Chapter 19: My Father’s Daughter

Ray'ven stared at her reflection in the mirror, a frown marring the ten years old's features as she thought. This was how Morrigan found her as stepped into her daughter's room.

"What bothers you, child?" She questioned as she made to sit beside her, nimble hands reaching up to card through her daughter's dark tresses.

Ray'ven sighed, leaning into her mother's hand. "Why did father make me his heir, why is it not brother?" She asked. Morrigan's fingers paused and her eyes met Ray'ven's in the mirror with a frown.

"Are you not happy with this decision? I thought you would be." Morrigan's brows scrunched together in confusion as Ray'ven pulled away, looking down at the wooden drawer with a troubled expression.

"I am honored by this of course, but what if he is wrong? What if I am not fit to be queen?" Ray'ven said this quietly, unable to meet her mother's eyes.

Morrigan placed a hand on Ray'ven's shoulder, the other reaching to turn her daughter's face towards her. "Your father choose you for a reason Ray'ven. You hold his strength, his ambition, his pride. Has he not prepared you for this such thing since your birth? Do you question his judgment? Was it not you who always told your father that you would be the greatest queen ever? Do you not wish that any longer?"

Ray'ven shook her head. "Of course I do. I wish to make father proud, to prove to him that I can be a great Queen, but brother is-"

"Is unfit to rule. He is too weak to carry on your father's legacy," Morrigan interrupted and Ray'ven shook her head.

"I trust father's judgment, but the ambition and strength you say I have, Bynx also holds. I have seen it, he would make a good king mother, why-"

Morrigan cut her off with a raise of her hand. "And you will make an even greater Queen. You are better than him." She said, her blue eyes boring into Ray'ven's mixed ones. Ray'ven opened her mouth to say something more, but Morrigan stopped her with a glare. "We will not discuss this anymore Ray'ven. The decision has been made, you are heir to the throne and that is final."

"Yes, mother." Ray'ven looked away, her head bowed and Morrigan stood, placing a kiss on top of her head.

"The maids will be in shortly to prepare you for this evening's celebrations. You are to be on your best behavior tonight. Sir Garvet and the rest of the councilman will be here." Morrigan sighed when Ray'ven did not respond. "This is for the best Ray'ven, you will see." With that last statement, she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Ray'ven frowned, staring down at her hands. The look in her mother's eyes when she spoke of Bynx. There was such hatred in them and Ray'ven could not understand why. Was it because he was not her son? Her thoughts went to her brother.

The look on his face when it had been voted that Ray'ven would be heir instead of him. Such devastation she had seen. She could remember times when they had been younger and he would tell her about what he would do once he became king. The excitement and pride in his eyes at the thought and now Ray'ven had taken that away from him.

'But it's father who decides and father knows what's best.' A voice in her mind whispered, but she couldn't stop the sadness that she felt when Bynx glared at her so coldly. The warm smile that he'd once given her gone, replaced by bitterness.

***

When she was younger, Ray'ven had always hated being called weak or a crybaby. She was an Aldain, and as such, she was never to be seen as weak. So when she fell and scraped her knee, she refused to cry. When she had broken her wrist while learning to ride a horse, she hadn't even flinched. Her mother had once told her that she rarely cried as an infant.

Now, however, as she sat in the darkroom that was her prison far away from home did she truly realize the reason for her fearlessness? When she had fallen, her father had been there, standing strong and encouraging her. When she had broken her wrist it had been her father that had bandaged it, telling her to try again.

But her father wasn't here with her this time.

Pale shaky fingers reached up to her neck, it still burned from the searing brand that the pirate lord had placed there. Running her fingers over the raised flesh, Ray'ven flinched as it throbbed agonizingly and a choked sob almost escaped her.

Never in her seventeen years of life had she ever felt so humiliated. Not even during her father's lessons and teachings, but that was simply because even then, she knew her father was there. Watching her, strengthening her resolve.

Not this time. She was on her own with only memories of what Ja'ule had taught her and dare she admit it, she was terrified.

Drawing her knees to her chest, she stared out into the darkness of her "room" and a tear slipped past her ever so slowly cracking facade. Ray'ven knew she had to stay strong, she knew that her father would be disappointed if she showed their enemy any weakness, but...but…

"I just want to go home." She whispered to herself brokenly. Her voice was rasped, as it rattled past her cracked trembling lips. Of course, there was no one there to hear it.

So there in the dark, Ray'ven cried for the first time.

"Ray'ven," Someone called through the darkness of her room. "Get up."

Ray'ven jumped, startled by the unexpected voice, but there was no doubt about who it was. "Bynx?" She whispered. Was she finally going mad?

"Don't get over-excited sis, if it were up to me I wouldn't be looking for you. I'm sure you know Father wanted me to try the little trick Ja'harra had taught us." The mirror atop the dresser within the room shimmered, and the prince's entire form appeared inside its reflection, his shaved sides, blonde locks tousled across his forehead into those deep emerald almond-shaped eyes filled full of jealousy. Bynx waved his hand. "Wow, if Father saw you now, he'd have a bitch fit. You look like a grape squashed beneath someone's shoe. Way to look on your birthday, Ray."

He sipped from the glass of whiskey he held. "Get up, do you know where you are?" His eyes narrowed.

Ray'ven would have scowled normally, but the sight of her brother was enough to forgive his sharp remark. Even if he was drunk, so instead she shook her head, wincing as it jolted the brand on her neck.

"No, but it's somewhere underground or inside of a mountain. There is a lot of stone and it smells of fresh earth." She wiped away the tears that stained her cheeks. "There is water nearby, the air is always humid here."

"Hm," Bynx thought for a moment, running his thumb across his bottom lip absentmindedly. "I'll confront Father and let him know that I might have an inkling of where you're located. Whenever Ja'harra returns from her island, I'll have her do a locator spell. Without you, everyone acts as though they're a chicken missing its head. I wonder how it feels to have someone worried whenever you're missing, miss you whenever you're gone. It's nice to be the sun, though you'll never feel what it means to walk behind someone, following their footsteps in the shadow of the moon. Goodbye, sister, I hope you have a lovely birthday despite your situation."

The mirror shimmered once more, erasing his image as though it had never been there at all.

"Happy Birthday to you as well, big brother."

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