By the time we were safely in Moonvale, it seemed the afternoon sun had begun to stretch long shadows over the cobblestone streets. I descended from the carriage after paying the driver, holding Elian's little hand tight in mine. Relief washed over me as I viewed the strange village, a temporary haven, I hoped.
But my relief was short-lived.
As the soles of my slippers touched the earth, soldiers immediately surrounded me, their armor glinting in the sunlight as they circled like wolves about to pounce on a lamb.
"Who are you all? Why are you after me?" I demanded, despite my voice quavering. I moved instinctively, putting my arm around Elian's back in an act of protection that housed him from their view.
One soldier stepped forth with a blank face. "We have orders from the emperor to take you with us."
"Listen, I don't know why your emperor needs me, but just let me go," I said, desperation creeped into my voice. "If you give me a reason as to why you're taking me to the emperor, I might consider it."
"We are not bound to follow you," retorted the soldier in an icy tone, stepping toward me, but another suddenly stayed him with an outstretched arm.
"The emperor is coming!" came the announcement, and all soldiers swiftly went down to their knees in a synchronized exhibition of reverence.
I kept blurred visions in my mind, heart hammering away as the figure standing tall strode through the parted crowd. He stood six feet tall at least with shining golden hair capoering exultantly in the sunlight. But his eyes were the ones that caught my breath-an appalling blood-red, affront, and unmistakably signaling royal blood.
Pain spiraled toward my temple with a vengeance as he drew nearer-the headache from the carriage. I tightened my grip on Elian, determined not to let him go even if the pain threatened to make me relent.
And then Elian wrenched his arm free and ran forward.
"Dad!" he exclaimed, beaming as recognition flooded his small face with light.
That word struck me with a sort of tangible force. I stared in disbelief, my heart racing, and the sound of pounding in my ears drowned everything else.
"Elian, he is your father?" I managed to croak out, needing confirmation that I was not hallucinating.
"Yes, mom, you forgot?" Elian answered, a look of bewilderment flashing across his face as he tried once more to get toward the man.
I caught him by the arm, pulling him back, but the effort, along with the blinding pain in my head, proved too much, and I sank to my knees, still holding on to Elian as another vision engulfed my senses.
The passage belongs not to Moonvale but shines with sunlight from times long past. I saw Aria-myself-simple village girl without a child or a burden, wandering free through the meadows and forests. Then the scene turned again, and I was kneeling next to a man lying at the edge of the village, his body bathed in blood. This other self lured from my memory exerted what strength she could somehow summon to heave him away to the village doctor.
"Doctor, is he that sick?" Aria asked. Her face was full of worry but still for the stranger.
The old doctor looked up from his work, hands stained red. "Yes, someone cut him across the chest with a knife, as if they wanted to kill him very much. But, he is fine for now; I treated him."
The doctor paused, giving Aria's face a little more scrutiny. "But who is he?"
"I don't know, doctor," she answered flatly. "I found him at the end of the village, lying drenched in blood."
Then the vision dimmed, and I was back in Moonvale, still on my knees, where the emperor-elian's father-loomed before me. His red eyes stared me down with the intensity of an alien creature who had nevertheless once been welcome in the warm embrace of familiarity; I trembled under the stare.
He commanded my undivided attention. I searched for words, half-hanging on the hope of Elian, who told me that this man-the man supposedly responsible for abandoning us long ago-after all, was his father-turning out to be the emperor who was now hunting me through his dominion.
"Darius?" I whispered, the name bursting forth unbidden from a buried memory.
Then came a flicker over his otherwise regal face-something akin to recognition, astonishment, feeling-that passed even more rapidly than time could have dissolved any barrier between us; it vanished back into his mask of imperial indifference once before.
"Aria," he replied, a deep voice that resonated with authority but with something else beyond my reckoning.
Elian looked from me to him, an expression of childlike bewilderment fighting the thrill of pleasure across his small face. "Mom? Dad? Why are you both acting so strange?"
Neither of us replied. We merely stood there, caught in this silent battle-where emperor and fugitive, father and mother, strangers yet-if my visions were to be trusted-once something far more to each other.
The headache faded, leaving just an empty clarity. I had indeed been staring him in the face, the most powerful man in the emperor-who had opted to send his soldiers against me like some bloody common criminal-whatever the connection we might have shared from the past.
And he was, implausibly, the one who had sired the thing I had sworn to protect.
"Come back with me!" said Darius the emperor, throwing around a lashing cold voice. His commanding tone echoed across the village square, sending the gathered villagers shrinking back in fear.
He stretched his hand toward Elian, the full weight of his blood-red eyes resting on the child. But before those fingers could touch our son, I pulled Elian behind me, hiding him away from the reach.
I said, "Greetings, son of the empire," as formality required, kneeling down upon my knees and lowering down my head for submission. I needed that to impress upon him my recognition of his authority as emperor-that to me, he was no longer the man who might have had a past with Aria, but instead the ruler of these lands.
"Mom, what are you doing? He is dad!" protested Elian, confusion easily spelled out in his small voice as he strained to peek around me at the towering figure of his father.
I pulled him closer, wrapping my arms around him and meeting his gaze with gentle firmness. "Elian, my baby, he is the emperor, the ruler of this empire. Not your dad. I'm sure you are misunderstanding something," I said softly, trying to shield him from whatever complicated truth lay behind our situation.
"ARIA!!!" Darius roared, a voice thundering with barely contained rage. The soldiers behind him flinched at the sound, their armor rattling as they drew back.