Bryce's arrival in Velaris as told from Azriel's and then Amren's POV
Azriel looked down at the deep blue eyes and the mop of dark hair belonging to the baby in his arms. At 6 months old, Nyx was bright and alert. He cooed up at Azriel, wiggling his arms and reaching out to Azriel's face with clumsy fingers.
"Hello, little one," Azriel said softly, a smile playing over his lips. Nyx smiled back and let out a small squeal, delighted at the attention.
"He's gotten bigger," Azriel said to Rhys who was standing beside him. It had only been a week since he had last seen them, but Nyx did look bigger. He was more alert and engaged with every passing day.
"I can't decide if I want him to keep growing or to just pause time and have him exactly as he is forever," Rhys mused, his eyes soft and warm as he watched his son.
"I would imagine that's…-" Azriel cut off, his brow creasing as Rhys stiffened beside him and turned towards the windows of the living room, dark night rolling off him.
"There's someone here," Rhys growled. "In the grounds."
Azriel stood up, still holding a now quiet Nyx. "They broke through the wards?"
"No, the wards are intact. They bypassed them entirely." Rhys turned to him and swept Nyx into his arms. "Find them," he ordered.
Azriel was gone in an instant, stepping through his shadows with a woosh of wind and darkness. He landed on the back lawn of the River House, just outside the main doors. Mist was rolling over the quiet grounds and the river beyond it. He scanned the area, alert for any slight movement or sound. Then he saw the figure, a person bent over on all fours thirty feet from him, partially veiled by the mist. He stepped through his shadows once more and an instant later was standing behind the figure. A female, he noted, as he pressed Truth-Teller to her throat.
"Do not fucking move," he whispered in her ear.
She stilled at the touch of the cool blade against her skin and then slowly raised her empty hands, not shifting from her kneeling position in front of him. A gesture of submission. He couldn't see her face, but strands of her long red hair fell down her back, they were mattered with blood. Her scent was Fae but unusual, he couldn't place it. He had already noted the sword in the grass a foot in front of her, if she lunged for it, he would slit her throat before she had a chance to reach it.
"Turn around and stand up slowly," he demanded with quiet authority. She didn't move. He hissed at her hesitation and grabbed her shoulder, hauling her into a standing position and twisting her to face him. His eyes scanned her face, noting her pointed Fae ears, her red hair, and her light brown eyes. Her colouring was that of the Autumn Court but he didn't recognise her. Her eyes darted wildly across his own face and then up to his wings, her breathing uneven.
"Who are you?" Azriel said, his voice quiet but deadly. He wouldn't hesitate to kill this female if she threatened the safety of his High Lord and Lady.
She spoke, the tone of her voice urgent, but the words were foreign to him. Her voice broke and Azriel could read the fear trembling in it. He scanned her again, noting the blood splattered across her body. He sniffed at it- not her own blood. It smelled foreign too, like nothing he had scented before. His eyes drifted down again to the sword lying in the grass behind her. Its dark hilt and blade looked eerily familiar. Even tucked away in its sheath the blade appeared to gleam.
Azriel. Rhys's voice sounded clearly in his mind.
I have her, he replied. A Fae female. I don't recognise her.
Show me, Rhys commanded.
Azriel opened a doorway to his mind without hesitation, just enough that Rhys could step in and see through his eyes. He felt Rhys assess the female before them as he had. In that moment, she lunged towards Azriel, not threatening but desperate as she made to grab for the front of his fighting leathers. He stepped out of her path easily. She spoke again in that strange foreign language, her voice pleading and frantic. Tears rolled down her face. She looked terrified.
Do you know that language? Azriel asked Rhys.
No, Rhys replied, his voice quieter and more contemplative now, but still wary. Take her to the Townhouse. I've alerted the others, we will meet you there. Do not let her see Velaris. And then his presence in Azriel's mind was gone.
Azriel bent to pick up the sword at their feet, still watching the female from the corner of his eyes to see if she would make a move against him. She didn't. He could see her chest heaving with deep choking breaths as she struggled to keep her emotions in check. Sword now in hand, Azriel gestured for her to step closer and pulled a strip of black material from a hidden pocket. Her eyes were wary, but she moved towards him, giving a small nod of understanding when he demonstrated what he was going to do. She allowed him to fit the blindfold over her eyes and tie it firmly at the back of her head, even as he could feel her shaking under his hands. Blindfold fitted, he gathered her into his arms and, with a sweeping flap of his wings, took to the skies.
He had expected her to tense at the sensation, scream even, but she didn't react to the sudden weightlessness. She didn't hold on to him either, instead her trembling arms folded across her body hugging herself tightly. She had flown before, he thought.
They glided over Velaris, its streets and houses rippling below them until the townhouse came into view. He soared downwards, landing lightly on the rooftop terrace. He set the Fae female down and opened the door leading to the stairway down into the lower levels of the house. The female hesitated at the door, her eyes still covered, but he led her through. As he moved to shut the door behind them, she stepped forward blindly.
"Watch the stairs," he said sharply, but she was already falling forward into the empty stairwell. She gasped but his arm swept around her and caught her before she could hit anything. He sighed; she was clearly going to need some help. Not in the mood for an awkward blind shuffle through the hallways, Azriel picked her up and tossed her unceremoniously over his shoulder and stalked down the staircase to the living room where he put her down. He led her to stand in front of one of the plush armchairs and gave her a nudge to sit. She resisted the movement, wary of another fall. He pushed her down again and this time her knees buckled, and she fell into the waiting armchair behind her.
"Who are you?" He asked her again, knowing she likely wouldn't understand but unable to resist his curiosity, "How did you pass through the wards?" What sort of magic could bypass Rhys's wards as if they didn't exist, he wondered.
She shook her head in response, not understanding. When she spoke again her was voice raw and broken. He caught one word that she kept repeating- Aidas. But the rest was meaningless.
The panic was rising in her voice, her breathing ragged. Azriel had the distinct impression that she was begging him for something. Tears were running down her cheeks again and she started to sob. She looked helpless and terrified, but Azriel was wary, it could still be a trap. He didn't allow himself to react as she tore the blindfold from her face and yelled at him in apparent desperation.
When he didn't respond, she looked frantically around the room and as she took in their surroundings, confusion swept over her face. This wasn't where she was expecting to be, and it seemed to drag her momentarily out of her fear.
She squared her shoulders and turned to Azriel once more. When she spoke again her voice was calmer, more measured, and he caught another word amongst the string of unfamiliar sounds- hell.
"Hell?" He repeated, questioning.
Relief flashed across her features and she spoke again, gesturing to the house around them, but he didn't understand anything else. He shook his head in response, his brow furrowed. He was about to say something else when Amren, Cassian and Nesta walked through the door.
Amren arrived at townhouses' front door at the exact same moment Cassian touched down on the footpath, Nesta in his arms.
"You heard?" He said to her, placing Nesta gently on the pavement.
"Clearly," Amren replied coolly. Rhysand's mental order to attend the townhouse immediately had arrived at an inopportune moment for Amren but even she couldn't ignore the urgency of an unwelcome intruder at the River House.
"Interrupt something important did it, Tiny One?" Cassian said, with a cocky half smile as they made for the door.
"I'd be careful who I was calling tiny if I was you, boy." Amren said as she opened the front door and swept across the entrance hall.
"Is now really the time?" Nesta asked them both icily.
"No, it's not." Amren replied as she came to stand in the living room, taking in the scene before her.
A female she didn't recognise was seated in one of the armchairs in the centre of the room. Azriel stood next to her, his eyes wary but not as sharp as she knew they would be if there was an immediate danger. As the female caught sight of Amren she shot to her feet, something like recognition flickering across her face. Amren scanned her over, taking in her pointed Fae ears, her autumnal colouring and most alarmingly, her unusual attire, even without the blood that splattered it. As the female stood, a wave of her scent washed over Amren and her mouth opened in surprise. Her scent was clearly Fae but also… human, and there was something else underlying it, something unusual and foreign. Amren had never scented anything like it.
She watched as the half Fae/half human's eyes darted over them, lingering on her and Nesta. Recognising them as Fae perhaps? The female spoke then in a strange lilting tongue and Amren knew that it was not a language that was spoken in any corner of this world. Interesting.
"She is half Fae/half human," Amren said to the others, cocking her head to the side, her eyes not leaving the females.
The female swallowed and Amren could hear her heart pounding in her chest at a rapid rate. When she spoke again the language was different and… recognisable.
"Is this world Hel? I need to see Prince Aidas." She said hesitantly but clearly, using the Old Language of the Fae.
Amren staggered back in shock. She hadn't heard that language spoken by a Fae in centuries. She felt the others eyes fall on her, surprise registering on their own faces at her reaction. Of course, they still couldn't understand what was being said but…-
In that moment the sword that leant against the coffee table caught her attention. Its black hilt gleamed and it appeared to Amren to hum with power. But it was not the only weapon in the room that was doing so. A dark light was flaring at Azriel's hip from Truth-Teller. She nodded towards it, catching Azriel's attention. He pulled it from its sheath and the stranger flinched back in fear at the drawn blade but when she caught a glimpse of the dagger she paused and let out an exclamation in her mother-tongue that was undoubtably a curse. Both black hilted and black bladed, the dagger and the sword were twins and as they all watched, the blades sang to each other. Azriel dropped the dagger as if it burned him and it fell to the carpet glowing and humming with a dark light, responding to the sword's glittering white light. Everyone in the room took a step back.
Amren knew that sword. "Gwydion," she whispered.
Behind her, Cassian sucked in a breath. "Where the fuck did that come from?"
"She bought it, clearly." Nesta snapped at him, nodding at the stranger. Amren was inclined to respond in the same way but chose to ignore him instead.
The female spoke again in the Old Language of the Fae, her words still a little hesitant. "Is this Hel?" she asked.
Amren scanned her from head to toe once more, beginning to understand what she was seeing. This was a being from another world. A being who had crossed time and space to be here, with them.
"No one has spoken that language in this world for fifteen thousand years." She said in reply. The female looked surprised and then confused at that, she rubbed a hand over her face and shook her head.
"Please," she said. "I need to find Prince Aidas."
"I do not know who that is."
"Apollion, then. Surely you know the Prince of the Pit." Her voice was desperate.
"I do not know of such people. This world is not Hel."
The female shook her head again slowly. She had not meant to come here, Amren realised. This was not the world she was expecting.
"I… Then where am I?" She asked, looking to each of them. When they didn't respond she said more sharply, "What world is this?"
Before Amren could reply the front door opened and Rhysand and Feyre entered. When the female saw Rhys she started and let out a gasp. "Rhune?" she asked. Amren couldn't be sure if that was a name or if she had reverted back to her unknown mother-tongue. Rhys blinked in response, the only indication of his surprise.
"You can speak to her?" Feyre asked Amren. Amren took a moment to update them both mind to mind on what she had learnt so far. She is half human/half Fae. Her native tongue is not one I recognise but she knows the Old Language of the Fae. She carries Gwydion. I… I do not believe she has come from this world.
As she spoke into their minds, Rhys's gaze shifted over the female, the blood on her clothing, the sword and the knife still gleaming on the floor. They had spoken of this, Amren thought, her and Rhysand had discussed the possibilities of contact with other worlds. But never had she dreamed that a traveller would simply drop into their midst unannounced one morning.
The female was speaking again, directing her words at Amren, her tone pleading. She used the Old Language once more.
Amren translated for the others, knowing that Rhys was the only one apart from her who would understand. "She says that her world, Midguard, is in grave danger. She mentioned her mate. She says she did not mean to come here, that she meant to go somewhere called Hel to get aid from some Princes. She does not know what this world is, but she wishes to find Hel and she asks for our help."
They all looked at her in shock. Feyre was the one who spoke first. "What is her name, Amren?" she asked quietly.
Amren turned back to the female and repeated the question in the Old Language. The female looked to Feyre and Rhys now, her eyes roaming over them. She lifted her chin as she spoke again. "My name is Bryce Quinlan."
Rhys stepped forward at her words, tucking in his wings. He gave her a small reassuring smile and replied in the Old Tongue, "Hello Bryce Quinlan. My name is Rhysand."