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This is my little ramblings of what could have happened after A Court of Wings and Ruin. I had started this before A Court of Frost and Starlight, so nothing that happens in that book happens in this story. It takes place about a year after the war with the first chapter consisting of a flashback of the war, from my main OC's POV.
I do not own any of the characters except for Lyra, my OC
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The Courts Chapter 1
War was raging, there was death and the dying all around me as we entered the arena rather late. My father's arrogance wanted us to stay out of this fight until the last moment so he could claim that he fought and not have his pride wounded but he also so he would have the fewest casualties. My father, Beron the High Lord of Autumn, headed the charge, our orange and silver armor gleaming in the afternoon light, Tamlin, High Lord of Spring, to our right, the green and silver armor a stark contrast to ours. My eldest brother, Eris, stood to the left of our father while I was on the right, my long auburn hair tied up and tucked under my helmet fastened to look like leaves.
The horn blew and we raced down the hill, winnowing in and striking, fire blazing, not pausing to greet the stunned other High Lords. Rhysand, the High Lord of Night, was nearing the end of his magic but lucky for him, mine was teeming over. A Hybern soldier tried to get in a lucky shot at the High Lord's back but I blew him away with a canon of fire. Rhysand shot me a short look of gratitude but I was already gone, my Firedancers, all around me, waiting for my father to give the signal that I knew Eris was now giving the other High Lords and their Captains.
I charged through the slaughter, my girls' fire separating the enemy's forces into nice even sections.
The horn blew again. How much time has passed? I don't even remember how many I have already killed. Dozens? Hundreds?
The aerial legions shielded themselves barely miliseconds before I dug deep within myself and simply erupted. The disrupted air hit them first but they stood strong, barely moving meanwhile Hybern's forces were pushed on their asses as they tried to put up shields.
But they had no time.
Fire, red and blue, hit them and they were ash before they even felt pain.
The fighting seemed to stop for all of a second. One long second as everyone stared as smoke and embers left my mouth with my heavy breathing. My father was angry but he knew he had no choice but to utilize me if he wanted to look like he had an impressive army to the other High Lords.
That burst used up most of my magic but I still had some left at my disposal as the fighting began anew. Every court dug deeper into the fighting, some of the High Lords even taking to their animal forms to do the most damage, the Night Lord shifting into a large, human sized bat, and the Day Lord, Helion, his white, winged companion.
My swords were slicing and cutting and blocking as more and more soldiers rallied against us. As I was fighting, I saw one of the Night Court Captains, a beautiful winged man with shadows clinging to him, battle beautifully but there was someone coming up behind him. I grabbed one of my daggers and it lit on fire at my touch. I threw it at the Hybern agent and it hit its mark—slicing deep into the head through the ear canal, burning his head and what brains he had. The commander, killing his opponents, looked up at me, marking my face, and returned the favor as he winnowed and decapitated a soldier I hadn't realized was behind me.
I was breathing hard, we both were, and we had no time for thanks as we simply went back to slaughtering.
I heard a scream and I risked a glance up and saw that a group of my Firedancers was surrounded and one was bleeding.
"Shield." I told the winged man. His dark eyes were serious as he nodded and a wall of blue surrounded him. I reached out my sword and fire so bright and hot burst forth that it turned my enemies into ash on contact. With a sword in each hand, I made my way towards them, gutting and killing wherever they made contact.
No one touches my girls.
When my dancers saw me, covered in mud and blood, they shielded as I sent one more blast of fire to the men who had them surrounded.
"Reform the line!" I yelled over the cloud of ash.
With their swords in their hands, my girls became ablazed and we attacked with renewed frenzy.
The fight was nearly over. There were only a few hundred of Hybern's soldiers left. Their King was dead.
The High Lords were exhausted, their magic depleted. But the few whose magic was not, stood in front of their High Lord and did the fighting for them, our fire, water, ice, air, shadows, and sunlight uniting to defeat this great evil.
And then the fighting was simply over.
My muscles were shaking at the sudden stop. I dropped my swords so that I wouldn't injure anyone with my body's desire to keep going. I saw ghost pale hands lift them up from the mud and put them back into my holsters. The winged man. He was more striking up close. His face was unreadable but I thought I saw something akin to awe in his eyes too as he took me in, blood and all. With shaking hands, I pulled off my helmet, my braid falling down my back, tendrils of red waves stuck to my face. His face remained the same although I thought I felt shock coming from him.
"It is always like this." He simply said and I noticed that his scarred hands were slightly shaking too. He had been burned before. And yet he did not cower from my flames.
"I never caught your name."
"Azriel." Immediately, I knew who he was. Azriel. The Shadowsinger. The Illyrian my brother had such feuds with. For good reason, I suppose. My brother has done some terrible things.
"Lyra!" Just as I was about to tell this stranger, Azriel, my name, Eris yells it for me. My brother grabs my arm to pull me away, to have me help tend to our wounded but I understood his real intentions. He did not want me to talking to this particular male.
"He saved my life, Eris." I hissed at him, jerking my arm out of his grip.
"A debt he owed. I saw you save his life, sister. You owe him nothing."
"I still have magic left, brother. Do not make me start a new war." His lips raised up over his teeth in warning, his body, like mine, covered in mud and blood.
"Father says you are to go home to mother now." I felt more than saw Azriel take a step back as he realized exactly who I was. It was not common knowledge that Beron, the High Lord of Autumn, had a daughter but it has gotten out to the High Lords over the decades that I existed, especially after Under the Mountain.
"Because my usefulness is over? Bullshit. I fought with these people. I will stay until we are done here." I caught a new scent over the reeking aroma of gore and death. "Lucien." I sigh. I hissed a mouthful of flames towards my eldest brother. "You selfish prick."
I slosh through the wet earth and embrace my youngest brother with a thud. "Lyra." He sighed.
"It's been so long, brother." I nearly cried in happiness. I step away to look at his face, bronzed and bloodied with war but alive and beautiful. His red hair, so much like mine, drenched in blood. Our foreheads touched and I gripped his shoulders with utter joy.
"Your fire was incredible." He told me. "You've grown more powerful." I heard the worry in his voice and I understood it was warranted.
"Yes."
"Be careful. Eris will slit your throat without a second thought if he thinks you will become heir."
"I am a Firedancer, so they know I am powerful, but I keep the extent of it hidden."
"You didn't today." He warned.
"I couldn't allow myself to. Besides, father beseeched me to help so I told him I could take out a large chunk if he could warn the High Lords about the signal to shield."
"Be smart, sister."
"Always."
"You know this female, Lucien?" I recognized the sultry tenor of the High Lord of Night and we separated.
"Rhysand, this is my sister, Lyra." I nod at the High Lord and he nods back, his eyes widening as he recognized me.
"You saved my life."
"I did."
"I owe you."
I shook my head. "This was war, High Lord, no debt need be called."
"Nevertheless, if you need something from me, do not hesitate to call upon me."
"I will take it into consideration."
"I would have thought that a daughter of Beron would not hesitate to collect on a debt owed from a High Lord, especially from myself." He smirked and it added something mischievous to his already immaculate face.
I raised my chin. "I am not my father."
"Indeed." His strange eyes surveyed my body, resting finally on my own russet brown eyes. "He has kept you a rather well hidden secret, but Eris should watch his back if what I am smelling off of you is correct." I dared not blush under his watchful gaze.
"Eris is powerful in his own right."
"But it was not him that Beron went to to incinerate a quarter of our enemy's armies."
"My father hoped Hybern would not think a woman would be capable of such power."
His smirk widened into a half grin. "Keep telling yourself that."
"My father would rather kill me himself than have a female heir so keep your thoughts to yourself, High Lord." His smile dropped as he nodded.
"Of course." He leaned in close, close enough that I could smell the gore on him, full of rust, copper, and decay. "But it would be nice to finally have a worthy opponent, I am tired of being the most powerful High Lord to ever have existed in Prythian's entire history."
"Humble words." He laughed and a spark of mirth lit up his violet eyes. He was truly a vision. His mate, Feyre Cursebreaker, came to stand beside him and he seemed to light from within at her nearness. "It is an honor to finally meet you, Cursebreaker."
"I do not recognize you from Under the Mountain."
"I was there, Amarantha thought me to be my father's weakness and tended to have me hidden away with the threat of torture or rape hanging over my father's head if he disobeyed her. But I was not my father's weakness." Her face seemed to pale. "Do not worry. My father valued his appearance of caring for his only daughter so he stayed the line. Most of the time. She possessed something every High Lord treasured so they would not cross her. I just happened to be my father's. So no, you would not have seen me." I took her hand. "But I felt it. The moment the curse was lifted and my power came back to me, I incinerated half of the damn mountain myself to get free and to return to my family. Thank you."
There was nothing she had to say. She just simply nodded and gave me a soft, sweet smile that told me everything I needed to know even if I couldn't feel her emotions rolling off of her. Fear. Terror. Sadness. Hard won bittersweet happiness. Grief. I wouldn't expect anything less from a woman who gave her life to save us and awoke something new.
I didn't notice Azriel standing there until I heard my father calling for me and I happened to turn around. The High Lord of Autumn stood on a hill overlooking us and he gestured wildly for me to join him. He didn't wait to see if I followed his command.
"He will not want to see me. Go." Lucien whispered. I touch his face.
"But when will I see you again?" I tuck a lock of hair behind his ear. "You are not with Tamlin any longer, not that he liked me any to begin with, but father never lets me leave the Court."
"I live in the Night Court now." He stated and I concealed any shock I had.
"You are free to visit us whenever you wish, Lyra." Rhysand told me.
"Thank you, High Lord." I looked to my brother. "As soon as I can, I will get out and come see you."
"Tell mother I love her."
"I will."
Another winged man joined the group and looked at me with remembrance. Cassian. The last time I saw him was when he and Azriel flew to our Court's border to pick up an unconscious Morrigan, my brothers would-be-bride, whom I kept warm and safe until they could get there. Beside him, Mor looked at me with something akin to confusion and disdain.
"I am glad to see you are doing well, Morrigan." Her eyes narrowed at me. "I do not have time but just know that I was not there that day you were brought to my brother. He did not harm you nor did he order anyone else to, that was my father's idea. I patched you up as well as I could before they came." I said gesturing to Cassian and Azriel.
"That was you?" She asked.
I gave her a weak smile. "Not all redheads look alike, you know? But yes, that was me."
"LYRA!" My father bellowed, his voice shaking the earth.
"I have to go. I will see you as soon as I can, brother." I took one last long look at his face and then ran up the hill where my father's anger manifested into a swift slap to the face. I felt it bruise on contact and Eris hissed at my father.
"You have your people to tend to and you are busying yourself consorting with the Night Court? Despicable!"
I didn't bother trying to explain myself to him. I just clenched my jaw and went to the first tent of bleeding soldiers I could find, offering them kind smiles, fresh gauze, and a healing touch to their wounds.
By the time the sun had fully set and the stars were gleaming, my magic was completely depleted and I was exhausted. I was just about to call out for my brother, when my legs gave out and I fell to the wet ground.
I remember being picked up by Eris and carried to my personal tent. I don't know how long I slept but when I woke up, it was bright outside and I was coated in dried mud and blood. I was disgusting. I peeled off my armor until I was down to my tunic and pants. I slipped outside having grabbed a bar of soap and tiptoed past the soldiers and my brothers down to a nearby lake.
I hissed in pain as I slowly pulled off my clothes, my entire body bruised and aching, cuts I didn't know I had stinging as I stepped into the water. I grabbed my clothes and began scrubbing at them with the bar of soap rigorously.
"You shouldn't be out here by yourself, sister." Eris shouted as he exited the tree line. I kept my back to him even though he averted his eyes.
"I can defend myself as you know."
"Yes, I know, but everyone has rested now and has regained their magic that was exhausted last night. You never know which other court would see the opportunity to take advantage of an Autumn Lady."
"A wise man would wonder what an Autumn Lady is doing so far from her court unless she was here to fight and would stay away." I throw him my clothes and he catches them onehanded with his other hand over his eyes. They were instantly dried. I grabbed the soap again and lathered up my hair.
"You should winnow home to mother today, so she knows you're safe." He advised. "You know I don't mean anything by it, before you start yelling at me, but the war is over now, there is nothing to do besides tend to the wounded. You've done enough."
"I will go home when father does. Not a moment sooner." I ring out my hair. "Now go hide behind a tree while I get dressed."
He sighed and did as I told him. As I stepped out of the water, I sent a surge of heat through my body, drying my skin and hair. I pulled on my clean clothes and boots before tying up my hair.
He escorted me back to the camp where the moans of the dying were everywhere. I saw Azriel and Rhysand across the way, tending to their own wounded. I ducked into the tent where the crying was the loudest and there was already a man with a sheet covering his body and the man next to him was close to meeting him in the Afterplace. He had been gutted and even the Healers could not stop the poison infecting his body. His pale skin was gleaming with sweat and his bloodshot eyes turned up to meet mine. He reached for my hand and I eagerly gave it to him.
"Sing to me, please, princess. I want to die peacefully and hopefully see my brothers again."
His face was sallow but full of desperation. I stroked his face, my fingertips running over his sharp cheekbones and into the valley of his cheeks as I began to sing. I could tell he wanted to close his eyes and enjoy the music but he knew these were his last moments and he did not want to shut his eyes before he had to. I kept stroking his face, the song of our Court floating in the air, the love for the crisp, cold air, the crunch of the fallen leaves, the grace of the deer, the cunning and color of the fox, the majesty of the wolf, and lastly the transcendence of the sunset and the warmth of the bonfire.
He breathed his last breath as my last note rang out and I kissed his forehead and closed his eyes. I hadn't realized I was crying until I saw a tear fall on his still warm face. I didn't even know his name. I quietly stood as if afraid to wake him and covered him in a bedsheet.
I look to the entryway of the tent and there stood Eris, Rhysand, Azriel, Cassian, a striking female I had never seen before but looked quite similar to Feyre Cursebreaker, and Tarquin, High Lord of Summer.
"You sing beautifully, princess." Tarquin whispered.
"Thank you." My voice cracked with my tears. I step outside and they part to let me leave. "Samhain will be busy this year." I stated to no one in particular.
"Samhain?" The female asked.
"It is our celebration to honor the dead and the haunting of the night. Mabon is our one other celebration where we celebrate the harvest and the lengthening of the night. That is all Autumn has." I glance at Rhysand. "We can't all have shooting stars marking our holidays."
He gave me a sad smile and patted my shoulder. Unfortunately, my father rounded the corner and saw all of them surrounding me and I swore his skin turned red.
"Don't you have your own dead or dying to deal with?" He hissed at Rhysand and Tarquin. My father gripped my arm and pulled me back to him, his shoulders in front of my torso to show some semblance of protection and ownership to these other males.
The Autumn Court soldiers lingering in and outside of nearby tents stared at us, their varying shades of brown and red marking a familiar sight but also a potentially dangerous one if they decided these strangers posed a threat to their High Lord and princess. Though my body was taut by my father's, I raised a hand low at my side to tell them to back down. My father has a hot temper and would spare any amount of life necessary to have the last word.
"We have no quarrel with you, Beron." Rhysand purred. "We just heard your daughter's song and it was so beautiful we couldn't stay away."
I saw a flash of red hair and its familiarity soothed something in me. Eris. He could always calm father down, or at least keep him in check.
"Do not blame the outsiders for being curious about the Autumn Court's best singer, father." Eris said coming up on my side.
My father hissed as he stared down his eldest son. "Gather all those who can winnow. We're going home. Today."
"Of course. Consider it done."
The Autumn Lord released my arm and I rubbed at the bruise starting to form. Eris gripped my chin and turned my head so he could view my bruised cheek. I shut my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the pity on these powerful strangers' faces.
"I'll take you to a healer the moment we return."
"Those soldiers need it more than me." I growled.
"Your people need to see you as unharmed." He snarled.
"My people need to see that I have fought for them." We were glaring at each other now, baring our teeth.
"Hybern did not cause this bruise, Lyra." He seethed.
"Do not act concerned about me just because we have an audience, Eris."
"Act?" He questioned. "You think I act concerned?"
"Do not try and pretend that you don't constantly think about slitting my throat while I am sleeping so you do not have competition, brother. I know you do, because I have the same dreams about doing the same to you." His face revealed nothing. "I don't want to be High Lady, you can have the title."
His eyes sparked with fury as he huffed. "Fine, you can winnow back the dead."
"You might find yourself among them." He gripped my arm, right above where father held me.
As soon as he touched me, Azriel had pushed him away from me, all shadows and muscle.
Eris hissed at him but his anger was truly focused on me when he saw that my cheeks had turned transparent with the heat inside my mouth, smoke and embers on each exhale, my tongue like coal, just waiting on my brother to strike the match. He huffed and walked away.
I winced as I allowed my fire to extinguish and my bruise came back as black and blue as ever. "You only made him angrier." I told Azriel.
"He shouldn't have touched you." He said, his voice low and quiet.
"I have been dealt worse." I felt the fury that the Autumn Court was famous for boiling up inside me as I spoke again. "It's not like there was anyone there to save me every time one of Amarantha's demons beat me with only a breath of life left in my body." Everyone became eerily silent as I snarled. "Or when she dragged my entire family, my mother included, to watch strange men feel me up and then beat me until I was unconscious and wouldn't remember anything done to me." I was breathing so hard I was shaking, my hands curled into claws digging into my own palms. "No one was there when we were finally freed and I had to go back to an empty manor and explain to my family what happened when they were shut out and were denied access to me."
I fought back memories of me breaking free that day and killing Lesser Faeries with my bare hands, their blood flowing over my entire body and when I wanted to watch the life leave their eyes, I would force them to the ground, climb atop their horrid bodies and breathe fire into their mouths, watching as they were slowly burned alive, puffs of smoke leaving their nose or ears. And then more memories came flooding in of me spending days in my bathroom back home, scrubbing every inch of my body to get the feel of their hands off of me, rubbing some parts of my body raw to where I couldn't walk for a week.
"I had no idea she was doing that." Rhysand whispered.
"She didn't want you to. She knew you were soft and could not handle this type of torture." I looked at Rhysand square in the eyes. "I will burn that mountain one day."
"I will help you do it."
"Fire is destructive and passionate and deadly and uncontrollable but it can also be cleansing." I didn't know if was explaining that to him or to myself.
"Does Lucien know?" He asked gently.
"No, I doubt Tamlin knew and none of my brothers would have told him while he was Under the Mountain for that short period."
"Not even your mother?"
I shook my head. "She would have been too embarrassed."
"And you?"
"Too empty." His jaw clenched. "There is nothing you could have done, High Lord, there is nothing anyone could have done. And they are all dead now. I made sure of it. Besides, during what I assume is the worst of it, I don't even remember what happened." I gave them all a dazzling smile to where I know I outshone even the striking female in Rhysand's group. Tarquin's eyes widened in amazement and awe. "Do not be sad, your darling mate saved us all, Rhysand, and I have had my fair share of lovers since." Not technically a lie. We looked at each other and he knew what I meant, that the feeling of another's touch, from someone you chose, could somehow take away the memory of a stranger's touch. I cried afterwards. Every single time.
I heard my father bellowing again and I said nothing as I turned away from the Night Court and the Summer High Lord and walked towards my father.
This chapter is really long, none of my other chapters should be this long but I wanted to get the flashback all in one chapter.
I hope you liked it!
