I went through the motions of getting dressed in a daze, my thoughts racing, my mind very preoccupied. Luckily, I did not have much to do. Several maids helped me into my heavy gold and green dress. They basically sealed me in; to tell the truth, I could not have gotten out of it even if I had wanted to, what with its countless tiny fastenings down the back. However, by the time I had been sealed in, my hair put up in some tight, painful, but fashionable style, and an emerald necklace fastened around my neck, I had come to the conclusion that the whole seashell incident the night before had been a dream. It had seemed so real...but the golden seashell had vanished without a trace and my bedroom’s door had been bolted shut. As Nurse Aeva shoved me out a side door and into a waiting carriage, I finally managed to convince myself that it had all been some bizarre figment of my imagination. And that this silly golden seashell was something that had never existed in the first lace. By the time the carriage halted, I had brushed off the incident. Indeed, I had forgotten it completely.
For one to understand the next series of events, it is vital that one knows the exact and precise meaning of the ‘Sparkle Bay Kingdom’s Beach Day Ceremony.’
One of Sparkle Bay’s oldest ceremonies, it is held on the shores of Sparkle Bay, the kingdom’s namesake. The ceremony is of grave importance. Though Sparkle Bay is a bay, it has violent waves and perilous undercurrents year round; my father’s advisors tell him that their latest experiments give them reason to believe that the Isle of Asalene, which is located between the bay and the open sea, is the only thing keeping the ocean’s raging waters at bay. During most of the year, no matter how beautiful the shores of the bay appear, their beauty is deadly and by stepping below the tide line one are putting one’s life in grave danger. To step in the water itself is practically asking for death to come and take one’s person. And to do either is breaking the law. However, every year during the summer months of Tamaewat and Enttornt, the water is calmer. Why, no one knows, but it is safe to swim in the water, play in the sands, and go out in boats, if one so wishes. These two months are a national holiday in Sparkle Bay Kingdom, and inhabitants from every corner of the small nation flock to the beaches, when the law is lifted.
The ceremony originated when these two months of safety were discovered by the first king of Sparkle Bay Kingdom and his men. The bay was then called the Bay of Death and Sorrow. He renamed the bay on the first day of the month of Tamaewat and founded his kingdom, explaining to his people the dangers of the waters of the bay and when they could or could not venture out onto the beaches. He declared Tamaewat and Enttornt a national holiday for the, then few, subjects of his kingdom. These days, hundreds of years later, there are many more Sparkelians, but the months of safety and the national holiday remain the same, as do the perils of the water in other months.
And so, every year, the Sparkle Bay Kingdom Beach Day Ceremony is held on the first day of Tamaewat. Tradition has it that the youngest of the royal family that is of age (over sixteen) gives a similar speech as the first king of Sparkle Bay did, and announces the national holiday. By signing a special decree, they simultaneously reopen the beaches and lift the law prohibiting people to use them.
I was the youngest in the royal family of age at that time, as my other siblings, a brother and sister, were still too young.
As Nurse Aeva helped me out of the carriage and ushered me towards the back entrance of the great stone amphitheater on Daggera Point, I looked back at the castle across the seemingly vast Sparkle Bay. It looked so peaceful, however I knew the danger of its watery depths. I had been taught of it since I was old enough to remember. But I wondered why, why there were two months when this otherwise deadly danger did not exist?
But I was ripped from by thoughts by a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around.
“Naeabward!” I cried, promptly forgetting my manners as I jumped back in surprise .
I was not expecting to see him there, and it was unlike him to touch me, even in something so simple as a tap on the shoulder. His dark eyes twinkled with mischief.
“You know I wish you’d call me Nae,” he said, “and please, Milady, don’t look so surprised, I’m your escort. And it isn’t as if we’ve never met before.”
“For the ceremony today?” I said vaguely, still processing the fact that he was standing there in front of me.
“Of course. Are you displeased to see me?” Naeabward said, the twinkle receding from his eyes.
“Oh, no,” I said, in my same shocked tone, giving him a friendly smile, as I was glad to see him, though I was surprised at his sudden appearance.
“Then what in heaven’s name is the matter?” he cried, taking up one of my hands in both of his. I gave him an odd look and withdrew my hand from his grasp. There was something in his voice, something I had never heard before, something that frightened me and made my heart beat in a strange rhythm.
“Nothing,” I said, flatly, my back to him as I looked out onto the bay, “I thought you were across the sea in Macri, fighting in the war...”
I could almost feel him wither behind me. Turning to face him again, I said, “you know that I would die rather than lose or hurt our friendship, Naeabward. We have know each other for such a long time. Something troubles you? Pray, tell me why you act so strangely.”
I was terribly confused. Had I done something wrong? Had I somehow caused him to think I no longer valued our friendship? Had I been an unfaithful friend?
I did not think the last possible - whenever we had received news of his whereabouts I had always sent him a friendly letter, full of news from home and anything his mother wanted me to include, written in my own hand. Yet, now that I saw him again, he seemed so different, so agitated, I could not help but surmise his manner had nothing to do with me, but instead was some horrible effect of the terrors of war he had been exposed to in Macri for the first time.
He ran his hands through his curly dark brown hair in an act of exasperation - though I could not fathom what exasperated him so. “Our friendship?” he said, quietly, maintaining the tone that frightened me, though I did not understand why, “Milady...Ellmene..you have already lost my friendship...”
His words nearly rent me in two.
“What?” I cried, my anguish causing the word to barely audible. He looked me right in the eye, only further confusing me, and opened his mouth as if to say something. But before he could answer someone ran up to us telling us that the ceremony was beginning and our presence was required. As Naeabward escorted me up to the center of the amphitheater in that same manner that disturbed me so, I was inwardly falling apart, though I smiled and waved at the crowd of Sparkelians and curtsied to my mother and father, who sat, as they should in the royal throne which was set back in the center of the great stone platform.
What could I have possibly done? I thought, desperately, over and over again. What could I have possibly done...?
The Golden Seashell
