Locked Legacies

Chapter XXXII: Marbles and rocks

For many, the following six months were a haze; a combination of their lack of presence in the moment as their thoughts were elsewhere, and the amount of time they spent writing letters and praying made all those weeks feel like a fever dream.

During the first week, everyone felt rather lonely. Even if they were surrounded by people, like the royal family had each other, there was something missing. During dinner, Elliana would be the only one to bring up a conversation, occasionally asking when her brother would come back. As she rambled on, the rest of them couldn't help but hum absently, not really processing much of her words as she spoke about random topics.

After every meal, Meredith would head to the palace's chapel. Scattered among the seats, some workers and knights would also pray, holding onto whatever small or big amount of faith they had. The woman would spend, at least, forty minutes on her knees, by herself, every single time.

Faylinn, on the other hand, carried on with her tasks; getting yelled at by his father for becoming forgetful had become a common occurrence. Her mother would knowingly try to convince him to go easy on her to no avail. Nevertheless, their daughter didn't seem bothered by it; her lack of reaction was also one of the things that infuriated Hector. She would simply nod and agree before carrying on with her day. Since her mother was too busy trying to find a way to calm his husband down, the only person to try and talk to her was Ruby. "Do you want to talk about it?" She would ask when they spent time together, always receiving the same reply that there was nothing she could say to make her worry fade away. "Just distract me; tell me about you," her words were repeated every time too.

Gabriel had asked Lucas to train him. Scared for the moment he'd have to go off to war, the boy approached one of his brothers' best friends. "It would be my honor," the knight had answered with a bit-back smile and a teasingly polite nod. Immediately after that first moment, the man ruffled his golden locks and wrapped an arm around him, leading him to the armor room. His theories when accepting the offer had been right; it served as practice for when he'd have to go himself, and a way to highlight his excitement for the battle instead of his worry for Edward and Augustus.

Elliana's days hadn't changed as much; not knowing to detail what happened when his brother left, she was much calmer. Of course, she would ask at least once a day when he was coming back, to which her mother would reply something along the lines of "We don't know, darling, but probably soon." Likewise, she always commented that she shall draw moments of her day and send them to him like the rest did letters so that he wouldn't miss a single thing.

The papers on the king's desk were forming endless piles as he tried to get through all of them; letters from worried townspeople and parents, updates from the war, and official documents for all the lords that had contributed with men for the battle. His wife would often appear in his office, massaging his tense shoulders, making a bit of conversation so he would catch a break, or simply spending time there for moral support as she organized all the money collected from the charity.

Even though she might have forgotten to collect the eggs several times, or failed to cut vegetables on time, meeting Lucas in their designated spot to go to Mystichut never seemed to slip Faylinn's mind. In spite of their usual bickering, they had to check the dragons were still around the little house or in the nearest woods, making sure their bare necessities were covered so they wouldn't have the need to leave the place all of a sudden. Just like Augustus had suggested, they took two bananas for each of them; giving them a treat ensured that they would remain or, at least, go back every day to receive another.

When the second month arrived, things didn't get exactly back to normal, yet wasn't as dreadful as in the previous one. It was after lunch that Ruby convinced Faylinn to go pray instead of sulking into whatever fears and walking around with her head hung low. It took her ten minutes to do so, but the girl finally agreed and headed to the palace chapel.