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36
“Your mother?”
Claire was so confused.
“Have you not told her anything?” Friednar looked at Kallan.
“We couldn’t,” Kallan said. “But you can.”
Friednar nodded and grumbled something about Elders before he turned back to Claire.
“Let me start at the beginning. My mother was made a Champion of the Realm at the beginning of the Alliance.”
The beginning of the Alliance was almost 700 years ago. “So that would make you…” Claire thought out loud and Friednar laughed, a choking, raspy sound.
“Old,” he finished for her. “It would make me old. Or an Ancient as they like to call me.”
“Sorry,” Claire blushed.
“Nothing to be sorry for, young Champion. It is a fact of life. I am old. Older than all of you combined many times over. Now getting back on track,” Friednar continued.
“Before the Alliance, tentative cease-fires were more common than actual peace. Many of the people that lived in the Realm were warriors but not my mother. She was a peacemaker and a healer. All those who were around her were drawn to her. She was one of the few to draw a Triad across the different races. My fathers were a dragon, a wolf, and an Elf and my mother was a Fae.”
Claire’s eyes widened. His mother’s Triad was like hers, members from different races. Was there a significance?
“I mentioned that ceasefires were temporary and in one of the skirmishes over limited resources, her village was attacked and her younger sister killed in the crossfire. My mother had two choices that day, give in to her grief and lash out at those who had caused her sister’s death or feel her grief and work to ensure that no one ever lost family again. She chose the latter.”
Friednar paused then, grief flashing across his face as he honored his fallen aunt. Claire’s heart ached for him and when he met her eyes, she let her own grief shine through. Grief recognized grief. Loss recognized loss. And in that moment, an ancient man who had seen the Unitam Realm rise and a young Queen who was trying to save it, shared a moment of grief for the lives they had lost to get here.
Friednar took a shaky, raspy breath and continued. “For the next few years, my mother worked tirelessly to bring the different races together and establish trust and trade. She formed the ideas of the Council and the Market and laid the groundwork for the Alliance.” His mother sounded like an incredible woman. She must have been powerful for all of those warring races to listen to her.
“She did all of this without being a warrior,” Friednar said, looking at Claire intently as if he could read her mind. “She wasn’t a warrior but she cared so much for the people of this Realm and that is why she was chosen as a Champion. Not because she had all the answers but because she cared. So much. The Realm recognized that. It’s more than just fighting, it’s being able to carry the responsibility of the Realm.”
“What if the responsibility is too much?” Claire asked quietly. Her hands trembled in her lap slightly and she folded them together to hide the shaking. She heard what he was saying but that was a lot to take onto one person’s shoulders. More than Claire could ever imagine taking on or being able to handle successfully.
“She was never alone,” Friednar said simply. “She had her Triad, her family, her children and a whole Realm of people who believed in her because they could see that her intentions were pure. She had a magnetism about her that drew people to her. Our dinner table was never empty growing up, our small house always filled to the seams with people.”
“Truthfully,” Friednar paused and took a sip of water from a wooden cup, clearing his throat. “I might not ever be able to give you a step by step guide to being a Champion despite watching my mother do it her entire life, but I won’t need to. You would not have been called to be a Champion of the Realm unless you had everything you need already inside you.”
Claire frowned as she thought about his words. To unite the Realm when half of it was at war… how could everything she needed for that already be inside her? Especially when she had no answers and right now the Fae and Elves weren’t even interacting with the rest of the Realm. And the witches, shifters, and dragons had been sold a lie by a group they were supposed to be able to trust.
As if sensing her insecurity, Friednar leaned forward, bony elbows on his knees and stared at her. “Let me ask you one question. Do you care? Do you care what happens to the Realm and its people?”
“Well… yes?” Claire was confused. Caring was never the question.
“Then trust yourself to figure out the rest.”
37
The morning of the Traditio, Friednar’s words still rang in Claire’s head.
“Then trust yourself to figure out the rest.”How could she figure out the rest if she didn’t have all the answers? That made no sense.
She followed her cousins silently as they led her and the group back towards the stone arena they had first faced the Elders in. Her hands were tucked firmly in Everett and Desmond’s while Puck balanced on her shoulder and Malcolm walked behind her, his warmth a steady comfort at her back.
She hadn’t slept well last night, tossing and turning with racing thoughts about the Traditio and the story Friednar had told. The Champion of the Realm thing would have to wait today.
Today, she faced the Fae.
