|
Each looked at each other uncomfortably. Did it have
to be this way? Couldn’t they possibly just hide it someone else? What if they
had their best faeries on the job?
They asked these questions over and over in their
head, trying to find some decent refute to their predicament, but every internal
answer was they same…and they knew it would always be the same.
“But who will guard the pendant?” Valeane asked.
A few faeries jumped, forgetting that she, or anyone else, was there in the
room with them. Valeane turned to Fenella who quickly shook her head before
the faeries even opened her mouth to speak.
“I will not allow you to be the guardian, Valeane.
You have shown your sisters courage and adversity far beyond that of anyone
in our history. You are to be praised, not exiled as this person will be,” She
smiled kindly at the Faerie, who nodded quietly and went back to looking down
at her own feet.
“Perhaps we shall give the amulet to some of
the dark faeries? They deserve to be exiled!” A light Faerie mused aloud.
“Yeah, that’s just what we need… another Drentylia!”
scoffed Yelian the fire Faerie, earning her a reproachful from the Faerie queen.
And so the squabbling among the court members commenced, each one proposing
an idea while another shot it down with impatient scorn.
“We could send our best guards form the palace
to protect this thing!”
“And leave the queen unguarded? I think not!”
“What if we simply hid it?”
“They can sense it, you know. Power draws those
who want power. It would look suspicious to have all these faeries guarding
on spot! Not to mention what would happen if we forget where we hid it?!”
“We could give it to a grey Faerie! They have
to be banished anyway, so it’s almost a two for one type of situation!”
“They’re powerless! Those monsters will attack
them in less than five minutes, you can’t be so heartless as to give them bait
and no weapon!”
Fenella ground her teeth together, constantly
feeling the pain of her error. This was all her fault; the city may very well
be destroyed because she didn’t see any of this before! Because she even suggested
and aided in the creation of this abomination! She gave it her blessing and
because of that it was so powerful that I would very destroy those who brought
it into being!
And suddenly she remembered, almost as if a voice
had whispered it into her ear. The dream…the dream that she had…
“You will have to pay a price,” the queen whispered
monotonously to herself. The comment went unnoticed by the squabbling faeries,
but Valeane, who sat next to her, perked up at these words and inched closer.
“Queen Fenella, what are you speaking about?”
She asked, but simple look from Fenella explained it all, and she began to shriek
loudly at the top of her lungs.
“NO! YOU CAN’T! Please don’t! We did this
to save you, and you cannot go and…”
“You did this to save those who are here and
those who are not even here! I am beyond my time and I have made mistakes, which
should be reprimanded for! This was my decision in the first place, and so it
will be my decision to therefore see that I look over it for as long as need
be!” Fenella yelled. The room was deadly silent, the happy giddy music floating
up from below. Little did the faeries, who ate on the levels below, know that
above them a kingdom was falling…
“Oh Fenella, you can’t…”
“Be reasonable…”
“We like that you’re trying to help, but it’s
not conceivable,”
“How is it not?” she asked quietly, regaining
her composure as she stood up. “I alone can control where this item is placed,
and if I command myself to watch it, then the word goes as that way!” Fenella’s
logic was staggering, staggering in the sense that it was right in every way.
The Faeries could not overturn any of her decisions, after all, she was the
queen.
“But you have no heir to take over you! Who will
replace you?!” Yelian yelled; a smell of burning starting to become noticeable
around her.
“I can assign someone, anyone, whom I see fit
to be my replacement. They do not need to be of any lineage or power… it is
who I choose,” Fenella whispered. The elements looked at each other, expecting
one of them to break from the fray and announce that she would be the one chosen,
but instead the queen quietly stood up and surveyed the group.
“I know what you are trying to do, and I thank
you… but many of the things, which have transpired are my fault, and mine alone.
I do not want anyone to be harmed by my ignorance, nor a kingdom to fall because
of my idiocy. I trust you all, you know that... and that is why I ask you… implore
you… to trust me and simply let me to do this!” the queen cried emphatically
to the group. Her speech struck them all as they stared into the face of their
queen, their hero… their friend. How could they say no to such a desperate request
from one who had given them so much? How could they deny the queen, who had
provided so much?
No one answered, but a few Faeries looked down
at the floor, each resigning defeat. It was an odd sight instead to behold as
Fenella reached up into her long blond hair and disentangled the crown from
her flowing locks. Never had such a thing as this transpired in all of Faerie
history… but there are always things, which are the first to be done with every
generation.
The queen walked down the line, focusing on her
replacement. She hoped in her heart that none of them would bore her ill will
when she did not choose them. Suddenly, she stopped in front of the Earth Faerie
who served in her court. The Faerie looked up startled, but in a sort of calm
surprise.
“Fiona…” the former queen said as she placed
the crown onto the Earth Faerie’s head. The Faerie’s wisdom was by far the most
prevalent in the court, possibly even above Fenella’s.
She had kept rational reasoning through the whole
ordeal, and was easily the Faerie most fitting to take up that which Fenella
bequeath to her. Indeed she was one of the rarer Earth faeries in Neopia, for
how many of them had long purple hair as she did?
“…Please, you can still reconsider,” Fiona whispered
silently as she tried to hold back the tears. But Fenella shook her head and
simply mouthed a silent 'please’ to the Faerie
Fiona’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly
ascended the steps and placed herself in Fenella’s throne, surveying the group
with utter depression.
“I, Fiona, queen of all Faeries who dwell on
Neopia and regions beyond, hereby proclaim that former Queen Fenella will be
the caretaker of the amulet. It will be alone her responsibility and, therefore,
for safety of the masses, she will be forbidden to trod near civilization to
keep its whereabouts safe.”
The Light Faerie gave out a cry as she watched
the scene. For the court it was a devastating blow, but to Fenella it was almost
a liberating feeling to being doing what she had to do…
“Fenella, you’ll have to... to pack your things…”
Fiona whispered, trying to block the tears from her eyes. The former queen nodded
and gave a respectful bow, which tore at all the faeries' hearts…
**
Though Fenella owned much, there was nothing that she truly wanted to keep.
The formal gowns would do her no good as she traveled around Neopia, so she
thought it best if she left them there. Her traveling cloak came with her, however,
and became the blind to which she would hide beyond from the rest of the world.
Her hair was far too long to maintain while she
traveled, she decided spontaneously as she began to quickly pack. Fenella fished
around in her drawers until she found a pair of shining silver scissors, adorned
with a Faerie on the side.
Snip…snip…snip. She cut her hair off slowly,
almost transforming herself from the captivating Faerie queen into a mere shadow
that graced Neopia form time to time.
Fiona sat outside Fenella’s room, silently waiting
for her to step out. She felt as if this was an awful nightmare from which she
would wake up, but knew full well that this was something of which even nightmares
are not made of.
“Fenella… you do not really need to follow the
ban. You may come back whenever you choose to,” the Earth Faerie cried as Fenella
appeared from the other side of the room. Quietly she removed the pendant from
the green folds of her dress and pressed it into Fenella’s delicate hands. The
previous queen shook her head and gave a smile to Fiona.
“I cannot, please understand this. But we’ll
meet again someday, I’m sure of it. Please be as kind to others as you were
to me… and mention neither where I am, nor where have I gone. If possible, simply
erase my name from history, for I do not deserve to grace the pages of books
so many years from now…” These were the final words spoken by Fenella inside
the palace that she had lingered in for almost 300 years. Fiona spoke nothing
more as the forgotten queen descended the staircase alone, slipping through
the heavy doors that barred the entrance to the castle, and disappeared into
the storming night sky.
Where was she going? Only time would tell…
***
Fenella heard of the coronation ceremony as she sat in a small inn a few nights
later as she eavesdropped on a rather hushed conversation by a group of Unis
in the corner. It seems that her disappearance contributed to an assignment,
which she had to undertake as part of her duty to the kingdom, and that Fiona’s
place would simply be temporary until Fenella returned.
Nobody ever questioned about Fenella when it
was clearly apparent that Fiona’s position was far from being the temporary
status that she claimed at first…
The former queen was nothing more than a shadow
to both Neopets and Faeries alike. Soon whispers grew of a lost queen whose
history had been removed as punishment for her ways. Others said that she was
simply a rumor, invented by mothers who eagerly wished to tell their children
a story to quell them to sleep at night.
Even Faeries refuted that such a tale was true.
Obviously, if such a queen did exist, then they would have heard or read about
it in the vast collection of books that graced the shelves in the many magical
Faerie academies.
The years passed by in numerous quantities, blending
all together into one large mass of time. Fenella’s own life was extended indefinitely
by the pendant which she guarded, her life merged with that she had spend nearly
ten thousand years with. It was almost ironic that what had ended her life was
increasing it as well. She assumed it was nothing more than an ironic punishment
and dismissed it quickly.
Centuries passed one by one. Fenella lost track
of the days, years, months, everything. She had seen things that the generations
of old could simply dream off, and learned more than even one could possibly
learn if they have lived for eons more than Fenella did. But no one ever asked
of her… and that tore at her heart a bit.
Once in a while Fenella would happen upon a group
of Neopets playing in a field. She would simply smile and watch them from afar,
thinking of her own crushed innocence as she wondered what had become of her
friends, court members, and those that Drentylia had cursed so long ago…
Those thoughts were common with Fenella as she
saw the progression of Fiona’s family, one by one until it reached the current
lineage of Queen Fyora, descendant of the great and wise Queen Fiona. The former
queen even broke her promise once of never returning to the city by sneaking
into the castle to peer upon the coronation of her friend’s granddaughter, wondering
how Fiona and the other court members would act if they too could be there on
that day…
Her thoughts turned to the pendant many times
as she turned it over in her hands on those endless nights. Was there truly
a way to get rid of it? She noticed that when she was near those who were trying
to utilize a weapon in their grasp, their weapon seemed to draw strength from
the amulet. Fenella assumed then that perhaps Faeries, though they could control
the item precisely and without any hesitation, were not alone in their ability
to harness the power of it.
Perhaps it could be used for good and not evil?
Maybe, just maybe, if in the right hands, it could perform tasks, which could
help correct the errors that the queen so rashly created in the first place…
And then it came. It was a day in the Month of
Hiding; she remembered it well. Fenella always loved Mystery Island; it provided
a solace that other placed could not…
She sat alone in the beach, drawing her black
cloak around her as a shield form the rest of the world, flowing across her
like flowing ink. A voice floated across the way and to her ears, but something
about the voice made her actually listen to the conversation…
“Hooray! Here we are!”
“I wish Kuraiiro came…”
“Pfft... she never goes anywhere.”
Why did these voices, of all the ones she heard
in her years call to her? She could not say. Silently she peered over at the
docks upon where there stood a young girl in a red sweater, despite the searing
heat, flanked by a Lupe of what appeared to be a Christmas color… and a rather
young looking green Gelert.
It would be different this time, it would be
done right. She had to try… had to know. She had a confidence in this person,
this unnamed family that she had not had in many nameless decades. Perhaps this
would be it…
It had to start again, she knew, but it would
be done right this time.
And it only had to start with a few steps…
The End
| 
