Chapter 21 Adaela
Underhill
Iwas in trouble again. Father, King Cernunnos, was on a rampage.
His rival, King Oberon, had gained a stronghold in Underhill overnight.
I’d been asleep, but that was no excuse for father.
He believed it was my duty to kill anyone who breached our borders.
I believed differently. My father had been slowly starving our citizens for centuries.
It made them more desperate to do his bidding.
They’d receive food and shelter if and only if they ceded to his demands.
There was something inherently wrong with this, and I often fought this in ways I could, like sneaking out food, or sending a healer when needed.
However, because of my place as his daughter, I never went without, and that didn’t sit right with me.
I was often strung up in this very place because I was caught giving my food to those who needed it more.
I spent as much time in the libraries as possible, learning about our peoples’ history, and quietly reading texts about other beings as well.
I was the strongest Fae alive. My father didn’t have power over anything other than beasts, but the Unseelie court was full of beasts.
His reign of terror knew no bounds, and they were often subjected to do his bidding without their consent.
Father was hateful, cruel, and gave our courts the reputation of being ruthless killers.
Under his rule, we were. There were only two things holding him in power: his ability to call the Sluagh—the Wild Hunt—and me.
Since the Sluagh were flying creatures, often seen as ravens individually, his control over beasts made it possible for him to strike fear in anyone who crossed him.
My shadows were technically also beasts who would do his bidding if coerced.
However, I’d quietly amassed strength over the centuries, which was unheard of once Fae reached adulthood.
What my father didn’t know was that I’d mastered my shadows, and I was stronger than him.
My shadows were part of the Sluagh, and was often what he called upon to control me, though I’d been learning how to ignore his calls for some time.
I never got the chance to know my mother.
She was murdered by my father’s sycophants shortly after she birthed me, but traditionally, the Fae were a matriarchal society.
Underhill only granted its gifts to us, and my father was determined to change that.
Instead, I was subjected to carrying out his will.
I could’ve killed him many times over, but I was playing the long game.
I needed to be careful and strategize the outcome before I was responsible for the genocide of an entire people.
My father consistently held that over my head.
I thought of my beautiful Sabine as I wasted away in chains.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been here this time, but she wouldn’t come.
She couldn’t. She’d been with me since childhood, first as my childhood friend, then more as the years went on.
It was in secret, always had been. She was my confidant, my lover, and my mate.
My father could never know, because he’d have her killed.
He thought love was weak. I thought it gave me purpose.
My love for her helped me learn how to love my people when I was separated from them.
I was to be seen and not heard, according to my father, unless he wanted to show his prized daughter off.
I was never brought into battle unless my powers would grant my father his greatest desires.
Footsteps echoed off the stone walls of the hallway, and from the sound, I knew who was on their way here.
It was what brought me out of my rambling thoughts about the past, about my father, about Sabine.
Those steps could only be the king himself.
I couldn’t remember the last time he’d graced me with his presence here, but my pulse pounded, death magic fighting off the effects of the iron around my wrists.
If he was coming, it only meant one thing. Someone was going to die.
The iron shackles my father loved to bind me in prevented me from being able to tap into my powers.
I couldn’t summon my shadows, cast glamour, or use my death magic.
It meant I’d have to use my wit, and that was a game Father was still better at than me.
I hated the underlying games my people played—especially the Sidhe.
I saw his horns before I saw him, as he had to duck to get his body into the room. I schooled my expression to a placid, meditative-like state. “Father. Welcome,” I rasped out. I’d been here longer than I thought if my voice was this hoarse.
“Daughter. It is time for you to use your training. I’ve found what your mother hid from me, and it’s time I get it back,” he said, casually inspecting the iron around my wrists.
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. This was never a conversation I’d had with him before. What had my mother hidden from him? He’d never mentioned it previously, which likely meant that he’d been quietly using the Sluagh to search for it since my birth.
“What has she hidden from you, Your Highness?” I asked.
Instead of answering, he backhanded me hard across the face.
I gritted my teeth as my cheek split with the full effect of the rings he kept on his hand for such purposes.
I wouldn’t cry out. That was the sick satisfaction he wanted.
“I didn’t tell you that you could speak, daughter.
You will listen, and then you will be tasked with retrieval.
That is all. Do you hear me?” he demanded.
I nodded, gritting my teeth so I wouldn’t talk back.
He would never have whatever it was he was searching for.
I wouldn’t, no, couldn’t allow it. As Cernunnos began his rant, sounding more unhinged than ever, I knew in my bones that he must never have this object in his possession.
It was a weapon, forged in the fires of Olympus by my mother, Skuld, the Stag, and some of the goddesses of the Greek pantheon.
This sword was designed to help the women of our court hold power in case someone like my father had gained access to the courts.
The sword held unimaginable power, for whomever wielded it, could take the power of the being they’d slain with it.
My father planned to murder me by this sword. If he had my powers, he would be unstoppable. I couldn’t let that happen, but I couldn’t refuse this quest either. It would give me reprieve from this gods forsaken place. Anywhere was better than here.
It took me years to find Tartarus. My travels were mostly alone, though the Sluagh would often check in on my progress.
I’d first had to find a portal. That portal wasn’t easy to find, since it was inside the Dark Wood, but under the Spring’s territory.
I’d met the Stag, who helped me find my strength, and had met with Baba Yaga, who was sitting with a friend when I happened upon her hut.
Her friend, Atropos, was waiting for me.
I told them both of my mission, and they’d both held grim expressions.
I was sure they could see the same upon my own face.
When I told Atropos of my goal to get to Tartarus, she’d reluctantly agreed to helping me find the correct portal to get closer.
I traveled through the Demon Realm to get there, a place the Sluagh couldn’t breach.
I met many different beings during my stent through Hell to get to Tartarus, and it only strengthened my resolve that I would have to outwit my father.
I longed for the days when I wouldn’t be under his purview anymore.
He was the only family I had left, and after making my way through Hell, I realized that had to mean something.
Many demons were proud of their heritage, and their worldviews closely resembled my father’s.
I didn’t want to be alone in the world. I had already been alone for so long.
It had probably been close to a century since I’d been home.
Time moved differently between Hell, Underhill, and the other many realms I’d yet to visit.
I missed Sabine desperately, but that was all.
She was the only being in my life who had understood me.
I hadn’t ever kept a secret from her. However, my travels through the Demon Realm were eye-opening, and I now had many new stories to tell her.
I’d finally had my taste of freedom, but knew that was quickly ending. I’d reached Tartarus.
After fighting my way through harpies, through mazes, and finding that the Lus Mór surrounded several areas, I’d had my work cut out for me. I was exhausted down to my marrow.
My mother had played a part in Tartarus’s creation, but I wasn’t sure to what extent.
I was taking a small break in the largest hall I’d ever been in, admiring the architecture my mother had likely had a hand in creating, and wondering what my life would have been like had she been around to raise me.
Ivory pillars reached thousands of feet in the air, the ceiling was coffered in gold, which reflected the lights of the torches scattered throughout the vast room.
It was so large that I couldn’t see an end in sight.
The floor was dusty, but appeared to be made of broken marble pieces that once were likely polished to brilliance.
I was admiring the Byzantine-like architecture when I heard a deep, rumbling chuckle.
One that shook the ground I was walking on, and with a trembling breath, I stopped as I’d reached my destination.
“Cronus, it’s an honor to finally meet you.” I bowed low, touching my nose to the stones below me.
“I knew this day would come eventually, young one,” he said. His voice was like the plates beneath my feet. It was a deep rumble, and his voice alone struck fear in me.
“You know what I’m here for, then?” I asked.
“Yes. It has been foretold,” he answered matter-of-factly.
“How do I acquire this sword?” I still faced down, not daring to move from my prone position until I was granted clemency.
“Stand, child. You must simply answer a riddle. I have two items in my possession. This riddle will give you what you seek, but since your father knows of its existence, that means the other item in my possession is also no longer safe. Your mother, long ago, told me that you would be able to keep it safe. Your father must never know of its existence. Can you keep a secret, Adaela òDubhlaoich?” he demanded.
Could I? I’d certainly kept a lot from my father. The only person I’d never kept secrets from was Sabine. But did she really have to know? She wouldn’t know that I’d had two items. “Yes,” I said. Succinct. I could do this.
Cronus began his riddle after a brief pause:
“The day chases night,
As the stream chases the bank.
Love for a cousin
Breeds competition for rank
Love and hate collide
Breaking all the rules
A different chase
Relents to the fools
Who are they?”
I thought about this for a moment, remembering texts about Greek Mythology in the library.
A poet named Parthenius had retold this story, but I wasn’t quite interested in it at the time.
I was searching for ways to end my father’s reign.
It couldn’t be Cronus’s sons, since they weren’t cousins, but maybe their children?
I only had one guess, so I had to get this right.
The answer finally came to me. “Apollo, Eros, and Daphne,” I practically shouted, excited that I figured it out.
Cronus’s chuckle rumbled the earth below my feet again, and I braced myself so I wouldn’t fall, finally looking up at the God for the first time.
He was massive. I’d never, in all my years, seen anyone his size.
He was at least one thousand feet tall. I barely came up to his big toe.
I was glad I hadn’t had the opportunity to see him before I figured out the riddle.
I almost shit myself at how large he was.
“Good, little one. I can sense your immense power. I know you’re not done growing yet. Your mother told me you’d be a challenge for Cernnunos,” he said.
“I hope so,” I replied, not knowing what to say. I hadn’t known my mother had been fighting against my father until I was tasked with this quest.
Two items appeared in front of me as Cronus bent his knees to get closer to me. He was still several hundred feet tall, so it did little for me, but gently, he laid down the sword, as big as the tip of his fingernail, and an item much smaller, a jar of some sort.
“This is Pandora’s Box. I’m assuming you’ve heard of it, no?” he asked.
I picked up the jar to examine it, noticing the shadow of a snake come creeping through the top of the lid. I sucked in a breath, almost dropping the jar. The earth shuddered underneath me again as Cronus laughed.
“Careful, little one. That jar holds the end of the world as we know it. Keep it safe,” he said.
“Why are you entrusting me with this?” I asked.
“Because you are the prophesied one.” And with that, Cronus stood, turned, and left through the enormous room that reminded me of Saint Paul’s Cathedral if it were built for the giants of old. I watched as Cronus made his exit, entombed in Tartarus forever more.