Zoe Reed - Breaking Legacies

She was laughing when he set her down again, but she stopped in order to smile at Kingston, who walked over with Nira at his side. “Your Majesty,” she beamed, curtseying more deeply at him.

Kingston chuckled, bowing at us and then laughing when Nira brushed past him to hug us both at once. Then she let us go and reached for our hands. “I see you got the box.” Instead of saying anything, Ava pulled Nira into another tight, grateful hug that lasted almost half a minute. They both had watery eyes by the end of it, and Nira shook her head while she blinked it away. “Don’t thank me,” she said, reading the looks on our faces. “There’s no need.” And because she didn’t want to hear it, I gave her a grateful hug too. “There’s one more surprise,” she announced. “For you, Ava, from Kingston.”

Ava looked at Kingston in surprise, waiting for him to say what it was or to present it, but in that brief moment, somebody from the doorway behind us cleared their throat. Ava spun around, meeting the eyes of a familiar young woman and drawing in a deep gasp.

“Ellie!” Ava exclaimed, springing forward and nearly knocking Ellie over in the eagerness of her embrace.

Even after all these months, I remembered perfectly who this woman was. She was the lady-in-waiting I’d met at the castle in Guelder the night I’d gone searching for Ava. The dear friend of Ava’s who made me swear that I’d hear her side of things before making my judgment.

Ava released Ellie from the hug enough to grab her face, looking at her like she couldn’t believe it. “How did you- Where did you—” She hesitated with a world of disbelief and shock and question in her eyes. “I’m glad you’re alright!” she said, drawing Ellie to her again.

“Me?” Ellie asked. “Of course I’m alright, but you! Worried me half to death, you did!”

“But,” Ava breathed, pulling away and looking back at Kingston, “how did you know?” She looked again at Ellie. “Why are you here ?”

“Word’s got around about our heroines of Valens,” Ellie answered, passing a brief but knowing glance at me. “It took me quite some time to work up the nerve to ask His Majesty if he knew what happened to you after the war, or where you were, but when he found out we were friends, our gracious king invited me here. Said you’d gotten married!”

“I did!” Ava laughed, hugging Ellie one more time. “Oh, I’d have written if I knew for certain where you were.”

“I’m here now,” Ellie said, and she was just as unmistakably excited about this reunion as Ava, “and you can tell me all about your adventures later.”

Ava nodded, finally turning to slip an arm around my waist. “Do you remember Kiena?”

“The hunter,” Ellie said, with a smile that let me know she remembered me positively. “And…” she added questioningly, “your wife?” Ava gave an eager nod, which widened Ellie’s smile to a grin. “It’s a pleasure to see you again,” she said to me, bending her knees in a curtsey.

“And you,” I agreed, bowing in return. “I’m glad you’re well.”

Before either of us could say anything else, Ava turned away from the door, hugging Kingston tight around the middle. “Thank you, Kingston,” she said, sniffling because there were fresh tears in her eyes.

He returned the hug, patting her gently on the back. “You’re welcome.”

While we’d all been greeting each other, a handful of staff had been loading trays of food onto the table at the center of the room. Now, one of them came forward to Nira. “Your Grace,” he said, “dinner is served.”

We were all buzzing with excitement as we walked to the table to get seated, but once we’d found our places, Nira stood from her chair. She grabbed her goblet of wine and held it out in front of her, waiting until we all stopped talking. “Because you two ,” she began, pointing teasingly at Ava and me, “decided to get married without inviting any of us, something needed to be done. We can’t marry you all over again, but we can celebrate.” She raised her drink a little higher, each of us raising our own. “To Ava and Kiena, a couple who not only belong together, but who fought so hard to be together that they deserve every moment of happiness life brings them. Cheers.”

We all drank to that toast, and set to feasting and drinking and talking and celebrating. Everyone had so much to say about what they’d been doing since we’d been apart. Denig and Skif had stories about their travels so far as Dragonkin ambassadors; Rhien would soon be twenty and graduating from the Duskford Monastery; even Ellie had stories about what had been going on at the castle in Guelder and how much better things were already under Kingston’s rule.

We talked and laughed and told some of the better stories about the war to those at the table who hadn’t been there. Like when Nira had first been learning to shoot a bow and nearly put an arrow into the armorer’s backside, or the time Nilson and Akamar had traded Nira’s bowl of stew for a cold one with a live frog in it. When we’d talked ourselves out, Nira had musicians brought in to play us music, and we danced and drank some more. We taught Denig and Skif both Ronan and Valenian dances, and they taught us dances from the mountain, and not a one of us was paying any mind to the hours that flew by.

But the best part of the entire night, better than any surprise or joke, was the smile on Ava’s face. Not once since I’d met her had I ever seen her look that happy. There was no looming of uncertainty or danger, and all the loss she’d suffered didn’t so much as cast a shadow on her features. Her eyes were bright, and her cheeks were rosy with energy and mirth. For the first time since I’d met her, she didn’t have a care or concern in the world. She was free to smile and laugh and be as joyful as she wanted, because no one or anything was going to stop her or give her a reason not to. And that look—that freedom and bliss—that was what I’d given my life for. It was what I’d build the rest of my life around, because I couldn’t imagine I’d ever feel as content as when Ava looked like that.

Raised in a family devoted to Valens’s Caelen religion, Thydric Cieren II took the throne after the passing of his mother, the queen, Marcil Cieren. Under the influence of his deeply religious father, Thydric had grown to fear mindsets and customs that didn’t coincide with Caelenian practice. This fear was most directly aimed at Ronan. Though Ronan had long been a peaceful neighbor to Valens, engaging in trade along an open border, Ronan customs and beliefs were more flexible than Caelen instructed. Ronan’s religion, Deacantian, allowed for the nearly unrestrained social, political, and romantic movement of class, race, and gender, placing certain restrictions solely on its royals. Because of Ronan’s radical way of living, Thydric’s rule commenced with unease.

A great addition to this unease was the magical aspects of Deacantian. While only some twenty percent of people were born with an aptitude for magic, Ronan stimulated these numbers by sending them to specialized schools, institutions, and monasteries, where they could foster these abilities into great skill. Although Ronan showed no signs of weaponizing its abled for the sake of military practice, Thydric feared what would happen if Ronan grew too powerful because of its flourishing magic culture.

Furthering that fear was the open trade that Valens had long been conducting with Ronan. While a majority of imports were simple goods like fruits and silk, it didn’t escape Thydric’s notice that other things were seeping into the kingdom as well. The most concerning to him were the trade of religion and magic. Some of Valens’s abled began seeking Ronan knowledge to discover their own capabilities, and others, including those without the ability, sought potions and artifacts for use in every day life.