The island of Salyras was dancing!
Dusty feet slapped the stone grounds, responsive to my music, and voices rose above the melody I sang. In the ocean, I stood and allowed the salty wind to carry my song to thousands of elated ears.
This was when I was the most joyful. Plucking the taut strings of my lyre and singing—being responsible for every smile on this island. I delighted in exciting the hearts of the people I was bound to protect. Only when I played for others did I feel I contributed to the world.
My purpose was in music.
On this cursed island, where tragedy became of us every fifteen years, joy was necessary to keep my people thriving. The souls we'd lost in the invasion of pirates fifteen years ago resided in this blue sea no one dared to swim in. In Salyras, it was our culture to fear the water.
The depth of it. What lurked underneath the blue where eyes could no longer see.
But I had never been afraid. I would never be afraid. Not when across the ocean was a remarkable life for me. A life where I would become someone formidable my elder sister, Queen Nelera, would recognize. A life where I would scatter love through music across the world and inspire affection in even the most remote of souls.
I would become more than an orphaned prince who strummed to drown out the noise of grief and longing in his own heart.
At a young age, music had become my clutch after the killings of my parents. I required it to sleep, and it was essential in the mornings that were always cold, no matter which season I woke in.
Distracted, I look onto the ocean as its breath tossed through my dark hair. Waves like the ones that lapped at my knees. The sun was setting, and departing with it would be another day I wondered if I would ever fulfill this dream I yearned for.
"Prince Nevian! Play us another song!"
I looked over my shoulder to see my community dancing on shore with their gold bells and singing anklets. And while creating music for them all, my evening was spared from the misery of thinking.
When the moon touched the sky, torches were lit across the tiered island, flickering orange and yellow across every home. I was greeted by many as I walked up different levels of steps. On my strong back, I carried laughing children for a while, my grin in response to their glee sincere. Some of my people offered me gifts, touched across my strong shoulders and arms. A young man pulled me aside and begged to kiss my feet. I let him.
Touch was the love language of this island, and here I was loved exceedingly. As their prince, I loved them all dutifully. But, here, I did not belong. Not truly. I was destined for something more, only I did not know what that more was.
I left my community to themselves and passed through the fortified gates of the palace, which was governed by Nelera. It was foolish of me to expect her resting. She only ever slept once I returned home to her. At the marbled steps before the entrance, I noticed her soft figure, her skin clothed in dyed fabric that emphasized the bronze of her skin.
She stood when she noticed me, eyes as blue as mine greeting me.
"You did not have to wait for me, sister," I said quietly, although there was no reason to whisper. Only we and our workers resided in the palace, and if their queen was awake, so were they.
Nelera smiled simply and gestured to the steps. "I thought it might be nice to talk for a while. I rarely see you anymore."
Lately, I had been avoiding home, instead spending more time entertaining my people and distracting my mind. It had been fifteen years since the last tragedy on our island, so naturally, tension lingered as we prepared for the next strike. It unnerved me. Made me anxious in a way I only escaped through music. I was not usually cowardly, but this thing I passionately avoided, leaving my sister to address it alone.
Nelera took my hand and sat me beside her on the steps. I watched her brush dark waves over her bare shoulder. When she noticed my lyre, a loving smile touched her lips.
"You do not play for me anymore. I miss hearing you sing."
Her exhaustion formed caves beneath her jeweled eyes, and my guilt was striking. I had abandoned her to handle the affairs of our island alone.
"I should do more than just sing," I murmured, my gaze shameful on my lap.
Nelera hummed. "And what should you be doing instead?"
"Helping you. Protecting you and everyone on this island. I have been neglecting my duties because I have been…" Afraid. I was too ashamed to admit it.
Nelera took my face in her smooth palm, and her thumb tenderly stroked the anxiety from my skin. "Nevian. Do you recognize how much older than you I am? I am to protect you. Not the other way around."
That was what she had always done for me. It was she who had only been eighteen before she'd begun raising the ten-year-old boy mourning the loss of their parents. Fifteen years ago, she had also become a mother to me. And now it was her face I saw whenever I tried to conjure our mother's distant memory.
"As a man and as your brother, the responsibility should be innate to me," I argued, frustrated with myself.
Nelera only smiled beautifully. "And it is. But you have no desire to pick up a sword or put on a suit of armor, do you?"
"No." I frowned at the truth.
Men should want to wield swords and become warriors, but I had no desire to draw blood and invade islands.
My sister fell back on her hands. "You are not a man of violence, Nevian. Not a warrior like our father or an archer like our mother. That is just fine because you are a master of something else. Something with the power to compel armies and cease wars." She looked over at me, her eyes glistening. "You are a master of music, and nothing is more special than that."
My heart split open for her, spilling affection into every cavity of my chest. I grinned. "It would be thrilling to test my hand at archery. I am willing to hunt for the community. I should be contributing much more than I do."
"You contribute enough. Your songs keep everyone's worries at rest. When you sing for our people, they are too charmed to fear the next impending disaster. They focus only on the music and love you push into the world. Do not ever stop it."
My smile softened. "I won't."
That was my promise to her. To myself as well.
The night was quiet with only the noises of nocturnal birds humming in search of their food. If I strained my ears to listen, I could hear the ocean talking, contemplating what show it might give to appease my people tomorrow. No matter what tricks it pulled, my people would not dive in.
Nelera sighed. "Any day now, Nevian, we could face another attack." Her expression was tight. Anxious. "My strategists and I have already prepared for an evacuation. We'll sail by the ocean and wait for the passing of the next strike, but it will be hard to guide our people when they are so fearful of the water."
I had always wondered about their fear. Was it that they were terrified of what they didn't understand? Perhaps the idea of drowning frightened them, but I would not let even the best swimmers—although few—in our community drown. At least they could trust me to look out for them.
"I can help you," I promised her. "Somehow, I will convince them not to fear the water. It is too beautiful to be terrifying. Too peaceful to be harmful."
Relief gripped my sister's shoulders. "Then we'll evacuate the island tomorrow. I will leave it to you to quiet the unrest."
That night, I lay in the courtyard and plucked my lyre until sleep came.