Helios

 

The air outside was hot, although thankfully it wasn’t all that humid today. Sometimes the lake could leave us stewing in our own sweat, but not today; the sky was pure blue with barely a hint of a cloud.

I inhaled deeply, drawing the scent of the mid-summer flowers and warm grass into my lungs, savouring the way it calmed me and pulled up pleasant memories of the past. The palace gardens had been a place of relaxation ever since I was a child and I’d loved playing amongst the brightly coloured floral displays.

We’d always had acres of manicured gardens and expertly-tended arrangements during the Spring and Summer months that provided the perfect setting for all manner of family occasions. The ones that stood out most in my mind were the birthday celebrations, and ours would be happening in a few weeks.

The long-awaited clip-clopping of hooves and rattling of wheels drew my attention, snapping my thoughts back to the moment. I turned to see a couple of horses pulling a wooden trailer into view. Secured atop it was a large cage with closely spaced bars. The poor animals were worried – I could tell by the way their tails were swishing and they looked like they wanted to bolt to escape what was held inside.

When the King of Surisia had said that he’d present me with a gift, he’d also mentioned that it wasn’t appropriate for a dining room but I hadn’t realised that it would need to be kept outdoors.

Servants ran over to unhitch the horses, although their eyes contained just as much fear and apprehension of being near the container as the animals’ had. I found that both amusing and intriguing, but I brought up a hand to hide my growing smile. What could have them so afraid?

With slow, purposeful strides, I circled around to get a better angle for gazing into the enclosure. Despite the sunlight, it was dark within and I found myself taking an extra few steps.

It wasn’t until I was within a couple of arms’ lengths that I could make out what was held within, and I had to stop myself from shouting out in surprise.

Huddled in the far corner was the dark shape of some kind of creature. It was about the size of a large dog, although this was just a guess because my eyes struggled to pick out details. One thing that did stand out, however, was the eye that gazed back. The amber-irised orb peered out from under a large, leathery wing.

We continued to observe one another over the course of a minute or so until it pulled its head out and gave me a hiss of warning. Now that it was no longer hidden, I could see that its snout was long, and a similar obsidian colour as the rest of its body. Its mouth contained tiny, needle-like teeth that it bared at me, threatening me to keep my distance.

I folded my arms across my chest at the display of aggression but it didn’t progress much further than that and it soon gave up entirely. The creature evidently possessed sufficient intelligence to understand that I was not going to allow it to intimidate me. It studied me in return, its gaze roving my body before fixating on my face once again.

Everyone around me was keeping their distance. I caught one particular servant whisper to another that I must have lost my mind, but I didn’t care. Casually, I stepped forwards a couple more steps until I was within a single arm’s reach of the bars.

“Good morning!” I called and it hefted itself onto its two rear feet, using the claws of its wings to cautiously step towards me.

With a sudden realisation, I saw that it hadn’t actually been the shadows that had made it so difficult to pick out – the utter blackness of its entire body had given that effect. As it drew closer I could make out a long, slender tail and the faint glint of the scales that covered its body.

I’d paid enough attention to my classes to know that this was a wyvern. Although, if the stories were correct, this must be a child – barely more than a baby. An adult would completely fill the cage that it was being held in.

Laughter filled the air, distracting me from the real moment of connection that I was having with my new friend. I turned from the cage to look for its source, but it didn’t take long for me to find it. King Margur was wandering into the gardens alongside Mother, his expression jovial as his dark eyes rested on the ‘gift’. His ears were twitching curiously, but he was completely unfazed by the captive beast.

“Ah, Prince Helios,” he called out to me as they came closer. My nostrils flared almost imperceptibly at the sound of my name, but I ignored my body’s odd reaction. “I see that you have already had the pleasure of beholding our token of friendship. What do you think of her?”

Mother was also contemplating me, though there was a warm smile on her lips. I knew that she would be silently willing me to say something polite and appreciative, but as I turned back to the baby wyvern inside the cage all I could wonder was where its family was.

“She looks lonely,” I replied, not turning away. It had curled up again, this time a little closer than before, but it was still watching me with those yellowish eyes. That wasn’t the answer that Mother had wanted me to give, though, so I added flatly, “A wyvern is a very fine present. I thank you.”

I knew that my voice was going through the motions, but I found myself unable to find any excitement in the idea of keeping a pet just because it was dangerous or impressive. I saw it as an allegory for my own situation.

“We are humbled and grateful to the Kingdom of Surisia for its grand offering and token of friendship,” Mother added, but I knew that she would be reprimanding me for my lack of manners later.

“She was captured by my very own hunting party a week before we set sail for Aeidia,” the King announced, pride swelling his chest. “The rest of her pack were either killed or taken as trophies. This one was found at the rear of the cave. She even killed one of our soldiers before we could take her, so be careful.”

He gestured now towards the wyvern as she lay curled up. As soon as she saw him do that, she jumped to her feet and growled at him. The King just laughed, stepping closer. He let her growl at him for a moment or two longer before exposing his fangs and returning a roar.

The little thing shied away, backing into the corner she had been hiding in originally and covered her head with her wing.

“Does she have a name?” I asked him, although I honestly didn’t care. If she did then I would give her a new one.

He shook his head, twisting to look at me and slipping away from the cage again with graceful movements. “No,” he said. “We had always intended for her to be a gift to you, Prince. I thought that giving you that honour would be more appropriate.”

I flashed him a smile and turned back to the terrified wyvern, placing a finger to my lip in thought. What kind of name do you even give something like this, anyway?

 

~*~*~

 

The morning had been taken up with finding where to house the wyvern – which was still yet to be named – and the foreign visitors teaching us how to look after it. The Surisians were all too keenly aware that she ate meat – and a lot of it at that.

Several of the stablehands were conspicuous by their absence and it quickly became evident that I would have to look after her myself. Everyone else was too scared to go any nearer to her enclose than it took to toss in a flank of goat or a leg of mutton.

The stink of manure clung to me as I returned to my room but I could feel the door to the room opposite mine beckoning to me. The ball was this evening and I would need to get ready, but there were still a few hours before then.

There was a bath of warm water waiting for me in my personal washroom. With my clothes thrown into a basket for servants to carry off and clean, I timidly stepped into the tub. It was a pleasant temperature but I wasted no time in scrubbing away the muck and grime and then towelling myself dry. Everything was fine so long as I didn’t look down.

Then, dressed in only a simple tunic and a pair of breeches, I slipped across the hall.

Our bedrooms were not so closely guarded that we had men stationed outside at all times. Our family’s wing was considered safe enough that once you were inside the number of palace guards decreased significantly. Which was fortunate, because it meant that I could sneak into my sister’s room without being seen or questioned.

It was second nature to slide the bolt across once I was through the door. It prevented any accidental discoveries and gave me enough time to hide if it came to that. Once my heart had settled and the fear of exposure had lessened, I practically skipped over to the wardrobe in search of the perfect apparel. What would I be wearing tonight if I were Selene?

There were just so many dresses here. The wardrobe was about twice the width of my own, and even I struggled to justify half of my clothing. Plenty of my outfits had only been worn once or twice in their entire lifetimes and I was already growing out of them. Such a waste.

Eventually, I picked out a silken gown, dyed a vivid red with black accents. It flared outwards at the hips but the bodice was narrow and cinched sharply around the waist. It was beautiful. My heart ached to be able to wear something like this, my eyes beginning to twinge with tears that refused to come.

I undressed quickly, dropping my breeches and tunic onto the floor. The glowing stylised emblem of the sun caught my attention, radiating a soft yellow light from just above my sternum. I immediately regretted looking down, gritting my teeth in frustration as my gaze was instead drawn to the shape of my chest and the hair that was already beginning to develop there.

Breathing deeply to rein in my emotions, I reached for the chosen dress and stepped into it, feeling the cool material as it brushed against my legs and up my torso. It had laces at the back that would require someone else to secure but I could still imagine how I would have looked as I slid my arms through the sleeves.

The person looking back at me when I gazed towards the mirror was the same stranger that I saw sometimes when I accidentally caught my reflection in a pane of glass or from a particularly well-polished blade. Except now they were wearing a beautiful gown instead of the more boyish clothes that I had to wear every day.

Instinct kicked in and I threw up the illusion that I’d been practising for years. The image of my face morphed in front of my eyes, becoming the feminine version of myself through subtle changes to my jaw, my nose, my eyes. Hair fell in front of my eyes and down my back, even though the rest of my senses were screaming at me that this wasn’t real.

With my heart racing, I allowed the magic to work its way lower, encompassing my chest and narrowing my waist.

At last, I felt at peace as I turned this way and that, inspecting the young woman looking back at me.

It took a sudden noise from the window to snap my attention away and I conscientiously threw my arms up to protect my chest. It had sounded like a sneeze followed by a frustrated growl, but my startled brain was struggling to identify what it had been.

When I rushed to the window, I saw a shadow darting away, rapidly retreating at the realisation that it was discovered. I swore quietly under my breath, my cheeks reddening in the embarrassment at having been caught.

Worry filled me now and I stripped myself out of the dress as quickly as I dared, redressing before I placed it back in the wardrobe with care.

Someone had seen me, right? Was it a person, or had it just been an animal of some kind?

My pulse was racing way too much for me to enjoy doing this any more today and I ducked back into my room. On the way across I made sure that no one saw me, my eyes narrowed in suspicion.

The more I thought about it the more I realised that the guards should have seen the intruder long before they’d had the chance to come close enough to peek in our windows. How had someone come that close without being caught?

My thoughts were a blur as I went through all the possibilities of who or what it might have been, dismissing each one-by-one. Surely I must have imagined the human-like sneeze? Several kinds of parrot mimicked the noises that they heard around them, including speech. Could it be one of those?

The worry overtook me and I ended up pacing around my room for at least an hour. Grandfather and Mother weren’t the kinds of people that would accept my visits to my sister’s room if they knew just how often I did it.

I was disrupted from my anxious ruminations by a knock on my bedroom door. It was my valet, here to get me ready for the evening.

My heart sink. It was time to be a Prince again.

 

~*~*~

 

As my valet finished tugging at my cape, ensuring that it had been properly secured and fastened across my shoulders, I was forced to stare at myself in the mirror. The cape itself was a deep blue colour, trimmed in golden thread and embroidered with the crest of House Aeidel on the reverse. I was told that this was the standard attire for young noblemen of my station, but I found it felt constricting and awkward.

The rest of my ensemble included breeches, tunic and a pair of riding boots that I had never actually used for riding outside of ceremonial parades. To top it off, there was an incredibly elaborate pointed cap, angled just-so as it rested on my crown. My hair was getting a little on the longer side, and Mother would likely give me disapproving glances for it, but I didn’t care.

Once I was met with a curt nod of approval I sighed deeply and turned for the door. I gave a quick murmur of appreciation to the servant that had assisted me in getting dressed and wandered off in search of my brother.

We would be wearing nearly identical outfits, except that I also sported a breastpin depicting a golden sun engraved with silver detailing. Mother always insisted that I remind the other noble families of who I was, and this was the best way that we could think of to do that.

I’d been told that my grandfather had arranged for me to accompany the Princess Iara to the ball. Her performance at the dinner last night had not gone unremarked, but Mother was sure that she was just unused to being so far from her homeland. I hoped that was true or this evening would be horrifically dull.

I nervously flicked my sun pin as I walked towards the central hallway of the royal wing, only to see Gaius already there waiting for me.

“Hullo, Eli!” he called out to me as I stepped out from the corridor and into the plushly decorated reception room that was lined in exquisitely carved wooden chairs upholstered with soft fabrics. There was a collection of paintings set around the periphery of the room, each one lit with a facetlight that cast the room in a soft yellow aura.

Facetlights were glass lamps that contained a simple glowing ball of light rather than a candle as might be found in most places. Mages of the Facet of Illusion could create them easily enough, and we had a couple of them on retainer that were used to replenish them when their power waned.

Such work was below me – or so I’d been told. Even back when I was small and just coming into my abilities Mother had made it clear that I was destined for greater things than lighting lamps.

“Ah, he has that far off look again,” Gaius continued with a smirk, waving a hand in front of my face to get my attention.

Blinking, I turned to him and gave him a small smile in reply, “Yes, hello. Are you ready?”

He laughed heartily and gestured for me to lead the way, “I’ll be behind you. It is you they’ve come to see, after all.”

 

After winding our way through the many twists and turns of the palace corridors, we eventually arrived at the main entrance. Our entry hall was lit up much like the royal wing had been, with facetlights giving off their warm yellow glow. The ballroom was situated just through a doorway on the eastern side, allowing guests to easily locate it and allowing them to find where they were going without traipsing through the whole building.

I could see several finely dressed noble couples entering the palace in clusters, their eyes widening with surprise and delight at spotting Gaius and me. One pair in particular beamed at the sight of us, wandering over to greet us in person. I struggled to recognise them at first, but my brother strode forward like they were old acquaintances.

“Lord and Lady Taldrey, it is a pleasure to see you! Why it was just yesterday that I…” Gaius said, leading the family towards the ballroom door, engaging them in polite conversation as he went. There were Royal Guards stationed to either side of the door where the Master of Ceremonies greeted each new arrival with a flourished bow and announced their arrival into the hall.

I tugged gently at the shoulder of my cape, turning to look about the entrance hall to see if anyone was present that I did recognise. Since I was now standing on my own, I could feel every eye turn towards me expectantly. It was everything I could do to maintain the regal pose.

Everyone that caught my eye gave me a bow or curtsey, along with a smile that I felt obliged to return. Still, there was no-one that I immediately recalled the name of. 

“Your Highness,” a feminine voice said from my right, and I twisted slightly on the balls of my feet to regards its owner. She wore a beautiful gown of shimmering cream satin, drawing my attention downwards until I caught myself. I gave her as formal a bow as I could muster.

“Lady Rainegarde, it is a pleasure to see you,” I greeted, echoing my brother’s words.

She was approximately the same age as I was and it was increasingly evident that her family had instructed her to look for a husband. There was little doubt to me that she had me in her sights, which was a shame.

We’d spent the last social occasion together – my brothers birthday, in fact – and I honestly couldn’t say that I detested her company but she was mildly draining after several hours of hearing her talk about herself.

With long, dark hair that ended down by her waist, a cute, slightly-upturned nose and delicate jawline, she was most definitely beautiful, even enticing. Her dress left very little of her figure to the imagination, not that it needed to. Any hot-blooded young man would have been jumping at the chance to have her favour. Alas, unfortunately, I had always found it difficult to focus on relationships.

She hovered around me a little longer, but my apologetic smile had her stalking off in a quiet huff. I flushed in shared embarrassment, feeling somewhat guilty that I hadn’t been able to save her from the humiliation of rejection, but I was waiting for someone else.

A hush fell across the other guests, including a few involuntary gasps and I turned my gaze in that direction. Space was being cleared for two figures to enter the entry hall from the corridor opposite and I could just make out the two twitching ears of the King of Surisia himself above the heads of the gathered crowd.

I prepared myself, affixing a smile to my face as I stepped towards the pair. The level of conversation rose again, and the King was swamped by well-wishers and those attempting to make a good first impression on the foreign royal. Iara was next to him, her arm slipped through his elbow, and she did not look thrilled to be here.

She wore a flowing forest-green gown that fell down to her mid-calf, exposing cream-coloured leather shoes. Leaves, vines and woodland flowers were embroidered across the bodice and along the seams, giving her an ethereal, elfin quality that I’d never seen before. A thin shawl clung to her shoulders, exposing the bare skin of her neck and a collar that plunged to expose the hint of cleavage.

My breath caught as I saw her, but I cleared my throat quickly as I dipped into a bow and offered my hand in her direction.