Ascension

I was endlessly tired, yet sleep refused to come.

I tried to filling the void she’d left with new projects and schemes. My efforts were wasted as it felt like I was trying to fill a black hole with pebbles.

My fingers brushed over the keys of the piano. I played a few chords to see if it was working correctly and of course it was tuned to perfection. What did I expect? The only thing in this place that wasn’t working right was me.

I hadn’t played in a while, the black hole had already swallowed my inspiration. Then again, I didn’t need much inspiration to play Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, or any of the other composers. All of their hardest compositions as I had learned by four and mastered a year after. Like most things in my life musical brilliance was a birthright. The only thing I’ve ever really had to work at was to win Summer’s love. And up until a few days ago, I thought that I was doing a brilliant job of making her love me, hopefully half as much I did her. Although, I wouldn’t have classified falling in love with her as a job. Doing a job required some amount of work and after trying to avoid the inevitable in the beginning, falling for her was effortless. But even with all my efforts, it seemed they were not enough to convince her to stay.

I straightened myself around huge glass instrument. I closed my eyes and pressed down. The way the sounds resounded from the glass frame was much different than the traditional wood, as the sound was muffled and not as resounding. At first, it was just a random set of chords but as I moved on the chords became running sentences telling a story.

It wasn’t a happy story. It spoke of a hero being trapped in the darkness with a huge monster. He’d faced many beasts before and had been crowned champion all those other times. But this monster was different as it wasn’t physical, but was trapped within his own body. Numerous times he’d drawn his sword and slashed at the beast’s head, but like the hydra the heads grew back, three for each one lost. The hero seeing that his plan wasn’t working, still continued cutting and more heads appeared. Soon there were too many of them.

And then, he stopped. This was a battle he wasn’t meant to win.

He looked around him.

Each of the serpentine monstrosities opened its mouth laughing he thought, as they too knew that they were winning.

With each head he could identify a small part of himself. Loneliness, loss, strength, pride, arrogance, passion, resentment, hurt, love.

Love, that one had the most noticeable head as the golden scales and teeth of brass far outshone those of the others. The hero dropped his sword and peeled all his armour exposing himself to the fire-breathing beast. His eyes locked with the gold-clad head and he didn’t move as the monster angled his long neck towards him with blinding speed. He felt the scorching flames of fire mixed with brimstone, sulphur and ash. The hero laughed, as he thought not that he had finally reached his end but he couldn’t help but think how beautiful the monster was.

The phone beside the bed rang. I opened my eyes and dropped my hand from the keys. I got up and lazily walked over to answer it. “Hello,” I said.

“Rain is that you?” asked the voice on the other end.

“Yes dad it is me,” I said sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Sorry for taking so long to reach you. I’ve had a lot of work doing up here in London.”

“Yeah, so Naeht tells me.” I said as I squished my eyebrows together.

“Is everything alright over there?” his voice suddenly adopting a tone of concern.

“Work wise yes, but everything else is a mess.”

“Son, what’s wrong?”

“Things are not going as I expected, that is all I can tell you over the phone.” I sighed heavily.

“It seems I will have to wrap things up faster over here than I originally intended, but I will be there the latest tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m sure things will work out.” I said trying to convince myself.

“You might be Grand Lune but I’m still your father, so if there is one person you don’t get to tell what to do is me. Me and Aurora that is.” he laughed.

My frown deepened when he mentioned her name. “Look dad I have to go now, something has come up. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow when you get here. Okay bye.” I said placing the phone back on the hook.

I knew that he would be concerned about my abruptness, but that couldn’t be helped. It was late in the day and my mind was beginning to get idle, which I couldn’t allow as it would cause me to think of Summer and her sudden departure. I stretched for the note I’d hidden in my draw and read it again. It was only a week, but it already felt like a lifetime without her here. Probably it was good that dad was coming tomorrow, that way I could leave him in charge and go searching for her myself. I couldn’t stay here another three weeks waiting as I would probably end up driving myself crazy.

I heard a tap on the door. “Come in,” I said waiting for whoever it was to see me. “Vitali,” I said to the captain.

“Your Highness,” he said coming around to where I was. “If you don’t mind me saying so, but you look horrible.”

I smiled slightly. “Thank you, I just haven’t gotten much sleep lately, that’s all.”

“Still no word?” he asked.

“No,” I said as I knew he was referring to Summer. “I see you are back early from the assignment. I assume that it has been done?”

“Yes, as asked here are the documents.” he said handing me a folder. I took and I ran over the names and data. It was a bit more than I was expecting. It was surprising the amount of persons who wanted someone else dead. Some of the names I’d recognized and it surprised me greatly.

“Do not mistake me, as I don’t condone murder in any form, but I must say that I am impressed. This quite a list of jobs that you and your men have racked up here.”

“We usually come highly recommended.” he said with a wide smile.

“As can be expected. If there is one thing I do commend Ay for was the level of training he’s afforded our army.” I said musingly.

“I am happy to hear that. Have you decided what our next move will be?”

“Not sure, but I think I will be putting it on hold for the time being. This is just a back up venture. I don’t see anything going wrong with the other plans I’ve made, but it is an unpredictable world. If I change my mind you will be the first to know.” I said closing the folder.

He nodded once. “Is there anything else?”

“No, that will be it for now.” he bowed slightly and then headed for the door.

I opened the folder once more this time reading through the files more carefully as I waited for night to end.

I looked up as the door to my study opened without a knock.

“Dad,” I said getting up to meet him half-way in the room. “I’m glad you are here.”

“What is going on?” he asked.

“Aurora is missing and I am going to look for her. There are all the files of what I’ve been doing all week, you can look over them make recommendations. There also minutes from the meeting with the barons and a very interesting look at Ay’s mercenary job list. I think you will find some of the names quite interesting. I really have to get going now. I’ve already waited too long.” I was about to walk off before he held unto my shoulder firmly, stopping me in my tracks.

“Now you said that you would explain everything once I got here. And if I am to be left in charge, I should know what I am facing here. And what is this about Aurora going missing?” he said unleashing the full depth of the grey eyes that I’d inherited from him on me.

I inhaled deeply. “When I woke up the morning after we got here, she was gone. I got a note she’d left with Naeht to give to me. It basically said she needed some time to sort through things.”

“Things?” he said looking puzzled.

“This whole Tir na n-Óg bit.” I said waving my hands slightly.

“Oh,” he said stroking his chin the way he usually did when he was thinking. “If she said she needed time Rain, maybe you should let her sort things out on her own.” he said carefully.

I usually valued my father’s advice but this bit was hard to swallow, in fact I wasn’t biting at all. “It has been a week dad. I am worried. I just have to see her. If she wants me to go away, I will, but I have to hear it coming from her lips.”

“I understand,” he sighed heavily. “Alright, I’ll stay here and try to help out until you get back.”

“Thanks dad.” I was happy that he was finally on my side.

“But tell me something, have you told Sonya and Nafad about this? I am sure that they would want to know and they could keep an eye out for her if she happens to pass their way.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Rain….”

“I don’t want them to start worrying just yet. When I find Aurora they can get the details when I hear what she has to say.” he was about to say something else when I cut him off. “I know you don’t agree dad, but we can both see that it is the best way.” I said holding his long look.

“Fine, you should know what’s best for the two of you.” he said looking away.

“Thank you for understanding.” he nodded his head briefly.

I was about to walk out of the room when he called out to me. “Rain, suppose I want to contact you, to find out what’s going on. How will I reach you?”

I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out the blue gem which I threw to him. “Here,” I said as he caught it.

“Isn’t this…?”

“Yeah, she left it here.” I said dropping my eyes from his as I was sure that they were filling up with pity.

“Oh,” was the only thing that escaped his lips.

“I’ll see you dad.” I said walking out.

“Keep safe son.” he said as he placed his hands in his pockets.

“Always,” I said smiling slightly as I closed the doors.

I walked back up to my chambers to collect the little that I needed. Human clothes were a must, as it would be odd walking around out there in robes. I grabbed my wallet which had some cash and all of my credit cards. My passport, as I didn’t know how far I might need to travel. I just needed one more thing, a lift off of this island. I could easily shift into something else but my human clothes would prove to be an inconvenience as they couldn’t change with my body.

“Diego,” I called softly and the door to my room opened.

“Yes Your Highness,”

“I need a lift off of this island. I believe you can help me.”

“My brother has a boat. He works on the mainland so it would take some time for him to get here.”

“That won’t be much of a problem. I’ve waited long enough already a few more minutes wouldn’t kill me.”

“If I may,” he said pointing to the phone at the side of my bed.

“Go ahead,”

He walked over to the device and punched in the numbers. “Hello Pancho, …Yes it’s Diego….I know that it’s been a while….I was wondering if you could come by and pick me up…. No I’m not in any trouble, but it is kind of urgent….Yes…..Thirty minutes,” he looked over to me. I nodded in approval. “That will be fine….I’ll see you then…Okay bye.” he said hanging up.

“We need to get our own private transport to get off of this rock.”

“We have our own boats, but I assumed that you would probably prefer a less conspicuous exit.” he said walking back over to me.

“Yes, thank you. Although they will probably find out soon enough that I’m not here since I left my dad in charge for the time being. Nothing stays a secret too long at Tir na n-Óg.”

“Isn’t that the truth.” he said with a sharp laugh. “We should probably leave now. I see that you are in human clothes, which means that our travels will take a bit more time than usual.”

I nodded and the both of us walked out.

The black boat pulled up close to the shore and immediately I recognised who the owner was.

“Marc,” I said in greeting.

“Your Majesty, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” he said as he tied the boat to the wooden post.

“Well we can drop the formalities. Old friends greet each other by the first names. I must say that I wasn’t expecting you either. I heard Diego refer to you as Pancho.”

“Yes, well that is a nickname I got from my earlier escapades in South America, only those in my family use it. I see that you and my brother have become acquainted.” he said looking at Diego.

“Very much so. I was made aware that he had a brother named Marc but I wouldn’t have thought of you.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go bragging about a brother who sails boats for a living either if I were a member of the elite Royal Guard. It’s all about keeping up appearances.” he laughed.

“I guess I wouldn’t.” laughed Diego showing that there was no love lost between them. I watched as he punched him slightly on the shoulder. It was different how their relationship was with each other. It seemed so easy and natural. Even when we were growing up, Naeht and I never had that. The only punches we exchanged weren’t at all friendly and our father had to separate us on numerous occasions before and after we drew blood.

“You said that it was urgent?” Marc asked Diego.

“Yes, Your Majesty would like to be carried back to the mainland.”

“Well, that is urgent business isn’t it.” he said walking over to the boat and untying it from it hold.

I boarded the carrier. Diego came to stand at the side. Marc was pretending not to watch but I could see him peeking through the corner of his eyes.

“I want to come with you. It is my job.” he whispered.

“Your job is to do what I order you to do. And what I want you to do now is to stay here and keep an eye open.”

“Ask,”

“What?”

“You don’t order you ask.” he said reminding me of my words.

“Right, ask. And what I am asking you to do is stay here and watch out for my father.”

“Fine,” he said with a hint of stubbornness. “I will stay, but you should know that my first priority is you and your wife.”

“I am well aware of that Diego, thank you.” I whispered.

“Are we ready?” asked Marc.

“Yes,” I said turning to him. Diego let go of the starboard of the boat and walked back to shore. I watched the figure get smaller as the boat retreated from the shore.

“Diego, that one can be stubborn, it and his outspoken nature has often gotten him into trouble but he is still a good lad and an even better soldier.” said Marc.

“He’s demonstrated those two qualities on occasion. He is going to follow me isn’t he?”

“Your guess is probably as good as mine. He will do what he thinks needs to be done in performing his duties to the best of his abilities.”

“I was counting on that.” I said smiling softly. You never know when I need a backup plan as things might not go my way. As I had a feeling they wouldn’t. I would need someone to contact my father or Sonya if the case be.

“I was wondering how you two became so acquainted so quickly as I know that he still not a high rank member of the Guard. He joined a year ago.”

“That actually is a funny story.” I said moving to stand beside him at the controls. I explained to him the events of our first day at Tir na n-Óg.

“How about that, it seems that I not owe you my life, but that of my brother’s.” he said reflectively. “An impossible debt to repay.”

“I am sure that we can work something out.” I laughed.

“I am sure we will.” he said before falling silent.

I went to sit at the back of the boat but it wasn’t for long as the new vessel traversed the dark seas much quicker than the older one.

“Well this is our stop,” he said pulling up to the jetty.

“Yes,” For now. My stop wouldn’t come until I found Aurora. I hopped out of the boat and unto the jetty.