The Seelie Queen

Chapter 4

    It was embarrassing, being led down the large intricately designed hall holding onto the arm of a stranger. I had touched a man before, of course. Besides my father, my brother, and King Jeremiah. There was also Sam, and Dog, Tyson, and Matt. They’ve all taken turns holding me as I grew up and taking care of my brother and me. There was also Sage, who for the longest time thought he was in love with me but I ignored him and mostly stayed hidden in my room so he got bored of me. But this, this was different. Rhett was a stranger, a beautiful stranger, and every time he looked at me with his soft green eyes, it made me blush from embarrassment. It was strange, every part of it. Even still, I felt like I was floating as I walked with him down the hall. Mother and Jareth were very uncomfortable, standing very stoic as they walked ahead of us, but I took the time to stare at everything, allowing Rhett to guide my way. 

    The halls were dome-shaped, a strange material, and after a while, I realized it was the inside of a tree. As if the castle was somehow bent and hollowed out, shaped with magic from a tree. The idea of this being made from a tree was preposterous, to be honest. The size of this tree would have been unreal, even counting the huge trees I’ve seen already in this realm. The size of an average tree in the human world was normal. In this realm, it was like a normal human tree placed one on top of the other to measure the height of these trees. Even still, this castle would have been at least twenty human trees stacked on top of each other, and that’s not even counting how thick it had to have been! Even still, trying to understand this in my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It seemed unreal, but this realm lived and thrived on magic. There was indeed a chance it could be so, even if it didn’t seem possible. 

    The flowers were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Beautiful and white, soft petals, vines trailing over the surface of the inner bark. There were pictures inside strangely shaped frames, pictures of people I didn’t recognize. As we walked farther along the hall I saw the woman that was in our kitchen once. The one my mother called her mother, Queen Zahra. She was a young girl, and as I walked with Rhett behind my mother and Jareth, I watched a young Queen Zahra grow older and older, before holding a young girl. Mother? No, my mother told us her story. About her mother leaving her and her father alone shortly after she was born. Which meant she had left her older daughter to fend for herself while she was playing house with my mother and my grandfather. I wondered what the story behind this was, because it didn’t make her seem to be in a very good light so far. Maybe I was just being biased because I could feel my mother’s unhappiness for her, even though I heard from Queen Aislyn how lovely Queen Zahra was. How helpful she was when my mother was pregnant with me and Jareth. I wondered just what it was that made them have a sour relationship. 

    We had come to great big doors, curved to an oval shape at the top, with beautifully carved pictures over the doors. There were two fairies there, as if they had been waiting for us. They bowed, pulling open the doors. I assumed at this point Rhett would be the one to announce us, but because my mother wanted to lead us here she simply walked inside without a care, my brother following her with a nervous twitch in his cheek. At first, I was too overwhelmed by the room to even notice the people inside of it. It was large, with a feminine touch to the decor. At least four large couches and a few chairs, all of a strange offsetting appearance. Soft like silk, with light pink and purple colored cushions sewed meticulously onto them. Around the room, on practically every shelf were bookshelves built into the walls. The bookshelves were neverending, reaching as high as the tall ceiling, with ladders that rolled on the floor built into the shelves. It seemed as if one would have to just climb up the ladder and push it to whatever shelf they wanted. It made my fingers itch, seeing all of those beautiful books. I had to admit I loved to read. Queen Aislyn had a deep bond with me, growing up. She seemed to recognize that I didn’t want to leave, so she instead came to keep me company. She brought books with her, then taught me how to read them. I drank the words off of every single book she brought me, living my life inside the stories, instead of the real world. 

    Rhett pulled my attention back to the present by pulling me forward towards the others. I blushed, feeling embarrassed for getting lost in the books, but what I was met with wasn’t an angry glare, but a beautiful and sympathetic one. I wasn’t sure if there were enough words to describe how magnificent she was. She stood, coming over to me with a smile on her beautiful face. She wore a simple light blue dress but it looked like the most exquisite thing to be made resting on her tall frame. Like most of the other fairies, she was barefoot. Her hair was black, long, and silky, flowing to her waist. It fell down around her shoulders and her back like a cloud, soft and billowy, fluffy and light. Like many of the other fairies, there were small braids in her hair, flowers, and leaves woven into the braids, with beads at the ends that clicked when she walked. Her ears poked out of her hair, they were long and slender, more like mine than anyone else in my family. She had a beautiful chocolate-colored skin, and I watched in amazement as her skin twinkled while she walked, like she was covered in glitter. She was, by far, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She smiled at me, holding my hands in hers. “Hello, lovely. It’s nice to finally meet you.” She said with a bright smile. 

    I let her lead me to the others, who were already sitting down on the couches. Jareth and Mother sat together, and My grandmother led me to the couch where Rhett was sitting. I sat next to him shyly as she sat down next to a man. He smiled at her, wrapping his arm around her waist. He had tanned skin, and a long beard. He had light brown hair that curled slightly at the ends, rating to the underneath of his chin. His chocolate-colored eyes were like looking into my mother’s, the same depth and color, the same shape. My grandfather, he had to be. There was another girl here, older than me. I’d like to guess she was around thirty, but she could have been younger. She was tall, beautiful. She had a darker color skin than my grandmother, more of a dark chocolate shade, but her eyes, they stood out even more because of it. Dark blue, like mine and Jareth’s. Her hair was black, cut short, and resting against her long and slender ears. What startled me the most was the fact that she was rocking slightly, back and forth, like a toddler. She was muttering, looking around at everything, fear racing through her eyes. I recognized this and I couldn’t quite help but gasp, my eyes wide as I looked at her. This wasn’t a girl only ten years older than me. She was much older than that, she had to be. Even though she appeared to have a childlike look on her face, she was even older than my mother. This was my aunt, My mother’s older sister. My mother told us once before that her sister was also a seer like her, but we hadn’t met her before. This was...the future queen of all fairies? 

    I looked at my mother, my eyes wide. She stared at her older sister with a look of pity, and worry. Was this why we were here? Worry was pulling through me, and I couldn’t quite stop myself from placing my hand on my chest, startled. Was she wanting to take mother away to replace her sister? “Everyone, It’s so nice to meet you. I have been wanting to meet you for quite some time. Of course, I hope you know enough about fairies to know we can fade into the human realm whenever we want, but it takes a lot of hard work and effort to be visible. So, I want you to know that while you don’t know me, I have been coming all your lives to see you, to watch you grow into the wonderful people you are today. Being said, I hope you forgive me if I seem too familiar with you. I understand you don’t know me very well, but I do know you. I hope all of us can have a much grander relationship from now on.” Zahra said with a hopeful smile. 

    I noticed Jareth was looking uncomfortable, pulling at the collar of his shirt as he looked around. My mother had a soft look in her eyes, even as she bit her lip, sadness coming from her. I would have to press her harder in the future to understand exactly what happened to make them not have the relationship that Aislyn told me about before. “I have much to tell, and I can see that not everyone is comfortable in this realm. The wolf, it’s antsy. It doesn’t like the realm change. I’m truly sorry that I’m not able to come to your realm to visit you.” She said with a frown. 

    I was...confused. Aislyn spoke of her coming more than once into the human realm to help them. Then, I had seen her speaking to my mother in the kitchen. She was making it seem like she couldn’t now? What happened to change that? But, even with that said...I looked at Ronald, sitting there stiffly. He was staring at my mother, as if trying to catch her eye but she was ignoring both of their gazes as she stared at her fingers. “What about King Ronald?” I blurted out. I covered my hand over my mouth, my cheeks warm as the others stared at me in surprise from my outburst. Zahra smiled at me, understanding in her eyes, encouraging me to continue speaking. “He’s a werewolf, why isn’t he uncomfortable here?” I asked her hesitantly, worry in my voice. I stared at both of them, hoping I didn’t offend anyone. 

    “Yes, that is a truly touchy subject.” She said with a sigh. She looked at Rhett, a smile on her face. “Please, can you gather us some refreshments?” She asked him, clearly dismissing him. He nodded, immediately standing and leaving us alone, before looking at me. “It’s quite alright, Lovely one. The fairies know about him being a werewolf, they just don’t know everything. He was dying, in the forest. He had given Ana to the werewolves and went to the forest, welcoming death as long as he knew she was safe. I...I had no choice but to come here. I had the duty to all the other fairies. I loved being with Ronald and Ana, but when I heard word that Naya was alive, that other fairies were alive, hiding out and waiting, I had no choice but to create the Fairy realm for them all to live in. Safe, away from the other species. I didn’t think it would affect them thus. Ana won’t remember this, she was asleep at the time. I came back for Ronald and Ana, hoping to take them into the realm with us. The moment Ronald and Ana walked through the portal, they reacted just as you two are.” She said, looking at my mother and Jareth. They were growing more and more uncomfortable as they sat there. “It got worse and worse, unfortunately, until Ana started to scream, scratching at her skin, bloodying herself. We parted ways, understanding between us. Understanding that I was needed here, for Naya and the whole fairies kingdom, and Ronald was needed in the human realm, with Ana where they could survive.” She said with a sigh. 

    I could feel it, the tears pulling in my eyes as I imagined how hard that must have been. To walk away from your husband and daughter, to leave them behind, how awful. My mother had tears falling swiftly down her cheeks as she sat there fidgeting with her fingers, trying her best to keep her head down. Even still, I knew she was listening. “When Ronald was dying in the forest, I came to him. I had every intention of staying by his side, staying by him as he died, but then I couldn’t do it. To see the love of my life dying? It wasn’t possible. I used so much of my magic to heal him. He recovered, and we realized that he had, in fact, died for a number of minutes before I brought him back. When he came back to me, healed, his wolf was gone.” She whispered. 

    Ana gasped, lifting her eyes to her father’s, looking at him for the first time since we had gotten here. “I...I didn’t know.” She whispered. Her eyes were wide, her tears falling down her cheeks and resting on her shirt.

    Ronald stood, only to fall to his knees in front of his daughter. He brushed her tears from her eyes, smiling at her. “I didn’t want you to be burdened with it, because I didn’t want you to feel sad for me. I miss my wolf, I always will. He was my other half for so long, but Ana...I am happy living here with your mother. I am happy as the king of the fairies. They treat me as their own, even though I'm technically a human now. Though, her magic still flows through me, beating with my heart. I probably wouldn’t be able to leave the Fairy Realm and survive, but I’m happy here.” He said to her. 

    She smiled, understanding on her face as she hugged him. “I wish you would have told me this before. For so long, I assumed you had just abandoned me. Not caring that I was left behind. I understand now, father. Thank you,” she whispered. 

    I could feel my own tears spilling over as I watched them, a smile on my face. Suddenly, Jareth stood up, tearing his shirt off. He groaned, scratching at his skin. “I can’t take it anymore!” He yelled, cutting deep scratches into his chest. They healed almost instantly, his wolf healing rate kicking in, but even still Ronald stood, going over to him and tried to hold his hands. 

    Zahra sighed, going over to him. She pressed her finger against his forehead, a white light billowing around her. For a moment he stilled, his eyes wide as he stared at her. “I wanted to have more time, but truthfully you aren’t needed for this conversation. I just wanted to meet you. I’m sorry that it was too hard for you, Jareth. I hope one day I can see you again.” She said, a tear in her eye as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him. My mother stood shakily, walking over to Jareth. I knew my mother could cross between realms, it was the power of her seer magic, and aided by her blind eye. The eye that was filled with fairy magic and witch magic, making her more unique than others. She held Jareth’s hand and Zahra pulled away, smiling at him. “Till we meet again, lovely.” She whispered. She pulled away and Ronald did as well, leaving my mother and Jareth alone. The white shimmering light behind them appeared out of thin air, and they walked through it. After a few minutes, I stared at it, my heart thudding in my chest. Were they leaving me here? 

    But it was only for a few minutes, before my mother returned. She was starting to twitch like my brother had, but not as bad...not yet. Her wolf was agitated here, she’s been here for too long, it seems. I could understand it, in a way. When this realm was made, it was for the safety of the fairies, to keep the other species out. Zahra didn’t think it would block the other species to such an extent though. Now, none of them could stand being in the realm for very long. It was sad, for mixed species families. I looked at my hands, saddened as I saw the proof of how much I was ordinary. I didn’t have a wolf, I was...nothing. 

    Mother sat back down in her chair, just as Rhett returned with refreshments. My grandmother and grandfather sighed, sitting back down. If Rhett was curious as to why Jareth was gone, he didn’t mention it, just simply sat down. I followed him, and before anyone could speak, we were interrupted by a high-pitched giggle. “Well, isn’t this nice, lovely, so very lovely. A beautiful little tea party, with the queen, and the future queen.” Naya said.