Nolan shifted through the rumble. Almost two whole months had past since the Lower City had burned to the ground and he was still the only noble sorting out the people and the charred remainders of the buildings.
"Nolan. The King wishes to speak with you." a servant from the Palace said as she picked her way through debris. She was pale, this servant, most likely she was Haptician.
"Of-course. I will leave now. Follow me." Nolan could really care less for what Azelian would have to say. The real king had died trying to save the Lower City from destruction. Azelian had killed Fallen for nothing. His harmless sister had been a mother, one respected by the community in both layers of the city. He walked up the stairs installed into the road and down the street into the Palace.
"Nolan!" Nolan turned to find his cousin behind him as he entered the Palace.
"You Majesty." Azelian wore the newest red dyed robe in his wardrobe.
"Please, do not call me that. We are like brothers after all. I need you to fetch your niece for us. I am in need of a Heir from the Lower city and she is most available."
"Of- course, Azelian." Nolan turned and walked away. He walked until he reached the ruins of the worst part of the Lower city. There had been so many buildings stacked on top of each other that the road was covered in debris so thick that you could never be saved from it. No one could see him here. He sat on a crisped stall and picked up a child's toy that had somehow survived the flames unharmed.
"Sir," the echo of a girl's voice touched his ears. Turning he saw a small girl, sickly and pale, of about fourteen wearing a white flame smeared dress with thick silver hair done up in a Pony's Tail. Her high cheekbones and ice blue eyes reminded him of someone he knew.
"Sir, that is mine. Could I have it back please?" her eyes were pained. A slow realization dawned on him. Asazin, she reminded him of his dear, loved Asazin.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it belonged to any one. Aren't you a bit old to own a rag-doll though?" he sunk into a spire of the deepest misery at the thought of Asazin. His Asazin, far away from him.
"I am not too old. For it is not mine truly. It was an acquaintance's. Her name was Vera." the girl said smoothing her skirts.
"Vera died in the fire."
"No. I know for a fact that Vera escaped with her so called aunt Asazin. In truth, I never really lived here. In fact I have never even lived."
"I do not understand. What do you mean?"
"Follow me to Aka, Center City. You will find your helpless love there." the girl faded away. Leaving the hand she had faintly touched with her fingertips clutching a lost doll. A tear streamed down his cheek before he whipped at it.
When he returned home that night the girl showed up again, only this time in his dreams.
A flower blooms, alone in the ashes. A small sign of life in a broken world. The sky is tainted red by ceaseless pillars of smoke. The sun is faintly seen from behind dense clouds. A single vulture circles above this barren landscape. A weary traveler picks up his feet as he hurries along, desperate to leave this land of death behind him.
A long forgotten child cries in the distance, her mother rotting beneath the soot covered soil. The cry is cut short and the vulture drops from the sky, for a meal awaits on the ground. A lost boy huddles on what is left of a doorstop.
The traveler stops, in this land night is dangerous. The ashes shift and dance as the cold night wind, the only breeze experienced by this devastated land, tears through the deadly stillness of this desolate land, cold enough to cut through the warmest of materials five times over.
"This is what will be come of your beloved lands and kingdoms." the silver haired girl said. "If you do not return to Aka, all shall perish in Her wake. The Soul Bounded Twins are awaking, and so awakens the Bringer of Fires. I have woken long before my siblings. I am the Tree Singer. Go to Aka. Reunite with your dear Asazin." the girl faded as she said this. Her voice echoed in this hateful land as she fully disappeared.
He continued to wander aimlessly until he woke.
Nolan sat up straight in bed.
"Sadie, get my pack together for a long time away. Bring Kallen to me."
"Yes Lord Nolan." Sadie wore a pink servant's dress and a black cotton veil. She left immediately and returned with his half-sister.
"Kallen. You are coming with me on a journey. Pack your things sister of mine." Kallen wore a dress identical to the ones her sister had worn, though they were more than form-fitting. Her dark hair was loose and flirted over her dark eyes. She had a better figure than most of the noblewomen.
Kallen didn't answer but picked up the small leather bag which held her belongings. She followed him to the spell room and stood next to him as he whispered the spell.
Toph sat near the entrance of Center City. He was surprised when a man and woman popped up out of a travel room in front of him. They were both covered with soot and ashes.
"Who do you think you are to pop up in front of the entire city like that." he said without raising his voice.
"I need to see the Empress. It's urgent." the man said, calling up a spell to clean off the soot.
"Toph, let them through." Toph managed not to jump when he felt his mother's hand touch his shoulder lightly.
"But, Lady, they could try for your life. I'm not sure we should allow them in." he was confused. His mother, never before, had had him send in people he didn't know.
"Bring your sister. They were expected and so Thanat is already in my personal study. Go now, before I have to call her myself." she said. Today she wore a green dress dyed so that she could hide in the tops of the trees.
By the time he arrived at the bathhouses Soph was already walking out. She wore a silver dress and a fuchsia bow wrapped its way around her head.
"Come, we will be late if we dally love." she said as she finished toweling her hair dry. They walked quickly to their mother's personal study.
The door opened right as they reached it. Their mother sat behind her desk and Thanat sat besides her. The strangers sat in front of the desk. Behind the desk was two empty chairs. Castias was in their mother's arms.
"Toph, Soph, sit," their mother said. Thanat's eyes had healed, they were no longer clouded over.
"This is Lord Nolan from Ao. He is Vera's uncle. The nice woman here is her aunt Kallen." she paused for a while so that they could remember their names.
"Nolan, Kallen, these are the Prince and Princesses. Prince Toph, Princess Soph and this one here is Princess Thanat." she motioned towards Thanat.
"This child here is Prince Castias, your son."
Toph felt his eyes widen. So this was his brother's father. He could see why his mother had fallen for him. He was beautiful. His sister was only about five years older than himself.
"I have a son? Why didn't you write, Asazin I thought you were dead." Nolan said. His black hair shimmered in the faint light that made its way through the thick curtains. His eyes were like black pits in the dead of night.
"I thought you were dead. When neither you of Fallen showed, and when I heard that Fallen had fell, I didn't know if... if you would ever come back." he had never seen his mother so emotionally conflicted. It frightened him.
"When?" the single word broke the silence that had overthrown their conversation.
"Two months ago."
"Could I hold him?" Nolan's eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Asazin handed the boy to him and smiled as he looked at their son. A tear rolled down his cheek.
"Sir." Thanat's weak voice broke the happy silence. Nolan's head jerked upwards and his eyes widened. "Sir, could I have my doll please?" she was sincere.
"Of-course."
Nolan took something out of his coat pocket and handed it over to her. His hand moved slowly. When she took it they could all see that it was the doll Toph made her on their fourth birthday, a promise that he would always look after her. Peeking a look at the rest of the rooms occupants, he found that both his sister and his mother were doing identical head tilts.
"How do you know Nolan, Thanat?" Soph asked. She had stood and brushed Thanat's long hair off the white dress she wore.
"She communicated with me twice yesterday. She appeared in my dream and told me to come here. She said it was serious." Nolan said. He was very surprised that the girl from his dreams existed.
"Why would you do that?" Asazin asked her favorite daughter.
"I did it because you refused to believe what Gran Muma told you. The girl that has not awoken can only be awoken by you and Kallen now. Only then will the Sleeping Bell wake. And he must wake if the world is to survive it's own death throws. For if the Bell sleeps, the Soul Bound Twins, they will die. They shall die before the time of great need and never be reborn. For they will be incomplete and able to be lost in the fabric of time, forever." Thanat's voice had a hint of trance in it.
Nolan had heard this before, Toph realized. Soph had sat back in her chair and was shocked. They would die. Die. How had this come to be? How had it happened this way? That their mother would not listen to Gran Muma was incredible. Never in the thousands of years that he could remember were they ever threatened with death. Never before had there been any mention of a Sleeping Bell or a Bringer of Fire. But this was a new age, a new prophecy. Everything was different now. This was also the first time he had been plagued with doubts about his love for Soph.
"How do you know this Thanat?"
"She hears the Trees, don't you child?" Gran Muma said, nudging the servant at the door aside.
"Yes. I do." Thanat no longer seemed to have the shyness she had forever displayed. "They speak to me. Everyday, at any hour."
"Your mother should be proud. But she seems to be in shock. Asazin have you told your lover who these children owe their lives to? No? Hm? I shall tell him then." She stood leaning on her walking stick staring at Asazin's expressionless face. She walked over to the chair that the servant had brought in and looked at Nolan. It was as if she was asking him to tell her to go on.
"Please tell me." he said.
"It started fourteen years ago when Asazin was eight. Her mother had remarried to a unknown lord who wanted his own children as Heir. That child was Wren. He tried to poison the young Prince, Thomas. The young prince survived. Knowing that his chance of having a child on the throne he decided that if the princess had a child that would succeed it would be better. Asazin had matured earlier than most. She was able to have children by the time Prince Thomas was four.
"Knowing this, the unknown lord decided to make Asazin his. He took her innocence a month before Thomas fell sick with poison. Asazin was soon with child. Though no one but me knew. She sat with Thomas for two months straight as he suffered the effects of the poison. When he pulled through she was four months into pregnancy.
"Three months later, Thomas went on a hunt with his sister. They were caught in a snowstorm. Thomas was still weak from poison and died in the night, even though Asazin tried all she could. When they found her, Asazin had buried her brother under stones and was half dead.
"Her mother died of illness a month later and it was expected that her newest husband had poisoned her as well. I had him killed. When the triplets were born I never expected her to survive. But she did. She survived to lead the people her mother had loved. An Empire was dumped on her shoulders over night.
"But, do you see a frightened little girl sitting behind this desk. No, you see a woman who was never a child. A woman who was a mother of three at eight. Who had to hide her true children in secrecy and say they were her late mother's last children. Who had to say that she would do anything for her people when she was hardly older than an infant compared to trees. A woman with secrets so thick she suffocates under them. Tell me Nolan, what do you see here?" Gran Muma looked at him then and shook her head. Nothing would be wrong now that he was here. He could convince Asazin to wake the Bringer of Fire. And then the Bell would wake and he and Thanat would help the Soul Bound Twins.
"I see a capable woman. One who can lead a Empire or a single man."
Thanat looked faintly sick as she tried to stand. A deep feeling that he couldn't identify welled in his chest as he watched as his sister fell towards the ground and his mother rushed forwards. He didn't know why he just sat there, but he suddenly realized that both Thanat and their mother were sick. That sickness could kill them. He noticed a speck of blood on his mother's lip and gasped, she was coughing blood. He stood and held her shoulders as she slowly fell to the floor.
Toph stood on top of the Palace roof. Soph couldn't find him when he was here. He needed to be away from her for a while and no one had ever found him on top of the Palace. Thanat and his mother were both resting in the medical rooms, sleeping off their near death experiences.
:Why did this have to be the way things were? Why did it have to be his family who were picked to save the world? Why? He had so much to do.
So much to have. So much to live for and love.
Cruel gods they were to make it this way. His very existence was because of an immortal who wanted to be with his lover forever. But why? Who would want to be stuck on this world? Who would want to never be able to see Tree Mother? To know her kindness?
Destined to live forever.
He had never doubted the way things turned out before. Maybe because he doubted, things weren't happening as usual. He knew he was to blame. He had made it so that they would die.
No. It was their mother's fault. She wouldn't do as Gran Muma told. They would die because of her. She had doomed them. Thanat had said so.
He hated her. For bringing them into this world. For loving Thanat the most.