Title: Asunder [IV. Zenithal]
Author: RichelleBrinkley
AN: Here is chapter IV. Zenithal, which is quite a bit longer than the first three chapters to make up for it being so late. This is somewhat AU, because Ryang and Fanta are together.
Usual reminder that chapters of this story are not necessarily interrelated, and that ratings, genre and characters for this particular chapter are as listed below.
Rating: T
Genre: Romance, angst
Characters: Ryang, Fanta, Yuri (mentioned), Pain
Disclaimer: I do not own Faeries' Landing, it is the property of You Hyun.
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IV. Zenithal
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He is sixteen, and she a little over one hundred and seventy.
He is human, mortal, wanted by death and possessor of 107 doomed relationships and counting.
She is magical, a heavenly being; exquisite and powerful in the truest sense, a future Queen in the making.
"Faeries cannot love humans", her mother had once told her, eyes cold and lips twisted. "Humans are the dirt beneath your feet—to be with one is a shame above all other."
That was a long time ago.
In her 172 years, however, the faerie Fanta has never quite come across a human quite like Ryang Jegal.
Ryang is silly, immature and stubborn. He is serious, caring and understanding.
Above all else, he is in love with her.
At only sixteen years of age, Ryang's experience with life was severely limited. "Humans live only briefly, they don't know as much about life as we do."
And yet whilst she feels this statement is quite valid in Ryang's case, Fanta still feels like a teenage girl around him, her added years nothing but an insignificant number, irrelevant and trivial.
Ryang makes her feel like any other teenage girl, albeit one very much cared for by him.
"Humans are deceitful creatures. They will rob you of your dignity and your powers; humans may be infatuated with our beauty, but they do not care for us at heart. All they want is our magic.'"
Ryang has told her time and time again; all he wants is a normal life. Whilst he doesn't regret the curse because the road to breaking it has brought the two of them so much closer together, all in all, Ryang just wants normality. He wants the curse abolished and he wants magical beings to stop popping in and out of his life (Except her, of course. He adores her too much to ever want her to leave.).
And so they struggle, the two of them, affinity number 108 not quite happening – but when it finally does, they face it together with a sense of zenithal almost-joy, because this is it, this will be the end, and finally—finally—Ryang's abhorrent curse will be broken.
It is not easy, purifying Yuri and subduing her evil force. There is more blood than should be necessary, more tears than Ryang should really cry when the power of the evil force reaches a zenith too great and extinguishes the light that was Yuri's life.
They make it though, the two of them, and in the aftermath, Fanta holds him through the stunned, disbelieving tears that he shamefully sheds over everything—Yuri, the curse, the two long years it took them to break the damn thing.
The day after, he asks Fanta what she is going to do now that her purpose on earth has been fulfilled.
"Why, I'm staying of course," she says, fingers running through the short hair at the nape of his neck, tugging at the ends of his bandanna. "Just because the curse is broken doesn't mean I want to go back to Avalon. You can't get rid of me that easily, Young Master." But just because she wants to stay, doesn't mean that she can.
He kisses her then, in relief and thankfulness, happiness that the sentence above him had finally been lifted. The days following the annulment of his curse, Ryang is ecstatic.
It is all over.
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It is hard not to be with someone for every day for two years and not start to feel the least bit affectionate towards them.
Fanta slips out one evening, the night of the first full moon since the curse is broken, and makes her way to the local bathhouse; the place where it had all started.
The carriage is there, and she discovers it always is every full moon since the abolishment of the curse. It is Avalon calling her back, waiting with baited breath for her return.
She misses Pain and the beauty of the Heavens, but she can never bring herself to get in the carriage. Avalon is not her home anymore—Earth is.
But she knows she cannot stay forever.
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Ryang is up waiting for her one night, when she creeps back in after her monthly trip to the bathhouse.
"Are you going to go back?" he asks tensely, eyes downcast and jaw tight. "I know you've been going to the bathhouse every full moon since my curse was broken."
"A faerie is a being of the Heavens. They do not belong on Earth."
"I don't want to," she eventually tells Ryang. "I like it here." But she knows he realises that she doesn't say no.
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Things change after that night. Ryang acts like she could leave him at any second; his eyes become more guarded, his kisses more desperate, his embraces reluctant to release her.
He takes her everywhere and anywhere he can think of—mini golf and roller coasters, laser tag and carnivals. Fanta knows he is trying his best to make her want to stay with him on Earth.
And yet every day, the pull from Avalon gets stronger and stronger.
On one of the rare hours she gets alone, Fanta lets her hair loose with trembling fingers, and summons—for the first time since the battle with the evil force—her winged gown.
It has changed. No longer the brilliant, elaborate ball gown with cranes and ruffles and a petticoat, it is now no more than a simple robe with a bland pattern and a sash—something that was appropriate perhaps for a standard gown, one possessed by a new faerie. It is by no means representative of the enormous magical power that Fanta is capable of wielding.
The longer she stays on Earth, the longer she is apart from her winged gown, the more her magic wanes. She loves human life, but Fanta can not quite embrace the concept of becoming completely human.
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Pain comes for her, the eighth full moon since the breaking of the curse.
"Come home, Fanta," he demands, "Avalon is calling you. You cannot stay on Earth forever."
"I want to," she tells him honestly, "I really do—but I cannot leave Ryang."
Pain gives her a look of sympathy, but he is resolute when he tells her, "You must ascend the next full moon. Or Charon will send some faeries to sort out matters for themselves." What he means is that they will take her back by any means necessary.
Before he leaves, Pain presses a package into her hand. "I know you have run out," he says, before bidding her farewell and climbing back into the carriage.
"Use it well."
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She does it the afternoon she is due to leave forever. Finally pushes away her long-gone mother's warnings out of her mind and lets Ryang make love to her, in his bed in the dappled light of the afternoon sun shining through the thick material of the curtains.
She knows he takes this to mean something, and realises that she will be leaving him.
"Ryang," she says, "I love you. And I will always be watching over you." She sheds a tear, but does not let him see.
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Pain's package contains incense, the same incense she had used up all too quickly upon her initial arrival on Earth. Incense that took away one's memories.
"Fanta, what are you doing?" Ryang's voice cracks as he sits upright in bed, eyes following as she rushes nervously around his house, up and down the stairs, from one room to the next. She finds a lighter in the kitchen, an incense holder in the study. With shaking fingers she mounts all 108 (she curses Pain for this—but then again, Ryang did need a lot of incense to forget his entire two years with her) sticks of incense into the holder, although she has to magically expand it to accommodate them all. Then she carries it carefully into Ryang's room.
"Fanta, what are you–" Ryang looks up from shrugging on his jacket to see her place the holder on his desk.
"I'm sorry, Ryang." And she fumbles with the lighter, tears beginning to escape from her eyes.
"Fanta, no!"
She cannot get the flame to ignite for more than a brief second. Her fingers grow clumsier and her vision blurs with tears as she struggles to set the incense alight.
The lighter is snatched from her hands, and Fanta turns to find Ryang flicking closed the lid before throwing it out the window of his room. There went that plan.
Ryang is starting to shout, her mind is a whirring, chaotic mess, and all Fanta really wants is to do this now, wipe Ryang's memory before she really starts to break down and cannot bring herself to leave him.
She needs her magic.
Closing her eyes, she summons with all her might her gown, and it comes to her in a dazzling flash of light which illuminates the room and momentarily blinds her.
"I'm sorry," she tells Ryang, "But this is what I have to do." And then she uses her powers to set the incense sticks alight.
As smoke fills the room, she takes one last look at the human boy, the boy she had gotten to know so well in her fleeting time on Earth. He stands glassy eyed and stock still, eyes focused in her direction but not quite on her.
And then she leaves out the window, simple as that.
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The carriage is awaiting when she arrives at the bathhouse, dried tear tracks on her face and a nervous lump in her throat.
Pain greets her from the carriage, embraces her warmly and takes her hand as she steps inside.
"Hello, sister," he says, smiling. "Avalon eagerly awaits your return."
The doors close, the carriage ascends.
Ryang, and Earth, are gone.
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AN: The next chapter should be posted two Sundays from now. Thanks for reading.
Much love,
RichelleBrinkley xx
