Of Light and Echoes

2

AUTUMN COURT

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, Carlisle!" there was laughter in his sister's voice as she watched him jump back and forth in the sparring ring with Trygg. Carlisle's own laughter echoed around the woods, birds fluttering away as its richness snaked its way through the trees.

"Just one more practice match, please, Isolde," he begged, lunging for his friend as he did. Trygg shouted in false fear, laughing as he rolled out of the way of Carlisle's advance.

"Vera asked us to arrange the dinner table hours ago," she replied loudly, over the clanging of swords and the shouts of the two men.

"There are others in the castle can do it!" Trygg called back in reply, smirking at her before he slashed the air with his sword, grazing Carlisle's shield.

"Would you rather Eris find out about our procrastination and be punished for it?" Isolde suggested, eyebrow raised. All play stopped at the mention of their High Lord's name.

"Vera would protect us," Carlisle offered, though Isolde's warning had sent a shiver down his spine, so his words did not sound as confident as he had wanted them to seem.

Isolde shrugged before gesturing for the pair to follow her back to the Forest House. Groaning out of annoyance, they followed.

"We should listen to Isolde, Carlisle," Trygg's voice had dropped to a low whisper, "If you're in prison, how will you ever find your sunshine girl from Dawn Court?"

Carlisle rolled his eyes and elbowed Trygg in the ribs, which caused him to cough as he laughed.

Trygg joked about this subject frequently with his best friend, but there was a seriousness underlaying it. Trygg knew as well as Carlisle what that girl, who had brought sunshine into dark forest effortlessly, had meant to Carlisle. She had meant so much, even from those few moments he had watched her, that though his court was used to taking what they wanted with no remorse, Carlisle had freed her. He had freed Noor when he could have kept her for himself.

Callister, Noor's father, had not been so lucky, Carlisle knew. He still stayed beneath the House, in the lowermost layer of stone, heavily guarded. For years, Dawn Court had fought to free him, and Carlisle had wanted so badly for them to win. And yet, Eris was feared too much and cared too little about the things he could sacrifice for victory. An invisible rift had been created between the Seasonal Courts and the Solar Courts, with Carlisle on one end and his "sunshine girl", the name he had given her as a young boy when describing her secretly to others, on the other.

Isolde turned her head over her shoulders and huffed, "What are you two mongrels whispering about back there? Walk beside me, not behind, and pick up the pace." The two men grinned at each other before flanking her on either side, Carlisle throwing an arm around his younger sister's shoulders and giving her a squeeze.

Isolde, though the youngest of the sisters, was the protector of the family. Like stone, she encased her brother and father with all her might, keeping them safe and vigilant and honest in a cold court. Her deep, green eyes always shone with determination in a way their older sister's eyes-  Vera's crystal blue eyes- once had.

That determinated Vera was broken long ago. Eris had done that, had softened their stone cold sister until she was moldable like clay. Though she loved him, she was broken by him. She soon had abandoned her role as caretaker of their family.

Regulus, their father, was a broken man, too. It was easy to be broken if one is fragile and you lived in Autumn Court. What had broken him was the death of their mother in the battles to get Callister back. She had been killed accidentally in the fray by an ashwood arrow, the same kind that had injured Callister to the point of no return. Now, Regulus did little more than sharpen weapons for Eris and his army, eat, and rest. He was a shell of the man he once was and what he could have been for his children, but they all cared for him anyways.