Solar Reign

X V I I

"RESURRECTION?" ANDORRA echoed. She stared at Prince Puck. She could feel, rather than see, Callum stiffen at the news that Roseria wanted to bring Anders back to life. He, at least, was more silent than Coralia, who sucked in a loud gasp.

Puck shot Coralia a long look. A, my child would never, look. He cut his judgemental gaze back to Andorra. "You heard me correctly. She was discussing it with my daughter. Now, if her plans to resurrect him are already in place enough for her to tell someone else, then we know it's serious. With or without King Kaeberon's help."

Andorra was still taking in the news that there was another continent, nevermind another King. She, for the most part, had thought that this was it. Clearly, she had been foolish to think that the faerie realm could only consist of five Courts.

"And we don't like King Kaeberon why?" She felt foolish asking, but this was the only way she would learn. And Andorra wasn't amongst anyone who didn't know she had grown up as human, unaware of faeries.

"You probably know of our history up to the Great War, correct? The same war that sent both the Sun and the Snow Clans to the human realm, and had pushed your parents into power? Well, centuries before that, there was another war. A war between Anlithamy and Averotho."

Andorra found herself nodding, without any real knowledge of what this meant. "Okay. So we don't like Averotho?"

"The continent of Averotho believed in advancing technology to the point of taking and replacing our fae abilities. The King at the time had hoped to create a race of fae that could embody any and all powers. Which may not sound bad, but his plan had been to harvest our powers through... savage means."

"Like he wanted to strap fae to a table and surgically remove whatever creates our powers?"

Puck shrugged his shoulders, but Andorra could tell there was something Puck wasn't sharing. Something perhaps personal. It was in the way Puck looked as though the weight of Anlithamy had rested on his shoulders during that time.

"So, Anlithamy went to war with Averotho for this?"

"It hadn't just been the danger of taking powers and merging them, or creating artificial powers to hand off to others. The King at the time had wanted to wipe our culture, had wanted to wipe everything about us from Anlithamy, from Averotho. There had been talk of abandoning Cornomous as our God."

"And this King Kaeberon, he carries that legacy still?"

"I have people in Averotho. It seems that the work they are doing is far beyond what Anlithamy is doing. The fae there aren't... just people. They're connected to the technology."

"Oh. Like a cyborg." In her mind, Andorra pictured robot faeries, and the thought made her shudder. How would they live against a war of half robot fae? And why did Kaeberon want to go to war in the first place over the death of Anders? That she didn't understand.

"So we should be readying our legions? Or accepting defeat?"

Puck stood up. His shadows were too far on display for him. The way they crawled along the floor resembled more of Callum's style than it did the reserved and controlled Prince Puck. Something dark passed over his face as he stared at Andorra.

"We pray they do not go to war with us. I don't think we'll win."

Andorra tried to swallow, and found she couldn't. It was a lot to take in. Too much to take in. She felt sick to her stomach all over again, because if Puck was nervous, then this was far worse than going to war with the Spring Court.

"And Roseria... she went to King Kaeberon to bring him here? To start a war and to bring back Anders? It's impossible anyway. I've been to Moribund, and it's just not possible. He can't come back."