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“Yet we still have a Council Stone, do we not?” he said. “It grants me the ability to draw up and maintain the barrier we have around Eldoria.”
“And that is all it is capable of apart from catalyzing our black iron supply,” Furtow tried as convincingly as possible. “Your duty is to keep it where it is so that we remain the strongest nation in this realm.”
Furtow handed the book to Travus and walked out of the Council Hall with visibly tired eyes.
“We’ll march into the realm of the dead with you if we must,” Furtow sighed, “but there’s no way of accessing it alive.”
Chapter 12
Princess Meirna was quite shocked! To hear the castle fall back into place was intriguing yet terrifying. As soon as Travus’s attention was diverted by the guard, she felt a shift in the air as if she had emerged from a different dimension back into the real world. When her bedchambers returned behind its respective door, she immediately locked herself inside.
She realized that she truly did not understand the extent of Travus’s power. To think that Faes were the ones to have built this castle was upsetting. Putting her hands on the walls, she allowed herself to sense any trace of magic embedded within them and was greeted by a pulse of blue glow.
“He wasn’t lying…” she whispered to herself, beginning to realize the limitless power of dark magic that Faes practiced. Though she hated to admit it, she now understood why her mother was apprehensive of co-existing with them. But Aria wasn’t her mother, and all she understood was how much power Fairies were missing out on by excluding the Faes.
If I practiced dark magic, I could utilize this castle to my own will,she wondered. Her task of entering and exiting Travus’s office, and even leaving the castle would become much easier than she could imagine. If anything, she could trap Travus inside forever and bring balance back to the realm.
She had to remind herself that should she completely indulge herself in the practice, she could lose a lot of qualities that made her a Fairy. The inability to hide her wings would be one of them as they would turn dark and shadowy. Dead wings, as most Faes called them, because they could no longer fly with them.
Rushing to her collection of books, she poured over them for hours, trying to carefully extract information from the old language they were written in. Though it was a language only a select few could grasp, every royal could read it. The only other group that could do so were the Faes, because it was the language that all information on dark magic was stored. It kept the curious and reckless at bay, preventing accidents and intentional evildoing.
She didn’t notice the nightfall until she was forced to hold a ball of light on the tip of her finger to continue reading with. Her books contained nothing that could help her harness the power of the castle unfortunately, and she slammed them shut in frustration.
“Hector would know what was going on,” she sighed to herself.
As the night dragged on, her eyes began to dry from exhaustion. Before she knew it, the darkness had enveloped her vision, and she was fast asleep.
***
She sat atop her father’s workstation as he toyed around with some suspicious looking chemicals. Glowing bottles surrounded them as he worked in the dimness, observant of the light that each flask emitted with small swirls.
He muttered things she didn’t quite understand. Then again, she was too young to do so. All his words were incoherent ramblings that, for some reason, made him sound intelligent. To his credit, he knew what he was doing.
Though she adored her father, her mother was beginning to act otherwise. The door of her father’s study swung open to harsh light, and her mother stood with a frustrated glare. Her parents began to argue. She swung her little legs to distract herself.
“You haven’t flown in weeks!” she yelled. “Is it truly an illness? Or are you too far gone in your curiosity?!”
“It’s simply enchantment, my dear.”
“It’s desecration!”
“Progress isn’t devoid of sacrifice.”
Her mother marched inside to pick her up from the table. “Don’t make our daughter a part of it then,” she hissed. “Lose your flight and your gifts if you must. You disrespect the lake that blessed you.”
“It’s just wings.”
“It’s not!” she snapped. “Not only are we imbued with magical gifts, but we’re also granted the ability to use it freely as well! We’re a race far above in ability against all the others, and you’re throwing it away!”
As her mother walked away, Aria watched her father’s form getting further and further, surrounded by darkness. The shadows seemed to close in on him, as if his fate as a Fae had already been sealed.
Then everything changed. She was in the woods with her father scouring for critters and herbs for him to study. Though his wings were weak, tips edged with darkness, they still fluttered as if conscious.
He hadn’t flown in years by then, and her mother had silently chosen to distance herself as a wife. She fully devoted herself to the role of being a Fairy Guardian. Her sadness felt as if she never had a husband.
The bandits appeared out of nowhere and attacked them. It was a blur; a memory Aria’s own body did not wish to visit. All she knew was that she flew away to hide because she’d never learned to fight. She was too young to even try.
It was a strange day. Her mother couldn’t even cry as her father was given a silent funeral. She watched her father’s body turn to glittering black dust in his coffin during the ceremony and wondered why it wasn’t golden like the other Fairies. The Fairy Guardian turned away from the sight, unable to bear the evidence of her husband’s involvement with dark magic.
