Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 13 ~ Just a Girl, part 2

Elly raised an eyebrow, but let Sien take a breath and say, “One, that she be strong in spirit, mind, and body.”

“You appear healthy,” Ren nodded toward her.  “Sien has told me that you are an intelligent girl, you do well in school.  And you seem, to me, very spirited.”

Elly shrugged, conceding.

“Two,” said Sien, “that she possess a gift of magic.”

They regarded her expectantly, and Elly shrugged again.  “Well, I’m a Key.  Possibly.  I mean, I’ve never traveled through a Gate or unlocked things, that I noticed, anyway.  But my father’s a Key, so it’s in my blood.  So to speak.”

“Hm,” Ren thought for a moment.  “You have no other gift?  One that is proven?”

Elly sighed.  “A little one,” she admitted.  “I can make myself invisible.”  She didn’t want them suspicious that she was lying to them if she withheld that, but she had no intention of letting out what her full abilities were.

“That could prove useful.”  Ren nodded.  “You could move undetected amongst the enemy.”

“Oh yes.”  Elly rolled her eyes.  “I can see that in the Annals, right after the fire monsters.  ‘Eliasha of California was the Queen of Seven.  She was sneaky, that one.’”

That got another smile from Ren, though Sien looked strained.

“Nonetheless, it is sufficient to qualify you with the second rule,” said Ren.  He looked at Sien, who sighed and said:

“Three, that she come from a long lived race, but not be an immortal.”

Elly shook her head.  “I’m only human.  One hundred years, tops.”

“I am human,” said Ren, “and I am three hundred years old.”

“Oh.”

“I believe the oldest a man has ever lived in this world was nine hundred and sixty-nine years.  It is recorded in your Bible.”

“Okay,” Elly said, “even if that’s true, no one lives that long anymore.”  She eyed Ren strangely, trying to decide whether she should believe that he was three hundred.

“What about your parents?” Sien asked.

“They’re forty.”

“But they don’t look it.  They haven’t been aging at the normal rate.  It’s hard to tell if they’ve even been aging at all.”

“No,” she conceded.  “I don’t know why they’re like that.”

“And you are their child,” Ren pointed out.

Elly looked at her feet, trying to think of some way to dispute it, but she couldn’t.

“Four,” said Sien quietly, “that she be chaste and never permit a man to touch her.”

“That’s the one!”  Elly jumped on it.  “Who has the right to tell the Queen what she can and can’t do?  What kind of Queen would let someone tell her what she can’t do?”

“Jun made the rules,” said Ren.

“And she was a psychotic, homicidal man hater.”

“Eliasha,” he said gently, “it is a very great honor to be Queen.  But it comes with costs.  The Queen must be alone, she must remain pure so that her magic does not leave her.”

“I don’t understand that.  Having sex does not strip you of your magic.”

“There is no need to become defensive,” he said, and the soothing tone of voice only rankled Elly further.  “It is Queen Jun who had the magic and the power to change the way things were done in Airidan, and it is she who grants the magic and power to the Queens who come after her.  Queen Jun is dead, but her spirit still rules the way things are done in Airidan.”

“Ah.”  Elly stood, and nodded.  “I see.  You want me to believe that a ghost gave me the ability to make myself invisible, that’s my ‘gift’ from Jun, and if I make her cross by not behaving exactly the way she would, she is going to take it back.”

“Well, that is not perhaps the way I would put it, but you are essentially correct.”

“How would you put it?”

“Jun has chosen you to be the next Queen.  She wishes her Queens to be apart from the passions and carnal desires that would distract and weaken them.  This for their own good and the good of Airidan.  It is also why the Queen must be strong, as the first rule states.  She must be stronger than her desires.”

Elly looked at Sien.  “He’s right,” he said.  “Jun knew best.  She knew what she was doing when she made that rule.”

“I didn’t get my ability from Jun,” Elly replied.  “And Jun can’t take it away.  Nothing can take it away.”

“You can’t know that,” said Ren.

“Excuse me, Mr. Auriel, I think I can.”

“There is no need to become hostile.”

“You’re right.”  She nodded.  “I’m just simply not fit to be the Queen, or however you want to look at it, so it’s the end of the story.  No hard feelings.”

Sien paled visibly.  “You’re not a virgin?”

“Ugh.”  Elly put a hand to her head.  “You don’t get it, do you?  I am a virgin, but I have no intention of promising to stay that way for the rest of my (apparently very long) life.”

“Elly—”

“Sien, let it go,” Ren said.  “She is young and influenced by the thinking of this world.”

“Also standing right here.”

“I’m sorry.”  He nodded to her.  “I can understand your dismay — you are sixteen and your culture celebrates the sexuality of youth.  But you must think on a wider view of life . . . it may be hard for you, but we must all face things that are difficult for us.  Life is not easy.  You will learn that as you grow older.”

Elly clenched her fists.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . .  she counted in her head, then said evenly, “I am not objecting to this rule because I am a nymphomaniac, Mr. Auriel.  Nor am I unfamiliar with the fact that life is hard.  What I object to is the concept that someone else — Jun or you or Sien or all the Auriels or the frickin’ King of Lsi — can control me.  Maybe that sounds egotistical, or whatever, but I don’t think any Queen of anyplace should have someone else dictating what she can do with her own personal life and her own personal body.  That kind of thing is for slaves.”

Ren nodded, conceding the point.  “I understand where you are coming from,” he said, maddeningly.  “But it is as I said, Jun is the Queen of Airidan.  No one may defy her.”

“Then I guess you have your answer.  Jun isn’t the Queen of me.”

“Elly, please, give this a chance,” Sien begged.  “You don’t know what you’re giving up.  It’s better than sex, it’s—”

“Better than having control of my own life?”

He looked at her hopelessly, crushed, pleading, and she sighed.  “What’s the fifth rule, Sien?”

“That she be capable of killing those who stand against her.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone.”

“But if you had to,” insisted Sien.

“I don’t know, how would I know that?  I’ve never had to.  And that’s a kind of a sick test, if you ask me.”

Ren smiled.  “I doubt you would be unable to destroy anyone who stood against you, if it were necessary to achieve your goal.”

Elly gave him a sharp look, but Sien continued before she could reply.

“Six,” he said, “that she be born to a land outside Airidan.  That one’s a given.”

“I don’t really get that one, either,” Elly said, just to be difficult.

“Airidan is tainted,” said Ren.  “Jun’s seven younger sisters were murdered and buried nameless in its soil, and it lost its magic.  There are no women born to the Airidanis who could be worthy of ruling in Jun’s stead.”

“Well, no children have ever been murdered and buried nameless here, that’s for sure,” Elly said with deep sarcasm.

Sien looked as if he were about to protest her disrespect for Jun’s sisters, but he checked himself and kept silent.

“Yes, every world has its atrocities,” admitted Ren.  “But it was Jun’s wish that the other Queens be found elsewhere.  We honor her.”

“And seven, that the heirs of Auriel know her when they see her.”

Elly nodded, “Well I won’t try and contest that one, obviously you think you knew me.  I say you saw a Key and got overexcited, but . . . whatever.  None of this matters.  I won’t keep the fourth rule, I can’t be the Queen you’re looking for.  I’m sorry.  I know you think you’re honoring me, but I don’t consider it an honor to be told what to do.  And I don’t care about Airidan enough to sacrifice anything for it.”  She looked pointedly at Sien.  “I’ll leave that for you to do.”

Ren seemed unperturbed, as usual, by her declaration.  “I regret that you cannot help us,” he said.  “But if you are not the Queen, you are not.”

“Thank you.  For understanding,” she said stiffly, then stood.  “I have to go now.  My parents will be expecting me home by now.”

Sien, who was blocking the aisle, stood up with a sigh and stepped aside, shoving the stool back under the table with a little more force than need be.  Elly brushed past him without a word.  There really wasn’t much to say.  He could be upset with her all he wanted and it wasn’t going to change anything.

---

“I wasn’t wrong,” Sien said after she had gone.  “She is the Queen.  I know it, even if she refuses to see it.”

“You cannot force her to see it, though, Sien.  She must see it herself.”

“But what if she doesn’t?”

“Then she isn’t the Queen.”

“But she is!”

“Then she will see it.”

Sien made a frustrated, angry noise.

“You must control your temper.”

“I can’t just let her leave like that,” Sien said, turning to follow her.  “I have to make her understand.”

“Sien,” his father said wearily, “you have to let her go.”

Sien shook his head, “I can’t,” and ran out the door.

---

“Elly!  Elly!”

Elly sighed and rematerialized despite her better judgment.  It would be better to escape without having to talk about it any further, but something made her stop and wait for him.

“Sien,” she said when he came running up, “I’m sorry I was rude to your father, I was just . . . he was just . . . well patronizing, and it got under my skin.  I’m a brat, I’m sorry, good night now.”

“Elly it’s not that,” he said, catching his breath.  “You can’t say no to this!  It’s destiny, it’s . . . it’s fate, it’s—”

“Not going to happen,” she said firmly.  “Didn’t you understand a word I said in there?  No.  No.  And no!  No means no, end of story.”

“I can’t accept that.”

“Oh?  And what are you going to do?  Kidnap me, take me to Airidan, chain me to the throne?  Get real, Sien.”  She turned away.

“Wait, please.”  He grabbed her arm and spun her around.  “I just can’t let you go.”

“I’m not going anywhere, that’s the point.”  She shook her arm free.

“I meant . . . oh God.”  He stopped and ran a hand through his hair.  “I meant that I can’t let you go.  I sound like a crazy person.”

“This is not a new thing for you,” Elly pointed out dryly.  Then she sighed, relenting, “Sien, you don’t own me, I’m not your discovery.  You’re mistaken.  I’m sorry for you, but you mislead me, you made me think you liked me when all you wanted was a . . . a virgin sacrifice.  I don’t like that.”

“But I do like you.  I mean, I shouldn’t.  God, I know I shouldn’t—”

“Of course not, that would only be natural.”  She rolled her eyes.

“This is bigger than us, Elly,” he said earnestly.  “This is epic.  Airidan needs this.”

“I don’t care what Airidan needs.  I’ve never been there.  It’s not my world.”

“I need you.”

“No you don’t.”  She took a few steps backward, pointing an accusatory finger at him.  “You don’t know me, you don’t understand me, and you don’t want to.  You just want your fairy tale Queen to come rescue you and sweep you off to La La Land where you can play mythic hero of the people.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh what is then?  What do you want from me if it’s not that?”  Elly’s voice started to shake, and she feared she was about to make a fool of herself with tears.

“I just want to be with you.”  He held his arms out helplessly.  “You’re the Queen even if you don’t want to admit it.”

“See?  You don’t give a shit about me, it’s ‘Queen’ this ‘Queen’ that, you son of a bitch!” she burst angrily, and slapped him across the face.  “There?  Are you happy?  You got smacked by the Queen, go tell the Heirs of Auriel that and maybe they’ll want to kiss your cheek!”

He ducked his head, touching his face and wincing in pain.

“Does it hurt?” Elly asked quietly.

He nodded.

“Good.”  She sniffed.  “I’m glad.”

“Elly—”

“Shut up.”  She stepped up and pulled his hand away from his face.  Then she put her own hand on his cheek and hooked her other arm around his neck, kissing him.  He didn’t kiss her back, but then again he didn’t fight against her either.  “Is this what you want?” she asked softly between kisses.  “To be so close to something you can’t have?  Having a taste here and there but never the whole thing, because, well, that would be against the rules.  So you want to keep on playing pretend.”  She stroked his hair and looked into his eyes.  “Well?  You just want to be with me, moaning and sighing and feeling all noble because the Auriels and the Queens, they’re above all that?  This is what you’re asking for.”

“You’re making it hard.”

“Yeah, I can feel that.”

He shoved her away.  “I j-just meant,” he stammered, “you’re making it difficult to adhere to the rules.  If you would respect them like I do, then—”

“And you respect them so much, you couldn’t push me away any sooner,” she said archly, walking toward him and laughing when he took matching steps backwards.  “The rules are stupid, made up by a bunch of people or one demented woman, it doesn’t much matter to me.  If I wanted to be Queen nothing could stop me.  Nothing.  And if I wanted you nothing could stop me, not even you.”

He looked very alarmed, and was about to speak, but she went ahead, “But luckily for you, or unluckily maybe,” she tilted her head thoughtfully, “I am so goddamn sick of looking at your face today that I just want to go home and forget any of this ever happened.”

She turned invisible right in front of him, leaving him wide-eyed and slack-jawed with surprise.  As she walked back through the campground she wondered, Why have I never done that before?  That expression is priceless.

As she was walking back through the rows of campers and trailer homes she suddenly had the strange, cold feeling that she was being watched.  This should have been impossible, but the feeling was intense and so she turned, looking to her right.  Standing in the shadows under an awning, where no moon or starlight seemed to fall, was the Lost One.  She was illuminated with her own pale ghost-light, her skinny shapeless form the white of livid death, but her eyes were deep pools of blackness.  Those eyes were fixed on Elly; Elly who was invisible to all in this world.

She didn’t stop walking, yet when their eyes met time slowed and it felt as if she were trudging through water.  The Lost One opened her mouth, and instead of speaking she let a gush of water fall, wetting herself down the front.

Elly shut her eyes and turned away, only opening them again when time resumed its normal pace and her legs walked freely.  She left the Golden Jade Campground and jogged to the bus stop, only to find that she had missed the last pick up of the night.  She swore and kicked the lamppost petulantly, then set off for the long walk home, knowing her parents would be upset and want to know why she’d stayed out for so long and hadn’t answered her cellphone (which she’d actually left behind in her room).  She just hoped they hadn’t called Jani’s and found out she wasn’t there.