Eory came to Pollyanna’s side and crossed his arms with a look of distaste in his eyes as he gazed upon the cowering king.
I’d like to see him dead. I’d like to see him shot up with as many arrows as he shot Gershom up with.
Eory thought to himself with seething rage.
“Please let me live. I h-have a wife and children! The kingdom needs me!” Laurence protested as Pollyanna brandished her sword.
Pollyanna put a strong hand on the fairy’s shoulder and she told him, “just give me the order and I’ll cut him down.”
But in a moment, his look of distaste and rage melted into one of repentance and self-loathing.
He looked down at his hands and, even though they had no blood upon them, they were dripping red; all he could hear were the screams of the soldiers he murdered with that abomination he had conjured from the corpse of his dog.
Eory sobbed and said aloud as his feelings of hatred turned into feelings of sadness. “I desecrated his corpse! He’ll never make it to Ashenklein now…” Eory said, recalling the paradise fairies were said to go to when they died.
Pollyanna, whose dress was torn up from the arrows and who was still leaking blood out of many of the wounds from the arrows, wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulder and brought him close. “You made him stronger. Stronger is better.”
Eory took a moment to try and process all of his emotions, and then he was finally able to look upon the king again with shaking hands and a shuddering breath.
Just kill him! It’d be so easy!
The woman dared him.
Eory clenched his fists and bit his lip until it bled, but he managed to resist the temptation.
He fell on one knee before the king and said, “King Laurence, my life is in your hands. Choose whatever punishment you find suitable enough for me.”
Laurence was stunned. He looked down upon the fairy with confusion mixed with revulsion. The king snarled and unsheathed his blade. “This is the only punishment suitable enough for you and your wretched family!”
Eory screwed his eyes shut and whispered to Pollyanna, “I’m sorry…”
Pollyanna felt no rage toward the fairy, to her surprise, and only rage and panic toward King Laurence as he held his blade high. She wanted to leap at him—she wanted to cut his throat—but the magic potion coursing through her veins would not allow it.
Laurence swung the blade down but stopped as Kori shrieked, “put that blade down!”
She dashed in front of Eory protectively—her arms wrapped around his neck—and glared at the king. “You lied to me! You promised me Eory would be spared! Now you see where your lies have gotten us all! If you kill Eory, you may as well kill me, too, because he’s the only thing I have to live for!”
Eory stroked the waif’s hair and told her regretfully and sincerely, “Kori, it’s okay. I’m prepared to pay for my crimes. The world is better off without me.”
“No!” Kori protested. “You’ve made my world so much brighter and better! You can make the rest brighter, too!”
“Damn you, Kori, move! Let me kill this monster!” Laurence growled.
“You never wanted to give him a chance! You decided he was a monster before you even met him! You promised to give him a fair chance!” Kori sobbed. “Even now, he is saving your life by ordering Pollyanna not to kill you!”
Laurence watched her weep in silence for a moment as Eory continued to stroke her hair.
His fingers were still tight and tense on the hilt of the sword, but in a moment, he lowered it.
“I have a proposal.” Laurence said uneasily. “If you are sincere, Eory, then you will not mind a slower, but kinder and more productive death sentence.”
Kori waited in apprehension of what he would suggest—ready to protest.
“The Astral Elves are always looking for more recruits to fend off the doppelgangers. Will you agree to help them?” King Laurence asked.
Kori gasped. “No! I will not allow it!”
Eory cocked his head to the side. “What are you talking about?”
Pollyanna answered for the king. “He wishes to lock us into the Crater of Resentment near the waif homeland where doppelgangers—evil shadows who eat life with every step they take--spring relentlessly up from the ground. The Astral Elves put up a magical barrier around that place and once you go in, you can’t get out. We will be locked in with death itself!”
King Laurence glared at her and said, “please, there are many people who live full lives within the Crater—and they live lives of fulfillment, too, because they are doing something for the good of every creature on Yharos. You want to be good, don’t you Eory? Well, sacrificing your life to ensure the peace and prosperity of all the kingdoms and peoples on Yharos sounds noble enough to me, and a good enough punishment.”
“Don’t do it, Eory. People in the Crater live lonely, sad lives! Many of them take their own lives if the doppelgangers don’t get them first!” Kori cried. She turned to Laurence. “Just let him go, please Laurence!”
“I will not bend, even for you, Kori! Every kingdom is in danger with these creatures alive!” Laurence yelled, but the waif did not cower. She wrestled with the conflicting feelings inside of her when it came to the king. It was an irrevocable love mixed with a sick and perverse dependence and a result of her own loneliness and need for affection. She could never tell whether the king was taking advantage of her or whether she was just stupid enough to fall in love with a man who was married.
Eory thought for a few moments, and then he motioned Pollyanna to come closer to him as he disengaged from Kori’s protective hug.
Pollyanna did so and knelt by his side where he whispered into her ear. “Is there a way to free you from my service? I don’t want you to have to come.”
Pollyanna was silent for a moment as she looked into his eyes searchingly, and then she said, “I don’t want to be free from your service.”
His eyes narrowed with desire. He didn’t realize how badly he wanted to hear her say that. She kissed his forehead and then stood up.
Eory nodded, then. “I will go. If it will make up for the lives I have taken here, then I will go.”
“No!” Kori cried with her voice cracking, “no… Eory, I beg of you—don’t do this… I want you in my life! You’re all I have!”
Eory crouched and held her close again. A small smile bloomed on his lips and he remembered again just how lucky he was to have someone kind enough in the world to save a child with evilness tainting his soul from being beheaded like the rest of his family. He realized now, as a mature adult, how lonely she must have been to have selflessly given so much of her life to such a corrupt child as he that was not her own. “Kori, I want you to find a different reason for living. You deserve it more than anyone I know. It should be a good reason, and it should be only for yourself.”
Kori turned away from him and covered her face in her hands. With a muffled voice she said, “you’re a good reason! Why can’t you see it?”
Eory looked at her back for a time with a reflective expression on his face. In a moment he said, “because my hands are covered in blood. I’m not fit to live with you, however much I wanted to.”
Laurence removed the circlet atop his head while Eory spoke to Kori. The king’s hands were nervous; the fairy could decide to kill him and Kori at any moment; haste was needed. The king yanked the blood red jewel out of the center of the circlet. “The Astral Elves gave each king of every kingdom one of these for whenever a king might find a willing recruit to fend off the doppelgangers. All I need do is call upon the owner of this gem, Tyrus, and he will come immediately and ask for your consent and signature on a contract, and then he will take you to the Crater.”
Eory nodded and then touched Kori’s shoulder, but she yanked it away and continued crying. “Just go if you care so little about me!”
The fairy was devastated.
Laurence wasted no time in clutching the gem in his hands and whispering, “Tyrus.”
A few silent moments passed, and then a tall, statuesque elf who was the same height as Pollyanna appeared. His ears were pointed like Kori’s, but they were only the width of a human’s ear unlike the waif’s, whose were much longer. The elf wore a blood red, heavy cloak which draped over the front and back of his torso, but left his arms uncovered.. Underneath the cloak, he wore plain black breeches and pointed, golden shoes.
He was thin underneath all his clothes—so thin that his clothes were very baggy--and had an incredibly long face and elegant neck.
Although Tyrus had a hood up, Eory saw that the elf had a third eye underneath it on his forehead and tried not to stare.
The elf addressed the king. “Do you have new recruits?”
Laurence nodded. “The fairy and the warrior maiden. I must warn you… They are unpredictable. They may kill all the other recruits if it suits them.”
The Astral Elf glanced at Eory and Pollyanna. “Ah, the Arrozan and the ancient guard of his family. They will be fine recruits. If they expect to survive in the Crater, they will have to learn that they must work with others. I will take them, but I need their consent—both verbal and written. Do I have it?”
“You have it.” Eory answered.
Pollyanna looked unsure for a fraction of a second—but then she remembered how Eory gave up his freedom for her and suddenly, her doubt was gone. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about Eory, but she was enthralled by that strangely selfless decision and wanted to see where following Eory would lead her.
“You have it.” Pollyanna said confidently.
The elf spread his long arms out from under his cloak and held his palm out. Out of thin air, a shining, yellow piece of parchment was summoned along with a quill pen floating above the elf’s palm. He stretched his fingers out toward Eory and the parchment floated his way.
Eory took the pen and read over the simple and short contract warily. It wanted his promise that he would willingly stay at the Crater for life and help fend off the doppelgangers or face pain of death. He looked down-trodden and lost for a moment, and then he signed it and felt very cold.
While the elf conjured another piece of parchment and pen for Pollyanna, Eory touched Kori’s shoulder again. “Please Kori, give me a proper goodbye.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she hung her head.
Tears stung his eyes. “Please, I’ll never see you again. I want to know that someone loved me…”
Pollyanna watched them with a curious eyebrow raised as she signed her name.
“I will be taking them now.” The elf announced. “Come, hold my hands and I will warp you to where the rest of the recruits are.”
Eory whispered quietly, “please, Kori…”
But she wouldn’t even turn his way.
Eory dried his eyes and sniffled and then joined Pollyanna by the elf.
The elf spoke in a foreign language and his eyes lit up with golden light; the air around him swirled and the sound of wind blowing filled Eory’s large ears as golden streaks of light flared around them.
Eory’s eyes wouldn’t leave Kori as new tears kept replacing old ones. Without her support, he felt so unsure and alone. He looked down and sobbed aloud with only Pollyanna to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
She never loved me at all…
Eory thought to himself as he fell to his knees. This was the last image he would ever have of her in his mind; an image of her fittingly turning her back on him.
“Wait!” Kori suddenly screamed and the elf stopped his spell. She threw her arms around Eory. “I want to come with you! I want to protect you! Give me a contract, too!”
A slow and contented grin spread across the fairy’s face as he pressed his cheek into the top of her head and his eyes squinted into a smile.
The bitterness and coldness seemed to leave his mind now that he got to say a proper goodbye. Now, he would have an image of her tearful, but loving face in his mind instead. “Kori, I want you to stay. I want you to keep redeeming criminals and improving their lives. You have a good life to live ahead of you, and it shouldn’t include someone rotten like me.”
Kori pressed her head further onto his chest and gave herself a moment to remember all of her grand memories of being a mother.
She remembered when Eory refused to eat and she had to play a game with him where they both pretended to be pigs to get him to. She remembered when she would bathe him and he would splash water all over her and giggle playfully; she remembered his radiant little face when she entered the room and how nothing in the world felt as warm or as golden as his hugs.
She remembered those times when he would get sad—so sad that he couldn’t even get off the sofa in his room to greet her. Most of the time she would threaten that if he didn’t get up, she would leave him, but sometimes she would sit next to him and ask him what was wrong. He would never answer her, but most of the time he would hug her until he felt better, and she felt enormously proud of herself that she helped him out of the pits of despair.
He was her greatest accomplishment, and that would never change.
“Kori, I order you to stay. You are not fit for the company of criminals and other misfits of society. You will stay here and do your job.” Laurence threatened her.
“Shall I draw her up a contract?” The elf addressed everyone in the room.
“Yes! I want to go!” Kori yelled. “Let me go!”
But Laurence was having none of it. He yanked her away from Eory and squeezed her arm as she tried to struggle free.
Laurence nodded to the elf. “Take them away.”
The elf began his spell where he had left off.
Eory looked at the weeping Kori who was screaming his name. The elf was speaking louder and louder and the wind swirling around them became more and more hectic until finally, he could not hear the waif’s words at all.
He smiled at his mother one last time and thanked her under his breath for trying.
Thank you for trying to save me.
And then, the elf, the fairy, and the warrior maiden all disappeared from the ballroom in a flash of light.