The Sun Kingdom: The Sword of Myn': Chapter II: Reunion
For translations and lore behind Solarian myths, feel free to reference this post:
The thunder crashed outside and the wind howled, the rain beating against the roof and windows of the Palace. Earthiana stood, shivering, on the veranda outside of her chambers, waiting.
Normally she was terrified of thunder, a scar from her childhood, Bran always said. This was why she gripped the pillar beside her so tightly, wincing as the light flashed, peering through the falling rain.
A shadowy figure approached, masked by the billowing droplets.
“Bran!” Earthiana cried, when he was closer. “I knew you would come today!”
“Eya!” he exclaimed, rushing towards her. “You're drenched! Get inside!”
Bran pushed his sister into her room and dashed after her, slamming the door behind him.
Once they were both inside, Earthiana could take a good look at her brother. He was taller, but still as gentle and kind as ever, as well as being drenched! He didn't seem to notice. Shaking his blond hair out of his eyes, he scolded her for standing outside in the cold and wet. Eya looked back at him with a straight face, noting her brother's lack of a cloak.
“Dear brother, you aren't exactly drip-dry, either!”
He looked at himself and burst out laughing.
“Vhayta, sis,” he chuckled, giving her a hug. “Come on now, this was supposed to be a surprise! How did you know I was coming? Or need I ask?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to spoil anything! It was a time-faze dream again,” Eya sighed. “I kept dreaming you’d come when it was raining. I wish those dreams would go away, they always spoil surprises!”
“Mm, my coming must have been anxiously awaited by my favorite una,” Bran teased.
Earthiana opened her mouth to explain about Auranessa, who had been ill now for two days, but thought better of it. Her brother needed a few minutes to rest after his long voyage home.
“Are you home forever and ever now? I don’t want to miss you anymore.”
“I won't leave again, maela,” he assured her. “I have had enough of school for the rest of my life.” He kissed her forehead. “Sweet girl! I wish I could have attended a university here; then I would have been able to spend some time with you. I promise not to leave again, little Moonstone. We'll do everything together from now on, so you'll never be lonely.”
Earthiana’s eyes danced and she hugged him ecstatically.
“Hmm . . . that reminds me-” Bran laughed, holding her at arm’s length. “You're soaked to the bone, silly! So am I, for that matter.”
Wrapping an arm about his sister's shoulders, Bran guided her into the parlor and insisted that she switch into dry clothes, before departing to find something dry for himself. He returned shortly, dressed in his customary celestial blue and silver, complete with his half-mask.
Eya dropped down on the couch beside Bran and began to question him about his graduation, inwardly counting the seconds until it would be tactful enough to break the news. Bran, for his part, soon fell silent, gazing fixedly at the mask covering his sister’s scars. It wasn’t often that he didn’t feel guilt over it.
He could have saved her sooner from that fire, seven years ago, had he just moved a little quicker! That was the day that their family had perished, and the same day on which little Earthiana had lost her memory due to trauma. His once bold and fearless sister had become a girl who, though sweet, was timid and seemed to fear a whiplash whenever she made her own decisions.
Yet, sometimes, there was that fire he glimpsed in her eyes, maybe just enough left over from the flames themselves.
Earthiana was gently bumping her fist into his shoulder.
“Earthiana to Bran! What's the matter, big brother?” she asked playfully. “You aren't wishing that you were back at school, I hope?”
“Certainly not!” he replied, shaking himself free from his thoughts. Or maybe not. “Sing for me, little sister. I missed it.”
She never has remembered any of that . . . he thought, watching his sister's bright eyes as she arose to sing one of their favorite songs. Maybe she never will.
Earthiana had only retained one memory of their old home: this song, somehow engrained into her mind. Their mother had sung it to them that fateful morning, before even a hint of that tragedy had crossed the horizon.
Bran bit his lip and listened, trying to remember their mother’s face, how the rising sun had crossed it with golden light as she sang to Earthiana, just minutes before that side of the palace had burst into flames.
But it hadn’t been just the flames.
I see darkness rising
I can't feel You near
Am I truly alone?
No one hears my crying
Lost in the darkness on my own
I see my name light in the sky
A hope among heaven’s moonlight
Pattern of stars burning bright!
Where there is shadow, there is light!
Call and I’ll follow,
Sing and I’ll dance!
Through the shadows that treasure my sorrow,
Fire of soul like an angelic brand-
A song that will always and never be sung-
In some ways it was an irony to have heard that song on such a day. A song that hadn’t reached its end that morning, so it was an end Earthiana didn’t remember. Bran didn’t remember all of it, either.
A day of death, where there didn’t seem to be hope, save in that he and Eya had survived.
At least now, with it so far in the past, Bran could smile when Earthiana sang it, and so he applauded his sister. Earthiana curtsied and dropped down on the sofa once more.
“So,” Bran stretched his arm around her shoulders, gently brushing the one stubborn curl from her face. “All songs aside, what have you been doing lately? Your own graduation isn’t all that far off.”
His sister's smile faded.
“I’ve hardly thought of it the past few days, Bran,” she answered gravely. “I've been waiting to tell you: Auranessa is dangerously ill. It seems to be Star-Sickness.”
“What?!” Bran sat straight up. He pulled off his mask to look at his sister. “Stars in flight! Seriously, why didn't you tell me sooner?”
The princess recoiled. “I’m sorry, please, I didn't want to shock you with the news until you had rested! I didn’t mean to wait very long-”
“No, no, thank you,” Bran said hastily. “Please, tell me everything.”
As Eya related the whole story of how Star-Sickness had begun to crop up, how Auranessa had been found ill, and that hope seemed very little if it was the curse, the rain slowed to a drizzle and the storm took a breather, sparing a rainbow from its shadows.
“I almost regret breaking the legend, but Star-Sickness doesn’t belong only to Solaria.” Bran leaned his elbows on his knees and paused.
There was something in his eyes that echoed the look in the King’s that day in the hall, Earthiana noted to herself, and waited silently.
Bran looked up once more.
“I knew it was coming back. Cases have been noted throughout the galaxy, Eya. Cases in which it’s struck down royalty. Infrequently, warriors. But never the average citizen. That’s not how it worked ages ago when it struck Solaria. Something’s wrong. There’s a greater malevolence here than there was then.”
“Do you think – the Dark Spirit is coming back?”
Bran met his sister’s gaze. The legends of Solaria had always frightened her, but that was to be expected.
“I don’t know, Eya, how far the Dark Spirit could, or would, come back. I do know something of this, I think, which I must discuss with our father. But first, please take me to Aura. We need to know for sure if this is the curse. . . I pray that it’s not.”
Upon reaching his little sister's bedside, they found the weakened princess awake and glad to see them.
“Bran!” Auranessa exclaimed softly, and reached for him. He hugged her.
“Poor baby!” he whispered. He felt her forehead. “I wish I could do something to make you feel better.”
She clung to him in response.
“I've been giving her Elle'mas tea,” Earthiana said quietly. “It seems to have helped somewhat.”
“That's good,” Bran murmured. He picked up Aura's favorite doll and tucked it into her arms. “You ensure that you get a lot of rest, alright? I want you to feel better soon.”
With Bran’s wider knowledge of both Solarian and Vestar medicine, he would know what the sickness truly was, if anyone could. He took the test results from Aphrodelle and studied them, drawing the women away from Aura’s bedside.
“What do you think?” Saturnia asked anxiously. It had been many hours since she’d left Auranessa’s side, even briefly.
“If she truly has Star-Sickness,” Bran murmured, “it's my guess that she only has a few months, at the most.”
Saturnia drew a shaky breath and held it. Earthiana wrapped her arms around her mother and looked pleadingly to Bran.
“But it could be something else, couldn't it?”
Bran hesitated. “There are only a few sicknesses which exhibit the same symptoms which Auranessa has. If she remains the same . . . she may not have Star-Sickness. But if she begins to fade rapidly in the next twenty-four hours – we'll need to start moving.”
He turned to the Queen.
“I'm going to see Father,” he said gravely. “There are many things which I need to relate to him. I know you don't wish to leave Aura, so I'll let Father repeat everything to you.”
He stopped Eya before she could ask to accompany him.
“My little Moonstone, if there’s anything you must trouble over, Mitei may then tell you.”
“But Bran,” Eya began. “I want to know what’s happening! Why can’t I know everything?”
Shaking his head, Bran touched her cheek and dashed out the door, leaving mother and sister to wonder and to worry, watching Aura’s face.
They would know before too long.
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