"I'm glad I was given the chance to know him,"
Flindra remarked in a low voice. There
were tears glistening in her eyes.
"I feel the Spirit really blessed me by giving me the opportunity
to call him Papa. My birth father could
not have been a better man. A piece of
my heart feels cheated by the knowledge that he wasn't my real father."
"Can you honestly say you feel no joy in finding out
you are of royal blood?" he asked pointedly. "You're going to eventually take your
place among the rich and powerful. As a
princess you will lack nothing."
She was stunned.
"I’ve never lacked anything," she was quick to respond. "Papa and Momma have always provided for
my needs and beyond."
"I didn't mean it that way, Flindra. I was just pointing out that there are
advantages, which go with your true position in life. Change is hard, but there're blessings mixed
with the pain."
"I suppose."
She looked down. "I guess I
never really thought about it. I guess,
if I had a choice, I'd willingly trade rank and wealth for the quiet simplicity
of what I know." She sighed. "But, I know that cannot be and I must
do what the Spirit is asking me to do. I
just feel a little lost and more than a little scared," she finished in a
whisper.
"Why scared?" Leudh was quick to ask. "Is there something wrong?"
She nodded her head slowly.
"I'm beginning to sense a great evil and it's..." Flindra dug the toe of her boot into the
fallen leaves. "It's looking for
me. That’s why I'm afraid, Leudh. In truth, I'm more afraid than I've ever been
in my life."
A frown of concern crossed Leudh's features as he gazed at
his sister. "How do you know
this?"
"It started in my dream last night. I kept having the same nightmare over and
over. It got so bad, I left my bed to
keep from returning to the dream."
Leudh's frown deepened.
"For some reason, I felt compelled to gaze into the
crystal to see if I could discover anything from it."
"The crystal Kewero gave you?"
Flindra nodded and had a distant look in her eyes. "When I gaze into the crystal I see
things. My mind is pulled into a realm
of colored lights and visions of people and places. I see things that I should have no way of
knowing. The first time I looked into
the crystal I discovered that I need to search for Kewero somewhere in the
Northern Reaches."
"That seems harmless enough."
She shook her head.
"That's only the beginning.
I also see people and places and I feel in my heart that I’m seeing
glimpses of my future. It changes
sometimes; my fate must not be completely foretold, but it seems that I'm the
focus of a terrible conflict somewhere in our future." She swallowed hard. "There is evil, a terrible, monstrous
evil aiming to destroy us all. I know,
somehow, I'm going to be involved fighting this evil and that's why it's
looking for me."
"Looking for you?"
"It's like a terrible hunter seeking out my
presence. It hasn't found me yet, but
it's searching for me."
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