The Phoenix Dawning #4
I heard the clattering of carriages, accompanied by the sound of hooves.
Chatter filled the streets as people conversed in Malovian, their words aggressive as thick consonants and heavy vowel shifts echoed through the air.
I’d studied some Elvish, but it was nothing like the fae language, so I had no idea what any of them were saying.
Eiragrad is quite large, Oberi noted. Each building here is painted black, constructed out of elaborate stone.
Turrets, spires and domed towers are everywhere.
The streets are made of silver glass, which curve underneath stone arches.
Monuments and statues are placed on every corner, and the roads wind beside canals, which the fae sail upon in black gondolas.
Waterfalls cascade off the towers and into the canal to keep the water flowing.
There’s a great clock tower, and stained glass on each building.
It nearly looks like one massive cathedral.
Every stone is inscribed with some sort of strange runes. Fae, I would guess.
How old do you think this place is? I was worried there were ancient beings here not yet discovered that would be a threat to us.
I believe this city was constructed in the middle ages, thousands of years ago, but it’s been modernized by the fae who live here.
I’ve been to many places, but Eiragrad might be the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen, even when compared to Ilamanthe’s glory.
Not even the nobility of the Elves can compete.
If we had come here on our own terms, it would’ve been interesting to tour the city. Now that Casey was missing, I really couldn’t care less about my surroundings.
Emma wasn’t messing around. She moved so quickly that the rest of us had to jog to keep up with her and Ava needed to use the highest speed on her chair to keep up.
“We need to move quickly through Eiragrad and to the Great Hunting Grounds. Ava will go insane within hours if we don’t hurry into the Blessed Haven, and despite the rest of us having fae or Elvish ancestry, we’ll be stuck here permanently if we take more than a few days.
The world of Edinmyre doesn’t allow its visitors to leave once they’ve overstayed their welcome,” Emma explained.
People cheered and clapped as Emma led the way through the streets. These fae appreciated her— a very high compliment from a tough crowd of people to please.
Kallie slammed into somebody up ahead, probably by accident.
I think whoever she’d run into was apologizing, but Kallie let out a string of harsh Malovian that sounded like insults as she shoved the other girl.
The fae she’d run into said something just as harsh before muttering a few curses and storming off.
“Hey! You can’t talk to my fiancé that way!” Marcus had apparently been practicing Malovian. He went to chase after whoever had run into Kallie, but she held him back.
“It’s not a big deal, Marcus. Just let it be.” Kallie’s tone was easygoing, like this kind of behavior was to be expected in her country.
“That was a pretty big fight!” Marcus yelled. “Are you really going to let that lady talk to you like that?”
“Well, I called her some pretty shitty things first. It’s our culture,” Kallie explained casually. “This is how fae talk to each other. It’s not offensive, promise.”
“It’s not offensive to yell at a stranger in the middle of the street!?” Marcus blurted. “This would never happen in Octavia Falls!”
“Marcus, we don’t have time for this,” Ava snapped. “Move.”
He shut up. A chilly wind hit my face as the streets opened up wider. There was more air here— I think we’d reached an open square.
“There are two types of fae, Seelie and Unseelie,” Emma stated as we strolled through Eiragrad’s streets.
“Seelie fae, the day court, specialize in what’s known as light magic, and Unseelie fae, the night court, specialize in dark magic, though that type of thinking fell out of fashion once my husband and I claimed the throne. ”
“Once you made people change their minds, you mean,” Kallie corrected. “Fae no longer think of things in terms of good and bad. You and Dad helped the fae return to their ancestral roots, and understand there’s no such thing as true holiness or pure evil.”
“That’s your opinion, Kallie.” Emma didn’t care to take credit for the immense work she’d done.
“Well, it’s the truth,” Kallie grumbled in annoyance. “You know I’m right.”
Emma ignored her. “The fae living in Eiragrad are mostly Unseelie. The dark fae relocated here after the Malovian Revolution.”
“Does that mean they worship the dark gods?” I didn’t know if we could trust these fae. Kallie’s family ruled over them, but that didn’t mean they were on our side.
“Yes and no. The fae pantheon is a complex religion, but nobody here wants to work for Ophio Taurus.” I could hear the grin in Emma’s voice.
“The Unseelie fae barely like taking orders from their own monarchy. They are far from pleased at being told what to do by an angel, who most Unseelie consider beneath them.”
“So the fae here in Eiragrad are living, correct?” Marcus asked curiously.
“Yes. These are mortal fae, although once their bodies are buried within Eiragrad’s soil, their souls will travel across the land to go through the gates to the Great Hunting Grounds… hopefully.”
Clearly, the gates weren’t open now that the connection between the realm of the living and the dead was broken.
This secondary boundary Emma had been working on forging passage through was our only way in, though I didn’t think souls were capable of crossing this same path.
Those souls were getting stuck in the in-between just like everyone else.
“Edinmyre is unique in that it’s the only supernatural realm that is its own planet.
It is a part of the realm of the living, and the realm of the dead.
It doesn’t follow the laws of nature. There are some areas of the planet that are always spring, and other areas, like here, that are always winter.
It’s a completely supernatural world bound by illusion magic alone.
” Emma paused, catching her breath. “The boundary to the Great Hunting Grounds is far away from here, but I have help to get us there.”
The whoosh of wings came from high above us, and my hair was blown back. The ground shook beneath me as a dragon landed, letting out a loud rumble.
“Em, can we hurry up and go? I’d really like not to get stuck here,” the dragon complained, scratching his scales with his claws. I recognized the voice of Kallie's uncle, Stefan.
“The faster you fly, the quicker you can go back home.” Her hand thumped heavily on Stefan’s side as she added, “Kallie, Marcus, climb on.”
As they approached Stefan, I heard the padding of soft paws beside me that were different from Oberi’s, and sensed a powerful wolven presence with my magic. It was unmistakably Kallie’s father.
“We’ve been waiting for you since we received word your son was missing,” Ethan said, rustling his feathery wings against his wolfish body. “Trust me when I say we will fly as fast as we can to help you reach him.”
“Thank you.” The quiet response was all I could manage to say.
Emma climbed onto Ethan’s back, while Oberi shifted into a wyvern.
I reached out to help Ava from her chair, but before I could, she’d already strung her bow around her torso and grabbed on to one of Oberi’s spikes to pull herself on.
She used her upper body strength to climb up Oberi’s shoulder, grabbing one of her legs to swing herself over the spot on his neck where she usually sat, buckling herself into his saddle.
I didn’t know if she’d outright refused my help, or if she was in such a hurry to find Casey she wasn’t going to wait around for someone else to lend a hand.
As devastating as it felt to let her down again, now wasn’t the time to question where Ava and I stood.
We’d signed those divorce papers, which meant we’d decided together that we were done.
Getting our son back was more important than the chasm that’d torn through the middle of our failed relationship.
We were more divided than ever, but right now, we had to come together for Casey’s sake.
I transformed into a wyvern myself, spreading my wings before we rose into flight.
Marcus subconjured Ava’s chair before he climbed onto Stefan’s back beside Kallie, and we took off.
The snow got heavier once we gained altitude, but I flew into the storm headfirst and didn’t allow it to slow me down, trusting Oberi to guide me as he trailed Ethan’s lead toward the Great Hunting Grounds.
“I noticed all the guys in Eiragrad were in their shifter forms. I didn’t see any men walking around, just sorceresses.
Are they stuck or something?” Marcus was attempting to distract us during the long flight by starting a conversation, but it wouldn’t work.
All I could think of was my son, and I knew Ava felt the same.
If we still had a bond, I’d be able to reach out to her through our connection, comfort her somehow even though that affection wouldn’t dampen our suffering.
But because we didn’t, we were both left to languish in our misery.
“Male fae are forced to take our shifter forms here in Edinmyre at all times, save for certain situations,” Ethan explained.
“What kind of situations?” Marcus asked dully. Under her breath, Kallie snickered.
“Ethan’s too stuck up to say that males living in Edinmyre can’t shift back into men unless it’s time to fuck,” Stefan joked. “We can transform to pleasure our mates and make babies, and the rest of the time, we’re stuck in our fur, feathers and scales.”
“Lovely, Stefan. You always explain things so eloquently,” Emma replied sarcastically.
“You’re welcome, Em.” A bit of smoke hit my nose as Stefan emitted a playful jet of fire.