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There was a certain famous story within the family, told on every one of Claudia’s birthday well into her eight birthday.
On the day of her first birthday, as per the kingdom’s custom, a painting must be made in honor of the baby. As plenty of babies did not survive to be celebrated on their first birthday. Baby Claudia, the bundle of joy, bless her, being more vigorous and easily distracted than plenty of her infant peers, was nearly impossible to contain. Finding everything but staying still in the fur interesting.
The details of the day varied from person to person, but what Claudia knew was that both her parents had been busy, drained, and arguing over other irrelevant matters that day. Naturally, her infantile rebellion did not help with their frustration.
After a mutual agreement between her parents, who were apparently “driven to a corner”, her Father had performed a freezing spell on her to keep her still long enough for the painter to get a general picture of her on canvas.
It was far from the appropriate parenting solution and both of her parents had naturally received plenty of criticism from many because of it, but it was always told as a light-hearted, humorous story in her family and, growing up, Claudia always found it more entertaining than anything.
Every year, she would look forward to the retelling of that same story, each time with new, interesting details. It felt new every time the entire family would laugh about it on her birthday.
On Claudia’s tenth birthday, she had less family members.
Things hadn’t been the same since the year before—since their Father had performed that spell and transformed himself into something so dreadfully creepy. Claudia liked creepy things so it didn’t bother her, but her Mother had been beyond devastated. Her Father had managed to turn back into his usual self sometime later—once again, magic had fixed their problem—but her Mother had never stopped being angry at him since.
After endless arguments, finally, by the end of last year, she had decided to make herself scarce.
Claudia would never truly understand the problem. Her Father had performed a spell to fix Soren. Just like every time there was a problem in their family—magic was there to fix it. Mother had always been fine with it. Why did it change? What was so different? Just because their Father had looked horrendous once? He fixed that, too.
Claudia always believed that nothing in the known universe was capable of hurting and ruining their family. Because they weren’t like anyone else. They had magic. Magic always fixed their problems.
Claudia was sad that their Mother had a change of heart about magic and that caused her to somehow be convinced that leaving was the right decision. What if she had stumbled upon problems only magic could fix? What if she had contracted an illness no doctor had the capability to heal?
She couldn’t understand. She couldn’t understand. She had spent sleepless nights trying to understand; all of it to no avail.
At least her Father was there. He had tried to be nicer to them and let them do more fun stuff ever since their Mother left, which was great.
He had asked what she wanted for her birthday and, after some thinking, she figured she wanted something magical. She wanted her cake and cutleries and presents to talk to her. All of them chattering like it was a tea time with the tea actually speaking. Soren was absolutely appalled by the sight, but soon began challenging the cake to a fight, running back to his room before returning to brandish the new sword he had received on his birthday a few months back.
Claudia had cheered for him from the side, sitting among her talking spoons, forks, cups and plates. All of them were also betting on who would win the fight.
“Refrain from making a mess, please,” her Father had requested, seconds before Soren’s face was covered entirely by cream.
Her brother had emerged victorious in his fight with the magical cake. The chocolatey remains of his opponent scattered about across the table to the floor, having exploded when Soren landed his final hit.
Claudia clapped her hands harder and doubled over, catching for breaths when she took in the sight of her Father’s face covered with some of the sweet cream, looking ironically sour.
Magic was so beautiful and fun and brought them closer together. How could her Mother not see that?
Claudia knew that their Father might have indirectly blamed Soren for their Mother’s departure. She had bear witness to some of his meltdowns at a close quarter and she understood him well enough to discern the reasons behind them.
At the same time, she had been there for Soren’s as well.
Her Father had refused to acknowledge it, but his inability to process those restrained feelings and heal had put a damper on his relationship with Soren, which only grew worse over the years, hurting both of them at a constant rate. To this day, Claudia still couldn’t figure out which magic spell could fix this particular problem.
Keeping the two on speaking term already took everything she had. You wouldn’t catch them have a non-work-related conversation privately, but at least they were speaking. They were still family.
Claudia could be content with that.
One of the only times they would hopefully have a real conversation was when they were planning her birthday party slash surprise—not like she had ever seen them do it, after all, it was supposed to be kept a secret from her. Knowing they would set aside their own ego to make sure she was happy on her special day was Claudia’s annual reward.
She would ask for the quirkiest, craziest surprise parties and gifts and they would deliver—most of the time, at least. Minus the one time when she had requested for a family vacation to the Midnight Desert and go on Soulfang-hunting.
“That is simply impossible,” her Father had told her, supporting his statement with hard cold facts about cold war and whatnots.
Of course she knew. But she wasn’t going to lie, she had hoped they would at least try to do something similar. Like bring her somewhere closer and not prohibited with a desert; maybe Neolandia. Her Father had some Soulfang serpents in his collection so he could easily let them roam about as she pretended to hunt for them, maybe. Or if he was too stingy to use precious, live magical creature of that caliber, he could have simply used the Moonmoths. Easy-peasy.
God, no creativity whatsoever!
“And I don’t know about you,” Soren had added, “but I still want to be alive for my knighting.”
So dramatic—Soulfang bites could easily be fixed with a little spell.
To make up for the failure to deliver, though, that year’s birthday present was insanely substantial. One of her Father’s most prized possessions, the Primal Stone, that he had decided she was old enough to be responsible for. Throughout her journey as a practitioner under her Father, she had received the honor to dabble with it from time to time, but knowing it was now hers was an entirely different experience.
“It is now yours,” her Father said, smiling down at her when she looked back and forth between him and the Stone to make sure he wasn’t just messing with her. Not like he was the type of person who joked. “You have proven yourself to be an apt pupil.”
As her hands reached for the sphere, she noticed she was slightly shaking from excitement. Her cheeks hurt from smiling too wide when the weight of the Primal Stone settled in both of her hands. Beside her, Soren didn’t share the same sentiment, but he too was happy for her.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she squealed, jumping on the spot as she couldn’t jump and give her Father a hug with the Stone in her hands. Wouldn’t want to seal its fate five seconds into new ownership.
To display her excitement, she had Aspiro-ed Soren and blew his perfectly waxed hair out of proportion. He wasn’t allowed to stay mad at her on her birthday, after all. That night, Claudia had put the sphere by her side in bed, kissing it good night as she tucked it in before going to sleep.
No one should blame her for overplaying it. After all, she would get to hold it without her Father’s constant supervision. She could perform cool spells to impress Callum next time. The Prince had always been immersed in her magic talks; more so than most of the people she had forced to listen. She could do all of those without the price of fatigue afterwards.
As she went to sleep, however, Claudia wondered if her Father had given her the Primal Stone so she could do less dark magic, knowing how it had grown longer for her to recover from the weariness these days.
Claudia’s seventeenth birthday had gone over her head.
After all, who had the time for birthday parties when you were caught in a war between two massive forces, your Father was in prison, and you were all of a sudden the Princess of your kingdom because your Father kicked your childhood friend off the throne.
Claudia had done her annual tradition of letting everyone know what sort of surprise party she had in mind for that year a month ago, sometime before she left for the mission that changed her life forever. But most of those people were now either gone or no longer her friends. Her Father wasn’t exactly in the mood for cakes and presents amidst devising strategies to overthrow the other party and generally not dying. Soren was… well, things had been a little tense between them ever since she had taken their Father’s side in the dungeon.
She had come up to his room later that day to lift his mood by bringing in some of his favorite sweet treats. It had somewhat worked and they were soon joking around again, but Claudia couldn’t shake off the guilt of betraying him and she could tell that there was still some bitterness left in him.
She convinced herself it didn’t matter because it wasn’t their first time clashing. It wasn’t anything they couldn’t fix with time and sweets. They had been through worse.
“What do you think he’s doing out there?” Soren asked.
They were having their first leisure time since they embarked on the journey to Xadia with the troops. The soldiers were setting up camp and tending to their mounts; the general lowly tasks. Soren and Claudia, holding the highest authority now that their Father was off somewhere with his new friend, were just lounging about by the fire to supposedly supervise their subordinates. That task grew tedious far too quickly, though. Such was why Claudia was no longer supervising and was content with making silly faces for the little Adoraburr she had captured earlier today to observe its reactions to them.
Claudia giggled when a playful joke came to mind, knowing fairly well her brother wanted entertainment. “Maybe he’s out with the caterpillar somewhere nice, and they’re sharing a tall glass of flower fizz.”
She had deliberately emphasized the last part. They were into excretion jokes lately. When she glanced at her brother, she had gotten the reaction she wanted. They both erupted into roaring laughter that caused some soldiers to peer at them weirdly. It seemed they were not used to the new royal family yet.
Prince Kasef had apparently minded their laughter as well. He had abandoned the task of tending to his mount to approach the siblings, all with his nose in the air and all that. Always looking so rigid and trying too hard to maintain this certain aura.
“He is doing his duty,” he said, not missing the opportunity to suck up to their Father even when the man was not around to witness his noble action.
Man, he was so uptight. Loosen up. It’s a joke, Prince Tighty Pants!
“Oh?” Soren perked up at the opportunity, seemingly eager to joke more. Uptight people were more fun to mess with, Claudia could relate. “You think he’s making a doody?”
Claudia couldn’t keep herself together, laughing freely alongside her brother and slapping his knee as she fought for air. “Like a poo-poo!” she added in between her attempts to catch a breath.
They both laughed all the way out of the spot, Prince Kasef giving them the look he had been giving them endlessly throughout their journey. It looked frighteningly similar to the look their Father would give them when they started messing around. Like he was like the son their Father had always wanted.
Claudia would never say that in front of Soren, though.
“Hey, wanna see something?” Soren asked as they walked around the camp, looking around to make sure nobody was listening.
“What, what?” Claudia asked, inching closer to him pretending they were secret agents.
Soren didn’t answer her right away, but instead, grinned and pulled her away from the camp. He had told a random soldier that they were going to be back soon. The sun was already setting and they were heading to the woods. Claudia wasn’t too worried; as she could always magic her way out of small troubles like not having enough light for perfect vision in the woods or not knowing where they were, or random strange Xadian animals attacking them out of nowhere. The latter would be more Soren’s problem to take care of, though.
On their way, Claudia was distracted by a number of vegetation that had begun glowing when the sun disappeared. She had read about some of those in books, but seeing them with her own eyes was just ethereal. There were small animals running around the branches and shying away when she took notice of them. Some parts of their bodies were glowing in the dark, too.
“God, I wanna live here,” she absentmindedly mumbled, sighing dreamily. “Everything’s so magical.”
Soren didn’t answer, as he continued walking forward with confidence. Claudia was prepared for scenarios where they became lost in the woods because Soren had forgotten the way or the darkness would confuse him, but there had been nothing of the sort. Perhaps it had momentarily slipped her mind that her brother was a trained professional who had been camping out with his troop since he was a little boy.
“Are we close?” Claudia asked, her legs already starting to feel a little sore. She was debating whether to ask Soren to carry her or something. Her brother’s strength and stamina was inhuman, after all. And he always mocked her for being too scrawny.
“I can see it,” Soren said hastily, as if knowing her intentions. “There!”
He pointed to a wall of stone that after some observation, Claudia realized was the bottom of a cliff. What a familiar sight.
When they reached the wall, there was a big crack. Big enough for Soren to just slide through without bumping his armor anywhere. Somehow, Claudia could already guess where they were going.
“Found this place when everybody’s setting up camp earlier,” Soren explained when they walked out of the dark cave into a place identical to where Claudia had been visiting since she was a little girl. “Thought you’d wanna see it.”
Claudia involuntarily gasped.
She did. She really needed it after all this intensity of war time. They had distractions, but Claudia was still antsy not knowing where their Father had gone to and when he would be back. He had asked her not to worry and to believe in him before he went off.
Stepping into the grotto, she let the pretty little wisps lift her spirits with their gentle glow as they gathered around her. There were plenty of good memories her brain associated with this view.
She sighed. “Aren’t they just pretty?” she asked, turning to him. “I hope the elves will just see us as equal and not monopolize the magic. It’s not fair that so much amazing things are kept from us.”
“You think we’ll be equal after this war concludes?” Soren mused, uncharacteristically pensive. “There will be a great deal of victims on both sides, you know. Is it realistic to expect peaceful cohabitation after this?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, not looking at him but instead basking in the magical scenery around them, not wanting it to go to waste. “We’ve endured oppression long enough and they’ve refused to listen to us for centuries. Can they blame us now that we’re getting fed up and angry?” She pretended to crush a passing wisp in her hand, scowling, then released it. “They don’t even feel threatened by us yet because they think we’re not worth it. We’ll show them who’s boss.”
Soren seemed a little put off by the way she phrased things so… ambitious and angry, but nodded in understanding. Despite not always seeing eye-to-eye, Soren would normally (albeit somewhat reluctantly, sometimes) understand her reasoning.
“Ugh, no more war talk, please,” Claudia said, despite being the one who brought it up. “It’s disrespectful to this view. I thought we’re here to forget about that for a second.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” He threw his hands in the air, surrendering. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
Claudia wandered around. This place was slightly bigger and brighter than the one she knew. Probably because the humans had been capturing the wisps over the years to use for their spells. Here, they had been allowed to exist without such disruption. There was a slight pang of guilt when she realized that. Especially because just seconds ago, the thought that ran in her mind was regret that she had no more empty jar to collect some of them in.
“Hey, remember your surprise party request for this year?” Soren spoke up again after a while.
“Yup.” Claudia nodded, recalling the time she had randomly came up with something to ask for. “Outdoor surprise party in a magical place.”
“It’s almost as impossible as your last year request so Dad and I were stressing out, but we’re now in Xadia and everywhere’s magical, sooo…”
Claudia gasped. “Oh my God, is this my surprise party?”
Soren nodded, grinning. “By the time we reach the Storm Spire, it’ll be your birthday,” he explained. “I didn’t discuss with Dad because he’s… you know, always unavailable these days.”
“Well, he’s an important person now. Even more so than before.” Claudia gave their Father an excuse before she realized.
Soren shrugged, not wanting to address the excuse. “Decided to bring you here on my own. Sorry it’s not as fancy as your usual ones.”
“Are you kidding? This is the best!” she reassured him with a hug. “I love this surprise. Hopefully next year we’ll, you know, have no problem with visiting magical places anymore.” For this land would be theirs, too.
“Right.” Soren muttered, somewhat not as motivated as she had hoped.
Claudia had missed the faltering of his grin.
.
.
.
Soren had left—following the footsteps of their cowardly Mother who couldn’t understand how much magic had improved their family’s morale. Soren owed his life to magic. Twice. To her and their Father. But he had easily walked out.
Claudia was heartbroken and hurt when he expressed the need to pull himself out, but was more betrayed that he had wanted to convince her that their Father wasn’t worth following anymore. She had wanted to make him stay by putting her foot down; it used to always work. It should have worked.
Goodbye, Clauds.
Recalling that moment caused her to tear up but she blinked the tears away. She figured he would come back once he calmed down. There’s no way that was it for them. They had been together all their lives. He couldn’t have left her so easily like that, right?
No, she couldn’t let his departure derail her from the task at hand.
Claudia admired the staff in her hand. She wasn’t sure if her Father had remembered her birthday, but she wanted to think of it as a present from him. A Primal Stone two years in a row—she had the best Dad in the world!
Her Father had addressed her changing hair at some point and wordlessly understood the meaning behind it, wearing a pained expression on his face as he brushed that part of her hair out of the way. Ever since then, he had taken over the spellcasting duty from her. Like an unspoken command.
She had not performed any kind of dark magic spell since she returned to Katolis. Her Father had also stopped asking her to brew him the Hot Brown Morning Potion even though he very much needed it all with his never-ending duties in this changing time.
She liked to believe it was his way of looking out for her.
“It is now yours,” he had told her as he handed her the staff as soon as he had completed the task he needed it for. Transformed soldiers were now marching behind them. “You still remember the Sun runes I taught you before?”
She nodded. She had memorized those runes like the back of her hand years ago.
“You are to strictly perform Sun spells only until I say otherwise,” he said. It was his first time mentioning magic spells to her since her return. “Understood?”
“I understand.” She smiled.
She revelled in the belief that he cared.
“Do you fear me, my dear?” he had asked when he noticed her prying eyes on him.
“No.” She confidently shook her head, no lies in her answer. “I like your new look.” She didn’t like the implication behind his changing look, of course. He wouldn’t look like this if he were completely healthy and okay.
But it didn’t bother her—it never did.
He smiled, then slowly shook his head and chuckled lowly. “You have always fancied the peculiar.”
She beamed, proud that she had gotten a smile out of him. This was her Father—the man who had patiently guided her magical journey. The one who would read to her before bed when she was a child. The only person who had been there when everyone else left.
Soren was so wrong about their Father and she would prove it to him. They were the only ones left of their family; she wouldn’t let anyone break them apart.
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Aaravos watched as the light left his vessel’s ashen eyes.
Viren had died; charged head on by a prying elf and plummeted to the ground with a sickening splatter. There had been nothing left of the man he once knew. Nevertheless, there was nothing he could do. His body was imprisoned somewhere and his bug familiar had not evolved enough to be able to perform such intricate spell on its own.
“Dad!” he heard a familiar voice yell in hysteria.
It was Claudia, just like he had predicted long before this moment.
"You will need her soon," he had foreseen.
Aaravos watched as realization dawned upon Claudia when the girl sunk on her knees next to her Father’s remains, that he was gone. Aaravos had also watched as the gears in her head refused to stop spinning for another way out. That’s right, child. There are countless resuscitation spells to pick from. For us mages, this is not the end.
There was so much fight in her like she knew not the definition of giving up. Viren had raised her well.
“I’ll fix you, Dad,” she had spoken to the pile of flesh. Her cheeks were wet with tears but her voice didn’t falter. Her eyes were burning with fire. So strong, so confident. “Everything is going to be okay, I promised you. Nothing will break us apart.”
Aaravos remembered the exact moment she did. She had given her Father a hug and whispered the exact same words. Aaravos had momentarily forgotten that Viren was capable of love, up until that moment.
“She is not an asset,” Viren had declared, clearly offended by Aaravos’ suggestion. “She is my daughter.”
His surprise aside, the archmage found the whole situation unbelievably amusing. Viren had been ready to sacrifice anything to get their plan going up until that moment. But when he had what was possibly the sharpest tool in the box, he refused to use it? It was the entertainment Aaravos had been missing out on after centuries of imprisonment.
Humans never failed to entertain him with their unpredictability. It was why he had offered them his help in the first place, all those centuries ago.
Aaravos could hardly wait to see what solution the little prodigy would come up with.
Naive little Viren. He didn't take into account that the tool could use itself, did he?
“Happy birthday, little one,” he murmured to himself, taking in the bewitching sight of pure white invading the dark of her hair. Outstanding.
Today, she was born anew.