KALEEN
EVERYTHING SURROUNDING ME WAS DRAINED OF COLOR, AND I WAS RUNNING.
The Woods we raced through was nothing more than a shriveled, miserable corpse of the beautiful grove it had once been. Thick ash snowed from the charred branches and the ethereal glow that had once bathed the trees in warmth was gone, leaving crawling shadows and sharp frost in its wake. It smelled of decay, of abandonment and sorrow, sharp and thick in my nose.
Hurry, my heart urged. Hurry, hurry!
The Seeing Pool was hardly more than a handful of liquid in the scarred crater normally overflowing with water. In that tiny handful, the darkened sky reflected back, a mournful copy of the world. As I neared its crumbling edge, dust kicked up, coating my feet.
Looking to the opposite side of the nearly barren pond, I found Jan closing in, his scarlet eyes set on me in an unwavering, trancelike gaze. Incredulous and wary.
"Do you see me, Jan?" My voice echoed through the dead Woods. My Seership adorning my shoulders shone like crushed stars, nearly completed, with its hem still comprised of raw threads. Its sleeves glittered faintly where small, silvery lines swept patterns of Emotion through the cloth. The hood draped over my crown; several locks on my head had changed from deep brown into stark white. From the sliver of my reflection that I could see in the pool, I glimpsed wisps of light moving within my blue eyes.
“I see you,” he whispered.
"Show me,” I urged. "I want my memories back."
"Your true memories," Jan promised. "You have fabricated ones in your mind, concealing the truth. I'll help you See your real past."
Holding out my hand to him, he took it, the gentle touch sending a jolt through every cell that built me. We knelt together, at the rim of the Seeing Pool, stretching out our intertwined hands together to touch the water’s surface.
In my mind’s eye, I Saw…
The false memories that had filled my mind unraveled and disappeared, brushed away as if by a gust of wind. The memory I had thought was of my first meeting with Jan, on earth, when he asked me if I remembered him—it was simply my own mind-song telling me that something was wrong. My mind knew that something had been taken away. This ripple allowed me to peel back what was false and reveal what was real.
During the symphony of a thunderstorm, I was born in Callorah. When I was three months old, my parents presented me to Iryn in her Serene Woods, and she wrapped me in her Seership and held me, Seeing all that would befall me in my lifetime.
"She must be strong." Iryn placed a finger to my forehead. "You must be strong, little Kabrin. There is so much that depends on it."
I was seven when I met Alajan for the first time.
Half-hidden behind my father, I peered out from around him at the king and queen, thoroughly intimidated. My senses overflowed from their regal demeanor, their scents, their voices. Curiously, I watched the dark-haired, older boy sitting at the foot of his father's throne. He practiced the beginnings of a light-orb between his palms, disinterested in what our fathers spoke concerning a prophecy, a Charm, and a key to Veils. I didn't understand any of it, myself.
Under my father's gentle prodding, I emerged from behind him. I straightened myself under the scrutiny of the Monarchs. But I huddled in on myself as the king himself approached, my tail tucking under.
King Anetherrin was kind, though, offering a smile as he knelt on one knee before me, and his voice was warm.
"Hail, Seer-chosen," Anetherrin greeted.
Alajan had looked at me then, and neither of us could look away.
“I know how to make a light-orb,” I told him, hesitantly. I wanted this boy as my friend. “I can show you.”
With complete acceptance, the prince leaned towards me. “Show me.”
A friendship grew between the Crown Prince and I. Jenint, the younger born prince, had already become fast friends with Naterrin, and my older brother knew Jan, who was his own age. Alajan and I were driven together by our future roles to play in a legend long-since made, and a destiny that would bind us forever.
We distrusted Caraak together, befriended Malin when he came to Court, and accepted the watchful study of the Guides weaving in and out of our lives as simply part of our existence, as necessary as the suns dancing together in the sky. One day we would have a duty to complete.
A shadow was cast over Callorah at the news that Lord Entai that would soon return to Court, bringing his twins with him in the wake of their mother's death. When my father requested permission to leave with a group of other Nalii, to build a new home that we would call Deep Haven, I looked forward to being free of Caraak's staining influence and those who willingly followed him.
"I need to keep Kabrin safe," my father told Anetherrin.
It didn't matter if Jan and I were physically apart—our beautiful, golden Connection made any distance meaningless.
When I was fourteen, we earned Jan's first prince mark together. It was my responsibility as well, given that when we were older, we would be promised, prepared to spend the rest of our lives together. At some point, our friendship had bloomed and love that was deeper, wilder, stronger than the revolving world, brighter than the stars orbiting in the heavens. It forged a vow between our souls. We were for each other and always.
When I turned fifteen, and Jan was seventeen, we traded promise tokens, tying them to our tails. I had thought mine the most beautiful thing I had seen in the whole of existence. I had felt so proud, standing beside him, the weight of both prince marks on our arms. He and I: Courage and Compassion; Sacrifice and Selflessness.
They called me Liiara from that moment on, the title of the future king's beloved. His sweetheart. We had laid the foundation for our future together, and little did we know how it was going to be torn apart.
That I would be the one to make the Choice that would shatter it.
Ultimately, I was not forced to tread the path towards becoming the Second Seer. I had always known, as had Jan, that he would inherit the Gift, would help me along that journey should I decide to travel it. What we hadn't known, until I was ready to make the decision, was that in order for me to wield the key, I would have to change.
I would have to shed my heritage, my world. The very blood in my veins would have to change.
For the sake of saving Humra, I would have to become human.
Our Connection—this UnVeiling of all thoughts and feelings, of mind and heart— that had been forged between us at our first meeting had, over the years, grown into something so sacred, it was unfathomable to consider breaking.
But broken, it would have to be.
The last night we spent together was a summoning of courage, a blending of souls. With every touch I sealed my love for Jan inside his heart; his became the support I stood on.
“I love you,” Jan breathed, his mind-song merged with my own, trailing kisses across my skin. “I love you with all that I am.”
In the setting suns above Deep Haven, I stood with Jan one final time as my Naliian self, with the Guides waiting nearby. My family surrounded me, prepared to follow with me to another world—to earth, the home of those who had fled from Coerce at her first arrival. My older brother and I would forget everything; Naterren was too young to have formed memories that could be recalled. My blood heritage would be encased inside a ring, to be used on my return when needed.
I would have to forget Jan. Walk away and break our vow to be Conjoined.
"It's all right," Jan assured, wiping his thumbs over my eyes to dry them. He pulled me close, holding me fiercely as he spoke through our Connection.
'I will remember for you.'
He let go.
Taking hold of the Sacra Band for the first time, I stepped through the Veil. And Coerce, eagerly awaiting the moment I would touch the key, freed herself from the weakened chains of her banishment as my inexperience allowed her to channel Humra’s Dark emotions into her own strength.
The first Long Night unfolded in the wake of our departure. It would claim the lives of my father and Tallen on one side of the Veil, and Anetherrin and Jenint on the other, as they formed a Seal to keep her from reaching me.
The Seeing Pool stilled over, resembling glass once more.
“And you begged the Guides to be allowed to come after me every now and then,” I said, lifting my head to face him. "Small wonder you never wanted to Connect with me again, after all of that. I still trust you, Jan. I always will. How do I repay you, for everything you've done for me? For traveling between worlds to help me; holding the secret of who I was for so long; for being my Gift bearer and for remembering for me. For loving me."
Jan’s thumb swept over my cheek as he held my face in his hands. "I have loved you ever since I first saw you. You're the brightest soul in this world or the next. You glow as one of the suns, Kal. How could I help but be captivated by you? It didn't matter to me what would unfold on my journey, so long as it was side by side with yours." One of his fingers lifted to trace my lips, tracing my smile.
I pressed my fingers to his chest, feeling his heartbeat. "Will you come find me?"
Jan stilled, meeting my gaze with an intensity that made the vision around us undulate with its power. "Nothing can stop me."
The Serene Woods dissolved around us, the vision fading into drifting beads of light.