Realm of Wings

Jade, washing her body with a bucket of cold water, next morning:

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Gail said and I nodded when I wiped a clean cloth over my face. “This will not be easy for you, but you have to be aware that you have people with you that care for you.” She continued.

“I know. Thanks.” I said while mustering up a small smile as I didn’t want to be rude towards this family’s hospitality, even though there was nothing to smile about now. Of course, I know that Kallan and Trixie are here as they truly care for me, especially Kallan as I had partially heard his thoughts last night, but losing Neil is my downfall. At least for now...

I know he was an old man, not having many years to stay alive, but losing him like this? This was not how it was supposed to be going! He was supposed to guide me through oncoming dangers, helping me when I was too distracted by my anger. He was supposed to be my counsellor like he has done all these years. He has given me his life, as he could have decided to have his own family as well, but no he stayed with me. Me! And I let him be killed by this fucking monster in the sky!

A monster who gives rain to the lands, but takes lives when he wants to... I don’t know how much more contradiction a creature could show, but this must have been the top of it.

“Maybe Beebo go with you?” The little girl said as she showed me her stuffed creature.

“Miria, is it?” I asked her and she nodded. “Thank you, but I think you should keep it with you.” I smiled again.

She pouted as she was now becoming frustrated with me not accepting the worn-out cuddle bug, but her mother quickly pushed her towards her room again and apologised to me afterwards.

Charlie, my pet Mandibore, crawled out from beneath the blanket I had been sleeping under last night and stretched himself out a little before having to run away from the other kids of the family. They laughed and had fun with the little beasty, but I couldn’t force myself to smile this time.

“It is time for us to leave.” Kallan opted and I agreed.

It wouldn’t matter how much time I would take to grieve upon losing Neil. Days, weeks, or months even, I would still feel bad about it. Just like the loss of my human sisters at the conclave, even though Neil meant so much more to me than they ever could, however bad that sounds.

I just hoped that he has had enough time to have appreciated the things he had seen during our adventure so far and that he would send his spirit towards me to guide me on the rest of it. And I also hoped that wherever he is now, he would see how much I cared for him, how much I’m going to miss him, to know that he was that much loved by me.

But what I can’t do now, is to linger on staying here, crying my eyes out until I have no tears left. There’s more to do, and one of those things is to gather the last two orbs. So, we have to get going, as Kallan just said.

Once outside, I whistled for Poseidon to come to me, at which he neighed from a few buildings over and flapped his wings to get here quickly. I put Charlie in one of the saddle bags that were big enough for him to curl up in to, put the food we had been gifted by Gerald and Gail in another bag and I jumped on the horse’s back to get ready to leave.

“Why you not flying?” Miria asked confused.

“Because I can’t. I don’t have wings.” I told her and she gasped.

“Who took them?” She continued, looking sympathetic in her own childlike way.

“I don’t know, I never had them.”

“When you find them, I bet they are bootiful, just like you!” She so innocently smiled at me.

We talked a little longer with the parents and made sure to have everything settled for the rest of our journey towards the next orb. Miria also wanted to make sure that Charlie had enough food, so she stuck a little bag with nuts, beans and berries inside his saddlebag at which the creature squeaked in happiness.

We thanked the family and started to fly up, as without Neil, Poseidon didn’t have to carry us both, so flying was much easier for him now.

It also reminded me of the stupid decision I had made by jumping off Poseidon when the Wyrm arrived. If only I had decided to let Poseidon run with Neil on his back, instead of wanting to fight the dragon and keeping Neil with me, he would still be alive now.

Sorrow took the lead in my emotional state and I just zoned out, letting Poseidon take us wherever he wanted.

Trixie, sighing at the look of both of them:

I know we just lost Neil and that he was Jade’s companion, but I’m hoping this mental state of Jade won’t be something that will last for long. Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too that we lost him, but there are a lot of things that are pretty important now and she just doesn’t have the luxury to take a break in this mission. We already lost a lot of time by spending two weeks in the big city of Bellak, and now that this happened, and all the terror that happened with it, how dreadful it may be, we simply don’t have enough time.

Especially not with the new information Zeph had given me.

Flashback:

“You’d really think I wouldn’t notice you?”

“Well, I hadn’t imagined you to put up traps with your magenta shards!” Zeph complained, trying to stay as still as he could, not wanting to wake up the others while he was being targeted and surrounded by seven of my pink beauties.

“Yes, the others are asleep, so I had to come up with something to keep them protected!” I whispered loudly, not wanting to wake any of them either, but certainly making sure that he would be clear of what I meant.

I whipped my hand up and down, vanishing my shards into thin air. Zeph took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “So, why are you here?” I asked him. “And you better tell me, because there are still several shards buried around here, so don’t think I’ll let you go that easily!” I said angrily.

“Alright, stop! Echo told me to follow you all. I believe there is something wrong, with Jade that is, but I don’t know what. Echo wouldn’t tell me until he had a solution to the problem, whatever that may be.” He explained, but it wasn’t enough for me.

I rose some of the shards from the ground and put them in front of his face.

“Trix! I don’t know more! He just made me feel like none of us are going to like it, but he truly didn’t want to tell me!” He said just a little too loud, almost waking Kallan, as he suddenly stirred underneath his blanket.

“Shhh!” I tried to silence Zeph, believing him for what he said.

“Then put your shards down!” He whispered again.

End of flashback.

This was a few days ago when we crossed the grassy plains. We had been camping near some trees and a little water pool, to take some rest, and I had put up my crystals in a circle around us to keep us all safe. But apparently, he hadn’t noticed for me to have done that, as he had come too close to us and managed to step on one of the traps.

Zeph and I had decided however for him to not join the group and tell Kallan and Jade about it. Of course, we would risk the fact that Jade would find out by reading my mind, but I tried my best to not think about this, to keep this all a secret, a little longer.

Besides, I knew that she wasn’t always reading our minds as I had tried that over the last couple of days, by thinking of stupid things to get her attention. So, either she has an iron and emotionless face for just to ignore my thoughts, or she just didn’t focus enough or wasn’t capable enough to hear our thoughts constantly. Hence, so far, I could keep my secret with me.

Also, there was another secret, that I knew about, as I haven’t been sleeping all night, last night. I know there is a newfound tension between Kallan and Jade as I overheard half their conversation.

I have been friends with Kallan for decades now, and I have never seen him act like this ever since he met Jade. His fun and careless demeanour had gone, the moment he had found out that Jade was supposed to be the Queen, instead of him becoming King, on the other side of the rift.

But after his talk with the mother of this family, the look in his eyes had changed and also his way of thinking. They had been whispering, so I hadn’t understood a word they talked about, but I could tell the mother had breached his wall somehow. Besides, after Jade had run out of the house last night, to cry in the mud, Kallan had carried her inside again. He had wiped her body clean before laying her back on the straw and crawling behind her to keep her warm. She had accepted this gesture contently and soon fell asleep, just like Kallan.

I was happy that they were on different terms again, knowing that they could love each other. But I do hope they could find their love quick enough, and long enough, before this bad thing that Zeph mentioned, would happen.

Yet, somehow I have a feeling that it will happen nonetheless. No matter what we do.

Echo, at the ruins of Atol Danuk:

I have been at these ruined rocks before, several times actually, but I haven’t found what I was looking for. I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to find here, but this is the only place that could tell me something more about Jade and her supposed fatal destiny.

Yes... Fatal.

If she manages to find all the orbs; if she manages to energize them at the palace, where the King will kill her as soon as she enters it; if she manages to lower all the layers of the rift, joining the two halves of the world together again; if she manages to revive the dark side of the original fountain; if... if...

I sighed deeply.

If she does all those things, how crazy they might sound, then she wouldn’t be alive anymore.

It has always been my main mission to get the tree at full power again, which would save the complete race of Fae, as it would only take a few more years until we would have to ration the amount of magic as the tree wouldn’t be making enough for the complete amount of Fae civilization. That’s why I had to be sure about my thoughts and my father had confirmed it, about her, about Jade being the one.

But all her work and danger that she still has to face, would only lead up to one single act.

She would have to sacrifice herself to the tree, relenting all her strong magic and lifeforce, to reinforce and reignite the life of the dark side of it. It would cost a life, a magnificent strong one, to save a life. To save the life of the tree, to save our world.

I had known about this a long time already, but I hadn’t realized that it would require Jade’s life. I hadn’t realized it was her, until she had come back from the Oracle and the tree had just granted her the energy for her orb.

The tree never had given off energy this easy, yet somehow as it probably knew it was dying, it did. As with her, it had given it off, without a single thought, sort of, so it must have been a good reason. Hence the reason I had to know for sure and went to see him, my father.

“Damnit, where is it!” I cursed, looking for the mural that I knew was down here somewhere.

Of course, as I wouldn’t be able to see it, it wasn’t a mural made out of paint that I was searching for. My fingers were trailing along the wall, searching for the indents that I was trying to find. I let out soft humming sounds to let the sound echo through the ruins, showing some of the edges of every shape and object that I had to wound myself around to.

Finally! I found it as soon as I realized to have reached the edge of the engraved drawing of the future.

Thousands of years ago, visions of the future were gathered here, engraved on the walls of this building I’m standing in right now. But they hadn’t been aware that as soon as one of these visions actually happened, the wall of the mural would crack. Of course, there had been murals with false visions so not all walls had been cracked, but as time passed by, more murals cracked and soon the building fell apart.

Yet, this one, so detailed and clear to see, even for me, kept standing. Even though the other murals around this one -besides the one to the left of it as that one was probably false- had cracked and torn the wall down, this specific vision still stood upright.

The magic behind this vision must have been so strong, that it would have kept the complete building up if it was engraved on the whole first floor. But it wasn’t, it was just a few feet wide and high, almost submerged by the water that had been dripping into this cellar from the rain outside.

My feet and legs were soaked by the cold water and I tried not to shiver from it. Focusing both my hands on the engraving now, I tried to find words, details, anything… Anything that would mean anything else besides the figure in the middle of the picture that gives her heart to the dead tree that stood next to her.

I searched for the edges, the centre, the figure, the tree, even the false mural to the left of it, yet there was nothing I could find! I took a deep breath and bend down, searching along the wall that was submerged, hoping to find anything different there…

But no, all hope was gone.

Jade would be gone after she gives her life away. There is nothing else to prevent this from happening. She might become our saviour, but she will never be our Queen. She will never live to the end of her life as people are supposed to do.

Sorrow broke my heart as my only niece wouldn’t be alive for much longer.