She taught us to create Chalices too, some of which could burn away the effects of most poisons if someone ever tried to slip something into our drink, though neither of us wanted to carry around some fancy ass chalice all the time to drink from even though Avalon encouraged it. As well as that, she guided us in the ways of casting flames we could track, placing them in jars and hiding them away from us all across the palace until we’d felt out our connection to every one of them.
Queen Avalon had clearly been a cold leader who ruled with an iron fist and a heart as unmovable as I’d been warned my father’s was, and as time had passed, the two of us had begun to question some of her lessons. She had been unforgiving and swift to execute anyone who stood in her way or who didn’t fall in with her laws, and she urged us to do the same.
There was also an ongoing undercurrent of competition from her too, and the way she assessed our skills made my skin prickle as she continued to insinuate that one day the two of us would end up fighting to claim the throne alone.
But that day would never come, no matter if all the stars in the sky predicted it. I would sooner end my own life than turn on my sister and the fact that she couldn’t understand that bond between us only made me think of her as weak. In the way that a lot of Fae were weak because they were selfish. Their thirst for power gave them the excuse to do terrible things and I for one felt that needed to change.
Kindness wasn’t weakness which my sister had shown me more often than I could count. And neither was knowing when to concede that you were wrong. Arrogance was one of the founding problems of the Fae society and the two of us made a vow late one night that if we took the throne, we would never just blindly follow our own desires when making decisions for the people of our kingdom.
Once we had exhausted our Phoenix fire, we were gifted a short break to eat - which was all too often including mangoes - before we started our physical fighting training. Queen Avalon insisted that that order of things was correct because in battle, we would only resort to the use of a weapon once our Order gifts were exhausted beyond use and we needed to build up our physical strength and learn to endure the exhaustion brought on by wearing out our Phoenixes.
It had seemed near impossible at first, my limbs feeling weighted with lead once my Phoenix ran out of power, but the more I pushed through the feeling, the more I’d been able to achieve, the longer I’d been able to keep fighting. Queen Avalon fought us herself, her skills profound and seeming impossible to match and her weapons somehow colliding with our own while sailing through our flesh without harming us if they made contact with our skin.
I was in a state of constant exhaustion, but I also felt more connected to my Phoenix than ever before and I was revelling in the feeling of getting to know just how powerful I was.
The clash of metal rang through the air as the ache in my arms intensified and I bellowed my defiance as Queen Avalon started to force me back, making me retreat several steps as she swung her sword at my head.
I ducked low, swinging my blade high to meet the blow she swung next and twisting away from her before running at her with a roar of determination.
Queen Avalon met the strike of my sword but as I got in under her defence, I grabbed the dagger at my hip and drove it home in her chest with a furious snarl.
I felt the strike connecting with her body for the briefest of moments before she shimmered and lost her corporal form, making me stumble forward a couple of steps as I panted and grinned my victory across the room at Darcy who had leapt up to applaud me.
“Good,” Queen Avalon said as she reappeared, the small praise always a hard earned thing and my smile widened as I pushed some loose strands of dark hair out of my eyes and sheathed my weapons once more. “You have both impressed me with your dedication and the way you handle yourselves. Poise, strength, and unwavering will are what is needed to claim the crown and you both have it in spades. So let us see if you are ready to head back to your war and claim it.”
She turned and swept from the room, her fighting leathers shimmering and shifting until she was wearing a golden gown instead which clung to her lithe figure and trailed out behind her with beautifully embroidered detailing.
The straps of the dress had been designed to allow her wings to remain out at all times and she encouraged us to do the same, leaving our wings in place as often as possible to help us get to know them better. And she’d been right, having them out so much meant I had gotten used to the weight of them, gotten better at moving them, strengthening them through the hours we’d spent flying and perfecting all kinds of acrobatic skills. I’d even fallen asleep with them still out more than once, enjoying the silken feeling of my bronze feathers as they caressed my skin.