Advent Story 2012: The Fae World: Willow: On Earth (part 10)

[kajones_writing]

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Willow nodded. She’d heard stories about fae who had left because they hadn’t been comfortable with the partner their parents chose and most of the time they had no choice but to travel through one of the many doors that were scattered over the surface of their old world. It was something she planned to put a stop to, because she could easily imagine having wanted to leave her life behind if her father had asked her to handfast someone from the thirteen families. For he it would have been even harder to say no. When your father was the king… she’d always hated being a princess, especially as she was the youngest, and the thought of having to handfast someone because he wanted an alliance had terrified her.

“If I can put a stop to the arranged handfastings I will, because I think they’re wrong,” Willow said, looking at Alder.

Alder smiled at her. “You know as well as I do most fae girls are happy to do what their parents think is right.” He turned his attention to George. “All the fae are taught to respect our parents and often the choices are made together, the girl getting to make the final decision, but there are some, like my father, who are so focused on one thing, normally magic, that they forget that fae parents are meant to respect their children too. It’s especially important when one of the children is 300-years-old and their parents are trying to push them into a handfasting because of the other family’s powers.”

“I would never have had much of a choice. As my father was a king of the fae he had to find the right partners for all his children and he saw that as one of the most important things he could do, because he knew that making certain alliances was important for us.” Willow sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Things are going to be very different now.” She looked at George. “As the magic of our world faded the older fae faded with it. I don’t know why it was the older fae, or if there was some other reason, but the majority of the survivors are young fae.”

“What do you mean by young?” George asked.

“The eldest person I saw walk through the gate, apart from the elders, probably wasn’t much older than 100, which for us is very young,” Alder replied.

“How old are the elders?”

“The eldest of the elders is around 400,” Willow answered, trying to remember them all. “They’ve been my father’s advisers since he took the throne, even though they weren’t the elders then, because he never felt comfortable with the fae who had been his father’s advisers. I don’t know why, because I never asked, but now that I’ve taken on the job of being the Queen I’m guessing he wasn’t happy with their point of view.”

“Aren’t the elders chosen because they’re the eldest of the family?” George asked, sounding confused, which wasn’t really a surprise.

“It depends. Alder was chosen because he was the eldest in his family and his family was huge before the magic faded.” Willow looked at Alder, thinking about what had happened. “I have a feeling it wasn’t just the elderly fae who was affected, but also the fae with specific abilities. My family… As I said before I’ve lost everyone but my father so far, and I think it’s because our ability to create doors uses a lot of power, so we have a deeper well, if that makes sense. Alder’s family also had abilities that needed a lot of power, so I have a feeling that you experienced so much loss because of those abilities. We only survived because we were young, but I don’t think we would have done if we’d stayed there for much longer.”

Alder nodded. “Since I stepped onto Earth I’ve felt much more alive, although my magic feels different. I think your theory may be at least partially correct.”

“We’re not like the thirteen families,” Willow continued, returning to the subject she was originally talking about. “There are more families than there are places on the council and as far as I know it’s been years since the true elders took places on the council.” She smiled. “Most of the elders want to take the time they have to enjoy their lives, so they pass on the job of looking after the council to someone they feel would be most suited to it. My father asked the fae he felt closest to and most comfortable with to take the places of the previous council, because that was something the King could do. If I wanted I could change the council, but I don’t think it would do a lot of good right now, and they are now the eldest of their families.”

“Some of the fae who had called Willow’s father their King chose not to travel to Earth because they didn’t believe her when she told them what was happening.”

“The elders only followed me because they felt they had no choice, so their families also followed, and we were joined by others from different groups of the fae. What I want to try to do is incorporate those families into our council, but I think that would be just as difficult as getting rid of the current elders and replacing them.”

“Could you create an elected council?” George asked, sounding as though he knew what the answer was going to be.

“I might be able to do it, given time, but I doubt it. The elders feel they deserve a place on the council, so they wouldn’t be in favour of an elected council, and I wouldn’t be able to convince them otherwise, because none of them view me as anything more than an upstart child who’s been making huge mistakes ever since I took on the job of ruling the fae.” Willow shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about them right now.”

“There are a couple of elders,” Alder said, drawing Willow’s attention to him, “who might be coming around to your point of view. Since we arrived here some of the ill fae have got better and they were related to those elders, so I think they’re beginning to realise that the choice you made was the right one.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.