Realm of Wings

A/n: Getting back on track again. Thank you guys for all your support! 😘

Kallan, still flying low to the ground, asking a million questions inside his head:

Once Echo leads us to wherever he wants us to go, where do I start? What question has the priority and which one can we find out later? At the moment where Echo had said that there was little time, I knew we had to go and that I had to protect Jade at all cost, but leaving my parents and the palace like this was a rather quick decision. I mean, I never had a friend-like connection with Echo, so had I been right to follow him without hesitation?

But one thing I was certain of, was that Jade being captured for leverage wasn’t the right thing either. So, not knowing where this sudden adventure will take us, I’ll just stick to protecting her...

Jade, tired, wet and confused, riding the back of Poseidon:

Behind us, we could hear the battle signs between the opposing Fae sides while we continued our way as Poseidon followed Echo’s clicking and guidance. The rain started to pour heavier than before but luckily the lightning only broke through near the palace. Which was odd though...

I looked back, trying to sharpen my gaze to the sky above the palace, but as I suspected, the dark clouds only hung above the big building and didn’t continue their way of destruction even though the rain clouds kept on going forward.

A soft neigh from Poseidon nudged me to look in front of me again and after wiping my face clean from the raindrops, which came back almost instantly, I was suddenly aware of where Echo was taking us.

Poseidon unfolded his wings and carried us through the air, hovering above the ground to get us through this landscape of hills, canyons and dead trees. The further we got, the more it seemed as if the ground here was more depleted of natural resources than a few moments ago. More dead plants, barren ground and lifeless plains came into view until we were about a hundred feet away from the notorious wall that was separating Kyalthemar into two halves.

The rift.

A shimmering wall swirling with several dark colours of magic, hiding behind a storm of twisters going back and forth alongside the entire wall as if they were sentient beings guarding any trespassers. In front of that was a slow simmering fire, low to the ground, but looked way too ominous to trust it to be gentle as it didn’t consume more ground to expand itself.

It was a three-layered wall, from what I could see on this side. But how many more layers would there be on the other?

“Are you expecting me to take it down right now?” I asked Echo incredulously.

“No, Jade, you aren’t strong enough for it now, you need all your strength for that to happen. All we are going to do is cross it.” He returned after softly landing on his feet and putting his silvery wings away.

“How are we going to get through? And once we do, what are we going to do there? Getting ourselves captured?” Kallan asked him, a bit angry.

Echo sighed, he probably knew these questions were coming but he was still annoyed to have to explain them now. “Jade is the heir, the true Queen, and you guys are loyal to her, right?” He asked Neil, Trixie, Zeph and Kallan too, at which they all replied in ‘yes’ or a nod. “Well, that’s how we are going to get across, and on the other side will indeed be guards waiting but they won’t capture you because of me.”

“And you are...”

“Important.” Echo replied quickly, interrupting Trixie’s half of a question which of course lead to even more questions about him. “Zeph, you know what to do.” Echo said after turning himself around and flying off towards the rift. Because of the heavy rain that was still coming down and the sharp winds that were blowing in front of the magical wall, he quickly faded into nothing.

“What the hell? Where is he going? And what did he mean by you knowing what to do?” Kallan asked Zeph with a lot of confusion and also irritation. Certainly because in his eyes, Zeph had always been the annoying little brother who never cared to listen to what he was supposed to be doing.

“Brother, I know you are mad at me, but everything I have ever done is because of Jade.” Zeph replied with a calm and understanding mood. “Echo has been giving me missions to help Jade in her growing process and to eventually find a way into our world.”

“So, you know more about me and my family?” I asked with a certain hope, realising that he must have been on Earth on several occasions, maybe even helping me to get rid of some of the authorities that have been bugging me every time I went on a mission or made a mistake by exposing myself.

“Sorry, no, that information is only granted to the ones that are important as Echo just said. All I know is that we have to wait for the rain to stop and then gather ourselves near to the rift to be guided through all of the natural occurrences.” Zeph explained.

As if on cue, and for us to have no more time to ask Zeph more questions, the rain stopped and Poseidon took the initiative to start walking again, towards the magical, layered wall.

“Wait! How do we know we can trust you?” Kallan asked while Zeph took upon his white wings to carry himself right behind Poseidon.

“Because I have been going back and forth through the rift, for quite some time now, brother.” Zeph replied while also lifting his dark long hair above his ears, showing a slight deformation at the top of them, getting near to pointy!

Trixie gasped upon seeing his ears, and even Kallan cursed upon realizing that his brother was speaking the truth. So, does this mean that once you are continuously exposed to the original magic, your ears will start growing as well?

I could hear Kallan’s mind go crazy as he was wondering about several questions. “Are the Aether Fae the good guys? And if they are, why does my father not want to get the rift down? Why did he teach me about them to be our enemy and sent me out on dozens of missions to get rid of them? Have I been deceived? Have our people been deceived? Could we have lived in peace for hundreds of years already?”

I stopped Poseidon by tugging on the reins, which made him complain but still listened somewhat to my command. I stroked his manes as soon as he had stopped and I called out to Kallan to come to me. Kallan looked confused towards the big Pegasi, not sure as to how he wasn’t acting stubborn to me.

“We have to get going!” Zeph hollered as he had flown further already, but I lifted my hand to him to give me a moment.

“Kallan, you can’t find the answer to all of your questions if you keep fighting this.” I signed with my arms to wherever I could point. “You have lived your life with the knowledge that was presented to you, and in that knowledge you haven’t done anything wrong. This is just new, just as it is to me, but we have to go forward and we have to go quick. Can you do that?”I asked him and he sighed.

“Am I that obvious?” He asked a little ashamed while scratching the back of his head.

“Yep, I still can’t read minds all the time, but when you aren’t keeping your guard up it’s rather easy for me to hear.” I replied with a chuckle.

Kallan sighed and nodded his head, after which he rose his wings and got into the air again. Neil held me tight around the waist as Poseidon started walking again. “Since when are you the compassionate person?” Neil whispered to me and in response I nudged the reins for Poseidon to pick up his pace, making Neil frightened for a moment and tightened his hold on me further. “Miss Jade!” He grunted which made me smile.

But was he right? Since when did I care about the thoughts of others? Since when do I care at all about others? Sure, I have been helping a lot of people on Earth, but that was just because I do not condone bad attitudes, criminals and wrong-doing. But other than that, I have done things the way I wanted, right?

This Fae magic is getting to my brain...

The rift was getting closer and by now I could smell sulfur coming from the fire that was simmering low on the ground. But as soon as we got closer, the reason for the fire became clear. A small river of lava showed itself to be continuous flowing and forever going in one direction to keep itself from solidifying to be able to be crossed. However, as soon as we approached the small lava stream, the top of it became solid and we were able to get over it without any trouble.

The heat from the lava was so intense that I instantly had to shield my eyes and felt the brush of heat climbing all across my body. Poseidon increased his pace as well, as he didn’t appreciate the same heat either, and upon reaching the other side he bristled his nose in delight. Even our clothes had been almost dry now from the quick passing over the hot stream of lava. And when looking behind, I could see the solid spots of lava break down into the lava river again, as if they hadn’t just been there a few moments ago.

Of course, if you are Fae you could have flown right over, but the wall of moving tempests would keep you from continuing then. So I guess that if you aren’t worthy enough to cross the first line, you aren’t going to be able to cross at all.

Trixie, Kallan and Zeph landed on the ground in front of the whirling winds and then Zeph turned to me. “You have to ask them to stop.” He said while pointing towards the ground, to the base of where every moving tempest started.

Zeph told me to ask them to stop as if the whirling wind storms were beings to be asked anything at all. So, I looked to where he was pointing and when I focused on one single storm and looked about three to four yards above the ground, I swore I could have seen a set of eyes that were swirling through the dust it whirled up! They are sentient beings!

I dismounted Poseidon and Neil wanted to object to that but I quickly shook my head and told him not to worry. “Can’t you ask them?” I asked Zeph as we both approached the storms. The wind was picking up and my blond hair was whirling all around me.

“Nope, each time I crossed, I had been with Echo and he was the only one who could do it. Believe me, I’ve tried.” He replied with heightened volume as the wind was making a lot of noise.

“But Echo said that if you are true to the rightful heir you can pass the rift, right?” I asked again.

“True, but an important person has to open the rift in the first place for a loyal person to pass through.” He said, using that same word again. What does he mean by important?

It made sense though that not everyone was able to get across that easily, but wouldn’t the King know about this? Had Zeph been secretive about this? How could he have been hiding this from his parents all this time then? Okay, stop wondering and get going...

“Alright, how do I ask them?”

“They are called Miragou, so start with that and then just ask them.” Zeph simply stated.

“Miragou, please let us pass!” I yelled over the sound of the whirling storms, which made some of them look over to me, showing their dust-full eyes while the tempests they created kept swirling above them. But none of them actually stopped and opened a way through for us.

“Miragou! Let us pass!” I yelled louder and more secure in my tone of voice.

But still, none of them made their way to let us through. I looked annoyed towards Zeph but he lifted his shoulders in not knowing either. “Normally this works, I don’t know what’s going on either.” He crossed his arms and kept staring at the twisters, making me even more annoyed.

The noise was bugging me, the wind was whirling my hair uncontrollably in every direction and I wanted to get this over with! So I stepped forward, letting my magic fill my hands, swirling a ball of energy in front of me and finally when it was about the size of a watermelon I focused on the biggest tempest I could find and...

“No! Don’t!” Zeph yelled, but it was too late and I was too annoyed to care. The orb of energy flew through the air, right in between the eyes of the largest Miragou that had been passing by, making the clouds that swirl around his assuming head, bounce back and forth.

With a loud roar and increasing amount of wind and power, the enraged Miragou stormed off towards me.

Kallan, looking towards his Queen to be:

What the fuck is she thinking?! She just threw a ball of energy with the strength of the sun towards the largest creature I have ever seen, which became twice the size he already was, doubling the width of the tornado above him, anger rising to a full amount of blazing fury… And what is Jade doing now? Ohh... She is just standing there, crossing her arms and giving no single shit about what the hell is coming her way!

Sure, she did the same with Poseidon, but this was a literal force of nature! Nothing could compete with this kind of being! This storm will swallow her whole!

I rushed forward, using my wings to push me towards Jade faster while the raging eyes of the Miragou began to swirl with more dust, as when he came closer, more dirt was pushed up by his raging force. He was so close to her now that I wasn’t sure if I was able to reach her in time, but there was no hair on my head that wanted to stop trying to reach her, even if that would mean my death.