Ara observed Phoenix’s amused smirk for a split second before she and Nerina arrived on the front steps of Castle Erindos.
Nerina squealed again, clapped her hands, and bounced excitedly. “Yes! I did it!”
Ara laughed at Nerina’s cute reaction.
Ara took in her surroundings. They stood at the top of a marble staircase that appeared to, literally, be at the top of the realm. The altitude was so high, clouds were visible around them; the air was chilled and slightly misty, and, though it seemed like it should be extremely windy at this altitude, the air was still, as though they were inside a giant protective bubble.
Through the light mist cover, Ara could glimpse the sun beginning to set in the distance. Just that view was gorgeous. Ara would have loved to see the view of the land below the cloud cover--she could only imagine its magnificence; unfortunately, on this evening, the cloud cover was too thick to see the surrounding landscape.
The castle itself was a towering light-blue marble spiral that extended even further up into the sky. From the ground at the mountain’s base, it probably blended perfectly with the sky. It rose so high, Ara could not see where it ended. She was certain no one except the sylphs could even survive on the upper floors due to the decrease in oxygen at such heights. Even where they stood now, oxygen was significantly thinner, and Ara had to force herself to take slow, deep breaths to compensate. Nerina, however, seemed quite unaffected, likely due to her water composition sustaining itself without need for breath.
Ara couldn’t see a guard at the arched front door, though Nerina grinned broadly and addressed the air next to the doorway. Ara assumed a sylph stood guard.
“Good day, you beautiful bastard,” Nerina said. “We request an audience with Queen Azea.”
Nerina extended her hand as though someone was kissing it and giggled sweetly. When she lowered her hand, the castle door swung inward as though opened by a gust of wind.
Nerina blew a kiss to the invisible guard, then took Ara’s hand and led her inside. The door closed firmly behind them.
The towering castle was as marvelous inside as it was outside. The front door opened into a large circular entryway. Comfortable-looking couches and potted plants surrounded a giant fountain in the center of the room. Nothing else appeared to be on the first floor except the stairway, which began to their right and hugged the circular walls, spiraling upward.
Peering up, Ara could see where floor after floor went up, each level making a complete circle around the open center with their balconies overlooking the fountain below. The stairway elegantly connected each level.
The castle appeared to go upward endlessly, with hundreds of uniform levels rising above them.
It was lit by globes mounted to the walls that appeared to contain sunlight, making everything as bright as day inside the walls. Ara could tell they were not powered by fairy magic, but she was unsure what kind of magic they contained. The globes looked as though the sylphs had somehow managed to harness the power of the sun.
This castle was, both figuratively and literally, breathtaking.
“The guard said Queen Azea is home today and we can go right on up to her office,” Nerina said, sauntering toward the stairs, leading Ara by her hand.
“How could you see him?” Ara asked as they began climbing.
“He knows me so he showed himself to me. Sylphs can do that, selectively revealing themselves to whomever they choose. He doesn’t know you, so he didn’t show himself for security purposes.”
Ara nodded. “Understood.”
“That ability is great for security, but the practical jokes are awful. Those bastards enjoy scaring the piss out of me. I don’t react well to surprises.” Nerina laughed.
“Oh, no! Do not let that information slip to anyone at the villa. You’ll never get any peace when you visit Maddox if my fairies, or--even worse--my imps, find out. I can’t always be there to put them on their best behavior, and I want you to always feel welcome in our home.”
Nerina blushed. “Are Maddox and I that obvious?”
“No, not to most. But I’ve known Maddox his entire life. He’s smitten with you. And I approve.” Ara smiled and squeezed Nerina’s hand. “Please know that you’re welcome in our home at any time.”
Nerina beamed at Ara. “To be totally honest, I’m a little ‘smitten’ with him, too.”
Ara smiled reassuringly at her. “He’s a great fairy. He’ll be good to you.”
The two continued ascending the steps, going up seven levels before leaving the stairs.
“Queen Azea’s office is on the seventh floor. She actually lives on the top floor where she has the best sky access, but she conducts business down here. Most ground-dwellers can’t survive a visit to the top floor. She learned that the hard way,” Nerina said, confirming Ara’s suspicions.
They approached an ornate metal door, which Nerina pushed open and lead Ara through. When they crossed the threshold, the door clanked shut behind them.
The office they entered was lovely: its inside walls painted in sky blue, the outside wall made of transparent glass that curved with the castle’s spiral. It allowed an unobstructed view of sky as far as the eye could see. Now, it featured a stunning view of the pinks and purples of the sunset.
Luxurious white couches and chairs were the only furniture in the room, most facing outward toward the view. Ara almost felt like she was standing amongst the clouds. It made sense that the queen of the sky would want her office to resemble her domain as closely as possible.
“Good day, Queen Azea,” Nerina said, curtsying slightly.
At first glance, no one else appeared to be in the room with them. Then Ara felt a slight breeze brush her arm. Mist quickly appeared before her in the shape of a petite female form whose feet floated above the floor. The mist had no distinguishable features, but Ara knew this to be Queen Azea.
“What brings you so far from home, Queen Ara?” Azea’s bodiless voice asked, her mist form not having an actual mouth from which to speak.
The mist gestured toward one of the couches, indicating for Ara and Nerina to sit.
“Queen Azea. It’s good to see you again.” Ara nodded her head slightly toward Azea as she crossed the room and settled on the couch. Nerina sat beside her.
Azea nodded in acknowledgment and floated toward the window to gaze outward.
Ara continued, “Phoenix and I seek your assistance. A group of pure-blood fairies intends to wage war on the realm, starting with Quarrin, and to annihilate as many non-fairies as possible in the process. We located this group’s home base and have a plan to defeat them but we need someone to get inside the base unseen so we can find out more information such as what numbers we face; we seek a sylph’s assistance with this.”
Azea turned back from the window. “I see. That’s quite the quandary. Why would I care?”
Ara blinked in shock. Did she hear that correctly? Maybe the low oxygen level was affecting her hearing...
“Excuse me?” Ara asked.
“Why would I care?” Azea repeated. “Territorial spats amongst land-dwellers do not affect my domain in any way.”
Anger sparked in Ara’s chest. She drew a deep breath before she spoke. “Countless innocent lives will be lost if this war proceeds unchecked. All because those innocents were not born to the ‘right’ species. Obviously, sylphs are not fairies. Eventually, the pure-bloods will target your sylphs, too, and it will become your problem. What I propose would prevent that and save lives in the process.”
Azea’s misty form shrugged. “I do not deal in ‘what ifs.’ It is not my problem until it becomes my problem. I will not help you, nor will I hinder you. I trust you will find your solution elsewhere, away from my sylphs.”
Ara opened her mouth to argue, but Azea continued, “It was lovely seeing you again, dears. Now, I have another engagement and must be on my way. Best of luck with your quandary. See yourselves out.”
And with that, Azea vanished.
Nerina looked just as shocked. “Wow. Gods damn it. I’m sorry, Queen Ara. That’s not what I expected to happen. She’s not usually like that.”
“It’s not your fault.” Ara sighed and ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to come up with another plan.
Nerina pursed her lips for a moment before speaking. “Well...she said she wouldn’t hinder. My big brother might be able to help. Azea doesn’t like him...he doesn’t always do so well with authority and they’ve clashed...several times. He’s not a nymph, of course, or a sylph... But he could help! He can become invisible. It’s just...he’s a little...umm...” She was silent a moment. “Let’s say ‘unconventional.’ I’m sure you’ve heard of him; everyone has.”
“What do you mean?”
Nerina sighed. “Sometimes he loses his temper and gets a little crazy. The stories precede him. But he would do this for me without question.”
“I don’t follow. How can he help us?”
“Oh, he’s really good at covert missions. As long as he doesn’t get super upset, he’ll do great.”
“What happens when he gets ‘super upset’?”
“Well, he has a short temper, and he’s known to live up to his nickname. His name is Sebastian, but everyone calls him ‘Bash.’” Nerina laughed.
Bash. That name struck fear in the hearts of most creatures in the realm, but Nerina stood there laughing like he wasn’t an infamous demon.
Bash never overstepped the line and killed anyone, but, due to his short temper and antisocial tendencies combined with the super speed and strength provided by his lineage, destruction and broken bones followed in his wake.
The infamous Bash was cambion--half-incubus, half-human. Literally, one of a kind in this realm.
Typically, incubus demons dwelled in the human world, appearing to human females in their sleep to seduce them and produce offspring--cambions. Most cambions emerged fully human, with wicked, mischievous natures. However, Bash’s biological father must have been an immensely powerful incubus because Bash contained strong magic from birth; plus, he was born with non-traditional golden eyes.
By age seven, when he fully came into his powers, his human family found themselves terrified of his magical outbursts and tantrums. Fearing him possessed, they asked a priest to exorcise him.
Bash’s actually being demon instead of being possessed by one meant that the exorcism banished him physically from the human world; he disappeared in front of his family’s disbelieving human eyes.
For years, he remained trapped between realms, in a limbo of sorts; he wouldn’t talk about his time there so no one knew what he actually went through, only that it was awful.
The experience physically changed him, turning his golden eyes from rounded human pupils into obviously supernatural serpent-like slit pupils.
He eventually managed to fight and claw his way out of that wretched place, emerging an adult in this realm. And here he’d remained for decades.
The incubus population sometimes visited this realm, but most often resided full time in the human world, blending in and seducing unsuspecting women.
Bash’s existence as either an incubus or a human in this realm would be a rarity in itself, but a combination of the two, a cambion...unheard of before--which only further ostracized him amongst the native creatures in the realm.
The rejection of his family and his subsequent time alone in limbo because of their actions changed a happy, outgoing child, who just happened to be born with magical demon abilities, into a sullen, withdrawn, hardened adult with antisocial tendencies.
Nature vs. nurture definitely presented itself in Bash. He paid the price for his unaccepting family’s fear. Now, he was nowhere near the charming, seductive cambion he could have been had he been raised properly; it broke Ara’s heart.
Bash might be inclined to help since their plight struck so close to the discrimination he’d faced.
Ara knew his story, though she had not met the him personally. The invisibility trait was news to her, but stories of his destructive antics spread far and wide. He lived far from her kingdom, but word about this unique creature had circulated through Quarrin for years.
Ara wasn’t surprised that the cambion and the nymph claimed each other. With a nymph’s seductive nature and a cambion’s equally sensual instincts, even lurking below the surface in this case, the camaraderie seemed inevitable.
“Can we trust him?” Ara asked.
Nerina’s face sobered and she nodded. “Hell yes. He’s my big brother. I trust him with my life.”
“Good. Because that is exactly what you’re doing; you’re trusting him with everyone’s lives. If this mission fails, everyone is in jeopardy.” Ara eyed Nerina solemnly.
“I understand, Queen Ara. Bash can fuckin’ do this.”
Ara nodded. “Okay. Where can we find him?”
Nerina pulled a travel sphere from between her cleavage and grinned wickedly. “Allow me...”
Chapter 12
A burlesque show...not where Ara expected the antisocial cambion to kick up his heels, but she supposed it would probably be the ultimate interaction without having to actually interact with anyone.
Nerina led the way through the door of the posh establishment that hosted the nightly dinner and show; the lights above the entrance read “Cabaret Amonrila.”
Inside the door, in a small area curtained off from the dining room and theater by luxurious red fabrics, a beautiful hostess with no hair and smooth glittery skin greeted them with a big smile. She wore a stunning kimono. “Ah, welcome, Nerina. Two for tonight’s show? You’re early, but it starts soon.”
“Actually, we’re just here to see Bash,” Nerina said, smiling back at her.
The hostess nodded. “You know where to find him.”
“Thanks.” Nerina grabbed Ara’s hand and pulled her through the curtain.
Ara took in her surroundings. A large stage stood across the room from them. Dozens of tables spaced on the floor between the entrance and the stage. It was an immensely spacious area, made to seat a few hundred spectators with room for the performers to still navigate comfortably between the tables. The show hadn’t started, but music played from the stage and patrons of all species and origins already filled up the tables. Candles set on the tables and suspended from chandeliers lit the room, creating a cozy ambiance.
The show itself would be flashy, with performers acting out parodies of more serious works, variety shows, and so forth to make the audience laugh and enjoy themselves. There would be acting, singing, and dancing, and the performers would often make their way into the audience to interact with the patrons. She would have to bring Phoenix back one day; he would love this.
Nerina turned to their left and led Ara along the wall toward a small two-chair table situated in the dimly lit corner farthest from the stage. Ara could see a figure sitting there alone with his back to the corner. A glass of glowing liquid sat on the table in front of him.
As they approached, Ara’s vision adjusted to the dim light. The figure from the table eyed them warily. His blond hair, long enough for his parted bangs to touch his cheekbones, perfectly framed his face--not a strand out of place, the perfection likely due to the incubus blood in his veins. His golden eyes, featuring serpent-like pupils that reminded Ara of dragons’ eyes, never left Ara.
He wore a black leather jacket, gray t-shirt, and jeans. It looked like his clothes were probably imported from the human world. Though he couldn’t visit, others in the realm could, and certain items sold well in the goblin market. Several gleaming studs of assorted colors and sizes lined both ears, and a tattoo crept up his neck from under his shirt.
He looked like he could be a handful, but he didn’t look like a destructive, heartless creature to be feare
d...
Ara supposed looks could always be deceiving, but she couldn’t sense evil around him. Likewise, her brooch from Grandmother Aspen wasn’t glowing.
As they stopped in front of his table, he picked up his glass, swiftly drained the glowing, enchanted drink, and set the empty glass back down. The drink tended to mellow its imbibers and give them a calming buzz. Apparently, he felt like he needed the calming drink to deal with them.
He looked Ara up and down, taking her in, before his gaze settled on Nerina.
He cleared his throat and asked, “What do you want, N?”
His voice was rough, as though he didn’t use it often.
“Bash, this is Queen Ara,” Nerina said.
“I know. Her blue hair precedes her. What do you want, N?” he repeated.
“You knew and you didn’t bow to her? What the fuck, Bash?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “I bow to no one. No offense, Queenie.”
Ara remained silent.
She wasn’t offended; she only tolerated the bowing custom out of tradition. She needed to discuss discontinuing said tradition with Phoenix because she genuinely hated it.
Knowing Bash’s background, the Queenie comment didn’t offend her, either; with his aversion to authority, she was happy he was talking to her, period.
Nerina sighed and said, “We need a favor.”
“That’s it? Easy. No.”
He focused his attention back on the stage and settled back in his seat, propping his boots up on the table and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Bash--” Nerina started.
“Nerina,” he threw back without looking at her.
“Now you listen to me, you annoying pain in my a--”
“Nerina,” Ara interrupted. “There’s no need for that.”
“But he’s being a --”
Ara silenced her with a stern look. She could feel the sibling-like atmosphere between the two and needed to nip this before it started or they could be there for hours.
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