CHAPTER XXIII #3
“I truly do not know why you can’t remember your time in Woodlands,” she reiterates, replying more to herself than to me, “I can only suspect that after Troy used his summoning on you, your mind chose to forget, that it chose to erase the memories and move forward without them.”
I frown.
There’s no way I would willingly choose to forget something like that. I know myself too well.
“How does his summoning work?” I press.
The Princess remains quiet, lost in her own thought.
“I know that he can read emotions, Elena,” I offer, “and it seems, from what I’ve seen of your father’s visions and what you’ve told me now, that he can push emotions into a being as well.
I’m living proof of that. He helped me regain my happiness at the expense of ignoring my past. So it’s not a far leap to question his ability to erase memories. ”
Elena turns to the Bell Grove with a deep sigh, “my brother does not push emotions into people, Alexis. He cannot command the genuine feelings of the soul.”
“But he can!” I cry out, “he commanded me to feel happy and content. When I think of my parents I only think of love. There’s no feelings of loss there. He summoned me into blissful ignorance!”
“No, Alexis,” Elena replies sternly, “Troy’s summoning does not tell you what to do or how to act. It does not command you one way or another. His summoning is suggestive. The emotions he coaxes help your soul to come to a certain conclusion on its own.”
“Semantics.”
How does she not see that?
“No,” she sighs again, bringing a hand to her temple and reminding me so much of her father, “the fact that you embraced his summoning when you were younger means that your soul was ready to move on. It was ready to step away from a past that it knew would always haunt you. Troy’s summoning does not always work, but it did generously when you arrived in Bardot.
Your being accepted it wholeheartedly. You wanted to be happy again. ”
My mind runs to Zander’s visions again, to me sitting so silently at the edge of my bed.
I was so desolate and far away, no longer present to what was around me.
Troy hesitated when he leaned down to me, probably worried that I would attack him as he looked so much like the other Woodlands Discerni.
But I did nothing. Didn’t even react. Just sat there, completely gone.
Did my soul truly accept his summoning in a want to feel again?
“And my memories?” I whisper.
Elena smiles sadly, “erasing memories from a traumatizing event could have been a product of your own mind. That is the best answer I can give you. On my father, Troy does not have the ability to do it.”
I walk down the path in resignation, knowing that we could debate the argument all day. I still suspect Troy, but opt to keep that to myself for now.
“We plan to visit,” I tell the Princess quietly, “we will travel to Woodlands soon.”
Elena nods but doesn’t reply.
“Thank you,” I turn to her, not liking or caring for the situation but grateful for her honesty throughout it all, “thank you for sharing with me. Thank you for helping me that night.”
“It was the Ancients’ will,” Elena smiles to herself, “we should thank them.”
I scowl and keep quiet once again. Of course, to Elena, the silent Ancients are the ones to thank. Everything that she saw in her visions and every action that she took leading up to that night was justified by the mystics of the Ancient Sianoa she so greatly reveres.
“Hirovale as well,” she smiles to wind.
“I’m sorry?” I turn to her.
“The two I so greatly revere…”
“They’re friends then?” I ask the Princess, “Hiro and Sianoa?”
Elena stops in her walk and turns to me, her eyes darting to mine in curiosity.
“You use the Ancient’s name so casually.”
“Hirovale?” I ask.
“Yes,” she grins, eyes sparkling, “him.”
I roll my own eyes, “if you know the Ancient as I have come to know him over the past month, then you’ll agree that he’s been just as casual with me.”
Too casual.
Elena eyes me curiously before continuing with a nod. “The two Ancients respect eachother immensely and have been known to side with the other in the past. I get the distinct feeling that they are very good friends.”
“Hirovale mentioned that you’re helping to wake Sianoa?”
“Yes,” she smiles airily, turning her gaze back to the Bell Grove.
“How will you do it? How are you doing it?”
“With careful summoning,” she nods, “a section of rebirth magic that deals with waking a sleeping being.”
“I read a book in Red Falls on medicinal reborn. It stated that the Aireals used to command that summoning in the past, to wake a person who had fallen into a coma.”
“It is similar,” Elena smiles softly, “though Sianoa is much stronger and has been asleep for far longer. My sisters and I have been using our collective summoning together to wake her. It has been hard work but I’m hopeful she will rise soon.”
Ancients, another of the Ten is going to be gracing the Old World. Will she be as forceful in her agenda as Hirovale?
“Did you enjoy the role you played in waking your Ancient?” Elena asks beside me.
Stormfall grips my shoulder as I hold back a laugh. “Hirovale is hardly my Ancient.”
“But he is, Alexis,” she replies, turning my way, “he chose you. Just as Sianoa chooses me. It is a great honor for us to serve them.”
Serve them?
I scoff.
Perhaps she feels that honor, but all I feel are the demands that dictate every one of my steps down his path.
I give Elena a small smile, reminding myself that the Princess embraces the mystics of the Old World deeply.
That was something I could never get into.
I may read and let my curiousness take over at times, genuinely intrigued at what magic can do, but that is as far as my interest takes me.
I have no desire to practice, but can respect the power of summoning and look on with a mix of astonishment, fear and awe.
Which is a conundrum in itself as Hirovale considers me to be his Human Reborn, and the irony of that is not lost on me.
I nearly laugh every time I think on it, wondering if Hiro could have predicted how wrong he chose when he claimed me as his champion.
What kind of champion holds no desire to practice magic yet is at the forefront of spearheading its complete return to the Old World?
A stupid one, at best.
So no, Hirovale isn’t my Ancient. He’s just an Ancient. An Ancient that took too much interest in me and invested his time without properly getting to know me. If he regrets taking me on as his champion down the road then that’s on him. I will gladly hand over the title to someone more willing.
Elena continues to watch me, her brows furrowing and eyes dancing across my face at the same time.
“You don’t know…” she exhales softly, eyes going wide.
Stormfall grips my shoulder hard. I turn to the Bird of Ash in confusion and catch his yellow eyes with mine.
“Know what?” I ask them both.
Storm’s eyes instantly flash to gold, the sight sending the deepest of chills down my spine. I take a deep breath and look back at Hirovale in hard question, my heart stilling beneath my chest.
“Know what?” I demand again.
Elena takes a step forward and grabs my hand, pulling my gaze off the Ancient.
“He’s in love with you, Alexis.”
Hirovale?
No, that’s not possible.
“Perhaps, even, loves my brother…”
I turn away from the Princess and glare at the golden eyes on my shoulder.
No, Hirovale.
Stormfall talons sink into my shoulder.
“No!” I repeat out loud and shake my head, averting my gaze from the proud gold eyes that want to hold mine.
“He’s not in love with me, Elena,” I look at her purposely, “he’s in love with what I can give him. What we can give him.”
Alanna greeted me in the castle after my talk with Elena. She was waiting impatiently, her boot and back propped up against the wall next to my door.
“Ancients, Alexis,” she huffs, pushing herself off, “you took your damn time about it.”
I laugh at the blonde Discerni and quickly walk towards her, pulling her into a hug that surprises us both.
“It’s good to see you, Alanna.”
“You too, human,” she replies in exasperation.
I turn towards my door and frown in realization. “I don’t have my key.”
My room key always stayed in my traveling bag, the bag that Desmond casually told me earlier was now in my room.
“Desmond gave me access,” Alanna replies to my anxious glance, stepping towards my door and placing her hand on the wood. The door sparkles with a flash of black under her touch and clicks open.
“Well that’s unsettling,” I laugh.
Alanna turns and gives me a quick smirk, the two of us moving into my small reading room. I stop suddenly, as does Alanna, both of us noticing the separate sets of traveling packs that now rest on the floor before the archway.
“You two figured yourselves out, then?” she asks.
I blush and close the door behind us, heading straight for the whiskey sitting on the mantle above the small fireplace.
“We did,” I reply quietly.
“We all suspected, Alexis,” the blonde Discerni says softly, walking forward to take the decanter of whiskey from my shaking hand.
I turn to her quietly and watch as she pours us two glasses.
“What do you mean you all suspected?”
Alanna gives me a sly grin and shrugs, “suspected. Though confirmed when we heard from Desmond that the two of you had left on your own.”
I slowly nod back to my new friend, not knowing what to say.
Who’s part of the we who suspected? Her and Cal? Or the full of our traveling group?
“Should I begin curtsying to you now?” Alanna laughs, passing me a whiskey and moving to one of the seats next to the fireplace.
“Alanna!” I look at her sharply, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Human,” she grins up at me, still laughing, “should I?”
“Please don’t ever,” I take a hefty drink and walk over to the second chair, “ever, Alanna. I mean it.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” she chuckles.
I glare at her cool and mocking grey eyes. “I hate you right now.”