Fyora and Jhudora: Secrets Within the Clouds - Part Three

     “My Queen, you must act now! Sister or no, your life is in danger, and neither I nor Aurora have the power to protect you against her! You have a duty to yourself and your people to stop her!” Phiria’s desperate entreaty revealed her debilitated condition, for to defend them all against such a powerful Faerie as Jhudora was not within the limits of the young Fire Faerie’s power; her wall of fire would not hold against Jhudora’s onslaught of attacks for much longer.

     Jhudora, her barrage of green flame being blocked by the Fire Faerie’s shield of fire, became enraged and roared, “Your presence has become irritating to me; be gone, wretch!”

     With a wave of her hand, a dark and powerful magic struck and broke through the wall of flames. Phiria was sent flying back from the impact, and crashed against the marble pillars of the palace.

     “My Queen...” was all she could whisper, and then silence; she closed her eyes and lay still.

     “Phiria!” Aurora shouted, desperately flying over to the Fire Faerie. Aurora attempted to wake her, but it was of no use. As tears began to well up in her eyes, she turned to Fyora and said, “My Queen, this is the havoc that Jhudora has wrought! She was not born evil as your Mother’s advisors thought, nor made evil as you have thought; she became evil of her own will and choice!”

     “Be silent, fool!” Jhudora snarled, sending an orb of green flame at Aurora. As it struck her, Aurora cried out in pain; the force of the magic sent her crashing against the wall as well. In vain Aurora tried to get back up, but her tiny body refused to move. Even her wings remained motionless despite her efforts. But her clear blue eyes met Fyora’s own gaze; tears streaming down her bruised face, she looked on entreatingly at the Faerie Queen.

     Fyora clasped her hands to her head, her body shaking frantically; she said with trembling voice, “I cannot defeat her! She is my eldest sister, and I have neither the strength nor the courage to fight against her!”

     “Indeed, dear sister,” Jhudora remarked, her twisted lips still smiling demonically at them all, “you could never hope to best me! I have made a contract with the Evil One himself, and my powers of Darkness are limitless; know your helplessness, and despair, as I send you to the shadows!”

     Shouting this triumphantly, she formed a circle of green flames by her feet; as she began to chant in an arcane language, an image of the bubbling cauldron in the depths of Jhudora’s lair began to appear through the flames. “With this, I shall destroy your precious Kingdom, all the while taking every bit of magic within it. Then I shall rebuild it in my own image, a Land of Darkness and Despair! And as for you, dear sister,” she said, pointing her spyder-like finger at Fyora, “I shall imprison you in the very same cloud I was banished to, that you may see your Kingdom brought to destruction, and be unable to do nothing but watch in horror!” Jhudora then began to laugh violently, which echoed through the room as if the very shadows were brought by their mistress to mock the Faerie Queen.

     “Queen Fyora,” Aurora cried weakly, amidst the demonic laughter of Jhudora, “You once told me that a great Faerie is not determined by strength or magic, but in doing what is right, even when we are afraid. I know you can defeat her, because I believe in you!” Despite her terrible injuries, Aurora continued to encourage her Queen, though her breath was shallow and pained. At this Fyora was moved, and found strength from her tiny subject’s words.

     “Thank you, my little Aurora,” she whispered, wiping away her tears. Her face was no longer haggard, but full of determination; her eyes pierced through Jhudora’s darkness, and even that traitorous Darkness Faerie felt fear, if only for a brief moment.

     “Jhudora!” Fyora shouted; her voice no longer shook, but had an air of command and assurance about it. “I once felt consumed by guilt over our Mother’s actions, and thus chose not to act against your evil, believing myself to be in the wrong. I gave you every chance to change your evil ways, but you refused every one, mocking my belief that you could be brought to the side of Good. But now I realize that you will never change, and that your Evil is threatening my subjects, and I will look away no more!”

     Taking her scepter in hand, she struck the ground forcibly with it, and the orb atop it began to glow a brilliant purple hue. As Fyora focused her power, the orb began to take on such an intense light that none could bear to look upon it.

     Jhudora roared, “You have not the strength to defeat me, dearest sister! I shall strike at you before you even muster the magic to attack me!” With that the Darkness Faerie stretched out her pale gaunt arms over the gate of flames and began once more her chant; her harrowing voice boomed as the very thunder, with lightning veiled just beneath the clouds.

     Jhudora’s side of the palace chamber became darkened with billowing clouds, swirling about her like a vile mantle. Her rasping words were filled with magic power, a chant that emanated her boundless malice and chilled the bone with their harsh utterance; Fyora was almost brought to her knees by the force of Jhudora’s evil chanting. What pained Fyora worse though were not the words of hatred, but the underlying song within it; the Faerie Queen could hear her sister’s voice was not only full of evil and destruction, but of sadness, and desolation as well. A pang of guilt had entered her mind, and even now with Jhudora’s wrath upon her, Fyora wished she could overlook the evil within her sister’s heart.

     But she had made her resolve; despite the hardships Jhudora had suffered, Fyora would not allow her to hurt others any longer. Clutching her scepter for support, Fyora pulled herself to her feet and began her spell of power. Her voice started out in a soft and gentle tone, almost unheard through the cacophonous sound of Jhudora’s chant. The Darkness Faerie would have laughed had she not been continuing her dark spell; this is the best the Great Faerie Queen can accomplish? Such a weak song of power, she thought to herself. She tried to drown out the spell with a loud and roaring blast of her thunderous curse.

     Yet Fyora’s song could not be drowned out. It gained strength, and its soothing melody began to fill the room. While Jhudora’s resonant chant sang of thunder and destruction, Fyora’s angelic hymn spoke with calming harp-like notes; the Faerie Queen’s spell sang of the endless white clouds, the flowing waters of the Healing Springs, and the joy of each and every living creature within Faerieland.

     Like a choir of little bells, her voice sang a spell full of Hope and Light; little Aurora, struggling to see the great battle, felt her very soul overflowing with the joy of those harmonious words, and her body regained its strength. The Faerie Queen’s song began to weave in and out of Jhudora’s dissonant chanting; it created melodic tones from the once jarring phrases, soothed over her malevolent roar; creating harmony from where there once was none.

     Soon Fyora had overtaken Jhudora’s own spell, making it her own symphonious song. Jhudora, though finally realizing this, could not stop the words from coming forth; for she no longer controlled the spell. No longer was she brimming with a wicked confidence; her rasping voice lost its strength, and the power behind her magic was weakening. At last the song reached its end, and the orb atop Fyora’s scepter glowed once more, and engulfed the Darkness Faerie in a torrent of light. Jhudora shrieked out a baleful scream, and was suddenly silenced. The force of the magic had thrown her across the palace chamber, pained beyond all reasoning.

     As Jhudora lay writhing upon the cold marbled stone, she screamed out, “How? What deceit did you use to defeat me? I have the better magic, the greater power, and yet I could not destroy you! Such a weak and insipid faerie as you could not have had the ability to overtake me!” Her purple eyes glared up towards Fyora, lit with such a vile animosity that Aurora wasn’t sure how she could stand it.

     “It may be true that you are more powerful than I ever will be,” Fyora said, looking down upon Jhudora with a serene countenance, “but I have the knowledge to use your power against you. It is a form of magic I’ve learned in order to protect my subjects from powerful evils such as yourself. You, who have only used magic to destroy life, could never hope to understand a magic meant to protect life. Prepare yourself, sister; for your retribution is at hand.”

     Fyora began to approach Jhudora slowly, her scepter fixed on the Dark Faerie lest she attack again. With each step closer, Jhudora began to feel fear consume her darkened heart, for she knew her time had come.

     “Stay back!” she yelled fearfully, her widened eyes staring at the glowing orb of Fyora’s scepter.

     As Fyora stood over her wounded sister, she said to her, “I shall not destroy you, Jhudora; I refuse to walk the path of evil you tread upon. But I will make it so that you shall harm no one else with your dark magic.”

     As Fyora said this, her eyes gazed upon the gate of green flames; she motioned towards it with her scepter, and dark tendrils of clouds burst forth, wrapping themselves tightly around the Dark Faerie.

     “What manner of trickery is this?” Jhudora yelled, frantically clutching the dark clouds entwined around her.

     Fyora replied, “The prison you planned for me will be your own, of your own making; here you shall spend the rest of your days, away from the world you wished to ruin. The power of your wicked cauldron will be the very source of that which imprisons you.”

     The dark clouds continued to constrict against Jhudora, pulling her towards the gate of flames. Though she resisted, she was slowly being drawn into the prison of clouds.

     “How dare you! This prison can not contain my wrath; I shall one day escape, and wreak my vengeance upon you all!” As she passed through the gate, the green flames began to fade, and then dissipated entirely. The shadows waned, and finally were no more.

     Aurora cheered at her Queen’s victory, flying madly about the room.

     “You have saved us all, Queen Fyora! Jhudora can no longer harm-” Then she fell silent, and her joyous face became sad once more. Aurora silently fluttered over to where Phiria lay, her once fiery warm body growing cold. “Phiria...” Aurora sniffled, nudging her arm as if it could wake her from her slumber.

     Fyora kneeled down beside Phiria and the tiny Air Faerie, and spoke, her serene voice filling the room with warmth, “Fear not, little Aurora, for she has not left us yet; the flame within her is still burning, though it be diminished.” Placing her scepter upright, Fyora spoke words of power; her voice rang, like a chorus of a thousand twinkling silver bells. The orb glowed brightly once more, sending bright waves of purple light cascading across the room.

     Suddenly Aurora could hear something: the sound of gentle breathing coming forth from Phiria. “Phiria! You are alright!” the little Air Faerie shouted joyously, as Phiria slowly sat up and leaned against a pillar. “Thank you, Queen Fyora...” was all Aurora could think to say; there were no words great enough to describe this wondrous deed.

     “It should be I who should thank you, little Aurora,” the Faerie Queen replied, smiling sweetly down upon the tiny Air Faerie, “You gave me the strength to believe in myself, and to do what needed to be done, despite the fear in my heart. Though you are no bigger than a bottled faerie, you truly have the heart of one of the Greatest Faeries I have ever known.” And with that, Fyora gave a slight bow of her head to the Air Faerie Aurora, who felt honored to be acknowledged by so kind a Queen.

     After Fyora thanked and honored both Aurora and Phiria for their selflessness and bravery at an elaborate banquet, Aurora headed back towards her home among the clouds. As she reached her dwelling place, she could see in the distance that darkened cloud beyond the walls of Faerie City, ever flashing lightning and booming thunder within its terrifying prison of clouds. Though for a moment Aurora felt a pang of fear, it subsided as she remembered that a Great Faerie Queen ruled over them all, and would defend them against that evil should it ever return.

The End