Of Wind and Ash

Chapter 1: Lucius and Jolyn

A crow stood on the ledge of Lucius' window, it's eyes so dark that it disappeared between the crows black feathers.

On the outskirts of Springfield lived the family of Deliorea. The head of the family, Lucius Deliorea was a famous detective. He would often be found at the scenes of previous murders trying to put the pieces together. He was rather good at his work and his favourite part of the whole process would have to be finding the clues and searching for evidence.

Hoping to put Mr Lucius' expertise to aid a greater cause, the Stoneguard had offered him a position as head detective but to everyone's surprise, he declined. This was shocking because a position at the Stoneguard is rare and to be instantly offered to be a head is almost unheard of! So after some time the detective took some time to explain about his decision. He said that he did not want the responsibility of a leader to burden his ability to solve his cases. Other than that he also mention about being a member of the Watersong Guild.

There are various guild spread out across the land of Arborea. The guilds were a sign of commitment as all members had to work together in order to achieve their goals. Almost everyone was in a guild. People who aren't in one are often called Gobs. There are often compared to cowards. All the guilds in the land have their own leaders which are elected by the guild members. Mr Lucius is currently the leader of the Watersong Guild.

In order to maintain the peace and wellbeing of Arborea, the Queen of Arborea, Emily the IV holds a meeting at the land's capital, Glorico every season. That means one meeting for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. All the guild leaders are invited along with the representatives of the three main orders: The Stoneguard, The Nebulan Guardians and The Order Of The Wind. They will discuss about the main issues regarding Arborea.

*****

There are several knocks on Jolyn's bedroom door followed by the door opening. Her father, Mr Lucius steps in to find her daughter still asleep on her cherry red bed. He feels disappointed to see that her daughter had no self-control of what time to wake up even though she's already sixteen years old. Had she forgotten about what was supposed to happen today? He thought while sighing.

"Jolyn! What are you doing still in bed?" he yells a bit louder than usual while rocking her bed in order to wake her up. At this point she rolled over and rubbed her pinkish brown eyes. Clearly she has slept rather late the night before.

"Dad, is it that time now? Really..." she half yawns and half says, the words come out in mumbled form, "Why so early?"

"Haven't I told you the day before? Today is the Arborean general meeting at Glorico! I can't just leave you alone hear now that your mother's..." he stops at the word mother. He feels to sad to say the words although it has long passed.

Jolyn's mother passed away due to an accident involving a mage and herself. She was on the way to a market when a freak spell got casted and hit her in the head. She never woke up since. But Mr Lucius believed that it was not a mere coincidence that the spell hit her as she was the town leader then.

"Yeah, yeah I already know that if mom was still here she would be disgusted of my current form, how many times do you have to tell me?" she replies, now folding the blankets and getting out of bed.

"You know what? Just go and get ready while I prepare breakfast," her father says showing more disappointed on his face. He's not disappointed about her daughter but of himself for still not being able to overcome the barrier of Catherine's death.

"I can't do that while you're still in my room..." Jolyn says with a tiny but visible grin on her face. Lucius always loves her daughter's grin, it reminds him of his wife.

"Okay I'll go. Just make it quick, we're nearly late," he says exiting his daughter's room.

"Nearly. Not already."

On the way to the kitchen, a voice so gentle and sweet catches the man's attention. Lucius hears the sweet voice of Catherine singing. It sounds like the heavens had came down for a moment. It is as sweet as a baby's voice. But he is in shock. How can she be back after she died two years ago? He thinks deeply. The singing sounds so familiar. It has to be his wife. Only his wife could produce such pleasant and wonderful sounds to his ears. It reminds him of their first meeting, when she was performing at the theatre in town for the first time. It was like she was already an amateur, no one thought that it was her first time performing.

Now desperate to seek out an answer, the man listens carefully to the singing. It sounds like it's getting louder. It sounds like it's coming from...above? He rushes up the stairs and storms into the master bedroom. He has not been mistaken. It is louder. But no one is in this empty room.

But then, he realises it too late. Too late for such a professional detective like him. It's the singing of his daughter, Jolyn. It's not Catherine, but similar to hers. How did he not realize it sooner? He feels so mad at himself for being tricked by longingness. It's like he doesn't even know his own daughter now. He feels like a really bad father. But why did he fall for such a feeling? He continues out of the room as the singing continues. Lucius asks himself if he's even being serious again. As he reaches the bottom the singing stops. After a while Jolyn comes crashing down into the kitchen.

"Where's the food? Dad?" she asks, "I thought we were nearly late? Now we're going to be late."

His father is speechless. What should he tell his daughter at this time?

"Um... I got side-tracked, let's make breakfast together..." he replies desperately. His daughter can definitely tell that something's wrong at this point.

"Is there something wrong?" Jolyn asks with a kind and warm smile. He feels in pain as all the memories of Catherine swarm into his head. Why are these emotion affecting him now and not before?

"No you don't have to worry, sweetie. Let's prepare breakfast," Lucius replies. He doesn't have the courage to admit that he's been mistaken. But this makes him more of a coward than he already is.

"Whatever you say"

They still end up nearly late when they got to the train station in Springfield. The train station was built with magnificent pillars of granite and covered with a rose red brick roof. The area is filled with a tsunami of people. The boarding area is a sea of people. But the easy thing for the father and daughter was that they had already gotten VIP seats to Glorico.

On the train, silence rests between. Jolyn can tell that something is troubling his father but it's not the time to ask. Experience tells her that much. Silence has it's own benefits anyway as it let's people observe their surroundings and cherish the thing they have now.

A few minutes later his daughter falls asleep. Her head slouches towards the window and her hands are crossed. Almost everything that Jolyn does reminds him of Catherine. But he still asks himself why din't he realise it before that Jolyn was growing more and more like Catherine. The nostalgia is really working on his nerves now. Sleeping during the day wasn't really a tradition for Jolyn but because of some late night reading yesterday she was too tired today, he assumed. Normally his assumptions were spot-on.

"Maybe everything that's happened today is because we're tired, everyone gets tired sometimes..." the man whispers to Jolyn who is now snoring mildly. He never knew she did that too.

Message to the bookclub people:

Please comment your ideas on the relationship between Jolyn and Lucius and if this is a good or bad starting in your opinion. It won't bother me if you say anything good or bad just give me some overall thoughts.