Kendryek was still gone.
I woke up earlier than normal, the sun was only just beginning to crest the horizon, and began to practice my persuasive magic. I sat in front of the mirror, saying things to myself, alternating between using the magic and speaking normally. I wanted to get as strong of a control over it as I could - it was the most powerful weapon that I had. I only stopped when Tonilia came to "help" me get prepared for more training with Hadrian.
She talked the entire time and I listened, if only to distract myself from thinking about what Kendryek could have seen when he went to the Spring Court. In her ramblings she made no mention of my increase in power or anything else that was important, until she said the name Damien.
"Did you hear that Damien is coming from Quercus' Court?" she asked. She continued without leaving me time to answer. "I cannot believe it! The legendary heartthrob warrior is coming here, to live with us! I hope he notices me…" she said, quietly drifting off as she realized how unlikely that was. Then, she perked up. "Would you be offended if I requested to be his servant instead of yours? You understand, don't you?" she asked me. I didn't answer, thinking she would not want to hear it. She did, and waited until I responded.
"I don't know about that one, Tonilia," I replied carefully. "I've heard a few worrying things about him." She furrowed her eyebrows at me and grumbled. She did not speak to me the rest of the morning.
Hadrian was waiting for me, as always. He wore the same robes as yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that and glowed with a different aura than the others. Instead of an iridescent, almost rainbow-like aura, his was red and dark. He faced my direction and sniffed the air when I got close.
"Double the distance," he ordered. I started to protest. "I will triple it if you do not do as I say." I grit my teeth and swallowed my anger, vaguely considering using my persuasion on him to reduce how far I had to run.
So I started.
This time, things were different. The pace I normally ran felt like a casual jog to me now, so I sped it up, running faster and faster until the world around me became a blur of motion. Wind whipped my face and tore at my clothes, but I felt my body begin to lighten. I felt free, truly free, like a sparrow on its first flight.
I ran the distance Hadrian expected of me in the same time as usual. He made no mention of this feat. He acted as though nothing had changed, like I didn't crush his expectations. I glowered as he led me to the training grounds.
Instead of handing me my blade, he tossed it to me. I effortlessly caught its handle and immediately assumed a defensive position, preparing to be swiftly taken down.
He approached cautiously, testing my guard with a few jabs and swings. I blocked them easily. He backed away.
"Attack me," he said. I stepped forward, closing the distance between us and faked a thrust, quickly reacting with a right shoulder swing. He deflected it with a flick of his wrist, the metal ringing sharply.
I felt a pricking sensation on my neck just before he teleported behind me to knock me on the ground. I caught myself this time, only stumbling instead of falling. A flash of anger struck me. I was not going to be knocked down again.
I regained my footing and took a deep breath, focusing in on that anger and briefly letting it consume me. I brought my arm back and swung at him with as much force as I could muster, feeling that prickle in my neck again. I used the momentum of my swing to turn me to face him again.
I grabbed his foot with my arm and drove my sword towards his chest. He teleported again, but this time he retreated. He drew a second sword from within his black robe. My anger burned colder.
"Will you ever give me a fair fight?" I demanded, voice shaking.
"Fair fights do not exist, princess," he rumbled before launching a flurry of attacks. The air was filled with the sound of metal on metal as I fought for my life against my "ally." Each blow shook my arm to the shoulder, but I felt little pain, only rage.
He backed off for a moment, baiting me to attack him. I did not. It would have been a move beyond foolishness. He teleported around twice, trying to get the upper hand on me. Both times I was able to detect when and where he was teleporting to and dodge the following attacks.
"Fight me," he spat. "You are not a dancer, you are a warrior."
"Then put down your weapon and fight me on even terms," I replied coldly. He shook his head.
"Jarrin, Samanthia, Terrin, or any other one of the Spring Court warriors will not drop their mortars to fight you on your terms," he said, referencing the strange weapon I saw in the Spring Court. He took a step forward and threw his full body into a head swing that was aimed at breaking my guard.
Clang
The sound echoed back to us. I stopped his blade, but only just. My entire arm went numb with the strain of the block. A large knick was left in the edge of my sword. I took my eyes off of Hadrian to look at it for a second to look at it. That was it.
"It is interesting to note that you are no different from them, then," I snarled at him. He swung at my right side. My sword rattled in my loosening grip as I deflected it. He did not let up and swung at my other side with his other weapon. I haphazardly twisted my arm to block that blow. My grip broke and my sword went flying.
He drew his arms back for another attack, possibly his last. I registered the fact that he was attacking someone who was unarmed in a deep, primal part of my brain, and felt a shifting of power.
A dazzling blue light surrounded me as his swords cut towards me. This light wrapped around me like wings, protecting me from his blows.
Shing
Hadrian swore and dropped his swords to the ground. They were covered in frost now, as was the grass around my feet. The blue light was gone. Hadrian paused, looking bewildered. I took this time to grab one of his blades and turn it on him him. I did not feel the cold.
Hadrian reacted quickly, teleporting to the sword I'd dropped and re-arming himself. I had yet to pick up his swords when he attacked me again.
A flash of blue surrounded me again, this time lingering for a moment longer.
They were wings.
Dazzlingly blue feathers, made entirely out of ice, surrounded me and defended me against his attacks. But, the moment he backed off, they were gone again. Only the frost on the grass bore any trace of their existence.
He stepped back and pulled his feet together, nodding his head and offering me my sword back.
"You finally have the magic I sensed when you took your first step into the dining hall," he said. "It took you a while, but you got there."
"Blame Lysander for that one," I muttered, snatching my weapon out of his hand.
"I cannot help train your magic. I have not used traditional fae magic for a very long time and would be ill-suited for helping you grasp yours," he stated.
"You have magic, other than your silly teleporting?" I asked angrily, the rush of the fight not yet having faded. An evil grin split his face and he held out his hand.
A moment later, a white bird fell from the sky and hit his palm. It looked at me with a beady, terrified eye, before its chest caved in and the life was brutally snuffed out.
I cried out and took a step back, but Hadrian was not finished. The creature stood in his palm and started to writhe and squirm, its bones, muscles, and sinew moving beneath its skin and feathers. Its wings bent at odd angles and feathers fell out. Bones broke through skin and blood leaked out of the wounds, staining it red. It went limp in his palm.
Then, it stood on its two feet. This majestic creature, a dancer in the skies, had turned into a bipedal mass of blood and bones. It's head stuck out of its head at an odd angle and its two wings had lost their feathers and become one large arm that it carried like a club. Bones, snapped to a sharp point, jutted out from the end.
My jaw dropped into true horror and my stomach churned. Hadrian cackled and placed the creature on the ground. It started towards me, it's lifeless eyes aimed in opposite directions. I backed away, avoiding its haphazard attacks.
"What have you done to it?" I whispered, barely able to form words.
"This is my power, Allyn. I sacrificed a lot for it. Kill it," he said. "Put it out of its misery." I swallowed and slashed it in half with my sword. It fell into two pieces onto the ground and quickly began to reform, it's body knitting back together.
"I have turned entire armies into my thralls. Few fae are powerful enough to resist my magic," he stated darkly, but without feeling. He aimed a palm at my torso. I immediately lost control of my body and was frozen in place. The creature began to climb my leg. Fear and disgust filled me. "It appears you are not one of them."
"There is only one way to permanently kill one of my thralls: fire. A gift that you do not have the fortune of having," he said. It had reached my upper thigh. "So instead, I will call if off...if you apologize for disrespecting the magic that cost me my eyes." Now it was at my waist and showed no signs of slowing.
"I am sorry," I sputtered. It collapsed to the ground and went limp, the various disjointed pieces of the creature falling apart. I heaved up breakfast into the grass a few feet away.
"Apology accepted," he replied. Then he teleported away.
I was searching books for information on Blood Workers when Erin found me. She was dressed in her usual clothing, a blue robe with the pattern of a rising sun. (It seemed that Vivianne was the only one around here who bothered changing her outfit.)
"Good afternoon, Allyn," she told me, taking a seat in the chair beside me and crossing her legs.
"Good afternoon to you too, Erin," I replied, wary of what she had to say.
"I heard about the magic you displayed when sparring Hadrian," she said. I internally groaned. How long until the whole mansion new and people started whispering about my icy wings, on top of the whispers about my ears? "I cannot teach you everything, but I can try to help you understand more of the basics." I perked up and set my book down.
"I would appreciate any guidance, seriously," I replied. "As long as it doesn't end up like how church went," I jokingly added. She both laughed and winced.
"I'm glad you're not upset about that."
"I know you only meant the best."
We went to my room - it was closer than hers - and she instructed me to sit down on the floor. Along the way she explained that magic was more complicated than most fae realized.
"Most spells, particularly gifts like winnowing, healing, and most combat magic are instinctual. We do not need to think about what we are doing when we cast these spells. That makes it harder for others to learn and pick up how to use it.
"Other spells, more specific ones, require more thinking and planning. Building with magic is challenging, only a rare few possess a gift to Build, and most find it easier to do it manually. Even more complex magic, like the border that separates our court from that of Spring, can require decades of planning and incantation writing to get correctly. By the way, Vivianne has a theory about the magic there, hence why she is investigating it today," she explained. I nodded in understanding.
"So how do I control my magic?" I asked. I appreciated the information, but I was not quite sure how it applied to me.
"The best piece of advice I can give you is to meditate." I was severely underwhelmed. "Clearing your mind and focusing on your body and your magic is the best way to control it. If you can feel it, you can control it," she continued.
Erin spent the better half of the next hour training me on how to meditate properly. I found it extremely challenging. Her main points, forget the past and future, ignore any distractions in the world, and to turn your senses inward towards your body, ran completely opposite to how I was used to functioning.
Every time I tried to focus on my breathing, I would hear a servant walking down the hall and my mind would be pulled towards the sound. Forgetting the past was not hard - I had been practicing my whole life - but forgetting the future was a different challenge entirely.
Somehow, I had to forget about The Meeting that was only a week and a half away. I had to forget about eventually coming face to face with my mother. I had to forget about facing Terrin, my mate and worst enemy. I had to forget about Vivianne and Damien, the latter of the two was supposed to arrive very shortly.
Needless to say, I was finding it challenging to do so.
"I'm not sure I can do this, Erin," I grumbled. She opened her eyes. She sat in a cross-legged position, her palms on her knees.
"Do not worry, Allyn. It takes a lot of practice to meditate effectively," she said as she smiled reassuringly. "Try it one more time, for just a few minutes. Then we will be done." I nodded and put my hands back on my knees, micking the same position she held. I could do one more attempt.
I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, cleared my mind, and-
A knock on the door sounded, snapping me out of it.
I looked up and found myself in Lysander's cabin.
I felt tremendously exhausted all of the sudden, like I'd run Hadrian's course ten times.
There was a familiar presence outside the door. It was one that I knew well. It crackled like thunder and usually held no emotion. This time, though, the presence felt distressed.
"Come in," I said. The door opened and Vivianne entered.
"I believe there is a problem with Terrin's Wall," she started. She eyed me suspiciously. "Are you alright?"
"I am fine, just tired. The last few days have been exhausting," I told her. I offered her a drink, she rejected it. Something about that felt odd. "Tell me about the problem at dinner." She came closer to me and whispered, even though there was no chance of anyone overhearing.
"That is the problem. I am not sure we can trust everyone at the table," she said.
"What do you mean? You can't seriously believe Allyn-" she cut me off.
"Damien. He…" Vivianne's voice broke. She trailed off and turned her head to the side. She took a deep breath and continued. "He has no respect for me, the Kendryek, or our court as a whole."
"What did he do?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" she countered.
"He did something to you, didn't he?" I asked as I stood and placed an arm on her shoulder. She tensed up. Memories and regret flashed quickly through my mind, too quickly to be understood.
"He tried making advances a few times. He grew angry when I refused them." She moved away and faced the window, getting close enough to it that I could not see her face. "He put something in my drink." Her voice was shaky. A tremendous amount of guilt settled in my stomach.
I sent her there. The thought cut through my mind.
"I do not remember anything that happened the night before I returned." She was whispering and shaking now. "All I know is that I woke up in his room…"
"You do not have to continue," I told her. "I've heard enough."
"Allyn?" I opened my eyes again, appearing in my room this time. I was lying on the floor now, having gone completely limp and fallen over. "Are you alright?" I sat back up, speechless and confused.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I murmured, my mind elsewhere.
What the hell had just happened? Was any of that real?
"I think I just got too relaxed and dozed off a little," I lied. Erin frowned.
"Keep practicing - you'll get better at it. I need to go prepare for dinner tonight now," she said as she stood.
"Thank you for this," I told her. "I really appreciate you trying to help me, even though I'm not getting anywhere." She smiled and dipped her head.
"It takes time to master your skills. But, you are a fae. You are immortal. You have time," she said before exiting the room. Given the rapidly approaching Meeting date and the inevitable war, I was not sure what she said was true.