It was when he tried to sleep that their images came for him.
When he had first taken on the role as Inquisitor for the famous Erlking his first job had been to get information out of a brownie. In the pecking order of the fae world, brownies were barely more worth a cursory glance from the Higher Fae and even some of the lesser. The Little Folk kept to themselves and were of no real consequence nor trouble. To this day Raphael still suspected that faerie had had nothing worthwhile in his mind for the Erlking and that it had been a test to see if the Puca could do the job or maybe it was to punish him for the amount of times he had refused the job offer in the first place. It had only been a threat against his friends lives that had eventually made him come to heel and the reward which kept on giving was that Brownie's face, peering up at him through the twisted pulp that had been his face.
Why was it always when he tried to sleep?
There had been many since the Brownie. Innocents as numerous as the guilty. Yet even if they had been guilty Raphael still saw their faces or heard their screams because he hated every aspect of his work. Using the gifts that had been forged in that nightmarish hellhole he called a childhood left a foul taste in his mouth. If he could cleave out the part of him that feasted and used people's fears against them he would have. With an irritated sigh he cast off the sweat-soaked blankets and pulled on his breeches and shirt. Sleep wasn't coming for him anytime soon.
The noises of the ball he had avoided were winding down now. Most of the fae had no doubt left to find their own quarters or that of a person who had taken their fancy. Still, he wouldn't risk getting dragged into the dancing or festivities and so set his feet on a path for the city beyond where the rest of the population celebrated the Spring Equinox. Not everyone could fit into the palace and a large portion of Midir's court chose to hold their own celebrations for this occasion. Not that Raphael intended on joining those either. For some odd reason people seemed to stop having fun with the man who could put them on the rack and twist their limbs till they confessed to things they had never even done.
Funny that.
Instead he wound his way through the outskirts of the city to one of the riverbeds glinting in the starlight and covered in a thousand fireflies. The warm wind ruffled his hair as he sat and spread his wings ungracefully over the bank. Maybe there wouldn't be a person waiting in his 'office' in the morning. Another face to add to his nightmares and ever growing list.
When he had first taken on the role as Inquisitor for the famous Erlking his first job had been to get information out of a brownie. In the pecking order of the fae world, brownies were barely more worth a cursory glance from the Higher Fae and even some of the lesser. The Little Folk kept to themselves and were of no real consequence nor trouble. To this day Raphael still suspected that faerie had had nothing worthwhile in his mind for the Erlking and that it had been a test to see if the Puca could do the job or maybe it was to punish him for the amount of times he had refused the job offer in the first place. It had only been a threat against his friends lives that had eventually made him come to heel and the reward which kept on giving was that Brownie's face, peering up at him through the twisted pulp that had been his face.
Why was it always when he tried to sleep?
There had been many since the Brownie. Innocents as numerous as the guilty. Yet even if they had been guilty Raphael still saw their faces or heard their screams because he hated every aspect of his work. Using the gifts that had been forged in that nightmarish hellhole he called a childhood left a foul taste in his mouth. If he could cleave out the part of him that feasted and used people's fears against them he would have. With an irritated sigh he cast off the sweat-soaked blankets and pulled on his breeches and shirt. Sleep wasn't coming for him anytime soon.
The noises of the ball he had avoided were winding down now. Most of the fae had no doubt left to find their own quarters or that of a person who had taken their fancy. Still, he wouldn't risk getting dragged into the dancing or festivities and so set his feet on a path for the city beyond where the rest of the population celebrated the Spring Equinox. Not everyone could fit into the palace and a large portion of Midir's court chose to hold their own celebrations for this occasion. Not that Raphael intended on joining those either. For some odd reason people seemed to stop having fun with the man who could put them on the rack and twist their limbs till they confessed to things they had never even done.
Funny that.
Instead he wound his way through the outskirts of the city to one of the riverbeds glinting in the starlight and covered in a thousand fireflies. The warm wind ruffled his hair as he sat and spread his wings ungracefully over the bank. Maybe there wouldn't be a person waiting in his 'office' in the morning. Another face to add to his nightmares and ever growing list.