Awake: A Fairytale

by Jessica Grey

  “I am sorry,” Lilia said.

  “Don’t be; it’s okay.” Becca rubbed her shoulder.

  “I think I would like to look at the burial stone now.” Lilia straightened up and squared her shoulders. “I do not know when my mother died, or how. I want to.”

  Alex and Becca waited quietly as she walked around to the other side of the burial stone. She stood, silently reading it to herself, a series of emotions flickering across her face. Alex recognized sadness and then surprise, followed by another emotion that she couldn’t quite place. After a few moments Lilia looked back up.

  “She died twelve years after I succumbed to the curse,” she said softly. “It says that she died before my father, and it mentions me. It says she was a “beloved Queen, wife to Edmond and mother to Lilia—” here Lilia broke off, looking as if she might dissolve back into tears. She fought for control for a moment before continuing, “mother to Lilia, and to the twins, Lyssia and Viola.”

  Alex and Becca looked at each other in surprise.

  “I didn’t know you had sisters,” Becca said.

  “Neither did I, until just now,” Lilia replied frowning slightly. “I am not sure how I feel about it. I suppose life went on after I was asleep; it just feels odd, to go from being an only child to having two sisters.” She sank slowly to her knees as she stared at the engraving on the stone, after a moment reaching up and running her fingers across their names.

  “Lyssia. Viola.” Lilia whispered. “Sisters I will never meet, long dead now. I do not know whether to regard it as a gain or a loss.”

  “Well, I guess it’s a bit of both,” Alex offered sympathetically.

  “Yes, I suppose it is,” Lilia agreed. “I wonder how long it was after I fell asleep that they were born?”

  “The stone doesn’t have any other information on it?” Becca asked.

  Lilia shook her head. “Not much, just down here after my mother’s dates and the names it says something very odd:

  Our Queen shall watch over our sleeping princess,

  The daughter shall guard the mother’s spirit.

  With the last beat of our Queen’s broken heart

  Comes the end of the magic arts,

  No longer shall they be revered in Arraine.

  “This makes no sense,” Lilia said.

  “What do you mean? It makes sense now why your mother’s crown and burial stones would have been found with your bed. They obviously buried her near you, it’s a sweet sentiment, that she was watching over you, and you over her,” said Becca.

  “No, not that. Our kingdom is heavily guarded by magic, the fae and the people of our land have always had good relationship. There must be hundreds of demi-fae throughout Arraine. Why would it say that magic is at an end?”

  Alex shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve never even heard of Arraine. I looked it up online and there was literally nothing, no mention of it at all.”

  “Somewhere there has to be some information. An entire country doesn’t just fall completely out of history does it?” Becca asked.

  “I don’t see why not; we aren’t necessarily dealing with a normal country here,” Alex pointed out. “Time period aside—who knows what kind of records people were keeping in the 1100s; the place could have been wiped out by magic, or wiped from people’s minds by magic.”

  “Do you think Briar Rose could have done that?” Becca asked Lilia.

  “Destroyed my entire kingdom? Heavens, I hope not. But it really is just a hope; I have nothing to go on.”

  “It doesn’t have to be Briar Rose,” Alex said thoughtfully. “What about the other three sisters? In the Disney version, isn’t it the three fairies that put everyone else in the kingdom to sleep? Maybe your three aunts had something to do with it. We’re assuming—well honestly we are assuming quite a lot, but we’re assuming it was bad magic that made Arraine disappear, but what if it was good magic?”

  “That is an interesting thought,” Lilia agreed. “I wish there was some way to know.”

  “I can’t think of any way to know for sure. You didn’t feel anything when you touched the stone?”

  “No.” Lilia shook her head decisively. “Not even a hum.”

  Alex took a few steps closer to the marble slab and ran her hand over the cool, smooth top of it.

  “I don’t feel anything either. Becca, do you want to try just to make sure we’ve exhausted all magical options?”

  Becca was staring off into the distance, absently twirling a strand of her dark hair, lost in thought.

  “Becca?” Alex prompted again.

  “Hmm? Oh. Yeah, I can try it. But I was thinking, just because you or I have never heard of Arraine doesn’t mean that no one has. I am certainly not a scholar of European history.”

  “Neither am I,” Alex laughed slightly. “Do we know any European history scholars?”

  “No, but we could maybe go to some of the university libraries and do some research. There’s the Historical Society here too, it’s already too late, they won’t be open until tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, and there’s the little problem of them letting us into see their records.” Alex grimaced. “They barely let us in when we’ve got an actual assignment from Nicholas.”

  “Well, we can always try the university libraries first.” Becca joined the other two girls in front of the burial stone and laid her hand on it. “I don’t feel anything. With the crown and the bed I could feel the magic radiating off of the metal.”

  Lilia got back up off her knees. “It is strange to me that no magic was worked at all when it was made. Not even a spell from the carvers. It makes me sad for my mother that her burial stone has no blessings.”

  Becca ran her hands over the top of the marble slab, and then down over the inscription as she knelt in front of it.

  “Marble has such a funny feel to it, so elegant but solemn.” She looked up at Lilia. “The blessing, is it something you could do now? Why not try if it would make you feel better.”

  Lilia considered the large piece of marble in front of her. “I think I should be able to. Not anything as fancy or strong as my aunts would have been able to do. Probably even Margaux could manage something stronger, but I do not suppose that matters because the stone is not actually protecting my mother’s grave anymore.” She put her hand back onto the marble, as if testing it. “It would make me feel better. Assuming the stone is receptive to the magic, it should not be too hard.”

  Becca flexed her fingers against the face of the marble.

  “It is.” She looked at the other girls almost apologetically. “I don’t know why I feel so sure, but it feels like the stone wants to be blessed, as if it knows it should have been before.”

  Alex’s experience with the emerald was too fresh in her mind for her to even think about questioning her. Instead she turned to Lilia.

  “What do we need to do?”

  “Would you lay hands on the stone with me while I say the blessing?”

  Alex nodded and joined them in front of the inscription, kneeling down next to Becca and placing her hands over the carved words. Lilia got on her knees next to them and contemplated the inscription in silence for a moment.

  “Well then,” Lilia whispered placing her hands next to Alex’s on the marble, “this is the best I can do.” Raising her voice slightly she spoke directly to the stone. “I thank you, faithful stone, for your service to my mother, your queen. I bless you for your years of service and ask forgiveness for the lateness of this blessing.” Her eyes took on the unfocused look that Alex had come to associate with spells, and she added a few words in the lyrical Fae language she had used earlier.

  Alex felt the rock warming subtly under her palms. She looked over to the place where Lilia’s hands were resting against the face of the stone and she could see the waves of energy, pale green in color, radiating out from them. It looked as if the blessing was radiating out from Lilia, traveling a few inches in either direction before being absorbed b
y the stone.

  Lilia pressed her hands more firmly against the marble, and said something again in Fae. Her voice sounded a bit more strained.

  It isn’t enough power, Alex thought. The stone is too big, and the blessing’s power is too small.

  “The stone. It has forgotten,” Lilia gasped as if answering Alex’s unspoken thought. “It has been too long away from magic—” Her voice seemed to break under the strain, her words forced out between clenched teeth. “It does not know how to open up. My power is not…”

  Becca reached over Alex’s arm and laid her hand over Lilia’s.

  “We,” Becca’s voice rang, surprisingly loudly, throughout the storeroom. “We bless you, for your service to our queen.”

  Alex could feel the magic flowing from Becca’s and Lilia’s joined hands gathering strength, revving like the engine of a race car at the starting line. The pale green color surrounding Lilia’s hand began to be infused with a lavender sheen.

  “We three bless you,” Alex’s voice was torn out of her, as if the words were tumbling out of her mouth of their own volition. An image flashed into her head—a braid of magic being laid into a crown. “We three join together as one and bless you.”

  She placed both of her hands on top of Lilia’s and Becca’s hands where they lay over the marble’s inscription, and the revving engine abruptly flared to life. The roaring sound filled her ears, almost painful in its intensity. The power radiating from their hands disturbed the atmosphere around them, and the air hummed with the energy, blowing warmly against their faces. Alex could feel power flowing down her arm, white hot and alive, and joining with the strands of power from the other two.

  The three separate ropes of power met in their hands and rose visibly into the air in front of the stone. They flooded the storage room with their light—white, lavender, and pale green. The ropes crackled and arced like live wires as they twisted together and then fell, embedding into the marble’s face. The rock glowed for a moment, the deep, cool marble absorbing the colors and fiery energy. Intense heat pulsed off the stone burning through Lilia’s hand and into Becca’s and Alex’s on top of hers, before fading and cooling to normal.

  There was a profound silence in the room for several minutes after the magic had dissipated.

  Alex was the first to find her voice again. “Oh my god, what did we just do?”

  ~ Chapter Thirteen ~

  THE RAIN HAD eased up a little. Although it still was falling steadily, the earlier downpour had gentled to a misty sprinkle. It had grown dark while the girls had been in the museum, and the street lights reflected brightly off the soaked pavements and large pools that filled gutters and intersections.

  The drive back to Alex’s apartment was mostly silent, broken only occasionally by Alex suggesting short cuts. It was almost as if each was hoping that if they went long enough without talking about what had happened in the storage room, the need to discuss it would somehow fade.

  “Hey, Mom,” Alex called as the three of them trudged, damp, tired and laden with Lilia’s shopping bags, through the front door.

  “Hi, Alex,” her mom’s voice floated in from the kitchen. “Are you—” Jennifer broke off as she came into the living room and saw that Alex wasn’t alone.

  “Mom, you’ve met Becca, right?”

  “Nice to see you again Mrs. Martin.”

  “Of course. Hello, Becca, nice to see you as well,” Jennifer turned her gaze expectantly to Lilia.

  “And, um, this is Lilia.”

  “It’s nice to meet you Lilia. Are you from the museum as well?”

  The princess flashed her sparkling smile. “Yes, Mrs. Martin, I am from the museum. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  Jennifer blinked slowly. “It’s nice to make yours as well. Are you girls hungry? I have sandwich stuff; nothing fancy, but there’s plenty.”

  “Thanks Mom, that would be great. Hey, um, so Becca and Lilia are going to spend the night if that’s okay? Just kind of, um, a, um—”

  “A girls’ night,” interrupted Becca helpfully.

  “Yup, girls’ night,” Alex confirmed as her mother stared at her in shock. “You know, just girlfriends, having a girls’ night. Watching movies…” she trailed off. What in the heck did one do at a girls’ night anyway? Alex thought as her mother continued to stare at her as if she’d just grown another head.

  “Gossip, talk about boys, that sort of stuff,” Becca smiled at Jennifer. “Thanks, Mrs. Martin; we really appreciate it!” She poked Alex, not very subtly, in the ribs and Alex glared at her.

  “So, we’re gonna hit my room. We’ll be out in a few for sandwiches.” Alex led the way down the hall to her room, the other girls trailing after her, leaving her mother staring after them.

  “Geez, Alex, haven’t you ever had a friend sleepover?” Becca hissed as soon as the door was shut.

  “I don’t think so, not that I can remember,” Alex admitted.

  “Well, had I known that I would have come up with something more plausible, like my house flooding or something.”

  “And how would we have explained Lilia?”

  “My cousin who’s staying with me?”

  Alex glanced pointedly at Becca, petite and dark haired, standing next to long, lanky and blond Lilia. “That’s believable.”

  “Hey, you’d be surprised. My only girl cousin is almost six feet tall and has flaming red hair. Genes are bizarre things,” Becca flopped onto the bed, dropping the bag she was carrying. “I am so stinking tired.”

  “Here Lilia, I can put your bags in the closet,” Alex offered as she picked up the bag Becca had just dropped and held her hand out for the two Lilia still carried.

  “Where are we going to sleep?” Lilia asked as she handed over the bags.

  “The bed has a trundle—a pull-out bed under it. So you and Becca can fight over who gets what, and I’m totally fine with curling up on the bean bag chair.”

  “Sounds fine; I’ll even take the trundle,” Becca offered magnanimously. “Lilia here is probably used to a much bigger bed.”

  “Yeah, a lot bigger,” Alex said sarcastically as she closed the closet door. The three girls looked at each other for a moment before dissolving into helpless laughter. Alex was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face when her mom knocked on the door.

  “I laid out the sandwich stuff if you guys want to come get some,” Jennifer’s voice drifted through the door.

  “Okay, Mom, we’ll be right out,” Alex gasped out as the other two tried unsuccessfully to stop laughing.

  A few minutes later they emerged from Alex’s room to find that Jennifer had laid out every possible imaginable sandwich fixing on the kitchen table. She’d even managed to find two bags of chips in the pantry and added some cans of soda from the fridge to the spread. Alex was proud of how smoothly her mom had made the transition from shocked parent to party facilitator.

  “So, Lilia, have you known Alex and Becca long?” Jennifer asked as the three girls attacked the makeshift sandwich bar.

  “Not very long. I have just recently come to the museum.” Lilia carefully watched Alex and Becca build their sandwiches before starting her own. “But we have become friends quite quickly.”

  Jennifer smiled encouragingly at Alex. “That’s wonderful that the three of you are enjoying your summer working together.”

  “Yes.” Becca dumped chips onto her plate. “Thank you so much for dinner, Mrs. Martin,” she added, looking up from her now overflowing plate with a smile.

  “You’re welcome. I set up TV trays in the living room if you girls would like to eat dinner in front of a movie. I noticed the Sleeping Beauty DVD was out if you’d like to see that.”

  “Oh,” Alex coughed. “I, uh, watched that earlier. I think we might want to watch something else.”

  “Sure,” Jennifer looked at Alex in confusion. “I rented a romantic comedy the other day but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.”

 
“That sounds great, Mrs. Martin,” Becca answered for all three girls.

  Once they were all settled behind their trays in the living room, Jennifer started the DVD.

  “Do you girls know Luke Reed; isn’t he volunteering at the museum as well?” she asked as the DVD was cueing up.

  Alex started at the mention of Luke’s name, nearly upsetting her tray.

  “Yes,” Becca answered briefly, glancing at Alex.

  “He’s a nice young man, isn’t he?” Jennifer continued, and Alex considering putting her head through the nearest wall. Her mom’s lack of subtlety was painful.

  “He is a very nice young man,” Lilia agreed off-handedly as she examined her soda can as if it was a puzzle to be solved. “But unfortunately not a prince.”

  Jennifer paused, her sandwich halfway to her mouth, looking at Lilia in surprise.

  Becca took the soda can out of Lilia’s hand and popped the top before handing it back to her. “I’m sure some girls think he is, um, a prince among men,” Becca smiled reassuringly at Jennifer. “But we went to a rival school, my brother is on the baseball team, so…” she trailed off and gave a significant nod, as if that explained everything.

  Lilia graced Alex’s mom with another brilliant smile and nodded in agreement. “Yes, baseball.”

  Alex fought back the hysterical laughter that was building up in her chest. Her poor mom looked horribly confused. Maybe after tonight she’d be glad Alex didn’t make a habit of bringing home friends. “We’ll probably go to bed after the movie,” she said. “We’re going to get an early start tomorrow. There’s some stuff we are doing at the museum.”

  Jennifer nodded. She didn’t look any less confused, but if she thought one movie and an early bedtime didn’t constitute much of a girl’s night, she kept it to herself. “Okay, I’m leaving early too. I have to be out of the house by five, so if you guys wake up and I’m gone, there’s cereal and pancake mix in the cupboards.”

  ~

  The forest was thick and overgrown. Only occasional, scattered rays of sunlight filtered down through the dense leaves. The little light that made it past the forest canopy was tinted a warm green. Lyssia ran between the trees, weaving her way around the exposed tree roots, stumbling whenever one of the roots was obscured by moss or leaves on the forest floor. Her long skirts tangled about her legs, hindering her flight. Her sturdy brown boots made hardly any sound on the soft, springy ground, but even the faint thuds echoed through her and through the forest.