The characters of the Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Miss Charlaine Harris. No infringement on my part is intended. The characters on True Blood belong to Mr. Alan Ball. No infringement on my part is intended.
I have no BETA, editor, or other such charming person. All mistakes are my own. This Story is rated M.
Believe—Chapter 3
Pearl Gettingsly was sorting through the ancient histories deep in the bowls of the chancellor’s manse. “What a laughable liability,” she felt like throwing something. “Right, like this manor is mine. Harpy shit piled on top of giant shit…” she hissed at no one.
This building could be shared by any godmother, and many claimed at as home, but it was the official and only residence for the godmother chancellor. Which was a pain in her ass because it tied her to one structure and made her easily found. Which she both abhorred and found titillating because in this building she reigned supreme and held her own version of court.
Shuffling through documents she was knee deep in once-upon-a-time recorded ancient spectacles in the Enlightenment Room, it had been called ages, ago. When you actually wanted to learn something, you came here and researched.
Now it was a catch-all hole for what no one else wanted. Complete works of histories, magics and she tripped over a book and screeched all the way to the floor and was face down in the dust. Pulling her stumbling block to her she flipped the book over. “Mayhem,” she grunted as she picked herself back up. “This is just not right. I have been dumped on the floor, literally, by Mayhem! Maybe killing off the records keeper had not been such a good idea,” she sighed. “I do so miss the librarians.”
Before the war, there were some difficult and politically game changing decisions made in these rooms and they were not made in everyone’s best interest. In this building, the godmothers went silent and dark. Bower lights where you could sit and read pleasantly for hours were extinguished and their own histories burned so that the truth would never be known.
“Filth and vomit,” she said as she bent over to examine a pile of yet…more scrolls.
“I should just walk into the palace library and demand to see the original Alphabet of Spells in dragon,” she stomped her foot and kicked out at a stack of books. Which tilted, hit another stack and another that came crashing down on her.
Screeching in pain, she went down again, sitting in the midst of what could only be paper lice as she started to itch.
“Fucked up harpy shit!” she screamed. As it echoed around the massive chamber, she began to smell harpy shit.
“No-o-o-o,” she shook her head as she stood up and started moving at a fast clip. “I cannot be in the say and experience it part of the chamber! Ugh…” she sniffed, stopped and lifted her foot, “apparently I am. Why I do believe that is harpy shit I just stepped in! You horrible room,” she bellowed. “Disgraceful way to treat your Chancellor,” she shouted out and listened to her voice echo around until it ended in a clap of thunder and laughter.
Picking up a scroll she unwrapped it and carefully wiped off her foot. She could still hear the vestiges of her voice floating around on the dust motes and with it that insane laughter that would always respond back in-the-day when you told a joke.
“What the fuck am I doing down here?” she asked herself as she sat down and looked at the vastness that held everything she wanted to know but had no way to access it. They had been so clever to hide what could only be called blasphemous! If it was ever found out before the appointed time, it was too awful to think about what the fae would do to her. What the land itself would do to her.
But all that had been given to her were clues on how to find the missing documents.
“My dragon is not the good, but if I only had the original in dragon, I would have something!” she wailed. But then sanity took over. “But that would raise more questions than I want to answer. And dragons are nasty, suspicious creatures that stand with the king.
So here I am, blowing off dust and searching for anything that would be of use.
Scrolls,” she kept mumbling, “who thought scrolls were a brilliant idea? And why would you write that treatise in dragon on a scroll? What a pain in the ass,” she spit on the floor and then scratched at her elbow. The paper lice were making their way across her body and her misery was just beginning. “I will just endure it,” she sniffled as she scratched, again. Hating the scut work and this room, she trudged on because she trusted no one else to do it.
“I may not survive this,” she admitted to herself. Things were a bit raw here in the Chancellor’s House of Elders. Many of the elders had told her not to send Etty’ll’yes to spy on anyone! Anyone! All knew Etty was selfish and had a mouth that ran until the blue moons came up and went down and came up and went down…she was a never ending talker and what she did not know she made up.
But the elders did confess that this child would not be missed if she did not come home. By anyone…and especially by the ruling council. Which is why they had not strongly objected when she sent Etty forth to make contact with the vampire Compton, seduce who she had to get to the Stackhouse mis-begots, quietly remove anyone who got in her way and get back here and report in.
“I thought I was someone when I was made Chancellor. I could picture how very grand it would all be. To live in the Chancellor’s house. Call the elders to me at any given moment. Have them agreeing with my thoughts and deeds. To think I would have all of this to myself,” she laughed hysterically at her own high regard of herself.
Because no one else seemed to hold her in such high esteem. And all of the elders lived here with her. Which was not in her overall best interest.
So, to further her plan without causing suspicion of those living around her, she had made deals and whispered of secrets to those who wanted to be more. Under the cover of deceit, she had taken herself to the Realm of the Cold Moon and made a deal or two there, as well. Her power plays, if they did not come to pass, were going to cost her. Er-erikr was no one’s fool and those who thought he was a simpleton and trusting did not remember the war where most of the fairy godmother clans had been eviscerated and left hanging by their wings with their guts dangling out, the king’s death flies eating what was left of those not yet passed on into the light. The killing field had been horrific. And Er-erikr had refused to let anyone loose their blue flame to cleanse the area and bring an end to their suffering. “Leave them to scream their misery until they pass into The Light,” was all he had said as he turned and walked away.
On still nights, when the two blue moons rose and there was a SouthWestWind by South, she could still hear their screaming with each bite the death fly inflicted. Shuddering, she saw a fairy orb of light advancing before her.
“Chancellor, we heard the ruckus above the stairs. Things echo horribly in the Ancient Room from down here. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Fairly,” she said nodding and looking at the female. “I knew your mother. She was a good and trusted friend.”
“Yes,” the young woman nodded in return.
“I am looking for a scroll. Written in an ancient text.”
“Chancellor,” she began slowly, “When the vaults were purged of anything that could be hinted at as treachery by the godmothers, those writing were returned to the clans in which the language of the scroll was written. It was up to them to keep them or destroy them.”
“But what if it was just a scroll…and would not be seen as a document of treason?”
Fairly shook her head. “I wish you luck then Chancellor in finding it down here. Of course, if you knew the title, if would be present in the King’s library. It could also be cross referenced and found in the clan’s library in the language it was written.”
What wondrous words! This child could be her savior! She would not dance about in glee! Victory could still be hers. Astonishing thoughts flashed through her mind. “This could work, get this one to shit on herself for me,” she smiled to herself as her focus went to the painting that was on the ceiling and then she brought her attention back to…to…Fairly was gone. “Well harpy shit,” she kicked at another basket of scrolls. “Apparently I am not nearly as clever as I thought I was. If she can see through me…I won’t be able to try that on anyone else.”
Fairly made her way back up the stairs. She was a nobody in the overall scheme of things. Her mother had told her to keep it that way. “Draw no attention to yourself! Be simple but no fool!”
The Chancellor would not push her for such information, again, after her disappearing act. “Yes,” she kept her aura light and soft as she floated back to her task of sewing small things for the newest of the new that would soon be born. “I am a nobody. But my mother was a righteous female who was told she would shoulder the blame if the war failed. That it was her sacred duty to die so the Chancellor, the head of the clans, the plotters, and achievers might live to avenge the deaths of the ones that fell.”
Growing up in the Chancellor’s House, her mother had told her to look for the light of truth that could be shined by a pure heart in all the dark corners! And in those dark corners you could see betrayal, greed, and grasping hunger to rule all. Her mother had died so that the Chancellor could live and continue to plot!
“You whore! You liar! You lazy selfish piece of harpy shit! I hope The Light chews you up and spits you into a never ending waste land where you spend your eternity with your guts hanging out, being tormented by the King’s death flies!”
“Calm yourself,” she said as she breathed in and out. Now was not the time. She had to pass through the main hall to get back to her work. This is where everyone gathered to gossip, smirk and dance from time-to-time to celebrate whatever plot they had fantasized about. The last dance she had skirted by was obviously a coronation ceremony with twenty-six of them crowning themselves as rulers.
“Harpy shit eaters,” she thought as she approached the room. “Gladly I would go to the king, but the second I step out of this building, I am under a geas so that I cannot discuss with anyone in the Realm of the Two Blue Moons what goes on here.”
Climbing the stairs, ahead was the entrance to the main hall. As she stepped up to the doorway, the light show started. There was the sizzle and pop and effervescence bubbles of someone coming in at a high rate of speed! And they were in such distress that their vibration disturbed the air currents as they sucked the maelstrom of off-world travel in with them! The last time she had seen this was when those that had survived the war had come fleeing back to their place sanctuary.
There was the overpowering stench of fae shit mixed with fear! The portal was opening and looking into it, you could see the tunnel that had been formed! And the fae that was riding it, her light pulsing to the beat of the portal as it pushed her forward and then vomited her out against the far back wall!
“It is not my fault!” Etty screamed. “No one told me the king had a son! I was told that he died at birth! And you sent me there. To meet my death at the hands of this abomination! He lives!” she bellowed out, beating her hands against her chest. “He lives and he loves…” she gagged, throwing up glitter, some type of alcohol and what appeared to be a tube of meat.
“You old ones sent my to my death,” she sobbed. “I am known as a traitor! The king of the dragon’s was present and he has marked me with his dragon mind and I shall be cursed to wander the Frozen Mountains of Endless Dreams while he laughs at me and makes merry with my remains! I shall be violated by a dragon!” she wept and then screamed so that it penetrated every room so that she now was a true spectacle and had the attention of everyone in the manse.
Pearl walked in and the crowd all took a step back but no one was leaving. And miss this…this was spectacular!
“Etty,” she walked over to the young one that had her back against the wall. “Whatever has happened?”
“Compton is grave rot dead…” she whimpered. “No longer completely vampire…and he has a whiff of death about him and a whiff of fae. You dosed him with something and he walks and talks and he carries something of my home world. And…and…” she sniffled, “The crown prince lives! You told me he died at birth,” she sobbed. “My mother won the lottery before I was even born and I was to be the crown prince’s wife. She was promised this! You all swore to abide by the lottery. I should be queen and instead I am now just meat to be ground up by the king of the dragon’s. He was there,” she stood up and beat her fists in the air. “He was there,” she was yelling, “with the crown prince and he lives and he loves and I am dragon meat and not queen!
You,” she took a step toward the chancellor, “all of you, I am your rightful queen. Kneel and swear fealty to me or I will sit with the king and demand to marry his…”
“End her,” was whispered by the elders, Pearl’s voice the loudest.
It took the chancellor and all the elders uniting their tiniest bits of sparks of blue flames to vaporize Etty and to turn her to glitter.
There was the roar of the wind and they all watched as the windows opened and the last speck of her was blown out and up into the trees where Etty would provide sparkle for the dying Winthrope tree. When the windows closed, they all turned and went back to their discussions as if nothing had happened.
Fairly continued on her journey to her workroom. She had small clothes to be made.
Leaving the main hall, she glanced back over her shoulder. Etty might have been a worthless piece of harpy shit who had insulted her with every given chance, but on my! Because of her haste, she had left a path of fairy shit that lined a portal! One that could be followed back to earth!
Sookie watched as O.I. introduced his family members to Gran, Lafayette, and Tara. They each now had a dragon buddy to keep them safe and provide company if needed.
“Well, we will be goin’ now,” Tara hugged Sookie. “You and Eric have things to discuss and I am gonna get to know my newest friend.”
There were more hugs and kisses as they went out the door and Gran took herself off to bed, chatting away with her new dragon friend, M.E.
“All alone now,” Sookie smiled at him, “Prince Sookiehawk. Just how funny did you find all this when you met me?”
“I was not amused,” Eric replied as they sat down on the couch in front of the fire. “My grandmother always told me that my fate was the path I walked. When I was young, I had no idea what that meant. Now that I am a bit older,” he grimaced, “I know it means that the path I walk is my fate. I do not always understand it nor do I always like it. But one night, you walked into my bar and my life and my expectations have not been the same.”
“Your expectations?”
“My prospects, outlooks, and opportunities just transformed into something magnificent. I was golden!”
“Because my name is Sookie?” she shook her head at him.
“Yes,” he nodded. “It is considered extreme good luck within the fae to have met a Sookie. There are not many fae left living who can make that boast. And there I sat upon my vampire throne,” he rolled his eyes, “in a fangbanger bar and in walks a human who has parents with the audacity and sheer force of will to name their daughter Sookie. It was all I could do to keep from crowing. I, Eric Northman, Erikr Sookiehawk, talking to a Sookie. A human female named Sookie…I was flabbergasted and was wondering when I would be crowned king of the entire fucking world.”
“No-o-o-o-o-o,” she shook her head and laughed.
“Yes,” he nodded. “It is that big of a deal. And true to your namesake, you are all those things. I did not know it at the time, but I think you are probably more deadly than Sookie the First.”
“Okay,” she laughed again. “That has got to be blasphemy. Should I be concerned that a portal is gonna’ open up and strike us dead with blue lightnin’?”
“Mo’ fo’n,” O.I. fluttered up off her wrist. “A portal did just open up…or maybe was not completely closed.” His head did a complete 360 degree turn. His nose tracking something on the wind.
“We are gonn’a have us some company. A fairy godmother is inbound.”
Eric glared and then looked resigned. “I was hoping against hope that we were going to get past the Sookie the First business and get down to Sookie and Eric business,” he pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed her there, once, twice, thrice.
“You want to get laid?” she winked at him as O.I. fluttered over to the front door and opened it.
“Well,” he sighed, “I was hoping to at least get around to the ground work for that tonight.”
“Sweet talkin’ and hand holdin’ huh?” her smile got bigger. “You are very good at that and I like it. I was hopin’ for maybe somethin’ a bit more.”
“Well,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her, “and maybe some frontal rubbing.”
“Dam-m-m-n,” she sighed. “I have the visual of that now…” she looked down Eric’s body and back up, the fingers on her right hand reached for him… “and well…al I got is just dam-m-m-m-n!”
“Incomin’,” O.I. said as they both now stepped over to the door and arrived in time to see the lights shimmer and a young woman step out of the vortex and into the yard.
“I am Fairly Winthrope, King of the Dragons,” she said kneeling to the ground and dropping down to all fours, her face inches from the dirt. “Am I in the Realm of the Cold Moon?”
“I knows who you are Winthrope child of a sterile, dead house,” O.I. responded, “I recognizes that smell. And yes, you are abiding in the Realm of the Cold Moon. What brings you here is a cold path to a portal and you managed to walk it. How is this so?”
“Etty was on fire with blue sparks when she blasted through, spinning in on a vortex. She could not stop until she hit a wall in the main hall of the Chancellor’s house.
I, I left the manse and walked the path until I found the first point of contact that the portal made. It had scorched itself into the rocks and was fading even as I picked up my skirts and I followed the path that was still glowing with magic and mayhem and music.
I have news, o’ king of the dragons, and I took this opportunity to deliver it.”
“King of the dragons!” he hooted. “How do you knows that? You knows me personally? I don’t know yous! I do recognizes the traitorous smell of your mother, though.
And here you are, walkin’ unmarked and unsanctified portals to earth which can dumps you at the site of mo’ fo’n traitors and eaters of harpy shit.
Maybe you will be a small snack to sanctify the harpy shit I just ate.”
“You are O.I., king of the dragons,” she took a deep breath and kept her eyes on the ground, “and you do not eat harpy shit. You sit council with our king and he would not allow this, to have your breath so badly tainted and sit in his company.
And I know it is you because Etty said that you were here. And that the crown prince was here. That he had not died at birth and that he lived and that she had just talked with him and you, your majesty. So you could be no one else.”
Eric stepped down off the porch and walked toward the kneeling fae.
Looking over at O.I. the dragon just shrugged.
“A traitorous house abides here. Does her daughter walk the same path?” Eric asked.
“My mother was not a traitor,” she sobbed. “She did nothing to harm the crown prince’s mother. She held our king strong and true in her heart. She loved her queen.”
“Really?” the dragon snorted. “The Light knows the truth of your heart because your family tree dies,” O.I. responded.
“That is not the light killing it,” she sobbed through her tears. “They poison it. The Elders poison it,” she was now weeping her head resting on her hands that were clenching fists-full of dirt.
“And why does no one speak of this?” the dragon asked.
“Because we are all under a geas once we leave the manor.”
“Not possible,” O.I. responded.
“Don’t you dare call me a liar,” she shouted and stood, “or my mother a traitor! Do you see this?” she pulled up her sleeve. “They burned the spell into me. They burned it in with dragon heated iron and rock salt. Into all of us that live there!”
“Mother…fucker…” O.I., Eric, and Sookie all three said at the same time as they saw the symbols that pulsed and burned white hot upon her arm and imbedded, like a spider web, under her skin.
With a gasp she looked up at Eric and fell once more onto all fours. “My king,” she was sobbing again this time with her face in the dirt. “Please, justice and mercy and a kind word for my mother. Please, so that she may find her way into The Light.”
“Please get up,” Eric said bending and offering her his hand. “Please. I am not your king and you do not bow before me.”
Raising her head she looked up into the face that was peering into hers. “Not my king,” she nodded in understanding. “The crown prince.”
“Here in the Realm of the Cold Moon, I am Er-erikr Sookiehawk’s son,” he answered. “I am not a crown prince or a prince or fae. I am Eric Northman and you may call me as such.”
“My…my prince…she began, confusion in her voice.
“Do not…”Eric replied as he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. “Now, you come bearing news. O.I. make the land bridge happen. I think your king needs to hear this.
Sookie do you mind if my father walks here?”
“No, of course not,” she answered.
“Mo’ fo’n, bringing in justice I am,” the dragon replied with a nod of his head. Blowing his flame out into the night sky, the king of the dragon’s set his name blazing in the stars, through the void and all the way into the library of the king of the fae.
Er-erikr looked up from the scroll he was reading. “O.I.?” he said as he looked out into the earth’s night.
“You are needed my king,” he said with a deep bow. “I have opened the portal, please step across. Miss Stackhouse has invited you onto her land.”
“On my way,” he said laying down the scroll. Standing he took a step forward and then Sookie was looking at Eric’s father. He could not possibly be anyone else. There was an age difference, but not much of one. “Please,” Sookie said opening the screen door. “Won’t you please come in. I believe we would all be more comfortable inside.”
“Miss Stackhouse,” the king of the fae said as he approached her and started up the steps. “I have heard much about you. I thank you for your hospitality,” he bowed his head to her and raised her hand to his lips for a kiss.
“Much about me?” she mouthed to Eric.
Giving her a big grin and a boyish shrug, Eric just smiled at her.
O.I. followed his king in, then came Fairly with Eric bringing up the rear. Taking a look back, he could see M.E., the dragon that was to guard Adele, riding the night sky above the house. Eric gave him a salute, the dragon did a loop-de-loop in acknowledgement and Eric went inside and closed the door.
“My king,” Fairly squeaked out as she was once more down on all fours.
“Please get up,” Er-erikr answered. “We are not at war. O.I. has called me here, so clearly all safety protocols have been met.”
“I…” she raised her head. “I was taught at the Chancellor’s house that if I were to ever meet you, I was to grovel at your feet. That this is expected by you.”
“Harpy shit,” the king answered as he sat down heavily in a chair. “Please, get up,” he said again. “This is expected from captured traitors, not subjects.”
“Thank you my king,” she said rising and then sat meekly on the floor.
“I know you,” he said regarding her. “I know your family look.”
“Winthrope,” O.I. added to the conversation. “Hers is an interestin’ tale.”
“I am listening,” Er-erkir replied as he settled back into his chair.
“My mother was told to take the blame for the rising of the war. The Chancellor and Council of Elders placed this burden upon her. By doing this they told her that she would save lives and that those that lived would take their revenge for her death and those that died honorably on the field of battle with her.” Shifting about, she held her hand above her arm, trying to lessen the pain with her aura. “I have not much time now that I am here. The spell of silence and homebound that they have placed me under is beginning to spread. I can feel it eating away at my arm. I hope to finish before the spell destroys me.”
“What spell?” the king asked.
“This one,” she replied, pulling up her sleeve.
“By all that is unholy,” he said rising and then kneeled down beside her, “who did this to you?”
“If you live in the manse, when you are young a witch is brought in and the spell is placed. You many not speak of what happens in the manor and you may not leave the manor grounds. If you do, the spell activates and spreads through your body. You can see it beginning to work its way out from the runes and down my arm.”
O.I. fluttered over. “Tis true, my king, it was just the spell when she arrived. Fierce lookin’ and nasty with the phlegm seepin’ from it of what could only be a harpy. This…this is eatin’ her flesh.”
“Can you stay this tide, O.I.?” The king asked.
“No,” Fairly looked at O.I. “He cannot. Do you see the rune for dragon, there at the end of the spell? For a dragon to interact with it, it accelerates the poison.”
“Fucking Were shit,” Eric hissed. “Sookie, no time for niceties, I fear, and this is exactly what I did not want for you. See, fae shit here at your door and I am so sorry for what I am going to do.” He took her lovely, trusting face in his hands. “I am going to offer to Fairly what I have not yet offered you, my blood. I do not see that this is anyway appropriate, especially to do this in front of you.” Kissing her on the forehead, he turned to the victim on the floor. Eric opened a vein in his wrist.
“Dragon,” his father said pointing at him.
“Not a full-fledged fae dragon,” Eric responded. “And I am a Halfling to boot. Either way she is dying. Drink,” was all he said as he pulled the fae to her feet. “It may heal you but I do not know what it will do to your psyche. Humans have dreams about me.”
In her eyes were fear and pain.
“Do you want a chance at living?” Eric asked her.
“Yes,” she nodded.
“Then drink,” he said again as he pushed his wrist toward her face.
Taking it in her two hands, she brought it to her lips and sucked once, twice, thrice. Eric broke off the contact and took a step back as he watched her arm carefully.
“It has stopped spreading and is no longer oozing pus. Nor is the burn as angry looking. For now, we shall call this a win. Sit down and get started with your story.”
Nodding her head, she sat in the chair Eric pushed toward her.
“I shall begin with how I got here and work my way back.” Her past unfolded as she told about Etty burning her way through the void and crashing into the main hall.
They all listened as she recalled the earlier hours of her life and the information Etty had set loose into the fae universe.
“You died at birth,” his father laughed as he pointed to Eric. “Really!” he hooted. “Yes, well, that would explain how you did not sink my long boat.”
Eric growled at his father before he broke into a grin. “I was six and already an expert sailor,” he told the crowd. “Well, until they found me snagged out on the rocks, with his boat taking on water and I was resigned to go down with my ship.
Especially after I saw your face swimming out to get me. Believe me, I was wishing I was dead.”
“What happened then?” Sookie asked. “Did you get a spankin’?”
“I would have preferred that. My mother cried all afternoon and well into the night about how her son had broken faith with her and ventured out on his own into the deep.
If it were not for the fact that I am talking about my mother, I would roll my eyes. Into the deep…” and Eric did roll his eyes, “…at low tide I could walk across that inlet that faced our village.
I hit the rocks that formed the jetty…”
“On his way out to open sea,” his father added.
Eric scowled at him. “Because my dogs had sounded the alarm that I had left them behind. When I looked back to quiet them…well…there was a gust of wind and there I went.”
“What happened next?” Fairly asked, leaning in and listening intently.
“I was sent to study with old Dodge. He built longboats. He thought I was still a bit young. My father said if I was old enough to put a hole in one, I was old enough to know how to repair one.”
Er-erikr laughed out loud. “One of my very best decisions. You had an aptitude for working the wood. Dodge said you did some of the finest work he had ever seen.”
“I loved what I did,” Eric replied softly.
“Yes, your passion guides your hands and heart,” the older man said with pride. “Your mother said that about you. That when all else would fail you, love would be your touchstone. She was right. When it came to you my son, your mother was always right.”
“And the godmothers, thanks to Etty, apparently know that I still love,” Eric sighed and closed his eyes. “This cannot be good.” Eric was looking around the room. Here sat three fae that resided in the Realm of the Two Blue Moons. Harpy shit had just rained down on Sookie’s house and very possibly would continue to do so…at a moment’s notice. The fae knew where she lived. And now the crown prince of the fae knew where she lived. Who was going to mix that knowledge into some type of anti-love spell and spread it around the universe! He was going to have to take her to the moon to get any time alone with her now, let alone sweet alone time!
However there was a bright side to this…Eric chuckled and quoted Fairly who had quoted some of Etty’s last words. “Compton is grave rot dead. No longer completely vampire…and he has a whiff of death about him and a whiff of fae. You dosed him with something and he walks and talks and he carries something of my home world.”
Eric was looking around the crowd. “Just what the fuck goes on in the Realm of the Two Blue Moons? How is any of this possible? I am overjoyed by the fact that I get to kill Compton, again, but just what I going to be up against? He has a whiff of fae about him and is dosed with something that re-animates him. I staked him through the heart…however…I was gone before he turned to goo. That could have been a mistake on my part. One that I look forward to correcting. Just a shame I don’t have a parting shot at Etty.”
Sookie was listening to all of this and was happy that she had not been personally involved in any of it until now. “Yeah….Etty,” she was looking out at the group of fae gathered in her living room. “Etty’s mother won the lottery to be the crown prince’s wife before she was even born. She was promised and they all swore to abide by the lottery so that she could be queen. That is some grandiose dreaming. How could you even arrange that?” she asked.
“Kills the king, steals the crown prince as a babe and sets yourselfs up as guardian,” O.I. said cleaning under his nails. “Cans, had, has, been dones.”
“Really?” Sookie’s voice held horror.
“Madness, mayhem and murder,” Eric gave her a tight lipped grin. “The big three. Ain’t we got fun…”
“Sookie,” the king began, his voice steady. “It is not always like that.”
“Sookie!” Fairly squeaked and curled up into a ball in her chair. “Sookie,” she sobbed. “I am not worthy to die at her hands. Truly,” she was crying, “I am not a traitor my king! I have not been sent here by some ruse of insanity! Please, do not let her end me. Take your sword and run me through now.
Please spare me your anger and your killing rage,” she wept, her eyes now on Sookie. “Our house is not one of traitors! Please….I would like to die honorably and with one swift killing stoke!”
“I am not gonna’ kill you, please,” Sookie went over to her. “Please, here let’s straighten you out. Now there,” she pulled and tugged. “You look a lot more comfortable sittin’ like that then curled up in that tiny ball.”
“Thank you,” she sniffled as she scooted all the way back, her eyes watching everything Sookie did.
“I had not counted on that,” Eric’s voice was gruff. “What their reaction to you would be?”
“Eric, if someone hears my name and screams in fright, this is not the worst thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Sookie, this…” he pointed at Fairly, “…is sane. Wait until insanity shows up.”
All she could do was shrug.
Kissing her hands and absorbing her warmth, his attention was back on his father. “Really?” Eric rolled his eyes. “Here is how you non intervention works. The newest: The chancellor and the all the elders united their tiniest bits of sparks of blue flames and murdered Etty. I wonder how many more have gone missing?” Eric mused. “In far more creative ways,” he sounded disgusted. “Clearly, the records keepers in the clans need to be dosed with some dragon fire and rock salt. If they cannot tell the truth, let the living shits take them. Oh, but that’s right. You are Mr. Non Interference by their king. What kind of fucked up shit is that and can you unfuck yourself from it?”
Er-erkr made a face at Eric and placed all four fingers on top of his thumb.
Eric flipped him the bird, both hands.
“Come on you two,” Sookie was shaking her head, her voice stern. “Eric you flippin’ off your father was not nice and solves nothin’.”
“What he did, that was a rather elegant gesture, don’t you think?” Eric smiled sweetly, “In fae, he called me a cunt.”
“Both of you, that is just nasty,” Sookie directed her shame on you look at Er-erikr and then Eric while shaking her head. “Just stop it,” she said looking from father to son. “Both of you…”
“Yes Miss Sookie,” they both said in very small, contrite voices.
“Better. Now,” her voice was all business. “What is drivin’ all of this?” she asked. “Are they lookin’ for somethin’? Fairly, you are livin’ there, have you noticed anythin’?”
“Oh yes,” she nodded. “The Chancellor was in the bowels of the manse looking for a document. I was in the Ancient Reading Room. These two rooms are somehow tied together so that whatever is said in what used to be our library, can be heard there as well.
There was no mistaking the Chancellor. She was fussing and fuming and talking to herself while she was looking for a scroll in its original dragon font and format. She was complaining about why would you write that treatise in dragon on a scroll?
She also wanted the original Alphabet of Spells in dragon text. That is where I found her, cursing and kicking over books.”
“Mo’ fo’n,” O.I. exclaimed. “I cans sees the charm of wantin’ to read the Alphabet of Spells in dragon but any library in the Realm has a copy.”
“What treatise was written in dragon on a scroll?” Er-erikr voiced out loud. “No treatises are ever written on a scroll.”
“Maybe internal,” Eric mused. “But why would they write it in dragon? Why not fae go mo speak? And why are these documents so hard to find? They should be shelved…” Eric’s voice trailed off when he saw Fairly’s face.
“There are blackened rings on the floor where there were great fires. No shelves remain. Baskets and boxes now just sit on the stonework. Along with stacks of books. This place of knowledge is now a trash heap. Cast offs, odd bits of this and that are just tossed in. The Keepers of Knowledge in our house…” pausing she was lost in thought. “They…”
“Just disappeared?” Eric asked.
“I have not seen any of them in an age. My mother worked there and I grew up sorting through the stacks. I was the closest thing to an apprentice they ever had and…and…I went down one day to help and the doors were closed and locked. And stayed that way until after the war. When the doors were opened, the library was no more.”
“And now the chancellor is searching for something,” Er-erikr sighed.
“Those libraries goes back to the beginning and a bit,” O.I. said with surety. “Some further than that. If they had promised out the crown prince, that is now not workin’ and maybe turnin’ on them. So maybe they is lookin’ for a baby momma for the king.”
“I cannot have another child,” he said to O.I.
The dragon merely shrugged. “You would nots have to. Plenty of fertile young bucks out there to do the job for you.”
“I would not marry,” his voice went up in volume.
“You do nots have to be agreein’ to the words. But if the clans wants an heir, the clans would clamor for your vows or your bloods. Once the new queen was carryin’, no one would cares about what you think because you would be deads and she would be the regent until the babe came of age…if it came of age.”
Er-erikr looked at Eric.
“Not a king, only a Halfling,” he winked at his father and bowed his head while making a flourish with his hand. “That is all on you…” he smiled and then his face was lost in remembering.
“Oh harpy shit and wolfbane growls, I see the plot, me thinks it howls…” Eric said and sat back in his chair a pleased look on his face.
“What?” Sookie asked.
“A line from a play. The author is a Stewart. It is a Scottish tragedy that my mother would read to me when I was a boy. Madness, mayhem, murder, intrigue. The king; those that wanted to be king. Secret codes. Secret tunnels.
The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he sighed.
“Fairly, do the god mothers speak or read dragon?”
“No,” she shook her head vigorously . “I mean, no offense king of the dragons, but it is impossible to read and even harder to pronounce. Since dragons only speak it among themselves, there is no way of knowing what it sounds like. I have always wanted to learn but there is no one left in the manse to teach me. I was told they all died in the war.”
“Of course they did,” Eric sighed. “Because those that record the secrets never live to tell the tale. So the librarians draw up a document writing it in dragon so just not anyone can come along and read it. And this document could be a mixture of things. A spell, a reference piece to another text hidden in another library, a list of the king’s weaknesses, a list of the king’s strengths. Perhaps even a list of how to take down the king.
So, start with his family. All knows he gave his heart to a Halfling and produced an heir.
So the godmothers decided to kill the queen and lie about the heir and bide their time. They knew their king could not reproduce with another fae because of his love for his wife. But they now have options. And time. Maybe another Halfling would come along that would capture his manhood if not his heart. And if the heir from this mating was not part Sookiehawk, what of it? The king would never admit to being a cuckold and the child could be molded if both of the parents were dead.
This is a good plan. Who would suspect them? After all, the traitors came from their house. They would never pull such a move, again. So the godmothers continue to bless babes and move about the realm unchecked.
Time rolls by and their wishes fall into place.
They find a new bride for the king. And what a bride she is….because she is not just any Halfling. She is a Sookie. A name that is sacred to the fae and now there is a Halfling with this name that has been born on earth.”
“Mo’ fo’n,” O.I. said nodding his head. “Just like there was a plan. Godmothers whisperin’ in ears while the good folks of the Cold Moon are sleepin’.”
“I honestly did not see that coming,” Er-erikr growled.
“Non interference,” was all Eric said.
“Erikr, I cannot just…just…”
“What? Kill at will? That father, is the difference between you and me. I trust no one and act on that.”
“You sound just like your grandmother,” he glared at his son.
“A wiser woman has never lived since her death,” Eric countered.
Er-erikr squared his shoulders. His voice sterm. “I cannot turn our realm into ash chasing those that would do me harm.”
“Well, if you had charred that sacred ground while mother was dying instead of centuries after her death, you might have made your point on a grander scale,” and you could hear the anger in Eric’s voice.
“You do not rule,” his voice was tinged with anger and tears.
“You are correct,” was all Eric said and continued on. “This plot, it is a good one. It verges on being manic brilliant. The godmothers are counting on the fact that she is a Sookie and this would appeal to the king’s ego. He might choke on the vows, but all in the realm would sing his praises that day for marrying and then crowning a Sookie for his queen. Their queen. The clans would walk with them and carry torches to their bower and applaud when the curtains were drawn and lights lowered to announce that the mating ritual had begun. As for the child from this union…and there would be one…they would not care who the father was. Their Queen Sookie would give them an heir. Only the godmothers would know if she birthed it or not.
This would be prophecy fulfilled.”
“Mo fo’n,” O.I. laughed in glee. “I cans see it. All kinds of prophecy of this and that’s now floating around in my head waitin’ to be penned. How the Realm of the Two Blue Moons has a Sookie for a queen and we is all fartin’ and shittin’ the dust of the blue moons and havin’ it with our daily porridge so that we cans all have a blue flame! Mo—o-o-o-o-o, fo’n! This is the stuff that the druggies and the squatters and the shitters on life, these are the prophecy’s they has been waitin’ for. Knowin’ in their hearts that they existed…just lost…and now they are found.”
“I can see it only too clearly,” the king was irate! “Because the godmothers had them written down and stashed somewhere, not in their own vaults, of course, because those documents are just food for paper lice now, but they are somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.”
“Oh shit,” Sookie breathed out. “Someone can now rewrite the laws.”
“See what happens when you practice non-interference,” Eric shook his finger at his father. “The squatters and shitters on life…”
“And the druggies,” O.I. spoke up. “Don’t’ be forgettin’ them.”
“Oh yes, let’s not,” Eric hissed, “they are going to be in charge. O.I., get ready to be a dragon bird. They are going to chain your ass and demand that you shit dragon gold all day long.
My Queen,” Eric bowed to Sookie. “Bride of my father. Welcome to the insanity.”
“Mo fo’n,” Er-erikr, king of the fae and ruler of the Realm of the Two Blue Moons said.
“What was that?” Eric asked pointedly. “Did I hear truth come from your lips?”
“Miss Sookie,” the king sighed, “welcome to the insanity.”
Dear Readers,
Mistakes abound, I am sure. But I wanted to get this posted.
As always, thanks for reading!
Be blessed and be the blessing,
CES