We Will Be His Legacy

My family will be whole for the first time in many years today. But grief has found me once again.

Where in these brightly lit halls is he not?

His last words will forever haunt me, for I could not fully return them true.

I fled from the horrific death stain that will forever shroud the floor of the Queen’s Chamber. I raced down the spiraling staircase to the Palace Library. With its vaulted ceiling, book-covered walls, and enormous but cozy fire pit, I felt exposed—my anguish for all the lost had exfoliated me raw.

I swiftly found the secret lever to the Queen’s Library. This was a place for hiding: low ceilings, rows, and rows of tightly packed shelves. I paused at the spot where my sons used to play when they were little. Then I went to my desk.

And there, he found me once again—among private journals and scrolls of past queens.

It sat on my polished ganndean tree wooden desk. I, as always, feel the traces of queens’ past with just a touch. He must have left it for the incoming Queen, Gwendolyn. The first queen to be murdered on Grandel Isle ground. He beheld the future, making sure the path forward was stable for the generations ahead to grow.

William’s Journey, written on the cover in his horrible print. How I will miss it.

Holding it close, I hear his last words again; I love you. Not as a queen, not as a friend but as the only women he has ever loved. I whispered the words in return, but we understood it was not in the same way. For Brandon, is my soul, my heart, my breath, My Protector.

I felt a hand on my back. I glanced up into the face of the only other person who knew our hearts, my son. Who was drawn here by my grief-stricken thoughts.

“Mom, he was happy with what you could give him,” Marcus says with his voice because he knew my ears needed to hear it. He slipped his comforting arms around me. “What have you found?”

“His journal.”

I opened it to the first entry. Soul Energy Cycle, it read.

Marcus inhaled sharply. He touched my mind; he left pieces of himself within the pages.

Marcus flipped through the pages and specks of pale blue were visible.

I decided then he would not be forgotten.

William the Midlander. The Enhanced. The Queen’s Advisor. Dear friend.

Grandelites will see what he learned of their island and the dragon islands. I will spread his knowledge. His legacy will live on.

“We will carry on his words; we will be his legacy.”