The Fae King's Ruin

The Princess and the Proxies

There was no turning back and Aislin was afraid that she might have pushed herself off the ledge without a safety net.

She could read in Avery’s eyes the warring conflict going on inside his head every time he looked at her. The want within him to give her what she was asking for clashed against his better judgment and Aislin felt a tremendous amount of guilt for feeling relief when she saw that the side favoring her was winning. She had been manipulative towards other people before, yet only now did she feel bad about it.

Of course, he did not deserve it. In fact, none of the people who will be affected by her proposition deserved any of it. Ilyn knows that she would have spared them from the consequences if she could. But she could not and no one would be willing enough to do this but her.

She only hoped that Avery, Aelthrys, and whoever was next in line to the Seelie throne would someday find it within themselves to forgive her.

The rest of the Great Council proceedings passed by without Aislin actually hearing or paying attention to any of it. The scroll of parchment in her hands made a small crinkling sound whenever her grip on it tightened. She tried one of her breathing exercises but none of them helped calm her rioting insides. Her stomach kept doing backflips, she felt a little lightheaded, not to mention her thoughts kept going in and out of focus so much that it was giving her a headache.

There was nothing Aislin hated more than waiting.

So, when Avery called her name to submit the last proposal to the body, despite dreading the fallout, she just wanted it over and done with.

With all the grace she could muster and the confidence she could fake, Aislin stood. She didn't look back at her cousin or even the King who'd been trying his best to catch her eye. She refused to see any of the eyes trained on her. Everything relied on her resolve not breaking and Aislin would be damned if she failed now.

“My dear beloved delegates,” Aislin began, her voice ringing with a conviction that surprised even her. “The very essence of this esteemed governing body is to ensure the prosperity of the Fae race through our courts’ unification. We are here because we all believe in the peace that the Treaty will give to both our peoples once and for all.”

A few of the delegates murmured their agreement. Applause echoed throughout the room like rain smattering on glass. Aislin held up her palm and the cheers slowly came to a stop. She took a deep breath.

“It is in that spirit that I present to you all the safeguard to all of our hopes and ambitions for the future.” 

She unbound the scroll, breaking the seal she had put on it, and handed it to her cousin wordlessly. With Aelthrys’ magic, he made several copies. Each of the delegates got one copy of her proposal and this time, Aislin watched their eyes scan over the words she had painstakingly chosen and written on the parchment. Aislin knew the exact moment that Aelthrys had finished skimming the contents of the scroll, marked by a lone and forceful “No.”

Ignoring him, she turned to the King. Avery's face, one she had always thought of as beautiful, was now overcome by shock. Aislin caught his hand tremble a little as his wide eyes read her words over and over again before a sudden dawning realization had caused him to look up and meet her own unflinching stare.

Murmurs rose around them almost to a level that would not have been considered polite. Aislin, however, stayed silent. She let them marinate in their thoughts. They needed to understand the words and meaning of her proposal fully before she went on. She needed them to come and see that she had a point.

There was a small hope that still lingered in her chest that perhaps the Great Council could find an alternative for all this. But until then, the hard and fast solution needed to stand in front of them.

When the murmurs had gone to deafening levels, Aislin silenced them with a hand again. It took a while for some to notice her but they eventually went quiet at her unspoken command. If Aislin’s proposal wasn't all that life-changing, she would have taken the time to marvel at the rush of power that gave her. Some other time.

“What I am proposing is meant to protect the Treaty's enforcement,” she enunciated. “Should anything unfortunate happen to me or the King of the Seelie Fae before we are able to wed and/or bear an heir, proxies in the guise of heirs apparent shall uphold the Treaty's provisions in our stead.” Aislin swallowed thickly. “In the case of the Unseelie, my heir apparent shall be my cousin, General Aelthrys of Cetha. For the Treaty to be consolidated, he must marry King Avery's heir apparent. The marriage shall last until an heir presumptive is born.”

The silence that befell them was how Aislin imagined being in a vacuum would be like. She stood ramrod-straight right in the middle of the hall, a casual observer of the inaudible mayhem she had effectively caused, and watched the King of Alfheim wrestle with his composure as he readied the delegation to vote.

“All those in favor,” he rasped, “of laying the Princess’ proposal on the table?”

Every hand slowly went up except for Aelthrys’, Res’, and her uncle’s. Avery’s own, despite the slightly hurt expression on his face, also joined the other’s affirmatives. Aislin breathed a small sigh of relief. She got the majority vote. That would be enough for now.

Golden eyes pinned her to where she stood, and only then did Aislin realize how much Avery was willing to stand by her and keep his promise. “Congratulations, Princess. The Great Council shall discuss your proposal at length once the session resumes. For now, we adjourn. Enjoy your holidays.”

Aislin opened her mouth to thank him, possibly even kneel at his feet, but a large, strong hand she recognized as her cousin’s without looking had grabbed her arm and had hauled her out of the Silver Hall before anyone else could reach the heavy double doors of pure silver.

Outside, she tried her best to keep up with his footing and held her tongue at his painful hold on her. There would no doubt be imprints of his fingers around her arm later and those imprints would turn into bruises. Thankfully, it was cold outside. No one in their right mind would be wearing anything without sleeves; that no one but her maids would have to see just how angry Aelthrys was at her right now that he did not even realize he was hurting her.

He did not stop pulling her behind him like a wagon, his strides hurried and angry until they reached her rooms, and even then, he only let go once her maids had scurried off and he’d put another sound barrier around her parlor.

That was when the shouting started.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Aelthrys roared in her face. “What the fu*ck were you thinking?” He began pacing like a caged animal in front of her lit hearth, pulling at his cropped silver hair that was almost the exact same shade as hers. “What the fu*ck, Aislin!”

“I had to,” she defended, but gone was the conviction she had earlier. Aislin had left all of her strength and composure in the Silver Hall. Standing before her cousin now, tears flowed down her cheeks and she was powerless against it. “If Avery dies, then everything we had been working on would be useless. It was the wiser choice.”

“Wiser for whom?” He laughed mockingly at her, his eyes full of disdain whenever they trained on Aislin. “For you? I told you that I would handle Elrin and the others. What you did… Aislin, you named me your heir! You’re looping me into marriage!”

Her eyes flashed. “How is all that any different from what I am going through now? I am doing all of this for our people, Aelthrys, and you would only be doing your duty in following!”

Aelthrys stopped, shaking his head. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean? Because, truly, Aelthrys, I would have carried all of this on my back if it meant that none of you have to bear the weight of making this Treaty work.” She angrily dashed her tears away. “You don’t even have to stay married for the rest of your life if you do not want to. You only need to be with whoever it is until I could give birth to an heir.”

Silver-ringed pupils narrowed at her. “You don’t know who the King’s heir apparent is?”

She sniffled, sending him an annoyed look. Was now the time for him to be asking her this? “No, I don’t. Does it even matter? Aelthrys, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I really am. But it doesn’t change the fact that this needs to be done.”

“Why didn’t you?” was his defeated reply. “I honestly thought we were closer than that.”

Aislin blinked through her tears, through the sound of her own heart breaking at the accusation she found on Aelthrys’ face. She’d hurt her cousin deeply and there wasn’t anything she could do but apologize and tell him the gods-honest truth. 

“I knew you would have tried to convince me otherwise.” She looked up. “You would have told me that we didn’t need a safety net because you would make sure that no harm would come to me or Avery. And I would have believed you because I know that you would do damn near anything just to stand by your word. But that would involve sullying yourself. It would show blood on your hands that I know I would not be able to pardon even if I want to. Because we live in a different world now. Because I might be able to turn a blind eye, but other people wouldn’t.”

Aislin took a step towards him. “I know that you would have been happy to spend the rest of your life in jail in exchange for my safety, but I would rather have you miserable for only a small part of it. And should the worst-case scenario ever happen, I know that you would be able to lead our people far better than I ever could have.”

He shook his head again, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye. “Aislin, this is a big ask. You’re intending that I become King should either one of you die.”

“I would have asked you to be regent, anyway,” Aislin said, trying for a shrug, but her heart wasn’t in it. “That’s just doing the work without the title.”

Aelthrys rounded the coffee table and pulled her to a couch with a roll of his eyes. “And I would have done the damned work for you! The title is the very thing I don’t want.”

Aislin looked at her cousin. Forgetting her tears, she asked, “Aelthrys, is this what’s really bothering you? That you get a fancy title in all this?”

She took his pinched lips as an answer enough. Aislin couldn’t help but blink at him in shock. His rage simmered low into a sullen glare that he directed at her. 

“I also hate that you’re planning shi*t all on your own without consulting me.”

“Isn’t that too hypocritical of you?” She crossed her arms. “Haven’t you been attending Elrin’s stupid meetings behind my back as well?”

He rolled his eyes in dismissal, choosing instead to lay back on her couch and drape an arm over his eyes. He stayed still for several long seconds before Aislin heard him whisper, “I wish we were back home. No one back home would bat an eye if I made you eat dirt in a sparring ring.”

She leaned back beside him. “You could still do that here,” she murmured. “I don’t want things to change between us.”

“But it already has, Aislin. It has been changing for a while now. We don’t even see each other that often and that only used to happen when I have been assigned elsewhere. We have been living under one, diamond roof!”

It was yet another notch added to her guilt. She knew she’d been spending quite a lot of time with Avery and the other, newer interests that had come with being in her position. She was part of two large and highly important Councils, she had recently started her training, and she even had private tutoring on top of all the work she was expected to accomplish.

Aislin burrowed her face in her hands, more ashamed than she cared to admit out loud that she never even bother to ask Aelthrys even once what he did every single day that he spent without Aislin.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wish we were back home, too.”

Without meaning to, Aislin and Aelthrys both sighed heavily at the same time. She didn’t laugh, but she did smile. No matter what happened, there would always be something that connected her to Aelthrys. It would be as unbreakable and as powerful as the blood connection they shared. She only hoped that Aelthrys realized this as well. Because their bond would be tested in ways that Aislin could only imagine. The next year would be hard and she did not think that she would be able to survive it without her cousin.

She resigned herself to ask for his forgiveness again, but she paused at Alethrys’ question.

“If I do this, will you promise that you won’t f**k*ing die?” Aelthrys murmured. “Because I can handle being your damned proxy, Aislin. I can handle Avery dying but I can’t do it without you. I can’t.”

Her bottom lip trembled. She reached out her hand and took her cousin’s hand. It didn’t matter that Aelthrys did not know that she didn’t think she could handle Avery’s death and would absolutely prefer it if she was the one who had to die. She would do it for Aelthrys. She’d stay alive for him, to be there the same way that he had been present her entire life.

“Of course, I will. I promise I won’t die.”

Aelthrys craned his head to glance at her, searching her face. When he found whatever it was that he was looking for, he nodded and sagged back against the couch once more. Aislin knew that that was all it took for him to agree with her plan.