I walk into the library.
"Who goes?" a timid voice calls out to me. I whip my head to the left and I see a little wizard, a Leptira with brown wings fluttering around and setting books on the shelves. Ah, another pixie like me. His brown hair is dark and long, gathered into a ponytail beneath his wizard hat. Oh fuck the wizards. If there is anyone I can't stand it's those pompous pricks who think they're better than the rest of us just because they can do fancy spells and have read all those books and can speak old languages.
One day I'll have to make a list of everyone in this world whom I cannot stand and I am sure I will start with the wizards.
"Hey." I stroll up to him.
"You are the changeling!" he shrieks and flutters away.
What a damn useless wizard they got if he's scared of little old me.
"What, do you think I'll eat you or something? Quit that," I say, annoyed. "I am here to borrow some books. Or am I not allowed in these pure chambers of fey knowledge?"
"Oh, um… I was just…"
He's sweating. I can see and smell it.
He flies down but still keeps the distance between us. "Ahem, what can I interest you in?"
I already doubt I am going to have any luck with the books considering that if someone had found the cure before me, the Princess would already be hopping around with lightness in her step, not heaviness caused by fossilization.
Interestingly, Lapis takes different effects among different fey species. I've heard that Rusalke bones turn into ice, until the unlucky fae crumbles in horrid death of her bones being shattered. That's why they mercifully kill the ill ones before they reach that stage. Kobold bones turn to gold which can fetch very high price on market, Dryad femurs turn to wood which gets slowly eaten out by blood and acid of their own bodies until it dissolves… I can count myself lucky, mine are turning to stone. They are heavy to lift, but I can imagine worse fate.
Why would you leave your sickly child to horrors like this? Why would you throw them to earthly parents, make them go through this all on their own? What kind of a cruel monster do you have to be?
Whatever. My parents always considered me a problem so I intended to live up to my name and be one.
"Any intel on Lapis?" I casually ask.
The wizard looks at me in shock.
"I'm asking for a friend."
"Um, you can tell your friend that…well…"
Oh, he doesn't want to let a changeling read through all those fancy books they keep in here. Message received.
Quick as a serpent I swing my blade and launch it at him, quickly tying him with the string and pulling him so we can meet nose to nose.
"Listen, I won't repeat myself twice." I narrow my eyes as I stare at him. He squeaks.
"Let him go," a voice says. I turn around, the wizard still tightly tied by my string.
Another fae stands in the doorway, a tall man, a Leptira as well - a Dragonfly, by the seems of it. Oh how fun, I've never seen one in person. The word says they can fly even faster than Sylphs. His hair is short and platinum, almost greyish, but he is young, and carries an impassive expression on his face.
"And who might you be?" I scoff.
"The name is Alh. The Alchemist of the Court." His voice is void of emotion. Oh, no, wait, there is one emotion in it.
Sarcasm.
"Now let go of my colleague." He walks up to me. "What exactly do you want?"
"I think you heard me just fine earlier."
"The library is yours to look around."
"I don't plan on going through all these books on my own. That guy is a damned librarian and he has to help me, it's in his fucking job description. What else are they paying him for?"
Alh quirks his brow and looks at me. "I'd mind my manners if I were you, Changeling."
I hiss at the name. From his mouth it sounds like an insult.
"I am a member of the guard and I demand-"
"You can make no demands here. Even the Lord makes no demands here. The library might belong to him but both me and the librarian are a part of the Maester order." His voice has a very annoying drawl that makes me want to shoot laser beams at him. Unfortunately this isn't the Earth and this also isn't Star Wars.
Fucking Maesters.
"Yes, and? You still work here and are paid by the Lord."
"Yes, but not you, a lowly guard and… someone bearing the mark of Unseelie folk."
I shriek and launch myself at him, ready to claw his eyes out if I need to.
He easily dodges and I fly past him but adeptly roll down and get on my feet, before unsheathing both of my blades and swinging them at him. I see red.
"You are a freak." In my dreams, a shadowy figure, my mother, or my father, sometimes say that. "Unseelie."
I can stand many things but to be called one of them… it makes my blood boil. I spin and cut forward - but Alh flies up and evades my attacks.
"Come back down, you coward!"
"You are overstepping the boundaries of good manners."
"Me?! I came to the library and the fucking librarian refuses to help me!"
I lunge at him and throw the blade to wrap him up but he swiftly dodges and flutters his long wings.
"I have zero wish to fight you here," he coldly says. "However, keep this up, and you will be barred from entering the library ever again."
"Not if I win."
"Yes, even if you win." He lands a good distance from me.
I grumble and still, against better judgment throw myself at him. This time he bends down and charges towards me as well, aiming for my legs. He grabs them, sweeping me off.
It's nothing out of ordinary.
I should be able to simply jump away and free myself. But something stops me.
Relief.
Relief is what stops me.
In that moment, as he touches me, I feel sudden relief in my stone-like legs - the pain subsiding, leaving my body. I gasp in surprise and fall down, shocked. There is supposed to be no cure for this curse. Why then…
Alh stands up and looks at me. He knows.
"I don't want to be bothered again. Is that clear?" He is looking at me from above, his nose scrunched up.
"Wait-"
"I will be in my office."
With that he leaves to the small doors and slams them behind himself.
I stare at the door in shock, unable to move or get up. This shouldn't be possible.
This shouldn't be happening.