The men left for another shipment, but they should be back soon from the refuel ship. I’ll let you know when I can see them on the horizon. This should be the last of the shipments, now we just need to put the plan in action.
Have you talked to the Dragon Daughter yet?
I can’t wait to finally meet you in person. I wish Mom was here. She’d be so proud of you.
See you soon dad,
Arsenio
Hasley’s eyes widened as she read the letter again, hands trembling.
“Hasley, your skin…” Amic whispered. His tone was no longer of angry surprise, but one of wonder.
She impatiently looked up at him, feeling an overwhelming urge to not be disturbed. To be alone with these few pieces of paper. Something caught the corner of her eye as her head moved up, a shimmer of gold. She looked at her hands, then her arms, down to her exposed legs.
She was gold. Well, not exactly gold. But she shimmered in a halo of golden light. It was not the sparkling explosive gold of the fating, but an aura of it. She was radiating it. As soon as it came, the color faded. She dropped the letter and her feet began to shake.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
But she did. The voice knew. Hasley picked up the letter and clutched it to her chest. The reason for the voices, for the drive to this particular part of the wall above all others, her fate was on the other side of it. Hasley was not fateless.
She just couldn’t get to him.
Go to the docks, the voice had said on the last day she was with her parents.
“I think I do,” Amic said. He handed her a fresh spiral of paper and a writing utensil.
“Take this and write to my son, tell him about yourself, and what happened.”
Tears began to gather in Hasley’s eyes as she took the paper.
Hi Arsenio, I’m Hasley.
I met your father at Mount Pietan. I was called to be there and we found each other. I had a feeling, this knowing, and a voice. The voice told me to come to this spot.
Then, I read your letter and the world changed.
I’ve been away from home for two weeks now. I left everything behind. It sounds like you did too.
I’m glowing gold, I believe because you are my pair. Are you glowing too?
Hasley Jeweler
Part Two
Never The Same
Ten
Letters in the Divide
Hasley,
We found each other. I have never been so scared and happy at the same time.
I wish I could become one with the blood pumped up this wall and reform on the other side, a whole human for you. I wish I had miles of your words to read. I wish I was touching the hands that wrote them.
I wish for so much, but mostly for you to be free from pain and the voices.
I feel almost more desperate now that I know you are there. The voices feel louder. Yes, I had them too. I was afraid to tell my dad because there was nothing he could do on that side. At least, there was nothing he could do yet. But it seems he helped solve it without knowing, by trusting that you needed to be here.
Tell me about yourself. Tell me all of the important parts. Or even the little things, like what you do first thing when you open your eyes.
I am Arsenio, son of Amic Keyholder and Lane Trader. I haven’t met my dad in person yet, I was born on the other side of the wall and raised in Faeinto. About a year ago I became a trader, feeling the urge to travel and wanting to take the path my mom did to communicate with Dad. That underlying feeling though must have been for this, so I could meet you. We were meant to be for each other. If this wall weren’t here, we may have met on these docks or in the markets. I would have brought exotic jewels from Faeinto, and you would have been selling your wares..
Did something change in your life a year ago too?
After some time, I found my way to the spot my mom told me about as a child. I know she used to come here, but for fear of me getting hurt and discovered, I wasn’t allowed. She passed away, so I came anyway.
After one of the leaders of Faeinto discovered what I was doing, they helped me bring the synthetic blood here. They wanted to help my father liberate Ashkadance. I had thought the blood was hurting me, that helping transport it was influencing me somehow. But I know now, it was because I was waiting for you.
I can’t wait to get to know you.
Arsenio
Hasley looked up from the letter, gold filtering in and out of her vision. The workers that helped Arsenio with the tubing and transportation surrounded her. They stared in wonder at her golden light and the letter. Tears rolled from a few eyes as it faded away. She began to cry too.
Hasley sat on that log all day, letters transported back and forth. Bliss and loss flowed in waves across her day, with men and women Arsenio trusted watching and leaving. She was like an animal, trapped in her mind, ecstatic to be loved and then completely lost in moments. But for that first day, she was always watched. As time passed, Amic left and returned with supplies for her.
“I don’t suppose I can convince you to come back to my home?” Amic asked, a bundle in his arms.
Hasley shook her head no, too exhausted for words. She would not leave this place, not with her heart so close by.
Amic smiled a half-smile and said, “I thought as much. Here.”
He unrolled his bundle and handed her blankets, a small pillow, and some snacks.
She took the soft blankets in her hands and wrapped them around her legs. She felt the impulse to bring them up to her chest, but she wanted to have her hands free and ready to write. As if he knew her thoughts, Amic pulled out more stacks of paper from his jacket and left them in a pile on the log nearby.
“I’ll have James come back soon with a lantern and more food for dinner. It’s getting late. If you change your mind, come back home okay?”
At the mention of home, Hasley’s eyes widened. She left her home over two weeks ago now. He seemed to notice and crouched before her. His hand came to her shoulder.
“Your home will always be with me and my son, okay Hasley? Whether that be temporarily here at the wall, or my home, or in the community home a short distance away. You have support and somewhere to go, no matter what, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered
Hasley realized for the first time that being fated with Arsenio also meant that she was tied to Amic’s life too. Maybe when she and Arsenio saw each other in person, she would feel normal again. She would feel safe. Then, Arsenio could meet her parents and they could move to Borderain. That is, assuming they didn’t move to Faeinto, where Arsenio grew up.
When she was alone again, she pulled the blank pieces of paper closer to her. They rested half under her leg, an impulse to protect them from possible blowing wind, even though there wasn’t much wind through the dense forest of trees.
She wrote her next letter, knowing he was waiting for it on the other side. She imagined his back against the wall in the same position as hers and smiled at the image.
Arsenio,
I am as broken as ever. My whole life I’ve been chasing perfection. Chasing a life that I could never meet. I was best friends with the princess. Even though I didn’t know her true identity, I knew that she was special. As for what happened last year, around the time you started trading, that’s when I started my apprenticeship with her at a jeweler in town.
As for who I am… I am nice, but not the nicest. I am pretty, but not the prettiest. I am clever, but was never the smartest in the class. I was never the best, not in a single thing I did. But I was the best clerk at least, while I was in the jewelry apprenticeship. I didn’t actually make any of the jewelry, I only sold it and helped keep things orderly.
Being without my best friend has been hard. She was gone so suddenly and I hadn’t yet had the courage to tell her what was happening to me. The voices then grew stronger.
I didn’t want much from my future, other than the typical things. I wanted a purpose I didn�
��t hate. I wanted a pair. I wanted a family.
And here you are. And I’m lower than low. Undeserving of a pair. You should not feel pain like this. Knowing you are on the other side of this wall, hurting, because I am not there to stop it, is worse. More painful than any other inadequacy.
I want to save you, but how can I if I can’t even save myself?
I left my family without a word. I left my purpose without a word. Ember never shared her secrets with me and I never told her mine. Maybe I deserve this. I deserve this bed of dirt. But you? You do not. I want to take your pain from you and swap with you, so that you are here with your father and I am alone on the other side.
Hasley
Despite the length of her message, and the length of his reply, barely any time had passed before the wraith descended before her once more.
Hasley,
How wrong you are. You are deserving of love, hope, fate, joy. Never compare yourself to anyone or anything else. This love between us will only get bigger. You are not going to save me. I’m going to save myself. Then you are going to save you. And together, we’ll help save a kingdom.
The kingdom is not Ashkadance, by the way. The kingdom is our future. For each fated pair finds in each other what they need, and I plan to do big things in this life.
Please, don’t despair. Don’t blame yourself. How could you possibly blame yourself for us being separated? It is not logical. I like to call myself a logical person with a pinch of unrealistic goal achieving. I see how other people should approach their life, then I add my version of logic, and make something very exciting out of my ideas.
I’d like to bring you into this magic. Together we have our logic because logical and realistic are subjective words. They only mean what we decide it means.
You are the best, Hasley. You are my best. Together we can do anything.
I’ll be strong for you today, and tomorrow we can swap. Does that sound like a good idea? We’ll balance this pain, shoulder the voices until we can make them stop.
When we are together, what is the first thing you want to do?
-A
The voice in Hasley’s head calmed down when reading his letters. It didn’t insist, weigh down, or bleed into her subconscious with suggestions of things she didn’t want to do. How could this be? How can someone become fated to someone they haven’t met? Could her true purpose be outside these walls?
It must be. Her future lay outside of the physical wall as well as the emotional one she built for herself. Out there she was without regulations, perfectionism, and lies.
Maybe this was Aaelia and Mutrien’s will, for Hasley to learn outside of perfection, to meet a boy that was not afraid to be big and honor her too.
Arsenio,
I like that plan. We can take turns. We can share our fears and feel safe. We can do this together.
As the sun turns in to sleep and the moon comes out to play, I wish I was in your arms. That is what I want to do when I see you. I want to hold you and have you hold me. That’s what I want more than anything. We’ll have that, soon.
What is planned so far? What is your part in it and how can I help?
-Hasley
Hasley lay against the wall that night, feeling the cold stone against her back. She burrowed deeper into the blankets Amic provided. She couldn’t leave this place, her body and mind refused her. The only comfort was her knowing he was on the other side. She was not alone, not like she thought, and she would never be again.
A chirp came from above her and she turned bleary eyes up. The chirp was happier than that morning, more musical somehow. The wraith slowed its flight and landed softly beside her. It stuck out its leg and tilted its head to survey her. Hasley greedily took the letter and felt the warmth of the fating again, spreading through her soul with relief. The message was shorter this time than their letters back and forth the past day.
Her name is Amalthea, I raised her since she was born. She’ll keep you company tonight.
A tear rolled down Hasley’s face and the demi-dragon hopped closer. She leaned into the crook of Hasley’s neck and breathed a hot sigh onto her skin with a purr. Hasley wrapped a tentative arm and blanket around the creature as her glow lessened, grateful for the companionship. Amalthea’s talons grazed Hasley's skin by mistake as she snuggled in. Hasley winced before the wraith pulled its arms tighter into its chest to keep its talons back.
“Thanks,” Hasley whispered to the wraith.
It chirped back and cuddled closer as a raindrop fell from the sky.
Eleven
A Daughter in Fate
Hasley awoke to James shaking her shoulder. He brought warm food for her and a change of clothes. She shivered in the morning air, uncovering herself from the damp blankets. She had never dried in the night, even when the rain stopped. The early morning moisture and puddles from the rain surrounded her. Her teeth clacked together uncontrollably James grew wide-eyed in alarm.
“I’m going to make a fire,” he said as he turned away from her.
Hasley felt a weight on her shoulders, momentarily confused why. The memory came back to her seconds later. Amalthea, the wraith that had sent their letters across the wall, had kept Arsenio’s promise to stay the night with her. Amalthea curled around her neck like a scarf, head resting behind a curtain of her hair. Hasley pulled strands back, tying her blue hair into a knot and away from the demi-dragon.
Amalthea stirred, stretching out her claws subconsciously as she awoke. Hasley flinched, a new scratch on her growing collection. A purr emitted from its chest before Amalthea jumped from her shoulders and onto the ground. It chirped a few times at James before jumping up to full flight. She smiled up at the sky, knowing it went to check on Arsenio.
“An unexpected day, huh?” James asked as he got a fire ready to warm them. Had it only been a day since she arrived with James and Amic at Borderain? It felt like one day and a lifetime.
“We’ll have a few more unexpected days before we’re okay again,” Hasley answered. She dropped the blankets behind her and stood.
“You really think we’ll be okay?” James asked skeptically as the pit ignited.
“No,” she answered as she stood on frigid legs.
She sat down before the fire. Her toes sunk into the dirt, for once not caring about appearance. She buried her ideas of a perfect life the night before. While she’d never be totally free of that expectation, she knew life felt much more exciting with a crack in the veneer.
Amalthea was back again.
I missed you.
Three words on paper that pushed her heart out of her chest.
“Has that happened with every single letter?” James asked as he watched the gold fade away.
Hasley nodded, no longer able to speak.
It continued this way for days, or so she believed. Hasley subconsciously logged the days based on James’ visits for breakfast, but she didn't bother knowing exact dates. What did time matter anymore? What she experienced with Arsenio was all-consuming. The seconds between speaking with him were all that mattered.
Until one morning, James didn’t come for breakfast. Hasley waited snuggled in her makeshift bed with Amalthea before her hunger grew too much for her to ignore. She stood up and re-tied the cloth around her waistband tighter and put on her shoes. While she waited to see if James would appear, Hasley tried to tame her bed head with her fingers. Somewhat satisfied, she used the small bucket of water she had close by to rinse her face.
After becoming more presentable, her friend still did not come. With little other option, Hasley wrote a quick note and sent it with Amalthea over the wall.
Good morning. I’ll be right back, I have to go to your dad’s house for a few minutes.
Taking one last look behind her, Hasley took her first step away from her campsite. She walked what she hoped was the right path, looking for the tall orange clay pots she had seen that first day she entered the forest with Amic and James.
Hasley stood at
the edge of the road, taking a deep breath. It had only been a few days and she felt completely foreign to the world. She reached up again to her hair before putting her hand back down. There wasn’t anything she could do about it now, she had to keep moving. Thankfully, Amic’s home wasn’t far.
“How can I help you?” a woman asked when Hasley walked up the steps to the door. She had bright red hair, dark skin, and was significantly taller than Hasley. She stood beside the entrance, greeting citizens of the province that came to speak to Amic without an appointment.
“I’m Hasley Jeweler, can you tell me where Amic and James are?” she said, self conscious of the spot of dirt she just noticed on her hand. She put her hands behind her back and stood straighter.
“A pleasure to meet you, Hasley. Amic told me all about you. My name is Sandra Clerk. Would you like me to show you to your room?”
Hasley blinked, not understanding the question. “I have a room?”
“Of course, you are Amic’s daughter in fate after all. Not that many know that, but I do. I work closely with Amic in his efforts. Come with me, Hasley, I’ll show you to your room and let him know to meet you.”
Sandra smiled warmly at Hasley and beckoned her forward. Hasley hesitantly followed her into the building. Inside was an open dining space, ceiling-to-floor white columns, and small blue geometric tiles on the floor.
Royalty Fantasy Boxset: Ember Dragon Daughter & Hasley Fateless (Fated Tales Series 1 & 1.5) (The Fated Tales Series: YA Royalty Fantasy) Page 31
