To be , or not to be, that is the question-William Shakespeare
Underneath The Sulien Palace,The Kingdom Of Aelius,Northern Ardeneon.
"You don't have to do this babe" Emily blocks Elijah's path "You should have gone with the rest of them, I'd take the Jann valley"
He throws his head back laughing. Emily stares at him, her head tilts confusion written all over her face unable to recall saying anything particularly funny. "Oh" he halts his laughter looking at her, his forehead scrunching up "You're serious"
"Why would I joke about that?" her head tilts in confusion again and his eyes seem to burn through her with the intensity of his stare.
"Emily" he places a hand on her shoulder before seriously asking "What are the chances that I would leave you to wonder through a path you've never been down by yourself in a magical world, might I add that we fell into through an awfully eerie portal?"
She ponders over it for a second even though the answer was as obvious as Skai at a party. "zero out of ten" she sighs looking down.
"So, if you know this, why would you suggest such?" he smiles at her kissing her forehead. "Come on let's catch up with Callu- Alistair" he smiles at her taking hold of her hand.
The plan is to sneak Emily into the castle, Alistair said there is a passageway only protectors and members of the royal family knew about and that is the route they are currently taking, sounds simple, doesn't it?
Well, it should be, but Alistair can only show Emily the way into the castle. he's needed urgently at the village square.
They walk for about 30 minutes before they get to a golden old-fashioned elevator. "T2 is the Queen's tower, particularly her room, T4 was created for you but don't go into it, don't go to any other towers but the Queen's for any reason whatsoever, you getting caught would cause a lot of problems, okay?" Alistair looks at her.
"Okay" She nods her head stepping into the elevator. He walks in hugging her warmly before stepping back out
"Take care Lily, and don't wander T2 alright?" Alistair tells her while rushing off.
She flashes a smile at Elijah "I'll wait here for you okay?" Elijah steps in and gives her a kiss before stepping outside. "Call me if anything goes wrong sunshine"
"Okay, see you soon Lijah" she waves, pressing the button that says T2, and the Elevator zooms off—literally—it moves so fast that you could say it was at the speed of light—that she didn't even have the time to fall from the speed.
It stops and the gates open, following that a wall slides open, and she's faced with a glorious room, even bigger than the ones at the Bolvera home, it has a humongous bed at the center of the room and more space than anyone would need, the room was easily four times the size of the one she occupied in the Bolvera home.
She takes a look around the room, some might call it snooping but she prefers the term 'feeding her eyes', she finds a walk-in closet that was literally half the size of the room—but no sign of the queen, stepping into the room she hears sniffing.
"Mommy?" a little boy comes out from behind some clothes in the closet. He was visibly different from the other people in this Kingdom, he has type 3 curly blonde hair and baby doll black eyes, big and adorable. No one she'd seen in Aelius has curly hair, their hair has either been wavy or straight, neither has anyone had black eyes, 'whose child is this? Where did he come from?' she thinks.
He makes his way over to her and drops to the floor proceeding to sob hysterically.
"No, no, stop crying" She hushes the child, kneeling on the marble tiles next to him warily, remembering that she wasn't supposed to let anyone see her.
"Why are you crying?" She asks the little boy.
"I'm looking for my mommy" he sobs.
"Well, who's your mommy?" she asks him wiping his tears off.
"She's my mommy" he cries louder making Emily panic.
She comforts the poor child until he's asleep, 'now that he is sleeping what on earth am I even going to do with him?' She thinks
It's not like she could put him back in the closet, she didn't even know whose child he is, more importantly; she wondered why on earth he was in the queen's room.
She couldn't take him with her either, but what if she leaves him there and no one comes to find him, what if his mother is gone? She kept thinking. She didn't have the heart to leave him with no guarantee.
She waits in the closet for another hour or so, hoping the queen will know what to do with him, his eyelids start to open. 'Surely, he's in a better place to talk.' She thinks
"Hi there" She smiles warmly at him. "My name is Emily what's yours?"
"Seraphinius" he recites slowly as if he was made to memorize it "but mommy calls me Phinius or Phinie" he giggles.
"You have a pretty name" she decides not to ask about his mother again to avoid him bursting into fits "How old are you Phinie?"
"Today is my sixth birthday" he frowns looking down.
"Happy birthday Phinie!" She cheers for him to lift his spirits, and he giggles.
"So where do you stay?" she asks looking at him with a fond smile, so the conversation didn't seem too serious.
"I stay here" he smiles "my mommy has been gone for a long time" he frowns again. 'Oh, she left him, he probably snuck into the castle. Poor thing.' Emily thinks.
"I have to go Phinie" She smiles "But I'll see you again" She lies giving him a hug before standing up. He grabs onto her dress.
"Can I come too?" he pleads with her.
"I'm sorry Phinius but I can't take you" She shakes her head not wanting to take a child she doesn't know to a place she also doesn't know.
"Please Emily, I'll be good" tears begin to brim his eyes.
"Phinius, who is your mommy?" she asks him again, hoping she could ask Alistair for help.
"she's mommy!" he starts to cry.
"Okay" she takes a deep breath, "Shh" she tries to hush him "How does she look?" she asks differently this time.
"Mommy looks like you, but she wears a big crown on her head" he explains between sobs.
Emily freezes for a split second, instantly knowing what that means. 'No damn way. So, if Phinius is my brother, who is his father, is that why he's hiding in this closet?' She thinks before asking carefully "What about daddy?" he doesn't answer.
No answer is an answer.
"What's that?" he twitches his head ceasing his tears. 'The child doesn't even know what a father is.'
"Okay Phinius, when was the last time you saw your mother?" she asks.
"Why are you asking me so many questions" he whines
"Please answer, she's my mommy too, I'm looking for her" she informs him, and his eyes brighten.
"We share the same mommy?" there's a beam of light in his eyes and Emily smiles at that nodding fondly. "Well, I haven't seen our mommy in a long time" he looks down. "She never leaves me for more than a day"
'He must have been hiding in the closet, is she hiding a child from the world? Just like she did with me and Alistair? That's low grade mental, she should just not have kids if her aim is to hide them.' Emily thinks in irritation.
"Can I go with you Lily?" He pleads, giving her these puppy dog eyes, and she looks taking aback wondering how he knew the nickname.
"Can I call you Lily?" he asks, and she nods reluctantly.
"I'm your sister" she informs him assuming he was not familiar with the word. "But I'm sorry Phinius, I can't take you with me, I'll tell our brother about you and I'm sure he'll figure it out"
"Brother?" Phinius asks her and she nods.
"He has the same mommy as us too"she explains.
"But I'm scared here" he frowns "I have been alone here for 9 nights sister"
"To be or not to be" she mumbles to herself wondering if she should be his sister and take him with her or if she should leave and forget about him. Thinking about how He's been alone, for nine days, all by himself with possibly no food she knew what the answer was.
"Have you eaten?" She asks.
"My juice and snacks that mommy left finished a night ago" his frown deepened
....
She steps out of the elevator with a six-year-old little boy latched onto her back, she just couldn't leave him there with uncertainty, he could die if their mother doesn't return and Alistair being so busy this period would make it difficult for him to take care of Phinius alone.
"The Queen isn't around" she tells Elijah who was playing with his scroll touch. Nighttime had already come as Phinius kept her up there for a long time.
"Whose child is that, Emily?" that was the first thing that left his mouth when his eyes met her.
"I'm Seraphinius" Phinius recites to Elijah like he did with Emily.
"Let's go back to the cave I'll explain on the way" she sighs placing Phinius on the ground and holding his hand
....
"You didn't think this through, did you?" Elijah points out in a hushed tone while they were in the cave preparing to sleep. She had explained the whole ordeal with why they had a six-year-old child with them, and she couldn't tell how he felt about it.
"Is it obvious?" she looks over to Seraphinius, who was fast asleep.
"Very" he moves closer to her "But we'll figure it out, I guess we're going through the valley of Jann with a six-year-old, how tasking could it be?"
She couldn't possibly leave the little guy, it felt like the right thing to do.
She explained the situation to Alistair when he came over to check on them that night and he confirmed that the Queen had indeed not been seen for a couple of days, but he figured she was just hiding away in her tower, and he had no idea that she had another child.
Emily had asked him to take care of Seraphinius and he was all for it, but Seraphinius on the other hand was completely against it.
The morning arrives sooner than they imagined and they were already on their way through the Jann valley.
They knew it wasn't a good idea taking a little kid with them, but while the doubts were playing in Emily's head she remembered how he literally jumped on her and refused to let go till she took him with her.
The Jann valley was said to be a journey lasting ten hours... give or take, five months ago they would have never imagined attempting to journey for 10 hours but times really do change, people change.
Their bodies had gotten used to wandering for so long, it will be tasking yes, but they knew they could definitely do it.
"Remember Phinie, no looking at the sky" Elijah tells the little boy he is holding in his arm.
The valley was an ncredible sight to behold, absolutely breathtaking.
The dragons soaring the sky, the flowers glimmering like diamonds, the place smelt so good too. Emily's eyes meet the dragons in the distance and she immediately diverts her eyes.
"Look down" Elijah reminds them as he opens his scroll touch, a hologram of the valley popping up above it.
He hands it over to Emily as a child is currently occupying his arms. "How?" she asks still unaware of the multiple functions of the scroll touch.
"Oh, I made sense of it while you were in the castle, it can do all sorts of things" he explains.
"Like what?" she asks as their journey began and he explains the different functions of the device.
About 3 hours in Phinius started whining, He was no longer in Elijah's arms he was now walking by himself holding Emily's hand.
"I wanna see the birds" he screeches making Emily wonder why she ever thought it was an okay idea to take on a kid she didn't know. Granted, he's her brother but she still doesn't know him.
"You can't look at them Phinie, you'll get stuck in a trance" Elijah gently explains as if Seraphinius understood.
"Yes, I can!" he insists and looks up, completely disregarding their warnings
"Stop looking" She pushes his head down, but they could already hear the wind blowing in their direction, the creature flying towards them and there was nowhere they could hide
Emily and Elijah both stare at the ground, doing their best to keep calm and avoid looking at the face, Seraphinius on the other hand kept trying to look at it.
"I know him!" Seraphinius giggles jumping out of Emily's hands and running towards it.
"Jacaeyo" the little sprite giggles "Come Lily, he can give us a ride."
...
Now how they successfully got on and rode a dragon that is meant to enchant them, they don't know how, but they did it.
Dexter, Skai and River were still at the rock the moment Emily and Elijah landed. Skai still playing the Marowe game when Emily and Elijah arrive at a distance with a little sprite neither Skai, River or Dexter had seen before.
"They have a child now?!" Skai exclaims "That's definitely their child guys, there aren't a lot of mixed kids in this world"
"Shut up Skai, they can't have a kid in a couple of hours" River cautions his sister dramatically.
"Then explain that?" she lifts a brow at him and points at them, Dexter on the other hand couldn't focus much on what they were talking about, he could only focus on Skai. Her every movement captivating his soul.
"Or how about we—I don't know maybe wait for them to get here and explain why they have a kid with them?" River remarks.
They make it over to them soon enough and Skai immediately bombards them with questions.
"Relax Skai, we'll explain" Emily places her hands on Skai's shoulders in an attempt to calm her down "this is Seraphinius" she motions to the little sprite hiding behind Elijah. "He's 6 years old and my brother"
"So, he's not your child?' Skai looks at Emily dejectedly almost disappointed.
"You know Skai, there's a ZERO percent chance that I could have a child in the one day that we were apart" Emily shakes her head at Skai placing emphasis on the 'zero'
"Is there really?" Skai lifts her brow at Emily "You being pregnant wouldn't surprise me, just saying" she shrugs.
The two of them go on bickering and something Emily said occurs to Dexter, but River beats him to it "One day? We've been apart for about 4 hours what do you mean?" River asks
"No, we spent a day in Aelius" Elijah tells him.
"We're in a magical world guys, it probably has something to do with it, maybe we'll find the answer in Hesperia, I mean they own rackedit forest don't they? If there was something we needed to know about Jann valley we would have known about it back in Aelius" Dexter suggests to them, although he was not so sure himself. River and Elijah both agree with him, Skai and Emily still bickering about God knows what.
River looks at the little boy who was playing with Elijah's hands "So how did you guys find the child, huh Starling?"
"Em will be answering that" he taps Emily interrupting Emily and Skai's now conversation "We need to get them up to date" he nods at his girlfriend "You guys should be quick so we can make it into Hesperia before sunset"
He picks up Seraphinius walking away, Elijah didn't want the little boy to hear anything "I can walk" The little sprite struggles in the distance.
Emily gives them the run-down of everything that happened before they head to Hesperia.