Mm, that's right, you mentioned that back when we first met in the desert. I mentioned the state of my kingdom and you were surprised it hadn't been ransacked by night creatures.
Is that what he uses, a whip? That seems rather impractical.
Though I suppose that depends as much on the creature as anything else. A whip wouldn't be much use against a dragon, but I suppose a sword and shield wouldn't, either. Or most things, really.
That's the reason my kingdom was in such a poor state, when I left. For years a dragon had all but held us hostage. It burned away most all of the countryside, and only left the castle and towns alone in exchange for a sort of...yearly appeasement.
It's part of why I find the gardens such a marvel. It's been a long time since my kingdom had flowers.
That's right. It was hard on my father, even before his heart failed him. Years of hiding and fearing, and watching girls go off to be burned to a crisp. And there just wasn't anything anyone could do to stop it. Not other than dreading the time of year when it would demand another one.
Here's absurd for you, though: I had to tie myself to my own stake. Isn't that awful? I went alone, so there was no one to do it for me.
It's over now, at least. The dragon is dead, and someday it'll be gone even from my nightmares.
I suppose you think I'm being rather cavalier about it all. It's just...different when it's a story to tell, I suppose. Than when it's a memory. Telling it like a story makes it get a little further away from me each time, somehow.
In any case, all of a sudden a storm brewed up, with thunder and lightning called up by magic. It struck the beast dead and the clouds started to pour with rain, and then out of nothingness at all, a young man appeared from behind a veil of invisibility and said he was my long-lost brother, come all the way from across the world just to rescue me.
Well...not really, no. He was kidnapped when we were both still in the cradle, and Mother and Daddy never talked of it much. Mostly I only knew of it because our magic mirror clouded over the night he was taken, and didn't clear until the day he returned.
I used to resent that when I was younger. That I never got to look into the mirror, never got to see anything in it. I thought it selfish that it wouldn't work for me, over something that was no fault of my own.
I have several questions. Forgive me, I'm immensely curious about everything you've mentioned.
1: How does your magic mirror normally work? 2: Why did someone kidnap your brother, and how did he find his way back? 3: Where did the magic mirror come from?
Oh, um. Yes, let me explain a bit. It'll make more sense if I just start at the beginning, I think.
My kingdom boasts three magical treasures that ensure its prosperity — or did, for many years. The mirror is one of them; our legends say it once belonged to Merlin, and its greatest power is to tell the future truly. But I think in reality it more tells the truth than the future. The fairy that reached out to me to help me save my father did it through the magic of the mirror, so I think it must allow for magic in all sorts of ways.
Then there's also our chest of gold, which never empties no matter how much is taken from it, and the Shield of Achille, which protects the kingdom and its bearer from harm. Although, like Achilles, it has its weakness. It doesn't hold up against dragon fire.
Our last king was a good man, and loved the kingdom, but he...made some poor choices. Near the end of his reign he traded away each of the treasures in its turn for wisdom and wishes that never came to pass. So, as he lay dying, he charged one of his knights with retrieving the treasures, on the promise that if he succeeded, then he would also take the throne as the next king.
I love that old story. I could tell it in my sleep, how Daddy found all three of the missing treasures and became king.
[It's sweet, but it also does make him a bit envious. She'd been on an exhausting quest to save him, true, but that's still miles better than going on a quest to commit patricide.
Well. That's not really her problem, anyway.]
Thank you for answering my question about the mirror, and a bit of history to your family. Where I am from, there are mirrors that can be used for communication. I thought it an interesting similarity.
He's...yes. Yes, I do, so very much. For all intents and purposes, I was an only child growing up, and that made me Daddy's heir. He and Mother taught me everything, but...Daddy was the one I most wanted to make proud. He was leaving me awfully large boots to fill.
Though I suppose now, with my brother back...and a magician, besides. Daventry would do well with a magician for a king, I suppose.
But you say you have magic mirrors, too! How curious. Did yours belong to Merlin, as well?
If your brother takes the crown simply because of his gender, then your father could stand to be a better king. ...Forgive my saying so.
No, no. Nothing like that. They were created sometime ago, but nothing to do with Merlin. No one really knows how to make them anymore. The last person who knew was my father.
It's just that I wonder if they could have stemmed from the same source, somehow. We certainly don't know how to make another mirror like ours, either, and I suppose it must've come over with us when we withdrew, ages ago — but you see where I'm going with this, don't you? My mirror might've been made by Merlin in the Other World, and then brought over to ours. You said your father knew magic. Mightn't they both have known the same spell, somehow?
Oh, but no, Daddy would never do something like that just because Alexander is a son and I'm not. I meant because he slew the dragon and saved the kingdom — and me. That's usually how it works, saving a kingdom as a prerequisite for inheriting it.
I suppose that is true. However, whatever that spell might have been, I certainly do not know it. ...Though I suppose my father might have something in the castle.
Oh? Is that usually how it goes? What a simple methodology. So Alexander's lack of education on how to actually run a kingdom would not hinder him so?
Oh, that's a pity. It must be nice to know magic. Imagine, having the ability to just craft something like a magic mirror whenever one pleased! I can't even begin to consider all the ways that sort of study might prove useful.
Anyway, it's not as though we don't still have advisors. And one can learn such things, if one tries. He's very clever, you know, I'm certain he could do it.
If you think about it, now I'm the one who's off and disappeared on my family. It's likely his lessons have already started, now that I'm not around. That's just sensible.
Magic and science both are quite a marvel. Though I have seen how one's desire to pursue such things can affect them.
You seem quite determined to make yourself seem as if you have less worth than your brother. Perhaps this is a conversation best to have with your family when you return home.
I just admire him, the same way I do my father. You can't imagine what it was like, up there where the air was so hot and thick, trying not to give that monster the satisfaction of seeing me cry and scream. Just waiting for it to decide it was hungry enough.
And then it was gone, and there Alexander was, just...standing there. He didn't pose or shout or wave a banner. He didn't ask for gratitude. He just untied me and wept and said how glad he was to be home.
But I suppose tales of heroism always look more glorious from the outside, than they do for the one who's lived through them. His impossible deeds seem so grand to me, and mine are just all full of grave dirt and whale snot.
These kinds of things are rarely ever as noble and gallant, as you said. It's often filthy work. Sad, desperate, wretched. So rarely with a happy ending.
My suggestion to you is to not undermine yourself. Admire as you wish, but perhaps your family will find things about you that they do not have for themselves.
You're always so good at cheering me up. But...I admit you may not have been entirely wrong before, either. Likely I am a little jealous. And worried about how I might measure up. And as you say, undermining myself before anyone else can do it for me.
I suppose that means I'll have to be better about the way I admire you, just the same.
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I've known him a few months, technically. His family is a bit infamous for their trade, so it is one that I know.
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Is he a better hunter than you are?
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Though I suppose that depends as much on the creature as anything else. A whip wouldn't be much use against a dragon, but I suppose a sword and shield wouldn't, either. Or most things, really.
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Oh? Do you have familiarity with dragons?
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That's the reason my kingdom was in such a poor state, when I left. For years a dragon had all but held us hostage. It burned away most all of the countryside, and only left the castle and towns alone in exchange for a sort of...yearly appeasement.
It's part of why I find the gardens such a marvel. It's been a long time since my kingdom had flowers.
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You've been through an incredible ordeal, aside from your journey to aid your father. Beforehand, even your country -- your people -- were suffering.
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Here's absurd for you, though: I had to tie myself to my own stake. Isn't that awful? I went alone, so there was no one to do it for me.
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...Though much more seriously, I am sorry for what you and your people have been through. How was it ever resolved?
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I suppose you think I'm being rather cavalier about it all. It's just...different when it's a story to tell, I suppose. Than when it's a memory. Telling it like a story makes it get a little further away from me each time, somehow.
In any case, all of a sudden a storm brewed up, with thunder and lightning called up by magic. It struck the beast dead and the clouds started to pour with rain, and then out of nothingness at all, a young man appeared from behind a veil of invisibility and said he was my long-lost brother, come all the way from across the world just to rescue me.
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quite a story. Did you even know you had a brother?
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I used to resent that when I was younger. That I never got to look into the mirror, never got to see anything in it. I thought it selfish that it wouldn't work for me, over something that was no fault of my own.
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1: How does your magic mirror normally work?
2: Why did someone kidnap your brother, and how did he find his way back?
3: Where did the magic mirror come from?
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My kingdom boasts three magical treasures that ensure its prosperity — or did, for many years. The mirror is one of them; our legends say it once belonged to Merlin, and its greatest power is to tell the future truly. But I think in reality it more tells the truth than the future. The fairy that reached out to me to help me save my father did it through the magic of the mirror, so I think it must allow for magic in all sorts of ways.
Then there's also our chest of gold, which never empties no matter how much is taken from it, and the Shield of Achille, which protects the kingdom and its bearer from harm. Although, like Achilles, it has its weakness. It doesn't hold up against dragon fire.
Our last king was a good man, and loved the kingdom, but he...made some poor choices. Near the end of his reign he traded away each of the treasures in its turn for wisdom and wishes that never came to pass. So, as he lay dying, he charged one of his knights with retrieving the treasures, on the promise that if he succeeded, then he would also take the throne as the next king.
I love that old story. I could tell it in my sleep, how Daddy found all three of the missing treasures and became king.
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[It's sweet, but it also does make him a bit envious. She'd been on an exhausting quest to save him, true, but that's still miles better than going on a quest to commit patricide.
Well. That's not really her problem, anyway.]
Thank you for answering my question about the mirror, and a bit of history to your family. Where I am from, there are mirrors that can be used for communication. I thought it an interesting similarity.
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Though I suppose now, with my brother back...and a magician, besides. Daventry would do well with a magician for a king, I suppose.
But you say you have magic mirrors, too! How curious. Did yours belong to Merlin, as well?
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No, no. Nothing like that. They were created sometime ago, but nothing to do with Merlin. No one really knows how to make them anymore. The last person who knew was my father.
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Oh, but no, Daddy would never do something like that just because Alexander is a son and I'm not. I meant because he slew the dragon and saved the kingdom — and me. That's usually how it works, saving a kingdom as a prerequisite for inheriting it.
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Oh? Is that usually how it goes? What a simple methodology. So Alexander's lack of education on how to actually run a kingdom would not hinder him so?
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Anyway, it's not as though we don't still have advisors. And one can learn such things, if one tries. He's very clever, you know, I'm certain he could do it.
If you think about it, now I'm the one who's off and disappeared on my family. It's likely his lessons have already started, now that I'm not around. That's just sensible.
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You seem quite determined to make yourself seem as if you have less worth than your brother. Perhaps this is a conversation best to have with your family when you return home.
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I just admire him, the same way I do my father. You can't imagine what it was like, up there where the air was so hot and thick, trying not to give that monster the satisfaction of seeing me cry and scream. Just waiting for it to decide it was hungry enough.
And then it was gone, and there Alexander was, just...standing there. He didn't pose or shout or wave a banner. He didn't ask for gratitude. He just untied me and wept and said how glad he was to be home.
But I suppose tales of heroism always look more glorious from the outside, than they do for the one who's lived through them. His impossible deeds seem so grand to me, and mine are just all full of grave dirt and whale snot.
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These kinds of things are rarely ever as noble and gallant, as you said. It's often filthy work. Sad, desperate, wretched. So rarely with a happy ending.
My suggestion to you is to not undermine yourself. Admire as you wish, but perhaps your family will find things about you that they do not have for themselves.
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I suppose that means I'll have to be better about the way I admire you, just the same.
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