Descendants of Erodis

by Katharina Sinead

‘Go on.’

  He jerked his head towards the library doors. ‘There are still a few hours until dinner, go and explore the palace a bit more.’

  I sighed ‘all right, all right I’m going.’

  Heading towards the entrance, I turned to see Aiolos waving at me with a wide grin on his face, before heading off to find the parts of my home I had yet to discover.

  Just over half an hour later, having almost gotten lost in several corridors and discovered a few new rooms, I came across a door on the way to my room to change for dinner, that I hadn’t noticed before.

  At first glance, the wooden door appeared old and plain with bits of paint and wood peeling off – but on closer inspection it in fact had fairies; pixies; angels; elves, and various other magical beings etched into the wood and, looking down at the handle noticed it was unlocked, so I opened it to see what was hidden on the other side.

  The room concealed behind the beautiful, yet ageing, door was almost as large as my room, and filled with various items both large and small. Out of everything in this new room I had discovered the Grand Piano, placed at the very centre of the room partially covered by a large white sheet that was gathering dust, was by far the largest. Weaving my way through several boxes labelled “old crockery”, “antiques” etc., I took the sheet in both hands and tugged it off; a blanket of dust falling over me and making me splutter and sneeze, and threw it to the floor.

  Returning my attention to the piano, I ran the tips of my fingers along its sleek surface and then the shining lid. Having learnt piano for seven years when I lived in the human world, I decided to see if I could still play and, in doing so, find out whether the piano itself was still in tune. Sitting myself down on the cushioned piano stool, I opened the lid and raised my hands above the ivory keys. Playing a random melody straight from my head for a time, relieved and surprised at the fact it was still in tune and, I opened my mouth and began to sing.

  ‘When I was young

  My parents sent me away

  To keep me safe

  From someone

  Who would hurt me

  My whole life, I’ve lived

  In a world I don’t belong

  Until I came home

  I didn’t know

  Who I really was.’

  I played a little more, tapping the ivory keys I knew would fit – but, as I opened my mouth to resume singing, I sensed someone behind me, and twisted round to see who it was.

  My father was stood behind me, leaning against an old chest of drawers up against the wall to the right of the piano with his arms crossed over his chest, a wide smile spread across his handsome features.

  ‘You sing beautifully my dear, and where did you learn to play like that?’ he asked, coming over.

  I smiled, moving along the seat so he could sit beside me. ‘I learnt piano from the age of seven until I was fourteen, by which time I had achieved my Grade Six.’

  ‘Why did you stop?’ he enquired, tapping out a short tune as he spoke.

  ‘It was around the time I began my GCSEs. I wanted to get good grades, so I could get into Sixth Form and do the A-Levels I wanted to and to get there, I had to concentrate on getting all of my homework done and studying hard for my exams. With all that, I only ever had time to watch a bit of TV, because I’d do homework or study almost the moment I got home, until dinner. I didn’t really have time for my piano lessons anymore.’

  ‘That’s a shame – at least you can still play despite not taking lessons for the past few years.’

  I nodded, ‘that’s true.’

  There was a moment of silence following my answer, and then my father spoke. ‘You should teach your friend Harry how to play…you’re already teaching him archery, after all.’

  ‘I tried to when we were ten and eleven just after I achieved Grade Two,’ I chuckled ‘ but he couldn’t play for toffee.’

  ‘Well, you were both younger back then. Now that you’re older and more experienced, maybe he’ll be able to learn now if you’re persuasive’ he replied, chortling.

  I shook my head sadly and looked down at my lap, ‘it’s been a long time since I tried teaching him piano – I don’t think he’d still have an interest in learning anymore.’

  My father lifted my chin with his finger.

  ‘You’ll never know, unless you ask him’ he murmured, eyes twinkling.

  ‘Now come on, dinner will be ready soon. Get changed into a nice dress and I’ll meet you at the foot of the stairs’ he added, getting up and throwing me a fatherly smile and a wink before leaving the room.

  I sat at the piano for a time following his departure, staring at its sleek top as the words he said to me ran through my mind over, and over: “you’ll never know unless you ask him”, with the feeling deep in my heart that there was some hidden meaning behind them, and then left the room myself to change into something for dinner.

  Aiolos’s Fate

  Fifteen minutes or so into dinner, my mother said ‘Oraelia, your father tells me that you found a room containing various things including a Grand Piano, on which he found you playing.’

  Everyone else seated at the table except for my father stopped eating, and cast their eyes over to me.

  The hand holding a fork-full of tortellini stopped halfway towards my mouth and, setting my fork down gently into my bowl I folded my hands in my lap, I answered the question - though I was not speaking solely to my mother as I did.

  ‘It is true that I discovered a room I’d never noticed before as I was on my way to change for dinner, within the centre of which was a piano.’

  Harry was staring at me from across the table.

  ‘Harry is something the matter?’ I asked.

  He blinked at me a few times, as if waking from a trance or spell.

  ‘Oh, no I – it’s just that I remember you telling me back when we bumped into each other in the park, that you’d given up piano after you started your GCSEs. The fact that you’ve started playing again came as a bit of a shock’ he replied.

  I smiled gently over at him and was just about to tell him I had only been testing myself to see if I could still play as well as I used to, when my father spoke.

  ‘Harry, have you and Oraelia seen the capital properly yet?’

  ‘No, Your Majesty.’ Harry replied politely.

  ‘Then that is what you two shall do tomorrow. Jaron and Kenton, you will accompany them.’

  The brothers bowed their heads and looked at me and Harry.

  ‘Is a ten thirty departure okay with you two?’ Jaron asked.

  ‘Fine with me’ Harry replied coolly.

  ‘What about you, my Lady?’ Kenton asked.

  ‘That’s fine with me.’

  ‘Excellent! Be outside in front of the palace gates at ten o’clock so we have time to ready the horses’ Jaron replied.

  I nodded my ascent before turning to my father, asked ‘I am rather tired, could I be excused?’

  ‘You don’t want dessert?’ he answered gently.

  I shook my head.

  ‘All right, off you go, and hopefully I’ll see you in the morning before you leave.’

  ***

  Two or three hours later, I was lying in bed with a book on my lap when there was a knock at the door. Placing the book face down on my stomach, I called for the knocker to come in.

  Aiolos poked his head round the door.

  ‘Hey sis. Mind if I come in?’

  ‘Of course not, come on in’ I smiled, pulling myself up a little and leaning back against my pillows.

  ‘So, how are you finding the palace, and royal life in general?’ he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  ‘Still getting used to it, I guess’ I replied, closing my book after memorising the page I was on and placing it on my bedside table beside the cream coloured lamp there.

  He smiled reassuringly, ‘don’t worry, you fit in perfectly already.’

  I gave him a small smile in return before looking him in the eye.


  ‘Aiolos, can I ask you something?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Um…o-over time will you…I mean…’ I stammered, unable to ask him outright what I wanted to know.

  ‘Are you trying to ask whether I’ll age, like other human beings?’ he asked, his tone kind.

  I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it and simply nodded instead.

  ‘It’s understandable you’d want to know that. I will age for a time, but after I’ve turned twenty-five I’ll stop, just like you will.’

  ‘Does everyone who is saved by the Elandrean royal families stop ageing after they are brought here?’

  He was silent for a moment before opening his mouth to answer me.

  ‘Yes…and no. They all stop ageing after a few months, but after they have been here for thirty years they are collected by the Queen of Angels, Iona, and her husband Gardohil, the First Elf King. Once collected, they live with them in the kingdom of Teralien beyond the clouds above Elandrea.’

  ‘Iona and Gardohil, Teralien – I think I read about them in one of the Elandrean history books from the library.’

  It was as I said this, that something unimaginable crossed my mind.

  ‘Does that mean you’ll be taken too, once you’ve been here for thirty years?!’ I asked, tears pricking my eyes and a lump of panic forming in my throat.

  ‘Oh sweetheart, no’ he replied as the tears broke free and flowed down my cheeks. He moved closer, wrapping his arms around me as I choked back a sob.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. I promise you that’ he murmured into my ear as I slid my arms around his middle.

  ‘How can you know?’ I asked as he pulled gently away from me.

  ‘Because when your parents saved my life, and adopted me into your family, they requested an audience with Queen Iona and King Gardohil stating the nature of their request. It was accepted, and the King and Queen of Teralien met us at the cliff that overlooks the Dracorian Ocean, ten miles west of Ledoran. Following a quiet discussion that I did not catch much of, Iona and Gardohil each touched me on the forehead with two fingers, leaving a glowing mark that faded within seconds. An invisible mark that tells the angels who come to Elandrea every thirty years that I am never to be taken with them to Teralien.’

  Once he’d finished his anecdote my brother leant over, and kissed my forehead before holding me within his gentle gaze.

  ‘You are never going to lose me Oraelia. I will always be here, okay?’

  I wiped away my tears, sniffing a little as I nodded with a small smile.

  He smiled back and gave me a hug before turning off my lamp, getting up and going over to the door.

  ‘Goodnight sweetheart.’

  ‘Night’ I replied, suddenly feeling sleepy as he left and, slipping further under the covers, soon fell asleep dreaming of what tomorrow would bring.

  Changed Appearance

  When I woke next day, the sun was shining into my room through a gap in the sheer curtains, and the clock above my pastel blue dresser was just hitting quarter to seven.

  Pulling myself into a sitting position, I leant over to grab the book from my bedside table but changed my mind, deciding instead to get in some archery practice before we left. Sliding out of bed, I went over to my dresser to use the mirror while I put my hair up in a style appropriate for training and cleansed my face ready for the day ahead. As I sat down I gave a start as I looked in the mirror.

  I looked different. The acne that had plagued me since I was thirteen had completely cleared up. My skin was now completely unblemished, and smooth to the touch. The colour of my eyes had changed from hazel brown to violet-grey, although there were still a few flecks of the colour they once were in them. My cheek bones were also more defined, and my ears had somehow lengthened a few inches and came to a soft point just like my parents’, without my knowledge. Not only all that, but all the scars that I had entered Elandrea with…were gone.

  I couldn’t quite grasp these sudden changes in my appearance, and without giving it a second thought I opened my door and tiptoed over to Harry’s, knocking only loud enough for him to hear if he was even slightly awake. A few seconds after I knocked, the door opened and Harry stood before me, his bed-hair making him look handsome despite its dishevelled appearance, his eyes bleary from sleep.

  ‘Ellie? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Harry, I…I’ve changed.’

  ‘What do you mean? You’re still in your night gown’ he mumbled, sleepily rubbing at his eyes.

  ‘I don’t mean my clothes Harry, I’m...talking about my facial features.’

  He blinked at me a few times, and then invited me into his room.

  ‘Now, why don’t you tell me what you…’ he began say, but his voice trailed off as he met the expression in my eyes.

  Now that I had his attention I turned away from him to the window behind me, walked into the path of sunlight shining in through the outside world, and slowly turned around to face him.

  Harry’s eyes widened, though whether it was in surprise or shock I wasn’t sure, and came towards me almost as slowly as I had turned around.

  ‘Your - your eyes are different!’

  ‘I know, it - it’s kind of weird.’

  ‘Your skin is completely unblemished...and your ears – this all happened over just one night?’ he asked me.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How is this possible?’

  I shrugged and then had an idea, ‘my parents will know, though I’d hate to wake them so early in the day’ I replied.

  ‘If their only daughter has woken up to changes in her appearance that seemed to have happened overnight, I think they’ll forgive you. Come on’ he replied, grabbing me gently by the hand and pulling me after him as he left the room.

  As we headed down the hallway towards my parents’ room, I looked sideways at Harry - who was still holding my hand - and saw a worried look in his eyes that had appeared almost the moment he’d seen the change in my features.

  I stopped and tugged him back.

  ‘Ellie, what is it?’ he asked nervously.

  ‘Something is troubling you. What is it?’

  ‘I – the fact that your appearance has changed days after our arrival in Ledoran…it only makes it more obvious to me how different we are. You are a princess, born into a world of magic and elves as we have both learned. Me…I’m only a human’ he answered, a hint of sadness in his voice.

  ‘Harry, I don’t believe –’ I began to contradict what he had said, but stopped half way through my sentence upon seeing my father appear at the end of the hall, heading in the direction of the stairs.

  ‘Father!’ I called, letting go of Harry’s hand and running to him.

  ‘Oraelia...and Harry too, I thought you weren’t leaving until ten thirty?’ he asked, mentioning Harry when he looked up from me and noticed him.

  Harry respectfully bowed his head. ‘King Thäro Ell - I mean - Oraelia’s, features have changed overnight, and we were hoping you’d be able to explain it.’

  My dad turned his soft-eyed gaze on me, and it was then that he noticed I looked different to the way I had yesterday.

  ‘You had better come into my study.’ He motioned for us to follow him back in the direction from which I’d seen him come.

  We soon came to a green door painted with golden swirls which my father opened, and then turned to usher us into the room before closing the door behind himself.

  The study was large and spacious with a wide desk in front of a pair of tall bay windows with a large blue chair behind it, two smaller green chairs in front of the desk. There were a few things placed upon it including a pot of swan-feather quills, an inkwell and a red pot of normal pens. Two wide bookshelves filled with books , along with a long red sofa covered in an assortment of patterned cushions stood against the far wall of the study.

  Taking me and Harry over to the sofa, Father sat down and invited us to do the same.

  ‘Oraelia, do you remember rea
ding about Queen Iona and King Gardohil, in one of Elandrea’s history books?’ he asked me.

  ‘Yes, they rule over Teralien, above the clouds’ I replied.

  ‘Did you happen to read anything on their descendants?’

  I shook my head ‘no, I did look but I couldn’t find anything about them. Does it have something to do with my appearance changing?’

  He nodded, ‘indeed it does, my dear. They had three sons; Erodis, Ildoren and Jerodil, all three growing up with their mother’s eyes, and their father’s sharp sight and hearing, pointed ears, and unblemished skin. When each of them turned sixteen, they grew wings inherited from their mother and, since they were different from their parents and those they grew up around, they were given the term Avadorae: a combination of the Elandrean and Teraliene words for elf and angel, Ava and Dorae.’

  I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up his hand and carried on.

  ‘When we sent you to the human world, your mother and I asked Iona and Gardohil how long it would be after you arrived home, that you would adopt the features inherited from them including Iona’s wings, and they told us it would be two to seven days. I don’t know how long it will be until your wings come through, but my guess is that they will follow a day or two from now- maybe even later today.’

  ‘Are you saying that I’m a direct descendant of Iona and Gardohil?’

  My father nodded, ‘you and I both; through their first-born son Erodis. You’ll also develop gifts, which may come before or after your wings - but we will save discussing those for after you get your wings; right now, you two should be getting ready to go into town, go on now’ he replied, getting up and going over to his desk; sitting down to start on some paperwork (presumably kingdom business).

  A signal to me that our conversation was over for now, I followed Harry out of the study and headed over to my room to get ready for my first visit into Síosa.

  A Book On Elves

  As Jaron, Kenton, Harry and I passed into town from the road leading down from the palace three hours or so after the talk with my father I made an observation, ‘for a town, there sure are a lot of people.’