The Royal Axis: Pushing Back The Dark

     In her night-time vision, she stood alone facing a barren landscape. The grass remained torched, unable to regrow in the absence of light. Thick rolling purple fog clouds seemed to hug to the ground, and thorny bramble bushes fenced the Darkest Faerie into an ominous ring. In the distance, shadowy figures began to emerge from the void – a rotund Skeith, a bearded Gellert and a Faerie. They held their heads low as they paced forward, each step in sync with one another. They were The Three.

     They stopped a few feet away from the Darkest Faerie, and faced her standing in a straight line.

     “Darkest Faerie,” they said in unison, without having to open their mouths. The Three communicated through one’s mind. “It’s been a while since we’ve spoken”

     Arms crossed, the Darkest Faerie pouted at The Three. “I’ve been busy,” she retorted, her voice careful to not flash a tone of defiance. She knew that whilst she was powerful, The Three could compel anyone to do unspeakable things against their will. “And anyway, you three are the ones who usually make the visitations, so it wasn’t like I’ve been avoiding you.”

     The Three remain motionless, their beady eyes transfixed on the Darkest Faerie. “How is your plan to conquer and divide Neopia?”

     “Hah, is that what you’ve come to talk to me about?” The Darkest Faerie sneered, checking her fingernails as she giggled menacingly. Her tone was not well received by The Three, who retorted back at her.

     “Don’t get fresh with us!” They screamed in her head, causing a temporary splitting headache. “You’d be wise to not forget that we are the reason you’re not sitting in a stone statue right now!”

     Regaining her composure in her dream, the Darkest Faerie now replied with a cooler, calmer attitude. “Things are going quite well. I just need a few more evildoers on my side and Neopia wouldn’t stand a chance.”

     “Well, from what we heard, not everything is…peachy.” The Three countered back teasingly. This seemed to have warranted the Darkest Faerie’s fullest attention.

     “Why, what have you heard?” Her eyes lowered into a piercing leer. In the back of her mind, the Darkest Faerie made a mental note to reprimand Kass when she woke up.

     Word is that a group of royals are gathering against you, my dear,” The Three replied. The wind in the arena picked up a bit, but all the Darkest Faerie could feel was the rising heat and anger welling up inside of herself. The Three continued.

     “King Altador, Coltzan and Hagan so far,” they whispered. “And Fyora.”

     The mere mention of the Faerie Queen’s name pierced the dream like an arrow. The Darkest Faerie recalled the feeling of being trapped, as she lay in her stone prison cast by Fyora. That sense of confusion, delirium and agonising solitude. There she waited for rescue, plotting her revenge against Fyora until one fateful night, she was paid a visit by The Three who inspired her to enact an eternal night upon Neopia and share the spoils with the warring lords.

     Sensing her frustration, The Three decided to break the terse silence. “We also had something else to discuss,” they started. “It’s about the plan that we’ve hatched for you.” The Darkest Faerie turned her back against The Three, but continued listening.

     “You see, when we first suggested that you overthrow the peace of Neopia and create newfound districts for your nefarious companions to lord over, we did so because we had just broken you out of your immortalised jail,” The Three spoke hurriedly, their voices getting shriller as their excitement grew. “We saw that you were not powerful enough, and rather than risk the undermining of the plan, we decided that forming allies would be in your best interest. You’d still bask in the never-ending wealth that would follow, and win the battle without breaking a sweat.”

     The Darkest Faerie remained quiet.

     “However,” they continued, their voices once again unifying into a singular sentence that boomed in the Darkest Faerie’s head. “Seeing how you’ve been regaining your power day by day, we have changed our minds.”

     This piqued the Darkest Faerie’s curiosity. She turned around the faced the evil trio, who said “We believe that you should hold the power and no one else.”

     “Isn’t that the obvious wish for any warlord?” The Darkest Faerie chided. “Which conqueror doesn’t want total domination?”

     Unflinching, the three figures continued. “Still, there is the issue that if you were to establish a new direction in your plans, not only would your allies fall away, you risk their anger at your betrayal compounding into what could lead to your defeat.” They had a point, and the Darkest Faerie knew this well in her heart.

     “What do you propose then?” She replied, eager with excitement as she imagined herself being the ruler of a darkened Neopia where all would come to fear her, obey her and serve only her.

     “Rather than switch rudders now,” said The Three, “Continue as if nothing has changed. However, in the final moments of the battle to come, and when all your enemies are but vanquished, turn the winds against your villainous friends and take over as commander of their forces. Not only would you never have to share your power, you’d be able to take the crown with ease.”

     The temptation of the deal was undeniably sweet to the Darkest Faerie. She had long toyed with the idea of betraying her commanders, but with the blessings of The Three, she felt more emboldened to act upon this.

     In her bedroom, the Darkest Faerie began to stir from her slumber. As she sat up in the dark of the night, she stared into the void, a cunning smile began to appear on her face.

     +++++

     Back in Brightvale, the weary travellers set themselves against a long bench, as Brightvale servants brought forth every manner of ale and pie to nourish their tired bodies.

     Fyora sat across the table, her staff leaning up against the stone fireplace that held a roaring fire. King Hagan, meanwhile, stood facing the glass windows, gazing upon a lane below the castle. It was filled with scholars frantically reading books, food peddlers hawking their produce and the occasional petpet wandering around the street. His love for knowledge was only far surpassed by his love for his land and the inhabitants of Brightvale. To lose all this, especially under his stewardship, was something that King Hagan was not prepared to do.

     King Altador and Kelland frantically wolfed down slice after slice of meat pie, while Siyana sipped on a cup of tea. After an hour of eating and drinking, they all sat back, satisfied and bloated from the hospitality.

     “What have you heard?” King Hagan asked curiously, before exchanging nervous glances with Fyora.

     “That the Darkest Faerie is back,” King Altador said, as he wiped his mouth with a napkin covered in philosophical quotes. “She is raising an army to bring about what she calls an eternal night. From there, her cronies will reign as the new leaders of the land, and she would act as their advisor and overseer.” He paused, and turned to Fyora.

     “Say, didn’t you encase in a stone figure in your garden?” he asked, perhaps a little brusquely, though most definitely accidentally. The King had been travelling for quite some time now, and the tiredness he suppressed came rushing back to him as he rested on the bench.

     Fyora heaved a heavy sigh, “It’s true, and the statue remains there in the garden. She’s somehow managed to escape out of the statue, and evade my magic senses. It wasn’t until days after her disappearance that I walked past the statue and sensed that something wasn’t right.”

     King Altador pat his hand on the exasperated queen’s arm. “Don’t blame yourself Fyora,” he said reassuringly. “It could’ve happened to the best of us.”

     “King Altador is right,” Hagan said. “What matters now is not how she got out, but more importantly, that we address her plans and how we plan to combat it. And pardon me, dear friends, but between the three of us, we wouldn’t stand a chance against her allies and their armies.”

     Kelland quickly piped up, “But we have King Coltzan on our side too!” He was met with a scowl from King Hagan.

     “The sand armies of a dead spectral king may give us an expandable number of men on the battlefield, young Techo,” he replied, almost mockingly as he struggled to hide his sniggering. “But I fail to see how that would put a dent into the Darkest Faerie’s plans.”

     King Altador rose to his feet, and placed his hand on King Hagan’s shoulder. He knew that the Brightvale monarch had trouble concealing his nerves. “We will give all we can give to defeat her, that’s the best that any of us can do. And if that’s not enough, we would have gone into the fray knowing that we’ve done our utmost best.”

     After two more hours of insignificant discussion about the situation, the tired travellers adjourned to their bedrooms.

     Plush pillows comforted their aching bones, and all manner of literature lay in great piles in each room. Before she brought her mind to rest for the night, Siyana rifled through the drawers of her room to look for some parchment, ink and a sharpened quill. Lighting a candle in the creaky metal lantern atop the writing desk, she began to ferociously pour words out onto her parchment.

     After that, she slipped past her door, and made her way down to the mail tower, where Weewoos perched themselves in little arched holes. Some were sleeping, some were singing, and some were preening their plumes. She held one gently, stroking its tiny head as it cooed in glee. Carefully, she tied the envelope to its foot, and whispered into its ear, before sending it flying out the window.

     As she watched the Weewoo disappear into the night sky, she made a wish upon the stars.

     To be continued…