My face burned as I stared up at Herald. He looked surprised, Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. His strawberry gaze met mine.

“Well hello,” I muttered with a sigh, “Trying to get me to call you daddy, now?”

Herald’s gaze grew lidded, “Does that have a different connotation, in your realm? I do not think this situation matches the word.”

I pulled my lips into my mouth, unable to help but smile in embarrassment.

“Yeah. It’s a very… not parental term.”

Explaining what it meant was almost impossible without a hell of a lot of reference points this world just didn’t have.

“Does sugar daddy mean something different?” He asked curiously.

“Yes and no. Sugar daddy can have many different meanings, sugar just means money,” I explained, relaxing slightly as I stared up at Herald.

Herald stared at me for a long moment, “I cannot begin to guess what daddy means, then,” He muttered, reaching out.

The sound of papers scraping across each other reached my ears as he picked them up. He kept eye-contact.

My embarrassment increased twentyfold, “It’s… a very degenerate term. Not mean to the person being called it, but… Using it is a very shameless thing,” I explained awkwardly, sitting up.

“Yes, it must be,” Herald agreed, standing up, “I had considered you to be shameless. However, it seems your people are shameless in general.”

“… Yeah,” I muttered, collapsing back down. I stared up at him, “I kind of forget this is the dark ages. The concept would seem extremely foreign to you.”

Herald looked annoyed, probably tired of me constantly insulting the world he lived in, “I doubt it.”

I shrugged, sitting up with a grin, “Wanna bet?”

There was no way this innocent guy had any idea what role play was, let alone what Sub and Dom relationships were. He was very evil, yes, but I skimmed through his sex scenes enough to know that he was gentle. If I told him, he would be as red as my hair.

Herald hesitated, setting the papers down and sitting next to me, “Betting on Academy grounds is illegal, for both professors and students.”

I sighed, grin fading. I looked over at him, feeling his body heat with how close he was.

“Aw.”

“I find myself curious what the bet would be about,” Herald murmured, staring down at me.

“I would have bet that you would be speechless or otherwise incredulous,” I muttered, not thinking too hard about my next actions.

I shifted to my hands and knees, pushing Herald down by his shoulder. I looked down at him.

“The bet would obviously be on my first year’s tuition, or on signing a contract.”

His hair was the same shade as my comforter, I noted as I shifted to straddle him.

“I-I-I think I already know what it is used for,” Herald stuttered, sitting up quickly and pushing me off of him.

I grinned at him, amused.

“Yeah, I definitely would have won that bet,” I said airily as he practically ran from the room.

It was silent for three seconds before I whimpered.

“… Damn, betting is illegal? Fuck, half my ideas! No!”

I groaned as I flopped onto my back, the groan ending in another whimper.

“And he ran off before I could ask how expensive a years’ worth of tuition was. Fuck!”

“Maybe you should not have teased him so harshly, then,” A deep voice muttered.

Glancing up, I sat up, “Oh! Hey, Silas.”

“Hello, Fiona,” Silas greeted as he walked in, ducking his head to get into the doorway, “Being as crass as usual, I see.”

I grinned, not even trying to defend myself as I raised my hands in surrender. It was good to see my beautiful and handsome love up and moving about.

“Hey, man. I totally didn’t start that. Not my fault he grew uncomfortable.”

Silas chuckled quietly, “I’m certain. The president wishes to speak with you.”

I nodded, hopping to my feet, “Okay!”

I took a step before I staggered. My legs gave out. Silas caught me. I was panting, everything feeling just slightly off. What…?

The world twisted, growing dark for a moment before righting itself. Was I low on sodium?

Standing up, I went with Silas to the president.

It wasn’t anything special or exact pertaining to me, seeming like a meeting every freshmen had to go through. Herald was there, staring at me intently. Acting as if he didn’t just run away from me blushing like a virgin.

Maybe Herald just had a staring issue with everyone? No one else seemed to stare at me with as much unwavering focus…

Regardless, it was about classes, the schedule changing to be more relevant to me and also to switch out the Soulmancy class with something that still had a professor there to teach it.

Much to my own surprise, once classes started, I didn’t actually have any issues with students or teachers.

Keeping an eye on Aphrodite, I noted that half the interactions that were supposed to occur, didn’t. The only ones seeming to hang out with her were Pelias, Mercury, and Orphos. Even Rowan wasn’t around, though maybe she met him later?

My classes were all pretty basic, most of my days being waking up, taking care of Pyro, hanging out with Silas and his class during the mornings, subtly following Aphrodite to all of our classes, because she didn’t seem to get lost as easily, and then going back to my dorm, hanging out with the vampires for a bit before retiring to study.

The classes themselves were mostly lectures. The only exception was Horse Riding and Basic Combat, where we were introduced to and taught to take care of horses.

The horses were all only recently old enough to take care of themselves, and we all went into an area to receive a horse. There were a lot, from rainbow horses to unicorns.

The one I was provided to take care of and raise was all black with fire for a mane. The fire didn’t hurt, though, and I got along well with the baby horse I’d named Pyro.

It seemed quite intelligent.

Basic Combat was a class done by Professor Lockheed, who had seemed to give up on his idea of revenge, very much ignoring me during the entire class. It was mostly just various stances with various weapons and light exercises.

I quite liked daggers as an alternative to swords, since they allowed me to get close to my opponent, which was a strategy I utilized often just because of how much easier it was to force someone to backpedal like that.

Many months passed, me talking as I rode Pyro.

“Okay so we’re running toward a crowd of archers and an arrow lands in your front-left knee,” I said, “Go!”

A noise of injury escaped the horse. I leapt off toward the injured side, rolling as the horse gently fell on his right side. I turned, shooting a healing spell at the affected area.

Pyro snorted when it smacked him in the face, standing up.

“Damn. Okay. You did great, but I fucked up. Let’s try again,” I muttered, reaching out and wiping the dirt and grass off of the horse.

Pyro glanced to the side, his flames flickering a brighter color. His head swung, and I got on him at his prompt.

Pyro jogged toward the woods cheerfully.

“Hey, hey, I’ve been warned to keep away from those woods,” I warned, “Fae don’t typically like humans.”

Pyro snorted dismissively, galloping before I could get off. I sighed as I was taken into the woods, not confident to leap off at this speed. Glancing around in the darkness, I got off of Pyro the moment he slowed down. He made a noise of complaint, nudging me.

Nope.

Turning, I—

“Ow, hey, hey!” I complained as he bit my hair and continued leading me further into the darkness, “I don’t have permission to be here! You’re going to drag me into Fae territory!”

An odd feeling overcame me, the woods looking more ethereal. All of the trees quickly grew bigger and bigger, the green leaves glittering in moonlight that hadn’t been there before.

“Y-you… Pyro,” I whined, finally able to wrest my hair from his mouth, rubbing at my head, “If you get me killed I’m haunting you.”

Pyro nudged me. I huffed, turning to look at where I was taken to.

I carefully relaxed my expression, trying very hard not to show my sudden onslaught of emotions.

In front of me, standing ethereally, was the Fae King. Leaf emerald eyes shining with the moonlight covering the land of the Fae weren’t looking at me, but at a pair of beautiful creatures. It was a Pegasus, its fur glowing a soft white.

If the Fae King’s hair that glowed with the cool light the moon gave off, the Pegasus’ coat glowed with the heavenly light of the Aether realm.

Next to the Pegasus was a massive and beefy horse with fire for eyes, hooves, and a mane.

The crisp and resounding feeling of awe mixed with the twisting and squirming feeling of dread, both being bound together by the barbed wire of hopelessness.

Fuck, that was the Fae King.

Pyro abandoned me to walk up to the other horses, distracting me. The Pegasus seemed distant for a moment as the giant flaming horse doted on Pyro. After Pyro’s mother? Father? finished, the Pegasus reached over and gently nudged Pyro.

“Are those your parents?” I asked curiously.

I hesitated. Wait. Shit. Weren’t there rules in the Fae realm about not ignoring their leader or something? Or about not disrespecting anything that moved?

The Fae King didn’t look at me, though, continuing to gently pet the Pegasi’s neck. I stayed where I was, distracted by the sight.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Unlike his mother—the fire horse was definitely his mother—, Pyro’s coat didn’t reflect the moonlight. The only light Pyro gave off was the fire of his mane and tail, his coat absorbing all light.

Good thing he was part fire-horse, otherwise he would overheat with a coat like that, I mused, still distracted by the beauty of what I was seeing.

“Pyromaniac’s parents are concerned over what you are teaching their child,” The Fae King said.

It caught me off-guard that he sounded normal and familiar. I recalled that we’d spoken before at the garden party, where he refused to kneel to Aphrodite.

“Uh…”

I turned to the now-intimidating looks Pyro’s parents were giving me as they walked up. Pyro stayed behind, nudging the Fae King for some attention.

“Well,” I took a step back as I tried looking up at them.

The Pegasus snorted dangerously, wings flapping once as it reared back on its hind legs.

“Easy, there,” I said automatically, hands coming up to calm the Pegasus.

I was nudged harshly by Pyro’s mother as Pyro’s father reared back, neighing.

“H-hey, calm down, guys. What I’m teaching Pyro is basic war tactics for combat!” I complained, looking between the two concerned parents, hands raised in surrender, “That’s like-that’s like teaching children how to deal with active shooters—or, wait, that’s a bad comparison. Anyway, I’m just saying, would you rather Pyro know what to do in a worst case scenario situation, or would you rather neither of us know and both of us die because of it?”

My horse’s parents scoffed, the fire-horse nudging me harder. I scoffed in return, crossing my arms.

“Oh don’t be helicopter parents. Me and Pyro are going to be besties in the future,” I snapped at them, “I’d never let him get hurt if I could help it, and why would I ride a horse into battle? Look, look, if you want to teach Pyro how to defend himself from shitty people, feel free. I’m not stopping you from teaching him to avoid combat!”

I raised my eyebrows, giving the parents a look. My hands were still raised in surrender, but I wasn’t backing away.

They stopped being so harsh, staring me down. Neither seemed to have a good response.

“See? Exactly,” I said, gesturing at them as I dropped my hands, “I’m not hurting him by giving him information and training in ways that may seem unnecessary now, but will be very useful in the future should something truly horrible happen.”

By the time I finished speaking, my arms were crossed. The scent of old-age forests was different than anything else I’d smelled. I expected the old-age woods to smell like normal forests, but the earthy scent of decay was much greater, the fresh and crisp air so much more aggressive. I felt like half a breath of air here did as much for me as two whole lung-full’s of air on the edges of the forest.

I could practically taste the leaves with how strong the scent of the woods was.

Snuffling, the two angry parents calmed down, turning to Pyro. They looked imperious.

Pyro whinnied, looking fiercely back at his parents.

Both parents stomped, the Pegasus stretching out his wings. Turning to me, the parents both glowered.

Pyro gave me the same look he did whenever I had an apple and he wasn’t being fed it. What was he begging for?

“Pyromaniac’s parents have decided that he should not leave this forest, that the magic realm is too unsafe for him,” The Fae King translated from next to me.

I jolted, stumbling away. Silken hair giving off the light of the moon draped down the Fae King’s shoulders. Leaf-emerald eyes were focused on me as the Fae leaned against a tree only about fifteen feet away. Shit, hot. When did he get over there?

Then what the beautiful man said registered, and an annoyed look came over my face as I turned back to the parents. Seriously? Trying to force a decision like that on the kid?

“That’s not for you to decide,” I deadpanned, “If Pyro wants to stay here, he can, but that’s his choice to make. So far it seems like he really enjoys hanging out with me! Over half of the other horses don’t even get to see their riders outside of class, and while I’m not comparing Pyro to the other horses, in general he seems happy. If danger happens and I have any sort of warning, I’ll probably send him here anyway.”

Pyro looked discontent, walking up. Pyro reached up, hoof slamming into my stomach.

“Oomph.”

Pain coursed through me as I fell to the ground, holding my stomach. Stalking off, Pyro left the Fae realm, leaving me to remain on the ground in pain.

Ugh.

Ow.

This hurt worse than the time Pyro accidentally fell on me.

I curled around my stomach, fingers fisting in the ground. The few lessons I’d had on the Fae both helped and sucked, because it told me that using magic here without permission was unwelcome.

“I had not realized you had such a strong bond with your horse,” The Fae King mused, sounding closer.

I shifted, resting on my back. I was still gasping for air as I stared up at the ethereal beauty crouching next to me. He was wearing a beige suit that seemed old-fashioned even for the dark ages. It suit him extremely well, though.

At least I could suffer with eye-candy in front of me. What a blessing to have.

“Can I have your name?” The Fae King asked.

Mirth came out of my nose in a gust of air. I pushed myself up.

“Can I have yours?” I countered, staring at the ground. Okay. Time to get the hell out of here.

“It’s rude to answer a question with one of your own,” The Fae King murmured.

I grinned without any humor. It was rude to be greedy and try and take someone’s name when you had your own, too.

“No, sorry,” I rejected, standing up, “I only believe in equal exchanges.”

The Fae King’s arm swept out, sweeping my legs out from under me. My back slammed back into the ground, all the air leaving my lungs. I gasped. With my stomach injury, I found myself staring up at the moon with glassy eyes. Leaves stretched up, rays of moonlight falling through them.

Ow.

“How unfortunate, then, that I wasn’t asking. Give me your name.”

“I’m not giving you my name. You can call me Percy,” I wheezed, looking at the Fae King.

Of course, I had his name. It was elusive and hard to remember, but I definitely had it. The Fae King could do more with a name than I could, though. I absolutely did not want to have to use it so soon.

It would both make him my permanent ally and my worst enemy. Pissing him off by refusing to give him my name is much preferable.

“I have heard you referred to as Percy, Iris, Fiona, Persephone, Master, Liege, which is your true name?”

I grinned for a moment, staring at the Fae King. None of them were. Only one of them I could make magical oaths with, but magical oath’s didn’t need to be given using a true name, just one I identified as. Magically binding contracts just required the use of magic, which was why I was able to sign a magical contract using Persephone’s name instead of my own.

Most magic didn’t really require true names to be used, after all. True names were something the Fae used, mostly. True names were also used when it came to blessings and curse magic, but I was fine not having those aimed at me.

“People call me by all of those. Feel free to use any of them. I wouldn’t mind you referring to me as Master,” I mused.

Despite his aggression, his face was calm, his eyes lidded as he stared down at me.

My legs really hurt.

“I had thought you simply did not know the rules of the Fae, and yet you mock me with them,” The Fae King said, standing up.

My response was cut short by the air being shoved out of me, the Fae King taking a step forward onto my stomach.

“Augh,” I groaned out as he stepped on my stomach, groaning again when he put his full weight on it, other foot resting on my stomach, “Hhh. Kk.”

Fuck. That was… No, now wasn’t the time to find out I had kinks. The hot guy was going to kill me.

My decision was made. I didn’t get the chance to speak a single syllable before the Fae King crouched on my stomach, hand wrapping around my throat.

“You do not have permission to use that name,” He said sharply.

My hands reached up. I didn’t bother trying to remove his hand from my throat, just staring up at him.

I won’t use it today if you release me, bastard. How is it my fault I know it? Me using your name is much less powerful than you using mine.

The sound of underbrush being roughly ran through reached my ears, sounding like it came through a tunnel. My vision was slowly growing darker. I stared into beautiful emerald eyes.

Dying to a hot man… Not the worst way to go.

“Do you wish to lose your truce with the Silver Kingdom?” A voice called out coldly, “That may not be my sister, but that is her body. Release her this instant.”

The Fae King did as asked, a flash of annoyance crossing his expression. I coughed, curling up the moment he stepped off me. Gasping for air, I found myself dragged to my feet.

Glancing over, very surprised, I stared at the back of Mercury’s head.

“I would consider this carefully. Losing a truce with my realm—“

“Would do nothing. We are a kingdom of elementals,” Mercury scoffed, “You gain more than we do by being our ally. Or did you forget that we are what prevents your people from being hunted down for their wings?”

My eyes widened. What? That… that meant that the moment the Silver Kingdom stopped supporting the Fae…

No wonder the Fae King got involved in the war! And his unusual seduction of Aphrodite—it was to try and regain the favor of the kingdom!

“Hhhh,” I blew out air in a single short huff, staring at the Fae King.

Wow, Aphrodite was kind of narcissistic, huh? The whole novel was her thinking that she was the reason the war started. No wonder people got annoyed when she started claiming it was her fault.

Everyone’s “you are beautiful, yes, but this is not your fault” made a lot more sense, now.

The garden party that ended the good relations between country and realm started the Fae Realm’s descent into being hunted and preyed upon. Of course it started slowly, not many people realizing what had happened. Not many people realizing what it meant, because, well.

The Fae had been protected for thousands of years. The connection between the Silver Kingdom and the Fae Realm—which anyone could just walk into—will have been around for ten thousand years in four years.

At the end of Aphrodite’s stay in the Academy, and the beginning of the war that tore apart the world in all eight other books.

Orion trying to kill Aphrodite was what made the Fae and the Astral realms go to war, because the Fae King needed Aphrodite. His people were being mercilessly slaughtered, after all.

I swallowed, feeling like the world was a bit too big for me, suddenly.

Oh, shit.

Valentine and Kairos were right. There were no indications of a war. I had already stopped it, just by appearing at the exact right moment.

I laughed, slightly hysterical. That meant that I aggro’d Valentine for nothing.

But wait, why did the other realms join into the war? Why did the demons join? The spirit realm?

Power vacuum? I wondered.

My shoulders shook as hysteria slowly overcame me.

Did that mean I wasn’t in danger? That I could live peacefully in the middle of the woods?

Or, no, I still had to deal with things. There were still events that happened separate from the war itself.

Like Orion, who appeared to kill Aph because she seduced an angel and was “disturbing the natural order of things”. It wasn’t Raph, it was some other nameless one that got killed the moment he appeared. Someone who was just there to create tension and give Orion a reason to appear.

Regardless, everything else wouldn’t get the realms involved, and having a kingdom fight another kingdom because of a realm was something that, from what I’ve read, happened a lot.

The Silver Kingdom in it’s ten thousand year reign didn’t participate in any wars, so I wasn’t sure if they’d try involving the Fae if Aph died, but I could just warn them.

Which I would do as soon as I could breathe. My laughter was short and gasping, each peal of laughter becoming giggles as hysteria took over.

“Why are you laughing?” The Fae King demanded, “You are being protected because of your body, not your soul.”

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down enough to answer, “Hahahah, you, you, ahahahah, Mercury, hahah Garden,” I couldn’t respond, too deep into my hysteria.

Fuck, I couldn’t breathe in as many minutes. I found I didn’t mind so much.

The Fae King had not been the Fae King for ten thousand years. Due to the way the Fae realm interacted with the magical realm, and due to their own rules, Fae Kings only lasted one hundred years for the magical realm. Each Fae King’s reign lasted a thousand years, for them.

That meant that there had been one hundred Fae Kings before him. One hundred thousand years. That meant that this Fae was very, very unfamiliar with what it was like to have the entire realm be hunted down for parts.

While Fae do not die and are immortal in the typical sense, a great majority eventually decide to go back to the nature that birthed them, so that more lives could be created without overpopulation ever becoming an issue.

Essentially, all the King’s “retired” after around a thousand years. No one would be around to tell him what horrors he stood to face.

Without wings, the Fae couldn’t return to their origin, forced to live and suffer.

“S-sorry, M-Mercury,” I managed, finally getting my breathing under control, wiping my tears, “My realm caught wind of a war brewing in this—sorry, not this one, the magical one. I had been stressing over how to stop it from happening, but I just found out I already had. Mostly.”

“It’s fine,” Mercury dismissed, turning to look at me after he was certain the Fae King wouldn’t try anything, “Tell me about it once we leave this realm.”

“Sure,” I agreed, more relieved and relaxed than I’d ever been before.

Life was enjoyable. I was going to go take Pyro on a jog around the campus. You know what? I was going to take him to the always-blooming apple orchid on the south side of the Academy.

Pyro was going to have so many apples. We were going to relax together. Life was going to be great.

Hell, maybe I’d contact Valentine and tell him stress wasn’t going to kill me anymore! I’m sure he’d be willing to not try and kidnap me if it meant we could hang out.

Man. I wanted to get super drunk, right now.

Mercury and I walked out of the forest to sirens going off. Aw, come on man.