COF 1: The Fairy Legacy

18 | Legacy

A memory.

In silence, she watched the woman with red gold hair pull out a low table and set a smoking basket of butterbread down. That's Xanthy's favorite pastry. Wait, what's a butterbread?

Her younger self settled on the floor by the low table, fished a pastry, and took a bite. The way the girl closed her eyes and wiggled her toes in savoring food was so similar to Xanthy that it spooked her.

Xanthy frowned, focusing her gaze on the woman watching her younger self eat. Who was she? Why was she here with Xanthy?

Most importantly, what happened to her friends? To the tower? To her legacy?

"Airlene," memory-Xanthy said with her mouth full of pastry. "When will I meet mom?"

Xanthy's breath hitched. Mom. Mother. Her parents.

The woman, Airlene, frowned. "You are not allowed to ask about that."

Xanthy scowled at the woman's thin lips and high cheekbones. Why won't she answer memory-Xanthy's question about their parents?

Memory-Xanthy set her half-eaten bread down. "But she's my Mom," large eyes blinked at Airlene. See, who could deny that girl of anything?

"Do not speak in Keijula," Airlene scolded. Her eyes narrowed and if possible, her lips further thinned when she pursed them.

"I'm a fairy," memory-Xanthy reasoned with a shrug. She took another bite of the bread. "Why wouldn't I be allowed to speak the language?"

Airlene drummed her finger on the table. "Because your life depends on it," she hissed. Geez. Calm down, woman. "If you do not behave, people will come after you."

That's...exactly what Vikara said. That means, she was planted in the Disfavoreds to hide? To escape those who wanted her power? How much did this woman know?

Memory-Xanthy's eyes widened. "Even Mom? Will she come and get me?"

Airlene sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. From the side of the memory, Xanthy narrowed her eyes. What things have happened to her mother that one couldn't say in front of a child?

"She cannot come. She cannot save you," Airlene reached out and brushed some crumbs at the corners of memory-Xanthy's lips. "You have to learn to save yourself."

Memory-Xanthy pouted. "I can't do that," she said, switching to Keijula once again.

"You do not have to do it alone," Airlene replied. "You will have people beside you if you call for them. You have me in the meantime. Lebayou will come soon."

Xanthy's ears pricked. Lebayou? What's that old man got to do with this?

"Airlene," memory-Xanthy shoved the last piece of butterbread into her mouth. "Why are you telling me this? You never talked so much about these stuff."

Airlene reached out and braced memory-Xanthy's temples with her thumbs. Orange light burned from Airlene's fingertips.

They must have access to a powerful thyminka. Thyminka. Airlene?

The scene shifted in a haze of colors, swirling and painting a focus on a single face she knew well. A face that she has seen a thousand times over over the course of her six-year stay in the Disfavoreds. A face...that didn't look so old.

Lebayou.

Only now, his gray hair was still black. His clothes were presentable and not those rumpled tunics he used to wear. Lastly, his ears jutted out from the side of his head to a point. Pointy ears. Fairy.

Xanthy gasped but none of the characters turned to her. She watched memory-Xanthy, who was a little bit taller and older now, standing by the front door. Memory-Xanthy stared up at Lebayou with wide and suspecting eyes.