The Darkest Faerie Returns: Part Four

      Siyana gasped. “You mean that you thought you saw a dark Faerie flying into the castle?”

      Fyora nodded. “Yes, into one of the windows. It was in the East Wing that I saw it. I don’t know why I’m so sure, but I just know it. It must be a dark Faerie.”

      Siyana pondered what she had just learned. “Should we call out everybody who resides in the East Wing and see if they know anything?”

      Fyora shook her head. “If that was a dark Faerie, then it’s in disguise. Maybe I should call each one into my conference one by one, and when they come in, the room will be modified so that if they’re in any disguise, it will be peeled away but they won’t realize that.”

      Tor finally spoke. “That sounds good; let’s go for it!”

      Altador chuckled at Tor’s eagerness. “Calm down, son. If there is a dark Faerie here in disguise, their only goal could be to defeat Fyora, and the only dark Faerie that cares about that right now is the Darkest Faerie. I think it’s safe to assume that the Darkest Faerie is in disguise, asleep right now. Since that’s the case, she’s no doubt prepared for anything we plan that would reveal her true identity. We should let her reveal herself.”

      Fyora shook her head slightly. “That’s a very good idea, but how exactly are we going to do that?”

      Altador chuckled. “That’s going to be the easy part; the hard part will to be prepared for when she finally succumbs to her natural state. We have to put her into an environment so kind, caring, and giving that she won’t be able to stand it. And what’s the one thing that dark Faeries hate more than anything else?”

      Fyora nodded. “Selflessness. But how are we going to do that to her?”

      Siyana spoke up, “That’s the only trouble with our plan, we know how to irritate her, but we have to do a lot of irritating for her to jeopardize her plan and reveal herself.

      Fyora chuckled slightly. “Luckily for us, if there’s any Faerie with a short temper, it’d be the Darkest Faerie herself.”

      Siyana thought out loud, “I suppose the best place to send her, once we figure out who she’s disguising herself as, would be to the Soup Kitchen. Pets there tend to be humble and willing to help others, so that’s where she’s most likely to lose it to the point that she reveals herself.”

      Fyora nodded. “Very well, I’ll arrange it. I’ll go around the castle and invite everybody to help the Soup Faerie at the Soup Kitchen.”

      Altador and Siyana waved goodbye to Fyora as she started walking through the castle, carrying a planner to schedule times for pets and Faeries to help the soup Faerie.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Fyora walked through numerous halls and knocked on numerous doors before she came to Hope’s room. When Fyora tried to turn the knob, it wouldn’t budge. There were no locks on any doors in the castle with the exception of the rooms set aside for Fyora or anybody else that would be an excellent target for a villain. Fyora skipped Hope’s room as she went to all the other occupants. None of them had a locked door, only Hope’s room. Fyora didn’t want to face that, but she knew in her heart that Hope was the Darkest Faerie in disguise. Fyora returned to and knocked on Hope’s door.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      Hope was finishing up her plans to defeat Fyora and destroy her reign once and for all when she heard a knock at her door. Knowing that it must be Fyora, she immediately looked at her reflection in her large Mirror of Nova to be sure that her disguise was fully functional and that she had not made any mistakes when putting it back on. Convinced that she looked like an innocent and young light Faerie, she opened the door.

      Fyora’s hand was poised over Hope’s door again when Hope finally opened it.

     Fyora decided to lead Hope on until she could accuse her.

     “Hope, darling, what took you so long to get to the door?”

      The Darkest Faerie smiled innocently. “I was taking a little nap to recuperate from my exhausting day.”

      Fyora replied, “My, what a large vocabulary you have, for such a little Faerie.”

      Hope chuckled. “Well, my mentors always did say that I was a fast learner.”

      Fyora snapped lightly. “I thought that you were abandoned. How could a mentor abandon you?”

      Hope struggled for a sufficient response to Fyora’s accusations. “Well, you see, I did have a mentor; there was a grey Faerie that helped care for me.”

      Fyora responded, anger coming to her voice, “I thought that you were all on your own? So what’s the truth, Hope? Or should I call you the Darkest Faerie?”

      The Darkest Faerie rolled her eyes. “It took you long enough. I can’t believe that you didn’t catch on sooner, but you’ve always been a sucker, haven’t you? I could tell you that I really am a light Faerie and you’d probably still believe me.”

      Fyora glared at her nemesis. “Not this time.”

      The Darkest Faerie waved her hand and the door slammed shut with a silent yet strong ‘thud’ that resounded through the halls. Immediately after, her light Faerie disguise peeled away from her skin, revealing the Darkest Faerie. Instead of coming off as a costume would, as it had previously, the disguise seemed to vanish as the Faerie inside of it showed her true self.

      She had piercing yet surprisingly empty maroon eyes. Her wings were leathery and purple, like bat wings as opposed to the kind of wings that most Faeries had. Her skin was violet, and her dress was plum.

      Fyora turned away from the sight that she could hardly endure, not because of shock, but because of the power that the Faerie opposite of her possessed.

      The Darkest Faerie then turned her attention back to Fyora. “So, Fyora, would you like to hear my plan?”

      Fyora was about to attack the Darkest Faerie when she was flung against the wall and chained to it. Fyora struggled against the chains, but she couldn’t escape. She was stuck there.

      Fyora glared at her. “I guess I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?”

      The Darkest Faerie glared back. “No, you really don’t. So since you’re just hanging around,” she paused while Fyora rolled her eyes at the awful pun, “how about I get this plan of mine started?”

      Fyora was unsure of what was happening, but that bewildered feeling was soon overtaken by immense pain. Fyora grimaced as she felt herself changing, and the change made her feel as if she was going to be sick, not to mention the horrible pain. It was as if her wings were being ripped off violently, leaving nothing but a shattered Faerie withering in pain. But her wings weren’t being ripped off; they were changing. The texture of her wings changed and so did the colors. Instead of her beloved purple and nearly velvet wings, she had wings like Darigan pets that were horrible, at least in Fyora’s opinion. Fyora wondered if she would have preferred being a grey Faerie to her current fate, but she just wasn’t sure.

      Fyora wasn’t entirely sure of what was happening until she looked up. It was as if she was looking in a mirror, or in her current state, more like she was looking at a painting of herself. She saw her long, flowing hair and nearly growled with anger. Her precious wings were no longer hers, but her greatest enemy’s. Her favorite dress was gone. In its place she was wearing a long and somewhat tight plum dress. Fyora had never known the pain of being a dark Faerie, but she knew that she was experiencing it. She wasn’t sure if she was bitter because of her fate or because she now looked like the Darkest Faerie. Either way, Fyora knew that she had to overcome her bitterness and anger if she was to save herself and stop the Darkest Faerie.

      The Darkest Faerie sneered as she looked at the defeated queen. “So, how does it feel to look like me? I must say, it felt rather nice changing into you. Just so that you know, I absolutely love your hair, except that it's a bit too light for me. I also must say, you look like you were just like you did at the end of our last encounter, before you imprisoned me in stone. But at least you had a painful change, at least I can only hope that you experienced a painful change. It looks like you did. I’m so glad! Well, I must be off. Enjoy taking my place; I insist.”

      The dark Faerie smiled, showing her teeth that were whiter than pearls and sharper than razors. With not as much as a backwards glance, the Faerie flew off, leaving Fyora chained to a wall and looking like the Darkest Faerie she had once defeated.

To be continued...