Page 108 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

Jaxus took a sharp intake of breath.

“It’s true,”I whispered through our bond. He had told me he’d fallen in love, but until now, I hadn’t let him know I felt the same.

Casimir sighed. “No, you’re not, Kiera. The bond is making you think you are. If you give in to it, you’re going to have to live amongst these—” he waved his hand at Jaxus. “—thugs. That is not your destiny. Your destiny is here with me. Open your eyes.”

“My eyes are wide open and my destiny is decided by the Goddess, not you.”

“I feel sorry for you,” he scoffed. “You had such a bright future as my wife. Our children would have been extraordinary.”

His words put a bad taste in my mouth.

Jaxus stepped towards him and I stopped him with my hand across his chest. I stalked forward and stood right in front of Casimir.

“My future was closing in around me, knowing the time was coming where I’d have to give up on my life's work and come be your wife.”

“You’d rather give up on healing than be my wife? Unbelievable.”

“She won’t have to give up a single thing. She is the most valued healer we have and I would never take her away from that.”

“It’s hard to see how she can be of value as a healer when she has to find time to saddle up and take you out for your daily ride,” Casimir sneered. “Let alone living in the First Kingdom where all her talents will be wasted.”

“She’s doing more riding than that…” Jaxus muttered and I ignored him.

“Are you suggesting that I am not useful as a healer in the First Kingdom and only of value to bear your children?” I glanced back at Jaxus to see him moving his head from side to side to stretch out his neck, in readiness for a fight. When I looked back at Casimir’s self-satisfied face, I realized I couldn’t let Jaxus harm him.

That honor was mine.

I curled my fist and swung, landing my first ever punch perfectly on his nose.

Casimir lurched back, blood pouring down his robes and I opened my hand in shock, staring at it as it throbbed.

“Ouch! I didn’t know hitting someone would hurt so much,”I whimpered, clasping it with my good hand and cradling it to my chest.

Jaxus was beside me in an instant, encouraging me to let him see. He inspected it and gently palpated my knuckles. “I think you’ll be okay,” he said, his deep raspy voice giving me shivers. I hated feeling at odds with him.

“Her?! What about me?” Came a shrill nasal voice from the ground his face covered in blood.

We both looked down at the pathetic mess.

“A healer like you, Casimir? You’ll have that fixed up in no time.”

I turned back to Jaxus to find his heated stare boring into mine. He lunged, crashing his lips onto mine. He then scooped me up into his arms and carried me away.

I turned another page and looked at my pinked knuckles. I flexed my hand and felt the bruising I’d caused.

Jaxus shook his head. “I still can’t believe you hit him.”

I smirked. “He deserved it.”

“No arguments here,” Jaxus agreed.

“It felt really fantastic, I can’t lie. Now if we could just figure this translation out, I’ll be much happier.”

“Every text we’ve found seems to refer back to this Lepid-folie-de-grandeur and then later there are references to folie-à-deux, which we must be translating wrong. It isn’t making sense.” Jaxus’ words bled frustration.

“Folie à deux is an old healing term for a form of psychosis shared by two or more people, while de-grandeur could suggest delusions of grandeur, but it had a deeper meaning in older texts. There were depictions of a shared vision or idea. So perhaps it means a delusion or dream shared?Which leads me to believe it wasn’t meant to mean a type of mental illness in these ancient descriptions. We need to stop trying to fit the translation around the current meanings of those words and look more at the clues these depictions are giving us, I think.”

Anyone who worked closely with ancient translations knew that the meaning of words and context changed over time, and cultural significance of the time also mattered. So what if we’d got this all wrong and when this was written, it didn’t mean a delusion at all but a vision for the future? A plan or dream of two.

---