Fae

Chapter 3

The voice was both, as warm as a thousand suns and still colder and more cruel than the depths of the Arctic.
The owner of this voice appeared in a blast of light that owned neither color nor temperature. Clearly he had power of some sort as he was perfectly and miserably ageless in a way that only some form of magic could explain. His brown hair hung just above his shoulders and and laid neatly by his eyes that shown brightly with accumulated wisdom. His thin mouth held traces of the many smiles it had once formed.
He was both, old and young. Wise and new. All knowing and hungry for more.
"How do they call you, young one?" He asked. Kaden was not about to tell a complete stranger her name, but she felt compelled to answer him. In fact, the longer she stalled the worse it got. Soon she was sweating and her heart was thumping in her chest. She had to answer, it was required.
      "Fae," She gasped out, "they call me 'Fae'". He stared at her for a long while, then his eyes landed on the oak leaf around her neck.
     "How curious," he muttered. The amulet appeared instantly in his hand and he turned it over, inspecting it. Kaden wanted to speak against him, but found herself unable to. "Why the mortal?" He sighed, clearly disgusted. "Follow me...'Fae'", and he was gone.
Kaden quickly realized that he doesn't walk, not really. He flies, no, not flies. He glides. His feet never quite touch the ground as though he was being held by an unseen force.
They traveled this way for what must have been twenty minutes before she spoke.
"Where are we going?" Her voice wavered softly.
"No questions, young one." His only response.
"But-"
"No." He stopped her.
"I just wanted to know where I am." She mumbled almost under her breath.
"-'where you are'? 'Where you are'? Do you remember nothing, you slimy, filthy, ungrateful brute? You disgustingly low ingrate?" He yelled, his voice echoed unceasingly through the cavern passageway. She hung her head and felt tears biting at her eyes, threatening her with their attempts to spill onto her cheeks.
"No," she whispered, "I don't."
"Well," he paused, as though deciding if he wanted to be compassionate or not, "That is unfortunate." Kaden wanted to explode. She wanted to yell at him for being an inconsiderate asshole, but the words wouldn't come. She watched as he walked to the cavern wall just as a sapphire moon began to glow. He tapped it and the light grew brighter. The air began to smell like salt and Kaden was sure she heard waves breaking.

She saw the boat, watched helplessly as it flipped. She watched Leigh swim for all he was worth to get ashore, and was grateful that the life jacket had been enough after all. Then she saw her body. Lifeless and more blue than the waves it floated in, still clinging to Leigh's amulet as though it could save her.
She wanted to turn away, but much like a train wreck, it was so horrible that Kaden found herself staring. The image embedded itself in her mind: she was dead. She glared at the horrid truth in front of her, stared at the lightless haze that shrouded her green eyes, the lilac hue which blanketed her pale rosy lips and dusted her cheeks.
      A cold chill radiated through her as she stared helpless and lost. The tears were frozen on her lifeless cheeks, twinkling in the moonlight. The moonlight was really bright, and she was glad of it. It comforted her. The thick strands of white light wrapped around her lifeless form. It seemed to hold her, to suspend her above the harsh waves she was floating in only moments ago. It spoke to her, called her name in a voice as familiar and strange as her closest friend or a polite stranger. Her body was lifted higher from the waves.
       A strong wind blew her auburn hair away from her face and off of her neck. The moonlight then engulfed her in an orb of blinding light, all the while whispering to her, calling to her by name. The air grew warmer as the orb spun her body about. Kaden could not see what was happening but she felt grateful and entranced by the strange beauty of the moment.
         The orb released her onto a smooth white path that carried her into the cavern. She was different; alive, strong, and beautiful. The moonlight had made her its own, and marked it's creation with a golden design that trailed just underneath her skin from her jawline, down her neck, over her shoulder, and down her arm to her elbow.
Kaden looked at her own shoulder. Intricate golden feathers, swirls, and flowers flowed down her shoulder and forearm, ending in a crescent moon sitting on the joint of her elbow. She thought about it for a second and laughed,
"I died... and woke up with a tattoo. Mum is going to kill me. Again."
      "That will not be an issue, young one. You have no 'Mum' now." He commented as easily as if stating the weather prediction. Kaden jumped, both because of his comment and because she had forgotten he was there at all.
       "Pardon?" She asked.
      "You have no family. You died. You belong to the night now."