Solar held the card from his grandfather. The paper was a soft ivory color, with wildflowers pressed into it. The ink was gold and shimmered with rainbow colors depending on how the light hit it. He wasn’t sure when the card was delivered. He’d just found it sitting on the desk in his room.

 

I think of you often my dear grandson, as I stare into this useless mirror. I wished it worked and then I could see you every day. There was an illustration of a sun transport mirror inside the card.

 

He'd seen that mirror before. Solar hesitated. It was forbidden to use the transport mirrors. But when it came to angel laws there was forbidden, and then there was forbidden. There was no actual punishment for using the mirrors. The few angels who’d survived traveling through the mirrors were just reprimanded. Being lost inside the mirror world itself was enough punishment. He could imagine the horrid lecture Kian would give him. Kian who somehow managed to yell without raising his voice. Kian was even more overprotective since the incident last year. The palace was now a prison. That was the last time he'd seen Aelius. Solar understood the reason though, Aelius had to protect his own children. His real children.

 

Poor Ruri, he really liked her. She was funny and said whatever was on her mind. She had ridiculous curly fluffy hair, like her father but it was bright red instead. Her eyes were dark brown and full of wonder. He didn’t want to be friends with her at first. Kian had made Solar afraid to interact with any humans.

 

Angels accidentally hurt humans all the time, Kian told him. Solar couldn’t bear the thought of hurting anyone. Ruri was more stubborn than Solar though, so their friendship lasted. Solar wasn’t even sure he even had a choice in being her friend. She even stood up to Kian, which Aelius found hilarious. She was his best friend. He was friends with all the Azura children but lately, they had been acting strangely. Her older brother, Aiden now accompanied them everywhere. Solar didn’t mind, but Aiden had been too cool for them before. And if not Aiden, then Aelius was present. Solar had asked Ruri about it.

 

“You really are a child.” She just sniffed and then hugged him when her father came into the room. Aelius had pulled them apart and sent Solar back to Kian. Kian had suggested that Solar just stay away from Ruri. Solar made the mistake of asking why. Kian gave him a rather clinical talk about puberty and hormones that Solar was still trying to scrub from his mind. Solar wasn’t stupid, but the idea of growing up terrified him. 

 

He felt like there was something terrible waiting for him. The terrible thing found him the day he was born and killed his mother. It found him again when he was just three and killed his human nannies.

He’d finally felt safe in the palace Kian had constructed. If he concentrated, he could feel the buzz of the forcefield surrounding the place. A forcefield couldn’t stop a curse. He should have pushed Ruri away; she was safer away from him. Everyone was. 

About a year ago…

 

Solar and Ruri had gone to the edge of the forcefield. She wanted to show him some belle flowers. Angels could hear a ringing sound when they bloomed. Even though he couldn't leave palace grounds, he could still see them. And he could hear them as well. With his enhanced senses, it was amazing, the field was a symphony of sight and sound. He wished he could share his angel senses with humans. There were so many amazing things humans never got to experience. The flowers emitted glorious colors invisible to the human eye. He just wanted a better look, so he'd flown about 30 feet off the ground. He didn't even sense the arrow coming towards him. His aura protected him instinctively and deflected the arrow. Deflected the arrow right towards Ruri. He still had nightmares of her screaming.

 

When he landed, he saw that the arrow had nicked her foot. But she wasn't bleeding, her foot and ankle had started to decay. Solar tried to use his aura energy to stop the spread of the poison or whatever was attacking her. He almost wretched because it hurt so much.

 

Ruri screamed again, but not just from the pain. Solar was crying tears of blood and his eyes had turned a dark red. She could feel his energy draining away as he fought the poison. They were both going to die. Solar had only slowed the poison; it was almost like it was alive. He couldn't stop the spread and he couldn't leave Ruri to get help. She would be dead in minutes.

 

"Sorry," Solar said. Ruri wanted to tell him it was okay, he tried to save her. But then she felt a different type of pain below her knee. He cut off my leg, Ruri thought dully before passing out. Solar put his energy into healing what was left of Ruri's leg. All the skin on her severed calf, ankle, and foot was gone. Even the bone was starting to rot. Ruri was alive though, there was no trace of the poison in her.  

 

"What did you do?" Aelius boomed at him. Solar wanted to speak, but he was so exhausted.

 

"Get away from her now, you little monster." Aelius’s aura was so malevolent that storm clouds were forming. The wind snatched away Solar’s breath. 

 

Solar would have moved if he could. He had never been afraid of Aelius before now. Aelius was going to strike him. Aura energy was shooting out from his fists. Aelius wasn’t just going to hit him, he was going to end him. Solar closed his eyes and accepted his fate. This was his fault after all. He failed to protect Ruri, just like he failed his mother.

 

The blow never came though. Aelius paused, his anger undone by the look on Solar's face. A child should never look so hopeless, so resigned to death. Seeing Ruri hurt had sent Aelius into a rage. But he knew Solar didn't hurt her, would never hurt her. Aelius reined his aura energy in immediately.  

 

There was an oppressive dark energy lingering in the air, but Solar's aura held no malice. In fact, his aura was dangerously weak. He needed to get them both to a healer. He needed to apologize. He reached for Solar but never made it to him.

 

Kian's fist connected with his brother's face, sending him reeling. Before Aelius could recover, Kian kicked him outside of the forcefield. Aelius's rage returned, he flew towards Kian but crashed into the forcefield. Kian had locked him out, but that wasn't possible. As a member of the royal family, he should be able to cross the barrier anytime he chose. 

Kian stood there looking at him with cold contempt.

 

"Ruri!" Aelius shouted.

"She's fine and you know it." Kian snapped. He gently picked the girl up and brought her to the edge of the barrier. "There is an angel healer in the village, the rest of your family will be joining you shortly."

 

"Wait we need to talk about this," Aelius said. Kian wasn't thinking clearly either. Kian’s anger burned cold, while Aelius's blazed hot. Kian would not fight with him; he would just cut Aelius out of his life. Kian had done it before.

 

"Solar will be my sole responsibility from now on," Kian told him. "You have your own family to look after." Kian was throwing his words back in his face. They had a disagreement, well a fight, over Solar recently. Kian had wanted to withdraw from most of his royal duties. Aelius wouldn’t hear of it of course.

 

Aelius refused to be jealous of a child, he was better than that, but Kian put the boy before everything else. Even his real family. Aelius regretted the words even as they left his mouth. Aelius loved his own adopted children as much as his biological ones. The hypocrisy made him feel like less than an angel. 

 

"Wait." Aelius protested. Solar was not his blood, but he wouldn't abandon him.

 

"Now I won't be a burden to you anymore," Solar whispered before passing out.

 

Oh dear light, Solar had overheard them. Aelius had too much ale when he was complaining to his brother. He should have chosen his words more carefully. Solar wasn't a burden but it was just impossible to keep the child safe. Aelius hated himself for being unable to protect the child. He knew Elan was behind every attack and numerous attempted attacks. He needed to deal with Elan, but the coward never left his kingdom. If Aelius attacked Elan unprovoked, it would be considered an act of war. The Silver king had powerful allies who would intervene.

 

Kian had nothing to say as he flew off with Solar. Aelius only hoped his brother and Solar would forgive him someday.

 

A thorough investigation was held after the incident. The "poison arrow" was stolen from the angel council vault. The arrow was demonic in origin but little else was known about it. The theft was blamed on human demon sympathizers. Kian knew there was no way humans could breach the vault without help, so he did his own investigation. The arrow was one of three on record. The residual demonic energy was so high it pierced through the forcefield. Kian didn’t know any objects with that level of dark energy still existed in the Empire of Light.

 

Honestly, Ruri and Solar should be dead. Solar was in a coma for over a month. Kian forbade him from ever leaving the palace after that. Solar hadn’t even argued with him. Solar had been surprisingly cooperative. It wasn't so much that Solar was disobedient, he just bored easily. 

 

Kian could relate to that. He couldn't relate to the dizzying chaos that was Solar's mind. He couldn't read the boy's mind, but it was easy enough to sense the frenetic energy coming from him. That was probably why Aelius got along better with him.  

 

Aelius got along better with everyone. Kian could never be as open as his brother, so he focused on being as polite and diplomatic as possible. And when the more noble methods failed, Kian found other ways. He’s become quite adept at gathering information, so he always knew the best approach to a situation. He always kept his cool, until it came to Solar. The day he rescued Solar from the rubble he promised to protect the child.

 

With that promise, he had bonded himself to Solar that day. He didn't even know the bond was there until Solar almost died. It felt like he was dying, that was part of the reason he attacked Aelius. A glittering thread had appeared, and he followed it without thinking. 

 

Aura bonds were not uncommon, Kian was automatically connected to his family members. Guardian bonds were common between adults and any children they cared for. But those types of bonds were faint outside of the ward being in danger. All angels held a weak bond to each other, which was barely noticeable, outside of very large gatherings. Bonds could form between angels who had strong feelings (platonic, romantic, or otherwise) for each other. But as far as he knew those bonds had to be agreed to by both parties.  

 

Sincerity was important, there had been stories of angels trying to force or coerce bonds onto others, but they never lasted long. Solar was an infant, so he couldn't have accepted anything. The bond could have formed when Solar was older, but he should have sensed it. 

 

He needed to speak with an aura expert, but then he might be reported to the angel high council. Once he’d learned of the council’s interest in Solar, he'd been avoiding them. The angel council was not welcome in the Blue Sun Kingdom, so they tried other means to get ahold of the boy. They’d even attempted to gain custody through the courts, but the case upset the other royal families so much it was dropped. Kian learned the council was searching for Solar’s real father, who could file a claim in court.

 

The council ruled out Solar’s father being an unknown angel because there were no unknown angels. That meant Solar’s father was human. Human auras were weak but still unique. An angel could easily tell if humans were related to each other as well. The angel council had not found any human auras with a connection to Solar though. Kian was disturbed at the lengths they were willing to go through to get a hold of Solar. It was bad enough he had to deal with Elan trying to kill the boy.

 

Kian had muted the bond between them, but he could still tell the child was miserable. And he had no idea how to fix it.

 

 

Now.

Hiding from Kian wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible. Solar knew there was a bond between them. He was surprised he'd never bonded with Aelius but glad he didn't now. 

Was the bond the reason Kian was still around? 

 

Maybe it would be better for Kian if he was gone? Solar thought as he stood before the sun transport mirror. It would be nice to spend some time with his grandfather. And Kian could use the break, he could visit his brother and patch things up. 

Solar knew he couldn’t stay in the Golden Sun Kingdom long. He should be able to get some funds from his grandfather before moving on. He’d planned to go to the Red Sun Kingdom after that. That would be the most difficult place for Kian to find him. 

 

Did I bring that in here? Aureus wondered. The sun transport mirror was in his room. He'd finished his dessert and then went into a dazed state. That was another part of the final stage. At least he still had his memories.  

 

He remembered how brilliant his grandson was today. He wished he could see him more often. The mirror was glowing, it wasn't supposed to do that. The surface of the mirror shimmered for a moment before someone stepped through it.

 

"Solar. What are you doing here?" Aureus asked in wonder.

"I got your card," Solar said. Did he send him a card? Maybe he did. This was wonderful though. But what was he forgetting?

 

"Cake," Aureus said

"Cake?" Solar asked.

 

"It's still your birthday, let's go down to the kitchen." Solar happily followed him down the stairs. The castle was old and huge. Solar knew Aureus had only a handful of servants and guards. He doubted any of them would alert Kian to his presence there.

 

*

 

"They're in the main dining room, it's all set," A muffled voice said through a communication mirror.

"Good," Elan said quickly.

“My payment?” the impudent human asked.

“In the morning, you’ll get what you’re owed,” Elan said. The stupid human would never see another sunrise 

 

"Tired of losing gems to me already?" Prince Omiza called out to him. Omiza was the only RSK royal he could stand. And he would provide the perfect alibi for Elan.

 

"You know what? I feel my luck is about to change." Elan smiled returning to the gambling table.

*

 

 

Solar was enjoying the cake; Kian would never let him eat sweets this late.

 

"Why do we protect humans?" His grandfather asked him. Solar stopped with the cake halfway to his mouth. Grandfather could be random sometimes. 

 

"Because they can't protect themselves," Solar said without thinking. His grandfather laughed. He then waved his head dimming the light in the dining hall.  

 

"Look up there." Aureus pointed to the sun window in the ceiling. 

"What do you see?" Aureus asked

"Stars, our ancestors," Solar replied smiling.

"And in between the stars?" Aureus continued

"Darkness," Solar said

"Yes, there is more darkness in the universe than there is light." His grandfather paused lost in thought, he would do that sometimes.

 

"We angels are blessed with an abundance of light energy, unlike humans." Aureus continued.

 

"That's not their fault." Solar had gotten into fights with other angels who looked down on humans. Well, exactly one fight with Ruri’s older brother.

 

"Of course, it's not, what I was saying was," his grandfather paused again. "Even if the light in humans is dimmer, it is still worth protecting."

"Because all light no matter dim or bright is precious. And rare." Aureus said with certainty. If he lost every memory, he would always remember that. 

 

"Do you see?" Aureus asked.

 

"I understand grandfather," Solar said.

 

"Good, you are good-" his grandfather paused again. But this time there was a look of fear on his face. Solar gasped as he felt an ice-cold dread spread throughout his body. The room was suddenly freezing, and he could see his breath. What was going on? His grandfather waved his hand to turn the light back on, but it didn't work.

 

"Fly away now!" His grandfather yelled as something broke through the roof.