The blonde woman snapped her fingers. "Until the magic is revoked, each statement anyone here says will be immediately revealed as either a truth, a lie, or an opinion." Katt felt the truth of the statement like a warm blanket over her heart and was momentarily amazed. How could that happen? "We, the fairies of Tir Nan Og who are assigned to find new fairies on order of our Queen Nebula, agree not to raise a hand against anyone until Katt has chosen a side."
"I agree to the same terms." Bertram grinned. "Now, how do we do this? I'd say Katt should ask the questions, she has a right to, but I doubt she knows what questions to ask."
"Ja," Katt agreed.
"Katt, are you able to speak English? It'd be nice if we could understand you." The British fairy gave a sympathetic smile. "Unfortunately, none of us speak any Scandinavian languages, or I wouldn't ask."
She shrugged and switched languages easily. "Sure."
"What if we both present our cases?" asked the pink haired girl. "He can go first, of course." Her violet eyes flashed amber and her voice seemed to present a challenge, as though Bertram going first was a benefit for them.
Bertram, for his part, smiled graciously. "As you wish. My story, then."
In many ways, the Norway of the year 1165 was much like it was in 2015. In many ways, however, it was different.
Magnus Erlingsson was a young king, not even as old as Bertram Magnusson himself. The civil war era was in its height, but to young Bertram, only seventeen, all that mattered was survival. His family was one of the remaining few that still owned their own farm, and keeping it that way was a matter of family pride. "Let the pigs on the farm get fatter, so the pigs in the churches do not," his father would whisper.
If Bertram had ever had one strength, it was his dedication to learning about that which he cared for. He grew to become one of the best pig farmers anyone he knew had seen. His father was ecstatic, sure that the farm would never be threatened. With profits and the out of the way location, there was no reason for anyone other than Bertram and his family to touch the bacon.
When the end came, they did not expect it to be from a lovely woman.
Bertram was brilliant, but without a suitor. The woman who sought shelter at their farm was lovely, and the silken clothes that decorated her seemed to speak of a high status. Yet, she was delicate, clearly pained. In hopes of gaining her favor, they took care of her. She named herself as Sibylla, and Bertram fell for her hard and fast. Where in the cases of many men, that would cause their productivity to decline, for Bertram, it only motivated him more. At Sibylla's urging, he began to add more animals to his farm, and profits soared. He was amazed and fell harder, promising always to respect this woman… for now, a business partner, but hopefully soon a wife.
Soon, she revealed her secret, the reason her intuition was so keen and her appearance so lovely. She was a fairy, a commander of the power over prosperity, and the youngest sister of the fairy queen Morgana. In a time dangerous for fairies, her family had begged her to seek sanctuary among humans in faraway lands. Bertram's farm fit the bill. Sibylla gave a wry smile. Wouldn't her sisters be surprised when they learned she had found not only safety, but human love? She warned him that they may not approve, but neither would they interfere, and asked him to take her as his wife. Bertram agreed instantly.
Only a day before their wedding did his world fall to pieces with the arrival of not one, but both factions in the war Sibylla had fought so hard to escape. Four wizards and four new fairies faced each other on the farm… the Black Circle had hunted down Sibylla, knowing of her power and connections, and her protective sisters Morgana and Nebula, plus their handmaidens, had followed to defend her. As the battle raged on, the fairies screamed at Sibylla to run, but she refused to leave her love.
As time passed, the handmaidens were shot down, and the fairies became outnumbered. They retreated into the forest, and Sibylla faced Bertram with a heavy heart. "I must go help my sisters, but I will be back. I promise."
So she left, and Bertram fretted for his fiancé until deep in the night… when suddenly, he was forced to fret about himself.
The wizard Ogron tied him up, gagged him, and stuffed him into a potato sack, casting a spell that allowed Bertram to be carted around with ease. He paraded the poor farmer towards the battle, then revealed him to the fairies, a horrified Sibylla included. "You love this man," mocked Ogron. "So here's our bargain – give yourself up, and we will set him free."
Bertram would have rather died than have Sibylla leave him, but with the bitter taste of cloth in his mouth, he could not say as much. He saw in her eyes that she would do anything for his sake… of course she would, despite the wishes that he could not communicate. He vowed, sorrow in his heart, that when she was taken he would fight tooth and claw to get her back, for he loved her, and she loved him.
"I vow," she said, "to never love and to forsake my power to gain the true meaning of justice."
The world seemed to stop.
What followed was a spell, elaborate and long, that stripped Sibylla of her very being. It stripped her of her ability of love and hate, her prosperity magic, her strong, but sensitive, character, even her relationship with her sisters. It stripped her of any humanity a fairy could have and left only an empty vessel, content, but never truly happy, to deliver verdict on right and wrong.
Ogron dropped Bertram, knowing that no longer would the human hold sway over the fairies. Bertram scuttled off, feeling half-dead. Sibylla could no longer love him, and he could no longer love what she had become. She must have known that he would go free, but what was her thought process other than that? Did she think he would like her better changed and free than herself and captured?
Did he? Was there a correct answer?
As he stood in shock, surrounded by his pigs, unable to cry, Ogron came back. No indication remained of Sibylla's fate. "Look what she did to you," said the wizard. "Look how worthless a human was in the end. Wouldn't you choose to be stronger, so when you meet again, you may face her as equals?"
"The Sibylla I knew is dead," said Bertram.
Ogron smiled. It was surprisingly sympathetic. "She killed herself, the little witch. Won't you have your revenge?"
The wizard walked Bertram through the ritual of sacrifice. By morning, his pigs were all dead and his very being overflowed with power and promises of training, of knowledge, and of a day where he could curse fairies for their fickle, disposable love.
After all… fairies are nothing but pain.
A silence fell over the five listening girls as Killian… Bertram… concluded his story, and all could feel the truth of it. "I gave up my name and my life to vengeance," he snarled. "And I shall have it. I won't allow fairies to force their own will upon anyone else without consent ever again."
"Oh, like you did any better!" Avi shot back. "So your girlfriend saved your life! This is how you repay her?" The feelings of an opinion rang out.
"I never asked for my life to be saved. She killed herself, didn't you hear? She killed herself, and with her, she took me. I would choose to find myself again, and this is how I will choose to do it." Killian's eyes flashed darkly, and he turned to Katt. "You see, Catherine, you have a choice. You can come with me and learn the secrets of sacrifice, or you can go with the fairies and become my enemy. It is all on you."
Katt opened her mouth to answer, but Lysis interrupted. "Nice try, Killian. We haven't presented our part yet." Truth.
He sneered. "What could you say that could compete with my truth?" Opinion.
Lysis seemed speechless, and Roxy decided to step up and take the lead. "Katt!" she called out. "I want you to know that none of us had any idea about what happened. And… Killian… Bertram… I feel bad for him. Sibylla is my aunt and I can see how she is never truly happy. I can only imagine what she must have been like nine hundred years ago."
Killian turned away.
"Fairies sometimes do bad things, make horrible decisions, when we're at war. That's how history, even human history, goes. But here's the thing; Killian is trying to sell you the past, true as it is. We want to give you the future."
Roxy saw Saf's eyes light up, and the dark-haired girl began to add to Roxy's words. "Sibylla wanted safety in a world that had none. We have safety. Perhaps not much, but enough. Those fairies of so long ago believed in safety by setting yourself apart."
Lysis nodded. "That's true. Agrippine. Sibylla. They left their fairy friends and tried to find safety alone."
Saf nodded. "We stand together. Our safety is in numbers, and we don't have many now, but every girl who makes the difficult decision and joins us means we're a little safer."
"We have a school!" added Avi. "I mean, that's more of a con than a pro, but I've never felt threatened at the Royal Fairy Academy. I mean, apart from during Lysis's counseling sessions…"
Lysis glared at Avi, who promptly shut up. "Katt," said Roxy, "we'll do everything in our power to give you a normal life, plus magic."
"A normal life?" Katt asked slowly.
The Core Four nodded. "It's up to you, but that's what we can offer. I don't know what Killian has in store… he hasn't really said much about it, has he?"
Killian seemed unshaken. "Power beyond what any fairy could comprehend. Fellowship. Humanity."
"He truly believes it," Lysis whispered to Roxy. "Can you feel it?"
Roxy could, and it made her nervous. A villain who believed he was doing the right thing was much stronger than a villain who knew he was wrong. This villain wasn't just convinced he was good, he truly was powerful, so powerful that even outnumbering him and his friends, the younger fairies stood no chance. Even Bloom, so powerful, hadn't been able to scratch him, though granted, he hadn't managed to injure her, either. After a moment of reflection, Roxy realized she'd never seen him try. Whether that was scarier or more reassuring, she wasn't sure.
"Well?" said Killian. "Make your decision."
Katt looked to Lysis, then to Roxy. She looked back to Killian, then to Saf and Avi.
Then, she jumped up and began to run.
For the second time, Katt found herself trying to race a myriad of magical beings. This time, however, was different than the first. When she first started running, she felt purposeful and brave, every step the calculated pace of an athlete. Now, she was running away from her problems, and doing a very sloppy job of it, almost tripping several times.
How did she get a problem of this caliber, this quickly? It was only an hour and a half ago her mother sent her out. The goal had been to grab some pålegg and get home to spend time with her dad. Now, tears were streaming down her face as she ran back to her apartment empty-handed. How was she going to explain everything to them?
Behind her, she could hear the fairies and Bertram… Killian? All were calling out to her. All sounded like they genuinely cared. Couldn't one faction seem evil? Why did both have to seem kind, relatively sane, genuinely concerned for her?
After a few minutes, the calling stopped, and Katt couldn't hear anything behind her. She paused her running, taking deep, choking breaths, and wiping her eyes and running nose on her sleeve.
Then, strong, muscular arms latched onto her from behind. Katt cursed and tried to elbow her captor in the face, but he neatly ducked. "Calm down, I just want to talk," Bertram/Killian said in Norwegian. Katt could still hear the truth, but it was almost an afterthought… the spell seemed to be wearing off.
"You had your chance," she said with a sniffle.
"You didn't choose what you want."
"I don't know what I want."
"That's fair enough." He paused and turned her around. She let him, let him gently wipe her tears away. "As I said… I wished I wouldn't have to tell you so soon."
Almost a full minute of silence passed before Katt felt the truth of that. She wondered if he knew his spell was almost gone.
"I don't want this to be hard on you. Still, there's not much of a choice now. You do have to make a decision. But perhaps… perhaps I can make it easier on you." He smiled. "I'll… I'll promise you something. You stay at their school, you don't go on any missions, don't talk to any potential fairies before they've made their own choice, and I won't raise a hand to you, ever. If you are the last fairy on Earth, I still won't harm you."
Katt blinked back tears and was quiet until, ninety seconds later, she felt the truth. Then, she felt a snap, which she instinctively understood as the end of the spell.
"Why?" she asked him.
Bertram took a deep breath. "I was raised in a different time. A sexist time," he admitted. "My father always said he would whip me if I made a girl cry. I didn't know that would come of this, but I can do what I can to make amends. There, I've made your choice for you. Go with the fairies. Stay in the school and don't interfere in this war. And… and if you ever feel brave enough to make the choice for yourself, then step outside and call my name."
"Which one?"
He waved the question off. "It doesn't matter. Just know this: you can turn a fairy into a wizard, but it's in rare circumstances that a wizard can become a fairy."
"Huh?"
Bertram shot her one last smile and began to hover off the ground. "Oh, one last thing. Don't tell the fairies I let you go. I have a reputation to maintain. Tell them you made your own choice. If they pry, just clam up and act traumatized."
"Wait…"
It was too late. He snapped his fingers and was gone.
"Katt?"
The girl looked up at Saf. Her eyes were wet and red. "Yes?"
"Are you okay?" asked the lightning fairy. "You seemed very upset."
"I needed to think," said Katt. "I'll… I'll come with you."
Saf smiled. "That's great! Why don't we go tell your parents?"
"Where are the others?" Katt asked, not responding.
"We all figured you needed some space. They sent me to look after you because they decided I was the most… ah… tactful. If you're ready to go, we really should leave. We don't know when Killian will find you, and trust me, you don't want to be alone with him. He almost killed my friends."
The truth spell on the fairies had worn off, and Saf mentally cursed. It would have been better for everyone if Katt could know that to be a statement of fact. Too late.
Katt smiled through her tears. "Let's go tell my parents, then. I doubt they'll believe me, but it's worth a shot."
Katt Bloom did not leave for America with the travel team, though all four of them protested. She spent the weekend with her family, as planned, and since she didn't come back with food, they went out for lunch.
On Monday morning, she and her parents went into her secondary school and withdrew. Katt hugged Solveig good bye and smiled sadly at all her programme friends, hoping they couldn't see her weariness, her reluctance to leave.
She looked for Bertram among the groups of VG3 students. He wasn't there.
That night, she hugged her mother good bye. "You can always come back," whispered her mom as they held each other.
"As soon as I'm eighteen and good at magic," Katt whispered back. "I'll come back and complete secondary school, promise."
"I'll remember that." Her mother pulled back. "Call me. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too."
She boarded the same plane to America as her father did, and when they landed, he drove her to the school himself, and she went through a similar exchange with him. Then, she was alone.
All it would take to join Bertram would be a call. She didn't know what would happen but… odd as it was… she trusted him. Odd as it was, she also trusted the fairies who waited inside the old wooden doors of the fairy school.
Katt thought of Sibylla, the fairy of justice, who took it upon herself to make decisions without worry of good versus evil, only judging the fairness of the actions. She thought of the scorn she seemed to face for not being able to differentiate, and she felt a pang of sympathy for this thousand year old fairy she had never met. In truth, it seemed Katt was not able to differentiate either.
"I wish you hadn't had to tell me so soon," she said, echoing the wizard's sentiment. "If only…"
His name was on her lips, but Katt did not speak it. Instead, she smiled and opened the door to the Royal Fairy Academy.
AN: Whoa! Short, but fun, chapter! Who thought Killian was this complex? Is he being nice, or is something else going on?
I loved hearing who and what you're excited for, and I adored favorite scenes... when it comes to favorite scenes, all of the ones mentioned were my favorite ones to write! I hope that Killian's backstory becomes a new favorite for everyone. For this chapter's reviews, I have two related questions: Did you read the old Fly or Fall, and if so, what from the old version would you like to be the same in the new version? As you may have noticed, almost everything has been changed so far... the only major constants besides some characters are Amanda's car crash and the existence of the fairy school. What do you want to stay the same?
Thanks for reading! Your reviews make my day. This story now has more words than the original Fly or Fall, so now the goal is to have more chapters and MORE REVIEWS! If this gets to 150, I'll be really happy. I'm gonna keep writing, so keep reviewing, okay?