“Who the hell is this, Sam?” he shouted across the room. It was cosy; there was a fire, bookcases - lots of books - and lots of clutter.
“My name is Jen, thank you very much,” Jen replied for herself. Sam pressed his lips against each other to keep silent.
“And what are you wearing?”
“A crown.”
“Sam?” the angry man addressed, firmly and fatherly.
“I can explain.”
“It had better be good. You left here promising to save this girl, and if it’s the Crown we believe it to be-”
“It is,” Sam interjected.
“Then you have failed.”
“At least she is safe from ReNay!”
“You will go to your study whilst I clear up your mess, Sam!” Morab snapped. Sam wanted to pipe up and argue back, but he decided it was best not to. He nodded, bowed to Jen and the other two Keepers of the Crowns, and disappeared from the room.
Jen watched Sam vanish away with pity. He was so young really. He was older than her, middle-aged, but Jen could see how he had been kept a child by the dominant figure, who was aging badly with a messy grey beard, and straggly, thinning hair. He motioned to Jen to sit down in one of the comfy red armchairs. Jen smiled and sat down.
“And where do I sit?” Sharon piped up in Jen’s ear.
“You’re not a physical presence though, are you? You don’t need a chair.”
“Still, it would have been nice if you had asked.”
Jen ignored her.
“Who were you talking to just then?”
“Sharon. She’s the spirit of the Crown, so Sam said.”
“Yes. He was probably right.”
“No, he was right.”
The man looked affronted, and his so-far-silent companion seemed scared. But the man continued had Jen remained silent. “My name is Morab. This is Tergen. Alongside Sam, we make up the Keepers of the Crowns.”
__________
I’m humiliated. Embarrassed. Morab just showed me up in front of Jen. I hadn’t even done anything wrong. Well, not really. I did say that I would save Jen, and I failed. But heroism is more difficult than it looks! And, you know, I never claimed to be a hero. Check my previous letters - you’ll see!
The worst part about it that I understand Morab’s disappointment in me. He’s been like a father to me, or, rather, I’ve been a son to him. He’s taught me and shaped me, and now I have let him down.
Ugh. (I hate writing those kind of expressions but the situation really does call for it). Enough moping. Well, enough moping going into this letter. I know you want to be a Keeper of the Crowns, and it would be great if you could join with us. But things can get pretty tense at times. Bear that in mind.
So, another story. I have exhausted my material about the Crown of Immortality, so I will share with you my suspicions of what we believe another Crown holds the powers to.
There was once a drought in the Kingdom of Arrashek. The fields were scorched and the rivers were bare. Livestock were dying and the people were starving. Queen Onte was sad for her country and she knew that something must be done. So she issued a challenge for all who heard it - to guards, to commoners and to mercenaries. And the challenge was this: to find some way to solve the drought problem in Arrashek. Whoever could complete this task would win ten acres of land each. The challenge inspired many, and the kingdom and its neighbouring lands were scoured for ways to bring prosperity back to the Arrashek.
New agricultural techniques, the art of river diversion and a new crop, khit, that requires little water, were ideas proposed to Queen Onte and she was glad of them all. Arrashek slowly built itself back up from the dust and dirt. And the successful were rewarded with their ten acres. Arrashek was back on its feet.
But then, one day, a young girl made an appeal to speak with Queen Onte. The girl was fourteen and went by the name Heres. She approached the queen with bare feet and ragged clothing. Her face was dirty and her hair was messy. And yet on top of all this filth and dirt, Heres wore a crown. It was a crown that sparkled in the sun that shone through the glass dome in the ceiling. She curtsied to Queen Onte. “Your gloriousness,” Heres said, “I have come in response to your challenge. I can stop the drought.”
“How?” Queen Onte enquired, interested by the girl’s remark.
“With the click of my fingers, I can summon the rain. With a blink of my eyes I can bring water to the surface. With the stamp of my foot, I can flood the nation,” Heres explained with mysticism.
“You mean to say you can control the water elemental?” Queen Onte asked skeptically.
“Yes.”
“Then make it rain, girl,” the queen ordered, with more than a hint of mockery.
Heres smiled and bowed her head. Queen Onte rose from her throne and moved to beneath the glass dome. Dark clouds were rumbling across the skies. The scorching sun was hidden and a cool, refreshing shadow fell upon the kingdom.
Across the land, the people of Arrashek looked to the skies and cheered. It had been so long since they had seen a cloud, let alone a cloud that filled the sky.
And then it rained. The dry earth soaked up the water, and the rivers and lakes began to fill up again. Both children and adults alike danced and sang in the rain, joyful for the precipitation.
In the palace, Queen Onte was staring in amazement as the raindrops splattered against the glass dome. She turned to Heres. “Thank you, girl. Thank you. You have saved our land. How can you do this? Be you a witch or a spirit?”
“I can do this because I wear this Crown.”
“The crown grants you power over the water elemental?”
“It does. Please, your majesty, if you would grant me the ten acres you promised. My family are in dire need of a home.”
“Give me the crown.”
“I cannot.”
“Give it to me and I shall grant you the ten acres.”
“It is a family heirloom, your majesty. I must not be parted. My grandmother would be angry if she discovered I stole it and then allowed it to be taken.”
Queen Onte advanced. Heres ran. The guards stopped her. “If you will not give the Crown to me, then I will take it by force. You cannot come between me and what I desire, girl.” Heres bowed her head.
There was a great noise from Queen Onte’s private rooms from behind the back wall. Queen Onte turned around to look and was faced with her swimming bath water gushing through the door in the shape of a herd of stampeding wildebeest. Then, there was a great shatter as the glass dome above her head broke into a million pieces and a great torrent of water entered the throne room. The water wildebeest surged forward towards the queen and her guards. Queen Onte shrieked as the water engulfed her and knocked her and her guards off their feet.
Across the kingdom, the torrential rain was ceaseless and merciless. Rivers that had been stone dry ten minutes previous were now breaking their banks and flooding the land. The rain came down and floods went up. The khit, that had been growing so well, was ruined as the monsoon over-watered them and flooded their xylems and leaves. The people climbed onto their houses and up the hills to try and save their lives.
And through all this, Heres protected herself in a bubble, the Crown securely on her head. After an hour of watery chaos, Heres stopped the rain and sent it away. The water receded back into the rivers and lakes and the land was returned.
Queen Onte’s drowned corpse lay at Heres’ feet. “I am sorry,” Heres said. “But my grandmother would be so very angry if I lost this Crown.” And she walked away.
This story was recorded by the grand-daughter of an old woman who went by the name of Sereh, who I believe to actually be Heres. It is too much of a coincidence that it is her name reversed. Maybe she changed her name to protect herself. After the death of Queen Onte, there was a great hunt instigated by her son, Prince Agica, to find and punish the murderer of the late queen.
Heres’ ancestral claim to the Crown intrigues me and I have desperately searched the records to try and verify the claim. But I have not been able to. Not that I doubt Heres. It’s just a right pain that I can’t trace her genealogy back to Hunn or one of her children. And there is no mention of Heres having a twin, although it is possible that the hag blood had thinned by her generation.
The thing is, I can’t think of any other way that Heres could get her hands on a Crown. She was a nobody. Her disheveled appearance and humble background pays tribute to this notion. And as families progress through the ages, many lose out of fortune and become nobodies. Heres could be a perfect candidate for being an ancestor of Hunn, bar the vague black holes.
As for the Crown, it obviously appears to be a Crown that permits the wearer to control all water forces. And, unlike the Crown of Immortality, the Crown can be removed without endangering the wearer’s life. The Crown’s current location is unknown to me. I can only presume that the Crown is still being passed down from generation to generation. Whether the family ever use the Crown is unknown, but it is obviously a very quiet affair, else we’d have heard about it.
I desperately want to journey to Arrashek and do more research, search for more clues, but Morab won’t grant me permission. He says it is too far away and that it is not a necessary trip, so therefore I will not be going to Arrashek any time soon. I don’t know where I’m going to be heading off to next, or what I’m going to be studying. But I will keep you updated, friend.
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