Faerie's Champion

by M. H. Johnson

  Jess then caught sight of the many small creatures slowly slinking towards the bed. She blinked, realizing the floor entire was covered with hundreds upon hundreds of squirrels, ferrets, cats, dogs, and mice as well. All gazing upon Jess with eyes that seemed terribly human. And beseeching. And Talvi, for all that his feet dodged them with inhuman grace, seemed utterly unaware. And Jess gasped, overwhelmed with an insight that tore through her, and she understood at that moment what terrible price had been paid.

  “Talvi.” Jess’s voice was little more than a whisper. “Do you know what the creatures are, by your feet? Gazing upon us so? Can you even see them?”

  Her lover sniffed. “Of course I can. And those foul beasts would not even be here, were you by my side, flesh to flesh, having opened no portal of sympathy to them in your dream. I implore you, my love, dispel them, lest they lessen you by their very presence. For they are the flaws and imperfections of the fair ladies we had welcomed to our realm, their follies exchanged for lives of flawless beauty and wonder!”

  Jess gazed upon her lover, at last aware of how blind he truly was. She shook her head, smiling sadly. “No, Talvi. They are not the imperfections of the girls you kidnapped that you take such pride in freeing them of. They are, in fact, the girls' very souls.”

  Twilight nodded solemnly even as Jess blinked, so still he had been, yet he had always been there, she knew. Quietly gazing upon her, for here as no place else, she alone must bear the burden of all her choices. “Now, I think, the pieces of this puzzle are at last coming together,” Twilight said, Talvi utterly oblivious to him. And hadn't he always been? Jess shivered, unable to recall. “The question, my queen, is the same as it has been since we first entered this fascinating realm. What will you do with the cards now before you?”

  Jess gazed imploringly at the man she adored, yet to her horror, the faerie prince she loved so deeply, desired so desperately, was completely unmoved.

  “Yes, Jessica de Calenbry. We have freed them of their imperfections. And what is the source of all imperfection? What is most antagonistic to the realm of True Forms, save the slow degradation and decrepitude of grace and beauty? That bane is mortality itself! The creeping rot of the flesh, the withering of a frame once flush with youth, until the poor immortal vessel, worn down from hosting years of corruption, becomes so corroded that it can no longer hold the source of its flaws!”

  Talvi flashed a grin that was inhuman. “We freed them, my sweet Jezabelle. We freed them of the corruption that flawed them so terribly, and at last they are able to resonate in endless perfection, for eternity.”

  The name meant little to Jess, for all that the tiny silken bag she had completely forgotten that she possessed began to shake, as if desperately holding secrets trapped tightly within. Twilight hissed. “He knows! No wonder he was able to bind you so thoroughly with his charms. Someone has told him forbidden lore. Someone or something that is sorely out of place in this realm, so far from the continuum that is our own.”

  "How dare you!" Jess found her heart suddenly roaring with fury dark and fierce, all thoughts of passion quenched with the awful betrayal. It broke her heart even to gaze upon Talvi, twisting the fury she felt into a painful, bitter thing. "How dare you take the innocent lives of my realm, and twist them for your foul magics, cleaving them of their very souls! You break all covenants and accords! Your actions are as foul and warped as that of any creature sick and twisted in the Shadowlands!"

  Talvi's eyes blazed even as he snarled, and Jess shuddered as she felt the full weight of his presence and power crash against her psyche. "Careful what you say, half-mortal! For I am lord of this realm, and resonate with all its essence and power! You are in my domain, child of mundus, for all that you were once a queen."

  He took a deep breath, gaze still fierce. "Jezabelle of the Moonlit Garden. The land you now call Dawn. Forever tied to the cycle of life and death that ripples through your lands. You might have accepted your doom, your death, as your body, however powerful, rots again and again upon the face of your land as a perpetual sacrifice, but I will not! I will live, Jezabelle, forever! For eternity! Breaking free of the coils of life and death that no other faerie must endure. I shall make my own choice. To embrace immortality, and dance amongst the heavenly skies forever! No longer will I be the Faerie Queen's perpetual sacrifice, sired of mortal blood like you, doomed to rise to preeminence and blaze like the sun, admired by the realm entire at noon, only to be forgotten like a thousand fools before me, with the winter's setting sun. A curse upon that, Jezabelle! A curse upon both our destinies, both our mothers!"

  The very ground shook with Talvi's wrath. Jess’s heart hammered. She felt an awful roiling deep within her, fighting hard to keep from screaming herself to oblivion. Her lover, a being of unfathomable potency, spoke awful words she could scarce comprehend. Yet she sensed no trace of malice, no lie, as he gazed upon her with haunted eyes burdened by such terrible longing. A desperate struggle to fight Death itself, as if he could feel it gnawing away at his very soul.

  Jess shuddered with horror, feeling suddenly as if she stood before a vast precipice, a crack in existence spiraling down to unfathomable depths of nightmare. A ghastly Void that was somehow a reflection of her own twisted soul. Did she dare to gaze too long into that living darkness, hideous truths would be laid bare. She would be left screaming, lost to a madness so profound that it would consume her, and what was left would be that terrible darkness, an unspeakable hunger, her humanity at last and utterly stripped away.

  Twilight hissed, gazing at Talvi with alarmed horror, immediately rushing to scratch Jess, the sharp prick of pain something she could feel, even in her dream. She understood at once that it was her familiar's valiant attempt to awaken her, but she knew her lover's grip was far too tight to be so easily unwound. With grim resolve, Jess refused to peer into that precipice, for all that she saw its echo in Talvi's eyes. He knew. Somehow, by some act unfathomable, he knew her most horrific secrets, just enough to spell her doom.

  For all that she shuddered with horror, Jess forced herself to stand fierce and strong. She would neither run screaming from the horrors a whisper away from being revealed nor surrender to the gibbering madness that threatened to overwhelm her. What mattered at that moment was that hundreds of young fragile girls had been swept up in a plot that spanned worlds, their souls cleaved from their very bodies, trapped in perpetual purgatory in the shapes of animals that gazed at Jess even now with such haunted eyes. As if they could sense, in this form like no other, that she was their only hope for salvation.

  Jess steeled herself for what was to come, even as a tiny leaden chest in a certain silken pouch vibrated with a fierce intensity that seemed both to distract and focus her. Past secrets, no matter how horrific, need not spell her doom nor confine her fate. All that mattered was what she chose to be now. A paladin forged in the battles of Dream and darkest nightmare. One who would fight the very demons of Hell to free innocent souls lost in the clutches of darkest madness.

  And still Talvi's gaze held her fast, wrapping her up with the inconceivable potency of his need, as if he were the living embodiment of Faerie itself. Terrified souls scurried away from his implacable footsteps as he approached, eyes gazing at Jess with a desperate longing that was beyond human, gently lowering his hand to clasp her own.

  "Join me, Jezabelle. I implore you. Both of us can escape the curse of our mothers. Both of us can escape the cycle of life and death that has bound us for so long. Freeing ourselves of mortal chains to grasp a hold of immortality itself! Endless lifetimes of joy and wonder await us as we explore new realms and limitless possibilities, embracing countless adventures, together. We need but dream in unison to summon forth our vast ship of a thousand masts and ten thousand servitors devoted to our every whim, and we shall set sail upon a glorious voyage of discovery! Off for lands no faerie or man has ever glimpsed before. Places of lost secrets, impossible dreams, pristine forests stretching as far as the eye can see.
And we shall revel in those wonders, you and I. We shall behold all their glory and mystery together, as man and wife!”

  Talvi's voice caressed her very soul, even as he stroked her hand, kissing it, now on one knee before a breathless Jess, looking up at her almost as if he were a man about to propose. "Join me, my love. I beg of you. Let us forge a new kingdom out of the ashes of both our worlds! A kingdom of mighty titans sown from our loins as we reforge destiny and reality itself to follow our bidding! There is nothing we could not do, if we united as one, my beloved Jezabelle."

  And Jess shuddered, feeling the terrible truth of that statement. Talvi was indeed the lord of this realm. He was one with this world by right of a Claimance so profound it transcended words, transcended any mortal links of Dominion. He was an echo of the realm itself, yet one strangely warped out of tune. For Talvi hungered for that which was alien to one who so utterly symbolized the cycle of life and rebirth that was any realm. As much as she would wish it otherwise, Jess could feel the seasons of his life resonating with the very seasons of this world. And the gods only knew what price his lands would pay, should he refuse to let the seasons turn once more.

  Power Talvi had. It was magnitudes beyond that of any wizard, fae or mortal, no matter how learned. This was as plain to Jess as the tears she desperately bit back. He didn't just manipulate the powers of Faerie, he was the living embodiment of Faerie's magic in its entirety.

  His mastery over the realm of Faerie was unlimited, for he was the realm.

  And with any great power there must be sacrifice. It was a bitter lesson Jess knew all too well. For just as Talvi's influence over the land was almost without limit, immortality, the birthright of every other faerie, was the one gift Talvi lacked. His span of years must serve the needs of the land that would serve him for all his living days. For winter's death and spring's renewal were just as vital to Faerie as the warmth of the summer sun, the might of autumn storms. To break that covenant would spell inconceivable disaster for the land entire.

  Yet for all that, Jess could not deny the fierce, terrible temptation she felt; the dizzying, heady fantasy of immortality. Holding her lover’s hand as they danced upon the grand clouds of possibility, shaping entire worlds to suit their whims for eternity.

  It was as sweet and fierce a temptation as any Jess could possibly imagine.

  A soft paw brushing against her cheek. Jess found her gaze slipping free her lover’s smile to look upon her familiar’s sapphire blue eyes, falling into them, a sea of wisdom and terrible knowledge both, vast in scope, wielding unimaginable power, like gazing upon twin brilliant stars blazing hot and furious upon a sky of endless night. His words, when he spoke, were filled with a terrible intensity she had never heard from her beloved Twilight before, words that shook Jess so profoundly she started to scream as they pierced her very soul.

  “And if you choose that path, my Jezabelle, the world you have suffered and died for, the realm of souls you had saved from eternal torment would be lost, forever. Sunken in flames and ash to burn within endless Tartarus once again. Your brother with a child on the way, your sister with dreams of intrigue and a loving husband, your mother who would dismantle the underpinnings of Erovering to protect you and your siblings, your father who is so quietly proud of you. All their souls would be lost, screaming in hellfire, until the multiverse we dance within is consumed once more by the Void, when the terrible engine of destruction that shall serve as the End of All Things awakens once more to embrace her final destiny. Beware the choice you make now, my beloved queen, for it truly is forever.”

  The weight of it, the terrible weight of it sent Jess crashing to her knees, a surprised Talvi stepping back. The very thought of seeing her beloved family, her sister, brother, mother and father sent plummeting into the Abyss; their gentle, loving, at times exasperated expressions turning to screams of unimaginable torment as inhuman monstrosities ruptured their very souls; imagining the same happening to all her friends, all her loved ones, Alex and Jera and their unborn daughter, all her friends and mentors at Highrock, each and every soul she had ever seen or known, the sheer horror of it burned through Jess with the fiery heat and fury of a supernova, igniting something deep and terrible inside her.

  A searing inhuman fury, a power of such hideous potency that were she to unleash it fully, she would catalyze the destruction of endless worlds in all directions, real and imagined. Consuming them utterly. A living avatar of the great Void itself. The End of All Things. Jezabelle roared with the dark, heady power of it, even as she shook with horror and wrath at what the monster she had loved but moments ago would have sentenced her realm and everyone she loved to, had she made the terrible choice to forsake everyone whom she had ever cherished, and instead dance with Talvi into endless fantasy.

  “Beware, my Jess! Awaken, and use the power that is your birthright only! To plunge any deeper is to invite the very doom from which we seek succor!” Twilight's words roared silently within her skull.

  Grimacing, Jess channeled her inhuman rage with fiercest discipline. Focus. And focus she would, she determined, even as Talvi gazed upon her with disbelief, so sure he had seduced her will, stumbling back, a suddenly graceless thing as he realized that he had awakened at the very least his equal. With an abrupt snap of his head he again met her gaze with the fierce eminence of a being fully aware of his might and prowess. Out of the fog of dream he gripped a silver-blue blade, the shape all too familiar. Talvi's smile was cold. Jess had seen him spar. She knew he was an absolute master of orthodox form.

  “You are with me or against me, Jezabelle, and if you are against me, you will be destroyed! For I shall brook no serpents within my realm!”

  And Jess flashed a dark, bitter smile, lurching to her feet, fangs glittering as her terrible awareness grew. Her will was as fierce and cold as bloodforged steel. By will alone, she felt her mithril armaments reforge themselves out of dream and ether to garb her body with their indestructible might.

  Jezabelle's clenching fists found themselves caressing her blade of mithril, the most terrible of artifacts, linked to the great Void itself. A blade as old as time, forged before the face of Dawn had known the grace of seasons and the sweet caress of life, when it had been little more than a hot ball of rock and shrieking sands, haunted by tormented souls and cackling demons, graced by one tiny garden in the midst of that hideous plane of Hell.

  Her own.

  She remembered that now, even as her blade hummed with a dark hunger echoed in her terrible smile.

  “The realm of Faerie is indeed one you can lay Claimance to, twisted and broken as that Claimance is, Talvi, as you stretch your life to a mockery of eternity, shaking this very world with your endless summer! But here you are in my realm, dear Talvi! For this is my dream. And I claim this dream, as I claim all the souls you have enticed, tricked, and shriven by magics alien and foul! Your powers have no right to poach upon my Domain. You have broken the order of your own realm denying the right of Choice, the sacred covenant between mundus and Faerie, forged endless ages ago when first your queen sought communion with the realm of Dawn!”

  Twilight hissed, gazing at Jess with an unreadable expression. Jess was only peripherally aware of such, her focus strictly upon her erstwhile love, and now her direst foe. For all that her heart screamed in despair, for all that she wanted to hold and love and be loved by him still. She felt the truth of her statement, even as the words were spoken of their own accord, her mind shuddering under the sudden weight of memories both alien and strange, flooded by key terrible moments of history stretching eons, flashes of dreadful recollection from lives long since past, yet somehow her own.

  “Thus it is you who have broken covenant, Talvi of Faerie! It is you who has denied the Right of Choice, and it is you who have invaded the realm of my dream! And I declare this land, both Dream and Faerie, under contest! It is for you and I to determine who shall claim Primacy here and now. In this place, at this time, is where our battle shall be foug
ht! Such I claim by all rights and privileges of Jessica de Calenbry, Paladin of Turnsby. I declare my claim just, and my words, true!” Jess swallowed, forcing herself to continue, voice a mere whisper of the authoritative shout of but a moment ago. “And such I claim by the name Jezabelle, Queen of the Moonlit Realm, Conqueror and Savior of Dawn. My cause is just, my words, true!”

  And with those words Jess felt a terrible maelstrom roar through her, quite unlike the unbridled dark fury she had been a hairsbreadth from unleashing, save for her familiar's desperate, timely counsel. For this terrible storm of energy was of power tied to the cycle of life and death, the magic of lands that had lain fertile and fallow, that had known the seasons of life, death, rebirth, and renewal, for as long as time had spun the mortal clock of her universe. Mortality was the gift and the cost, the blessing and the sacrifice freely paid for the sake of the world she loved, a world that had been blessed with the hope of life and redemption, blossoming forth from her moonlit garden, endless eons ago.

  Jezabelle strode forward with purpose then, fierce and confident, gaze firmly upon her opponent, knowing that everything she ever was or would be, rode upon her choice. And live or die, she would make the right one.

  For all his terrible power, Talvi stepped back and snarled. "Serpent indeed, get of a succubus! If you think to trap me in your pathetic dream, you are as mad and sad a creature as Soren had warned me of! Totally unworthy of my pristine heart, after all." With that he flashed Jess a cold sneer of utter contempt, roaring a word of power she could feel resonating through Faerie entire, vanishing in an explosion of light and color. And Jess's smile was cold. For as the sparkles faded a blinking Talvi found himself exactly where he had been but a moment before.