Tethered to the Starlight: A Court of War and Starlight

Chapter 21: Feyre

Each member of the Inner Circle is seated at a massive round table at the House of Wind. Azirel, Cassian, and Rhys all have their wings draped over their armchairs, their brows furrowed in frustration. Mor continually braids her hair and then unravels the plait over and over again. And Amren, well Amren just locks eyes with me as take in the scene in front of us. The only sound in the room is the light cooing coming from Damaris who sits on my lap playing with a toy gifted to her by Nuala and Carridwen.

I clear my throat and watch as every member of my family whips their head toward me. "What are we doing?" I sigh, raking a hand through my hair.

Massaging his torn wings Cassian smirks, "Scheming of all the ways to piss off your beloved sister, Nesta." I glared back at him, not allowing the laugh dangling in my throat to escape.

"I'm serious. Hybern has released all of those things into our world. I mean is there some way he could be controlling them? If not, what does he want with them?"

Growing bored with her toy, Damaris begins to fuss, mirroring the tone of the room. I bounce her a little in hopes of calming her down, but with little success.

"This is just a thought," muses Amren, "but when I was a little girl back in another dimension, my mother used to scare me with stories of a boogieman of sorts. Except this boogieman bore the skin of Fae instead of the stereotypical fur, or claws, or anything else nightmarish. Mother used to tuck me into bed with stories of how this man rose to power by promising to slay every creature like those you have seen in the prison, in order to win the favor of his subjects.

Originally this king planned to say one of us and display the fruits of his labor in the form of buckets of blood. But, little did he know, our blood has the ability to surround the murderer in incredible strength and he could channel the power wherever he wished. Eventually, the king realized that by infusing the food of his armies with otherworldly blood, he could create invincible soldiers.

Without haste, he slaughtered tens of thousands of my kind and collected the blood in a large bucket. Dunking each of his solder's meal in blood, he watched his men devour each bite, their hunger never being satiated. The armies soon began to crave the blood so intensely the king began to slaughter the youngest of our kind. I was so convinced these stories were imaginary until my mother disappeared. The king has surely taken her, I thought.

So, for a week after, I went to the edge of my dimension, looking for a rip in the continuum so I may 'dimension hop.' After multiple days of searching, I found one, in the Fae realm. I taught myself to develop skin and pointed ears, and yet my silver eyes remained. And without hesitation before any of you were a thought, I became part of this world, wondering aimlessly for centuries.

And so my thought is, Hybern knows of the boogieman, and his slaughtering all of the creatures in the prison to either fortify his armies or the Cauldron."

You could see Mor practically bubbling with a million questions, but before any of them could be asked, Amren pushed back from the table and exited the House of Wind.

"This truly could be a lead," Azriel said. His shadows seemed to swirl in agreement of their master's words.

"One problem though," pointed out Rhys, "we don't know where Hybern is hiding the prisoners or the Cauldron."

"Isn't it obvious, power is held where power is concealed. Sacrifice acknowledges sacrifice. Mountains conceal valleys, stars conceal darkness." I whipped my head toward the source of the voice, and it belonged to Elain?

She was staring vacantly out the nearest window into the streets of Valaris below, with her mouth stretched into a thing line. I moved toward her cautiously with my hands outstretched. "Elain, what did you just say?"

Her head twisted so her eyes locked with mine, except they looked empty if not sad. "Oh Feyre, power is held where power is concealed. Sacrifice acknowledges sacrifice. Mountains conceal valleys, stars conceal darkness."

"What does that mean?" I pressed.

Instead of answering she merely replied, "Azriel I would like to retire to my quarters." And soundlessly, he led her up the stairs.

"Now that was some crazy shit," spewed Cassian. Rhys twisted Cassian's wing so he yelped. "What?" mused Cassian.

"The baby does not need to hear such bad language."

"Yeah well I don't want to have to worry about Hybern's armies being infused with monster blood. And what the hell was that with Elain?"

Now that, is a question no one knew the answer to, yet.