Post by skyeknight on Feb 3, 2017 21:46:44 GMT
She left the city, going to the nearest forest. She had a taxi driver drop her off by the forest. He was concerned about leaving a young woman like her alone in the forest but once she paid him, his concerns were a little less. Besides, she was wearing her traditional faery clothes, a long blue gown that seemed to flow despite the fact there was no wind and a cloak. He probably thought she was going to a renaissance fair or something. For the umpteenth time that night, she readjusted the necklace her father gave her – for if she ever wanted to go to the courts, she would need it. She wasn’t used to wearing jewelry. She was actually quite happy she still had it.
Aqua slowly trailed through the forest, following markers she vaguely remembered her father telling her about. She had been so young. She was quite pleased to have remembered what they looked like at all. But as she walked through the forest, she felt as if she were being watched. She knew she was actually. The other faeries… Probably from both courts. A strange faery who had never been to the Courts, making her way there, as if she belonged. Bare foot among the fallen leaves and moving slowly. She felt uncomfortable without her gun, but she could not bring it if she was trying to convince the Queen she meant no harm.
The faery circle was in the center of the forest. Just a little mushroom ring, something that even humans wouldn’t bother with. She stepped into the circle, clutching the pendant in her hand. She could feel eyes on her. Watching her, whispers that sounded like the wind. She let her glamour drop, showing her true form. She knew the other faeries could see through her glamour. Faeries always could. It was the other species that the fae didn’t want to see them as their true selves. The backless dress allowed her wings the fullest of her mobility. Her wings fluttered as the glamour died down.
"My name is Aquamarine Malone. I am a citizen of the Seelie court. I wish to speak with Queen Tanaquill." She announced.
The response was automatic. Mad laughter and giggles filled the clearing, but she could see no one around her. Aqua looked around in confusion. Her confidence wavered ever so slightly as they laughter rang out. Why would they be laughing? This was what her father had told her to do if she ever sought help from the faery court. She was supposed to wear the traditional clothing of the faeries of old, take the pendant, and ask for the Queen by name. She was surprised she remembered after all these years. Had she done something wrong? Had she gone to the wrong place?
"Lady Nightingale would not see the likes of you, Halfling."
"I am a Seelie faery!" Aqua protested.
"Indeed. I do not need the others putting words in my mouth."
A woman dressed in white and gold stepped out from behind a tree. Aqua hesitated but she bowed before the woman. The red haired faery seemed very amused by that. She waved her hand and Aqua stopped. As did the laughter. It seemed the court didn’t know what to make of this. The Queen herself coming to greet a faery. Aqua wasn’t sure what to make of it. This obviously wasn’t customary. Aqua herself wasn’t even sure how this was supposed to go down. What did an audience with the Seelie Queen even mean?
"I have not been called that in some time, child." The queen said.
"I-I meant no disrespect." Aqua stammered out.
The woman laughed. Laughed at her. Aqua wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. However the woman didn’t seem upset. Her long misty dragonfly-like wings seemed to flutter as she laughed. Aqua could feel her face flush with a heated blush. She was fairly certain that even her pointed ears had gone pink at this point. She averted her eyes and looked to the ground. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all to come searching for the other faeries. But there was no middle ground for her. She never fit in with humans and now she obviously didn’t fit in with the faeries.
"Come, child, I would like to walk with you."
The queen offered out her arm, like she expected Aqua to take it. Aqua warily looked up at the woman before doing so. The queen then led her out of the clearing. As they walked, the edges of Aqua’s vision blurred. She could only assume the queen was taking her somewhere. She felt dazed, disoriented and trapped at the Queen’s side. Like her will was being overpowered. All she knew was that one foot kept going in front of the other, whether she willed it or not and she was breathing. She tried to turn her head, to shake the blurriness from her vision, to do something but she felt strange.
"There were very few who knew my first name," she explained. "Most call me Titania now. I'd prefer if you used that one, if you don't mind."
There was an obvious question in Titania’s statement. Aqua felt compelled to answer her, perhaps because of the woman’s title or perhaps a spell was being cast on her, either way, she had to answer. Magic. It had to be. Why would the queen need to use magic on her? She wanted to ask but her tongue felt tied when it came to questions she wanted to ask. Titania’s will was too much to be around. Had Aqua walked into something her father wished she never go back to? Had it been a mistake to go to the Seelie Court at all?
"My father… he told me that your name."
"Yes, Chrom Rye. I remember him."
Aqua blinked. What? Chrom Rye? No. That wasn’t right. Her last name was Malone. Her father’s name was Chrom, yes. Her mother’s name was Robin. Her father had been Unseelie and her mother had been Seelie. Aqua took after her mother in regards to her nature. She was glad she did. She didn’t think she would fare well in the human world if she were Unseelie. So many things would have been different and she did not think she would like the person she could have been.
"Rye? No… My father’s name was Chrom Malone."
"Yes, yes, of course it was," Titania said dismissively.
Aqua looked over at Titania in confusion. But the queen had just gotten his name wrong? How could she not act surprised that Aqua had corrected her? The queen almost seemed amused by the notion. Aqua had so many questions, but it seemed the Queen would not answer any of them until she got all of her own questions answered – about Aqua’s parents. She was afraid for the first time since she had news that Terra might be gone. For the first time since her parents had gone and she was left orphaned in the human world. She was alone but she had always been so alone.
"Your father was one of my best spies. He was deep undercover on his last assignment but hasn’t sent me a report in nearly two decades. Did he send you?"
"N-No," Aqua said slowly. "He… my father has been dead for twenty years."
Her father? A spy? It made no sense. He was just a research assistant. Aqua couldn’t remember the business he worked for or what he had been researching. She was young at the time. A lot of it probably didn’t make sense to her. She couldn’t remember what her mother did either. It was… all so muddled in her head. Why was it muddled? She hadn’t thought about it in years so perhaps that was it. She hadn’t had reason to think about what her parents did, just how much she missed them. She fought in vain to keep their memories present. But she could no longer remember the sound of her father’s voice or the way her mother felt when she hugged her tightly and whispered softly in her ears.
"I had feared the worst. He was in route to the courts but he never came. If I may ask, how did he go? "
"It… Humans have machines called cars. They’re used for transport and… they’re made of iron. Father had woke us up late that night. He said it was urgent. We got into our car and he started driving. I remember… not feeling well," Aqua said. "There was too much iron."
Titania was an attentive listener, but Aqua felt as if the words were being plucked from her own memories as a child. Titania had to have been using a spell on her. Of all the memories to make Aqua spell out, why did it have to be that one? She tried so hard to forget. She had so many nightmares as a little girl. She had watched as the iron burned her parents, helpless to prevent it, crying by the side of the road, screaming for help, but no one came until hours later. By then, her parents were gone. She had been cold, shivering, and a miserable little mess. The police found her huddled by the side of the car and unable to cry any more.
"I might have fallen asleep at one point but I know I heard a loud screech. The car went off the side of the road and… The iron was burning us. Dad threw me out of the car through one of the smashed windows. Mom was already… She-"
"That’s enough."
Aqua felt her mouth shut with an audible click. She cleared her throat to keep back the emotions. She hated thinking of that night. It hurt knowing there was absolutely nothing she could have done to save them. But she had been a little girl. Iron burned her too. If she had tried, she would have been burnt and she might have died. Her father begged her to run but she had been a little girl. She had sunk to her knees, sobbing, clutching her hands over her head and trying not to look up at the accident. When everything had gone silent, she only cried louder.
Then she had to go through this strange conversation with the Queen. With the woman prying into her very memories to get the answers she wanted. Aqua felt very uncomfortable around the woman. She was starting to regret her decision to come. But this was the only place she had left to turn. For Riku, for Sunshine, and perhaps a little for herself so she could see other faeries for once in her life. Actually, conversation was a rather one-sided word. That would mean that Titania was talking in return but with everything she told Aqua, she only created more questions in her wake.
"I… I don’t understand. What does father have to do with any of this?" Aqua asked.
"He must not have told you anything," Titania determined. "Perhaps it was because you were so young…"
"Tell me what?"
"I apologize. You must have so many questions. But the hour is late. Perhaps you should rest."
Aqua wanted to shake her head, demand answers, but her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. Titania seemed pleased with this. A spell? She took a shaky breath. Was the Queen going to kill her? What was going on? She let go of Aqua’s arm. The blue haired fae found herself in an elegant bedroom. Polished stone floors chilled her feet. A large four poster bed was blanketed in soft blues and elegant hand carved figures into the wood. Well this was certainly no prison cell…
"Rest, Aquamarine. We will speak more tomorrow."
Until Titania left.
Aqua had paced the room until she eventually just collapsed on the large four poster bed, the blankets curled around her until she formed a little cocoon. Food was brought in while she slept, but the queen did not return. Aqua did not eat. Was she a prisoner of the queen now? Was she not allowed to go back? Human appliances like phones didn’t work in the Seelie realms so Aqua had left them behind. She couldn’t call for help. Only Sunshine, Riku and Red knew that she was going to the courts, but she never said how she intended to get there. Or more importantly, she never told them how she was getting back.
At some point, she must have passed out due to her own exhaustion. She woke, dazed, confused and disoriented. At first, she couldn’t remember where she was or how she got there. However, the Seelie Queen herself was sitting at the foot of the bed. That jolted Aqua’s memories something fierce. The young faery tried to get up, but the Queen’s expression gave her pause. Aqua felt her hands twitch, magic swirling. She felt a pressure on her forearm. She could have attacked the Queen. She should have attacked the Queen. But she didn’t.
"I hope you don’t mind that I had to verify what you said."
"Why am I still here then?"
Aqua didn’t quite believe her, but she did just spend an undefined amount of time locked away in the Court. It was a little jarring. She had people in the human world who were counting on her and needed her back. She would fight her way out if she had to. She would destroy the very faery court so she could return. She likely wouldn’t succeed. The woman was called Titania for a reason. But she had to do something to get back home. Strange that she considered the human world her home rather than the faery realm but she couldn’t see this place as home. Nor would she ever.
"If you aren’t here because your father sent you, then why are you here?"
"Father said if I ever needed help I should come here." Titania sat a little straighter. Aqua winced. "A human I know was cursed by a demon to look like a giant rabbit and a faery gave magic to a human family. This was… the only place I knew to find information."
Titania stared at her for a moment – staring almost blankly. It seemed like she was still trying to process what Aqua had said, though Aqua thought she had explained it quite clearly despite the minor (almost) miscommunication about her own safety. Then the Queen chuckled. Aqua didn’t see why that was funny, but she was already confused enough as it was. This whole trip to the Seelie Court had brought forth nothing but questions. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do at this point. She really stuck her foot in it this time.
"You take after your mother." She muttered before going on to say, "I can look into those for you, but I have a request of you, Aqua."
It was the first time the Queen had used her name. It felt strange to hear it off her lips. The Queen was taking a special interest in her that she wasn’t sure was entirely innocent. What Queen knew so much about her own ‘spies’? Then the Queen just announced that Aqua’s father was a spy, like Aqua was already supposed to know that. That was strange. She knew Aqua’s father the moment she said Chrom. There had to be other faeries name Chrom, right? It just struck her as a little odd.
"What is it?"
Titania smiled at Aqua’s caution. She got up from the bed and started to pace the room, hands drawn behind her back. Military? No… Couldn’t be. The faeries hadn’t had need for a military in a long time, but then again, the Queen was older than she looked. The thousand year old faery seemed to possess more power in her little finger than Aqua did in her entire being. That alone was intimidating so she didn’t know what she could do for Titania that the woman couldn’t already do for herself.
"As I mentioned before, your father was a spy for my court. I’d like for you to take his place."
"What?"
"Surely, you did not expect this help to come freely?"
Aqua shifted a little uncomfortably. Her father’s work. But she didn’t know what her father’s work entailed. Had her parents lied to her about why they left the court? It was possible. She was young and it might have been hard to understand. It also could have been one of those things they would have waited to tell her when she was older. They never got that chance. What was so important they spied on humans? Aqua had lived among humans for so long it almost felt like a betrayal of her own kind to do something like that. Humans took her in. Raised her. Even if she never got a family after her parents’ death, they always at least made sure she was happy. Was everything she knew about her parents a lie? No. It couldn’t have been. She knew them. They loved her. They loved each other! Could the Queen even be trusted? That had to be determined.
"What did he do?" Aqua asked. "Why was he spying for you?"
"There was a group amongst the humans that call themselves Trinity." Titania explained. "They claim to hate all Others, but instead, they envy some of us, for our longevity. Your mother and father found out they were experimenting on Others."
Aqua felt like she was just socked in the stomach. Other experimentation? She knew how that always went in the movies. They always depicted horrific pain, unimaginable torture, all for science. Humans sometimes had a twisted view of morality but it was for the Others to act as a moral guide sometimes, hence the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. She wanted to deny it, but at the same time, she knew humans were awful to one another. They could be just as awful to the Others. Sometimes even worse. Her protests died on her lips.
"They were trying to find the source behind it. Take it from us but they had a few other pet projects."
"Like… making us human?"
Titania raised a brow. The look she was giving her was all but silently asking Aqua how she knew that. Grey Dawn certainly sounded like a ‘pet project’ of Trinity’s if she ever heard of it. If they were experimenting on Others, it might have been possible to create Sapien. The drug had caused so much trouble to the police. They were still destroying barrels of it, even a few weeks after the Grey Dawn bust. But if someone else had supplied Grey Dawn? Given them the drug to cause panic in the city, they were dangerous.
"We arrested an organization called Grey Dawn that was going to release a drug into the water system. We called it Sapien. But it made Others humans, but only temporarily."
"And you saw this?"
Aqua nodded solemnly. She wished she hadn’t. She remembered the fire that had been caused after their failed sting, how both Pitch and Shadow had been struck. How she had to carry them both out. She had burnt her wings horrendously and couldn’t have them healed until Sunshine retained her powers. She shuddered as she recalled the aching raw burn of torn wings and ripped ligaments. Shadow and Pitch had been heavy. She had never lifted two beings before in her entire life. She was lucky that she hadn’t done irreparable damage to them.
"You do realize that this means your parents’ accident might not have been an accident, right?"
Aqua felt her head spinning. First her father was a spy, now Titania was hinting at foul play. Titania was hinting that they were killed for knowing too much. Aqua’s blood felt cold within her body. If Trinity was behind the drugs like Sapien and kidnapping Others for experimentation, they had to be stopped. The police force could benefit from a spy in their midst. If Titania fed her reports, she could in return, help the police, help the city. They could not allow another Grey Dawn to be formed, or allow Trinity to operate as they had.
And missing Others. How many had gone missing and no one had reported it? There were plenty of homeless Others on the street. Children in particular. No one would miss them if they had gone missing. Children like her or children like Yang… With no one else to turn to. Alone. Afraid. Trying to control their powers or trying to fit in with society. They had no safety net. It was either conform or go to jail after the police caught you for accidentally setting fire to something or using your powers on a human on accident when you were attacked first. The system was flawed.
"The last report mentioned a breakthrough. I believe it was Sapien."
"I thought you said this was serious! That’s all you have?" Aqua cried.
That was old news to her. She had already dealt with Sapien once. She could do it again. But spying? All this make the world a better place was a hard notion to swallow. She didn’t see how they could all get along when she and the BPD just stood down against a demon with hostages and Grey Dawn that tried to kill them and the city. She had seen so much bad in humans; it was hard to see the good anymore. So few humans… but wasn’t that why she came to the Seelie Court in the first place? Not because she wanted to, but because Riku and Sunshine needed her to.
"You’re getting too emotional. You should rest and eat something. The chefs say you haven’t been eating."
"Don’t try and distract me! I want answers!"
"And you will have them." Titania said. "After I’m certain you’ve eaten and rested. It will take some time for me to gather your father’s things."
Aqua wrinkled her nose in distaste. Titania was treating her like a child. Then again, the woman was a thousand years old. Everyone was a child to her. However, Aqua was used to how humans treated her. She was an adult in their eyes, despite how she would outlive a lot of them. Though, sulking about it probably didn’t help either. She wasn’t sure how to proceed from there. The Queen could very well let Aqua ask questions until she was blue in the face and choose not to answer a single one. There was nothing Aqua could do about it.
"Don’t worry. You won’t become addicted if that’s what you’re afraid of." She teased. "Unless you developed your mother’s fondness for sweets."
Aqua blushed. She had in fact had a weakness for sweets. She visited Nevermore quite often because of it. There was always something special about their food, something that set them apart from other bakeries, but Aqua just assumed it was the warm staff and the good consumables. Titania seemed pleased by her reaction. The Queen walked over to the door. She glanced over to Aqua, the hint of a smile only given by the tiny quirk of the corner of her lips.
"I look forward to working with you." Titania intoned.
"I never said yes!"
"But you never said no."
And Titania left. Again. The blue haired fae wanted to scream. That woman was so infuriating. She didn’t know how her father could have worked for her. If he ever did at all. Aqua slowly got up from the bed. She shivered as her bare feet touched cold polished stone floors. She walked over to a window, peering out. Bars on the window, not iron, thankfully, but kept her from just leaving. That was not very convincing that she wasn’t a prisoner to the Queen until she said yes to the proposition. She could see a gardened area. Other faeries milled about.
Aqua wasn’t sure where this left her. She had lived among humans so long. Could she just turn on them and tell the Seelie Court whatever they wanted to know? That would be so hard. And what if they found out. They would never trust her again. Who were her parents really? Spies apparently. But why had they never seen it fit to at least leave a letter for her to say just in case the worst happened? As if she didn’t have enough on her mind as it was. Between Riku’s fuzzy problems, Terra’s disappearance and possible murder, now her father was a spy and also possibly murdered? Her heart felt too full to take on anything else. She felt like screaming and crying and kicking up a fuss.
Eventually, Aqua was allowed out of the room. After they made sure she ate. The food, to their credit, was good. It made her feel… strange though, lighter perhaps? She didn’t want to put too much stock into the possible addictive properties of faery food. So she resolved herself to find the answers she was looking for as quickly as possible. The faster she got out of there, the less time she spent eating faery food (even if it was good). She lived in the human world. She had to remember that. Faery or not her loyalties remained with the humans.
Titania allowed her to go to the library to look for her ‘answers’ in case the Queen’s resources could not find what she needed. It still felt like house arrest for the faery. She didn’t exactly like it. She was also fairly certain that she was being watched the entire time she was going through the columns and stacks. Some of the papers in the library were older than she was. If she didn’t feel so unwelcomed in the court, she would have loved to have started reading a few for fun. She was bound to find some sort of fable or story humans didn’t have in their libraries.
"Ah, there you are."
Aqua looked up. The Queen was being escorted by two of her guards. They didn’t look like they would amount to much in a fight, but Aqua knew the durability of faery folk. They were probably there to have some underestimate them. Then those two guards would squash whatever would be assassin into the ground. It was the nice part about looking the way they did.
"I see you’ve found what you were looking for."
"I have."
"And did you consider my offer?"
"I have." Aqua said. "And I have some conditions."
Titania could just as easily take the books from her if Aqua said no. Maybe that was what her guards were really there for? To make sure Aqua didn’t make off with any important documents. It would be impossible for Aqua to even find them again in a library this large when she didn’t know the sorting system. She was tired and felt somewhat dizzy, so she would be no match anyways. A headache pulsed between her brows, as if she were dehydrated. Her eyes were sore too for some reason. She didn’t know why. Maybe it was the dust from the books. There were books in the library older than she was. She was pretty sure the scroll was older than she was anyways.
Titania smiled. "Let’s talk over tea."
"I’d love to."