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"You still haven't explained how we know each other," I tell him tentatively, more and more weirded out from the situation.
"I know you can't remember me, but we were once everything to each other. Youstillare everything to me."
I take a step back, feeling strange, and starting to get a headache from the stress of the situation. He stands up, obviously seeing that I'm not taking his pronouncement well. I'm once again shocked by how tall he is. He reaches out to touch my face as if he's unable to prevent himself from touching me. I flinch, a flash of someone's unwanted touch floating through my mind, and he pulls his hand back looking disappointed.
"I've brought you here to keep you safe. You were stolen from our realm eons ago. I never thought I would see you again," he tells me somberly.
"Where exactly are we?" I ask, unsure if I want to know the answer.
"This is your kingdom, My Queen, Tir Na Nog. I've been safeguarding it for you until your return."
I roll the words around in my head, trying to see if they spark a memory. A flash of a towering white castle lights up my mind but it seems irrelevant to where we are. The room I'm in is made up of black stone, certainly the opposite of the gleaming castle that seems to be nothing but a dream in my memories.
"This was my castle?" I ask, looking around. I must have been a bit depressing in my former life. There's a breath of melancholy in the air that sends a small shiver down my back. It doesn't seem like the sort of place I would pick to live if I was Queen. He must see the disappointment on my face because he holds out his hand for me to take. Strangely, I feel comfortable taking his hand. He leads me to a door that I hadn't explored yet. To my surprise it leads out to a balcony. I immediately give a little gasp. There's a large village spread out beneath the castle, so picturesque that I'm automatically in love with it at first sight. Now this looks like a fairy tale kingdom. He laughs at the delight written all over my face.
"This is nothing but a sample of everything that is yours, My Queen," he tells me, kissing the hand that he is holding, and making me blush. Despite the comfortableness I feel, the sensation that I know him somehow and that he's telling the truth, something feels like it's missing…something besides my memory of how I got here.
"Let me take you on a tour of more of the castle. I want you to feel that this is your home again," he tells me, motioning for me to take his arm. After I do, we walk out of the room and enter a long hallway. The hallway is draped with blood red banners. I immediately don't like them and wonder if I ordered them to be hung, or if they are Aiden's choice. There are large portraits hung on the wall every few feet. I try and strain my memory to see if anything looks familiar, but the somber looking men in all of the pictures remain strangers to me.
"Are these my relatives?" I ask Aiden, stopping at one painting of a scowling man that definitely looks more like Aiden than it does of anyone that could be related to me.
"These are the past kings of the land," he explains to me, motioning to the long stone wall of portraits. "I'm not sure where this one fits into your family lineage, but I never met him."
I look at him quizzically.
"How would you have met him?" I ask. "This painting looks to be several hundred years old."
I look for a signature or a date on the bottom of the painting, but I can't find anything.
Aiden throws back his head and laughs. "Oh My Queen, we have so much to catch you up on," he says, filling my head with even more questions.
I pull my arm from his and turn to face him.
"I'm not going any further with you until I get more answers. The Queen of Tir Na Nog, what does that mean? I've never heard of such a place. I may have lost my memory, but basic geography knowledge hasn't left me. What happened to my memories? Who are you protecting me from?" I ask, the questions rushing out of my mouth in a jumble. Even as I say them though, I'm not sure if I really want to know the answers. I feel like there will be no going back to who I was before, whoever that was, once I get them.
He stops chuckling immediately at my questions. "You are the Fairy Queen," he tells me reverently. "The most powerful being in all of the lands. Everyone bows at your feet. There is nothing you cannot do. Tir Na Nog is your private kingdom, but all of the realms are under your rule."
He waits a second for me to absorb all of that. I think about it for a moment before I burst into laughter, now convinced that I must be dreaming or suffering from some kind of psychotic break.
"The Fairy Queen?" I ask, laughing so hard that I'm sure it's hard for him to understand what's actually coming out of my mouth. "Powerful?" Tears start streaming down my face from laughing so hard. "You obviously don't know me. There is nothing powerful about me. I'm human," I tell him. "Absolutely unextraordinary in every way."
His face is thunderous at my laughter. "Don't talk that way about yourself ever again," he cautions me, and my laughter fades away.
He's a bit scary at the moment.
"I'm going to help you remember who you are, and all of the realms will once again tremble at your feet."
I feel like the only appropriate response is to nod, and that seems to quell his anger.
"Your memories will come back with time," he says in a softened tone. "The way I found you was…" he hesitates, seeming to be weighing his words carefully before starting again. "The way I found you was a bit shocking for your system," he explains. "I had to use a calming powder to get you to come with me and I may have used a bit too much," he says sheepishly, hurrying on to answer my next question before I can voice my disapproval. "As for who I'm trying to protect you from? I'm trying to protect you from everyone," he tells me. "Once news of the golden Queen's reappearance after all of these years started trickling through the channels, there isn't a shortage of powerful creatures that would like to own you. Tir Na Nog has been barely surviving without your power. Your homecoming changes everything."
I'm having trouble processing everything he's just said. The idea that I'm a powerful queen seems unbelievable. I mean, I guess I could have been some sort of badass in another life, but I currently don't feel like I'm capable of being a badass in this life. While being a queen itself feels unbelievable, the fact that Aiden is claiming that I'm some sort of 'Fairy Queen' feels even more unbelievable. Unless my memory returns and lets me in on all sorts of powers that I possess, I feel ordinary despite Aiden's disagreement on the subject. I don't feel any power waiting in my fingertips for me to call it out, I can't think of any spells, surely magic as powerful as he claims I possess would be easily recognizable to an allegedly powerful 'Fairy Queen'.
Aiden doesn't say anything more about my forgotten past for the rest of my tour of the castle, instead sticking to pointing out what certain rooms are. I finally come out of my quiet stupor when we reach a giant library. I stare in amazement at the walls and walls of books.
"You still like reading then?" he says softly as he watches me with a warm grin as I touch some of the books delicately.
"I feel like I like books," I tell him with an answering wry grin. "I can't tell you all the ones I've read, hopefully my memory will bring that back to me. But it does feel more like home than anywhere else in the castle you've showed me."
