A Court of Legends and Myths

Chapter 25 - The Fae prince

Hellion's POV

Fascinating, just fascinating, this entire world, its people, its culture, all of it is just absolutely fascinating. Of course its history was horrible, but it was also incredible. A magic that exists outside of what's known. What was this magic? Could I learn it? Could I study and document it? I doubted it but it never hurts to ask. This magic, he said that Celaena, Aelin, had used it to open a portal into another realm. Was she using the same magic to open the portal to our world? I'll have to ask her before we part.

"Varese is the capital city of Wendlyn, it was here where she first met her now husband. The prince was sent by the dark queen Maeve to retrieve Aelin and bring her to a border outpost for training. Magic training.

During her training she and Rowan investigated the mysterious murders of some demi-fae living in towns around the fortress. Husks were being found, bodies drained of life, dried blood coming from their ears and nose, left by fresh water streams a few miles from the ocean. Valg, each and every victim found like that were killed, fed on by the Valg. Parasites, demons from another world, they took hosts to stay in our world. Fire, healing, beheading, or a sword through the heart could kill one, nothing more. The sign that one was possessed, the host wore either a wyrdstone ring, or a wyrdstone collar. And they smelled of the valg, even human senses could detect that they were not of this world.

The Valg have thankfully been all eradicated now, but many still live with the horrors and trauma these beasts caused."

Husks, bodies drained of life, dried blood streams from the ears and nose. It sounded familiar. It was familiar because I read about it once, in a history book kept in the deepest reaches of our most protected and ancient libraries. The valg, my father used to tell me stories of them when I was a boy, he said that long ago, long before the courts were ever created they came to our world. Hordes of them came but only soldiers, and a few princes. They created such devastation upon our lands, war raged for months but they were defeated, a few thousand came, once they were all killed none more came. Even though our world was so close to falling. Very few records of the war still exist, the ones that do are kept within my private libraries. But why did they stop?

Lost in thought I didn't notice that Gabriel had stopped speaking to answer a question.

"Wyrdstone is an otherworldly material that can be used to make magical objects, rings, collars, obelisks, etc. It can no longer be created or obtained, as the last of it was destroyed years ago." Gabriel answered.

"You said that the valg were from another world and that they came to this one, that they needed hosts. How did they get hosts if they were not in this world prior? Did they ever travel to other worlds other than this one? What was their society like? How long did they stay in this world? How is it that they can be killed by healing? How do they reproduce? How much have they been studied in this world? What are they capable of? What other beasts are from their world? What's their world like?" I asked, I wanted to know as much about them as I could.

"That's a lot of questions there.

The history between our world and the valg goes back millennia, it goes as far back to before the creation of Terrasen. It is a very long story, and there is an entire exhibit dedicated to that. It can answer all of your questions about them in much more detail than I can.

But in short their society was a kind of matriarchy, the females always had much more power than the males. At least one had stayed in our world since the two sister queens of Doranelle, Mab and Mora. They are able to mate with other species, when they mated with the fae the witches were created. They have not been studied very much, it was believed that they were too dangerous to keep alive. Studying them would also have been cruel. They did indeed travel to other worlds." Gabriel said.

"Very interesting, I'll have to check out this other part of the museum some other time then." I mused aloud.

Gabriel continued. "Rowan and Aelin discovered a plot to attack Mistward, the fortress border outpost that had become their temporary home. They, and many of those who lived at the fortress fought the valg forces who attacked, and with a powerful display of magic Aelin killed three valg princes at once, she showed the world that she lived. She declared to the world that she was back and she would fight.

And so the war began."

"Rowan taught Aelin how to control her magic?" Viviane inquired.

"Yes he did, and from what I've heard her training wasn't pretty." Gabriel answered.

"What do you mean by that, they are mates after all." Azriel remarked.

"That may be so. But they were both broken, Aelin by the death of Nehemia. And Rowan by the death of someone he loved. They hated each other at first, absolutely despised each other. They were too broken to notice the mating bond. Anyone who was there could tell you just how much they disliked each other. But over time they became close, they became friends, and soon that friendship became more." He told us.

"And who exactly was there?" Feyre posed.

"Well... the original cadre fought in the battle of Mistward, that is Connall, Fenrys, Gavriel, Vaughan and Lorcan. But they were only there for a very limited amount of time. Then there were Emrys, Malakai and Luca. Three demi-fae Aelin befriended, I believe they now work in the royal castle of Orynth. " he answered.

"This may be out of context but what exactly does the scary looking tattoo on the king's face mean?" Viviane asked.

"I don't know. Very few people do, either, Rowan told them himself. Or they studied and are at least semi-fluent in the Old fae tongue, and can read it." Gabriel responded.

No one had any more questions so he resumed. "After the battle the pair traveled to the Capital of Dorannelle, the City of Rivers. Maeve was to give Aelin information on the threat arising on the northern continent. But the queen did not have any of use. Aelin would not however leave empty handed, she knew that her friend, Rowan Whitethorn, was bloodsworn to the queen, he was practically a slave to her. And he was being mistreated by her, all of her bloodsworn were being mistreated by the dark queen.

Whilst on a training assignment, for lack of a better term, Aelin came across something of value to Maeve, a ring hiding in a scabbard. Aelin used this ring as leverage, she traded the ring for Prince Rowan's freedom. Maeve freed the prince from his blood oath to her for the ring. As soon as he was freed Rowan bowed in front of Aelin and swore the oath to her. Smack dab in front of Maeve.

He left one queen for another."

Interesting, all very interesting. I was definitely going to ask Rowan about his tattoo. And I was going to seek out the demi-fae Gabriel spoke of, Emrys, Malakai, and Luca. I couldn't help but think the name Emrys sounded familiar. Then it hit me, Madaline, the servant girl who escorted us from the ballroom to our chambers, said that Emrys was the story keeper. And that we can ask him for stories. How had I forgotten? I mentally facepalmed myself for that. He was definitely someone I needed to talk to before we had to leave. 

"What do you mean 'for lack of a better term' was it not a training mission that they went on?" Feyre asked.

"Not exactly, I'm sure some member of her court could explain what exactly happened." Gabriel answered.

Now I was intrigued. What happened on this 'training mission'?"

"The scabbard you speak of. Is it the legendary Goldryn, the sword that the queen embedded with her fire magic. The one that severed Maeve's head from her body?" One of our guards asked, it seemed rather unprofessional of him to ask, but I suppose things work differently in this world.

"Goldryn's origins are enwreathed by legends and myths and stories. Not even we know the truth behind the Queen's mighty scabbard. No one has ever seen it light on fire since the war, and even then it is unknown if it was simply her using her magic to encircle the blade in fire. If you want an answer to that question you'll have to her yourself." Gabriel said.