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"No. No more lies." She looked between the two figures before her—two figures who she had not even known a few weeks ago but who carried the truth inside of them. And she did the one thing she never did. She begged. "Please."
From behind her, Fynn spoke, "Kals, are you sure you can handle it? You just—"
She swiveled her head toward him and snarled. "Do not tell me what I can or cannot handle,brother,"she spat the term she had never used before at him and he halted. His mouth dropped and he sank back onto the couch as Dani gripped his knee.
At the same time, Graeson's grip on her shoulder tightened, almost pulling a laugh from her lips. Did he think he could restrain her? Stop her mind from unraveling?
Too late. They were all too. The damage had been done.
She yanked her shoulder from his grasp, but she reigned in the anger. "Please, Esmeray."
"All right, but I will need to sit for this." Esmeray pushed herself up, glided across the room with a queen's grace, and sat on the couch next to Dani. The dog that had been laying by Terin's feet jumped up onto the couch beside the queen. Instead of shooing it off, Esmeray began scratching behind its ears.
When Kallie felt Graeson's hand tug her upward, she allowed him to pull her up and guide her to the other couch. They sat down on the couch beside one another. And she didn't know why, but his warmth provided her comfort and she let it envelop her. Fynn handed them each a glass half filled with a golden liquid. She took a sip and let it steady her.
Ankles crossed, glass sitting in between her palms, and her back straight, Esmeray began, "The history of Pontia is one that most have been forced to forget."
"Forced?" Kallie asked.
"Unfortunately, yes. The stories in the history books only explain one side of the events that occurred. However, every story has two sides: the side of the conquerors and the side of the conquered. The story that you know, Kallie, paints our land, our ancestors as the villain. Thatwewere greedy and unjust in our choices. Thatwewanted to take what was not ours. Thatwestarted a war that split Vaneria into the seven kingdoms it now is today. But that is not the entire truth. Not even a little.
"A long time ago, when the gods walked on these lands among humans, one god, Pontanius, chose to venture off the mainlands where the rest of the gods lived. He traveled to a small island off the coast, which the people later named after him—"
Recalling what Graeson had told to her, Kallie interrupted, "And he fell in love with a human. Yes, I know the story. What is your point?"
The queen sighed. "That is only part of the story. Before his mortal wife died, they lived a happy life together with their three children. Pontanius loved his children dearly. One day, another god arrived on the island. At first, Pontanius was outraged that one of the gods dared to step foot on his land. However, when he saw the goddess Sabina—one of the only gods he had tolerated before—and saw the fear written in her eyes and what she hid beneath her cloak, he stopped in his tracks. She was pregnant. And she, like Pontanius, had fallen in love with a human. Although, she was not as lucky as Pontanius who got to live out his life with his beloved.
"The gods were extremely jealous beings. When they found out that Sabina was pregnant with a mortal's child, they grew weary of what her child would be able to do with the blood of both a god and a mortal. They feared the possibilities. But they had one problem: they couldn't kill the goddess, for a god cannot kill another god. It would rip the god to shreds, destroying their soul. So they came up with a different plan. They killed her mortal lover in his sleep one night when he was away from the goddess on a hunting trip. When Sabina discovered this, she knew her children would not be safe once they were born, so she ran. And ran.
"Even though Pontanius had chosen to separate himself from the other gods, the goddess had always trusted him before. A rumor was spread around the mainland that Pontanius had married a mortal, so the goddess thought he might be sympathetic to her cause. As she traveled, Sabina hid her identity and was able to persuade a sailor to take her to the island.
"Luckily, Sabina was right, for when Pontanius and his wife saw that she was with child, they took her in and heard her story. To protect his children as well as the goddess' children, the two gods went to work to protect the island. They brought the Kraken to the island's shore, and together, they made the waters impassable by any enemy. As an extra precaution, they carved out the edges of the land. That way, if someone was able to get past the treacherous waters, they wouldn't be able to reach their land because deadly cliffs encircled it. Only one spot remained accessible and it was well hidden and guarded.
"After a few months had passed, the goddess gave birth to a set of triplets. At the same time, Pontanius' oldest child turned four and started developing special abilities. The child was exceptionally strong compared to mortal children his age, and the gods knew it was a result of the child having the blood of a god. After a year passed, Pontanius and Sabina created a reclusive spring to act as a training ground for their children. They embedded their powers into the waters in the hopes of helping their children learn to control their abilities.
"Long after the children married and had descendants of their own, a good portion of Pontia had developed god-like abilities. As generations passed, the gifts became more focused. The descendants knew these were not normal abilities and therefore kept them hidden from those who did not bear the gifts. After a while though, it became the island's secret. Everyone, gifted or not, protected that secret. And since the people from the mainland were still unable to find a way to travel to Pontia, it was fairly easy to keep it hidden from outsiders.
"However, it was only a matter of time until one Pontian grew restless and traveled off the mainland. His name was Tyson. He was young, naive, and reckless. And he fell in love with the daughter of one of the prominent lords on the mainland, Sloane. However, Sloane was engaged to another. When she tried to break off the engagement since she shared Tyson's feelings, her father, Sorel, was outraged. He locked the princess in a tower, thus separating the lovers. Tyson was enraged and lost control. He used his ability to pull ravage storms from the sky in front of Sorel, and the lord grew curious about Tyson's special ability. Sorel believed he could use Tyson to gain more power over the other lords, so he broke off his daughter's engagement.
"The lord kept his intentions a secret from the two lovers though and instead lied, telling them he believed in their love. He let them marry and have children. But once the children were born and the lord discovered that they too had special abilities, he betrayed them. He locked them up intending to breed them to create a small army of gifted humans.
"Sloane, who was kept in captivity separate from her family, grew deathly sick. But before she passed, she was able to share the secret dealings of her father with a trusted friend. Sloane also told her how to get to Pontia, a secret Tyson had once shared with her. With this knowledge, the woman stowed away to Pontia and shared the horrors of the lord's atrocities with the Pontian rulers. The rulers were outraged that their own kind was being bred and tortured, so they started the Great War in the hopes of releasing the enslaved Pontians. Unfortunately, when the armies arrived at the lord's doorsteps, they were too late. The children were no longer alive."
The queen paused, taking a moment to sip on her whiskey. Fynn brought over the bottle and refilled everyone's glasses.
Meanwhile, Kallie tried to wrap her mind around this new information that contradicted everything she had been told. She had a million questions running through her head, such as what happened to Tyson. But one question was louder than the rest.
"If a war was waged because of these travesties, how does no one know about them? How does no one know about the gifts we possess?"
The queen removed the glass from her lips. "Our ancestor, Queen Marina, had the unique gift of being able to wipe one's memory. She was one of the most powerful gift-bearing mortals. Not only was she able to wipe one individual's memory but large groups of people at the same time. Therefore, one of the conditions of ceasing the war and bringing peace to the seven kingdoms was that the knowledge of our kind be wiped from their minds."
Kallie sat on the information for a minute. The information about how the gifts came to be made sense. She had always known the gods played a role, so that was easy enough to file away. But other pieces were still not adding up. She took a deep breath, readying herself to ask the question that had been on her mind since they were in Borgania. "Why did you wait so long to find me?"
The queen's fingers flexed around her glass as she shifted on the couch. "The moment you were taken I wanted to part the seas, to bring down my wrath on Domitius' head—"
"So why didn't you?" Kallie interrupted, no longer able to contain the pain she felt.
The queen clenched her jaw. "I had just lost my husband and my daughter, our summer home had been turned into rubble. I was not in the proper mental state."
