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The Power of Purity
The king listened to the midwife’s muttering behind the curtain that hid his wife from his view. He paced the carpeted floor. Tonight was the night. The night he had waited his whole life for, the night he had thought would never come, but no sooner had he had given up hope than the queen found out that she was pregnant! Their child! His heir! But more importantly, their child!
The queen’s gasps turned into screams. He reached to throw the veil aside, but the old woman, as if knowing his intentions pulled the curtain closed tighter. And then, there was a stirring, a scream and all was quiet.
The king could stand no more! “Woman! What is it!” But the hag did not answer. “Woman!” This time he did pull back the curtains and he saw her bent over the queen, and over his child. She glared up at him with a look he could not read. His joy turned to horror as she placed the baby in his arms. “A boy.” Her raspy voice told him. “A boy. Dead.”
His heart was broken in two. His heir, his son, stillborn. He sank to the chair by the bed. His feet were tiny. His fingers were perfect. His hair was dark. His lips… but the king could not bear any more. “How is my wife?” He whispered huskily.
But the hag had no chance to respond before the queen’s scream filled the room. The king clutched his dead child and reached for his wife’s hand. She stared up into his eyes and tried to speak.
“Twins!” The hag muttered. “I am not ready for twins!” She looked around quickly. “GO!” she told the king. “Leave!”
“No!” He stood. “No! I will be here!” He reached for his wife’s hand again. “It’s alright.” He soothed. “It will be alright.”
And it was. Half an hour later a tiny girl child lay nestled in her father’s arms. Not the son he had prayed for, but a daughter who would soothe his pain, a daughter whom he would cherish and love with his whole heart. She was what their lives had been leading up to.
But the queen never regained her strength. Her beauty remained as ever, but it was pale. Her skin was thin and white and she grew more and more delicate as the years past, but her daughter was her joy. Her daughter was her reason to live, and her daughter was the reason she was dying.
The king bent his head near her.
“The midwife. She killed him.”
He did not want to believe it, but he understood it all in just a moment as the details of that day came flooding into his mind. “My son.” The words echoed from his soul.
But the queen was not finished. “Hide her! Hide our child! She will kill her! She can not while I live, but when I am gone my power with be gone, I can’t protect her anymore…” She took a gasping breath. “Keep her safe. I love her, and I love you.”
Those were her last words. The queen faded into a dreamless sleep and sank farther and farther from the world until she was gone.
Rain poured from the skies and trickled down the walls dripping from the tree branched. Dripping onto the casket and the dark earth, Spilling like tears onto the faces of the king and his daughter. It was the greatest sorrow the kingdom had known. Within an hour they had lost their queen and in that same hour their princess disappeared. Gone almost as if she had died with the queen. No one knew where. Some people said they had a seen a carriage draped in black leave the castle, but the clouds were thick and low, the rain was heavy. No one could be sure of what happened, but that the child was gone.
But evil wears many disguises and often resides strongest in places thought to be safe.
She was dressed in a uniform, attending the girl’s school at St Margaret’s. She had dark hair and dark eyes but that is all that Augusta knew. Sister Augusta actually. She had come to the convent with high hopes. She would find the child, Eleanor and she would soon hold the kingdom in her power, but things hadn’t gone as she planned. She had been here for six years now teaching history and directing prayers. Six years and she was still no closer to finding the princess than she had been when she started! Soon the girl would be grown into her skills! Soon Augusta would be powerless, just like when her mother was alive. Soon her dark magic would be useless against the power of her purity. And then she knew the answer! Eleanor’s strength, while still undiscovered and untrained was her weakness!
Eva listened attentively. Never before had she heard anything like this. Never had any one told the story of her nation in this way. Sister Augusta told of a battle and of a woman who could reach into the distance, who could see the actions of others miles away. A woman who changed the course of history by reaching into herself and using the power she possessed.
There was a sound at the door and Mother Superior pushed into the room. Sister Augusta was needed in the chapel, there was no time to lose. As Mother Superior pushed her out of the room Sister Augusta turned to the girls. “You have the power! Don’t be afraid to use it!” Eva felt as if she was looking right at her, but at that moment Mother Superior covered Sister Augusta’s mouth and led her away. One of the novices came in and directed the class in a drill and the girls did not see Sister Augusta again, but it was too late. The seed was planted.
That night Eva lay in her bed, she was Eleanor. And she had the power. She felt something in her soul that she had never identified before, but it was there, pulsing, throbbing and beckoning to her. She saw a ball of light, yellow light. Tentatively she reached for it then pulled back. It scared her, yet it drew her in stronger than anything she had felt before. Slowly and carefully she reached out. Her fingers trailed through the light and she heard someone ask what she wanted to see. Her fingers shook for a moment, then she took courage. “Father.” She whispered. “I want to see King Phillip.” And she did, for a moment. She saw him in the courtyard walking with a man. She called to him and for a moment she thought she saw him turn towards her, but then he disappeared. She called again and tried to leave the light, but it only grew more intense and red, so red that she could not look at it.
“Ryan? Ryan.” The king sighed as if glad to see a familiar face.
“What is it sir?”
King Phillip whipped his hand across his eyes and shook his head. “For a moment, For a moment I thought I heard Eleanor’s voice.”
“Forgive me, Eleanor?”
“My daughter. She is away. Seven years now.” He sighed again. Seven years was a long time to spend missing your child.
“Now I remember.” Ryan said. “Yes. It’s sad you had to send her away.”
The king stared at him.
“Forgive me again sire!” Then slowly added. “I tend to know these things.”
“And I tend to take a little longer to understand.” The king laughed. “Please explain yourself.”
“Certainly. You see, I learned a great many things from my stepmother, your dear wife Helen’s sister, not the least of which was the power of purity. I can feel what others are thinking. I know what people on the other side of the world are doing. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, but I can see it clearly.”
A slow smile crossed the king’s face. “Ah my boy. I had wondered why Rowan would send me his second son to be trained in the kingly arts when he had no kingdom. Now I understand.”
The prince bowed slightly and asked with a gentle laugh. “Is there anything you wish to know?”
The shadows flittered over Phillip’s face for a moment. “Yes. How is my child?”
“Eleanor.” He whispered closing his eyes. “Eleanor.” He saw her in her bed her brown hair spread over the pillow, her eyes closed in sleep. “She’s beautiful, she…” but the picture changed as Mother Superior entered the room and stopped in shocked silence staring at her, then turned, calling to someone behind her. And then he saw a green forest, a castle a tall tower and the girl, Eleanor, eyes still closed, being lead along the steep winding stairs.
“Good morning.” A voice rasped and she felt cold fingers closing over her arms.
“Who are you?” She whispered.
“Someone who has waited a long time to meet you Princess.”
“What do you want with me?”
“Nothing.” The woman crooned. “Nothing!”
Eleanor felt the light and saw it. Reaching for it she reached for safety, for something she knew, but a pain greater than anything she could have imagined coursed through her body.
“No.” The woman told her. “You only cause pain when you move towards that power. Every time you touch it your pain will increase. You will stay in this tower and you will do nothing until you cannot wait any longer and the pain kills you.”
“Why?” The princess gasped. “Why are you doing this to me?”
The answer was simple enough. “Because you have what I want.”
She sat by the window and stared at the forest below. She had done the same every day for the past two weeks, but nothing had changed. She didn’t expect anything to be different today. She longed to see her father. That glimpse she had caught had only caused her great suffering. She had tried to embrace the light and see him, but each time the pain had taken a hold of her body violently till she could handle it no more. The last time she had tried, just days before, she had lain still, so exhausted and so battered that she could not move for the better part of a day. She had no way to escape.
But then something in the scene below her had changed. At first she didn’t notice it, but when she listened she heard the distinct howling of dogs, and movement in the darkness of the wood. A man ran through the underbrush closely pursued by the pack of beasts. Didn’t he know that this castle belonged to a witch? Couldn’t he see the danger? Couldn’t he sense her fear? She could sense his! It was as if he was calling out to her. “Please. Help me. Distract them, stop them.”
And she did. Summoning all of her strength and focusing herself on the dogs. She saw as they howled and halted, turning with their tales between their legs, huddling together against a great wind, against a power they couldn’t see.
He reached the tower door as the wind calmed. It was locked, but locks never stopped him. In a moment his knife had found the bolt and he swung the door open. The stairs were narrow and steep curving up around the center pillar of the tower. He could not feel her power any more, and it scared him.
Another door and another lock and he found her much as she had been the first time he had pictured her. Lying still, as though asleep, her hair spilling across the floor, but her face was pale and her arms lay flung out beside her, her feet crumpled beneath her. He understood, the same way he had known that he would be the one to find her. The pain had been too great for her. She was still alive, but her breaths were shallow and her cool. Lifting her gently in his arms Ryan laid her on the bed. His fingers traced the line of her brow. There was nothing he could do but wait. “Eleanor.” He called to her, reaching out with his soul. “Elle. Hold on to life. You’re safe now.”
She felt his hands on hers rubbing them and warming her. She had done it. She had used her full power and lived, but she hadn’t done it alone, she knew that. She could not move, but she reached out in her darkness, feeling this man reaching toward her. “I’m alive.” Her mind whispered to him, and then not only her mind, but her lips moved. “I’m alive.” She felt his fingers touch her mouth, and then the pressure of his lips on hers.
If you've read some of my other stories you know that I enjoy writing short, simple fluff. This one has the potential to be a novel. There are so many details. So much I could say, but instead of putting the time and effort into it... I made it short fluff! Well I hope you enjoyed it anyways.
