Chapter 19 #2
“What about the wildlings?” I asked, pushing the philosophical thoughts aside for something more practical. “The creatures that helped us before. If we could find them, maybe they could guide us to safety. Or at least slow the fae hounds down. Give us time to reach the court.”
“I’ve been looking.” Fizzle’s voice was troubled, the usual sharp confidence absent from his tone. “I’ve sent calls out into the forest, used the old signals that the wildlings know. I’ve searched for their trails, their scent markers, any sign of their presence.”
“And?”
“They’re nowhere to be found. Which is... concerning.”
“Concerning how?”
“The wildlings should be here, Tank. This is their territory as much as it is the fae hounds’.
They’ve lived in these forests for millennia, maintaining their own territories, their own hierarchies.
They don’t flee easily. They don’t abandon their homes without reason.
” His talons tightened on my shoulder again, not painfully this time, but with a kind of unconscious anxiety that I’d rarely seen from him.
“If they’re not here, if they’ve fled or been driven away, there has to be a reason. A powerful one.”
I didn’t like the implications of that. If something had scared away the wildlings, the creatures who had lived in this forest since before the courts existed, then that something was probably still here. Probably watching us right now.
“There was always a balance in Nymeria,” Fizzle continued, his voice taking on the tone of someone reciting ancient history.
“Between the things that were wild and the things that were not quite as wild as the rest. The fae hounds and the wildlings, the predators and the protectors. The creatures that hunted and the creatures that sheltered. Nymeria herself was the one who kept that balance. She was the mediator, the moderator, the force that kept her creations from destroying each other.” His feathers ruffled with agitation.
“But she’s not just weakened now. There are forces actively working against her.
Undermining her control. Turning her own creations against her.
The fae hounds answering to Arik. The nightmares spreading through the realm.
The barriers between the courts crumbling. ”
“Arik.”
“Arik and whatever power he’s tapped into.
The nightmares. The dark magic of the Winter Court.
The ancient things that should have stayed buried.
” Fizzle’s voice grew heavier with each word.
“Perhaps other things we haven’t discovered yet.
Things that have been waiting in the shadows for an opportunity like this.
Things that smell weakness and are gathering to feast.”
His feathers flattened against his body, a sign of distress I’d rarely seen from him. Fizzle was ancient, confident, irritatingly certain of himself at all times. Seeing him scared was more unnerving than anything else that had happened in this forest.
“This is the crisis Nymeria was trying to prevent, Tank. The thing she created Alyssa to stop. The reason she was willing to pour so much of herself into making a daughter who could succeed where her son had failed.” His talons dug deeper into my shoulder, drawing blood, though I didn’t think he was aware of it. “The beginning of the end.”
The words hung in the air between us, heavy with implication. I felt the bear stir in my chest, not with hunger this time, but with something that felt almost like dread.
“I had hoped we’d have more time,” Fizzle continued quietly.
“Time to train Alyssa, to build her strength, to prepare her for what was coming. Time to gather allies, to fortify our position, to give her the tools she’d need to face what was coming.
But the scales have already tipped too far.
The fae hounds running free, the wildlings in hiding, the creatures of the forest turning against the very realm that gave them life. It might already be too late.”
“What happens then?” I asked, though part of me didn’t want to know the answer. “If the balance breaks completely. If Nymeria loses control entirely.”
Fizzle was quiet for a long moment. I could feel the weight of his silence, the centuries of knowledge pressing down on him. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.
“The realm will crack open. All the things that Nymeria kept contained, all the forces that she held in check, they’ll come spilling out.
Chaos. Pure, undiluted chaos. The barriers between what should be and what could be will dissolve, and everything that lives in the darkness between worlds will pour through the cracks.
” His eyes met mine, ancient and afraid in a way I’d never seen before.
“That’s what Arik wants, you know. Not to rule Nymeria.
Not to claim her power for himself. He wants to break everything.
To tear down the walls and let the chaos consume it all.
Because he can’t be what Nymeria wanted him to be, so he’s decided nothing should exist at all. ”
I let that sink in. Let myself truly understand, for the first time, what we were fighting against. Not just a tyrant.
Not just a corrupted prince with delusions of grandeur.
But a force of annihilation wrapped in mortal flesh.
Someone who wanted to destroy everything because he couldn’t have anything.
It should have been terrifying. And it was, in a distant sort of way. But the bear inside me didn’t feel terror. The bear felt determination. The bear felt purpose.
This was what we were here for. This was why we’d been brought together, why we’d been given these powers, why fate or destiny or Nymeria herself had woven our lives into Alyssa’s. To stop this. To hold back the darkness.
“Then we can’t let him win,” I said simply.
Fizzle’s laugh was tired but genuine, carrying decades of weariness and a spark of hope that refused to die.
“No. We cannot. And that’s why we keep walking, Tank.
That’s why we don’t let the berserker out, no matter how much he wants to play.
Because if we die here, in this forest, surrounded by fae hounds and whatever else Arik has sent to stop us, then there’s no one left.
Alyssa won’t make it to the Fifth Court.
She won’t get the answers she needs. And Arik wins everything. ”
I let that sink in. The weight of it. The responsibility.
We weren’t just fighting for ourselves anymore.
We weren’t even just fighting for Alyssa.
We were fighting for an entire realm. For everyone who would suffer if we failed.
For everyone who was counting on us even though they didn’t know our names.
The bear settled slightly in my chest. Not calm, never calm, but focused. He understood now. This wasn’t the time for rage. This was the time for patience. The time for endurance. The time to be the anchor that held everyone else together.
We walked in silence for a while after that, the weight of the conversation settling around us like a cloak.
The forest pressed close on all sides, the shadows between the trees darker than they had any right to be.
I could still feel the fae hounds out there, circling, watching, waiting.
But they hadn’t attacked yet. They were biding their time. Waiting for the perfect moment.
We just had to make sure that moment never came.
I kept my hand on my weapon and my bear just barely leashed, and I prayed that whatever was coming, we’d be strong enough to survive it.
Because if we couldn’t, if we fell here in this forest, there would be no one left to stop Arik.
No one left to save this realm. No one left to prevent the end of everything.
The bear rumbled his agreement. We will not fall, he promised, and for once there was no bloodlust in his voice.
Just determination. Just the iron certainty of a creature that had never lost a fight and didn’t intend to start now.
They will break against us like waves against stone.
And when we reach the Fifth Court, when Alyssa gets the power she needs, we will tear Arik apart together.
I hoped he was right. I hoped we all made it that far.
But for now, all we could do was keep walking. One step at a time. Into the darkness. Into the danger.
Toward the only hope we had left.