"Are you all right, darling?"
The person who was there and saved her was her mother, Queen Teis Koroth. Her daughter was shaken but soon recovered.
"She nodded and turned to her mother, who was still holding her close. And what she saw fascinated her even more.
"But Mom, you have wings...!"
Her mother's smile turned to concern, then after some hesitation, she stroked her daughter's soft hair.
"Yes, Mommy has wings. You like!"
"Oh yes!" affirmed Aidine forcefully. "Uh, can I touch them?"
"Sure."
Aidine caressed the white wings engraved with splendid spells in purple. The queen laughed.
"I remember, that was also the first thing your father asked me when we met."
"So Father also knows about your wings?"
"Yes." The queen smiled almost wistfully. "He knows everything!"
Aidine shrieked.
"Even about my curse?"
"What?"
Queen Teis lifted her daughter to her feet and together they settled on the bed. They were both wearing dresses of the same fabric, incarnate. Teis's had long sleeves and was adorned with tiny stones that caught the light, while Aidine's was simple, sleeveless and cinched at the waist with a huge belt that tied in front.
"Why do you think you have a curse?"
Aidine made an annoyed sound.
"Oh Mom, you know very well what people think of me. That I bring bad luck, and the proof is my hair."
"But it's beautiful!"
"Mom, stop it! Daddy has hair as black as night and you have hair as blonde as a river of stars! How is it possible that I'm so...different!"
"It doesn't mean a thing! And especially that you're cursed!"
Aidine screamed in frustration and fury.
"But you're not people, Mom! Look what happened to Alon. We always played together and promised to see each other again, then I came home, and the duke's house burned down with Alon alone inside."
Teis hugged her daughter, then decided to tell her the truth, at least part of it.
"It wasn't because of you, my darling, and it wasn't an accident either."
The queen plunged her grave gaze into the princess's.
"That fire was deliberate. But," she said, forbidding her daughter to speak, "I can't tell you about it now. I'll do it later, I promise."
Aidine was consumed with curiosity. Alon was her friend, but she also knew she wouldn't get anywhere insisting now, so she finally nodded.
Just then, her father, Erian Koroth, appeared at the door, and from the look on his face, his wife knew at once what that meant. She nodded slowly, her face distressed and her eyes misty with tears, then addressed her daughter.
"Your father and I have an important dinner tonight, but we have an hour to spare, so what would you like to do?"
"The two of you with me?" she assured herself, looking at her parents in turn. They nodded.
"Then I'd like to know first what this blue stone means", she declared, pointing to the stone that had so brutally pushed her away.
Her parents tensed, then Erian Koroth picked up the stone and handed it to his wife, who shone it in the evening light.
"That too, my dear, you'll soon know!"
Seeing Aidine's expression, her mother laughed.
"I can easily guess how great your curiosity is and how hard your patience is being tested."
The young girl laughed back.
"Yes, I admit it."
She ran her hands over her face.
"Is that really a promise? You'll tell me everything?"
"Yes."
During the hour her parents devoted to her, Aidine sat on her father's lap while her mother fluttered in front of her, then she flew with her mother into the bedroom and finally the three of them flew together, dancing laughing, chatting.
There was a time when Aidine, with a confused and curious expression on her face, wished to ask her mother something, who immediately guessed that it had still something to do with the azure blue stone that was sitting prominently on her safe place and that she had discreetly hidden in a box when her daughter was busy trying on her mother's clothes. And to close the subject, she used on her, despite her reluctance, a light spell that erased her interest in the blue stone.
They were playing a board game to win as much treasure as possible to free either a princess or a sick king, when the ruler of Aedor announced, with so little visible willpower, that it was time for him and his wife to leave.
Smiling, Ridas looked at him and her smile disappeared, for she knew what that heartbreaking expression meant. Now they exchanged an understanding and infinitely sad look. Knowing perfectly well that the day they had both pushed away with all their strength and all their love had finally come, Ridas finally contented herself with nodding her head and pursuing her lips to the lips.
Aidine, she who understood nothing of the drama going on around her, saw her father and smiled.
"Ah, father," she exclaimed, delighted, an innocent and ignorant girl, still knowing only the veiled happiness of every cherished child." I saw mother's wings, I am in the great secret now too. And she told me that I too can sleep there sometimes."
Erian raised his eyebrows as he returned her dazzling smile, which nevertheless added even more to the terrible pain that was eating away at him, and walked over to them.
"Oh, I see." he replied as he sat down next to his wife.
Ridas shook her head graciously.
"Yes, she saw them and loved them. Do you realize that our baby had not been frightened by my wings? ".
"No, of course, she wouldn't have been. She's our baby after all. She can see farther than most people."
"Or not far enough."
"You know as well as I do that she has an extraordinarily clear mind. That's why she'll never hate you for it."
Continuing to completely ignore her parents' painful exchanges and her father's words that they should leave her, a serene and happy Aidine focused on the game, pondering the next move she would have to execute to escape her mother's riders.
"Mom, it's your turn." She reminded her almost sternly.
"Yes, I'm sorry sweetie. Mommy was a little quiet. But you'll see, I'm going to beat you. For starters, my riders are going to surround you in the flying cave!"
As she grimaced at her mother as she did as she said she would, Aidine suddenly thought of something.
"Now that I think about it. Mom, am I going to get wings too?"
Ridas and her husband exchanged an eloquent look.
"No, honey, you're not going to get any," the queen finally replied with her veiled eyes. "Because, you know what?" she added teasingly, to lighten the harshness of her answer. "Your father's genes are too strong."
"But you like those genes, don't you!" The father argued in his wife's delicate ear while nibbling passionately and wrapping a possessive arm around the young woman.
The royal couple looked at each other for a moment and then kissed, under the bright eyes of their only daughter, who smiled with happiness and pride.
It was a moment of beauty that was to be their last. Teis Koroth disappeared that very night, wiping out all her daughter's memories of her, and a few months later, her father, King Erian Koroth of Aedor, died in what was to be a historic event, but just not in the right way.
He and Emperor Jiide Jeugol were supposed to sign a peace treaty to end the conflicts between them. The people of Aedor were powerful and admired, but nothing like the winged ones. However, their numerous confrontations were creating minor incidents on many levels, upsetting the balance of the system, so the sovereigns of the two nations, in their great wisdom and with the insistence of their advisors and the incessant demands of the other peoples, decided on this signing, which was to represent a new beginning for all. Alas, certain people living in darkness had decided otherwise and made sure that the signing never took place, and worse, stopped it in blood, provoking fierce hatred especially on the side of the kingdom of Aedor.
Aidine was particularly marked by that fateful day. She remembered wearing a dress with a candy-pink veil, and having her hair lifted and spiked with crystal flowers. Before going out to join her father, she decided to take a little detour. She left her apartments, She went down the stairs, and again down a long corridor with a confidence that showed she knew exactly where she was going.
And her goal was none other than the candy room. She pushed open the large double door made of sugar and caramel, and entered one of her favorite places, a place that would have made any normal child happy anyway.
It was a large, brightly colored room, with heavy curtains hanging from the windows in the shape of a candy bar made of marshmallows. The pillars that supported the high ceiling, made of wafer and chocolate covered cookie, were made of marbled sugar, encrusted with chocolate balls and jewel-like shiny candies.
Her faithful creature, Roune, a winged beast about her size with water-green fur that almost never left her side, accompanied her. Together with him, she chose the sweets in the room, so she didn't immediately see that someone had followed her there, a being renowned for his deceit, wickedness and cowardice. Duke Cauldon Vreik. It is said that he had managed to hush up a repulsive affair in which one of his sons had killed a couple who had disrespected him, another in which his wife had embezzled a considerable sum intended for war victims, and yet another which affected her personally. Alon.
The family of this hideous and vulgar character was, alas, powerful at court.
He wore nothing but gaudy suits whose colors never matched, as they did right now. With long, purple hair and bluish eyes reflecting nothing but evil, he had come to speak to the princess with obvious ill intent.
"Oh, little princess. Have you come here to have your snack?"
"That's obvious, Duke," she replied with a twinkle in her eye.
He nodded.
"And I bet you didn't even ask permission before taking them. No, you just take what you want and that's it. You move on."
Aidine trembled with fear and anger as her faithful Roune, all bristles, showed his teeth to this foul being, for she was aware that she was at a disadvantage, and knowing the devious personality of this atrocious individual, he was capable of turning the situation to his advantage no matter what happened. However, she refused to be intimidated and straightened up.
"You may speak, Duke, given what you're capable of doing to save your good-for-nothing family whom everyone despises."
The Duke's false smile didn't disappear from his ungrateful face, however, Aidine and Roune felt it tense dangerously.
"You really do whatever you wish to do, your highness. The others, and especially your parents, have allowed you to do this. You believe it's your due. But," he added with deliberate silence, "let me tell you that's not true."
Aidine pressed her lips together, but she couldn't keep the retort to herself.
"Why is it that it's always the ones who hurt others who can't stand it when someone does it to them? You can say and pretend you think you're strong, Duke, but I can guess perfectly well that the contempt and disgust everyone else feels for you makes you suffer."
This time, the Duke held no more and wrapped himself in his magical aura, which was a sickening reddish-green. Roune stood in front of her mistress, ready to fight, but soon the Duke pulled himself together and calmed his magic. Then he took Aidine's hand and forcibly placed a sweet.
"For you, Your Highness. You may not understand now but you'll understand soon enough."
Aidine followed the Duke's gaze as he left the candy room, trembling with rage, fear, and a dark foreboding.
***
And he'd been right. For once. Aidine understood even more quickly than she would have liked. She understood that very day. She was there when it happened, on the platform placed in the middle of the city of Aedor. She was standing between Foyne, her private tutor, a yellow-skinned man with curly amaranth hair, always calm, strict and disciplined, with a keen intelligence, and her godmother, Tarias, the glowing Marquise because she wore only red, which highlighted her white skin and black hair.
The young princess admired Emperor Jiide Jeugol, Emperor of the Winged People, who wasn't handsome to say the least, but fascinating and dignified in his sumptuous imperial garb, all gold and white, and her father, the King of Aedor was even more formidable, though his preference was biased, with his sparkling blue outfit. Both wore sovereign cloaks, both drank the cup of peace, and one of them died in the sudden attack that occurred just as King Koroth was about to affix his signature alongside that of his fellow sovereign.
***
A few minutes later, having regained some semblance of calm, at least on the outside, Aidine in turn left the candy room, and a few seconds later was about to exit the main door when a voice stopped her. It was a tender but authoritative voice that she recognized immediately. Resigned, she turned around and saw her godmother, the Marquise Tarias rushing towards her, a tall woman with absinthe hair and white eyes, who loved the color red. Red like her most vivacious and perfectionist character, never leaving out any detail, as at this moment
"Here you are at last, my treasure. I've been looking for you everywhere. The event is about to begin."
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