Not Her, Me #3
“If you had the fae king tied up, with no magic, what would you do to him?” I asked. This was one of our favorite nighttime pastimes—how to torture King Caedryn, each time the torture becoming wilder. Maybe I was a bad influence on my sweet, innocent little sister.
She contemplated for a few seconds before smiling a wicked grin, one feature we shared. As sweet as she was on the inside, she had mastered the same shit-eating grin I often wore. “Well, first I would cover him in tar and feathers and then make him crawl throughout the streets of the capital.”
Bless her, she was feisty. And maybe a bit twisted.
“Then I would make him watch while I burned all his precious clothes and jewels. What would you do, Naci?” she said through a laugh.
“Well, he hates mortals, so I guess I would make him take a potion that would make him mortal and then steal his throne. And then make him work in the horse stables, cleaning horse shit for the rest of his life.” I would do far worse than that if I ever got the chance, but Nella didn’t need to know that.
“He would hate that! I would put him in a dungeon covered with oil so he would slip everywhere he walked and cover his bed in chiggers and put rats in his pillow that would bite his ears when he slept!” Now she was laughing uncontrollably, and it was the best sound.
“Ah, too far with the chiggers! Nella, you mean little girl!” I laughed as I tussled her hair and pulled her closer to me so we lay with our heads on the same pillow. This game lightened our moods when we got into it. “So, what’s new? How was your day while I was at work?”
“Well.” Her smile faded, and she looked grave for a moment before continuing.
“The fires in the fireplaces have been growing weaker throughout town. And the water, well, it isn’t very clean.
Even ours tasted weird today, like metal.
And I heard the little neighbor boy crying earlier, saying he couldn’t see well enough in the evening darkness to play with his toys.
I think the fae are messing with our town’s magic again. ”
The damn fae. We relied too much on them and their magic to sustain mortal life, but King Fuck-all made sure of that.
The mortals here weren’t as lucky as those in Elyndor, where mortals and fae lived side by side in peace.
Caedryn was brutal and cruel to his mortal citizens in Ashenholt.
And our quiet queen just stood by while we suffered, going along with all the king’s twisted plans.
We didn’t get warm in the winter without the fae’s fire magic.
We didn’t get a cool breeze in our homes without their air magic in the sweltering summer heat.
Our crops didn’t grow, our water wasn’t clean, our houses weren’t lit at night without their stupid earth, water, and lightning magic.
And they expected us to be so grateful while they kept us under their control.
Fae giveth, and fae happily taketh away.
Often, they “forgot” to replenish the magic that sustained our life in the Mortal Lands of Ashenholt.
I think they just didn’t give a shit. We had a few half-fae here in Briarstead that weren’t so bad.
They chose a life on the mortal side of the alleged border, mostly for their mortal partners, and they pitched in where they could.
They were seen as no better than mortals by the king and went without as much as we did.
I compartmentalized the rage I felt at Nella’s words. The fae had made us their playthings for far too long, and I was almost desperate enough to do something about it. But what was one mortal girl going to do against a fae kingdom?
I couldn’t let Nella feel the weight of the truth—that we were insignificant and powerless in our world.
“Well, if that’s the case,” I said, “then I wouldn’t just embarrass the king.
I would force him to live every day in Briarstead the way we do.
Can you imagine the look on his face if his bedclothes weren’t perfectly warmed, or if he didn’t get to yell at a dozen people before breakfast?
I’d pay every coin I make for the rest of my life to see that look. ”
That got my sister full-on belly laughing, and it was the most wholesome and comforting sound.
We might be treated like shit by the fae, and even worse by our father and Aemilia, but as long as Nella could still laugh like that, then all was not lost. I just needed to make sure that the light in her never went out and the bleakness of reality never truly set in for her.
I pulled her closer to me in bed, and after her laughter faded, the late hour lulled her into a peaceful sleep.
For a long time, I laid there, holding her as I contemplated what in the world I was going to do next.
I needed to escape, but there was no way I could leave her here.
And where would we even go, even if we could leave?
I could seek answers from my mother, but I had no idea where she was or how to find her.
“One day soon,” I promised Nella, my voice barely above a whisper. “One day soon, we’re going to run and never look back.”