Here is the new wchapter! :D
pinkdoughtnuts : I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU HERE AGAIN! Lucien is my favourite characer as well, with Elain, if it's not obvious enough~! I'm so so happy to know you're still reading my ff and I hope you'll like this one till the end! ;D
kiwaii : Elucien MUST become canon! Tahnk you for your support!
LonelyUmbreon : Aaaaw, thank you so much, but please sleep well! Sleep is important! Thank you so much for your comment and your support!
FANFICTION
A COURT OF NIGHTMARES AND LIGHT
PART II – THE DAY COURT
CHAPTER XXII : Seals
Elain and Lucien ate breakfast and took a quick nap until a guard came knocking at the door in the early afternoon to gather in one of the many rooms of the Tower of Light. They found everyone already there, sitting around a long table covered in maps, drinks and food.
Sibylla, the Seer, was here. She was sitting at the opposite side of the table from Helion, a little distance put between herself and the others. From her sitting position alone, they could tell she intended to listen carefully before intervening.
"We were about to discuss everything we have come up with last night," Feyre told Lucien and Elain as they arrived.
Elain turned towards Lucien as he pulled a chair for her. She sat with a thankful smile, then turned towards her sister:
"You were absent last night, all three of you. The message said you had a lead on how to break Vassa's curse."
"And we have Lucien to thank for that," Helion said with a quirky smile in his direction, "Rather than trying to find a cure from that curse, we decided to try and create a similar spell in order to find its counter spell more easily. It will not be the exact same spell, but it should be close enough to give us an idea on how to break Vassa's."
"We also think that Vassa's royal ring might be a container for a part of the spell to work," Lucien added, "We have already sent her a message in the human lands to find out what she knows."
Elain felt a flare of red anger in her chest. She didn't like the way Lucien said Vassa's name, so casually, so intimately. She knew the time he had spent in her company, but she disliked that attachment to another woman who had tried to force herself on Lucien in the past. She recalled very well that awful scent of another human woman clinging to her mate.
"How long will it take you to create that spell, and its counter spell?" Amren asked, staring straight at Helion.
He shared a glance with Lucien, then shrugged.
"A day or two, if we focus entirely on that, and we get no more distraction or interruption."
"One of the problems we will encounter is that we need someone to volunteer themselves to undergo the new spell, so we can see if it works. The power I inherited from the Day Court will prevent me from being able to be used for that spell," Feyre explained.
"I'd volunteer myself but I don't know if any of my original abilities have remained, and if they'd have any influence on the spell." Amren said.
"You don't have any more abilities from your previous life," Sibylla intervened, for the first time since they had gathered here, "You are a High Fae, with all its advantages, and all its flaws. The only remnant of your past is your soul itself."
Amren observed the Seer without a word. Then she nodded, her silvery eyes shining bright in an unexplainable manner. She turned towards Helion, Lucien and Feyre.
"Then, if I'm a normal High Fae, you can try your spell on me. I'm not afraid of the consequences."
"I'm used to be Helion's guinea pig, I don't mind doing it again–" Selena intervened.
"You are needed, as spymaster of the Day Court," Lucien intervened, "If something goes wrong and you are… incapacitated, who will handle the situation with the rising army on the Continent?"
Selena didn't like feeling useless, but she nodded sagely.
Out of everyone here, the only person who didn't have any special ability that might trigger an unforeseen consequence of the spell, was Amren – as a newly made normal High Fae. If Amren could be considered "normal" with that personality of hers.
"We will try the spell at sunset, then. After that, no interruption from anyone, no matter the emergency," Helion said, "I'll leave everything to be handled by Koios and Selena."
Everyone turned towards the two Seers, Sibylla and Elain. The latter had disappeared mysteriously, winnowing away and reappearing a few hours later, at the exact moment the former Seer had shown up unexpectedly.
"As for you… what happened last night?" Koios asked, turning towards Elain.
She looked down, wringing her hands in her laps. Sibylla remained completely silent, waiting to see what Elain would say.
"I-I don't remember… I don't know what happened."
"Liar." Sibylla said drily, "You know what happened, you're just scared to admit it."
Sensing Elain's distress and growing anxiety, Lucien reached out. He took her hand in his. She looked up at him. He smiled encouragingly, slowly rubbing the skin of her hand to reassure her.
"No one will judge, my lady. We only want to help."
She felt the waves of comfort and faith coming from him, and her shoulders relaxed.
"I had a dream. It was a vision of the past."
She turned towards Koios and Sibylla.
"I saw… a former High Lord who died in the treasure room, because of his own arrogance and because of…"
Her voice trailed off but her gaze turned to the sword at Lucien's hip.
"Soluis?" Helion repeated, frowning lightly.
"You dreamt of my uncle's death?" Koios repeated, brows furrowed.
It seemed so impossible that Koios had been alive so many centuries ago, before any of them had even been born.
"But why? Does it have any link with this whole story, or is it simply because we talked about the history of this sword last night and the mating bond caused you to have this dream?" Feyre asked.
"There is a link." Sibylla answered.
They turned to her, but she kept her focus on Elain. She wanted Elain to be the one to say it, to admit and embrace her powers as Seer.
"Because the night High Lord Phaethos died… was the night the prophecy was first pronounced." Elain said quietly.
She turned towards Sibylla. Something filled the air. A power, ancient and puissant, it made every particle in the air vibrant with life.
Everyone shivered, except the two Seers who knew.
Elain opened her lips, reciting the prophecy, complete this time. Her voice was the same, and yet, it seemed folded with many lives and millennia of existence and knowledge.
It was the voice of the Seer.
"Canna. Cardinal. Lycoris. Roses. The Blood Moon will see him free. The Immortal. The Thief. He will come and steal the promised blood. The Bird is his beginning and his end. The Blood Moon will reveal the secret. In fire and blood, the Fox of Day and the Cauldron-blessed Flower will court the Deathless' rise."
They held their breaths.
Pronouncing the prophecy outloud, in its entirety, seemed to have finally set in motion fate. It had always been at work, for all those centuries, but now, it was flowing smoothly, as certain as if it had been written in stone.
Elain felt dizzy and pulled away from Lucien, hugging herself.
He, himself, was too shocked to react immediately.
"Well. I wonder who the Fox of Day and the Cauldron-blessed Flower could be." Amren said ironically, breaking the heavy silence.
Helion took a deep breath, his eyes glancing at Lucien but the latter was too lost, too deep in thoughts, to notice that strange look.
"What does it all mean?" he asked Sibylla.
She shrugged.
"You're a Seer too, aren't you? You prophesised this first. Shouldn't you know what it means?"
"Prophecies aren't the same as visions," Sibylla replied, "We can share what visions we have, if we wish to. But prophecies hold secrets that we are not privy of, even as Seers. They are words threaded by Fate to push us on the path we are meant the walk. Even if we don't like it, even if we try to stop it. When a prophecy is pronounced, even if it's misunderstood, even if it takes lifetimes upon lifetimes to happen… it's bound to happen eventually. The more you'll try to understand it, the less sense it'll make. The more you'll try to control it, the more it will control you."
"Are you suggesting we just fold our arms and let the events take place?" Feyre groaned, "That we'd let the Continent's armies attack us? To let the mortal Queens win? To let that Sorcerer free himself?"
"I never said that. Following Fate's path doesn't mean doing nothing."
"Then what should we do?" Lucien asked, his voice tense.
Clearly he had a bigger role to play in this story than what he had first expected. More importantly, Elain had a bigger role to play in it– and that, he didn't like it. He was meant to protect his mate, but that prophecy reeked of danger. And fate, fate, fate… that sounded too much like a power such as the Cauldron, the same power that had twisted Elain's life to become High Fae and his mate.
Why force her into his life, if she was about to be stolen away? Why make him suffer any more if they were meant to be?
To Lucien's question, Sibylla didn't say anything. She just shrugged again. He groaned, rolling his eyes at the useless Seer.
What was the point of such a power if it didn't help you solve riddles about the future?
"Hold on," Selena intervened, "If all you did was dream about a past event… why did you escape the Tower of Light?"
Elain turned towards Lucien, not sure what she should say about it.
"I don't remember escaping the Tower of Light, or winnowing… I woke up at dawn in a field of moonflowers, holding an arrowhead. But I have no idea what happened from the moment I went to sleep and the moment I woke up."
"What sort of arrowhead?" Helion asked.
Lucien pulled out the arrowhead she had given him earlier and passed it to Helion.
"It seems like an ancient manufacture to me," Lucien said.
"It's sunstone," Helion added with a nod, turning the weapon around.
He passed it to Koios who frowned.
"This is older than I am. It's wonderfully well preserved but this arrowhead, from the shape, and the particular whetting of it, and the use of sunstone – it must date from around the beginning of Prythian's High Lords."
"Great, more mysteries," Amren growled, massaging her temple.
"Can you find out anything about it?" Koios asked Sibylla, passing the arrowhead to her.
Head held high and blinded eyes staring in emptiness, she passed her fingers over the arrowhead, then pursed her lips. She shook her head.
"There is something, an image, but the object refuses to let me see it. I think… it's a message destined to Elain. And only her. Only she could understand it."
"But I didn't see anything when I held it," she replied, "I only woke up with it in my hand."
Sibylla didn't answer right away. She put down the arrowhead on the table and looked thoughtful for a while. Then she turned towards Elain.
"Perhaps, that is because you haven't learned to control your abilities yet. But you can't for now."
"What do you mean? Is it… is it because I'm not strong enough?"
"Strength isn't always physical. And you, you are the strongest of the three Archeron sisters."
Lucien almost beamed in pride to that, nodding fiercely. Feyre smiled, silently agreeing to that statement as well. Elain seemed bewildered at such a wild thought.
"No," Sibylla continued calmly, "The reason you can't control your powers is because of him."
She pointed at Lucien.
"Me?" he repeated, blinking in astonishment, "Why? What have I done? I only ever encouraged Elain to control her powers and I've tried to explain magic to her in the best of my abilities–"
"The problem is the mating bond. Haven't you noticed that your respective abilities are stronger and enhanced when the other is around or concerned? It's the mating bond, strengthening your natural capacities."
Lucien and Elain glanced at each other. They had noticed such a thing in the past. Most of her visions concerned him, and his control over his fire and magic was better now that he had a mate.
"But you haven't accepted the bond yet, it's blocking your magic. For both of you. As a Seer, Elain, you can't learn to control your power. And you, Lucien… you have yet to break that seal."
He opened and closed his lips, about to ask about that 'seal' but before he could, Feyre spoke up:
"So, unless Elain accepts the mating bond with Lucien, she won't be able to master her abilities as Seer, and figure out what this arrowhead means? And I assume many other details about this whole story that will only make sense once she can control her powers of Seer?"
"Yes. She can learn to hone her powers, and I will teach her, it will take time no matter what. More than we can afford. But accepting the mating bond will give them a freedom they weren't graced with before."
"That's not fair…" Lucien whispered, even though his heart was breaking, "Elain– Elain shouldn't have to feel forced to accept the mating bond. Neither of us… wanted it. Regardless of how we feel about it now… asking her to accept the mating bond to… to control her powers of Seer, and fix that damn mess, is… it's unfair and selfish."
Elain turned towards Lucien, tears shining in her eyes. From the beginning, he had had all the reasons to claim her, but he had always respected her feelings and had given her space. Even now that they wanted to become mates but didn't dare because of an incoming war… he held back out of respect for her worries and fear for the future. And now, another reason just added up to the pile of their mating: unless she accepted the mating bond, their powers, to both of them, would be locked and smothered.
But he still put her feelings first and foremost. He didn't want her to feel forced for any reason. He wanted her to choose him, as Lucien, and not as her mate. He wanted her to feel good about the mating bond, rather than let the physical and chemical aspects of it take over her. He respected her more than anyone ever had before…
And she had never wanted to accept the bond more strongly than now.
Heart beating strongly, but smiling gently, Elain reached out to take his hand.
She had barely brushed his skin that the doors opened.
Everyone turned around. Helion grumbled unintelligible words in a low voice. A guard approached and whispered to him in his ear. The High Lord's eyes widened and he stood up, just as the guard walked away in a hurry.
Helion clenched the armchairs with his hands, tightened his lips, then turned towards the rest of the assembly.
"The message that we sent to Vassa last night… my messengers reached the domain where she remains but… she is nowhere to be found."
"What do you mean? How can you lose a giant firebird?" Feyre asked.
Helion turned to her, his face as hard as stone and his eyes shining fiercer than the sun.
"Vassa is gone."
I hope you enjoyed it!
Yours Truly,
May