They insisted that Lily rested for the remainder of the day, so it wasn't until the following day that they set out to the dead land.

Lily had her own horse this time, though she preferred riding with James. Riding on a horse by herself was intimidating and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with the reins or with her feet. Luckily, her horse just followed the others, as James had assured her many times that it would.

She might have liked riding with James for other reasons as well.

She tried to remind herself, reasonably, that she liked the attention he was giving her, not because she fancied him, but because he was literally a fairy prince. Anyone would like attention from an actual fairy prince.

And she also told herself that he was simply flattering her with all the smiles and pretty words.

He wouldn't mind sharing the burden with her.

Ha.

She realized that she'd been staring at the back of his head while she tried to convince herself that she didn't have feelings for him, and looked away to find Remus smirking at her. She clicked her tongue and flipped him off, discreetly. He just laughed.

"What is funny?" Peter asked, causing James and Sirius to look back at them.

"Nothing." Remus shook his head. "How much further?"

"The ability to lie is wasted on you," Sirius scoffed and looked over at Lily. "Are you going to do a better job?"

"Remus was giving me a look, so I flipped him off." She shrugged. "I don't know why he thought it was funny." She narrowed her eyes at Remus and then looked back at Sirius.

"This, right?" Sirius said, putting up his middle finger. "Why do mortals take offence to this?"

"Because when you do it, it's meant to be offensive." Lily had no idea how the hand gesture started. "Is there something you can do to another fae that is offensive just in the movement?"

Sirius scrunched his brow. "I do not think so. If we mean to offend someone, we will do much more than show them one of our fingers."

"Yes, I remember." Lily's smile was tight.

Sirius laughed, but James was frowning. "We frightened Lily when we were younger." He said, shaking his head to tell Sirius to stop laughing.

Sirius took a deep breath through his nose, clearly annoyed with James for being soft. "I suppose I can understand why she was frightened of us. We were not very well behaved."

"The number of times my mum threatened to kick me out of the house," Peter said with a nostalgic sigh. "Da of course had to remind her that this the way of fae children. Terror, trouble and-"

"A lack of basic empathy." Lily interrupted. "Don't romanticize it."

"We had fun, red." Sirius shrugged. "It might have been frightening for you, but it is just how things are here."

"That is a terrible argument." Lily shook her head. "'Oh, we only try and kill one another while we're young for good fun! It's the way things have always been!'" She mocked, tilting her head back and forth.

"You don't seem like you're afraid of them anymore," Remus smirked.

She opened her mouth, ready to tell them that she had nothing to fear since James had promised to keep her safe, but then she closed her mouth and looked at him. He'd been awfully quiet. He was looking at her thoughtfully, a small smile on his lips that grew when he noticed her looking back at him. "No, I suppose I'm not."

"The thought of being the queen already going to your head?" Sirius laughed, drawing her attention back to him. Her cheeks went red before she remembered that he was talking about the prophecy.

"I'm not the queen. James said that prophecies are rarely literal anyway. It could mean any number of things."

"The true queen of fairyland approaches,' does not seem like a phrase that leaves room for much interpretation." Peter shrugged. "But I suppose you are correct. No one could have predicted how James' prophecy came to pass."

"I wish you would have gutted some of the nobility in a more literal sense," Sirius sighed. "Starting with my father and worthless brother."

"I thought you and Regulus had tea the other day?" James asked, breaking his silent streak.

"We did." Sirius nodded. "And then the blighter beat me at chess and said I owe him forty gold crowns."

"Did you bet him forty gold crowns?" Peter laughed. Sirius glanced at Lily and then flipped Peter off and she started laughing.

"Did I use that right?" He asked, not looking all that upset.

"Yes," Lily nodded. "Yes, you did."

"We have arrived." James said, and Lily's heart jumped to her throat as she looked ahead of her. The hill they had just crested now gave way to a truly horrible sight.

It didn't look like a fire had destroyed everything, which was how Lily had been picturing the darkness. It was as though all color had just drained out of everything. The trees looked frail and decrepit, but the leaves, though entirely gray, still hung to the branches. It almost looked hopeful how they swung carefully in the breeze, refusing to fall to the ground.

The trees themselves looked as though they'd been dipped in oil, and then slightly dehydrated. The ground was also black and gray and just, wrong looking. It all just looked wrong.

It felt wrong here too. Similar to how she felt when she crossed back over to the mortal world, but worse. The land here still had magic, but the magic was sick, it was twisted by something evil.

And Lily had thought she could help.

"We should leave our horses here." Peter said, sliding off his saddle and reaching out for Lily's horse so she could get down as well. She didn't want to get down though. If she got down, she'd have to figure out what she could do for this land. Land that stretched over the hills and looked like it went on forever. Just dead things that looked as though they didn't have a chance at revival.

Sirius helped Peter tie up the horses and Remus and James came to stand on either side of Lily.

"I know it looks a little overwhelming." James said quietly. "It has been spreading lately, though I have touched it before and it had no adverse affects on me."

"It feels wrong." She said quietly.

"You can feel it?" Remus asked.

"I don't like it." She said, looking over at him.

"What does it feel like?"

She blinked at him. "You can't feel it?"

He shook his head and looked back out at the land. "It feels like nothing. It's dead."

"It's not dead." Lily argued. "It's wrong, but it's not dead."

She took a small step forward and James stepped forward with her. "I can feel it too," He said. "It almost feels like it is asking for help." Lily nodded.

"Someone did this, James. Someone did this to the land. This is a curse or a poison or something. This isn't natural."

"I know." James said quietly. "It feels very wrong." He repeated what she had already stated.

Lily took a step forward, carefully, despite him assuring her that it wouldn't hurt her.

It didn't. When her full weight was on top of it, she didn't feel any different. She didn't feel anything overcome her any more than it already had. Though she supposed she did feel a bit like crying.

She slowly knelt down and touched the earth. It was cold to the touch, despite the sun shining over them. It was a strange juxtaposition. The sun on her back and this dying earth before her.

She didn't know what would happen when she got here, but she thought that she might feel something that would give her some sort of clue. Instead, she was just confused and despondent. She couldn't fix this.

She turned back to look at James, her hand still in the dirt.

He walked up to her and knelt down. "I have tried everything that I can think of. The earth has healed me a number of times, but I cannot seem to heal the earth." When Lily looked back at the rest of their party, wanting to make sure that their eyes weren't on her, she saw that they were setting up camp.

"Are we staying her for the night?" She asked quietly. "What if I can't do anything? What if we came all the way out here for nothing?"

"It was a long ride out here, it is better for everyone if we rest for the night before we head back to the castle." He put a gentle hand on her arm after that and looked down at her hand on the earth. "It will not have been a waste, if that is what troubles you. If we did not decide to try, then we all would have spent who knows how long wondering what might have happened." His grip on her arm tightened slightly. "Where did all your hope from earlier go?" He gave her a small smile.

Lily wanted to lean against him, not caring if she was admitting something bigger to herself with that realization. "I'm still hopeful," But then she looked back at just how vast this sickness of the earth was, how far it had spread. She picked up a small rock and watched it crumble in her hand. "It's just so much worse than I could have guessed."

"That is understandable." He looked out at everything too. "It has gotten so much worse lately. A year ago, this was perfectly good land. Creatures lived here. Now nothing can live here." He ran his hand over some petrified grass, and it turned to dust.

"This all happened in a year?" Lily shook her head. "And I thought I was just going to waltz in here and fix everything with a few drops of my blood." Lily shook her head, and then looked down at her palm. That was always where people sliced in movies and tv shows, and every time Lily watched it happen, she flinched and looked away.

She could prick her finger, but that wouldn't be enough, would it? A few drops of blood to undo all this?

"Alright, I'm stalling." She held out her hand for the dagger that he carried on his belt. He hesitated before he reached for it and pulled it from its sheath. It was a small, decorated thing that didn't look as though it had been used all that often.

She took the cool metal handle in her hand and then looked at her palm again. And then up at her fingertips.

She almost closed her eyes as she directed the tip of the blade to the center of her middle fingertip. Just a quick, painless prick. Like she was testing to see what type of blood she had, or testing her blood sugar. People pricked their finger like this all the time.

She still flinched when the blade broke her skin and she saw a bead of blood appear.

She just wanted to see what the blood would do. If a drop of blood had grown a whole flowering bush at the palace, then it had to be able to do something here.

She squeezed her finger until there was a good size droplet and then turned her finger over and let the blood fall to the earth.

It was immediately soaked up by the dust like dirt. Lily watched the spot while she held her breath, hoping for some sign of life to appear.

But nothing changed. Nothing at all. The ground had greedily accepted her blood, but nothing had changed.

"It wasn't enough," Lily said, looking back at the blade. James reached over and took the blade from her hand.

"It was enough." He said. "I know that you wanted there to be a reaction, so did I, but I am not going to let you cut yourself again. One drop was enough back at the castle for something to happen, it should have been enough here."

The dread and defeat that Lily felt in her gut was overwhelming, to the point where she found herself holding back tears.

She hadn't wanted the prophecy to be about her, she really hadn't. But after she'd started to think that it was possible that it was about her, she realized just how much she wanted to feel as though she had some claim to this land that she'd come to love. She wanted some indisputable proof that she could point to when the full blooded fae sneered down their nose at her and told her to go back to the mortal world. She wanted to be able to hold her head high and tell them that the land had chosen her, even if they hadn't.

And it had started to make sense, hadn't it? Her blood, the colors, the desire to get back here whenever she left. If this prophecy had been about her, than she wasn't just some mortal lusting after something she couldn't have.

But now, she was exactly where she was before she went to Mary's wedding.

"I still haven't even met Mary." Lily sighed, pressing her bleeding fingertip against her riding pants and tucking her chin against her chest. James couldn't possibly have followed her train of thought, but he didn't ask what she meant by that.

James chuckled quietly and put his hand on her back. "I will make sure to introduce you when she gets back from her honeymoon."

"You guys have honeymoons?" She picked her head up.

"Yes, it is a celebration between-"

"I know what it is, I just figured it was a mortal thing."

James stood up and held his hand out for her. She took it, welcoming his warm touch.

"And I thought it was just a fairy thing." He smiled. "But when Mary and Reginald get back, I will make the proper introductions. I think you and Mary will get along very well."

"Oh? What type of fairy creature is she?"

"The disgraced kind. Her mother married a mortal man."

Lily frowned. "I thought it was common for fae to marry mortals. I mean, that was a situation I was almost a part of only yesterday."

James cleared his throat. "It is common for fae males to take mortal wives. It is not common for fae females to take mortal husbands. Though, her marrying a mortal was not the apex of the scandal."

"Apex?" Lily teased.

"Anyway, she had been engaged to a fae male before she ran off with Mary's father. It was a family approved pairing, a strong social alliance, a royal affair. And when she broke off her engagement, she was banished from the kingdom that she had grown up in."

"Which kingdom was she from?"

"The Fall court. They live in the mountains. She and her husband came to my parents to ask for asylum, in case her ex fiancé decided to take revenge on the mortal. They granted it and Mary was born here."

"But she's still looked down upon by a lot of people?"

James was quiet for a moment. "It is very hard to change immortal being's minds. They have gone their entire lives believing one thing, and it is not enough for me to just tell them that they have been wrong and need to do better. So Mary had a wedding at the castle. She married one of my knights. Some people are very happy about this, some people are very angry."

They reached the rest of their party and Lily bit the tip of her tongue. She would have to tell them now that they came all this way for nothing.

"Do not sweat it, Red." Sirius shrugged. "We will come up with a new plan after we eat."

She hadn't needed to say anything. They had probably been paying attention. They had seen nothing change when she and James had walked away.

"I'm sorry," She said anyway. "I was hoping that I could help, but I guess that was foolish of me."

"Hope is never foolish," Peter smiled kindly, handing her a bowl of steaming soup. "Even if hope is all we have left, then we are still rich."

"Just giving your blood to the earth would have been too easy," Remus said, already sitting next to the campfire with his bowl of soup. "It's like Sirius said, we'll figure it out. It'll just take some time."

After dinner, Lily and Remus set out to collect some firewood. Of course, that was farcical, James or Sirius or Peter would use magic to gather firewood, and Lily and Remus could not carry all that much anyway.

But they still meandered off together under the guise of collecting wood after they'd finished their soup.

"We shouldn't have come here," Lily said quietly, kicking at a rock on the ground. "I feel like I overstepped and I'm very embarrassed." She turned around and looked back at the dead earth. "There is no way I can do anything about this."

Remus smiled at her and nudged her shoulder with his. "I don't know about that, but I'm glad we came either way. Got me a few more days with you."

Lily smiled at him too. "This is the longest I've been here." She took a deep breath. "It's going to be hard to go back this time."

"You gonna miss me?" Remus teased.

"Of course I am," Lily nodded, "But you know what I mean."

Remus tilted his head. "Let's pretend that I don't."

Lily narrowed her eyes and looked him over. "You know." She shrugged. "How weird everything feels when you go back to the mortal world. Sounds and smells and colors all just feel kind of muted." He narrowed his eyes in response. "I know it's been a while, but you have to remember what I'm talking about! It's been the same amount of time for both of us!"

Remus shook his head. "I never felt like that. There wasn't really a 'feeling' one way or the other, stepping from the mortal world to fairyland or the other way around."

"Huh," Lily's shoulders dropped. "I guess it could be because I'm mortal."

"Maybe," Remus shrugged. "Or maybe you really are the true queen."

"Stop." Lily huffed and Remus laughed at her. "My blood didn't make any difference at all."

Remus took a breath and then crossed his arms over her chest. "I understand why you thought it would. I mean, I didn't see the flowers sprout from the ground, but if I had, I might have thought a few drops of blood would have fixed- or at least start to fix- this place. But that's not usually how magic works. You don't get more than you give."

The look on Lily's face made him explain further. "Magic is fickle. It's not something that someone can just control- I mean, they can control it, but it's easy to lose control if you forget that it's a give and take. This place has been hit hard, for over a year. That's a lot of time and energy. A drop of your blood, no matter if there are magical, prophetic qualities to it or not, is nothing in comparison. If this place has any hope, it will require something just as big as the magic that broke it. It will require a sacrifice that matches the magical energy here now."

Lily stopped walking and looked back at the earth. There was no energy there at all, but there had been a lot of energy lost, so she understood what he was telling her.

"Pricking my finger wasn't a sacrifice. Losing a drop of blood wasn't a sacrifice."

"Right." Remus nodded.

"And James knew all this and he let me do it anyway?" Lily shook her head. "I feel even more foolish now."

Remus laughed. "You shouldn't feel foolish. You don't have innate knowledge of fairyland or magic, and no one here expects you to. We are all just grateful that you want to help."

"Even though I'm trying to help with no knowledge?"

"You're gathering knowledge. It's not as though you've decided that what you say goes and you won't hear anything to the contrary. Also, we all kind of think the prophecy is about you. I mean, I'm hoping that it's not, for your safety. But I think it might be."

Lily was quiet and they started walking again. "But what would that mean?"

Remus gave her a small smile this time and shrugged one of his shoulders. "There is no way of knowing that."

"Right. Because that's not how prophecies work."

"See? You're learning already."

AN: Alright! There you go! Quite a bit of information was thrown at you in the last two chapters, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Reviews are amazing!