CHAPTER XXIII #9
“Do you want your King to know, Alex?” Hirovale repeats with a coolness in his voice, prompting me to turn back to him, “do you want him to hear my words as well?”
“Why do you ask?” I look at him through narrowed eyes, noticing that his features have turned serious.
Hiro holds my gaze steadily, willing me to listen to him as he says his next statement slowly.
“Because your answer will set you and I along one of two paths, Alex…”
My heart stops in my chest.
“The first,” he gives me a brief nod, body inches from mine, “is a path in which you and your King, and me and my Human Reborn, work side by side in the years to come, our coupling independent of the other.
Our actions will be separate, away from each other, though we will still work towards the same goal.
I frown as the Ancient continues, “if you choose this path, your King will not hear my words.”
A shiver runs down my spine.
“The second,” Hirovale continues, still holding me with his serious gaze, “is a path in which the three of us work as one. We will share this life together with our actions and the roles we have moving forward, and he will hear me tell him what Elena has told you, and more…”
My heart starts pounding again, my full body on the verge of shaking. I’m no longer kept still by Hirovale’s summoning but instead by his words, by his powerful presence and by the choice he lays out before me.
But I know what I want. From the moment the words left his lips.
The choice is an easy one, has always been an easy one, as I’ve come to appreciate Keane by my side with the Ancient. I know I want the three of us to work together, now and in the future.
I want Keane to know, my heart cries out to Hirovale as he continues to hold my gaze, I want it to be all three of us.
The Ancient’s lips turn up in the smallest of smiles.
“He’s always been your champion, Hiro,” I add softly, “he’s the reason I give you such benefit of the doubt.”
“I know it, Alex,” the Ancient smiles back at me in small affection, “and I’m glad of your choice.”
Hirovale flicks his hand casually at his side, tilting his gaze behind mine as Keane’s footsteps fall against the cobblestone. The Prince moves swiftly to stand at my side, his shoulder brushing against mine as he turns to me and then back to the Ancient, assessing the situation before him.
I exhale in relief at Keane’s presence and let the Ancient catch my gaze again, neither of us taking our eyes off the other.
“Your parents called you Alex,” he smiles at me fondly, as if looking at the memory by looking at me, “the same visions Sianoa graced Elena with were also sent to me in my sleep…”
My body goes still again.
“But my sister also gave me more. More visions of my Human Reborn. Of the girl and the woman she was growing to be.”
Hirovale holds my gaze hard and unrelentingly, not allowing me to look away as he nods, “you did light everyone around you with a smile when you were younger. You still do. You had a fire within you that greeted everything with an open mind and an open heart, though that fire was extinguished to a near ember when they brought you to Bardot.”
“That night in Etter… you hid as your mother bid. She pleaded for you to stay quiet no matter what you saw, no matter what you heard happening. You watched from below as the two Discerni men laughed and slew her so casually in front of you, and I watched as the happy smile that always graced your face slowly diminished, replaced with something else. You wanted to fight, Alex. A mere girl of fourteen ready to go to war against the magical beings that slaughtered her family…”
Keane reaches swiftly for my hand at my side, grasping it tightly in his hold.
“You didn’t trust Elena when she came for you.
She looked too similar to the men who laughed and walked away from your dying mother without a second glance.
You fought hard when she reached for you, brandishing a kitchen knife as if the metal could transform into a sword.
I watched your fire spark then, knowing that my human, my champion, was being reborn.
It’s true when she told you that she had to force you down, force you to drink her sleeping remedy.
But you fought hard against that magic,” Hirovale shakes his head in wonder, “a mere girl of fourteen with such tenacity and pure, raw emotion. I couldn’t believe it.
I couldn’t believe as I watched in awe as your body, your whole being, fought against the sleep that would have claimed any other human.
You nearly escaped from her, only to be stopped by the sight of your father. ”
Hirovale shakes his head, his gaze turning tormented, “a daughter should not have to see her father laying like that, covered in so much blood. I felt your heart stop in that moment. It stopped mine. I felt the fire within you build again, not in anger this time, but in unbridled anguish. You fell to your father, and I knew then, in that moment, that it would be a long while before another one of your smiles ever graced my dreams again.”
“I pulled and held onto the visions of you arriving in Bardot, though I don’t think my sister intended for me to do that. I had to make sure that you that were okay, that you would live through the traumatic event and come out stronger…”
“But your anger was too much. I watched as you let the fire of it consume you until it burned through every part of your being, leaving you as nothing but a hollow shell. Gone was the young and happy girl from Etter and gone was the new and reborn girl who let her own fire consume her too quickly that it turned her to ash. I do not blame the King and his son for the decision they placed on you. There was nothing more agonizing then seeing you then. You were there, yet you were completely and utterly gone.”
My breathing is so shallow that it’s taking every force of my being to stand upright.
I knew Hiro had been watching me, he admitted to it the first night I met him in Fumagalli…
but hearing his own emotions that came from watching those visions grips me deep to my core.
He’s been surrounded in his sleep by his own feelings, watching my happiness, causing him happiness.
Watching my pain and agony, causing him twice as much.
“Yes,” Hirovale grimaces, “my sleep was haunted by those visions…”
“But then I felt myself stir for the first time in thousands of years, watching as you picked yourself back up in your life with just a hint of a smile. The event had not broken you, and instead the fire within you nestled itself deep away, sitting ready to spark to flame again. I knew it would take time, knew that you would have to find yourself all over again, so I smiled in the knowledge that you would and let myself rest peacefully once more, watching you grow up in my dreams.”
Hirovale takes a step forward as his chest comes so close to brushing against mine and Keane’s.
“The woman that you became in Knowledge is you, Alexis. Don’t ever doubt that.”
I take a deep breath and grip Keane’s hand tight, the two of us watching the Ancient together.
“Even if you were right in your thoughts when you noted how simple and content your life was, that was okay,” Hiro continues, “the ignorance that you did not know surrounded you gave you a beautiful upbringing, calling back the young girl from Etter who had a happiness about her that caused everyone to beam just as openly in return. Your time in Bardot did what it intended…”
“So I continued to watch you in my sleep and grinned as you became bored with life at court, at playing the simple lady for the Queen. You began to question more, to explore. You made friends with the magical beings who not years before you wanted to take down so violently. I watched as that fire caught the smallest of flames over those years, your curiosity taking hold and challenging the simple ways of the Old World around you. You were so nearly there, Alexis, almost ready to take on your mantle as my Human Reborn, but you were also still held back from the Prince’s summoning, and I knew then that it was time to get involved. ”
“I had Sianoa send Elena a vision of where I left my words, of your hands holding my Bird of Ash’s resting place. It was time to get you back on track, back to the mixture of the girl you were, the woman you embraced, and the woman you were to become.”
“Your fire took to a heavier flame in the last two years of your traveling. You enjoyed the new experiences, relished in the adventures and still let your curiousness question the ways of the Old World. Though that fire never burned so brightly until you met your King…”
My heart completely stops as Hirovale slowly turns his gaze to Keane, looking over him proudly.
“I am forever grateful for you, Keane Zander Bardot, for seeing Alexis for everything that she is worth. You saw that fire in her so soon, and I’ll always be in your debt for helping her find that missing piece of herself. ”
Both men bow their heads, recognizing the weight of the words spoken.
“I need to tell you now,” Hirovale smiles softly at Keane, “and am grateful to Alex that she chose for me to speak this next part with you here. You need to know that she asked that the three of us stand together while you listen to these words, words that you already suspect, already know…”
My body begins to tremble as Keane grips my hand in comfort, nodding to the Ancient again with a small smile on his lips.
“She is in love with you, King,” Hirovale says steadily, “and I am in love with her.”
My heart tugs violently in my chest, leaping for the Ancient who is now turning his golden gaze on me. My breathing becomes ragged, my hand in Keane’s gripping hard, my eyes still looking at Hiro for clarity.
Why?
“You are my Human Reborn, Alex,” Hiro answers, staring at me with a deep longing, “I chose you before I knew you. But I stand with honor before you now when I tell you that I am proud of the woman I have watched you become. I am in love with the woman that you have become, as well as the woman you will grow to be.”
“I am in love with her,” Hirovale repeats again, this time directing his gaze to Keane, “and I will have her.”
“You will,” Keane replies without hesitation, mirroring the same words that I’ve always said to him.
My mouth nearly drops in a stutter.
“We will have her,” Hiro continues steadily, “together.”
“Yes,” Keane nods as I stand completely dumbstruck, watching the two men interact as if they’re brothers.
Have me?
As his Human Reborn? His Champion?
“Yes, Alexis,” Hirovale turns me pointedly, golden eyes flaring brilliantly, “and more. It will be the three of us, together. We will remake this Old World and allow magic to be restored to humans if they so choose. I will do everything in my power to ensure your wishes on that sentiment.”
I nod in small recognition but am still too caught up in the previous understanding that seemed to pass between the two men.
What is more? What is Hirovale alluding to that I’m so obviously missing here?
“There is something else I must tell you both,” the Ancient eyes me in seriousness, “about the second half of the prophecy. These words will indeed take you into the Kingdom of Livyatan, but they are words that are not my own…”
I grip Keane’s hand and look at the Ancient in confusion.
“My sister Rivian,” Hirovale sighs, taking a small step away to look at the two of us, “she learned that she was being put to sleep before we made the announcement. She thought our actions were treasonous, so she immediately set her informers on my brothers and sisters, subsequently learning that I was leaving my guide and right hand for my Human Reborn to wake me. It was then that she added her own summoning to the prophecy, one that Sia and I had no control over. Her words act as a warning for us all, and if I know my sister, I can only guess that she aims to test and change the new course of the Old World, to use, not embrace, the humans of the Four Kingdoms. We cannot allow that to happen.”
Both Keane and I stand tall in agreement as he continues, “there’s only so much that I can see, so much that Sia and I have access to.
We cannot see what Rivian left behind, but both my sister and I believe that you, Alex, will be able to access her hidden words in Livyatan.
We need to be able to learn of her plans.
Need to read them to chart out a proper plan of action.
Her prophecy may be vague, but I have no doubt that it will confirm what she wants to see pass from this new World. ”
“My sister is clever, cunning,” Hiro sighs, “and has already gained unspeakable power from the lives that it took to wake her. She is still bitter from the sleep we forced on her and plots her revenge on my brothers and sisters even as they sleep. I fear for them, fear for the humans and the grim world that she aims to bring forth…”
The Ancient holds his hard gaze with ours, his own power spilling out and gripping us both.
“We need to stop her.”
Keane and I slowly turn towards eachother, our hands tightening and gazes telling the other exactly what we know to be true in our hearts. Keane gives me a determined nod as I do the same, the two of us turning back to Hirovale together, our stance united.
“We are with you, Hiro.”
END OF DISCE I.