The Blessed City

The knock at the door roused her awake. Outside, the sun had hardly a ray in the sky. Tossing her face into the pillows, she willed the knock away. When it thudded again, she groaned and rolled out of bed. Forgetting herself, she jerked the door open.

"What?" Arik stood in fresh clothes. Knee-high boots covered the bottoms of tan pants and a wispy white shirt. His hair was cleaned and combed and his eyes showed no signs of a sleepless night.

"Morning," he said casually. "I am to take you to the High Court. Perhaps I should return later."

She looked down at herself, then and crossed her arms over her chest. "A few minutes would be fine." Slightly embarrassed, she shut the door and sprinted to the bed. After waking Rhys, she shimmied into the powder room. One quick look in the mirror was enough to flush her cheeks red.

Hollow as they were, her bones protruded severely from her skull. Her eyes sunk deeply and the circles clung darkly under them. Scowling, she fixed her scattered hair into a tail. Just as she realized she had given her clothes away, an outfit appeared on the table next to the washtub. The note sparkled on the long red corset.

"Wear this," it read and she rolled her eyes. With no time to argue, she obeyed and slid the black pants on and fashioned the corset over her body. Tying the lace, she let the wings of the corset fall past her thighs. When finished, she studied herself in the mirror.

Maleah didn't recognize herself. The thin-boned, pale-skinned girl stared back at her in clothes she only once dreamed of wearing but had long forsaken in her isolation. Shuddering in the body that didn't feel like her own, she met Arik at the door. There, Rhys waited with him wearing the same outfit but in forest green. Following Arik, they woke Cam before wading down the halls and away from the castle.

"Where are we going?" Maleah piped up when she realized he was not taking them to the sky-high room.

"Change of scenery." Arik led them from the castle through the village. The smell of breakfast wafted the air and stirred her stomach. But Arik did not stop for the food. Instead, they walked over a bridge and into one of the forests. Ducking under and around low branches, they made their way deep into the woods.

Clanging steel played off the trees as they passed through. In a cleanly trimmed clearing, soldiers trained. Clad in tight pants and slim armor, they practiced. Long-armed swords were sharpened and shone bravely. Thick axes and hammers were handled expertly by their throwers. Archers nocked their bows and the sounds of their arrows split the air before piercing the center of their target.

Maleah observed intently as they circled the perimeter. Watching the soldiers practice. Parry, side-step, block, distract. There was no encouragement or criticism from the on-lookers. A small girl - no more than nine or ten - wielded an ax near twice her size. Yet she threw it with the ease of a seasoned fighter.

On the far end of the training grounds, flowed a river. Women gazed into their reflections as they drew water from its body. Dryads and Blessed's, Maleah concluded, danced in harmony. Beyond the river rose eight large stones in a circle. The silver-haired man and woman waited for them at the first stone. They had traded their formal gowns for simple white coats with gold trimmings.

"Welcome," the man said. "I believe you are owed proper introductions. I am Rohan of Sabhille and this is my sister, Rowena."

Maleah looked to Rohan and Rowena. Spitting images of each other. From the white hair to the slim jaws, long limbs, and gentle features. She let out an exhale through her nose. Twins, she realized. That answer had been put plainly in front of her. She had found them.

Rowena's eyes were gentle again as she smiled. "Your journey has been long and tedious. Traveling from the far north through the swamps is never easy, even for our experienced warriors. We want you to know that you will not be making that journey again."

The three travelers looked at each other. But it was Cam who raised their question. "What do you mean?"

"We mean that you are welcome to stay here if that is what you wish," Rohan answered. Maleah felt her spirits begin to rise, then fall as quickly as the flutter began. "However, there are conditions to your stay."

Rowena turned her hands up. "You will have to study our customs. Every man, woman, and fae learn to live by the same traditions and rules. This is what keeps us safe. Our sages will teach you what you will need to know. Every morning you will come here and you will train with our protectors. All our people know how to use at least one weapon."

"Another precaution," Cam jested, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yes," Rowena answered easily. "After you've finished your studies, you will take your place among us in a role that suits you and our needs. But there is one more thing that we will need from you." She turned to Maleah. Locking eyes, Maleah anticipated her own consequence. "You will take on a special study. Arik will be your tutor."

Confused, she looked to Arik who kept a firm gaze on the twins. "What will I be studying?"

"Shall you agree to our conditions, we will discuss it later." Rowena turned her attention to the others. "By stepping into this circle you choose to become one of us. It is not an oath or a vow and it can be broken of your own free will. By stepping into this circle you promise to protect, participate, and build Sabhille no matter the cost. Our words become your words. Our home becomes your home."

She stepped aside; Rohan gestured. "The choice is yours."

With no surprise to Maleah, Rhys was the first to accept. Considering Rhys was driven to deceive her by her own desire to come here. Swiftly, Rhys stepped inside the circle and spoke their words. When she had finished, a bow and quiver full of arrows appeared in her hands. Smiling, Rhys inspected them.

"Are these to be mine?" she asked softly and the twins nodded. The twins welcomed her graciously as she stepped from the circle.

Maleah whispered to Arik, "what happened?"

"Sabhille accepted her. She is now one of us."

Overhearing his answer, Cam turned. "And she was given a weapon?"

"Everyone in Sabhille knows how to wield at least one weapon," Arik repeated. "Sabhille feels that arrow is most suitable for your halfling friend."

Shrugging, Cam looked to the circle and Rhys who clutched her bow to her chest happily. "Well, no sense putting off the inevitable." Cam took his turn in the circle, repeated the words. As if mirroring his chalky declaration, his sword shimmered into place. Pleased, he turned it. "I was hoping to get this back."

Then, they all waited on her. Gazing at the circle she stalled. Considering what it meant to step inside it. Making a promise to this place, the people. Believing in everything she once deemed myth or fantasy. Accepting that she was more than what she wanted to be. Consequences she never asked for; hopes she had only dreamed of. Speaking their words, she'd gain a home and people. She'd build a life in safety and security. She could learn to use her gifts properly. She could learn why she was born with gifts in the first place.

She could convince the twins to answer her questions, settle her inquiries. Perhaps she'd learn why Doc had sent her here, why he had convinced Rhys to do as she did. If not to ease her pain, then to release it altogether.

"If I step inside," she began, "I will not be kept a prisoner inside your walls? I will have the same freedoms as everyone else. The option to leave if I choose, to stay if I wish?" The twins nodded though it didn't dissolve her quandary. "And you will answer my questions, for I have many pertaining to you as well as others and elsewise?"

"We will answer what we can," Rohan assured her.

"Very well." She saw the slight release in the twins' chests as if sighing with relief.

She walked into the stone circle and turned to face the others. Hesitantly, she spoke the words.

"Under the shelter of each other, we survive." The earth trembled under her feet. Afraid she might fall, she dug her heels into the ground. Around her, a thin clear veil rose from between the stones and enclosed around her. Flashes of fire lapped at her feet; the air quivered, tussling her hair; she heard the ocean crash as if a storm had aroused it from slumber; the earth blossomed with flowers and fruits.

Through the haze, she caught sight of the woman in the trees beyond the twins. She watched calmly with a smile teasing her lips. Nodding once, she disappeared. As she did, all became right again. Peering at her onlookers, Maleah waited for something to appear in her hand. Yet nothing came. Why hadn't she gained a weapon?

For the first time, emotions swam across both of the twins' faces. Shock, she presumed as they watched her carefully. Perhaps confusion also lingered in the side-eyed glances they cast each other.

"Where is her weapon?" Cam inquired, as she stepped from the circle.

"Sometimes," Rohan said slowly, his eyes never wavering. "Some are not given weapons. This does not mean one cannot learn to wield one. Simply that young Maleah will have a bit more work to do in training to acquire the best weapon for her capability." He seemed to settle on the last word, considering it longer than the rest.

Arik interrupted the silence that clung between breaths. "Let us not waste a fine morning for training. Shall we begin?"

"Right. We will be seeing you all soon." Rowena and Rohan bowed out and took their leave. Arik turned to the forest and let out a sharp whistle.

A girl appeared from the woods donning a warrior's outfit with black armor and loose tunics. Her forearms were wrapped in steel and her boots rose to her knees. A sword hung to her hip and her raven hair was tied into a braid behind her head. Golden eyes flattered a plump face. A boy joined her. He dressed similarly but wore his rustic hair loose over cool blue eyes.

Arik introduced the girl as Sloane, the boy as Gawen, and quickly began their first lesson. They trained half the morning on empty stomachs. Each tutor took a prodigy. Gawen swung his sword at Cam while Sloane took Rhys into the forest to shoot. Arik, to her distaste, remained with her. Handing her daggers that he retrieved from the clearing, she learned to throw them properly. Missing her target half the time and more as her arms grew tired.

"It is not a tool, but an extension of your intention. If there is no trust, then you will always miss. You must learn to relax and trust your weapon." He coaxed her arm down as she aimed again.

Just before she released it, a cry tore through the circle. Maleah found Cam sprawled on the ground clutching his side. Falling to her knees, she dropped to his aid.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"He didn't block." Gawen shrugged nonchalantly. Unphased by the amount of blood pouring from Cam's stomach, she glared at him in dismay.

Pressing her hands, she tried to stop the bleeding. "We have to get him to a healer."

"There is no need." Arik stood next to Gawen. Their lack of urgency was clear in their unhurried stances.

"But he will die," she pleaded.

When the grass billowed around their feet and the rocks shook, no one moved. Staring at Cam, she watched speechlessly as his blood vanished from the grass as if it never spilled. His wound was sealed shut under the cut of his stained shirt.

"The circle is imbued with a healer's touch. Any wound gained here is treated quickly and delicately. He will have a scar. But then we all do."

She narrowed her eyes in disgust and helped Cam to his feet.

"You could have let us know that nifty thing prior to me being impaled," Cam huffed.

"Perhaps next time you will think to block before someone has the chance to impale you." Gawen pointed his sword to Cam's wound, parried forward in jest.

"Let that be a lesson for all of you. Go, now. Wash up and have a meal. Your sage will be waiting to meet you after sun-high." Arik ushered them from the circle and back towards the castle.