Zandria Reclaim: Family React to Abduction

Every day was the same for his mother, who stood pining by the window looking out to the sea of sand dunes of the Zand. There were days when she would recluse herself on the Eastern Rotundra. Not a day went by that she ate a full meal. Always a half plate was left over. And there were the tears. He had seen them. His father would go and comfort her with a hug or held her as they stood together. The family of three had been lonely ever since that tragic day. Though the parents had let it pass, they hadn't forgiven their son fully. Sadness wrought his mother to the point of leaving everything before her like a lost soul searching for a kite flown away from a broken string. The worst part was: without Ikrah in the way, the Emperor refused to annul the marriage between Little Phoenix and Solaren, citing there was time for them to make an heir. And then with the migration of the Obendellers having left Tare, there was a sense of emptiness to the fortress of the southlands. Today, they sat down for lunch on the Sky Tower, an open floor that was constructed over nine hundred paces high in the middle of the Tare. It can be reached through the spiral steps built onto the tower at its base or the skyway arch that attached to the castle. The masonry of this building was actually the combined work of Obendellers and Tarennei engineers. The cloister surrounding them was white marble. The table and chairs were anchored to the floor with hidden bolts. Such a structure favored the Wind. Thoran had presented it as a gift upon completion before he disappeared. His love for the Lady of Tare was obvious in his work. Then, the sudden flying messenger returned circling the cloister twice, dropping the ruby bracelet onto the floor. Stone Bird ran over there, picking it up. Upon recognition, her eyes took on shock and tears as she let out a cry of total anguish. "Noooo!..." Shaking, she looked up at the Phoenix spiraling toward her. She caught it in her arms, falling to her knees as if both human and bird exerted to exhaustion. Legran strode over to her side, wrapping his arms around her as she wept.

"Ikrah.... Ikrah.... Ikrah...." Her husband picked up the bracelet pulling it from her fingers. He looked at it seeing the crude cut that left the chain ends curl at the edges. "They have her, now. She didn't do this." "What...?" "This was cut." She looked at the object in his hand, darting back and forth between his face and the Phoenix with the worst fear of a parent when a child was abducted. The trampled voice in her throat uttered as if she was gutted in the vitals. He drew her into his chest, rocking her as she cried wrenching in desperate pain. "Birdie, Gentle Goddess!" He, too, fell pray to tears over the abduction, with himself to blame. Through the tears, she noticed her son kneeling near in his own confusion of fears and horrors. She ripped the bracelet from Legran's hand and threw it in Little Phoenix's face. "Take it to your wife. I don't care who you Choose now. Just get out of my sight." "Birdie," Legran chided gently. "He must feel the same." "If he did, he wouldn't have attacked her out of jealousy." His father gave him a scolding look, then gestured for him to leave to avoid the Queen's wrath. He picked up the bracelet, walking away glumly, head hung in shame. As he made his way down the steps just a man's height below, he leaned brokenly against the wall, letting his own tears fall on the winds that blew past the tower base. His mother was wailing at this point in total grief. Yet his father's voice was stronger, and with reason. "Listen to me, they wanted her from four years ago at Pruscan Heights. It had to happen eventually." Little Phoenix swallowed hard with his eyes wide open. "I don't care! I want her back!" "Don't I know that? It was my fault she was stolen." "I don't blame you, Legran. They wanted her from the start. Oh, Goddess...!" "When Aquine was alive, he put that treatise in place to keep us safe. But with his death, I don't know how they will hold their end of the bargain now. I just find it strange they've withdrawn from our lands." "It's because they have her now. That's why! Isn't it?!"

"I wish I know all the reasons why they want her." "She's the forgotten Princess of the Empire! What else could be the reason?" Little Phoenix covered his mouth as his entire body tore at itself shelling his muscles from the bones of his being. He stayed quiet, turning slowly, nervously looking back at the end of the stairs up there. "No, she's the exiled Princess of the Empire now. Dregin threw her out from the very beginning, and made it clear she's forbidden to set foot on his lands since that incident in Jolan. I just wonder if he did it on purpose. We did all we could for that child." "She could've been our daughter. Had I known sooner, I would have adopted her." "That wouldn't have helped her. Our son might have grown up jealous of such a strong willed sister." Pause. The Phoenix cooed and hummed audibly. "She's alive, Legran! At least, that's how Phoenix had last seen her. They're going to.... coronate her as Duchess?" "Replace Aquine?" "Oh dear Goddess, they're going to challenge the Emperor in her name. They want their lands back. The whole duchy." "You mean what was the barony.... Then, this explains the withdrawal. They are going to form a full coalition. And Dregin will come to us for help. I only hope for his sake that they can't turn her to their will." "Gentle Goddess, it's war of the continent all over again." Silence. "Given how she was treated here, I can't blame her if she does. It was Aquine and Taye who kept her warm." "That is true. They loved that dear girl." They quieted. Little Phoenix withdrew his hand from his mouth as he brought up the bracelet, looking at it a moment until he gripped it in a tight fist. What a fool he was! He lost her for good now. It was his fault that she wind up in enemy hands. This was twice he sent her in harm's way. His Soul Spirit was summoned for him to climb on the flight away from this place. He flew around the Sky Gazebo with a deeply cut sorrow in his heart. All the regrets in the world wasn't going to save her, nor ease his torn heart.