My mother looks like me, her blonde hair elegantly coiled down her back. The gems of our people strung through her locks like fireflies dancing in a forest of dazzling yellow wheat. Her green eyes are wet, the tears trailing down her cheeks while she holds my face in her hands.
Her patchwork dress of gems overlaying a silk slip is somehow still intact in the rush to buy us precious seconds. Mine is too but my sandals are torn, now discarded on the floor next to us. Everything around us burns. The heat chasing away the cold evening.
"My love" she whispers, searching my face and I lean further into her hands.
"You need to get to the home of my mother's people. It's a far journey but you'll be safe there, the magic of the island will guard you from him." She whispers, her thumb rubbing a circular motion against my cheek.
I nod, unable to form the words to tell her how desperately I love her. My heart breaking.
"Look for my sister, I know not if she lives but if she does she will protect you." She whispers, pressing her forehead against mine. One last stolen moment before she joins my father in death.
"Come with us" I finally find my voice and she pulls away from me. Despite the warmth all around us I still feel cold.
"You know I can't, the queen can never leave Salva as long as she draws breath. The magic of the tree binds me here but you're not bound and so you, my love, must live." She whispers sadly before pressing a kiss against my forehead.
The footfalls of metal start to echo down the hall and her face draws tight, resigned to her fate.
"Run" my mother whispers hoarsely pushing me into the arms of her shadow while we hear loud armoured boots thud ever closer. The woman, who looks like and unlike my mother, drags me away. Her rough embrace is poor comfort for what comes next.
The passageway clicks shut behind us, darkness obscuring my vision but her shadow does not need the light to see.
As I'm pulled deeper into the darkness I hear my mother scream and the air catches in my throat. I let out a whimper, the grief crushing down on my chest making it hard to breathe properly, when the shadow covers my mouth roughly with her hand. "Quiet" she hisses while she never stops dragging me down the passage towards the port.
Why couldn't mother take me instead? Why did she have to die? I can't help but think to myself. My dress jars uncomfortably against my skin, the gems puncture the white alabaster smoothness creating a flush of deep red blood. The shadow does not notice.
The musky scent of the unused passage starts to take on the sweet scent of sea air shortly and I know we're almost free. Free but never safe. I shudder hoping my shadow is okay. Hoping he doesn't catch her.
My mother's shadow orders me to strip and I can't help the tears that fall. I shrug off the beautiful patchwork gem gown and she stuffs it into a bag before handing me leather pants, sturdy boots, a top, a jacket and a wrap to cover part of my face. To hide my distinctive features.
I don't argue. Moments later, we're on a small dingy boat slipping out of the harbour towards Laketown. Our first stop on our way to Haven's End, the ancestral origins of our family and the only place my mother assured me I'd be safe. My new palace, a cave at the end of the world. Now the princess of nothing.