by Bethan Johns
She had no intention of killing me today. I would kill her if I got the chance. She did not believe I could. She landed a few slices upon me that could have been devastating had her weapon been ash. I landed a few on her that for any creature with less of a tolerance for pain should have been devastating.
I landed a long clean swipe along her collarbone. We were flying over the battlefield and I found myself suddenly pushed up against a tree, I whirled and pushed her up into it instead. She was physically strong, but I was still stronger. I smashed her arm against the tree breaking her hand that held her blade. She dropped it.
I again had my knife to her throat and I concentrated only on her blood and on that blade remaining ash, on that signature I had placed. Again it turned back to silver.
I roared my frustration at her.
She stood on her toes on my boots as I pressed her into the bark of the tree. She looked over at the battle and sighed.
I looked over as well.
She snapped her fingers and all her creatures simply fell to the earth. I studied her, if she felt the destruction of her creations she did not show it.
“Why are you doing this?”
She cocked her head at me and placed her hands on my chest. “I think we both know that neither one of us will be killing the other today. You no longer need to hold me here.”
Her eyes sparkled lightly “Unless you want to of course.”
She snapped her fingers and my blade disappeared my hand fell forward to sit at the base of her throat.
I quickly stepped back out of her reach.
“It disturbs you so much?” she laughed, “The thought of being with me?”
I shook my head. “Yes. Are you even aware of the numbers of innocent people you have killed? What of your creations? Surely some of them must feel pain, some of them must have some consciousness.” I said, angrily waving my arm across the bloody field behind me.
She moved away from the tree now, waving her hand as though dismissing the thought.
“I do not have time to explain things to you that you simply can not understand Gaelen.” She said.
I growled low at her “Why are you here Sierade?”
“I wanted to say hello. It has been many years since I have seen you. I also wanted to show my hand. I know that you have been the one responsible for destroying all of my creations,” She responded “It is rather irritating.”
“Why have them attack everyone initially? Why now do they only attack as though they are working against the Queen?” I watched her pace back and forth in front of me. Her bare feet traced a light groove in the bloody grasses.
“Because initially I did not care where they went. It was mostly random. I changed it when Sylek begged me to stop attacking his forces, when he convinced me to stop killing innocents.” She rolled her eyes looking over her shoulder at me as she paced. “The both of you, so caught up with the killing of innocents.”
She said the last like it was trivial. Just a mere side-thought.
Maybe to her it was; maybe she truly had gone mad.
“You stopped attacking his and the Elfin forces because he asked you?” I asked in awe. I had not expected that answer.
“Yes.” She shrugged.
“So, if I were to ask you to stop attacking mine? What would your response be?” I asked carefully.
She turned and smiled at me. “When Sylek asked me to stop, he asked me to do it as a favour for the love we shared; there was never a condition that he would stop loving me if I refused. I did it because I love him, and I don’t want him to suffer. I did it because he believes desperately in his cause and I believe in him.”
“Gaelen, if you were to ask me I would outright refuse, you do not love me, you are disgusted by me, though you have never taken a moment to try to understand me. Which is actually ironic considering you are probably the closest creature to being like me that there is.”
I shook my head “What could there possibly be to understand? You made it pretty clear you did not want me near you last time I tried to understand, the last time I tried to break through.”
She stared at me a moment before she continued speaking, seemingly ignoring what I had said. “The other reason I would refuse you is that I can see right through you, I know you do not believe in your cause, you actually want the other side to win. You only care about your sweet prince and even he does not believe in what he is fighting for.”
I winced at her mention of Elliot. I did not want the vendetta that the two of us seemed to share to grow into her going after him. I said nothing. I wanted to get quickly away from this topic.
She began pacing again. “The final reason I would never grant your request is that you work for the Queen. The majestic Aubliette.”
She smirked. “You do know she is a wretched monster, don’t you? I believe that my destiny and hers are intertwined.”
She rifted directly in front of me suddenly and put the tips of her fingers to my forehead. I froze. “Can you see it Gaelen? Can you see my destiny? Do you know where I am supposed to go from here? Can you see the Queen’s?”
I pushed her hand roughly away. “How do you know?”
She laughed and backed away. “That you have the gift of prophecy? I told you. I can see right through you.”
I watched as the silver shifted behind her eyes, it truly looked like she had something breathing inside of her. But when I reached out I could only feel her.
“I do not see your destiny.” I shook my head.
Her eyes gleamed brightly for a moment. “That’s because you have not looked.”
She rifted away, and I let myself fall into the grass. The conversation had been more exhausting than the battle.
Sitting there I tried to reef back through millennia of prophecy to find a fork somewhere that could belong to her. It was impossible, there was far too much. I couldn’t even begin to know what I was looking for.
I stood slowly and looked out over the battlefield, thinking of all that she had said. She seemed in so many ways just the same as she had been before, just as vibrant and intense. If anything her intensity had increased.
Calling Bryln, he appeared beside me.
“How many did we lose?” I asked.
“Less than two thousand.” He responded.
I nodded. Better than I had hoped. Still, two thousand while she had been preoccupied battling me.
“I saw you two fighting, it was horrible and beautiful to watch, I think we may have lost a few soldiers simply because they stopped to stare.”
Bryln said.
I shook my head and looked at him.
Bryln was a great soldier, a loyal and talented guard. He had risen in the ranks quickly, was a powerful magic wielder, and had even come close to beating me a few times.
He had to work very hard and do something extremely unpredictable, but if we ever fought for real, he had a chance to walk away with his life. I could not say that about a single other Fae, even Elliot, who was very skilled.
That was why Bryln was my second in command.
“It was horrible and beautiful to participate in. I have not fought an opponent I could not beat since I was very young.” I said. Thinking back to my father, to the golden power that he had commanded.
I felt memories tugging at me, trying to tell me things. There was a connection I was missing, but I had not seen my father in forty thousand years. Memories that old are not the easiest to sift through. If I knew what I was looking for I would find it, but this was a quiet whisper of recognition.
I shook myself.
“Well. You are going to have to teach me how to pull someone out of a rift, because that impressed me a lot.” He said, trying to lighten the mood.
I smirked at him sideways “You’re going to have to earn the crap out of that lesson. I only recently learned that myself.”
He rolled his eyes at me before walking away slowly, calling over his shoulder “I bet you’ll show your prince!”
&nb
sp; “You know I will” I called after him.
I saw his shoulder shake with his chuckle as I rifted away.
I rifted into the study into my favourite chair by the hearth where Elliot was now pacing a trail into the thick white rug.
He stopped for a moment and looked me up and down searchingly. Seeing that I was mostly intact, he continued pacing. “What happened?”
“Sierade happened.”
He widened his eyes at me, his leisurely pace picked up a bit.
“When I arrived, she was running at my army. Alone. I gave the order to evacuate and tried to use myself as a diversion. She created thousands of creatures on the spot and halted my evacuation. She managed to kill two thousand of my soldiers while fighting me in hand-to-hand combat.”
Elliot sighed. “We can’t afford to lose you Gaelen. I do not want you facing her without a solid plan in place. If we lost you...” He stopped, looking at me his eyes full of fear, not for the army losing me, but for himself personally losing me, he continued after a moment “…we have no one else with even a hope of facing her.”
I nodded. “You’re right; however, if using myself as a distraction could save thousands of lives, I would make that choice again. I am their commander; I have to be ready to make that sacrifice.”
Elliot turned to me. All warmth and fear gone from his features. “You are my commander. Those are my armies. I would sacrifice one battle to win a war. No questions asked, and right now Gaelen, it’s looking like you might be our only chance of winning the war.”
“She did not want to kill me.” I said quietly.
“What?” he asked harshly, his emotions still running high from his outburst.
“She used a silver weapon the whole time, she had no intention of killing me. She even told me as much. I almost had her twice, but she can change the metal on a signatured blade. Elliot she intentionally showed me that I can change the metal on a signatured blade.”
He stopped and sat cross legged on the floor, seemingly defeated.
“Why would she do that?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
“She told me I could defeat her, that I just hadn’t found her weakness yet. She told me she stopped attacking the other side of the war simply because Sylek asked her to.”
Elliot’s eyebrows flew into the air. “She’s mad.” he whispered.
I shrugged. “Elliot. She knows I have the gift of prophecy. She said I only don’t know her destiny because I haven’t looked.”
He moved to his knees in front of me placing his hands on my legs. “Did you look?”
I shook my head. “There are eleven thousand years of prophecies in there Elliot, and I don’t even know what I’m looking for. I don’t know where to start.”
He stood then.
“You need to let it go then. Move on. If you are meant to know, you will know. The gods of the prophets whoever they are will make it known to you. Such is the way of prophecy.”
I laughed. “You say it like it’s so easy.”
“Make it easy, Gaelen.” He said straight faced, forcing me to take him seriously.
I nodded. “Fine.”
Chapter 15 – Unlikely Lovers
Year 10,403 AC
Sierade
I rifted into Aubliette’s bedchamber. It was huge. It also had every type of protection and warding spell you could possibly think of on it, but that would never stop me.
In Faery space and time worked a little differently; that was often why wars took so many years to work themselves out. Immortal Fae did not concern themselves too much with trivial things like time. We used the standard time of an aged Human plane to count our years.
It was currently 10,403 AC the AC was short for Aubliette Castor. It had been ten thousand and four hundred years since her coronation. When a new queen was crowned, the years would start at 1 again with her initials.
I stood at the end of her bed; it was atop a flight of steps on all four sides like a stacked pyramid, the steps led down to a soft looking meadow on three sides, the green and gold grasses had bursts of lilacs and forget-me-nots. Through the center of the meadow a herringbone patterned path of white and salmon veined marble ran from the dark brass doors to the bed pyramid.
The fourth side led straight down to a crystal-clear pool, the bottom lined with jewels in all different hues of blue and green.
The walls of the room were mirrors, they made everything appear much larger than it actually was.
I let my eyes follow lazily after a butterfly that drifted along, lightly flitting from flower to flower. I turned to look at the bed. It was huge and cloaked lightly in lilac sheets with intricate blue embroidery. I threw myself onto the bed and laughed as I realized it was on chains.
My eyes travelled up the chains to the ceiling, which was, by way of illusion magic, non-existent. It looked like clear blue skies with the odd puff of cloud rolling by.
I lay there and waited for my prey.
It wasn’t long before she showed up, I heard her drifting her way across the path through the chamber and when she was near to the stairs I rifted to the top of them.
She gasped, her blue eyes widening.
I spoke quickly “I am here to speak, not to harm. You would already be dead if I wanted you to be.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she lifted her chin walking the rest of the way up to her bed.
“Make it quick, I am expecting someone.” She said haughtily.
I roamed my eyes over her short, red, gauzy looking dress and catching her eye said. “Cancel”
She ran her eyes over me. She noted the blood and the cuts from the ash blade that had not healed, the way the leather had been nearly cut from my leg on the right side, and nodded curtly.
Sitting down on the bed, she began to unwind her long hair from its braids.
I started pacing before her. “You know, this is your Stormcleaver’s blood I wear upon my skin.”
She turned to let her eyes drift over me again. “Does he live?” she asked finally.
I nodded “He is far too pretty a pet for me to be done with yet Aubliette.” I smiled.
She laughed softly “He is that, isn’t he?”
I nodded and snapped my fingers. Suddenly naked in front of her. Her eyes widened as I moved down the steps to the pool below.
I lay back letting the cool water wash over me, I put my head underneath and saw my hair drifting by in a light current. I watched as the blood trailed away from me.
I treaded water a few times before exploding out and drawing a breath. “Are you going to join me?” I called out to her.
A few moments later I heard her entering the water behind me and I turned.
The water distorted the vision, but I could see that her skin was pale and perfect. Her breasts large and perky; she had a small patch of curling blonde down between her legs.
I could feel her eyes sweeping over me now. “You have many injuries.” She said suddenly.
“Gaelen does not think me as pretty as I think him. He insisted on the use of an ash blade.”
She smiled then. “He is a good male” her eyes darkened, and I saw the hatred she had for me, the longing to defeat one who had so easily bested her.
“You sting me Aubliette.” I pouted at her and quickly swam a circle around her.
“You bit first Sierade.” She said spinning with me.
I caught the tails of her hair as it spun around her in the water. I wrapped it around my fist a few times and gently pulled her drifting towards me.
“Did I though?” I asked her knowingly.
She furrowed her brows at me. I smiled and let go of her hair swimming back to the steps to lounge across them, half in, and half out of the water.
Her eyes drifted to my breasts when they rose above the water.
“You would think,” I said slowly, waiting for her eyes to drift back up to mine before I continued, “that one in your position – let me clarify, that is the position in which you are steadily losing power
– would be nicer to one in my position – to clarify, the position of having unfathomable power – don’t you agree?”
She swam towards me. “I have always held all of the power, even if I was not the most powerful creature, that creature became mine.” She stopped in the water in front of me. “What is it that you’re proposing?”
I smiled and pushed myself back into the water brushing my shoulder against hers as I swam by her. She turned with me to watch me go.
