| streets of Azgeda
AZGEDA
The sky was very clear that day. The sunlight was illuminating the crowded streets and melting the leavings of snow. It was a rather rare happening, for the snow was never really gone from Azgeda, not even during summertime.
Bellamy Blake walked down the street with a basket full of vegetables, fruits and bread that would surely be enough to feed him and Octavia for two weeks. Moreover, he even managed to get his sister's favorite chocolate pie. The latter didn't belong to inexpensive or basic necessities, but for once he wanted to give his sister more than the cheapest things he could find on the bazaar. It was Unity Day, after all.
He passed a few more stalls, on his way he bumped into some kids who were running among people, while their parents were buying food for tonight's celebration. Of course, not all of them would go home to celebrate. A lot of kids in the neighborhood didn't have parents or home at all.
Bellamy took a deep breath and stopped by the jewelry stall. He didn't come to it often, but when he did, it wasn't to buy anything.
When Diana Sydney saw him approaching, she looked down and up again, observing his body carefully. He didn't say anything, already used to it. Suck it up. You're doing it for Octavia, he thought, he always told it to himself. It made everything much easier.
"Hello, Bellamy" Diana smiled at him seductively and he forced himself to smile back at her. "What brings you here?"
"It's Unity Day. I have to buy Octavia a present" he said to her surprise. She never thought he would come to her to spend the money, every time he visited her, he would go home much richer than he had been before.
"Really?" she asked, her sweet voice made him sick in stomach. "How are you going to pay?"
"I've got money" Bellamy said shortly, smiling at the clear disappointment that appeared on her face.
Diana Sydney was one of the wealthiest people in Azgeda. She and her husband sold their jewelry in all twelve clans, even in Polis. Bellamy always wondered what a woman like her did selling her goods once a week at one of the poorest market in the whole kingdom. He assumed he may have been one of her reasons.
Bellamy was looking through the rings and necklaces, thinking that one stall was worth much more than he ever had in his entire life. Underneath the golden and diamond jewelry that he would never be able to afford, he found an old, tarnished necklet. It might have been golden and shiny once, but the time must have taken its beauty away. He still thought it had its charm, though. A simple chain with a small round pendant which had an effigy of the animal that was half a lion, half an eagle.
"It's a griffin" he heard Diana Sydney's voice. He could feel her burning gaze on his body, but he decided to ignore it. If he was nice to her, maybe she would let him pay less than the jewelry was actually worth. "Symbol of the Griffin family."
"How much do you want for this?" he asked, watching the battered necklace. All that was left of the Griffins were ashes and pages of history. The Lightbournes made their goal to erase the memory of them, so no people had any sigils of the Griffin family in their houses anymore, as they used to for generations. The necklace Bellamy was holding in his hand may have been one of the few mementos left from the time the Griffins sat on the throne.
"Twenty silver ones" the woman responded. Bellamy raised his brows. He expected much bigger price, so high that would be unaffordable for him. After all, it was a piece of history. However, Diana didn't appear to care about it, she must have considered it a useless piece of jewelry that she didn't want to retain. She probably wouldn't be able to sell it in the higher price anyway - no one would purchase such a thing, for supporting the Griffins was considered a treason. Treason was sentenced by death in Arkadia.
"I'll take it.”
"This is what you want to give to your sister?" the woman teased and Bellamy had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I thought you had a better taste."
"It's not for Octavia" Bellamy answered shortly. Playing sweet to her was harder than it appeared to be. That woman was getting on his nerves very easily.
"Oh, really? For whom, then?" Diana asked, her eyes still on his body. He felt like his skin was burning from her gaze, neither in a satisfying, nor a comfortable way. "A new lover?"
"No. For me" Bellamy's eyes wandered back from Diana to the necklace. It wasn't beautiful or marvelous, but it had its worth. History.
If there was one thing that Bellamy Blake really loved, it was learning history. He would find some old, decrepit books with missing pages on the bazaar and buy them. Notwithstanding the low price, sometimes it would cost him his dinner, resulting in him walking around hungry for a few days. He didn't regret buying any of these though, he loved reading the stories about the former kings and queens, learning about the wars and dreaming about going down in history. When he was a child, he thought that it somehow would get him and Octavia a real home.
He stopped dreaming a long time ago. However, owning something like that necklace, a piece of history for his own, was still an exciting thought for him.
"Alright" Diana Sydney responded after a second or two, she didn't hide her astonishment. Bellamy couldn't blame her, he was quite surprised as well. He never really bought anything just for himself and she knew that. Even the books he purchased, he read them all to Octavia, so she could learn something too. There wasn't a single thing he owned that he didn't share with his sister. "Anything else?"
Bellamy looked through the jewelry and he found a beautiful golden necklace with a red gem, very simple, yet majestic. He was sure Octavia would love it.
"This one. How much is it?"
"Five golden coins" Bellamy saddened, knowing damn well that he could not ever afford that. "For you just two. And you can take the second one for free."
"Thanks" Bellamy smiled and gave her two golden coins. He was probably a fool, giving so much money for such a useless thing, but all he could think about was Octavia's smile he would see after giving her the golden necklace. He grabbed what he bought and turned around, ready to go home.
"You should come by tonight" he heard Diana's voice behind his back, so he turned his head towards her. She sent him a simpering smile. He noticed her legs were a little widened, her skirt pulled up. "My husband isn't in town. I'll pay twice."
"I don't do this anymore" he answered a little sharply and walked away from her stall.
***
It had been a long time since the last day in Azgeda as beautiful as that one. Inhabitants of Ice Nation were familiar with severe weather, nonetheless they wasted no opportunity to get as much sunlight as they could. The sun was certainly there that day, bringing the unusual amount of people to the streets.
Bellamy ran into a few more people on his way out of the market. He was used to the street being overcrowded, it never actually bothered him. Seeing people walking around, children playing in the snow, hearing the hubbub from the bazaar, it all made that place special to him.
He entered the road that led to the main square of the town. There was another way home, the desolate one that led through the woods, but he chose the congested square instead. He liked that place, it held a lot of memories. He would come there a lot with Octavia when they were kids. Their mother was either drunk or prostituing herself most of the time, he didn't want his sister to see that.
Bellamy was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice that people were standing in the square, observing something that was happening in the middle of the place. It resulted in him bumping into someone. An orange and a few carrots fell out of the basket and rolled straight into the crowd. There was no way he could get those back. He muttered a few swears under his breath and made peace with his loss. There wasn't much else he could do.
He barged through a crowd, causing a few people to yell at him, but he chose to ignore them. Finally, when he got to the first row, he was able to see what was happening. There were a lot of kids sitting in one place, that was the first thing he noticed. They had food, toys, Bellamy noted that some of them were wearing jackets on their shoulders that didn't look like something anybody from his neighborhood would ever afford. He recognized some of their faces. He was familiar with a lot of people in the district, it wasn't a huge town, after all.
A woman was sitting in the middle of the square, reading some book to the youngest children. Bellamy couldn't help but notice that she was distinctly beautiful. Her face was pale, with a slight blush on her cheeks. Her long, golden hair were loose, with only a few fine braids that created a crown on her head. She was wearing an elegant, dark blue vesture, that gave her an almost royal appearance. He could tell she was a princess, she looked like one.
A gentle smile on her face as she was reading a book to the kids made her even prettier. After the second thought, Bellamy realized that she couldn't be a princess. He'd never seen princess Josephine before, but he was quite sure it wasn't her. There were no guards around her, no sigils of the Lightbourne family. Besides, no princess would care about the common people enough to do something like that.
„What's going on?" Bellamy asked a middle aged woman that was standing next to him. "Who is that?"
"I don't know" she responded with a slight smile on her face, her eyes not on Bellamy, but on a golden-haired woman and the children surrounding her. He assumed that her kids were there, either playing with new toys or listening to the story. "She came here with food, clothes, toys and gave them to our children. I don't know who she is, but thank the gods for her. It's been a long time since those kids were fed."
"Right. It's been too long" Bellamy looked again at the gathering, his eyes wandered immediately to the smiling girl. He wondered who she was and why she was there. He didn't quite understand it. No one in that world gave anything expecting nothing in return.
A boy that couldn't be older than six years, probably the youngest of them all, was sitting on her knees. He and all the other kids surrounding her were listening carefully to every single word the woman said. It had to be their only opportunity to hear any written story. Many people in the town couldn't read, nor write, nobody cared enough to teach them. He was lucky to know how to do it, he had learnt it from his mother when he was a little child. Years later, he taught Octavia as well.
He decided to stay there a little longer and listen to what she was reading, he didn't have to hurry. Bellamy loved books, he could stay hours in his room and read them if he was ever given an opportunity. After a minute or two, he realized that he had already read that story. She was holding the same book he had bought years before, of course hers was in much better condition, printing much prettier than the one he owned. He recognized the history of the first Griffin ruler uniting all twelve clans and declaring them as one kingdom called Arkadia. Even though he loved reading about it, he considered the story a little idealized. He'd seen too much blood on the streets of his town to believe that Xalvador Griffin united all the clans without much bloodshed. Bellamy had already learned one important thing in his life - people tended to love the taste of blood.
However, children couldn't understand it, not yet. They listened, catching every single word greedily, making sure that not even one disappears in the noise of the square.
"Xalvador united the lands of Eden, bringing peace to the people of all twelve clans. He gave birth to Arkadia we're all living in today" golden-haired woman finished reading her story and looked up, smiling at the kids. Some of them applauded, others only returned the smile.
"What happened later?" the little boy that was sitting on her knees asked, clearly excited and curious about the following events. Bellamy smiled slightly, the kid reminded him a little of himself when he was younger.
"He ruled Arkadia, so did his children and grandchildren" she answered, only then did Bellamy notice the softness of her voice.
"Is it true that he was born from fire?" he heard a question of another boy from the gathering, this one a little older. At that point even some adults started to listen, obviously interested in the answer. People on the streets had always been whispering about the Lightbournes and the Griffins being the children of fire. It was more of the myths and old beliefs than the actual truth. Bellamy didn't believe in any of these stories, he was never a religious person.
„Legends say so" she looked around and their eyes crossed for less than a second. She had beautiful eyes, he couldn't deny it. Big, with the color of the winter sky. He could almost tell that he saw real flickers in them, but he didn't have enough time to look closer. "Some people say he had fire in his veins instead of blood and whenever his enemies made him bleed, they burned from that."
"Really?" a small, brown haired girl asked with clear enthusiasm in her big, dark eyes.
"Don't be silly, Rose" a taller girl standing by her side interrupted her. Her face was very similar to the younger one, a little more mature, but their eyes were the same, they had to be sisters. "If it was true, the Griffins wouldn't be dead."
Bellamy's eyes quickly came back to the golden-haired woman. He was almost sure he saw a shadow of emotion on her face he couldn't really name. He didn't have time to read into that, her face came back to normal just as fast as it changed its expression in the first place.
"It's just a legend" she said, her voice very gentle, her smile a little smaller. "But every legend has a grain of truth."
Maybe she was right. Bellamy wouldn't know.
"Do you know any more stories?" a boy sitting on her knees asked with noticeable hope in his voice.
She answered something, Bellamy wasn't quite sure what she said, he didn't listen, too busy staring at her. He tried to guess who she was. She didn't look like an Azgeda native dweller, not with her golden, wavy hair and ocean blue eyes. Almost every Ice Nation inhabitant had dark and usually straight hair, eyes brown, or even black. It was probably the most characteristic trait of the people living there. But on the other hand, there he was, with curls on his head and skin tone much darker than anybody else who lived in his clan, where everyone's skin was almost as white as the snow lying on the streets.
She probably was an outsider, he assumed. But then again, what would she be doing in the foreign clan? He was pretty sure that poverty was a problem in the whole Arkadia, maybe not in Polis, where only the wealthiest people lived. Why wouldn't she be helping her own people then?
She started reading another story, making kids go quiet again. No, she couldn't be a higborn, no highborn would have a heart kind enough to come to the street to feed poor children and read books to them.
He was just standing there and staring at her, a beautiful stranger, for some more time. He wasn't sure what made her so entrancing to him, he didn't even know her name. Maybe it was a gentle smile she sent to children, or the flickers in her eyes. He wasn't quite sure.
The story went on and even though he enjoyed standing there and watching that situation, he decided it was time for him to leave. He had yet things to do and a dinner to prepare, as much as he wanted to stay there a little longer, it wasn't an option for him. He faced to the way out of the square, but he managed to make only a few steps before someone ran right into him, making him drop the basket and causing a lot of the products he had purchased to fall out on the street.
It wasn't a lucky day for him, he thought.
"Charlotte, look what you've done!" he heard a man's voice yelling above his ear, as he quickly kneeled to pick up the dropped things. He felt the attention of the people slowly concentrating at him, so he had to stop himself from coursing, which appeared to be very difficult at the moment.
"I am so, so sorry" a girl that caused the whole trouble kneeled next to him, helping him collect the food from the ground. He lifted his head to glance at her, she looked genuinely concerned, even scared, when she edgily put his things back in the basket. "I didn't want to..."
„It's okay" he mumbled, just wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"I can pay you for that, I can work..." she muttered, he could sense her tears as she spoke. He heard that same man's voice again, hollering at the girl, that had to be a father of hers. She seemed to be frightened just by the sound of his voice and Bellamy instantly felt bad for her.
"Hey" Bellamy grabbed her hand and sent her a soft smile to calm her a little. Her eyes widened in obvious fear as he did it, so he let go of her hand the second he saw that. "It's alright, really."
"It's not, just tell me how much you paid for that so I can-"
"Please, don't" he interrupted her, glancing at the wasted piece of white cheese that was all covered in mud. It was quite a delicacy in his town and he paid for it much more than he'd like to, but when he tasted a bit of it earlier, he decided that it was definitely worth its price. Even so, he wouldn't let the girl know that, it would only make her more upset, he didn't want that. "It's fine. I don't really need this anyway."
"Really? You're not angry?" she asked quietly, her voice was weak, yet relieved. The fact that she was so frightened of his reaction broke Bellamy's heart.
"No. Just help me pick those up."
The girl smiled shyly, gathering the rest of the products from the street. When everything that was still suitable to eat was back in his basket, he got up, ready to go. He turned around to see that the girl wasn't next to him anymore, already dragged by her father in the opposite direction. He knew this wouldn't end up well for her, but the sad truth was, there wasn't much he could do about it.
He looked around, the people surrounding him were slowly taking their eyes off him, he was thankful for that. Yet, there was one pair of eyes still fixated on him. The golden-haired woman was staring at Bellamy now and their eyes crossed for a little longer than earlier. He had some time to really look into them. They were in a cold blue shade, yet still warm. Eyes are the ocean of the soul, his mother used to tell him. Bellamy was never able to read from the person's eyes, he was too uncomfortable with looking someone in them for long. However, he could see one thing in hers very clearly.
Fire.
She sent him a smile so gentle that he wasn't sure if he really saw it. Then a boy sitting on her knees asked her to continue reading the story she must have stopped at some point. She looked back down at the book and only after a few seconds did Bellamy turn around to face the entrance of the square. He headed towards one of the poorest streets in the town, where he lived with his sister.
***
"How come you are such a good cook?" Octavia finished her meal, making sure that she ate every single crumb. "I can barely make a salad."
"Maybe you could make a proper meal if you ever tried" Bellamy teased his sister, taking the dirty dishes from the small table. Their feast was over and he smiled to himself, proud of what he had made. They hadn't eaten such good food for years.
That year was different from the previous ones for Bellamy and Octavia, they finally were out of the woods. Their work paid off bringing a rather stable source of money. They even bought a small cottage, so they had a place they could call home. No luxuries, of course, but Bellamy couldn't dream of anything better at the moment.
"I would" Octavia said with mouth full of chocolate cake, it must have been her third piece. She really did love it. "But I don't want our house on fire. You know I would probably destroy everything around me if I tried cooking."
"Right" Octavia had many assets, but house works weren't among them. He had always been the one to prepare food or do the washing, she was never good at that. "Not a great idea."
"Anyway, I saw Atom today" Octavia started, making Bellamy sight with disapproval. His sister had been going out with the guy for a couple of weeks and he didn't like it at all. Maybe it was something about Atom that bothered him, or maybe just the fact that he dated his little sister.
"You know I don't like him."
"You don't know him, Bell" she interrupted him, clearly annoyed at his behavior. "You met him once and it lasted five minutes."
"That's enough for me" he responded, keeping the casual tone of voice as if the thought of that meeting didn't make his hackles rise. He caught the guy kissing his sister and he definitely didn't enjoy that.
"You can say that you don't like him because I'm dating him."
"Alright, you caught me" he said and Octavia rolled her eyes. Bellamy was overprotective when it came to his sister and she hated it with passion, but that's who he was. "That doesn't change the fact that I don't trust him and neither should you. I'm telling you, that guy isn't anything good."
"At least he knows things and he tells me about them" she stated, completely ignoring his comment. He knew that she didn't take him seriously when he talked about her boyfriend. "Supposedly king Russell is sick. He's probably gonna die soon."
"Tell me again, how does Atom know it?"
"His family lives near Polis. They hear things" Octavia shook her arms as she got up to help Bellamy clean the table. "He also said that he heard some rumors about the Griffins."
"What rumors?" Bellamy frowned, intrigued by her words. He heard that name a lot during one day, a little too many times, he would say, considering that the Griffins had been dead for decades.
"Now you want to know what Atom said." Octavia smiled a little sarcastically and this time it was Bellamy who rolled his eyes. "People say that not all of them are dead. Atom told me that they may be aiming for the throne."
"And you believe that?"
"I don't know" she replied, shaking her arms again. "But you got to admit, the Lightbournes and the Griffins going to war... That would be an epic story to read."
Octavia looked frankly fascinated by the idea, causing Bellamy to smile. He had planted love for history in her mind which made him pretty proud of himself. Octavia absolutely adored listening the stories of the old wars ever since she was a little child and that love stayed with her throughout the years.
When they cleaned up the rest of the dishes, they sat on the old couch near the fireplace. Even though the day had been quite warm compared to the rest of the year in Ice Nation, it still was too cold to spend the night without lightning the fire.
"I've got a gift for you" Bellamy said after a while, taking the golden necklace out of his pocket. He saw Octavia'a eyes widen when she noticed what he was holding in his hand. She covered her mouth with one hand, the other one reached the red gem, touching it very carefully like it was going to break if she pushed a little harder. "Do you like it?"
"It's beautiful..." she whispered, a single tear appeared in her eye. "Bell, it must have cost you fortune..."
"Don't worry about that" yes, that probably cost him a dinner or two, but when he saw a smile coming to his sister's face, he knew it was worth it. He helped her put on the necklace and she gripped it a little more confidently this time. "I've always thought that red is your color."
"Thank you Bell" Octavia gave him a kiss on the cheek and bent to take something from underneath the sofa. "I've got something for you too. Two things, actually."
She gave him a small book that must have been new, he deducted that from the appealing printing and the fact that it wasn't decrepit unlike every other book he owned.
"The tales of fire" he read the title that was written with shiny, golden-looking ink. He opened the book to see that every single page was simply beautiful, with colorful illustrations and precise script.
"It's about the word before praimfaya" Octavia said while he was still watching the book. "We never read about that. I thought you'd like it."
"I love it" he looked up and smiled at her. He never had a book that wasn’t a mess. He didn’t even know how she managed to get it, he had never in his life seen someone selling such great printings, not in Troit. He assumed that her boyfriend had something to do with it, but he decided not to ask her about it.
“There’s also something else” she stopped for a second, like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue. “Please, don’t be mad.”
“Why would I be?” he was surprised she would even think that, he always tries his best not to get upset with her, even when she got on his nerves.
“Remember that one trunk of mom’s? The one that we couldn’t open?” she asked and he nodded. Their mother didn’t leave them much after she died, just a few boxes of pretty useless things. One of them was locked and they never opened it, even though it had been years since their mother’s death. “Well, I looked through some stuff and I found the key.”
“What?”
“We can open it” she bent again, this time to take the old, dusty chest. She put it on her knees and pulled the key out of her pocket. He had no idea where she’d found it, he had been looking for it for a year after their mother died and still managed to fail. “If you want.”
“I don’t know” he muttered. He was torn. One part of him desperately sought to find out what was inside, the other wanted to walk away from that. He had decided to block the memories of his mother out years before, he didn’t want to come back to them, to reopen old wounds. However, when he saw Octavia’s hopeful expression, he couldn’t tell her no. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
She put the key in the lock and he could feel his heart pounding. He didn’t really expect them to find anything valuable in there, but the fact that they finally got to open that crate was exciting. Octavia lifted the lid. He saw some old stuff, like hairbrush and a bottle of liquor. What brought his attention was a red envelope lying underneath them. He reached his hand to take it out and open it. He found there a folded piece of paper that looked like some document.
“What is that?” Octavia asked, interested in what he found.
“Birth certificate” he read the header and frowned. He didn’t know much about the birth certificates, he only heard that every highborn had it as a proof of their lineage.
“Show me that” Octavia took a sheet of paper from his hands to read it silently. Her eyes widened in obvious shook. She didn’t make any move for a moment, making Bellamy actually worried. He yanked the document from her hands and she didn’t even react to that.
“Birth certificate” he read out loud. He looked up at Octavia who still didn’t move and came back to the piece of paper he was holding in his hands. “Aurora, the daughter of Kylee and Daniel of house Lightbourne, the king of Arkadia, was born on the third day of August, in the city of Polis.”
Only after a second did he realize what he said. He glanced at Octavia to see that she was looking at him too, shook and confusion in her eyes. His heart was beating faster than ever, as he still tried to process what he had read.
“It can’t be real” she muttered slowly after a moment of silence.
“It is” he said, his fingers on the burgundy signet at the foot of the document. He showed it to Octavia and she touched it slowly, probably making sure if it was real.
“Bell...” she whispered, her voice trembling and Bellamy couldn’t tell if it was from fear or excitement. “What does it mean?”
“That means our mother was a rightful heir of the throne” his voice was much calmer than he expected it to be. He read the text that said about Aurora Lightbourne’s heritage again and again, analyzing every single word. The heir of the throne appeared right above the signet, he didn’t make that up. “And so are we.”