Capitulations of the Fae

     The little Kacheek looked up to the light faerie guiding them. “How d’you know?”

     “Trust me,” the light faerie said with a smile, “I put a little of my magic into it.”

     Even if the Blue Kacheek didn’t fully believe her, something about her words were comforting. Maybe it was the way she said them, maybe it was her aura, maybe it was just her smile. Or maybe it was the way she helped pass the time and soothe his heart by pointing out how the sun shone through the trees just right.

     No matter his doubts, the light faerie was proven right. The Kacheek’s parents arrived, and the family enveloped each other in a hug.

     “Oh, I’m sorry! We were only gone for a moment! I thought-- Thank goodness you’re okay!”

     “I’m sorry for wandering off. But Aurelia saved me!”

     The Kacheek pointed to the light faerie, who smiled and ruffled the top of his head. “You’re safe now, little one. And I’m sure you have quite the tale to tell.”

     “Aurelia, thank you,” the parents said. “Is there any way we can repay you?”

     “I’m happy to do this. Your thanks are more than enough.” Aurelia said her farewells and walked down the road.

     Indeed, this was her lifelong goal: to find lost souls and guide them to the right path. It didn’t matter if they were lost from danger or separation, or if it involved standing up to aggressors. It broke her heart to see anyone lost and in need of a kind hand, so she had sworn to become their guiding light. She had done much with her promise ever since.

     Now though, her intuition told her nothing of another task. Was there anything else to do while she was in Neopia Central…?

     The ever… different… Neopia Central…

     Aurelia’s brow furrowed as she looked around. It seemed as though every time she visited a city, something was different. With her work, she never had time to grow accustomed to changes in scenery and custom. She could use her powers and prior familiarity to find her own way, but that was different from knowing the place. Neopians weaved around her, sporting unfamiliar fashion trends and chattering about current events with slang words and slang of slang words. Little of it was relevant to her work, and her head buzzed from the incomprehensible information.

     Neopia Central continued to bustle around the still-light faerie. She felt her mind bubble with a stream of uncomfortable neglected thoughts that rose to the surface, which she knew would continue if she stood still any longer. With no current goal besides understanding the city more, she began to walk aimlessly.

     Aurelia eventually stopped in her tracks as a colossal building loomed before her. Judging by some familiar architecture and the surrounding gossip, this must be the Central Arena. But it was so much grander than she remembered. It was refurbished, and Neopians frolicked in and out with equally renewed interest. The Battledome was normally a place for the strongest pets and their spectators, but the fighters were now more varied in strength. Outside of notable battle events, it had never looked so popular.

     Intrigued, Aurelia stepped inside to find a massive open space. Various service stalls lined the walls or sat in dedicated alcoves, and nearby was a chamber leading to transportation to other grand arenas around Neopia. From the observation windows, she could see several fights going on, along with stadium seating whose capacity depended on the fight’s popularity. Aurelia glanced at the various battles: a Jetsam staring down an opponent cosplaying as Taelia, a pair of Kiko siblings scream-fighting about ice cream, and a buff Halloween Lupe showboating to a roaring crowd as they threw Punchbag Bob against the arena wall. It was apparent that all the fighting was in good fun. Submerged in the atmosphere of communal entertainment that she understood, Aurelia couldn’t help but smile.

     She wandered farther, taking time to inspect the service stalls and alcoves. One, in particular, caught her eye: a dedicated alcove decorated with a banner that read ‘Abilities’. Standing there was Aethia the Battle Faerie, and sitting among her were several books and an array of magical spheres. She was attending many Neopians who were coming to her to ask questions or take on a new ability. Aurelia smiled again. It was always nice to see Neopians take on more faerie magic to help protect themselves or guide their own way.

     Her smile faded when she better observed the Neopians surrounding the alcove and saw that a sheer number of them were holding bottled faeries. Some were released on the spot, to which the faeries quickly blessed their power and disappeared as quickly as they came. Others were just held. And then there were the Neopians’ words...”

     “I want some more faeries! Find me some!”

     “Not a single faerie that fights?? Ugh, there should’ve been more, I wanna be done today.”

     “Another fire faerie? I’m so close to Lens Flare. I need a light faerie!”

     ”What in Neopia is all of this?” Aurelia stared with horror. That horror grew to a chilling disappointment when she found that in the face of these outrageous comments, the battle faerie’s expression was entirely unchanged. No, not just unchanged… unfazed.

     “Excuse me!” Aurelia navigated her way to the front. “Uh, Aethia?”

     “Ah yes, has Fyora sent for me, or are my services needed elsewhere?” Aethia asked.

     “No, it’s just… Just…” Aurelia gestured. ”What is this?”

     Aethia raised an eyebrow. “What is this? ...Were you recently converted from stone? I thought we were all free from that.”

     “No, I was freed at the same time as everyone else. I’m just… not around often. I’m Aurelia, the Fae of the Lost.”

     “Ah yes, I think I’ve heard of you. You help guide lost souls; you’ve helped many Neopians and faeries. I don’t know more than that about you.” Aethia gestured vaguely to her array of magic spheres. “Anyway, Neopets come here to gain and manage their magic abilities for the Battledome.”

     “No, I gathered that. But didn’t you hear them? Just how often do they rely on captive faeries for their magic?! Acting as if that’s the only way to gain magic!”

     “...Ah, that.”

     “What do you mean that?! This is normal?!”

     “I’m afraid so.” Aethia sighed. “Listen, young one. It’s not like this is a happy business.”

     “Business? It’s kidnapping, at best! Slavery at worst!” Aurelia found herself shaking. For Aethia, the primary Battle Faerie herself, to talk so casually about faerie kidnapping as if it were just business.

     “...Forgive me, perhaps that’s the wrong wording,” Aethia said. “It’s simply the way it is. I’m just here to provide an outlet, a reason for Neopets to save faeries.”

     “Beyond the fact that they should?”

     “...You’re so young,” Aethia commented. She looked Aurelia up and down. “I can tell this is personal to you.”

     “I told you, I’m a Fae of the Lost. Be they mortal or faerie. It’s my goal to help them. Because I… I… I know what it’s like to be in those things. To be trapped for so long. To feel like you’ll never see your friends again, or feel the sky and the sun on your skin...” Aurelia looked away glumly.

     “And you’re here in one piece, as all the others,” spoke a voice behind her. “Now you’ll never take it for granted, so what a day!”

     Aurelia whirled around to see a Fire Bruce. He was well-dressed with a grey vest and a fancy black cap, and he bore a smile that shined with a superficial charm.

     “Now you see miss Light Faerie, we have a bit of an understanding here, and thus business goings-on. I have a few moments, so allow me to illuminate the matter for you. Your Excellency Aethia, I understand that you’re very busy, trying to aid all of these pets. If you’ll allow me, you can attend to all of your customers while I explain the situation to this lovely young fair folken. What say you?” The Bruce flashed her a smile.

     Aurelia didn’t miss the flash of a grimace on Aethia’s face. She turned to Aurelia. “Yes, you should go and talk to Mr Oriol. If you’re inclined, we can discuss more later. For now, perhaps Mr Oriol here can show you an event that is happening today.” She gave a stiff nod to the Bruce.

     “Why thank you very much, Your Excellency Aethia, and a jolly good day of good service to you!” Mr Oriol tipped his hat and turned to Aurelia. “Well, she asked me to show you something, and I’ll lead you straight there! Let’s talk while we walk.”

     Aurelia reluctantly followed Mr Oriol, turning her head towards Aethia, who didn’t meet her eyes.

     “Now that we have some space away from the crowd, let me shine a light on the matter for you, miss…?”

     “Just Aurelia.”

     “Alright, Just Aurelia! May I call you Just?”

     “No, I- Nevermind.”

     “Alright, Just Aurelia, let me introduce myself properly. I’m Mr Oriol. I’m a businessman slash middleman around these parts, and while I can do a variety of business for a variety of venues, I have a particular penchant for doing business with one particularly popular client. I’m part of the reason that happy Neopians can obtain magical potential and that Aethia there can provide the magical training to those lucky Neopians so that they may better defend themselves. Is that not such a happy thing to see, Just Aurelia?”

     “Aurelia,” the light faerie corrected. “Yes, it’s good that they have magical abilities ready for them. But the cost is-”

     “Oh, faeries are a lot more affordable now that the market has seen a massive uptick in new bottled faeries ready to breathe freedom! Now you can go to any market and buy a bottled faerie for scant few Neopoints, passing the savings to the customer! And that’s in good part thanks to my work as a go-between with the Battledome and my employer.”

     Aurelia felt sick. “A-an uptick, you say? There’s… that many?”

     “Don’t sound so down; now that they’re so affordable, they’re freed so frequently! It is part of my job to make it easy and to provide an incentive through Aethia. For that is what makes a profit, and it certainly doesn’t hurt faeries like you to have a quick turnaround from capture to rescue.”

     Aurelia swallowed hard. She wanted to argue, wanted to shout, wanted to give him a moment in a bottle itself just to see what it was like to be in there, alone, and friendless and hopeless until you’re found by sheer happenstance... She shook the troubling thought out of her head. Besides, she couldn’t argue the point. The trade had long been around, and she knew faeries who were left bottled on stands forever as they were not nearly so affordable. Still, could she really, in good conscience, call something so terrible an improvement? And if faeries were more frequently freed, were they also more frequently captured?

     Aurelia finally found her words. “...And your employer? Don’t tell me it’s...”

     “Oh, we’ve just caught up to him! He’s come today to make a special appearance for the Neopian Times Special Edition! There will be a page filled to the brim with Balthazar’s grand likeness!”

     Aurelia had barely registered the words when they turned a corner and saw Balthazar himself, standing there with shelves among shelves of bottled faeries, holding up an air faerie as he hawked his wares to a passing audience and to reporters standing around.

     “Should you wish to soil yourself with the magic of the faeries, don’t wait for the end of a Battledome fight. Take advantage of the faeries you see now!”

     Aurelia stiffened. Balthazar. It had been years since she’d last seen and dealt with him. But she thought it would be the last time… No. That’s not right. She had only hoped so.

     “’Take advantage of?’ Ugh, you’re horrible,” one passer-by said as they made a deal for the bottled air faerie in his hand.

     “Yeah yeah, talk your head off,” said another passer-by trading for a bottled light faerie.

     “Ha, he doesn’t quite have the charm of a businessman,” Mr Oriol commented. “Yet he still draws in the crowd!”

     ”You.” Aurelia approached.

     Balthazar turned. “...Hmph. Me?”

     Aurelia leaned in, glaring. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember me.”

     Balthazar looked dismissive. “Bigger and more powerful faeries are harder to catch, and you’re not the first faerie to go after me. You’re gonna have to narrow it down-”

     “The cursed Forest. Two Pteris. Sword of the Air Faerie.”

     ”You!” Balthazar snarled. “How unfortunate that you’ve grown.”

     “Worse that you’re still in business.”

     “I haven’t forgotten what you did to me,” Balthazar scowled. “The mark you made on me left a scar that will never heal! I wasn’t able to catch faeries for over a month!”

     “One less reason to feel guilty. Maybe it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t… well, kidnapped faeries in the first place, but also kidnapped me and threw me into a whirlpool so no one would ever find me!”

     “Yes, because of your meddling at that faerie festival! I was behind on my quota before you wounded me! You’ve stalled me longer than I’ll ever forgive!” Balthazar growled. “If I weren’t hosting this, if we were properly in the Battledome, I would-”

     “You’d what?” Aurelia postured. “I beat you before, and I’m more powerful now. What would you do?”

     Balthazar gave a sideways glance to the audience, Mr Oriol, and the reporters hastily taking notes. He took a breath and righted himself before smiling. “Do you think you’re the only one who’s become more powerful? You probably want to free all these faeries, right here and now, with your own hand.” He pushed a bottled earth faerie across the table to Aurelia. “Go on. Here’s one. Consider it a free gift.”

     Aurelia grimaced. “You wouldn’t give me one so freely if you hadn’t enchanted it. You won’t snare me that easily.”

     Balthazar laughed. “Ahhh, worth a try! It shames me to use faerie magic, but if it puts faeries in their rightful place, then so be it. It’s unfortunate you don’t get to see just how powerfully I can punish meddling faeries who release my rightful captures. It’s not too late, if you’d like to know your enemy...”

     Aurelia didn’t touch the bottle.

     “Tch. Fine.” Balthazar reached for it.

     “Ah ah!” Aurelia held out a hand to stop him. “You said it was a free gift. I may not be able to touch it, but I can still do what I want with it.” She gestured to a nearby Neopian. “Take her and free her.”

     The Neopian obliged.

     Balthazar growled. “I still have plenty more. I have made quite the profit since I partnered with the Battledome. Of course, my heist at the would-be faerie festival helped a lot too.” He gestured to his array of bottled faeries.

     Aurelia swallowed her guilt. She had missed the faerie festival on account of her work. Would she have been able to find him and stop him if she had gone after all? Or would she have been kidnapped too, or worse? Was it still worth the chance to save at least one?

     “Yes, I’ve explained some of the partnerships we share,” Mr Oriol chimed as he stepped forward. “Speaking of, Mr Balthazar, I’ve almost finished distributing the bottled faerie prizes for each opponent, up to the ‘Snow Faerie’, and more to come!”

     “Yes yes, Oriol, well done,” Balthazar said dismissively. “Today’s sale is concluded, you can go at your pace. I wouldn’t sell my faeries to you if I didn’t trust your hand”

     “Which just makes me so happy for our years-long partnership!” Mr Oriol beamed. “I was just expounding for the sake of Just Aurelia here.”

     Aurelia’s anger rose again. “I may not be able to do anything now. But I’ll put a stop to this one day, and stop your kidnapping ways for good!”

     Balthazar laughed and leaned in closer. “Go ahead and try. I don’t plan to be caught off-guard again. And I long to see your disappointed face when you try your best to stop me, only for Neopians and the faeries themselves to stop you. I have a good set-up, Oriol has a good set-up, and it’s all too expansive for even the Faerie Queen to stop.”

     “With respect, some of the faeries don’t mind the arrangement,” Mr Oriol chimed. “Now that it’s so short-term. We sort of see this as a… business arrangement.”

     “Their mistake,” Balthazar grinned cruelly. “And since I’m prepared for you, it’d be in your best interest to understand this arrangement, lest I have to stop you with, let’s say…” Balthazar tapped his chest. “A mark for a mark.”

     Aurelia glared, but she was soon pushed back by the crowd, who had collectively decided that the conversation was over. A small group of reporters attempted to surround her while firing off questions, but she moved past them without answering any. The din of their excited chatter soon melded with the din in her mind.

     “I would mind him,” Mr Oriol warned after they had gained some distance. “He’s a good business partner, but he, unfortunately, has quite a temper and holds grudges close. Nothing I can’t handle! But you seemed riled. It’s better this way, no? Better to work with the flow than against it. Many faeries agree now. I’m sure you’re too powerful to be caught by him now anyway, but just… better not test him.” Mr Oriol tipped his hat and walked away with a friendly wave. “I’d best finish my rounds. Adieu, Just Aurelia!”

     Aurelia went into a daze. The communal atmosphere of the Battledome no longer held its allure, and she found it difficult to look the surrounding Neopians in the eye. Lost in her thoughts and the tumultuous waves of her emotions, she paced around for longer than she cared to know.

     “Come here, Aurelia.”

     Aurelia just registered the voice, and she looked up to see Aethia, whose stand was far less crowded than before. Aurelia quietly complied. Aethia put a gentle hand on Aurelia’s shoulder, sitting her down on a spare chair.

     “I’m sorry for earlier,” Aethia said. “I was caught off-guard by the crowd and you. And… I’ve been told I can be too curt at times. Part of my battle leadership. So I’m not much for comfort, but this is a quiet period; you can stay for now.”

     Aurelia eventually spoke, her voice quiet and hesitant. “...How is everyone okay with this?”

     “They’re not as okay with it as they look,” Aethia said. “Every day, there’s a new fighter aghast at the idea. Even current ones hesitate. But it’s too normal now. Those like Balthazar and Mr Oriol have too strong a grasp on the system.”

     “We’re faeries,” Aurelia put bluntly. “We could overthrow this if we want to. We could find another way for Neopets to gain magic. We have magic academies!”

     “Not everyone can afford the academies. Otherwise… I don’t disagree. But Queen Fyora wants to keep an eye on things. Balthazar is too prominent, and his job now too integral to Neopian society. If we got rid of him, more would take his place, and they might be worse. At least this way… “ Aethia sighed. “Mr Oriol is regrettably not wrong. Now that the Battledome is easier, and the prizes are so prominent, this is a faster, easier, and less painful way for the kidnapped faeries to be freed. So we’re tolerating it for now. We figured with this stand, there’ll be incentive to gain faerie magic, freeing more faeries and lessening the burden on our kind.

     Aurelia clenched the edges of her chair. “...We’re… That still makes us items to them. Why are we settling for tolerance?!” She began to shake. “Do they know what it’s like to be trapped there? Uncertain of their future?! Of mine?! I wasn’t just captured, Balthazar cursed me and made me a grey faerie! He hid me so well, I was lucky to be found at all! His curse put my rescuers in danger! And when he saw me trying to escape, he attacked, and h-he nearly… I had to defend my--”

     A gentle grasp of Aethia’s hand on Aurelia’s shoulder made the rest of her sentence come out in tears. Aethia stood silent for some time, waiting for the light faerie to collect herself from the torrent of emotions washing over her.

     When the light faerie’s tears and shaking slowed, Aethia spoke, her voice steady. “My anger for Balthazar can’t match yours. But it’s too big a problem for one faerie like you to handle alone, or for any of us to handle quickly. That’s why we’re all trying to work on this. Until we think of a better plan, we have to work with the least harmful system. ...Still, if you do find a way to make it better, like another source of easy magic for Neopians… Come to me, or Fyora, and we’ll hear it.”

     Aurelia looked up and weakly nodded.

     “This is why you’re the Fae of the Lost, aren’t you?” Aethia noted. “Because you were lost yourself. And you never want anyone else to feel that way again.”

     “...Yeah. Partly,” Aurelia murmured.

     Aethia smiled. “You’ve become an accomplished faerie since that promise. Word of your rescues precedes you. Take heart in that.” Aethia’s tone then became more serious. “But you’re distant from the world, and the Neopians here. You don’t know this place. For systemic kidnappings as these, the distance may not be your ally.”

     Aurelia sniffed. “I can’t help it. There are so many beings that need help. And if I feel the call for help, I-I have to go. I have to help them..”

     Aethia tilted her head. “And that’s all you do?”

     “...Huh?”

     “There’s our duty, and then there’s a connection to those we serve.” Aethia sat down in a chair across from her. “Distance is hard to heal, but it can be helped in time. From here on, if you need it, talk to me. Or connect with other faeries who can help, either in your work or in re-learning this world. You’ve done good and mean good. You’re just... still lost.”

     Aurelia didn’t seem to understand, but she soon nodded anyway. Then, wiping away her tears, she laughed.

     “Heh. I’ve lived so long guiding others… and now I’m the one being guided. Ha. And here I thought my experiences guiding the lost would be enough.”

     “It’s easier to fix another than yourself,” Aethia said. “But while you need new experiences, there is still value in your old ones.

     “Heh. I hope so. I have so many. Some of them extraordinary. ...Maybe I’ll talk about them sometime.”

     Aethia smiled. “That’s a good start.”

     The End.