The Fourth Face

Despite the fact that getting Elix is a wonderful thing and all, it also holds a hidden threat.......

Pasquel nervously looked outside her window. The sun was in position, telling her the time.

He's coming. 

On one hand, she nervously chewed her fingernails, and with the other, she rubbed her stomach, which was now noticeably bigger. She passed by the hanging mirror, and stopped to look at herself.

Her eyes had dark circles under them, and there was a red mark on her cheek from when she had been slapped yesterday.

Every time Cray brought her food, it was a frightening nightmare. She never knew how to act, or what to expect, and she was kept in a constant state of agitation and fear for every second he was there.

Yesterday, he had seen a bird flit past the window, and he had laughed, as if it was a great big joke. She had joined in the laughter, in an attempt to prevent his anger, but as soon as she did, he had stood up and slapped her in the face.

"I come with yer food, yer Worshipfulness!"

As if on cue, Cray sailed into the room, bringing a wooden tray and greeting her with the same words he said every time he came in the room.

"Thank you, Cray." Pasquel came and sat down at the little wooden table with the same caution and deference she would show when approaching a wild animal.

"Cheese, soup, bread, and, because today's a special treat, grapes!" Cray showed her proudly, again repeating himself from the previous day. He always said the same two phrases he said every single day, without fail.. But after those two sentences, his behavior and speech was inane and unpredictable.

"I really am lucky, aren't I?" Pasquel said carefully, and began to eat some bread.

"For sure." Cray assured her. "The Master isn't very kind, but we are lucky for him to include us in his plan. This way, we don't have to die."

"Die?" Pasquel forced herself to sound neutral and nonchalant.

"Well, of course. The Master lets some people live, but most will die or be forced to serve his great cause. He is so smart. Cray never would've thought of that one." He startled Pasquel with a short shriek of laughter, then lapsed into silence. Pasquel silently finished her bread, then slowly picked up the grapes.

"Cray, do you have any family?" she braced herself, but Cray only smiled dreamily.

"I have my mama, but she didn't want to serve the Master. She couldn't be allowed to keep going, so the Master sent her away." Cray finished with a little half-smile, and Pasquel was quiet again before she could regain her courage.

"Have you ever loved anybody, Cray?" she asked,  and Cray looked at her a moment, confused.

"I love grapes." he offered.

"No, I mean a person." Pasquel clarified, and Cray didn't answer, so she kept going. "I love somebody. His name is Dantaus, and he's king of Islan. Do you know who else I love? This baby, inside me, even though I don't know it yet. I love it, and my dream is to be together with all the people I love, in one place."

For a long time, the only sound was Pasquel, the almost inaudible snap as she pulled the grapes from the vine.

"That's what my mama said, too." Cray said, and his face turns funny. "She said that the Master was wrong, told me to get away from him, said that he was evil and bad. The Master was angry, and he sent her away with some of his Scaries, but when they came back, she wasn't with them. I guess they took her on a vacation." Pasquel remembered that he called the guards the "Scaries," and she shuddered.

"I miss my mama." Cray whispered softly, and he looked so heartbroken and sad, that Pasquel couldn't resist.

"It's okay to miss your mother, Cray. You loved her." she comforted him, and his brow furrowed as he suddenly looked at her. To her horror, his face became angry and hateful. He stood up, his face red, and he threw the table that separated them aside, spilling the food everywhere. Pasquel stumbled from her chair and backwards, terrified.

"DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT MY MAMA!" Cray screamed in her face, and slapped her again. "I HATED MY MAMA!"

Trapped against the wall, Pasquel had nowhere to run, and Cray grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth, slamming the back of her head against the wall.

"SHE NEVER LIKED THE MASTER!" Cray shrieked at her, still shaking her. "I HATE LOVE! I HATE DANTAUS, AND I HATE YOUR STUPID BABY!" He savagely kicked her midsection, and Pasquel curled into a ball to protect herself as he hit her three more times before suddenly stopping and bolting to his feet.

He stood above her, breathing heavily and staring down at her with a crazed look in his eyes. His body twitched, and he let out a short shrieky laugh before sprinting away, out the door, and slamming it behind him.

Remembering previous beatings, Pasquel remained in her defensive position, trembling, slowly counting to thirty before she slowly and cautiously raised her head.

She got up into a sitting position and drew her knees up to her chest, stuck in the corner. Cray hadn't left her any lamps, and she knew the night was going to a long and dark one.

Hot tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, but she swallowed them and gently touched her stomach.

"Don't worry." she told her baby, struggling to make her voice light a cheerful. "Your father is on his way, and he'll save us both. It'll be okay." She pressed her lips to the tips of her fingers, then touched her stomach.

As the sun began to go down and the light slowly disappeared, Pasquel huddled in the corner of her room.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

"I need you, Dante." she whispers, and from outside, far away, she could hear the screaming, the screaming that came every night.

"Where are you?"

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"I'm going to kill him. I really am." Estïqiã announced for the fifth time in the past hour.

"We know, Estï." Tiran sighed.

"It's dark and it's raining. He might've stranded her miles and miles away from the forest."

"He didn't."

"He did that to you."

"No, he set me down three feet from the trail." Tiran corrected her, and she lapsed into silence again. The fire crackled quietly, and Ven turned the page in her book.

"I really am going to kill-"

"I give up, Estïqiã. Let's go find her." Tiran groaned, and reluctantly relinquished his comfortable position by the fire.

"Finally." Estïqiã went over to her door. "Pandorå! Meet us ou-"

The door burst open with a bang, and a sopping wet Ava sprinted to the fire.

"Ava!" Tiran and Ven cried in unison, but she ignored them, and only snatched up a nearby cloth. One hand was pressed against her stomach, and for a horrible moment, Estïqiã thought she was injured.

But Ava pulled her hand away from her midsection, and examined something in her palm with feverish anxiety. With the utmost gentleness, she set it on the cloth, and held it towards the fire.

"What are you doing? Are you hurt?" Estïqiã asked worriedly.

"No, fine, fine...." Ava replied distractedly, and stroked the cloth gently. "Elix?"

"What?" Estïqiã came closer, when she suddenly heard small bells, chiming weakly and softly.

"Is that a......fairy?" Tiran went to the fire, next to Ava, where he examined whatever was in the cloth. Curious, Estïqiã ventured closer, to look at the fairy.

She was unlike any fairy she'd ever seen, which was quite a rare thing. Her color and clothes did nothing to help identify what kind of flower she was, as she was just wearing a small white dress. Her skin was whitish and papery, and Estïqiã could only just barely discern the rise and fall of her chest.

"What happened to her?" Estïqiã examines the pale skin with concern.

"She......her wings got wet, and she fell." Ava sounds hollow, and for the first time, Estïqiã looks at her, noticing how truly awful she looks. Her cheeks are wet, but not only with rain, and she looks so terribly frightened, her eyes only focused on the fairy. Strange, Estïqiã thought to herself. I wouldn't think she would be this concerned about this one fairy's health.

"Who is she?" Tiran asked, frowning. "I've never seen one like her before." Ava said nothing, and only stared at the small, limp fairy, cradling the cloth with trembling fingers.

"I think you should set her down, Ava." her tutor carefully took away the fairy, seeing that Ava was on the verge of a breakdown. He gently set the cloth in front of the fire, and with the utmost caution, pulled the fairy's crumpled, delicate wings from underneath her and stretched them out so they could dry. Estïqiã took Ava's shoulders and guided her to the couch.

"Ava." Tiran tried to get her attention, but she kept focusing on the tiny creature in front of the fire. "Ava." Tiran repeated her name, and she slowly moved her eyes to meet his.

"Good." he praised her. "Now, where did you find the fairy?"

"In......" Ava swallows. "In the forest. A clearing. I....I saw her come from this white flower."

"Okay." Tiran smiled encouragingly. "What happened with Omal?" Ava blinked, as if trying to remember.

"I started saying things about......about the storm giant council. He's not mean, Estïqiã." Ava turned to the elf, and Estïqiã was pleased by how quickly Tiran was able to turn her attention away from the fairy. "That's just how he talks to people. He's really funny, and nice. And lonely." Ava drifted off a little. "He hasn't seen his family in hundreds of years, Estïqiã. Because of the Council. He's never even seen his son in real life."

"I know." Estïqiã sighed. "He can just be so childish."

"I pushed him over." Ava remembered, halfway smiling. "He tried to stomp on me, and I shoved him in the cave wall. Then he laughed, and he likes me now."

"No wonder he likes you. You both are have anger issues and trouble acting your age." Estïqiã elbowed her, and Ava laughed. It just a short one, but at least it was a laugh.

"Well, I think she'll be fine." Tiran gestured towards the fairy. "Just some rest, and we can send her home when she gets up. It's stopped raining."

"No!" Ava exclaimed, surprising Tiran. "She's mine!"

"Ava, you can't just keep a fairy." Estïqiã told her.

"But she's mine!" Ava insisted. "She came from me. She's like my Pandorå."

"What? How did she come from you? All smaller fairies come from flowers."

"Yes, but, the clearing......." Ava struggled to explain. "Omal sent me away, and put me on the trail, but I got lost. I found this clearing, and there was a mound of dirt in the middle. Then all these fairies came out, and one of them came so close, I could see that she had some sort of crown. She might've been the queen or something. She had this scepter, and she......she touched my forehead with it. Then she cut my finger, just a little, and some blood fell on the dirt mound. This pure white flower grew out of it, and Elix came from it."

"Who's Elix?" Estïqiã asked.

"Her." Ava pointed at the fairy. "That's what she said."

"Don't be silly, Ava, flower fairies don't come from human blood, and they can't talk." Tiran chided her.

"She did."

"Look, you're obviously very tired, and I think you should just go to bed." Tiran gently began to take her to her room.

"No, stop!" Ava struggled against him, but he firmly kept her going towards her room.

"Tiran, it's moving." Ven called, who was watching the fairy.

"Let me go!" Ava shrieked, and the fairy suddenly zipped out of the cloth and towards Tiran and Ava, bells ringing angrily, but Estïqiã quickly grabbed a nearby jar and swooped it at the fairy, trapping it inside and slamming the lid shut.

"Ava, stop struggling. It'll be fine." Tiran gripped the edge of Ava's doorway to keep Ava from dragging him away. "It's not right to keep it. Estïqiã, go let it go outside."

Estïqiã opened the door and went through the tunnels, as the fairy pushed against the jar with surprising force, her tiny bell voice angry and loud.

"Don't worry, I'm taking you home." Estïqiã told her, unsure of whether or not it understood her, but as she moved farther away from the door, the pushing and bells became less and less.

When the waterfall was in sight, Estïqiã tapped the top softly.

"Almost there." she glanced at the jar, then looked again, horrified. The fairy was lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the jar, and it did not look like she was moving.

She's mine. Like my Pandorå. Estïqiã remembered Ava's seemingly insane claim, and she suddenly realized what she meant. Turning around, she sprinted back through the tunnels, feverishly praying that it wasn't too late.

Just as she reached the door, it flung open, revealing a very angry Ava, her sword in hand. She snatched the jar from Estïqiã, opened it, then reached inside and gently picked up the motionless fairy, letting her sword clatter to the ground.

Her hands cradled the creature like it was something infinitely precious, and Estïqiã understood the feeling. She remembered when she had first held Pandorå, all those years ago, when she was just a little thing, so fragile, so helpless.

Her eyes flicked to Ven and Tiran, the latter of the two holding his eye, the former helping him to the couch.

"Did you punch him?" Estïqiã questioned.

"Of course." Ava replied absentmindedly, her finger stroking the fairy. The wing moved a little, and the tiny figure slowly sat up, heavily relying on her arms for support.

"Estïqiã, I told you to let it go." Tiran was irritated, tired, and upset, that he was the one that got hurt all the time. He tugged at his head bandage, even more annoyed when it occurred to him that everybody had forgotten about it.

"We can't, Tiran." Estïqiã moved towards him to speak for Ava. "Don't you get it? 'She's like your Pandorå.' They're connected."

"Impossible." Tiran accepted Ven's offered ice bag, and pressed it to his eye. "Fairy flowers just don't grow from blood. It's never happened before."

"There's always a first time, Tiran. Believe Ava. It grew from a drop of her blood, and is connected to Ava the same way Pandorå is connected to me. Do you remember that hatching?" Estïqiã insisted, and saw that Tiran, grudgingly, was remembering the day her dragon had hatched. Estïqiã, Tiran, and Eńteì had been the only ones present, and the scars from touching that egg still were with her today.

"That was different." he said stubbornly.

"How so?" Tiran's inflexibility was starting to annoy her. "Both were things that had never happened before. Both are connected to another creature, and both of their existences were activated by touch, or, in her case, blood. You know how uncomfortable it is for Pandorå and me to be apart from each other for great distances or time, and when I was carrying that fairy away from Ava, it almost died, Tiran. Do you understand? I'm guessing it's because of it's tiny body, and its creation being so recent, but it almost died when we separated them. Why are you being to pigheaded?" Tiran was quiet for a moment.

"Flower fairies aren't meant to be with humans, or elves, or anything bigger than them. It's not safe for them." he finally spoke, looking down at his feet. "They could get hurt. You and I both know it." Estïqiã shuddered slightly, and her anger dissipated.

"And if we try to separate them, that fairy will die. It'll be okay, Tiran." she assured him, and though he look a little bit more softened, he wasn't entirely convinced.

The fairy fluttered from Ava's hands and let out ringing bells.

"Elix, be nice. He was worried about you." Ava said, and Estïqiã looked from fairy to human, confused. It almost sounded like Ava was responding to the fairy, who let out some more melodies. Ava's face rapidly changed, becoming shocked.

"He most certainly is not." Ava reprimanded the fairy.

More bells.

"That's not very nice, either. Watch what you say."

Even more bells.

"Elix! Apologize this instant!" Ava was openmouthed with shock, but the fairy only turned her back and crossed her arms.

"Wait, wait, are you talking to the flower fairy?" Tiran asked, looking lost.

"No, I'm talking to Estïqiã." Ava rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm talking to Elix. I'm sorry that she said that. She's never said anything like that to me."

"Ava, we can't understand her." Estïqiã informed her.

"You can't hear her?"

"No. We can only hear bells, like how Pandorå can only talk to me, mind to mind. You have a connection with her."

"Nobody's ever been able to actually communicate with flower fairies." Tiran looked a little dubious. "No one has even been able to teach them how to write in our language, and we can't decipher theirs. It's like their race alone went down a completely different evolution path at the beginning of time, and now, nobody can reach them."

"But I can hear her!" Ava insisted, and the fairy, or Elix, Estïqiã supposed, chimed in. "Listen! She just said......" her eyes flicked to Estïqiã. "That Estïqiã's hair is very pretty." Elix let out a short sound that sounded a lot like a snort of disgust.

"She's been insulting us this whole time, hasn't she?" Tiran grinned, and Ava shrugged, hiding her own smile. Elix fluttered over to her and managed to push Ava's hair behind her ear, then settled on her shoulder.

"Where's Saol?" Ava asked.

"He's in your room." Estïqiã remembered after a second's recollection.
"You forgot about my bandage." Tiran accused her, and Ava slipped into her room as Estïqiã became guiltily aware of her negligence.
"I did not. I just was.......busy." she defended herself. "I'll do it now."
"I, ah, have to do something." Ven slowly started to follow Ava.
"No, you don't. You're helping me. I am not dealing with him by myself." Estïqiã insisted, and Ven sighed, stopping her escape.
"Wait, dealing with who? Me?" Tiran looked at them suspiciously. "What about me?"
Ven and Estïqiã looked at each other.
"You'll see." Ven finally said. "Let's take off the bandage."

Author's Note

Who remembers Elix from before? Just think about it.......