7. reign of terror

Nyx came to when she felt soft hands delicately grazing her forehead.

Letting out an incoherent groan, her eyelashes fanned as she opened her eyes, seeing a blurry, darker figure in the form of a face right in front of hers. Panic rising within her, she attempted to lift her upper body up from the ground which she was laying on.

"No, don't you get up," spoke a smooth, unfamiliar voice that sounded like whispers in her ear. A gentle, warm hand pressed against her shoulder, but Nyx forced herself to sit up anyways, an irritated huff coming from the person who retracted their hand.

Taking a deep breath that felt so refreshing, as if it were the first breath she ever took, Nyx opened her eyes fully and looked at the person before her.

It was a fae, which she wasn't surprised about at that point, kneeling to the side of her. This fae was nowhere near as terrifying as Al or Caspian. The fae was of tanner complexion, one of smooth caramel. Underneath her colorless brown eyes was a horizontally painted blue line, streaked right in line with her high cheekbones and mounting the bridge of her sharp nose. Her hair was a shiny, stark black that was so long it pooled around her at the ground she sat on.

The fae's wings were what attracted Nyx's eyes the most. They were not blue like Caspian's, nor black and red like Al's, nor dull brown like Erlin's, but they were of a vibrant rainbow so colorful that Nyx couldn't even recognize some shades of her feathers. Every feather was a different hue, no same color found in two feathers. The fae had a kindness about her eyes, her thin cupid lips resting in a dormant smile that appeared evergreen. She wore a tan leather cloth around her bosom that had braided leather strings dangling down above her naval, and a skirt of the same material that had more leather braids resting around her thighs.

"Don't try to run off, now," she spoke, her voice calm and endearing. "I already gave you one strip of this."

Glancing downwards, Nyx saw that the fae held a strip of green moss in one delicate hand, a small wooden bowl of water in the other.

"W-What is that?" the blonde asked, her voice dry and croaky.

"Sphagnum moss," the fae answered, her pointed ears shifting back against her head as she stared down at the piece of grass. "It's winter, so this is the last bit of it. If you want that cut to heal, you'd better not rip it off this time." She returned her eyes to the girl in a look that asked for permission.

Nyx shifted her eyes between the moss and the fae reluctantly, but in those brown eyes that rested above the painted blue line, she saw trust and charity. Keeping her muscles tense and her mind on guard, she nodded her head downwards in obeisance and consent.

Smiling softly, the fae quickly dipped the piece of moss in the bowl of water and leaned forward, bringing it close to the girl's forehead. "Stay still."

Inhaling deeply, Nyx averted her eyes to her own legs, staring at the way her olive green dress sunk between the space of her aching knees. Shifting her eyes around her, she saw that they were sat beneath a large and looming willow tree, its long strands covered in white, beautiful snow. It seemed as if the willow had frozen over before it was given a chance to shed for the winter, its strands appearing to be long and thin icicles reaching from the tops of the tree and bending down towards the earth. An opening between the strands across from them told her how the fae was able to bring her underneath the protective tree.

Nyx flinched a little when she felt the cold and wet moss press against her wound. A few droplets of water slid down her temple but was quickly swiped away by the fae's hand. "There," she whispered, leaning away from the girl and looking between her golden eyes and the moss-covered wound.

Nyx stared back at her, but when the dryness in her throat began to ache, her eyes longingly flickered to the bowl of water in the fae's hand. The fae was quick to know what she wanted, holding the bowl out to her and nodding permissively. The girl grabbed the bowl and quickly brought it to her lips, drinking the icy water down and relaxing her shoulders at how refreshing it was to her throat.

The fae chuckled. "I'm Catori, by the way." She watched as the girl kept chugging the water down, head tilting in fascination.

The girl finally drank the last drop of the water, bringing the bowl back down and sighing loudly as she wiped the remnants of water from her chapped lips. Breathlessly, she returned the fae's stare and said, "My name is Nyx."

Catori smiled amusedly. "I know your name."

Nyx handed the bowl back to her. "I suppose everyone does around here." She felt the realization seep into her bones that maybe this all was true. She had passed out twice and had woken up both times in the hands of these fae people—unfortunately, none of it was just a hallucinatory dream in her overactive imagination.

"It would be a crime if they didn't. You are our symbol of hope, after all," the fae told her with a tone of respect in her voice as she stood up.

Nyx scoffed, flattening the skirt of her dress. "Hope..." she muttered, pulling out her tan cloak which she was sitting on from beneath her and slipping it on.

"It's not a joke, Nyx," Catori remarked with more seriousness. "You are the only thing Eira wants from us other than our death." She held out a hand to the girl, offering to help her up.

The girl eyed her outstretched hand hesitantly, but she realized that this fae was the most trustworthy one she had met so far. So she took her warm hand, letting her easily pull her from the ground. "So I'm just live bait for you?"

Catori shook her head as she set the bowl down on a flat surface of dirt against the tree trunk which had obviously been built up to be some sort of table with other strange tools and jars of grasses and flowers sitting atop it. "No, you are the key to our survival. If you were bait, why have we saved you and protected you for all this time?"

"All this time?" Nyx questioned, blonde eyebrows sewing together at just how long the fae have been waiting to stow her away.

Catori glanced at her with a look of both amusement and reluctance. "Al will explain more to you."

"That's what they told me when I first got here, but all she did was frighten me."

Catori chuckled and turned, making her way towards the opening in in the willow strands. "That's to be expected." Seeing that the girl was still standing in place, she waved her hand to signal for her to follow.

So the girl did, bending through the opening after her. "Well, I don't know if I want to ever be alone in a room with her." Straightening herself, Nyx was finally able to look about the space around her.

In a large clearing in the forest was a circle of cottages with a fire pit in the very center, a few other fae sitting around it. There were dozens of fae all walking around and conversing with one another. A few were chuckling as they playfully batted their wings towards one another, and a few could be seen through the windows inside the cottages, preparing food or talking with one another.

Turning around, Nyx could see the setting sun blaring through the icy strands of the willow tree, bringing dusk closer to its brink. And beyond there she could see the treehouses where she had previously been, along with the few cottages beneath them.

"Back there is the headquarters, where Al and Caspian keep watch for any danger, and where we gather to plan," Catori explained. Motioning to the several cottages before them, she continued, "And this is where we live and eat." Pointing her hand to the East, where through the trees Nyx could see more silhouettes of buildings in the distance, she explained, "And that's where we perform."

"Perform?" the girl echoed.

The fae, who was only a few inches taller than her, smiled impishly. "You'll see." She turned back towards the firepit a few yards away and began walking. "Let me show you those whom you have not met yet."

Nyx paused for a moment before following her, her leather boots scuffing against the willow tree's roots bulging from beneath the ground. A few of the fae who were sitting by the fire turned to her, eyes widening before they gave her genial smiles. She only gave a small, timid smile back.

Catori crossed the clear circle in the middle of the cottages to a larger cottage where a fae leaned against the front door, holding a half-eaten carrot in her hand. "Nyx, this is Abitha." The fae's ears perked as she snapped her head towards Catori at the mention of her name. "She is the figurehead of the earth fae."

Abitha's vivid green eyes with flecks of earthy brown flickered to Nyx, eyeing her up and down. Her thick, curly hair was the color of light tree bark, a few streaks of auburn mixed in. Her wings, a bit smaller than Catori's but nevertheless wide and spreading, were the color of chesnut and pecan with bits of forest green splotched throughout. She looked as if she could camoflauge perfectly against the ground. Through the window of the cottage she was leaning against, Nyx could see other fae that looked similar to her, except smaller and with duller colors. She wore a sleeveless dress of dark brown moose hide, the cloth twisting to the right from her upper abdomen to around her hips, exposing a partial amount of her pale stomach before turning into a skirt over her thighs. There were green leaves tucked behind her pointed ears, and embedded in the hem of the hide across the right side of her stomach were small, green flowers with hints of pink.

"Aye," Abitha greeted the girl in a thick accent, green eyes sparkling as she nodded upwards.

"Nice to finally put a face to a name."

Nyx smiled softly and nodded, unsure of the mischievous look in the eyes of the fae whose ears were twitching crazily. Catori grazed her hand over Nyx's shoulder, gently guiding her to the left and away from the earth fae who watched her as she walked away. They could hear the sound of the fae snapping the carrot with her teeth and chewing loudly as they walked away.

"Abitha's responsible for all our gardening," Catori explained to her. "And the occasional earthquake."

Nyx allowed herself to chuckle, mesmerized at the ability of such things. She watched as Catori led her a few cottages downwards, stopping at another larger one and knocking at the door.

Suddenly, the sound of whooshing air filled their ears before the door was swung open by a force of wind, and through the door Nyx saw a fae sitting on a table against the wall directly across from the door.

He was a tall, skinny faerie, his long legs criss-crossed on the table and his hands sitting over his knees whose bones poked out from under the silky, light grey tunic he wore that went all the way down to his ankles and was belted inwards at his waist. His skin was tan, not with an orange hue like Catori's, but with a light brown hue that looked smooth and buttery. Piercing silver and grey orbs eyed Nyx with intensity, and she couldn't tell how old the fae was due to the long, silver beard at his chin that matched the silkiness and color of his silver hair that rested all the way down to his chest. His wings were a matte grey, pointing upwards as if he was in the middle of preparing for flight.

"This is Aerwyn. He is the figurehead of the air fae," Catori explained to the girl.

Aerwyn, with a swirl of air and the flap of his wings, lifted from the table and drifted right in front of Nyx who stepped back in slight fear. She noticed two braids of silver hair coming from either side of his head. "Very nice to meet you," he told her with a deep, airy voice that sounded aged. He slowly bent down in front of her, folding one arm at his waist and the other behind his back. "I have been anticipating your arrival," he spoke as he bent back upwards, smiling at her through his silver mustache and beard.

She smiled gently at him, nodding her head down in respect. "It's nice to meet you, too," she said in a soft voice. His smile was somewhat fatherly and gracious, as if he had known her for all his life and was not only just then meeting her.

"We will let you get back to meditating," Catori said with a chuckle, reaching for the doorknob of the door.

"I'll get that," Aerwyn quickly told her before she could touch the doorknob. He smiled at Nyx again and said, "Stop back by whenever you want. I make a mean chocolate cake."

Nyx chuckled and nodded, following Catori out the door. Once they were outside, she glanced back to see Aerwyn flick his hand to the left, bringing about a sudden rush of wind that slammed the door shut.

"He's nice," Nyx told Catori with a smile. "I assume he's responsible for tornadoes?"

"Oh, yes," Catori answered her with a laugh, "Don't put him and Caspian together, else you'll get a hurricane."

Nyx chuckled, her brain buzzing with imagination at all these otherworldly powers of the fae. Biting her lip as she and Catori began leisurely walking towards the firepit which was glowing brighter as dusk set upon the forest, she hesitated before asking, "And what are your powers?"

Catori's face lit with orange as they neared the flames of the fire. "I am a spirit fae," she spoke humbly. "And sort of the doctor around here." She gestured to the moss on the girl's forehead.

"Spirit fae? What does that mean?" Nyx watched as Catori sat down a few feet in front of the fire, and Nyx did the same, feeling the heat melt away her coldness as she watched the fae with intrigue.

"I can raise spirits from the other side," she answered, crossing her legs and sitting upright with a sort of diligence. "Beasts, fae, or human. If they are passed, I can bring them back."

"Back...to life?" Nyx inquired.

Catori chuckled and shook her head, looking over at the human girl with inquisitive eyes. "No, I merely serve as a looking glass between this world and the other side. I can make them visible and communicate with them for a short time, but I cannot bring them back to life." She looked deeper into Nyx's golden eyes, a small smile resting on her lips. "The healing fae were the ones who could shoo death away, and sometimes, if they were powerful enough, they could bring back a lost heartbeat." She tilted her head. "Only if they had recently passed."

"Are there not any healing fae here?" the girl asked.

The fae hesitated for a moment, breath hitching as she breathed deeply. "Your father was the last of the healing fae. With his death, that generation ended."

Nyx's heart cramped in her chest at the mention of the father she never knew. Her eyes fell downwards, her mind trying to comprehend the reality that her father was a fae. She tried to picture him, to imagine him with feathery wings and vibrant eyes, but she couldn't even put together a face even if he had been human.

"Eira killed him, and she killed many of us," Catori continued, turning her eyes to the fire and seeing in it the violence and casualties that the Fae people had endured in the past 18 years. "I am the last of the spirit fae, and Al, Caspian, and Erlin are the last of theirs, as well." Her jaw clenched as she took another deep breath. "There are still many earth and air fae, but Eira killed out all the others because she knew we could be too powerful for her to conquer. We are the remainders of those lines, the only chance that the Fae people won't die out altogether, besides the bloody ice fae."

"And Eira is an ice fae?" Nyx mumbled, putting the pieces of the intricate puzzle of this new world together.

"Yes, she sits in her ice kingdom with all the other ice fae. She is the reason for all these blizzards and snow." Catori gestured to the frozen willow tree. "My doctoring station is basically an igloo now."

"But why did she kill my father?" Nyx urged, her voice pleading for clarity and explanation.

Catori shook her head. "Al told us to not say a word. She doesn't want your brain to be overloaded with all of this at once."

"It is already overloaded," Nyx mumbled, becoming angry at the mention of Al. "Why is Al the leader, anyways? Aerwyn seems older and more wise, albeit a bit unsettling."

"Al is more powerful than any of us," Catori quickly whispered to her, her voice stern as her eyes pierced Nyx's. "She could burn us all to ash with the flick of her hand, don't you know that?"

"So she uses fear to hold power? Isn't that what Eira is doing?"

"No, no," Catori corrected her before she could get such an idea stuck in her head. "We are not afraid of her at all. We trust her. The thought of doing something tyrannical like that would never even cross that one's mind. She has kept us safe for all these years." She sighed and glanced back to the fire, rainbow wings pulling closer to herself. "Plus, she was the commander of the cavalry that tried to stop Eira when she was threatening to take the crown. She was even there when your father..." she trailed.

"Died," Nyx answered for her, a sadness coming about her. She didn't understand why she was sad over someone she never even met, even if he was her dad. Maybe she was just sad for the Fae people, for the fact that there were hardly any of them left. She could see the reign of terror that Eira had brought upon them in Catori's sullen eyes. "But I don't understand why you people want me. I'm human! I mean look at me! I can't make fire or water, or cause earthquakes or tornadoes. I don't even have wings."

Catori shook her head. "When two fae mate, their offspring inherits the power of one fae. My father was a spirit fae and my mother an earth fae, and I adopted the spirit line—"

"And I adopted the humanness of my mother," Nyx cut her off.

Catori glanced to her with scolding eyes for her interruption, although marvelled at her brain's ability to keep up so fast. "And they assume the same could be with a fae and a human, but your parents were the first interspecific mating between us and the humans. We don't know what that breeding consists of."

"Well, I'm proof that it consists of the same thing. I inherited one of my parent's species, and that just so happened to be human."

The fae only sighed, shaking her head again. "And there is a very good chance that you are right, Nyx. But Al has always been adamant that she thinks there is fae in your blood. It is obvious you have no wings or powers, we know this, but you are Nikolaus' only child. The throne is supposed to be yours, fae or not." She turned back to Nyx, eyes hopeful but solemn. "Even if your blood is human and nothing else, I can see in your eyes that you would be more kind than Eira ever has been. I can see your father's compassion in you, clear as day."

Nyx did not remark with a rebuttal or an argument. She only glanced back to the fire, sleepiness blurring her reeling mind. There was so much to understand, to take in, to handle. Her entire life had been her and her mother raising chickens and cooking stew and occasionally going to the shops in her village. That was all that her life ever consisted of—nothing else. Now she was suddenly thrown into a whole new world where she was in line to be Queen and these magical people were dying at the hands of the evil queen terrorizing them with cruelty and greed.

"You are tired," Catori declared. "Come, you can stay with Caspian and I tonight."

"Caspian?"

"Yes," she answered as she stood up from the fire, the night sky now dark and full of stars. "He is my partner." A smile of love crossed her face, and Nyx recognized it because she had seen love in the smile of her mother many times. It had always been only directed at her, but recently she has been seeing hints of it whenever she smiled at Henry. Too exhausted to be more angry at that situation, Nyx took Catori's hand that was outstretched to her and let her pull her up off the ground.

♔

Caspian and Catori had an extra bed in their little cottage, so after they fed the girl a dinner which she scarfed up in a matter of seconds and then asked for more, she went off to the tiny room with the tiny bed that reminded her of her own. It was cold, but under the blankets of wolf fur and the firepit in the other room, she could keep warm enough.

A window right above the bed struck moonlight down onto her, and she watched flurries of snow fall down, some sticking to the window, as her exhaustion came over her. She could see the willow tree from her window, and beyond it she could see the tiny, circular cabin built high on a tree where she had met their so-called leader Alastair, or Al, as they called her.

And even from that distance, she could see a fire blazing from inside that tree cabin. And in front of the fire she could see a tall, dark figure pacing around the windows encompassing the diameter of the cabin, even that late at night. She wondered if Al ever slept, or if she only always watched and always waited, on guard for any sudden attack.

The thought of an attack filled Nyx with fear, for she was yet to see exactly what these fae were capable of. But somehow, seeing Al pace her little tree cabin, black and red wings visibly twitching, Nyx felt a strange sense of comfort.

Sleep stowed her away shortly, but right before her eyes closed and she was thrust into a fatigue-induced slumber, she saw those beaming red eyes lock into hers from afar.