The night air was oddly still as Cadmea stood before the fairy king’s throne. She held her hand up to her earpiece, feeling the distant flow of the leyline that ran beneath Mirage as Wolfsbane and the Fairy King watched her like a hawk.

“There is a gust of higher-concentration magic moving toward the tap. It should be there in about fifteen hours,” Cadmea reported into her earpiece. “You’ll need to restrict the draw about twenty percent.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure that’s compensated for,” her mother replied. “How are you doing? Are they treating you well?”

“About as well as can be expected,” she replied. “Nobody’s attacked me since the king’s test. Most of the fairies just give me the cold shoulder. The twins are a bit more personable than the others… though Phoenix insists on calling us animals.”

“Deplorable.”

“I don’t think she means it in a derogative way, but I’m definitely not thrilled about it.”

“Bah, what other way is there?”

“Classification, I think? She says the same thing about the other mortal races too. She’s an eccentric little thing. Asked for some supplies for some kind of experiment.”

Her mother scoffed. “Let me guess: stinging nettle? Crown imperial? Jellyfish? The experiments fairies perform are malicious pranks.”

Cadmea paused. Her mother had a point, that’s exactly the kind of thing she’d think a pixie would think up, and true fairies weren’t that much better behaved. Still, the ingredients didn’t seem like they could be combined for any obvious pranks. “I was just delivering the list to their king. Let me get that out. Let’s see… small glass plates, a glass cup, playing cards, something to put a hole in them, alchemical soap, a needle, rubbing alcohol, salt, beeswax, water, glue, and tin foil.”

“That is… oddly specific.”

Cadmea laughed. “I said the same thing. I don’t know how those go together, but it doesn’t seem like a prank.”

“If those two were singled out by the Greater God of Chaos, there’s no telling what they’re thinking. How much time do we have left?”

“Not much,” Cadmea said, looking back to the king.

“I hate that they’re keeping you captive, the savages.”

She frowned. “It’s not fair, but it’s Tetra holding me here more than the fairies are.”

“Oh? Then are you free to take the twins back to Mirage? We could have you back home in a matter of months, even without the Tri System.”

“Well, no.”

“Then they’re holding you prisoner. When you go, give the earpiece to the Fairy King. I’m going to give that overgrown sprite a piece of my mind.”

“I almost feel sorry for him,” Cadmea chucked. “I have to go now. I’ll speak to you tomorrow, mother.”

“Goodbye, Cadmea.”

“Goodbye.” Cadmea pulled the artifact from her ear and approached the regent. “Harmonia, head of the Ritualists’ Clan, would like to speak to you, Fairy King,” she said, offering it to him.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

The great fairy gave a wry smile as he took it. “I’m sure she would,” he remarked. “You are dismissed, Cadmea.”

She bristled and her tails twitched. Being dismissed by this spirit, however powerful he may have been, rubbed Cadmea the wrong way. It was vexing taking orders from him. “I am not your subject.”

He shot her an amused look, saying “Technically, no, you are not. But practically?”

“Hmph.” She scoffed, turned about face, and walked out of the room, heading back to her assigned residence. Wolfsbane followed a distance behind.

As she walked, her mother’s words gnawed at her. Wass she really being held prisoner? Or worse, some kind of slave. She’d been made an unwilling subject of Albion. He was right. She was technically a Miragan, but practically, she’d been rendered a second-class citizen in a nation of spirits.

She quickened her pace. The thought made her sick. She looked over her shoulder, looking at the violet light following her, watching her every move, like she would be for decades. These were the consequences for her actions, the cost of her hubris in trying to summon a greater goddess.

She was trapped. Trapped. Trapped.

Cadmea felt her heart pound in her chest and her breathing grow swifter. She realized she was starting to panic. That wouldn’t do her any good. She had to calm down. She stopped in her tracks at the front door, hand over her heart. Easy. Calm down. Relax. Nothing good would come from freaking out about it.

She breathed deeply, forcing herself to slow down, fighting the dread that swelled in her chest. She had to breathe. BREATHE.

It was hard at first, but as moments passed her breathing eased, her heart rate slowing in turn. She turned around to face Wolfsbane, floating there, watching her. “What do you think?” Cadmea asked. “Do you think I’m one of your king’s subjects? Your captive?”

Wolfsbane looked down, appraising her from on high. “No. You’re not,” she replied.

Relief began clearing Cadmea’s mind. “I see. Tha-“

“You’re a glorified intruder,” she said. She flew closer, hovering close enough for Cadmea to see the disdainful scowl etched upon her countenance.

Cadmea’s heart sank. “But-“

“Make no mistake, you glorified thief, you are NO citizen of this kingdom,” she spat, her voice full of venom. “It’s only by his majesty’s grace that you still draw breath, let alone live as a guest in MY home. He has a soft spot for your kind, like the children of an old friend of his.

"I,” she growled, “have no such attachments, nor have you earned more than the barest whit of my trust. Do you know the most common cause of death for a fairy? Murder. I am seventeen hundred years old. I have seen more loved ones flayed, dissected, burned, crushed, dismembered, and suffocated than you’ll make in friends in your entire mortal life! Even my husband…”

The fairy bared her teeth in anger. “If you EVER even THINK about doing anything to those naïve little girls, you’ll be on the floor choking on your own bile before you can so much as say ‘ow.’”

Cadmea was taken aback. She stared, wide-eyed at the seething spirit, her difference in stature doing nothing to quell her intimidation. “I-I would never-“

“Good. Those girls are my responsibility. If you do hurt them, you’ll only wish it was that quick.”

“I…” Cadmea trailed off. She was so busy thinking about her own circumstances that she hadn’t thought about them from the perspective of the average fairy.

They’d just suffered the loss of the system and a brutal attack on their homeland, and that same night some mysterious stranger wanders in, unannounced, dropped on their heads by the gods themselves. This stranger then proceeds to trample a ritualistic icosagram into their flower fields, and they’re told to simply accept her living there?

Even if the king vouched for her, that did little to assuage their feelings.

“… you don’t trust me. I understand.”

Wolfsbane looked her in the eye, carefully assessing the therianthrope. “See that you do. If the time ever comes that you do earn my trust…” She pointed at her chest self with a thumb. “… I’ll tell you my true name. Now get to bed, we should be up before the twins are.”

Cadmea nodded silently, pulling the door open before walking inside. She walked to her new bed as Wolfsbane flew in after her.

As she reached for the wooden rungs to her bunk, she paused. “Hey, Wolfsbane?”

“Hm?”

She turned around to face the fairy. “I look forward to the day I’ve earned your name.”

The archer gave her an ambivalent look, then nodded and flew up to her bed.

Cadmea climbed into her feather bed for the night, determined to make that day come soon.