Midnight's Song (49 page)

Suddenly, I
understood it. I saw something in Aurelian’s story that didn’t just
connect to a story I had been told, a story I had read, or any kind
of word on a page. I saw that it was connected to
mine.
Our stories
weren’t just connected to another; they were connected to each
other in a deeper way than I ever thought they could be. Could this
be…fate?

“Yes, I suppose that’s
right,” the prince let out.

“Aurelian, a few months ago I didn’t
believe in fate, magic, or destiny. Sometimes I’m still not sure if
I can believe what I’m seeing…but, I can tell you something that
might shock you. Even though I was not born to people with riches
or power, my story is very much like yours.”

For the next half hour, I told him
everything in my life so far that seemed relevant to this. It
didn’t matter if some of them were things that he already knew, or
if some of these things were secrets which I had once feared the
consequences of speaking about. I had nothing to lose anymore. I
told him about my parents, about Beeti and Stella’s plans against
me, and about Winston and the Magistrate. I also told him about one
of the most important things of all – something I had blocked from
my mind for such a long time that it seemed cloudy at
first.

“There was a time that I refused to
make a choice over something unjust as well. It was one of the
things that brought me onto this journey,” I explained. I told him
all that had happened to me when I refused to make my choice. I had
refused to back down regardless of the consequences; refusing to
make my choice even when there seemed to be no other way. I told
him of the miraculous but shady agreement my family had made, and
then explained how it tied in with Beeti’s true plans to make me
miserable enough with my life to cause me to leave it.

After I was finished telling my tale,
we both fell into a temporary silence. There wasn’t a doubt in our
minds now that we were connected to each other in a major way. Our
stories were too similar, our fates too interchangeable. But, more
than anything else we could empathize with each other. I felt his
pain and he felt mine. It finally felt like there were no secrets
between us anymore – only things that we could deny and fight
against because of our identities as creatures who were beautifully
flawed. After a few moments of reflection in the silence, I softly
spoke up.

“Aurelian?” I asked, “There’s
something I’ve been wondering. Not necessarily about you…but about
something that happened after we met.”

“What is it?” He gently asked in
reply.

“The pearls…the ones
I was wearing on the night of my 17
^th
birthday. I got angry that
night and I ended up losing them in the fountain…then after I saw
you, I found them again. That was you, wasn’t
it?”

I had expected him to say yes, but now
his look became flooded with uncertainty. Aurelian’s unique
identity seemed as if it could be the answer to everything. Yet,
somehow it wasn’t the answer to this strange occurrence. Aurelian
looked at me in surprise.

“Actually...I’m
afraid that I must not have. I don’t recall anything of the sort,”
He trailed off, but when he saw the look of disappointment on my
face he spoke up again. “Perhaps you will find what you are seeking
in time…perhaps we might even find it
together.”

We fell silent,
neglecting the details of the page for a few minutes. Aurelian and
I still both sat on the ground with our backs to each other, both
in deep thought. I think that we both realized at that moment – if
we hadn’t realized it in such a momentous way before – that our
lives were
never
going to be the same. Even though we were both quiet, I know
that was the exact thought going through both of our minds. We were
bound to each other now and would always be in some way, there was
no doubt about it.

The moment that I realized it, my
heart began to brace itself for something. I didn’t know if it was
for something wonderful, terrifying, or awful. But, I felt in my
spirit that it was something that would help to shape my destiny
forever. In a few moments, Aurelian would make up his mind and
begin speaking again. Though, before he even so much as let out a
breath I remembered the next part of the story I was a part of. If
we were truly a part of this tale, the next thing he would ask me
would be the testing moment as to whether or not this book was
truly part of our destinies. In my heart I was already certain that
it must have been.

“Elissa,” Aurelian asked
me in a serious tone. He turned around and tilted my face toward
his own. “We must accept – now more than ever before – that we are
bound to each other. As long as things remain as they are for us,
it seems there will be no way for us to live our lives apart from
each other. Should it be like this for the rest of our lives…we
might never be able to part from each other…”

The tears began to fall
down my cheeks as I realized what Aurelian was saying. The words
echoed across my memory over and over again, coming from the mouth
of my mother as clearly as if she were speaking them right
now:

“
And he came to her after having watched over her during the
long night; realizing that their lives would never be the same and
asking for her hand.”

Unless this wasn’t what it
seemed to be – now I was certain that the legend I had always known
was becoming my reality. I held my breath, trying to grasp what I
knew he would ask next.

“I am deeply in love
with you. I give you my oath of devotion, to serve you
always.
You know that
from here our lives will never be the same…and of course I will
never force you to feel the same way or to do anything you might
choose against. If you wish I remain at a distance, then I surely
will…” Now the prince was clearly fumbling. “But, seeing that we
both feel strongly for each other; I would like to ask if you might
consider one day becoming my wife.”

I had known it all
along, but now I knew it was real. This
was
the story! Though, even more
than I cared about a book I cared about Aurelian. In a wave of
emotion, I fell into him and began to weep. They weren’t tears of
sorrow, nor were they tears of joy. They were tears of depth and
truth and belief all at once. Over anything else, they also were
tears of
love
. A
short time later, I collected myself and began to think. Nothing in
me wanted to rush an answer.

“I don’t wish for you to remain at a
distance,” I shakily started, breathing deeply in between my tears.
“And I would like for nothing more than to be your wife. Though,
right now I’m still young. The times are uncertain and marrying now
would be foolish.”

“So then you wish to decline…”Aurelian
disappointedly but cordially raised in response.

“No, Aurelian.
That’s not my wish at all!” I quickly and passionately told him,
the tears beginning to come down once more. “I
do
wish to marry you. Only, I do not
wish to right now. I can still give you this promise, a promise
that I will give you along with all of my heart: that as long as we
are both alive, one day I
will
marry you.”

I fell into him again, crying so much
that I might have been able to create a small ocean. When we
parted, I collected myself and spoke up with strength and passion.
It was spoken with passion, but lacked no amount of
clarity.

“I want nothing more than to be with
you…and I will,” I told him.

“Just as long as you love me,” he
expressed in a tone that was filled with just as much depth and
passion as mine. “If your attractions ever fade you mustn’t force
yourself to love me. You’re too strong a spirit to live a loveless
life.”

Aurelian looked away at me
for a moment. I sensed something in him – something I’d noticed
before but was much clearer to me now. Now I could see that
Aurelian felt as if he was truly unworthy of me. Through all of the
good that Aurelian was and still would be, the prince still
believed he didn’t deserve my affections. Realizing what it was, I
quickly did just as Aurelian had done to me a few minutes prior,
gently tilting his head until our eyes met.

“Aurelian, as long
as I’m alive I will
always
love you,” I told him in complete certainty. “And
as long as I love you, I’ll never be able to stay far
away.”

Aurelian was overcome by emotion. So
much emotion, in fact, that he wasn’t really sure what to do with
it. Not wanting to stir anything that didn’t need to be while we
were both so incredibly alone; he pulled me close and chastely
kissed me on the forehead. We were both in such a swimming pool of
emotions at that point in time that it was probably best that way.
Though, it still didn’t make the moment any less
meaningful.

After a few moments,
Aurelian stood me up and bent down on his knee. Exactly how he
conjured it up I still have absolutely no idea – but immediately
opened up his hand and revealed an amethyst ring that was said to
have belonged to his mother. The prince asked me if I would take
it, something I wouldn’t refuse. Since our love was certain but our
situation wasn’t, instead of wearing it on my finger I decided to
wear it in a different way until I came of age. I took the ring and
wore it on a chain around my neck, a symbol of the fact that
although our love and our promise were certain; the present day was
not.

Once the it was
around my neck, however, something strange began to happen. As soon
as the dangling ring touched my skin, it changed
color
and shifted back
and forth to every color in the rainbow.

“Aurelian, it’s sparkling – it’s
changing color!” I marveled, picking up the ring and holding it
closer to my face. Aurelian neared in closer to it as well, looking
completely astounded. “What does that mean?”

“It means…that you are pure of
heart.”

Neither of us could
explain the spectacle of the ring. Aurelian knew of the meanings of
such signs, but he still couldn’t explain the reason why it had
chosen me as someone who was
pure of
heart.
To be genuinely honest, I didn’t
look, feel, or believe I was worthy of such a thing. At first I
believed that it must have been a mistake – but no, according to
Aurelian this ring could make no mistakes. According to Aurelian,
being pure of heart wasn’t determined by the ring or even by me. It
was a
gift
bestowed upon me by God himself, nothing that I could achieve
by my own merit.

I had asked him more about what this
must have meant, but beyond that Aurelian had very few answers. It
felt as if he was holding back, yet it also felt as if he simply
didn’t know what else to tell me. Whatever the case, I didn’t find
myself quite grasping the true meaning of this symbol. It surprised
and actually even agitated me a little. Aurelian’s lack of answers
only added to my frustration. Despite our happiness earlier that
night, the miraculous spectacle of the ring actually caused a rift
to form between us.

Frustrated and confused, we both
silently retracted to our corners and drifted off to sleep that
night. We closed our eyes and entered into our own worlds of sleep
and dreams in hope of a brighter tomorrow. Though, at some point in
the night my journey through the world of dreams was cut short.
Deep into the night I found myself nudged awake by a beautiful but
deceitful voice. It called to me, also sending in an eerie green
light that engulfed the entire room.

“Wake, Elissa, gently wake,” an eerie
voice echoed through the cathedral in the night. I opened my eyes
and quickly began to regain a dazed state of consciousness. The
voice echoed again. “Come here.”

The sounds seemed so real that I shot
up instantly. I could hardly tell what the sound was at first,
thinking for a moment that it might have been something from a
dream. Then, the voice called once more. Now I realized that this
was anything but imaginary. There was also something else that I
felt, something quite disturbing. I felt a presence over me at the
moment, something that felt as if it was nearly controlling my
movements. It was like a great chain was being put over my mind and
beneath its grip I began to cry out in distress.

“Stand up, Elissa. Come here,” it
said. I still found myself lost in the moment, unsure of what to
do. It was pulling on me now, telling me to move. Somehow, I found
the strength to fight it for a time. It was incredibly short-lived.
Whatever grip this thing had on me was just too strong.

Then my mind flashed
to him.
Aurelian
.
My gaze drifted to him, but he was the only one who wasn’t making a
sound. Oddly enough, while I was wide awake the prince was still
fast asleep. That was when my eyes drifted to the strangest sight.
Everything from the place where the dusty old pulpit started to the
stained glass window had
vanished.