fandomania | The Adventure continues...

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It was pitch dark in the cave. I was afraid to move for fear of hurting or killing ourselves. I cleared my mind and began to search for the entity that I had encountered before. It didn’t take long for me to find it. “Where are you? Could you light up this place, so that we can see and, therefore, find you?”

**Acceptance**

Gradually, light came to the cave and revealed that we were not in a cave per se, but in a chamber carved out of rock. I looked around the chamber, but I could find no exit or entrance. Whoever built this chamber knew how to teleport into and out of this room. In the center of the room was an altar and on top of the altar was placed a gold crown. As crowns go, it wasn’t as ornate or as jewel encrusted as I have seen monarchs wear, but it wasn’t entirely plain either. It has seven raised points that ended in large pearls. Under each pearl was a large amethyst gemstone that was rounded in cabochon form. Around each gemstone and along the base of the crown, ancient runes were etched.

The crown called to me. As far as I could tell, it was the entity that had helped me before. But how could an object do what it had done? It must be something infused with magic.

Taking Loysa by the hand, we walked towards it. When we came within ten feet of it, we found an invisible barrier around it.

From within my brain, I heard “Stop! Identify yourselves!” This sounded like a different voice.

I replied, “We are Patra and Loysa vanDraco.”

“We do not recognize those names. What is your lineage?”

“We are the eldest daughters of Baron Hernan vanDraco, son of King Leos vanDraco, son of King Theo vanDraco, son of …”

“We do not recognize those names. What is your lineage?”

“We are the twin daughters of Lady Eryssa denFolo, daughter of Lady Vesta denRuego, daughter of Lady Ayana denKalto … of the Gyventi.”

“Both of you are of Gyventi blood?”

“Yes.”

“We shall see.”

A line of red light appeared and traveled over us from head to toe and back again, several times.

“You do have Gyventi blood, although not pure. Your genetic markers match that for the royal house of vanDema of the Gyventi. You are permitted to enter. We have been waiting 800 years for the right person to claim the crown. Many have tried to claim it, but none have been found worthy and none have survived to tell tales or try again. Welcome! Take the crown and use it wisely. Find our people and make us a nation once more.”

“Who are you?”

“We are the essence of your ancestors bound together in this protective spell to find the worthy descendent who can wear this crown and bring together the Gyventi people.

“Some words of warning. Those who use this crown for their own gain and do not attempt to reunite our people will lose it. Once you leave this chamber, it will cease to exist. So do not try to return here.”

The voice seemed to fade away, as if, when its purpose was gone, it was allowed to reunite itself with the universe.

With the barrier gone, Loysa and I approached the altar. With trepid hands, I reached for the crown, half expecting to be blasted into nothingness for my audacity. When I picked up the crown, it had such familiarity, such rightness, as if it was a part of me that had been restored. I then placed the crown on my head and was almost overwhelmed with the sense of power it sent through me and all the voices that started speaking to me at once. I immediately took it off and placed it back onto the altar. While I was recovering from those sensations, Loysa took the crown into her hands. She immediately went from a four year old child into being an adult. We looked so similar it was like looking into a mirror. While I was left-handed, she was right-handed. While I parted my hair to the left, she did so to the right. But everything else was identical.

I didn’t mind her taking the crown. She was just as worthy to do so as I was. But seeing her as an instant adult made me sad. She would lose twenty-two years of her life instantaneously and that seemed tragic to me. Having lost so many years of my youth to marriage with Jaizel, I knew what a sacrifice that would be.

The adult Loysa smiled at me and said, “I agree, sister. It is rightfully yours anyway.” She handed the crown to me and returned to being the child she had been.

I reached down and picked her up. I held her in my arms and told her that I would do my very best to make her childhood a loving and safe one, so that when she finally grew to adulthood, she would have wonderful and happy memories and be a content and loving adult. She hugged me and said, “I know, Mama. You are.”

Since there seemed no point in staying in the chamber any longer, since I desperately wanted and needed Orlando’s help and since I realized that the longer we stayed here, the more likely we would be missed, I once again took the wand into my hand and asked it to return us to our home in Alfaria and back into Loysa’s bedroom.

The same dizzy sensations returned. When they stopped, we were once more back in Loysa’s bedroom. We were both exhausted. I helped Loysa change back into her nightgown and tucked her into bed. I stayed with her until I was sure that she was asleep. I then picked up the crown and looked for the wand, but it was nowhere to be found. Deivė had said that it was temporary. That is probably why I couldn’t find it anymore.

I slipped back into our bedroom and quietly changed back into my nightgown. I hid the crown in the drawer where I kept my jewelry and treasured items. It wasn’t a drawer that Mahli, my maid, looked into, so I thought it would be safe temporarily. I went to the bed. Donal appeared to be sleeping, but when I couldn’t find the note that I left, I realized that he was awake. I got into bed and waited for him to say something.

I didn’t have to wait long. He rolled over and faced me. His anger was palpable.

“At least this time you left a note. A note is better than nothing, I suppose, but it is very cold and heartless. It isn’t something that can talk with me or reason with me or be something that I can hold in my arms.

“So much for your promise. Broken in just a few hours. I guess that your ‘destiny’ is more important to you than I am. Did it ever occur to you to tell me of your plans before you actually go off and implement them? Did it ever occur to you that I might want to be with you and help you in any way that I could? Did it occur to you when every time you disappear a part of me dies because I am so afraid that I will never see you again? If it hadn’t been for Pahpey, Uncle Haral and your children … our children, I would have died a thousand times during the year that you were gone. That or have gone out of my mind with grief. I don’t know how I kept together during that time. I did, but it doesn’t make me want to go through that experience ever again.

“I don’t think that I am capable of going through that again. I don’t want a wife who romps around the world fulfilling her ‘destiny’. I want a wife who stays home with me and shares life’s joys together with me, while we raise our children and grow old together. I suppose if that makes me a selfish bastard, then so be it.”

Just as I was trying to form coherent sentences to explain myself and to ease his fears, he seemed to become so angry, as if he were possessed. He threw off the blankets covering me. He grabbed my arm and using all his strength, ripped off the bracelet and threw it across the room. He then pulled up my nightgown, spread my legs, and before I could do or say anything, he entered me and quickly came inside me. “Perhaps that will slow you down a bit. At least I won’t have to worry about whose baby you will have next.” Donal got out of bed, grabbed some clothes and stalked out of the room.

As I lay there crying, I felt a weird sensation that I had never felt before. It felt like the creation of life occurring. And not just one life, but several.