––––––––
I had to work really hard not to laugh. I bit my upper lip and screwed up my face. I tried to relax the muscles slightly before raising my eyebrows and saying with much skepticism, "You expect me to believe that you moved me from one woman's womb to another. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. How is that even possible? It's not possible. It's ludicrous. Let me guess, next you're going to tell me that the Easter Bunny is my long lost brother."
Somewhere in the middle of my rant, I stood and headed for the door. I had no idea where I was going, nor did I care about the Vaipes anymore—if there really were Vaipes—I just wanted to get away from this insanity. Not only was it impossible to believe the great womb switch, but Charis expects me to annihilate a woman who has the power to manipulate people's thoughts and control their feelings. I can't even get my students to put the equipment away at the end of class.
Shaw was on his feet so swiftly I barely noticed his movements. He blocked me from the door, and said calmly, "I know this sounds crazy, Christina, but please don't go. I promise you all of it is true. I was there. I didn't understand it, either, but I lived through it, trying to figure it out all on my own. You don't have to go through this alone. I am here with you, I will help you understand, and hopefully accept everything." He gently grasped my upper arms, and his gaze was so reassuring, that I couldn't deny wanting to believe him. Nor did I want to leave him. Then he lowered his voice to almost a whisper and said, "After everything you have seen so far, why is this so hard to believe? Please trust me. I will never lie to you, nor will I ever hurt you." Everything about Shaw made me feel at ease. His voice, his wonderful eyes, and his gentle but strong touch.
I sighed and returned to my seat. Could it be possible? I had always been slightly skeptical about my relation to my parents, but this seemed just too farfetched. How could it be true? Then again, I had witnessed so many amazing things today, why couldn't this be true as well? Plus, something inside of me—something that I don't quite understand—screamed at me to trust Charis and Shaw.
I sighed again. "I suppose you have a point. After seeing your amazing gift, why can't this also be true? But what about my parents? Does this mean they weren't my parents?"
"Oh, they most certainly were your parents in every sense of the word. They just were not related to you biologically. They loved you, and cared for you, and at the end of the day that is all that really matters," Charis explained, her voice tender.
I could tell she felt badly for having upset me and she was worried about doing it again. I repeated her words to myself, "at the end of the day that is all that really matters." I suppressed an ironic laugh as I remembered thinking something very similar earlier in the day. Was that earlier today? It felt like a lifetime ago. I couldn't believe earlier today, my birthday—and what a crazy birthday it turned out to be—I had been worrying about turning thirty. Now I had all of this to attempt to process. It seemed impossible.
I had countless more questions. "Shaw, you said you were there, that you lived through it. What does that mean?"
Shaw returned to the table and pulled his chair next to me. "This is what I know," he said looking over at Charis. Most likely he was looking for help telling this part of the story, because it seemed he was almost as confused as I was about certain parts. "Your mother asked me to be your Watcher right before Charis did... whatever it was that she did... it was certainly powers I had never experienced before. Then I was in your world, in Pittsburgh. It would take me the rest of this day and probably a good deal of the next to recount everything that happened to me on my adventure. I can sum it all up here pretty quickly. Let me just say I found you when you were a young baby, and I've been watching over you ever since. And thank God for my powers because otherwise I don't think I would have been so successful."
Something about Shaw had been bugging me since the beginning of all this. Something wasn't adding up, and I was prepared to call him on it. "Wait a second. You said my father, King Davis, assigned you as my mother's Watcher back when he first met her. Then going by the timeline of your story," I turned to Charis now, "it was several years between their meeting, falling in love, and marrying. And then even more years of Leticia's war waging before I was even in the picture. Finally, I was born and then there were thirty more years until now." I was ticking these items off on my fingers hoping to further express my point that a great multitude of time had passed.
"That is correct. It has been approximately forty-five years since Lorna and Davis first met," Charis answered.
"Okay, fine I get that, no problem. And I'm also guessing that you," I focused on Shaw again, "were already a fairly accomplished warrior to be trusted by the king. So my question is this... how old are you, Shaw? You don't look more than a year or two older than me. Do you use your powers to keep yourself looking young?"
Shaw snorted a surprised laugh. It was nice to see his serious side fade ever so slightly. "I am actually turning one-hundred and seven this year."
"What!" I exclaimed bringing my hands to my mouth. I knocked my half empty teacup across the room, striking the wall and empting its remaining contents onto the floor. My reaction, coupled with the look of pure shock on my face, must have been humorous because both Shaw and Charis laughed. The moment of levity was actually very pleasant, and I joined in laughing right along with them.
Shaw got up to retrieve the cup for me, then came back to the table. He was still smiling when he said, "No, I don't use my powers to stay forever youthful. People age differently here in Meric than where you're from. A person ages until they hit approximately thirty-three-years-old, that's thought to be the age of perfection, and then they stop aging for a very long time. People also live much longer here. The average age at death is roughly eight-hundred-years-old."
"Really," I gushed in pure amazement. The more and more I learned about this place, the more peculiar it sounded. Although, I did like the rule that thirty-three was the age of perfection here. Considering my newfound horrors of turning thirty, this news heartened me.
"This one shouldn't be that hard for you to believe. There are records of people living this long in your history," Shaw stated in a very mater-of-fact way.
"Nuh uh, where?" I demanded in total disbelief.
"Your Bible, of course," Shaw replied. "In the early stories of the Bible people lived to be hundreds and hundreds of years old. Then, after The Flood, God changed the atmosphere and numbered man's days to one hundred and twenty years. Who's to say our atmosphere isn't like that of your early history?"
"But that's the Bible, it isn't necessarily true."
"Isn't it?" Shaw asked, smiling.
I contemplated the thought of living so long for just a moment before asking another question. "So you've been with me my whole life?"
"Yes... in one form or another," he replied. With this new revelation, I felt both comfort and disappointment. I was comforted, because I knew my feelings to trust Shaw had been legitimate. He was my Watcher, my body guard, my eternal protector. But the disappointment was much harder to nail down. I wasn't sure why I had feelings of discontent. I racked my brain, trying to understand my disappointment, when Shaw spoke and broke my train of thought.
"What happened to you and Queen Lorna after you sent us away, Charis? You said Whitestone is in ruins," Shaw asked.
Charis stood up and busied herself with cleaning up the dishes from our tea. "Leticia's army arrived shortly after. We tried to escape through some of the underground passageways the Dwarfs had constructed, but she found us after manipulating a Dwarf to give away the entrance." She paused here and walked into the back room of the cottage. She returned after a quick second, her arms laden with quilts and blankets. I stole a glance toward the small window in the kitchen and was surprised to see it was dark outside. Charis placed the blankets in the empty chair, and as she continued speaking she walked around the small cottage lighting candles. "While her dark army searched the castle for The Book of Tor'Nock, destroying everything in its wake, Leticia approached us in the passage. Without even speaking a word, she walked right up to Lorna and stabbed her straight through the stomach with a spear. Then she just walked away laughing." Charis returned to her seat and the gaze of her beautiful turquoise eyes fell to the table.
"Is she dead?" Shaw asked, and I heard the hurt and dread in his deep voice.
Charis returned her attention to Shaw, and there was actually a bit of joy behind her eyes. "No, Queen Lorna is alive. She is living in Verna Mount with her people. It was arduous trying, not only to heal her, but also to conceal her. We want Leticia to believe Lorna is dead."
Shaw looked pleased, but didn't say anything. I, on the other hand, realized something that greatly affected me. "My mother is alive?"
"Yes," Charis replied. Her face lit up even more and she asked, "Would you like to see a painting of her?"
"Of course," I answered, becoming excited. Charis walked back to the bedroom again, and returned with a large leather bound book. She thumbed through it briefly, found what she was looking for, and turned it toward me.
I gasped at the painting on the page. Staring back at me from the paint and paper was a picture of... well... me, only with some subtle differences. The woman on the page looked exactly like me, except her eyes were emerald green and her hair was silky straight and raven hued. Her skin was slightly paler with more of a yellow undertone, and the angles of her features were just a little bit sharper. Her green eyes were also a bit more narrow and almond-shaped then mine, but other than that it looked like someone was trying to paint me but didn't have the right colors to do the job properly. However, the woman on this page seemed so much more beautiful than the image I usually see when I look in the mirror.
"Pretty amazing, huh? I told you that you look exactly like her," Shaw stated behind me, looking over my shoulder.
"Yeah, you weren't kidding," I replied, still a bit stunned over the image. I gently ran my index finger along the border of the painting.
"There are more paintings in here that might interest you," Charis said, and she turned the page to reveal the same woman standing with her arms entwined around a very handsome man. When I looked closely at the man, I recognized the eyes immediately. He had my dark blue eyes and his shoulder-length hair rippled with reddish-brown, wavy curls similar to mine. He had a neatly trimmed beard, was tall, and athletically built.
"This is my father."
"Yes," Charis said somberly, "He was an amazing man."
"Hang on a second," I exclaimed flipping back to the portrait of my mother. "I thought you said she was an Elf, but she looks like a normal person here."
"I tried to tell you that Elves, Dwarfs and Giants wouldn't look like what you expect," Shaw said, smiling. "You're probably picturing people with pointy ears and slanted eyebrows, right?"
I chuckled because he was right. The picture of Elves I had in my head resembled that of Spock from Star Trek.
"Well, then, how do you know a person is an Elf?" I asked.
"All Elves look very similar. They all have this black hair, green eyes, and pale skin. Elves are incredibly graceful and probably the most intelligent of all the beings in Meric, aside from the Guardians. Elves also have unmatched senses. Their sense of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch are so much more acute than anyone else. Plus their intuitiveness is quite impressive," Charis told me.
This would explain why I had super acute senses. I got them from my mother. I opened my mouth to ask another question but Charis held up a hand to quiet me. "Before we continue with any more conversation, we need to prepare for the night and set a plan for tomorrow."
"I agree, but before we plan, I'm hungry," Shaw said. "Do you have any food, or should I hunt?"
"I have some bread, and there is a small chicken coop behind the house if you wouldn't mind cleaning a chicken, Shaw," Charis replied.
"No problem. That will give me a chance to make sure the immediate area is free of Vaipes," Shaw said. He returned to the trunk containing his items and emerged with a small, sharp knife. Charis grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen and handed it to him. I frowned and tried not to think about what Shaw would be doing. I'm used to chicken coming from a bucket with two sides and some biscuits, not slaughtered ten feet away, but I realized things were different here and if I wanted to eat I would have to adjust.
While Shaw was committing bird murder outside and Charis prepared the bread in the kitchen, I looked though the picture book. There were more paintings of my parents and paintings of different Elves. Just like Charis said, they all had similar features and were all very beautiful. I stumbled upon a particularly striking male Elf. He looked very regal and very handsome, and could have easily passed for a male model. When I asked Charis about him she informed me that he was Prince Jonus, the son of the Elf King Tornus.
According to my small silver watch, Shaw was only gone for about a half an hour. When he returned, he carried a cleaned and featherless chicken carcass and he had what appeared to be a few dark green leaves clinging to his shirt. I moved to pull a leaf off and I realized they were actually dark green feathers.
"Green feathers?" I asked, holding one up for him to see.
"Our animals here are a little bit different than what you're use to," he told me. "Our chickens are green."
"Really? That has got to be cool looking." I started to wonder what other surprises I would run into here in Meric.
Charis set the chicken to cooking on a spit over the fire. "We need to get Christina to Verna Mount with the Elves and King Tornus' army. That will be the safest place for her. If Leticia learns Christina is alive, she will stop at nothing to kill her. It is roughly a twelve day journey from here to Verna Mount."
"All right," Shaw replied, "but we will need to stop for provisions somewhere. Our best bet would be to stop at the ocean city of Nyko. This will add an extra day, but I know many of the Dwarfs there, and they will be friendly to us... that is if Nyko isn't in ruins, too."
She smiled as she spun the chicken over the fire. "Nyko is fine. Leticia has a small battalion of troops attacking the Giants right now, but the core of her army is located near her home in the southern territories. After they sacked Whitestone, King Tornus rallied King Davis' allies to push her forces back to the south. She's focusing her efforts on taking control of the Giants and they are giving her some difficulties. However, there is something grave I must discuss with you. Rayliex reached the age of perfection while you were away and Leticia has him leading a division of her army."
"Rayliex," Shaw exclaimed. "I nearly forgot about him. Do you know if he has demonstrated any powers?"
"I know that he has powers, but I cannot confirm right now what they are."
"Who is Rayliex?" I asked. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep up with everything, every person, and every place they talked about, but I was fairly certain I had the gist of most of it.
"Rayliex is Leticia's son," Charis answered.
"Son? She has a son? Who is the father?"
"Some speculate that Rayliex's father is either a Vaipe, or a Leviathan, or some other foul creature that Leticia manipulated to serve her. Others believe she was able to seduce an Elf or a human. We do not know for sure," Charis explained.
Shaw sighed, clearly troubled. "Are we agreed to head for Nyko in the morning?"
"Yes," Charis replied, "I do have one horse. Not all of us can ride him at the same time, but he will do well for carrying our equipment and supplies." She pulled off a piece of the chicken and examined it. Pleased that it was done, she removed the entire chicken from the spit and sliced it. After a few moments, I had a plate full of hot chicken and sweet tasting bread. To my astonishment, the green chicken tasted exactly like regular chicken.
Shaw swallowed a mouthful of chicken and said, "What about sleeping arrangements? I think I'll sleep right over there on the floor." He gestured to a small open area just to the right of the door. "I want to be near the only entrance in case the Vaipes do find us. When I looked around outside there were no signs of them, but they may stumble upon us in the night."
"I would offer Christina the bed, but I know she will refuse," Charis said, and her knowing face grinned at me as she glanced at Shaw. Shaw didn't seem to notice her insinuation. Slightly embarrassed, I opted not to respond. I definitely wanted to be near Shaw, not just because of my mounting attraction for him, but I genuinely felt safe around him. If I was going to find sleep at all tonight after everything I had witnessed today I needed to feel safe. I wondered how she could possibly know this, but then I remembered she could see the future. She probably already saw me sleeping on the floor.