The Heartland. Atlantis.
2773.
197th Year of the Reign of Emperor and Empress Opallyne.
Diamande.
His sister had been born.
He did not remember Emerylda being born with such a crop of copper curls, but the baby that the Empress cradled seemed like such a small and fragile thing.
The procession was a splendid affair, the denizens of the city lining the streets for a glimpse at the new princess. All of them there but for one reason, paupers and nobility, throwing petals into the air as the Emperor and Empress passed on their unicorn-drawn chariot.
Hi mother looked pale beneath her make-up; and Diamande knew the labour had been long and hard, for he'd heard her screams long into the night. But the procession could not be delayed. For it was to the River of Jewels they travelled. For a child's eyes did not open nor colour until they'd called to them the stone that will colour their life – to dictate their future Path and profession.
And soon the River of Jewels was in sight – aptly named for its bed was not one of river-stones, they were jewels, shining in each and every colour, unerringly bright in the sunlight. A true sight to behold.
The Emperor himself lowered the babe into the clear waters, swathed in white silk.
And as one, the procession held their breath.
A blinding light flashed across the sky.
From the Tower of the Heart.
Both Emperor and Empress fell to their knees in the shallows of the river, turning to face the procession as tears streamed down their faces. And the babe did not cry, simply looked at everyone with those Atlantean-blue eyes.
A pure, deep blue – the colour found in only one stone.
"Sapphyre," his parents breathed as one as they named her.
"Blessed by the Heart."
"Apollyon's Heir."
"Hope."
It was the mark of prophecy upon her.
…
The Dark Castle. Underland
2352.
49th Year of the Reign of King Caspian X.
Rilian.
The stables were a place of calm, somewhere that he could go to get away from the watchful eyes that followed his every movement. The earthmen could not stand the horses: their smell, their size, their occasionally temperamental natures. And Rilian found joy in caring for the animals, in the solitude.
He did not truly need to be constantly occupied, nor entertained like a child.
He just grew bored so very quickly, especially in the presence of Emerylda who did not converse with him as if he had any sort of mind. And the days had stretched into weeks without Sapphyre there. And he found that he was finding he was losing more and more time in the day, having those strange blank moments that he couldn't quite remember.
It was his own stallion that he brushed methodically, the great black creature tolerating his presence. Coalblack, an apt name, though no one could ever accuse him of being imaginative, for the majestic mount was pitch-black from the points of his ears to his mane, to his fetlocks. Sapphyre had snorted when he'd proudly announced the name he'd decided upon, though she'd attempted to smother it quite quickly. It had been one of the first unguarded expressions he'd seen upon her lovely face all those years passed.
He could honestly say that it was not her face he missed. It was her wit, her presence, her companionship and her sly humour. Of course, her visage endeared her to many, he found he would not have cared a whit had she looked like the earthmen who served as his other companions. As long as she kept those stunning eyes, he would not care what the rest of her face looked like. And as long as she kept her smile, he amended the thought, as rare as it was, as he brushed Coalblack's coat over and over.
"Thoughts have always followed you Ril, to bad you're a little too fast for them." As if summoned by his thoughts, Sapphyre was there. In the stable before him in her travel leathers and her dark blue cloak, her hair in its customary braid (albeit with a few unruly strands falling about her face). She'd never looked more beautiful.
His smile threatened to split his face in half as he embraced her, holding her to his chest. She smelled of sweat, with dirt smeared across her face, travel-weary and travel-worn. Of everything on her person perhaps it was only her weapons that were cleaned. But he did not care. He could not care when she was finally within his reach. So warm and right, and she fit within his arms as if she belonged there. And then he was suddenly aware that she had stilled within his embrace, he coughed, stepping back as if he were inspecting her for injuries, his hands still upon her shoulders. Hoping she would not notice the heat that flared across his cheeks. But he did not want to let her go, not quite yet.
Because once Sapphyre was back within her sisters reach, she would be out of his.
Then he frowned.
She had absolutely insulted his intelligence.
"I take it you missed me, little bird?" He said with a grin, deciding not to address that particular comment.
"Why ever would I miss you," she snorted, adjusting her cape slightly, trying very much to look unaffected. He grinned even more, slinging his arm across her shoulders. He would take the victory where he could. She had sought him out first. She'd not changed, or bathed, or gone to her sister.
There was something slightly off, though he could not quite place it.
He would not press her.
He was just glad she was back.
"Meet anyone interesting upon your travels? If you can tell me, that is." If it did not fall under Emerylda-and-Sapphyre secrets. "No, no. Don't tell me. Not until after you've spoken with your sister. I'm just glad your back."
"I didn't miss you at all, Ril."
He absolutely could not wipe the grin from his face, even if the earthmen they passed thought him deranged. He'd never been so happy that she lied to him.
…
Emerylda.
She was weary from the day and as such had retired to her chambers; kicking off her slippers and letting her hair fall down. Her circlet she had placed upon her desk. The gardens were beautiful and finally finished. Whilst the gardens of their home-world city had been flourishing, Narnian blossoms did not grow so well without the light of the sun. The gardens in her Dark City were softer, the blossoms were whites and blues rather than extravagant, bold hues. And Emerylda found it infinitely more beautiful, for they were gardens that she and Sapphyre had created together.
With a sigh she eased into her chair.
Emerylda tapped her fingers on the desk before her, admiring the way her rings caught the light and looking at the map of Narnia beyond her hand. She had travelled the length and breadth of Narnia in her youth. For the rings had once held the magical dust from their home-world that opened doors between worlds.
She'd spent much of her youth visiting Narnia with her friends.
She had been there for the fall of the city in the Witch Country, west of the Wild Lands of the North. She and her friend had been bored one afternoon.
She had been there for the crowning of the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve that had heralded the Golden Age of Narnia. Those had been fun years, full of frivolities and escapades.
She had travelled once to the City of the Ancient Giants while it was still standing – she had taken Sapphyre, celebrating her Knighthood.
And when Atlantis had fallen, she had known exactly where they would make their home.
A small knock on her door alerted her to Sapphyre's return. For no one else would dare to intrude her personal study. "Come in."
Her sister was wearing clean leathers, and her cloak had been washed – her weapons absent from her body. Her copper hair, brighter than Emerylda's own, was braided tightly. Ever the Knight, Sapphyre bowed before her. But there was something different in her eyes, something that had not been her the last time she had seen her.
She could not have found out about the dryad-man, Emerylda knew she could not have. For the dryad's had paid their tithe in Sapphyre's absence, however it had not been before she had set the dryad's tree aflame for the disobedience. Though she'd not been in the dungeons, she had been told that he'd begun screaming as soon as the first leaf had caught alight, and had screamed as the trunk burned, his body turning to ash when the tree did.
Sapphyre could not know about that.
But there was definitely something wrong in her too-blue gaze.
Perchance she had simply been away too long, or spent too long in the company of witches. Perchance she had been too long away from the Heart. So, Emerylda made a note within her mind to not send her sister away too soon.
"What did you find for me?" She would keep her distracted; there were many things that she could have Sapphyre do to further their goal.
"The witches are going to the West, someone is calling them."
"A foe?"
"I'm unsure, I went as far as the Western Mountains, but they went beyond that. To the Old Witch Country."
Interesting. Emerylda tapped the map before her. Then tapped her desk again. And again. And again.
"I saw 5, maybe 6 of them. Ranging in power."
Sapphyre always kept her head, regardless of her emotions. It reminded her once again why so long ago she had chosen her sister over their more impulsive brother.
While their brother had been more powerful, more trained, he'd proven her right when he'd turned on them. And turned everyone else against them.
"I will try the Giants of Harfang once more. They have been instrumental in many a battle here in Narnia since the dawn of time. I will need you to keep Rilian occupied."
Something flickered in those blue eyes.
And she hated that she could not read them as well as she once had.
"Just don't forget, sister, that a day will come when he will not know your face," Emerylda gave her sister a small little smile, so different to the charming, winsome smiles she offered at Court. There were still things she could protect her little sister from. There was not much, but at least she could protect her from heartbreak.
For she could not give up Rilian.
He was crucial to all her plans.
She could not give him up, not even for Sapphyre.
…
Sapphyre.
The Castle and surrounding City had been completed, just before the snowfalls of winter reached them. And so, Rilian had wanted to explore – of course he had. She usually avoided doing as such – for Emerylda had the city built in the image of their lost home-world. But she had been feeling introspective, nostalgic even – no matter how much she tried to forget her past, of late it had been bleeding back into her mind at every moment.
Rilian had not questioned how she seemed to know each and every turn and passageway of the city, despite her not being there all the time.
Afternoon had found them atop the Tower of Light, looking down over the city. The Heart above their heads, casting its eerie light upon everything. And Sapphyre tried not to relish in the warmth of the accursed jewel.
The castle stood on a slope at the center of the city, with jewel-lit snowdrifts piled against dark marble walls, the windows, and domed-roofs bright and shining. The battlements glistened with ice in the cold air, and she could easily see why it had caught Rilian's breath so.
Beyond the castle sprawled the city, dark-marble-walled buildings with domed roofs, large open spaces, and wide streets, designed for caravans to roll through, all surrounded by a vast marble wall. And around the wall stood the sparse forest, the leafless trees surrounding it like a great army defending their citadel. In her home-world, beyond that wall had been open ocean, as if the city itself had been built upon the waves. She shivered, for from the tower she could appreciate the sheer enormity of what lay before her.
A beautiful, exotic, gilded cage.
Towers, turrets, marble steps. Massive oak doors that led to circular rooms and twisting spiral staircases. High-arched windows and stunning mosaics. It had taken her near half an hour to reach the top of the tower without the aid of wings; and looking up, there were more towers above, reaching towards the cavernous ceiling that they could not see. And the view, more than the climb, was what had left her breathless.
She knew that there were guards positioned on the walkways between the towers, her own knights – walkways that extended over vast space and a very high drop.
And it was far too easy for her to remember the city of her birth. Atlantis. With its gold-guided windows and white-stone walls, all alight by the jewel which glowed as bright as a true sun above the city. The same jewel which kept the city afloat above the waves. She could remember the clash of metal on metal, the pounding of the horse's hooves as the knights trained in the courtyards. She could imagine the blue and gold flags of the king flying upon every spire. She could see those marketplaces overflowing with life and people.
But in the Dark City, those mirrored streets were empty.
Before the sweeping palace steps there lay a courtyard, and in that moment it was dotted with what looked like a colorful array of caravans. From so high above it looked like a stain-glass pattern across the snow-covered courtyard, such bright splashes against a dreary backdrop.
"Paying tithe," Rilian mumbled, something quite foreign in his voice.
Again? So soon?
"While you were gone, she purchased an entire new wardrobe," he continued, a frown upon his handsome face. "Every single one green, they all look the same to me. I think she got some gowns for you as well."
Why?
What was Emerylda planning?
What else did she not know?
Fuck.
Sapphyre's fists clenched.
And she drew backwards, back towards the door and once more fervently wished she did not have to return to the city, to Underland. Unnerved for a moment. Not scared, no, she would not say she was scared. Her heart did not thunder, her breath did not catch in her throat. But something, something moved within her.
"What is it that you want, Sapphyre?"
Her hand stilled upon the door. He very rarely used her name. She was his little bird, his blue bird, his friend, sometimes even his captor. She did not turn, even when she felt the warmth of his body at her back – through her cloak and through her leathers. Such a dangerous question. So many answers. But she would not lie to him, not this time. "I don't know. Not anymore. I want to help my sister achieve her dreams."
"Even at the expense of your own?" His breath blossomed across her neck, sending shivers across her body.
She turned to face him, looking up into that face she knew as well as her own. His eyes were alight, burning into hers, even with the Heart above them, those inky pits were so dark as to be black. He was so close to her. So close she could count the individual eyelashes on his eyes. She could count the tiny barely-there freckles that had long since faded. Too close. She took a step back, her back hitting the door. No sound came from her mouth when she opened it; and she wasn't entirely sure what she had even been trying to say.
He brushed an errant copper strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, and her breath left her.
To want things for herself was a very, very dangerous thing indeed.
"You never speak of yourself little-bird. About where you came from," he took her gloved hands, pressing them to his brow as he hand so many times before. And then he held them before him and her heart thundered. "I would like to know more; especially when I have no memories of my own."
She gave him a rueful smile, her gaze dropping to their joined hands. Such warmth careened through her, and she was unable to do anything to stop it. She could not even tug her hands back for when she looked back up, she was trapped within his gaze. "My memories of my home-world are not happy ones."
"There has to be something. Some memory that makes you smile. Something that you want," his voice was barely above a whisper.
"I had dreams," the words were pulled from her, as if by some enchantment wrought by his beautiful indigo eyes. What was wrong with her? Was the Heart playing with her mind? "Of becoming a knight, of honouring my shield and stone. But after I was Knighted…it was not what I thought it would be. So, I will do everything I can to help Emerylda build a better world, to make it what our home-world should have been." She took a shuddering breath and pulled her hands back, turning her back on him and opening the door. "Even if that means giving up the things that I want."