The morning breeze blows gently through the royal chambers and Marianne scrunches up her face as a loose piece of hair brushes across her nose. Puffing air from her mouth does little good to get the stray hair into place and she reluctantly leaves the world of sleep.
And here she was hoping to get a nicer dream before she had to wake up to balance out the ones that plagued her most the night.
Thanks to months of practice, Marianne is able to escape from her husband's clinging hold and emerges from their shared bed. It's a little trickier to remove her son's clinging form but she manages to do so without waking Puck up and she lays him against Bog.
Stretching her wings, she nearly groans at the mugginess she can feel in the air. Seems they were in for a very warm day today.
"I guess it was too much to hope for that it would stay cool for the festivities," she mutters softly.
She leaves a kiss on her sleeping husband's prickly chin and between her sleeping son's closed eyes before donning her dark pink spider silk dressing gown. The trip to the royal washing chambers is uninterrupted. Not really surprising with how early it is, probably not even dawn yet, but she is surprised that the other royal female of the Dark Forest is already cleaning up.
"Good morning, little thistle," Griselda murmurs, looking up from her task of washing her face.
"Good morning, Griselda. You're up early," Marianne comments.
"Could say the same for you," Griselda chuckles tiredly. "We're in for a hot day today."
Marianne hums her agreement and joins the elder female after a quick trip to the privy. The cool water feels fantastic against her heated skin and she barely resists the urge to draw a full bath. No need for that when she'll be taking one in a little while.
"Probably best not to heat the purification waters today with how warm it already is," Marianne mentions.
"Definitely!" Griselda agrees. "Though, we might have a little trouble getting some goblins out of the water. How can you fairies even stand the heat with your large wings?"
"Our wings actually help us cool down," Marianne explains. "You'll see a lot of fairies fanning their wings, especially the elders, and Dad will probably create a whirlwind with him being required to wear his entire formal wear. Bog is lucky his formal wear only consists of light clothing."
"With the need for the ruling royals to always be ready to fight at all times, any more clothing would just get in the way," Griselda remarks.
At the mention of fighting, Marianne pauses in her act of rinsing her face and she nibbles on her bottom lip. It seemed like an entirely inappropriate question considering the events of today but her curiosity wanted to be satisfied, especially after dreaming what she had.
Bog had avoided her previous attempt at answers because of their need for sleep and when she tried to ask him again yesterday, something always came up. She also got the feeling that he was reluctant to talk about it.
Griselda would probably give her the answers or straight up tell her to wait until a better time.
"What happened during Bog's first ruling year?" Marianne asks before explaining quickly at Griselda's silence. "It's just that Bog and I got to talking the night before last but it was late, so he said it was a story for another time and I never got a chance to ask him yesterday."
"I was wondering when you would ask something like that," Griselda murmurs. "It is a story for another time though, Marianne. That year was a very painful one for Bog, for all of us, in fact."
"That include the story of who Prince Fen is?" Marianne questions.
"Thang?" Griselda guesses, getting a nod. "I thought I overheard Stuff scolding him for bringing Fen up in front of Bog but I hadn't realized that he also mentioned him in front of you."
"Thanks to all those stories two days ago, Thang was worried that someone from the Light Field might want to kill Bog and I or Sunny and Dawn, so he asked me about it and had mentioned about Prince Fen's death. I assured...," Marianne explains.
"Thang brought up Fen's death?" Griselda interrupts, staring at the younger female in surprise.
"Yeah," Marianne answers slowly before continuing where she left off. "I assured Thang that there wasn't any danger but that kind of led me to not being able to sleep. Bog reassured me that I'm just going through the normal stress caused by everything that has happened and briefly mentioned that he had trouble during his first year of ruling."
"I'm surprised Bog or Stuff didn't knock him unconscious," Griselda mutters.
"Did you hear everything I said?" Marianne groans.
"Yes, yes, but...it's just...oh, come on," Griselda states, grabbing Marianne's hand and dragging her out the door.
"Griselda! Wait, where are we going?" Marianne asks as the elder female pulls her down the corridors at a fast speed.
"If we're going to talk about this then it's best to do so where nobody will overhear, especially Bog," Griselda comments.
"We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to," Marianne assures.
"I don't want to talk about it. Ever!" Griselda admits. "But it's best to get this all out now or things will get messier than it did during Imbolc. I know Bog hasn't talked to you about the meeting with the Placid Swamp that's gonna happen in a few days and the rest of us have been avoiding mentioning it as well."
Marianne pauses her questions at the mention of Imbolc and that something was being kept from her concerning the Dark Forest. Griselda was right. Bog hadn't mentioned anything about an upcoming meeting with the Placid Swamp. In fact, he rarely ever mentioned anything about the kingdom on the other side of the Dark Forest and when he did, it wasn't much or favorable.
She hadn't even known about there being another kingdom so close until she looked at the maps in the archive four months ago and noticed the border marking. Bog had merely told her that it was a kingdom of goblins as well but they were not allies to the Dark Forest. He had also mentioned that they had a bad habit of trying to expand their borders before completely changing the subject.
The chill coursing through her has nothing to do with the fact that Griselda is pulling her deeper down the castle and toward the winter burrow's castle entrance. She had a bad feeling about this story.
"I might as well start from the beginning," Griselda murmurs, pausing to open the winter burrow's door enough for them to enter. "When the Tarn King died and Queen Moor took his mate's place as king, the Titan King of the Placid Swamp proposed a treaty between the kingdoms. Moor was reluctant to accept it but the proposed treaty was too good to turn down because of the added benefit of no longer being in almost constant skirmishes with two different kingdoms. The Titan King had also given a blood-gift as an assurance to his sincerity."
Marianne shivers at the mention of a blood-gift. It was a horrific practice of the oath-taker giving their firstborn to the recipient of the oath as a guarantee that they would perform their oath. Not only is the firstborn never permitted to interact with their kin again but should their kin break the oath, they would be killed.
"I was eight springs old when my...sire sent me here and it didn't even take him a month before he was caught breaking the treaty," Griselda continues.
"Wait, you mean you're...?" Marianne trails off, staring at Griselda in surprise.
"Crown Princess Griselda of the Placid Swamp," Griselda introduces. "Not that that's worth anything. You see, the Placid Swamp's royal laws are very similar to the Light Field's except females have no rank or respect. Our responsibility is just to birth the next generation. We're raised to be little fluffy fluffer-heads who always do what males tell us to do because we don't have enough brains to think for ourselves."
"And yet you're here, alive and bossy," Marianne murmurs in amusement.
"Yeah, well, I was always different from the rest of the females in the Placid Swamp. Sure, I knew how to play the part so as to not get into too much trouble but I always slipped up. Just like the day I arrived here," Griselda chuckles, her amber eyes filled with fond memories. "I hadn't any idea what to really expect, not knowing how different the goblins here were from those back home or even how I would be treated by them. I managed to stay calm throughout the whole proceedings even though I was terrified but after the envoy left me here, I couldn't stop the tears from falling. Loch was just a skinny nine-winters-old brat at the time and he was in a sour mood. I found out later that Moor had ordered his son to take care of me, so like all grumpy little males, he said something stupid and I bit him for it."
"And they keep calling me wild and chaotic!" Marianne laughs, her voice echoing as they enter the archives.
"I was so terrified that I was going to be punished severely but the dreaded Moor King of the Dark Forest only laughed so hard that he fell down and then he told his whining son that he deserved it," Griselda remarks. "Moor treated me no different than he did his own offspring and made sure that I got an education that he said befitted a princess. In just one week, he was more a father to me than my own blood-kin was. Now, I might have only been a young one but I was as sharp as a blade. I knew the Titan King just wanted to get rid of me so his illegitimate son could be recognized as royal since there wasn't any true member of the royal bloodline left with my mother dying at my birth and I knew this treaty was his way of keeping his hands clean while also potentially leaving the Dark Forest unprepared for attack. I warned Moor that the Titan King wouldn't keep the treaty and his fighters were ready long before the invading army neared the first Dark Forest village. The false treaty was tossed aside and the usual skirmishes kept persisting like always."
"Obviously you weren't killed because of the broken oath, so what happened next?" Marianne questions.
"Moor raised me and ten springs later, I wasn't a gangly underfed runt anymore. I was hot!" Griselda quips, momentarily pausing in her stride to strike a pose. "And Loch attacked any eligible male that even so much as looked at me."
Her mirth doesn't permit her to notice where the elder female is leading her but soon Marianne realizes they're in a more isolated part of the archives. It's an area she hasn't explored yet. There weren't any scrolls but the large shelves were filled with various items, mostly large boxes and a lot of narrow somethings standing vertically.
Griselda releases her hand to walk over to one of the shelves and she moves the narrow things until she finally pulls one out to reveal it's the frame of a portrait.
"Griselda?" Marianne breathes in shock.
Marianne wasn't sure what she was expecting but this was not it. She had seen Loch King and Griselda's portrait several times as she wandered the archives but in this painting, they are older and also not alone. Another time she would have appreciated seeing a very young Bog showing off his missing milk teeth and maybe she would have giggled at the cute sight. This time, though, all she can do is stare at the two extra goblins in the portrait, similar in appearance to Bog and smaller than the Loch King but both are clearly older than the beaming child.
"Loch and I had three young. Would've had more but being a pureblood goblin, the longer pregnancy took a toll on me," Griselda murmurs, before softly running a hand against the painted face of the bigger-than-her goblin standing between the other two children. "This was painted right after Mire's fifteenth spring. Our firstborn was so happy to finally be allowed to join the hunting party that she got a bit careless as she was tracking a rabbit and hadn't kept an eye on the changing weather. She had wandered too far from the others and the summer storm was too fierce for her to fight her way back to the hunting burrow, so she had to wait until the hunting party found her. Loch wrapped her up as best he could but she was soaked through and so very cold. The healers worked almost without rest to force the winter-chill from her body but she was so weak afterward and there was nothing anyone could do."
Marianne watches as Griselda replaces the portrait and grabs another one. This one also contained the Loch King, Griselda, Bog, as well as the other goblin, and was far more recent than the last portrait. Both younger goblins towered over the Dark Forest queen but Bog was still slightly shorter and Marianne noticed a cool-detachment in the other goblin's frosty blue eyes compared to Bog's emotional crystal blue eyes.
"This...this was the last...last painting before...," Griselda manages before whimpering.
"Griselda, you don't have to...," Marianne starts.
"I'm alright," Griselda assures, wiping at her tears. "It's just that I haven't looked at any of these pictures in nearly seven years and I almost forgot how much Fen and Bog looked like Loch. Stubborn, growly, and grumpy, all three of them."
Griselda's forced laughter doesn't fool Marianne and she gently pries the portrait out of the elder female's hands to place it back on the shelf before tugging her back into the main room of the archives.
"It was after Bog turned twenty-one and it was his turn to take the trials," Griselda murmurs. "He not only won the fights but he also defeated Fen, giving him first rights to the crown. Fen was...unhappy."
"Sore loser," Marianne mutters automatically before cringing.
"He was a very sore loser," Griselda chuckles. "He hated losing at anything, even as a young one. Mire would make him so mad by doing things that he wasn't big enough to do and then she'd gloat about it. Of course, Fen turned around and did the same thing to Bog but while Fen acted out, Bog just screamed. By the spirits, could he scream! I'm surprised I hadn't gone deaf ages ago!"
The laughter is real this time as both females wipe away tears born from mirth and Griselda runs a three-fingered hand through her short frizzy red hair. Catching a tangled knot reminds her that they hadn't finished dressing yet but she knows that she made the right decision. It felt refreshing to be able to talk about all her children again, even if it is still a little painful to remember.
"Anyway, no one knows what really happened," Griselda continues. "Shortly before Samhain that same year, Fen announced that he was going to visit someone for a few days. He didn't say who it was or why, just that he would be back in time for the Wild Hunt. For the past few months he had been leaving for almost whole days at a time before returning home without giving any explanation, so I figured that he was courting a female from one of the nomad tribes and wanted to spend time with her and see her off when the tribes left. Then the night of the Wild Hunt came and Loch waited as long as he could but Fen didn't come home. Loch knew that he wouldn't be able to concentrate and he didn't want to leave me to worry alone, so he sent Bog to oversee the hunt and we waited through the night together for both our sons to come home but Fen never did. He was only twenty-eight autumns old."
Marianne can't stop tears from falling as the last pain-filled words seems to echo through the stone chamber and she wraps her arms to cover her enlarged stomach in an unconscious effort to protect her unborn infant. She couldn't even imagine how much pain the elder mother went through at losing two children or how she even survived. No wonder she fussed over Bog like she did...
Oh, spirits!
"I'm sorry!" Marianne gasps out. "I'm so sorry!"
Griselda returns the desperate embrace from her daughter-in-law with equal vigor, petting the wild shaded brunette hair as tears soak both dressing gowns. She pulls back after a few minutes of repeated apologies and tries to wipe away the tears of the kneeling fairy before her.
"It's okay, little thistle, it's okay," Griselda soothes.
"It's not okay!" Marianne denies vehemently. "You've been through so much and I...I nearly killed your son! How could you forgive me?!"
"Easy. It's just as Stuff said, you don't have a killer's heart," Griselda murmurs. "That isn't to say that I wasn't a bit tempted to kill you when Bog was telling the story but after hearing what he did and how you reacted to him, I knew then that you hadn't really wanted to kill him. You were only doing what you had to do to protect the ones you care about. It was more obvious when you woke up. Not only did you stay calm despite being in a strange place but you didn't even react violently to anyone's presence."
"But...," Marianne starts.
"No buts!" Griselda growls before softening. "Besides, you more than made up for it. My son has a great mate and I got a cute grandson with another on the way."
Marianne crushes the elder mother to her in another fierce hug, feeling more grateful for her presence throughout the last nine months. She knew things would have been a lot different without Griselda's pushy but loving presence.
"Now, let's finish before that cute grandson panics at you being missing and terrorizes the whole castle," Griselda quips.
Puck probably would, too. The poor child had been clinging all day yesterday and absolutely refused to sleep in his own bed. She could only imagine what he'd do if he woke before they finished.
"The story gets a whole lot worse, doesn't it?" Marianne questions hesitantly.
"Unfortunately," Griselda sighs. "All our searching proved to be useless and no one found a trace of what happened to Fen. At least, not until a messenger arrived from the Placid Swamp with orders that the King and Queen of the Dark Forest were to come to the Placid Swamp castle alone or never see our elder son again. The messenger also brought proof of the threat, Fen's royal necklace and...and Fen's wings."
Marianne groans in disgust as her own wings shudder. For a winged creature, cutting off their wings was the same thing as cutting off an arm or a leg. The survival rate for a wingless winged creature is very low and most die within a few years of the loss.
"There wasn't much we could do but obey," Griselda continues, dusting off her green spider silk dressing gown before urging Marianne to her feet. "We arrived only to find out that the Titan King was still alive, meaner and crazier than ever, and that Fen was already dead from the torture he endured. Loch fought as hard and as long as he could but he was outnumbered and tired by the sheer onslaught. If it wasn't for Bog, I would have died as well. It took months of brutal fighting but Bog finally forced the Placid Swamp to agree to stay in their borders. The yearly meetings are just to remind those treacherous fools that next time, we won't leave enough of them alive to feed a raven."