Arcadia
Beyond the wooden wall, that opened silently under the command of the Queen, a dark void awaited them both. One that, as soon as the brunette creature entered into, illuminated in subtle gleams of the same purple colored sparks that had danced on the tips of the brunette mere moments ago.
"Then what should I call you?" Despite the question, Emma found herself following through what, for a lack of a better word, seemed to be a doorway, one that lead to another chamber of this place, whatever that was. Her boots scraping the floor beneath her as she tried to keep up with the retreating back of the other woman who, without braking her surprisingly brisk place, merely looked over her shoulder with something close to a smile. One that, for a moment, seemed to have too many teeth to belong to a human mouth.
"I already told you that." The woman's answer came swiftly, in the same haughty tone than before but there was a different pitch raising between each syllable.
"Queen of the Faeries." The response made the princess mouth taste like ash, like the same one in which those wiser and older tended to draw when bonfires were already dimming, and the best ghost stories could be told. Spurred by that, Emma run through the hallway, each wall at her side briefly illuminated for a moment as she stepped into it only to be rendered in darkness as soon as she took the next step. Air growing thicker the closer she moved towards the Queen, she needed a few seconds before formulating her next answer.
"The Chernabog." The liquid that covered the woman's body seemed to still for a moment, the tar-consistence resembling ink before it began to perpetually fall once again. That, aside with a mere tilt of the woman's head, were the only indicators she was truly listening to her as she merely kept on walking, the hallway seeming to not have a natural stop. Not letting that perturb her, Emma touched the roof of her mouth with her tongue, the last residues of the other's magic clinging there, an almost prickle running down her tongue as she swallowed. "You said it's a spirit from the woods; why can't you then command it to…"
"Be back to its seal? I don't rule over the forest like your kings do, mortal."
The words were full with not only disdain but tiredness and Emma felt herself almost shrink as the Queen stopped, sparks of purple drawing glyphs around them embedding themselves into the walls once again, their slowly fading light the only one that casted shadows on the woman's face. For a moment, when the blonde looked up to those brown eyes she could see the reflection of those same purple swirls; the brief flash making her think of wolves or foxes; no human mortal eyes were able to do that.
She almost retreated but she ultimately kept standing in the same spot, waiting for the other woman to answer further, to explain to herself why, what had happened.
"But you kept it sealed."
She had listened to stories, she knew about the Queen, the creatures that lurked into shadows, asking for little things -your shadow, your first morning smile, only to tear you to pieces the second you thought you were safe. And yet, alone, in the forest, the woman hadn't done that, hadn't sentence her to death. And she wanted to know why.
The queen, however, didn't seem so keen on giving her any information and, with a huff, she turned and kept on walking, finally stopping into a niche into the walls, no taller than Emma's midriff but spacious enough for the woman to be able to lay there if she so desired. Pointing at it, the brunette stood, tall as ever, maybe even taller now that Emma took a good look at her, and took a step back, a flurry of sparks running through the veins of the wood, sparkling and crackling.
"You will rest here." She said, lips taut. "At dawn you will be escorted to the main road. Safe dreams, mortal."
It was maybe her tone, the way she carried herself, but Emma remembered similar words, similar glances, thrown at her, the title Princess and child far too heavy around her shoulders and head, crowning and covering her like a mantle. One she had fled the castle for, one that had landed her there, standing in front of a myth.
Raging, she took another step closer to the brunette, enough for her knees the tips of her boots to graze the woman's dress, the substance recoiling to its touch, almost like water.
"I want to help." She enunciated. "Or, at least, not be treated like a child. You want to see me gone by morning. I will be gone. But I broke the seal. Let me help."
She stopped herself, chest heaving as the Queen stared at her, eyes cold but interested enough that she hadn't yet turned her back to her. Swallowing thickly, she winced at the parched feeling on her throat.
"Told you." The woman in front of her said dryly. "Magic leave your kind thirsty."
Jaws clenched, Emma kept on her staring, eyes narrowed as she took on every detail of the fae's face; on the way not a single muscle moved. The micro expressions she unconsciously waited to appear not once rippling the surface of the creature's face. Inhuman.
"You spoke of a treaty." She finally said, not once shagging but deciding on taking another route. "What treaty is that?"
That didn't seem to please the woman, however, as some bits of the sparks around them crackled stronger, almost as if fueled by some kind of kindling and fire the blonde couldn't see.
"You seem to ignore quite a lot of your own history, human. But you must know enough to know that us fae adore treaties." Back where the smirk and the assuredness on her eyes and Emma shuddered a little under those, not quite expecting the sudden change. Perhaps it was that what was unsettling; how perfect the woman in front of her mimicked human expressions while, at the same time, not seeming mortal at all. "Promise me on your name that you will be gone, that you will never return after this night and I will then explain enough so you leave knowing why you should not step inside the forest borders ever again."
The last bit was purred almost, the sound eliciting a new shiver on Emma's back. One that wasn't quite as unpleasant but left her breathless nonetheless.
"I swear it on my name." She said after a second, realizing the woman wasn't mocking her. With a sigh, the brunette snapped her fingers together, the hallways rotating onto itself below their feet until it transformed, leaving them both right at where they had started; in the middle of the circular room.
"How…" Turning and feeling nauseous, Emma tried to not fall onto her knees as the Queen passed her by, not sparing her a second glance.
"Magic, dear." Walking towards the middle of the room, the Queen pointed at the globules that kept irradiating light, a sudden flow of particles titillating into the wood that surrounded them both. "Which is something your kind never had had. Not a drop."
"Sorceress..."
"Children of those that gained gifts from us."
And, with her voice rising into the chamber; the Queen began to speak as outside, unknowingly by the blonde, thousands of creatures made of dew and light guarded the trees, rattling bones and hooting echoes scouring every inch of the forest floor, waiting for dawn to come.
Far away from those who searched the forest, who ululated and waited for their Queen to step outside her castle, a shadow run from tree to tree, savoring its newfound freedom. Weak, disoriented, it grazed the bark of trees with its claws, the frostbite that left behind turning the wood into black powder that disintegrated after a few seconds.
The power of the seal still compelled it, still nagged the back of its still reformatting mind and, as such, it unfolded uneven wings before snarling, the power of the forest different than the one it had grown to know, many many moons ago. A snarl echoing on the concavity that seemed its chest, it took flight, barely making further above than the crowns of the shorter trees.
It still needed time.
A time the faeries that had begun to scurry away, back to its usual posts and who could feel the magic of the Chernabog running through them all, felt running out. Fearful, one made of whispers of hundreds of beetle wings nodded to the rest and turned around: The Queen needed to learn about this. Mortal in the forest or not.
Mortal who was still eyeing the Queen as the brunette turned and raised her left hand, swirls of purple clinging to her nails. For the first time, Emma saw a glimpse of exhaustion on the otherwise impassible face of the creature, a shadow of worry momentarily making its way as well as the brunette glanced towards the still imprisoned globule-like lights that kept floating on their ash-made cages.
"Your majesty?" She called, the epithet making the creature turn back towards her, one brow arched in question.
Question that transformed into a soft growl.
"I was called The Queen of hearts by your people." She began, momentarily giving her back to the lights and Emma nodded at that, the title echoing on her mind, almost as something she had heard in a dream. "A seductress, and enchantress, a sorceress." The Queen smirked at that and Emma shivered; seeing exactly why the fae in front of her could have been considered that as she felt a tug on her chest, one different than any other thing she had already experienced throughout the night.
Rising her chin haughtily, the brunette let her hands skim her body, halting them at her thighs, pressing her palms against the substance that covered her. The almost liquid licked her fingers, almost covering them before retreating once more under Emma's gaze. "I am that and more, much more than the minds of those who first began to approach us didn't fully understood. Yet, they feared us, they revered us." Ruby lips curving yet again, eyes glazed, the Queen shook her head and Emma wondered once again how true where the stories about fairies being unable to lie and yet strangers to the concept of truth.
How much the other woman was doctoring her words? How much she truly wasn't? Entranced, she kept listening, taking a step forward the brunette with a lighter footstep than before, unable to keep still.
The Queen didn't seem to mind that, merely returning to her faraway look. One that pierced through Emma, purple coloring her strange eyes, close to but not exactly human.
"And so, they began to ask for help, for the help of a kind of power that they did not possess. And we did, because magic becomes stronger the longer we use it. And so, you mortals, the ones that dared to enter into the forest, were granted protection, fortune, power."
Emma could remember those tales, tales in where magic had been everything the kingdoms traded with, in where curses hadn't been a last resort but something so normal many knights had transformed into curse-hunters, creating guilds and lodges that had been the worst kept secret among the kingdoms.
Until it had all stopped.
"And we were called amoral for that, because for us no king was different than the other and now war was ours to fight. They began to exploit the gifts we have given to them, the children of those who first had approached us possessing a diluted version of that. Weaker with each new generation."
There was a pause there, one that bristled with anger and rage as The Queen bared her teeth, sharper than any other human had, her skin breaking for a moment into thousands of moth-like wings that quickly retreated back to its former form. Yet, when she spoke, her voice was cold and biting in a way that made Emma feel lightheaded.
"And when they began to treat us like humans, tried to sell us, to use us, to tie us with iron and silver… Revenge was ours."
There was a pause, one Emma wasn't sure the Queen would ever break again and so she kept silent herself, still unsure of why, of how much she was truly being shown. Until the brunette sighed and closed her eyes, the tension leaving the room for a moment as thousands of specs of dust glimmering on the walls as she did so; waiting for their Queen to command them with an anger that made her power drip off her, disrupting the tar-like substance that kept her clothed, creating rivers of shimmering power on its wake.
And when she spoke again, her voice was rougher, less distant, more human and Emma closed her own eyes at that, a shiver running through her spine.
"Many died during that time, many from our and their side. Until a treaty was created. One that granted you humans one and only passage through the woods, one that should never be broken, and we were left to our forest. Our true home; away from those who had tried to obliterate us. No more wishes, no more curses, no more magic."
Sucking air, realizing she had been holding her breath, Emma eyed the woman in front of her as the Queen stared at her, eyes now following her every movement.
"And you turned into fairytales."
A dry chuckle fell from the Queen's lips, one that made Emma smile a little, the sound terrifying and yet closer to what a human would do, a mortal would do. Shrugging, the Queen hummed, her voice softer but still low when she spoke again.
"Apparently we did."
"But then? Why…"
Stepping closer to Emma, closer than before, The Queen eyed her with something close to, maybe, longing. One that was quickly casted aside as Emma felt her own chest constrict yet again, her lungs unmoving as she felt the other woman's magic hovering between them; its scent heady and strange.
"We are very different from you, human, but we can still be blinded by rage. A different one, but a real one nonetheless. And after generations of using wishes to harvest our magic… we also paid a price."