On their way out, Kyra and the Fairy Queen bump into Lester again.
"Wha-?!" Kyra can't figure out why Lester is more horrified than surprised to see her.
"Why are you heading to the Elven Croft throne hall?" Lester asked. Kyra gave her mother a sideways glance.
"Where's the King?" The Fairy Queen asked Lester. The confused expression did not subside from his face, but he bow down in respect.
"The King is currently in the courtyard. My Queen, the palace is currently dangerous. The forces of the Ice Demon puppets are filling the Isle of Moor with more dead bodies, which somehow got added to their rank. "
The Fairy Queen nodded and nudged Kyra to Lester.
"You two go outside the city. There must be some survivors still trapped inside the city. Help them get to the World Tree."
Lester nodded, but Kyra did not move.
"What about you, mother? "Come with us —"
"No," The Fairy Queen's firm voice made Kyra freeze. She took a step forward but did not dare to take another.
"Tell me, Kyra, what kind of mission did your father make you do?"
Kyra did not answer. The Fairy Queen caught her hesitation. "It has something to do with stealing ancient fairy intelligence and silencing mortals that know them, doesn't it?"
Kyra made a helpless expression and nodded.
"Did he tell you to go to the demon realm?" Kyra hung her head down. "Capture one and two horned demons to be brought here?"
"Yes.."
"And how many demons have you caught so far?"
This time, Kyra's difficult expression makes it obvious she doesn't want to say how many there are. The Fairy Queen did not press her to confess and turned to leave.
"Just do what I tell you to do." Then she left the two of them alone.
"Mother!"
The Fairy Queen snaps her fingers and a burst of brilliant yellow light makes her body disappear into thin air.
"The Queen has light magic?" Lester gaped. Kyra contemplated. Nobody in the Elven Croft Palace saw the Queen use her powers. Not even Kyra herself.
Some fairy nomads and Twelve Elders speculated that the Queen lost her powers because she gave birth to Kyra. At some point, Kyra believed it too, and she blames herself for it.
Kyra made one last attempt to go after her mother. But Lester stops her by saying,
"Your Highness, I thought I made myself clear to leave the fairy realm with your mother."
Kyra let out an exasperated breath. "Can't. My mother doesn't want to." Then Kyra proceeds to tell Lester about the event that happened in the Silver Lake Pavilion earlier.
When she finished, she asked, "What do you think?"
Lester shook his head. "I'm not exactly sure, Your Highness. After the fairy kidnapping incident, the fairies and humans have bad blood going around. But the current king seems to not care about the dispute. He continued to work with the humans—always sending our men to investigate some mysterious force present in the mortal world. "
Kyra stops at the gate of Elven Croft Palace. The King is on the north side while they are on the west. The Elven Croft Tower was the first to sound the alarm, and the most devastated.
From this distance, Kyra and Lester can see houses burning in crisp blue flames. It seems they have a life on their own. It crawled and caused wreckage wherever it went.
On the left hand side, ranks of Ice Demon puppets emerge from the blue flames. Kyra frowns at the clothes. The puppets she saw in the image back in the High Court did not have clothes...
When a child emerges with a carved statue of a naiad filled in with the puppet ranks, both Kyra and Lester understand.
"These damn demons." Lester gritted his teeth. He unsheathed the sword that was strapped to his waist and charged. Kyra backs him up.
Rooted vines sprouted from the ground; they tied the puppets' legs together and struck in their necks. It was a clean cut, quick and painful. Each head that fell to the ground caused Kyra's heart to wrench.
This was her own people she was killing. So much for her oath to protect the fairy realm.
"Your Highness!" At the corner of her eye, Kyra saw Lester staring behind her in horror. At first, she did not understand what was wrong. In a split second, her lotus vines grew to gigantic size and grappled the thing that was sneaking behind her.
Kyra stared down at her hand. She had been careless. She wasn't paying attention. How can her lotus vines move against her will?
The thing tied to the thick trunks of wood has ugly canine teeth that drool with saliva. Its eyes are red and glowing. Its body is covered in thick, hairy black fur. It has the head of a lion and the tail of a scorpion.
Kyra stared at its eyes. He was struggling against his bonds, but did not stop to look back at her.
"Stop struggling." In that small space where Kyra is facing the raging beast, she unleashes another branch of her elemental magic. Her father always called her a useless child because her attribute weren't as destructive as curse magic. What he didn't know... elemental magic put every living thing at her own disposal.
Kyra said, "I am your master." Kyra's azure eyes started to turn red, overtaking the control of the beast's will. The beast's body slackened and it went still as ice.
"Obey me." Two words were uttered softly. Two words went unheard because of the raging carnage. But it sent every drop of blood, every cell, and every nerve of the beast to do her bidding.
The thick trunk let the beast go. The lotus vines recede back to the ground. The lion with the scorpion tail bowed deeply to Kyra.
"Kill all the puppets." The beast curled its scorpion tail in acknowledgement and ran straight to Lester. Seeing the incoming beast, Lester bared his teeth. He was prepared to fight. He swung his sword, but the beast ignored him. It turn to sink its fangs into the dead puppets and whip it's tail to cut off the puppets' heads.
"Woah," Lester gaped.