Petals of an Arctic Flower-Prologue

Prologue

  A quiet, but echoing click of a door stirs me awake. Only when a rustling of fabric nearby with the sound of something clinking together do I open my eyes to find an eerie blue light filtering in through the windows instead of the normal golden rays common on most Realms.

Peering towards where the light is originating from, I spot a figure, I assume is a woman, standing near a window. In her hands is a bouquet of strange flowers which she places inside a clear jar filled with water.

"Why is the sun blue?" I ask, quietly so to not startle her as she picks up the jar of flowers.

The woman turns to spot me sitting up. She gives a small smile at me and I offer one in return before glancing back at the strange sun.

"I'm glad that you have finally woken up, Miss." The greeting is sincere and as she moves to sit down on the chair beside me, I repeat the question plaguing my mind.

She laughs quietly when I finish asking a second time and finally gives an answer, "It is blue because we live in a place where it mainly snows and rains which in turn turns back into ice. The sun isn't as warm here and instead of being gold, like heat, it is a light shade of blue to reflect the cold of the Realm.

I frown in confusion. It still did not make sense. Did the sun not give warmth at all? It feels freezing to me inside the room and the light didn't seem to warm at all. Surely it gave warmth like the one back home.

"But suns are warm!" I burst out with frustration, "But this one is freezing."

"To us the sun is very warm but I suppose to you it would be very cold." She soothes with a hint of amusement playing in her eyes, a light shade of red that appears almost cloudy.

"What do you mean?! Freezing to me? You look just like everyone else back home." I hiss, furious at her choice of words and at the piercing pain that blurs my vision, increasing my anger. She didn't appear any different other than her strange eye color, even her skin is a similar shade of paleness as others in Escya.

Her smiles fades. Eyes darkening slightly, she explains with a slight chilling tone, "To those of us on Timeless Province, we are used to the cold temperatures. The sun gives us warmth because it is warmer than the air here, but to someone who has grown up in one of the other four Realms, the sun would appear to be colder, not warmer as you would expect."

That did explain the chill in the air. Still, I can tell she isn't explaining everything as I glance out the window. Surely, we wouldn't be so close to the ground level in a healing room. Most were much higher up to keep most of the patients from escaping from the windows in attempt to escape. Yet, this isn't the case here. I could see the snow and the ice covered ground and it did not make sense to me.

"Why am I here?" I snap, finally breaking my own silence. I did not like being here, so far from home and from the King whom would be very cross with me for being late from my assignment he had tasked me with.

"You appeared in the Province after a heritage test. You came demanded answers of the King and Queen. Do you not remember coming here?" She keeps her voice calm, yet I can detect a slight hint of offense towards me when she speaks of the second line.

Scowling, I turn away to think. I remember speaking with Father about a task he required of me as I was the only available apprentice potioneer in the castle to help a young couple on the outskirts of the Realm Escya. However, a sharp pain takes my breath away as I struggle to remember my visit to the Manor of Elderron.

Just as I am about to remember, a strange object in the healer's hands as she works on the wall takes my focus. Pain blurs my vision for several minutes before I tilt my head as she continues to press parts of the odd thing on the wall. But, why am I angry at her? She didn't do anything that I can remember. She nicely explained why the sun is blue and why it is cold.

Frowning, I ask her, "What are you doing? And why do I feel angry when we were just talking about the sun being blue?"

She pauses her movements before doing something and the thing turns to the color of the wall. I watch nervously as she approaches the bed once more. However, its then I notice a potion vial off to the side. Turning to get a closer look, I notice almost immediately that it's a heritage potion and that it had been active for quite some time.

"I was using the panel to update your status and healing. It also locks the door." The healer explains, and a faint bubble of anger throws me off guard. She couldn't possibly be lying?

But as she continues, I shove the odd anger aside and listen, "Now the reason you feel anger or other odd emotions at times is due to a spell that you partially broke before arriving here at Timeless Province."

A spell? But I don't remember arriving here or what I did before coming here. I did remember a strong sensation of shock, betrayal and fury. When I explain this to the kind healer, she gives a warm smile of understanding, "That is because the discovery sent you into shock as well as the backlash of releasing part of such a dark, powerful spell."

"What did this spell do? And what could I have discovered that would make me so hurt?" I ask frantically, a prickling of tears filling my eyes along with a piercing pang of fear to crawl into my heart.

Tapping the potion vial, she explains as the golden tree begins to light up the air above it, "You, Tampeesa, had discovered that you were actually a citizen of Timeless, the daughter of Malik-King and Sesi-Queen. This discovery broke a spell that had been warping your memories and personality since a very young age."

I notice a look of anger that flashes across her face. Flinching away, I whisper, "So those feelings? They aren't me?" The thought more than anything terrified me.

"They are the personality the spell has woven into you." There is a sad, concerned tone in her voice as she carries on, "You can't remember much of your life in this moment can you? Not before you were changed and not after?"

I shake my head. I feel empty. It makes me furious to know that someone had taken my life away in such a way I could not even change it or notice it until it had been there for so long. I feel tears streak down my face as I struggle to comprehend that who I was no longer existed at that moment.

"Father wouldn't have lied to me!" I denied fiercely, ignoring the stabbing pain that nearly blacked out my vision, "You can't be right! Father always does what's right!"

"So erasing memories of a small child, warping their personality and lying to them means he was doing what's right child?" The healer let out in a burst of frustrated anger, her fiery anger in my defense that I did not want at the time.

"I'll find a way out!" I snapped, already thinking of the window and the odd wall panel that acted as lock for the door. I will escape and I would learn all I could to help father destroy this place as he tried several thousand years ago.

"Until then, " She continues with strict tone, "I will teach you of the healing arts. You have a fine talent for it."

I narrow my eyes. How did she know I still dabbled in the healing arts? It will not do for Father-King to learn that I had disobeyed and refused to stop learning the healing arts that he considered unworthy of a princess. Still the desire to learn more of it built up until I gave an angry glare and nodded.

The healer smiles kindly at my acceptance and placed a book, a journal I noted with a frown, on the bedside table. I watch as she nears the door and glance again to the eerie sunlight with a deep frown.

"Please, use the journal to keep your thoughts in. It will help with your recovery." She states before exiting the room.

Once she left, I tossed the journal at the door with a shriek of fury. There couldn't be any truth to that potion! I had to have messed it up! Tears fill my eyes and as pain darkens my vision, I swore I'd find a way home, no matter how kind these people were compared to Father. I couldn't allow myself to fall into their trap!