The Faerie Slayer

I had fallen into a pit of pitch black that clouded my five senses. I found no comfort in the woods tonight and headed straight home instead. My eyes were planted on my own two feet below me, even when I burst in through the doors and paid my fathers study no mind. I almost didn't hear the messenger the first time he spoke.

"Kade," he repeated and I turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"Your father wishes to speak with you."

I felt the sinking of my gut. I could tell from the expression on Borris's face that it was nothing that I should be thrilled about. I nodded and followed him into my fathers study.

He seemed calm, both fists rested atop the timber surface. On the side, a scroll like the one from the time previous. A thick tension accompanied the room. I could carve through it with Ferrum.

"Father," I bobbed my head once," you wish to speak to me.

"I do," he sat up. His dark braid which seemed moulded onto the side of his neck was wet with the same sweat that ran in droplets down his leathery forehead," I have a few questions about the Deadwood Creek girl."

I resisted the urge to swallow although my throat had gone dry. Father could smell anxiousness much better then any animal could.

"Alright."

"Have a seat."

I couldn't help a pause. But I obeyed.

I sat across my father with the weight of a thousand worries on my shoulders. The silence was deafening. I could have heard a pin drop.

"Tell me more about how you killed the girl."

I had not yet thought of a story to orchestrate to father. It was too late to fabricate a tale and so I told the truth, but I twisted it just a little bit. I spoke with enough confidence of the facts, enough to convince him that I was telling the truth.

"It was Saturday night. Aubrette had went out with her mortal friend, to a party downtown. She was drunk. I followed her out into the edge of Deadwood Creek. I noticed that alongside her was a trow. I had never seen him before, he revealed that he was a messenger sent on behalf of the folk to retrieve or kill the girl. He did not reveal who his sender was.

I could not kill him, he escaped me, but the girl did not."

"And you skewered the girl? Right then and there, a dagger through the brain and burnt her?"

My gaze did not waiver. I stared at him with as much contentment as I could muster. His infatuation with Aubrette was driving me on the edge of my seat but physically, I seemed as cool as the sea.

"Yes. I awaited for her corpse to transition into the faerie dust that I presented you with. I gathered her ashes and bagged her up, and brought her straight here."

He sat up further and suddenly the phrase 'if looks could kill' came to mind.

"Whilst you were looking over the girl, do you remember finding out anything strange about her?"

"Nothing necessarily strange. I did not make much time to study her father. Like you always say, faerie blood, no matter the bearer, is enemy blood. There was nothing that could have swayed me into differing actions when it comes to a creature of the folk."

"What makes you think I doubted you?"

Crap. I over explained and now he's grown suspicious. I simply forged my expression confused and in an attempt to save the lie I said," don't you? Why else have you summoned me here for questioning about an assignment. You have never done so before."

"I am just ensuring your story, my boy."

"You mentioned a larger payment for this faerie, as well as a mutual reward. It sounds to me like you've grown infatuated with this task, much more then the others. Perhaps if you shed some more light I'd be more of assurance."

"You've assured me enough, no need for further explaining, on both of our sides."

Borris was already opening the doors to the study but I remained put. For father to start questioning me now it must mean that someone grew doubts and had implicated them into my fathers head. If that were true, then it would be a lot more then just the queen of Fey and a mysterious women that were after Aubrette. My father could somehow be tied into the whole thing.

"Has something happened, with the ashes? Is everything alright?"

He remained quite. The look of ponder on his face told me that he was debating how much he could tell me. Or should.

"Father, we are on the same side here. If there is something I should know, you must tell me now."

"Very well."

Borris shut the door.

"I have received a message that the girl was seen alive just a day ago."

"By whom?"

"That I cannot reveal."

"You must."

"I will do no such thing."

"Who ever they are, they must be mistaken. I planted Ferrum into her brain. I brought her here in a bag of ashes-"

"I know!" He summoned the room silent with the roar of his command," I know, son."

"If you cannot reveal to me who it is that feels the need to suddenly doubt me or forge me a liar, the least that you can do is tell me what it is about this assignment that has rendered you obsessed."

"The girl, Aubrette Evergreen, she may not have been a full faerie."

I sat up on the edge of my seat now. He knew.

"What do you mean? Like a Moiety Child?"

"Alongside the message of her being alive, the sender revealed to me that had the true Aubrette been killed, it would have been impossible for her to transform into the dust of a faerie.

A Moiety Child of the folk turns into ashes when burnt. Much like a mortal, much like you and I would."

"That's impossible, I killed her-"

"I believe that you believe you killed her son. Remember that shapeshifting Pixie? The one that could shape-shift into anything within sight?"

"What about her?"

"Aubrette has many people looking for her blood, I wouldn't be surprised if someone was sent to distract you, someone who posed as the half girl," He concluded,"You must find her and kill her-"

"You still want to proceed with your plans to terminate her, with full knowledge that she is more human then folk?"

"It is as you said, she bears the blood of the folk-"

"But she burns like a human!"

"You will do the job I hired and trained you to do," he growled but I was on my feet. I challenged him with every word out of my mouth that was short of obedience.

"If it's true what you said, that the girl has others seeking her death, why not let nature take its course? Why not let them deal with the girl?"

Suddenly, out of the shadows whom I'd thought housed nothing but ancient books and their shelving emerged my grandmother. In her grasp was a crutch that she used to peer closer until she parked herself behind my father.

Her white eyes were staring into mine as if her vision was fully returned.

"You will find the girl, and you will bring her here, dead or alive, before any of the others get to her. There shall be no more questions on your end. The full story will unveil within time, have patience."

She began to head for the door that Borris held open for her. She looked back at me and added," had you done it right the first time, we might have all been contented by now."