Chapter 11:
A Night Of Tangled Pasts
Previously: After a while of tireless, endless walking, we finally came upon two huge doors made of some peculiar substance resembling gold. One of the doors stood a little ajar and so, curious as we both are, of course we go forth to look in.
But as Chris raises his arm to wedge the door open a bit more, an unknown voice comes out of nowhere and says, "I wou'nt do tha' if I were ye..."
The sudden warning from behind instantly takes me by surprise as my feet pull me up into the air then back down about a mile away.
My right hand clutches my chest as I turn around and meet the eyes of a rather peculiar man.
He is quite small, about 4'3", with pitch black, unruly, greasy hair barely covered with a worn out rag of a hat. His attire—if you could have the decency to call it that—consists of a barely buttoned-up dark-olive vest with a faded pair of oversized slacks hanging on his waist. And for shoes, he had none; he stands above the cracks on the floor in bare feet shuffling them eagerly.
"Well, 'oo in Faerie's name are ye lot?" the strange man asks in a threatening thick Irish accent.
Chris, being the first of us to regain his voice, says, "Um…well…my name is Chris Cadenza and this is Alexa Lexingt—"
"Just Lex," I interrupt with anxiousness and nervousness flooding my veins. "And who're you, may I ask?"
"Ahem, well, tha' doesn't rightfully concern ye; spies as ye are! I be'er take yee both to 'Lia an' see what she'll decide ter do wit' ya," he mumbles, more to himself than us.
"We're not spies!" Chris defies, almost as instantaniously as I ask, "Who?"
"None o' yer bidness, tha's who," he yells, nose flaring in anger. "An' how are we to kno' yer not spies?" he questions threateningly once again.
Taking us both strongly by our wrists, the small man leads us on. And surprisingly for his height, he pulls us along like an ox leading a light-weight cart!
"Where do you think he's taking us?" Chris whispers to me as our guide lets go of his wrists for a second to open a small wooden door ahead.
"I don't know but I don't think it's--"
"Wha' are ye lot whisperin 'bout now?" asks the rather annoyed, slit-eyed man. "We're almost 'ere anyways, so shut yer trap!"
After a lot of blind pushing and pulling in the darkness of the ruins, the three of us are all standing in the slightly large courtyard we had passed before, the one with the fountain in the middle and yet another flame burning we hadn't noticed before.
"Cordelia!" calls out the strange little man.
"What is it now, Krayvin? Don't you see I'm quite busy with-- Ohh! What in the world did you find there?"
It is a rather soft voice, carrying a subtle irish accent, as soft as a delicate swing of a dove's wing and yet as warm as bee honey.
The voice belongs to a woman with olive toned skin, a small nose, deep green eyes, dark silky curls cascading down her shoulders, and wearing a dark green cloak like the forest canopy over a small, simple black dress. She would have made a beautiful woman if not for a few deep scars running down her left cheek and her low height, which makes her quite fat in the process.
The woman was kneeling down near the roses when we first went thru the door, but she has made her way towards us and is now standing directly in front of Chris and me, her piercing eyes cutting deep into our own. And the next thing I know, I am being crushed to death in a long and hard embrace and the soft smell of lavender engulfs me.
"Spies, me thinks," replies the old man by the name of Krayvin, crouched in a corner and smoking a pipe.
What kind of name is Krayvin anyway?
"Spies?" she asks, a look of surprise flaring in her face, as she lets go and turns towards Krayvin. "Ye should know better than calling our dear visitors spies! Spies, indeed! 'Tis because of them we do not treamble with fear in the dark burrows of the forest in the dead of night!"
"Like we a'nt already!" Krayvin retorts.
"Well, us Dwarfs weren't before the great war!"
They're dwarfs, mouths Chris. I nodd, a bit distracted by something she had said before.
"Ye ought to remember how faeries were our protecters for many a year before the Great War--"
"When everything changed."
"Yes, things change over time, but some matters remain in minds over many a moon," the woman woman replies softly before turning towards us once again. "Oh dear lord and lady, please excuse our bickering! We be Cordelia and Krayvin Flint--two humble dwarfs of Faerie. If ye would like, please help yerselves to some food, ye must be quite hungry from such a long journey."
As she said this, the small woman hands us a tray of a pair of rather gaunt-looking fish.
''We apoligize, 'tisn't much--"
"Apoligize?! That's the best looking thing I've seen all day!" Chris says, and instantly, he races over to the silver tray, collapses on a nearly-crumbled stone bench, and begins stuffing his face after a quick look of permission from the small woman.
I, however, am still in shock and disbelief.
"Whatever is the matter, highness?" the woman asks.
"What in the world do you mean, 'highness'? 'Lords' and 'Ladies'? We already told Kraydin there we're just Chris and Lex. We go to school and do homework and everything! Not rule over people!" I cry out all in a rush.
"Young one, do ye not know who ye are?" she asks patiently.
"Whaddya mean? Didn't you hear me just explain all that?" I ask in return.
"No dear one, ye are clearly a descendant of Asteria Black, a beloved princess of Wyikha, a land not much to the east of Faerie."
"How could I be--not to say I am--but how could I be if she's a princess from here? Not a princess from our world?A-a-and how in the world did we even get here? And--"
"Sit down dear, have some fish, and I'll tell ye the dear princess's tale."
And so, quite hesitantly I assure you, I ate some of the malodorous meal as the curious woman began her tale.
"Long ago in the kingdom of Wyikha lived a princess by the name of Asteria Black. Back then, the kingdom of Wyikha, as it is now, was full of wyches who ruled the land with Ancient Magyks of sorts. Asteria, daughter of Septimus and Melinda Black, was a beautiful girl, born with the gift of foresight. Her first premonition was a blessed gift--as King Septimus had proclaimed--and ever since then, when she was about the age of four, he locked her and her younger sister Daphne--who showed signs of having the gift of telepathy--up in a tower with his most trusted wizard friend to tutor them in the Ancient Magyks that lay ahead for both to learn and use in order to keep their beloved kingdom under rule.
"For 12 years they remained locked up in her tower, were refused the right to have fun and play with kids their age, for their father said they had first to master their blessed gifts. And so they did, night after night, day after day. Until one day--" Suddenly there was a clatter from behind.
"Krayvin, if ye want to listen to the story, come sit down here, ye don't have to make such a fuss about it! So where were we?"
"One day..." mumbles a rather mouthful Chris.
"Ah, yes. Until one day, Asteria received a premonotion of a mysterious handsome man, traveling from miles away from a land of wonders. She knew he was to arrive the next week and so she arranged to sneak out with her sister Daphne in tow right when the man who went by the name of William Drake, from the Mortal Realm, arrived on horseback to visit the wonderful land of Wyikha. Back then, in those times of old, the portals from this world to the Mortal Realm were wide open and known of, all over. The country mortals call England had the main portal in Hampton Court, which led to the castle of Faerie. From there, 'tis said the man traveled to Wyikha. And so, the king and queen, grateful for a visitor from another world, arranged for everything to be perfect, everyone to attend, and all things to be in order. And so, that meant Asteria, as well as her younger sister, Daphne, were invited to attend the great feast and a later ball in honor of William Drake.
"Ye can very well imagine what happened. At first sight, in the front gardens of the Wyikhan Castle, William Drake and Asteria Black fell in love. They spent hours on end in the royal gardens, while everyone else was laughng and dancing in the ballroom. The two lovers were mezmorized by one another; talking endlessly on topics we can only guess of. And so, hours became days, days became weeks, weeks became months, until came the day that Drake had to depart to his own world.
"Now, you can guess how poor Princess Astria felt. Heartbroken, remorseful, dispaired, hollow, and forlorn. She as well as Drake. But her parents, you see, were quite content and looking forward to--
"Yes, Chris, tis a very interesting fire. That there is an Everlasting Flame of Faerie, as ye can very well see on the insignia below. Very rare. No, don't touch it!
"Nevertheless, the king and queen of Wyikha were relieved Drake had to return to the Mortal Realm for they feared their eldest daughter and their honored visitor had developed attachments. They of course wouldn't dream of the daughter who would one day rule over Wyikha could possibly marry a mere mortal.
"However, on the night Drake was to be packing for the Mortal Realm, he snuck up to the Crown Princess's tower. There, she was hardly asleep with worry and so he told her tales of wonder and excitement from his world. And the Crown Princess was so enriched and full of absolute incitement that she nearly begged him to take her with him. And so, in the dead of night, the two lovers snuck out of the kingdom and made their way thru one of the portals behind the castle to the Mortal Realm.
"The next day, when the king and queen found out, they were enraged, furious, and ordered that all the portals known be sealed shut, so that there would be no way in and no way out. The Crown Princess was thereof banished from the grounds of Wyikha if she were ever to return again. But she never did. The great phoenix of King Oberon--king of Faerie--possessed the gift of transportation at will, and told the king what he learned in the Mortal Realm. The king then recorded it in his Great Book of Faerie, which still dwells deep in the bowels of the treasure rooms below. Astria Black and William Drake were married soon after they arrived in England. They then, with the Pilgrim Fathers, sailed for America along the Mayflower. There, the two forigners made a family and lived content with life until their untimely deaths.
"And so ye see, ye must be her numerously great grand-daughter, somehow. Do ye understand now, child?" Cordelia asks patiently.
I slowly nod, facing the strangely bright stars sparkling in the dark heavens; I do, somehow. It all makes sense now.
But what does that have to do with Chris?
Said boy, not surprisingly, voices the same question, disapointed at the lack of food on his plate.
"Ah, yes. Robin Goodfellow--"
"What?!" we both cry out simultaneously.
"You're a descendant of the Trickster King? He's real too, here? Way cool!" I blurt out of my fazed daze.
It's a good thing Ms. Darling introduced the characters of A Midsummer's Night Dream to us before handing out the books.
"Not exactly," Cordelia says.
"What are you on about now?" asks a dazed Krayvin from behind a thorned rosebush.
"Well, ye see, it all starts a few centuries back. Many moons ago, here lived the royal family of the Faerie kingdom. Peacefully, mind ye. King Oberon and Queen Titania, with their seven sons and daughters, Dahlia, Peony, Zinnia, Iris, Aster, Mustardseed, and Robin, of course. But ye see, the pernicious piksy king, Rambus Riddle, was striving off of will-o'-the-wisps's blood, barely ruling over his frantic citizens. He made a plan in order to succeed, mainly including a Wyikhan princess as his forced bride.
"However, since the last Wyikhan female ruler was Princess Daphne, who was killed along with the king and queen in battle against the army of malevolent ogres, Wyikha was stripped the blessing of princesses because of the unforgivable deed of Crown Princess Asteria, and so before she was skinned alive, Princess Daphne gave birth to a baby boy named Arsenius--died as well in another battle still--whose later wife gave birth to another son, Viktor. To this day, Viktor rules over Wyikha, now a somber kingdom if there ever was one. Yes, even worse than Faerie. For Faerie has peaceful ruins whereas there is not a breath of happiness dwelling under King Viktor's rule.
"And so King Rambus's henchmen broke into The Royal Library of Faerie and stole the Great Book of Faerie. Rest assured, the Book was then recaptured by King Oberon's men and sealed shut deep within one of the treasure rooms. But not before the piksy king discovered that Crown Princess Asteria gave birth to successors, and her descendants live in New York in the Mortal Realm. The Book also told him of the powers the first born of the Wyikan princesses recieve the blessed gift of foresight along with the well-known wych powers she inherates. As you can likely guess now, King Rambus ordered his most trusted henchman to take some men into the dangerous Mortal Realm and fetch his soon-to-be bride."
"That's who I heard trying to persuade Alice the world had mistreated her and to come with him!" The thought suddenly dawned on me.
"That's the insufferable, coniving huge man I had to fight!" Chris exclaims. "But what does any of that have to do with me? Or Robin?"
"I was get'in there!" Cordelia replies. "So then, they took Alice--yer older twin sister, am I correct?--to their 'beloved' king. He then hatched another plan still, to take over Faerie, which had always been higher in rule than Piksy. Rambus hired wizards of all sorts from Wyikha to train both him and Alice in her magyk, which had begun to show soon after she arrived here, in her true world. She had willfully given him part of her magyk and so, after many a moon, and many a month, she was finally proclaimed ready by those piksys, and was taken to Faerie with the king to destroy Faerie.
"The people fought well and hard, but Alice and Rambus's magyk proved to be stronger indeed. As ye can clearly see, the castle was beaten to ruins! And so, King Oberon, afraid for his family, ordered his wife and seven children to flee into the woods and valleys. The queen however, refused to let her dear husband die without her, and so left only Dahlia, Peony, Zinnia, Iris, Aster, Mustardseed, and Robin to race thru the woods alone. And so, one by one, they fell prey to the piksy magyk, and succumbed to ashes, until only Zinnia and Robin were left. They, as the Great Book writes, discovered one of the few hidden portals left in the Wylde Wood--which runs thruout all the kingdoms--and jumped thru, eager to be rid of the battle.
"Well, ye see, me and Krayvin guard the castle now, so we have full access to every room. The little magyk we dwarfs have left is enough to take care of this castle. So, of course we've seen the Book of Faerie. And so we know that the reason Prince Robin's souls still lives on but Princess Asteria's didn't is that when a soul finds love, even in another world, they are conjoined with their true love, and so can leave earth when they desire, meaning when they die, their soul does not find another host, like Robin's did," she finishes off.
"So you're saying Mandy has Zinnia's soul inside her and I have Robin's soul inside me?" Chris questions, confusion written clear across his face.
"Again, not exactly. When Robin didn't find a true love ina foreign world, his soul was reborn in a new body. Thrice, that happened, according to the Book. So, ye are Robin. Prince Robin Goodfellow Aurealis. And yer sister Mandy is the Princess Zinnia. Understand? But if ye didn't find yer way back here, yer soul would have most definitely stopped this time. For surely ye have found a partner to share yer life with,'' she says, staring pointedly at me.
What, me?!
"No, no! You don't understand; we're just friends!" I protest, no-dout blushing like a beet tomatoe. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a soft blush as well as a smirk slowly make it's way across Chris's face.
What?! He has absolutely no right to smirk! What did I even do? She's the one who suggested us being couples!
But as I look over to Cordelia, I see she is simply quiet, a knowing showing in the dark of night.
"But...but I don't remember anything about Robin--or my past life, if you could call it that," Chris replies, no-doubt trying to change the subject.
Finally!
"Ye wouldn't, though. Yer soul's memories have escaped ye over time but they will soon be regained after a while in Faerie. Do ye not recall anythin'? Isn't any thought comin' back at all?" she asks, looking at Chris with her head bent a bit to the right, as if he's an interesting specimen and she's the curious scientist.
"Well, now that you mention it...no!"
With one more look at the sparkling night sky, I chuckle at his mannerless idiocracy.
"No matter, ye will in due time."
A/N: Well, what did y'all think?
I know tis a bit short, or long, just go with it.
But still, whaddya think of the new characters?
And the stories Cordelia told?
Review and I'll have the next chapter up sooner than otherwise!
Or else I shall update only when pigs fly.
Now for you idiots out there--sorry! Just kidding!
O.D. HYPER MOOD TODAY!!!
Anyways, for those who didn't understand some shtuff, the residents of Faerie, Piksy, Wyikha, and other kingdoms in that world are all immortals. Meaning they don't die of old age or any sickness, only if they drink deadly potions, starve, or if they get killed in battle or otherwise. Princes and princesses stop aging at 18 except until they become kings or queens, then they age year by year until they are 30. Regular children can control their aging at will when they turn 10. They can either stay 10 or keep aging till they're 18 to get married and have children. After their second child, they start to age until 30. That's when immortality kicks in.
By the way, there's a magyk golden drink that all royal newlyweds--faeries, wyches, even piksys--drink at their weddings so that they become royals by marriage.
Also, if you didn't understand Cordelia's stories, Asteria's parents died in battle against Urdwold, land of the ogres, along with her younger sister Daphne. Now Daphne possessed the gift of telepathy like all second born of the Wyikhan royal blood line. The first born, of course, had foresight. But Daphne didn't pass down her gift to her son--Arsenius--mainly because the special gifts are only given to female wyches. But the potions and spells are powers passed down to both males and females. So then after Arsenius's wife gave birth to baby Viktor, Arsenius had to go off to battle with the ogres again! Unbelievable ogres, aren't they?
Then Arsenius's wife drank a death potion, committing suicide and leaving poor Viktor in the hands of his nurse, in order to be with her husband in death. Quite melodramatic, ain't it? Wyikha's duke then ruled over Wyikha until Viktor turned 18. He then kept on aging until 30, stopped there, and that is when King Rambus--who only survives off the blood of will-o'-the-wisps (tiny faeries as big as Tinkerbell and if you don't know who that is, that's just sad)--attacks Faerie. King Oberon--king of Faerie--dies along with Queen Titania. Their 4 daughters and 3 sons--Dahlia, Peony, Zannia, Iris, Aster, Mustardseed, and Robin(Mustardseed and Robin are twins--Robin is the second born after Zinnia)--run into the Wylde Woods. All except Robin and Zannia dissappear either visibly or are never heard of again. Robin and Zannia find a forgotten portal and end up in some part of England.
They too cross the Atlantic Ocean and after dieing, their souls keep moving on to sister n brother. A few generations later, they still don't find true love (that's already explained in the chapter) and so they are reborn into Chris and Mandy Cadenza--children of the rich Cadenza family. As Mandy goes off to college, Chris enrolls in Thorton High School with Lexy. And the rest is history...
If there's anything else you don't understand, I'm happy to explain if you send me a PM or review with questions.
Ciao 4 now,
-Lyla =P