“Life began with darkness. 

“The creatures were divided between the deities of old, choosing to consume minerals, or choosing to consume each other. 

“One deity, a hunting god named Euklus, discovered a mineral named ‘adamas’ that they could not eat, and could not break. Euklus had the idea to use this mineral to chip away at and shape their flint arrowheads. Months, years, decades had passed, and the adamas showed no signs of damage. Euklus was thrilled to have such a mineral, and seeked to discover another to use it in their hunt. For what could be better than an everlasting arrowhead?

“Euklus tirelessly searched for another, testing the strength of every mineral in their path. But the deity became frustrated with this journey, and realized if they could see the adamas, it'd be much easier to find another. 

“So the hunter god created a small light, and saw the adamas for the first time. It was a clear crystal that seemed to catch the light. With such an ability, Euklus decided to place the brilliant jewel in the sky, and called it the sun.

“While some creatures embraced the light, others wanted to return to the cover of darkness. Euklus made a compromise, splitting the day into periods of light and dark.

“It's said that the creatures who adapted to the light wanted to create another sun to escape the darkness of the night. They set out to find another adamas, clashing solidified minerals against each other to test their strength. From some of these minerals, sparks flew; sparks that turned into fire, and sparks that floated into the sky and rested there as stars. But still, the day creatures could not find the adamas they needed. So instead, they put a pebble into the sky to subtly reflect the light of the sun, and called it the moon.

“The day creatures were satisfied with the moon and the stars, but our human ancestors embraced the light that came from the flames of fire. Seeing that we appreciated and continually harnessed light, Euklus gifted us crystals in the likeness of the sun jewel. But they were not mere reflections of light; they were a reflection of love in our hearts.” 

The elderly priestess paused to pull out two necklaces with pea-sized jewels from her pocket. She continued, “It is why, in Hirpus, we adorn our partners with these god-given jewels, and keep them close to our hearts.”

The priestess shuffled towards the groom, the one-armed Duke of the Trivicum region. From his appearance alone, it was obvious he was a man of war. Missing his right arm and eye, slitted scars and calluses on his hand, and a rash around his hairline indicative of his use of a helmet.  “Zakarya, you cannot deceive the gods of your true feelings.” 

The lull of music came to a halt. The audience held their breath. 

“Do you take Eva as a partner, in light and in darkness? Do you promise to do your best to understand and respect her? To use the love in your heart like magic?”

“I do,” Zakarya answered.

The priestess handed Zakarya a necklace, then turned towards Eva. As she walked, she asked the same questions. 

“I do,” she responded without hesitance, and opened her palms to receive the gift. 

“Then you may declare your feelings to the gods themselves.”

Together, Eva and Zakarya darned each other with the necklaces. The moment it touched their collars, they shone. And the crowd cheered. 

I clapped along with an ache in my heart, and a mess of tears flowing from my face. She’s happy. I acknowledged the fact over and over. I should be happy for her.

-

I'll admit, I feel like I'm always yearning for attention. My earliest memories consist of me wanting others to look at me with envy, I wanted them to think I was superior to them. To be so precious in their eyes that they wouldn’t even dare breathe near me. I wanted them to be afraid to taint my clothes with their aura, because they were worth more than they'd be able to earn in their lifetime. 

I always needed to have the best of everything, to be ahead of the trend and strike them with awe, so they wouldn't soon forget me.

In hindsight, I guess I was trying to compensate for my poor magical abilities, and wanted to justify my right to exist. 

So you can imagine the panic my parents had when I had a sudden change of heart, and sent the royal designer and their team away two weeks before my birthday. The best doctor in the country was rushed to my aid, and I was thoroughly -very thoroughly- checked for any sign of illness. And despite trying to explain my side of things, the poor doctor was fired when nothing conclusive was found, and four more doctors were hired to replace her. The staff came in hordes, watching the spectacle unfold.

The third doctor was carefully taking my blood pressure, with sweat on her brow and a beating heart that even I could hear, when Happy quietly squeezed himself into my room with a worried expression. For a second, everyone else faded away.

“Hi-his heart!” the doctor announced. “It's beating too quickly in resting position!” The entire room filled with loud gasps and overlapping conversations while I stumbled out words, searching for an explanation that wasn't the truth. But the doctor went on. “Prince Leo, have you been experiencing dizziness, chest pain, or shortness of breath lately?”

“No, I'm not- Look, I'm totally fine, my heartrate is just- it's just a fluke, okay? I'm perfectly healthy.”

“Prince Leo, this could be a sign of something much worse. Have you been sleeping well? Having any anxieties? Constipation?”

Gods kill me now.

By the will of the gods, in a moment of true twin telepathy, Camilla heard my call of distress. “You know,” Camilla said, cutting through the wall of chatter. “I think having so many people gathered here might be too much for Leo right now. Maybe we should clear the room, and test his heart rate again.”

Father, who had been uncharacteristically quiet in the chair beside me, suddenly commanded the room. “All right, everyone give us some privacy.”

Camilla put her hands on Happy's shoulders, and steered him out of my room with everyone else. I sniffled, choking back tears of gratitude. I owe you my life Camilla.

“Okay, now take a deep breath, Prince Leo, and let's try again.”

In and out, I focused on slowing my breath. 

“My Prince?”

I peered my eyes open and groaned when I saw my trainer Godfrey standing over me. No more, you've knocked me off my feet and I accept the defeat.

“Are you still not feeling well, my Prince?” Godfrey offered his hand to pull me up, and I reluctantly took it to get back to my feet.

I let out a half-hearted laugh. “You're killing me, Godfrey.”

He quickly looked over his shoulder, then let out a sigh. “I know your father won't approve, but why don't you take a break until your next teacher comes?” He gave me a small, sympathetic smile.

I collapsed against him with relief. “Oh thank gods for your mercy on me.”

He laughed and patted my helmet.

On the other side of the training grounds was Camilla, laying face down in the dirt as if she were dead. I nudged her body with my foot. “You're taking a break too?”

“No, I'm dead, let me rest in peace.”

I plopped down beside her. “Why do you think father's making us train more vigorously?”

“Torture? Payback? So we fall into a coma and can't hide his stash of alcohol from him anymore?”

“We did that one time,” I commented. “It’s ridiculous, I haven't even been able to sit down for a good shit these past few days.”

Camilla grumbled into the dirt. “I haven't even been able to plan our sleepover.”

I rolled my eyes. “We're almost 19, we are not having a sleepover.”

Camilla lifted her face and glared at me with the intensity of an angry goose; ready to attack at a moment’s notice. “Listen here, you're not gonna ruin our birthday by pretending you're too old for sleepovers.”

“I am too old for sleepovers.” 

“What, are you afraid to sleep one night without your teddy bear?” 

I sputtered out, “This has nothing to do with Arthur McBearingson!” I sharply turned my head away and let out a ‘hmph’ before allowing my anger and embarrassment to settle. I pulled my knees to my chest. “Look, Eva's married now, she's going to get her own guest room with Zakarya.”

“My bed is big enough for all of us!” she retorted, as if the bed size was the problem. It’s a grandiose bed, a whopping nine foot by nine foot monster of a mattress stuffed with down feathers. It was uselessly large for her, but she asked father for it with the intention of having sleepover parties. Unfortunately, it was only Eva that ever attended. 

Camilla’s tone took a turn for the worst, bringing somberness to our rest. “Eva’s leaving for Trivicum after our party, and we’re not going to see her much anymore.”

I squeezed my arms around my legs more tightly. “I know, but she said she’ll visit once a month, and you know she keeps her promises.”

“I know. But that’s why I want to have a sleepover, I want to spend as much time with her as possible whenever she’s here.” 

“Ahem,” we heard someone clearing their throat in front of us. We both looked up at Daryl, who averted his gaze. “Your professor has arrived for your lesson this afternoon.” 

Daryl stepped aside to show us that Eva and Happy were approaching. Happy carried a wheelbarrow full of twigs. 

Unconsciously, I had opened up from my shell and jumped to my feet. I dusted off my clothes and ran my hands through my hair. 

“Psst, Daryl,” he looked over to me. “How’s my hair?” 

Without a word, he licked his thumb and flattened the flyaway hairs near my forehead. I whispered a thanks, and he nodded. 

“What’s with the wheelbarrow?” Camilla asked, finally getting up from the dirt. She didn’t bother to dust herself off. 

“Since today is our final lesson, I wanted to leave you with a spell I invented recently.”

When we got to the orchard, Eva grabbed a twig from the wheelbarrow. “I was inspired by the grafting Happy had done to a bitter almond tree, so sweet almonds would grow instead.” 

Grafting. I learned the basics of if from Happy a few weeks ago; depending on the plant compatibility, you can cut plants and make their wounds heal together, eventually turning them into one plant.

But Eva's magic ignored the laws of nature. She took a twig full of fragrant bay leaves from Happy's hand, scraped some bark off of an olive tree, and attached them together with magic despite their incompatibility.

Camilla and I watched with amazement, then cheered as if we were watching a sporting event. Eva giggled at our enthusiasm. 

“This is incredible, you could revolutionize the idea of magic itself,” Camilla commented. 

The prevailing theory of magic is simply redirecting energy. Earth magic is dubbed ‘time magic’, because most of it is reversing or speeding up natural forces. Fire magic is mostly pulling existing gasses from the air, water magic is manipulating the movement of water, light magic is pulling dispersed light from elsewhere and concentrating it. Using magic is simply understanding and connecting with the energy already there.

But Eva’s magic, it’s something else entirely. “Come on, give it a try,” she said, handing each of us an incompatible twig.

Unsurprisingly, we failed our first try. They rejected the foreign tissues, and the branches rotted because of the energy we pulled from it.

For a moment, I considered using my own energy again, but something about having Happy around made me want to be honest with my magic. Happy held out another twig, and put a hand on my back. I couldn't stop myself from blushing and fumbling for the twig. 

“It took Eva a few months to get this down.”

That can’t be true, I thought. She's a master of earth magic!

“I made a lot of mulch from my failed attempts.”

Happy let out a whisper of a laugh, then looked back at me. “That's why we have a lot of material to work with today.”

I accepted the new branch from Happy, and tried again.