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I tried to remember the murderer. Could it be a dark fae? I could not tell. I had never seen a dark fae before nor did I know what their dark magic could do. But how could a dark fae infiltrate the Palace of Light?
“Not the Unseelie,” Aislinn whispered frustratedly. “The queen told you to keep the prophecy to yourself.”
Her words made little sense. I nodded.
“You did, but you did not tell her that I knew about your prophecy, too, right?” She asked.
“I didn’t think it mattered,” I replied. “I knew you would keep silent if I told you the queen’s orders.”
Aislinn nodded, but a flash of doubt ran through her face. I wondered if she had told anyone besides Master Leo, but I pushed that worry aside as she went on.
“Master Leo knew about the prophecy despite the queen’s orders,” she said. “He might have told someone else. He might have asked around about the prophecies that came before yours; you know, the ones the queen said were discarded long ago. He might have been intrigued since what the queen said goes against the principle.”
I nodded. Although I trusted Master Leo to keep the vision to himself, he might have wondered why it was considered a false prophecy. He was a scholar at heart, and false prophecies that continued to be seen by new diviners had to be rare.
We were taught in our divination lessons that false prophecies did not exist. Every vision was true at the time they were had. Only time could change that fact.
“Prophecies don’t get changed so easily,” Aislinn said, still cautiously watching my face as though she was waiting for me to get angry at her. “There has to be a big event for them to change.”
“We don’t know that my vision was a prophecy,” I told her.
She gave me a look. I had to budge.
Visions were moments in time that a diviner could witness. It was like a straightforward story that one could tell. Prophecies were like poetry; they required interpretation. And indeed, what I saw was much like the latter.
There was no use denying it.
“So Master Leo would be intrigued,” Aislinn continued. “Why discard the new prophecy when the future could not have been changed so shortly after you had your prophecy?”
“Sometimes, futures change,” I tried to make sense of it all.
“Yes,” Aislinn said. “But no diviner sees a path that has already changed. You can’t see a vision of a future that is no longer on our path.”
I had to give it to her. She knew the rules well.
We started walking again. I did not know who had taken the first step, but it felt natural to walk in the dark, empty hallway with her by my side as I thought about what all this could mean.
“Who can infiltrate the palace and kill a master?” I thought out loud. “The portals are being watched. There are guards at every entrance. It’s impossible...”
“It is,” Aislinn said.
I heard the hesitation in her voice. I was about to face her and ask what she was thinking when she spoke again.
“The only possible explanation is that someone from the Seelie court ordered his murder,” she said.
“Does the crown have enemies inside the court?” I asked confusedly.
I did not know about palace politics much. On a smaller scale, lords and ladies of the realm always struggled against each other. Lords were toppled by cousins and sons, lands were stolen through intricate plots, and some nobles worked in the shadows to gain more power. But the Queen of Light was untouchable. She did not have an heir or an opponent that could replace her. She had been our ruler for more than fifty years and would rule us until her time ended.
“I don’t think so,” Aislinn said. “The queen cannot be replaced without a prophecy.”
Confusion rose in me, but Aislinn’s words pulled a deep string in my memory.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Every ruler of the Seelie was chosen by a council of diviners,” Aislinn said. “History books tell us much: ’Thus named the ruler of the realm, for they are just and worthy of power.’ It was how the queen was chosen.”
“My history instructor did not mention this,” I told Aislinn. “But he was an old man and not very competent.”
