Chapter 53: Sins of a Dark Fairy

Princess Aria is awoken by the rowdy laughter outside her makeshift cell room. She is lying sideways on the cold floor facing the uneven surface of a mossy wall. She keeps still, pretending to be unconscious at the moment.
She closes her eyes to reassess her situation. Her brain begins to recall the campsite and the scary-looking creatures that destroyed their tent. She can even seem to hear her own scream, as well as Jo's.
Jo...
Her thoughts reach the peak of panic. Where is Jo?
She starts to shiver uncontrollably from the dread that Jo is hurt or worse...
"No..."
She screams in fear.
"Princess wake up!"
She hears an unfamiliar voice exclaims.
Princess Aria sits up slowly. There is no use pretending to be knocked out. She faces the other way where the cell bars are.
In front of her stands a hideous-looking creature. She suppresses her urge to shriek once more in recall of seeing that same creature at their campsite.
This one resembles the orcs she and Jo saw in "The Lord of the Rings."
"Jo..."
The Princess recalls again.
"So, good sleep princess?"
The creature asks with toddler speech.
This one speaks not just grunts and roars.
"Where is my friend Jo?"
Princess Aria ignores the question and gathers a little courage to talk herself.
"Small girl hit tree."
The orc-like creature responds proudly. Apparently it can understand but talks in a weird way.
Princess Aria's eyes opens wide in shock upon comprehending what happened to her best friend.
"Why did you kidnap me?"
Princess Aria demands to know.
The creature merely laughs at her question.
"My Princess you have finally awoken."
Another unfamiliar voice comments behind the laughing creature. This one appears to know how to talk like her.
"Leave us!"
The voice echoes in her cell.
Then the orc walks away with a sour expression, having cut off from its fun. A hooded figure comes into the Princess' view.
"So, Princess, we meet at last."
The hooded figure says with delight.
"I have been meaning to get my hands on you for a long, long time now. But those heroic rangers tricked me. They have smuggled you out of the realm without me knowing it."
The figure explains further.
"You are Alirion!"
Princess Aria says in recognition.
"Well, well, well. You have heard about me then. I didn't know I was so famous."
Alirion removes his hood and the Princess finally sees the face of the Dark fairy. He does not look scary at all. In fact, he resembles Gandalf, in the Princess' opinion, except for the pointy ears which is a trademark of fairies.
"Why did you kidnap me?"
Princess Aria asks once more. She senses her locket glowing under her clothing. She tries to calm herself hoping the Dark fairy would not notice her magical amulet.
"Correction my Princess, my orcs kidnapped you, not me."
Alirion qualifies.
"You are such a coward ordering others to do your dirty work for you!"
Princess Aria snaps back but attempts to control her anger.
"Well, they share my views in getting back the four realms after we get rid of those high and mighty Kings and Queens. I need you as leverage. Your father and mother would never put your life in danger."
"You see I have been watching you since Aldar and Melandra woke up from my spell. Since they broke my spell, your secrecy spell broke too. I just could not figure out how those two broke my spell."
Alirion ponders.
'So, he is not aware of my magic.'
The Princess thought to herself.
The news on how she broke the sleeping spell was kept secret for her safety. Her fairy parents as well as her aunt made sure it did not become a common knowledge among the fairies, for this reason. So Alirion would not have any idea of her magical powers.
The Princess continues to remain calm so she would not give any hint that she has knowledge of her fairy magic. She would lead Alirion to believe that she remains unaware of her magic for growing up in the human world.
"I know you could not resist returning to your human world. I could not touch you when that aunt of yours was with you and both Aldar and Melandra. So here we are."
The Dark fairy continues his story clueless of the Princess' act.
"What do you plan to do now? Bargain with the fairies again?"
The Princess keeps Alirion talking.
"I told you. You are my leverage. Using the Fire Lord became much too risky for me. I should have killed him instantly. For my hesitation, I lost the Orange Haven once more. I had to flee for my dear life and live to fight another day."
Alirion says proudly.
"You are a coward! You killed Prince Hagan, after you used him to escape! You even used your sister but she did not follow you..."
She is about to say more when the Dark fairy cuts her off in anger.
"She could have been a Queen! Either way, she could have been the Air Realm's Queen Successor or future Queen if she married Hagan. But she chose that stupid ranger with your Father's blessing. Then got herself killed for giving birth to that brat! So I killed Marion as retribution!"
Alirion shouts like a crazy fairy.
"You have no right to kill anyone! You are supposed to protect not destroy!"
The Princess' locket glows brightly from her anger after hearing what Alirion said about Caspian and his family.
The Dark fairy gets distracted by the pulsing locket which sends magical sparks making it undeniably difficult to conceal anymore. He smirks evilly.
Princess Aria gasps when she is suddenly pulled by an unseen force. She slams hard on her cell bars towards Alirion's waiting hand.
The Princess yelps in pain as her neck is imprisoned in Alirion's fingers that grip it hard as if to choke her. Tears fall unguardedly from her eyes.
"So, that is the magic I am sensing around you!"
The Dark fairy uses his other hand to pull out the magical locket from the Princess' neck.
Princess Aria gasps once more to catch her breath as well as reign in her own magic so that Alirion would remain unaware of it.
Alirion releases her by slamming her back on the ground.
Princess Aria does not resist the magical force from Alirion. She stays slump on the floor.
"So, Queen Alina left you this for protection!"
Alirion states this as if it is a very important answer to the mystery of Princess Aria's protection.
"If you wouldn't mind, I would hold on to this now. It is safer that way."
"You know Princess, you have no idea what I have gone through myself. You are so much loved by your family while my father couldn't even own up to having me."
Alirion's tone starts to change.
"Even though he got my mother pregnant, he did not honor her because she was a fire fairy! He married Cara's mother instead. What a hypocrite! He wants to stay with his kind? When I was born and my mother died from my birth, he still did not care about me. He only loved Cara and her air fairy mother. They are like one happy family."
He sounds so bitter now.
"Cara however gets caring for her poor half-brother. That is how I bid my time. I let my pure-hearted little half-sister be my loving sister while I befriended the Fire Lord's only son. I learned every magic I could while happily watched Cara and Hagan became close. But that stupid Cara fell in love with your father's ranger! Your King Father even gave his blessing for that wrenched love!"
He ends his narration with anger in his eyes.
"Why couldn't everyone be like me? Hagan just let Cara marry Marion! He was not even angered by that!"
Alirion adds in frustration.
"That is called love. You would not understand that because you are not capable of that for all your hatred."
Princess Aria answers bravely although she was not asked. She merely whispers her words.
"You can experience that as well if you let your heart be free from all your anger."
The Princess adds some more.
"How dare you lecture me about love? You lived in the human world for so long. Fairies are different. They are harsh beings who only seek to dominate."
Alirion counteracts.
"I lived with humans and they are not any differ. They feel pain, sorrow, hatred and all other negative emotions but letting love triumph over all the other feelings makes them better people. You can do that too."
Princess Aria insists.
"Stop now! You don't know anything at all Princess. You know why some creatures chose to stay here beyond the mountains? They were driven away by my kind. The fairy kind feels superior to others."
Alirion argues.
"But that is what you are doing right now. You feel superior too!"
The Princess points out.
"Well now I really am Princess. I am the greatest fairy in all the realms and apparently I have these angry orcs to support me to overcome the four realms."
Alirion turns his back from the Princess and walks away with a very amused laughter.