Anna tapped her fingers against her knee, her other hand supporting her chin as she watched the three fairies ignoring their charge. John perched on the root by her side and Anna flicked her fingers at him to turn him into a man. He repositioned himself, conscious of the significant drop where they sat, and turned to her as Anna pointed across the chasm toward the picnicking fairies and the girl chasing after a butterfly.
"Why don't they take better care of her? She could wander off the edge of the cliff? They could lose her in a second because they don't care about her."
"Perhaps they think they're work thus far has been sufficient."
"They've not done anything. It's been all us for the last four years."
"But they don't know that." John risked moving closer to her as Anna continued to scowl at the scene. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you care about the little thing."
"It'd be a poor repayment on my investment if she tumbles over the cliff the same as it was if she happened to die of starvation." Anna's head lifted, watching Mary play closer and closer to the edge. "Why don't they do something?"
"You could do something." He prompted and then made a point of not meeting her eyes when she glowered at him.
"Any more advice on how to be a good person from you and I'll turn you into a worm." Anna flicked a finger and one of the fairies tumbled over.
Instead of taking stock of her surroundings when she righted herself, she immediately shot her own dart of colored magic at the fairy next to her. Within moments they were all firing at one another and crying out their anger before sending another blast of light. All the while, Mary wandered closer and closer to the edge.
"Sod it." Anna snapped her fingers and as the little girl slipped on the edge, a large root rose up and lifted her back into the meadow. The little girl only giggled and continued chasing the butterfly. Anna groaned and let her head hang back on her neck. 'Why are children so frustrating?"
"Weren't you frustrating to your parents?"
"I don't know." Anna quieted, not meeting John's eyes as she stood up, walking along the edge to follow Mary's progress. "I never really knew them."
"Never?" John stumbled to his feet, keeping farther back from the edge than Anna, who walked the line as though it was the most solid ground. "I thought fairies were raised like a flock."
"Depends on the breed of fairy." Anna stepped over a root, twiddling her fingers again to keep Mary from the edge with another large root. "The ones over there raise all their young as one. There are parents but you're more children of the hoard than you are the child of a parent."
"They call them hoards?"
"What do I care what they call them?" Anna huffed and then stopped, closing her eyes. "They're called flocks and there's a great deal of camaraderie there."
"You don't sound overly thrilled by that."
"My breed of fairy kind is different." Anna faced the other side of the chasm.
"Because you're bigger?"
"Because we've more in common with humans." Anna shrugged, "It's why my wings must be returned by those who stole them."
"I don't see the connection."
"A long time ago, when Man and Fairy were young, they met in peace and harmony." Anna pointed toward the Moors. "Those were open to Man like his world was to us. We lived together until a few men were jealous of the powers fairies had. They wanted their magic, their long life, and their longevity. They wanted to be what we are because they weren't happy as they were."
"It's the common condition."
"Not for fairy kind. We don't…" Anna stopped herself, "Before me, we never felt that way."
"What way?"
"Vengeful, spiteful, and vindictive." Anna snorted, "We were happy in the simplicity of the lives we had."
"But?"
"But Man attacked to steal from us, as they have sought to do ever since, and fairies withdrew into the Moors and closed them to Man."
John gasped and Anna turned to see Mary dancing too close to the edge again. She sighed, fiddling with her fingers to bring the roots over the edge, forming a barrier to the chasm. When she turned to see John's face, Anna raised an eyebrow.
"Like I said, I'd hate to see my revenge thwarted by those three idiots caring for her."
She picked up the edges of her dress and worked back into the forest, away from the chasm. John followed close behind her, not as graceful in his form as a man, and spoke up. "What happened then?"
"What?"
"Between Man and Fairy? After the Moors were taken from Man."
"They were never…" Anna stopped herself, waiting for John to join her. "They were never for Man. They simply lost the privilege of traveling freely in our domain."
"You can't be old enough to know that."
"It's common knowledge among fairy kind." Anna turned to the trees, squinting there. "But sometimes Man would seek peace. Sometimes Fairy would and when that happened… there were unions between the two."
"And that's what makes you different." John pointed at her but Anna ignored him, pushing further into the trees as he crashed behind her to catch up. "You're the product of a Fairy and Man union."
"A long time ago. Before the parents of my parents of my parents of my parents for generations past."
"But still," John's hand caught her arm, pulling Anna to a stop. "You've got a connection to that world. You're supposed to bridge the gap between them."
"And what gap, oh wise one, would you have me bridge?"
"That girl'll be princess one day, if you let her be, and you might find you share more in common than you'd like to admit."
"How's that?" Anna folded her arms over her chest.
"Your ancestors could've been her ancestors."
"Because my ancestors could be…" Anna laughed. "I'm a Fairy, John. I'm not Man and even if there's a drop or two in my veins, I'm a Fairy and always will be."
"If you'd had a child with him… would it've been a Fairy?"
Anna stopped, her eyes directed ahead of her but the focus lost. All she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. Her fingers tightened around her staff and a green glow emanated from the top. "What did you say?"
"If that was your daughter down there, instead of the Princess, would she be Fairy or Man?"
Anna turned faster than John could react and suddenly he hit a tree hard enough to knock the wind from him. Her staff was under his chin, pressing on his throat, and Anna positively vibrated with the energy she kept back from trying to blast him apart. "NEVER speak to me about that again."
John nodded and she waited a moment before releasing him. He hit the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees, and rubbed at his throat. Anna stepped back, looking over him, and then turned back to the path.
"Why not?" Anna looked over her shoulder at him as John spread his arms wide. "Why would you care if you hate him?"
"Because he stole that from me. He stole…" Anna bit down on her words. "He took everything from me. He took what I am and then had the gall to gloat about it. He's like all the rest of them."
"Rest of whom?"
"The others who laughed at my loneliness. Who refused to allow me near them or to play with them or even to be loved like them." Anna used her staff to thrust toward the other side of the barely visible chasm. "They shut me out when I needed someone most. When I lost my parents to Man, seeking to steal their power or their magic or what have you and took their lives instead, they refused me. They shut their doors in my face and I was left alone. Alone to die if that was my fate."
"But you didn't die."
"No, I didn't." Anna held herself higher, "I survived and they hated me for it. They hate that I represent the power of the unions between Man and Fairy. And they resent that I'm more powerful than they are because of it."
"And that's why you'll not think about the power a child of yours would have."
"There will be no children for me, John." Anna left him, walking the path alone. "There can be no children when you're the last of your kind."
Anna walked the edge of the woods around the cottage. Mary sat at the table outside while flashes of light glowed inside. She hummed to herself, kicking her legs back and forth as she wrote something out on a sheet of paper. Anna frowned at it, watching Mary as she finished with a flourish and then worked herself off the bench and toward the woods.
Drawing back into the woods, Anna sought safety in the shadows but Mary took no notice of her. She skipped up the path, still humming to herself as she trailed the paper behind her, and followed its turn toward a tree. Anna trailed her, keeping to the shadows and staying silent as she walked. If Mary noticed her presence she paid her no mind and rolled up the paper in her hands before stuffing it into the crook between two branches.
John, flying as a crow, flew down past Mary and landed on a tree near Anna. Mary turned with his motion, laughing to herself and waving at him until her eyes met Anna's. They both froze and Anna swallowed, trying to step back into the trees, but Mary darted closer in a moment.
"Hello." Mary managed, crawling over a root to hug Anna's legs. Anna almost stumbled, catching herself with a hand on the girl's back. It only took a moment for Mary to let go and then smile broadly. "Goodbye."
She skipped away, turning over her shoulder to call back. "Goodbye pretty bird!"
Anna shot a look at John, her brow furrowed in confusion, and then waited until Mary was back in her clearing before going to the tree and pulling the paper loose. It unrolled and she saw a child's drawing of a bird flying over a woman walking along the edge of a cliff. At the bottom, scrawled in the best handwriting a child could muster, were the words.
"Thank you for the fun."
John's caw in Anna's ear had her snapping her fingers to bring him to human form. He tapped the paper and Anna pulled it from his grip, rolling it back up. "That's progress."
"She thought playing with death was fun."
"She knew you were there and she thanked you." John tried to touch the paper again but Anna kept it from his reach. "Fine, be that way, but I think you're starting to like her."
"Am I?" Anna tucked the paper away, narrowing her eyes to stare through the trees at where Mary now drew on another paper. "Because I didn't burn this on sight?"
"Because you're not made of metal." John settled back on a root. "I've news from the castle."
"Thank you for finally saying something useful." Anna faced him, taking a seat of her own and resting her staff to the side. "What's the news?"
"The king's commissioned all the metallurgists in the kingdom to come to him." John shrugged, "Do you know why?"
"There's a rumor in some of the older folklore the people tell about Fairies that we're susceptible to the metals of the earth."
"Are you?"
"We're of the earth too and it hurts us no more of less than anything else. Unless…" Anna bit at her cheek. "Is he consulting his gardeners?"
"Not that I heard, why?'
"There's a plant, almost a weed, that hangs from the bows of trees that came poison us. Weaken our magical abilities." Anna thought a moment, "If mixed in wine it makes us tired and prone to lethargy."
"What if used in the water they have to use to cool the metal?"
"It could imbue the weapons with more power. A strike would weaken us, perhaps be even fatal." Anna sighed, "I only hope he's not intelligent enough to remember the wine he gave me when he took my wings. If he does then he'll know how to weaken my kind."
"Thus far that is all I heard." John paused, "And… the Queen is dying."
"She's dying?"
John nodded, "Says she took ill a short time ago and wants to see her daughter before she dies. The king has refused so far but I think he might find it in himself to allow her to visit her daughter in her final days."
"Then we should take the opportunity to see for ourselves." Anna waved at John and he reverted to his crow form. He squawked but Anna ignored it. "Go and only come back if she's allowed to see her daughter. I want to know."
John flew off and Anna waited, watching the clearing.
Her ears perked up at the sounds of a carriage trundling along and Anna shrank into the shadows. The trees covered her and John stood silently on her shoulder. They watched the carriage pass, following it as it trundled down the short lane to stop outside the cottage. Two soldiers, dressed to appear like farmers but their bearing betraying the militaristic nature of their charge.
Anna came to the edge, whispering something as she stepped from between the trees. One of the soldiers looked in her direction but turned immediately back to his work of lowering the steps and then extending a hand. The Queen, dressed in what she and her maids must have thought was a simple set, descended. A handkerchief came up to her mouth as she coughed and Anna caught the sight of blood and bile there.
"Your Maj-" The Queen silenced the man with a hand and he shrank back next to his fellow as the three faires almost tripped over themselves to bow and scrape before the Queen.
"We're honored to have you here."
"Where is she?" The Queen's voice graveled and grated a bit before she let out another racking cough.
The fairies turned quickly, bidding the dark-haired girl come out. "Here she is. Come now, don't be shy."
Mary clutched her hands behind her back as the Queen bent before her. She reached out a hand, stroking over her hair for a moment, smiling at her. "Hello."
"Hello." Mary attempted a curtsey and the Queen smiled at her.
"Have you practiced that?"
"Yes." Mary bobbed her head once, grinning to herself. "I practiced hard."
"I can tell." The Queen coughed into her handkerchief again before standing. "I'd like a moment alone, if I may."
"Of course." The fairies fell back, joining the soldiers as the Queen snapped at one of them.
He hurried over, carrying a package, and left it in the Queen's hands before he returned to his former position. The Queen pointed to the table and Anna skirted the group to circle to the other side of the table. She waved a hand in a circle in the air and then snapped her fingers to bring John to his human form. He landed beside her, brushing at himself and nodding at the Queen.
"What's killing her?"
"A combination of diseases." Anna sighed, "One I believe the King procured from another woman and one that haunts this region. We can only hope she dies of the second before the first can drive her mad."
"Can't you heal her?"
Anna shook her head, "My magic doesn't work like that. Healing her would be contrary to the desires of nature."
"Nature desires that girl lose her mother when she's four years old?"
"Nature deprived me of mine when I five." Anna shrugged, "It's the way of the world. Death is a natural part of life. Her death, though tragic, is no more of less than we can all expect for ourselves."
"To one day lie in the cold, unforgiving earth?" John scoffed and Anna turned to him.
"No one cheats death."
"You could help her if you wanted." John hissed, "Don't think I haven't noticed the difference in your power."
"What difference?"
"When you're working with nature you glow golden. When you work your own ends it's green."
Anna sighed, "If I worked my own ends on her, even to heal her, it would take something from her as it does me."
John blinked, "What?"
"Using magic contrary to nature steals something from you. It's not always evident but with one such as she is, with no magic of her own to sacrifice, it would make her a monster." Anna shook her head, "I've no argument against the Queen and I wish I could allow her to live longer so she might see her daughter grow but I can't violate nature and risk what she would become if I did."
"Would you say the same if it were anyone else?"
"Do you really think me so petty as to take joy in the pain her body gives her?"
"You took her daughter from her."
"I'm done arguing that with you again." Anna faced the Queen and Mary. "I don't have to explain what I did to you when you were there and you know. I've told you before."
"Then save her."
"I can't!" Anna walked into the woods, leaving John to follow her. "I can't save her because the act would kill her."
"She's already dying."
"I won't kill her faster." Anna took a breath, "What I may've done to her, when I cursed her daughter, wasn't my intention."
"You intended to hurt the King."
"And I made a mistake." Anna closed her eyes, put her fingers to the bridge of her nose to pinch there. "I should've taken something else from him. Something that wouldn't injure the innocent."
Anna noticed how he looked at her, "Why are you so surprised?"
John took a step back. "You'd do it differently?"
"Of course I would." Anna pointed back toward the coughing woman and the worried girl. "Do you think I wanted that? To deprive a mother of her child when I lost my own mother so young?"
"I just thought…" John shook his head, "I thought you wanted revenge on her for having what you wanted."
Anna rolled her shoulders back, "Please have the decency to believe I'm a slightly more mature person than that. I don't lightly seek the pain of another."
"I-"
Both turned as they heard a yell. Anna leaned toward the scene and watched Mary bending over the collapsed Queen. The package the Queen held lay unwrapped on the table, a doll that looked remarkably like Mary sat there, but Mary ignored it as she tried to revive the Queen. The soldiers and fairies rushed over, each trying their best to help the woman.
Anna held her breath, a hand going to her chest as the taut pull of the life around her seemed to slacken around the woman. John hissed near her ear and Anna jumped. "Help her."
Putting a finger forward, Anna whistled out a single note and the Queen's eyes relaxed. Her whole body eased and she breathed her last. John turned to Anna but she held up a hand to stop his argument.
"I obeyed nature and she's at peace. It's better this way."
They back into the forest, John turning into a crow on his own and flying away. Anna let him go, consumed as she was in her own thoughts, and found herself wandering back to the cottage by dusk. Mary sat at the table, her feet clicking together and the doll in her arms as she clutched it close to her body.
Anna surveyed the area and then stepped from the trees. Mary turned to her, sniffing a bit and in the dusky low light Anna could see tear tracks going over the girl's cheeks. She reached out a hand and grabbed Anna's skirt, tugging her closer.
"Please?" Without a word, Anna sat next to the girl. Mary showed her the doll, "My mother gave this to me. She told me who she was before she went to sleep."
"Oh." Anna nodded, gesturing toward the doll. "She's lovely."
"I named her Edna, after my mother." Mary took the doll back, hugging it tightly to her again. "I didn't know her long at all."
"No." Anna lifted an arm, swallowing hard before resting it on Mary's shoulder.
The girl turned to Anna's side and buried her face there as she cried. Anna stared about her, searching for something but she could not fathom if she desired an escape or a reprieve. Instead she wrapped her other arm around the girl and rubbed over her back as the little girl continued to cry.
In a short time Mary was asleep and Anna lifted her into her arms. Mary's head went to her shoulder and Anna cut a tear in the air to walk through it and find herself in Mary's room. She lowered Mary onto her bed and set the doll next to her before pulling the covers over her. Risking another moment, Anna kissed her head and then stepped back through the same tear.
Closing it behind her, Anna turned and almost ran into John. Grabbing for her staff, Anna hauled in a deep breath. "You frightened me."
"I apologize." John nodded toward the window, "Mary's asleep?"
"Yes. In her own bed instead of on me."
"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy being needed."
Anna jutted a finger in John's face. "Keep her opinions in that matter to yourself." She rolled her shoulders back, "What did you learn at the palace?"
"The Queen's dead. They'll have her lie in state for a few days and then bury her, as if the custom."
"Trapped forever in a tomb of stone." Anna shook her head, walking back into the woods. "Your spirit not allowed to soar the skies."
"It's their way." John kept pace with her. "Why did you go to her?"
"To whom?"
"To Mary?"
Anna stopped, her focus on something distant in the forest. "Because no one should have to weep for their mother alone."
"Like you had to?"
Anna did not answer, she simply pushed onward toward the Moors.
