A Faery's Exile

Chapter 2: Servant

KittyDefender

"WHAT?"

I bit back a sigh of relief. I would never rid myself of this shame, overpowered by humans, but at least their stupid plan would not work. They had tried to 'exile' me, but by the way things were going, I would not be accepted here.

"Please, Harlie!" the woman begged. I smirked. The Demon King's red eyes were glinting with fury. He was much younger than I had expected him to be, but then, I had only realized that the previous Overlord, Krichevskoy, was dead once I saw him.

"Why should I bother taking in Earth's exiled? That wasn't in the treaty's terms! It's not my problem!"

"But Harlie!" She sighed. "Demons are much more capable of taking care of her than we are. She killed seven hundred people!"

"Nice," a red haired demon on the Overlord's left side grinned, winking at me. "Way to keep the humans in their place!"

Despite myself, I smiled back at the demon, amused. The other demon, on the Overlord's right side, leaned around him and frowned. "Etna! That's not right at all!"

"Says who?" said the demon named Etna. "It's true!"

"Etna!"

"Shut up, you two!" said the king. I shook my head. Was this how Netherworldian government always was? The head demon turned back to the three of us, two humans and one of the Fae bound and on her knees. "Give me one good reason why I should accept a troublemaker into my kingdom."

"I thought you demons liked troublemakers!" my male captor protested.

Two out of three demons blinked.

"Etna?"

"Yes, Prince?"

"Did he actually give a reason?" He looked astounded, as did the red-haired demon that turned to answer him did.

"You know, I think he might have." She frowned. "Weird."

The Demon Lord sighed. "Fine. Leave the faery with us. I'll have her work in the kitchens or something."

For the first time I spoke. "I will not! I refuse to play servant to demons!" I looked up defiantly at the king. "I demand that you return me to the world of Terra on the grounds that I am not under human law or rule!"

He grinned. "No, you're not under human rule. You're under mine."

I gaped indignantly, speechless.

The king continued. "Manty, Ghoss, take her to an empty servant's bedchamber, escort her around the castle, then take her to the kitchens."

"Yes, Prince," came two voices: one deep, guttural, and raspy, the other one a quiet, frail whisper.

"Prince," came the deeper voice "should we untie her?"

"Do you swear not to attack or attempt escape?" the Demon Lord asked me. My eyes widened.

"No!" I snapped. "I'll escape the first chance I get!"

For some reason, that answer seemed to please him. "A demon's attitude. Go ahead, Manty."

There was the feeling of something hooking under my chains and against my back, and there was a sharp snap, then my arms and torso was freed, next, my legs. I stood slowly, wings flittering slightly, and turned to face the next two I was being passed off to.

One seemed evolved from the manticore of old. I had never seen one live, only a few illusions that my uncle had summoned up to amuse the king. The other was simply a ghoul, which was common enough.

I sighed and allowed the two to lead me away. I hovered slightly above the floor, both to exercise my wings and slightly out of spite for the two humans behind me.

"I'm Manty, the manticore and this is Ghoss, lady."

"Lady?" I asked incredulously. It nodded.

"My mama always said to treat otherworld guests properly." Manty nodded. "The queen was human, you know. She was a good person. She took her life for the Prince's sake." He lowered his voice as if confiding something in me. "When the Prince was a baby, he got a very rare disease. The only cure was the blood willingly spilt of one who loved him."

"That's so sad," I gasped, forgetting the situation I was in momentarily. Manty shrugged as best as he could. We stopped in front of a heavy wooden door, surrounded by at least two dozen others that were perfectly identical.

Inside were a small wooden wardrobe, a fireplace, a small window, and a coffin. I was stunned. I was expected to live in this… this… this box? I knew enough about the cultures of the bigger three races to know that they generally lived in chambers like that one, but…

How would I live without feeling the cool evening breeze against my cheek as I slipped to sleep? Without looking at the blue sky during the day?

They walked me around the castle, which was large, yes, but not awe-inspiring. King Oberon and Queen Titania's forest was much larger, and much more open. I scoffed inwardly, but said nothing to offend my 'escorts'. They were, after all, following the orders of their king, and had been nothing but polite to me. I resented the entire situation, but I would not make it harder on the servants. My quarrel was not with them.

"And this is the kitchen," the ghoul concluded cheerfully. He and the manticore had been talking almost non-stop about which vassal lived in which chamber or when that painting was painted and other trivialities.

I peered inside. An assortment of demons and bird-like creatures were scrambling around a large stone room. It was utter chaos.

I silently mourned the ability I had been born without. How easy it would be to just shrink to the size of a pixie and fly out the window.

But then what? I had seen nothing of the Netherworld. I couldn't just… escape. I would either have to have someone disclose the information of a gateway to Celestia or Terra, or convince the Demon Lord to send me back.

"Anyway, um…" Ghoss finished lamely. "What was your name?"

"Elanthiasnalial Narusika Demartiei A'athrael," I said absently. They stared at me. "What?"

"That's long," said Manty plainly. "Can we just call you Betty?"

"My name's not that long," I said. "I mean, I'm not royalty, certainly, but I only have three names besides my surname. Some of Queen Titania's ladies had around twenty names." It was a common tradition with the Fae race. The more nobility you had in your blood, the shorter your name. The primary royal family, the king and queen and their baby, had only one name. They did not even have a surname.

By contrast, the number of letters in a non-royal's first name signified how depended on they were to run their family. Since I was first born, I was given the name Elanthiasnalial. My younger brother had been named Asholustied, and so on.

They still stared at me. I sighed. "Call me Thia, then." That's what I was known by back on Terra, mostly.

They still stared at me blankly. Exasperated, I threw my hands up and entered the kitchen.

Four hours later, as my internal clock indicated, I returned to the chamber that had been marked as mine.

I missed my bed of blossoms and vines hanging from the trees. Even more so, I missed the purple moss bed that my father and I had woven when I was just two centuries old.

I looked out the tiny window in my chamber. The sky was a darkening rusty red, and the moon, a darker crimson, was starting to rise over the horizon of demon dwellings.

A small bubble of self-hatred rose up in me. I sniffed, despite myself, and rubbed my eyes, which were starting to sting with moisture. How could I have been so foolish? Uncle Puck would be ashamed.

The realization that the humans had actually overpowered me had begun to sink in, and the feeling was not a pleasant one. How? How could this have happened? I was helpless as a human babe!

All these powers of the Fae race were at my disposal, yet they were of no use. I was in a hostile land. Though I was servant in the Netherworld King's castle, I was fairly certain that I was safe from demons. Their lord would not want his new toy harmed, I supposed.

Servant… no, not servant. Servants were what my own king and queen and princess had. They were treated well, paid wages, and seen as good friends. I was none of these things, as my time in the kitchens had proved. What could I help it if I did not know what their dishes were? I was a faery, not a demon. No, I was no servant. I was a slave.

The tears finally broke through, despite my shut eyes. I sobbed silently, finally allowing my anguish to show itself. I was desperate for my sky, for my beautiful home of Terra.

By some miracle (I scoffed loudly at the thought of miracles, considering my situation) I managed to form the air into something solid enough to lie on. I stared out the window.

Exiled…

A choked sound escaped my throat. A gentle knock came from outside my door.

Manty? I wondered, but it did not sound like a knock a pawed creature could produce. Ghoss, neither, would be able to, for obvious reasons.

I sat up and wiped my tears from my face, hoping that the crimson light that spilled in from the moon would hide my red eyes and nose.

"Enter," I said loudly, powerfully. A blonde-haired demon with kind red eyes peeked in. I stared, and she came all the way in, shutting the door behind her.

"Miss Faery?" she said, almost timidly. "Are you all right?"

I huffed. "What concern is it of yours? You are the Demon Lord's advisor, are you not?" I recognized her clearly from the throne room. She was the one who had scolded the demon on the king's left for her remark about humans. She smiled, but seemed slightly hurt nonetheless.

"Nuh-uh, not his advisor. I'm his fiancée!" She giggled a little, and then sobered. "I'm sorry if I came at a bad time, Miss Faery. I just remembered how hard it was for me during my first night staying in the Netherworld."

"Your first night?" I repeated, my curiosity piqued. "I thought you were a demon."

"I'm a fallen angel," she clarified. "I used to live in Celestia. It was so hard for me. I almost felt like I was trapped. I mean… in Celestia, the sky is blue, not red. It felt like I was—"

"Buried underground." She nodded, and I shrugged, shifting and dissipating my bed of air. "Mm. The sky in Terra is blue, too."

There was silence for a moment, then the former angel looked away. "Why did you kill all of those people?"

I paused, trying to find the words that a former angel would understand. "When you leave a garden untended, all kinds of different plants spring up, right?"

She nodded.

"If you leave the garden alone too long, some of the plants will get too big and there will be too many. They will start sucking up the nutrients in the ground that the other plants need. Eventually these plants, these weeds, will overgrow the entire garden. They'll use up all the food in the soil and end up dying too. So you can't leave the garden alone too long, and you have to thin out the plants."

She nodded again. "That makes sense."

"Good."

"But what does that have to do with you killing humans?"

She couldn't possibly be serious. But she seemed perfectly sincere, curiously and patiently waiting for an answer.

"You aren't very keen when it comes to analogies, are you?"

"I've never heard of that flower!"

"Oh, Terra strengthen my soul," I muttered. King Oberon had told me that the angels were very intelligent, but it didn't seem to apply to that one. Perhaps that was why she was turned into a demon. I shook my head.

"I had let the humans overpopulate. As a faery, I'm responsible for keeping humans from destroying Terra and themselves."

"Oh." She bowed her head. "I guess I understand, then. It's like how you have to pull weeds from the garden to keep them from killing other plants."

She had to be jesting. She absolutely had to be. But she just smiled knowingly and adjusted the large red bow on her head.

I realized that despite the fallen angel's stupidity, I felt a good deal better. I molded the air to a satisfying degree of substance and pushed her back slightly.

"Sit down, um…" I waited, but she never answered my unspoken question. She tested the air gingerly and adjusted herself, obviously unused to the sensation of sitting on pure air.

"Flonne," she answered, once I asked her the question clearly. "My name is Flonne."

Hey, I got in an update pretty danged quick, dinnit I? I'm so proud!

Thank you, Dan, for my review. It was beautifully constructive. I hope this one still had a bit of humor in it, but it just came off kinda woe-is-me overall, I think. Oh, well.