Chapter Text
“The gates might be closing on me for now, but this I can promise you. When the grass begins to grow again, when the remaining ones hammer the first of their new foundations, and when the winds are no longer mourning. When that time comes, Hope would descend once more.”
Reine opened her eyes to a view of a formless wasteland.
A broken image of smoke and ashes, a storm of crystalline glass reflecting an image of a fallen empire under a burning sun. In the middle of it stood a silent tower of crystal, a lone warden looking down in an unchanging desolate expanse that reached towards the horizon.
In front of the tower she stands, tears caressing her face as the scorching rays of sunlight shone bright from the clear skies above. She looks towards the top of the imposing structure, a burning heartache on her chest as a blurred figure of a horned girl flashed on her memories.
But even as she cried, she cannot remember. A hollow emptiness in her mind was where the memories of the girl should be.
A memory lost in a world where only harsh winds blow.
Reine woke up from a dream. She tried to remember what it was, but doing so only gives her a sense of longing and regret. Brushing the thoughts aside, she rose from her bed, walking towards her cabinet to change from her nightgown.
A fresh new dress and a combed hair later, Reine walked outside towards the courtyard of the royal palace. She greeted all the people that she passed by, noticing how the maids and the attendants are moving more hurriedly than normal. Looking outside to the courtyard, she saw the royal guards frantically assembling in front of the castle gates.
With her curiosity peaked, she waved her hand, a soft glow emanating from her necklace as the winds answered her call. The sound from her surrounding disappeared, leaving only the gentle music of the winds as her only companion. Another wave of her hand and she began to hear distant voices as the breeze carried the sound of whispered conversations to her.
“The princess’ memories still-“
“Great, more work-“
“-her majesty is still sleeping-“
Ignoring every unrelated thing that she almost hears every single day, she focused her senses on the winds carrying the voices from the upper floors of the main hall where the higher-ranking advisors reside. She smiled to herself as her guess was proved correct as she heard someone, annoyance on their tone.
“I heard that the third prince is arriving when the sun is on its zenith. Everyone is in a rush as he only informed us of his arrival with only a single hour to spare.”
Reine sighed, “Great, it’s Reihan.” She said loudly in annoyance. She can barely tolerate her annoying elder brother as he is right now. Barging in the castle almost every single month only to ask her weird questions about things she does not know about. Bothering her even though he should be looking for his territory in the north now that the cold season is nearing.
Vanishing the spell that she had cast around her, Reine walked back to her room, energy already drained from the thought of her brother’s visit.
Jumping inelegantly on her bed, Reine looked back to when her brother first visited her. She still remembered the worry in his eyes as he barged in on her room while she was sleeping, a barrage of questions about some kind of otherworldly journey that she cannot remember doing. Only flinching and looking at her in horror as she explained that she had never left the castle gates before, let alone traveling to a foreign land beyond the winds of their world.
And why would she ever leave the kingdom? Even the thought of flying over the walls and into the unknown only brings her a foreboding sense of sorrow and fear. She has sworn that it would not happen to her again.
Wait, sworn what?
A pain blossoming inside her head from the intruding thought, Reine grasp her forehead as memories of – something – flashed on her mind. A vision of a gentle girl in the color of copper, an annoyed look on her face as she was hugged by an energetic red-haired girl in a mismatched patchwork of skin and dress alike. A feeling of belonging flooded Reine’s senses. Like everything would make sense if she stood beside the two strangers on her memory.
She tried remembering, that maybe she can find out more answers from the figures on her mind. But before she can do so, the sensation of sorrow returned tenfold, almost drowning her thoughts as the headache worsen. Before she have blacked out, she saw a blurred image of her brother running towards her.
I swear that I have locked the door. Reine thought as she slipped towards unconsciousness.
It’s already been a week since the last headache and Reine still feels like her whole body is in the gutter. Not because of any physical pain, but because of some irritant that is flying around like an unwelcomed annoyance.
“The tall buildings made of glass, iron chariots moving without a horse, and those weird ‘electric’ things? You really don’t remember them?”
Reine sighed, looking at her brother as he asked one of his weird questions again. When would he stop bothering her she wonders, as all the questions he is asking is only making her more uncomfortable.
“No. For the last time, I really don’t know what you are talking about. Now please leave my room!”
Reine flinched with guilt as she realized that she just raised her voice towards her brother. He’s bothering her, she knows, but she’s also aware that the prince is just worried for her health.
Reihan only smiled sadly, nodding with understanding as he stood up from where he sat near her bed. He looked at her silently for several seconds, before sighing and turning around to face the window.
“Reine. Do you want to hear a boring story from your most-handsomest brother ever?”
Reine covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing from the poor attempt of narcissistic humor. Shaking her head as she regains her composure, she tried replying with her own attempt at a friendly banter.
“Sure, oh dearest most-handsomest brother.”
Instead of rebutting her, Reihan started walking towards the table near her bedroom windows. Looking at the clear skies outside for the whole time.
“You know, even if I’m supposed to be your model sibling, I admire your free spirit Reine. All those times that you ride the wind only to end up plummeting to the ground all beat up and crying. I always watched you back then, wondering when you will finally lose the will to soar to the skies.”
Reine watched him silently, too weirded out on how he began to talk too formally to say her own opinion on the matter. Noticing how the air becomes heavier, she decided to remain silent and let her brother talk instead.
“But you never stopped. Even when your skin bled and your bones broke, you still look at the distant horizon with a gleeful longing. So imagine how proud I was when you finally did conquer the skies, your form a distant speck in the clouds above. The smallest dot in a clear morning yet still the greatest.”
Reihan continued walking, his every footstep a loud interruption in the mostly peaceful room. He stopped in front of a picture frame, a photo of a little Reine smiling back at the camera as she do a victory pose several feet in the air.
“So it’s no surprise to me that when you finally reached the place where the sun touched the horizon, the winds carrying your ambition led you to faraway lands where the stars above are completely different.”
He approached the opposite end of the table, taking something from his front pouch that Reine cannot see as he is still looking at the window, his form facing backward from where she is.
“What surprised me is when you came back. Tears reflecting sorrow and defeat on your eyes. You choose to lock yourself in your room, a bird voluntarily going inside a gilded cage. And when you finally opened your door, we have learned that you have used the winds to steal away your memory from yourself. It’s what I always dreaded. The day when freedom would no longer follow on your tailwind.”
Reine heard a clacking noise as something is unlocked, dread rising on her very being as her brother continued speaking unaware of her thoughts.
“But still, I remembered what you said to me back then, before you even began to raise both of your feet from the ground. Because of that, I have made my own decision to help you, even if that means dragging you outside of your self-created cage.”
She tried to stand up and stop whatever her stupid brother is trying to do. She doesn’t know what that ‘whatever’ is, and she also doesn’t know what is so important that she needs to stop him. But still her body moved on its own, a silent chant of a whirlwind already manifesting on her fingers.
“Please forgive me for hoping once more.”
But it’s too late. Even as her whirlwind tore through the windows of her room, her brother already raised the feather hidden on her locked cabinet. Its appearance is nothing special, looking just like one of her feathers. But the wind that blew within it is different. Foreign.
As the power of two winds clashed, everything exploded in a bright flash of light. And before she was completely engulfed into the nothingness, Reine remembered the words that she have said to her brother a long time ago.
“What lies beyond the blue the horizon? A BIG, BIG! Gate! So BIG that it reaches towards the heavens above!”
“And what happens when you open it? Umm… I actually don’t know. But that’s why we need to open it! But for now, let's just say that on the other side of the gate lies Hope! Hehe.”