Realm of Wings

Jade, in one of the hallways at the Tibetan Conclave:

Kallan came around the corner as he had heard the cheerful words from the female Fae. “So, it worked?” He asked her and she turned around to show him her wings with an amazingly bright smile. “Isn’t it wonderful?” She beamed at him at which he raised one brow.

“Yes it is, now get ready for battle, because we aren’t done yet.” He coldly said to her, at which her wings slumped an inch or two down in regret for being so cheerful towards her prince. But even though her prince didn’t cheer with her, the other warriors around the corner clearly did when noticing that her wings were in good shape again.

“Wow.” I snorted towards Kallan with the phrase that I have been using more frequently ever since I have met this prince. I straightened my leather armor and got ready to continue our mission too, just like he had told the Fae to do.

I know he has a title to uphold, a certain status in life as to be his warrior’s commanding officer. But even so, he could have shown her some form of a smile, like he had shown his empathy for losing her title a few minutes ago. What is wrong with him?

“Even though I am amazed by your ability, as you are the first to have ever done this, she will still lose her title.” He said while ignoring my flaring nostrils.

“What? Why?” I asked incredulously.

“Because she wasn’t able to keep her wings guarded, and even though you have healed her wing, what’s there to say about the next time? What will happen when she fails to keep herself safe again? Any number of my warrior’s lives could be compromised on her failure. Besides, now knowing that you can easily heal their wings, they might get reckless in their actions. They have nothing to lose now, other than their actual life, during a battle. Their title isn’t something that can be stolen anymore, which would result in them making bad decisions. I need them to be on edge at all times, which is no longer possible.” He explained himself.

Was he seriously scolding me for healing her wings? For making it able for her to continue her current title, even though there was no reason to terminate her status now anymore? This way of thinking is so arrogant, so wrong in countless ways that it is making me angry as hell!

Where is the motivation, the stimulation to grow into your role in the community? Them being frightened of getting their wings hurt only cuts them in their actions! Sometimes you need a little risk and reckless thinking to achieve your goals. And besides that, in between this way of fright, there is no room for errors. No room for learning from your mistakes, which is what growing is all about!

“You will not deprive her of her title!” I yelled at him.

“Who are you to denounce me from that action?” He scoffed and crossed his arms.

“Someone who will knock you off your feet and shoot a hole through your wings, if you won’t listen to me!” I said while straightening my back and stepping into his comfort zone, the least intimidated by any of his titles or dominance.

Trixie came standing next to us, trying to say something while both Kallan and I continued to keep our eyes pointed towards each other. How childish this may seem, as our staring contest was one to determine our determination in keeping our dominance over the other, Trixie pushed Kallan’s shoulders to knock him out of his daze.

He was the first to relent to her, as he couldn’t keep his gaze focused now and without a word he turned around and walked towards his warriors.

I sighed as he walked away and wanted to get back there too, simply as we weren’t finished with our mission, but Trixie interrupted me by grabbing me by the arm. “You should know that he is about to become king in a few years, which means he has to be tough and keep up the proclaimed traditions and rules.” She bargained for a sliver of understanding from me, from his point of view.

But I couldn’t give either of them that satisfaction. “If he is going to be the ruling person of your world, he should consider changing some things.” I angrily shook her hand from my arm and continued my way.

Kallan, getting his warriors ready to continue:

I hated to make this statement towards her, as I was conflicted with what had happened just now. But even though she was disliking me more by the minute, I hadn’t been wrong about it. I know how the minds of my warriors work, as their devotion to their king and now to me too, is worth so much that once their wings get damaged, they would despise themselves to be in my near vicinity.

But…. Jade’s determination on this matter is actually making me proud of her as well. I don’t know if I’m some sort of masochist, but should I ever want to have a female on my side in marriage, I’d prefer to have one with a strong, opinionated mind. As then she would always keep me on edge, question my every motive to enhance the possibility of me making the right decisions.

Besides, her being able to heal someone else is quite remarkable.

I still don’t know how she is doing all her magic without having her wings, but I hope that will be something we find out soon.

Jade was standing near the female she healed just now, whispering something in her ear, which made the woman both frighten and appreciative towards her. I don’t know what she just said, but when she was done, the female warrior nodded to her and I could see her mouth form the words ‘thank you’.

“Group one, come in. Over.” It suddenly sounded through one of the earpieces that I had picked out of the ear of a dead enemy. I didn’t respond to the calling but I knew that this was our cue to get going to our next part of the mission.

Soon, after getting through a few more enemies, we reached the main hall where we were met with more of these killers, and we were about to get into fight mode when a man interrupted our charge.

“Nice to see you again, baby girl.” He said while grazing his eyes over Jade’s body and licking his lips. His long black hair half tucked in a bun, half hanging loose around his neck while his muscles peeked out from underneath the sleeves of his black shirt, and him calling Jade ‘baby girl’, made me suddenly very aware of my possessiveness towards her.

I am no hairy wolf, but even so, I believed to have released a small growl from within my throat upon seeing this douche undressing Jade with his eyes.

Jade momentarily glanced my way, half confused about my action of jealousy, but then suddenly directed her anger towards the man in black. What the hell is wrong with me?!

“So, you’re the one who made this all happen?” She said with a fake smile while putting her blades back in the sheathes behind her back. What is she doing? Why isn’t she more aware of the danger right now? She walked over to him and he stepped forward as well, looking down at her face as he was a head taller. “Jade?” I asked for her attention, but she didn’t respond.

“You like what I did to the place?” He asked her with evil and mischief in his eyes.

“That depends…” She dragged the word out while dragging her fingers across his jaw, neck and chest.

“On what?” He asked while he clenched his jaws and sudden images of things that he wanted to do to her invaded his mind. Or were they memories? Shit! She had sex with him! Are they lovers?

Jealousy again rushed my anger through the roof, making my energy tingle at the tip of my fingers, wanting desperately to kill him. I couldn’t control my emotions and made my skin slowly transform into black obsidian. But luckily Trixie shook me out of my stupor as she pulled on my shoulder.

“Look at her!” She said in her mind, unblocking it for me to hear her.

As I did what she said, I tried to block out the idiot and managed to focus myself on her features. Her face was showing a sultry smile, the corners of her mouth slightly lifted to indicate to him that she was ready for some more intimate action. Her shoulders were down, she spoke in soft whispers, kept her eyes locked on his…

I didn’t want to become any angrier at her actions, certainly not because I still don’t trust her and this is not making her situation into my trust any better, but still I had to look further. Eagerly searching for a clue that would make me think otherwise about her. So I kept tracing her body and when I looked at the muscles in her neck it was clear to me that she was tensed up at this moment. Also, her left hand was clenched in a fist, whitening her knuckles to keep her distracted from any anger.

She was playing him!

A sudden relief washed over me, but I couldn’t let it be shown towards the man and also his men, that were creeping inside the room, one by one. I had to play the angry boss still, to make sure of him believing he was on the winning hand.

“Whether you killed all the other monks or not.” She completed her comment, while continuously dragging her fingers across his chest, walking around him to see how focused he was on her.

“Just a few, who weren’t compliant. But you have killed some of my men as well, so we might call it even.” He chuckled as his gaze turned to the other side as she had walked around him now.

Her face showed nothing but understanding towards his statement, but her left-handed fist showed a completely different story as a slight smear of blood was now smudging her hand, there where her nails had dug into her skin.

Once she stood right in front of him again, she beckoned him to lower his face, so she could whisper in his ear. He smiled big-time, upon hearing what she told him and he nodded in agreement. But there where my female warrior earlier mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her whispers, he suddenly became furious and wanted to grab her body.

Instinctively, I stepped forward, anxiously needing to protect her. But as soon as her fingers started to glow and a sizzling sound followed after, I knew that she could handle him. “You bitch!” He yelled in full anger mode when she had hit him with a surge of energy, which made me smile inwardly.

But as soon as he screamed in pain, the other men started their assault towards us. Immediately we used all our power to fight them off and I heard Trixie curse in frustration of the sudden start, but even so, she managed to create a few illusions which she then made fire some amethyst shards towards them.

With my hardened skin now on full operation, I ran forward and jumped over some roots which my green-winged warrior had summoned to capture the first man that came at me. Then I jumped over his body as he was pulled down to the ground, so I could attack the one behind him.

The battle in full swing, I managed to look my way over towards Jade every now and then, fighting off the large man with her own melee fighting skills and energy from her core.

Her beauty radiated off of her, as she was having fun while fighting the beast. She was in her element like this, being in danger, on the brink of getting hurt, while excitement and adrenaline coursed through her veins. And when she swung her blades around, emerged in her core’s energy, she was even more excellent.

Suddenly one of her blades soared right into my direction at which I dodged it, just barely. “What the hell!?” I yelled towards her while raising my arms in question.

“What? You had him?” She chuckled while dodging the man’s efforts of trying to capture her in his arms. I quickly switched my gaze to where her blade had gone to and my jaw dropped. It was now lodged in the sternum of the one that was about to kill me, gurgling up blood and squirting it out of his mouth while being seated at the wall close by. Fucking hell! She had saved me this time.

A few more killers left to die, we luckily were able to finish them off without any casualties on our side. Some minor heals could repair the damage that we had, so that wasn’t something to bother about. And when the man that Jade was fighting, was cursing out loud, I snapped my head around to her again. She had her second blade against the skin of his throat and held his hair tight in her free hand.

“Why did you attack the conclave and where is the Fae you have!” She yelled to him, while I stepped forward to his face, getting the information out of his mind as soon as he thought about it. I shook my head towards Jade, as he was trying to think of anything else, other than the answers to her questions. Her blade dug deeper into his skin, drawing blood in a thin line, but not slicing his carotid artery, just yet.

He gulped, pushing the bobble in his throat against the blade, which made his skin draw more blood as a result. But he also released the answers to her question and I rose a brow. A simple image of the Fae that he was thinking of, together with the clear reason as to why this shitshow was happening in the first place, snapped through his mind.

“Fuck!” I cursed. Someone is not going to like this.