A Choice in Destinies

Fyora stared at Spirit, Spirit stared back at Fyora. "Y – your Majesty?" Spirit asked tentatively. "Is that you?"

Fyora smiled slightly. "Indeed, it is me, what's left of me anyway." She sighed, "it's amazing the six of us survived really. In our continued existence we've lost everything, our powers, or appearances, and even our wings. We are the inequivalent of gray faeries, though technically we aren't actually gray faeries."

"Then who are the others?" Spirit asked.

"The rest of the Faerie Council." Fyora replied.

The faerie on the end stepped forward and slid her hood down. "I am Fuhnah, the faerie who held the position of Fire."

The next stepped forward. "I am Lyana, she who held the position of Earth."

The next, "I am Nereid, the former holder of Water."

And the next. "I am Psellia, I once held the position of Air."

The last stepped forward, the one who had spoken to Spirit about how no one could count upon anyone anymore. She slid her hood down and drew in a deep breath. "And I am Auraria, once the wielder of Light."

Spirit looked at all of them and twitched her ears. "I see that there is no place for Darkness."

"Darkness has no place among the Faerie Council!" Fuhnah spat. "Darkness does not belong with the wielders of the Life Elements!"

"And technically, neither does Light." Lyana commented. "But Auraria did us a great service long ago and won a place in the Council." Auraria flinched and looked at the ground.

Spirit looked around at the Faeries gathered before her. "Tell me truthfully," she said quietly, "are there truly no other survivors? Are we the last? Is there no hope that can be found?"

Fyora bowed her head. "We are the last, the only ones who survived the onslaught of power that destroyed our world."

"What happened?" Spirit asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

"Shortly before this happened," Fyora said, "I detected a large amount of darkness welling up somewhere in Neopia. I could not pinpoint its location exactly, but it both fascinated and terrified me. Terrified because the extent of its power was almost limitless, fascinated because it should not have been able to exist."

When Spirit looked confused, the faerie explained, "when a power wells up in such a small area it can only mean that its being carried by a vassal. It's the same way when any pet uses magical abilities, only on a much smaller scale. What intrigued me the most about this power was that is was pure darkness." The faerie shook her head in awe.

"Every one of the magical powers both used and bestowed by the faeries, even darkness, has traces of the other powers in it. It has to, it must have some sort of balance, some sort of counteracting force to keep the power from overwhelming its wielder. This power was different, this power was pure, untainted, darkness."

"What are you talking about Fyora?" Fuhnah snarled. "Darkness itself is a taint to the world of life!" Auraria turned her back to the hot tempered faerie.

Fyora shot Fuhnah a waspish glare, irritated at being interrupted. "Anyway, once the storm started, we were able to discover that it was on Mystery Island. But we were too late to get there in time to stop this devastation."

"The storm?" Spirit asked, she frowned, muddled images surfacing in her memory. "Yes, I remember the storm. Sci and me were there, we were in the eye of the storm when everything went black."

"In the eye?" Nereid inquired, Spirit nodded.

"That would explain how you and the other Lupe survived the flow of dark power more or less unscathed." Psellia put in.

"The other Lupe, Spirit." Auraria murmured. "What's his name?"

"ScinanDarkShine," Spirit turned and went to Scinan, who still had not so much as twitched.

Auraria sucked in her breath. "I was afraid of that." She murmured. "When did he fall? How long has he been like this?"

"I – I don't know, I was unconscious too, when I woke up, he had passed out and he hasn't so much as moved since."

Auraria came forward and lifted one of Scinan's darkened paws. "And when did this happen? Or has he always had these dark shades in his coat?"

"When we walked across the salt it cut our feet. When I woke up, the fur up to his ankle was matted with dried blood. I used the fungus from the Mysterious Cave to heal the scratches, and when I scrubbed the blood off his fur, it was dark underneath."

Auraria let out her breath, the air hissing through her teeth as she clenched them. "That's interesting." She said quietly.

"What does it mean Auraria?" Lyana asked.

"It means that nothing is certain." Auraria got to her feet. "We must take him to the mainland if we want to discover anything."

"What?" Spirit demanded, half panicking. "Why do you need to take him? I won't let you!"

"Spirit," Fyora said gently, "if you don't let us take him, he will never wake up."

Spirit quailed slightly. "Wh – what are you going to do with him?"

Fyora knelt and lifted Scinan's body from the ground. "The pet, ScinanDarkShine has had very close encounters with powerful forces of darkness in the past. He was too young to remember them now, but they have weakened him against darkness. When the darkness was unleashed, it wounded him in the spirit. He is feeling the effects of that wound now. If we don't find something that will help, he may very well just fade out of existence."

"No!" Spirit cried, "I can't let that happen! Take him if that will help, but please take me too. If we're the last, I can't let him wake up alone!"

"No," Fyora said, sounding understanding but her eyes hid an irritated look, "I suppose not. Auraria take her, only we can traverse the Sky Path." With that, the faerie queen lifted into the air, followed quickly by the other members of the Faerie Council.

"Sky Path?" Auraria inquired.

Auraria came and lifted the Lupe in her arms. "A hidden pathway that runs all around Neopia. Only the faeries have known about it before now, we were very lucky to find it still intact as we no longer have the use of our wings." She stepped forward and then and invisible force pulled her into the air and she just floated along after the other faeries.

After a good while of floating Spirit asked. "Auraria?"

"Hm?"

"What would you do if you met the one who had housed the darkness in their bodies?"

"I would thank him a thousand times over." The faerie replied instantly.

"What!" Spirit was horrified.

"Spirit, do you think this is the destruction of Neopia? No, no far from it. If Neopia had been totally destroyed there would be nothing here, nothing but an empty void. An empty hole in space devoid of mass and matter. That is not what happened, Neopia has been thrown into a state of limbo. Neither dead or alive, it is because of this that it is possible for things to return to the way they were. Do you know why Neopia wasn't destroyed?" Spirit shook her head, "it was because the vassal fought his powers' need to be released, probably at the cost of his own life. Instead of releasing the full force he had stored withing him, only a fraction of it got away."

"A real hero huh?" Spirit murmured, thinking of the vassal of darkness. "Did he choose to house that power?"

Auraria shook her head. "No, he was born with it." The faerie gazed ahead at her fellows. "The Council is confused and disturbed by the events of late."

"Why?" Spirit, marveled at how many questions she could ask within a minute.

"Because this wasn't supposed to happen." Auraria replied, "everything was supposed to get destroyed. It was supposed to be the vassal's destiny to be the one who wrought the end of this world. The vassal was not supposed to fight his fate."

"How do you know?" Spirit asked, her mind whirling with the intensity of all this information.

Auraria was silent for a moment. "Spirit, do you know why Baelia was made into a gray faerie?" Spirit shook her head. "It was because she foretold a prophecy, a prophecy that angered Jenumarra so much that she took her revenge by taking Baelia's wings."

"A prophecy? What was it?"

Auraria drew in a deep breath and recited,

"The darkness weeps in last remorse,

for all that is gone.

Life, and love, and light shall fail,

In this last stretch of dawn.

Watch and sorrow for the dying land,

For the seas do grow cold.

The fading stars and silver ghosts,

of all that has been told.

Darkness to light the kindled spark,

of ruin and destruction.

The sky to fall in bitterness

awaiting resurrection.

Now to be bound for eternity,

Until crawling death does creep.

Forever in self created misery,

does the heart of darkness weep..."

"I don't understand the last part." Spirit muttered. "Why would the darkness weep for something it meant to destroy?"

"Only if it did not mean to destroy." Auraria replied. "Nothing can help what it came into existence as. Whether it be faerie, Neopet, human, or element. Supposedly every living thing is born with their path set and their destiny in line. Something that fought its destiny, that has never happened before. That's why the others are nervous. They're afraid that their grasp on what the future has in store is slipping."

"Maybe not knowing every step you're going to take in life is a good thing." Spirit said quietly, "maybe you're wrong and this is they way it was meant to be."

Auraria's lips twitched in a smile. "Maybe, but maybe we'll never know. Hold on tight, we're landing now."

The six faerie's touched down in front of a huge crevasse. Spirit jumped out of Auraria's arms and stared. "Wh – where was this?"

"This used to be the Haunted Woods." Lyana replied.

"Fyora, here's what we're looking for." Fuhnah held up a small glittery object. It's metal was tarnished and the reflective face was faded.

"Is that what I think it is?" Spirit asked in wonderment mixed with apprehension.

"Yes," Fyora said, striding forward to take the object. "It's one of Vira's mirrors."