Thayer led me all the way down the hill, holding me close to him as we neared the large fire that had just been lit. The sun was hanging low, the soft orange glow casting down on us right before it would disappear over the hill. I looked up at Thayer, taking in how it had made his skin glow even more under the lighting. He weaved me through the crowd as he looked for his brother, finally coming to a stop in front of a tall man with chin length blonde hair. It took a moment before he turned around, greeting Thayer with a smile.
"Brother! It took you long enough -" He peered down at me, hooked to Thayers side. I greeted him a maybe too-wide smile, affects of the Fae wine beginning to take its toll on me. He had deep blue eyes and a square jaw, larger nose than his brothers, but still just as handsome. "This must be Edith! Hello, hello, I've been dying to meet you. I apologize I didn't get a chance to at the banquet," Nikolai smiled, taking my hand and giving it a light shake. I let go as soon as he did, waiving my hand in front of me. "Thayer told me you are not to keen on large gatherings, no need to apologize."
Nikolai's eyes flitted over to his brother for a moment, sharing a look before he ventured them back down to me. "So, tell me, Edith. What do you think of my festival?" Nikolai flew his arms out after he spoke, motioning to everything happening around us. Music played in the background, instruments working beautifully together as people gathered near the fire.
"It's beautiful! I've quite enjoyed myself. Though, just a suggestion, you could make the games a bit easier." Nikolai chuckled, giving a short nod as he said, "I will remember that for next year, then."
"So, I had heard my brother made quite a show waking up one of my fields without my permission to impress you. Did you enjoy it?" He asked, swirling around the drink in his hand. Thayer scoffed, "Oh, Nikolai, don't go getting jealous. I had assumed the joining of our lands had meant I could have some fun."
"No jealousy, brother. Wake all the fields you wish. I was just asking Edith if she took joy in the work. Though, I will say, if that impressed you, just wait until you get to see me." He wiggled his blonde eyebrows and fingers, giving a wink. I laughed, nodding. "I thought it was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it!"
Nikolai grabbed a drink from one of the trays a woman was carrying around, shoving it into my hand. "Didn't you learn anything from me, Thayer? A woman should never be without a drink in our presence!"
"Oh - I possibly couldn't, I've already had too much-"
"Nonsense! We'll take good care of you, wont we, Thayer?" Nikolai asked, a hand on his brothers shoulder. Nikolai was an inch shorter, hardly noticeable unless you were looking at them as closely as I was. How odd, it seemed, each brother represented their courts so well within their looks. Thayer cleared his throat and looked down at me before returning to his brother, "Of course, Nikolai. Of course." He chuckled lightly, and I took another sip of the wine. Perhaps, since I was half, the affects on me would reflect that as well. Everything else had. From my hair to my ears, the dwindling magic within me and its complete uselessness, everything else had been half.
Perhaps that's why I took such a large sip of the wine. Nikolai watched and laughed as I did, turning his head as his name was called. He gave a nod into the glow of the now huge fire in front of us, taking a step backwards as he splayed his arms out into the air. "I'm afraid brother, I must go. It's time to wake up the world!"
Thayer shook his head at his brothers boldness, but turned back to me as I lowered the cup in my hands. "You don't have to drink that, you know. Nikolai can just...He drinks to supplement sometimes, when he gets nervous. He doesn't want to be the only one indulging, I think. That's why he plies everyone else with wine that he can." Thayers eyes were soft, glowing in the fire light. I shook my head, lifting a brow as I leaned back to look at his full face. "Will you not keep me safe, Prince?" I asked, not even realizing I had slurred the tiniest bit.
He thought for a moment, leaning back to match me. "Well, of course I will."
I didn't remember much of the following time. The dancing, circling around the fire hand in hand with Thayer and another Fae I didn't know, the chanting. It was all a blur, up until Thayer had wrangled me back into the carriage at the end of the night and took me home.
When we finally arrived back home, we stumbled into the bedroom together - Thayer wrestled me around to try to get me into my nightgown, and I had giggled about how silly it would be to go to bed in clothes, when I was planning on doing something that had involved none.
He had let out a smile. Such a large, open smile.
I didn't remember how we said goodnight, or what, exactly, Thayer said he was off to do before returning. Something about needing to check in with his advisors, ask how things were going on the Silas front. Now, staring at the ceiling, I was only trying to desperately beg the world to stop spinning. Air, I thought. I need air. I lifted myself out of bed and threw the blankets off of me, shuffling over to the window and thrusting it open. I took in a deep breath, welcoming the fresh air into my lungs. I peered out into the night, at the small path that led to the river tucked into the trees across the yard. I didn't even know I had begun walking until I was already down the steps. He had said I needed to speak with Ilyan, and I had no idea how to find her. It's not like I could flip my phone out and text her. I made my way outside, just telling the guards that I needed to take a breather. I just wanted to go for a walk in the gardens. They shared a look, as if wondering if they should let the drunk woman go on a walk alone, but they soon just nodded and let me through. I made my way around the walls of rose bushes, winding through like a maze. I didn't even know when the portal had opened up next to me, didn't think twice as I walked on through it. I paused, though, when the portal I stepped foot into, lead me to a black void.
I turned around to exit back into the garden, but the portal was gone from behind me. I looked around, trying to see where I was, but found no hint. Everywhere around me was as black as a painted canvas, all around me, above me, below me. The floor began to ripple much like my wine glass from earlier, and my stomach churned at the thought. They stretched out from every corner, coming from the middle of the room where an inky figure emerged from the floor, covered in a tar-like substance before ripping away like webs, revealing a woman standing before me. Long, white hair coming down in waves around her tan skin, eyes as black as the room around us with a third on her forehead stared at me. Her perfectly bowed lips smirked at me as she moved like a shadow to a throne that came from the floor beneath her.
"You've summoned me, my Child?" She asked, her voice echoing around us. I swallowed the lump that bobbed in my throat, looking around. No exit.
"I- I don't know how. I don't even know who you are." I said, voice cracking from the fear that filled me.
"I would not be here if you didn't wish to see me." She said as she lounged on the throne, swirls of smoke caressing her legs beneath her. I shook my head, "I don't know how I got here."
"I am Ilyan, one of the Elder. Again, I would not be here if you had not called for me. It's not every day I answer the calls of my Children, so I suggest you ask your questions quickly." There was a hint of annoyance in her voice as she tilted her head to the side, studying me. I tried to think if I had even planned what to ask her - if I even thought that far. Did I have questions? If there were, I couldn't remember it now after three too many glasses of Fae wine.
"Is there any way out - Out of my marriage?" I asked before thinking. Yes - Thayer and I were getting close, but, marriage? It was still too soon - too much. Ilyan just looked at me, studying my face, her lips curling.
"You'd need to ask your tie." She said, sounding bored. "Tie?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes at me as she studied her nails, making a show of herself.
"When I created the Fae - I added anther gift. Every soul - torn into two. Two people, meant to be. The purest form of love - of magic. The two are meant to find each other, and once they complete the soul tie, they are mated. Joined together, for the rest of their lives. If you wish to get out of your marriage, you need to ask your tie. No marriage can withstand the magic of it - even one promised by it."
I opened my mouth and then closed it. I'd never heard of a tie - or even mates, for that matter. Of course I'd read about them in novels - but never from anything about the Fae. I shook my head, looking up at her. "What - what are you talking about? I don't have one."
Ilyan just sighed, ""You are not stupid, Edith. I would not suggest starting to act like it now." She looked at me a moment longer before continuing, clicking her tongue as she sat back in her chair, looking almost amused by my confusion. "The real question is, which will you choose?"
"What do you mean?"
"Tied to a brother, betrothed to the other. It's bound to cause another riff in the family tree, either way, but I must know...Which will you choose?"
I had a soul tie. To Silas. I knew without even asking - without needing to think about it. The way the world slowed down. The way he entered into my dreams - the way he knew I had been with Thayer. It was him, and the thought made me sick. Made me want to vomit everything I could - the thought I shared a soul with someone so vile. Horrible.
What did that mean, for the part of the soul that was mine?
"Is there any way to break the soul-tie?" I begged, hoping she'd say yes. Hoping with everything in me that I could break it - I could handle marriage to Thayer. I could handle a lifetime away from my friends, from the realm I knew as home. If I didn't have to share my soul.
"To destroy the tie would be to kill you both."
My blood ran cold. "And - And the prophecy? Is it truly about Silas - is he truly as evil as they think?"
"You're so concerned about everyone else, you have yet to ask me a question about what you are. Do you not want to know?" She purred, petting one of her shadows in her lap. I about scoffed - I knew what I was. I've always known - half mortal, half Fae. As if sensing my hesitation, she simply sighed, "You're more than what you think, Edith. Start there. There is more than the stars have let on."
"The stars?" I asked, unsure of how to even interpret the conversation or how it was now going.
"The prophecy, my Child. Two hundred years its been, and, well.. . it will sure be interesting watching you," A smirk again, a cold, unfeeling one lined her face. "It shall be on the day that ash rains from the sky and life dries from the Earth from a siblings rival, a challenge shall bring forth the toppling of courts and the rise of a new god. On the seas turn, a promise kept shall mark the time of peace and witness the rise of the Empire."
A promise kept. My marriage - it had to be. A promise kept shall mark the time of peace.
You are not whole Edith. My dads words rang through me, breaking the borders of my mind like a bell. I wasn't whole - I never was, I never would be. What would Thayer do, if he found out? Would he refuse to marry me - take whatever punishment seemed acceptable from the promise, damn my father to do the same?
"I don't know what any of that means. What any of this means," I cried, shaking my head. "What does some prophecy have anything to do with me? One that's not even completed?"
"That is for you to discover, my Child, or I wouldn't be able to have any fun. I'm growing rather bored of this conversation, so you may leave." Was all Ilyan said, waiving her hand to dismiss me. I began to speak my objection, to demand more answers. Suddenly, I was falling. Slipping down that black floor that felt like quicksand under me, tar on my skin as it stuck to me. I took in a deep breath just before my head was covered in it, and down I continued to go.
"Edith? Edith, wake up. Wake up." I could barely hear it
"Edith - wake up." Closer this time, right in front of me, but...muffled. I clawed my way towards it, towards that bit of light. The black enveloped me now, dragging me deeper into it as I crawled as forcefully as I could to escape. To breathe.
I began opening my eyes, gasping for the air that was just stolen from me. Ilyan, the portal, the tie - everything came crashing back. I sat straight up from where I laid on the ground, taking in where I was. This wasn't where I stepped into the portal. The leaves were colored, the ground was bare beneath me, my fingers digging into dirt. I looked up to find Silas, staring down at me as his arms crossed in front of his chest, just as they always did. I crawled away, trying to stand as I whirled around, taking in my surroundings.
"You?" I spat, panicking. I had to get home - I had to get to Thayer. I had to tell him. Beg him to have an idea - do something about this. I couldn't be tied to Silas, I couldn't share a soul.
Silas looked at me, and for a moment, before realization followed with a smug smirk lined his sharp features. "Me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"How did I get here?" I demanded, whirling around to face a now-standing Silas. "How did you get me here?"
"You spoke to Ilyan, didn't you?" He purred, raising an eyebrow. I didn't answer, taking a step back, but I fumbled over my footsteps and began to fall backward. I strong arm caught me, and I shoved them away, holding my hands up. "Don't touch me-"
"Then learn to watch where you are stepping, halfling. I merely came to do rounds, and found you on my land. It would be my right to toss you into a cell for trespassing and force your betrothed to pay your way out." Silas spat as he dropped me with a shove. I steadied myself - how did I get here? I was just in the gardens, back in Thayers court. Summer Court. My head whirled - I couldn't think straight. I turned to Silas, demanding, "Did you know?"
"Know what, exactly?" He played coy, giving a face of false innocence. He wanted me to say it. I wouldn't - I couldn't, I couldn't accept it. Admit it. I would have to tell Thayer and beg him not to toss me aside, I'd swallow my pride - or what little remained for a woman to have in Aelis, but I wouldn't give Silas the satisfaction of admitting it to him. Of giving him what he wanted. I glared up at him as he just shrugged as if in defeat, knowing that I wouldn't do what he wanted. Of course he had known. He knew the moment we saw each other at the banquet, when I was dancing with his brother.
"Would it have mattered?" Silas asked quietly - quieter than I've heard that booming voice ever sound, pulling me out of my thoughts all the same as if he'd yelled. I snapped my eyes to his, looking into them as I brought a question to my face. Would it have? No - it wouldn't. I was supposed to marry Thayer, I had to marry Thayer. If not for my my father alone, now the words of the prophecy hung over me, cutting any give from the noose around my neck as it tightened against me.
Then, there was another rope. One made up only in my mind, but as clear as if it were a physical presence between us. I could reach my hand out and touch it, that's how it appeared. Bright and glowing, a purple line joining us together. Thick, strong, and bright. The tie.
"I've been promised to Thayer since before I can remember. I don't think anything - by my want or not, would have changed that." I shook my head, letting out a small sigh as I finished the sentence.
"And what if you did - what if you had a choice?" The question jarred me - I felt my mouth open, then close after a moment. Not really had I ever been asked what I wanted, what I would have done. Of course, if I hadn't been given to Thayer, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't choose to come back at all. I would've stayed in the mortal realm, with Anna. With my friends. The thought of ever coming to Aelis wouldn't have crossed in my mind. But Silas knew that. Thayer knew that. Thayer, at least, was trying to make the best out of the situation we were both thrown into by our parents - or, apparently, by the stars that shone down the future.
Prophecies were what drove the ruling over Aelis for as long as anyone can remember. There was no one King in Aelis - just the different courts, ruling over their own. If there was anything that would affect Aelis as a whole, they would make the decision together - earning the title of the Council. The Council had once been made up of the Elders, meeting together to decide the fate of the Fae they had created, as they also read and interpreted the prophecies themselves, making the words law within the land or preparing for whatever would come next, prepare for whatever the stars had warned them about. When the Elders faded from our world, the gift of Reading was bestowed upon a few of the Fae. Each court had their own set of Readers, meant to watch over the stars for the next prophecy - from there, the courts would meet and discuss. That was, however, until this set of brothers ruled over each, aside from Winter. The Council has not met once since they took over - not that they had anything to meet over. They were all too busy at each others throats that they had all stopped meeting in regards to Aelis, ignoring the fact that they shared the Realm and were more concerned with their own corners of it. Perhaps that was why the Elders had left - they had created them to live together in peace on this plain they had created, and instead, they all dug their claws in to get as much of it to themselves as they could.
But that's how the Fae were. They were selfish, vindictive, vicious - they would continue to take, without offering anything in return. They would continue until there was nothing left for them to steal before they would move on to the next, forever to go around until they'd reach the last, because they felt like they were owed. They felt like they had the right. Sometimes, I'd cringe thinking about how I would have been had I been raised here.
Then, there was Thayer. Perhaps the one thing in the Realm to change my mind. Thayer was different - he would give anything, do anything for his people. Cast out his own brother, show weakness by tying his Court to another. Fight against his own family. He would continue to give just as he has, and would expect nothing in return but someone else's happiness. Perhaps that was why he'd never shown an ounce of malice towards me, an bit of regret that we were forced together.
I thought of my answer for a moment, forgetting that I had no idea how I got here - or how I was going to get back, or what I was going to say to Thayer once I did, and for a moment, I allowed myself to consider the possibilities. Possibly because I was half-convinced the Fae wine were also possibly causing hallucinations, which I about preferred that idea to the new knowledge that plagued my brain.
"Would it matter?" I asked, looking up at him, playing back his own words. I watched something shift behind those eyes, but couldn't quite place what it was. There was almost nothing as he met my gaze, no amusement or spite, no arrogance that usually swarmed his expression. The blue eyes just simply stared back at me, as if waiting for me to continue.
"If it were my choice - I wouldn't be here." I breathed, almost as if it were a whisper - as if my words were a ghost in the wind, barely there.
"Then find your way back," Silas said simply, shrugging as if he were disappointed with the answer I gave. He turned to leave, not giving me a second glance as I called behind him, "What if you had a choice?"
"I have made my choices, halfling. Now I must deal with the consequences." Was the only answer he gave.