[2] WEEPING MONK║you're not what I was looking for

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐎 𝐅𝐀𝐑 ...

Lancelot... the Weeping Monk. Cursed crusader and traitor turned right hand of the Fey Queen still fights to earn his place amongst his people.

║𖤓║

Many months ago at the beginning of winter when Lancelot rode in bleeding on his trusted steed, Goliath, with the boy that he had rescued from his own people, into an unknown Fey camp... he did not know what to expect other than his death. It was there where he met the Fey Queen, Arianne, or Ari as everyone called her. She was the last of her kind like him, the final in the Sunborn line with her pale silver hair and golden eyes.

She commanded that they would fight at sundown, a trial by combat and so they did. The injured monk battled against the warrior woman and was only spared from her blade at his throat by the queen's mercy and their sacred Hidden's command through their whispers.

Ari allowed him to live, offering one chance for him to make things right. Soon after she found out that the Weeping Monk was indeed Fey, a traitor to his own kind and her hatred grew. It was only when they set out to return the young Sky boy, Squirrel, to his clan that her resentment for him faded. Through Druid's fire showing his past, she learned of who he was and how he came to be amongst their enemy as a boy, captured on one frightful Burning Night when both of their kinds were slaughtered.

That night, Ari discovered Lancelot's powers as a water Fey, helping him control them by using her own earth gifts to take away his energy and subsequently settled the brook which he was unsettling just with his rage.

Lancelot, thoroughly confused by what had happened listened as Ari continued then to explain where Fey came from, the various kinds and the powers that they hold.

The trio were almost caught by an army of Red Paladins on the way back to the camp, prompting Ari and Lancelot to ride on ahead together to warn them. Her advisors warned her and told her to leave, needing her to stay alive while they fled north to hidden caves. And so they returned to their Druid friend, Zurah's cottage. Before leaving, Ari helped Lancelot again with his powers and Zurah gave him an amulet, one that was commonly given to Fey at birth and he did not know what to do with it.

Lancelot's loyalty was tested on their journey, saving the Queen more than once and he began to learn how to open up and be a Fey, to make peace with his past with her help. They stayed for a night in the ruined Yvoire Abbey, where Lancelot explained some things about his beliefs to Ari and Ari listened, learned. Come morning he had been awarded his amulet which Ari had taken from him earlier that day and he began on the road to accepting who he was.

Somewhere along the way as they continued to head to where the Fey were hiding feelings developed, opinions changed and the Monk and the Queen found that they only wanted to be closer, to protect one another in more ways than just physically.