Natalya sat out on the balcony, on a plush lounging chair she had dragged outside, and watched Yuvalon's swirling sky above her. Trapped in this guest suite in Tivalon, there wasn't really any other way to spend her waking hours, aside from trying to keep her mind from running away in isolation.
At least she now had a glimmer of hope to rely on, something she didn't have before Tolys brought the potion. She wasn't alone in this, her true love was working on a rescue plan with her friends and family. It was truly comforting and reassuring that so many people cared enough about her to dare venture into Yuvalon just to bring her back home.
Of course, this did not mean she was falling in love with Alfred just yet. She never really liked how, in those storybooks Francis let her read in that tower, the damsel in distress always immediately agrees to marry the hero who rescues her. She still desired to see the world first, but perhaps in time she and Alfred could find a way to make things work. For the time being, his dedication to finding her again and bringing her back to the human realm was certainly helping her judge his character favourably.
A knock behind her prompted Natalya to spin around and look through the window, just in time to see the door to her room open. A servant came through, it was the same brunette who had swapped out Natalya's food each time the last couple days, and who had approved the use of the bath salts. She had a silver tray in her hand, but it was empty this time.
The servant was promptly followed into the room by someone else, Natalya immediately fixing her eyes on him and recognizing him.
The silver-haired, red-eyed Unseelie King. The one who abducted her with Francis's help and brought her here to be his bride.
Gilbert spared Natalya a glance through the window and a quick nod of his head, before following the servant into the room. Natalya rose from her chair and walked part of the way back into the room, propping herself up to lean against the doorframe with her arms crossed. She then watched as they reached the side table, where the servant's last delivery of food and drink still sat.
"Still the same as before, Your Majesty," the servant observed, "Completely untouched."
"Why am I not surprised," Gilbert remarked, taking the pitcher and a glass, "Natalya, have you not tried the faewine?"
"No, I haven't," Natalya turned down, "And I don't want to."
"You're certain?" Gilbert pressed as he poured some into the cup, "This is your last chance."
"None, thank you," Natalya declined.
"Suit yourself," Gilbert allowed as he placed the pitcher back on the table, "Lenka, you can take everything away, don't worry about bringing anything new until I say otherwise."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the servant answered.
Natalya did not respond to that, and simply kept watching the two fae. Lenka placed the pitcher and the food onto the empty tray she had brought in, while Gilbert quietly strolled towards Natalya as he sipped at the faewine. As he reached the balcony door in turn, Gilbert stopped and leaned against the doorframe on the opposite side of Natalya, taking his own look at the sky along with another sip of the faewine. They stood there in silence, Gilbert watching the sky and Natalya watching him for his next move, until Lenka had carried everything out of the room and shut the front door behind her.
"You're certain you don't want to try the faewine?" Gilbert offered as he held out the goblet, "You've already been here a few days without eating or drinking anything, surely the starvation and thirst should have started pestering you."
"I have no interest in drinking faewine and joining the fae," Natalya refused, "As for starvation and thirst, humans are more resilient than you may think, we can live many days without either food or water."
"Oh yes, I know they are," Gilbert denounced as he removed himself from the doorframe and entered the room again, "However, it helps significantly if a witch brews you a potion with the help of the fae, which I can tell is already working splendidly for you."
"What could you possibly know about that?" Natalya grilled as Gilbert inspected the chairs in the seating area.
"It's not every day the Seelie fae pull pranks on the Unseelie Court, especially with human-made fireworks," Gilbert elaborated as he sat down on one of the chairs, "You'll be glad to hear that we were unable to arrest any of them as they escaped back to Sovalon."
"That's good news indeed," Natalya persisted, "Still doesn't explain how you know I possibly had a potion -"
"My bodyguard was eavesdropping on your friends in Niba," Gilbert interrupted, "The Royal Families of both Aegaimore and Solyra seem to have a special interest in you, to the point where they are plotting to rescue you and return you to their realm."
"So you willingly eavesdrop on human conversations?" Natalya accused as she stepped forward into the room, uncrossing her arms and placing them on her hips.
"Only when we need to," Gilbert disclaimed, "We had other purposes for my bodyguard to be there, but your friends are a chatty bunch."
"Let me guess what you're going to say next," Natalya charged, "I'm your prisoner, and you're planning to thwart their rescue attempts until I either die or join the fae."
"The first half of that was correct," Gilbert straightened out, "However, your fate is still in the air. If you behave yourself and do as I ask, I should be able to return you to the human realm without any harm done."
"Wait, what?" Natalya checked as her hands fell from her hips, "You're actually willing to return me to the human realm? Why haven't you done it already then?"
"As I said, I need you to do as I ask," Gilbert proposed, "I have a large project that is about to be completed, and I need the assistance of a human. If you have a seat, I'd be happy to tell you what I am planning."
He leaned back into his chair with an obnoxious smirk on his face, and sipped at his wine again. Realizing there wasn't really any other choice in the matter, Natalya rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, chose the couch directly across from him and sat down.
"That's more like it," Gilbert began as he placed the glass on a side table, "Now tell me, do you know how Yuvalon came to be separated from the human realm?"
"No, I don't," Natalya replied.
"We'll start with the history lesson then," Gilbert illustrated, "Thousands of years ago, the human and fae shared their lands and could easily move back and forth between the realms. Yuvalon was accessible to humans, and grew human food in addition to fae food. The sky was filled with both the aurora you see here and the sun, moon and stars you are used to in the human realm."
"The best of both worlds combined," Natalya remarked.
"It was a wonderful natural harmony, where our kinds existed in peaceful contentment" Gilbert continued, "However, while many fae worked well with humans and got along, others preferred making fun of humans and stepping all over them. Eventually, the humans became wary and fearful of us, and wanted to get the upper hand over all the fae. Some powerful humans recruited a band of powerful witches and friendly fae to cast a powerful spell that would separate the fae and the humans from each other. The ritual was completed under the exact alignment of the sun, moon, planets and asteroids in each sign of the zodiac. An altar was used to burn magic-infused trinkets representing the four natural elements, and pleas were made to the Olympic pantheon of gods to seal off Yuvalon from the human realm."
"Those are some very specific details for you to have off the top of your head," Natalya noticed, "For something that happened thousands of years ago."
"The ritual was successful, the skies were divided, and the realms were split," Gilbert persisted, "The fae who were in the human realm at the time were forced to flee to Yuvalon when the sunlight started burning their skin. The humans who were in Yuvalon could not escape, and their food rotted away immediately, so their choices were to die or join the fae. Civil war erupted immediately in Yuvalon, and the fae divided themselves into the two factions you now know as the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. War lasted many generations, during which time Sovalon and Tivalon were built as the strongholds, until we finally developed a respectful yet adversarial cooperation to co-rule the realm."
"I assume that brings us to the present," Natalya figured out, "Why does this matter now?"
"When my father was still alive, our servants recovered the documents from the Sovalon vaults that detailed the original ritual," Gilbert explained, "In just a couple days, the planets will realign into the same configuration they were when the realms were separated thousands of years ago. The research and soothsaying has been completed, all the items have now been collected and prepared, and everything is in place -."
"You're going to recreate the ritual?" Natalya realized, "Francis said something about taking over the human realm, but why would you do that?"
"The separation of the realms was a mistake," Gilbert revealed, "All the signs point to me merging them back together, reuniting the humans and the fae. That ribbon Francis used to grow your hair long is one of the trinkets to be sacrificed, as is the seashell containing your mermaid friend's voice. The reason you're still here is that I need a human's help with the final step of the ritual."
"And what if I refuse to help?" Natalya rejected, "What if I don't want to release the Unseelie fae freely upon humanity once again?"
"I still have time to find another human volunteer," Gilbert divulged, "If you make me resort to that, you will no longer be residing in this guest room with all the comforts of royalty. You will be locked away in the dungeon, which is magic-proof by design so nobody can ever break in or escape. Once that potion of yours wears off, you'll be starving to death in the gloomy dark."
"But you said you'd return me to the human realm," Natalya countered, "With no harm done -"
"Only if you do as I say," Gilbert threatened as he leaned forward, suddenly turning very stern, "If you sabotage my efforts, you will pay the price. That is why, if you want to be with the humans again - to be reunited with your siblings and friends, to figure out how you and Prince Alfred could possibly be a compatible match - then you're going to have to help me merge the realms."
Natalya sat there in stunned silence as Gilbert rose from his seat, grabbed the glass from the side table, and approached the door to leave the room.
"In the meantime, I will leave you to your thoughts," Gilbert took his leave, "I suggest you carefully heed my warnings."
The King swiftly opened the door and walked through it, locking it shut behind him.
Once the door was shut, Natalya sighed as she stretched out on the couch and laid her head on the cushions. Her mind swirled as she processed everything Gilbert had just told her. For all she knew, this all was a huge farce, a fable he spun to garner her cooperation. However, with the level of detail he described about the intricacies of the history and the ritual components, it sounds like this might be the real deal.
And if it was real, what should she do? If she refused to cooperate, he'd probably leave her to die in the dungeons as he suggested, whether or not the realms were merged. If she did cooperate, she'd be able to return to the human realm to meet her siblings, to see all her friends again, to find out if she and Prince Alfred were meant to be together. But that reunion would be suspect to the whims of the Unseelie fae running amuck in the human realm, likely inciting as much chaos as possible.
The only way to protect the human realm from the Unseelie fae was to sacrifice herself and successfully sabotage the ritual. Could she even do it? Was this the only option she had?