When All is Lost

28.

I don't exactly wake up, it's more like I blink and the world shifts. I'm in a garden, and a small child's playing, he's perhaps 4 years old with bright green eyes and a mane of tangled curls. On a patio watching him with a loving gaze sits his mother, she wears a pale pink dress, revealing pale skin which, as I move closer, is covered in light freckles. Her hair holds copper and gold tones amidst its dark tendrils, and her eyes are green with golden flecks. She radiates contentment and I envy her.

Inside the house a door slams, feet run over marble floors and then the door to her veranda opens. She smiles, her eyes closed for the moment as the sun shines through warming her.

"Leo," She chides, "Do you have to make such noise every time you enter the house?" She teases, a small smirk playing at her lips that I know instinctively.

"Is that any way to greet your older sister?" A clipped voice says as a cold breeze removes all warmth the sun had so recently offered.

"I thought..." The woman stands, shock colouring her features for a moment before it's overtaken by fear. "Els'vana." She gasps. "What are you...How did you find me here?"

"Well, that's the thing," Els'vana moves forward taking the spare seat at the little table and pouring herself tea. "Fae love to talk, and you, with your precious little boy, and your errant King, make quite the gossip item."

I move around the garden trying to get a better glimpse of the stranger, her blonde hair is white as snow, and her voice is horrifyingly familiar.

"Elsie," The woman sits down, hands folded in her lap. "How are you?" The words are forced, fear is making her throat close up but she's trying so hard to hide it.

"I'm well." The cold woman lies, "I lost my home, my family, my daughter, everything I've ever worked towards and I live in a backwards country full of humans, that is ever more filling with Fae."

"Faery is dying, Elsie, we had to do something."

"Let it die." Els'vana inspects her nails casually while her sister stares.

"You don't mean that."

Els'vana meets her gaze until the woman in the pink dress knows she means exactly that. I know those cold blue eyes, that precise silence. This woman is Elissa, Nate's stepmother, the old queen and the current incumbent of the Albion throne. The freckled lady, with beautiful hair and bright green eyes, is Nate's mum. I know it in my bones.

"Now, I like this little life you've established." She finally says, motioning to the house and child. The boy is oblivious to any danger in the garden, he's found a stable hand to throw the ball to and is intensely focused on his game.

"Please," The freckled lady begs, she seems to know something more than me because I can't see the threat, just sense danger.

"Where is my daughter?" Elissa asks, leaning in closer to her sister.

Nate's mother glances at her son, before turning her attention to her tormentor. She's making a choice. Does she know what will happen next?

"I don't know," she says, moving her arm as if reaching out to the garden.

Elissa shakes her head sadly, raising her two hands in front of her and creating a shimmering circle of air around them. Water smashes into it and drips from its surface.

"I've had a long time to practice my skills. Anger is a weapon of its own." Elissa whispers as the woman before her drops to the ground as if pushed. "Please know, dear sister, I will love him like a son." She says, and with a flick of her wrist, the air stills around them.

Nate's mother gasps for a moment, her eyes wide and her hands reaching for her throat. She can't breathe, I run forward looking for something to do, some way to help but I can't touch anything, everything was fixed.