[1] WEEPING MONK // you're not what I was looking for

1| Prologue - The Burning Night

[This story is rated M for adult themes/content/conversations, violence. Trigger/content warnings are put at the beginning of each chapter]

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There was once a time, in a not too distant past, when Human and Fey kind lived together peacefully, governed by two thrones, and ruled successfully by one court sharing one land. The Human and the Fey kings worked together to rule all who lived within this land. Each throne sought to represent the voices of each of their kinds, and all creatures abided by the same laws, as set by the noble court.

The Human kings ruled well alongside the Fey kings and queens for over two hundred years since the court accord began. The blood of the Human royals came and went and changed as noble houses were brought together for the throne. The royal Fey however, were an ancient bloodline from which all other Fey kinds were born. Throughout the land, there was no other clan alike to the royal Sunborn Fey, with hair as white as fresh snowfall, and eyes as golden as their namesake. The Sunborn were kind and just and pure of heart, revered by all who knew them. The Human king, Constantine, was similarly just and respected by all peoples. But his only son, Uther, was not.

Uther was thirsty for glory like no other king before him since the creation of the court accord. His ear was heavily influenced by the workings of the church, who had begun to turn away from the agreed peace between the Fey and Human kinds. A young and devious monk named Carden sought to influence the young prince further into going against Constantine's will for unity. And so, when the old King's time came to an end, Brother Carden struck whilst the iron was hot, and with King Uther's encouragement, the cause of the Red Paladins was born. King Uther's first act was to abolish the reign of the Sunborn throne.

And so on one frightful night, it was done.

The Red Paladins massacred the Fey royalty and court nobility without warning, along with any Fey who stood in their way. They burned the homes and torched the villages of Fey surrounding the Sunborn house for several leagues before the word got out of their wrongdoing. Fey villages further afield gathered what they could and retreated to forests, mountains and river lands, seeking to avoid the path of the Red Brothers. Some humans aligned themselves with the Fey, but most were too weak to fight for their neighbours. And from the spoils and riches of The Burning Night, came The Golden Throne, of which the young King Uther sat as the sole ruler of the kingdom.

Any Fey were outcast and forced to start their lives again. However, little did the humans know that two Sunborn Fey escaped. And now, some twenty-five years after the Burning Night, their grown daughter remains as the last living hope for the Fey.

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A wounded Weeping Monk and the young boy, Squirrel, are captured into the camp of the last remaining true Fey queen who is forced to hold the Monk's life in her hands. Deciding to let the Monk live was not going to be easy, and the young Fey queen slowly learns that there is more to the monster than what he seems. Between them they set out to return the boy to his people, but trouble always follows where death goes, and feelings develop in the most unexpected of ways.