While the other two horses chomped away happily, Ivan held out one last apple for Alfred's horse to devour in delight. Behind him, he could hear Alfred and Katerina chatting by the campfire while they prepared the soup.
They had spent the last two days, plus the second half of the day before, riding south from the tower across Solyra. They had ridden until dusk all three days, and now only had a couple more hours to ride tomorrow to reach Niba. The compass had held them true to their path, continuously pointing south to both the city and his sister.
HIs sister, Natalya, the foreseen true love of the Prince of Aegaimore. The entire concept of his long-lost baby sister possibly being the next Queen of Aegaimore had sunken in over the last few days, now that Alfred had his chance to clear the air on the secrets he was keeping. A veritable rags to riches story in the making, one that would also likely benefit Ivan and Katerina if the sibling reunion went well.
Not that he would take advantage of his sister's status, he already had the contentment he wanted in life.
With the horses now fed, Ivan turned back and walked over to the campfire, where Katerina was sitting forward to stir the soup while Alfred sat back.
"How long until it's ready?" Ivan asked as he sat down next to Katerina and helped himself to a waterskin.
"About ten minutes," Katerina answered, "It needs to simmer for a bit."
"While it does, I was wondering something," Alfred brought up, "I've spent the last couple days telling you about myself, perhaps it's time to hear from you guys."
"What do you want to know?" Ivan complied.
"I want to know your story," Alfred requested, "If you two are my prospective siblings-in-law, I might as well know your background. How you came to lose your sister in the first place, how you were raised by a witch, sounds like you might have your own tale to tell."
"I suppose that makes sense," Katerina allowed, "Which of us should start?"
"You might as well," Ivan suggested, "You remember more of it."
"I suppose so," Katerina mused, "Now, where to begin?"
She took a moment to think, while Ivan took a sip of his water.
"I was six years old when it happened, and Ivan was three," Katerina began, "Our parents were dirt poor, and could not keep any job they tried. Having children only made things more difficult for them, they were already stressed out raising me and Ivan before Natalya was even conceived."
"We were living on the outskirts of Hawyth in the north, where our only neighbours were a witch and her teenage son, Marianne and Francis. Marianne had this beautiful and flourishing vegetable garden, which my parents envied greatly. One night, my father broke in to steal some vegetables, and got caught red-handed by Marianne."
"Caught by a witch," Alfred chuckled, "That does not sound good."
"Marianne was stern about the matter, but she did not punish him," Katerina narrated, "Instead, she cut him a deal: she would give our family half the season's vegetables as they ripened, but in exchange she would claim the child when it was born. The day Mother gave birth to our baby sister, Marianne showed up only an hour later to take her away. Marianne left with Francis and the baby that very night, the house and garden were abandoned the next morning."
"Then Natalya ended up in that tower," Alfred determined, "At some point over the next several years, at least. What happened to you two after that?"
"The four of us stuck together the next few years, but it became clearer with each year as Ivan and I grew up that our parents could not take good care of us. They were our parents, though, we didn't want to leave them and fend for ourselves. When I was eleven and Ivan was eight, our parents started walking us out into the woods on day trips, only to try to sneak off on us and abandon us. Luckily for us, Ivan was a clever little rascal, and figured out how to get us home."
"Let me guess," Alfred speculated, "Good with directions in the forest at such a young age?"
"More primitive than that," Ivan corrected, "I was leaving breadcrumbs on the forest floor, and marking trees with scratches to indicate our path."
"The first few times, we made it home safe and sound, to our parents' shock and disappointment," Katerina continued, "Finally, they came up with another trick, which I should've seen coming. On this trip, they gave us water that tasted funny, and we fell asleep in the woods. When we woke up, we were on a small wooden raft floating down the river, a very long way from home. When I stirred Ivan awake, he shook the raft so violently that we fell in the water and had to swim to shore."
"Did your parents drug you?" Alfred accused.
"A sleeping aid," Katerina identified, "I unwittingly helped my mother prepare it the other day, though she didn't tell me what it was."
"Katya still blames herself for her negligence," Ivan noted, "It's not necessary, though, she was eleven and couldn't have known any better."
"I agree, that's just a rough day to be left to the world," Alfred concurred, "So you ended up in the river, what then?"
"We were lucky to awake where we did," Ivan took over, "Just nearby on the bank of the river, we found a quiet little cottage where we asked for refuge. Katalin was a witch, her family had lived there for generations practicing magic. She had a daughter our age, Erzsébet, who was learning her mother's craft. Katalin agreed to let us stay if we helped with chores, and over time we became part of the family, as if Katalin was the mother we should've had."
"That's very kind of her," Alfred remarked, "Did you get to help with any witchcraft at all?"
"Only with gathering and organizing supplies for Katalin and Erzsébet," Katerina clarified, "She did try to teach us some basics of magic, but quickly found that neither of us had the gift of witchcraft. Katalin passed away a year ago, so it's just the two of us with Erzsébet now. Still, it's already guaranteed that Ivan will one day marry her properly -"
"Katya," Ivan whined, "Would you not -"
"Oh please, Vanya," Katerina scoffed, "You and Erzsébet are head over heels in love, and you already have Katalin's permission to spend your lives together and continue the magic-blessed bloodline."
"Are you two childhood sweethearts?" Alfred cooed, "That's so sweet!"
"Our childhood did not have any of that," Ivan downplayed, "It wasn't until we were teenagers that my relationship with Erzsébet changed. A couple Unseelie fae tried to whisk her away to Tivalon, so I ended up having to protect her when Tolys couldn't be summoned in time. That certainly expedited our feelings turning romantic in nature."
"You mentioned Tolys being a cousin before," Alfred pointed out, "Was he directly Katalin's cousin, or was there a few more generations there?"
"A couple generations removed," Katerina revised, "Tolys's mother was the sister of Katalin's grandmother. WIth the fae aging three times slower than humans, Tolys is now an adult by fae standards at the same time as we are by human standards. He gave us the faerie dust we used at the tower the other day, and helped Erzsébet enchant our compass."
"You said a few days ago that you went to find your birth parents," Alfred recalled, "Or did I mishear that?"
"It was a bit cathartic on our end," Ivan described, "Katalin and Erzsébet had indeed become our family, but as we reached adulthood we realized that we wanted closure on that topic. We wanted to prove to our parents that we survived without them, and we also wanted to find out what they could tell us about our missing baby sister. We used the compass to guide us from Quvell back to Hawyth, where we managed to find their front door. We asked them why they abandoned us, and demanded they tell us what they could about our sister, then we returned south."
"Sure doesn't sound like a happy reunion," Alfred noted.
"It was very difficult to do, but we kept our focus," Katerina elaborated, "We were the ones with the final say in the matter, having survived and thrived without them. We told them directly that the only reason they'd ever see us again is if our baby sister wants her own cathartic moment. We then took our new measurement of where she was, said our farewell and took our leave."
"What does that mean for Natalya then?" Alfred addressed, "If she returns to them and reveals she is meant to be a queen, could they demand preferential treatment?"
"They don't deserve it," Ivan refused, "All they did was conceive her, they didn't raise her to be the queen she is destined to be."
"It will be a sensitive topic to address, should she want to address it," Katerina amended, "That's a discussion we'll need to have with her when we finally get to see her again."
"I'd be happy to mediate when it happens," Alfred offered, "There's going to be lots for her to catch up on, it could take time for her to decide what she wants to do. After all, even if we're foreseen to be each other's true love, I still have to convince her to marry me."
"Do you suspect that to be any trouble?" Katerina asked.
"It's hard to say," Alfred judged, "I started this journey knowing that I'd have to win her affections for this to all be worth it. When we met, she seemed keen to see the world, so I'll have to see if I can entice her with the comforts of a royal life."
Ivan nodded silently to Alfred's remark. It seemed the prince at least had the right idea how to approach making fate happen, only time would tell how Natalya will respond.