The Fae King's Ruin

Princess Aislin of Cetha believed that her death was imminent. And why wouldn’t she think that? Her brother was a cruel, sadistic i***t who had waged war only through the fuel of his own ego and wrong sense of complacency, not just in his courtiers or himself, but also in her. As a result, her people, the Unseelie Fae were now weakened and reduced after that devastating attack in the realm they have only just begun calling home, Mhoryga. Or so that was what the reports given to her showed. She hadn’t seen their state personally, for she was under house arrest in the Diamond Palace of the King of the Seelie Fae. The same person that she should be considering as her mortal enemy but had granted her and her cousin the mercy of keeping their lives. She often thought that Aislin ought to hate him; after all, the Seelie Fae had once hunted her people to near extinction. Wars and battles have been fought with irreparable damage to both sides, their histories too fraught and tangled at the same time. Even though both were considered to be Fae stemming from the same ancestors before the Rift, their Courts, their practices, and cultures, were just too different. Too enmeshed in enmity to see anything beyond mere coexistence. Aislin looked out of the window of her supposed prison. Alfheim was undeniably beautiful. Even she could not be angry that the view of the room she had been graciously given was magnificent and filled her long days with more than just dread. With its sprawling hills, the silvery lake just outside the Diamond Palace, and the bridge that immediately dropped off to the city residences. The entire city was quaint and looked straight out of a fairytale book. And it was beautiful, but it would never hold a candle to the realm her brother created for the Unseelie. Drakos may have been a lot of things: a fascist leader, a manipulative brother, a lunatic king, but he stayed true to his commitment and promise to give his people a place they could call ‘home’. She thought about that particular home now and wondered if the war they waged had truly been worth it if they were defeated so easily. Perhaps it was a fool’s hope to level the playing field with revenge. Not that it mattered anymore. She was a princess of the rival court of the Seelie Fae and she had just become their prisoner. There was no hope for her now, no prospect of a future that she could weave or forge for herself. A princess with no freedom. No power. Well, there was one. But she vowed never to use it again. Not when— Aislin turned away from the window just as a knock ensued on her door. A head of cropped, fine silver hair poked itself through the narrow opening before slipping inside the suite allotted to her by Alfheim’s unusually generous king. “Aelthrys,” she murmured her cousin’s name softly. Her skirts, soft Seelie Fae woven, rustled as she stood. “What did he say?” “It’s happening,” he said, sounding a little breathless. Aelthrys’ black eyes that were ringed with silver seemed to reflect the same level of anticipation that was rising within her. “They will be convening a council any time this week. We get to have three seats to participate.” Aislin paused, blinking widely at him. Only three seats? “That isn’t nearly enough to represent the Unseelie Fae, cousin. You know that as well as I do.” Aelthrys shot her a look as he passed her, telling her exactly that he knew what Aislin meant. “We will push for more seats once we are already there and make them see the injustice in only giving us three. But as of now, we accept this. All right?” She grudgingly nodded, knowing they had very little say on the matter at the moment, much less wiggle room to sway things to an inch in their favor. Aislin knew they had to make the most of what they were given. She, at least, had enough experience with such a thing. “The two seats are obviously for you and me,” Aislin murmured thoughtfully as she went back to her previous perch near the window. “Who will we put on the third?” He had settled on leaning on the sill of her window, not at all intimidated that it was diamond and not a solid wall of stone that he was leaning against. “Our charming uncle would be the most obvious choice,” Aelthrys said, smirking into the distance. “He’ll be expecting it, in fact, the entitled son of a bi*tch.” Aislin raised a curious brow. “But— You don’t think that we should give it to him, right?” Her cousin scoffed. “Of course, I don’t. He’s exactly the kind of male that the Seelie Fae think we all are. He’d wreck the entire agreement before we already started.” Her uncle, the infamous Lord Elrin, was known as not a very kind person. He had once killed Aislin’s pet rabbit during the days of still being roamers just because he was feeling hungry. He ate White Nose with a smile in front of her and Aislin both hated and feared Elrin since that day. But he did put the family and her people first; it was what a part of her admired him for. Still, she couldn’t not put him on the allotted seat. If she chose another who was more similarly mannered and minded as Aislin and Aelthrys, the Council will never believe her intentions of finally reaching an understanding with their life-long enemies. She needed to use Elrin’s traditionalist ideals and upbringing to convince the Seelie Fae that she was different from her deranged brother. Because as the princess of the realm, that job now belonged to her. She was bound by her duty to give her people a better life and Aislin would do just about anything to succeed in that. She looked to her cousin, the setting sun casting shadows on his gaunt face as he patiently waited for her answer. Even if Aelthrys would never confide in her, she knew that her cousin took their downfall the hardest no matter that he expected it already the moment her brother brought the Queen of All Magic to their realm as a prisoner. It was why he had made sure to never act badly towards the queen, for this exact same moment where he hoped they would be given leniency once the time came. After what she had done in that throne hall, Aislin owed everything to Aelthrys’ careful planning and quick maneuvering that she was even here now. “Elrin gets the seat, then,” she said, knowing Aelthrys would be on board with her no matter what. “He’ll play decoy so the Council trusts the both of us more.” “Or they’ll read your strategy differently and think Elrin is the one they should trust.” “Then they are fools,” Aislin answered, back stiff. “The whole lot of them.” Aelthrys gave her a chastising look. “You have to learn to look at every action you want to make from all sides, Aislin. For all intents and purposes, you are the queen of the Unseelie Fae now. Especially with this upcoming agreement, we have to be careful about everything from here on out.” Queen. Yet another title bestowed upon her that she had no choice but to accept. “I know that,” she said with a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly before years-long lessons on etiquette and propriety automatically echoed within her head and she corrected her posture. “Aelthrys?” “Yes?” “Promise me something.” He looked at her questioningly. “What is it?” She focused solely on her cousin. “Promise me that we exhaust all other bargaining chips before we sell my hand in marriage.” Aelthrys nodded solemnly. “Of course, cousin. You have my word.” Aislin half-smiled. She had no doubts that her cousin would fulfill any promise that he made to her. He was loyal and was more of the brother than her own blood and flesh had ever been. Drakos would have used her and used her until she was spent. He never saw people as beings, only as tools to get what he wanted. And looked where he was now. Rotting, probably. Aislin had not been sent word on where the remains of her brother lay after the human killed him. She smirked at that thought. What a great insult! Surely Drakos never thought that his death would be brought on by a race so inferior to them but somehow found a highly coveted place beside the Queen of All Magic, the very reason, Aislin suspected, that the King of the Seelie Fae was even considering to make a treaty with her people. Well, that and a way to inhabit the realm her brother so cleverly created. That night, Aislin ate her dinner in her room, watching the Lake of Memories, the maid who served her called it, glitter while the sun set. When the attendants had come in for the night to dress her in her nightclothes—all in Seelie Fae fashion, because no one had thought to bring her the clothes she had brought to her brother’s castle—she asked for a journal and a pen, or a quill with a full pot of ink. She didn’t know why, but Aislin was surprised when her request was granted. She was given a beautifully bound leather journal with lusciously thick pages and a self-inking quill. She sat on her desk, and by the light of the lamp beside her, Aislin began to write. Unbeknownst to the Princess of the Unseelie Fae, just on the other side of her suite’s door stood a male with golden hair and equally golden eyes. The soldiers stationed at her door paid him no mind as he raised a fist, intending to knock and quit delaying this meeting any longer. It needed to take place at one point or another, he convinced himself. He needed to be done second-guessing himself on how their first conversation after being brought here to his city after the war and just get it over with. He curled his fingers tighter until his knuckles turned white, but in the end, he let it fall to a side. With a huff, he left the princess undisturbed and went back to his own rooms and rethought everything there is about having prisoners in one’s own home. The King of the Seelie Fae caught no sleep that night, like many nights before it.