The banshee slinked through the thick fog to answer for her sins. Her bones were too long to be proportional and her knees popped in and out of socket as she clambered her way to the Unseelie territory. Her bulbous eyes were solid black and forever leaked blood down her white-as-chalk cheeks. Strands of her long wispy black hair fell from her head and turned to ash before they hit the ground.
She arrived at the heart of her master’s territory and shivered. A twenty-foot-high pentagram made of pearly white bones marked the entrance. The symbol of the Unseelie. A thicket of vines created a massive tunnel, reaching many feet above her head. Once on the path to her master, there was no return for her unless he granted her his everlasting mercy.
She shrieked an ear-piercing wail that sent a flock of crows flapping away with constant caws. A few of the crows stilled in midair and plummeted dead before they even reached the ground. Her wails, normally so powerful, wouldn’t help her in front of the Prince. Nothing would.
Her feet crushed the dead foliage covering the pathway as she began her journey to face her reckoning. The vines grew thicker as she continued into the maze, and sharp thorns, exuding some type of poisonous sap, dripped threateningly onto her from above. The stray rays of sunlight became less and less frequent as she approached the heart of her master’s territory. Darkness smothered her spirit, and shadows invaded her mind.
Her creaking bones stilled as she hesitated, just as the vine tunnel was about to dump her out into a clearing. There were many tunnel entrances into the territory, but they all twisted like snakes until they deposited their quarry in one place. The master’s throne room. Only if the Prince allowed them to could the Unseelie races return to the small sections of the maze they called home.
She pressed forward until the vines disappeared and revealed a clearing as large as a human settlement, stretching out before her. As softly as she could, she wailed to give herself strength and comfort.
She canvassed the scene of the massive clearing and started to convulse in fear. In the pitch blackness, only a few specks of light illuminated the ghastly scene before her. Hundreds of goblins and red hats lay slaughtered across a meadow of death. Left to rot and decay, their bodies served as an example to those who dared to fail their Prince. She whipped around to run for her life, but the vine tunnel closed to form a wall of poisonous thorns.
“Come here, Helgath.” A soft, almost feminine voice somehow reached the banshee across the clearing. She forced her legs to move one step at a time. Only her joints popping in and out of socket betrayed her silent approach. As she moved closer to the throne, she wailed at some of the other living creatures in the clearing who hissed, growled, or clicked at her.
It was pitch black other than the dull purple glow of fae balls, sporadically placed in the clearing. Unlike the Seelie fae globes, these weren’t enchanted balls of glass. No, these were glass balls, but the source of the lights was tiny sprites entrapped within. Sprites only glowed when they experienced stress, danger, or pain. In the Unseelie territory, the sprites remained in all three states until they eventually died. The master would then send out his abominations to find replacements.
The pitiful sprites, pounding the glass of their globed prison, cast the clearing in a hopeless glow of purple and black. At the far end of the clearing, a subtle red glow added to the ambiance, produced by slumbering elementals made of pure molten rock. The only thing clearly illuminated was a massive throne of bones which came from all manner of creatures. Bones from humans, shifters, fae, and even a fair number of master vampires contributed to the throne. None could stand before the might of the Prince.
A few minutes later, she reached the destination of her terror. Kneeling on the dead foliage with her head bowed, she waited for acknowledgment. She wailed, but the sound seemed to be swallowed up within the shadows.
“My dear Helgath. You have failed me, I’m afraid,” the feminine voice whispered out. The voice carried through to the core of the banshee, and she gripped her chest in pain.
“Please grant me your mercy, Master,” she choked out, gasping for breath.
“Why must my children put me in a position such as this? I love them, I care for them, and yet, they always disappoint me.” The voice carried a tone of sadness that increased her fear.
“Master, please give me another chance. I will see that your will comes to be,” the banshee rushed out. She lifted her head to plead with her master, but an unseen force slammed into her head and crushed her face into the rotting foliage.
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“I don’t believe I gave you permission to raise your head in my presence, Helgath.” The voice remained calm and took its time to get each word out.
“I apologize, Master. I only wish to be a faithful servant to thee.” A force she couldn’t comprehend pinned the banshee’s face against the ground, muffling her voice. She heard a deep sigh tinged with sadness.
“Look upon me, Helgath.” The force disappeared, and she raised her head one inch at a time.
Beginning at the bottom of the throne made of bones, she continued to raise her head until she gazed upon the haunting splendor of her master. With dark purple skin, he only stood five and a half feet tall. His veins slithered around his body like parasitic worms, trying to break free from their prison.
A shadowy material from their homeland covered his lower body but left his feet bare. The only other clothing that dared to hide his beauty was a short black vest that hung on one side of his chest, barely reaching the bottom of his pectoral. After thousands of years of preferring to remain bare-chested, he had only recently started to wear the vest a few years ago.
Her eyes continued to rise until they finally reached the Prince’s face. He had serpent-like eyes that glowed a bright amethyst, illuminating the delicate features of his face. Short black hair that never grew, no matter how many millennia passed, adorned his head.
Atop his head, onyx-colored horns curled until they came to sharp points. The horns glistened from the purple glow of his eyes, and she risked being hypnotized by their magnificence. As unforgiving and brutal as her master may be, he was still the most beautiful creature that the banshee had ever laid eyes upon. No other being in the fae home world, or this new world they had become trapped in, had twisted her senses just by gazing upon their beauty.
Standing just behind his throne were a half dozen Sluagh, patiently awaiting their master’s orders. The noisy creatures remained silent, not making any of their nightmarish clicks. They would not dare in his presence.
Behind the Sluagh were the thousands of creatures that made up his army. Goblins, redcaps, trolls, Fachan, and other banshees like herself scattered around the clearing, remaining completely silent and unmoving. She followed the dull oranges and reds in the distance to see a hulking behemoth of molten rock. Deep in slumber, the elemental patiently awaited its master’s call. Hags stood in the shadows with dark cloaks covering their faces. Twitching with withdrawals, they struggled to avoid muttering their spells against whatever had enraged them that day.
If the Fae’s power wasn’t so reliant on their territories, they would have conquered this world centuries ago. But while in their territory? They were practically invincible.
“Helgath, what were my orders to you when you embarked from my home?” the Prince flashed his fanged teeth as he spoke.
“Master, you commanded me to act as a forward scout of the Baleful Fiend Pack’s territory. I was to assess any weakness in the perimeter and identify locations for the army to gather unmolested.”
“Yes, that’s right, my child.” The Prince’s eyes glowed brighter. “And tell me, my child. How did attacking a human caravan, so irrelevant to our plans, serve my orders? The wolves are now aware of our presence and will muster their defenses.”
“Master, we were scouting the perimeter of the territory when the human caravan appeared. I thought that if an alliance was being negotiated, it would hinder our plans. That is why I took the initiative to annihilate the human force. We even returned with crates of silver weapons to arm your servants with.” The banshee bowed her head once again and waited for judgment.
“Hmm. You thought?” The Prince stood up from his throne, his full majesty on display as black wings of shadow flared out behind him. “You do not think!” he yelled, raising his voice for the first time. “You have a singular purpose of existence: to serve my will!”
The banshee closed her eyes that were leaking blood onto the ground and gave a soft broken wail. A force slammed into the back of her head, and her life was snuffed out as easily as a child picking a flower.
***
“Eaganath!” the Prince called out. From behind his throne, the monsters shifted to create a path as a banshee clicked and clacked her way as fast as she could to stand before the throne. She avoided her now headless sister and knelt before her Prince. Blood from her sister’s corpse leaked onto her black dress, but she ignored it.
“You will lead my forces, and you will accomplish my will. Do not fail me!” The Prince sat back down on his throne, his wings of shadow folding onto his body once more.
“Yes, Master. I shall see it done.” The banshee stood, preparing to gather her forces.
“Oh, and Eaganath, do not kill any wolves until we are ready. We wouldn’t want my partner to die in the chaos.”
“Of course, Master. I will position the scouting force and wait for your commands.” She screeched out a wail that had some creatures passing out and others grabbing their heads in madness. Her wail fizzled out, and she started her crablike walk toward the main tunnel that had reappeared in the vines.
Behind her, the thunderous marching of thousands of creatures followed in her wake. This was but a small taste of the master’s forces and could only serve as a vanguard. Yet, it was a force large enough to decimate entire territories. This was the power of her Prince, and soon, they would attack the wolves with unbridled savagery.