Mei Ruan May 19th,20XX

We crossed the border a little too easy to give me peace of mind. Never mind a battle, I saw neither hide nor hair of a single witch.

Never mind the witches, there wasn’t a single fairy that had flown out to meet us from the outposts.

I’d known that the viscount we had assigned to watch this section of the border was negligent, but for things to have reached this level.

Something was up, and I feared it could put all of us in danger.

I banked Galen downwards and took the opportunity while Cai was asleep to leave start leaving signs for my soldiers to follow if I ever needed them to follow us. I coded the exact location of our destination but I had to get dirty as I hid the sign from any curious fairy or witch that noticed something.

Unless my code had been leaked, then anyone that saw it would just dismiss it as a graffiti mark from a daredevil fairy that had crossed over for fun.

I’d also landed us to I could gather myself and battle with the effects of being so close to a royal’s wish. Even though the seal on me remained steady, I wasn’t about to take that sort of risk.

The magic in the air was so unsteady that I decided not to rely on magic for anything accept flight and a few basic spells to help me lift some heavier things as I set up our impromptu campsite. Although things were quiet for now, it wouldn’t do to forget that we were now in the witch’s territory.

Kiorn looked over curiously at what I was doing, but his main priority was looking after the unconscious Cai.

I wasn’t sure what had possessed him to use something as big as a ‘Wish’ in the middle of a journey, but he’d already started it before I could stop him and I wasn’t nearly strong enough to stop a royal’s wish while it was in progress.

The magic in the air was still frantic as a result and I had a hard time gathering enough of it to leave my mark on the ground.

“WAIT!”

I just barely managed to stop Kiorn from touching the locket on Cai’s neck. I couldn’t even guess as to what that locket contained, or what sort of spell Cai had just cast but I also didn’t want to risk anything by interfering with it.

Krion startled and his wings, modified by Cai fluttered in response and launched him into the air. He quickly caught his balance this time and gently lowered himself onto the ground, setting one foot down before the other and looked at me like an enemy.

“What?!”

“Try not to touch him or that locket. I don’t know what he did to it or how that could affect a human.”

He backed up by a few more steps and paused to gather his thoughts but then went right back over to Cai’s side and fixed his posture from the uncomfortable looking pose he had somehow fallen into.

“Krion didn’t you hear me? I said it was dangerous”

He was quickly distracted from answering by Cai’s stirring as he awoke.

Honestly to say he looked like death would be an overstatement.

His fluffy hair laid flat on his head and his wings fluttered with the winds, unable to put up any resistance of their own. His arms wobbled as he tried to prop himself up and the veins in his arms visibly pulsed with blood like the liquid was trying to escape his body.

He blinked once and then twice to regain his vision and his hands flew to the locket around his neck, making sure it was still there.

More gently than he treated himself, he unhooked it and held it in both hands, looking at the jewelry with a mixture of anticipation and wariness.

More instinctively than breathing, he propped a bubble around himself and carefully pried the two sides of the locket open, letting the creature he had trapped into it free.

I’d never seen such a spell, so I couldn’t guess what he had tried to do but once I’d felt the effects of being so close to a Royal’s Wish, what he was doing was the last thing on my mind.

Chaotic energy burst in waves around and inside me but I forced myself to bear it and stay still. Once I’d made sure Cai was okay I’d have to fly more than a couple of miles around but for now…

My attention was drawn back to Cai in his bubble, and the creature that had flown out of the locket.

Long golden hair that reached its tiny waist, and feathered wings that matched the frock it wore. It had bright golden eyes and a disconcertingly familiar facial structure as well. For the first time in my life, I was made grateful for the ridiculous stories Aruna had made me read to her while she was younger. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to categorize such a thing.

In the stories Aruna had forced me to read to her, such small creatures would be called fairies but I couldn't help but find it somewhat offensive.

“Is that a pixie?”

Krion called them by their alternate name before I had the chance too and looked on in wonder as the tiny creature flew around Cai.

It looked here and there and flew freely within its confines of the bubble as it came to terms with its new reality, looking every bit as surprised as we were.

Its wings were less cumbersome than ours so it could fly more freely than the average fairy could and danced in the air, limbs flying around and long hair flowing freely. I wasn’t sure why that was the trigger for my memory but once it came to mind it was impossible to ignore.

My breath caught in my throat and I resisted the impulse to kneel, knowing that how much it resembled her, it wasn’t… it couldn’t be.

Cai seemed to be going through a similar whirlwind of emotions as he stared blankly at his creation. Confusion, happiness, fear. They all flipped over his handsome face in turns, each emotion taking care to express itself fully.

“Mo-Belpheobe?”