In the Land of Fae ♔ (gxg)

22. end of the ice war

The sun shone brightly.

"It'll take a week or two for all the snow to melt," Abitha reckoned, kicking some snow with her foot. "Since these spikes are made of stone, we can morph it right back into the castle it used to be." She motioned to the other earth fae standing near her.

Alastair nodded. "Good, I want Nikolaus' castle to be back to the way it was."

Abitha nodded and stepped closer to the fire fae. "Say, Al. I was just thinking... what if Eira comes back?"

Alastair's jaw clenched. "She will be alone, so we have nothing to be afraid of. No one is powerful when they're alone." She smiled at Abitha who mirrored the grin.

It had been a couple days since the battle. They took some time to recover from the injuries and the losses they took from the battle, and also to celebrate a victory. No one knew if Eira was dead or not. Some earth fae tracked her trail of blood until it mysteriously stopped, but they could not find a body. No one got a close enough look at the damage Erlin did to her leg to reckon if she would have bled out or not, but Alastair almost preferred that she didn't. She wanted Eira to be alone in the woods the way she had been, the way almost everyone had been for months and years after she had invaded the Kingdom.

They returned to the battlefield to see if they could find any more lingering ice fae, and they discovered that Eira's dungeons had not been harmed by the fire and collapse. There were several ice peasants who had been thrown in for thievery or mere disrespect of the throne, but when Caspian arose from the dungeons with two creatures who were definitely not ice, her eyes widened.

For a moment, she swore that she saw Edlen and her mother rising from that dungeon, but she realized her eyes deceived her when she blinked and saw two unfamiliar fae who were definitely not her mother and sister.

One of them was a young girl with long, matted red hair. Her brown eyes squinted in the sun, probably not having been outside in a while. They both wore white cloaks, but the girl's wings were brown.

The other fae Caspian was bringing towards them caught her attention. It was an older man with raven hair and wings pitch black. Even his eyes were black, and Alastair had trouble assessing what kind of fae he might be.

Caspian brought the two over to Alastair. "They were in the very depths of the dungeon," he informed the fire fae.

She looked at the scared young girl first. "What is your name?"

The redhead avoided her intimidating stare. "F-Flannery."

Alastair nodded and looked at her brown wings. "Are you an earth fae, Flannery?"

She shook her head. "Shifter," she whispered almost shamefully.

Alastair's eyes widened in surprised. She turned and looked over to Erlin who was back to his human form, frolicking around with his little earth fae girlfriend. She noticed Catori approaching her. "Catori, we have another shifter on our hands! I really thought Erlin was the last—"

"Who is he?" Catori solemnly questioned, her eyes trained on the man who returned her stare with a smirk. Al looked at the strange fae.

He grinned and spoke in a thick accent, "My name is Mabuz. I am like you." He nodded towards Catori's colorful wings. "Spirit."

Caspian looked at the man in surprise. "Certainly could not tell by looking at you."

Catori's jaw clenched as she gulped. "That's because he is a dark spirit."

"Dark spirit?" Al questioned, to which Catori ignored her and continued shooting a death glare at the dark spirit fae who only smirked at her.

Caspian looked between them awkwardly and shared Al's curious stare. "Well... Flannery, Mabuz, let us get you to camp to get you washed up. Hardly doubt the dungeons offered consistent baths."