Chapter 21: Aurelius Cries Uncle
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Ryssa trudged up the ramp from the lower level of the Sithin behind her bodyguard, a member of the Slaugh. The grotesque, rabbit-eared creature occasionally looked back as though to make sure she was still there. His leering grin of sharp teeth was getting on her nerves.
The next time he glanced back, Ryssa bared her teeth and growled at him. The creature’s eyes grew wide. Ryssa took a bit of pleasure from that, until his gaze turned to amusement and his head bobbled with laughter. She scowled, and he laughed even harder, but at least he quit looking at her.
Extra work—that’s what the whole thing on the lake had gotten her. Extra work and a whole lot of stares from everybody she came across. Whenever she walked the streets of New Faery City, it seemed as though people went out of their way to go around her. And now, tramping through the streets behind one of the Slaugh, no one made a show of pretense—they simply scattered to the other side of the street.
The storm elders singled Ryssa out to show them what she had done to stop the storm. But she couldn’t do it. On the lake, it had been an instinctive need for survival—and to protect those she cared about. Trying to recreate it while the elders watched and criticized her every move? That made it impossible.
Ryssa felt like a dog who was supposed to understand a trick and perform it on demand. At least a dog gets treats and praise. I don’t even get that much. And it was as though they were afraid this dog might have rabies and turn on them at any minute. A member of the Slaugh was now present everywhere she went. What was up with the Black Knight thing anyway—and why did it spook the entire Fey population?
Reggie had a member of the Slaugh assigned to him as well, but at least he didn’t have to endure the grueling sessions with the storm elders.
Neither she nor Reggie had mentioned anything to them about the Green Knight’s connection to Meek. It was enough that they were under scrutiny—they didn’t see any reason to put Meek through it as well. Not until they knew more about what was going on.
At least Aurelius attempted to limit what the elders did with her and Reggie. He was protecting them, sort of. They didn’t know whether that protection would extend to Meek. Short of asking questions that would draw attention to their silent teammate, they were the only protection he had at the moment.
The Slaugh guard led Ryssa to one of the training fields. That was another thing that irritated her. She would spend humiliating hours laboring under the demands of the storm elders, only to have to go straight to training afterward. It had been several weeks now, and the Team was rapidly covering what they could to prepare for the competition.
The competition. Ryssa shuddered. She was terrified of that upcoming day. She and Reggie tried to figure out how to get around it, but the truth was, they didn’t know enough to come up with a solution. By the time she and her guard had reached the training field grounds, Ryssa had worked herself into a full mad.
The rest of Team Phoenix were already there, seated on the grass, while Aurelius prepared to talk them through an exercise. What is it today—? Ryssa frowned and pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter. She was tired and angry, and for the most part feeling pretty worthless. And she’d had enough.
The Slaugh guard stopped at the edge of the field where another one sat, no doubt to watch over Reggie. They looked so similar that Ryssa made a mental note to figure out later how to tell them apart. She continued on, her fury building with every step she took. Aurelius glanced up at her arrival, but once again would not look her in the eye.
“Come along, Ryssa. Take a seat. We’re starting to—”
“No.” Ryssa stood directly in front of him, stopped and crossed her arms.
Aurelius blinked in surprise—and finally looked at her.
“No?”
“No.”
“No, what?”
“No nothing. No, I’m not going to sit. No, I’m not going to deal with any more training today or any other day, until I get some answers.”
“Enough of this, Ryssa,” Aurelius pushed aside her words with a wave of his hand. He went back to not looking at her again. “Take your seat with the others and—”
“No,” Ryssa repeated and turned to walk from the field.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“If you won’t answer questions, then I’ll find someone who will.”
“Who do you think will—?”
“I’m going to have a chat with my aunt.” Ryssa had almost reached the Slaugh guard when she heard quick footsteps in the grass behind her. A hand came to rest on her shoulder, and she stopped to face her uncle. He met her eyes briefly, before looking away.
“Very well.” His shoulders slumped in defeat. “Let’s sit and talk about this. I’ll answer what I can.”
Ryssa examined him for a moment, deciding whether or not he was being sincere. She finally nodded and took a step toward the rest of the Team, who were openly watching the exchange. Aurelius raised his hand to stop her.
“Not there. We’ll talk in private.”
Ryssa shook her head. “No. They’re in this as much as I am. Every time something happens, they get put at risk. It’s time for truths, Lord Aurelius,” she added his title to show respect in the Faery tradition. “Too many things are being unsaid—that’s what is putting Faery in danger. It’s not protecting us, it’s hurting us.”
Aurelius stared at her long and hard—so long, that Ryssa grew uncomfortable under his scrutiny. But she didn’t let it show. She was firm in her resolve and had no intention of backing down. He nodded and they walked back, side by side, to a surprised and waiting Team Phoenix.
“:Way to go, Ryss.:”
Ryssa flashed her twin a tight smile and sat at his side. For a change, Aurelius did not stand over them as he usually did, but instead sat on the grass with the rest of the Team.
“So what would you like to know?” Aurelius looked to her with a blank expression.
Ryssa was silent for a moment. There were so many questions begging to be asked, and she suspected she wouldn’t get answers for them all. She sorted through them, trying to prioritize.
“Okay—let’s start with the Black Knight.” When she saw her uncle wince, she knew she had chosen one he had been expecting—and also one he had hoped to avoid. Not as much as some of the others, I’ll bet. Out loud she said, “What’s up with that, anyway? Why are people treating me and Reggie like the plague now?”
“The appearance of the Black Knight,” Aurelius started slowly, “is the first stage of a prophecy that is believed to be the beginning of the end of Faery.”
“Prophecy?” Ryssa looked around while the rest of the Team lowered their eyes in avoidance.
“The Lia Fial seldom speaks,” Aurelius tried to explain, “but it did the day of the selection of potentials almost thirteen years ago. It hadn’t done so for several hundred years—since even before the time of Dana.”
“What does this prophecy say?” Ryssa frowned.
“There is a lot to it, actually. To hear it all, you would have to gain Queen Medwyn’s permission for access to the archives. But the first part goes like this:
The Blackest Knight cometh to the land of the Fey
and darkness follows in its wake;
To a land untouched by the echo of the past;
Spreading the echo outward like the ripples
of a pebble thrown into a lake;
Brought by the twins of darkness and light
to break the light.
“So what is the echo of the past?” Reggie asked.
“It’s hard to say,” Aurelius shrugged. “Most prophecies, this one being no exception, are usually so obscure you can only know the truth of them once they have come to pass. The scholars who have devoted time to this one suspect it applies to New Faery, since this would be the land of the Fey untouched by echoes of the past.”
“And now they suspect me and Reggie as being the twins of darknes
s and light because the Black Knight has shown itself twice around me. It’s a no-brainer to figure out which they think is which.”
“Yes,” Aurelius nodded unhappily and then sighed. “I wish I could tell you otherwise, child, but I’m afraid that’s the truth of it.”
“But how do they know for certain it’s me and Reggie the prophecy is talking about? How do they know that it’s not, say—” She looked over the whole Team, ignoring the panic in Meek’s eyes. She made a mental note to corner him at the first opportunity. “I don’t know, maybe it’s referring to Moira and Jet as the twins of darkness, with their dark skin, and me and Reggie as twins of light—how do we know it’s singular and not plural? Maybe it’s as simple as that?”
Moira and Jet looked stunned, and she hastened to reassure them.
“I’m not trying to make any accusations. I’m just asking why it has to refer to just me and Reggie?”
“It doesn’t, of course,” Aurelius said thoughtfully. “But that’s the thing with prophecies. Until it comes to pass, all the guessing in the world is for naught.”
Ryssa wasn’t satisfied, but by the way her teammates started to relax, she knew that she was no longer at the top of their boogeyman list. No doubt she was still on the list, but at least she wasn’t the number one terror anymore. Reggie looked at her with pride, so Ryssa guessed she was handling herself well.
“Okay, next question.” She saw Aurelius tense and decided to throw him off guard. “Who was Darkwind’s last controller and what happened to him—or her?”
From the look on Aurelius’s face, she knew he hadn’t been expecting that one. It took him a moment to recover. Even Reggie was surprised. She had never mentioned her conversation with Kyellin Nightfall to him.
“Dahlia Nightfall. She was the Matriarch of the now disbanded House of Nightfall. No one is quite sure exactly what happened. She—” He paused, searching for a word. “—um, well, she seems to have gone over the edge.”
“Seems to have? As in she’s still alive?”
“Yes.” Aurelius actually seemed to squirm a little. “But Dahlia is no longer—well, she’s not quite—”
“Sane,” Jet provided. “I heard she went bonkers when Darkwind exploded the fireball that killed your parents.”
“Yes,” Aurelius sighed. “But it’s not quite like that. She became, shall we say, less in touch with reality every day. We aren’t sure if the fireball incident pushed her over the edge, or if she went over the edge first, which in turn made her to lose control over Darkwind and caused the incident.”
“Which came first,” asked Reggie, “the chicken or the egg?”
“Pardon?” Aurelius asked absently, and then seemed to come back to himself. “Oh—yes, well, only Dahlia knows for certain.”
“Dahlia and Darkwind.” Ryssa looked at her wand. Two burgundy-colored eyes blinked innocently up at her from the crystal.
Aurelius watched her carefully. “Darkwind refuses to speak on the matter.”
“We’ll see about that,” Ryssa said.
“There are suspicions—” Aurelius offered cautiously.
“About what?”
“About what was driving Dahlia’s strange behavior.”
“Care to elaborate?” Reggie asked when Ryssa hesitated.
“Nothing that can be proven. So I don’t know—”
Ryssa stared at him, not blinking.
“—she seemed to act more nervous around groups of people,” Aurelius tried to explain as best he could. “Especially around strong emotional situations. It gave her bad headaches. We couldn’t find a cure, even with the best of our healers.”
“You mean she was empathic?” Reggie asked. “She could feel other people’s emotions?”
“Well, that’s the general theory. But we don’t know for certain—”
“Oh, you people!” Ryssa slapped furious hands on the ground in front her.
“What’s wrong, Ryss?”
“Don’t you see, Regg? If Dahlia was one of those empathy-thingies—if she could feel emotions from others around her and they suspected—”
“Sheesh—with everyone around here so involved in their little secrets and afraid of being exposed—”
“They’d have acted a lot like they do around you and me now.” Ryssa shook her head sadly. “With suspicion and fear, which in turn she would have felt—”
“The people of Faery sent her off the deep end!” Moira straightened, seeing where their logic was taking them. “By the time she went wonky, all she was feeling whenever she was around others was their fear and paranoia. No wonder she flipped out!”
The members of the Team turned accusatory eyes to their Counselor, as though the entire thing was his fault—and they had never even known Dahlia Nightfall.
“We didn’t know for sure,” Aurelius protested in a small voice. “By the time we figured out what might be happening, it was too late. Some of the abilities cropping up in New Faery now haven’t been seen since well before the time of Dana. Without access to the old knowledge of Faery, we can’t understand how to deal with it.”
“So some abilities are popping up that people have never dealt with before?” Reggie asked.
“Not often. But even some of the elders have been experiencing abilities they hadn’t had before now. We’re not sure what’s going on—we suspect it has something to do with the Wilt and the thinning of the barriers.”
Ryssa was no longer paying attention. Her thoughts had turned inward. She was thinking back to what Kyellin had said to her that day: ‘I know what will happen if you can’t control the emotions. You need to understand them—really understand where they are coming from. If you don’t, the emotions will control the magic and the magic will turn to darkness—’
The words faded as the remembrance of the voices in the mists came forward: ‘She’s back. She brings darkness to the Sidhe. The Heart of Darkness returns to life. With the darkness, all that has been done in the name of light will be undone. She holds the power to destroy them all. We answer the call of darkness in your heart—’
“No!” Ryssa covered her ears with her hands to block out the words, even though they had come from within.
Everyone turned and stared. With all of the talk of Dahlia’s path of insanity, she knew what they were thinking. Her resentment grew at the fear she saw in their faces—fear she could almost feel. Was she like Dahlia? Is that why Darkwind had chosen her? Was she going to go insane, too?
No, she told herself firmly. I’m going to beat this and prove them all wrong—even those stupid voices in the mists.
Ryssa suddenly refocused her stare on her uncle. “So how did you do it?”
“How did I do what?”
“How did you stop using dark magic?”
Team Phoenix looked shocked, but when Aurelius did not deny it, their gazes locked on him inquisitively.
Reggie’s face lit in sudden understanding. “It was you. That’s what I was missing in the Hall of Storms. You’re not originally from Faery, are you, Uncle?”
“Aurelius is the mage who helped the humans defeat Faery with the storms,” Pyro, Jr. said. He glanced at the surprise on his teammates’ faces. “What, you guys didn’t know that?”
From the individual reactions, it was obvious she and Reggie weren’t the only ones who had been unaware of that fact.
“Then how can you be our uncle?” Reggie asked. “Are our parents human, too?”
“We are all human.” Aurelius brushed at his robes with a trace of irritation. “It’s only the Earth-link that sets the Faery aside from those with mortal life spans.”
“Then how—”
“Your father.” Aurelius brought a tired hand up to rub his eyes. “Dana decreed my life to be forfeit unless someone of Faery would take blood-bond with me, to control the dark magic and see that I never use it again.”
“That was why the storm elders thought you moved the storm away from Faery—and that you used dark magic to do it,” Ry
ssa said. “Because our father is dead, they thought his control over your dark magic was dead, too.”
“Yes. And what they suspect is correct. But I still have not called on dark magic to this day.” He shuddered. “I will not be responsible a second time for that kind of devastation against Faery.”
“But if you don’t help me understand it so I can control it, the same thing will happen again, and it will be your fault anyway.”
The accusation hung in the air, but Aurelius did not look angry.
“No, child, I don’t sense darkness in your magic. It is—different. I’ve yet to determine what it is, so I haven’t been able to help you. Your brother seems to be your control—just as Marcus was mine at first. Eventually, I learned for myself what I needed to control it—just as you have to do.”
“I can’t do it by myself,” Ryssa said.
“You don’t have to,” Pyro, Jr. spoke up. “You have us.” He blushed when everyone looked at him.
“He’s right,” Moira grinned confidently. “Isn’t that what being a Team is all about?”
“You made Aurelius talk about this in front of us,” Loo added. “So it protects us by giving us a clue about what’s going on. But the only real protection is for us to figure this out together—that’s what being a Team is all about.”
“Yeah,” said Jet. “Team Phoenix, rising from the ashes of destruction. This is our win or lose, Ryss. You’re not alone.”
Ryssa smiled, tears springing to her eyes. She was grateful that they were behind her, but the horrible image of the fireball had leapt to mind when Jet spoke of Team Phoenix rising from the ashes. She couldn’t tell them—she couldn’t bear to feel their fear again.
A look at Reggie confirmed she had made the right decision. Now she just had to hope they could figure out a way to make that future go away—or pray Team Phoenix lived up to its namesake.