A Court of Dreamers

Prologue

Author: Courtney - "AvoidingAverage" on fanfic(dot)net

POV: Oberon.

Other Works By This Author:

Broken Dreams - "The clever trap of the King of Hybern has cost Feyre her mate bond and she remains trapped behind enemy lines, alone and broken. Set immediately after ACOMAF."

The Falling - "The final battle with Hybern through Nesta's perspective with a new happy ending. One-Shot. Heavy Nessian."

Prologue:

Awakening

Once, he could feel the sun and sky above. Had known the touch of a lover, the tiny strength of his daughter's hand clutching his own...but no longer. Those memories were harder for him to recall but he would never forget the rage that simmered beneath his skin. He was forged anew in the fires of hatred and the desire for vengeance, forgetting the man he once was.

Time had long since lost all meaning to him. He lived by the distant sounds of waves crashing steadily against the rocky outcropping on the edges of the prison. Inside, the screams of the wretched and insane echoed off the stone walls. With no hope of escape or even death, the other inhabitants of these cells were nothing but the animalistic imprints of an immortal race.

He forced himself to focus, forced himself to remain sane and not lose sight of what he must do.

I am Oberon. I will not let them erase me. I will have my revenge. They will never forget and I will never forgive.

The words were a balm and stinging irritant. Part of him knew that escape from the Prison was impossible, that some of the creatures within these walls had remained trapped for millennia. To accept that fact would destroy him, so he continued to repeat his mantra even when the names and faces of his past became blurry. Even when he began to forget the male he had been. He refused to forget the blood that was spilled.

Somewhere deep beneath the ground, he began to forget about the light and accepted the horrors of the dark.

Time passed as it always did, even when you could not mark its passage. He ignored most things now, aside from the occasional whispers of the new High Lord of the Night Court's visits. The others were restless, sensing that something was changing in the world outside. It was hard to hope for anything, but he allowed himself to plan nonetheless.

When a new wave of magic swept through the lands and into the very bones of the Prison, he took his chance. His power was weakened by the wards, but the destruction of what could only be the Wall had confused them. Small fissures in the magic spread through the barriers placed on this floating rock. With a bit of pressure, he began to chip away at the wards keeping his cell door closed and his magic tucked away.

It took time and patience to break through the door but these things he had in abundance. It was another thing entirely to move through the labyrinth of corridors towards the exit he only vaguely recalled. Within the first hundred yards, it was clear that he was not the only one who'd noticed the new weakness in the walls. Terrifying shapes and sounds loomed in the darkness, united by their desires to be free of this place.

Each step was torture as the spells pulled and tore at his skin and magic. He refused to halt his relentless path towards freedom, towards vengeance.

I am Oberon, he panted.

I will not let them erase me.

I will have my revenge.