The Recording

My mind spun as I tried to process the information dump I'd just received, and the wings on my back kept twitching through the holes of the throne-like chair I'd been told to sit in.

"So let's get this straight. My grandmother was a retired queen and my mother was the current, which meant that she needed to give birth to an heir to the throne. I didn't qualify as one, so she and my dad ran off to the human world so they could raise me there. However, you guys and my dad's people hunted them down like animals and they died in the crossover. You all assumed that my mother had made preparations for me in the human world, so you left me there for the past seventeen years in the name of my safety."

Cambridge stood stoic as I recapped the first half of Esmeralda's explanation and nodded encouragingly for me to finish my recap, despite having just heard it all from Esmeralda.

"And the reason you guys brought me back is that my grandmother, who had retired, is about to come out of retirement and she would be mad if she found out you guys left me in the human world for all that time. She also won't have any intention to rule the kin-Queendom so I have to step up?"

"That Esmeralda left you in the human world for all that time. She made me unaware of this by having me run a bunch of useless missions."

Esmeralda, who had listened to the whole recap with an awkward expression on her face, snapped up and quickly defended herself. Ever since I'd changed into looking like I did, she'd suddenly stopped being so antagonistic towards me. It wasn't like she was suddenly overflowing with kindness, but at least she wasn't hostile anymore.

"Far from useless, the missions you and your sister have completed are the key reasons the queendom is as stable as it currently is!"

Cambridge glared her into silence with a vicious expression before turning back to smile at me. I didn't know how 'errands' could have kept someone busy for seventeen whole years, but if that was what she was running with, then that was what I would have to believe.

But she didn't even look seventeen, so I wondered how old she really was.

"But wait, why suddenly bring me back? What's so different between how I am now and when I was born?"

"Nothing your highness. You've just become more necessary than you were troublesome in the past. Then we had a queen that could bear a proper heir as long as they took you out of the picture. Now that we no longer have the queen, we have to settle for the closest thing. That closest thing… is you, Cai."

She called me by my middle name, but out of all the things I had questions about, that ranked comparatively low on the priority list.

"Watch your words, Esmeralda."

Cambridge once again scolded Esmeralda in my defence. She then waved her wand towards a large box at the other side of the room and magically brought it over to the table between us. The casual usage of magic only solidified my theory that this was all an intense dream.

But if it was, then why hadn't I woken up yet?

It was a wealthy-looking chest, made of a strange material that seamlessly blended hard, dark brown wood and golden strands. They had polished it until it shone, and it promised a wealth greater than the material they'd made it from.

Esmeralda motioned for me to open it with a calm expression, but switched to a greedy one when the lock clicked open and I lifted the lid.

The contents of the chest were underwhelming compared to its wealthy exterior, but I somehow couldn't feel disappointed.

It held a baton made of the same odd material as the box, but it had a large and thick golden thread that loosely wrapped around its length. It also carried a book of the same material, but instead of having the golden thread integrated into the wood or wrapped and melded into its surface, the golden thread had been woven into a complex knot.

I gently brushed my fingers over the surface of the knot, but quickly removed my hand when the book glowed. The golden knot slowly and dramatically unwound itself from its impossible pattern and snapped both ends down the side of the book and toward the floor. The pages of the newly freed book snapped up and flipped around the hardcovers like something had trapped them in a tornado.

Everything was so new and shiny that I could only watch in amazement. That was why I was so surprised when a hand slammed down on the cover and held it shut.

I looked up to see Cambridge glaring at Esmeralda with a borderline threatening expression and pointing toward the door. Esmeralda looked like she wanted to fight the stern fairy, but after Cambridge flared her wings until they were half open, she gathered up her skirt and slightly turned toward the door.

"We will leave you now, but Cambridge will wait outside the door when you are ready for our company… Your mother asked that you see this in private."

Cambridge nodded in agreement and gave me one more of her signature stiff smiles before escorting Esmeralda out of the room. Before they completely exited the large, metal door, she looked back and sent me a confusing look before closing the door behind her. It was warm and maternal, like she'd known me for a long time and had missed me dearly.

This wasn't the first time she had looked at me like that, but now that I was starting to believe that everything that had happened wasn't just some elaborate insane prank, I ended up putting more weight into it.

My attention pulled back to the book as its pages resumed their spinning.

I jumped in surprise when the image of a woman with metallic gold hair and eyes similar to mine was projected into the air. I calmed my beating heart to recover from the jump scare and took a proper look at the image that had come from the book.

She couldn't have been any older than twenty-two, but there was an air of regality around her that made it clear she was much older than that. The image-stabilized from its previous weakness and then revealed its true identity as a video. Audio bled out from unseen speakers and a warm, lovely voice entered my ear.

"Hello."

The high-pitched but regal toned voice was familiar to the point of discomfort. Actually, that face was painfully familiar in all but the colouring.

"If anyone is watching this, it means I'm dead or in a state close to it. I'm leaving this message for my son, so make sure he sees it."

Her already bright golden eyes intensified in their glow and an odd feeling flowed into me, but it disappeared quicker than I could place it.

She waited like a tv character for a moment for whoever was watching to hand it over to me Then resumed speaking, but this time in a much softer and kinder tone.

"Hello, Cai. Hopefully, you'll never have to watch this, but if you are, then that means…... I'm not with you right now. The first thing you should know is that your father and I loved you so much. Maybe a bit too much with your father."

A male voice erupted from off the screen in an offended tone, and the familiar feeling intensified to where it made me extremely uncomfortable.

"Many people can say that to me, but you are far from being one of them!"

She looked beyond the recording device and stuck out her tongue in a cute and girlish expression. That was probably my dad, but as the device never turned to him and he never walked across the screen, so I didn't get to see his face.

She re-focused on the device and put on a soft and more relaxed expression.

"I suppose I should start with who I am. I am Belphoebe; Current queen and mother of one. This-"

She held up a toddler that was about 6 months old and grimaced it fought to resume its playtime on the floor. I temporarily lost focus on her and looked at the miniature version of myself, armed with the new facial features rather than the ones I had lived with for the past 17 years of my life.

"Is Cai, Fully Cai Aies Finley, my one and only love."

Once again the male voice burst out from the background, and a playful hurt filled his deep voice.

"Hey!"

Belphoebe, or rather, my mother put the child down and ushered it away.

"Cambridge, could you take him for a moment?"

I widened my eyes as Cambridge, who looked exactly the same as she currently did, appeared in the background and picked up the child. Or no, picked up the younger me.

"Let me finish!… We're leaving to the human world tomorrow but it will be dangerous and I'm not sure we'll all make it..so, in the events that we don't, I wanted you to know a few things."

She took a deep breath and began.

"I am a fairy, and that means that you are as well! You don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Your father-"

She looked over to the side and confirmed that the interrupting voice was my dad after all.

"is a Goblin, but he'll tell you more about that...."

She trailed off and tears sprung into her eyes.

"Just the thought that one day you might have to watch this video instead of hearing all of this from us is painful to think of, so I left my Diary for any advice I'd have wanted to give you and all the information I thought you might want to know. But I'll use this recording to tell you everything that I might not be able to tell you in the future."

Although she was saying such ominous words, it was obvious that she didn't think she needed to. There was a cockiness to her speech, and her eyes were clear and brimming with light amusement.

"Cai, my little prince. Remember that you are the most precious creation in existence, no matter what anyone else tells you. And remember that your father and I always have and always will love you"

She moved to end the video by raising the wand I now held in my hands. She flicked it around in relatively complicated movements and mumbled in a low tone. While she did so, that same low voice that was apparently my father interrupted her.

"Wait, I have something to say as well!"

The man in the background moved across the screen but before I could see his face the screen cut to black and the recording abruptly ended.

I didn't call for Esmeralda and Cambridge right after like they had told me to and instead sat in silence. The silence was burdensome and the bronze flecks still bothered me, but I looked around the burdensome but extravagant room I currently sat in and thought of how different my life could have been.