Dark Prince: The Death Realm

Chapter 3

The Fae Queen slowly took down the barriers, wanting to go out to try to find the were-beast which three of the fae had seen the night before in the forest. Based on their descriptions, the beast was a young beast, bright blue like the pond where young fae often practiced their magick.

The queen walked past the magick barriers and walked through the trees and among the birds and young fae out playing in the trees like forest nymphs. The queen's eyes were bright and attentive while searching the trees and undergrowth for the bright wispy blue of a young were-beast. 

She smiled as she saw a group of young fae flit across the path. The fae lit up with happy, yellow light as they flew, playing some sort of adventure game by the sound of their high pitched tinkles. She almost wished to go and fly away with them herself, but she had a mission. Acting like a young fae wouldn't help her or her fae. Instead she had to risk her skin and her magick to go after a were-beast. 

As she reached the edge of the forest, she considered visiting the prince and seeing what his side of the story was. But she restrained herself, as she knew it would most likely be a waste of time. He did not keep track of every were that was in his kingdom, unlike her with her fae. However, she had powerful magick on her side that had been a regular part of her life since the young age of 3 moons.  

As a princess, she was trained in magick at a rather young age, but from her understanding, the prince had never been large on magick of any kind. 

But in his defence, she thought, he  was in a quite anti-magick family when he grew up. Lochdeer has never been a very magick-centered community. Quite the opposite, really. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blue wisp. She turned around to see a blue hair-like wisp attached to part of a bush. The queen floated forward, gracefully plucking the glowing hair from the branches. She examined it with a scrutinizing eye, trying to discern it's origin, however, she could find nothing. The queen was somehow surprised to see proof the young were-beast. But with a few quick spells, she could tell that this wasn't an ordinary were.

It was a were that was somehow connected to magick unlike most others. The queen twirled the hair in between her index finger and thumb for a few short moments. She knew that she had to talk to the prince about it, for he would surely have heard something about this strange were, whether it was affected by magick or not. 

She weaved through the crowd of people and untransformed were-beasts on her way out of the forest and into the castle. At this time in the morning, she was sure that the prince would still be in Stenework tower up at the very top. Knowing him as she did, she could easily imagine him staring out the window or just sitting upon his mattress, dreading court hours. 

She walked straight up to the palace doors and gave a quick, if slightly curt, nod to the guard. He let her through without any fuss or even a second glance. A small part of her found that slightly worrying, for cloning magick was quite easy to perform and even easier to be used in order to trick unsuspecting people like that guard who didn't pay complete attention to whom he was granting entrance to. 

Once inside the palace, the queen deserted her human form for a much faster form of transportation: flying. Even though her fae form was just larger than a cork, the queen was quite fast when flying. Although flying did exert a lot of energy from her, it was good for use in concerning situations like the one at hand. 

Her wings beat like a hummingbird as she zipped up the stairs without so much as touching the walls, let alone the floor. The hair weighed her down a surprising amount in her fae form, so she didn't get to the top of the tour quite as fast as she had expected, however she still made quite good time. 

As she came to the top of the staircase, she morphed back into her humanoid form. The prince looked up, tired and obviously surprised at the unexpected company. 

The servant must not have gotten up here yet. she thought to herself. But what did it matter. She had more pressing matters than waiting for a castle servant to announce her presence which he already knew of. 

"What are you doing here?" he inquired. She loved his voice, so deep but gentle. A baritone at his core. The fae said nothing, instead she simply strode over to his desk and laid upon its surface the bright blue hair which continued to glow, though now it seemed to pulse with blue light instead of shine in a steady glow. 

This was another occurence which she had not come across. Usually the hair glowed. It was as simple as that. She had never once seen a clump of hair pulse like this, like a candle flame flickering in the wind, about to be blown out but it still fought to survive in the gust.  

He turned slowly to look at what she had laid down on his desk for him to view, his back having been facing the desk only moments before. Immediately his face was carved into a look of surprised recognition. 

"You've seen this before, Zekrin?" she murmured, moving to put a hand gently upon his shoulder. He nodded, not seeming to notice her gentle touch, and instead coming forward towards the desk where the pulsing blue light continued to emit from the small clump of matted hair. 

He picked up the hair and held it quite close to his eye, as though his eye were able to magnify it or somehow make the hair more identifiable than it already obviously was to the dark-haired prince. He looked up from it suddenly, lowering his arm and hand and turning his head towards the royal fae. 

He looked at her with such admiration and care that she knew from experience that it was more than a simple inter-kingdom relationship or friendship for him. 

He set the hair down and did something that was quite unexpected. Now it was her time to be surprised. He took her hand and looked her straight in the eyes. 

"Genevia," he started, "I have something to ask you." His voice sounded somehow confident and unstable at the same time. Obvious nerves. 

"What is it, Zekrin?" she asked him quietly.

"What would you say if I asked you to be my wife?" she had somhow expected this to come from him, however she didn't think it to be now, at this very moment, in the middle of an odd situation like this. 

She tried to speak, even to just change the topic back to the hairs, which were now pulsing faster than ever on the desk to her left. But she couldn't even open her mouth, so instead, she nodded. 

Zekrin put his head in his hand and breathed a heavy sigh of obvious relief as he sank down into a chair murmuring a grateful, ecstatic and happy, "Thank you."

She smiled and walked over to him, temporarily casting the pile of messy hair strands from her mind with the slight excitement and interest at the news, at the question, which the prince had just said in the midst of the silence. 

"Why now?" she felt like a young fae again instead of a centuries' old queen. 

"What better time than now?" he asked her. She could tell that something else was upon his mind, but she didn't pry. Now wasn't the time for the bad news, the bad ideas that she could see in his eyes, churning the gears in his head. 

Her smile widened, as did his. She could still see that it wasn't one hundred percent sincere, but she was fairly certain that what he was showing her now was about as close as she would be able to get out of him at the current time. But it almost didn't feel good enough. It almost felt like she should be trying to do more to help him, even if she didn't know what he needed help with. She would find out; she had to find out.

Although, sometimes it was what she didn't find out that caused the worst events. The blue matted clump of hair which was continuing to increase in speed with it's throbbing, almost as though trying to regain the attention of those whose attentions it had held captive before and whose attentions it wanted to regain. Sometimes it was that which you paid little attention to, which would come back to haunt to you later. Sometimes it was like the kingdoms were against their plans... or something else was against it... something more serious and sinister. Something unsuspecting that was so very often ignored, something that could cause more trouble than was bargained for, if it was bargained for at all....