The Nightfall Saga: Secrets Revealed (Part 6)

Lord Jaias watched as the carriage that had brought his sister and estranged niece to his doorstep finally pulled away. Tobias stood a step behind him. There was an icy silence. Jaias’ normal countenance was marked with agitation, his brow furrowed and forehead wrinkled. But, he only stood there, hands folded behind him.

“What will you have done now, sir?” Tobias asked, watching the carriage disappear into the distance.
 
“For now, we simply sit and wait. Have Matthias watch Cixithara. I’m sure that she will be returning to House Silvacce."

The elven lord turned to head back up the stairs and into the house again, "My niece will come back, Tobias. She knows that she is one of us now.”
 
“The Heads of Council?” Tobias asked, "What will they be told?"
 
“I will do my duty as the head of this House and tell them what I found. Cixithara Daybreaker is a candidate to be the next Vessel and should be treated as such.”
 




The  inside of the carriage was silent. The only sound was the rolling of the wheels against the dirt roads that left Silvermoon City. Both Cixi and Alara had taken off the fancy clothes and make up they had been decorated in for the past several days. It was back to simple clothes and plain faces, but everything between the mother and daughter seemed changed somehow. Cixi didn’t speak to her mother. She didn’t even look at her. She simply stared out the window, pretending to pay attention to the passing scenery outside.
 
“You were never supposed to know,” Lady Alara said in a low voice.
 
“Know what? That I was forced to be something else that I was never any good at in the first place?” Cixi spat out, a tinge of bitterness edging her words.
 
“You are were chosen as Guardian for First Hunt. The Elders recognize you, just like they recognize your brothers and recognized your father. Do not let Lord Jaias’ words poison everything you know about yourself.”
 
“What about Zendier and Taulithran? Are my brothers the same as me?”
 
Lady Alara ran her hand over her mouth before she spoke. The words slowly came past her lips, obvious that she was measuring the weight of every word coming out of her mouth.
 
“They are gifted, but not like you. You were different. Even when you were little, there was something about you and magic that your brothers just didn’t have.”
 
“Why didn’t you give me a choice?” Cixi asked, finally turning her face away from the window, “If you knew what I could do with magic, why did you not give me the choice of being a mage?”
 
“Because I was afraid that you would chose to be one of them,”  Lady Alara answered back, "And you  have no idea what they would have made you become."

"At least they were honest."

Cixi didn’t bother going back home.  She wanted to be by herself for a while, Just to  at least straighten things out in her head. The carriage dropped her off at the front gates of the Silvacce Estate. Cixi didn't smile and wave as the carriage left. Instead, she shoved her hands in pockets and watched as the brightly colored hawkstriders pull the carriage away.

Cixi's mind raced with a thousand thoughts as she slowly walked down the dirt paths that laced the Silvacce estate. Most of them starting with “what if”. Then, it came suddenly. A sharp pain behind Cixi’s eyes. Unlike any headache she had ever experienced before, in a matter of moments, the pain became excruciating. Cixi’s head throbbed, like someone was shoving a spike between her eyes and into her skull. She grabbed the sides of her head and crumpled her to knees. Bright blinding lights streaked across her vision. The only thing she could hear was the thumping of her own racing heart beat in her ears. 

Moments later, Cixi fell over in the grass, writhing, her screams of pain caught in her throat, the piercing pain only going deeper into her skull. The last thing she remembered before passing out was seeing an outline of a woman’s face in the blinding flash of light.

The Nightfall Saga: Secrets Revealed (Part 5)

“Lord Jaias has instructed that he not be disturbed at this time, milady. He should be done very soon. If you would come back at that time, I am sure he will take an audience with you.”
 
The servants were not allowed to put their hands on Lady Alara. She knew that and they knew that. But it didn’t keep the servants from trying anything else they could in order to get her to stop. However, all of their efforts were for not. Lady Alara still pushed her way through, towards her brother’s study. As she entered the outer room, she heard something. Something very familiar. What was that? Was it music? Alara hoped that it was just her frazzled nerves, creating the noise in her own head, playing on her worst fears. She remembered that song, quite well. What felt like a lifetime ago, her father had handed her a toy and told her to open it. She remembered the way he looked at her as those pieces slid across the sides.
 
She grasped the handle of her brother’s study and yanked it, barreling through the door as she did so. There was only quiet afterwards. Quiet that was fringed with a soft melody playing, the music that Alara had hoped she was only hearing inside of her own head. That dreaded song. That terrible song.
 
Cixi stared at her mother’s wide eyes with a startled stare of her own. She dropped the small box on the desk, music still continuing to play. Lord Jaias stood up from his chair and took several steps toward his sister.
 
“What…what have you done?” Alara replied, her stomach sinking with every second.
 
“It’s just a puzzle box…” Cixi started to explain.
 
“How long have you known?”
 
Cixi stopped talking. Lord Jaias had walked around his desk and was facing his sister. There were no pleasantries passed or civility faked. There was nothing but raw reality between the two of them now. It felt as if her mother and uncle had forgotten that she was even in that room. The conversation was now just them.
 
“You had absolutely no right! You had no right!”
 
Lady Alara’s shouting had no effect on her brother. His voice only became colder and deeper.
 
“How long have you known?” he repeated,”How long did you keep this from the rest of us? How long did you keep it away from Father? From the Heads of the Houses?”
 
“Cixithara is a trained hunter, just like her father and his father before him…”
 
“…with Ebonlynx blood running through her veins! Something you can’t erase no matter how badly you want to! There is a reason that your daughter was never able to fit into that excuse for a House that you married into.”
 
“My daughter will never be one of you! Not as long as I have breath in my body!”
 
“Stop shouting!”
 
Alara and Jaias turned from each other. Cixi stood there, opened puzzle box in hand. Alara half stomped, half marched her way over, reached for the toy and hurled it across the room. The box crashed into the wall. The music stopped, the glowing stopped. The box closed and relocked itself. As Cixi stared at the small toy that was now on the ground, Lady Alara grabbed Cixi by the wrist.
 
“We are leaving.”
 
Cixi yanked back.
 
“No we aren’t," Cixi replied, "Not until someone tells me what is going on.”

Story Finale: Secrets Revealed (Part 6)