In the Land of Fae ♔ (gxg)

8. breakfast

Bare feet padded slowly against the cold surface of ice.

The silk train of a long, white dress dragged against the ice as she walked. All eyes were on her, all filled with that mixture of fear and respect, the mixture that gave all the power that one could ever need.

Eira had spent eighteen years drilling that look into the eyes of ice fae and her soldiers. They filled up the entire room made completely of ice tinted a bluish white, except for where they parted at the very middle to give space for their Queen to walk.

And so she walked. She walked elegantly and pridefully, hands clasped at her waist. Her silver crown of diamonds and sapphires twinkled in the eyes of the ice fae as she stepped up the few steps made of ice at the front of the room, to the higher section of flooring where her ice throne sat. Her wings, large and white with light blue tips, twirled on the floor behind her as she turned in front of her throne, blank eyes staring straight ahead as she took a slow seat.

Behind her sauntered Praen, her young servant of sorts who had taken a liking to the Queen and worked his way up through the ice peasantry to become her highest ranking servant, always at her side. He was a tall, thin young man with silky blonde hair that parted in the middle, bangs swooping on either side of his face. Though he was svelte, his shoulders were broad and strong under his white tunic that skirted at thick black stockings revealing muscular calves. All the girls in the kingdom fawned over him, and he reveled in their lustrous endeavors, but he always held a special adoration for Eira in his heart.

He walked, hands folded at his lower back, his bright lips set in a smirk over his sharp jaw. His eyes were a dark blue that looked nearly black under the shadow of his thick eyelashes. His hooded lids closed and opened again as he eyed the peasants who stared at Eira and him with fear. He came up and stood to the side of her, taking a few steps back to make sure his Queen had the full spotlight.

The entire room was dead silent. Not one fae spoke, or move, or even twitched their white wings. Rows and rows of blue and white eyes of all different shades trained on their Queen. They waited with their breaths held and backs straight.

Her platinum blonde hair rested at her bosom as she slowly lifted her chin, pale blue eyes with trails of white filled with nothing but pure evil. Her lips stayed pursed for a few moments, her wings sitting erect as everyone in the room anticipated and feared her words.

Then came that ringing voice echoing off the walls of the ice castle, that voice which spoke nothing but hatred and murder. "As your Queen, I am to always inform you of my plans for action. Honesty and integrity is what holds a fortress upright."

Children fae hid behind their parents at the sound of Queen Eira's voice. There was a bit of nervous shifting, but the room fell silent again.

"So here are my plans," she continued, voice eerily calm and slowly spoken. Her words that came next brought a wave of fear and sadness over the ice fae whom wanted nothing but peace and unity but could not achieve such a thing under a tyrant like her. Queen Eira opened her lips, and out came her hissing voice declaring, "We will find the other fae who are holding the girl ransom. We will find them, and we will kill every single one of them."

Restrained gasps fell over the crowd, and even her most brutal of soldiers all looked to the Queen with wide eyes of disbelief. She had been slowly snuffing out other races of fae for years with her ethnocentric violence, but they never expected the day that she would demand them all to be killed.