A/N: It's been a while, but here it finally is, the promised sequel to "Fallen". If you haven't read that story yet, I strongly recommend doing that first, because this fanfiction will be dealing with the immediate repercussions of Fallen and a lot of things won't be making much sense without the proper context.

On a side note, I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in this fandom. There have been no updates to any Mystic Knights fanfictions here on for over a year. That's gotta change, people! Here, I'll start:

Chapter 1: Prologue

Queen Maeve of Temra had been taught from her early childhood never to accept defeat.

When her horse had thrown her off during her first riding lesson and she had broken a leg, her father had put her back in the saddle the moment she had been able to walk again. Of course he had also had her riding teacher flogged, although she hadn't learned about that part until weeks later.

When the great sorceress Nemain had become her mentor, teaching her magic and fighting skills, Maeve had been bested countless times, finding herself knocked to the ground more often than she cared to remember. Yet she had gotten back up every single time, her bones aching, her hands bloody and full of blisters, and had continued to fight, until one day she had been good enough to defeat her teacher.

Then, however, after many years there had come a time when she had had to realise that her skills just weren't good enough anymore. Because no matter how talented she was with a sword, she couldn't defeat an entire army standing against her. Even her magic had become useless against a bunch of children with mystical weapons and armour.

Her plans had been foiled, her tactics ruined and even her strongest weapons had been defeated, but now she was ready to get back to her feet and try again.

Because now it was done.

It had taken her more than a week, but Maeve had finally managed to translate the entire scroll that Torc had found hidden in the castle's archive. Just like she had suspected, it contained detailed instructions on how to perform several blood magic rituals. She had barely slept all week, going over the ancient language the text had been written in over and over again, to make absolutely certain she had gotten it right.

Blood magic was a powerful force, one she had never dared to dabble in before, due to the lack of any reliable information on the subject. Now through this scroll – undoubtedly left behind by one of her ancestors – she was finally in the position to control it.

After all the setbacks she had had to suffer in the past, the countless defeats by the Mystic Knights, the loss of one of the Sentinels and, both the most recent and the most hard hitting one, the loss of her magical sceptre and Mider's chalice to Angus, she would become powerful once again; probably even more powerful than she had ever been.

The ritual she was now about to perform was a rather simple one. Only a small amount of blood was necessary to open a gate to another realm and it was one of her most important goals right now to bring Mider back into this world. The dark fairy lord would be heavily indebted to her for freeing him and his powers had always been a great asset to her plans.

Now all it took were the right spell and a blood sacrifice in order to gain the power Maeve needed to perform it. The spell she had already memorised and in this moment Torc entered the throne room, a look of slight apprehension on his face.

He had volunteered his help easily enough – anything to serve his queen – but now the prospect of what they were about to do troubled him nevertheless. He was not going to go back on his word, however, and so he approached the sorceress with even steps, the eye patch over his right eye and the massive scarring on that side of his face giving him a much more intimidating appearance than usual.

Maeve was holding an elegant silver dagger in her hand that she had enchanted according to the instructions from the scroll. A bronze basin was standing on the table next to her and Torc positioned himself on the other side of it before he extended his arm to the queen.

He had immediately agreed to sacrifice some of his blood for the ritual, because as much as he had always disliked Mider's disrespectful tone towards Maeve, Torc knew that without his magic, they didn't stand a chance against the Mystic Knights of Kells.

The sorceress took a hold of his arm and began to recite words from the old language used on the scroll. With a swift motion and a flash of silver, she cut across Torc's arm, causing a lot of blood to flow from the wound and into the vessel below.

"Mider, dark fairy of the Shleeves, I summon you. With the power of this sacrifice I open a passage for you to return to this world. Mider, dark fairy lord, please heed my call!"

A tense silence filled the throne room after Maeve's words as the queen and her general waited for the fairy to appear, but to no avail. They simply stood there, unmoving, hoping for any sign that the spell had worked. After a while the sorceress let out a sharp breath.

"For nothing! All of this was for nothing," she shouted in anger and knocked the basin from the table, so its content spilled all over the cold stone floor.

Torc felt an icy shiver run through his body as he watched his blood flow to the ground. For a second he thought he had seen a dark shadow pass over it, but the phenomenon was gone again immediately, so he discarded it to his imagination.

The general took out a cloth he had brought in preparation and began to bandage the wound on his arm while Maeve went over to where the blood magic scroll was lying to find out why the ritual hadn't worked.

"I did everything the text says to the letter. Why did Mider not return from his realm? He should have been able to." Desperation was seeping into her voice as the queen ran a finger down the lines on the scroll, trying to figure out if she had made a mistake after all. Torc looked at her with increasing concern and approached her slowly.

"My Queen, maybe it would be better if we waited until tomorrow to try the spell again. After all the exhausting work of the past weeks you deserve to get some rest. Perhaps after a good night's sleep the answer will become clear to you and then you will be able to reach Mider after all."

"No." Maeve's voice sounded tired and she was rubbing a hand across her face as she now looked over to the captain of her guards. She didn't remember ever feeling this exhausted and she could tell that Torc was just as weary as herself.

"No, I will not try to contact Mider again. The ritual and the spell were perfect, it should have worked, but maybe Mider's realm is simply out of my reach. And if that's the case it can't be helped, no matter how many times I try."

Torc was about to object to that, but Maeve silenced him with a gesture and continued.

"But the scroll contains other spells, spells that will increase my powers directly, without Mider's help. They are more dangerous, however, and will require... a greater sacrifice." The queen hesitated for a moment. She knew that if she was going to continue on this path there was no turning back. Sacrificing a life to become stronger was not an easy decision, not even for her.

Considering her situation, however, this was her only option, wasn't it? Without even noticing, Maeve clenched her hand into a tight fist, straightened herself again and looked at Torc.

She was not going to accept defeat. She never had before and she was not going to start now.

"Are there any prisoners in the dungeon?" Maeve asked a slightly baffled general.

For a second he had been afraid that his queen would demand this 'greater sacrifice' from him, but now that she was asking for a prisoner, he was more than happy to oblige.

"Yes, there are. Some villagers have been very unhappy about the re-stationing of our troops at the castle and the border that left parts of the kingdom unprotected. They wouldn't cease their protests and demanded an audience with you, so I had them arrested."

"Then they should be more than happy to help me strengthen my powers again. Because only once I've regained my magic I will send my soldiers back to patrolling the kingdom. I will rest for the night and then we will proceed in the morning. Make sure one of the prisoners is brought to me by then."

Torc bowed deeply to Maeve, relieved to not having to be the blood donor any longer.

"As you wish, my Queen."

To be continued...