The Fairy King and his Cursed Queen ✔

13 | YOUR END

I searched myself but found few desires. Before now, there had been but two—serve Manoj, attack the queen's new lover. It was a simplistic form of thinking but effective as both went hand in hand.

A fairy queen would arise, find loathing and contempt for me, choose a strong king as a lover—be it human or magical—then mobilize their army to bring me down.

Each and every time, I'd slaughtered said armies, gathered the souls fresh from battle, and bestowed them to Manoj.

And this happened again and again. At first, as the world was young and resources limited, it was merely me fighting each battle. Alone on the field, zipping past everyone, literally ripping through opponents with my speed. But then humans discovered projectiles beyond arrows and had even more men at the ready.

Therefore, I reveled in gathering a few magical races to me. The elves were very efficient. Goblins were expert diggers, and their plentiful children could suck the blood and magic from anyone.

In this incantation, I'd slain several griffins, but they'd originally started on my side until I betrayed them for convenience's sake.

My armies were probably the biggest victims in all battle because they did not know that the fallen on my end, just as the fallen on the other, would also end up feeding Manoj in my cull. I made no distinction. And every double cross meant nothing, because I'd done it all...for Manoj.

Despite standing before this broken wall, memories flooded me. There'd be gaps, I knew, but they came hard and fast and that was because of the symbol before me—it was me—the fairy king, returned here over a year ago. The time marker was undisturbed, as was the symbol for my being.

One year ago, almost to the day, I, the fairy king, came to this wall and purposely stood here for one entire day. And now I knew why. I had done the very thing I do now, used this wall to remember the past. Perhaps I was searching for something—something I needed.

Simply gazing at the stone unlocked the magic to me alone. Even the fates who weave the text could not unweave or access it. This was magic meant for me—solely for me. And ogres had destroyed it—solely to slight me.

One thing was confusing. Ogres were rather unsophisticated in their movements and actions. Few things were meticulous or detailed about them, and yet, as I moved from the earlier historical parts of the wall to the ruin of the current, flashes of images came with it and they...were in sequence.

They shouldn't have been. This thin pillar spoke of six months ago. Then one month prior, then a week. And yet...the sequence fit.

I did not believe that.

"Reckon ogre magic can restore it," the goblin attested. The big purple eyes looked up at me. "As ogre treasure can grant any wish."

Not every wish. It could not destroy the tree of life. It could not revive or kill fairy kings and queens and that was because of this blasted wall. An anchor in time that refused all manipulations.

My feet took me to the final pillar and the image of the massive ogre that flashed before me, smirking.

This was still magic—my magic. Rage seeped into my gut and threatened to break me in two.

I reached out a hand to touch the stone but the goblin wisely stopped me. "Oh-ha! Sir, you'd force magic against its will?"

My fingertips stopped mere inches from the stone wall. The yellow and orange of it stood out against the snow.

Force was a thing of humans. Creatures of the forest found already formed structures and took shelter there, be it a cave or a tree. Humans chopped down living trees, upended dormant boulders, ripped out the soil and mixed it with all manner of things, all to build a house where all they did was sleep.