Leah woke from her nap, this time strangely free from nightmares, and looked up at the ceiling. Any other day and her freedom from such atrocities would have been a joyous situation however, today was different. Since she had read the letter that night all the different outcomes had run through her mind.
Firstly, she could kick his ass. Defeat The White Knight and allow Deploma to take over the south of Avalon – Seelie territory. That was her duty after all wasn't it? To help her king obtain his goals? Though she knew that in her heart, she served him on paper alone. Leah would rather burn in hell than wish that bastard rule over the innocent people of Seelie Avalon. It would be selfish. The second, was to throw down her sword. Offer her surrender to the knight and beg his mercy. With a little luck, she would be taken as prisoner and far away from that man. But she could never look that woman in the eye. The queen, Elixibur, hadn't killed her father directly nor had she had any input at all in his death. Sources said that the young queen was only eighteen years of age; she would have been able to speak when her mother ordered Nydale Payne's death. Even so, she still scorned the woman. Then there was the third option. Lose. Stare the man in the eye as he drove a sword through her heart and ended her miserable life.
After pondering this idea for several hours, she determined that there were simply no flaws with this approach; the Seelie would invade Deploma's lands, kill him, restore their benevolent nature across Unseelie land. As for the queen, Leah would be dead and wouldn't have to face the issue of facing her. One snag in her mind was of the human boy she had come to care for; Jonathan Turner. However, the more she thought about him, the more Leah convinced herself that her death was the best outcome. By even spending time alone with him, she had placed his life in impending danger. One glimpse. One messenger from the court to suspect something and betray her and Jonathan Turner was dead. Deploma would most likely do it himself; he liked to be directly involved with his acts of tyranny – another delightful trait about him.
Jonathan would wake in the middle of the night to find a devine being like nothing he had ever seen before standing before him; that would be the last thing that he saw before his throat was slit. Perhaps Deploma would prolong his kill? And take the poor boy back to court where he would confront Leana herself about her actions with the boy before he killed him. Perhaps he would make sure that she knew that it was her that caused his death. That it was her fault he was dead.
Losing was her best option. The girl stood, the idea set in her mind that this was the night that she was going to die. Leah made her way to the dressing table, firmly taking the vial of glamour and taking a dose. For the millionth time, she watched her body change. It may seem strange to a human but Leana actually found her human self more appealing. Perhaps it was because, in a world of coloured skin, wings and gemstone eyes, brown hair and dusky skin was something different. Or perhaps it was because she felt less like herself. Isn't that why humans wear makeup? To mask their true identity? Lifting her hand to her face, she gently touched her skin as if she was studying the changes that she had witnessed countless times. Shaking her head to snap her from her trance, Leana opened the wardrobe that held her armour.
Considering she was a knight, her armour was something that she rarely wore. Battles perhaps but the courts had remained rather peaceful since she was born. The odd assassin came perhaps once a year, following up on a lead that Nydale Payne's bastard survived but they all met the same fate. She hated to admit it but killing those bastards worked as almost a stress relief against her anger towards the king. Did that make her a bad person? Leana tried not to think about it.
Unknown to many humans, armour like hers had many layers of application. The first was basic clothing to stop the metal hurting her skin and now, with the injuries on her arms (even though they had mostly subsided) she would need all the cushioning she could get. For her underclothes, she actually had decided to use human clothing as the material was much softer on the skin!
First, she would put on some black tights – opaque in summer and woolly in winter – and a pair of stretchy biking shorts. The only thing fey was her cotton shirt as it obviously had special accommodation for her wings. After that, it was chain; literally, that was it. Chain, chain and more chain. There was a lose chest plate of the stuff which was far heavier than it had to be. Her legs were covered by tighter, more dense chainmail which looked rather good if she was honest with herself. Then the plates. Leana had mastered applying all of her plates herself as she would rather die from poorly applied armour than be fondled by some squire. The plates were made from some titanium that appeared black in colour to further represent the Unseelie court's evil nature. Leana thought it was a rather entertaining detail. The Unseelie crest was embossed into the navel of her chest plate. What she liked about her armour was that it fit her perfectly though it was designed to mask her identity as a woman. It made her feel like her enemies were more matched to her ability.
After she was fully equipped, she checked the time to see just how long she had until she was to face him. It was 01:42AM; time to go. Inhaling deeply, she took her helmet and her sword – her father's sword – and made a path for the door.
"A beautiful place to die," Leana muttered as she looked out across the field. August was in full swing and wildflowers were sprouting all over the vibrant grass. The wind blew softly, tickling her cheeks and blowing her hair into a dancing tangle. The shine of the moonlight reflected off of the millions of individual drops of condensation that had formed in the night's chill atop every blade of grass and every flower around them. The night was silent to the untrained ears, Leana, on the other hand, heard the whistle of the wind through each branch of each tree, the sound of the blades of grass rubbing against one another, the sound of the owls singing to her and only her. What a beautiful place to die. Understanding that it must be nearly 2, Leana curled her hair up and donned her helmet after taking one last look at the world through clear eyes. She realised that she would likely never be taking this helmet off again.
As if on cue, a figure came from behind the abandoned church which the field surrounded. The first thing that Leana noticed was that he was young, like herself. The man wore dazzling golden armour though she knew that it couldn't be real gold, some kind of yellow coloured metal for sure. The next was his wings, they were proportionate and pretty but there was no chance that he could fly in that armour with those. Leana, on the other hand, was thin and feminine. She could easily lift herself even with all of the armour holding her back. This would be a breeze – if she intended to win that is. He stood tall and confident around twenty feet from her. His weapon of choice was what shocked her most; a spear! How did he intend to beat her with a spear?
"You came," His voice! There was something strangely familiar about that voice. Had they met? No, it was impossible. Elixibur wouldn't send her best knight as a mere spy, would she? Was she really that stupid? She had heard reports that the queen was lacking in her mother's intelligence but she couldn't possibly be that bad! No, this was her mind playing tricks. No matter, she would be dead before she even saw his face. "No answer?" He asked. Leana never spoke. Her voice would surely give her away. The knight began to circle her – he was confident she would give him that. "You're shorter than I expected," He laughed as he spun the thin weapon between his fingers. "But no matter, you will atone for your sins all the same," Sins? What the hell had Leana ever done? She was a respectful lady and friend to all residents of the Unseelie court! The people loved her! Then she remembered, this guy had no idea who she was. But that only added more questions to the pile. Taking a bold move, Leana responded as she began to mirror his vulture-like circling.
"Sins?" She asked deepening her voice as best she could. "Pray-tell," The man scoffed under his helmet and pointed his spear at her.
"Do not play the innocent!" He barked, thrusting the weapon in her direction though she did not flinch. She knew that he wasn't ready to strike; he wasn't done talking. "The murder of families," He began. "The orphaning of sons," He carried on as he began to get more and more frustrated. "The raping of daughters!" That word. Call her whatever he wished except that word. With a gruff grunt, to remain undetected as a woman, she lunged for him but he blocked the attack with the arm of his spear. "I was one of those sons!" He yelled, using all his force to thrust Leana back. He was strong! He even knocked her off balance for a moment.
She knew that he was referring to the Black Knight themselves and charged her with the crimes of those who came before her; much like she did Elixibur. Her father killed this mans father? Her father was no monster! He would never kill unless he was provoked, would he? In her moment of weakness, the man lunged at her again. She barely deflected his attack, throwing him aside and lifting herself off the ground to kick him fully to the floor. She couldn't make her loss seem too fake or rehearsed, she had to shed some blood at least.
Almost as quickly as he had fell, he was back up, she could hear his angered breaths. "Murderer!" He yelled, running at her again. This time, Leana stepped out of his way to deflect another attack, this was child's play to her but what she did not expect was him to anticipate her dodge and twist to thrust the spear into her waist! Now she knew why he used a spear; a thin weapon could pass through a thin entry point such as a seam in armour. Clever. Forgetting her façade, Leana yelled as she dropped to the ground dropping her sword to clutch her waist.
The pain wore off after only a moment of moaning, this was what she wanted, right? Leana relaxed her breathing and touched her side tenderly waiting for the final blow but it never came. From behind her, she heard the sound of dislodging metal. He had removed his helmet. Seems he wanted a chat, what was this guys problem? Surely he knew that Nydale Payne was dead and that she wasn't the one who killed his father or whatever it was that he was pissed off about. She was starting to think that all the Seelie folk were lacking upstairs. "Let's see the face of the man that hides behind that helmet," He began. No! What if he changed his mind after seeing that she was a woman? Obviously, he would know that those stories about the…the rape were untrue. What if he connected the dots about the other fabrications?
Before Leana could react, a hand grasped her helmet and yanked it lose. "Wait!" She yelled, failing to mask her feminine voice as tousled, violet hair fell down her shoulders and back. It was done now. The knight gasped as he stumbled back in the grass evident from his boots rustling the flowers.
"You're a woman," He gasped. Leana sighed and hung her head. After a moment, she felt a presence in front of her, and a soft warmth around her shoulders. His hand, the same hands that had impaled her only a few moments ago, were now gentle and soft against her. Gentle was not a word that she would have initially used to describe her Seelie counterpart. Looking up, she saw the face of the White Knight.
As much as the stab wound to her kidney hurt, no pain in the world could have prepared her for what she felt when the their eyes met for the first time. But that was just it, it wasn't the first time. His eyes, now emerald beacons of pain and fear, scanned her whole body over as she herself admired his true appearance that was somehow even more beautiful than his human glamour! His voluminous, shiny hair, normally a black void was now a deep mossy green. And those eyes! Those eyes alone sent shivers up Leana's spine. Why was she attracted to him? Since when was she attracted to anyone for that matter? And of all people why did it have to be him?
Even in the dull moonlight, Jehovah knew exactly who he was looking at but his mind didn't want it to be true. Her eyes, different in colour but the same nonetheless, cried out in anguish though he was willing to bet that it wasn't down to her wound. He raised a trembling hand to touch her face and tried his best to control his erratic breathing. "Leah?" He whispered just as his hand was about to touch her skin but she turned her face away at the last second.
Leana clenched her jaw and fought to contain her tears, failing miserably. "Damn you," She cursed under her breath as Jehovah's heart sank. Tears were now collecting in his own eyes. She couldn't be him… all these years spent hearing the horrific tales of a murderous knight with the ferociousness of a lion, was a woman. Not only was she a woman, she was the woman he had come to love – dare he say it? He tried to raise his hand again to turn her face back to him as he crawled closer to her through the wet grass. "I'm sorry," She cried through her ever flowing tears, throwing off his cape, thrusting her hand into his shoulder with all the force that she could muster and standing as he toppled, caught off guard. Before he could stop her, she lifted herself from the ground and made a dash for the Unseelie gate.
Heartbroken, Jehovah stood in the field and looked up, the moon reflecting the tears off his face. He knew that he was in deep shit when he fell for a human during an assignment but this was something different altogether. The last Seelie fairy to go with an Unseelie died. Jehovah remembered the stories he had learned under Elixibur's service down to every detail. Olenna Tarr was kidnapped, raped and murdered by the Black Knight nearly twenty years ago. Olenna's safe return was the whole reason his father went to fight that bastard in the first place. Since then, no one had even crossed the border. Even fraternising with someone from the Unseelie court, was punishable by death.