Chapter 25

E verything slowed—Avalynn's heart, her breathing, even time itself. It was as if the Sun, Moon, and Stars had pressed pause on the realm and her life. "No, no, no," she muttered. "I know who you are."

She studied Maid Nia's features—silver hair, heart-shaped face, petite frame… Everything remained the same. "You are my maidservant and friend and have been for years." She shook her head as if clearing the mental haze caused by the note. "And I am Avalynn Stromm of Summit Range."

"Indeed. I am your friend, and that will never change." Nia stepped to the middle of the small room. "Allow me, and I will show you who I really am. And then perhaps we can discuss who you really are."

Show her? She backed away from Nia. Her body trembled. Her mind reeling. Show her what?

Stormshroud stuck to Avalynn's leg like a protective blanket as Nia closed her eyes. Her ivory skin sparkled with a soft glow. Her features blurred and then rippled like a pool of shimmering water. Her long silver hair flowed further down her back and then darkened until a jet-black sheen took hold. Her petite frame stretched, becoming longer, her features elegant and enchanting. The wave of magic pulsed so strong it sent a warm tingle across Avalynn's scalp, down her neck, and then to her ears. When Nia's shifting and blurring stopped, a completely different person remained in the room. Statuesque and beautiful, she wore a long blue dress with a black cape.

Avalynn's mouth dropped. "This is…" Her words stuck in her throat like a knotted ball of yarn. "The real Nia?" She had just witnessed a glamour lowering. A sight few had witnessed, and only powerful fae and strong witches could do it.

"I am Lady Sonia, eternal friend to your mother and father, and your mother's mother and father. This is my true form. My glamour was connected to the one I placed on you." She motioned to a small mirror on the wall. "If you look, you will see a change in your hair and ears."

Her fingers felt her ears. Usually sharply pointed, they rounded to her touch. Human ears. Lowborn. Sun, Moon, and Stars, what had happened to her? Backing up, she slammed her back into the wall. She was becoming someone and something else. "I-I-I'm no longer…myself?"

A gentle shake of the head and Nia, or Lady Sonia, said, "You are finally your true self on the outside. Who you are in the inside remains the same." She motioned to Avalynn's head. "Your mother had white streaks in her hair. You have a similar streak."

Avalynn lifted a thick strand of her long hair. White nestled within the brown, the dark midnight gone. She turned and faced the mirror. The white swathe started at the roots and flowed to the tips.

"You look like Princess Gabriela, your mother. Yet your tall physique is that of your father, Leaf of the Sublands. Your mother was quite petite."

Reaching behind her as if she had lost her sight, Avalynn found the bed's edge and lowered herself inch by inch. A hurricane wind of confusion swirled in her mind. "My mother was petite. A royal. A princess from House Strong." She wanted to touch her ears again yet kept her hands on her lap. "My father was a Sublander. An outcast and a lowborn, like Mateo." She lifted her gaze back to Lady Sonia. "How?"

"How did you come to be raised as a Stromm? And Mateo, a true Stromm, came to be raised as a Vela?"

"Mateo is a true Stromm?" Why hadn't she thought of that? He resembled a full-blooded fae through and through, and even acted like one. She'd figured whatever fae blood he had in him dominated his human ancestry. "He is a highborn with no human blood?"

"That is correct." She nodded. "He is a pure blood. When you are ready, I will show you how it happened."

She rubbed her sweaty palms on the skirt of her crude brown dress. Stormshroud pawed at her foot, as if signaling all would be well. But would it? Even if it frightened her, she wanted and needed the truth. She steadied her shaking hands. "I am ready. I must know."

Lady Sonia took a small wooden stool from the corner of the room. She sat in front of Avalynn and rubbed her hands together. "I will use my magic to take you to the time and place of your birth and the switch." She reached out. "I will do so by touching your forehead." The witch's graceful fingers grew closer. "I will be with you in the vision, and we will be able to speak to each other. Understand?"

Avalynn nodded. "Understand."

The witch placed her cool fingertips on Avalynn' s forehead. Silence descended as weightlessness swept her off her feet and her vision tunneled to black. Her heart catapulted against her chest for a few long seconds until she met solid ground.

"You may open your eyes," Lady Sonia said from within her head. "I am right here with you."

One at a time, Avalynn cracked open her eyelids. She saw a thick wall of gray mist. "What is this?"

"Magic," Lady Sonia said. "It will clear."

A small bedchamber came into view. It looked like the one she was in now—thick, beige stone walls and a narrow window. A lady lay motionless on a bed, eyes closed. White-streaked brown hair clung to her face. Avalynn's soul sank at the sight of blood-stained sheets between the lady's legs.

A dwarf dressed in all-white moved from side to side, shushing a swaddled baby. A small maidservant huddled nearby. They assisted the lady.

Avalynn touched her own hair, which matched that of the motionless lady. "My mother?"

"Yes. That is your mother, Princess Gabriela." Lady Sonia pointed at the dwarf. "That is a trusted friend and maidservant, Maid Gidna. The infant in her arms is you."

With a gentle hand, she covered her gaping mouth. Her mother died giving her life. The sight crushed her. "Wh-wh-what happened to her?" she stuttered.

"We suspect the Kanes spelled her or somehow slipped her a poison. Their mission was always to end the Strong bloodline."

"And my father? What happened to him?"

"Soulbound to your mother. When she breathed her last breath, so did he. Leaf's Enbarr, Silverhoof, led us to him."

"Silverhoof?" She snapped her eyes toward Lady Sonia. The Enbarr, the one in the forest. The one that separated her and Mateo, then later carried them to the Green Falls. It belonged to her father?

Lady Sonia nodded. "Silverhoof is the Enbarr you have been seeing. She has been watching over you."

Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision. This whole time her father, her real father, had been helping her. Her hands moved to her arms, to the skin where the man she thought was her father had bruised her. Her fake father. The man who threatened and hurt her. She was sure Leaf would have never done that. A flow of tears escaped her eyes for never having known him and her mother.

Inside the vision, movement from the doorway drew her attention. Lady Sonia from the past dashed into the room.

"She is gone, she is gone," the maidservant Lady Gidna cried.

Lady Sonia wrapped her arms around the maidservant. She held her and the baby close for a few long seconds. She pulled back and placed her hand on the maidservant's shoulder. "But the child. The child is not gone. We must activate our plan."

"Yes. Let us do that before we are too late." The dwarf maid kissed the infant's tiny head. "Please, protect her."

Avalynn tore her gaze away from the scene and looked at the Lady Sonia standing beside her. "You all knew this might happen and had a plan?"

"We did." Lady Sonia paused as if waiting for a reaction. But Avalynn gave none. "We had been keeping watch on the lady of House Stromm. She was with child, and I had foreseen that hers would not be born alive. So, we planned to hide you in plain sight as their offspring. You would be safe there. I had already established myself as Maid Nia in Stromm Palace so that we could facilitate the switch."

"But…" Avalynn's mind scrambled at the unfolding events. "How did Mateo come to be in the Sublands if he was not born alive?"

"Keep watching. You will see."

Lady Sonia of the past reached into her cape's pocket. She pulled out a shimmery glow. Placing her fingertips on the edges, she stretched it out until it took on the shape of a doorway.

Avalynn gaped in wild wonder—the shimmery portal she had read about in the note. She had heard of them but had never seen one. According to the history tellings, they were all destroyed. From where she stood, she could make out the Chrysalis Chamber of Stromm Palace, where newborns were taken for cleaning. Lady Sonia secured the baby in her arms, kissed Gidna's cheek, and then stepped through the portal.

Avalynn held her breath. The switch. With her gaze fixed on the opened portal, she watched Lady Sonia and herself as an infant disappear from view. Biting down on her lip, she clasped her hands tightly in front of her. This had already happened, but Avalynn felt perched on the edge of a knife anyway.

A few seconds later, Lady Sonia appeared in her Maid Nia form with a swaddled infant in her arms. She passed the bundle to Maid Gidna thought the shimmery haze, then shot back through the opening. She closed the portal with a swipe of her arm.

Avalynn's heart raced. She stepped closer to the maidservant holding the infant. Mateo. She bit her lip and waited for a sign of life. Nothing. And then, a cry from the swaddling. Maid Gidna turned to the maiden in the corner. "The babe lives!" The pair scurried out of the room.

With the room emptied, Avalynn scanned the surroundings. Her attention landed on a tall, dark wooden chest with intricate flower and leaf carvings. The wooden box with the same ‘S' sat on top. Next to it rested the platinum chain and cross.

"Have you seen enough?" Lady Sonia wrenched her hands. "I am not able to hold the vision much longer."

Avalynn studied the room and took one last mental picture. "I have."

Lady Sonia waved her arm, and the scene dissolved. The two were back in the room. Lady Sonia on the stool, and Avalynn on the bed.

"Are you all right?" Lady Sonia lowered her hand from Avalynn's forehead. She rose and stepped back, giving her space.

All right? How does one even answer that question after witnessing such a life altering moment? She picked up the box, the same one from the vision. She draped the necklace with her real mother's cross over her hand. Deceived and hidden for all these years as a princess of House Stromm, she was actually the daughter of Gabriela of House Strong and Leaf of the Sublands. Like she had thought of Mateo, she was a Sublander, a lowborn. Hated by many.

But she was unsure where the Only One fit in. She faced Lady Sonia. "Who foretold the prophecy? And what does it mean?"

"It came to Princess Gabriela in a dream, from your grandmother, Princess Celyse. For your safety, we have kept it hidden and were mostly successful until whisperings of the Only One began circulating. "

A knock sounded on the door. It jarred Avalynn from the conversation.

"I want to see her, Sonia." It was a man's voice.

"You will, Manny. Give us a little more time here."

Avalynn touched Sonia on the shoulder. "Mateo's father?" She could not face him after what she had done to his son. She hoped to never face the man Mateo loved so much.

"Yes, Manny Vela. He is Mateo's father by choice. He raised Mateo with all the love of a real father. His friendship for your grandfather knew no bounds. He practically raised your mother as well. He has been a faithful servant of the Strong family for a century's mid-moon."

Mateo's face at the finish line sprang to her mind. It took three days by carriage from Summit Range to the Sublands, and Mateo had three days until he was executed. Did that mean he was… Avalynn gulped, and a burning pain pierced her heart. "I must know what became of Mateo."

"He is safe for now." Lady Sonia's eyes softened. "Pending a formal inquiry regarding the hunt's events and your disappearance, his execution has been stayed."

She breathed a sigh of relief. Mateo was still alive. But for how long? His execution had still been ordered and would still happen. And it was her fault. But then another dawning recognition hit her…Mateo was home. He was a Stromm. A member of the family he despised. And no one knew.

With a reach and a pull on the sleeve, Avalynn asked. "Does this family know the truth that I have just now learned?"

"They do, but only because I told them when you arrived. It was done this way for your protection and Mateo's, and at Gabriela's insistence."

Manny knocked again, but this time harder. "I need answers. Now."

Avalynn clutched the cross. Would it give her protection like it did Mateo? Mateo adored and cherished these people, this family. She was certain they felt the same way about him, even if he was sired by highborns. How could they not? He was born and raised here. She slipped the cross necklace on.

Lady Sonia eyed the precious heirloom with a smile, then placed her hand on Avalynn's shoulder. "There is still much for us to discuss. But we must include Manny and the family. Are you ready?"

Was she ready? She gulped. Her nerves were a chaotic whirlwind. She would never be ready but needed to face the man they called Manny. "I will need this man of loyalty to my mother and father and grand sires. Most of all, I need the man who raised Mateo Vela."

If she was the Only One, then her lowborn story had just begun in the Sublands. And she needed Manny.