~ Birdcage of Shadows ~
The Dark King decided to put Lady War away for safekeeping. Slithering black strings of shadow, imperceptible to humans, entwined the bars of her prison. However, it was not her sovereign's powers which trapped her within. The simple birdcage he'd placed her in had been enough to accomplish that.
As the shopkeeper had said when she was placed in his care: "Iron to bind the fey."
The imminent power struggle among the faerie courts happened without her. She couldn't tell how long she had been there. Time passed oddly in the pet shop, different from the way it passed in the realm of Faerie, yet also different from how it passed in the mortal realm.
"The shop exists in a liminal space," Count D explained to her once. She promptly forgot this when her mind cast it aside as information not worth saving.
One day, months or years since this had become her home, a man came to the shop and said, "I'm looking for a bird."
"We have many birds," Count D said, with a broad gesture that indicated most of the shop's interior, throughout which birds were scattered, some fluttering about freely while others were caged.
"I'm looking for a very specific bird," the customer replied, his gaze locking onto the raven faery in her shadow-wrapped cage.
"That one isn't for sale," Count D warned sharply.
"Ah, but she already belongs to me."
It was at this point that the faery dropped his glamour, allowing the shopkeeper to see him for what he was. Count D did not protest as he approached Lady War's cage.
He reached out and the shadows melted away into nothing. The little door swung open, and he held out his hand to her.
"Come, Bananach."
This was a different Dark King than the one who'd put her here, but she'd sworn her fealty to the Dark Court, not to the old king himself. And so, as he'd told the count, she already belonged to him.
Lady War put her hand in the new Dark King's hand and let him draw her out of the cage and into his arms. The warmth of his embrace came as a surprise to her - although, perhaps, considering that physical touch was one of the primary things that fed the Dark Court, it should not have.
He buried one hand into the thick mass of her feathery hair and said, "Let's go home."
~end~