The king and queen of Etheria stood together in their private quarters. Before them was a large, ornately crafted bassinet, in which lay a very young child with pale green eyes and long raven hair. A year ago, this child had been Titania's overly ambitious and heartless older sister. Now she was scarcely more than a baby, and Titania had taken it upon herself to raise her sister to a second adulthood, in the hopes that she wouldn't turn out as evil as she had been during her first.
Malicia – as Titania's sister had been known in her previous life – had made an unexpected return to infanthood after her last confrontation with Rosella. She had almost killed Edgar then, after her plans to use him to help her destroy Etheria backfired.
Oberon and Titania's son had been so valiant that day. Just minutes after being released from the spell his aunt had cast on him, he had been able to escape from Vulcanix, summon and ride a horse that was as insubstantial as a ghost, learn the whereabouts of Rosella's mother, find her and reunite her with her daughter, in less time than it took most people to wake up and dress themselves.
Such brave and noble acts had convinced Oberon and Titania that their son would be a worthy heir to the throne of Etheria. But now it seemed that there would be no heir if he never returned home. Even if he did, there was the trouble of Rosella: with her brother ruling in another kingdom, she was the only heir to the throne of Daventry. It was clear that Edgar loved her, and if they ever married, one of the two kingdoms would be without a successor.
As long-lived as the fairies of Etheria were, they certainly weren't immortal, and as haughty as some of the fairies were reputed to be, Oberon and Titania couldn't bear the thought of another kingdom being left without a future queen because they wanted their only son to remain in his homeland. Perhaps Malicia could reign once her sister and brother-in-law had passed on, but there was always the risk of Malicia turning power-mad and foul once again. After all, having a queen alone wasn't enough. Even the strongest of queens had to have a king ruling alongside them.
"There is no one else," Oberon sighed, letting Malicia's tiny fingers grab at his much larger, tan ones. "Edgar and Malicia are the only heirs we have."
"Are you certain?" Titania asked.
"I've never been more certain," Oberon mumbled.
"But…what about your…"
Titania was interrupted by a loud pulse of sound that rippled through the room. She and Oberon turned to see a bright, vertical opening hovering barely an inch above the ground. Out of it stepped a girl wearing a white dress, with sky blue eyes and long, golden hair. It was Rosella.
"Your Highnesses!" she gasped. "My brother and I know where Edgar is, and we can reunite you with him, but you have to come with me!"
The two fairies stared at the princess, speechless.
"Come where?" Titania cried.
"Just follow me," Rosella said, beckoning.
Titania and Oberon looked at each other and nodded. Titania turned to the infant Malicia.
"We'll be back soon, little sister," she cooed. She and her husband walked over to where Rosella was waiting in front of the glowing doorway.
"Titania," Oberon said, "You were probably right…I think a page is turning."
"So do I," Titania said in a hushed voice.
The three of them stepped through the doorway, which closed behind them with another throbbing sound, leaving Malicia alone.
"Edgar? Are you there?" Cassima whispered. The prince's face soon appeared, hovering faintly in the darkness of the sorcerer's house.
"Of course I am, Cassima," Edgar replied. "Where are you?"
"I'm in Ooga Booga. The outer region. How about you?"
Unable to restrain his excitement, Edgar launched into another eager account of the previous events in his journey.
"Oh, you won't believe what I've found! I'm in a land called Lycathia, and there's a castle that's been under a spell, and I've just found a girl called Ashni, and there's a man coming named…"
"Wait! Did you say 'Ashni?'" Cassima asked, surprised at hearing that name again.
"Yes, I did," Edgar nodded. "She's a young woman with rusty hair parted in a zigzag and there's a man coming that I met in Etheria…"
"Tell me later," Cassima muttered, her mind reeling with this new information. "Right now I need your help."
"With what?"
"I've just met a sorcerer who's challenged me to guess his name, and I have no idea what to guess!"
Edgar was pensive for a moment. Then his face broke into a wide smirk.
"You haven't tried Rumpelstiltskin?"
"Stop that, Edgar," Cassima scolded. "This is serious! If I solve his riddle and guess his name, I think he might be able to help us."
"What was the riddle?"
"'Half the way the seasons travel…'" Cassima recounted hazily, "'Admonish one and leave the rest…' I can't remember the remainder of it, but you've helped me before, I'm sure you can now. The sorcerer also said something about leaving clues all over the world, in different places and times. I didn't know what that meant, though."
Edgar was about to admit that he was as perplexed as Cassima was when a thought came to him.
"Wait a minute, Cassima – I think I have an idea."
He dug into his pocket and withdrew the twelve trinkets – the ones which he had found in numerous eras of time, scattered in lands all over his world and the world of Daventry.
He laid them out on the bench and began frantically shuffling them. Seasons, he said to himself. Why hadn't he thought of it before? There were twelve trinkets, with four different patterns painted on them. Those patterns represented the four seasons: pale green for spring, bright green for summer, golden yellow for autumn, and white for winter. The twelve trinkets represented the twelve months of the year, and as for the twelve gems, they were birthstones. These trinkets had to be the "clues" left by the sorcerer.
Edgar tried to arrange the stones in the correct order, but he found it almost impossible to do at first. He didn't know which birthstones were associated with which months, but after a bit of trial-and-error, he succeeded.
He now had a stone circle sitting in front of him, about a foot in diameter. Presently, it started to glow, then the entire structure lifted off of the bench and hung suspended in midair, an aura of light surrounding it.
"I did it!" Edgar cried, moving to where Cassima could easily see the floating ring. "Look!"
Cassima stared at the image of the strange circle made up of jewel-encrusted stones and tried to make sense out of it. Being somewhat familiar with the superstitions associated with gemstones, she knew what the circle symbolized immediately. She could easily pick out which piece represented which month – the red garnet was January's stone, February was indicated by the amethyst, the aquamarine was associated with March, and so on – but she didn't see how an artistically pleasing depiction of the months of the year was going to help her solve the sorcerer's riddle.
See
now, as my song unravels
Half
the way the seasons travel
Admonish
one, and leave the rest
What
is the solution to this test?
Half the way the seasons travel? What did that mean? Admonish one and leave the rest? Admonish one what?
Cassima sighed and stared vacantly at the circle of months. She absently began counting up various sets of six months – an amount which would correspond to the "half the way the seasons travel" line.
March, April, May, June, July, August…
November, December, January, February, March, April…
July, August, September, October, November, December…
She stopped. Something about that last set of months had seemed strangely odd to her, something made it stand out more than the other combinations she had formulated. She thought of them again:
July
August
September
October
November
December
The answer was there. She could feel it. But something seemed wrong. There was one letter too many…
Admonish one and leave the rest.
Cassima did. Just to make sure she wasn't making a mistake, she examined the set of months one last time:
July
August
September…
"I think I've got it, Edgar," Cassima whispered. "As soon as I'm finished here, I'm returning to Kolyma."
"But where should I go?" Edgar asked.
Cassima was silent for a moment. She began thinking of the dream she had had the night before last, the dream that had seemed so real, how Alexander had been so close to her that she could almost feel the warmth of his breath…and how she had been thinking of him when the dream occured. Her pendant had been aglow throughout the entire vision, but she hadn't been thinking of a place...she was thinking of a person...
"I think you can make it back to Kolyma with me. Try to think of me when you're picturing it," she finally said. "I'll think of you. Hopefully, that should bring us back to the same time. I'm sure we'll eventually run into each other in any case, though."
"I certainly hope so," Edgar remarked. "See you there."
Choose your path:
