The Faeri
There once was a race of magical folk. They were much smaller than humans and had wings all the colors of the forest with which to fly, and they were good. Their language, like everything else they created was beautiful and a bit peculiar, at least from a human perspective… But humans are always at odds with everything. Not these beings, they fit perfectly with the flow of life in the forest where they resided, illuminating and bringing the joy of spring wherever they appeared. Faeri they were dubbed by the humans. That was what they said or at least sounded to be what they said, always, before they introduced themselves, for the humans knew not how to scribe their tongue. They lived at peace in the forest alongside the human villages, guarding the land from the threat of the night and the dark things it breeds, and the humans were grateful and held festivals in their honor. The great Faeri queen presided over them and would ask nothing of the humans in return saying that “just as the night must ever fall the Faeri would rise to meet it” and they lived in harmonious prosperity… For a time.
Just as easily as the Faeri could combat the spread of night with their illuminating magic, they could see darkness hiding in the hearts of humans. Not all humans but some, and some more than others. They had nothing to fear from the humans, but if malice took form, at night, when such darkness thrives, they could easily vanquish it with their healing light. One human boy, however, a boy who was now a man, hated the Faeri. It was not always so, he loved them as a child. Loved them so much he wanted to be one with all his heart. So he stole away into the forest one evening to find the Faeri queen and beg her to make him one of them. That fateful night, unknown to any of the humans, was the coming of the Faeri princess Melodia. And all the Faeri folk had retreated to the queen’s hall high in the trees. So as the boy searched and searched he found nothing but shadows and growing darkness. He soon became aware that night was upon him and the usual glow that the forest kept at this hour did not come to his aid. He was lost and felt abandoned by the folk he loved so much. Hopeless and in the grip of a rising despair that was fed in tune with the coming of shadows stirring all about him he began to run. The once bright and comforting forest was now an endless labyrinth filled with menacing eyes and strange and frightening calls that all seemed to be chasing after him as he fled in terror. He stumbled in the dark and even the tree’s and branches seemed horrible and hollow to him and appeared in his honest eyes now to lash out at him. Everything had gone horrible wrong, and now he was lost and the innocence he had when he entered the magical woods was being burned away with every gasping breath. He ran aimlessly, turning and fleeing every shadow and sound, it was all too much for him to bear, until in his haste he came to the edge of the sacred wood where he was, in fact, quite safe, and fell out and down into real darkness and dark things.
The next day his mother roused the town when she found her son had gone missing, and when they could not find him they went to the Faeri to ask for help. The queen quickly agreed to have her people search the forest, and with the help of the nocturnal animals that had seen or heard the boy they led the Faeri to his path and the place where he had fallen. The Faeri queen came as her people were reluctant to leave the borders of the forest, especially at that point, even in the light of day, for there was a dark cave there where foulness slept. The queen was unhindered and rushed forth down and into the cave to find the boy. And she did. Curled up on the floor just past the entrance to the abysmal hole he laid trembling. As she approached her light chased the shadows away from him and she picked his pallid figure up and carried him from the wretched place. Back in her Kingdom, among the tree’s and the light of day, she worked her magic to expel any darkness that had taken root in him. And with a scream and a sigh exclaimed like a puff of smoke it seemed to have worked and color returned to the boy, faint but present. He awoke and was reunited with his grateful mother with smiles and hugs and cheers from the townspeople. But inside, something was indeed different. No one could see it, not even the Faeri, but in his heart there was now a hole, a shadow where once warmth and light used to be. Whether it was always there and had been simply amplified or he’d been baptized anew by the rites of night none could say. But he was not the same boy. His mother slowly noticed the change. Her once happy and radiant son was now stoic and strangely lethargic. He no longer played outside with the other children but stayed in and worked puzzles or read books. She attributed the change to his frightful experience but secretly she felt a difference, a coldness she did not wish to acknowledge of her gentle boy.
As time went on he did not get better only worse in his secluded ways. His mother grew wary of him as he spent most of his time locked away in his room concocting strange experiments or venturing out at night. Whispers filtered their way through the town, but they were no longer of the sad little boy who had got lost, no, now they were of the strange and haunted man, that’s what they called him, for his visage had grown terribly pale with sunken eyes as if he never slept. One evening the town awoke to a flickering glow penetrating their windows, only to come to the startling find that a house was ablaze in their usually quiet county. And whose home was it? None other than the lost boy, no, the haunted man, the home of the widowed Mrs. Magistral and her hermit son. They rushed to its aid, but were stopped by him, the son Balan, he said it was too late for his mother and that he barely made it out himself, the entire house was consumed in an insatiable pyre with no point of safe entry. He seemed sad and gloomy and so they did not question him further, and though the townsfolk tried to douse the flames to calm the raving burn, nothing seemed to help and it burned cracking and seemed to roar and screech as Balan knelt on the front lawn and watched his home crumble.
Light and flame
The Faeri do not usually get involved in human affairs, but the burning of the house that night summoned them forth. The Queen heard it as well, the unnatural wail of the burning abode… Dark magic was at work. They rushed forth past the crowds of townsmen and women and encircled the frantic blaze. The Queen flew to the very top, above it, where the smoke and heat should have been unbearable but neither seemed to touch her graceful form. Then the Faeri locked hands and began to turn, rotating in unison around the burning home at great speed. The Queen above raised her hands and spoke in their rhythmic tongue as she too began to turn slowly and opposite in direction of her subjects below. A light began to glow among the Faeri as they moved, faster and faster until becoming almost a shining blur around the writhing flames. Light seemed to trickle down from the stars in the heavens above and gather in the Faeri Queens palms, traveling through her causing her to glow, dazzlingly bright, becoming a living star herself spinning above the enraged blaze. And enraged it did so seem, the flames shot out and appeared as if they were indeed trying to break free of the shining circle they had been enclosed in. But the Faeri did not stop. The wind picked up, rushing in towards the circle of revolving, living light. Balan had backed away quietly, watching from behind a tree off to the side, if anyone had focused on his face at that moment they would have found not wonder, but torment and only a burning fire reflected in his eyes. The light grew brighter, the people were forced to shield their eyes, and with all the noise of rushing wind and roaring flame the Queens voice could still be heard clearly, echoing throughout the land. Until suddenly, it grew quiet, and in an instant the Queen threw her arms down with a flash, light became the world as the winds stopped and time seemed to as well for a mere moment. Then with a reverberating whirl rushing out and up to the sky the world returned to night and the fire was gone.
Mercy
All that remained was a pile of black ash. Embers fell from above like drifting snowfall from some forgotten land where the sky and clouds were made of smoke and fire. The Faeri dispersed and retreated to the forest but the Queen lingered behind. She shed a tear where the land had been scorched and told the villagers the land would heal with time, but that this had been no ordinary fire, it was a conjuring of dark magic. An evil ritual used for what purpose she did not know, but great darkness was called forth as a result. The townsfolk grew terrified at the notion of black magic in their quiet community. They quickly turned on Balan, realizing what he’d done, and in a growing frenzy were set to burn him at the stake as a dark wizard. The Faeri Queen, however, told them this was not the answer, that you could not cure darkness with another evil deed. So at her merciful suggestion they banished him from the land, never to return, and before they did so the townspeople cut a mark into his forehead, the mark of a murderer, so that he would not be accepted wherever he chose to flee. Wretched and disgraced Balan Magistral disappeared never to be seen again… In that form at least.
The town moved on from the terrible events of that night and as the Queen said, the land where the fire had been healed and life grew there once more, but no one ever built upon it. All was well and merry and the people and the Faeri entered a time of prosperity like never before. Balan became almost a legend, a dark history only the town elders knew but did not speak of. The Faeri continued as if nothing at all had happened, for them nothing had, a human succumbing to darkness was not unusual in their eyes, for they had lived long and knew the ways of good and evil. There would always be evil in the world, but for the most part of it, at least the parts that involved them, good would always triumph. The Queen did not forget Balan, she knew the darkness within him was an old foulness that he’d unfortunately been imbibed with… and she also felt slightly responsible for his downfall. She saw enough in her mind to realize that the night of the coming of Princess Melodia had been the reason the boy had been lost and fallen so far so many years prior. But time moves differently for the Faeri and they are simultaneously part and apart of the human world, so her thoughts were not substantially burdened by this unfortunate coincidence, but still something lingered, a feeling like a bad dream, which Faeri do not have, that stayed with her.
Princess Melodia
The Princess Melodia was there, however, and she was the light of her people. All the grace and beauty her mother possessed had generously bloomed in her and she was the kiss of life and the joy of song, she was as enlightening as the sunrise, freeing all from the throes of night. She sang sweet bird songs that all who heard stopped and listened with wonder. She danced and flitted about playing with all the creatures of the forest. She spoke freely with the humans and whenever she arrived so did spring for all the gardens of the village blossomed and bloomed as if they wished solely to grow in the majesty of her presence. She was loved by all and loved graciously in return without fear or doubt, a true child of light, most beloved daughter of the Faeri, Princess Melodia.
She was good, she was true, she was the embodiment of love and light and still this could not spare her from the fate of malice, the evil of darkness and the darkness of man. One man, her fate was inexplicably tied with. A man who had been a loving boy but was reborn into darkness on the same night she had been born into light. An unfortunate coincidence that bound them irrevocably to collide eventually, unnaturally, to meet an end to a story that began with hope. A lost boy wishing to be a child of light, drowned by night, and becoming the antithesis of what he so loved. While at the exact moment another child was coming forth, rising from the cosmos of infinity, stretching and shrinking, burning in the white fire of life to spring forth anew, radiating with all that is good. From this shared birthing of opposing forces a link was tied in the endless web of fate, a pull that cannot be seen or felt. From two ends bound so intrinsically together they have no choice but to come together eventually. As was the case… And it could have been good. But this is not what could have been, this is what was.
The Boy and The Cave
One day while Princess Melodia was out with her Faeri Friend Pym healing flowers that always seemed sad at the edge of the forest she felt a strangeness she’d never felt before, as if eyes were upon her. Pym urged her to leave this region for the Faeri Queen had asked Melodia not to stray too far from the heart of the forest where their kingdom dwelt. But Melodia rejected her plea’s saying in return she could not possibly ever stray too far from the heart of the forest for its heart was her own and thus she was always near it. Pym had always found this area of the forest slightly… cold, as if winter always lingered breathing its raspy breath. She was a bit older than Melodia and knew that though they were good, everything else of the world was not so. Suddenly she caught sight of a bird, a most odd and enchanting creature, she could hardly tear her eyes from it. Dark, black as night with an underbelly that burned like the sun and eyes that almost seemed to glow a deep blue, the deepest. So deep she soon felt drawn in by them and when the bird took flight she was after it without a sound or backwards thought at Melodia. Melodia hardly took notice of her friends’ absence, she simply continued to sing and heal the desperate looking flowers until they were the very picture of spring. She soon, however, began to feel the presence growing once again. She looked around and saw nothing, but the tree’s seemed different. They swayed as if urging her to flee and just as she was about to she heard a voice, a boy, singing. The strange presence and sense of urgency left her and curiosity took its place. The song came not from within the forest but out and beyond, down where the earth became hard and rocky and plains stretched out far and wide with hills and eventually mountains off in the distance. That was not her world, Melodia knew as much, but the voice was that of a child and she had no reason, known to her, to fear anyone. So she went forth, leaving her realm of magic and light behind and flew down to meet this unknown songster.
A boy, a human boy, slightly older than her in likeness but in human time he must have been around 10 she thought. Faeri age slow, so slow in fact that even though Melodia appeared to be approximately a child of 8 or 9 she was more than 50 years old, and though she was wise and gifted, she was still a child, a Faeri child who knew only playful things of goodness and joy, keen in her senses yet naïve in her sense.
The boy sat on a rock next to some thick brush and heavy overgrowth singing a sad tune she had never heard before. She hid herself for a while, watching and listening to his song. She did not know why she was cautious; usually she’d have just flown right up to someone and introduced herself but something held her back. Instinct? Or perhaps it was his song… It did sound terribly sad. Once he stopped singing she drew forth and said hello. The boy seemed surprised at her arrival from apparently nowhere in particular, but smiled at her an honest smile. She introduced herself as Faeri Princess Melodia and curtsied in the air before him. “What’s your name?” She asked. He twiddled his thumbs and sheepishly replied “I am Natlis Grabalma. It’s a funny name I know you can just call me Nat.” Melodia bowed with a smile and as she did the faintest glimmer sparked in the boy, Nat’s Eyes. “Why were you singing such a sad song?” Melodia inquired, “Are you lost?” “No no”, Nat answered, “It’s not a sad song if you know what it means…”
That’s when Melodia realized she did not; know what it meant that is, she did not recognize the language at all. Faeri are adept at interpreting all sorts of tongues, even ones they’ve never heard before, but this one left her blank. She couldn’t even recite a single word of the foreign tune, the melody was there but no words would manifest aloud. Nat did not let her think on it too long as he quickly said he’d teach it to her some time but right at that very moment he wanted to show her something. Not far but hidden, a secret cave that hid in plain sight just a few feet away from them this whole time, concealed by the wild growth around it. Melodia’s curiosity was peaked but “what was so special about a dark gloomy cave” she asked, secret or not? “Because“, he told her, leaning in close as if the very wind had ears, “It hides a rare gift, an amaranth, the most beautiful flower in all the lands.” This banished any doubt from the Princess’s eyes and she quickly followed him in to the fowl and dark hole. Upon entering she was immediately struck with a cold wind, though no air seemed to exist at all in the dank and dreary space. “I don’t think this is right” she said as she glanced about, “we shouldn’t be…” But her words were cut short, because there, deep in the center of this enclosed and eternally sad, night filled room sat a dim but oh so beautiful glow. All the colors of sunset born in the endlessly unfolding sunrise of each petal that was the flower that sprouted up strong from the dark moist earth below. It radiated and seemed to pulse in the very air around it bringing the tiniest ripple to the darkness that seemed to flee into the shadows. It was the most magnificent flower Melodia had ever seen. The fall of night around it only seemed to amplify its majesty in sheer contrast, like a tiny living world beaming with life in a cold and dark universe. Melodia was transfixed by its splendor only remembering the boy, Nat, when his voice roused her from her daze. “See“, he said, “didn’t I tell you it was the most beautiful bloom in all the lands.”
“Oh”, she responded with a slight start, “yes it is, you must forgive my ignorance, how I could have gone all these years without not knowing such wondrous a form lived in solitude and so close to my home is beyond my…” She is stopped short once again, for she just now realized, as she glanced around, that Nat is nowhere to be seen. “Where are you?” she called. “I am here“, he replies. But his voice seems to echo from every corner of the dark cave. “Why do you hide? Is it a game?” Melodia asks, genuinely interested in how he cannot be there, right beside her, bathing in the flowers awesome light. “Yes, a game.” Nat answers. “You must find me in the dark, without using your Faeri light.”
“Mask and behold, you mean?” Melodia answers in turn. “That is best played in the forest among the leaves and branches; we do not even have any masks.”
“That’s a Faeri game, using Faeri magic to alter your form.” The boy replies. “This game is one of my own, you must find me in the dark and without the use of magic, we lowly humans have no power over such domain. The seeker usually is allowed a dim lantern or torch but I unfortunately have neither to offer you.”
“Well then we can play later“, Melodia says. “Come look upon the flower with me.”
“Hmm“, Nat begins slowly. “There is a way for you to seek me out and stay close to your beloved bloom… Simply pick it, and use its light to find me.”
“What?!” Melodia bursts suddenly. “I would never presume to uproot a living being from its home, no matter how much I do not agree with its choice of one. One should not be so hasty to destroy the flow of nature.”
“Oh me, oh my…” Nat responds with a subtle bemused inflection in his voice. “Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
“Know what?” Melodia answers curiously.
“Know, my dear friend“, Nat replies, “that the Amaranth flower does not die when it is picked. It lives still, forever, and joins happily with the land of which it is placed in, good as new.”
“Really?” Melodia gasps, obviously drawn in by the notion. But then stops and thinks. “Well then how did it come to live here in this dark and gloomy abode?”
To which Nat promptly answers, “Probably some greedy human hid it here long ago for his own selfish pleasure, and now it has been long forgotten and waits all alone for someone to save it… So why don’t you, save it from this dark and lonesome fate, bring it to your grand Faeri halls, I’m sure it would be most happy there. I’m sure your mother would be most pleased.”
“My mother…” Melodia pauses and thinks, “Yes she would wouldn’t she!”
“Yes.” A voice answers in the darkness.
“Alright I’ll do it, I’ll bring you my new Amaranth friend to meet my mother, The Faeri Queen, I’m sure she’ll love you and you’ll be a great flower king among kings” she speaks whimsically. She reaches for the flower while a shadow in the dark smiles malevolently. Her hand meets no resistance as she makes contact and grasps the lower base of the stem. She’s immediately filled with a sense of warmth and life, and images of her mother flash in her mind, she thinks it’s all just a wonderful dream and pulls the glowing flower out of the dark earth from where it rests. The roots stretch then break and all light goes out with a flash and a sigh from the Amaranth as it quickly withers and dies.
Through The Forest at Night
Darkness, it is night, late in the hour of bright daytime things. Yet something stirs in the forest… A figure moves swiftly, cloaked and without a sound, but even shrouded in cloth a dull gleam escapes it and penetrates the trees. Nothing takes notice of the rushing glow, like a candle through painted glass or the sun behind a cloud, the faint light passes seen and not. Even the night creatures, with their glass eyes that shine reflecting nothing see the light but do not follow it, as if they saw nothing at all. But this is the Faeri forest, nothing or no one moves here without heed, except maybe once, unless it harnesses Faeri magic itself. Surely this must be a Faeri, but where and why does it move in such haste, in darkness, without even lighting the way? Those questions pare in curious comparison to the figures next move, which is most strange. The hooded Faeri reaches the edge of the forest in an especially dark and recently notorious spot and descends further, disappearing altogether into a pitch stained hole in the earth… A cave. Once inside the Faeri promptly removes her cloak and hood revealing, in her splendid awe, the most unexpected Faeri of them all, The Faeri Queen Amaranthia. The cave is darker than night and yields to an awful miasma. The shadows seem to stir and writhe in her glorious light, receding and turning all about her as if in pain and yet prompted further by it. She does not heed the menacing air and continues into the abyss until stopping suddenly at its center. It is then she begins to speak, “Oh loathsome hollow, it is too long that I have let you linger so close to my kingdom.” The wind stirs as if to laugh at her words and whispers echo as if seeping in through the very rock. “You have no power here“, the screeching dark answers. “This is my domain, you passed through it all the way here even through what you call your kingdom… We are night, and you and your insects are but a fleeting flame” “A fleeting flame you say” The Queen, Amaranthia responds. “Well even night must bow to the day. You’ve gone too far, seeping your wretched foulness into an innocent lost human boy.” A disturbing cackling laugh rebounds in response, “A human, innocent” the darkness spits. “We’ve done only what was possible with what we were given, and darkness was already present… Sad, hopeless darkness. We simply fed the slumbering beast. Hahahaha!” “Enough!” Amaranthia shouts. “You’ve made your first and only move against any being that should ever love the light of day. I shall see to it now that you now slumber, eternally, in the light you so loath.” And with that her arms go up as the shadows appear to pounce from the walls. She turns while crouching as sparkling jewels seem to fly from her fingertips, colliding into the walls and each other and breaking into millions of smaller shards of light filling the cave. Then she begins to speak strongly, Faeri words that melt together in the air as she plunges her hands into the earth below her. The darkness is stretched and broken on the walls and among the infinite array of sparkling stars turning and flowing all about her like a churning galaxy abuzz with life. Then she raises one earth filled hand while the other stays buried in the dirt and on her command all the miniature shining stars in the cave begin to swirl around her in unison around her like a dazzling whirlwind composed of glittering jewels. And everything in the cave is swept up in its wake, the darkness itself is smeared to almost nothing as the whirling light travels into Queen Amaranthia’s raised hand, filling and passing through her into the ground below. She begins to shine radiantly as the ground pulses with light, flowers bloom and fade instantaneously all around her until she becomes so bright that a beam of light shoots from the cave’s entrance and a few moments later retracts and all is silent. The cave is dark once more, but wait, there at its center now sit’s a most beautiful, glowing flower, an amaranth. The Faeri Queen kneels beside it, much of her strength spent at creating this bloom, an undying fragment of herself, forever to endure and keep the darkness at bay in this wretched hole. She regains her composure and slips from the cave equally unnoticed as when she entered. As she travels on back to the forest branches and leaves and all other surrounding vegetation washes over the cave and its entrance, concealing it from wandering eyes and any being who should mistakenly wander into it ever again. Only someone who previously had been in it and knew it was there would be able to find it again, but that did not bother her for the darkness was sufficiently quelled by her amaranth… and only she The Faeri Queen would be able to uproot it… And well of course, someone who carried her life source in their veins.
A Princess No More
Cold rushes in all around her, the Princess Melodia stands in the middle of a dark cave, alone holding a dead flower. But she is not alone, shapes stir all around her, darker than the night. She turns looking for the way out, terror rising in her for the first time ever in her life. Then the boy Nat is there before her, standing where the entrance should have been.
“Nat“, she exclaims “We must leave this place, I feel a terrible presence. Where is the opening? Where has the entrance gone?”
“My sweet Melodia” Nat begins, his voice quite changed. “I can’t thank you enough for picking that awful abomination” He looks down at the sad dead flower she still grasps. “You don’t know how long its littered this place subduing me, forcing me to shrink to almost nothing. Well maybe you do know how long… It’s been here since well, the day after you were born. Implanted by a horrible wretched witch with her terribly bright lights thinking she owns the land spreading her seeds about like vermin… I believe you call her mother.”
“My mother?” Melodia answers despondently “How could… What have I… You tricked me!” She shouts, pointing at the boy. Why? Why would you make me destroy such a beautiful vestige of my mother’s? Why?!”
“Why? Why you ask” Nat begins with a smile. “Poor lost Melodia, I was lost once too you know. Forgotten and left to die right here in this very cave until, that is, your mother found me and returned me to my village.
“My mother saved you? Then why, why have you done this?”
“Because my sweet, the damage had been done! Your mother and your people shunned me, left me outcast to the bitter night. And it was the darkness that took me in gave me a new life, and power. The power I searched for vainly at the closed door of your people I found tenfold here, and now I am back to repay your mother for her mercy. She should have let them burn me for I have traveled far and wide, I’ve learned all the cruelty of the world an outcast like me must suffer and I’ve learned more powerful magic than your mother and her pathetic little lights to make the likes of you disappear forever!” Nat shouts as he conjures dark, purple flames from his hands and chases them after Melodia.
“No!” Melodia Gasps as she desperately tries to flee only to be struck and consumed by the ensuing torrent. Caught, he imprisons the princess in a small glass jar that he manifests from a rock. He glares at her unconscious form with eyes blaring malice as an evil smirk creeps onto his face. When Melodia comes to she is tied to a symbol made from wood. She is weak but unharmed and as she glances about she see’s strange creatures all around her caged in glass jars. Ugly loathsome beasts and insects and even odd flowers she’d never laid eyes on before were being held captive, like her, and placed methodically about her. She could not see, however, in the suffocating darkness that a symbol was etched in the earth at her feet as well, all the elements needed for a dark magic. The darkest.
“Ah, your finally awake, you looked so precious there I didn’t want to disturb you” Nat crooned as he worked on crushing and mixing ingredients that made a horrible sound in a large mortar he now had on a flat slab of rock along the wall.
“Please” Melodia pleaded. “Release me; let me return to the forest. My mother will restore the Amaranth, you don’t have to do this, it doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Hmm“, Nat seemed to contemplate, but then a shadow dripped down and spoke into his ear. His eyes lit up horribly and he quickly began to collect what he’d been mixing into a small black orb and walked over to where Melodia was bound. “Your right” He said, sounding apologetic. “This has gone on long enough, I will release you to find your mother and let her decide what’s to be done.”
Melodia’s eyes lit up. “You will? Oh, thank you! It’s for the best really, my mother will know what to do, you’ll see, everything will be ok. She sang out with hope in her eyes. But Nat just stood grinning menacingly.
“Yes, your wise mother will decide what to do” Nat spoke almost hysterically, his voice rising with each word. Melodia’s hopeful smile shrank along with all hope as darkness coalesced behind the boy, Nat, who was not a boy but an evil in the guise of one.
“Your fate and the fate of your people lie with her. I release you from this prison, the prison of your flesh!” He now screamed as his voiced echoed in endless darkness, and all the horrible creatures became enfrenzied in their cells around her.
“Go now! And if you are spared by your mother’s divine love then you shall all be spared my wrath, the wrath of night!” And with that he threw down the black orb to shatter at Melodia’s feet and all the other jars shattered in turn as dark flames and smoke rose up around her consuming her along with all the vile beasts. Melodia screamed as the air whirled, moaning horribly while beasts merged and melded to shadow and the shadow burned in dark flames that consumed her while the dark wizard laughed madly. The princess Melodia was no more… At least not as she had been.
The Fall of Pym
It was a fine day. The Faeri queen thought she saw dark clouds in the distant, but storms do not hinder the land of Faeri. She had been busy all day with Faeri folk matters and tending to her gardens and different needs of the forest. Melodia was off with Pym so she had no need to wonder where they could be for they could stay out all day frolicking about with the animals and humans or tending to flowers or playing games. As the day waned she retreated to her grand hall high in the trees. And, as she sat conversing with subjects and advisors on general topics at hand, she began to feel a silent pull. A distant urging that she had not felt since… the night of the coming of her daughter, Melodia. It was a small echo of a fleeting thought, but she could not shake it or place why or where it arose from. No foe could enter the forest while her magical protection stood guard, and her protection maintained so long as she did. So she still had no reason to think the princess was in any sort of danger, for it did not occur to her that Melodia would leave the forest on her own. She could not fathom the depths a dark and twisted mind would go to to obtain its prize for its own dark and twisted means.
Meanwhile, somewhere off in the forest a strange and captivating bird flew swiftly, eluding its chaser, the fair and noble Faeri Pym. Pym knew not why she had to follow this bird, but she did. All she could think on was how much she wanted to; no had to, touch this beautiful creature. The rest of her thoughts faded into the background of her mind, a veiled recess she knew was there but cared not to heed. Melodia as well sat there, behind the shaded curtain, looking upon her sadly. She had never seen her friend appear so grave and lonesome, it bothered her. She wanted to reach out to her to save her, but her eyes remain fixed on the bird and so did she. Pym was caught in a hopeless fight; her own will had succumbed to this illusive winged creature she vainly pursued. She was lost, cast under its spell, a tragic flight that seemed endless. She felt as if she had been flying for hours, days, in chase, and still she must go on. All while the struggle within for her own mind, the world outside, and most of all her dear friend Melodia grew nearly unbearable. She was trapped in a living nightmare, wanting to scream and yet sedated in her continuous movement. Suddenly, when it seemed as if she would be stuck in her hypnotic pursuit for all eternity the bird stopped. It turned and looked at Pym with a fierce gaze; its tranquil eyes changing from blue to an ominous golden hew. It shrieked a harsh cry that rent the air and pierced Pym’s ears tearing her from her dazed state. The veil was lifted, she felt as if a huge weight had suddenly been taken from her and she breathed deep sighs of relief. Then the strange bird, which no longer appeared beautiful but horribly wretched and malevolent, began to fly straight for Pym. Pym was terrified but felt too weak to flee, she started to retreat and try and find a tree to safely hide in but the bird would be on her in a matter of moments. Then, just as the bird was about to overtake and crash straight into her, it vanished with a fell wind and a wave of smoke around her. Pym fell to the ground, her strength spent, but she soon pulled herself up again with one thought ringing in her mind, Melodia. She moved as fast as she could through the forest, her senses and sense of direction slowly returned to her and she headed once more for the spot at the edge of the forest where she had unwittingly left her friend. She felt a sense of urgency within, all she could think of was the sad forlorn Melodia from her visions while under the bird’s hypnotic spell. How she had reached out to her, her face veiled in shadow. Melodia, I’m coming! She thought.
Back at the Faeri kingdom, high in the trees, the Queens disturbing feeling did not leave her, and actually grew as she sat. She began to sweat and feel oddly… not right. Faeri do not get ill, they do not catch cold or get overwrought as humans do. One of her subjects noticed his majesty’s change in color. “Are you all right majesty?” he inquired. She stood and began to say she’s fine, but just then flashes of a dark place penetrated her thoughts. She saw Melodia in a cave, the forbidden cave she had never told her of, she felt a growing darkness rising all around her. She saw shadows and was overcome with terror as Melodia reached for and picked her Amaranth flower she planted so long ago. Instantly darkness swelled and she was overwhelmed with evil visions of a little boy, no, not a boy, someone disguised, and flames, black flames burning something, no not something, a scream, her daughter, Melodia.
“Melodia!” she cries and she passes out in her grand hall onto the floor as her subjects rush in all around to her aid. “Find Melodia” She mumbles before falling into a restless slumber.
“Melodia!” Pym yells as she approaches the spot where she’d last been. “Where are you? What’s happened?” she speaks aloud to no one as she looks upon the flowers Melodia had last been tending, they are sad once more. Melodia is nowhere to be found. “Maybe she’s returned home to the kingdom… Maybe this feeling has just been a bad dream.” Pym thinks hopefully. With one last look around she’s about to make her way back when she hears a noise behind her. “Melodia?!” She says as she turns around hastily. A scream echo’s through the forest. She screams in fright. No, there is no Melodia, before her stands a horrible creature she has never seen. A lengthy spiny creature, green, with antenna, bulging large eyes from the sides of its triangular face, four legs and two elongated arms with rows of spikes stands before her. And its mouth, horrible long pincer like teeth jutting from the sides of its face. It’s almost too much to bear for the delicate little Pym as she drops to the ground in terror. The creature stares at her with its giant horrible eyes, its beady speck of a pupil focusing in on her threatening to drive her mad. It advances suddenly, wings sprouting from its back, translucent and specked with black, insect like wings. Pym screams and tries to flee but the creature is on her in an instant, tearing at her, cutting her arms as she raises them in defense, she tries to fly but her wings are torn to shreds by the creatures razor like arms. Blood spills and splatters littering the ground, Faeri blood, never before has it met the earth. Pym falls down dead, her light fades and she is no more. The creature stops moving, staring at the fallen Faeri before it. It has no expression; its face does not allow it. It shrieks a hissing cry just as other Faeri arrive on the scene. Screams and cry’s rise from them, the forest is most disturbed, the wind advances as if in an attempt to flee the grisly scene. They are distraught and enraged at the sight of their fallen companion but more so they are disgusted and aghast at the abominable thing that has somehow penetrated their beloved land and slain one of their beloved kin. Flashes fly out striking the creature but it does not fight, it falls to the ground beside the fallen Pym, apparently unconscious. They carefully bind the savage monster with rope and carry it back to the kingdom while others mournfully collect the fallen Pym. They search and search, but the princess Melodia is nowhere to be found.
Visions of Horror
Back in the kingdom, night has fallen, and though the Faeri light litters the trees, it does not seem as bright as it had been before. Before the Faeri Queen took ill and now slumbers uneasily in her chamber, before the princess Melodia went missing and is nowhere to be found and mostly before the Faeri Pym’s light was taken by the monstrous beast that now lies bound and caged in their once peaceful kingdom. Sadness, fear and confusion now seem like cruel masks the Faeri are forced to wear in stark contrast to their normally merry and happy countenance. None would have guessed the day would end as so, or could even have dreamt such a sorrowful turn of fate, but the day was not done yet… And neither was sorrow.
As the Faeri stood back and gazed in fear and disgust and rage at the tormented creature caged in their midst, it in turn did nothing but stare out at them with an expression that could only be taken for as hunger or malice, its features did not allow much else, if it could feel or think at all. Meanwhile, high in her chamber atop the kingdom, the Faeri Queen slept in darkness. Her room was lit brightly enough but behind her closed eyes, deep into her nightmare infused dreams, she struggled to find the light. Shadow and visions of horror were upon her, her mind had been lost to the night and she had no light of her own to illuminate her way. She was back in the cave, her amaranth flower turned to dust, cold arms wrapped around her as she struggled towards an unseen exit. An endless abyss, she was in a gaping maw dripping with vile intentions, all while laughing at her torment. Flames, black and purple in blistering hue rise up all around her threatening to consume her. Then a hand then two and countless more spring out from the black earth, crawling reaching, dead things, dead people, dead Faeri, all her subjects dead and grasping for her. No! She tries to find a way out, and suddenly there appears a door, she runs to it, past the fields of decaying extremities reaching up and out for her like living stalks of gore, but as she nears the exit she stops and turns. Melodia, where is Melodia she thinks as she surveys all around only to see twisted and mangled faces of others, friends and beloved companions she once knew. Teetering there on the brink of safety and death, torment and madness, a voice calls out from behind her, the only voice she so longed to hear, Melodia. She turns with a sigh of hope, only to be knocked back in horror. It is not her daughter that stands there but a large eyed, spike riddled, grisly terrible monster. Blood oozes from its mouth as it slowly advances towards the distraught and fallen queen. With an army of dead at her back and a ferocious beast before her, she tries to summon any shred of light to cleanse this nightmarish hell that is upon her but her eyes go wide and sanity is lost as the wretched thing, the loathsome creature before her speaks out in her daughters voice, blood spilling from its mouth. “Help me mommy.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” she screams in despair while a dark laugh and form rise to meet her.
An Unseen Foe
Back in the human village a child plays in an empty lot of flowers. Skipping and trampling all over the bright blooms while singing a song. An old man, a villager passing on his way home stops to reprimand the youth for being out so late, and for treading on blessed earth. But when his eyes meet the boy who is running amok he stops as if he has just seen a ghost. “It can’t be” he mutters, his face bleached white. The boy then stops and stares back at the man, a smile rising on his face. “Hello friend” he says as he raises a hand to beckon the old man closer. The man then begins to walk slowly as if in a daze towards the boy, he passes the little white gate that was built to enclose the precious field and is never seen again. Sometime later shadows of light begin to dance on the windows of the sleepy village and the townspeople are awoken by yells of “Fire!” The little blessed garden that stood enclosed, where once another house had been, was fiercely ablaze. Most stood in shock and sadness at this unfortunate event, but a few, older villagers, stood and gazed in fear… Pulled back to a hidden memory of a night such as this, when evil had arisen with a raging fire.
Then, while villagers gathered frantically to watch and try and stifle the unusually strong, blistering inferno, at the entrance to the forest, while smoke gathers like a black and ominous unfurling tree in the sky, a child wanders nonchalantly in. No path is set before him but he strides as if he knows where he is headed. And it is not long before he arrives at the secret clearing of the Faeri kingdom among the trees. The Faeri folk appear to take no notice of him as makes his way past the crowds of sad and fearful beings, until he arrives at the center of all their attention. A cage made of wood and caging a frightful but motionless beast. The boy called Natlis Grabalma, Nat for short, stops and looks upon the idle beast within. “Hello my precious” he says in a sickeningly sweet tone. “Have these mean ol Faeri locked you in? Look at them watching you with disgust… They hate you simply because you’re different. My poor Mantis, that’s your new name. Now, let’s see what we can do about these ropes and this cage.” It is with that last word from Nat that the creature, Mantis, looks up at the boy. Suddenly, to the shock and terror of the Faeri standing by, the beast breaks free of its bindings and the cage around it made from wood, which Faeri can assemble with ingenious precision to make even the weakest branch as hard as steel, crumbles before the creature as if it had been made of glass. Screams shatter the solemn silence as Faeri flee confusedly in terror, for where could they run to if in their safe haven they are not safe? The beast lashes out this way and that, screeching and hissing horrible sounds while it attacks mindlessly, tearing apart the Faeri kingdom, leaving nothing but wreckage in its wake. But it does not attack directly the Faeri folk. No, instead it sets its gaze upwards, to the top of the kingdom, where the Faeri queen sleeps uneasily. And with a swish from its back, its frail looking but powerful insect wings spring forth and it begins to ascend towards the grand hall high in the trees. Other Faeri see its course and try to stop its ascent with their Faeri light magic, but it easily dodges their attacks and is in the hall within a matter of seconds. All the while no one heeds the little boy who sat calmly with a smile on his face moving his hands about as if in playing a game of shadow puppets while the beast, his Mantis, erupted in chaos. And as the scene clears of Faeri fleeing in terror and all is left in silence, no one is there to watch as the boy calmly rises and makes his way up and towards the grand hall as well, but, if anyone had been there who would be able to say they saw a thing?
A Breath of Light
In the queen’s chamber, while all these events unfurled, she slept soundly. But only on the surface for beneath, under layers of subconscious webs, she fought silently for her entire kingdom. All had gone deathly still and the ghastly forms around her had faded into night. And as she lay crumbled and broken on the pitch earth, a shadow coagulated in her midst.
“You” she spoke to the shadow before her. “I know you… or at least I knew a remnant of your former self, a boy then, he was kind.”
Then from the man shaped shadow stepped a boy, a face she’d seen many years ago.
“And a boy I am still my queen.” he speaks softly with an innocent look upon his face. “Come to serve you as you so served me that oh so fateful night.”
“No” Amaranthia bellows as visions flash behind her eyes, a strange clarity hits her from a distant spark, as far away as a star, giving her an unfounded strength. “You are not a boy; you’ve merely stolen the guise of one. I see past you, I see through your tainted shadow, into the heart of darkness. Yes heart, even you oh loathsome abyss has one! You took in the relentless drum when you stole the personae you now shamelessly wear.” Her voice begins to rise as she slowly but steadily does as well. “There!” she says as her eyes go wide and a weak smile flashes across her face. “There, locked deep away, so long in the dark. You may have taken his form but you could not fully eliminate the presence, once a light has ignited, once a soul shines into being, darkness can never again live in peace. For the light is always there threatening to drive you away into mere shadow, what you once crawled out from and what you are loathe to return to again! It is you who fears the light, and for good cause for we shall always be there to challenge you, now AWAKEN!” And with those words the Faeri queen Amaranthia leaps into the shadow before her. The darkness twists and shutters, ripping and tearing at itself. And somewhere deep, deep into the deepest void, a glowing ethereal figure descends on what seems a mere ghost of a boy, and lays a hand on the forehead of a sad and frozen child… A breath is taken and all the emptiness dissolves into light.
Forgiveness Flames and Freedom
Many things happen at once, from a sleeping beauty up and away in a high chamber, eyes snap open and light fills the room as if a star had just been born, in the grand hall just outside said chamber, a creature and many beings are knocked back by an explosive and blinding light, and on a stairwell leading up to that grand hall a boy screams and falls down dead. Doors swing open and the Faeri queen Amaranthia walks forth shining like a living goddess. Her subjects kneel at her coming, while the creature attempts to flee in apparent agony.
“I know what I must do” Amaranthia speaks.
“Your majesty?” One of her loyal subjects responds. She looks down upon the wretched Mantis, writhing on the floor, her eyes like two lakes of pathos.
“Bind the creature, build a pyre, we must burn it.”
Looks of astonishment flicker through the crowd of her subjects before her. “Your majesty is certain this is the only way.”
“I showed mercy once before and look where it has gotten me, my kingdom ravaged, my people dead. This is the only way, look upon it,
It has no place in this world, death is mercy.” Her subjects bow lowly and heed their queen’s orders. A pyre is erected in the middle of the grand hall, under the queen’s orders, where she can over see it from her station. “All is ready your majesty.” Her faithful subject declares. “Shall we commence the burning?”
“No, not just yet, the guest of honor is just arriving.” she speaks as her eyes point to the entrance of the grand hall.
All eyes turn in turn to the entrance of the hall, only to see a little sickly looking boy staring back.
“Who are you? State your name here now.” Began one Faeri only to be silenced by the queen with a wave from her hand.
“You!” The boy spat angrily, “You miserable witch! I will…”
“You will do nothing!” The queen spoke forcefully “You have no power here, not any more. Your guise is broken, yet still you cling to this form, let me free you further from your bonds.” And with that she stood up and said two words, not Faeri words but not human tongue either, an ancient magic. The two words she spoke were “Amlabarg Siltan.”
In an instant the boy known as Nat fell to his feet, grasping at himself, retching and writhing on the floor in agony. And from his form, with bones cracking and shifting, and with dark and purple smoke seething from his every pore, the boy was no longer a boy but a withered and pallid old man. Eyes deeply set in shadow and hair thin and nearly gone. The two words she’d said were his name backwards, for his name was and was not his own, twisted and turned into something else like him, the words were imbued with an ancient and dark magic. His undoing was in his own doing, in the power of the past and in reversing what had been unnaturally set.
The old man tries to stand but has no strength in him to do so. He tries to speak but his breath is raspy and hollow. The queen rises up and begins to walk over to him.
“Majesty…” Her subjects warn, but she continues forward. Past the tied and forlorn creature set and readied to burn and to the side of the withered shell of a man. She kneels beside him, looks down into his eyes and hugs him. Her subjects are most confused, for they do not see what she sees or hear what she hears. In the pale and sunken features of the face of the old and frail man lay languidly, two weeping eyes, the eyes of a child. And from the hoarse and rasping voice comes but a few fleeting discernable words… “Thank you my queen.”
And as he drops his head to die the queen holds him and says.
“You will not perish. I grant you your wish my child.” And with tears from her glorious eyes, like magical diamonds falling, the old man begins to glow and rise softly into the air.
“Quickly.” the queen says. “Light the pyre, it is time.”
The Faeri carry out their queens orders, and as they do so Flames quickly blossom and bloom around the beast, Mantis.
The queen looks on weeping as the fire builds up towards the lost creature. “Our time has come to an end” she speaks softly. “This is the only way, I’m sorry Melodia, I love you with all my being.” And with those last words the queen fly’s into the flames and hugs the beast Mantis. And as she does so the flames quickly rise and consume her and the creature, and with the coming of the flames the creature screams, but it is not a shriek of a beast but the voice of a princess, the princess Melodia. Melodia is cleansed and consumed in deaths glorious release, it is all she wanted since she accidentally killed her beloved friend Pym… The queen, her mother knew it, even with the emotionless eyes of a Mantis, and all she could do is be there to hold her through it all.
A Wish Granted
Before the other Faeri could do anything to stop their queen or the fire they themselves were being consumed by flames. In fact every Faeri all through the forest suddenly caught fire. Not fire of death, but dark purple flames of a curse. The queen had to make a choice and she chose freedom. Freedom for her daughter and freedom for her people in sacrifice for what was right.
The dark curse was placed on the princess Melodia, never to be free again, but to live in the sway of darkness and evil in the form of a Mantis. The only way to free her was to kill her, to burn the curse off her, thus ending her light in the process but also passing the curse on to the person or persons who burnt her. The queen expelled the darkness from her kingdom but the curse still remained. So she did the only thing she could do, she granted a dying boy his wish and cast herself into the flames… To cleanse the curse from the inside out and transform not just a few, but all to live as knew beings, not creatures of darkness but Mantis of light. So that none would be shunned or cast away in fear or hatred. And when the smoke cleared and all the fires went out the Mantis beings were calm and knew their queens sacrifice. And as for the dying boy, when the light cleared he was not dead, he was free for the first time, as he was, long ago before darkness had taken him, and awoke knowing only that he had wandered into the forest and got lost. Only this time he was saved by the Mantis beings, which not only helped him but placed him on their thrown. Him, high Faeri Son Balan Magistral, the last of the Faeri, guardian of the peaceful Mantis Folk and noble King of all the forest.