The grass bit at the bare feet of the girl faery. Clothed in purple and silver robes, the mark of her station in the Unseelie Court, she stood in the center of a ring of Courtiers. Violet hair spilled from her drawn hood that shadowed her face. The girl approached her King and his consort, a Pixie named Kaye, with a bowed head, as the newly appointed Seer of the Court she would be required to cast a vision for her sovereign. She sent up a prayer to her ancestors that she would be able to see for him, this particular method of casting was unreliable and improper casting could get her exiled from the court at the very least. And although she knew little of the politics between the Seelie and Unseelie courts she knew that this King Roiben was a kind and fair. The Seer peered from beneath her bangs toward the vast heavens.
The stars twinkled on the eve of Beltane as a silent encouragement to the young girl faerie. She breathed deeply the scent of the already roaring fire. The girl faced His Majesty with a set jaw, she curtsied low and bobbed her head. Her skirts and cape spread like wings and fluttered in the slight breeze.
"Your Majesty," she murmured respectfully.
The molten silver eyes of King Roiben set themselves on her bowed head, silver hair and angular nose pointed almost accusingly at her.
"Seer Shaye," he began the ritual in his soft and commanding voice, "It would please us greatly if you would Vision Cast for the success of My Reign and in thus ensuring your loyalty and a place in our Court always."
"Seer Shaye," Roiben continued. "In your Cast I place my future and in your Vision I place my trust. May the stars of Beltane and the ages of time aid your powers. Our future is yours."
Despite the fact that Shaye knew the ritual by heart and knew His Majesty spoke from tradition and not from any of his own emotion, she felt the weight of what she was about to do slide into her throat.
To the King Roiben and the rest of the court this was merely a time honored ritual that occurred every fiftieth Beltane, they didn't understand the magic that surrounded the fire in which she would cast. The pain she was about to endure when a simple cast could have been completed instead of the ridiculously complex one that only worked half the time. Didn't they realize the foolishness? A slight regret of being born into this fate crossed her mind, but she quickly beat it back. Many would die for her position, best to respect it.
But Shaye had stalled long enough, she shrugged back her hood and looked directly into the eyes of the King. Her eyes, the eyes of her trade, showed none of her anxiety. The violet and green irises mingled together with a blankness that would have seemed impossible to attain with such eyes. Shaye's spirit quivered and pulsed with her heart.
Roiben had explained earlier that the ritual that this young girl would perform was complex and difficult, he had never seen it done in the Unseelie Court, but in the Seelie Court it was preformed every five years. As he understood, it was exactly the same in both Courts. It was a Prophecy to ensure the fruitful Reign of the present ruler.
Kind of stupid really, in the last year and a half in the Unseelie Court Kaye knew better ways to see the future then this particular one, Roiben had agreed, but as King he was bound to listen to this new Seer's prediction as custom dictated.
"My Sovereign I thank you for this opportunity to grace you with the gift of my Ancestors, from you I require a sacrifice," Shaye said to the rhythm of the night.
Those words were meaningless the million times she had spoken them before, but now they held all meaning. She pulled the Athame from her belt and held it to him with the sharp tip pointed at the sky. The King moved first, his fist closed over edge of the blade. His hand retracted, a shallow cut welled with crimson colored blood over the fleshy part of his palm, Shaye made identical cuts on both of her palms, when she felt the warm gush of blood pool in her hands she paired her cuts over his cut.
The Royal blood mingled with Seer blood, a slight tingling on Shaye's hand was the only power she felt. If she was doing this correctly then all three wounds would be magically healed, but she refused to check, because it was very important to trust the magic. Not good for her image, worse for the spell.
Now was the hard part, Shaye would have to plunge her hand in the fire, then the fire should change color and become just cool enough to bear for no more then thirty seconds.
In that time Shaye would see the next Reign of the Unseelie Court and then would advise the King accordingly. But first she needed courage to plunge her hand into the flames, she held her breath and did it as quickly as possible. She tasted ash on her tongue and felt it float into her nose, but she knew that if she broke her concentration shecould be consumed by the flames. That was the most dangerous part, staying focused.
The flames grew and turned violet., hints of the green embers gave the appearance of faces and images that she passed on the way to King Roiben. Shaye had a window of twenty seconds left, the blood she used as the magical catalyst had burnt away leaving clear, unblemished palms. When Shaye noticed this she opened her inner eye. Blankness she had practiced for years to attain came to her in a wave. The visions came quickly and flitted across her conscious mind, it wasn't right though.
Shaye wasn't seeing the future now, she was seeing the past. A girl sitting at a human Diner, what she recognized as the Kings Glamour approaching her. A flash of light. The girl, a strong Glamour being ripped off of her, Kaye? Flash. A boy, human, Corny? Flash. Kelpie? Flash. Samhain, the Solitary Faye? Nicnevin dying with screams of agony. Flash. Nephamael, watching Roiben dancing, if you could call it that. Flash. Kaye poisoning Nephamael. Flash. Silarial, leaving with a girl version of Roiben, his sister. With the next flash something changed, the quality of the vision. She saw a baby with wolf eyes, she cried, but no one came to her. Flash. The wolf eyed girl, no more then five, being cared for by faeries. An apple core fell to her feet, she searched for another. Flash. The girl was grown and speaking with Roiben's sister. Something went wrong the wolf eyed girl struck her. Flash Roiben's sister tied to a tree, crying. Flash. Silarial watching Roiben attempt to save his sister and failing. Flash. A dead body, his consort! Kaye.
Shaye wanted to stay in the fire, but she had overstayed already, she wasn't sure if she could control the flames much longer. Shaye tried to force one last image, but the flames began to burn the silver and violet robes and her skin began to sweat heavily under the intense pressure of the flames, she heard a scream of pain, it was only when she fell out of the flames that she realized the scream was from her own throat.
Shaye wasn't hurt physically, but an electric jolt had spread through her entire body, knocking her out of the fire and to the dew soaked grass. Shaye cursed herself silently for prodding into the fates like that, she knew that she had all the pieces she needed.
As she laid in the grass an intense wave of exhaustion overcame her and a blackness threatened to take place of the sky and a few of the concerned Faeries that were stooped over her.
She recognized the King as one of the faces. Shaye wanted to finish the ritual, and opened her mouth to speak, but her jaw wouldn't work properly. Shaye forced out the last bit of the ritual through her insubordinate mouth.
"It's done."
And then her eyes closed. A silver light shone through them and she heard something no subject should hear of her sovereign.
His full name. "Rath Roiben Rye."
