by Virlyce
Too weak, she thought after confirming it was disabled. It wasn’t even facing the right way. She stepped over the fallen golem into the corridor behind the doorway. The floor was steep and became steeper still until the path leading down was nearly vertical. She pushed open another door at the bottom and raised her hand in front of her eyes as a green light assaulted her vision. Groans and roars reached her ears as well as a few fairylike gasps and squeaks.
Lindyss stiffened. Inside the room, there was a gigantic pool filled with green water. Its diameter spanned over a hundred meters. Underneath the surface, thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of worms swam and wriggled, making it impossible to see the bottom. Baskets filled with green spheres lined the edge of the pool while dozens of humans and demons were standing with their wrists and ankles bound by chains attached to the walls. Fairies hovered in front of the captives, but they had all turned around at the sound of the door opening, confusion plastered on their faces.
Lindyss reacted first, and lightning bolts flew out of her hands towards the fairies. One fairy managed to evade, but in the next moment, she was pierced by a spear that emerged from her own shadow. Lindyss shook her head after confirming the room was clear of fairies. “So it looks like the golem was made to keep things in, not out,” she said to herself as she approached the green pool. “I guess I’m responsible for disposing of these since Vur isn’t here yet.” Her head turned towards the fettered prisoners. Saliva ran down their mouths as they struggled against their chains, straining their necks towards Lindyss.
Lindyss snorted as she backed away from the pool and placed her hands on her hips, facing the prisoners. “You might be resistant to magic,” she said as she stomped her right foot against the ground. A wall of earth rose up in front of the captives before pressing towards them. “But I can squish you to death.” Squelching noises and shattering sounds echoed through the room as the moving wall crushed the infected prisoners, manacles and flesh alike. The expression on Lindyss’ face didn’t change as black blood oozed through the earthen wall.
“How can you use geomancy?” a voice asked from behind Lindyss. She turned around. There was a red-haired fairy lying on the ground with a hole in her stomach—the fairy that managed to evade the initial lightning salvo. Lindyss ignored the fairy’s question and placed a finger on the fairy’s forehead. A green light enveloped the fairy, healing her wounds. The fairy’s eyes widened. “White magic too? What are you?”
“You’re a primary fairy, aren’t you?” Lindyss asked. “First one I’ve seen since I entered this place. You’re going to lead me to Stella after I dispose of these worms.”
The fairy gasped when she heard Stella’s name. “You’re the Corrupted One! You dirty witch! You lousy lemon-eyed snot drinker!” She rose to her feet and launched herself at Lindyss, but the elf snapped her fingers, and the fairy’s body stiffened before falling towards the ground.
“Call me what you want,” Lindyss said as she walked towards the pool, turning her back on the stunned fairy. “I did what I had to do. Now be a good little child and wait for me to finish cleaning up your mess.”
***
“I’ve come with an urgent message for the king!” Trent rode a horse, shouting as he approached the gates of the royal castle. “It concerns the pope and the missing prince!”
The two guards standing in front of the gate exchanged glances before addressing the oncoming horse. “Please dismount,” one of the guards said. “We’ll bring you in right away. The king has given orders for us to take anyone with information about the pope and prince directly to him. As a safety precaution, you must leave your weapons and armor behind.”
Trent nodded as he dismounted and stripped himself of his equipment. He raised his head and passed the guards his items. His eyes were pure white with no trace of an iris or pupil. “I just came from receiving my blessing from the spirits,” Trent said, taking a step back as the guards’ eyes widened. “They’ll return to normal in a few hours.”
“Understood,” the guard said and relaxed his posture. “You must be Trent then? This way.” The guard opened the gate and walked ahead.
“Yes,” Trent said with a strange smile. “I’m Trent.”
The guard stopped in front of a metal door. “The king is inside his study on the second floor.” He knocked twice before opening the door and gestured for Trent to go in.
“Thank you,” Trent said as he nodded at the guard and stepped inside the room. The room was filled with bookshelves and contained a spiral staircase leading upwards positioned in the center of the room. The door closed as Trent climbed halfway up the stairs. As soon as his head appeared on the second floor, a spear stabbed downwards from behind him, piercing through his spinal column at the base of his neck. His body twitched, and he coughed out a mouthful of green blood before collapsing.
“You’re up, Siz,” a voice said. “Charon told us to be wary of worms and to incinerate the body.”
“I know,” a feminine voice said as Trent’s body went up in flames. “Let’s tell the king.”
***
In the center of a dark chamber, a diminutive figure was sitting with her legs crossed. Her eyes flew open and blinked a few times, revealing a pair of irises that shifted colors with every blink. Stella stretched her arms above her head and cracked her neck. “Ah,” she said as she rubbed her temples, “that wasn’t very nice of them. Well, it was fun while it lasted.” Her body stiffened. “Oh?” Her head turned to the side. “I know you. It’s been a while, dragon boy. How’ve you been?”
Vur stood at the entrance to Stella’s chambers with his eyebrows furrowed.
“Care for a cup of tea?” Stella asked and waved her arm. A teapot that was resting on a table in the corner of the chamber sprouted legs and waddled towards the fairy. Two teacups hopped after it. Stella gestured at a cushion across from her. “Have a seat.”
“You’re not going to fight me?” Vur asked as he approached the cushion.
“Why would I? You were the one that freed me after all. If you were someone else, I’d dissect you in a heartbeat,” Stella said as Vur sat down on the cushion. She raised an eyebrow. “You seem awfully relaxed for someone who was expecting a fight.”
“And you seem awfully cohesive for someone who’s supposed to be insane,” Vur said and shrugged as the teapot vomited out a fountain of clear liquid into the two cups. “Why did you imprison Rella and Bella? They helped free you too.”
Stella smiled. “Imprisoning them was the only choice I had. And I’m not insane, not at all. Is that what they’re saying about me?” She pulled out three green orbs from a bin and dropped them into her teacup. “Would you like some? They’re quite chewy. I call them tapioca. Such a nice sounding word, don’t you agree? Taa-pee-oh-kah.” She giggled as she brought the cup to her lips and took a sip.
“I don’t eat bugs,” Vur said as he shook his head and picked up the cup in front of him. He sniffed it and tilted his head. “What’s in this?”
“The tears of orphans boiled with the crushed dreams of the just departed. It’s good for the soul,” Stella said as she chewed on one of the eggs. A miniature worm popped its head out of her mouth as she spoke, but she slurped it back inside before it got away. “So what made you come visit little old me? You got here pretty quickly considering the fact you were in the human capital not too long ago.”
“I got lost,” Vur said as he took a tentative sip from the cup. “I was supposed to get rid of the worms, but I ended up here instead. I guess that means Auntie got lost too since she’s not here.”
Stella’s horns glowed red as her eyes narrowed. Her hands clenched, and the cup in her hand squealed before it shattered. “You really did come here with her then.” After a moment passed, she sighed as the pieces of the cup crawl back together. “It’s not fair. Why does that backstabbing butt-cow get all the nice things?” She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest as her horns dimmed.
Vur stayed silent as he took an
other sip of tea. “Why did you attack her? After I freed you, I mean. Even if I was hungover, I could tell you were genuinely happy to see Rella, Bella, and Yella again,” he said, his gaze locked on the tea’s surface. “What happened between you two in the past? Is it really so bad that you have to try to destroy the continent to get back at her?”
Stella tilted her head. “She never told you?” she asked as she poured herself another cup of tea. “Well, that’s to be expected. If I was a backstabber, I wouldn’t want my allies to know either. Do you want the long version or the short version?”
“The long version.”
Stella nodded and closed her eyes. “I’ll need to cast an illusion to keep that wrinkled tomato preoccupied.” A line of smoke flowed from Stella’s hands out the door. “That should do the trick,” she said and gazed into Vur’s eyes. “You’re a blue mage; Rella told me. I can teach you a truth curse that you can cast on me.”
“You’d go that far?” Vur asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Fairies are notorious for lying,” Stella said and lowered her head as a crooked smile appeared on her lips. “I want you to believe me.”
Vur nodded and the two exchanged curses.
Stella took a deep breath. “I come from the first generation of fairies. We were born from the flowers that sprouted from Aeris’ body when she was buried. There were twenty flowers, one for each of us. We decided to part ways and establish our own colonies. I was lucky and discovered the Fountain of Youth. My siblings were less fortunate and eventually passed on. Their offspring were later incorporated into my colony with the condition of surrendering their birthflowers to me. It was lonely at the top,” Stella said and sighed as she stirred her tea. “Fairies had developed a bad reputation from the start with our pranks and tricks. The other races learned not to trust us, and I was always suspected when I wanted to converse with them. As for my own children, how can you become friends with someone whose life belongs completely to you? It’s not the right dynamic for a meaningful friendship.
“Lindyss, that banana-nosed outcast, was my first friend. At least, that’s what I believed up to the moment I was imprisoned. We first met when she came to the fountain and got trapped in my illusions. She told me she was looking for a cure to her condition, and I yielded after listening to her story. She was lonely, never had any parents. Her adoptive mother, which wasn’t even an elf, was killed by a bear. A dragon, Grimmoldesser, was bored and decided to plant the elder lich’s soul inside her body because she didn’t want to be weak anymore. When her batty bloodline awakened, it conflicted with the lich’s soul and her body almost fell apart. She needed the power of the fountain to stay alive which is why I allowed her to stay.
“It was pleasant. We used to explore the region together. I’d show her places she’d never been. She showed me some of the more dangerous regions occupied by dragons,” Stella said as she popped another worm egg into her mouth. After chewing, she washed the remains down with the rest of her tea. “She was too interested in the humans. By that time, our continent had been at war with them for close to four hundred years. There were times where I’d leave the fountain and preoccupy myself for weeks to make seeds for more birthflowers while Lindyss did her own things. I didn’t know her ‘things’ involved selling me to the humans.
“One day, after I had just finished making a fresh batch of seeds, an army of humans were waiting for me. Even when I was under the cover of my illusions, they knew I was there. And they let me know, using Lindyss’ name to bait me out of hiding, saying she sold me out.” Stella ground her teeth. “I didn’t believe them until after they captured me. I was too weak to resist and my guardians were slain by an ambush. I used a truth curse on them and interrogated them as we fought. Lindyss really did betray my trust in her. They managed to defeat me and locked me up on the spot, demanding for me to give up my powers or they’d hunt down every single fairy and present me their heads. I refused, believing the rest of the continent would fight against the humans for my children—if only because of a mutual enemy.
“Even though I refused, they managed to extract my powers from me, but I infused as much of it with my hatred and bitterness as I could. The results of the forced extraction were obvious, and the group of humans who took my power and drank tea made out of my children’s birthflowers gained immense magical powers compared to the other humans, but they sprouted horns and became demons. They were ostracized by other humans, but they were a sizable group and managed to hold their ground, establishing a city around my place of imprisonment.” Stella trembled. “They kept me weak, unable to do anything. A spell formation in the room would absorb all the mana in my body, twice a day. Another chain would forcibly inject mana into me to keep me alive.
“The worst part was they kept their word.” Stella’s horns flared up, bathing the room in a red glow, and the teacup in her hand shattered once again with a pitiful mewl. “Even if Lindyss did betray me, the least she could’ve done was keep my children safe. With every head the humans brought, I could feel a part of me dying. It made my heart ache; the pain was unbearable. They would bring my children in front of the door and rip their heads off while they were still conscious. They’d tell them that it was my fault. That I was the reason why they were going to die so pitifully. I could feel my children’s fear within the room, and I’d see it on their heads moments later when they’d be teleported inside, faces still contorted in a silent scream with tears streaming down their cheeks. I couldn’t even save their heads because the rats would eat them, yet I still tried every time. I tried, but it never worked!” Tears streamed down Stella’s cheeks as she took in deep breaths. “There was a long period of time where they stopped. I was thankful for it, but then they brought hundreds of fairies at once. It was then that I vowed to torture the humans and everything they held precious if I were to ever be set free.”
Vur’s eyebrows furrowed as he frowned and scratched his cheek.
Stella blinked and her horns dimmed. “Not you, of course. I could tell there was something different about you, something dragonlike. You brought me a feeling of awe and fear rather than resentment and undying hatred. I understood when Bella told me you were imprinted by the matriarch. Everything has an innate sense of respect and a healthy dose of fear for dragons—those that don’t are dead.” Stella smiled. “It’s a nice feeling that you bring, comforting. And it’s gotten even stronger since I last saw you ten years ago. It helps keep my head clear. More tea?”
Vur nodded and the teapot vomited into his cup. “You don’t know why Lindyss betrayed you?”
Stella shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. No reason of hers can ever allow me to forgive her. Do you think I’m wrong?” She tilted her head. “Am I a villain?”
“No. I don’t think so,” Vur said. “Might makes right. I know Mom and Grimmy have slaughtered countless people out of anger—Dad too. It’s the dead people’s fault for being too weak. They wouldn’t have died if they were stronger.”
Stella smiled. “I had a feeling you’d understand me.”
“But,” Vur said and sipped his tea, “that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad for the people you’ve killed.”
Stella raised an eyebrow. “Well aren’t you unexpectedly kind? I didn’t expect you to be so sympathetic to the plight of the humans.”
Vur shrugged. “They have families. People care for them and feel sad when they lose them just like you did when you lost your children. I realized it in the dream Lindyss placed me in for ten years: how much it hurts to lose people who are close to you. The sense of loss eating away at your heart. I must’ve watched Tafel, Mom, Auntie, Grimmy, Yella, and everyone else die hundreds of times because of my weakness.” He sighed. “You’d think it’d hurt less after the first few times, but it doesn’t. It hurts just as much, if not more.”
Stella frowned and stared at the reformed teacup in her hand. Images of her fallen children replayed themselves in her head. A tear sprang to the corne
r of her eye which she quickly wiped away. She pouted at Vur. “Don’t act so moral and righteous now, you hypocrite” she said. “The food you eat has family too, you know? What about all the bear cubs that’ll never see their mother again because you got hungry?”
“That’s different,” Vur said. “Killing to eat is necessary for me to continue living to keep my family happy. Killing to make others sad is just not nice.”
“I’m not killing just to make others sad,” Stella said and crossed her arms. “Although it is a nice bonus. I’m getting revenge for my children.”
“You’ve already avenged them,” Vur said. “I know you captured the demons’ royal family. The other humans did nothing wrong.”
Stella looked down. The two sat in silence as they drank their tea. A strong wave of magic brushed over them and sent goosebumps down their arms.
“Hey,” Stella said, eyes still downcast. Vur looked up from his empty cup. “If I die, will you take care of my children?” She raised her head. “They did nothing wrong.”
Vur nodded. “I will.”
Stella smiled and held out her hand. A white rose bloomed from her palm, its roots wrapping around her arm. “A reward,” she said and extended it towards Vur, “for accepting my task.”
“I don’t need a reward for helping a friend,” Vur said and shook his head.
“Then a favor,” Stella said and brought the flower closer to Vur. Vur extended his hand, and the flower’s roots crawled onto his palm, wrapping themselves around his arm. They crawled along his body until the rose migrated over his heart. “Take care of me in my next life, okay?”
Vur patted Stella on the head and nodded before standing up. The mist blocking the door dispersed as he approached it. He walked past the door and rounded a bend. A figure grabbed his arm.
“You’re not going to fight?” Lindyss asked, staring at the rose on Vur’s chest.
Vur shook his head. “It’s your fight,” he said and gazed into Lindyss’ eyes.
