26. The Old Sky

Yarrow’s face twisted, and they somehow looked even more uncomfortable than before. Green eyes flickered down to stare at the ground. “Uh, well…”

Gloriana remained steadfastly turned away, clearly uninterested in being of help. Isaac sighed. “Look, how about you start by explaining the ‘Your Highness’ stuff and why a fey royal’s running around the woods alone.”

The fey royalty, from Isaac’s experience, was rather isolated, nearly as much as the Paradise angels. They never requested stat updates, and so he’d never seen them. All he knew was that the Woodlands apparently had a king who lived deep within the heart of the forest.

Yarrow coughed and looked around nervously.

“He’s the Traveler. There shouldn’t be any issues with telling him more,” Mortimer said. He hadn’t moved from where he stood a few feet away. Yarrow’s eyes briefly darted over to the man before quickly flickering away again. The fey cleared their throat without another word of acknowledgement.

“Well, Her Highness was selected by the forest to be our next ruler.” Yarrow winced. “I, uh, I’m one of the people who’s supposed to watch over her, but she disappeared and, well…”

“And you lost her.”

“W-well, Her Highness is quite fast.”

Isaac gave the fey an unimpressed look. He peered around at their surroundings. It was still beautiful in the daylight, but without the glowing lights and the shimmering ocean spray, it was decidedly more grounded, less ethereal. He frowned, glancing briefly over at Gloriana before he took a step closer to Yarrow and spoke in a quieter voice. “She kept saying she was looking for something, called this place ‘wrong.’ Any idea what that’s about?”

“Oh, that.” Yarrow visibly deflated. “That’s, well, you know about the Collapse, right?”

People called it different names, but “Collapse” was the most common term Isaac had encountered. From what he’d gathered over the years, the Underside had once looked quite different from what it was now. The subway lines connecting the realms hadn’t existed, for one, and some realms had been split apart while others were merged together. This shifting of realms had apparently been Lilith’s first official act as the “god” of the place.

The woman, when he’d asked her about it, had said it was to “keep the peace,” “restore balance,” and other esoteric, mysterious phrases that he hadn’t been particularly keen on parsing. All Isaac knew was that it had been an initial attempt at creating peace, while the implementation of the current system was the final piece that completed the puzzle the Collapse had laid out.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it,” he said. Yarrow nodded.

“Well, Her Highness was chosen before the Collapse—“

“Hang on,” Isaac interrupted. “How old is she?” Long life spans weren’t uncommon in the Underside, sure, but usually the people who’d lived centuries looked like, well, adults.

Yarrow frowned, shifting their weight from one foot to another. “Well, that’s kind of the problem. Fey age when we want to, so like when we’re mentally ready our bodies also grow.” Their eyes drifted over to Gloriana, then hastily reverted back to staring at the ground. “Her Highness stopped aging after the Collapse. She’s been stuck like this for a long time.” Their voice quieted to barely above a whisper. “She took the Collapse quite hard. I don’t think she ever really accepted it, and so, well…” The fey gestured vaguely, and Isaac nodded slowly in understanding.

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“So she was looking for something from before the Collapse?”

“Most likely, yes.” Yarrow released a long sigh. “She misses what the old dawn looks like, I think. Whenever a period of night lasts long enough, she’ll disappear to a new place. Of course, the time shifts look the same everywhere, but well, she never listens when we tell her.”

Isaac looked up, frowning at the expanse of deep blue and the faint outlines of the silvery moons. He couldn’t imagine a different sky; he’d grown so used to the Woodlands’ weird times of day that anything more regular felt distinctly wrong to him. But, to the fey who’d lived there for so long, he supposed it was the opposite.

“…What did the old sky look like?” he found himself asking.

Nostalgia filled the fey’s green eyes. “It was really beautiful,” they said. “Even more beautiful than this one.” They shook their head. “Well, it’s not coming back. I just wish Her Highness could accept it soon.”

Isaac furrowed his brow. “What happens if she doesn’t?”

Yarrow looked uncomfortable at the question. “Well, she likely would continue to not age.” They swallowed. “Uh, the fey wouldn’t let her take the throne like this. It’s… kind of a problem right now, with His Majesty’s health getting worse. The forest chooses our ruler, so we can’t pick a new one while Her Highness lives either.”

Isaac frowned. “That’s—“

“Oh! But you don’t have to worry about it, this doesn’t concern you! We, uh, we’ll figure it out ourselves! I’m sorry for rambling so much! And for earlier, on the subway,” they added, wincing slightly at the memory.

Isaac shook his head. “I told you, it’s fine. You’re not the first person to accidentally attack me,” he said wryly. He paused, thinking. “You know, if seeing the old dawn’s the problem, couldn’t you ask Lilith to revert the sky for a day or something? Just to give Gloriana some closure, maybe.”

Something dark flickered in the fey’s eyes, boiling and fiery in a sea of dark green before it was replaced, almost as quickly as it had appeared, with a more familiar unease. “Oh, well, I couldn’t just… talk to her out of nowhere like that.” They fidgeted.

“She’s really not scary. At all.”

Yarrow didn’t look like they believed him. Isaac thought about that weird demon on the subway, the way he’d become alert only when the tablet had glowed gold and Lilith’s voice had emanated out and filled the subway car. He stared at Yarrow, the way the fey wouldn’t meet his eyes, the way they tapped their fingers along their arm, and decided to drop the subject.

“Okay, fine. Just make sure to watch Gloriana better, okay? If Mortimer wasn’t here she would’ve fallen into that ravine.” He nodded his head back at the man in question, who, as expected, Yarrow made no move to look at.

“Yes, of course, thank you so much for watching her! Is there, uh, is there anything I can do to repay you?”

Isaac frowned, staring down at the tablet screen and remembering why he was even in the Woodlands to begin with. It had been easy to forget while they were trekking through the forest. He groaned, but barreled forward with the question before he could get embarrassed. “Don’t question it, but is there, like, an animal or something in the Woodlands with good intuition? Like a good judge of character?”

Yarrow blinked a couple of times. “Like a unicorn?”

“Sure.” Isaac didn’t know if it was like a unicorn at all.

The fey shook their head. “No, there’s nothing like that anymore. After the Collapse, most of the forest creatures didn’t survive the environment changes.”

“Oh.” That was… disconcerting.

“Good luck though!” Yarrow seemed intent on making a good impression, if the amount of energy in their words was any indication. Isaac just nodded, unsure of what else he could say.