The Curse of Talador: Fate - Part Two

     "Come," echoed a soft, soothing voice through my head. "Come to me and you shall feel pain no longer."

     I felt light and graceful, and took a step towards the voice like a bell. A faerie dressed completely in white, bathed in the light shining down, was gently coaxing me to her. Before I could take the second step yet another light pierced through the blackness.

     "Siyana."

     The second voice reverberated into every corner and angle of this strange, strange world. Her voice was deeper, like the deep sea blue that was found only in the darkest of oceans. Just like the one that had claimed me and countless others.

     I know I'm using improper grammar, but it's impossible to retain my skills right now, for I am running out of time to tell you the tale of my life.

     "If you follow me, you will be taken back, back to where the sun shines and the wind blows."

     This Faerie was wearing a flowing turquoise gown. She and her companion waited for my choice, as if it were the most important choice I could make.

     At that moment it all made sense to me. I was choosing life over death, or vice versa.

     Then I stepped forward under the blue light and awaited my fate.

     For a moment both Faeries merely smiled. I caught a glimpse of four distant, faded pets with identical rippling muscles under their sleek variety of pelts. "A worthy choice," they all echoed, unsheathing their claws.

     Then, in a rush of wind, water, fire, and light at the same time, I was going back.

     ~*~

     "Four will become one... "

     "Only then shall light and dark meet... "

     "One must fail the quest of battle... "

     So... that must mean something about light and dark Faeries... I thought weakly.

     "Dawn will rise upon the city of grey... "

     "... 'Til midnight dawn comes to hunt... "

     "And dark rules an eternity... "

     "Yet not forevermore."

     Wait... my confused mind was trying to make sense of all this. I didn't know what the first line meant, but the second line... light and dark...

     Well, I am the last Light Faerie, so that means the Darkest Faerie and myself... don't know that next line, 'one must fail the quest of battle,' skip that. Next line... um... don't know that, either.

     As for midnight dawn...

     I shuddered. Midnight dawn - it was a phrase for death in Talador. The last two parts meant that darkness will rule what is said to be eternity, but something, or someone, will thwart that darkness...

     Wait.

     Light and dark will meet. One will fail.

     I would meet the Darkest Faerie in battle. And one of us would not survive the encounter.

     My people's message had just prophesied my death.

     ~*~

     A blinding light pierced my vision. I was lying in an elegant canopy bed with the drapes pulled back, sunlight streaming through into my eyes. Someone was speaking in the ancient Taladorian language, a simple comfort of home - then I realized the voice was performing the death ritual.

     All that is involved is an ancient chant at the bedside of the dead. "Enetu vno khal karra veta," she sang quietly, her voice ringing like a bell.

     I opened my eyes. An Air Faerie knelt on the floor. It is time to put aside the past, I translated into English mentally.

     "Nai ko khal har ena veta."

     Let the soul rise up to the sun...

     "Ekva kerra no-"

     "-kela onv fala," I finished for her.

     The Air Faerie looked taken aback. "What - you're - you're alive?" she managed.

     I nodded.

     "I know what you are. You're a Light Faerie!"

     Thinking back earlier to the Dark Faerie, I rolled my eyes good-naturedly and replied, "It seems a lot of people are starting to realize that."

     "My name is Airia. And you are?"

     "Siyana. Siyana of Talador."

     Airia paused and glanced at me, confused. "Where and what is Talador?"

     I knew this question would come up. Somehow, I couldn't manage to find the right string of words. "It was a city annihilated by the Darkest Faerie," I whispered. "Where do you come from?"

     "I? I do not know what has become of my city since I left. It was called Lotadar," she said, pronouncing the name with her slight hint of an accent. "All I know and have heard is that the city was... Tainted."

     "What?"

     "By the Darkest Faerie. Everything and everyone there became creatures of darkness, horrible red-eyed and dark-hearted souls. Some say the people themselves are alive but helpless, and watching what is happening as they take orders from that filthy creature. I was lucky... I escaped using a power I was born with: invisibility."

     She shuddered and lapsed into silence. "Something else happened... she heard me escaping. What a fool I was! She shot a curse at me... and since then, I have been cursed with holding my silence."

     I gazed at her. "But, then if you must -"

     "I can never tell you any of my secrets. Not as long as I live."

     The sorrow in Airia's eyes showed me her pain, though her facial expression was impassive.

     "I was cursed as well," I whispered. "The Darkest Faerie was going to try and curse my friend... so I took the blow instead. The moment I realized what I had done, I knew I shouldn't have. Then I thought back, and if Tryssa had been cursed, it would have been all the more horrible for her. I was glad to have chosen my fate," I said, yet a bitter resentment stung my voice.

     "What is your curse?" asked Airia.

     I gazed at her, my eyes full of pain.

     "Remembrance. As long as I live, until the end of time, I will never forget anything. Not now, not ever."

     "I thought I had it horrible... if there's anyone who lives in misery more than me, it's you." We shared similar, if not the same, fates.

     "By the way... was it you who rescued me from the ocean?"

     "Yes. But by the time I had reached you, you were unconscious. I quickly transported myself and you to the palace. Fyora... the queen... saw you and knew at once."

     "Knew what?"

     "That you were dead, Siyana. You had drowned."

     An icy calm gripped me. I swallowed, and said in a would-be-calm voice, "Then if you didn't save me, who did?"

     "I don't know, Siyana. I think... I think it was your own sacrifice that saved you."

     I paused briefly, then told Airia about the two Faeries bathed in the lights.

     "That," she said, "shows that it was your own sacrifice for your friend that saved you. You were given a second chance."

     "One more question: How did you know how to perform the Taladorian death honors?"

     "Fyora taught me the rituals, along with the language. So - now that you've recovered your strength, I believe the queen herself is calling for us."

     Sure enough, through the marble hallways and high-ceilinged rooms rang Queen Fyora's voice. "Come, Siyana, Airia."

     The Air Faerie rose to her feet; I followed. I knew not my way around Fyora's palace and could not distinguish the differences in rooms. "Welcome, dear Light Faerie," she greeted me. "It has been long since your kind visited this palace, or this city, for that matter. Now... you need not explain your plight; we shall do a simple memory transfer."

     I nodded. It was simple magic. I imagined most of what I had explained to Airia, then conjured a golden ball with our voices echoing faintly within. There were no images, only sound.

     The queen's magenta scepter absorbed the memory, and I heard my voice among the many already inside. "That was quite a splendid bit of magic. As I do not know how much you know, perhaps we should find out, no?"

     She lay her scepter at rest, and we crossed to the center of the room. Airia had a gleam of amusement in her eyes. "Now - these spells, while moderate level at the Faerieland Academy, are not harmful in any way to you. I will test how you react to deflect, and perform certain spells."

     Fyora shot a spell at me - a fireball - and I waved my hand to conjure a small force shield of light. The golden beam deflected the fireball without a doubt.

     "Try this one," said Fyora. This time she swirled in her hands a ball of wind, and it enveloped me, twisting and turning wildly around my form. I threw out my arms and it halted. The wind died down immediately.

     "Very good," praised the queen. "Let's see if you can throw off this one!"

     She knew perfectly well I was afraid of going near the water since my near-drowning experience, but one thing I feared more than water was fire. I dreaded what was coming next.

     The fire twisted around Fyora's fingers for a moment, then leapt at me like a Kougra pouncing upon its prey.

     Quite suddenly I was surrounded on three sides by orange flames licking my frame.

     Its mass was closing in around me, but there was still fresh air... then it swirled completely around me on all sides. I couldn't breathe, the smoke was welling up inside my lungs so badly I choked. I was suffocating, gasping, I couldn't breathe, the fire was spinning around me faster and faster until I couldn't tell the difference from moving and unmoving flames...

     "Ana khankh!" I choked out.

     The fire rebounded upon the queen, and for a moment she was suspended within it... then the spell faded away and Fyora emerged perfectly unscathed like myself.

     "Wonderful. When and where did you learn that spell?"

     I was slightly taken aback. It was amazingly simple magic, and had been the first thing that came to mind. "My first level of the Taladorian Academy," I said.

     "Ah. In that case, you are at level five at the moment, are you not? I shall teach you myself. I'm afraid I would only rank level eight at your Academy, so by the time you reach level nine and ten you would be more skilled than I."

     Fyora? Level eight? And I thought she was the queen!

     "Why not enroll me in a Faerieland Academy course?" I wondered aloud.

     "Were you enrolled in the Academy here, you would find that you would not have learned ahna khank until now, your fifth year."

     No wonder the people here seem so incompetent, I thought. Except Airia. The academy on Lotadar must have been similar to Talador's...

     Airia walked up to me, grinning.

     "Want a tour of the castle?"

     ~*~

     I found myself to be highly content with my life in the palace. Still I had an aching feeling of emptiness in my heart, and I knew that Airia could not tell me everything about her past. I saw it in her eyes and in the way she walked; I could see it caused her so much grief to be forced to hold her silence. We were becoming closer with each passing day, and settling in more together - especially when Fyora taught us the more complicated spells she knew. Most of them were compatible with my mind and easy to master, but others were more of my level and took a try or two.

     Everything was fine - until one day when the queen called for us.

     "It is urgent," she said, and very faintly I noticed a single note of panic in her voice. "Siyana and Airia, come to my crystal ball. Look hard. What do you see?"

     Within the mist emerged a beautiful, sparkling city, filled with the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

     "They call this place Altador," began Fyora, still gazing into its depths. "Keep watching. You both know what will happen."

     The Darkest Faerie appeared from a strange portal, raising her arms into the air. And then, just as everyone noticed the strange Faerie with the violet wings...

     The crystal ball went calmly and blissfully blank.

     "You must keep this from happening. It is what I fear will become of the great city of Altador."

     So, I thought, this hasn't happened yet.

     "You will leave in the next few minutes," Fyora finished.

     I summoned my two possessions spared from the curse of Talador, and Airia did the same. "Now place your hand on the crystal ball, and think about going to Altador... the real Altador... "

     The rush of wind made me open my eyes in surprise. There stood a swirling golden portal mingled with the scents of fresh-baked bread and something that smelled like saltwater.

     "Good luck," said the queen.

     And Airia and I stepped through time itself and into Altador.

To be continued...