Okay, so this is a Christmas present I wrote for KrazyMusician. It's posted after Christmas mainly because I wasn't sure whether or not to post it. That's because it's kind of a bash-fic. Not terribly, as you might have to squint a bit to see it, but the bitterness for Kagawa's killing of Shakespeare was borne in mind as I wrote. Thus, the Mary-Sue Scoring is included.
The story itself takes place after the third book, as I'm pretty sure we all know what's going to happen (POTENTIAL SPOILER: Ash dies and is reincarnated as Tertius, and then they rule the Iron Kingdom together forever, and happily ever after and whatnot. Boring.) No, the book hasn't been published, yet, and so I explain my version so that we're all on the same page (on the off-chance that I'm wrong….)
Anyway, so here it is:
This is an Iron King fanfiction focusing mainly (if not solely) on the Iron Fey. Enjoy.
MS Score: 12
My name is Meghan Chase II. And I hate you humans.
I'd give you a backstory, but you're not really worth the effort. And, no, I'm not beautiful, cute or perfect like my mom. No, I'm just an iron fey who can't use any powers due to some stupid genetic circumstance. My black hair is always greasy, no matter how often or how well I wash it, and my eyes are a dull, boring green. No boring into your soul, no changing colors, no nothing like that. Mom thinks something's wrong with me.
But there is sometihng I can do. But mom hates it. She's never been good with riddles like I have. It took her, like, two hours to solve that easy number riddle. It took me, like, five minutes. Easy. But, you know, she can't stand that I'm better than her at something, so she tries to change topics every time I bring one up. Therefore, I've spelled my door so that any time someone wants to come into my room, he or she must answer a riddle. And a good one. A hard one. Maybe even a number-one (though I usually reserve those for mom - she hates that!)
Another thing my mother and I disagree on are humans. Yes. Humans are pathetic. They cannot use nature magic, so they use iron non-magic, and they can't even use that properly. Their workmanship is inefficient, and their little crises are pitiful. They destroy their environment, much like we iron fey do, but they do so far too slowly for it to be considered efficient. And then I hear they're trying to save the environment? Laughable! Iron-users can't save anything but machines. They should've thought about that before they started using iron. Why, you may ask, does iron pose such a threat?
Well, here's a riddle for you:
What poisons the deep-rooted trees and their nymphs? What clears out the land and makes silent the skies? What blackens the flesh of tradition, but purifies the skin of the new? All of these answers are one and the same, from the perspective of the one who created this game.
Anyway, so there's this guy. Don't think like that, please. No. I'm usually not interested in things like that. He's just a summer prince. Yeah. A really cute summer prince. Who doesn't seem to care about his duties. Or anything else, for that matter, except for his mother. Yeah. That upsets me, at least. I really wish I could talk to him or something. But if I so much as look at him, I feel faint, and he doesn't even seem interested in me or my riddles. It depresses me, really, that such a cute, blond-haired, vivid green-eyed person could possibly be such a mamma's boy. But, then again, me and my parents are all but from different planets. Dad and I don't talk much, mainly because he doesn't know what to say, and I really don't want him to say anything; mom and I are two opposite ends of the spectrum, too, as I care that I'm a bit pudgy and that my hair and eyes are boring, where she says not to worry about it. Yeah. That's easy to say when your hair is perfect. I really hate my mom for that. She should be more understanding of how it is to be un-perfect. She thought she was human at one point, right? Humans know what it is to be imperfect. She should remember.
But yeah. So, tomorrow's the Spring Equinox. The Seelie Court is getting the scepter back, again, and as a formality, the Iron Court has been invited to witness it. I'm going.
"My lady," Kaiten interrupted my thoughts, entering and looking out of breath. A list of green numbers flitted down her face from her hair, showing how frazzled she was. "I need to speak with you about tomorrow's celebration." She must've gotten the riddle about running. That one's specifically for humiliation: you must give the answer to get in. And, of course, the answer for those kinds of riddles is always something completely ridiculous. She'd probably spent at least ten minutes trying to enter, and now she was annoyed, her slender limbs pretending to shake with exhaustion. She really did look far too helpless, considering how destructive she was.
"What's there to talk about? I'm going, and that's that." She looked reluctant, but knew that, as my best friend, she has to tell me these things. I knew what was coming, and felt the stirrings of my uncontrollable anger.
"Your mother says that-" I threw my lamp at her.
"MY MOTHER WILL NOT STOP ME FROM THIS, TROJAN HORSE KAITEN!" I roared, gnashing my metalic teeth at her. She was calm and no longer pulling the defenseless act as she caught the meaningless article of technology, and unscrewed the lightbulb as she set it down. I noticed how sparks drifted lazily from her pen-fingers, and remembered that she was in charge of my father's correspondence to Tir Na Nog. Still, she was patient as her glowing red eyes met mine. She was up to something.
"My dear princess, I am a malicious form of my late mother, Virus. I have not forgotten what has been done by Meaghan Chase Senoir." She tapped the unlit bulb as she held it before her, splattering it with red ink and presenting it with a grin as vicious as my own. We shared the expression for a while, knowing the other as intimately as ourselves, and then I cocked my head to the right.
"What have you in mind for my destruction, Kaiten?" It was true that we, as fey, could not speak untruths, but we were not free of ill-willed-deception. Especially regarding the Trojan family. They were named after the most notorious of computer viruses in the human world, after all. She could not be trusted, even by the royal family. Even if she was my best friend. She hated my mother more than she liked me, after all. All of her brothers and sisters did. Only the automobiles and planes really didn't. Of course, ill-will towards my mother was what had brought us together in the first place. Kaiten and her family were always willing to help me in my defiance of the queen.
"Oh, my plan consists of sneaking out of the castle and getting you to the Wyldewood before dark." She looked only at the lightbulb as she spoke, turning it this way and that in exmination. "Of course, my plan also consists of leaving you there with no horse and nothing to trade but yourself." And then the eyes that met mine were malevolent and cruel, (much like her mother's, I'd heard.) She knew better than to conceal details from me, knowing also that I wouldn't mind risking flesh and bone if it meant angering my mother. I grinned at my friend.
"Then here's what we'll do. You'll deliver a message to my mother explaining that young, unrequieted love overrides whatever orders she gives, and informing her that I simply must attend the Equinox Ceremony. I will, while you are doing thusly, hitch a ride with Quicksilver, and will head for the Wyldewood. Close enough to your plans to work?" She thought for a moment, grin spreading wider as she did, and then the lightbulb lit up, highlighting the splattered ink and accenting her eyes.
"Perfect." Then, without further thought or pause, she dropped the bulb and exited. I watched it break, too, wondering if I had just walked into a trap. Nevertheless, it was time to get ready. I turned from the door, and had the bugs brush my hair and tie it up as I gazed at the screen before me. It dictated my closet, portraying all of the things I could make my clothing look like, and I finally chose a forest green top that stretched to my wrists, and blue jeans, mocking the forest as all iron fey were meant to.
With that, I poked my head out the window, and looked around. Finding my servant, Quicksilver, out in the pasture, I whistled, and he looked up, running to me with a rumble of his engine. His hair was styled in two braids, as always, and he had a razor-sharp feather hanging from it. I was told he looked like a human Native American, except that his skin was like mercury, and was thus poisonous to humans. He was actually of the Injun Clan, which was that of the automobiles. He would get his official name this next year. For now, though, we called him by his skin quality. He climbed deftly up to my window, without even a pause, and there he sat on the sill, waiting expectantly.
"Where are we going today, Princess?" he asked, grinning with teeth of the same material as his feather. I smirked at him, and leaned closer conspirationally.
"I need a ride to the Wyldewood, and an escort to the Equinox Celebration." His currently-black eyes widened, and he leaned back.
"But you'll poison all there. They'll probably take it as an act of war if you show up." He seemed confused, and unsure, like a nervous horse, and so I put an arm around his shoulders.
"But, you see, Quicksilver, we're invited. Why would they invite someone they didn't expect to show up?" His forehead would have wrinkled, were it possible, I knew, as he seemed very confused by this new information.
"I don't know, Princess. I've never been able to solve your riddles so quickly." But he'd stayed up every night until he had. I knew that since his mother, Shelby Mustang, had asked me to stop giving him such riddles. Of course, I still gave them to him. Only, not so often, now, as I had to find ways to keep it secret.
"Well, then, there should be no problem with our showing up, right?" He seemed to mull this over for a moment, and then he slowly got to nodding. Finally.
"Alright, then, Princess. We'll go. But only after we get your mother's permission." I frowned. He was smarter than I gave him credit. I thought quickly, and decided it could not be helped.
"Then I will go alone." He seemed appalled.
"No! Princess, you absolutely must not go unprotected! You are recognizable and tracable, and you have no training in weapons of any kind! You don't even have magic! What will you do if you run into trouble?" That last part stung, so I pushed him out the window and called Penicilin, who met me in front of my door.
"Quicksilver needs to be fixed. Don't give him any pain-killers, and just doctor him up. I'll be going out." The brown-eyed nurse gazed at me without emotion as she received my orders, and then left without a word, gliding silently out of the tower. I shuddered as she left, remembering the last time she had poked me with those needle fingers and dreading her revenge, which I knew she would enact later. She was a kind faerie, after all, and I was abusing her powers, though it wasn't like I cared or anything.
Anyway, I snuck out of the castle, and started heading for the borderlands, where my mother had promised to stop the spread of iron. Of course, on foot, it would take forever, but I didn't mind. It was for my beautiful Summer Prince, and was therefore worth it.
Two hours later, I was evading arrest by my mother's knights, including my father, and Quicksilver was with them, bandaged and reconnecting as they searched for me. All of the knights rode atop the Mustang branch of the Injun clan, Shelby Mustang looking the most furious of all. She was snorting in her horse-form, and stamped around restlessly, trying to find me with all of her senses and magic.
Slowly, I snuck back from the bush I hid behind, trying to make my escape into the Wyldewood. However, as I backed up, I ran into a metallic foreleg. With her incredible luck and sheer perfection, my mother had found me without trying. She tossed back her blonde hair, and gazed down at me with glowing green eyes.
"You are in big trouble, young lady."