PART FIVE: A THOUSAND MILES JOURNEY
There was not a dry eye in sight at the sleepy village atop the glacium drago Mountain where the Moon faeries from Timeline A-31 had lived for the past decade. After living through the most onerous decade in the collective Moon faeries’ history, the Moon fay were finally saying goodbye to the Cold Lands and found it inexplicably difficult to set foot on their journey back home.
Although glacium drago was undoubtedly one of the coldest places in the world (having being hosted in Wintria in the Third Plane of Existence) and adjusting to their new home had been exigent on the Moon fay, it had provided them a solace and the uncommon sense of peace and stability that they would have to contend with upon returning to the City of Felicia in the faerie Kingdom of Breanna.
Dulcina was overwhelmed by the strong emotions her people tried to navigate through, sympathetically and telepathically linked to each of 90 Moon faeries present in the Village. She silently wept into the right shoulder of her Protector, Deo, as inconsolable as the other Moon faeries present. A few minutes shy of the morning sun rising up in the sky, she cleared her throat and the Moon fay who had tried to console themselves by offering words of comfort to each other became dutifully silent and looked up at their Lunar-Titania, keenly observing her as she addressed them.
“This is a difficult day indeed. This Mountain has been our home for a decade and today we leave the little solace we have known and chart forward towards our true home, Felicia. Our people have suffered greatly in those ten years of exile; I dare not recount the atrocities committed against us but I reassure you and I swear it on Luna and on Sol, on Gaia and on the flowing streams of Creation, on the never-extinguished flames of the Burning Forest and on every living and non-living creature in all of Creation that I shall protect us from such malevolence, all the days of my life. I vow that even in death, my will shall prevail through the fruit of my womb,”
Her solemn vow echoed in the minds and hearts of her people and they entrusted their lives to her as they had done endless times before to the Lunar-Titania. They all held hands and gave praise to Luna, giving their blessing to the Lunar-Titania and her Protector even as they collectively shrunk into diminutive sizes. Dulcina and Deo both ensured all the faeries present had been accounted for as they carefully helped guide the shrunken faeries into a enchanted crystal jar further whose protections were reinforced with potent enchantments. Dulcina kept the jar in a satchel and further concealed the satchel with magic.
She took in a deep breath and readily accepted the hand offered to her by her Protector.
“Are you ready to go home now, my lady?”
“I am ready to take our leave but why must you insist on being so formal with me, Deo?”
“My apologies, Dulcina. Getting used to referring to you by your given name has proven quite the monumental feat for me,”
“Well, I hope you come to take comfort in the fact that we are equals and I wouldn’t have it any other way,”
Deo nodded and thanked Dulcina even as they both unfurled their wings and left the Mountain and traveled further into Wintria where they met the Prince and Princess Consort to say their final goodbyes. The Prince mused that the Moon fae were always welcome to visit Wintria and wished them well on their journey back to their homeland. Dulcina thanked them for their hospitality before she and Deo departed from the Third Plane to the Second Plane through the Budding Lake that connected them. The Lake was boarded by the lands of the Second Plane most especially the land of Avala to the West. Dulcina stared in the Westward direction for a few moments in silent contemplation with a persistent feeling that something was evading her mind before both she and Deo traveled northward instead to the land of Atlantica where they met up with the Protectors from Timeline Delta 3.
Dulcina was surprised to see Director Pheonix Port physically present in the Atlantica and told him as much. Director Port explained that the work his Department was engaged in was simply too important for him to delegate to someone else and that he had been expecting both Dulcina and Deo to turn up. He repeatedly turned down the Lunar-Titania’s request to continue travelling towards the First Plane alone warning them that the greatest danger lay in safely traversing Avena1.
Dulcina reluctantly accepted the help offered by the Director which included spending the night at the tent he organized for them at the Protectors’ campsite. While at the camp, the Director spoke of some of the things he and his Department had accomplished such as stabilizing regions of Space-Time following the appearance and subsequent defeat of the Kraken and the Timeline restoration work they had achieved in more detail.
Although it was difficult to comprehend the more technical aspects of the work the DoD was doing as described in A-31, Dulcina was able to glean that the Alison family had a huge role in the Restorative work of the Timeline. Dulcina was as in awe of the Alison family’s ability to accomplish even the most arduous of tasks. She was also weary of their powerful abilities and terrified of the prospect of facing off against the family if it came down to it.
The motives of the Puritan section known as the Brotherhood of Valour that had hunted the Halderson clan to extinction suddenly became clear to Dulcina. If the Halderson clan had grown in stature to a point that they posed a significant threat to the fay, then the Brotherhood must have deduced that they could not allow the situation to escalate further thus opting to cut off the beast’s head while they were ahead.
Dulcina knew the possibility of the Alisons becoming far too formidable to defeat was slowly and surely coming to fruition and she wondered if she would have the willpower necessary to extinguish the threat when the time came. She could barely sleep a wink that night as she mulled things over and even as the Protectors escorted them from Atlantica to the Land of Great in the First Plane via Avena, she could not put the matter to rest.
“This is goodbye then, my lady. It has been an honor escorting you on your journey back home,” Director Port stated.
“Thank you, Director Port. I shall not soon forget your kindness,”
“Until we meet again,” the Director mused.
Dulcina nodded and walked a short distance before abruptly halting and turning back. Deo turned to face her worriedly.
“I sense that you have one last unanswered query to ask of me,” Dulcina stated looking directly at Director Port.
“Yes, your powers of deduction are truly masterful. I admit that I do have one last query, if I may,”
Dulcina nodded for him to continue.
“How shall you and your people put the matter of Empress Weylyn and her various misdeeds behind you?”
Dulcina appeared momentarily confused by the question even as she mulled it over in her mind.
“I am not sure what you mean, Director Port?”
“How shall you and your people reconcile with all the ills personally committed against you by the Red Veiled Empress?” the Director asked her again.
Dulcina blinked several times in apparent confusion then said, “The Royal family of Avala has indeed committed innumerable atrocities against us. We shall not soon forget what they did to us and we fully intend to take back what was lost to us as our ultimate act of revenge,”
The Director smiled and nodded before waving goodbye to the Lunar-Titania and her Protector until they were no longer in sight. Dulcina later thought that the Director was a mysterious, incomprehensible man who should not be taken lightly.
TO BE CONTINUED…
And so the Moon faeries journey to the place they once called home begins. What lies in store for the Moon fay? Is Dulcina’s apprehension towards Director Port warranted? Stay tuned to find out! Links to previous parts in the Saga are listed below. Enjoy!
Footnotes
- Avena: also known as the Weeping Forest, Avena is one of the lands hosted in the Second Plane of Existence and had once been the home of a faction of Mystai witches specially bestowed with a wide array of Water and Earth Manipulation abilities that had had broken off from Avala several centuries prior. The witches in Avena had suffered from a horrific curse that turned them into monstrous creatures known as “Weepers”. Weepers spend all day hidden away from the light and prowl the forest at night in search of prey. They can easily mimic the voices of the living and dead. Listening to their weeping invokes sympathy that is lethal. Weepers mostly hunt at night but will kill any living creature that draws too close to their dens during the day provided the lethargy they feel during the day has not fully worn off. Weepers are invulnerable to all attacks except issued by a special group known as the “Hunters” and any of their offspring. Hunters bear a special mark and are drawn to Avena when the Weeper population has grown too large. Hunters and Weepers are drawn to each other by the same curse which created them.
elenaverseblog.wordpress.com 