Chapter 2: The Emissary Arrives 

Within the hollow walls of the grand kingdom, where the moon meets earth, the hearts of the fair folk grew fearful and the feet of Prince Kael restless still.

The Grand Vizier stood stock-still by the throne an imposing edifice of pure ivory coated with glittering gold, eyes trailing the frantic movements of the angered prince. His face bore no show of emotion, as stiff as the stone staff in his hands, thick brows hedged his hawk-eyed gaze on the troubled prince.

“Do they demand for a war? A cunning move to ensure their upper hand in battle?” Kael barked as a frustrated sound escaped his lips.
“And yet no explanation ensues?” He
scoffed “If they beg for a fight, I guess we must ready our men. “

The Grand Vizier’s cold, mollifying voice
echoed off the smooth marble walls of the throne room etched with repeating images of fae engaged in revelrous behaviour. “Your Highness, there is no haste in making plans for a war not in sight, we–”

“Another of our own was killed a mile past our borders; if we let them any further, they’d be by our palace gates by the next moon!”

As if called forth, the golden mahogany doors to the throne room creaked open and a man donned in the shimmering blue and gold armour distinctive of the palace guards stepped in, hands occupied by a scroll bearing a familiar royal seal.

“Your Highness”, the guard, bent on one knee, presented the scroll to Prince Kael, “A letter from Elthera received just this morning at the borders.”

Kael exchanged an unsettled glance with Omaru, his Grand Vizier as he took the scroll from the guard and ordered him out. As the doors closed behind the guard, he loosened the scroll and read it aloud:

Liora, Queen of Elthera to Kael Prince of the Lunar Dominion,
The blessings of the stars be upon your home
There arises among us a common concern, one of the rogue fae plaguing our land If this matter troubles you enough as it does me, I implore your hand of aid in resolving it With our military forces combined, we can reach a mutually beneficial solution
I await earnestly your response and hope for greater ties between us.

“It is unbefitting for a great Prince like yourself to let loose so much ire over such a trivial matter, look now, our amicable vicinage has brought us a solution,” Omaru concluded
after a minute of silence.

“Ha! Amicable indeed. They have done no deed sympathetic to such title,” A pause. “But this turn of events could prove rather favourable to us. Send for Elena. It seems we would be paying our neighbours a visit.” The doors to the throne room threw wide to welcome a stern-looking woman, copper skinned and with hair cropped to her scalp. She was dressed in a large wine cloak, lined with gold — a colour the Prince seemed to favour most as anyone stepping into the palace would observe which bore the royal insignia; a full silver moon shrouded in mystical shadows and surrounded by bright yellow stars elements that were greatly revered in the Lunar Dominion.
“Your Highness” she bowed, the opulent jewellery lavishing her arms clinking across
the empty room.

“Elena, my dear emissary” Kael grinned ”
Elthera calls for us and we must answer,” Elena raised her head, cautious to say a word, for Prince Kael was unpredictable when he smiled like that, and right then, his eyes, deep and blue, twinkled in the morning light. He beckoned her forward.
Elena stepped forward and Kael leaned into her, a hint of mischief in his voice, as he whispered in her ear words for her alone. He stepped back, the smile gone from his face and commanded then:
“Ready your crew, you leave at the morrow’s dawn.”

The journey to Elthera was as peaceful as hoped and within a day, Elena and the royal guards arrived at the gates of Queen’s palace where members of the royal staff were already present to welcome them. “Greetings from the Lunar Dominion, I am here by request of your Queen. It would be a pleasure to meet with her with haste.”

The throne room of the Queen of Elthera was a spectacular sight and its dignified occupant even more remarkable with her striking blonde hair drawn into a simple yet beautiful style and her gown an elegant garb. It was no doubt that Queen Liora exuded strength and composure and Elena was compelled to respect her.

There seemed to no one else present in the room save for a bent old man, whose wise eyes never left Elena whom she would discover later to be their Grandmaster, a sage named Alaric.

“Welcome to our home”, Liora spoke finally ” I hope our meeting will meet an agreeable end.” Elena nodded in understanding “His Highness, Prince Kael sends his regards and hopes you will treat us as well as he has. He refrains from avenging the damage your people have brought on us.”

There was a bite to the tone of her voice, a
reminder that their mutual troubles did not yet make them allies.
“And we send our sincere apologies,” Liora maintained “If you will, we can get to drafting our plans.”

Elena was led to an inner room where three
other men surrounded a round table which stood at its centre. Papers and ink were strewn across and there seemed to be little to be said about decorations. Very different from the extravagance she was used to with Prince Kael.

Liora began “I have already called for a meeting with my council regarding our military and my ministers-” she waved her hand at the three men standing in the room “-have fortified their teams to the best of their abilities, the Minister of Politics and Minister of Defense, along with the Councilman of Alchemy stand before you.”

Elena swept a measured glance at the men “Prince Kael promises reinforcements if we are assured of a proper…. disposal of these rogue faes to avoid any unnecessary rebound.”

“Disposal?” the first man asked, Minister of Politics, his brows lifted in a puzzled pose. “They are dangerous creatures who cannot be hindered by a mere rebuke and squabble; we need a permanent solution, one that ensures they never return”, Elena replied. “That would involve more magic than we anticipated”, another of the men, Councilman of Alchemy countered “We cannot use it such magnitude, our ichor–” “Our ichor would not be subject to unnecessary exploits, we reserve it for more honourable matters” Queen Liora interjected, her voice firm.

Elena kept a questioning gaze on the Queen “Your ichor is just one part of the equation,
we have magic of our own that functions well,” she shrugged “But I thought this was supposed to be a joined effort”

Liora sighed “Our ichor shall not be used more than it needs to.” she ended with finality in her tone, leaving no room for probing.

Elena wondered inside why they were so insistent on refusing to utilise their magic, wasn’t that to be the pride of all fae? She knew light fae drew strength from natural sources, there are a good number of them back in the Lunar Kingdom. But Prince Kael, a dark fae, had no need for that and his strength he drew from darker sources like shadows and death. Though that wasn’t a detail Elena was willing to share if not pressed.

They spent the next two hours deliberating on military plans careful not to step over already drawn treaties between the
kingdoms. By the end of the meeting, there were still many things left unsaid, but
progress was made, and Elena was shown to a guest room. It was as striking as the rest of the palace, with lacquered wood for walls and exquisite ceramic for the flooring; the bed was as inviting as the room felt, and Elena found herself drifting into a hushed slumber the moment her head met the pillow. Over the next few days, Elena and the Queen’s council continued their planning and though they seemed obliging in their meetings, Elena was not fooled to believe they were as accommodating outside the confines of their meetings. She still did not understand the hushed tones with which they spoke of their ichor and the secret assemblies the Queen seemed to regularly have with her Councilman of Alchemy. On a quiet night, as most nights seemed to go in Elthera, Elena walked into the royal
garden, having sent her guards ahead of her. With the gentle breeze caressing her skin and her mind moving miles per second, she barely registered the rustling of leaves and the rowdy footsteps that ensued until a thick, black-gloved hand enveloped her mouth and she felt the gentle press of cold metal on her throat. A rough voice, as if masking its true intonations, whispered harshly in her ear:

“This is no place for dark creatures like you, the rogue fae feasting on your families should be the least of your worries when the light and dark seek to unite. Only the one called the Starlight Amulet would serve any usefulness to you now and yet I await your search for it that I may behold your downfall and be the one to slit your throat.” The last word came out with venom, the metal pressing deeper into her skin. Elena let out a muffled cry as blood seeped down her throat.

“But not today”, the voice teased, and with another sough of the wind, vanished along with the body to whom it belonged. Elena was trembling, first with horror and then with fury. She came to make treaties as requested, and this is the disrespect she is presented with? Prince Kael would not stand for such insult!

She marched into the palace towards the bed chamber of the Queen, catching up to her guards who were stunned to see her with blood down her neck and an enraged expression. Coming up to the doors to Liora’s bed chamber, Elena pounded forcefully on her doors, the palace guards occupied by her own accompanying guards.

The doors slowly opened to a confused and irritated Liora, her eyes falling to the disastrous look on the emissary. Her manner soon broke into concern. “Great stars, what
happened to you?”

Elena spat “Your uncontrolled people happened, someone attacked me, within your very palace walls!” her voice rose with incredulity. “They spoke of killing me to my very ears and of some greater doom befalling us all, I demand an explanation!” “That is no way to speak to Her Majesty!” one of Liora’s personal guards exclaimed Elena shot the guard a dirty look
“She is no Queen of mine.” she hissed Liora urged her into her room “But Your Majesty–” the guard countered. Liora raised a hand silencing his protests. “She is my guest and would be treated as such.” Elena was yet again met with the exquisite grace that seemed to be the running motif of the style of Elthera’s royal palace. “I earnestly impart my regrets for your harrowing visit, please send my apologies to your Prince”
Elena only frowned with contempt as Liora assured her of tighter security and a safer visit “Now tell me, what were the words this… assailant told you”

“Except for a humiliating threat over my life, I don’t see how it matters”
Liora paused, her focus on Elena focused and self-possessed as her eyes glowed brilliantly. Even in the middle of her indignancy, Elena could observe that Liora held so much
power. She took a deep breath and rushed over the words of the threat, shuddering as the scene replayed in her mind.

Liora titled her head, pensive “I believe such words hold some familiarity.”She stood up and went to her desk, rummaging through till she brought out a scroll, the broken seal of an eclipse present.

Elena’s eyes widened in disbelief “Is that….?” she inquired
The Queen nodded, her eyes bearing the
first tell-tale signs of exhaustion that Elena had ceased to see. Liora handed the scroll to Elena who read it silently with her eyes in frenzied movement across the paper. “But this can’t…. an eclipse?” Elena stuttered “This brings no good news for any fair folk, what does the rest of the prophecy mean, can it truly forebode the end of our magic?”

“We are yet to utterly decipher the contents of this letter, but I expect you understand the need for secrecy until we do, even when you relay it to your Prince?”

Elena, still confounded, could only nod wordlessly, her mind reeling with conclusions as to what the prophecy could really mean. She looked at the paper again. The roots of life shall come undone? She had heard of a tree that gave life to the fae supplying them with ichor but what did it mean by “come undone” and the end begins; it won’t
be long? She tried to piece it with her assailant’s words: when light and dark seek to unite… the starlight amulet.

“Have you happened across such thing as the starlight archive? He said that was to be the only useful thing for us”

Liora searched her thoughts for information “I’ve only heard of stories of some magical trinket in a cave far off the borders of our lands, I know not if there is any relation to this starlight amulet.”

The room lit up with the peeking rays of the morning sun “Ah, it seems we have kept ourselves up all night pondering over matters beyond our hands,” Liora mentioned .”I do not wish to keep you up any further. We will get to the end of the subject once we have had a full rest and a good meal, and I thank you again for your understanding.”

Elena retired from the bed chamber musing over the proceedings of the night. Prince
Kael’s whispered words flittered across her mind, “As they’ve weakened us, so I send you to do the same, whatever battle they pronounce, then we must see to it that we end victors”.
Elena huffed. I must get this to His Highness at once, she decided, it seems there are affairs superior to war.