The Offering

Chapter Thirty - Aeris

While monitoring the bonfires is a duty it was one I actually enjoyed. It wasn't often when I would actually be allowed to let my magic out in this capacity. Even being near this much open flame was a rarity and I enjoyed the feeling.

I thought about Daella, hoping she had found Alvaryn, while I would prefer I was with her I would still rather she be spending her time with my brother than one of the other pricks that would be out tonight.

I can feel my parents as they stay on their podium, my mother smiles at me as I look over at them. She looked as she always did. Ethereal beauty, sad eyes, mouth held in that posed smile of hers.

I think back to the other day, when I had visited her after father had asked each of us to make the effort to see her. I tried to see her regularly, but it was getting harder and harder. Seeing her so still and quiet, never complaining, never laughing or crying or screaming. No, she would just smile and ask about me, get me to talk about my time, ignoring my questions for her.

I knew what was happening, we all did, but it made no difference.

Her magic was killing her, or killing her soul. She refused to use it, to let any of it out. So it just ate away at her, day after day. Her body remained the same, but there was less light in her eyes, less life in her voice.

I had stopped bringing it up. It only made her withdraw father into herself, then she would refuse visits altogether. Father said it was for the best, that her magic was too dangerous and would only cause more harm, that it was her choice to keep it hidden. I hadn't even seen it, had only heard rumours of it. A darkness of the mind, a shadow like magic that only caused pain.

I watch my mother, trying to imagine a creature so pure and innocent looking being gifted with such a dark magic. It seemed utterly unfair. I once hated my own magic, hated the way it burned inside of me. It felt more like a burden than a gift. But I knew that it was nothing compared to what my mother must feel every day. Like a prisoner in her own body.

I turn to father, watching him speak with his advisor. I wondered how he could just sit and watch as his wife withered away, shut herself up inside the palace, only bringing herself out for certain events.

I turn back to the bonfire, I delve my magic into the flames, forming a dragon at its centre before releasing it above the flames, it soars overhead and around the bonfire, jaw open and wings spread wide. The fae cheer and continue dancing, their bodies blending in like a barrier around the bonfire.

I had celebrated summer solstice over two hundred times, the earlier ones had been just that, celebrating and dancing and eating and just enjoying the festivities. Then as I developed my magic and grew older, more responsibilities were given to me. Monitoring one bonfire, then two, then all three.

It had been difficult at first, to not get pulled into the flames, to let them just do what they wanted. That pull was always there, warmth and power singing in my veins, yearning to just give in.

Over time I learned how to make the flames listen, to be guided. The draw became easier to manage.

I wondered if that is what it felt like for Daella, with her furious little temper.

She struggled with it, with keeping it in check. She hated it, or maybe not hated it, but she didn't see it as a gift, or her own form of magic.

That is what I had tried to tell her earlier, that true fire can never be controlled, that it will always be wild, it might allow itself to be guided and shaped and used for its light and heat, but it would always remain true at its core.

She was struggling with what was expected of her and who she truly was. What if there was a way that she wouldn't have to change? That she could just let that fire burn within and still have her adventures and be happy?