embodiment of the elements. They are the spirits of this land. Understanding that they each held a sacred power to create harmony in each realm, they formed the Trinity to unite them.
The land below us—No lies within us.
The sea before us—No betrayal among us.
The sky above us—No division between three.
For Elemyr, We are One.
And so when Caelestis, Naedra, and Nerine bestowed their graces onto humanity, they taught them the vow that kept them whole throughout their time on Elemyr.
Warning its people that should they choose strife and contention over unity, the elements would revolt and turn the Triad's favor from them all.”
The Lady spoke from memory, as if she had recited this every day of her life. Perhaps she had. She took a steadying breath in and continued,
“This tome is a record of every sovereign who has ruled in their stead. Every firstborn child of the royal Trinity has represented Nerine, spirit of the sea. Every man from the Isle of Caelestis, the element of sky. Finally, every woman from Naedra—our Isle, the spirit of the Land herself. Now, my child, you have been called upon to lead your people as the representative of Naedra. It is my sacred honor to guide you before you take part in the sacred Rite of the Trinity.”
…
For the next several days, my time is spent in the sanctuary with Vestera, studying the history and geography of Elemyr. The shock of the choosing has worn off for my sisters; I receive the reverent nods with as much decorum as I can muster.
I have had little time to dwell on my reservations, and when I do, it is mostly in the night when I cannot sleep. It feels small to say, but the thing that has most disturbed me yet is that for my entire life, I have been sister Netta to these women.
Now, I am Vonetta and ‘Lady’. I have always been the first, of course, but to hear it so constantly is jarring. The effect isolating, unmooring me from my home before I have even left it. I am apart from them in a way I never have been.
In spite of it all, I have enjoyed my time with the Lady, learning our histories and the role of the representative of the land.
Her teachings remind me of when I was a girl, sitting at her knee and listening to the tales of our people. Envisioning how the Isles came to be.
“It is a great honor to the people of Elemyr that the Trinity is formed of both royal line and common folk. In this way, it reflects the way the Gods transferred their rule to us.”
In the evenings, I join the sisters at the shrine for reflection and to give thanks to Naedra. My prayers are constant—that I’ll be a Queen who is worthy and that I will bond with these strangers in the Rite and trials ahead.
The most pressing lessons with Vestera have been about the trials. I have never left this island, and now I’ll have traveled the entire country in the span of weeks by the time I reach the capital in Ilyora. It's an incredible amount of information to take in, and my mind swims with it.
Each trial tests our partnership and grows our understanding of one another. Securing not just our bond with each other, but the bounty of the elements we are dedicated to. How does one bond to someone, two someones that they have never met?
Sometimes, on my way back to the novice's dwelling, I stop at the mirror pool and kneel where I did that first night with the Lady. I peer into the water's dark and glassy surface for what feels like hours, but no answers come.
On my walk home, I look to the north to see if the beacon has lit, but the sky is dark. The only light is that of the moon and the Lady’s dwelling, alone beyond the mirror pool.