Fae, Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

It was dark in the room when I woke again. Aloriel was in the room, asleep in a chair. Damien was near the balcony doorway, looking out. I was still in my dress, the tiara was still gently in my hand, but the Firebird sword was pressing itself uncomfortably in my side. When I groaned, sat up, and walked over to Damien, I heard my joints cracking. It was good, though, as I realized that my energy had returned. How, I didn’t know. I attributed it to the sword.

Damien sighed as I wrapped my arms around his chest. “How long has the sun been down?” I asked. “Quite a while. But dawn’s still far away,” his voice was calm, but he smiled at me when he turned his head. I smiled back, and then released him. “So you were going to test my skills, weren’t you?” I asked, belligerently. Walking over to my chest I stripped off my dress, and got into my fight garb. It was an outfit I had stolen from a washroom ages ago. It belonged to soldiers of the Fire Fae. It was the same outfit that Damien wore right now.

I put the sword and it’s scabbard back around my waist. The sword wasn’t heavy – the belt was. Drawing the sword and stepping onto the balcony, I dared him forward with a gesture. He raised an eyebrow in his sarcastic fashion, and drew his. “Princess,” he laughed.
“You’re sure about this?”

I nodded. “Would I be holding a weapon in front of one of the most deadly men in the Kingdom if I wasn’t sure?” I asked, and made sure my footing was light. The sword was maybe just a little bigger than a long human dagger. It didn’t have to be much bigger – when the true warriors went to kill humans and each other we were either deadly, or dead. My father had taught me how to fight. My mother had been, in her own right, a great warrior and magician.

Damien didn’t wait. He dashed forward, and our swords clanged as I deflected the blow with ease. My next move was simple, though I planned on getting more elaborate. I whipped my sword around with the momentum of his blow as I dodged the remainder of his attack. He rolled out of the way as the flat of my blade paddled the air where his back had just been.
 No fatal blows here – I still needed him.

We squared off once more, watching each other. Waiting for each other’s next move. We both went at the same time, and the blows were solid. I was weaker, though, and whereas he’d stumbled, I fell. “Princess?” He asked, but my fall was brief. I pushed myself up once more, strands of hair beginning to stick to my pale olive skin. Firebird began to warm up to the touch, and a surge of energy washed through me.

“Fight.”

The voice caught me off guard once more, but I did as Firebirds voice suggested. I dashed towards him, but took off into the air just short of his sword, which paddled under my feet. He didn’t have a chance to react as I landed on his shoulders, caught my balance, and then drove him to the stone of the balcony. I rolled away, but fire was dancing on the sword. “I won’t,” he muddled through the sentence, weary from the blow, “submit.”

I laughed.

“Come now, warrior,” my voice held two voices in one. “You can take more than this!” My own mind reacted to the change in my voice, but the spirit of the sword held me fast. “Princess?” Damien looked up, and his eyes widened.

“Fight me, warrior!”

I couldn’t believe myself. Damien rushed to his feet, but this time didn’t hold back. His blows were rapid, almost as quick as my parries as we moved around the balcony, and then off of it into the grounds. The flames in me, and around me grew as power and passion grew inside me for the fight. I couldn’t fight the drive as the blade cut close to Damien’s ear. Damien’s own sword came past my shoulder, but I rolled away on instinct, and then dropped the sword. It’s control didn’t break, but the flames on and around me died instantaneously.

“Foolish girl.” 
The voice still came from my mouth.
“You’ll need a lot more work.”

Then Firebird was gone from me. The sword lay abandoned feet away, and I stumbled to get it. I slipped it back into it’s sheath, and then lay on the grass, silent.

Damien didn’t come near. “I’m sorry,” he spoke softly. “For doubting you.”

I laughed weakly, sweaty and shaking. Damien stood over me, weak as well. He offered a hand out to me, and I accepted it gratefully. He hauled me up, and then we both made our way back to the room. Aloriel stood on the balcony, bleary eyed, when we got there. “What were you two up to? I heard a commotion,” her eyes looked at us two quietly when we didn’t answer for a moment. “Oh fine.”

“Go to your quarters,” Damien said quietly. Aloriel only nodded sleepily.

When she left, I examined Damien for wounds. He was unscathed except for a small scratch near his ear. So I had gotten him, in the end.

“Ha. I won.”

Damien looked at me bitterly. “That sword helped you,” his voice was still light, however, when he looked me over. “I’m fine,” I told him.

He nodded. “Yes you are.”

He kissed me briefly, and then unbuckled the belt on my waist. “Firebird has a lot of secrets, doesn’t it?” He asked. I nodded. “Even my father didn’t know all of them, apparently. Though, I must admit I never saw him fight. And he never spoke of anything the sword did.”

Damien sighed. “I think I’m lucky that I’m a good fighter, otherwise you’d have killed me.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have let that happen. Never.” I watched him put the sword against the bedside, but in my head I could feel Firebird’s hold. The soul of the sword was powerful, I couldn’t deny it. But I had been scared by my own power when I wielded it. “I need more training. It said so.”

Damien looked up, a more tired eyebrow raised. “How do you plan on doing that?” He asked. “If you sparred somebody, you’d run the risk of killing them.” I sighed, but he continued. “I don’t think that would earn you points with the council.”

I shook my head. “My swordsmanship isn’t in question. It’s my powers itself. There are powers within that sword more fit for what we Fae once were, not the shells we are now.” Damien looked at my dejectedly. “You doubt your own strength, Princess.” I nodded. “I doubt it because it is the sword that doubts me as well!” I held my head in my hands, but my arms were weak and shaking. “It gives me energy when it wants, but leaves me with nothing when I need it. I need to be able to draw from it when I want,” I sighed. “I need this sword to be a partner in battle, not a user or a tool. Right now, I’m it’s tool, and I don’t want it to be mine.”

“There in lies the issue.” I concluded. “I need to hone my own powers to make them fuze better with the sword.” I summoned flames into my palms. “But I need rest first.”

Damien nodded, then folded his hands into mine, regardless of the flame. It licked his skin harmlessly, as fire did no damage to one of their own. His eyes locked on mine before we both surrendered to our weariness, and made it over to the bed.

At dawn, I slipped out of the bed again. Damien was still asleep, or appeared to be. Grabbing the sword, and walking out onto the balcony, I looked out at birds waking in the forest. The sword glowed with warmth, but no voices came. I searched for the mental connection, but it was dormant. The sword didn’t wish to communicate. “Damn it,” I muttered, and forced my fingers into my hair. It had come undone in the night, but a remainder of the braid had tangled my hair terribly.

Setting the sword in front of me, I sat cross legged in the middle of the balcony. Closing my eyes, I summoned orbs of the four elements, and set them in front of my, just short of the sword. “What do you want from me?” I asked it in my mind, feeding energy into the orbs. I felt no drain from this simple magic, so I started with the intricacies of an ice lattice around where I sat with the orbs and sword. 

“I want what you want. But I need what you don’t have.”

The voice didn’t come from me this time. It came from a curled Phoenix resting atop the sword. It’s pitch black eye watched me unfailingly. “What do I not have?” I asked aloud.

“Confidence.”
“How?”  I asked, startled at the answer.

“You know what you have to do, yet even though you have the means to do so, you fear that you will fail.” 

I sat there numbly, wondering how he could be right. I then realized the facts. “Even in the challenge last night, you doubted yourself.” It’s head came closer to me. “You cannot doubt yourself!” The Phoenix had began to glow more brightly, and hotly. Suddenly, my ice lattice wasn’t ice anymore, but wires of flame burning brightly in the dawn light. I reached up and touched it, but felt no pain.

 “I am the symbol of rebirth.”  The Phoenix was speaking once more, but when I looked back at it, I wasn’t on the balcony anymore. I was somewhere else in the castle, and I realized that it was the great hall. It was different though. Long before I had even been born.

...
I recognized the tall figures that stood in the hall. “The last true king,” I whispered, but no one heard. The Phoenix was nowhere to be seen, and then I saw the sword in the hands of King Ethos. Many other Fae of the royal family lay dead around him, and he too was wounded. I could hear the battle outside the walls. The wars of the Folk were waging, and now to stop the rivalry and corruption, he was sealing away the powers of the Fae. There was a blinding shock wave, and then it was all white.

“I am that sword who brought the scourge.” The Phoenix said, and I opened my eyes once more. My fingers had fallen from the lattice. “So why have you chosen me?” I asked. “You want the things that need to be done. You wish peace – I want to give it. You are the rebirth from this destruction.”

I stared at it for a few moments, then nodded. “So what now?” I asked. “Gather your strength. You need it. Then, I will show you what must be done.”