The Darkest Faerie Returns: Part Six

     They all gathered in the main hallway of the lair. Tor had been expecting a small cave in which the Dark Faerie could roam in peace. He was astounded to see that the inside of this lair was at least as complex as the palace in Faerieland, if not more complex. There seemed to be endless corridors and an infinite number of rooms.

     Siyana growled lightly in frustration. “How are we going to find her chamber in this whole mess?”

     Fyora interrupted her. “We aren’t going to her chambers; we’re going to the library. I know the way, I don’t know how I know the way, but I do. Come, we must hurry, should the Darkest Faerie return here. I only hope that she hasn’t already.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     The Darkest Faerie sat on an unbelievably uncomfortable cloud bench as she pondered out loud, “If I return, they’d know where I am. If I don’t, I won’t have any of my information that I’ve forgotten... Very well, I’ll have to return. It’s not like they could have found it. I doubt they even remember it.”

     She walked back to the entrance to her lair. This time, she was speechless and seething. The pile had been upset; someone had been in there. She was nearly screaming with rage, but she knew that drawing attention to herself would be the worst possible option at a time like this.

     She slowly opened the door, careful to not make any noise as she opened it, closed it, and walked through her lair.

     “Let’s see. I’d like to visit my room again. It should be down this way, past two corridors, and... That’s not right... Why don’t I know? How is this possible?”

     Realization dawned on her. “Fyora. I don’t know how she did it, or even if she did it, but I no longer know my own home. She knows it better than I! I must find them, or they may reach the library. I just hope they don’t find it. But if they do, well, all will be lost.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Fyora led the others through the underground castle until she arrived at a large set of doors. She stopped for a moment and sighed. She then twisted the knobs simultaneously in different directions. The left knob to the right and the right knob to the left. She could hear clicking noises and she knew that it had worked. She then opened both of the doors, revealing the library in all of its glory.

     “This is it. We must hurry. She has plans in here, many of them. I know which ones we can use. We must hurry. I am becoming a little like her. It’s only a matter of time before she realizes it. She’d do anything to stop me, and I mean anything. So if stopping herself stops me, well, she’ll do it. Come, I know where she hides what’s important.”

     Fyora walked around the surprisingly clean library until she got to a bookshelf. She started counting through them in her head until she got to book one thousand three hundred thirty-seven. The Darkest Faerie was so vain that she would even use the human’s chat speak if it made her seem better than she was. Fyora opened the book and flipped through the pages until she got to page one thousand. The page was filled with notes and plans.

     Fyora pointed to one heading in particular. “Siyana, you must help me. We must use this one to destroy the Faerie Queen, but then we must switch places immediately after. If we do this correctly, then it will instead destroy the darkest Faerie.”

     Siyana gasped. If the plan backfired, Fyora could never be herself again, that or she would be destroyed.

     Fyora nodded to Siyana. “Sister, we must at least try. If this doesn’t work, take my place as queen. I decree it, and Tor and Altador are witnesses. It must be recorded as my words. You will take my place if I am destroyed instead of the Darkest Faerie. Promise me.”

     She gulped. “I promise. Now, we will begin on ten. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine” there was a small pause “ten.”

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     “It’s got to be here somewhere!”

     The Darkest Faerie was roaring in frustration now. She could no longer navigate through her own beloved lair! She was lost and she knew it. She only knew that she must find the library, and that the library had two large doors that had to be opened in just the right way. Was it left and left or right and right? Or was one left and the other right... She figured that she would have only done something uncomfortable, and she figured that turning the left knob right and the right knob left would be the least comfortable of all her options. Now she just had to find the right door.

     She continued flying through the halls until some doors caught her eye. She saw a huge set of double-doors and she knew that this was the library. She floated to the doors and turned the knobs in the correct pattern. She knew that she was right, and the doors opened.

     What she saw couldn’t have made her much angrier. Siyana, Altador, Fyora, and Tor were all in her private library. Siyana and Fyora were reading from her most treasured book. But she knew what was happening, she had always known that it would. She just tried to delay it as much as possible.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

     Fyora and Siyana were lost in their own words, but Tor and Altador had seen the Darkest Faerie stagger in. They were both prepared to stop her at all costs. Tor heard Siyana and Fyora and hoped that they would soon be done.

     Fyora’s voice was no longer beautiful, but it was still powerful as she spoke and started switching places with herself and the Darkest Faerie. She said what needed to be said so that she and the Darkest Faerie would once again switch places.

     Siyana’s voice was crystal clear and sounded like a professional orchestra playing a song about care and friendship as she spoke and started destroying the Faerie Queen, who was both Fyora and the Darkest Faerie.

     ~*~*~*~*~*~

      The Darkest Faerie was about to charge Altador when she fully knew what Fyora and Siyana were doing. Knowing that there was no time to lose, she was about to attack Altador when Tor stood in front of her. She knew that she shouldn’t be surprised. Tor was like a thorn in her side that she couldn’t remove. He had guts, she gave him that much, but she would give him no more credit than that. She growled and forgot that she was a Faerie. She didn’t bother using her power, she just attacked him with her fists and knees, not to mention her extraordinarily long nails.

      Tor grunted, but held fast against the Faerie’s attacks. He wouldn’t attack her, but he did a fair share of blocking while trying to devise a plan that would stop her and leave her defenseless. He almost had a plan when he realized that if he didn’t engage her, she would grow tired of using fists and she would remember to use her power.

      The Darkest Faerie recoiled as Tor started fighting her with strength that she didn’t remember him having before. But she soon got past her initial shock and threw all of herself into the fight when she suddenly felt like her wings were being violently ripped off.

     She screamed a scream that was unnatural and empty. It was filled with pain and betrayal. She knew what was happening. She was returning to her natural self. She looked up and saw Fyora change from a dark Faerie into the queen of all Faeries. She yelled with rage, but she soon was distracted by something else.

      She seemed to be slowly losing herself. It was as if she was vanishing bit by bit. First her nails got shorter, until they reached her fingers. Then her fingers got smaller until her entire hand had vanished. Knowing that she had no hope left, she turned her attention to Fyora, hoping to rip off her wings while she still had some use of her arms.

      Tor saw her and stopped her. She had nothing more that she could do. She was being destroyed. She felt no pain other than the pain of her change, but she felt so much more pain that that. She felt the pain of loss, failure, defeat, and sorrow. She felt like a grey Faerie caught in the rain on a deserted island. She was alone, but she never knew it like she did now, lying on the floor, crying in pain as she slowly vanished into thin air.

To be continued...