8: Cliques and Outcasts
The blue dolphin swam around the church ruins, taking in every tiny detail with the speed natural to a Water faerie. Stained-glass murals, headless angels and broken alters were all analysed in the space of a few minutes, but Phantasia expected nothing less from Faye.
“Princess, you are privileged to recuperate in such a place,” said her lady-in-waiting. Her flat voice was speaking through her totem, an ethereal projection sent from the safety of the Water Queendom. “There exists thousands of year’s worth of knowledge in these walls. Currently, I am only capable of reading the upper layers of memory due to the limitations of my astral form,”
“More than I can,” said Phantasia with a wry smile. She picked up an old tome, whose battered pages had endured a thousand years of schizophrenic weather conditions. “This is all I’ve got, and there’s barely enough words left to fill a page. I can hardly believe it survived at all,”
Faye’s totem swan up to the roof to examine a nest of young birds, chirping in at the dawn light. “It is fortunate that some humans refrained from shutting themselves away from their mistakes, or else we would not have what little remains of the world,”
“They’re not as bad as they’re made out to be,” said Phantasia. It was a controversial subject to raise with a Water faerie. Even Faye, born into a generation of faeries under the reign of human-friendly leaders such as Queen Thetis and Prince Dionysus, would have a hard time rejecting the lessons taught for centuries.
“Your conclusion is based on limited evidence,” was Faye’s anticipated retort, “”Do not forget that the world would not be in the state it is now, were it not for their countless mistakes. From the moment they broke their treaties with our kind and created demons, to the technological empire that severed them from reality completely, they have constantly abused our world.”
“Maybe if our people hadn’t manipulated them so much!” Phantasia shot back. It was turning into that argument again. “Every time they rediscovered the world they abandoned, the Seelie came along and erased all memory of it! Humans had no choice but to follow the path they were on, because every time they found another one it was covered up!”
“Princess, you know and understand what happened in the past, and why it happened. I do not understand why you continue to question the logical actions of our people. When the Seelie disbanded, and humans regained their knowledge of our people, it brought a new age of demons to the surface,”
Phantasia picked herself up and began to pace up and down the aisle. “And now look at the world! Now the Seelie Court is formed from faeries and humans! Without that co-operation, Erebus would have destroyed the world. Queen Titania believed in humans, I don’t see why they’re still demonified!”
Though the dolphin was motionless aside from a gentle bobbing, Phantasia knew Faye would be shaking her head with a frown on her face, like a teacher confronted by an ignorant sprite.
“It is only logical to assume that the majority of humans are not as enlightened as those accepted into the Seelie,” said Faye, “You have yourself already witnessed some of the destruction they are capable of, have you not?”
Phantasia averted her gaze to the floor and scuffed her feet. Arguing with a Water faerie without substantial evidence was futile. Of course! She smirked and met Faye’s eyes again.
“Then I’ll just have to prove it to you, won’t I?”
***
