Blood Bound

Bound by blood, bound by soul...a pristine copy of one another...at least physically. I never wanted for this to happen, to seperate on an emotional level from the one person that truly knows me...the real me. I never meant to distance myself from the only person that truly cares about me...about the person and I am and not the title, or the crown. 

Despite the rarity of our situation, she had never been one to hold a grudge or be angry at anything...or anyone. No, Annette simply accepted each day as it came and took things on the chin...like water off a ducks back. She had been my rock throughout our 25 years on this mortal plane...yet even rocks crumble, even rocks break.

I should have realised, if I hadn't been so caught up in my own self importance then I would have seen the signs. It was this fact itself that illustrated how much I had screwed up. My twin,normally so reserved and controlled had actually cried in front of me, silently...but tears had flowed down her cheeks as she left the pearly gates or the royal estate and hadn't been back since...that was over two full moons ago and no one had heard from her since.

My parents, as anyone could predict were devestated that one of their only two children had fled not only the Royal residence but had apparently fled the land of Fae. It wasn't like Annette could hide easily, being the fact that she was the spare to the Fae throne...a throne her twin sister would inherit as soon as her father reached retirement. A throne I would inherit sometime in the next 50 years, a throne I had been in training for over the last several years...training that had distanced me from the one person I loved most in not only this world but in all the worlds,across all the realms.

The fact that I was the heir was purely coincedental...it was simple. I was the twin born with the power meaning that I was the heir to the throne automatically. The Fae royal family had one main supernatural power that was distinctive to our family, sure all Fae had various magical traits including flight, super senses and telekenisis...yet none could control the elements or the seasons, that was reserved for the Royal family and was passed down to the next generational heir or the eldest sibling. Unfortunately despite the fact that Annette and I were the same age, the power had been passed down to me making Annette in the eyes of our parents their weaker child that they needed to protect which swayed towards smothering most of the time.

If I hadn't been so invested in my own self importance and caught up in my training to one day take over the throne, I would have noticed that she was struggling...I would have used our twins intuition to sense the fact that she was not okay and needed her sister to step in...to be there for her. I knew what had pushed her over the edge, the singular event that had actually crumbled her bulletproof exterior.

It was just over 6 months ago, Father and I had just finished up one of our additional dueling sessions due to recent break in attempts as according to the palace security reports. As the heir to the throne, I needed not only to be able to protect myself but I needed to be able to protect my peoples, my Kingdom...hence the reason why we both arrived at dinner two minutes late, sweaty and still in our combat gear.

Mother had not been happy, which was fair enough. She didn't insist on much but she did demand that we all have dinner as a family daily, it was a nice tradition and had definetly ensured that despite the business of our everyday lives that we were still involved in one anothers lives...even though I clearly wasn't connecting to my sister like I should have at these meals.

In this particular instance, a lengthy discussion had started about priorities and how family came before duty...how ironic. I agreed with this quite enthusiastically back then...and I still do, yet clearly I had been doing the exact opposite. Looking back, my Father and I should have just agreed that we were wrong and apologised instead of defending the fact that we were late to supper.

" Susanna, she is the heir in training. She needs to be strong enough to be independent and not rely on anyone...she also needs to be strong and resilient enough...an ideal role model to lead our peoples. Due to the recent break in attempts we have been fitting in some extra combat sessions in case anything were to happen."

After this statement from my father, Mother had chimed in with a rebuttal about family and commitments being more important than fitting in extra training sessions as the palace security were the best Fae had to offer and if they couldn't protect them then no one could.

This led to an intense discussion which ended with Mother insisting that we all get self defence training, which I fully supported. I had never seen Annette as weak, quiet and reserved sure but she was internally stronger than anyone I had ever met...myself included...and I was meant to be the strong one, the leader. It was what came next that started this whole arguement. 

" You and Annette do not need self defense lessons. It is your role to be pristine representations of the royal family, you both handle the more aristocratic and social sides of our household while Kirilee and will be the brawn. The Crown may be the role model, we may hold the power...yet it is our team behind us, it is you both that keep us powerful. Besides, Annette is more of an scholar than a fighter, she needs to be protected so she can flourish in her own right."

Although I know my Father's intentions were positive, his execution was slightly askew. With my Mother already annoyed this only added fuel to the fire and soon enough all kinds of truths were being admitted. One in particular being the fact that my Father saw my twin sister as some weak little princess he needed to protect from the harsh wide world. A fact that I knew hurt my sister far more than she let on. No, at that dinner she was the perfect princess...she was silent and well behaved, excusing herself politely only when the King and Queen retired for the evening. 

After I followed her to our adjoining bedrooms to try talk to her, she had simply looked at me with such an intense hurt in her eyes that any meaingless words I might have tried to utter out left me speechless as I watched her enter her room and silently shut the large oak door behind her. Her sleek chestnut hair, falling neatly around her pointed ears the last image I had of her within our childhood home.

It was only a few days later when I was up early for extra training with the royal army did I spy her sneaking out the side gates of the royal estate. After getting her attention she had simply looked at me silently, her large mauve eyes glistening with unshed tears as she shook her head slightly and left. Her butterfly like wings soread out far behind her as she took to the lightening skies of a new day.

A sight I will watch everyday until my sister,my twin returns to me.