A Court of Shadows and Stars (Azriel Fanfiction)

Forty One- The Vlag do love their collars

Forty One- The Vlag do love their collars

"Mortals name their shoes?" Helion asked raising his eyebrows in the process. From beside him Tamlin scoffed.

I turned to Cassian, mortified that he had to bring that up and make me sound like some dimwitted simpleton but luckily Rhys interrupted.

"Their world is so different to ours, no wonder Prince Klaos decided to cross into it,"

"The Prince wasn't a known realm crosser," Thesan said, "The mere fact that he managed to exist in a particular realm for twenty mortal years speaks a lot of his power,"

"Tell me Kaira, does your uncle possess any physical Fae attributes?" Kallias asked.

I shook my head, "He looks just like a mortal does,"

"It could be mere shape shifting," Kallias said to the rest of the High Lords with a shake of his head.

It was Tarquin who got to the most important question that we all had been waiting for.

"What about the Vlag?"

The tension in the room seemed to rise by the second. Orcus was here, they had a right to know but I just couldn't bring myself to tell them. Not yet. Not until I knew for sure who's side I was on.

Rhysand spoke, "The threat is real. The Vlag have moved on from the previous world they wanted to inhabit. The Fae there managed to push them away and even kill Erawan in the process,"

"How do you know all of this?" Tamlin asked.

"That's because I do," Amren snapped, "And don't ask me how I know all of this, what's important is that now we all know what to expect so stop fussing over the petty details boy,"

Tamlin's face soured further but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut.

"We still don't know if the Vlag mean to just merely pass through our world or take over ours. There was only one reported death in the Night Court," Feyre said and continued, "Kaira managed to find the source of what had murdered this Fae,"

"Murder you say?" Tarquin asked.

I nodded, "The evidence left behind definitely pointed out to a murder although the murderer tried to make it look like a suicide. On further anatomical evaluation I found traces of Vlag energy around the heart area- her arteries had exploded, the valves sealed shut," I paused, the memory of her blocked blood vessels coming to mind. It looked like it had been blocked with tar- reminding me of the basic stages of atherosclerosis, "What I found out pointed out to the obvious, the Vlag infestation had begun from her heart and yet hadn't had the chance to spread through the rest of the body. It had blocked the simple blood flow to her heart leading to the obvious- myocardial infarction,"

Realization dawned over me, I turned to a perplexed looking Rhysand, "You said that the Vlag took over someone by infesting their mind. The Vlag now are finding another route- through the heart,"

"Myocardial Infarction?" Thesan asked.

"Oh," I said realizing that I had just gone on a rant without pausing to clarify things, "She died of a heart attack, at least that's what it looks like. A heart attack basically occurs when the blood flow to the heart is obstructed,"

"So the Vlag trying to enter through the heart?" Kallias inquired.

I shook my head, "By the obvious looks of it, it was a failure,"

"Which explains the lack of deaths, they're still finding a proper way to infest," Tarquin said with a shake of his head.

"Or it could be that they have found a way and now the infestation had already begun," Eris said.

The room seemed to go entirely still. The possible chance of the Vlag already taking over seemed to change the entire direction on where this meeting was going.

"How do we stop them? How did the Fae in the other world stop them?" Viviane asked.

It was Amren who replied, "The best way around killing the Vlag is to chop off their head. We have to look for the telltale signs of the Vlag infested, they used to wear collars and rings in the previous world,"

"So we need to keep an eye out for that," Rhysand said.

"Anything else?" Tamlin asked.

"If rings and collars are used, we could drive out the Vlag away from the person they've infected although the process doesn't always work out. My informant himself was once under the influence of the Vlag, had a collar put to him, he was able to penetrate through the Vlag's defenses- his father however was under the influence for years and he couldn't survive the recovery," Amren said with a shake of her head.

"Anything else your informant liked to share with us?" It was Eris who had an eyebrow raised in challenge. It was so typical of him to assume that the Night Court kept extra information to themselves. "Right now that's all we got," Rhysand countered with equal venom almost as if he read his mind.

An awkward silence followed.

"So," I said, clapping my hands against my knees, "Other than increasing the security around the area, what else can we do?"

The Fae exchanged uneasy looks amongst one another.

It was Helion who spoke, "We need to speak to the source, the last surviving Fae who interacted with the Vlag,"

Rhysand turned his gaze to me.

"We need to speak to Prince Klaos,"