I was amazed at all Seva could do.
I'd beg her to show me things with her magic when she could.
It was beautiful, vibrant, full of life unlike the cold magic of the Elite, it was almost as if it was alive... it gave me a sense of longing so powerful I needed to hold tears back.
"Each queen is chosen by the dragons, which today is no longer the case, but it was in my time and for a long while after it, purple eyes were rare, the best connection to the dragons, green was after and after that blue, if you failed your eyes would be dull blue." She said as I listened in awe, sitting on the couch with Davis sitting on the ground, drawing what she described a dragon to look like on a parchment, his hand shaking as he was putting so much pressure on succeeding.
"So you seen a dragon? Why do you have that connection?"
"Even that has been forgotten, I cry for the lost past of my people and the future that is my present." She sighed, shaking her head, the bandanna wrapped around her hair gone since she was inside with us. "Yes I saw one, my eyes ARE green and I was the queen in my time which is why I was brought back to save Solor.... And that connection.... It is that the dragon's would help protect Solor if I were to call for them, even the day the cold desert was created I didn't call for them despite many choosing the show up, peace to their souls."
"What why didn't you?"
"I hoped we could win and.... If dragons died out.... Who would my daughter meet the day the dragons chose if she was right for the crown? I was selfish, maybe many would have survived, many more, but I couldn't sacrifice the dragons because of what they meant to her."
It was a small pang to the heart to hear that but I shook it off, of course she had a family before, what did I think?
"So... Could you still call upon the dragons?"
"I assume yes but I'd wish to meet with them to know for sure but from what your brother could find in the churches archives the land of dragons has been desecrated long ago and they are now not found, there is only one place we know off that is safe."
"With the other surviving elemental mage?"
"Exactly, I need to get there."
"You kids should stop pestering her Majesty Seva about the past." Mother said, bringing in a set of tee cups and a kettle from the kitchen area.
"I told you, Seva is fine." She waved off, my mother always so hung up on honorifics and pleasing the royal family since I was born.
"Whatever you say she won't stop." I whispered to her making her chuckle.
I smiled happily at that, it warms my heart.
"Nonsense, her Majesty should be referred to as it must, now do have a cup."
I grabbed the first one filled and dropped a cube of sugar in it, we could only afford a small amount but each time we drank tea I needed a cube, so bitter.
I saw Seva drop two in her own.
"You a sweet tooth?"
"Skarla!"
"It's fine ma'am I don't mind." She calmed my mother down with a wave of her hand, she did look regal with the barest of gestures, sometimes just doing the barest of head movement before apologizing, as if she was talking in a weird silent language, must be some noble thing. "I always liked sweets as a child, growing up I'd steal the sugar cubes that I was supposed to feed to my horse because the small hard candy sweets were meant for children." I was mesmerized by her smile as she took a sip of her tea and I gulped mine down right away, scalding hot but not enough to actually hurt me.
I sighed softly, tea always calmed my nerves.
I almost missed the small movement from the corner of my eyes and would have if it wasn't followed by ceramic breaking.
I saw my mother look horrified, the cup having escaped her hand.
"Are you alright ma'am?" Seva tried standing up but I saw her legs not follow her, falling on the floor.
"Seva?!" my brother, how'd call her 'lady Seva' along with my father, exclaimed worriedly.
"I'm fine.... Just.... Tired suddenly." She muttered, hand on her forehead as he helped her up on her knees.
He and I helped her to my bed since usually she used the couch to sleep but it was the middle of the day still.
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I woke up and rubbed my head, groaning slightly as I had banged it on the floor.
The floor....
The scene flashed through my head and I gasped, trying to sit up but something pulled down on my arm and I looked over.
Skarla was sleeping sitting on the floor but her arms crossed under her head and her crossed arms on my own.
I smiled before it turned into a frown, this can't be....
I pulled myself free, tiptoed out of the room and closed the door behind me.
I lit a flame floating above my palm before letting the fire float next to my head as I made my way through the house, the wind making my steps light as a feather in the addition to my training from when I was a princess, walking elegantly, silently.
I opened the kettle abandoned on the table and smelt the inside of it but nothing.
I turned my attention to the cups but two out of the four had what I was looking for, that faint smell that you need to know to look for in such small quantities.
I am sure Skarla's mother can't... No....
I my eyes turned to the small cup that held the seven last cubes of sugar and reached for it slowly as if touching it would hurt me, hoping I was not correct with my assumption, a few plants smell like that.
I held it in one hand and brought a single cube of sugar up to my nose, smelling it.
I stuck out my tongue and licked the surface, staring at the cube intensely.
A feeling washed over me, the barest of things but it was confirming my worries and suspicions.
I had felt this before tho not from the same substance but I had felt this.
The magic being pulled out of my body into the void, into nothing.
"Wither Away." I whispered, quite horrified at my discovery as I looked at the two cups that had had sugar in them.... Mine and.... Hers.