Escape from the Darkness

Part 5

Fenrys POV -

"Where were you before you got here?" Cassian asked.

I knew they were going to have a lot of questions, after all we did drop through their ceiling.

"We were in Doranelle, where she was being kept. It's Maeve's stronghold and where she sits on her throne." I answered. I didn't want to give them too much information unless they asked for it or Aelin gave it.

Rhys looked around before meeting my gaze again. "And, who exactly, is Maeve?" I about to answer, when Aelin cut me off.

"She my aunt, and an immortal bitch who enjoys tormenting anyone opposed to her." Aelin said through gritted teeth. Everyone was now looking at her.

"So your opposed to your aunt? Why?" Azriel asked carefully.

"Many reasons. She's against demi-fae, thinks it's fine to exploit those loyal to her, manipulated peoples lives before their even born, I could go on and on." I know she was talking about me and Rowan, but they don't know that. It means a lot that Aelin is fighting for us just as much as her kingdom. Everyone looked a little confused when she mentioned demi-fae, so Mor jumped in.

"Why do you care about demi-fae?" Aelin looked up at her confused, then met the gazes of everyone in the room. Then mine in a silent question. I nodded, if she wanted to show these people then she should show them.

"Because I'm demi-fae."

"How- but you're human." Cassian snapped.

"My human form is my other form. Just like Fenrys wolf form is his other form" Aelin looked around meeting everyone's confused gazes. "Can you not shift?" she asked no one in particular. They all shook their heads. I decided to show them, since if Aelin did she would probably burst into flames after not using her power for 6 months. So I stood up, drawing the attention back to me and willed myself to shift, so I did. I met the startled faces of everyone before shifting back and sitting down. They all looked towards Aelin, expecting her to shift. She realized what they wanted and let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, that wouldn't be a good idea. You see, I've been trapped in iron for 6 months, so my magic has been building up over the months and if I shifted... well lets just say everything in here would be ash." she gave a small smile while everyone else was looking at her slightly concerned.

"Your magic is flame?" Rhys asked.

"It's wildfire, yes."

"What's the difference?" Cassian asked

Aelin's smile turned sinister, "Well if I get the chance to show you, you'll see." They seemed to deem that an acceptable answer because they were about to ask another question when Aelin asked one of her own.

"What are your powers?" The questions was directed towards Rhys since he seemed to be the leader but she was asking everyone. Rhys answered for everyone.

"I am a daemati, so I can go into peoples minds," That made both Aelin and I tense, and apparently Rhys caught that so he added "but I haven't done that, and I don't plan on doing so. Cassian and Azriel have raw magic and use siphons to help control it. Mor's power is the power of Truth. Amren is, well she's Amren and very powerful." he finished.

"What exactly, can you do with people's minds?" Aelin asked, her voice had a hint of fear and caution mixed in. Nobody else would understand why exactly she needed to know that.

"Well, I can look through their memories, show them things, and talk directly into their minds." Rhys answered cautiously, narrowing his eyes at Aelin slightly. "Why?" Aelin ignored his question

"Can you show illusions to people?" she masked her fear and kept a steady voice, but her posture was betraying her, she was still tense as he answered. "Yes. Now why do you want to know these things."

Aelin silent, just staring at him, so I answered for her.

"Can I tell him, Aelin?" She looked at me, nodded and then looked elsewhere. I turned to face Rhys and the questioning gazes of his court.

"Maeve has similar powers to you, and she would go into Aelin's mind and make her see and live in illusions that she would make. She wanted to break Aelin so aside from the physical and... other methods of torture, she would do that." They all looked slightly terrified. And rightly so. Maeve has never made me an illusion so I all I know about them is Aelin's reaction when she would wake up from them. Usually it wasn't good. I guess that answer wasn't quite sufficient because Azriel asked the next question.

His voice was soft but not weak. "What kinds of illusions?" Aelin looked at him. If I'm being honest, I kind of wanted to know the answer as well but I wouldn't push her if she wasn't ready to share it.

"Many different ones. In some I was watching everyone I every knew get killed or tortured until I gave up information. Which I never did. In others, my friends came to rescue me and they either got killed or succeeded and in the ones where they succeeded everything was fine, I was fine. Then the worst ones were ones where none of the events in the past 10 years happened and everything was how it should have been. Where I had a happy childhood living with my parents, uncle and cousin, and grew up to claim what's rightfully mine." Her throne.

"And what's that?" Amren asked. Aelin looked to her.

"My throne." Her voice was steady while everyone started talking all at once. I smiled at her as she looked towards me.

Cassian's POV -

"Your a queen?" I asked above everyone's talking, still not wrapping my head around it. Aelin looked at me as everyone quieted. Once everyone was silent she answered.

"Among many things, yes, I am the Lost Heir of Terrasen." Lost? What does she mean lost? I guess Azriel had the same question.

"What do you mean 'Lost Heir'?" Aelin turned to face him and offered a sad smile as she said

"My kingdom was overthrown when I was 8. The King of Adarlan sent an assassin to kill my uncle - the king, my parents, and myself. They were killed but I escaped, and was found by Arobynn Hamel, the King of Assassins who raised me to be his prodigy." Her face and voice was solemn even speaking about her parents death and downfall of her kingdom. But none of that explains how she was captured and ended up here.

"I though you were a queen? Not an assassin." Mor asked. Aelin's face stayed the same as she faced her.

"I am both. I was known as Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Assassin, and I was the best in Erilea. Arobynn betrayed me when I was 17 and I ended up... well it's hard to explain." It seemed like her carefully constructed mask was falling and she couldn't handle whatever came next.

"How old are you?" I asked, if whatever she was going to say happened when she was 17, how old was she now that she spend 6 months with her aunt.

"19" well that's not what I was expecting. I mean sure, I knew she was young but 19, I don't even remember when I was 19. Everyone seemed to have the same reaction.

Rhys offered an alternative to her telling the story. "Aelin, if your alright with it, I could project your memories to everyone here so you don't have to tell them. Only if you're alright with it." Given her experience with daemati, he was trying to let her understand that he wouldn't go into her mind unless she gave permission. Aelin bit her bottom lip slightly in contemplation then looked to Fenrys who just said "It's up to you Aelin." and it is, if she didn't feel comfortable sharing her life story with people she just met, then she didn't have to. But I know I was interested in it, given the looks on everyone else's faces, including Fenrys, they were too.

Aelin looked back to Rhys and nodded then said "You can do that, but just fair warning, at 17 it wasn't pretty and it definitely wasn't these past months either." she looked around before adding "I've done some pretty bad things, just saying." What could she have done that the 500 year old warriors sitting in the same room as her haven't? Before beginning, Rhys asked her:

"Do you want you see it? Fenrys?" she yes to both. And so Rhys went into her mind.