The Forgotten Light

36. Fairlight

When you fall, it happens fast...

That's how she felt when a white-haired Invicta guard in a lusterless black armor appeared in her dark cell.

She had fallen down. She knelt at the bottom of her honor, her dignity, her being.

She agreed to the King's terms, because what other choice did she have? Kill all those who were still alive somewhere in the world with her resistance? Kill herself?

Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at the guard holding her arm.

She agreed, but she wasn't going to be easy to cooperate with.

When you fall, it happens fast. When you try to rise again, you need all your strength to do it, and it takes forever, as if something wants to gloat over your defeat for as long as possible.

Fairlight may have lost, but she was still alive. Her father had drilled into her that as long as she was alive, she had no right to give up.

She expected Thandor's satisfied smile, contemptuous and demeaning words of the other Invicta, but instead, after exiting the dark tunnels, all she experienced were the sneers of the human slaves. They gathered at the entrance to the courtyard, as if they knew she was about to come out of there, as if they were just waiting to greet her.

 And go at her with a hatred she never expected to face.

"Monster!" they screamed.

"What did you do to them?!"

Someone spat at her feet, and a moment later she had to duck to protect her head from a stone flying toward her. Her eyes were wide open, she didn't know what was happening. It was as if she had just awakened from a deep sleep to fall straight into the arms of a real nightmare.

"She killed them! She killed them all!"

She asked what they were talking about, who they were talking about, what was the matter with them, but no one heard her. Angry people shouted at her, themselves, and even at the Invicta who was leading her, who told them to get out of the way.

"You are just like them!"

"Limb of Satan!"

Their words were like a slap in the face. One of them pushed her so hard that she bounced off the guard, making him stagger. That was all he needed. He dispensed with the words of warning and reached for his sword, but fortunately, before he swung it, other Invicta rushed into the courtyard and rammed into the screaming people with brute force.

"You've made yourself quite good enemies," growled the guard. He no longer hid the blade, he kept it at the ready all the way to the hospital door.

Fairlight would never have thought that the Invicta would protect her from people. Never.

She was in such shock that she let him pull her by the arm, not even knowing where he was leading her. She thought about everything she had tried to do here since the Prince had kidnapped her. How much she had risked, even though she was grieving and not thinking quite clearly. For the sake of saving a human life, she was even willing to reveal her biggest secret. The secret that she had guarded so closely and that she could use to save herself, but she was afraid that Invicta, who seemed to be following her every move, would spot her, capture her, and she would pay for her nerviness and alterity with her life or worse.

She didn't have to do all that at all. She deserved to be saved in equal measure.

And now no one would help her anymore, because she was a monster who had finally learned that hiding the truth, just like a lie, has no legs.