Aesop, the magician and her mentor, never lied.

That was what Cordelia had always thought since she was a babe handed over to him immediately after the Queen had given birth to her. She was not a princess and she had convinced herself that that was fine and that she would grow up unremarkable even with magic singing in her blood. The Queen had already decided this once she had beheaded her husband just before Cordelia’s birth.

‘Don’t just throw away like that, dear,’ Aesop had told her one rainy morning during one of her secret lessons, ‘Fate have bigger plans.’

Cornelia only raised an eyebrow at her teacher. ‘I would like to ask Fate when exactly,’ she drawled.

There had been a sharp glimmer in Aesop’s eyes when he replied, ‘Someday. The twilight of the first day of the year. Where the waters never froze.’

Cornelia knew that she was meant to go. Thus, she was currently still on her mare by the the Eternal Lake where the frost never hardened due to the thundering waterfall; where the waters were always pleasant to bathe in; and where a single droplet would quench your thirst for the rest of the day. The moss, trees, and grass surrounding never lose their leaves and the game was bountiful. So full of life that the Queen never ventured here. Cordelia was safe from the Queen’s never ending ire for now.

‘!’ She started as her mare whinnied all of the sudden and jolted to one side. Calming her down with gentle strokes upon the strong neck, Cordelia looked around. Through the trees, there was nothing. The herd of deer along one side of the lake went undisturbed. And her mare was so used to the loud waterfall by them that she could even sleep by it. Then, Cordelia’s eyes were drawn to the waters.

A shimmer. Cordelia held her breath. So bright and swift that she would have missed it if she would have blinked.

Cordelia climbed off her mare then walked further to the edge of the water, not daring to stray her eyes from the lake. She was only half-aware that the deer had stopped their drinking to watch her. She had only half-heard her mare jolting again. And Aesop’s talk of Fate seemed far away because what Cordelia was feeling right now was nothing as wispy and airy like Fate. It was real and she could feel it in every heartbeat that thrummed inside her rib cage.

Especially when ~he~ finally emerged. Broad, tall, and glimmering all over.

With sure and deliberate steps, Cordelia braved the waters and met him on the shallow end. There was a glint in his eyes as she drew close and there was no doubt on her mind that she did too. And when they were chest to chest, nothing felt more real than now.

Cordelia look up to his lips, and smiled a true smile at last.