Familial Matters

The inside of the grotto continued into a proper cave. The walls glistened a rainbow-like creamy colour that mesmerized me. I stepped close to the walls and ran my hand along it. Smooth from years of erosion and damp. I licked my finger and was disappointed that the bit of dew I picked up didn’t taste like anything. As the water spread across my tongue, the blue hue I had glimpsed around Marisa during our first meeting became more pronounced in this instant.

My damp clothes sloshed with each step and I started to get a chill. I hunched my shoulders and stuffed my hands in my pockets. It was then that I realized I had lost the staff Luna had given. I must have lost it when I fell into the marsh. I’ll need to make a note of retrieving it at some point. I could only hope that Marisa was being honest and I would get to dry off soon.

Marisa, who had so far been at the front leading the way, started to slow down and fidget with her dress. Luna tidied her cloak and licked her paws. We then rounded a corner and were faced with a large chamber. It wasn’t as grand as King Eulerich’s but it was impressive in its own right for being inside a grotto. I large fire burned in the middle of the open expanse. As I looked around the chamber, my eyes wandered to the large figure sitting atop a throne. He was a hard looking man who wore a red robe over a set of armour and had a beard as long as he was wise. In his right hand he held a sceptre, and with his left he stroked his beard. As he spotted us, his permanent scowl deepened.

He must have been Marisa’s father and the ruler of the undines. He reminded me of my own father in a way I couldn’t articulate. My father was a respectable man, but had no ambition from what I had seen. He would come home after work, sit down on the couch, and watch television. Maybe if he had not married my mother, he would have found that true desire for death in a land unknown. I had vowed to be different, closing my heart off to love, but cowardly joined the workforce to earn money, putting on a suit every day in the fantasy that I was braving the world. All this did was pass the days away for me—the same as my old man. Yet here I was now, on a real adventure! I kept finding myself coming back to the worrying thought that I didn’t understand what was happening around me. What I needed to do was focus on adventuring, becoming a man of action.

“And so commeth the High Priestess with bare fingers,” said the man, his voice echoing in the chamber.

“Fathe—King Olaf, let my case be heard first, for I claim good cause why I am not yet wed,” Marisa said.

“And sufficient wherefore it is. Eulerich hath shared his knowledge in advance of your coming. I know all, and what it is ye seek.”

Marisa’s shoulders relaxed with this news. If I had agreed to marry Marisa, would I be addressing this man as father-in-law right now? I wondered how my own parents would react to this news. I suppressed the thought because it would make me cringe.

“Of thee I know, included in the report of his majesty,” King Olaf said, glaring at me. “I am King Olaf, chief of the undines.”

“Greetings, King Olaf. I am Ferdinand. I won’t waste your time with an introduction if King Eulerich already told you everything. I understand I’m here to retrieve an important object to fix the mess I made.”

He nodded. “Whereupon a trial awaits thee. We know naught of the trial, save that a relic of great import is kept at the end. Sealed is the path, and to be opened only by those fate hath chosen.”

“King Olaf, we have need of rest before undertaking the trial. Ferdinand is drenched, his person sodden right through,” said Marisa.

“The watchman waiteth at every hour. Make yourselves known to him at your convenience and pass ye through. Thine attendants, Marisa, shall see all other needs met.”

The three attendants who had accompanied Marisa when I first met her appeared in the chamber, walking in through a side entrance. Marisa gave a cordial farewell to her father, bowed, and walked over to where her attendants were waiting. Luna indicated I should do the same. I gave Olaf a bow and took my leave.

I followed Marisa and her attendants to a room carved out of the cave. Inside were clothes prepared for me spread out on a bed, a small lantern that hung from the ceiling, and nothing else in the room.

“We leave you to your own self, and now I have duties of kinship to attend to. You will be fetched in the morning by Luna. No questions? Good.”

“Uh, well—”

But I didn’t get to finish my sentence because Marisa slammed the door. I could hear their footsteps echo in the room as they walked off. I gave a heavy sigh and changed clothes. They had given me a red tunic with a green overshirt and black pants. I prepared my belongings for the trial the next day and lay on the bed.

The lantern swayed slightly any time air rushed through the cavern, casting faces that danced across the stony wall with each flicker of the flame. They called out to me, but the wind drowned out their voices. It didn’t matter what they wanted to talk about, I had already made up my mind to complete this trial and move onto the next one. And then the next one. And then to go home; back to where I belonged, and no one would know what kind of adventure I had been on. And what of danger? Sure, we had a few run-ins with it, but how can I worry about danger and the world when it was like a game that I didn’t know the rules of? It was better to make my own as I went along.

Eventually, the sleep fairies worked their magic over me and I drifted off to the one world that remained the same wherever I went: dreamland.

In the morning, Luna came and got me, just as Marisa had said. We weaved through pathways and undines, taking an unmarked corridor to the trial. Drawing nearer, I heard Marisa talking to an unfamiliar voice. Their voices died down as we rounded the final corner. Marisa was waiting for us outside a large gate with a guard was posted next to it. The third figure I didn’t recognize. She had a stern look, inimically equal to King Olaf’s scowl. She was barefoot, wearing a sensual azure gown covered with a golden breastplate. In her hand she held a sceptre topped with a lunar orb. Her face, aged, was beautiful in its own right with passionate red eyes. Her head held a crown of twenty one stars. Her eyes lingered on Marisa for a moment, full of disdain. Then she walked past us dismissively, yet her presence cast a spell over me, like an embrace that crushed my chest, trapping my breath.

“At last you have come. Let us make haste and start the trial. This place is much to oppressive. Edward, open the gate,” Marisa said to the guard.

I gave her a look to ask who that person was, but she looked over me, remaining silent, turning her head to watch the gate instead. The gate in front of us was decorated with many engravings. The words ‘Boaz’ and ‘Iachin’ were etched into the top left and right corners. Squares with kingly men holding instruments, rulers, and books ran along the junction of the gate. The guard removed a key from his belt and inserted it into the keyhole in the centre of the gate.

Click ker-clac clunk

The sounds echoed loudly as the gate was unlocked. The guard stepped aside and the gate retracted sideways, moved by an invisible contraption or force. A dark fog crawled out of the opening, lapping around our feet. The dark void, with its sweetened smell, beckoned us trial goers. My body hardened, turning to metaphorical stone. My legs denied all inputs to move forward, screaming with my heart in unison to run away.

Marisa looked at me for the first time, annoyed. “The trial cannot start until you go in.”

“It looks quite dark... Do we have a light we could bring with us?” I asked.

“Hmm. Edward, we will be requisitioning a wall torch under your stead.”

The guard gave a nod, retrieved a torch, and handed it to me.

With torch in hand I pushed forward into the maws of the fog.