The Girl in the Woods

Chapter 18

The faerie court was very still.

Also, it was quiet. It was often still and quiet, ever since the war started. Elegant, silvery white walls reached almost twenty storeys high, and delicate sky blue trim looped in curls and spidery lines over the polished surfaces. The floor  was marble so polished you could see your own reflection in them. Glassless windows reached from the floor to the ceiling, letting light spill in around thin, gossamer drapes.

Opposite the majestic marble doorway, a lavish throne sat delicately against the wall. It was also carved from marble, but the white on the elaborate chair was trimmed with silver instead of blue. The back of the throne separated gracefully in the likeness of faerie wings, and they mirrored the pair of live wings attached to the faerie seated on it.

Banye looked relatively young, as was the way of the faeries. From childbirth, faeries aged spectacularly fast until the late twenties - from there, time stretched on for centuries before the faerie resembled old men and women. Banye himself had been on the throne for almost a century, but few knew how long he'd lived before he'd acquired royalty.

 He was simple, for a king. His blonde hair was short and pushed back neatly, and his clothes were the simple white robes of faerie common folk. His eyes were a light blue, and his skin was only beginning to gain laugh lines. The only signs of grandeur on him was a blue signet ring on the middle finger of his right hand, which was now resting against the right side of his face.

In front of him, a simple white table had been placed. The only object on it was a human chessboard, coloured a stark black against the airy surroundings. It was checkered red, and it was the king who had the red pieces.

Lazily, he lifted his hand from his face and pushed his queen forward. "Checkmate, my son."

The man across the king was not actually his son. Neroii stared blankly at his father-in-law, his pale green eyes vacant. Everything about him had paled, actually; his dark brown hair, once long and luscious, was now mousy and drab. His natural skin was already ivory white, but now it looked like chalk, and almost yellowish. His lips were thin colourless lines, and the faerie looked twice as old as the king. Grief did not suit him at all.

He looked at the black and red chessboard. "You win again, my lord."

Banye nodded, his smile a tad tight. His eyes searched Neroii's face. "You didn't even try again, did you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, my lord." Neroii replied flatly.

Banye sighed and drifted off his seat, his wings humming lightly as he moved to one of the windows. The view consisted of a sprawling cityscape; the white buildings stretched on far in the distance, and the faint tree line beyond that could barely be seen. The sounds were subdued though; so many of the population had  gone off to wage battle. It was a quiet that the king had realized he didn't like at all.

"Revenge will be had, Neroii." Banye's voice was low and serious as he looked off into the distance. "Tsingy de Bemahara will be ours, and the resisting army will be in our grasp."

Neroii made no reply. He hadn't moved at all, his eyes staring down at the chess pieces forlornly.

Banye turned back to look at him. "Does that not hearten you? No one will survive the scorn of the faeries! Our family will not have died in vain!"

"In vain?" Neroii's head snapped up, and the first emotion Banye had seen in days flickered across the other man's face. It wasn't a good emotion though - Neroii looked bitter. "They had no cause to die for! Their deaths were not noble! My girls were murdered, plain and simple. They didn't have a plan to rule the world when they set off into those woods!"