The thoughts of training didn’t sound like fun at all today, maybe not even tomorrow. I wasn’t sure Rune would call that off, though. There was probably some form of battle he could teach me in my current state. No day was to be wasted when his princess and Tor’s life was on the line.
“Wonderful! I’ve got a bunch of stuff planned for us today on the table. Did you have anything particular you were curious about? I love questions.” Her gentle features made me feel like I could trust her and tell her everything, maybe even consider her a friend, if we got to know each other more.
“I do have some questions.”
She helped me sit in the wooden chair that I’d been in last time at the same table. There wasn’t anyone in the library again, which made me think it wasn’t a place people came as often as Dris would like them too. All these books were a good thing to have around. Knowledge could be a useful weapon in the upcoming weeks.
She sat in the seat across from me and waited patiently. “OK, shoot. What are your questions?” She viewed this as a game, testing her skills and intelligence.
“Right. I have a few. Is there a catalog somewhere of nature cores in people? Like who has what inside them? And how does it all work with and without magic?”
I didn’t ask who had an onyx core flowing through their body since I was unsure how nature cores in the Fae worked. Was the queen’s heart made up of a diamond or something?
Dris’s eyes sparkled with delight over my thoughtful questions. She leaped into action and went to a bookshelf to the right, then the left. The two books she grabbed were perfectly lined and organized next to each other on the table once she returned.
“There is a book of such things, although it is a tad out of date. We try our best to keep records of births and deaths, but without magic, it has become a little harder. Are you looking for anyone or a core in particular?” She opened a large book that was dusty in the cracks of the leather binding the side. It had a symbol on the front—Crysia’s symbol—with the crystal tree and its roots growing into a sword pointing up. The Fae loved their intricate details, and it was mesmerizing.
“Just kind of everyone. I don’t know many gem names, and I would like to learn about the families.” I didn’t know many names of the precious stones, so this would help me learn about them, while finding out who onyx belonged to.
“And for your other question. I want you to close your eyes.”
I did as she commanded in her sweet tone. My other senses woke up to take over the loss of sight. The library smelled like lemon from the cleaning soap we used to wipe down the floors and the furniture. The sound of the waterfall could be heard in the distance with birds chirping nearby.
“Think of your heart, pumping inside your chest. We Fae have a heart like yours and inside that heart lies our cores, our very essence. Like a light if you will, shining inside us. Mine is a snowy owl core. It’s common in my family tree. Back when magic was alive and prospering, I was able to transform into an owl. It was beautiful flying high over the trees. I still feel it, coursing through my veins, filling me, but I can’t change anymore. None of the Fae who were in their human forms twenty years ago can. Some are still trapped in their animal forms.” Her voice tapered off. That chest guarding my heart ached for her, for the Fae.
She took a breath and continued on, pushing past the pain that weighed heavily on her. “Now depending on the strength of the Fae, and their core or cores . . . yes, I see those wide eyes. There are a very strong few who have two cores. Genetics and fate decide that. There is no way to choose who gets what. Certain cores may stay in the family, but that isn’t always the case.” She gave me a mischievous smile. She enjoyed shocking me with this information. I enjoyed hearing about this world, even though what she was saying was beyond my imagination.
“Back to what I was saying. Depending on the cores and the strength of the Fae, even without their powers or magic, the essence of the core is still inside them. Every life in the world has a vibration, an energy that it creates. And if the core is more toward the animal side, then we take on a similar personality to that of the beasts inside us. Owls are intelligent. They are sharp and keen of sight. They are also suspicious creatures, always watching, looking for danger or prey around them. Same with the gem cores. All gems have certain properties and purposes. Diamonds are the strongest gem in the world. Queen Olyndria is the only person in our history to have been given a diamond core. She is the most powerful in our existence and has lived a long time. Diamonds are known for being the stone of invincibility. They are energy amplifiers and symbols of love and purity. Sometimes when the queen isn’t feeling herself, those around her can feel her emotions, and their own are heightened. It’s a problem only strong Fae have when someone is close enough to touch them. You feel the vibrations and energy from their cores.”
So much information. My head ached from all the details. Then the keen-of-sight, intuitive owl Fae called me out.
“Now for the question you really wanted to ask. Who has an onyx core?”
Chapter Twenty-One
No one.
The answer was no one.
I thought it was odd because Tor had told me the king and queen put the princess in her onyx tomb. But according to Dris, the king did not have a core of onyx, and only the host of the core could create the crystals. A diamond core couldn’t create a ruby, only diamonds. That’s why the symbol of Crysia, the tree in the throne room had diamond leaves. Olyndria was its creator.
“Why hadn’t anyone noticed that or said anything?”
“When everything happened, the people were too panicked to think about it. Our king’s stone is obsidian. Looks sort of similar, enough that no one questioned what happened. No one likes to read the history of King Lachan, either. He lived a boring life until he courted and married the queen. Even now he is off on a hunt, while the queen takes care of the kingdom.”
I thought about all I’d learned as I sat in the garden after my lesson with Dris, watching creatures whose name I didn’t know run around chasing each other. They looked like squirrels, but they were a bluish-purple color with black eyes, which would have been frightening if it weren’t for their large pointed ears and cute actions. One would steal a red berry from the other, then they would chase each other around and the thief would give it back before taking it again and playing the game all over again. I giggled more in that moment watching those two go back and forth than I had in weeks.
My fingers lightly caressed the symbol of Crysia on the birth records book Dris told me to take, as well as the list of nature cores known to their world. After this short moment of rest in the gardens, I’d head back to my quarters and read.
There was this relentless yearning inside me that craved the knowledge in these two books like a drug, and I was eager to satisfy the appetite. Anything to help me gain the upper hand with this epic destiny I’d been thrown into. Dris said she would search every book she had for the answer to who had an onyx core. It wasn’t in the books I held in my hands. I wondered if someone altered the fact to keep the truth from being discovered.
The queen would be an obvious choice to ask, but she couldn’t exactly give me a name or tell me the long and complicated story if there was one. She couldn’t string words together that I understood, let alone give away secrets to the kingdom.