The four travelers sit in the ambient sound of the woods. In the silence they warm up near the fire. The south had unforgiving high temperatures in the daytime, and near freezing temperatures in the nighttime. Cheron had never traveled outside Southern Falls prior to today, and is shivering closest to the fire. He’s making an effort to hide his shivers, and everyone else pretends not to notice out of courtesy. That, or they simply don’t care.

“I don’t keep up with politics, but last I heard Prince Esbin was heir apparent in the Syardom,“ Seis notes breaking the silence.

The knight at Lunetta’s side sends Seis the dirtiest glare she could ever muster. Seis was learning that ignoring her made her more amusing.

“Right,” Lunetta nods remembering, she ought to have explained earlier but it all happened so fast. “We tried not to let the news of the incident leave the walls of the Syardom. The short version of the story is that they’re gone.”

Cheron swallows audibly, the ice in her voice adds to the already present tension.

“Are the Storms responsible?” Seis inquires, the tension does not appear to affect her so far. It was hard to say for sure because she was becoming harder and harder to read since they began their journey.

Trinsi glances at Lunetta, curious to know exactly how much information her friend is looking to disclose to the two strangers.

“We can’t say for sure, but it is what we suspect.” She doesn’t take her eyes off the fire when she speaks at first, but then looks up at Seis and continues, “Perhaps you can tell us.”

“Lune…” Trinsi trails off.

“Forgive me if it takes me a moment to find the words, I haven’t exactly tried piecing it together verbally, only in my head.” She pauses thoughtfully. “Alright…”

---

Not many are familiar with the Rosening, a sacred tradition that royal line of the Syars practiced meticulously. The event itself is nine straight hours of prayer, followed by a feast and a tasting of the Waters of the Goddess Ryn. Waters thought to have mystical properties, although not ever validated as true. The Syars do not allow the holy water touch the lips of anyone who is not of royal blood.

As was mentioned earlier, I have never cared for my family’s behavior. Trinsi can speak to that. It had gotten to the point where they did not care if I was truly present at these sort of events, as long as I made an appearance. Why that was, does not matter for the time being.

Trinsi did not always serve me, but my family. Regardless, she was my friend during the few times I visited the main palace. That evening, all the Knights of the Syars were on duty. A precautionary measure, as it was rare for the entire royal family to be assembled in one place.

I sought her out, after a fight with my mother, shortly before the Toast to the Goddess. Still fuming, I needed air.

“You’re missing the Creed of Clarencia, won’t Lady Innett throw a fit?” Trinsi said to me with a typical frown plastered on her face. Her character has always been as you have seen it. She spoke of my over dramatic mother.

“She already threw a fit, that’s why I’m here.”

From where we stood on the balcony, we watched the ceremony continue through the glass doors. Upon its completion, the King, my grand-granduncle’s son, Eors, rose his gauntlet towards the sky, and while inaudible from where we stood, I heard him praise the Goddess Ryn. Fifty others in the room mirrored the motion, with the exception of those especially young.

“You’re not drinking your fancy god water?”

Trinsi reminded me of the glass in my hand. I forgot I had brought it with me when I stormed out of the banquet hall. I stirred the contents with a whisk of my wrist, and watched the liquid inside swirl, reaching for the edges.

There is no difference between this blessed water and plain water. In the past it had tasted like any other water. I didn’t understand the self-importance of the entire ceremony that we had practiced for centuries. We weren’t better than those around us because we drank the dumb water...

“You drink it.”

“Wait, you’re not serious?”

“Do you want to drink it?”

“What is it?”

“It’s just water.”

I handed the glass to her and she made a similar motion of swirling the water. She brought it to her nose, sniffed it, and handed it back.

“I won’t drink it,” she said with indifference. “Not because I think it’s special or too good for me, but because the whole thing is stupid and I don’t care.”

This is why Trinsi holds a very special place in my heart.

“You’re right,” I balanced the glass on the edge of the balcony, “I don’t care.”

With a flick of my finger the glass went over the edge. My friend and I watched it whirl far down and disappear into some bushes.

“In a couple of months you will have some godly flora growing there.”

We stood in a comfortable silence, no longer minding the events inside. Until a scream drew our attention back.

Trinsi reacted before myself, I followed behind her, darting back inside. The scene that unfolded before us keeps me from sleep to this day.

My cousin, the source of the scream, stood pointing at King Eors. Drawing our eyes to our sovereign, who stood shaking from his seat, blood trickling from the sides of his closed mouth in long thick streams. Unable to stop himself, he spews a pint of blood onto the floor of the dining hall, before collapsing beside it.

Those seated around him can only stare in horror. Knights nearby are quicker to act and drop to their knees beside him. They are turning him onto his side when elsewhere in the room another voice was heard.

“Mother Clarencia no!” Prince Ebsin shouted. His wife, Princess Oflia, coughed up handfuls of blood into her cupped hands.

The room broke out into chaos as gradually more and more members of the royal family became ill. Children were crying and screaming, but none were sick yet.

“Fetch as many doctors as you can from the city!” I heard Trinsi shout behind me. The instructions were not for me, if they had been, I would not have been in the proper state of mind to hear them.

Scanning the room in a panic, I met eyes with my younger sister, Leona, who stood in a corner trembling and in tears. I rushed to her, freezing when I laid eyes on what she held clutched in her hands.

She was 15, a child. Children never participated in the ceremony so why did she have a glass? She had been so eager to prove that she was a grown up as of late. Getting her hands on one must have made her day, and now she was paying for it. She did not deserve this.

“Leona…”

“Lunetta, I don’t want to die,” she sobbed.

She sobbed and sobbed as I held her. I held her sobbing, I held her bleeding, and I held her dying. I continued to hold her when she was lifeless, until some tore her away from me.

In 15 minutes my family was gone. In 15 minutes I became heir apparent.