We’d spent hours flying with her through a huge obstacle course which had been created for our kind too, breaking through barriers with our fire, getting to know the span of our wings as we dove through gaps and learning how best to glide, freefall and manoeuvre to make ourselves almost impossible to target during a battle.
And once we were utterly exhausted and couldn’t so much as lift an arm to fight, we sat and studied Phoenix lore. There were all kinds of legends about our Order, some of which had even slipped through into stories in the mortal realm, but it soon became very clear to us that a lot of them were nothing but a fantasy. We weren’t immortal - which I for one was damn pleased about. Why would I want to live forever and watch everyone surrounding us die anyway? That sounded like its own kind of hell to me. I wanted life not stagnation, and I was more than a little relieved to find out that there was absolutely no truth to the story. We couldn’t revive the dead either which was a little more disappointing especially while we were caught up in this war with a monster who wanted us all dead. But it was absolutely undisputable, we weren’t necromancers, we were fire born.
Our tears were in fact useful in other ways though, able to be used in the creation of elixirs which cured several deadly Fae diseases. That was where the healing rumours had stemmed from, but in fact it was the magic of our fire that aided in the destruction of those diseases as it burned through the affliction much the way we had been working to burn through Darcy’s curse.
One of the things we’d known nothing about before coming here was the power of our song. When used correctly, our fire could create a bird which released a song capable of rallying armies and destroying despair, it could help block out the sensation of pain and instil courage in the hearts of Fae. There were even tales of particularly gifted Fae of our Order who had been able to create a Phoenix song so pure that it could create power of its own.
I glanced at Darcy as she walked at my side, thinking about the way she’d won her bout with Queen Avalon too by managing to get behind her and drive her sword straight through her back. We’d been a force to be reckoned with before coming here, but now? Now I felt like we could take on the entire world and win if we set our minds to it.
Queen Avalon led us to her throne room, and I felt the power of this place wrapping around me like a warm hug, the sconces blazing with fire and working to recharge our magic the way they did in every part of the palace. I could hardly even remember what it felt like for my magic to run low.
“There is one final test which you need to pass in order to prove that you have full command of your Phoenixes,” she said as she dropped down to sit on her throne, her gaze assessing as it roamed over the two of us. “One of you must claim the crown.”
She waved a hand and there was a grinding of stone as one of the flagstones by her feet dropped down several inches before shifting aside to allow a podium wrapped in flames to rise up from within the hidden space, a glimmering platinum crown adorned with blood red and deep blue stones resting on top of it, a mirror to the one she appeared to be wearing.
“Solaria’s crown is still locked away inside The Palace of Souls,” I said, looking to the beautiful crown for a moment before raising my eyes to meet hers once more. “This won’t make either of us a queen.”
“No,” Queen Avalon agreed on a sigh. “The seat of power once rested here, but with the end of our race, my descendants emerged in other Orders and they abandoned the home of our kind, fearing this place held a curse which had been the cause of the demise of the Phoenix race. They built a new palace to the north where your parents resided and continued to rule from there, forging a new crown, a new throne and a new world in the wake of ours. But that which is forgotten is only ever lost until it is discovered once more. But for one of you to ascend, you need to rise above all others. Including one another.”
Silence fell as neither I nor Darcy made any move to fight or to claim the prize she was offering.
“Keep the broken promise,” the whispered hiss of the Imperial Star insisted urgently, its voice making my skin prickle as it sounded within my own head, the queen still seeming utterly oblivious to the fact. It had been urging us to do that ever since we’d first arrived here, but we had no idea what that meant, only that there was yet another piece of this puzzle which we had yet to uncover.
“And if we won’t take it?” Darcy asked, ignoring the star in favour of the challenge the queen was setting us.
“Then you will remain here,” Queen Avalon replied. “And I will continue to train you day after day, year after year until one of you finds the resolve of a true Fae and steps forward to fight for what is rightfully yours. Only one may ascend.”