Spiritual Deficiency

Chapter 2

Drake

I sat back on the water bank and rested on my elbows with my book laid gently in my lap. The chapter was going in a direction I didn't enjoy and it almost frustrated me. How could the hero be so easily swayed by love? What about his loyalties? To his family, his people? I chuckled at myself, realizing how ridiculous it was to get this way over a book.

I balanced my hand above my head to block some of the sun, glancing around the lake. Everything looked so different when it was daytime. I was almost never out and about during this hour since it was dangerous. As a Spirit Fae, we were hated by the others. Our entire group was ostracized by the ridiculous "Fae Council" that was, honestly, just scared of everything we could accomplish. My power was something that even scared me sometimes, but that didn't mean we, as a whole, were... what did they call us? Evil?

I huffed and set my arm back down for support behind me. My hand twitched as I could feel her before I even saw her. A Water Fae. I felt my jaw tighten as I tensed, regretting my decision to come out so early in the day. Thankfully, I had a quartz necklace that I charmed to disguise myself, hiding my "Fae aura" from others. It made it easier for me to go out and explore. The only way someone else would know is if they saw my Spirit Fae emblem on my right shoulder.

Or my Void Group emblem hidden among the vines that sleeved my left arm. That one would get me into even more trouble.

I turned to her, glancing at the figure that had the soft glow of blue around her small body. My favorite color. Her long brown hair framed her olive face, but I couldn't tell much of the details from this distance. She had a sketchbook in her lap that she was so focused on, I wondered if she'd even seen me yet. I looked at her through the curtain of my shaggy black hair that I grew out to cover my dark purple eyes. My eyes gave me away as something other than human, so I settled on looking like someone straight out of MCR.

She looked up, directly at me, and I could see her face flush. I smirked at her and gave the Fae a small wave with two fingers, and she quickly gathered her things and ran off. She didn't seem concerned that I was a Fae, thankfully, so maybe I was safe for now. I'd have to stick to coming out at night if I wanted to keep going on these adventures, it seemed. It was a pity since the blues of the lake and the sky were absent during the night, but it felt safer.

I stood up and shrugged off my annoyance that one of those Faes usually brought me. All of them up on their high horse and looking down upon me. I could count on one hand how many of the other elemental Faes I'd met in my lifetime, and it never ended well.

My best friend, Shea, had grown up with me as a sister. Her parents had been killed during a fight with a few Fire Fae, leaving her orphaned. My parents took her in and treated her as their own when she had no one else to turn to. Her bitterness toward them led her to join the Void.

The Void group was a group of Spirit Fae that were essentially the big rebel group. They trained their abilities for war, and were waiting for the perfect moment to strike on the council themselves. Shea joined at fourteen years old, dragging me along with her to fight the great fight. That's how we'd spent our past ten years: training for the big plan.

Shea had proven herself so well that she became the right hand woman of our leader, obviously trusting me as her own right hand man. We both had our own jobs to do and our own Fae to boss around to ensure the safety and success of the group. Between scouting missions and intel collection, it had been a pretty tame time for me in the group. The most dangerous thing I'd done was break into the council prison to release some Spirit Fae, which went well considering it was Shea and I on our own. We worked better together.

Both of my parents had been in the Void group long before Shea and I, but they both opted out of being anything more than squad leaders. They didn't want to be the ones completely in charge of the group, as they were the ones in charge of the Spirit Fae politically. Consider it the council's equivalent to royalty. My younger brother, Oren, officially joined four years ago when he was sixteen. His training had gone incredibly well, considering he grew up in a Void family, and has been chosen to run many solo jobs. We're all working up to the big plan, finding every nook and cranny of a weakness within the council.