Cruel Fates
By: Ice_Queen
Chapter 1
Author's Note: Hello all! I suddenly realized I forgot to put one of these little ditties in my Prologue. Oh well, too late. So I'm putting one in now. I've noticed that in many of Anne Bishop's stories there is lots of male/female bonding. Well, not in this one! There will be some, yes, but not as much. There will be more female/female relationships in here. (No! Not yuri, you ecchis!) Cuz I can't write from male perspective. And um, thanks to those of you who reviewed.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Jewels Trilogy, or any characters, settings, or names taken from those books. I do own the character Silvara, so don't steal her.
Story~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Now, Silvara, I expect you to behave, and to be polite," Gabrielle said sternly.
"Yes, Mama," Silvara replied, looking at her innocently with her blue-violet eyes.
"And do as the High Lord tells you to," Chaosti reminded Silvara.
"Yes, Papa," Silvara replied sweetly, turning that same look onto him. "I promise to behave. We've been through this a hundred times now. It's not like this is my first Craft lesson," Silvara says, inwardly annoyed with the impossible demands they were placing on her. Trouble was her nature. When would they learn?
"But afterwards, may I go visit Tersa? Pleeeeeeease, Daddy?" Silvara begged of her father; she already knew he would give in before her mother would. "Oh all right," Chaosti said, giving the expected response. "Thank you! I love you, buh-bye!" She called out, running away and to the High Lord's study, for she was late...again.
***********(STARS.... OoO PRETTY)***********
Saetan sighed as he heard the gentle tapping on his door. It was Silvara, late as always. "Come in," he called out loudly enough that she'd hear him, but not loud enough to be yelling. In came the little girl. Well, she wasn't so little anymore. Silvara had grown into a beautiful young lady, and was now at the age of fourteen. Her silver hair was still damp, and hung about her wildly. Her eyes, a beautiful indigo, shined with a suppressed happiness that always seemed to be there.
"Uncle Saetan," she said as she bowed before the Blackwood desk. He wasn't really her uncle, but that was what her mother and father referred to him as. When she had started referring to him the same way he'd pointed out to her that it should be "great uncle," not uncle. She had replied that to call him Great Uncle Saetan took too much time. It had confused him, so they left it at that.
"I apologize for my tardiness, but my parents insisted upon lecturing me before I came here," Silvara said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
"That is quite all right. Sit down now," he said, and waited until she did so. "Today's lesson will be on..."
And as he dealt with her tumult of questions, Saetan couldn't help thinking how he had gotten suckered into doing this. Not only was he teaching Silvara, but he'd also gotten conned into teaching all the coven's children. He was quite used to the headaches now, but it still was a great relief when they were gone.
******(more pretty stars .)******
With her Craft lessons done, Silvara ran the entire way to the web landing. She was absolutely thrilled to go see Tersa. Ever since she could remember Tersa had been a key person in her life. Right up there with her mother and father. She'd always been there when Silvara had needed her. Being the Queen's only daughter left her quite isolated from the rest of her people, and in desperate need of friends. And except for Titian, Surreal's and Falonar's daughter, she had few. So Tersa had provided not only a source of information, but a source of companionship also.
Sure, the woman had her odd points, but that made her all the more intriguing. It made her curious to know what the Twisted Kingdom was really like. When she had asked Tersa she had gotten the reply of "curiosity killed the cat." That was fine though. In addition to being her friend Tersa was her teacher. She was a fine and very knowledgeable Black Widow, and a few months ago they had discovered that not only was Silvara a Queen and Healer, but also a Black Widow. That left her being very powerful for one so young, especially because her Birthright was the Sapphire.
Arriving at the landing near Tersa's cottage, she walked the tiny way to the front door, then thought again and bypassed it, heading towards the back yard. Tersa had a garden back there, which she spent most of her time lovingly tending. "Tersa," Silvara called out, "I'm here!"
"I know you are child. Now come here and help me," was the reply she received from Tersa. As Silvara had anticipated Tersa was in the back, tending her garden.
The woman was bent over pulling out weeds by hand. "Tersa, why don't you just use Craft?" Silvara asked, puzzled, while kneeling down next to her. "Craft," Tersa sighed and shook her head. "You young ones depend on Craft too much. Nothing substitutes good, old fashioned work."
"All right," Silvara said with a smile. "Here, I'll give you a hand." She bent over and set to work yanking out stubborn weeds, roots and all.
Quite a bit later Tersa stood up. "Come on, child. Let's go in. I'll make us some tea," Tersa said, while already walking inside. Silvara had to hurry to catch up. She remembered the first time she'd had tea. It had been with Tersa. At first she'd thought it was awful, then Tersa had added a bit of sugar to it, and it had became a lovely drink after a stressful day. Today Tersa made raspberry. It was Tersa's favorite. Silvara liked it fine, but preferred chamomile. After the tea was made, and the cookies set out, Tersa sat down at the table with Silvara.
"So tell me, child, what mischief have you been into lately?" Tersa began, taking a sip of tea after.
"Um..." Silvara stalled, stirring in a teaspoon of sugar, "Well, today I had my Craft lesson with Uncle Saetan, and was late again because Mommy and Daddy just had to remind me of my manners before I left. And me 'n Titian found this huge tree in the Dea al Mon forest, so we decided that we're going to build a tree fort. It's going to be fun."
"Hm" Tersa said with a speculating look in her eyes, "I know a lumber dealer who may be able to get you some decent wood at a good price."
"Really? Oh thank you Tersa!" Silvara cried.
"I'll write down his name and address before you go," Tersa said after a deep gulp of hot tea. Silvara drank her own cup of tea down fast, and then ate a cookie. Quietly they finished their mid-afternoon snack.
Afterwards Tersa moved about to do a bit of cleaning up, with some help from Silvara, who offered to do the dishes. Once the two finished that task they set about the lesson. "Now, tell me what we learned last week," Tersa ordered. Silvara obeyed and recited without a bit of hesitation. She had photographic memory and remembered every single thing ever said or seen. "Good, now this week we will be discussing..." Tersa began.
As Tersa taught her lesson to the blossoming girl-child before her, she wondered. It seemed like yesterday that she had first lain eyes on her, resting in the arms of her mother. How had the child grown up so fast? She was almost as tall as she herself was. Children, she thought to herself, they all grow like weeds.
*********** (Ooo even more stars) ***********
The sky was darkening by the time Silvara finally left Tersa's. She had to hurry back to the Hall; her mother and father would be waiting. Silvara took off at a run for the landing web. Almost there, she thought. She arrived at the landing web out of breath. Mother Night, was she out of shape! Time to get an exercise plan! In haste she stepped on the web and quickly took the Winds to the Hall.
At the Hall she arrived, swiftly sprinting to the main hall where her parents would be waiting. It was already night! "Your late," her mother said immediately as she burst into the hall. "I-- um--- Sorry," Silvara replied hesitantly, looking down at the ground. Only her mother could make her want to crawl into a corner and die. She was so... cold. Her mother went back to her conversation with Jaenelle and Daemon.
After a moment Silvara looked up. Across the room were a smirking Damien and a snickering Eliza. The two of them were Daemon and Jaenelle's children. Hell's Fire, how she hated them! Well, Damien wasn't as bad as Eliza, but the two of them were impossible. Once upon a time she had tried to be friends with Eliza. Obviously, that had blown up in her face. Acts of kindness were completely lost on the girl. She seemed to think that because she was Witch's daughter she had the right to boss everyone around. Just thinking about her made Silvara's blood boil.
Damien wasn't nearly as bad as his younger sibling. Sure, he was stubborn, obstinate, and opinionated. But that's because he was male. At least he was polite. Sometimes though, like now, she just wanted to smack him. Silvara held back that urge though because he was older than she was and because he wore the Red and she only wore the Sapphire. Damien was two years older than Silvara, and he never let her forget it.
If locked in a room with the two of them, Silvara would definitely kill Eliza first. Then, if Damien got too annoying, she'd attempt to kill him. Even though she'd end up getting her butt kicked. She may have been more adept at physical fighting than he was, but he had the advantage on the magickal end of the spectrum. Eliza only wore the Opal, and was a year younger than her. So she could kick her butt any day. It was only her respect for Jaenelle and Daemon that held her back there.
Smiling at her fantasy of killing Eliza, Silvara struggled to hold back a laugh. She looked up and found herself staring straight into the gold eyes of Damien. He was staring at her with a startled look on his face. What was he seeing that she couldn't? Unnerved by his stare she let her lips curl into a silent snarl. That made him stop staring. Inwardly she took pleasure of this exchange. It made her happy to know she could startle him. She didn't know why, nor did she care.
Waiting for her mother always irritated Silvara for some reason. Why should it matter that she was late if her mother wasn't leaving? It was mind-boggling. So Silvara stood and waited by the doorway, absently picking at the fabric of her loose cotton shirt.
She was getting very impatient. Almost subconsciously her foot started to tap and her nails drummed against her upper-arm. She needed to be doing something. Boredom came very easily to the girl.
"Silvara!" her mother hissed, "Stop it!" Finally Silvara realized what she was doing, stopped, and looked away sheepishly. She could hear Eliza snickering already. The urge to smack the wench came back. Again, she tightly kept control until it subsided.
She looked around for a place to sit, but could find none on her side of the room. The only furniture was over by Damien and Eliza. Casually, she crossed the room and sat on a loveseat unoccupied by either horror. Suddenly she remembered that she had vanished a book the other day, and never returned it to the library. She called it in and read the title. A New Dawn. What the Hell is this? Then a memory resurfaced. Titian had wanted to read the book, but neither girl had their card with them, so she'd vanished it for her. Yes, this was definitely Titian's taste, she decided as she opened to a random page and was greeted with a love scene. Gross, she thought as she flipped to the first page, but I need entertainment. So she settled down for a long wait while her parents gossiped.
*********(TEEHEE! more stars!)*********
Barely awake, Silvara stumbled through the doors into her room. They had finally gone home, an hour after Silvara had finished her book. She even read the love scenes, as gross as they were. She'd been desperate for entertainment. So desperate that she even had a long conversation with Damien. She couldn't remember what exactly had been said, but she knew it had been funny.
Exhausted she pulled off her boots and socks while walking towards her bed, and proceeded to take off her pants. With that chore done she crawled exhausted under the blankets, and put a quick warming spell on them. In instants she was asleep.
AN: Whaddya think? Should I continue? Yea or nay? I'll not post up another chapter until I get three reviews. Ne way, yes, I did skip 14 years of Silvara's life, but they weren't that fascinating. Trust me. Here is where the plot-line really starts to come into play. And believe me, you will start to see a plot-line soon. I promise.
By: Ice_Queen
Chapter 1
Author's Note: Hello all! I suddenly realized I forgot to put one of these little ditties in my Prologue. Oh well, too late. So I'm putting one in now. I've noticed that in many of Anne Bishop's stories there is lots of male/female bonding. Well, not in this one! There will be some, yes, but not as much. There will be more female/female relationships in here. (No! Not yuri, you ecchis!) Cuz I can't write from male perspective. And um, thanks to those of you who reviewed.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Jewels Trilogy, or any characters, settings, or names taken from those books. I do own the character Silvara, so don't steal her.
Story~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Now, Silvara, I expect you to behave, and to be polite," Gabrielle said sternly.
"Yes, Mama," Silvara replied, looking at her innocently with her blue-violet eyes.
"And do as the High Lord tells you to," Chaosti reminded Silvara.
"Yes, Papa," Silvara replied sweetly, turning that same look onto him. "I promise to behave. We've been through this a hundred times now. It's not like this is my first Craft lesson," Silvara says, inwardly annoyed with the impossible demands they were placing on her. Trouble was her nature. When would they learn?
"But afterwards, may I go visit Tersa? Pleeeeeeease, Daddy?" Silvara begged of her father; she already knew he would give in before her mother would. "Oh all right," Chaosti said, giving the expected response. "Thank you! I love you, buh-bye!" She called out, running away and to the High Lord's study, for she was late...again.
***********(STARS.... OoO PRETTY)***********
Saetan sighed as he heard the gentle tapping on his door. It was Silvara, late as always. "Come in," he called out loudly enough that she'd hear him, but not loud enough to be yelling. In came the little girl. Well, she wasn't so little anymore. Silvara had grown into a beautiful young lady, and was now at the age of fourteen. Her silver hair was still damp, and hung about her wildly. Her eyes, a beautiful indigo, shined with a suppressed happiness that always seemed to be there.
"Uncle Saetan," she said as she bowed before the Blackwood desk. He wasn't really her uncle, but that was what her mother and father referred to him as. When she had started referring to him the same way he'd pointed out to her that it should be "great uncle," not uncle. She had replied that to call him Great Uncle Saetan took too much time. It had confused him, so they left it at that.
"I apologize for my tardiness, but my parents insisted upon lecturing me before I came here," Silvara said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
"That is quite all right. Sit down now," he said, and waited until she did so. "Today's lesson will be on..."
And as he dealt with her tumult of questions, Saetan couldn't help thinking how he had gotten suckered into doing this. Not only was he teaching Silvara, but he'd also gotten conned into teaching all the coven's children. He was quite used to the headaches now, but it still was a great relief when they were gone.
******(more pretty stars .)******
With her Craft lessons done, Silvara ran the entire way to the web landing. She was absolutely thrilled to go see Tersa. Ever since she could remember Tersa had been a key person in her life. Right up there with her mother and father. She'd always been there when Silvara had needed her. Being the Queen's only daughter left her quite isolated from the rest of her people, and in desperate need of friends. And except for Titian, Surreal's and Falonar's daughter, she had few. So Tersa had provided not only a source of information, but a source of companionship also.
Sure, the woman had her odd points, but that made her all the more intriguing. It made her curious to know what the Twisted Kingdom was really like. When she had asked Tersa she had gotten the reply of "curiosity killed the cat." That was fine though. In addition to being her friend Tersa was her teacher. She was a fine and very knowledgeable Black Widow, and a few months ago they had discovered that not only was Silvara a Queen and Healer, but also a Black Widow. That left her being very powerful for one so young, especially because her Birthright was the Sapphire.
Arriving at the landing near Tersa's cottage, she walked the tiny way to the front door, then thought again and bypassed it, heading towards the back yard. Tersa had a garden back there, which she spent most of her time lovingly tending. "Tersa," Silvara called out, "I'm here!"
"I know you are child. Now come here and help me," was the reply she received from Tersa. As Silvara had anticipated Tersa was in the back, tending her garden.
The woman was bent over pulling out weeds by hand. "Tersa, why don't you just use Craft?" Silvara asked, puzzled, while kneeling down next to her. "Craft," Tersa sighed and shook her head. "You young ones depend on Craft too much. Nothing substitutes good, old fashioned work."
"All right," Silvara said with a smile. "Here, I'll give you a hand." She bent over and set to work yanking out stubborn weeds, roots and all.
Quite a bit later Tersa stood up. "Come on, child. Let's go in. I'll make us some tea," Tersa said, while already walking inside. Silvara had to hurry to catch up. She remembered the first time she'd had tea. It had been with Tersa. At first she'd thought it was awful, then Tersa had added a bit of sugar to it, and it had became a lovely drink after a stressful day. Today Tersa made raspberry. It was Tersa's favorite. Silvara liked it fine, but preferred chamomile. After the tea was made, and the cookies set out, Tersa sat down at the table with Silvara.
"So tell me, child, what mischief have you been into lately?" Tersa began, taking a sip of tea after.
"Um..." Silvara stalled, stirring in a teaspoon of sugar, "Well, today I had my Craft lesson with Uncle Saetan, and was late again because Mommy and Daddy just had to remind me of my manners before I left. And me 'n Titian found this huge tree in the Dea al Mon forest, so we decided that we're going to build a tree fort. It's going to be fun."
"Hm" Tersa said with a speculating look in her eyes, "I know a lumber dealer who may be able to get you some decent wood at a good price."
"Really? Oh thank you Tersa!" Silvara cried.
"I'll write down his name and address before you go," Tersa said after a deep gulp of hot tea. Silvara drank her own cup of tea down fast, and then ate a cookie. Quietly they finished their mid-afternoon snack.
Afterwards Tersa moved about to do a bit of cleaning up, with some help from Silvara, who offered to do the dishes. Once the two finished that task they set about the lesson. "Now, tell me what we learned last week," Tersa ordered. Silvara obeyed and recited without a bit of hesitation. She had photographic memory and remembered every single thing ever said or seen. "Good, now this week we will be discussing..." Tersa began.
As Tersa taught her lesson to the blossoming girl-child before her, she wondered. It seemed like yesterday that she had first lain eyes on her, resting in the arms of her mother. How had the child grown up so fast? She was almost as tall as she herself was. Children, she thought to herself, they all grow like weeds.
*********** (Ooo even more stars) ***********
The sky was darkening by the time Silvara finally left Tersa's. She had to hurry back to the Hall; her mother and father would be waiting. Silvara took off at a run for the landing web. Almost there, she thought. She arrived at the landing web out of breath. Mother Night, was she out of shape! Time to get an exercise plan! In haste she stepped on the web and quickly took the Winds to the Hall.
At the Hall she arrived, swiftly sprinting to the main hall where her parents would be waiting. It was already night! "Your late," her mother said immediately as she burst into the hall. "I-- um--- Sorry," Silvara replied hesitantly, looking down at the ground. Only her mother could make her want to crawl into a corner and die. She was so... cold. Her mother went back to her conversation with Jaenelle and Daemon.
After a moment Silvara looked up. Across the room were a smirking Damien and a snickering Eliza. The two of them were Daemon and Jaenelle's children. Hell's Fire, how she hated them! Well, Damien wasn't as bad as Eliza, but the two of them were impossible. Once upon a time she had tried to be friends with Eliza. Obviously, that had blown up in her face. Acts of kindness were completely lost on the girl. She seemed to think that because she was Witch's daughter she had the right to boss everyone around. Just thinking about her made Silvara's blood boil.
Damien wasn't nearly as bad as his younger sibling. Sure, he was stubborn, obstinate, and opinionated. But that's because he was male. At least he was polite. Sometimes though, like now, she just wanted to smack him. Silvara held back that urge though because he was older than she was and because he wore the Red and she only wore the Sapphire. Damien was two years older than Silvara, and he never let her forget it.
If locked in a room with the two of them, Silvara would definitely kill Eliza first. Then, if Damien got too annoying, she'd attempt to kill him. Even though she'd end up getting her butt kicked. She may have been more adept at physical fighting than he was, but he had the advantage on the magickal end of the spectrum. Eliza only wore the Opal, and was a year younger than her. So she could kick her butt any day. It was only her respect for Jaenelle and Daemon that held her back there.
Smiling at her fantasy of killing Eliza, Silvara struggled to hold back a laugh. She looked up and found herself staring straight into the gold eyes of Damien. He was staring at her with a startled look on his face. What was he seeing that she couldn't? Unnerved by his stare she let her lips curl into a silent snarl. That made him stop staring. Inwardly she took pleasure of this exchange. It made her happy to know she could startle him. She didn't know why, nor did she care.
Waiting for her mother always irritated Silvara for some reason. Why should it matter that she was late if her mother wasn't leaving? It was mind-boggling. So Silvara stood and waited by the doorway, absently picking at the fabric of her loose cotton shirt.
She was getting very impatient. Almost subconsciously her foot started to tap and her nails drummed against her upper-arm. She needed to be doing something. Boredom came very easily to the girl.
"Silvara!" her mother hissed, "Stop it!" Finally Silvara realized what she was doing, stopped, and looked away sheepishly. She could hear Eliza snickering already. The urge to smack the wench came back. Again, she tightly kept control until it subsided.
She looked around for a place to sit, but could find none on her side of the room. The only furniture was over by Damien and Eliza. Casually, she crossed the room and sat on a loveseat unoccupied by either horror. Suddenly she remembered that she had vanished a book the other day, and never returned it to the library. She called it in and read the title. A New Dawn. What the Hell is this? Then a memory resurfaced. Titian had wanted to read the book, but neither girl had their card with them, so she'd vanished it for her. Yes, this was definitely Titian's taste, she decided as she opened to a random page and was greeted with a love scene. Gross, she thought as she flipped to the first page, but I need entertainment. So she settled down for a long wait while her parents gossiped.
*********(TEEHEE! more stars!)*********
Barely awake, Silvara stumbled through the doors into her room. They had finally gone home, an hour after Silvara had finished her book. She even read the love scenes, as gross as they were. She'd been desperate for entertainment. So desperate that she even had a long conversation with Damien. She couldn't remember what exactly had been said, but she knew it had been funny.
Exhausted she pulled off her boots and socks while walking towards her bed, and proceeded to take off her pants. With that chore done she crawled exhausted under the blankets, and put a quick warming spell on them. In instants she was asleep.
AN: Whaddya think? Should I continue? Yea or nay? I'll not post up another chapter until I get three reviews. Ne way, yes, I did skip 14 years of Silvara's life, but they weren't that fascinating. Trust me. Here is where the plot-line really starts to come into play. And believe me, you will start to see a plot-line soon. I promise.