Chapter Text
My eyes opened to an overcast grey sky. My chest ached, my head throbbed. Was this what a hangover was like? Hangovers…the thought brings a face into my mind’s eye. Onyx hair brushed over delicate, pale skin. Eyes like black coffee that held all the same bitterness. A smirk, and a general feeling of annoyance stirring in me.
Then a real face appeared, blocking the heavy clouds.
“Oh, you’re up.” The faerie girl chirps, waving a hand in front of my face. “Are you ok?”
Her skin was pastel, lavender purple, almost luminous in the hazy grey day. Her head was shaved on one side, and her pale blonde hair braided in magical knots on the other. She wore cream moth wings upon her back, which twitched constantly, like she was itching to spread them and fly away.
“Uh…” Was I ok? What did that even constitute? I’m…not dead.”
“Ha!” She said, and the sound felt somehow out of place. “I like you, you’re funny.“
“Aster? Is she awake yet?” Someone called from nearby. Aster, the fae girl, turns.
“Yes, she is.” She gave me a cheerful smile. “Here, let me help you up.” I take her proffered hand. Aster was small and slight, and couldn’t lift me up off the sand.
“It’s…alright…” I lied, struggling to lift myself up on legs that felt as though they would buckle at any moment.
Eventually, I managed it.
“What’s your name, then, new girl?”
For one terrifying moment, I didn’t know. “Jude.” I told her, with a rush of relief.
“Jude. Ju-de. Juuuuude.” Aster mused. “I like it.” She decided, grabbing my elbow and pulling me along, up the beach and toward a craggy cliff face, or rather, toward a large cave cut jaggedly into it. I suddenly came to my senses and wrenched my arm from Aster’s grip. I felt the absence of something at my hip, a strange lightness where there should be weight.
“Where are we?” I ask.
Aster blinked at me, cocking her head.
“Do you know?”
I ousted the exasperation from my voice as best I could. “Why would I ask you if I did?”
“Mortal customs are strange.” She said by way of reply. So, my ears hadn’t gone unnoticed. Aster set off up to the cave, and I had no choice but to follow. A blue face poked out from the limp deer skins draped over the cave entrance.
“So, this is our new roommate?” The merfolk said, eyeing me disapprovingly. “Not what I expected. Why is she so…colourless?”
“I think she’s a half-mortal.” Aster whispered loudly, then cleared her throat. “Jude, this is Erikh.”
“At your service.” Erikh bowed, his short, spiky hair the colour of a roiling sea, his wet eyes pure black and his fingers webbed. A single tooth stuck up from the left of his bottom lip, a purple patch on his upper lip from where it rubbed his skin. It reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t remember who.
“A pleasure.” I told him.
Inside the cave, there were rush torches affixed to the walls, but they sputtered so frequently that they were functionally obsolete. The remnants of a campfire were strewn across the floor, the damp air making it unbelievable that it had even burned in the first place.
“You can pick where you sleep.” Aster declared. “But Rik and I already have dibs on the corners, and Oneris sleeps by the fire, so not there.”
“I’m not sleeping here though.” I objected. Who was Oneris?
“Another one in denial.” Erikh scoffed. “You’re welcome to sleep out on the beach, of course, but I don’t recommend it.”
“Says the merman.” Aster laughed, giving him a playful shove.
“But…I can’t sleep here. I have somewhere to be.” I protested, knowing in that moment that it was true, though I had no idea where.
“They all say that.” Erikh told me. “You should’ve heard Aster here on her first day.”
“What?” Aster glared at him. “I thought I was quite well-adjusted!” The two continued bickering, but my thoughts drowned out their voices.
Why was I here? Where had I come from? Why couldn’t I remember? I should have remembered, I knew I should have. And who was the boy whose face had flashed in my mind?
Cardan. His name was Cardan. Hot feelings rose in my chest. Hate? Love? It didn’t matter. Maybe it did. Why didn’t I remember anyone else? I knew I knew other people. Where had my memories gone? Did I ever have them in the first place?
I shook myself from my revery to see Erikh and Aster staring at me.
“Are you alright?”
I don’t respond. “Why am I here?”
Aster frowned. “I was going to ask you.”
“But…”
“What crime did you commit?” Erikh asked. The question was like a punch to the gut.
“None!” I said, unsure of the truth of my words.
“I’d say theft. She looks harmless.” Aster really needed to practice whispering effectively.
“I don’t remember stealing anything. In fact, I don’t remember anything. All my memories are gone.” I tell them loudly. This seems to get through to them.
“You what?” Aster asked.
“Huh?” Erikh said.
I turned away. I didn’t know much, but I did know that I had no spare fucks to give, and so I started back down the beach.
“Wait!”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you-“
I was going to find my way off this island and back to where I was supposed to be. As I reached the water, I heard the pound of footsteps behind me.
“Don’t!” Aster shouted, but it was too late. A plume of sea water splashed onto my legs, and searing pain darted through my body. I resisted the urge to scream, but couldn’t catch the small gasp that flew free from my lips.
“What did we say?” Aster said, but there was no anger in her voice, only pity.
“What…is it?” I forced out through the stinging agony.
“The water is always boiling. Not to mention the things you’d find of you made it further out. It’s not as easy to leave as we’d like it to, um, be.” The faerie girl said as she followed me back up to the cave.
“At least you didn’t wade in.” She offered unhelpfully. I cast a glance down at my legs, at the angry red burns rising on my skin. “I’m sure Oneris can get you something for that.” She promised.
“What do you mean your memories are gone?” Erikh asked. I caught a note of something in his voice that I didn’t understand, yet didn’t like.
“Just what I said.”
“How is that possible?” He said, like I fucking knew.
“I don’t know.” I replied through gritted teeth. “I think that’s kind of a given.”
Erikh scowled. “Detailed, and informative.”
“Uh, guys!” Aster laughed nervously. “Let’s be nice. People don’t usually start hating each other until a few weeks in, so let’s hold off on that.” She turned to me. “Can you remember anything? Anything that might give you a clue as to why you’re here?”
“Just a face.” I admitted. “Though remembering him does make me feel murderous.”
“A murderer?” Erikh looked at Aster, his lips formed the silent words. She cast him a sidelong glance, perhaps considering his theory.
“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re wondering.” I interrupted. “At least, I think.”
I could tell neither of the fae before me fully believed me, but they said nothing more about it.
“Why would I have committed a crime, through?”
“Jude,” Aster began carefully. “We’re in Insghad, the prison archipelago.”
My voice came out far louder than I’d intended. “What?”
Erikh stared at me, his obsidian gaze calculating. “This is where Faerie sends all the prisoners they want truly gone. We’re forgotten, all communication barred. They just dropped us on this island, and we just live or die here.” The bitterness in his voice was so sharp and acrid it was almost tangible.
“And there’s no way out?”
“None.” Aster said quietly. “We’ve tried and tried, but we’re trapped.“ Her voice half broke on the last word.
Am I standing before killers? Slavers? Rapists? What could these two have done to be sent here? Moreover, what could I have done?
Footsteps approached the cave, and another faerie stepped inside.
She was beautiful, with green-tinged skin and short, unevenly-cut hair, dark as mahogany. Her eyes were grey, like the storm brewing outside. She held a wicker basket, which carried small brown mushrooms and a rabbit carcass. A quiver was strapped across her back.
The basket fell from her hand. The look on her face was one of pure, unbridled horror. She lifted a long, slender finger and pointed it at me like a sword she intended to impale me with.
“Eva.” She whispered. The word was as a bow to the strings of a fiddle. Something inside me resonated, and a leaping, darting, awful song started up in my chest. I know that name.
“Oneris?” Aster’s words rose in pitch. “This is Jude, she’s a half mortal. She’s our new roommate!”
“No.” Oneris growled, her voice dangerously low. “That’s Eva. Who has been dead for a decade.”