Private Tales Chasing Shadows

[Nairth San'Seya]

Nairth turned as they re-emerged onto the dias in the Great Hall, offering an amused titter as he slid his throne back into its place over the hatch leading down into the Underchamber. "Before I took control of the court, our people were scattered and disorganized, without even a central location to call home. I've made much progress in our growth, but there are so far scant few Fae willing to dedicate themselves to aiding me in my task." It was a protracted way to say no to her question, but then he was beginning to grow ever-so-slightly fond of the humourous expressions she made when he spoke for a sentence too long.

That wasn't to suggest there wasn't any record to be examined; Oberon had ruled differently, but he was certainly sure to keep track of happenings in his own court. Nairth would have plenty of time to comb through history while Olyssa did her work. "Come to my Chamber whenever it is you've finished. If you require food or drink, we will accommodate you as we did before. If you require any extra material, a large garden is behind this hall."

Nairth bowed and turned to ascend the stairs rising from the platform up to the higher levels of the Castle. He did not wish to display how much faith he now placed in the Autumn's envoy; This would not be the first time he'd combed through the records, and Olyssa's specialization may hold the last hope of understanding this blight before it finally bested the weary King.

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Did getting a crown mean speaking in long winded riddles? She tried to apply the same, schooled, pleasant expression she did when Midir spoke in that similar amble. Of course, Midir had never told her it was not the perfect face of polite interest she thought it was. In fact it was very hard not to call it a scowl and very often was accompanied by an eyeroll.

Which was exactly what Nairth got.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she gave a half hearted curtsey in the manner Midir had schooled her in, but her mind was already on what she had in her satchel. "I'll let you know what I discover," if she discovered anything at all. Though, something inside her gut told here there were answers here. Perhaps not what they needed but... it would set them on the path. It had to.

She would not let this thing destroy her Wilds.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Nairth ignored any hint of annoyance in Olyssa's expression, merely nodding his head in response to her words. She was far from the rudest collaborator he'd had to tolerate, and the good that she could do for his Court far outweighed any indiscretion she displayed.

"One more thing, before you depart."

A hand went into the robes over his chest, and he retrieved the object he'd crafted that morning. Around them, some of those busying themselves about the castle caught sight of the woven star in the King's palm, and ceased their tasks to watch. What San'Seya now did was no meager gesture-- It was one that hadn't been made in generations.

"This..." Nairth began, holding out the star to Olyssa. It was woven with a spider's silk, and adorned with the brightest feathers of a Kingfisher. The sap of Spring's oldest tree had been used to harden the charm, and it was bathed in the waters of the Ley-Lake they'd only just visited. "...Is a Mark of Spring. A symbol of my eternal gratitude for your service to me. Those given this symbol are not born of our land, but they are recognized to wield the same heart and the same soul that we do. Carry this, and on my authority, these lands will treat you as our own."

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa caught herself just before she burst out laughing. It was the sudden audience they had acquired that gave her pause enough to think that perhaps laughing in the face of a gift from a foreign monarch might just create one of those diplomatic incidents that Midir was always telling her off about. Clearly this star of whatever meant something to the fair folk of Spring, even if the idea a trinket was what would make her welcome amongst nature was the most hilarious thing she had heard for years.

"How quaint."

Well, she should get points for the not laughing. Keeping the bemusement from her voice was just simply impossible. At least, that was what she would tell Midir if he had to come rescue her from the dungeons. Taking the star she was about to throw it into the satchel with the rest of her items but something gave her pause. Something niggling amongst those memories her mind was beginning to unpack. A thoughtful expression over came her and she completely forgot to say anything else to the King of Spring as she turned her back on him and made her way back to her rooms.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Olyssa was unimpressed by the display, and despite her best efforts that was quite clear. Still, Nairth only held that soft, polite smile that his lips seemed to default to when holding a conversation. What his guest thought of his gesture mattered not; Cynicism would not change the symbol of trust that the Mark represented, and all who followed San'Seya's rule would know of his faith in her.

Not a word further came from his lips as she restrained herself and departed back to her chambers. The King looked after her for a moment, before turning on his heel and ascending the opposite staircase; There was no time for further chatter and debate, as he too had work that begged his attendance. The possibility that Olyssa's tale was truth, that some ancient parasite preying upon only those who spoke in the tongue of the wind could not be ignored.

Sping's recordings of the past were not nearly as vast and extensive as those of Autumn or the other primary courts. They were a younger people, and only very recently had they been given a true gathering point in Grovehaven. Attempts had been made at once to gather together what written word had been kept by Spring's people when Nairth took over, but their collection was still quite incomplete.

And yet... As he walked between the tall, stone shelves of the library, lit only by the sunlight beaming through the window in the ceiling of the wide chamber, Nairth felt as though there must be something here that he'd missed. Certainly a Fae as old as Oberon would have known about such a parasite. It seemed unreasonable to think otherwise. His feet were quiet, gentle against the vines that ran across nearly every surface of the castle like veins within a body, his hands trailed across all manner of book, note, and scribble. All of them he'd scrutinized from front to back...

All of them except...

Nairth turned towards the door in the back of the library, kept under the protection of a particularly strong barrier at all times. It was a faux pas, to read what lay within it... In this case, he was left was little choice. Nairth slid closer to the chamber containing the Futures of generations past.

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

For five days Olyssa did not emerge from her suite of rooms. She might have lost track of all concept of time if her experiments had not relied so heavily on the lights cast from both sun and moon. The creatures reactions to both were as diverse as the celestial bodies themselves, but the main result was the same; the thing was hurt by light. In a way it did not do much more than confirm what it was they had already theorised but Olyssa was excited by the numerous other things her torture had revealed.

It was not just light that the thing detested and it was not just the sound of the Old Tongue that it liked.

"Where is Nairth?"

The servant who had been busy dusting one of several statues nearly jumped out of his skin as the green-haired sidhe materialised at his shoulder. Under her irritated gaze he tried to recover himself quickly.

"H-His Majesty is in the Library I believe, I can--"

"No, you're too slow. I'll find him on my own," she waved him away and let the small parasite tug her in the direction of the King.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Indeed the contents of the past Future Tomes had proved enlightening. Nairth had only ever read the one that had been delivered to him by The High Omnia, shortly before his coronation. The Tomes were not records of the past, per se. Rather, they were written as the Omnia's predictions for the future, traditionally when the time period of the previous Tome ends.

The King had spent the five days since Olyssa's last correspondence studying these old Tomes, examining the events that the Omnia had foreseen, dating far back, generations before even his own birth. It was shocking the accuracy many of these predictions displayed, but it was never a perfect alignment with what truly came to pass. It was akin to reading the written history of the Spring Fae with glaring inaccuracies and factual errors.

Historical significance aside, what he'd hoped to find within the Tomes wasn't explicitly mentioned in any of these predictions. At least, not directly. However, his study had not been in vain; Several excerpts of the Tomes referred to a blight that would slowly grow within the Spring, one that would grow with time, that held a grudge against old blood and sought to consume and snuff the most ancient of bloodlines.

It certainly sounded like what they dealt with now.

Still, Nairth needed more time to finish his studies. The final Tome, the one delivered to him by Eske, was considerably large, and he'd yet to commit it to memory. He'd only just begun to delve into it's pages when Olyssa swung open the door to the library, storming in like fury on legs.

She must have found something, he knew that look in her eyes too well.

"Olyssa!" Nairth slammed the massive book on the table in front of him shut, sliding it forward to look upon the sidhe who'd turned one of his chambers into a makeshift laboratory over nearly the last week. "I was beginning to feel some level of suspense. I take it you've made a discovery in your isolation?"

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

"Why else would I be here?" Olyssa frowned at the King as though he were a small child stating the glaringly obvious. Her eyes flickered briefly to the book he had clearly been studying before her arrival then dismissed it as unimportant entirely. She pushed aside some bits on his desk in a careless sweep and them upended the contents of her bag. Out spilled numerous bits of rotten root and festering flesh in various states of decay. Several of them looked as though they were burnt to the point a single breath would reduce them to ash.

"It is not just light, it is the First Light that hurts it," she explained and pointed to some of the first few. "These are the sun, the moon, light from a flame and the stars as they are to the normal eye. It caused some discomfort but only in that it might stick to shadows instead. "But when I began to research what the purest form of light was, that is when I began to get these stronger results, until I tried the oldest form of Light magic I knew," she gestured to the one barely more than ash.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

The King was torn between rolling his eyes at her impudence and impatience and smiling at the fire in her voice, the voice of a woman who'd been so tirelessly devoting herself to a cause and had finally achieved a breakthrough. In the end, he merely smiled with a raised brow as she swept some of the smaller books aside and emptied her work onto the table.

Well... perhaps 'work' was being generous. To the untrained eye, it looked as though perhaps Olyssa had gone quite mad, or perhaps spent far too long conversing with raccoons and taken to gathering garbage. The bits of flesh, root, and decaying plant were unremarkable. At least, until one realized what it was that had brought them to such a state.

"Fascinating..." Nairth murmured, leaning forward to comb over the fruits of her labor in earnest. Of course he'd made the connection that light magic was somewhat effective against this enemy of theirs, but it seemed painfully obvious in hindsight that the oldest of lights would be the most damaging to such an ancient foe. "That lines up with what I've found. The Omnias have foretold of this plague in Future Tomes of the past, which means our hungry friend has been lying in wait for quite a substantial amount of time..."

Something Tharu told him about his encounter with the Dark Being crosses Nairth's mind, and he peers up at Olyssa. "Prince Lorcan's lover, Maeve was it? She was able to deal a significant blow to the foul thing with her magic. How old is the Light magic most typically learned by those capable? I can't say it's my forte."

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

"For the Lunar Fae, Starlight is the oldest and purest form of Light magic. For a Solar Fae, it is the sun," people often made the mistake it was moonlight, forgetting that it was the sun itself that blessed the world with that type of light. "From what you have told me of your encounters with light wielders, and the Princess Maeve, it would fit with the theory. However," she pulled a few more charred pieces to the centre of the desk. "These were not burnt with any Light. I started to consider, what if it is not Light... but the age of the Magick? This one, I tested with raw Elemental Magic. This, with Healing."

Three of the most ancient fae Magicks. Light, Elemental and Healing. The only other was Darkness itself.

"It does not surprise me your research concluded this parasite is old. If it is only these Magicks which can hurt it then I would be quite confident in theorising this is as old as the Beginning itself. Speaking to the Wind used to be how all fae communicated with the Ley Lines and the world around us, it would make sense therefore that that too should now be considered amongst the ancient magicks."

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Nairth was familiar with Starlight; The Prince's mother had been attuned to it, and her mastery over that ancient and powerful magic made his domain over Life look almost pitiful in comparison. What San'Seya hadn't thought to consider was the age of the magic independent of its nature. Light and Darkness were opposites, so it made sense to assume that light could counteract a parasite of the shadows. Only now did Olyssa open his eyes to what he had perhaps been missing.

"It is not the light that hurts it, but the purity of the magick." Nairth mumbled, reaching out to carefully pluck one of the charred bits from the table, holding it up to the light to better examine it. Nairth, his son, and Olyssa all used Wind Speak, which was in and of itself an ancient power. Perhaps it was not that the Parasite was seeking out those who spoke to the wind, but that the Wind Speak itself agitated it, and stirred it from slumber. "It is said that the earliest of our kind were those of Light, Darkness, Elemental and Healing affinities. When we began to procreate and branch out into vast family trees and separate bloodlines, new affinities were spawned from those connections. Powerful, but... comparably diluted."

Oberon was quite an old Fae, even by Duanann standards. It made sense why the dark filth had sought him out first. When it followed Tharu to the Ixchel Wilds, it was no doubt agitated by Princess Maeves's light, and lashed out at the pair of them. Though the foe they were facing had not lessened in deadliness with this news, a smile began to grow on Nairth's face nonetheless as he turned back towards Olyssa. "Excellently done, Olyysa. The Erlking was right in entrusting this task to you."

Not that he felt she needed a bigger ego.

"That only leaves the question of why now?" Nairth placed the charred remains back onto the table, bending to pick up the heavy tome that Olyssa had swept onto the floor. "Oberon was not the first in all this time to hold ancient magicks. I certainly was not the first to Speak to the Wind. Something caused this plague to reawaken, and I fear discovering that trigger will be important in ensuring this does not continue."

Nairth paused, a thought seeming to run across his face.

"Sate my curiosity... Did you think to check if Darkness effects it? Certainly, they seem to be of the same element, but... If it is the age and not the nature of the magick, that implies such a thing may not matter."

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa merely sniffed at the praise, even as her wings preened themselves, for she knew the praise was but a matter of course. She was excellent. That others recognised it as so was unavoidable. She picked up her own charred bit of root - the one she had practised Healing upon - and twirled it about between her thumb and forefinger thoughtfully as Nairth claimed they needed to find the reason for it all. The creature itself had given no clues to solve that particular riddle and she puzzled over where they might start.

His further question however made her blink.

"I could find no Darkness wielders amongst your servants to test it. I was also concerned you might... disapprove if it responded well to someone wielding its own magic," and probably dying. Olyssa had no such qualms, not in the name of progress, but Kings and Queens seemed to get upset about subjects dying in experiments. Oh, war was fine sure. But knowledge? She sniffed. In her mind one was far more worthwhile than the other.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

It was true that wielders of Darkness were few and far between amongst the Spring, and he did appreciate Olyssa's concern over whether he would appreciate such an experiment happening without his knowledge. However, he waved a hand at her concerns and returned his hands behind his back. "Given the circumstances, I think it's worth the risk. A risk that will be minimized with my oversight." At the slightest sign of disaster, they would need to act quickly to quell any rejuvenating effects brought on by the Darkness, but if Olyssa's theory held, they needn't worry.

"As for a wielder of darkness, he was far closer than you realized." San'Seya took leisurely steps past her, scooping up one of the decayed bits from the table as he headed for the library's entrance, still hanging ajar from when Olyssa had barged in. "It so happens that my son Tharu is attuned to the shadow. He takes somewhat after his mother... Regardless, his magic should allow us to test your theory, as well as mine own."

Turning in the doorway, The King offers her a soft smile, suddenly all too interested in learning the ins and outs of this plague. Olyssa's thirst for such 'knowledge' had seemingly rubbed off on him.

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa raised a single brow. His son? Perhaps Nairth wouldn't have minded if he had died in the experiment; from what she had heard about the Spring King he was more likely to kill his own child than not. At least no emotions would get in the way of the experiment if that were true. Despite having not slept for the past few days as she had worked, a fresh wave of energy seized a hold of her making her practically skip towards the door.

As they walked, presumably to Tharu's rooms, Olyssa mulled over what she knew about the boy.

"I thought you said Tharu had troubled fighting off the parasite when confronted with it? That it was the light users who came to his aid?"

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Olyssa's questioning seemed to break the Spring King from some sort of inner dialogue as he led her across one of the many catwalks that crossed over the Grand Hall, winding from wall to wall like roots through a gargantuan tree. He turned his silvery head, blinking at the question for a moment before speaking. "Hm? Oh, in one instance yes. However, when he was with Princess Maeve, things transpired somewhat differently, from what he's told me." Rather than simply blasting the thing with light, Maeve had taken a much more cooperative approach with how the two of them confronted their attacker.

"Maeve manipulated the light around them, casting a dark shadow over the being. Tharu used that to restrain the foul thing so that they could escape. Ingenious, and I'd expect no less from such a well-regarded young woman." Nairth seemed to hum with satisfaction as they turned down a hall lined with open windows and a single, jade-colored rug that traveled the floor beneath them to a large door at the opposite wall. "I do owe her my thanks when next I see her."

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

The use of two Ancient Magicks. Interesting.

Olyssa made a note to practise the effects of that on the little supply she had left. Maybe she could convince Nairth to let her go get some more, or even test it directly on the host. He'd said himself it was no longer Oberon, surely he wouldn't have an issue with any discomfort the thing might have even if it wore the old kings face. She was content to keep to her own thoughts as they walked through the palace. Now and then something caught her eye; a plant or a flitter of a birds wing out of the window, and she quietly went through the logs of beastries and botanicles to find their names. It was a comforting and pleasant exercise.

Eventually Nairth seemed to slow and Olyssa could make out a figure ahead of them with a striking resemblance to the King. She didn't need to be introduced to know who the Prince was. With all her usual charm before Nairth could speak she held out one of the still in tact samples.

"We need you to perform your magic on this rot. Now."

A seconds hesitate.

"Prince."

 

[Tharu San'Seya]

Tharu had been doing his very best to stay out of their 'esteemed guest's' way. He was fascinated with her work, based on what little he'd heard by word of mouth, but Olyssa seemed to perhaps not be the most personable of types. If he were to jeopardize Spring and Autumn's partnership with his curiosity should he somehow offend the Beast Keeper, he would feel no end of guilt.

So he'd retired to his chambers and reviewed the deployment strategies that the Vitae had provided him in the event of an assault against the Summer. Organizing the collaborative effort with the brothers had been entrusted to him, and he was eager to prove himself capable of managing something of such great importance.

As always seemed to be the case, though, the trouble he sought to avoid eventually sought him out instead.

The Prince nearly fell out of his chair when his father and the brightly-haired woman he'd been steering clear of barged into his chambers without so much as a knock. Before Tharu could even get a word out, Olyssa was holding out a shriveled piece of rotted root, practically shoving it in his face and demanding that he perform his magic on it.

His nose wrinkled and his eyes crossed to look at the shrunken black thing. Tharu recognized the putrid smell of it. It was the same stench of the shadow-like fiend he'd confronted with Maeve some time ago, and then again alongside Shayleigh. Admittedly, he doubted he'd be able to do much to it.

But if Olyssa was insisting... Tharu quickly looked towards his father, who gave a silent nod of approval.

"Okay..." He sighed, turning up his palm and calling forth the shadows cast in the corners of his chamber, long and winding against the sun that peeked through his window. They stretched across the floor like ebony serpents, coiling up Tharu's body and pooling in the palm of his hand.

He reached out and grasped the rot with his darkness-enveloped grip.

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa stared down the Prince with a blank expression she had learnt over her lifetime often made people uncomfortable enough to do what she asked so she would go away again.

Silence filled the room as those gathered held their breath and waited to see the reaction the putrid bit of root would give. When Tharu's darkness touched the parasite at first it appeared to do nothing. The root sat unchanged in Olyssa's palm whilst the shadows flowed around it, wrapping itself tighter and tighter. The sidhe began to frown as the seconds stretched into a full minute and was about to propose something different when the root suddenly gave a shudder. Very quickly it began to expand and the root grew as though the darkness were actually feeding it. Olyssa's eyes widened and she seemed about to open her mouth to no doubt tell the Prince to stop when the root burst from the inside out, spraying the room with patches of rot. Where it landed it began to sizzle and ebb away leaving behind nothing but a dark sludge mark to show it had existed.

Olyssa crinkled up her nose in disgust and wiped away the piece that had landed on her cheek.

"How... delightful."

 

[Tharu San'Seya]

In the span of a few minutes, Tharu had gone from happily working on one of his first major responsibilities for the Spring Court while avoiding the wrath of their temperamental guest, to being barged in upon and ordered to use his magic by said guest, and now both his room and the important documents laid out in front of them were smattered with splotches of rot.

For one second, for the briefest of moments. Tharu understood the rage that had led his Father to kill his brothers and sisters.

The Prince's face tightened, lips pursed, and he struggled not to look as scorned as he felt by all of this. Slowly, he brought his hand to his robes, wiping the sludge from his palm with a grimace. "Quite..." There was no attempt, however, to hide the sarcasm in his voice. "I do hope that there was some benefit to that, Miss... Olyssa, was it? You've earned me another trip to the Vitae..."

Looking down at his table, the rot had chewed straight through the parchment. With a sigh and nothing more, Tharu stood, gave a bow to his father, and departed.

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Tharu had barely finished speaking before Olyssa had all but shoved past him to examine the hole in the table, for the rot had not simply stopped at parchment. She examined it from above and then crawled under to peer at it from the other side. In the back of her mind she faintly registered the sound of the Prince's retreating footsteps and the door closing behind him.

"Remarkable," she stuck her finger through the hole, running it along the charred edge then brought it to her lips to taste. "None of the other specimens did that," not even light which she had thought to be the strongest fighter against the parasite. Olyssa folded her legs underneath her as she pondered what the implications of the experiment meant. Why had Tharu struggled to contain it on his own if darkness could hurt it? What did the properties of light do to alter the darkness and make it a far stronger weapon.

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Nairth briefly looked after his son as he stormed out of the room, a small frown settling on his face. Perhaps it had been unwise to subject him to Olyssa's... 'fervor' towards her research. Nairth knew how to handle the interesting personalities that many of their kind developed over the long lives they enjoyed, but Tharu was still rather new when it came to politics. He hadn't had the time to build the temperament or understanding for such interactions.

An apology he would need to deliver later; That Olyssa seemed to take such fascination with the result of her experiment was a more pressing matter. Indeed, the rot had not simply scattered across the room, but had burned away, quite violently. It raised some questions, but nothing that he felt so stricken by as his Autumn companion.

"What does it mean? Darkness is more effective than the other ancient magics?"

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

"If that was the case then your son would have been able to beat the creature off without the aid of a pixie or a Starborn," Olyssa said mildly as she went to examine a bit of charred wall to see if it was the same as the table. Indeed a hole had gone through the wall though had stopped before it had reached the other side. Interesting. Her eyes flickered to the doorway the Prince had left through and from the look in her eyes she appeared to be debating whether she could keep the Prince for further experiments.

Then something seemed to flicker in her eyes.

"The root... it had already been experimented on with the other magicks."

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

"Variety is the spice of life." Nairth quipped, a somewhat amused smile resting on his lips as he closed his eyes in thought. He'd never been one to enjoy the 'science' of magic, and certainly, he didn't consider himself to be an intellectual who spent any amount of time researching, but this little game of deduction with Olyssa was almost starting to be enjoyable. "Or in this case, of death. Our parasitic friend doesn't like more than one flavor at a time."

That would explain why Tharu had been able to fight it off with the help of others, whilst Nairth had nearly been killed battling the fiend alone despite his far greater experience and might. Nairth's own magic had hardly dented the poor beast the parasite had infected, and it was only by a last ditch attack that he'd escaped with his life intact.

"That seems to open up even more questions, doesn't it, Olyssa?" His eyes opened to peer down at the emerald-haired fae, knowing well she'd hear the teasing intonation of his voice. "Perhaps you'll be staying with us a bit longer, after all? It does appear we've only solved half of the puzzle, after all."

Olyssa

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa's side was that of a child who had been told they couldn't go outside because it was raining.

"I suppose," she glared at the hole in the table as though it were all its fault she would be stuck here for even longer than she had intended. There were animals and a whole jungle that awaited her return. Every second here was another second she had to leave the fauns in charge. What was even more frustrating however, was the fact she had no idea what to do next. They had discovered a potential weakness but the test had been on a part of the parasite, not the whole thing. She debated the merits of trying it on the Old King but dismissed that too; whatever Oberon was now it was neither full fae or parasite. If they wanted to kill it they would need to go to the source.

"So... how do we find this parasite for a test run?"

 

[Nairth San'Seya]

Olyssa certainly had no qualms in making her distaste for her surroundings known, even if Nairth had an inkling her discontent was less for his home and more for the absence of hers. He too would be rather disagreeable if torn from his castle for too long. It was in their nature, he supposed. Some part of the King wished they could speed this to an end, if only so he did not have to feel as though he kept her here under duress.

"I should think that the easy part." San'Seya hummed as he strode towards the open door. The King had never had the problem of not knowing what was happening in his own Court. He had eyes were everywhere, even if they were not necessarily his own. "My scouts will determine where the filth currently lingers, and we will meet it. We've determined that it lashes out against those who speak in the ancient tongue, a trait you and I share." He turns his head, golden gaze lingering on her as he waits for her to follow. "I've no reason to believe it will not heed our call."

It would take some time to discern exactly where the infestation currently hid, and that unfortunately meant making Olyssa wait just a tad longer. Nevertheless, Narith sent out the call to his winged servants to survey the forests for any sign of the parasite and report back to him posthaste.

Olyssa