¤ Visit to the Fridge

‘Oi, Lady Silver, do your feet hurt too much for you to walk? Do you need a strong, handsome knight like me to carry you?’ Jaysen’s call broke Silver out of her revelry. The faraway look in her grey eyes faded away for a moment, and she realised that she was lagging behind Ida and Jaysen.

‘I’d rather be left behind,’ Silver replied as she jogged to catch up.

‘But you know I wouldn’t let you do that, dear damsel.’ Jaysen turned to her, his hands spread in a gesture of hurt feelings.

Silver rolled her eyes, then continued to brood on the strange dream she had last night. What exactly happened in the dream, she could not remember, but she had woken up feeling mildly triumphant and strangely satisfied.

Ah, if only Grendel could see this: Me, a Librarian, brooding over dreams and portents! Silver chuckled a little at the face she imagined her old mentor would give, then hurried to catch up with the other two again, brushing the dream off to the back of her head.

Hedwig’s manor suited her, Jaysen thought. It stood haughtily above the other residences in Orbis Park, golden gates set in high ivy-covered walls barricading the rest of the world off. The smooth marble of the manor’s walls were a sterile white that reminded Jaysen of the insides of Niora Hospital.

He wondered, irrelevantly, if the temperature inside this place was cold enough to freeze a sundae; it sure looked like a fridge and he could do with some ice cream right now. Privately, Jaysen made up his mind to start referring to this place as the Fridge. As for the mistress of the place… how about Her Frigidness?

‘I have this feeling we don’t go through here.’ Silver stared up at the forbidding gates. Looking around, she could not see a single living soul in the lush gardens behind the gates. ‘She’s a Regent after all, why doesn’t she have any guards at her main gate?’

‘I suppose if you are a big, scary, powerful sorceress, you wouldn’t need too many guards?’ Jaysen ran a hand along one of the details in the gate’s twisting lattices. ‘I mean, I’ll just threaten all intruders with a blast of freezing cold ice cream from this Fridge. They’ll all run away screaming.’

There was a bewildered silence. ‘What, may I ask, is the connection between screams and frozen dairy product?’ Silver said blandly.

Jaysen heaved a mocking sigh of exasperation. ‘Ice cream, ice scream. Get it? Ow! Hey, I spent hours polishing those Moss Boots! ‘

Silver continued to search for people in the grounds beyond the gates, steadfastly ignoring the complaining Jaysen who was hopping up and down on one foot while he nursed the other one which she had stepped on.

‘She said the servant’s entrance right? Come, I think I know where.’ Ida said, her voice a little dull. She did not seem to have recovered from her gloomy mood, but she had not told any of them the reason for it either.

Ida led them around the corner of one of the walls, and sure enough, there was a small, plain metal gate set into the wall. Before this, however, stood a fairy guard clad in light armour and armed with a spear.

‘Excuse me, we would like to speak to Lady Hedwig?’ Silver approached the guard.

‘What business do you mortal riff-raff have with the Regent?’ The guard said brusquely.

Silver twitched at the contempt in his voice. She showed him Hedwig’s ring. ‘She told us that this would gain us entrance.’ The guard examined the ring, then snorted. ‘It’s just a plain old ring. Am I supposed to let everyone with a ring into the Regent’s manor? Don’t waste my time, mortal child.’

‘What?!’ Silver almost yelped, but calmed down at Jaysen’s restraining hand on her shoulder.

Jaysen tried in his most charming tone. ‘Good lord, if you would be so kind, please check to see if our claim is valid. We have urgent business with the Frid- I mean, the Regent.’

‘Let me tell you what I think-’ The guard started to say, raising the heavy looking spear in his hand. Fortunately, they did not get a chance to know what he thought, because he was interrupted by another voice coming from behind him.

‘That’s enough, Zereff. I’ll take it from here.’

The guard Zereff turned, confused. ‘But, but, Mistress Ariex!’

‘Do you dare defy the Regent’s orders?’ Hedwig’s attendant came into view at the narrow doorway, her faint aura distinct in the cool shade of the house. She showed something in her hands to the guard, and he let the three of them past without further questions.

What on earth is Hedwig playing at? Silver thought angrily. She obviously didn’t give us proper clearance. Silently, Silver added a few more choice words to the list of names she kept for Hedwig in her head.

They followed Ariex closely as she walked along the narrow corridors of the servant’s walkways. While this part of a grand manor like Hedwg’s should have been bustling with activity, the place was eerily quiet. There were no cooks busying in the kitchen, no maids squabbling, none of the normal chaos that accompanied the elaborate preparations needed to run a rich household. Other than two or three more servants, it seemed like the entire building was empty save for Ariex, Hedwig, and Zereff outside.

How much the fairy Royalty have deteriorated. Silver thought grimly. Still, it seemed like Hedwig could maintain the loyalties of her remaining servants very well, if one could judge from Ariex and Zereff.

‘Wait here.’ Ariex brought them into a drawing room of sorts and left the room through a door behind a hanging tapestry. The room was richly decorated, with several large oil paintings hanging above finely carved wooden chairs covered in plush velvet cushions. The atmosphere it created was far from comfortable though; it was as if the room was daring the dust to settle down onto its luxurious furniture.

The three of them stood uncomfortably in the centre of the room.

‘Why aren’t we sitting down?’ Ida asked, her green eyes shifting nervously from one oil painting to another.

‘I don’t think Hedwig and Ariex would take kindly to imbeciles laying a single finger on their precious furniture.’ Silver regarded the chairs apprehensively. They looked strange, with very low backs to accommodate for fairy wings, and did not look particularly comfortable for humans.

Jaysen examined a statuette on a side table, which was in the shape of the fairy lady in the Royal family’s emblem. Although it was made out of expensive looking marble, the carving was a little crude, it seemed a little out of place in this luxurious setting. Still, it was exquisite work, mounted on a wooden stand that was made up of the same, dark brown wood as the table.

I ought to make this trip to the Fridge worth my while, Jaysen thought. Besides, Her Frigidness wouldn’t miss something small like this. Looking around to check if anyone was watching, he steadily reached out to the statuette. But before he could remove it from its place, Ariex had come back from the next room. ‘The Regent will see you now.’

Another time, my love, Jaysen promised the statuette silently. No point being a thief if you could pilfer, right?

¤ Rumination

Hedwig leant back in her low throne, flexing her wings a little in irritation. She fingered the grip of her staff, as she gazed aimlessly at the entrance to the throne room. She had not thought that those mortals could have succeeded in getting back the necklace so quickly. After all, she had trained those Lucidas in the Garden of Darkness personally.There was no reason how those beasts could have failed her.

Hedwig’s gaze shifted to the worn out journal that lay on the arm of her throne. She had gone through the book once, and she shuddered to think what could have gone wrong if she had not been alerted to the journal’s presence. Some would have said that the book contained incriminating evidence, but Hedwig preferred to think that the book was merely full of slanderous lies. Of course, she treated this book as she had treated any of the numerous slanderous lies that had cropped up over her years as Regent.

She looked around the empty room, running her eyes over the familiar trappings, and the golden throne that sat on the dais a few steps above the low throne she was in. Hedwig hated every inch of this room, this manor, even the crown on her head. She felt trapped in this, caged away from her true potential. What would she give to be able to be rid of this dusty tomb!

By courtesy of her marriage to Verchiel, she was given the title Regent. But it was nothing! Nothing, simply an empty title. Truly infinite power was only available to the one who sat on the raised golden throne, as the rightful fairy Ruler.

Still, this was no kingdom to rule. Orbis, once the immortals’ haven, now reduced to ruins, and open to all mortal scum to wipe their filthy feet on its divine grounds, treating Orbis like some common playground. If only she was Ruler then! Then it would not have been so.

Hedwig’s lip twisted into a snarl at that very thought. She had had it all in the palm of her hand, only to have it all crumble to the wind, like so much sand. She knew whose fault it was, that brought her to this sorry stage, imprisoning her in this illusion of power.

And even this ersatz designation as Regent wasn’t secure, when it could be so easily threatened by the meddlesome poking of some mortals! Heavens, what had she done to deserve this!

Frustrated, Hedwig thumped the butt of her staff on the floor, longing to be able to blast something apart.

Her brooding spiral of thoughts was interrupted by Ariex’s announcement of the mortals. Swiftly, a cool mask of indifference was on her face, something that she had perfected in her long years as a courtier. Wearing your heart on your sleeve was the sure-fire way to suicide in the intricate games that the fairy Court played, and she was accustomed to being the one manipulating others.

No way was she about to let those pathetic mortals gain the upper hand by revealing her emotions.

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It’s raining over here. And I’m in an air-con room. *shivers*

I love writing Hedwig. In fact, I love writing bad evil people. Must be some latent ebilness in me speaking. (And it says, yo!)

Just wondering, is it horrible and painful to have to wade through thick chunks of description? I know I tend to wax overly lyrical when I do descriptive passages… and a comment on the previous chapter made me think.

Almond and Chocolate Chip Cookies for thou who hast journeyed with me thus far!