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The faerie kingdom was silent when the Salt of Solidarity finally returned. The air was stale, no longer carrying the scent of moss and silvery flowers that he had grown to adore. The faerie cookies shied away from him as he limped across silver pathways, the young cookies that used to beg him to play with them and that braided flowers into his hair backing away in fear. Salt didn’t blame them. He knew what he looked like, how he was tainted by what he had done. He saw how his once pristine armor was covered with jam, how his cape was coated in ash and flour. He knew that his soul jam no longer glimmered with the light of solidarity.
He tried not to meet the horrified gazes of the cookies, instead dragging his aching feet forward, to the heart of the faerie kingdom.
Salt knew who he would meet there, and he had dreaded seeing them for the three days he had spent walking through Beast-Yeast to their meeting spot. They had met there a hundred times before when creating their plans, and even after the plans had been put in place, when they had sat beside the frail sapling and talked and hoped. They had hoped that one day the seedling would grow to be strong, and with it, lock away all the evil and cursed beings that plagued earthbread, and bring peace to the land. They hoped that through it all they would stay together, that fate would keep them intertwined.
Salt cursed himself for not allowing that ending to happen. He didn’t deserve it, not with what he had done, not with what he had lost.
He turned the final corner, stumbling blindly towards the base of the silver tree, and collapsing into the dirt. He breathed in the rich, earthy scent of the soil, closing his eyes as he relished in the familiarity
He knew it wouldn’t last. He knew that this moment was one of the last he would spend in this kingdom, surrounded by life and friendship. He knew, that after all the atrocities he had committed, that he deserved to die.
It was the least he deserved after being the reason so many others had lost their lives. Cookies who had trusted him, who had devoted their lives to his cause, spreading solidarity better than he ever could.
They had trusted him, and in turn he had neglected them when it had really mattered.
What was the point of being a knight, a virtue, with witch-given strength, if he couldn’t even save his own people?
What was the point if he hadn’t even been able to stop his own friends from succumbing to the darkness, just like he had?
Salt knew this was the end. He lay collapsed under the tree, muscles and tendons aching in exhaustion, dread coiling in the pit of him stomach at the thought of seeing the one he trusted most.
What would he think, seeing how far salt had fallen?
It soon wouldn’t matter, as he would carry out what salt would ask of him, and that would be the end.
Salt had lost his virtue, and in his eyes there was no other reason why he should continue to live.
***
Elder faerie had seen all that transpired in the great barren.
He had watched, helpless, as the only person he had ever called a friend had suffered, seen the frustration in his eyes through his helmet as he had watched, too late to save his army as they were cut down by the followers of who had once been his friends.
He had watched, as Salt tore them to shreds, the way he had relished in their jam staining his armour, cutting them down without mercy.
He knew that salt would come to see him, he had witnessed him leave the Kala-Namak stronghold, head bowed in grief and barely concealed self loathing.
Salt would come, and when he did Elder faerie would have to make a decision.
He had barely questioned it when he and Salt had plotted for the other fallen virtues to atone for their wrongdoing, but it was different when it was salt he would have to deliver the punishing blow to.
It was different when he would have to punish his only friend for his sins.
Elder faerie was torn.
He paced his study, the light of the sun barely risen from beyond the horizon, the shadow from the silver tree concealing his window from view.
He remembered the last time Salt had been here, how he had been so surprised to hear elder faerie and be unable to see him as him as Salt had sat beneath the silver tree.
It had grown a few inches since then, strong branches stretching higher into the sky. He realised, with growing horror, that the sealing spell, should he and salt choose to use it, would be usable on the tree within just a few days. The thought alone made the elder guilty, but he knew sealing Salt could be a course he could take after the now fallen virtues actions in the barren.
It was an option elder faerie knew he would be unable to take, but he knew he had to do something about Salt and the other four virtues, before earthbread fell into further disarray.
Impressionable cookies were already starting to fall to the deceit, sloth, apathy, and destruction the fallen were spreading throughout beast-yeast, and it was only a matter of time before the whole of the cookie kind would be at risk.
He had to do something.
But Elder faerie was sure any actions he took involving the Salt of solidarity he would come to regret.