Abandoned (Born From Shadows #2)

Sophia Trelliard stood quietly behind the closed doors of her home’s dining room. She could listen to her parent’s faint mutterings, putting together the pieces that she couldn’t quite make out. One word at a time she felt her life collapse around her. The oxygen she breathed in felt as if it was pure carbon monoxide, her throat rejecting the air her body desperately needs. Unable to take it anymore she burst into the room, the doors swung harshly on their hinges.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she yelled as soon as she could see her parents.

“Darling, would you please leave, we will talk about this later,” Sophia’s mother told her trying to diffuse the situation. She could still scarcely believe what was going on. Everything was happening so fast, it seemed like chaos had just erupted from nowhere. Tears could be traced down the Princess’s eyes as she stared at her mother and father, dressed in riches and finery.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded again, refusing to be sent away like a child. She was twenty-two, not twelve.

“We didn’t know if it was true or not,” her father answered.

“That doesn’t mean you keep this from me!” she yelled in reply. “I’m not stupid, I know what this means. So, are you going to do it?”

“Sweetheart, you must be very tired. Go to bed and we will discuss this once you have calmed down,” her mother repeated.

“No, you don’t get to do that. He was my brother. When were you going to tell me he was dead?” Sophia cried out.

“We had planned on doing it once we determined if he really was dead,” her father explained, realising she wasn’t going to leave without the information. “There has been no news of him since he ran away, no one has spotted him except for a few people in Faithorn. Then a few months later we got the note.”

“So, you’ve been hiding this from me for months?” she asked, feeling her heart ache not just from the sudden loss of her brother but from the prevarications she had been told.

“Five months,” her father replied. “Our scouts have now determined that this letter was true.” He passed the note to her shaking hands. She tried her best not to get tears on the paper as she read. The words were sweet, but they did not stop her rage.

“So, are you going to do it?” she asked, once she finished reading the letter.

“Do what?” her mother asked confused.

“Get justice for Nik,” she replied, her voice monotone as she tried to not break down. “Go to war against the Elves.”

“We don’t know if it was them that killed him,” her mother said.

“The message just magically appeared, who else could it be? Plus, there was that Elf that suddenly popped up in Faithorn all those months ago. They are up to something; I have a strong feeling the Elf was a spy. They say there were countless bodies left by the Elf. They are attacking us, they killed Nik and you do nothing,” she sneered at her parents. They call themselves the King and Queen of Haveenté, yet they did nothing to protect their people.

“It’s much more complicated than that. If we start a war, it would be breaking the peace treaty, countless will die. By doing nothing we protect our people the best,” her mother tried to reason with her.

Then another thing came into her mind. “What about Cainva? We all heard what happened there and magic is the only explanation. People are already dying; can’t you see that? They want justice, I want justice. The Elves don’t get to do whatever they want and just get away with it,” Sophia said, feeling the anger in her veins.

“I will arrange a meeting with Queen Selina, we will first try to negotiate a peaceful way through this. If that does not work, then and only then will we go to war,” the King told his daughter.

“So if I were to die, you wouldn’t even try to get justice for me?” she replied.

Queen and King looked at each other in frustration. “Sophia, it is much more complicated. War is not something you just do because your angry at someone. Logic rules the world. Let emotions tip the scale, and all you will find is Nyra’s chaos,” replied her father.

“Cowards,” she muttered under her breath so that neither could here. They were disguising their fear as wisdom.

She looked out of the side window of the castle towards Avalla, the weather was getting colder, snow was getting thicker. If they wanted to gather an army it would take much longer in such weather. Sophia knew that she wouldn’t wait around for her parents to negotiate, she would prepare. Gather the horses and fighters, when the meeting goes erroneous, they would be ready to descend on Lyracris and release hell upon them.