The Curse of Talador: Fate - Part One

     ~*~

I dashed through the city as if my life depended on it.

     The crowd was ahead of me, trying to overtake the one who had been captured. The one who had been captured by the Darkest Faerie.

     Deep down in my mind, I knew it was wrong. I was fighting and causing myself pain I should not be suffering.

     No one would help me. The truth was, nobody could. I was on my own, destroying the city with my own hands, watching as my friends screamed and turned to stone.

     Close behind the Darkest Faerie, I stood helpless as my people scattered in despair, not even knowing why this creature was taunting them. I could see and hear the pain in their eyes and voices, and my heart cried out as I watched myself come face to face with Lina.

     Tryssa, too, was petrified all over again. But the worst was reliving that horrible cackle the Darkest Faerie, the most abominable of all the faeries that have ever come to exist, gave when she had conquered the once-proud city of Talador.

     I gasped as I relived all the victims of Talador meeting their fate. Some never even knew what happened.

     My name is Siyana. Siyana of Talador. If you have heard of me, good for you. If not, now you have.

     I will forever bear the curse of remembrance. Anything that happens in my life is there forever, whether large or small, painful or peaceful. Most of my memories are too painful to repeat. This was one that had haunted my thoughts ever since the moment I had stepped out of the portal, weak and energy-drained. It was a miracle that I could even cast such magic, what with everything that had happened in the past day.

     The memory faded, but I could still feel the rush of terror as the abomination petrified people I had held dear. That might have been the last time I would ever speak to them - For Tryssa, Lina, Jerdana, Thyora, my mother, and everyone else were petrified into solid statues of stone.

     I sighed and flew higher into the clear, oddly blue sky. Talador's skies were not as strange as this. They were a mystic lavender, and during the time when the sun set and day faded into night, it turned from lilac to gold. I soared through the puffy white - yes, white, how new and different - and drenched myself in dewdrops.

     The light breeze on the ground became a fierce, gusting wind, threatening to hurl any inexperienced flier out of the air. The forbidding ocean lay beneath, its surface shimmering in the golden sunlight. This world better not be as strange as it looks, I thought, cruising farther west.

     The cool wind slipped through my wings, between my fingertips, trying to comfort me, whispering secrets untold for years. I could be lost to this force forever.

     The sky had already overtaken me. Losing a bit of altitude, I peeked beneath the clouds.

     Getting back to my curse. Yes, I am immortal - yet only by age, as flesh wounds and certain spells can kill me. Most Faeries are like this. I do know for a fact, though, that the Darkest Faerie has since been denied her immortality after the destruction of Talador. She is more powerful than I am at the moment, for she regained it through a strange and complex ceremony.

     Only I, Siyana, the last Light Faerie, stand in her wake.

     You can see why my chances of survival are slim.

     I am the only living descendant of Illera, the first Light Faerie, who had a part in building the city. Shaking off my thoughts I continued to rise above the clouds, which were above the place called Faerieland.

     My wings beat quicker than the human eye could observe. To any onlooker I would just be a flash of gold through the sky.

     "Light Faerie!" a voice hissed, spitting as if the name were a curse.

     I whirled around. A cocky Faerie with wings of pale, malicious blue and black, long, midnight-dark hair, and the same pale blue tinge to her skin. The Dark Faerie wore black gloves and a long, flowing dress past her feet with blue and dark stripes.

     "Dark Faerie," I spat.

     Her gaze pierced right through me. "I know who you are. You're that troublemaker of a Faerie no one has ever seen. My sisters and I want you dead. That's how I know you're a Light Faerie!"

     I stared at her coldly through narrowed eyes. "And how long did it take you to figure that out?" I asked icily.

     The Dark Faerie's fingers twitched, as if she itched to close them around my throat. "Don't try to play games with me. I know your weaknesses inside and out-" her eyes flickered with glee - "with a single spell."

     I found myself looking deep into those dark, tainted eyes; embraced into a thousand unfathomable oceans. To weaken me, she was using her one advantage: hypnotism.

     My mind drifted. The faerie lashed out at me, breaking the contact for a millisecond... and then I realized too soon that I was falling, falling out of the sky.

     By then the darkness had already overtaken my consciousness.

     ~*~

     Meanwhile, back in Faerieland, word had traveled to Fyora that a strange golden-winged Faerie had somehow found her way into the city.

     "What shall we do?" asked one of the servants, who were more like attendants to the queen rather than workers.

     "We should destroy her!" proclaimed another recklessly.

     The queen turned her stern gaze on the bold servant. "Calm yourself, Samuel. We do not know where she has journeyed from, or why, but I am quite sure this young girl's reasoning will be evident soon enough."

     Fyora resumed scrying into a large, framed mirror on her wall, leaping back in shock at what she had seen. "Quick, send Airia. I believe she's in trouble."

     "You want to rescue this- this freak?" exclaimed the attendant called Samuel.

     "My, yes. She has much to tell us - and the mark on her forehead is a sure sign of the Darkest Faerie's treachery. Perhaps," she said, now more to herself rather than her followers, "she is even the one the prophecy mentioned."

     Yes, this was the girl. Airia, the Faerie she had called upon, interrupted the thought.

     "I am here, your Highness."

     "You must hurry, my dear. I fear someone you may know is in danger. Bring her here... you know why."

     The Air Faerie nodded without questioning, her face set and determined. She leaped into the air and disappeared as she became invisible.

     "Good luck," called Fyora, distressed. "The time has come, my servants. What my messengers have indeed told me are true." She paused to let the news sink in. "The Lost Faeries have indeed returned."

     ~*~

     A gust of wind rippled through the still air in mid-summer. The cool grass tickled my feet and toes, and the sweet scents of plants and other aromas wafted through to my nose. I opened my eyes. I was laying in a golden field, alone, gazing up at the stars. Each one sparkled on its own, swirling... but were they really swirling?

     And then...

     They really were! Each one of them was... alive! The stars were alive!

     They rearranged themselves in midair to form the outlines of Jerdana and Thyora, two of the rulers of Talador - then Endor and Rodne, Kaleen the Light Faerie, my mother, and so many other petrified souls... these were my victims, a horrified part of me thought.

     Jerdana smiled warmly as if I had voiced my concerns. "No, Siyana," she said seriously. "These are the victims of the Darkest Faerie."

     She straightened suddenly, a familiar fire burning in her ice-blue eyes. "We are here for a reason, young one. All gathered here are the ones who have suffered under the Darkest Faerie's power. Some have perished," she added solemnly.

     "Are you dead?" I blurted.

     A ripple of laughter coursed through the line of victims.

     "No," was the Aisha's reply. "The petrified people of Talador are merely at rest - until now. This is one of the few times we can contact you to speak freely. We are here to warn you, Siyana - for things shall not be what they seem, and darkness shall lurk within every corner."

     I summoned all the courage I could muster to gaze at so many familiar faces. In back were people I didn't know who weren't from Talador - those who had perished. In front were the ones I knew. They weren't angry. They were smiling.

     "We are here to honor you." The voice was huge; I realized they were speaking as one. "Look."

     I gazed once more into the star-filled sky. Two achingly familiar figures seemed to walk right out of it.

     "Tryssa... Lina!"

     Their golden outlines took shape, and they were not the stone statues I had promised to return to, but glowing forms of themselves. They stood before me, tears streaming down their cheeks.

     "We knew you would never forget us," they said together. "We knew it would turn out alright in the end."

     Tryssa wiped her tears away, the same fire burning in her amber eyes that had seemed dimmed forever by petrification. "There is a prophecy, my friend. One in which you must face your past, present, and future."

     She and Lina recited as one:

     "Four will become one upon siege.

     Only then shall light and dark meet

     But one must fail the quest of battle.

     Dawn will rise upon the city of grey

     'Till midnight dawn comes to hunt

     And dark rules an eternity

     Yet not forevermore."

     "This is the Prophecy of Midnight Dawn, one you must find out for yourself." Jerdana motioned for the others to return to the sky, which was beginning to fade as I was awakening.

     "Good luck, Siyana," a disappearing Jerdana said. "Good luck."

     ~*~

     A dream. That's what it had been. But this had been no ordinary dream.

     Suddenly I choked on water, bubbles spewing from my mouth. I had awakened to find myself deep underwater, with nothing but the sea around me.

     There was a small pocket of air I spotted and sucked in one last despairing breath. I tried to gather my strength to cast a spell that would save me. Useless. I was going to drown.

     The pressure on my lungs was too great. I couldn't take it anymore...

     I let go of my breath.

     A pitifully small stream of bubbles streamed to the surface I would never again see.

     A bright figure appeared... what? Maybe I was seeing death coming to take me home. Then the figure disappeared. My mind finally gave in, and darkness closed in.

     And knowing I was about to die, I let it all go... and said goodbye.

To be continued...