A Modern Fairytale

The sweet briar rose

Valerie's fist didn't actually send Ulric very far away. He was thrown out of the castle, but as soon as he was out of the premises, he spread his night-black wings and halted mid-air. He glanced back in the direction from which he had come, briefly, and then continued flying away until he reached the shore. From a distance, he could see a floating Navitusia out above the sea. Ulric chuckled lightly. Would the king with his head in the clouds really honor his agreement with a warrior princess that bathed in the blood of her enemies?

He'd heard of the blue-eyed Valerie Ginemoux, just as he'd heard of the warmongering Valen Ginemoux, before he met them in person. Valen was everything they said he would be. The blue-eyed Valerie was someone he would never meet; such a shame, they said such good things about her.

And as his feet touched the soft sand, Ulric knew that a golden-eyed Valerie was on her way. Why else would she punch him with her bare fist? Because he called Iefan a "pup"?

...don't be ridiculous. She would not have been able to pull so many strings if she was one to act on impulse like that.

The semi-fallen angel looked upon Navitusia for just a second before turning around, a crooked smile on his lips. He took a few steps back, slowly, throwing his arms open wide as he watched a golden speck descend.

"I am here! Just as you planned. I've followed your script every step of the way. What is my reward? Is it death? If that's the case, make me suffer. You've done so much at this point I doubt I'll even feel your blade."

The golden speck enlarged until the red-haired fairy landed a few feet from him—surprisingly far, considering that she always asserted her presence with an in-your-face approach. Valerie, or Valen—it didn't matter.

It...really didn't matter.

And how much brighter her eyes seemed to be.

"Nice to meet you too," Valerie said, standing right where she'd landed with seemingly no intention to shorten the distance between them. "I take responsibility, of course, for the other half of me that I have now annexed—"

"'Annexed', huh?" Rarely did he interrupt, but he certainly did now. "Is your own soul a conquest to you? Have you run out of things to take over?"

He dropped his arms—and she lifted a finger as if to correct him. "This was my first conquest. Before anything, anywhere, or anyone else, I conquered myself first."

"So everything is a conquest. What about King Alasdair?" Ulric asked, casually.

Valerie began walking to him then. "I don't think that's the question you are actually asking."

"Then?" He stayed put, as did his smirk.

Stopping right beside him, the fairy mumbled by his ear in a volume only he could hear—even if the new fairy king's devices were anywhere near them.

"I want to find out what lies under the ruins of Venethema."

Ulric's smirk vanished. His gaze grew alert—but alive. "Are you sure about that?"

"Have you seen it?"

"No."

"For an entire century, it's been covered by far-fetched dreams and fabricated imagination. I want to know what the late queen is hiding under her curse."

"Is that what you wanted when you came twice to Venethema?"

"Yes. I won't apologize—it wasn't me, but it was me. Besides, I technically didn't take anything from you...not even your life."

"You are cruel, Valerie Ginemoux."

Valerie stepped back from him, once again adopting a distance sufficient for her to meet his gaze properly.