56: Wake-up Call
“And that is what I have learned from today: that there are some things I cannot predict,” answered Faye, “Queen Thetis told me to anticipate this revelation after I had spent some time with humans. Although I was aware that they were capable of unpredictable actions, it was only by witnessing them for myself that I came to understand my own lack of understanding. The actions some of your friends took were not based on reasoned analysis or atypical behavioural patterns, but on their emotions, their hopes and their dreams. As much as I may have tried to control their actions, in the end I lack the understanding of such unpredictable concepts to manipulate them fully,”
It wouldn’t stop her, of course, just change her strategies, but she was a Water faerie and that was her nature. Queen Thetis was just mature enough to hide her agendas behind subtleties and emotional understanding.
“So,” began Phantasia, knowing there was no point in continuing that argument, “You thinking they deserve a second chance now?”
Faye’s expression didn’t change, not that it ever did. “Perhaps,”
***
A day before, Alastor’s Underworld abode had bustled with unholy life as the monstrous demon and his army of minions prepared for his manifestation in the human world. He would rain death and destruction upon the humans whose ancestors had once defeated him so soundly, and the deaths of his victims would open the way for his followers to join him in his new empire. Within a day they would have turned the human settlement of Torsten into a human Hell.
Only Alastor was nothing more than a corruption, a demon who had become so consumed by his desire for vengeance he had become vengeance. Alastor was the sort of nightmare the humans assumed all demons were, the sort of disease who lived off of their suffering and desired only more and greater power. A monster, and nothing more. To see that arrogant beast abandoned by his fickle army, to see his castle left an empty shell, and to see Alastor himself reduced to nothing more than a raging shadow trapped on a plane below this, his previous home, but above his desired destination, was almost enough to make Tirio smile. And Tirio rarely smiled.
“You! My remaining subject…” whimpered the projection of the gaping maw, the demon’s rage at the failed manifestation tempered by his desperation to escape his solitary imprisonment, “At least you have not abandoned me. Even when fallen from light, the faeries of Earth never waiver in their loyalty!”
Tirio did not reply. He had no need to. The world opened beside him and the black cloaked Reaper stepped out from the lower plane.
“The remnants of the monstrosity have been dealt with,” she announced, “Diffaith wishes us to deal with…” she frowned at Alastor, “This,”
Alastor’s projection receded at the sight of the Death faerie as soon as her eyes locked upon him. “Death! Why would Death come before me?” he cowered, his shadow wavering in fear. “Be rid of that curse, my loyal subject! Free me from this place and the rewards shall be numerous, my loyal, loyal subject!”
“Indeed I am loyal,” said Tirio, “But I do not recall swearing that loyalty to you,”
~ What fate awaits Alastor?! ~
~ Next: Bad Dreams ~
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So that’s the end of that. Almost. Next chapter wraps it up with a look at how everyone is coping with the fallout – if this were a TV series, it would be the end-of-season.
But all of this was in many ways ‘part one’ of a two-part story. The second half of this arc will hopefully deal with most of the questions you may still have – and start asking a whole lot more!
I was going to have some illustrations for the last scene, but have put my efforts into the stuff for next chapter. You’ll just have to wait a little longer to see what a Death Faerie looks like…
Things to Note
~ The observant among you may notice that Alexis is referred to as the shaman ‘leader’, when in fact the head shaman was shot and killed during the ritual. An error? Recall that the story is told from character viewpoints: that’s Theseus assuming Alexis is the leader, because he doesn’t realise any different
~ Similarly, Ms Chiltern wasn’t using holograms – that was just Theseus’s reasoning. Her primary ‘talent’ is astral projection, which is also how she invaded Alexis’s ‘dreams’ last chapter.
~ In a wider sense, there’s a theme of dreams, memories, masquerades and sexuality revolving around that little coven of witches (if you hadn’t already noticed!). That’s due to their association with Princess Titania (theme-wise, not story-wise).
~ The idea that Phantasia has, or is developing, a messiah-complex is something that only came to light when I was writing that scene. An obvious observation from the one character who could notice it: if you’ve ever heard a writer talk about characters ‘writing themselves’, this is what they mean!
Gotto love that “tele-frag” Phantasia did to Alastor
I never thought of it that way!
I can’t say that there’s a specific part that I like more than any other in this arc. There are bits and pieces scattered throughout that I find interesting.
As I enjoy seeing the development of characters through difficult situations the most, a lot of the realizations for them that came at the end were fascinating.
As for Phantasia’s developing complex- I was under the impression that she was born for that reason. Of course, I also think that humans are capable of learning to do what she does, and that her role is more to teach them. Hopefully she doesn’t become too prideful about her part in removing the corruption-I wouldn’t want to see her fall to the darkness herself.
What I don’t get is, why Phoenie is so silent through the revelation that it’s their teachers clouding their memories. I would imagine her to foam with rage, delivering a passionate speech or something like that.
And messiah-complex non withstanding – I recall a nice saying:
It’s not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
Nice (pre?-)epilogue to a fantastic arc. Really looking forward to the 2nd part!
Phoenie’s not there – she escorted the sacrifices they saved out a different way, along with Andromeda and Kaori (which means none of them bore witness to the amalgam, saw what happened with Alexis, or got cornered by a golem – that they ‘got off easy’ will have some nice repercussions)
Ah, there was something. Now I remember!
Ok, now the pieces fit
But why didn’t the injured Joel go with them…
But never mind that. I can’t picture him going quietly
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Somehow my comment vanished…
Well, now that you mention it… There was something like that.
But now I wonder why Joel didn’t go with them…
Never mind though, I can’t picture him going quietly
You got marked for spam, for some reason! It does that sometimes – small sacrifice for not having reams of viagra ads in the comments though XD
Faye pretty much took charge of the situation. Joel’s attitude would’ve just caused trouble had he gone with the first group, and is better used as a distraction/diversion (which was what the second group were told to do, so the others could escape)