Chapter Text
It had been ages since Lilia had been on this side of the continent. The coastal edge where the city of Bladevale resided was a beautiful place; a port town by the sea, it was a trading hub between Briar Valley and other countries, their imports specifically highly sought after by the Land of Dawning. It never failed to remind him how, centuries ago, the two countries had been in turmoil.
Lilia stepped off the passenger vessel alongside many others. The day was sunny with not a cloud in the sky and, as always, he was glad he wore a cowl over his head to protect his delicate skin. Once on the steady, dry land of the docks, he took in his first deep breath, glad to be back in his homeland. He hadn’t meant to be gone for so long. Initially, he had wanted to explore the Kingdom of Heroes and the Sunshine Lands. However, he ended up getting sidetracked as he saw all the things humans had accomplished technologically since he last left Castle Windrose. How funny that they came up with so many modes of transportation like trains and even new types of ships! He glanced behind him to the hulking behemoth that served as his vessel home, its body made of metal and no sail in sight for wind to guide it. It was the first of its kind, the sailors had said when he asked. The merchant company that owned it decided to try this new innovation in ship building as they believed with newly discovered fuel like coal, it would result in faster transport. Seeing such marvels like this, Lilia hadn’t wanted to stop his travels until he finally grew homesick.
Before he knew it, ten years had passed.
Shouldering his satchel, Lilia made his way to the city proper, maneuvering around the crowds of sailors and dock workers loading and unloading shipments, masses of people there to say farewell or welcome to those disembarking or returning. Because of his diminutive size, it was easy to slip among them until the throngs of people thinned out closer to the street. Glancing up and down the road, he crossed it as soon as he could and made his way around the city. Before he went back to Castle Windrose, he wanted something to eat. While he didn’t mind the food served on the ship, it had grown tiresome after a few days. He wanted something else now that he was off. Besides, in his opinion, the first meal one had after stepping onto land was the best part of traveling.
He walked through the city for several minutes until he spotted a pub nestled on a street corner. Being early afternoon, it was bustling with people on lunch break or loitering about merely to converse. Entering it, he was proven right. A multitude of people were inside, the volume deafening to his ears, and he had to take a moment to adjust to it.
“Welcome!” a young woman at the bar counter greeted him. She smiled even as she fixed several pints with beverages. “What can I get for ya?”
Lilia browsed the menu. “Some stew and tea, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing! Take a seat anywhere you can. We’ll be right out with it.”
Thanking her, he scanned the dining room and spotted an open table in the back. He hurriedly made his way over before it was taken, squeezing past men much taller than he was. Setting down his satchel, he sat down in relief, pulling his hood down. He had been up since early morning and had been too excited to get off to head home.
Home…It was still an odd thing to say to himself. Castle Windrose was a home, yes. His beloved friends and their son lived there. For all intents and purposes, they considered him family and opened their home to him whenever he liked. He and Maleanor had grown up together and, when Raverne became their third, they were inseparable. It was natural for them to believe he had a place to return to whenever he left on trips. He was happy they thought of him that way.
And, yet, something in Lilia’s heart stirred whenever he saw Maleanor and Raverne together, holding Malleus in their arms. Each time he saw it, he took a step back. To intrude on their familial moment, he was nothing but an outsider.
The Draconias considered him one of their own, but no one else thought the same. The Senate never truly approved of him being around their princess, a simple common orphan that just happened to catch her eye and thought he was a toy she would tire of one day. Servants tended to be wary of him, especially when he became a general under Maleanor’s command. Once he retired, they still did not treat him on the same level as Raverne.
It was this treatment, and witnessing his friends’ joy as their family grew, that often made him travel to the world beyond Briarland. This last trip alone was caused by the heartache overflowing when Malleus flew for the first time, Maleanor shouting with glee and Raverne transforming into his true form to fly low alongside him. It was a precious scene he couldn’t be a part of.
Stop that, Lilia admonished himself. He was lucky to have their love in the first place. To want more than that was being too greedy. Maleanor and Raverne had struggled so many years to have this. He would rather see them bask in their familial love than anything else, and he was content enough with it.
Even if, on some lonely nights, he wondered what life could have been like if he had something of his own to call his family.
A server came up to his table, drawing him away from his painful pondering, with his food. Thanking them, he picked up his utensils and dug into his meal. It was delicious, the taste alone left him nostalgic. The dish was a traditional Briarland special, its unique blend of spices proving to him he was back home. All too soon, it was finished, and he sat with his cup of black tea, soaking in the genial atmosphere of the pub.
It was peaceful and he closed his eyes, smiling to himself. He wanted to enjoy this calm before he went back home. For all that he loved, Maleanor, Raverne, and Malleus dearly, he was going to have his hands full handling all three of them again. Motherhood may have softened the princess, but she still got up to as much mischief as when they were children. Malleus had, unfortunately, begun to follow in her footsteps.
Reminiscing about Malleus and what types of shenanigans he might have gotten up to while he was gone, raised voices from the table behind him drew him out of it.
“I’m telling you I did see it!” a man exclaimed. Lilia glanced over his shoulder. It was a human youth dressed in a roughly hewn shirt and trousers that didn’t quite fit him. He sat with other men older than him, who were dressed similarly. The human child, because he was in that stage growing into a man, had a fierce scowl on his face. “I know what I saw out there.”
“Come on, we’re not sayin’ you’re lyin’,” a man with a scraggly beard and tired eyes said, shaking his head. “It’s a tall tale to say there’s something like that out there. Why now, after all this time, when not even the queen hasn’t heard of it?”
“How do you know? I thought the tale isn’t that old compared to the Draconias?”
“I think if it were true, the royal family would’ve looked into it,” said the third man, sipping a pint of what smelled like beer. “As is, I think you were tired or imagined the whole thing.”
“I didn’t!”
Now if that didn’t peak his interest. How could it not when the royal family was mentioned?
“Excuse me? What are you chatting about?” Lilia asked, turning in his seat.
The humans were momentarily astonished. The boy was visibly puzzled; the men, on the other hand, flicked their eyes to the side of Lilia’s head and astonishment turned weary. It was a typical reaction in Briarland. Not many humans saw fae in Bladevale and vice versa. They were cordial to one another, but stories left their mark on history.
“Don’t worry,” he said, reassuringly. “I’m just curious. Can you tell me?”
“It’s nothing,” the bearded man said. He relaxed minutely, but his shoulders were tight with tension. “The boy’s been dreamin’, is all.”
“I wasn’t!” the boy argued again, frustrated.
“I’d like to hear it,” Lilia insisted. “What’s your name?”
“Ciaran. I was tellin’ my mates that I found a castle in the western part of the forest. Right outside the city, as it happens.”
“A castle, you say? How did you find it?”
“I was out doin’ some foragin’ for my ma. She was makin’ a mushroom soup for my aunt. She’s havin’ a baby, and she’s been cravin’ mushrooms for months. My ma likes gettin’ them fresh instead of goin’ to the market, so she sends me into the forest to get’em. So, yesterday, I went in and went deeper in the forest than normal. At some point, I must’ve gotten turned around, ‘cause I could find my way back.” Ciaran shuddered. “Don’t know how long I was stumblin’ around for. I’d never gone that far before, but it got so dark I thought it was already night. And, then, I went through a buncha rose bushes, and I saw it: a big castle in the middle of the woods! The trees around it were taller than the Clock Tower in the square and touched the sky!”
“Something like that was there?” Lilia knew now why the men believed it a figment of imagination. Time had passed enough that a forest covered the main road to the capital. It wasn’t that old by fae standard, but they heard nothing about a castle. “That’s certainly odd.”
“Innit? That’s not the strangest part.”
“No?”
He shook his head.
“The castle was covered in thorns! Ones as thick as a tree trunk and sharp enough they’d skewer a man. It’s just like the story!”
“Which one?”
“You know, the one about the sleeping beauty? My aunt used to tell it loads when I was young.”
“Sorry, but I don’t follow.” Humans came up with so many tales in a short amount of time. Most fae didn’t bother keeping up with them unless they were legends passed down by their kind like the Thorn Fairy, who was a guardian to all fae kind, or the demon of Bald Mountain, a being so terrible he commanded spirits of the Ghost Realm. If this was a recent human tale, he wouldn’t know it, and he doubted Maleanor did either.
Ciaran looked at him as if Lilia was the strange one.
“Really? Most children hear it once ‘round these parts.”
“Oi! Mind yer manners.” The drinking man elbowed him. “Ya ever think for a second? He’s not from ‘round here.”
“Guilty,” Lilia chuckled. “Please, tell me more about this ‘sleeping beauty.’”
“Well,” Ciaran began, rubbing where he had been hit, “story goes that a long, long time ago there was a knight who people thought a hero. Handsome, charmin’, and just. He fought in lots of battles and won every single one. After one such battle, the royal family—a human one, not the Draconias—threw a banquet in his honor. They even said they’d let the knight marry the princess!” His voice dropped low as if to caution. “But, in the middle of it, a fae showed up. No one knows why they showed up, but they cursed the knight. Said that before the year was out, the knight would fall asleep, and all his family would meet the same fate. Then, he disappeared. Some say he was put somewhere safe and waitin’ to be woken up again.”
“Ah, I see.” That made sense. Now he saw why Ciaran thought the story was connected to the castle he found. “Do you believe the knight is inside the castle then?”
Ciaran nodded.
“It’s a bunch of bunk if you ask me,” said the drinking man. He took a swig from his cup. “Story’s so old it don’t sound true. ‘Sides, if that knight really was cursed, he’d be dead by now. Fae magic’s the kind that sticks around ‘til the caster decides to, right?”
“Or can’t be lifted at all,” Lilia added. During the most recent war with humans, which was two hundred years before, he and Maleanor cast a few potent spells that couldn’t be undone so easily if they themselves tried. Curses like that were forbidden nowadays, but back then they were effective. He tapped his fingers to his lips. What they said was true. No human—cursed or otherwise—could live that long. Even the fae were subject to the cruel crawl of time, their lives a seemingly endless thread until cut short. Humans had much shorter lives, yet they filled their world with such wonder and knowledge that lasted generations. Was it possible this ‘sleeping beauty’ lived? He wondered…”I want to see.”
“See what?” the bearded man asked, taken aback.
“This castle. No better way to disprove the story than to investigate.”
“You believe me?” asked Ciaran in disbelief.
“Yes, and no. Who can say whether it’s related to your fairytale? But, you don’t appear to be lying about that castle. Ciaran, are you busy the rest of today?”
“I’m done with all my work.”
“Good. I’d like you to guide me to where you found it, if you remember the way.”
“You’re gonna go look at it yourself?” The older men were alarmed, their disbelief slackening their jaws to such a comical degree Lilia relished the reaction. The one with the beer wiped his mouth with his hand. “We’re tellin’ ya. It’s a story! It ain’t true or nothin’.”
“I’d like to be the judge of that.” Lilia stood as he placed his money on the table to pay for his food. His wallet jangled loud as he put it away, and the men eyed it. He gave Ciaran a bright smile. “Can you show me the way, please? I’ll compensate you for the time, of course.”
“Sure, I can do that. It’s no trouble at all,” he responded, dazed.
“Great! Then, shall we go?”
Ciaran began to stand up, but the bearded man pulled at his sleeve.
“You sure you want to go with him?” he said, a warning cutting past his genial demeanor. He spoke low to avoid being overhead, but Lilia could anyway.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Ciaran asked, not understanding.
“Don’t worry, gentlemen. I’ll escort him back myself once I get a look,” said Lilia, startling them. He smiled the way he did when placating the Senate about one of Maleanor’s numerous disappearances. Not that they ever bought whatever he said.
The doubt that made the two older men frown was plain, but Ciaran was released. Lilia might have felt insulted that humans assumed the worst of him once. Time among them, however, softened him. He understood well where they came from. It was heartwarming to know these men cared for their younger, naive colleague like this. Not all humans were selfish.
Lilia picked up and shouldered his satchel while Ciaran bid the men goodbye. He mused how exciting it was to hear something so interesting on his way home. Oh, he didn’t entirely decide to do this on a whim. If there was a castle in the forest that no one found until now, he was immediately suspicious. They should have heard about this since it was obvious magic was involved. Combined with this local legend, he knew it to be no coincidence. Whatever was inside that castle, he had to investigate and deem for himself whether fae intervention was needed.
Should it be a threat against his dearest friends, Lilia was prepared to cut it off at its head.