9) Through the Looking-Glass

Alice and her father didn’t have much, but they would make the most of it. They spent every moment they could together. They went to fairs, parks, movies and her favourite; played video games together. If they hadn’t agreed to swap the controllers every so often, she’d at least hand the controller to him for some difficult parts he might enjoy… but she totally could have managed on her own though.

That all stopped after he got his big important job. He was bringing in enough to buy them a big fancy house, but for the most part… the only thing in it other than furniture was her. Any free time he had he spent shmoozing with colleagues and dating fast women. One of those women was faster than the rest and became her ”new mom”.

She’d woken from her wonderland long ago, and as time went on she couldn’t tell if it was ever real or not.

On her 13th birthday her father finally came to her defense for the first time during yet another argument with her “new mom”. The woman struck him.

Alice moved between them to keep her away from him, but the woman pushed Alice out of the way. Alice heard the crash of the mirror kept in the house’s entryway and… another noise. She fell to the floor. She tried to get back up, but she couldn’t. Her body wasn’t responding.

Why was dad screaming like that?

‘It’s okay, Dad! I’m fine. We’ll get this skank out of here and go back to how it was. We’ll hang out every day and play games together like we used to.’ Is what she tried to say, but her mouth didn’t move.

Her father was cradling her head, crying down on her as she lost consciousness.

-

Alice woke up on the floor in… another foyer. She tried to move, but she couldn’t… or at least she couldn’t because she was tied up. Wrists, ankles, and another piece of rope gagging her mouth. The air was cool, but she felt so hot.

A few sets of heavy foot steps approached the front door before it violently swung open.

‘There it is!’ an angry woman yelled from the door, pointing to Alice.

A few men stomped in wearing heavy suits of medieval armor. Some walk past her to inspect the house while one picks her up by her leg and drags her out. Dragging her head along the wood floor, over the door sweep, across the first stone step. She’s hoisted up before her head could hit the next step, but only because she’s been thrown. She hits the ground, hip first and rolls into a heap on the cobbled pavement a few feet below.

The woman was asked by one of the guards the details; ‘I found it lying in the middle of the road, so I brought it in because I thought it was some poor girl, but as I was carrying it, it opened its eyes and I could tell it was something else… a demon! Something from ‘Earth’!’

Alice hears two sets of footsteps approach from the street and was suddenly picked up again, this time a lot more gently, placing her upright. The other set of footsteps continues into view. The man who appears to be a higher ranking officer approaches the man who dragged her out and begins confronting him quietly.

It’s not long before the man being confronted starts yelling; ‘It’s a devil! If I were captain it’d be dead! They’d all be!’

‘Use your ******* eyes! Whatever ‘it’ is; it’s still a ******* child! We don’t stand for this!’ the captain yells in return.

The other man spits at the captain and the captain lands an immediate right hook with his gauntlet clad hand. In an instant, her aggressor was in a heap on the ground like she was a moment ago.

The captain approaches her and inspects her head, then her face. ‘She’s got a high fever, make sure she gets looked after.’ he rumbled.

He pats her on the shoulder before leaving.

Days had passed and she still hadn’t uttered a word. Not to explain herself, not to defend herself, not to thank anyone. She was deeply traumatized and still had no idea what was happening.

Angry people spat and threw rocks through the bars. Nice people left her food and water. People gathered and protested, some with compassion in their eyes and others with complete disdain. At some point an arrow had been shot through her public cage missing her by inches and she had to be moved indoors to some windowless dungeon. She was emaciated and her fever had gone well beyond treatment.

A tall, broad shouldered man with black facial hair speckled in gray came to visit her. He was the first one to enter her cell since she’d been admitted there. He kneeled down to her;

‘What’s your name, child of Earth?’ He asked in a deep, gentle voice.

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t even look at him. None of this was real to her.

He gently brushed aside the hair covering her eyes.

‘You’ll soon be free from this place. I promise this on my life, child.’ he said reassuringly, angling his head slightly to meet her eyes.

She finally looked back and she could see through the tears in his eyes that he meant it.

She darts up towards him; ‘It’s okay, Dad! I’m fine. We’ll---’ she stops herself. It isn’t him. Where was she? What’s happening? Where’s dad? She could feel herself getting hotter.

The man’s eyes widened and he began to sob as he stared into her icy-blue eyes. He grabs her into a hug, her small frame eclipsed by his.

‘You’ve died, child. And now you’re here…’ he says between tearful gasps for air.

It finally made sense to her now. She died and this was hell.

The air around them started to boil. And soon after her body starts to emit fierce flames. She grips the man’s back hoping to vaporize him and everything around her.

The onlooking guards start to rush to help, but the man yells ‘NO’ in his deep voice as he holds up his fist for them to stop.

‘I can’t give you back your father. I can’t give you back your life. But I can give you a new life! I can’t promise it’ll be better or worse. This world isn’t heaven, it’s never been that and never will be, but for you and your people I’ll do everything in my power to make it just that! Heaven!’ He yells with great determination.

She burns for a bit longer before her flames extinguish. The man’s entire torso was burnt and skin was melting off. The wounds were bad, but he lived to accept that they were his punishment for being of his bloodline.

But the girl…

Mere hours later the tyrannical king was killed in a coup. His own son dealt the killing blow and was soon crowned the new king.

FEAR. Fear of the Beast-Folk, Aquatians, Eartherners--- anything living or breathing under the sun that didn’t look or act like him, were fears of my father’s, and that was how he ruled; in fear. But he didn’t fear these people because they burned down our homes, took our resources, or killed our young. NO. He feared them out of IGNORANCE. He’d never hunted side by side with a beast-man. He’d never shared drinks with the Aquatians. And he never listened to the wisdom of the Eartherners. He lived by the teachings of his parents and their parents before them, who were all ignorant, fearmongering cowards!

My fiance… was the greatest woman I ever had the pleasure of knowing. But when my father met her, he looked her in the eye for the first and last time, and immediately turned and left. Later that night she was killed. He had her assassinated right in front of me, his son. He killed her not because he had a terse conversation with her, not because she had committed a crime, no, it was because she was an Eartherner. A person born from air. Sent to us from another world to spread wisdom and live the rest of their lives peacefully.

People will say they fear Eartherners because they’re dangerous. It’s no secret that Eartherners are magically inclined, more so than we are, but not all of them. Did you know that? In fact, of the 273 Eartherners sentenced to death by my father… only THREE had powers. And of those three none had used them to harm.

The only instances of violence from Eartherners with magic powers are those in record. No living person has seen an Eartherner wreak havoc with magic. And I can say with good confidence that very few of you have ever met an Eartherner to judge whether they'd use their powers for evil or not.

We haven’t seen Eartherners abuse magic, but we’ve witnessed several of our own do so. Should we lock ourselves up to atone for a few bad actors? No, that’s unfair, right? And if that’s unfair to you, then it’s definitely unfair for them.

Understand that I’m not naive, I’m not suggesting that the calamities of the past didn’t happen, and I’m not saying that they can’t again. But we need to stop being cowards. We need to stop basing our biases on the teachings of our forebearers who knew nothing outside of their small pocket of the world. And we need to start treating others how we would want to be treated.

Lastly for the cause that brought us to this tipping point;

One of the three Earthern magic users my father sentenced was still a child, her name was Alice. In her previous life she had died in her father’s arms and when she arrived here she was abused by guards, publicly tortured and left in the dungeon to starve. I had the chance to meet her, but I was too late to help. She died in her cell just hours ago in my arms. I’m not sure what she could have possibly done in her previous life to deserve the treatment she received here. When she died in her world, the sweet girl I met should have gone to heaven, but she ended up here; in this hell of our creation.

As a kingdom it will take time to heal, learn and grow. But I know we can. I know we must. We will make amends! We will be better than our parents, and our children will be better than us!

I, King Elios, pledge this!

For Alice!