The Beginning in the End

Death is something I am familiar with, an old friend that I never have to look too hard for. My story started with the death of my people, it’s only fair the story ends with the death of theirs.

When I began, I had no desire to fight. As a lone survivor of the war that eradicated my species, I was determined to live a small but content life consisting of myself, and the vegetables I grew on my farm.  But fate is determined to remind us of her folly.  The humans around me began to grow hungry and when they saw their crops die while mine thrived they turned their fear and anger towards me.  How could I explain my connection to the Earth without reminding them of the way their brothers and sisters were torn apart by roots and trees in the war that ended mere months ago? How could I tell them that I was fae, and alone, without causing the anger inside them to strike at me? I knew that my time there was done, and I ran. I left that life behind and wandered the country, looking for a place where I could keep my head down and live in peace with those overthrew those like me. 

I reached the coast and as my magic sang in response to the waves crashing against the rocky beach I knew I had found my new home.  I became a smith, determined to eliminate any chance of my magic giving me too much of an advantage over the locals, and even took a human wife to keep female eyes from lingering too long on me. She was a dull thing, without much to offer me in the way of intellectual stimulation, but she was beautiful, with her long brown hair that fell in waves down her back and her brown doe-like eyes. I grew to enjoy her company and they way her mouth turned up whenever she saw me.

I repressed my magic but it still screamed from within and I chose to release it  every new moon, deep within the woods, and near the waves, where none would see me and any sound I made would be oppressed by the waves.  As I made the trees bow and the flowers dance I felt my shoulders relax, feeling my magic settle within me.  There was a sound of a twig snapping from behind me and I threw an ice dagger at it reflexively. Rather than hear the thunk as my assailant hit the ground I heard the sound of breaking glass as my ice dagger met an ice wall that had erupted from the ground violently. Stalking around the wall, I was prepared to face off against an enemy and instead found a young child cowering in front of me. She had hair the color of wheat, her bones protruding from clothes that were only worthy enough to serve as an animals bed place, and was so clearly fae that I had to remind myself to breathe. 

“Tell me child, where are your parents?” I asked, kneeling down slowly so as to not to scare her. She shook her head once and I watched tears form in her eyes.

I tried again, with a more pressing question. “Tell me child, are you human?” 

Knowing the answer didn’t make my heart slow down when she hesitated before slowly shaking her head again.  How could I abandon her, when she was so clearly alone, and in enemy territory? I scooped her up and walked back to the village, asking her more questions but receiving nothing but silence. 

I introduced her to my silly little wife, who quickly guided the child I named Rae into the bathing room to be cleaned and we raised her as our own.  Time passed by and Rae grew taller and leaner, looking more and more fae like, all the while staying as silent as she had when we first met. She was a quick learner and didn’t question my instruction to hide her magic.  I grew to love her as my own, and chose to enjoy her company over my wife’s whose stomach now grew with my child inside.  

The village grew used to seeing the three of us and life was simple but pleasurable, until the incident happened.  Rae and her mother were hanging laundry up outside, and when the clumsy human lost her balance and began to tip forward, resulting in a fall that would no doubt harm both her and the child within, Rae used a blast of wind to steady her.  Although I saw shock and repulsion flash across the woman’s face, I felt no fear for Rae’s safety and my wife quickly returned to normal, hugging Rae in thanks. 

The day concluded as it normally did, with Rae asleep in the room next to us, and my wife snoring on her side in our bed.  I should have known that I grew too comfortable.  A guttural scream, unlike any I had known, ripped me from my sleep, and when I noticed that I was alone in the bed I immediately ran to Rae’s room. When I pushed open the door I saw only my wife, and it wasn’t until I strode into the room that I saw Rae, tears falling down her face, cowering in the back corner of the room as iron spikes held her pinned to the ground. Her face screwed up as she called on her magic, but I knew that she would receive no help as long as the iron was within her.

“Woman,” I screamed, incapable of believing that my wife, who cried when she found a dead bumble bee, was capable of such violence, “have you gone mad?” 

Her eyes burned in a way that had me stepping back unconsciously.  “It is fae,” she said simply, in a voice devoid of any emotion, “How dare you bring this monster into our house. If you won’t kill it, I will.” 

She rushed forward, the light of the moon reflecting off a knife she had pulled from her pocket. “No!” I screamed, throwing an ice dagger between her and Rae, determined to scare her away from Rae, but it was too late. 

The knife was thrust deep into Rae’s chest before my wife of seven years turned to look at me in disgust  and horror. “ You too?” she whispered, before cradling her stomach and running out the door of the room and the house.  

I knew I stood no chance of catching up with her before she reached the alarm and summoned the village so I picked up Rae, in a gesture that brought back memories of the first night we met, and ran. Again I ran away from the humans. Again I ran without an idea of where I would go.  When my body eventually forced me to rest, my legs giving out beneath me, Rae was gone. Her heart had stopped early into our journey and in my haste I never noticed.  As I burned her body in the way the fae do I made a promise.  I declared to the skies and anything beyond that listened, that I would find the remaining fae and create a home for them where we’d face no hatred, harm, or humans.  And I would kill any and every human that got in my way.

When Rae’s body was nothing but ashes I let my rage lead the way and chased down any rumors that hinted of a fae.  The first to join me and my mission was a young boy, who I reached just as the townspeople tied him to his pyre.  When the flames began to reach for him I redirected them into the crowd, sparing no building or human.  Together we left the town smoldering and drenched in blood.  

Town after town were reduced to ash, or swept away by the ocean they lived near, and my following grew.  Every fae had a story similar to mine, and all were eager to build a home with me as their leader.  Rae haunted me, and her memory lurked in the dark corners I came across on my journey.  

My name became synonymous with the reaper and humans began to gather together, hoping that there would be safety in numbers, despite the exact opposite being true.  My compatriots and I trained for infiltration and used the elements and earth to pull the humans out of their homes before slaughtering them.  Each city decimated meant less humans to hunt us, and yet I never found the ones that mattered most.  That woman, that wife of mine, escaped me still and I yearned to kill her as mercilessly as she did Rae. 

My search for her and the child that must be the same as Rae was when she died continues. I can’t stop, won’t stop, until I find them and make that woman pay. Maybe I’ll make our child my disciple, and turn them against the humans it was born to.