COF 3: The Fallen Dynasty

8 | Family (I)

The sweet taste coated her tongue as the first layer of the candy melted. Reeca clicked her teeth against it. The sour layer's going to come soon.

"So, how come you aren't using your wings to fly?" Elred's voice rang from the corner Reeca sent her off to. Reeca glanced back to find the shard fairy still focused on attaching arrowheads into the sticks.

Get to work. Reeca turned back to the hollow tubes that had hardened and picked one off its mold. "I tore them in Cardina. Didn't you know that?" Her magic flared as her waving energy bled to the surface. She touched the center of the tube and punctured several holes by the rim.

"No, I haven't," Elred's reply came after a while. A grunt resounded in the room followed by a satisfied sigh. "Ah, here we go. Nice and tight," the shard fairy breathed.

Reeca jabbed her finger into the smaller holes and wove her magic in. They'd be sensitive to foreign magical pulses soon enough. "What were you doing in Cardina, anyway?'' She set the tube down and trudged to the beginnings of the pile of finished arrowheads by Elred's feet and grabbed one. The shard fairy twined another round before shrugging.

"The Sovereign wanted me to retrieve the throne," Elred's voice was light and gentle against the glass walls. Reeca made it back to her table and picked the hollow tube once more. "She also wanted me to investigate the purges and quite possibly learn its purpose, too."

Reeca pursed her lips as she stuck the arrow into one of the holes by the tube's rim. "What did you learn?" she propped the tube by her shoulder and angled it towards a wall. Gods, she hoped it wouldn't crack. Weaving energy crackled in her palms, forming a glowing ball of coiled magic.

"Cardovia used the purges to build up their armies of both humans and half-bloods," Elred answered. The ball of magic flew out of her hands and into the wall. The tube by Reeca's shoulder wailed before recoiling. The blast pushed Reeca back to her rear just in time for her to meet Elred's eyes.

"What?" Reeca stood and dusted herself before bending down to retrieve the fallen tube. "You mean Cardovia has somehow brainwashed the humans to think that half-bloods are a plague?"

Elred nodded, chucking a finished arrow into her pile. "We discovered that the Human Queen has had a bad encounter with fairies and half-bloods after that ah...relationship drama," she scratched the side of her face. "I think it's evident how the Heiress had used that to manipulate the poor, unsuspecting Queen into giving the Heiress what she wanted."

Reeca's stomach churned. Manipulation. That's the Heiress' weapon. She raked her gaze towards the wall and true enough, an arrow was embedded exactly where her weaving energy hit. Elred whistled. Reeca hefted the tube and didn't stop the grin that spread in her lips. This would be Reeca's weapon, then.

"Well, we've got enough to worry about with Synketros, now," Reeca turned back to Elred's pile and grabbed at least seven arrows, leaving about three. Elred needed to work faster. "Let's not worry about Cardovia in the meantime."

"Yes. They're probably focusing their efforts in getting the sprites to their side as of the moment," Elred nodded and had already moved to a new stick by the time Reeca whirled to the shard fairy.

The Sprites? That's going to be a huge advantage on Cardovia's part should they succeed in getting not just one but four territories with their own forces to their side. What was Synketros doing by fixating on Helinfirth?

"The Sovereign is no fool, Reeca," Elred said after a while. Did the shard fairy hear Reeca's thoughts? "Don't underestimate her."

Reeca picked the next hollow tube and repeated her process. "Of course," she punctured the first hole just as silence reigned in the room for hours after that conversation.