2412 Iclis 4, Velpa
They stuck to the border between Cardina and Lanteglos for the past few days since they left the shadowy forests of Carleon. Three days ago, Ezril had sent them to Lifver's tapered end that connected straight through a forest where the borders between the three territories lie.
"My blessings on your journey," Ezril had said before sending Xanthy and June on their way. There had been no changes with Xanthy's sentiment, though. She would dearly miss the comforts of the Temple.
Here she was again. On another journey. In another forest.
Cardina's Palace loomed to Xanthy's east, its spires a bit blurry in the distance. Unpleasant memories echoed in Xanthy's mind as she watched the flags crowning the spires wave at her through the gaps between tree trunks. Her fingers tightened on the reins of her paulsare, courtesy of the Temple, and June had to reach out from across his to wrap a hand around hers.
Xanthy sighed. At least, she finally got to see the Palace from behind. The murky water from the moat still sent that earthy smell despite the various flowers and trees around her.
The road was more or less non-existent and there were a few travelers with them on this road. It had been hours since they last met a fairy astride a colorful dagrine going the opposite way. Xanthy could understand that, somehow. The main trade route would be the one connected from the Magic Road and through Carcalet.
"It would be wise to avoid Lanteglos as much as we can help it," June had said before steering them further into the forest.
It was their third day on the journey with paulsare and if June's estimates were correct, they'd arrive at Yin Alora, Peltra's foremost city, by moonsrise. Xanthy craned her neck at the sky hindered by yet more trees and inhaled the fresh forest air. Squeaks, twitters, and other animal sounds played in Xanthy's ears as she watched some of them scamper through leaves and leap from branch to branch.
Xanthy kicked her paulsare's flank lightly, urging the animal to sidle alongside June's paulsare. "Hey," she inclined her head in June's direction. "I was just wondering about something."
June raised an eyebrow before taking a swig on a fairy potion vial. Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. Were half-bloods even allowed to drink fairy potions? Well, it looked like June's stomach wasn't going to be burned anytime soon so yeah, maybe half-bloods could. "Yes?" June prodded.
Xanthy shook her head and jerked her chin at the forest around them. "If Cardina is as close to the Imperial City," she glanced at a blurry mass of cobbled roads and tall buildings beyond the line of trees by June's side. "Why haven't the Humans invaded Lanteglos yet? Why haven't the humans done anything even just on this border?"
"Perhaps they don't want another war," June scratched at his eye before flicking the reins to his paulsare to encourage the beast to continue walking. "Why have something so devastating in such a peaceful time as this?"
Xanthy nodded before knitting her eyebrows at what he said. "Sorry," she rubbed the side of her nose. "Another war?"
"Yeah," June gazed at the flat, muddy road below them. "Don't you know your history?"
Xanthy rolled her eyes. Of course, June knew that she spent half of her life running around in the Disfavoreds trying to survive. There's no need to answer that question. "Yeah, what happened with the War?"
June tapped his chin. "Actually," he scratched at his palm. "Umazure has survived two wars."
Xanthy's eyes widened. Two?
"One was the Hundred Years' War," June held up two fingers. "And the other is the Human-Fairy war."
Xanthy's stomach soured. Was the island ready to survive its third? She shook her head. That's why she was here. She needed to stop anything from happening before more lives were lost. Wars should end.
She met June's dark eyes and smiled. "What happened in the Hundred Years' War?" she asked. This was, after all, the first time she heard about it.
June shrugged. "Basically, it all started when the other species began fighting each other for dominance."
"Species?" Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. "You mean there are more than just Fairies and Dwarves?"
June looked at her like she had just grown butterbread through her ears. "No," he shook his head. "We are not alone in this world. We have to share Fantasilia with the Elves, the Sirens, the Dwarves, the Shadow Races, the Giants, and of course, the Blood Beings."
Xanthy eyed a nest of birds with purple feathers and spiky, bright red tails on a nearby branch. "And these races coexisted with each other until the Hundred Years' War?" she smiled watching a mother with a crown of curly feathers twittered before shoving berries into her children's hungry beaks.
"Yeah, pretty much," June tousled his hair and flicked the reins again. "Legends has it that these species fought with so much magic that it tore the whole continent apart into smaller landmasses that we have now."
"That's crazy," Xanthy wrinkled her nose. "There's no way people can do that in a hundred years. How come we never see these creatures anymore?" Well, apart from the Dwarves whose metal still continued to haunt their island.
June swatted at the air to ward off the insects that might want to bite him. The sound of wings fluttering rang in Xanthy's ears. Xanthy rolled her eyes. Forests. "That would be because of the barriers," he said after a while to answer Xanthy's question.
Xanthy frowned. "Barriers?" Was that the thing Cyrdel was talking about in his plans in his workshop?
"Yeah. There's a huge magical barrier around Umazure and I assume all the other continents as well," June tousled his hair again to drive out the insects that might have landed on there the past few minutes. "Legends tell us that they appeared when the Hundred Years' War finished to prevent another inter-special war from happening again."
Xanthy tapped her chin. "So it's for our protection?" Why would Cyrdel want to break through it, then? It didn't make sense. "So after the war, the fairies got Umazure?"
"Yeah," June grinned.
"And after that came the Human-Fairy war?" Xanthy scratched the side of her face. Her nails came away with a thin film of gray. She frowned. She needed a bath. "Why would the fairies attack humans anyway?"
June dusted his cloak, revealing his belt where a single dagger sheathed by his left hip. Was that the one he used to cut off the ropes back when Xanthy was being purged? Maybe. "Accounts vary," June answered after a while. "Some say it's because Fairies wanted to use Cardina for expansion and the Humans refused to move. Others say that it's because humans had offended fairies just by existing," he sighed. "Of course, regardless of the motivation, Fairies attacked Cardina and the humans retaliated resulting in a war."
"And humans won?" Xanthy glanced at the Cardina Palace to find it long gone.
"More like both sides fell into a stalemate," June cleared his throat. "Both sides knew that it's a lost cause so they just stopped," he regarded Xanthy from his periphery. "So now you know why humans despise fairies."
Xanthy pursed her lips. It's true. That's why humans view fairies as bloodthirsty creatures. Humans who get bonded to fairies were considered traitors and their children considered abominations that needed to be purged. It was a prejudice brought on by war and oppression.
A pang of sadness shot through Xanthy's heart. All the more reason she should stop this oncoming war with everything she could. None of them needed any lives being robbed of their freedom just because they were not ordinary and war would only encourage that sentiment. Xanthy shook her head and sighed.
"That sucks so much, you know?" Xanthy twisted a lock of hair with her finger. "Not every human will get a chance to interact with a fairy in their lifetime like I did. They could have learned the truth that fairies are not all that hideous and that they are people, too."
If Xanthy from the beginning of the year heard her current sentiments, she would've passed out.
It's true, though. Xanthy spent her whole life believing that fairies only wanted to end humans but now that she had been to two fairy territories, not even one of them gave thought of killing a human. In fact, they seemed to acknowledge that humans existed and respected the race's boundaries, too.
June nodded as if sensing her thoughts. "It's really a privilege to be educated," he said as he sniffed with what Xanthy realized to be disdain. Did he have something against educated people? "Alas, the High Queen could care less about humans since she has her own fairy land to run."
Xanthy bobbed her head. Another item was chucked into her mental list. June knows about the High Queen not caring about humans.
But...didn't everyone know about that?
Xanthy resisted the urge to claw at her hair. Instead, she resorted to clenching her jaw to tamp down her growing frustration. She hated it that she was reduced to hanging onto every word that bled out of June's mouth just to get to know him. In fact, nothing has changed since they got together. Xanthy would ask a question that veered into June's personal life and he wouldn't answer it or change the subject completely.
It's...like talking to a wall at times and Xanthy hated every single one of it. What was really with June's past that he didn't want to talk about? Curiosity gnawed at Xanthy's gut. Part of the reason she agreed to this...thing with June was because she originally thought that once people enter into these kinds of commitments, they wouldn't be afraid to be open anymore.
Looked like it wasn't the case with June.
"You okay?" June's voice speared through Xanthy's thoughts. She looked up to find him smiling at her like everything between them was fine.
Xanthy grinned and gave a light chuckle. It's probably nothing. She had to give June enough time. "Sorry, just thinking about something," she scratched the back of her head before craning her neck to find that the forest thickened around them. She knitted her eyebrows. "Where are we?"
June jerked his chin forward where the forest opened up to a flat expanse of low-lying ground. "We're here," he urged his paulsare faster and Xanthy followed.
Xanthy's jaw dropped as the scene before her sent pangs of fear into her gut. Her throat dried up. This was...
There were no words left to describe the destruction that loomed just below the hill they were on. Peltra had been burned to the ground.