My Light and My Darkness

You're Not Alone

Candy’s POV:
The four of us are on Extalia and we’re walking through the city. The exceeds of Extalia are gawking at us and giving me and Wendy disgusted looks. “It’s them again, those no good fallens. And they’re with humans!” “Gross! Those things are horrible! They’re not supposed to be here!!” “Um, there’s no way this is going to be a good thing.” Rosie and Carla look around nervously, Wendy and I are unfazed by their insults. We stop walking in the middle of the town, and I say, “Extalia’s in serious danger. You have to let us talk to your queen right away.” Honestly I don’t see the need for asking for permission to see this god of a queen. However, I can’t just attack all of these defenseless exceeds, especially not when our goal is to save them. A black exceed who is taller than the rest and who is constantly pumping his fist in the air demands for the exceeds to make a path for him to approach us. The exceeds all mutter things along the lines of, “It’s Sir Nadi.” Nadi huh? “You four cannot be here! Fallens and humans are forbidden from entering Extalia under any circumstances.” Carla crosses her arms and speaks to him, “You’d be wise to make an exception. Just hear us out. The lives of all your citizens are hanging in the balance.” Nadi looks confused, “But how in the queen's name did you escape Captain Michiya and the royal guards?” Rosie looks at him angrily, “They were turned into a lacrima by King Foust himself.” The other exceeds look at her, shocked, but not for the reason we think. They all suddenly burst out laughing, as if that was the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever heard. Nadi however doesn’t find it as amusing as the rest of them do. He looks horrified. Wendy then shouts at the exceeds, “We’re telling the truth! The Edolas royal army is planning to attack you!” “Sure whatever you say.” “The queen’ll just zap those pests away with her magic.” “Like a bunch of bugs.” The exceeds were clearly not believing us. They all think we’re just playing some kind of prank on them. Nadi looks terrified. “We’re not kidding! You’re gonna get hurt if you don’t evacuate right now!” I shout at them. They all suddenly pick up rocks and yell back, “No! You’re gonna get hurt!!” And they start to throw rocks at Wendy. “Wendy!” I jump in front of her and the rocks all hit me. However, my attempt to protect Wendy was futile, because the other exceeds follow through and all start simultaneously throwing rocks at us. Wendy and I hug Carla and Rosie, trying to protect them. Wendy shouts, “If you really hate humans so much then do whatever you want to us! Just please don’t hurt Rosie or Carla!! They’re both exceeds just like you! Just listen to what they have to say! I’m begging you!!” No one’s listening to her though. Her words almost seem to make them even angrier. They all keep throwing rocks at us, the pain getting worse as they hit the same spots repeatedly. Nadi watches in horror at the actions of his people. Clearly he’s never considered how cocky the exceeds became with the lies they were told. Little did we know that the queen and her advisors were discussing this very incident at the same time. Her advisors were confused as to what action they should take and asking the queen for advice. She decided to handle this incident herself, shocking her advisors. Little did we know that the others in our guild were currently trying to stop the lacrima from running into Extalia. I looked towards the red glow by the side of the island, “Wendy!! The lacrima!!” My eyes tear up in fear. Wendy looks towards the lacrima and she bears the same fearful look I do. Rosie and Carla also look terrified. The lacrima hasn’t collided with Extalia yet even though it should have. The exceeds around us have stopped throwing rocks and they all look scared. “It looks like the lacrima hit the island.” Wendy says, but Carla objects, “If that’d be the case, I doubt we’d still be around to discuss it.” Wendy looks down, defeated. “I’m so sorry Carla. There’s nothing we could do.” Carla turns to her, determined, “This isn’t over yet! We’re not giving up that easily!!” She walks up to the other exceeds and tries to get them to listen to her again, but they just look at her, pissed that she would even consider talking to them. One of them picks up another rock. “So you’re still here? I’ll fix that!” He throws the rock, but it doesn’t hit her. Instead, Nadi takes the hit for her, surprising everyone. “Sir, throwing rocks is dangerous. Somebody could get hurt.” Nadi tells him, but they just look at him, confused. “Uh, yeah. But she’s a fallen so it’s not a big deal.” Nadi immediately starts to yell at them, panicking. “Don’t you realize what’s happened? They risked their own safety to warn us of the danger! The only reason we find ourselves in this mess is because we ignored and attacked them!” The exceeds start to yell, “You’ve lost your mind, Nadi!” “We don’t need their help. The Queen’s gonna destroy the lacrima and all the humans.” “Please, your highness! Hurry!!” Nadi tries to speak to them again, “Everyone, please. Calm yourselves.” Then, a calm voice suddenly says, “Set aside your fear Nadi.” Everyone turns towards the voice, shocked. There before them stands the queen. A tall, white exceed who wears a lot of furs and robes. She has jewel piercings on the right side of her face that shape the top half of a heart. She also has a beautiful crown on her head. All of the exceeds around us bow down on their knees. Wendy and I look at her in shock, and Rosie and Carla look at her in what seems like guarded wonder. Like they’re curious, but they’re instincts are on high alert. “That’s really her?” Wendy asks. The Queen looks at Carla sadly, her eyes full of guilt. Why does she look guilty? She’s not at all the fearful ruler I pictured. She looks like a woman who has had enough of life. I also noticed that she looks a lot like Carla. “Thank you, but this is not the time to lower your heads. Now that you’ve calmed down, please listen to what I have to say. Extalia is teetering on the edge of total annihilation. This fate may be inescapable for the exceeds. After much soul searching, I have come to a final decision on the matter.” Her advisors from next to her all look nervous and just as guilty as her. The other citizens of Extalia all get excited, thinking she’s going to blast the humans with her ‘magic’. What they weren’t expecting was for her to suddenly take off all of her robes. “Wait your highness! Why you takin’ off your robes?” Once her robes all hit the floor, they disappear. “I’ve decided that it is time for you to finally be told the truth about your queen.” She takes her crown off and drops it on the floor. “I am just an ordinary exceed, not worthy of your worship as a queen or as a god. I’m no better than the rest of you.” She then spreads her wings, or should I say wing. She only has one wing, not two. We all look on in shock. “I’m so sorry, but I do not possess the power to fight the humans. As you can clearly see, I was born with one wing. For exceeds, our magic power is symbolized by our wings, and two wings symbolize one’s control of true magic power. I lack that power, my magic is weak.” Rosie, Carla, Wendy and I all look at her in shock. Rosie and Carla are speechless. “I can never atone for my deception. Your names are Miss Wendy, Miss Candy, Miss Rosie, and Miss Carla, correct? My deepest apologies to you as well. This is entirely my fault, so please. Do not harbor any ill will to those gathered here.” Wendy then mutters shocked, “I can’t believe this is happening.” Then one of her advisors speaks up. “No. The blame rests with those of us who dared to concoct the idea of an Exceed Queen to begin with, your highness. We exceeds have always been smaller and weaker than the humans. They took advantage of that fact and did terrible things to us whenever they got the chance. To protect ourselves, we made the humans believe we were divine, and created an all powerful queen to serve as the embodiment of our might.” The exceeds gathered around us listen in, horrified. Another one of the advisors continues, “After that, we had to raise the already fragile spirits of our people. So we revealed the queen to Extalia and convinced them that she possessed the almighty power of a god.” Another advisor continues, “But her divine power was an elaborate bluff. Created by a select few who were privy to the truth.” “It took some time, but eventually, the humans were so terrified by the queen’s fictional powers, they wouldn’t even look at an exceed in fear of her wrath. The most prevalent of their fears was that she chooses which humans should be killed. In truth, neither the queen nor any of us have ever possessed the power to decide whether another living being will live or die. The only thing we have is Shagot’s ability to see an individual’s immediate future. She can see when a person will die. We took advantage of that power and made the humans believe that people perished according to her will.”