THE DARKENING (The Divided Realms: Book 2)

CHAPTER SIX

Willow shivered as she read the fey history book. Apparently, in the old world of humans, the fey had first acted as if they were gods. But after The Great Earth Exodus of Magic, the fey were cast in the lesser role of "Once Upon a Time." Magic left the world, and humans went on to develop their own philosophies and religions.

The Great Exodus occurred in the Earth time that came to be known as the Dark Ages. Humans with fey bloodlines up to the seventh generation were taken from Earth and given rights to a realm of the middle dimension, known as Mistolear. All fey, honoring the new rule against commingling with mortals, settled in the high dimension of Clarion.

Humans must not be fooled, though. The last guise of faerie, the fairy-tale world of "Once Upon a Time," is not their real world. Their real world is and always has been one of power, their values and ethics far removed from anything that humans might comprehend. They do not think or feel in the same way that humans do. They are alien creatures, incomprehensible to humans, and thus, harmful.

Willow sighed and bookmarked her page. The passage she'd just read from the fey history book reminded her too much of Nezeral's horrible Game last year, and how he'd wanted Mistolear and its inhabitants to be used like some kind of vacation playground for him and his faerie buddies. Just like they'd once used Earth. Yawning, she rose from the window seat to stretch.

Sleep had eluded her last night, so she'd paced the floor of her room with feelings that kept fluctuating between hope and fear. Finally, she'd picked up The Complete History of Fey Magic Lore and begun to read it. The textbook writing style and stilted language had bored her at first, but once she read past the snoozer chapters like "Fey Nomenclature" and "Abbreviations and Authorities," she'd been enthralled with the strange fey views on mortal concepts like justice and government, or their thoughts on love, marriage, and child rearing.

Like, who knew faeries never married? They formed alliances. Ones that could last for centuries or days, depending on their mood. Love was just a fluid, ever-changing concept to them. And when it came to kids, faeries pretty much had the parental skills of cult leaders. Fey kids withstood years and years of what seemed to be mind-numbing indoctrination into the cults of Dark and Light.

What had really interested Willow, though, was the whole concept of "houses." Instead of being separated into kingdoms and nations, the faeries divided themselves into houses. Each house had a king or queen, who either would have been a fey from the beginning of time or a descendant of one of those first faeries. The first faeries ruled all the major houses. There were minor houses as well, ruled by crowned heirs that had advanced to ruling on their own. But since faeries didn't die, crowned heirs didn't actually inherit anything. Only direct descendants of a house ruler could qualify as a crowned heir. Once they qualified, however, they had to be incredibly astute Game players to defend their title from covetous siblings, who would stop at almost nothing to topple them. It took many centuries and many wins before crowned heirs finally graduated to ruling their own houses. But then the process would start all over again with their remaining siblings and then again among their own children in their own houses.

A whole society that revolved around Games. Nezeral had once told her this, but the intricacies of it all still boggled Willow's mind.

When dawn streaked the horizon, she dressed and went down to the courtyard to say goodbye to her parents and Nezzie. Diantha, for once, looked rested, her dark circles only smudges beneath eyes lit with anticipation. Willow hugged her parents and ignored the measured stares of the courtiers and servants. News of what she had said about faerie magic infecting her mother had spread through the castle like wildfire. Queen Aleria had decided to combat the rumors by saying it was all a mistake. Willow, however, didn't think people were buying it. She saw mistrust in their eyes – mistrust and fear.