FAE the fight against entitlement

THE FIRST DAY OF A TURN IN EVENTS

There was another knock on his bedchamber door, louder and more aggressive.

The Erlking ran his hands over the mask to be sure it was carefully placed. Another knock on the door and Nereus growled. "Enter you fool before I have your head for the rude disturbance!" He bent at the waist and laid a hand over his eye.

His Regent, Fairl Downs, stepped meekly into the chamber and bowed. "Your Highness, Efrian is here to see you. Shall I send him in?"

"No!" Nereus answered. "Send him to the map room and tell him I will join him shortly."

"As you say." Fairl bowed and backed his way out of the room.

Since the day his longtime head guardsmen, Ozil, turned on him the day the Watcher had marked him, Nereus had a hard time allowing himself to trust anyone. But Efrian had slowly proved himself as wicked as he used to be, and the Erlking used him wisely. He had promised Efrian the honor of killing Ozil. The traitor was in a darkest and well-hidden cell below the castle.

"Maybe I will make a visit to Queen Reka today," Nereus said followed by his dreadful chortle. "I need a soothing distraction."

Reka was definitely not his queen. In fact, she wasn't a queen at all. Reka was the beautiful fae imprisoned in a beehive by the portal that let the Watcher into his realm. They had a history, he and is queen bee. And over the last two years, her new punishment was no visitors. She had only his magicked wasp drones that now guarded every portal coming into his realm as well as her hive.

Nereus's left his chambers, his manic whistle heard down the halls of his castle as his bare feet slapped their way to the map room. The habitants of the castle had long since been used to his manic actions. If he wasn't screaming profanities, he was whistling or singing frenziedly about the castle at all hours of the day and night.

***

Miles away, weeks after the fire at Copper Groves' destruction, a small caravan of fae circled wagons on the dusty and dry grounds of the Bad Lands. They had pilfered  them from abandoned or destroyed villages. It had taken Magic to get the small home type wagons over the fence and into the Bad Lands.  It was then difficult to keep the animals pulling them safe while navigating in thick woods full of creatures in desperate need of sustenance to survive. Magic attracted them. It was a dismal land where darkness and tension dwelled. Food options were minimal and water tainted. Rampart, accompanied by others, went back over the magicked fence daily to search for supplies. The distance needed to rummage and get back to distribute with success would someday run out. There were still clans of full bloods, supporters of the Erlking, scattered about the lands. It was a risky endeavor.

The small circle of eight trailers stopped and the dust began to settle. With the death of so many half fae already, those still fighting to survive out of Fairy Lands took to foot, and kept on the move for fear of being spotted.

Coralina, a full-blooded air fae jumped down from one of trailers and ordered they keep magicked light and fire at a minimum while hiding the animals pulling the trailers.

Coralina was tall, slender, with beautiful blue eyes and a strong and aggressive nature. She was the Erlking's illegitimate daughter, and next in line for the throne, as much his nemesis as he was hers. The difference between the two was Coralina's love for her people. All fae, not just full blooded. She had been the first leader in the revolution, but now shared that billing with Rampart, a half breed, for the last two years. He was strongminded but a good fighter having been part of the Erlking's guard years ago. The relationship between the two was fire and ice but equally dutiful. Coralina was good at giving the annoyance he often showed toward her right back at him, frequently.