Much has happened since my last entry. We’re in quite a predicament. Our cover is blown, our secret out. My friends and I are trapped in a magical prison. But more on that later; Let me start from the beginning.
Today we were recognized by the Court of Moon and Sun as official citizens of Candelabra. I awoke to a soft jingling of bells outside of my quarters. Sleepily I stood up. When I swung the oak bark door open, I found Clover standing outside. Upon seeing him all of last night’s events flooded back into my head. The forest. The harp. The oracle.
“Good morning!” He said excitedly.
“Good morning,” I replied, slightly more awake now. “What is the matter?”
“It is time for your audience with the Court!”
I had completely forgotten. Miracle had explained that on the day after our arrival we were to be welcomed as full citizens of Candelabra. The government of the kingdom consists of 20 individuals and the Monarch, who acts as a tiebreaker and overseer of the oftentimes whimsical court. He did not tell us much about the current Monarch, however.
“Now, put on your best selves!” Clover said, breaking me out of my trance. “Remember, you will be seeing his eloquence today!” There was a hint of playful sarcasm in his voice.
Clover roused my companions, and in less than five minutes we all stood outside. He looked us up and down, making sure that we were fit for an audience in Vestralias. After a brief moment of inspection he turned away.
“Well, we’d better get going!”
I watched as Clover abruptly jumped backwards off of the branch upon which we stood, a huge grin upon his face. We all rushed to the edge only to see him hovering below, wings flitting eagerly, waiting for us.
“Come on!” He teased. “We don’t want to be late!”
The four of us hesitantly jumped from the branch one at a time. My stomach jumped to my chest as I free fell. At normal human height, the jump would have been immense, but at half an inch tall, it was even more intimidating.
In my panic I tried to remember how to function my wings. I had not excelled at flying in our tests, and it was evident now. The distant ground steadily rose, until I was legitimately concerned for my safety. Just as I was sure that I would splatter on the ground and unceremoniously end this experiment for everyone, A pair of slim arms caught me. I recovered from the adrenaline and shock as I was gently lowered to the ground below.
I looked up to see a pretty female faerie flitting beside me.
“...Thank...You…” I said in between gasps.
“My pleasure!” She replied brightly.
I took another moment to recover from the fall.
“What is your name?” I asked
“Shimmer.” She responded. “Yours?”
“Etcetera.”
“Ah, yes. The new faeries! Are those your friends?”
She pointed up above us, and humiliation dawned. Adrian, Peter, Travis, and Clover floated dexterously to the ground, wings blurring.
“Yup,” I sighed.
“Ah, Etcetera!” Clover said happily as he landed. “Trouble flying?”
“You bet,” I grumbled, attempting to think of an excuse. “I think I forgot to dry my wings after bathing.”
“That’ll do it! Well, we’d best be off. Good seeing you, Shimmer!” He waved, and began striding over the hills toward the castle. I gathered myself and followed after my peculiar, mysterious new friend.
. . .
Vestrialis is even more spectacular up close. Giant fish swim in the moat, and the sun reflects gently on the water. The drawbridge is crafted out of stained wood, and it gleams a flawless, perfect dark mahogany. Musicians line the bridge leading over the second interior moat, and their song fills the air. Their instruments make sounds of nature, such as howling wind and rustling leaves. Their music seems to affect the environment as well. Great gusts of wind roll waves into motion in the moat below, and leaves float to the ground in large clusters.
The castle itself is wondrous. Eight metallic silver spires jut towards the sun, glinting in its radiance. The foundations are hard gray stone, and they ensure that the castle has the constitution of a fortress. The castle emits an aura of security- I would feel very safe living within it’s walls. The rumours of faerie architecture are no lie.
I turned my head and noticed Jasper staring up at the castle. Although he looked surprised, he didn’t seem… Enchanted like the rest of us. He noticed me watching and spoke.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I snickered.
“You sure don’t seem to think so. Peter, Adrian and I are dazzled, yet you just look ahead in amusement.” As the harsh words escaped my lips, I realized that they might have been a tad immature. Travis is making it hard, though, to like him and be kind! I do not know what to do about him.
My companions, Clover and I finally reached a tall marble staircase leading up to two huge coppery doors. We were soon huffing and puffing from the effort of hauling ourselves up the stairs. The doors seemingly swung open of their own will as we neared them. A dark hallway yawned before us. Although slightly gloomy, the corridor was no less comfortable.
Torches lined the hallway, with beautiful marble busts adorning the walls as well. Gorgeous frescoes shimmered on the ceiling above, nothing short of spectacular. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the figures in the paintings were moving. People danced across beautiful meadows, chatted with neighbors, and slept under gorgeously painted moonlight. A few of the painted people mimed to me. They made frantic gestures down to us newcomers, gesturing panicked, unintelligible things. Some of the figures didn’t move at all.
“What do you think they want?” Peter quietly whispered to me.
“I am not sure,” I responded quietly. “But there is certainly something queer about these murals…” The people jumped up and down excitedly at my words, vigorously nodding.
“Do they want… to escape?” Adrian interjected from beside us. The paintings frantically nodded at his words. We shared looks of disbelief.
“You want to escape?” Peter echoed to the pleading men and women above. “You want to be free?” They nodded and smiled enthusiastically.
“Come along! We don’t want to be late!” Clover said brightly. He seemed oblivious to the strange murals above us.
We reached two enormous stone doors weaved with metal inlays. Winding leaf designs twisted up and down the looming portal, gentle but strong in their design.
I hesitantly glanced skyward once more to the frescoes, and stepped into the chamber.
My friends and I entered a large, noisy room filled to brimming with dazzling sunlight. The audacious room was held by four enormous central pillars, and its perimeter was ringed by bleachers filled with faeries chatting in whispered tones. Flowers and other flora spread across the room, giving it a wild, harmonious feel.
In the exact center of the room sat what was presumably the Court of Moon and Sun. Twenty faeries sat at a table shaped like a horseshoe, Taking notes and whispering to one another. They were all haughtily dressed, with half the faeries wearing black and the other half wearing white. The table was divided into two corresponding sections of black and white, and a faerie’s color matched where they sat at the table. I assumed that black was moon, and white was sun. An elaborate chair sat with it’s back to us, coated in shadows.
Behind the mysterious chair and the court’s table rested a magnificent throne. It sat close to twenty feet tall, with many stairs leading the way to a beautiful gold and green seat and chair. The stairway was just as magnificent as the throne above, gold sparkling under emerald hewn vines snaking the structure. Between the table and the throne sat a large, plump music box covered with polished mirrors. Although fittingly elaborate, it’s presence was odd.
Clover led us around the perimeter of the room. Faeries whispered as we passed.
When we had neared the far end of the room, the details of the other chair came into view. It was smaller than the glorious throne, though no less splendid. Curling leaf designs twined stealthily around the arms of the chair, forming independent loops where wrists would sit.
Clover gestured to an oak bench sitting beside the throne. Peter sat first, leaning away from the throne, as if his very presence was damaging. I sat next, trying for a posture of neutrality. Then Adrian, and then Travis. I glanced over at the latter. That man always broods! He just stared at the crowd with eyes like a raven. His hostility evidently never wanes. I resolved to try for conversation once again when this event was over.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Peter whispered to me in awe.
“Which part?” I shot back. We shared a quiet laugh.
Abruptly, the sunlight streaming into the room rapidly faded. Hollow, pale moonlight replaced it, beautiful yet irrationally unsettling. The whispers and conversations echoing off the walls quickly quieted. Silence flooded into the room, stealing away the voices of the spectators.
And then the music box began to play. It was sad and mysterious, it’s song sending me off to a dark and magical place, beautiful and haunting. It sang of long forgotten days when countless faeries roamed the night, a time before men.
And then the music box opened. It’s sides folded out and down, revealing an elaborately dressed faerie, a xylophone before him. His hair glistened silver, his eyes blue. Two large Monarch butterfly wings sprouted from his shoulders. His robes were immaculately detailed shades of green, red, and gold.
We waited, alert. The monarch seemed utterly lost in his music. His hands moved gracefully, guiding their mallets, yet the faerie’s eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping. He played for another two minutes or so, and then gently lowered his mallets.
The faerie made one sudden, final stroke on his instrument. The light of the sun instantly returned. I realized that I had been entranced myself! I saw faeries all over the room shaking their heads, pinching and slapping themselves to wake up.
The man gently stood and strided to the throne. As he began his ascent, the silence plaguing the auditorium subtly withdrew. The man sat.
A faerie of the Sun Court stood. “All greet the good Monarch!” Polite applause resounded in the hall. I joined in hesitantly.
“And now, cheers for the subjects of this gathering- our new arrivals!” Quieter cheers from the audience.
“The court now requests that Willow take the court’s test.” Peter stood awkwardly, tripping over my feet.
Miracle had explained to us that in a faerie court, one must take a test to prove their honor, honesty, and good intention. The court would ask simple questions such as “Why are you here”, and “What is your connection to Candelabra.”
Peter walked briskly over to the leafy chair. He studied it before sitting down, a playfully smug expression on his face. We all watched apprehensively.
Without warning, the snaky vines came to life, twisting wildly. They snared themselves around Peter’s wrists. He cried out in surprise.
“Tell us your name,” The standing faerie said.
“Willow,” Peter responded, struggling to regain his composure. “My name is Willow.” The vines flashed green, and Peter winced.
“Welcome to Candelabra, Willow,” The man said neutrally. “What is your purpose here?”
“I seek a new life at Candelabra,” My friend replied evenly. “My friends and I come from a humble faerie village that was set upon by a vicious herd of wasps. They left only four survivors. Us.” Another green flash, and another twitch of pain.
“And what is the name of this… Village?”
“Evermoor.”
Many in the crowd nodded ruefully. Luckily, this seemed like a well known event here.
“And Willow, what is your favorite shade of green?” A beat passed. Peter struggled for an answer to the unexpected and bizarre question.
“Lilac!” He finally blurted audibly.
The court whispered together for a moment. I glanced at the Monarch. He was gazing intently at Peter, his brow furrowed.
Satisfied, the faeries turned to Peter.
“We accept your responses and welcome you to Candelabra.” Orated the speaker.
“Congratulations. Next!”
There was a moment of awkward silence before I realized that “Next” meant me. I stood and strode to the chair. The vines snaked around me as they had Peter.
“Etcetera,” The speaker said. “I assume, as Willow stated, that you are seeking refuge in Candelabra as well?”
“Yes,” I said innocently. The vines flashed like before, sending a rattling buzz through my body. “A regrettable tragedy has led me here, and I seek respite from further dangers in this glorious kingdom.” Another buzz. It occurred to me that I was probably laying it on too thick.
“Yes, yes, very well,” The faerie said impatiently. “Now… describe these wasps to me, in detail, please. We have not encountered many of their kind, and any information about such monstrosities would be invaluable.” The spokesman smiled sickeningly. There was something unpleasant about him. He doted his authority smugly, his demeanor tyrannical. I did not like him.
“Well… It was difficult to glean details in the chaos, but I did discern some.” The audience perked up. The vines buzzed me again, but I was learning to tolerate the pain. “The wasp that chased me was thin and sharp in frame, with beady black eyes and a dripping stinger. It had skinny, compact wings that carried it with a speed that matched a faerie’s. I escaped only by… dodging it.” Dodging the difficult question, more like. The chair shocked me again.
“...Dodging it?” The smug faerie said, condescendingly amused. The audience laughed. “Do you have anything else to share?”
“That is all.” I replied clumsily. I knew that my answer had been lacking, but in retrospect, it could have been worse.
“Lastly, have you made any friends in your short time here?” I considered the question. Friends?
“Clover,” I blurted. “I am friends with Clover.” The audience laughed in surprise. Had I done something wrong?
“Clover?” The spokesman said. “That faerie is a child. He and his… adventures. A piece of advice- be careful who you associate with.” He whispered to one of his associates.
“We accept your responses and welcome you to Candelabra. Congratulations.” He waved a hand at me dismissively. “Next!”
Adrian answered some questions. None were very exciting. His answers were adequate. After each one, the vines glowed green as before.
Travis was slightly different. They asked him similar questions, but unlike the previous three his vines did not flash green. He made it through the questioning without a single irregularity. Adrian and I shared a curious glance.
At last, the speaker sat down.
One of the speaker’s colleagues proceeded to share some announcements with the faeries of Candelabra. I droned out her monotonous speech. I began to play the Monarch’s melody from earlier in my head. It pierced my consciousness, absorbing me in it’s song.
A shiver ran down my back. I was being watched. Miracle had taught us to use our superior senses to detect fine details, spot danger, and of course pick up on when I was being watched.
I looked up to see the Monarch frowning down at me, his expression curiously amused. He held my gaze for a moment, then turned his attention to Adrian beside me. Then Travis. It was quite odd- It felt like he suspected us.
Finally, the court called an end to the meeting. The audience filed out of the room in an orderly fashion. My friends and I stood to go, but the speaker of the court of moon and sun caught my eye and shook his head. I sat.
In a few minutes the courtroom was empty save for the us, the court, and the Monarch. The latter two parties sat facing us for several seconds before the Monarch spoke.
“Why did you lie to us today?” Dread pooled in my stomach. For the second time, we were caught.
Several awkward seconds passed. “...Lie, your majesty?” I finally said unsteadily.
“Yes, lie. You and all of your friends.” His voice had a careless, haughty tone that was somehow intimidating.
“I do not know what you mean. We would never lie to you and your people, who have shown us such respect!”
“Our story is nothing but the truth.” Peter chimed in.
“You speak as if you are outsiders. ‘You and your people.’”
“I assure you, we are just humble faeries seeking a new life. You have nothing to suspect.” Adrian jutted in, his voice sure.
“Haven’t I?” The Monarch said mischievously. “You’ll have to argue that to the throne of honesty.” We all turned to look at the chair we had each answered questions in, and realization dawned.
The electric green shocks from earlier signalled a lie. And almost all of our answers had gotten a flash. Oblivious to that fact, we had blindly sold ourselves out.
“You understand, now?” The Monarch said smugly.
We all nodded guiltily.
“Furthermore,” The Monarch said, “I have an agent among you. Luminous!”
Shocked, we all watched as Travis stepped forward and joined the court. He looked at us warily. No wonder he had been so tense and quiet.
“You bastard!” Adrian shouted at him. “You’ve completely ruined the mission!”
Travis chuckled. “No, you have.”
“It was really quite simple, you know.” The Monarch said. “Word came from our scouts in the nearby human settlement that humans were preparing an expedition into our lands, so I selected a volunteer to investigate. Upon learning that they were still looking for adventurers, We sent a faerie to impersonate a brooding adventurer, cast an enlargement spell on him, and used illusion magic on him. Your eyes certainly couldn’t tell the difference. Luminous has been spying on you for the past eight days.” The Monarch paused to watch his words sink in. How could we have been so stupid…
“But enough unimportant explanations. Let us get on to why you are really here, and what you want. Luminous, please share all that you have learned.”
Jasper took a step forward and a deep breath. He began.
“These explorers volunteered in an experimental expedition to Candelabra to gather information and lore that they could bring back to their human superiors. A powerful wizard has cast a mixture of a shrinking and transmutation spell on them. They practised with and were taught by Miracle, already a faerie under much suspicion.” The Monarch nodded thoughtfully. Jasper continued.
\
“They mean no harm, but still they are intruders, liars and thieves. The-”
“Thieves!?” Peter interrupted angrily. “We never meant to steal a thing!” Jasper and the Monarch laughed.
“Oh, but you already have,” The Monarch said triumphantly. “You have stolen priceless sights, knowledge, and memories that did not belong to you. Your kind will spread our secrets like a plague, and our protection will be lost. In many ways, what you have done and intended to do was a worse crime than any other. Continue, Luminous.” Jasper cleared his throat.
They arrived by way of the Passage of Flowering Stars. It must be more heavily disguised, lest more of their folk decide to visit.” The Monarch nodded again.
“There is only one other faerie that has detected their true forms and intentions so far. Clover.” The Monarch covered his eyes and sighed in exasperation.
“Like that spying pest needs more secrets to feed to his rebel consorts. Double the watch on Clover. He can not be trusted to keep what he knows to himself.” Jasper nodded.
“Wait,” I said. “If you dislike Clover so much, why keep him as your messenger? And what is this about him being a… Rebel spy?”
The Monarch looked down at me with a sly smile. “There is one human saying that I have taken to. It is this- Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. The thing one has to understand about Clover is that he is a very dramatic and theatrical faerie. He inflates every situation to match his elaborate view of the world. Although I am simply a faerie governor doing my best for my people, he would explain me as a tyrannical leader, shrouding our kingdom in unnecessary mystery. And what might I have to hide? He would paint me as a haughty sprite who cares for nothing but himself, when in reality I have the best interests of those in my kingdom in my heart.” I would have accepted these words swiftly if not for my encounter with Melody last night. Now I was not so sure about anything in this strange place. The Monarch radiated the same hollow feeling I had noticed in the kingdom and in the other faeries. He did not seem entirely deserving of trust.
“It sounds like he has opinions,” Peter said in a sarcastically dry tone. “What a crime.”
The Monarch gave Peter a sharp look. “You would not say such things if you knew of the countless conspiracies that child has created. He once convinced a portion of the faeries here that I was really a demonic sorcerer who consumed blood to prolong my youthful countenance.”
“Doesn’t sound too far off.” Adrian said quietly. I winced at his audacity.
The Monarch had evidently lost his temper. “Go now. Thieves and liars are not deserving of my sympathies, and your tongues have slipped one too many times.” He snapped his fingers.
Two guards entered the chamber and swiftly flitted over, cuffing our hands in burning iron manacles.
“Rot here in my dungeons. I think that simple humans such as yourselves will find them quite interesting.”
The guards led us away.
. . .
My friends and I were led down a new hall and up a spiral staircase, struggling not to trip on the stairs. The small porthole windows showed that we were hundreds of feet up, and still climbing. At some point we must have entered a turret; The windows began to appear on both sides of the staircase.
Finally we reached a locked oaken door reinforced with iron studs and inlays. A huge keyhole sat in the middle of the portal. One guard produced a key and inserted it. With a heavy sliding sound, the door unlocked.
We were escorted inside a beautiful bedroom that could only have been the Monarch’s. All appeared normal until I glanced up. The same peculiar frescoes covered the ceiling as in the court’s entry hall. New painted people danced and sang and gestured frantically down to us. With sudden panic I wondered if we were to join them.
A door opposite us opened and a handsome faerie with an elegant robe similar to the Monarch’s strode into the room. The guards and the newcomer whispered to each other for a moment. The faeries nodded and turned to us.
The elegant faerie walked us to an odd circle in the center of the room. It glowed faintly red in the light. The guards forced us inside of the circle. The newcomer joined us.
“In a moment your asylum will begin. Do you have any last words before you exit the material world?”
“I hope you rot in hell.” Peter said bitterly.
The faerie chuckled. “You will soon know what that feels like.” He sat down with his legs crossed in the center of the circle and began chanting strange, exotic Silvan words. As I glanced around, my surroundings seemed to be fading away… No, they were being coated over with paint. Soon the room was replaced by a beautiful mountainous, forested landscape that spanned in all directions. It was the same one that had been portrayed in the frescoes this morning. All around other people stood, gazing at us solemnly. Looking down, I gazed upon the room we had stood in a moment before. It seemed impossibly far away. Then again, this was an impossible situation.
The wizard turned to us. “Welcome,” He said, “To the dungeon of Vestralias.”
