Voice of the Pheonix

*Warning, references to slavery and child abuse

She didn’t know what to think as she gazed upon the people who had been brought before her. They were children, teens, and adults, but they had all been slaves for some amount of time. Some for weeks, some for years. All of them were muttering in different languages, but all seeming to understand each other for some reason or another. Queen Crystal was looking at a crowd of people that had been taken from their homes, their kingdoms, and been forced into labor and to fight to survive. A lot of them were dirty, but the ones that she would have pegged as weak or as children… they seemed to be at least less damaged than the stronger ones. One young man was more scarred than all the others, and he was looking right at her. She had on her best queen face for acting like she was in control and that everything would be alright. What scared her was that the young man staring at her was also putting on a brave face. He couldn’t be more than a child, but the way others were talking around him and to him, it was almost like they believed he was older. He didn’t respond to any of them out loud, but with hand signals of some sort that she had yet to see before. Was he mute?

One of the others looked at the young man and noticed his gaze. They looked at her nervously. The first boy indicated towards her, and the other nodded slowly before following him forward towards her. She had led the raid on the slave camp where she had found all of these people. Did that mean this boy knew she was a leader, or did he think she was his new owner? She hoped it was the first. She had no wish to keep them enslaved. She wished to send them all home. She wished these people to be safe.

The two came before her. One slightly smaller than the other, both boys with blue eyes, though one was more scarred than the other. The scarred one was smaller and had a reddish hue in his brown hair while the elder one was wearing a torn vest that was obviously too small on him now, but might have been his only thing from his time before being a slave. The smaller one also had bandages around his left hand and wrist. It was about the only part of him that was bandaged.

“Can I help you?” She asked as calmly as she could. This was very jarring to see, nevermind experience. She couldn’t imagine what these two alone had been through. They couldn’t be much older than her own daughters.

The smaller one tried to speak. The sound that came out of his mouth only caused the queen to blink and his companion to look to the heavens. The smaller sighed, noting that they couldn’t understand him. The elder grimaced. “Sorry. He only speaks Sol… I think. One of the adults recognized the language, but no one here can speak it… save for Collin.”

“That’s his name?”

“Yes.”

“And you are sure of it?”

“It’s one of the few things I remember from before we were slaves, along with my name being Kaleem, ma’am.” Crystal couldn’t help but look upset about that.

Collin sighed and rolled his eyes. He tapped his foot to get Kaleem’s attention. Kaleem looked at him. Collin indicated to the lady’s head. Crystal grimaced. He was trying to point out her crown, wasn’t he. Kaleem grimaced as well. “Am I supposed to bow or something?” Collin nodded slowly and looked embarrassed as well.

Crystal could tell the two were about to attempt to bow when she raised a hand to stop them. “Don’t worry about it right now. You both came up to me for a reason. What is it?”

Kaleem nodded and looked to Collin, as it had apparently been the smaller one’s idea. Collin tapped on his wrists and indicated something with them. Kaleem nodded and looked at Crystal. “I think he’s asking if you’re going to put us in chains again or something?” His voice was now smaller.

Collin had a steely gaze though. Crystal could tell that the young man had only gotten a partial translation from that. “Show me again, slower, please?” Collin nodded, and indicated to his wrists where chains had been, but what Kaleem had missed was the motion of breaking the chains. “Ah, yes, you are free now. Slavery isn’t something that should be put upon anyone.” Collin nodded. Then he indicated to her crown and her spear. “Ah, yes. I’m Queen Crystal Frost. I suppose you could call me a warrior queen.” Collin nodded, satisfied with that answer.

Days later, after many of the slaves had been sent back to their home realms or given a home in Frost, Queen Crystal found herself once more watching young Collin try to explain through his hand motions. Whatever it was he was trying to ask, he seemed nervous. She knew that he didn’t want to go back to Southern Point at the moment, but she couldn’t fathom why. “I think I might need help on this one, Collin.” Collin grimaced and sighed before shrugging. He was used to people not understanding him. “There’s someone here from Southern Point in my labs. He’s a refugee of sorts. Hopefully he can help me understand you.” Kaleem was with the other children and teens who had decided to stay with Collin in the Frost Kingdom. Collin looked a tad upset because he couldn’t get anyone to understand him. Adults were constantly pushing him around and trying to get him to listen to lectures and such. They were trying to teach him without trying to understand what he already knew. He didn’t want to be forced to start over at the basics because they believed him remedial. Soon they reached the labs. Collin looked around with curiosity while still following the queen. He was one of the few who didn’t need more clothes than a member of the Frost Kingdom did, but that could easily be explained by his fire abilities not snuffing out despite his hardships.

They made their way to a specific corner of the lab where a set of twins were playing. They were obviously toddlers. What startled Collin was their red irises and black sclera. The only people he had seen with that were his uncle and cousin. It was a family trait that had supposedly skipped his father and aunt, not that he was entirely sure about that. The twins were playing on toy computers and giggling with each other, while also being in a sort of protective play pen. Collin’s eyes couldn’t help but also notice that they had similar birthmarks that were barely visible from under their long sleeve shirts.

Crystal smiled at them. “Ah, that’s Jasmine and Jameel. They are Dr. Kin’s twin children. He’s who we’re here to see.”

The boy waived at them, and Collin nearly choked back a sob. He looked almost exactly like his older cousin, Julian Junior. Collin grimaced and waived back. Then came the bigger shock. The scientist himself. He had his back to them, and was working on something with his finger lit on fire like a welding torch. His dark red hair was shaggy and covered with oil and grease. His tan skin looked pale, even compared to Collin, though Collin’s was more of a sickly pallor.

“We’ll have to wait for him to be done. He hates to be interrupted.” Crystal grimaced before noticing Collin was still inching towards the tall man. “I wouldn’t…” She tries to warn.

Collin looks up at the man, hearing him muttering as he’s entirely in his own world of inventions. The device he’s working on looks familiar to Collin. It looks like the translator that his Uncle Julian had made for him when his cousin had pointed out he was speaking in Sol. Perhaps it was being set for the Frost equivalent of Lune? Collin didn’t want to wait to find out. He let out a raspy sound from his throat. It sounded almost like a baby dragon’s cry.

The scientist stopped and looked down at the device before looking at the child beside him who had a determined look, but was also scared, and then once more at the device. He lifted the blue goggles off his eyes to reveal the eyes that matched the twins, and more importantly to Collin, matched his uncle. The scientist then glanced at the queen, acknowledging her presence now with heavy concern. “Your majesty… Why and how is my nephew here?”