For the next two hours Rose chirped and buzzed, crafting a tale filled with fairies, magic, love, betrayal, and death. She told me the story that had been as protected as our forest. Now that I was all that was left of the Sorselunan people and had finally left the enchanted forest, there was no longer any reason to protect the secret.

The forest had always been filled with magic and mystery. Life was an endless circle of renewing with all lives fully lived. That was until mother fell in love with a powerful wizard who was also madly in love with her. She was young, but by the time her path crossed with the wizard who’d stolen her heart, she’d already promised herself to another.

Her lover had promised her a better life. One filled with romance, passion, freedom, and adventure. All she had to do was leave Sorseluna with him. Outside of the forest they could have whatever they wanted because they knew the secret that lay behind the magic of the woods.

I stood up and walked to the back door, peering out the square window that was too high for my eyes. I could only look up, but from there I could see the moon dancing with the clouds and occasionally showing its gentle light through the trees surrounding the inn.

I didn’t want to hear anymore. I was uncomfortable thinking of my mother ever loving anyone besides my father, who’d been a mighty and honorable man. They seemed happy or at least content. I continued to listen, needing to know but unable to let Rose see my wet blotchy face as she let the words fall on my ears.

“As the wedding day approached your mother was under a great deal of pressure and stress. She was expected to marry your father and assume her role as Chief Enchantress, Caretaker of the Forest. It is the most powerful role in all Sorseluna. Or at least it was. It was also one that would demand all of her.”

“What did she do?”

“As the preparations began for the wedding and feast your mother and her beloved became more and more anxious. The evening before the wedding ceremony was to take place he convinced her to leave the forest. Sarana simply vanished, as if into thin air. She took nothing with her, save a necklace. We all thought something terrible had happened. That she’d been taken by the dark ones on the other side, where we are now. Or that Dameldun had kidnapped her himself, against her will.”

“Is that what happened?” I asked through swollen eyes.

“No. she wasn’t taken or kidnapped. No one ever knew how they left, but his magic and his will were equally strong. It was months later that we realized he opened a portal, like the one we came through. When I saw that cottage back there I wondered if it was possible, but this note confirms my suspicions.”

“Suspicions about what, Rose? What are you saying?” I needed to hear it from her mouth.

“Your mother returned to the forest soon after. She was afraid, she was sad, and very few knew it, but she was with child. Your father, the one who raised you, always knew. He loved Sarana more than any man has ever loved a woman. Even more than Dameldun loved her. He’d been ill, lovesick, since she’d left but her coming back brought him back to life. Of course, he forgave her.

“Forgave her for what?”

“For leaving him the day before their wedding, Amarilla, and then coming back carrying another man’s child,” Rose said with a look that also said, “What kind of question is that?”

“Anyways, they renewed their engagement and he vowed to love her still and you always as his own. As fortune would have it, after this, she could not bear another child.”

All I could do was shake my head in disbelief at what Rose had confessed.

“This can’t be true. My mother would have never done that.”

“Dameldun attempted to see Sarana and even you. He was somehow able to come in and out of the forest as he pleased for years, until we, the fairies, were finally able to follow him without him knowing. We sealed the portal he used but by that time, it was too late.

“Too late? For what?”

“We didn’t know what he had done. Not even when the first people became ill. As it continued, however, we could only assume it was him since it started after we’d told him not to return. Amarilla, you understand what I’m telling you, right? Dameldun is…,”

“No. Don’t say it.”

I turned away from my view of the wooded back area and the moon and walked to the bathroom. I already knew what she was going to say. She’d all but said it already.

I looked like a wreck - red, wet, and spotty. I turned the handle of the faucet and listened to the creaking sound before the rumbling of water in the pipes brought water into the sink, my hands, and then my face.

Over and over, I splashed water on my face, rinsing away the tears and hopefully the lies Rose was telling me, along with them. Maybe this was still a long strange dream and I could force myself awake.

Rose looked at my reflection in the mirror. I was flushed and livid. Somewhere inside that I wanted to disown, I knew what she told me was true. I just didn’t want to believe her. He’d done it. He’d taken away every person I’d ever loved, and left me to live forever, alone. He’d cursed me to be rejected by the natural circle of life.

I would find him, wherever he’d gone to and I would give a good heaping of my brand of justice. When I was done with him I could enter the new enchanted forest, a new Sorseluna. I’d be happy to help send him back to whatever dark hole he’d dragged himself out of.

I pulled the dagger out of my bag along with my stone and sat on the bathroom floor sharpening the blade.

Sparrow looked at me mournfully from where she lay across the doorway. I could feel she was guarding me but I wasn’t sure if it was from something out there or from myself. It didn’t matter. In the morning we were leaving. Whoever left that note said they’d found me and I couldn’t be caught off guard.

If it was Dameldun, he had a clear advantage. He already knew where I was. I had no idea where he might be or what he even looked like. I now understood the behavior of the creepy Mr. Pickens though, and I’d start with him.

As I sharpened my knife I thought of my mother, Sarana. She’d chosen someone else before my father. Well, the father I’d known. She’d loved someone else and I was a product of that. Then something happened and she’d gone back to the enchanted forest. Now, everyone was gone except me. I stared at the blade she’d cultivated. She had a gift over metals, able to bring forth the most purity in them and in herbs. But herbs did me no good now. This blade would. The silver in it was as pure as it could be; she’d made sure of that.

“Rose?” I called out from the bathroom.

“Yes, Amarilla? Can you put up a border around our room? I don’t want any uninvited guests tonight. We leave at first light.”

“The border is already done. Where are we going, Amarilla? What are you planning now?” she asked with concern.

“I’m going to find Dameldun. I think it’s time for a little family reunion.”

_________

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