by Leia Stone
I was heading for the elders’ home when a blue light below caught my eye. A group of Fae were standing around a young couple, and despite my complete and utter depression for the loss of my mother, excitement thrummed through me.
“Can we watch? Just for a minute?” I begged Trissa.
She looked down at the young couple, a small pained smile on her face.
“Alright, just a minute.”
We flew lower, still far enough away that we wouldn’t interrupt, but close enough to see what was happening.
Soulmates.
They were so incredibly rare now after most of our race was lost to the Dark War. I’d only heard of half a dozen couples in my twenty years, and I’d only ever seen one … until now. This was my second.
The female Fae was unloading some bulb squash. She looked mid-twenties, and I didn’t recognize her. She must have lived at the edges of the shield, a garden tender by the looks of the dirt under her fingernails. The guy was a market stall tender, and they were standing there in shock, a dozen bulbs of squashes dropped at her feet as blue light pulsed off their chests in the same rhythm as if they shared the same heartbeat. Tears lined her eyes as he reached up and tucked a lock of petal-green hair behind her ear. He was looking at her like she was the most treasured item in the world. They say when you met your soulmate, it wasn’t really a feeling you could describe. Your soul recognized them as your other half and everything that seemed so out of place before now made perfect sense. That’s what Glena told me anyway. She and her husband were soulmates.
“Okay, Lily, we must go now.” Trissa tugged at my arm and I found myself being grateful for this small moment of happiness.
On one hand, my mother had died, but on another, two souls had found each other and would now have children and be happy together.
Flying higher, I tried to imagine that maybe on its way to the upper realms, my mom’s soul had urged the girl to leave the farm and deliver the squash herself today, just so she could meet her soulmate.
When I came in to land near the large octagonal hut with its colorful crystal windows, I clutched my mother’s locket in my hand, still in shock at her passing.
Trissa stepped forward and rapped on the large walnut door. I should probably have changed my clothes. One didn’t present themselves before the elders in their night clothes, but I didn’t care. My long cotton-candy-pink hair hung in ratted clumps at my shoulders and I had blood on my hands and shirt, but again … I couldn’t bring myself to give two fucks. I was numb, the pain of grief keeping me from anything else right now.
The door opened, seemingly on its own, and we entered. I’d never been inside of the elders’ home. There were four elders and their home reflected that with four quadrants, each having their own door or wing. The elder of Winter’s door was black, with the snowflake emblem overhead. Elder of Summer had an orange hickory door with a bright brass sun emblem. Fall was a birch with leaf emblem, and then for Spring, my court, was a door made of bamboo with a flower emblem. Without a queen, they were the closest thing we had to a ruling monarch.
This place was incredible, larger than any home I’d ever seen. Probably because it was four homes in one.
I gasped when we stepped further inside and the light hit the colorful crystal windows, dancing a rainbow on the floors and walls. Golds, greens, blue and hot pink, it was stunning. Looking up, my jaw dropped. There, in the middle of the home was a courtyard, open to the outside. And standing in the center was the Tree of Life. My mother spoke of it often, said it gave Faerie its power and kept us safe from the river, which tried to swallow us. Seeing it now, my legs went weak and I had the strangest urge to bow. The home wasn’t really closed in like I’d thought from the outside. The entire home was built in a circle around this one tree at its center. Yes, it had outer walls, but no roof, and the middle of the home, where the tree was, was all raw earth and grass, which gave way to a wood flooring near the bedroom doors.
“Greetings, Lily, daughter of Violet. Our hearts weep for your loss,” a voice called behind me.
It was the elder of Summer, my favorite. Indra. She had caramel skin and long orange hair that fell to her back in waves. I bowed, aware that I looked like a freaking train wreck and this was soooo not protocol. “Thanks.”
The other elders walked out from their rooms and stood behind her. Trissa took a low and long bow, probably more proper than mine. “I’ve informed her she must be trained at once but—”
“I have some questions.” I tilted my chin high.
Indra nodded. “Please … sit. Your mother wanted to be the one to explain, but we will have to do.” She gestured to an open library type of room, where on the far wall there was another blue door…
“Is that?”
They nodded in unison. “There are many blue doors.”
What the hell? How come my mother never told me any of this?
I could barely focus, wading through my grief and being told I needed to pick up my mother’s work was unsettling. I sat down in a red velvet chair and looked up at the elders around me. They were so … normal. I mean, they were radiating power; their wings even glowed with magic, but they were … so approachable. The Winter Court elder, Aubin, was tall with pale white skin and black hair. I normally feared him when I saw him walking around town; he had a natural resting asshole face, but here, in this setting, he looked kind and full of compassion.
“But the enchanted shell… I thought…”
Indra nodded. “The enchanted shell is for the rest of the Fae to go and experience earth. The blue door is only for… special missions.”
Okay, I could get past that. But what I really want to know was burning a hole in my tongue.
“Tell me…” I hedged, “who are the Sons of Darkness? My mother spoke of them just now, before she…” I couldn’t say died, I just couldn’t. But I was a natural scholar, born with a book in my hand as my mother would say. If there was new information to learn, I would seek it out. Even in these dark circumstances, I had so many questions and needed answers to move forward.
Indra nodded, clearly taking the lead before the others. “The Sons of Darkness are a … rebel faction. They are a product of the Dark War, and near the end they tried to take over Faerie. They envied our way of life and power, and they struck when we were weakest.”
I shuddered; we did not speak much of the Dark War but for a week in Fae history class. My people were an advanced, loving, and levelheaded race. Many human rumors of Atlantis were actually stories of Faerie and my people. Talking about the times we fell into war, rape, and greed was something I’d rather not relive. The Dark War lasted a hundred years and was the reason the majority of our lands were eaten up by fire and ocean and disease. This small pocket, here under the shield of protection, was all that was left of Faerie. It was the only Faerie I’d ever known, but our aged Fae told us it was a sliver of what once was.
I simply nodded. “Where did they come from? What do they look like?” She’d called them a “product” of the Dark Times. What did that mean?
Indra squirmed, her wings flitting just a bit to let me know she was nervous about answering. “They go by many names. Beasts. Monsters. Demons. Dark Fae.”
Dark Fae? My heart picked up speed in my chest, knocking at my sternum so loudly I was sure the elders heard it. They… they were rumors. Right?
“Dark Fae? Are they… like us?”
Indra and Aubin shared a look before shaking their heads unanimously. “No dear. They are more like the creatures that lurk beyond the dome. Abominations.”
I shivered.
Aubin, the Winter Court elder stepped forward with a generous smile. “The Sons of Darkness are only male. For whatever reason, female babies do not survive their childbearing.”
Oh gods.
“How will I know if I see one?” I was beginning to get really scared that one of these … Sons … was going to be part of my mother’s life work. What if I had to seek them out and kill them? I�
��d never killed anyone before.
“Men that can transform to an animal with a simple thought.” Indra snapped her fingers and I jumped. “Creatures that need blood to sustain themselves.”
What the what?
Trissa shifted in her seat next to me.
“It’s the men with black wings that cast shadows twenty feet off their bodies that you need to worry about,” Trissa added. “The ones whose wings smoke and flame. They are the most powerful. The leaders.” My mother had been going on “missions” to Earth for two decades and she always reported back to the elders at the end of every mission. They knew everything my mother would have known…
Chills ran the length of my arms. This was not taught in my Fae studies. I also noticed how the elders conveniently left out letting me know where they came from. Rose, the Spring elder of my people was meek and did not speak much, so I kept directing my questions to Indra.
Black wings, shifters, blood drinkers? She’d just described the wild, made-up stories humans liked to read. “Sounds like something out of a human fairy tale,” I mused, wondering if this night would end in a bottle of tequila. I still had some from my Vegas Earth trip with Elle.
Indra’s voice was serious: “It’s very real.”
A headache began to throb at my temples. “Tell me what else I must know. What was my mother’s life’s work? Must I seek these Sons of Darkness?”
Indra clicked her tongue. “No child. You must try to avoid them at all costs. It’s the crystals that you seek. The seeds of the Tree of Life.”
She gestured to the courtyard, and as if the tree knew we were talking about it, the leaves rustled in the wind. One of the large branches looked sick, hanging limply off to the side. My gaze went to the base of the tree and I saw something I didn’t notice earlier. A purplish-blue crystal. A gasp left my throat. I’d seen one of these before, in my mother’s bag when she came home from work one night. She was late and had blood on her face and was very rushed. She’d picked me up from Elle’s house and told me we needed to drop something off at the elders’ home before we could sleep. I’d fallen asleep on the flight over. I was six at the time.
Without realizing it, I stood and walked towards the tree. There were six purplish-blue crystals, all situated on little copper discs in a circle, around the base of the trunk. Half of the discs were filled. Six empty discs stared up at me.
What was it my mother said? I found six of them, you will need to return the rest? Was she talking about these?
“You may touch them. Only a seeker or a Son of Darkness can touch the crystals. The Tree of Life brings death to anyone else who would try to contain its power.”
My hand froze midair. What if she was wrong and I was about to die? But the thrumming just beneath my fingertips called to me, like a magnet pulling me closer. It wanted me to touch it. The second I stroked the cold purple surface, all tension in my shoulders eased. The crystal pulsed a short burst of light, as if communicating with me.
A collective sigh resounded behind me and I realized I had an audience. Were they relieved I could touch it?
“These crystals…” Indra gestured, “are like sentries guarding the barrier of our world. All twelve were stolen the night the Dark War ended, and they were brought to Earth. Your mother brought back one that very night and was able to save Faerie from completely self-destructing.”
Holy shit.
I knew nothing of this. Why? This should be all over our history books. Or at the very least my freaking mom should have told me!
“She found all six?” I gestured to the crystals, knowing already that each one was something my mother had worked desperately to find over the past twenty years.
Indra nodded, her orange hair moving about her head, resembling the flicker of a flame. “These six are the only thing that has kept the shielded walls of our protections standing. Without the remaining six, we will succumb to the darkness and Faerie will be lost forever.”
I swallowed hard. “But surely you have a backup plan?”
Because if the fate of Faerie was in my hands, we were fucked.
She shook her head. “As you know, the Dark War wiped out ninety-percent of our kind. You and your mother are the last seekers we have. Were the last…”
Yeah, I knew that. It’s also why my mom didn’t have some huge battalion of guards. There were a grand total of three trained warriors in Faerie: Trissa, my best friend Elle, and a young Fae who was a whopping twelve years old.
Elle. She was going to shit glitter when I filled her in on all this.
“So, I am to seek these Tree of Life crystals? That doesn’t seem too bad.”
I was trying to be positive, because my emotional state was fragile right now.
I’d pop into Earth, grab a crystal, and bring it back. Easy peasy.
Indra sighed, clasping her hands before her. “Well … the crystals on Earth are guarded by the Sons of Darkness.”
“Oh.” That complicated things a bit, since she’d just admitted they were like freaking Dark Fae!
“But we will assign Elle as your guard, and that will free up Trissa to train more. We will give you whatever other resources we can.” She stood and motioned that we move away from the tree and back to the library room. I gave the beautiful crystals one last glance, memorizing every color, every jagged shard, even their energy signatures, though they all varied slightly—I could tell from here.
Did I seriously just get tasked with saving Faerie? On the night my mother passed? This was beyond messed up. “Alright…” I thought of my mother’s final words, clutching the necklace she’d given me, which was tucked tightly in my palm as we stood among the books again. “I’ll plan my mother’s celebration of life ceremony and start seeking after that.”
Trissa had indicated that wasn’t possible, but I was going to push my luck here because I wanted to see my mother off properly. The Fae celebration of life ceremony was a week long, but because my mother was such a respected member of the community, they would dance in the streets calling out her name for at least a month. It would give me time to mourn, figure out how the hell I was going to live without her…
The fresh grief I’d pushed down now welled to the surface. I needed that time.
The corners of Indra’s mouth pulled into a frown. “I’m afraid you’ll need to start in the morning.”
“My mother just died!” I interjected. Screaming at an elder was probably a cardinal sin, but Indra didn’t even flinch. If anything, her gaze grew kinder.
Start in the morning? That was just evil. My mother’s body was barely cold.
A sob lodged in my throat. Her body … she was just a body.
Indra reached out and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I know … but your mother had very strict wishes. She wanted to give you a normal childhood. Let you make a best friend, kiss a boy, dream of swimming with the dolphins at crystal cove.” My heart pinched. “Your mother went against our advice and kept all of this a secret so that you wouldn’t grow up in fear of what was out there waiting for you. So that you wouldn’t feel the pressure of our entire existence on your shoulders like she did. And we honored that.”
I could see now that what my mother thought she was doing was well intentioned, but it gave me no time to adjust to my new reality.
“But now you are going to see the error in her plan,” the Winter elder said, his voice cold and without compassion.
“Aubin,” Indra warned.
He put his hands up. “I’m just saying. Clearly this wasn’t well thought out. The poor girl has lost her mother and now she must start hunting for the next crystal in twelve hours’ time, all while processing everything we’ve told her.”
“It is what it is,” the Spring elder, Rose, stated, her lavender pixie haircut shaking around her cheeks, squashing the argument, and they both quieted.
I needed help understanding something. “My mother had decades to find six crystals. Why do I need to start tomorrow?”
; They all shared a serious look.
“Because the Tree of Life is dying,” a strange voice spoke from behind me.
I jumped a little, my mouth popping open a little at the sight of the Fae who stood before me. Mara. My mother had told me countless stories of the imprisoned portal master. The thick cuffs around her wrists and ankles were prettier than I imagined they would be: gold with a delicate filigree pattern. But the glowing green magic that bound them looked strong. She stood in the doorway of the blue door that led to the elder’s library. Her long red hair cascaded over one shoulder as she leaned against the doorframe looking absolutely distraught. I’d never met her in person, though every birthday my mother had brought me a gift from her and always referred to her as Aunt Mara.
I felt the wind rush behind me as the four elders’ wings went erect. I was going to go out on a limb here and say they didn’t get along.
Though she was imprisoned and stripped of her elder status, she’d spent every day with my mother, helping her with her life’s mission. My mother always spoke of her with a smile on her face and said she was like a sister to her.
“Any time wasted and we could lose Faerie forever,” Mara declared. Her pointy Fae ears were longer than mine, identifying her elder status. Well … elder before she was banished status. There was a story there, though no matter how much I begged, my mother never told me. Mara was a Fall Court Fae and she looked at Willow, who stood to my right, and they shared a pleasant nod. It said a lot that Mara could be cordial with the very Fae who took her job. Couldn’t say I would be the same.
“How can I … just start seeking and not honor my mom with a celebration of life ceremony?” I whimpered.
Mara’s face crumpled. “Because it’s what she would want. She dedicated her entire life to saving Faerie. We must press on. She would be so proud. Come on.” She indicated I come to join her. “I’m sure you’ve had enough of these old geezers.”