Kingdoms Rise

Seventeen

They'd been traveling for weeks already. Stopping only for the night and
for lunch midday. Mae's lower body was getting less sore as each day passed. She still hated riding the horse for a majority of the day, and relished the moments that she could walk around.

She and Fallon still shared a tent at night, and still nothing intimate happened between them. They had talked about it briefly one night when things began getting more heated than they usually did. He'd wait until she was ready, no matter how long that took, he'd wait for her. Her choice would remain hers and only hers, she knew that it was probably a given that she would have a say in it, but her past shaped her in a way she wished it hadn't.

They kept the same routine each day: travel, lunch, back to traveling fire, dinner, sleep, breakfast, and repeat. Mae didn't mind it much, but a little variation never hurt anyone. She was tempted to say something, but held her tongue. They were so close to getting to the Forest that it was pointless to say anything now. But another two weeks with the same routine, Mae didn't know that she'd survive it.

She kept to the back of their two row line with Aderyn. It was easier to keep back and just enjoy the wonders of Tilanyth, but occasionally she and Aderyn would talk, about certain things that they passed on their trip. One wonder had been a temple of the Mother, run by High Priestesses. She described the layout of the temple to Mae: the building itself was circular, signifying that the Mother had no end and no beginning, that she was infinite; at the northern side of it sat a cathedra, where a High Priestess sat during a service; like the exterior, the interior was lavishly decorated, depictions of the creation of the world and of the Mother herself; it was the largest temple in Tilanyth, and a sacred to Asonia. One day Mae would have to see it for herself, she'd have to ask Fallon to take her back to see it, or perhaps they could stop on their way back to Braelia.

As they passed through the western side of Asonia, they heard whispers of a prophecy that citizens hoped would soon be fulfilled. Their lost princess would return and save them a darkness that was soon to come. Aderyn said that almost two decades ago their princess disappeared and believed it to be the beginning of their long told prophecy.

She had again fallen into conversation with Aderyn. Aderyn had begun briefing Mae on the Forest of Asonia, minor things but important all the same: roughly how far inward Sicilia is; what sort of fairies' dwell inside. She explained the difference between Faeries and fairies: Faeries are humanoid and fairies are smaller, like nymphs and satyrs and pixies, amongst others. She mentioned that most are benevolent, though some enjoy malevolence, revel in the torment of their larger, distant brethren.

All had been going well, nothing to suggest that something would happen to them, and no vision that kept Mae up at night. Still, no one suggested that they knew what went on between she and Fallon; part of felt relieved that they didn't know, and the other part of her felt that it was wrong to keep it from them. She knew that now wouldn't be a good time announce their—what would they call it? A relationship didn't seem a fitting word, nothing seemed fitting for what was between them. Something tugged them together, long before they had met, she knew something was different about him—a good sort of different. She wished she'd known what it was that transpired between them.

They were still a days trek from the Forest. Mae continued listening to Aderyn's briefing, "Sicily's Will-O'-the-Wisp will us to her, but there will be a point when—"

She was cut off suddenly when Mae began gasping, an unfamiliar sensation overcoming her. She had never felt like this before, like her consciousness was being torn from her body. Her vision began to slowly fade. She so desperately tried to grasp onto any bit of consciousness she could, held on to stay in her body.