A Court of Blood and Glory

The High Lords' Meeting

Feyre

An hour later Tarquin walked into the room, with three others whom I assumed where members of his court, two of which I recognised, Varian, whom Amren had taken a liking to, and Cressida, princess of Adriata, someone who I wasn't as pleased to see.
Tarquin wore a blue tunic and sand coloured trousers, a crown of sea shells on his white hair. He paused as he took in the Nigh Court, as he looked to Rhys's wings, but soon continued forward and exchanged pleasantries with the other High Lords, a nod in our direction the only indicator that he would not call in the debt displayed by his blood rubies. He sat by Helion, and the two lords entered a hushed conversation.
Only Beron, High Lord of the Autumn Court, and Tamlin left. We will be finished with all of this soon enough.
No more than ten minutes later did the Autumn Court arrive, Beron bringing all of his sons. Beron appeared older than the other High Lords, which I knew he was, with his short light brown hair and eyes sweeping over us all, his robes matching his hair, his shirt a deep amber, and his plain dark trousers.
His sons dressed in hues of red and green, each of them sneering at the assembled company, the eldest's eyes lingering on the Night Court. Beron noted this and looked to us as well, looked to Rhys's wings, before taking his seat, a silent female whom I hadn't noticed on his left, his wife, and his sons on his right, the eldest right next to him.
Mor fell silent as she saw the Autumn Court, and she paled slightly when the eldest male winked at her, Azriel snarling at him in return. I remembered her story of how she came to the court, and I guessed that that male was Eris, the male Mor was supposed to marry. I hated him already, and I'd never said a word to him.
"I suppose it is you, Rhysand, who we have to thank for my youngest son's demise. Did you enjoy putting your sword through Lucien's throat?" I felt Rhys stiffen besides me, and I flinched as the memory resurfaced, my thoughts flashing back to that day. "I must say that you've done us all a favour, getting rid of that traitorous piece of filth." Beron said coldly, his eyes on Rhys, and then on me, on my tattooed hand, but he didn't say anything else. No one did.
"Your son was not the target of my blade, but I was sorry to see him go. He had helped my mate greatly, and I regret killing him." Rhys answered calmly, but I could hear the sincerity in his voice. He was trying to show them the true male he was, but all they saw was Amarantha's Whore. I touched his arm lightly, telling him to keep going, and he took a steadying breath before continuing.
"And what of the children in my court?" Kallias asked my mate, pain shining through his icy appearance.
"I didn't know that Amarantha would do that. She wanted your life, Kallias, but I managed to talk her out of it, managed to calm her down, but she wouldn't let you go that easily, and it killed a part of me when they died. I am so sorry that I was a part of their deaths, and I regret that I didn't do more to stop her." His voice cracked as he spoke, and Kallias had tears in his eyes as he listened to Rhys.
"You saved his life, but all that you received was more pain." Viviane said, turning to her mate. Kallias didn't say anything, but he nodded towards Rhys, telling him that he understood, and that he forgave him.
The room was silent for a few minutes, everyone awaiting the arrival of Tamlin, but I was not sure that he would attend, and Rhys felt the same.
"I don't think Tamlin plans on showing up, as he has already made his allegiances clear, so we should begin. As you all know Hybern is readying their forces to invade Prythian and take control. I, as should you all, wish to stop him, but we already know that their numbers are too great for any one Court to fight, so I want to unite all of the remaining courts to fight them." But before Rhys could continue a roar shook the mountain, and a beast the size of a horse came rushing in.
It seemed that Tamlin had decided to show up after all.

Rhysand

I had to clench the arms of my chair as Tamlin shifted back into his fae form, and I could feel the hatred ripple off Feyre. I was so close to ripping his face off, to taking his caws and horns as he had taken my wings, and Feyre wanted to do the same, wanted to kill him, and I didn't care who was around.
But my mate clenched my hand so tightly that I looked to her, her face so pale at the sight of Tamlin that I forgot to do anything other than help her.
I want to kill him, I want to kill him so badly.
So do I, but we need these allies. Since when was I the voice of reason?
Please let me kill him.
Soon.
Tamlin looked to us, to our hands, to the tattoo on Feyre's, and then to my wings, wings that had stretched out to display their full span, and also my anger. He sneered at us, and I growled in response.
"Welcome, Tamlin." Kallias said. "We hadn't expected you to show up."
"Did you enjoy destroying my court, Feyre?" He asked my mate, his eyes showing nothing but hatred. "Did you take pride in knowing that all of your friends had died for you?" He took a step towards her, and Cassian was immediately blocking his path. Tamlin, realising who he was facing, turned and sat down, but he wasn't done talking yet. "That tattoo on your hand means nothing. You aren't a High Lady because they don't exist, and they won't exist until the High Lords agree to bring them into play. You are just the Lady of the Night Court, and his mate." I felt nothing but rage, and Feyre's rage flowed down the bond, but we both kept our mouths shut, not wanting to ruin our chances of any alliances by speaking our minds.
"Where do your allegiances lie, Tamlin?" Helion asked, clearly trying to figure out what to do next; Tamlin had already declared himself an ally of Hybern, therefore we couldn't discuss anything around him.
"I was with Hybern, but I need to hear what you all have to say for yourself, and I need to hear what my whore has to say for herself first, hear how she justifies ruining me and my court." We all stared at Tamlin, and the other High Lords turned to look at Feyre as they took in Tamlin's words.
Don't listen to him, Feyre darling, he's just trying to get under your skin.
But it's true.
Tamlin had known what he was saying, had known what effect his words would have on us, on Feyre. "What do you mean by your 'whore'?" Thesan asked.
"Feyre, do you wish to explain?" Tamlin asked, a huge smile on his face that didn't meet his eyes, but Feyre didn't answer him. "Very well then. Feyre here decided to spy on me and my court, and in order to distract me she chose to climb into my bed, something she must have learnt from her mate." He spat at our feet, and red clouded my vision once more.
"You ripped of Rhys's wings." Feyre snarled, struggling to contain the power roaring beneath her skin, but I didn't try to stop her, didn't do anything other than snarl back at Tamlin, Mor, Cassian and Azriel preparing to fight. "You are the reason my sisters and father are dead." She stood up, taking a step towards him. "You are the one that locked me up, and the reason my child is dead!" She was roaring at Tamlin, her rage lining every part of her body, her power filling the room, but I managed to hold her back from killing Tamlin there, still needing to show us as anything other than monsters, and Feyre quickly cooled down enough to avoid destroying him as I reminded her of this. But Tamlin wasn't done.
"When you fuck her, Rhysand, do you enjoy it? Even when you know that she was tainted by me? That she was also claimed by me? But I guess you don't care about that, since you are a little half breed whore yourself. It must be a Night Court thing." And I didn't hold her back that time as she threw everything at him, Tamlin only just having enough sense to throw up a shield around him as fire and ice, wind and darkness rushed at him, almost breaking through his shield before sense came to me, and I threw myself into the line of Feyre's power, forcing her to stop attacking him out of fear from hurting me.
"Well now I know where my power went." Thesan said, Beron and Kallias nodding with him.
"I take it you received my power as well?" Helion asked, and Feyre nodded as she returned to her seat, Tamlin cowering in his seat.
"I received power from all of you." Feyre said, her eyes moving between each High Lord.
"That's how you got past my wards, isn't it?" Tarquin asked, and Feyre nodded.
"Well I want my power back, and I don't care how, even if it kills the whore." Beron snarled at us, but I blasted his chair away, leaving it a pile of black dust that he fell onto.
"You will never call my mate that again, and you won't lay a single finger on her either. If you do, you will lose that hand, and then the other, and then both your legs. And if you are still alive by the time Feyre finishes with you, I will blast you to pieces and scatter them over my garden." Beron paled at my words, the confidence and arrogance that I'd been seeing for the past five hundred years suddenly gone, only fear remaining.
"How dare you speak to me that way!" Beron shouted, but Feyre spoke before I could.
"He dares to speak to you that way because that is how you deserve to be spoken to. If you care more about a tiny kernel of your power than the lives of every fae in Prythian, you might as well leave now, because I won't give my power up without a fight." She looked at each of the other High Lords in turn. "From the way that I see it, you all gave me your power as a gift, but they are no longer yours, they are mine, and I will use them to defend Prythian however I can. If you have a problem with this then leave now." My mate was a force to be reckoned with, and I could tell that the other High Lords saw her as an equal, as a High Lady, and not as anything less.
"I will never ally myself with traitorous whores such as yourselves." So Beron stood, his sons and wife with him, and they left the mountain, their alliance lost. Six High Lords remained, five once Tamlin was discounted.
"So what are you proposing with this alliance, Rhysand?" Helion asked, finally trying to get back on track.
"I want to defeat Hybern, using any means necessary, and we can discuss further details once certain company leaves us." I said, giving Tamlin a pointed look.
"And if I told you that I want to have an alliance, and that I'm playing Hybern?" Tamlin asked, but it was Azriel that answered.
"We wouldn't believe you. Not after what you've done." My family nodded along to his words, and some of the other High Lords joined in too.
"What if I let you into my mind?" Tamlin said, but I'd already been fooled before by Hybern's mind games, and I wasn't going to risk being fooled by them again.
"You know that I won't trust you, even if I see it in your mind."
"Why not, Rhysand, that's never stopped you before." Thesan asked, and he looked around the room as if he could see what had happened there, tears coming to his eyes, but his lover comforted him quickly.
"Because the last time I used my 'tricks' I lost my wings." Feyre touched my arm to comfort, but didn't go to say anything, allowing me time to explain why, and to tell my story. "None of you ever knew, but the real Night Court was not the court that you saw under the mountain, but actually the people you see before you, the Court of Dreams. There is a city in my court, a city called Velaris, and it is full of wonder and life, but to avoid any harm coming to the people of Velaris every High Lord of the Night Court has kept it a secret, and we protect all of our people, not just those in Velaris, by, making you believe that we are cruel people, making sure that you try to attack us, and therefore ensuring that you don't discover our secrets, don't bring harm to our people.
"The night I became High Lord of the Night Court I was vengeful, and that image of me was not real, it was my father, but you all believed it was me, and I didn't do anything to stop the rumours spreading, letting you all fear me so that I could protect my people. But the rumours you heard were just that, rumours, and it is time you know the real story.
"Tamlin and I were friends when we were younger, and we had arranged to meet up one day, but I was not able to show because I was training a new Illyrian legion. I told Tamlin this, but I wasn't aware that it was a trap, and my mother and sister were there, without anyone else to protect them from Tamlin, his father and his brothers. My sister and mother had wings, and they loved them, as any Illyrian does, but Tamlin had them ripped from their bodies as he killed them, and sent their heads down the river to the nearest camp. My father and I were distraught, so I went with my father to kill Tamlin's father. His mother and brothers were meant to be saved, along with him, but my father killed them anyway, against my knowledge, and Tamlin killed my father in return. I fled the scene, and then took the title of High Lord, and the blame for their deaths. From that moment on I knew that everything I loved would always be taken away from me, and I couldn't bear for anything like that to happen again, so I built a wall up around myself.
"My friends here came for me, and they helped me to recover, to be a good High Lord, but I couldn't risk losing anything else, so I showed you all the male from the rumours, the male that killed without mercy, so that none of you would try to attack me and my court again, but that is not who I am. I am a male who does everything to protect my people, to protect Velaris and all its inhabitants.
"When Amarantha came I knew that she would try to destroy everything about me, because I had the most chance of killing her, and I knew that she would come for me in any way she could, starting with my people, and if she ever discovered Velaris, she would have burned it to ashes as I watched. I couldn't let Amarantha know about the city, and I had to do everything I could to keep her from discovering the people that I had to protect. To do this I had to gain her trust, make her look the other way when it came to me, make her leave me and my court alone, and so I became her whore. She trusted me, and then gave me freedom to leave this place. I was able to gather information to try and destroy her, something I had dreamed of doing, but no one could know who I really was. I hated everything that she made me do, and all of it I regret, but I wouldn't have done it if here was another way, and I am sorry, so sorry, for everything I did to you and your people.
"I loved my wings, and I couldn't bear to live without them, so I never showed them to anyone, especially Amarantha, because I always lost what I loved. If she had seen my wings she would have realised that I was not who she thought, as I had vowed to give her everything, but I had never given her a glimpse of my wings, so they remained hidden, and the only person outside of the Night Court that ever knew of them was Tamlin.
"Tamlin nearly killed Feyre out of his neglect of her, and so I had Mor here rescue her from his manor, keeping within the laws of Prythian, and bring her to the Night Court, but Tamlin still tried to get her back, against her will, and he eventually did, but he had known that I would come for her, her being my mate and all, and lay a trap for me. He used my spies against me, knowing that I would look into their minds, and used daemati of his own to place false images in my head, images that caused me to rush in without another thought to rescue my mate, but I fell into his trap, and the cost of my mate's life, and my own, were my wings, my wings that I had loved so dearly, and I gave them up for the female I love, not caring about my life anymore.
"Tamlin had placed manacles on Feyre's wrists and ankles, manacles that drained her of her power and her strength, and she was so close to death that I had no choice but to try and reason with Tamlin to get them off her, but in return Tamlin wanted me to become his High Priestess's whore for ten years. I couldn't do that to myself again, so once the manacles were off my mate, I tried to kill him and run, but Lucien got in the way of my blade and took the fatal blow instead.
"My court and I tried to stop this war before it started, tried to nullify the power of the cauldron using a spell found in the Book of Breathings, one that we did steal from the Summer Court, which the King of Hybern is using to give himself power, but that was another trap, and my mate left Hybern with Tamlin so that we could get away. It is true that she whored herself to Tamlin, but she only did it to try and help us win this war, and she gained vital information whilst there. None of you should think any less of her for what she has done, because she did it for your future.
"So I am here today to ask for your help to defeat Hybern, and I will not play Tamlin's games anymore. Not after last time." I looked to Feyre, and she had tears in her eyes, but she only smiled at me.
No matter what they say, I love you.
As I love you.
The High Lords were silent, not moving a muscle, but it was their mates that spoke.
"I may not have known you, but I know Mor, and she would never ally herself with a tyrant. I will stand with you, the Winter Court will stand with you." Viviane stood, and Kallias stood with her, slightly shocked by her words, but showing no sign of wanting to do anything different.
"I believe you, and I will also fight by your side. Any winged fae would rather die than lose their wings, and only one who loved someone completely would be willing to give their wings up for another. My armies are yours, and I love your knew wings." Thesan's lover said, nodding in our direction, and he stood too, Thesan joining him.
"I take it that my tinkerer made them for you? I recognise her work." Thesan said, and I nodded.
"I couldn't be more grateful to her." I didn't mention that I didn't know who she was.
"They are beautiful, no one could deny that, but I wish that I could have seen your original wings. I will also stand by you." Helion stood, a sadness in his eyes that I couldn't figure out the source of.
"You can't all be serious!" Tamlin exclaimed. "One sad story and you believe him? No wonder you are losing this war. I will enjoy slaughtering your soldiers on the battle field." I growled at the High Lord, and he shifted into his beast form as he ran out of the room, one last look to where his friend last sat, and as quickly as he'd arrived he vanished.
"I can't say I was surprised." Helion said, and few forced laughs were heard. "But I am glad that the masks are off, Rhysand, and I hope that we can move forward and forget what has happened to us all in the past."
"I agree, and I hope that you will all forgive me for what I have done." Even though I didn't tell them, I was more than happy at the turn of events, my family was too, and Feyre smiled at me.
Well that went well.
Yes, it most certainly did.
"If we are to be allies, I will have to take the blood rubies back." Tarquin said, but your general is still banned from the Summer Court, and I would appreciate it if you ask before you try to steal from me again." Tarquin said, and he gave us a genuine smile, which we all returned, except Cassian, who only grunted, and Cressida, who did not seem pleased that we were off the hook, but didn't say anything.
"It was one building." Cassian said quietly, but loud enough to be heard by us all.
"Your banishment still stands." Tarquin replied.
"I do hope that you don't expect the rubies back, though. Amren has grown quite fond of them." Varian smiled, more than amusement in his smile, and looked to his feet whilst Tarquin spoke.
"She can keep them, then."
We spoke for another hour as we discussed the terms of our alliances, and the hour after that we spoke about tactics, in which time I was able to meet the female that built my wings, and I expressed my gratitude.
"I would like you all to meet my master tinkerer, as she has something for you all." Thesan said, and a female that looked a lot like Amren entered the room, her face paling as she looked around the place. None of us would ever forget the events from our time Under the Mountain. "This is Nuan." Thesan said as the female waked in. She had a petite body, with upturned onyx eyes and deep black hair, a pointed chin and golden brown skin, and a mechanical right hand that held an urn. Thesan said no more, allowing the female to speak and explain herself.
"I am Nuan, and I am Thesan's tinkerer. I have heard that Hybern is going to use faebane to try and take us down, so I have created an antidote so that your soldiers are not harmed by the foul substance." She looked to each of us, waiting for a response.
What is faebane?
It is what those manacles were made of. It suppresses all of your powers.
"Have you tested it?" Helion asked, intrigued by Nuan's words.
"No, I haven't had a chance." If anyone was put off by that news they didn't say.
"Well I have no wish to give up something that could be very useful. I will take it, as will my court, and our armies." Feyre said, and the other High Lords also agreed to use the antidote.
"You will have to ingest it in your food, drink, or as a powder, but I have a sample here for you to take if you wish to try it now." She looked around at us, and I took the urn from her hands.
"Thank you, it will be very useful."
"It works if they throw it at you in its powder form, but not if it gets into your bloodstream, so try to avoid being stabbed."
"Anything is better than nothing." Tarquin said. I couldn't have agreed more.
We continued talking for another hour, but were nowhere near done as the sun set.
"We still have much more to discuss. Do you wish to leave this place and return in the morning? Or are you willing to sleep here for one night?" Kallias asked.
"I do not wish to travel at this time, but neither am I comfortable in staying here." Helion replied, and I shared his thoughts.
"Does anyone have any other ideas?" Helion said, but no one had an answer. "Fine, so we are all staying here. If you could all avoid locking me away, though, I would be very grateful." No one was pleased by the arrangements, but they agreed all the same, and I took Feyre's hand, but before anyone could move a huge wave of magic shook the mountain, a power that could only have one source.
"The cauldron." Feyre breathed. "He's used it."
"He's taken down the wall." I said.
The war had begun.