13. SOPHIE
Sophie floated in the air over Castle Terrin, except it wasn’t as all doom and gloom as she knew it to be. The grand castle was covered in lively vines and flowers of rich, vibrant colours that bloomed freely across its walls.
“When I was younger, I often visited all the realms, imbuing their lands with prosperity in the form of crops and flowers – whatever the land needed at the time. My favourite place to visit was Faery,” Danna’s voice echoed in Sophie’s head.
“Holy shit, this is like a cinematic cut scene of a movie or—”
“Sophie, pay attention. I’m trying to tell you the story.”
“Sorry, Mum, sorry. Go on.”
Sophie watched as her mother’s memories played out before her like they were on the big screen. Clouds rolled across the bright blue sky and the Faery sun rose and fell bringing with it buds of beautiful flowers. Pixies danced to a secret song, birds sung freely and children played chase across the castle grounds.
A young Danna sat on the ground with a group of young girls who were dressed in rags and covered in dirt. Next to them, a fountain that sparkled with the golden coins of those that dared to dream and wish, flowed happily.
“See, of all the realms, the people in Faery were happy. It was nothing like I’d ever seen before. It was something I wanted for myself,” Danna continued.
Young Danna manifested crowns of flowers on each of the girls’ heads. They cheered in excitement and hugged her. Suddenly, a tall, handsome silver-haired Fae soldier bearing a short spear towered over them. He cast a menacing shadow over the group. The young girls shrunk in fear for a moment, before they realised who he was. They knew him. Danna’s golden eyes met his of bright purple.
“And then I met Lou. Your real father. I finally had a reason to stay in Faery beyond my responsibility as the goddess of all lands.”
The silver-haired, purple-eyed warrior knelt on one knee and murmured a few words that Sophie could not hear. Young Danna smiled and raised her hand for him to kiss. He slowly bent down to place a lingering kiss on the back of her hand. He did not look away from the golden eyes that had so clearly captivated him.
“Our love was a whirlwind. It was a storm that I never saw coming but one that I revelled in. A storm that I never wanted to go away.”
Sophie saw her mother and her father running across the hills of Soxis, embracing one another. Then she saw them lying in a field of flowers like Sophie had seen in the photos that her Uncle Alston kept. Then a scene of them holding baby Sophie in their arms, tears of joy running rampant down their young faces. The scenes warmed Sophie’s heart.
That’s what love is meant to be like,Sophie thought.
“We were living out our fairytale until one day, the goddess of rebirth, Cerri, came to our doorstep, crying.”
A small woman with long dark red hair sobbed in front of their cottage door. Lou brought the crying woman a cup of hot tea while Danna soothed the woman with the reassuring circles of her hand across the goddess’s back.
“See, her child had been prophesised over, as infants of gods and goddesses do. By their fifth year, they receive a reading from the Fates that could take the form of a blessing or a curse.”
Lou and the two goddesses huddled together before the fireplace. Cerri sobbed as she animatedly explained what the Fates had said.
“Her child, Lethe, born from her entanglement with Terr, was cursed.”
The vision of a small boy with dark red hair appeared. He looked sad and alone.
“He was cursed to be the Breaker of Realms. It was a prophecy that struck fear in the gods and goddesses of the Godlands.”
The world around the small boy crumbled with red-hot ash. His eyes turned red and bloody as his mouth fixed into a permanent roar.
“But what it did not change was that he was her son. Cerri loved him.”
The world around him pieced back together. Bright light surrounded him as his mother, Cerri, embraced him with tears in her eyes.
“It so happened that Faery was facing its own demise. See, shortly after the arranged marriage of Queen Calliea and King Gydeon, Gydeon found his true soulmate.”
Before Sophie flashed an image of the young Gydeon in his royal robes, arms shielding a small woman with dark hair and silver swirling eyes. Riviera. Before them stood the never-aging Queen Calliea who had a permanent snarl fixed across her porcelain face. She was ready to strike the small female.
“Calliea learnt that Riviera was pregnant. She wanted Faery’s heir dead. She wanted every threat to her throne destroyed. So together with Riviera and King Gydeon, we struck a deal with Cerri.”
The familiar warm-hearted woman with dark black hair and silver swirling eyes appeared before the fireplace of Danna and Lou’s cottage. Behind her stood King Gydeon with his dark black hair and turquoise eyes. Across the small coffee table sat Lou and Danna. They were planning something. Tears teamed in all their eyes. Reassuring looks and nods were passed around the table.
“We tried to deceive Queen Calliea in hopes to save all our children from their fates, but some things did not go to plan.”
The scene flashed again. Now Sophie was on the edge of the Red Oak Forest, watching as Cerri crouched down on her knees. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hands braced the shoulders of her red-haired, cursed son, Lethe. He was shaking his head, lips pouted and eyes red from angry tears.
Sophie could just make out the words Cerri mouthed to him. It’s going to be okay. I will love you forever. With those words a shimmer of golden magic encased the boy. It glowed bright for a millisecond before rolling off the boy in a shimmering, billowing fog.
Sophie’s stomach dropped.
Before Cerri stood the young, turquoise-eyed boy Sophie had always dreamt of. The boy she had memories of . . . except here, he had no scar running on the left side of his face nor did his eyes swirl and smoke.
“What Cerri and Riviera did for their sons took great courage . . . at least, more courage than I ever possessed.”
Sophie watched as a sudden movement caught Cerri’s attention. From the brush appeared Riviera with her son, a boy with dark black hair, turquoise swirling eyes and a scar across the left side of his face.
From a distance, the boys were identical.
The same inky hair. The same tanned skin. Even the same height.
Up close however, were the telling signs that these were not the same boys. Tiny little cracks upon a vast fa?ade.
Where Acheron’s eyes were moving and vivid, Lethe’s were not. Where Acheron had a fresh scar upon his left eye, Lethe did not. Where Acheron’s shoulders were sure and calm, Lethe’s were not.
With reassuring nods from their mothers, the boys took a few steps forward and swapped places.
Next to Cerri now stood Acheron.
And next to Riviera, now stood Lethe.
“It was agreed thatAcheron would be kept safe in the Godlands while Lethe and Riviera would escape to Sotera with us.”
Sophie understood.
To escape the wrath of the gods, Cerri gave up her son.
To run from the queen who promised death to who she loved most, Riviera did the same.
While Sophie understood, it didn’t stop her from feeling physically ill.
With a gentle wave and a knowing nod, Cerri and Acheron vanished into thin air. Riviera gave Lethe a reassuring squeeze of his hand. She leaned down to wipe his face free of his tears. Together they ran east, through the Summeiran forest to Wrenntia. To Northern Helm station.
Their pace quickened. Riviera constantly checked over her shoulder, pushing young Lethe to his limits. In the distance, small flames appeared between the staggered trees. The flames bounded, leapt and moved closer and closer to them. They weren’t flames. They were hellhounds.
Riviera scooped young Lethe up from the ground and sprinted as fast as she could. He clutched onto her for dear life. His little fists were white-knuckled but still, Riviera ran with all her might. Try as she did, she wasn’t fast enough for Terr’s hellhounds.
A loose root caught a hold of Riviera’s ankle, and she came crashing down to the ground. Lethe crawled to the woman to help her up, but her ankle was badly twisted. Riviera sobbed. She pulled the boy close to her and yanked off the chain she wore around her neck. The sleeping sun necklace shone bright as she placed the necklace firmly in his small hands. Protect this at all costs, she mouthed as tears and pain washed over her face.
The boy, wide-eyed, nodded then shook his head and he tried to help her up.
But he couldn’t.
The hellhounds circled Riviera who lay helpless on the floor. Her mouth screwed into a fierce Go!
The boy scrambled back but fear had rendered his legs useless. He watched as hellhounds circled, nipped, then pounced onto Riviera’s helpless body. Her hand stretched and strained for the boy. Dirt piled underneath her fingernails. Then her strained hands fell limp.
The colour in her eyes dimmed to a milky white.
The boy had watched it all unfold.
With the sleeping sun necklace in his hand, the boy ran as fast as he could. He dared look back once, but the hellhounds did not give chase. They sniffed and continued feasting on the remains of the kind-hearted Riviera.
“The oracles showed me. Riviera did not make it.”
Danna’s voice shook with a quivering anger whose edges were softened with sadness.
The world shifted again, the edges glowing and fading, returning to show a young Danna. The bright moonlight made her skin glow and the darkness underneath her eyes even more devastating. She stood upon a grassed clearing, a young Sophie grabbing onto her thighs. They were waiting. “When Riviera never showed, we knew. We knew that Queen Calliea had found out that we were hiding something from her. Your father . . . Lou, he loved you so much. He loved Acheron just the same and to buy us time he . . .”
The scene cut to Sophie’s father, confronting the queen at the gates of Castle Terrin. Sophie couldn’t make out the words, but she knew he was stopping her from moving. His strong arms were outstretched as if to say “you’ll need to get through me first”.
Queen Calliea had looked the same as she did back then. All the way down to her spindly red nails that she lodged in Lou’s neck.
Sophie could read the words that spat angrily from their mouths.
Get out of my way,the queen sneered.
Lou’s eyes narrowed on her from where he knelt on the ground. Never, he mouthed.
With otherworldly speed, Queen Calliea sliced his neck open and kicked his flailing body to the ground.
Sophie choked.
“Your father did not make it.”
Sophie could feel tears streaming down her face. Her throat ached heavily.
“But we made it. Barely.”
A young Sophie swaddled in blankets clung onto her mother’s chest, fear wrapped heavily around them both. Danna sprinted from Northern Helm pier to the station that lay just across the grassy hill. Their hot breaths billowed out before them.
“I feared the gods would seek retribution for my helping Cerri. I masked my power and we escaped through Northern Helm.”
Sophie and her mother had made it onto the Faery train. Danna soothed an extremely distraught young Sophie, who cried and cried on her mother’s shoulder.
Together, they vanished through the portal.
“As soon as we made it through the portal, I blocked all your memories of Faery.”
Golden, sparkling mana weaved in and around young Sophie’s head.
“After a while in Sotera, I glamoured you with round ears and black hair so no one could pick on you at school.”
Young Sophie stood in front of a dressing table as Danna twirled a wind of mana around her. Her silver and purple pig tails turned black and her delicately pointed ears rounded.
“But I couldn’t get rid of your eyes. Taliesin eyes.”
The vision that played out before her eyes faded into reality. Her mother sat in front of her once more. They were back in her Godlands courtyard.
Sophie stared at her mother. Speechless. She had spent months upon gruelling months wanting answers to her questions and here they were. The answers roiled in her stomach. Unease and anger wrung her chest dry. But her mind . . . there was a smidgen of clarity there.
Sophie was a demigoddess, destined to wield some sort of great power. That explained her affinity for all the elements of mana. It explained why she could use her mana against iron while others couldn’t. She was part Fae and part goddess. One blessed by the very Fates to save Faery.
It explained her muddled memories and visions. Kaine was not the boy she always dreamt of or grew up with. It was Acheron. It explained why Kaine and Acheron shared similar faces yet were so different. Acheron had been raised in the Godlands while Kaine, or Lethe rather, remained in Faery under Queen Calliea’s thumb. Which meant Kaine was prophesised to be the Breaker of Realms.
Bile rose in Sophie’s throat.
A sinking feeling started in her chest. No, he couldn’t be. If he was, then . . . it really did mean that Sophie had left the entire Faery realm in the lurch. She’d just given the Breaker of Realms a reason to break realms. A reason to start a war. He thought she was his fated. Kaine said himself that he would do anything for her . . . even start a war.
For a brief moment, Sophie was transported back to Faery. Back to the intimate moment Kaine and her shared before his fireplace.
“You don’t remember at all?” Sophie asked softly.
With every memory of their childhood that she divulged, Kaine shook his head.
Each head shake was a death knell.
The answer was within arm’s reach this whole time. Kaine didn’t remember any of their childhood memories. Of course he didn’t. Because he wasn’t the one that shared a childhood of vivid laughter and warmth with Sophie.
It was Acheron.
All along.
Sophie vomited all over the bushes of the courtyard.
She wiped the remnants of bile from her face with the back of her hand and panted, “So all the fairytales you told me when I was younger are true?” Sophie turned to her mother.
“Yes.”
“And these prophecies, about Faery’s strongest and the Breaker of Realms – they’re all true?”
“Yes.”
“My visions?”
“They’re your memories resurfacing.”
Sophie cast her mind back to the time she’d gone back to Sotera. Sitting at the kitchen bench, covering up her small tattoos – Elowan’s favour. There was a tiny reaction there, like a flinch. Small, but still, Danna had made a face as if in recognition of what Sophie’s new tattoo meant.
“Have . . . have I been to Faery before this? After we fled?”
“. . . Yes.”
“And you took my memories then too?” Sophie was scared to know the answer. She already knew what it was though. Sure, her mother feared the gods would track her down but still, it didn’t wipe away the icky trail of having her memories forcibly removed.
“Yes. Honey. I’m sorry. You must understand that I had to.”
She did. But it didn’t mean she had to like it. “So you knew, this whole time? You had the opportunity to tell me, and you didn’t?”
Danna started but couldn’t seem to get the words right.
Sophie swallowed thickly. Danna didn’t have to say to a word really. Her failure to articulate was answer enough. Disappointment. That’s what Sophie felt right now. “Can I get my memories back at least?”
“You can, but I can’t give them to you. You must go to the Stagnum De Memoria. The Pool of Memory. I can’t undo the spells I’ve done.” Danna scrunched her face apologetically.
Convenient. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hurt by this. I’m not mad at you. Annoyed maybe, but not mad. I just– I just need a moment.” She needed more than a moment.
Sophie stood up, walking back to the confines of her own room.
It was all too much. Her memories being stolen. The gods. The prophecies. It felt like sharp teeth were sinking into her and no matter how hard she tried, she could not shake them off.
“What am I going to do?” Sophie let out a heavy sigh. She was stretched out on the grass of her small courtyard with her hands resting behind her head. The moon, big and bright, spun leisurely in its place.
Calypso let out a whine. Sophie looked to him. He lay on his back with all four paws in the air, watching the moon with her.
“I mean, I could just leave Faery to rot and stay here in the Godlands forever, right? Avoid all my responsibilities?” Sophie said out loud.
Cal let out two huffs of smoke which Sophie learnt meant no. Cal gave her the side eye.
“Okay, okay, okay. I won’t do that,” Sophie let out another sigh. “I just want to wallow in my own self-pity a little longer, but saving the world can’t wait, can it?”
Cal stood up from where he lay on his back to shower Sophie with licks and kisses. Sophie squealed, “I’m going to take this as your agreement.”
Sophie laughed as she gave the hellhound the belly rubs that he loved so much. Despite the laughter, the aching unease in her chest did not quell. There was a newfound piece of knowledge that left her heart in a state of disarray. It was heavier than before, knowing that she’d left Faery to hands of the Kaine. Yet at the same time her heart was much lighter, knowing it was Acheron she had dreamt of all along.
This changed everything.