Flight Without Wings

Chapter 4

       I wasn't sure what I was supposed to look for. Honestly, I just needed a moment to think.

       Wait, this was political in nature. Something on history would certainly be helpful. A documentation of important political events perhaps? I needed to know if something like this had ever happened before.

       I decided to look at an early history of the Fey Union. The time when all eight cities and groups of fairies had just joined together.

       The laws around the time had been tumultuous and strange as many legal systems converged into one.

       But then, I found it. Something I was looking for. It was a passage stating that one of the first concepts that the Founding Fey had put in place was that one couldn't be punished for crimes they hadn't committed yet, regardless of how likely they were to commit said crime.

       But that would mean that the current monarchs were going against the very laws that held the eight great cities of the world in balance. The very things that had let them join together. No wonder that had felt wrong. Rey was right, it was wrong to arrest fairies with destructive magic.

       Strangely, I found something else that piqued my eye. This was something I hadn't seen before in history class.

        "The Extermination of Illusionists." I read in a whisper. What in the world was that?

       The passage referenced several primary sources, and explained the event.

       "Due to high crime rates, an extremist proposed the idea of getting rid of fairies that could create illusions. As rogue illusionists used their power to commit more and more petty crimes, more people rallied around the cause. The first political change that came about as a result of this extremist group was the newly formed state keeping a record of all fairies capable of creating illusions." I read. I looked back at the title of the event.

       The Extermination of Illusionists. The first thing that had happened was the recording of illusionist's names. The reason the idea was proposed was due to crimes caused by illusionists.

       My eyes widened, and the book slipped from my hands. That was impossible. Elyrie couldn't want such a thing, could she? I picked up the book and ran back to Jade and Rey.

        "Rey's right." I whispered, putting the book on the table.

       "What did you find, Zyara?" Jade asked.

       "I found two things. One was..." I began flipping back to the table of contents.

        "This." I said, pointing to the passage mentioning that the Founding Fey had stated that no fairy should be punished for a crime they hadn't committed yet.

       "See, I told you Jade." Rey muttered after a drawn out moment of silence.

       "So... you're right. The justification they used was the potential that wingless fairies with destructive magic were too dangerous." Jade realized.

       "What's the other thing?" Rey asked. I flipped back to the table of contents and quickly found the passage.

       "Tell me when you're done." I said.

       "I'm done... but why is this relevant to why keeping a list of our names is wrong?" Jade asked.

       "I'm done." Rey said. I flipped a page back and pointed to the heading.

       The Extermination of Illusionists. Jade's eyes widened. Rey took a bit longer to connect the dots.

       "A-Are you sure that's the end result of this?" Jade asked. I shook my head.