Asteria
Getting allthe humans into Night was quite the production. While I was proud of my mysterious brother for actually sending them somewhere they’d be safe, I was less so that it was only to cover his own ass from daddy dearest.
We were meant to be leaving today for the fortress on the Etheralta Mountains, hoping to arrive and be able to settle before my mother and brother got there, but we were going to have to push it to tomorrow. It meant we’d arrive after them, most likely, but in fairness, they were the ones who created this mess.
I was anxious to finally see the mountains made of star opal. It was a small thought at the back of my head, but it was there, nonetheless. We were a bit too far south to see the mountains from here, so I’d be waiting for tomorrow for that, too.
In the meantime, I busied myself with helping as best I could. The others had made their way out from the capital to help as well, thankfully. Harpina and I were currently working with several other hum—I stopped myself, remembering for the thousandth time I wasn’t actually human—with several humansto help the new arrivals feel more secure in their new surroundings.
It was Fae who had enslaved them, who’d tied them up and sent them to their deaths. For I had zero doubt what was happening there. Cyrus needed humans to feed his blood magic, and his plans required alotof blood.
It was Fae like Cyrus and Aelius—who was apparently helping him, that I hated. I’d come to realize the Fae were not inherently bad. I knew this in theory after coming to Night, but I always sort of assumed Calix and the others were just the exception.
Even when that didn’t make sense.
His whole kingdom couldn’t be an exception.
And each Fae there had quickly changed with the times when Calix changed the rules.
Now, I realized the only real differences between Fae and humans were magic and lifespan. All things explained by the fact humans weren’t native to this realm. They weren’t meant to wield magic or live forever. They came from a place with little to no magic, most likely. But they were just like us. Just people.
It was this damned system that allowed Fae to look down on and enslave them. If we could break the system, we could fix all of this.
It wouldn’t be easy, I knew. It wasn’t quite that simple, not when the Fae and humans both had been indoctrinated into this belief system. They’d have to be taught new ways to live, not to mention finding a way to overcome the systemic issues between the groups. But I knew it was possible.
Calix had managed a microcosm of it in Night Kingdom, after all.
So for every human who shied away from me and my Fae features, I just worked harder to make the next feel welcome andsafe,most of all.
Freedom was a strange thing. Even when it’s wished for all your life, gaining it didn’t mean the chains unlocked. Even now, I still expect to be thrown back into slavery at any moment. And I knew, should Cyrus get his way, that Fae or not, I would be.
“Asteria.” I whirled around at the sound of my name.
“Lady Siria,” I greeted, surprised. I hadn’t seen her since I’d returned from Dusk, but I was happy to see her looking well. Her pink eyes gleamed as she stared at me, tilting her head to the side like she was examining me, her white hair falling over her shoulder.
I shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, unsure what she was doing.
“My apologies.” She bowed her head with a smile. “I never once imagined I’d see a human who was actually Fae. Looking at you now, though, it makes sense. So many things about you screamed Fae, but none of us thought to look any deeper than what was on the surface.” She grinned wryly, looking out over the sea of humans passing into Night. “Though, I fear that's still the case with humans as a whole. We have much work to do there.”
“We do.” I agreed, nodding. I gathered my long, dark hair to one side of my neck, trying to cool off a bit. Working nonstop for hours meant working up quite a sweat.
“I feel like we should have connected the dots before,” Lady Siria admitted, leaving me confused.
“What do you mean?” I asked, shaking my head. She met my gaze straight on.
“I mean the visions Liv had of you. We should have connected it to the prophecy.” Her explanation left much to be desired.
“What prophecy?” I pushed, a strange feeling rising deep inside. Any time prophecy was mentioned, it put me a bit on edge. The idea of our fates being out of our control was an unwelcome one as far as I was concerned. I wanted agency over my own life, not to have it dictated to me by the gods or some Oracle.
“Calix’s birth prophecy,” she replied blithely, apparently thinking it obvious.
“And what was that?” I pressed, needing answers now. This was the second time today alone this was brought up. There was something there I clearly needed to know, the way people kept referencing it.
She straightened then, pink eyes wide with shock. “Oh.” She went abruptly quiet.
“Siria, please.” I reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it. I couldn’t take the way people kept dancing around this.
“You should really talk to him,” she replied, biting her lip. I rolled my eyes at her, giving her a narrow-eyed look.
