The dark fairy was by no means a tall creature. In all honestly, faeries all resembled downsized humans with wings attached that ended up overeating at some point in their long lives.
But that was already where their similarities ended. Depending on the element, fairies weren't regarded as members of the same species by most other creatures.
Where ice fairies were chilly by nature, mostly taciturn, wielding the power of frost, fire fairies were the extreme opposite.
There was no fairy more explosive and fiery than their members. Dark fairies, on the other hand, remained mostly unknown.
Labelled as erie demonspawn by most half-baked scholars, their very existence was only possible in lands untouched by The Races.
And the reason was twofold. "Do. Not. Stare." She told me off coldly, feeling my attention resting on her lone horn, the very piece anchoring her existence.
The older a dark fairy, the greater their accumulation and deeper the colour. Hers was deep blue at best, betraying her actual age.
"I may know of alchemy, but this doesn't make me a quack. Your horn is best left on that feisty head of yours, little fairy."
The answer was immediate. "Do. NOT. Call. Me. Little." She was sulking there, providing once more clues to her young age.
"Sure, sure." Grabbing the curious hands of my little troublemaker, I occupied her attention otherwise.
Skin contact with fairy folk... wasn't the best experience and one the youth should frankly omit in her odd collection.
"Quiet." Swinging that pointy tip of her lance around my nose, I believe the dark fairy didn't even understand just how rude it was getting something like that en route to poke someone's face.
Not that she would've cared for. Probably... Anyway, dismissing my thoughts of one of the few shared characteristics between all fairies, airheadedness and rudeness, I inclined my head.
If she was surprised by my action, the dark fairy didn't show it one bit. Instead, she sprinkled some fairy dust all over me and the youth. Fairies never backstabbed.
"Quiet." She affirmed once more, her voice the same old bleak. "Warden." Not that the warning was necessary, for I had functioning eyes still.
In the not so far-off distance, three gardeners were taking scout duty very seriously. Automatons just like the one that had been pursuing me were scurrying carefully through the garden.
From their actions alone, it became clear that the damn Central Node had yet to give up. Just to make sure, I gently covered the youth's mouth, taking my steps with caution.
Walking past them in closer proximity than I'd have liked, both the dark fairy and I took a breather. Be they as advanced as they may... I escaped in plain sight just like that.
"No matter how often I see it, the marvel persists." Dark fairy dust... the second reason they ended up almost extinct.
For any important assassination or hopeless situation, it was *the* item to have. Sought everywhere yet almost nowhere in stock.
Just hope the passage of time did them some good. "Follow." She demanded curtly, gesturing me with her tiny hand.
I certainly had nothing against her leadership, opting to trust in her capabilities. There was still a long way to go.
Walking or flying beside each other, we proceeded while exercising silence. The vegetation around us turned more mythical after dozen minutes.
Herbs, or should I call them deadly dangers? I wasn't too sure about the right classification... Anyway, what surrounded us didn't necessarily become bigger, thicker or anything like that.
The vegetation simply felt more ancient, still and sleeping like a beast no hunter in his right mind would ever dare wake up.
I even spotted some strange plants I definitively didn't recall planting. And that was because even back then, they were already extinct. It made no sense...
"...indeed, you haven't settled in here just yesterday, did you?" She didn't comment. "And what of the landlord?"
"Fallen." "You sure about that? I mean, the owner of such greatness must surely be an immortal and also not of the weaker variation."
Praising myself without any shame, I did my best to come to some juicy information. Like how the dark fairies perceived my existence.
With me suddenly in the picture as weak as I am, there was fairly little I could do against their potential aggression.
Nobody lived freely under someone else's thumb, after all. And certainly no ancient creature. Needless to mention, my efforts didn't turn out great. She failed to respond.
At some point in our long walk, the youth fell asleep atop my head, happily drooling all over my forehead while holding my horns in a tight grip.
This little excursion helped me gauge my chances at retaking the place better. There was a ridiculous amount of gardeners we hid from.
And some rather evolved automatons that were much scarier than any gardener could ever hope to be. Honestly, I couldn't quite put my finger on what was happening in and around Aethernum.
Observed from a certain viewpoint, the castle was sentient. Therefore I really didn't understand why it seemingly ate up this much space, hardly digesting any of it properly.
This garden was product of differing realm shards all forcefully merged together. The signs were clear for all to see.
Not that I could really call this dark forest a garden any longer. What I meant to say was... the castle had grown an awful lot since my last visit.
"Wait," the dark fairly interrupted my musing. "Turn." She then said after muttering a veritable train of words in the fairy tongue. Hardly comprehensible gibberish, that one.
I complied, feeling the space itself vibrate in my field of perception. Then the disturbance was gone. And with it, the place I stood in.
What surrounded me now was a sizable city made up of tiny houses directly grown from the vegetation itself.
With no need for streets, the cluster seemed the worst nightmare for anyone suffering from claustrophobia.
Or at least that'd have been the case if it wasn't for my giant size, comparatively speaking. Which also made it impossible to hide.
It didn't take long for a whole squadron of dark fairies surrounding me, followed by another shortly after.
From what I could gather from the collective mood, this community wasn't enraptured by my presence. For what reason I was led here became an even bigger mystery...
"Thou art welcome to Lylanlone, stranger. The palace awaits thine visit." Ancient indeed. Someone of this bunch was positively prehistoric for having unlocked the rarest talent for fairies.
Conceptual existence... This also meant that the creature existed long before my last visit. Which meant...
Though I was getting unsavoury thoughts, I ultimately ended up walking to the biggest building in this miniature city.