Chapter 4
"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything." - Gordon A. Eadie
before
Matthew Chase is cursed.
So is his sister, but she doesn't know that. They were cursed since birth. Probably since the time they started to grow in their mothers belly. But where Auriana's curse was viewed as a 'gift' by the dryad elder that his father brought the twins to, Matthews's condition was a bit harder to handle. Where his sister, a human child, held all the three glamour's of the court and would die if she used it without the bracelet the dryad elder gave her, or die if she used that power at all…Matthew was haunted by visions of the future and past, as well as dead fairies. Auriana's powers were viewed as a gift since the former Iron prince, Kierran, bore these powers. And where he used them for evil, Auriana may use them to good. To right a wrong as the elder explained with a joyful laugh and small narrowed black eyes. Matthews's powers were viewed as a curse, considering that usually those that could view the future or past ended up dead.
Matthew first became aware of his powers when he was old enough to remember. It started when he saw the transparent figure of a summer fairy outside his bedroom window. Her name was Awylen and she came to warn his father. When Ethan Chase heard Matthew's words he had paled, grayish blue eyes wide and ordered Matthew not to tell anything to his sister. Matthew had listened, but told his sister that he could see things. Auriana did not question it, only clasped his hand and made him look at her bracelet with a knowing gaze.
They were 5 than.
A week later Matthew saw his sister die in a dream. She was older in it, more like their mother. He almost didn't recognize her. If it weren't for the eyes, that were his own, and the bracelet on her wrist, he would have certainly thought her to be someone else. But that older Auriana's death haunted him, and Matthew did not tell a soul of this horrid future that he saw in repetition every night and day.
Once he got older the visions started to hit him in the middle of the day as well. Always Auriana's death. Sometimes his own.
At night the visions would blur from one to another. The most puzzling one was he later to have discovered to be of past events, and not future. A vision of Summer and Winter fairy lords that were not enemies, but friends. Than the Winter king with the kind smile and silver eyes was dead and the Summer Queen withy the fiery hair fled from her court, and those visions were no more.
Awylen visits grew more frequent in the years, and Matthew fled from her keening voice. He engrossed himself in books of folklore and lore's, and tried to ignore his father's growing agitation. Where Awylen was a fairy spirit he knew more than most, Matthew was visited by others. He was haunted from afar by the fairy he knew to be the dead Winter king from his visions. Matthew would often feel his silver gaze on his back, and would quicken his step when he caught sight of the transparent figure. The king never drew closer, but only watched from afar with his black and silver lining armor, one hand on the hilt of his white sword and the other clasping the silver chain on his neck where a small ice colored dagger lay against his dark neck collar. His dark hair would stir with wind Matthew could not feel and he did not hold the fairy's gaze for long. The Oracle's dead spirit came to him at the age of 10, as he hid in the woods from his Dryad playmates while they sought each other in a game of hide and seek. She howled and keened and grabbed with her Skelton talons at Matthews face while raging with her pale eyes:
Gelid Summer,
Torrid Winter,
Fate has chosen your descent.
Don't run,
don't flee,
for everything has a reason that you do not see.
Matthew had fled from her fading figure, and the oracle's screams haunted his footfalls to the glen where his father waited. Matthew had barreled into Ethan's stoic chest and held on with tiny fist into his shirt. Auriana had jumped up from her perch to barrel into Matthew's back, wrapping her arms around his waist in a painful grasp as she sensed his distress. Their mother had reached out to clasp them all in a hug whereas Matthew shook and as they tried to ask him what was wrong.
He had fled from Awylen as she sang the same warning that the oracle had now forced him to hear. He had fled from them in his visions and dreams, but he could flee from the truth no longer; there were chains around him that were tightening their hold, and Matthew was choking.
Now
He stared at the girl with the fiery red hair. Matthew had asked her who she was and upon hearing her voice and the name she uttered, he knew why she was so familiar.
"The Summer Queen" Matthew said, eyes moving toward the chain on her neck, a matching gold dagger to the Winter King who haunted his dreams.
"Former Summer Queen", Deirdre grinned. She pocketed her gold pocket watch and shifted her sunglasses to rest on her hairline more securely, revealing the amber eyes and the fire within them. She flashed her white teeth at him and crossed her arms.
Razor jumped down from his perch on Matthews shoulder to glare at the fairy, "Don't like fairy! No trust!" the tiny gremlin flapped his ears and hissed and spat static electricity. Deirdre was not faced. In fact, she seemed amused at the tiny fairy protecting his master. Matthew closed his eyes, trying to subdue the anger and waterfall of emotion that was spilling out of him. It was like oil, the anger. And if Matthew didn't take heed, a match will fall into the ocean and raise a storm of rage which he did not wish to unleash.
Matthew couldn't remember when his fear, at the visions of the future and ghosts that stalked his every move, had turned into anger. Across the time of his life Matthew had stopped running away. He just stopped caring about the ghost who haunted him or about the visions. His only concern was his sister's wellbeing. And to stop that vision, which haunted him since he could breathe, from coming true. He memorized the Oracle's and Awylen warning, trying to make an understanding of the wretched thing. There was an understanding he came too from analyzing the unhelpful warning: 1) stop running. He stopped, and his fear tuned to anger. Claws curved from inside his being that made even the strongest of fairies retreat. 2) Their futures are set in stone. That fate has decided the course of their lives.
Matthew wasn't going to stand for that so he made his own New Year's revelations: 1) stop running. 2) No one bosses you around. You write your own fate. Fuck destiny. 3) Auriana isn't going to die.
Not over his dead body.
Matthew picked up Razor and plopped him on his shoulder. He let the violin case fall open with a thump and took out the destroyed instrument. He didn't take the bow, it would not fare well as a weapon. He took up the violin as a means to escape. When he composed Music, somehow the future and past couldn't get their hold on him. A ghost of a caress of a cold hand caused Matthew to whirl around, only to meet the gaze of a hedge. He raised a palm to the back his head and closed his eyes while his mind was filled with the memory of snow and frost and the king who ruled it.
He turned to meet Deirdre's eyes. She was not smiling now.
"How did it happen?" he asked, "How did he lose his mind?"
Deirdre shifted and offered a hollow smile in return to Matthews's question. That smile seemed less natural on her face than the fake grin she wore on her face before, "He was driven to madness. You saw at the end that he was himself; he did not do it to himself."
Matthew turned his head to gaze impassively at the hedges around him, at the unnatural silence in it which he wouldn't have associated with the Briar's. Deirdre said, "He was corrupted for the power he held, and the Nevernever did not like that".
"The Nevernever drove him mad?"
"The Nevernever is the madness."
Matthew felt himself swallow, his throat dry as he felt a cool breath at his ear and a sudden hiss, 'And so will you be consumed by it if you do not watch your step in this charade, little seer', this time Matthew didn't turn, he did not freeze. The warning was clear. He felt the invisible chains slink across his collarbone to wind around his throat.
Matthew drew a breath, "And my sister?"
Deirdre spat out her gum and turned at her heel, stance casual but alert as she heard movements of things Matthew could not hear. "She'll have the same fate if we do not find her first. Where you hear the echoes of voices of the past and future, she hears the echo of madness and will be swallowed by it, if not caught before she falls down the rabbit hole.", Deirdre drew a hand across her throat and indicated for Matthew to follow her lead.
"Elysium begins in a few hours. The Scepter of Season's will now move from the hands of Winter to Summer. First we will find the Iron Queen, your sister will surely go on the same path", Deirdre tilted her head to the side as Matthew hear the distant scream of an unfortunate fairy.
"We have dallied here enough; our enemies have caught our scent. I hope you know how to use that thing", amber eyes eyed Matthew's weapon of choice with distaste, but he didn't have much choice on the matter. It was the violin or the bow, the choice was obvious.
Matthew trotted after Deirdre, trying to keep pace as she wound left or right through the maze, "And the fairy?" he whispered as Deirdre turned once more.
She shot him a look, "You don't need to worry about old Raquel", she smiled humorlessly. She seemed to do that a lot. "He and his hound were only meant to make sure you ended up in fairyland"
Matthew muttered some very choice words about the hound and its master when Deirdre stopped so suddenly Matthew almost smacked into her. Razor squeaked in alarm, as he caught the sounds Deirdre was hearing and flattened his ears. The gremlin scurried into the nook of Matthews chin and shuddered. Matthew suddenly got a very bad feeling.
"Run", Deirdre went to grab his hand but Matthew didn't need to be told twice. He was already running before she opened her mouth. Deirdre quickly outpaced him and led the way, swearing as she went and amber eyes blazing. Her sunglasses flew over her head and Matthew caught them when he heard the roar of the beast they were running from. Matthew guessed it was a dragon, but did not want to stick around to find out. They passed other creatures as they ran. Razor shrieked when a huge black spider descended over their heads swiping with pincers. "Hey long-legs!", Matthew swung the violin, hitting it across several eyes while the brutalized weapon released a few mournful tones, the spider soon gave up on the meal, deciding it was not worth the effort or its life as the ground shook with the dragon's nearer footfalls and roars.
"This way!" Deirdre called out and Matthew grabbed her arm as she suddenly turned right, jumping through a hole in the maze. The dragon's roar was distant suddenly, and Matthew realized that they were now in a different section completely of the deadly Briars. He turned around, released from Deirdre's hold to see the hole from which he and Deirdre came thorough to be no more than the size of his pinky finger. Matthew felt his lip twitch as a full out grimace bloomed on his face and he couldn't help but to release a shaky breath. The whole situation was absurd, and magic was ridiculous. Yes, this is the sentence best to describe his feeling right now on their odd escape.
"So, where too?" Matthew turned to found Deirdre crouched beside a door so tiny, he was sure it was from the "drink me!" scene from Alice in Wonderland. One of her hands was braced on the hedge's vines above it, and the other leaned casually across her knee as she inspected the mouse door. She shook her fiery head than turned it left, eyes narrowed. Razor muttered gravely, than shook its tiny fist in the direction which Deirdre had her eyes trained at.
Matthew had just raised his now brutalized weapon and trained his eyes ahead, when the trio heard the howls.
Hey guys! Lementlima here! finally got around to posting matt's 2 chapters! if y'all have any advice or writing or if you see any grammar mistakes do tell! the next chapter we're returning to Auriana and puck! any questions, complaints or screams of pain? shoot me an ask at my tumblr url: lamentlima
p.s Deirdre is my character from the prequel to this series, "lost in thoughts all alone"
