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She didn’t tell me why. She simply held my hands, then moved closer and pulled me into her arms. A hand gripped the back of my neck firmly as she pressed her lips to my forehead, her touch warm and lingering.
“Sleep well.” She turned her back on me and walked out of my room without giving me a second glance.
Elanil avoided me the next day. Distancing herself from me. When I’d confronted her about her withdrawn behaviour, she looked at me with a pleading expression and said, “It is better if I know less in case Faelyn finds out through me.”
I couldn’t find it in me to feel abandoned by her. What I had told her was a sin. It was absolute treachery, and she was evidently torn because she didn’t know whether to help me or step away from me.
I went to the Soul Garden and spent some time with my sister’s and parents’ flowers. I watered their leaves and soil in silence, then created new crowns for them using the fresh flowers and vines I’d gathered before my visit.
They would be the last I made for them.
I made one for my father first, the flowers softer in colours and sparse. For my mother, I mixed blue and purple and some blacks because she was fond of these darker flowers. Amnestria, however, had always preferred hers bright and vivid, and hers was the crown I adorned with more petals and coloured leaves until it looked like a burst of sunshine and rainbow.
Her flower was still as I lowered the crown around her. My fingertips caressed her hole-marred leaves, the only flower in all our Garden who looked like that.Violated. Taken against her will. Slaughtered by the enemy.
Why? How had it happened? Where had it happened, and what had led to it?
“You’ll forgive me for taking that path, won’t you?” I asked quietly, casting my gaze from my father to Amnestria and to my mother’s flower. I couldn’t say more because I wasn’t the only one visiting lost ones today. “You understand why I chose it?”
My sister’s flower shook its leaves, but my parents remained still.
I managed a small smile past the sting in my chest. “Take good care of them, Am. And Faelyn, too.” The sting in my chest became a full-blown pinch, tightening my throat. “He’ll be alone soon, even with Elanil by his side.”
Bowing to the three flowers, lingering when my lips quivered and tears welled in my eyes, I inhaled a deep breath of their soil one last time before rising to my feet, leaving the Garden without another glance.
I spent a while walking around looking for Ayen. A few of our Elders were showing some of the High Elves around our village, and good thing I hadn’t seen my brother or Aias all day so far. But I knew Ayen remained behind.
I found him sitting near a river, his hands playing with the ground as he raised swirls of green and gold, his fingers slowly rolling around the blooming flowers as though he was pulling them by invisible strings attached to his fingertips. He had a serene expression on his face, his pale red lips curved gently and his green eyesglowing.
He looked so utterly mesmerising when he connected with his element.
I approached him gently, ensuring he heard me so he’d disconnect from his element comfortably. When he acknowledged my presence with a soft hum, I sat beside him, my body facing him.
“Ayen.”
It was the demanding edge in my voice that had him pausing, his hands ceasing their captivating gestures. The flowers he was working on stilled their growth. Instead, they sat short and swayed with the faint hum of the wind.
His eyes hesitantly met mine, roaming my face.
“What happened to Amnestria?”
Green eyes widened, his next inhale sharp and loud. A flash of fear filtered in his expression, one that made my bones grow wary.
“Do not lie to me,” I warned when he opened his mouth. “Faelyn’s tongue slipped something that night I came back from the Spiders’. I want the full truth, not snippets. Please.”
He swallowed, his eyes flitting from me to the river.
“Please,” I repeated, my voice breaking.
For seventy-two Blue Moons, it was always the same story. Yet on the night I was pushed by En into my own portal, Faelyn hinted at something new. It was as if heknewhow Amnestria had died. Not the summary or the short version I was told, but the whole story.
Ayen’s shoulders slumped forward as he released a heavy sigh. His voice was quiet when he said, “We lied to you.”
I swallowed hard.
He pursed his lips. “Faelyn had always said that he’d been through all the portals except the Spiders’, but that isn’t true.” He paused, his hands balling into fists. “He'd been through all of them.”
“All of them?” I echoed, numbness tingling at my fingertips. That couldn’t be true. My brother had always bragged about seeing all the lands except one.
