The Endless Solvent

8 years later

Nilda nodded to the guard by the northern gate and stepped out, inspecting the footprints on the snow. Her breath came out in a cloud of vapor and disappeared in the cold, crisp evening air. Her hair was down and she pulled the fur lined headband she wore on top to properly cover ears against the cold.

She spotted footprints gathered right by the gate and a few fanned out beyond, coalescing into a path by the wall. Two sets of smaller prints scattered out into the trees. Surrounding the small patch of trees was the cliff face of one of the Nossan mountains and a short stretch of stone walling to protect people from the edge of a sheer drop where the plateau ended sharply.

The Caelis castle was built on a series of plateaus and the twins played in the northernmost one as it was safe and enclosed. It took Taurin about a year to be reassured that her children weren’t going to fall off the mountain by playing there.

“It’s time to get ready for dinner,” Nilda called out to the trees. At first there was no response, then someone broke out into a giggle. Nilda crossed her arms but couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed.

She stepped close to the castle’s walls and ‘felt’ the stone through the solvent. She’s had a lot of practice doing this through the years, often going out to the Verdant forests to try to ‘seek out’ stone underneath the thick forest floors. Nilda likes to think she’s better at it now.

She could sense the princess hiding behind a tree. Nilda made her way slowly through the trees and could spot the princess’s huddled form that was previously hidden from her. It wasn’t that the princess could actually turn invisible, but she could convince people that they didn’t see her - Taurin had told her it was a kind of Inner Eye ability. Nilda discovered that if you found physical or Solvent proof of the princess’s whereabouts, the illusion breaks and you could easily spot her.

“It’s not fun playing hide and seek with you,” the princess pouted when Nilda patted her head of sleek dark hair.

“Really? Then why do you keep asking me to play it with you?” Nilda beamed up the tree the prince was hanging on to. He had the fiery, uncontrollable mane of curly red hair like his dad; it stood out against the gray backdrop of the trees and sky.

Unlike his sister, the prince worked out that Nilda could sense things through stone and would choose to hide in places where he wouldn’t be stepping on said material, like rooms with wooden floors or grasping the trunk of a tree. Nilda hadn’t told him the extent of how she could feel the changes in stone - like the shift in weight of a tree trunk against a rock would indicate a small boy was there.

“I told you to hide up a tree,” the prince groused, clambering down the trunk.

“She found you too,” the princess pointed out.

“That’s because you stood right by my tree,” the prince shot back.

“There’s only so many places to hide!”

“If we still had that cave we would have another place to hide,” the prince shot Nilda a look. The twins had found a crevice in the cliff side not long ago that led to a narrow cave passage into the mountain - Nilda barely squeezed into the space to get to them when she found out they were playing in there.

“I think it was a fine cave you found,” Nilda said. “But your dad made me close it up so it’s not my fault.” She didn’t add that she would have easily found them in the cave too, since the mountain was made of rock.

“Can we please play in the forest by the front gate next time?” the princess asked.

Nilda ruffled her hair, making the princess squawk in protest. “Do you want your mother to hate me? She’ll be so upset at the idea.” Nilda gave a dramatic pause. “Buuuut we could try to convince Rask so we can blame him.”

“We can say it’s for training,” the prince said brightly.

“Girls don’t train,” the princess protested.

“Nilda’s a girl and she knows how to fight.”

The princess gasped at an idea. “Nilda, will you teach me how to move stones like you do? I can’t make a sharp edge.”

Nilda ruffled the princess’s hair again, earning a glare. The princess had innate abilities granted to her through the Solaris’ bloodline. She’d watched Nilda and tried to imitate her stone manipulating and managed to dent a boulder with just her hands at one point, but had been unable to do more. “Hmm perhaps you should play to your strengths,” Nilda said thoughtfully. “All the reasons to start training, right?”

“Right,” the princess nodded solemnly. “I can hide pretty well. Oh! Maybe I can be a court spy!”

Nilda grinned down at the little girl who she thought of as a small replica of Taurin. They both had the long dark hair inherited from Lord Leton, the same pretty profile that looked nearly identical. Nilda also thought they often sounded the same as well.

Perhaps she’s spent less time with the Solaris, but she could see traces of Leton in the little prince’s features, especially his quieter demeanor. But that mane of red hair was all because of the Caelisian king.

The prince and princess of Caelis, unnamed at birth, would grow up to be the Solaris and Lunaris and continue the tradition of sibling rulers of the small kingdom. Perhaps spy craft would be a more useful ability than stone wielding, not that Nilda would know; despite her years of playing governess to the twins, Nilda remained blissfully unaware of what goes into raising state leaders.

“We should ask Rask about this right away,” Nilda said. “I think I saw him in the main courtyard. Maybe he’ll start training you with the staff as well, little sun.”

The prince gave a delighted shout and pelted towards the castle gate. The princess ran after him, shouting about how she wanted her own staff as well.