From the Heart of a Fae

Malik stood in the entrance hall of Brendan Titan’s fief and patted the man on the shoulder. He found that he and Brendan had become friends easily, with them sharing a lot of the same interests. While his friends and sisters had opted to stay in the village at the Inn, he was obligated by duty to accept Brendan’s offer, and after some convincing, Ludis joined him. Malik had hinted to Brendan that they would only need one room-discreetly. Brendan had winked at him and set off to make the arrangements himself. Eating dinner with Brendan’s family, they met his wife and three children, all girls. His wife was lovely, and pregnant with their 4th child. His girls were bright and curious, and his wife had to scold them for asking Ludis too many questions, to which Ludis laughed and assured her it was fine. The oldest daughter was 15 and quieter than her two younger siblings, but her curiosity was fierce. The younger two were much more than their father, loud and cheery. Brendan was surprised and happy that Kora had already started her work and conveyed the farmers’ appreciation for her craft. He was sad that she had not made it to dinner and wanted to ensure she received his thanks tomorrow. He planned to come out to see her work in person. Crossing his fingers under the table, Malik hoped his sister was in a better mood than she had been today. They finally bid the family goodnight, pleading exhaustion from the road - which was not entirely a lie. A bath had been drawn, and the couple relaxed together, soaking the road’s grit away. Sighing, Ludis leaned forward and turned to look at the king.

" What are you thinking, Malik, about the vision Kora had?” She did not believe it was just a dream, she had seen Kora have night terrors before, for months after she turned back from being stone. They had not stopped until she and Ben had become an item. Even then, though waking up terrified and confused, she had never reacted so violently. Malik was thoughtful, as he squeezed a soapy rag over Ludis’s shoulder he said-

" We already knew that Kora would be in danger as soon as the snow melted. Granted, we could not have imagined it would be from such a sinister act -” Ludis splashed water in his face and he sputtered.

“What? I am just trying to state facts, I do not want that to happen either! Obviously.” Malik said, offended he had been splashed.

“But what are we going to do? How can we keep her safe? It is not like we can lock her up, and I am afraid if we did that it would somehow give the enemy easier access to her if we attempted to hide her. But letting her walk the countryside doesn’t seem the wisest thing, either.” She leaned back against Malik’s chest again, and she could feel his deep voice rumbling as he spoke.

“Fat chance we have of hiding her, seen how it’s gone so far? Forget locking her up too, after what she has been through, I will never force her to be a prisoner again. We will just … must do the best we can. If Ian can get intel, we could make a better plan. I am thinking of a trip to the village tomorrow, care to join me?" He held out his right hand, showing the ring to Ludis. Catching the hint, she readily agreed. Pulling her around, Malik kissed Ludis deeply, and they melted into each other.

Royce blew the last candle out and slid into bed next to Stella. She turned to wrap her arms around his waist, and he held his little love close. She had been on edge all day, her thoughts consumed with worry for her sister. Royce, concerned as well-tried to rub Stella’s back to sooth her. He felt her exhale loudly and thought - here it comes…

“It’s just not fair, why can’t those vile nasty Men of the Grey just leave Kora alone?” Stella’s outburst sounded teary, and Royce sympathized with her, pulling her closer.

“Evil men care nothing for the good of this world, Stells. They only care for what they want.” Royce stroked her hair and felt her small sobs.

“What could be so important to anyone that they would cut out an innocent person’s heart and eat it?” She cried. She shuddered at the violent thought.

“He wishes to see the world burn, sweetheart. That is all-evil men ever want. This, unbelievably, is not about Kora. She just got the rotten stick when the Power of the Fae chose her.” Royce was trying to appease Stella, but she abruptly sat up.

“What do you mean the power of the Fae chose her? Wasn’t she just born that way?” Stella asked, confused. Royce sighed and laid on his back, staring at the ceiling.

" When I was a child, the tribes had tons of stories about the Fae. You know that they are not fans, thinking they are against nature. But even over time, the fae continued to fade, and the family bloodlines began to thin as the fae married and had children with mortals. We had stories of evil men who would steal and eat the hearts of the fae too, but I never thought of them so much because -well, there were so many stories Stells. Who knew what was true or not? ” He looked at Stella in the dark, she had turned towards him to listen.

" I do not know whether this is true or not, and I doubt Kora knows either, but my belief is that the Fae had some way of deciding who would carry the weight of their existence as time wore on. The fae was breeding out of them. And they cannot eat each other’s heart. Well, I mean, technically you could-” Stella smacked his chest, and he winced.

“Hey! Just telling it how it is, my point being - there had to be something they did to gain full strength again, to become full Fae.” Stella looked at him. She was stunned.

"Your kind of a genius, do you know that?” She leaned forward to kiss him, and Royce met her greedily, kissing her slow and deep.