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“But you are young,” I said. “Who did she use before you?”
“I don’t know,” Cari replied.
“And why did she even need a mind magicker to control the monsters?” I asked.
“Left on their own,” Cari continued, “the monsters avoided killing fae, but she needed them to kill fae so that she could use that fear. Do you know why?”
“Fear makes everyone coalesce around her,” I guessed. “And it divides us.”
“Divides us it does,” Cari said. “But not in the way you think. It divides the two realms. And that’s her goal. It always was.”
“She created the monsters to keep the Unseelie and the Seelie apart?” I asked, remembering the things Amarra had told me about the queen’s animosity toward the Unseelie and the double fae.
Cari nodded. “It’s perfect. The queen tells the Seelie that the enemy is so vile that they stooped low enough to create the monsters. The Seelie did not, and for the most part does not, know that the monsters were fae once. And what did they think the monsters were? Creations of the Unseelie, sought to wreak havoc amongst the Seelie... It was the perfect way to make enemies out of the two fae.”
“But they were enemies long before the monsters ever came into the scene,” I said. “They fought wars and...”
“The two fae had fought in the ancient times but long before the Light Queen’s reign, peace had settled over the realms,” Cari said. “She started the Great War, which violently disrupted that peace. Do you know why?”
I knew the memories of monster folk as though they were mine. And in all the memories the elder monsters had of the great war, there was one main theme.
“The queen sent her soldiers against her own, to capture doubles,” I replied.
“You know about doubles?” Cari asked. “Do you know you are one too?”
To her surprise, I nodded.
“How?” Cari asked. “I thought you didn’t know your real parents.”
I didn’t bother with a long response. Instead, I opened my thoughts to her and let her see Amarra. It took Cari only a few moments to catch up.
“She found you,” Cari mumbled. “That’s interesting... I didn’t expect any of you guys to have Unseelie parents. Grandparents, yes, but parents should have been very rare. But I guess your mother was a spy. That explains it.”
“Explains what?” I asked, slightly frustrated. “And who are we? Who are you talking about?”
“The candidates of course,” Cari said. “The trials...”
“The trials?” I asked.
“Years ago, long before the trials started, some of the diviners of the palace received a prophecy,” Cari said. “Although the content of the prophecy was confusing, they were not surprised. They were expecting a prophecy.”
She looked at me as though she expected me to be surprised, but I wasn’t.
“Do you know how the leaders of the Seelie are chosen?” she asked, seeming almost irritated.
I settled with a nod.
That wasn’t enough for Cari. Her brow lifted and her coal-black eyes widened.
“How?” She asked.
“Rose told me,” I started, but before I could explain, Cari’s tendrils came into my mind so quickly that it was difficult to ignore the reason for it. She jealously clutched onto the image of Rose until she knew who she was for me.
I hid my pity from her. Cari didn’t think anyone would love her like a friend the way I did, she wasn’t ready to share that with anyone new. I did not blame her when she felt relieved to find out that Rose was not a closer friend to me than Cari was.
Neither of us commented about that moment of jealousy as she continued.
“Yes,” she said. “When the prophecy came, the diviners went to the queen, thinking she would do what was necessary like all her predecessors had. The prophecy needed interpretation of course, since it wasn’t an ordinary prophecy. They did not know who the next ruler would be, but it was foretold.”
