Faded Memories #2: Rise of the Battle Faerie - Part Three

      She had just reached the large purple doors of the council room when a maid, a faerie Kau, came bustling out of them. Her eyes were wide and she stopped when she saw Valeane.

      “I would not go in there at this moment, my lady,” she said. “If you do, you may just need those swords you’re wearing.” Without another word, she scurried off in the opposite direction, casting frequent glances over her shoulder.

      Puzzled, Valeane cautiously opened the door and stuck her head in. Shouts and angry voices reached her ears and her eyes widened slightly at what she saw.

      Mithana and Prilla stood in the center of the room, arguing, their voices getting louder with each word they said. Both looked ready to tear the other apart. The queen and the remaining Uber Faeries sat at their desks with various expressions on their faces. Fyora sat with her head in her hands and appeared to be attempting to tune out the shouts of the light and dark faeries. Sheila and Rani watched with wide eyes and Sira the fire faerie looked exasperated. Lilia appeared to be decided which method would be more efficient in shutting her arguing co-councilors up, for in one hand she held a very large and presumably heavy book while in the other, a ball of green magic hovered about an inch from her palm.

      “If you would have done your job right, then this never would have happened!”

      “Easy for you to say, Prilla,” snapped Mithana, in return. “I’d like to see you deal with an egotistical, temperamental and, not to mention, very powerful dark faerie when she’s having a temper tantrum and see how you fare!”

      Valeane stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.

      “Do I want to know what happened?” she asked while the others turned to look at her.

      “NO!” shouted the arguing faeries in unison before continuing to scream at each other. Valeane went over to Fyora and pulled up and extra chair.

      “What happened?” she asked her sister. The queen sighed.

      “It’s actually nothing, really.” she said. “The other day, I sent Mithana over to talk to Jhudora about some complaints we’ve been getting from her questers.”

      “I’m guessing her reaction wasn’t good.” Valeane, like every other Neopian, knew of the dark faerie’s temper.

      “Well, she demanded to know who was complaining and Mithana made the mistake of naming the neopets.” Valeane winced.

      “What happened?” she asked. Sira, who had come up next to them, answered

      “Well, let’s just say they were all at the receiving end of a transformation spell which caused them to look like mortogs.” She sighed. “Prilla and Mithana had to go and change them back.”

      “Prilla and Mithana are always nagging at each other, though,” stated Fyora. “Having an excuse just makes it worse. Lilia, will you please shut them up!”

      “With pleasure,” said the earth faerie. Being unable to decide which of her two methods would be more efficient, the earth faerie proceeded to use both. Prilla instantly found herself unable to speak as a muting spell was thrown at her while Mithana had to sit down. The book Lilia had thrown at her caused her to see stars. The queen stood up.

      “Now, if you two are quite finished, we can proceed to move onto more important things.” She glared at them as they returned to their desks.

      “She started it,” muttered the dark faerie as she sat down. Prilla could only glare for Lilia’s silencing spell was still in effect.

      The rest of the meeting was fairly uneventful, for Lilia had conveniently forgotten to remove her spell and Mithana had too much of a headache to argue about anything.

      Later that day, when Valeane and Fyora were sitting in the queen’s study, Valeane remembered what the queen had said about her two quarreling council members.

      “Why do Mithana and Prilla nag at each other?” she questioned. Her younger sister sighed.

      “It’s because of the dark faeries,” she replied. “Most of them don’t do anything and are perfectly happy, but there are always exceptions.” Valeane nodded in understanding. After all, she was an ‘exception to the rules’ when it came to royal behavior.

      “There is a small group of dark faeries who continue to rebel against us and the council and I cannot do anything until they openly break the law.” The queen grimaced slightly. “It’s frustrating and Prilla tends to take out her frustration on Mithana.”

      “Why?” questioned Valeane. It did not sound like something the normally kind and accepting light faerie would do. Fyora shrugged.

      “Because she is a dark faerie; but Mithana does her fair share of nagging. Her temper is short and her tongue far sharper than it should be. It doesn’t help that the leader of the rebels is her cousin.”

      “What?” cried Valeane, sitting bolt upright. “The leader is her cousin?” She stared at her sister in disbelief. Fyora nodded.

      “I told you she came from a disreputable family. That doesn’t mean she is bad though or I would not have made her a council member.”

      “True,” agreed Valeane. It did not keep the thought from troubling her. A silence descended upon the sisters for several moments. “Do you think she would, you know, support them if they moved into open rebellion?” Valeane couldn’t help but ask.

      “Mithana? Support Sirine? Heavens no!” exclaimed the queen. She began to laugh. “The whole notion is just ridiculous. The two have hated each other since they could even feel the emotion and name it.” The queen paused, her face thoughtful. “You know, even if Mithana did wish for a rebellion of her element, she would still probably go against it for as long as Sirine led it. They despise each other that much.”

      This surprised Valeane. She couldn’t understand how to relatives could despise each other that much.

      “Then again,” she thought to herself. “The relationship I had with Thyora was definitely a hate-hate relationship.” She didn’t realize that her face clouded when she thought of their mother. Fyora did.

      “Are you alright?” she asked, concerned. “It doesn’t bother you, does it? Don’t judge Mithana too harshly. Her life hasn’t been the greatest and believe me when I say she has every reason to dislike her family members.”

      “Oh no,” Valeane hastily reassured her sister. “It just startled me a little.” The faerie stood and stretched her arms above her head. “I think I’ll go raid the kitchens.”

      Fyora was about to suggest calling a maid to go fetch the food when she noticed her sister’s face. While her expression was casual, Fyora could see that Valeane wanted to be alone. The queen nodded.

      Valeane strode out of the door. The queen had given her much food for thought.

      Late that night, a cloaked figure appeared in one of the castle windows. The faerie reached out and undid the latches which held the glass in place. She swung her legs over the windowsill and steadied herself before pushing away from the towering building. The faerie plummeted for several feet before large, Korbat like wings opened and held her aloft. As silent as the wind she flew over the palace guards and into the heart of Faerieland.

      The disguised faerie landed in the now deserted marketplace. She pulled back her hood in order to look around, revealing a mass raven black hair with streaks of dark purple running through it. Her violet eyes scanned the shadows around her.

      “Mithana,” a voice whispered from the shadows to her left. The young council member made her way over to the dark faerie that was crouched in the darkness next to a closed stall. Her eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.

      “Well?” demanded Mithana. The other faerie held out a pack which, when opened, proved to be filled with scrolls.

      “Sirine is preparing to attack soon. Be ready.” The faerie began to turn away but was stopped when Mithana grabbed her arm.

      “How soon?” she asked. The dark faerie pointed to the bag.

      “All of the plans are in there. Now if you will excuse me.” She tried to pull away but the younger faerie’s grasp held her in place.

      “If you dare betray us to--” Mithana was cut off by the faerie’s retort.

      “Save the speech,” she snapped. “You’ve warned me before. By the way, we’re going to need the palace layout soon if you want us to help. We don’t know how to get into the palace without alerting the enemy to our plans.”

      “You’ll get the layouts. I’ll give them to our other agent in the palace,” said Mithana. She let go of the dark faerie, who immediately disappeared into the shadows of the market place.

      The council faerie peered after her for several seconds before replacing her hood. With one more cautious look around her, the young dark faerie began to make her way back to the palace.

To be continued...