A Song of Silence

Chapter 31: Truths in the Dark

My breathing calmed once I had been breathing in the fresh air. The solitude I found here, in this meadow, by the lake was rivaled by very little, even at home. The panic I had felt when I heard how long I had been asleep ebbed as the serenity of this grotto calmed me and allowed me to think. Three weeks was a lot of time. Time I had missed. Time I had lost. In the expanse of my long lifetime, three weeks was nothing, but the true source of my fear was the feeling I had lost.

As fae got older, it became easier for them to become emotionless and cruel and eventually go mad because they had experienced everything. I was an old fae by many standards, and killing fae for a living only chipped away at my sanity little by little. Time lost, either through sleep, or recovering from basilisk venom chipped away at my sanity even more. The true cost of my three weeks of recovery had yet to hit me, but it no doubt would. Part of the cost had already appeared on my skin in the form of a scar, half a foot long that stretched across my stomach. I wasn't ashamed  of my scar. How could I be? I would never cower or fear a mark on my body just because getting it had been bloody. That would be giving whoever gave me that scar power over me. And I refused to give anyone that power.

"I knew I would find you here." A voice says from the shadows. Shit. I know that voice. It sends shivers down my spine and sultry heat to places it shouldn't be. His voice makes me conscious of the thin shift I wear. My undergarments thin and my body practically on display. I don't turn to the sound of his voice and merely give him a vulgar gesture over my shoulder. His midnight laugh skitters up my spine. There crunch of the grass underneath his boots tells me of his increasing proximity to me, "Imagine my surprise when i get a message from the High Healer herself telling me that the famed basilisk killer jumped out a window under her watch." I stay silent and wait for him to continue, "The same basilisk killer that I learn has been able to speak this entire time." His boots finally stop behind me. Less than a foot lays between us as I tense up, waiting for his next words. "What? Suddenly speechless?" His voice mocks me, "Not surprising considering you have been lying to everyone around you about this secret and many others."

I merely huff a laugh at his poor attempt to rile me. I rarely speak, Your Highness. You are lucky you even heard it at all.

"And why is that?" An edge to his voice.

That was the first time I have spoken in over 50 years. I only speak when words are necessary. Otherwise my silence or sign language is enough to convey what I wish to say.

"And what was so important about this instance that was worthy of your precious words?"

If I had not told Karasi to shoot. Everyone would have died in that arena. Because of you.

This sobers him. He huffs and sits next to me in the cool grass. "The basilisk was containable. I would have contained it after the ladies had been proven unworthy in the eyes of the court. I would have then stepped in and contained it."

Someone would have died before you stepped in, Your Highness and that is something I will always condone.

He huffs again and runs his face, "I just want this farce of a competition to cease. I am done with ladies being paraded in front of me in the hopes that I will choose them as a wife."

Your the High King. Can't you just do whatever the fuck you want.

"I wish. Im old, even by fae standards. The nobles are already unhappy that I haven't married and popped out an heir."

So just have an heir with one of your many mistresses. That'll solve the problem.

"You really think so little of me?" He says with exasperation.