A Modern Fairytale

Sure, I'll have this dance.

Long, long ago, elementals lived on land. There was no kingdom in the sky—or anything in the sky except ordinary clouds and the actual heavens. Elementals lived amongst fairies, wreaking even more havoc than what their winged neighbors had always been so infamous for. Unlike fairies, each elemental commanded only one element; they did not use spells. Some could fly, others could not; either way, none had wings. As a matter of fact, elementals were barely sentient beings. They acted on instinct, and although they spoke with one another, there was not much depth to their interactions. Most of the time, water elementals caused the most damage in Mecrisdale. Fire elementals, while more adventurous by nature, were constrained by the natural features of the land. Perhaps reasonably so, it was those two kinds that were paid most attention to. Air elementals...

"Royal decree," said an air elemental, sitting on a fallen branch with a scroll in his hands. "All elementals are banned from the capital."

"Tch," came a sound of disapproval from his companion. "It wasn't even us."

"All elementals are the same to them. Besides, they don't even see us most of the time. We might as well not exist."

"They see us clearly enough when they enforce those laws, though," said a third voice. The two turned to find another air elemental hovering behind them, a pouch of nuts in his hands. "Want some?"

"How are you so casual about this?" Neither of the two took any nuts.

"What would you want from the capital anyway?" asked the third person, "If you don't have a reason to be at the capital, why are you so angry about being banned from it?"

After asking this question, the elemental floated away, not even staying to hear the answer—if there was one at all.

☆☆☆

Little by little, the air elementals became aware of the unfairness of their ostracization—included in the punishments, excluded from the privileges, unnoticed for their striking similarity with the fairies. In the beginning, they did not pay much mind to it; it had been that way for many years, after all, and one seldom questions the environment they were raised in. However unreasonable the circumstances, if one grew up in them, they become common sense. Did they need anything from the capital that they couldn't gain access to otherwise? No, not really. Were they persecuted more frequently? That they did not quite know, but there were no combined records for all to see, and individual grievances stay only as that unless somebody brings it all together—unless somebody collects all of them and shows to everyone involved how unfair it all is.

That person was Sepher Andilet. A pouch of nuts in hand, he hovered throughout Mecrisdale, starting conversations and never finishing them, leaving every elemental that had a mind thinking long after he left them. He did not even know the names of most that he spoke to, but it didn't matter.

"It is time," he announced one day, when all foundations were laid, "To build our own kingdom...to depart from Mecrisdale. We do not need them—so stop serving them."

With air elementals convinced, those of other elements simply followed. They followed because it was natural for them to do so, not because they had any higher ideals or, indeed, any ideals at all. Elementals, once in servitude to maintain the four seasons in Mecrisdale stable, took to the skies.

From then on, the revolutionary became King Sepher—and he never stepped down.

No wars were fought; the elementals simply left. The fairies did not pursue them, believing that their departure was actually for the better, as along with them they took the chaos they used to cause that the faefolk themselves did not desire. Maybe the fae could make up for their newfound lack with their own magic; maybe the elementals destroyed more than they built.

And, as almost always...the fairies were right.

☆☆☆

"Pft...kh...!"

Throughout Sepher's monologue, Reginvalt had tried to keep on a neutral expression. While that was normally quite easy to do, the king of fairies had anticipated the turn of events from the beginning and started laughing in his mind long before the first chuckle slipped out. Each time he did, air would disappear from his lungs for a second.

"It has been...so long," Sepher said, ignoring the fairy otherwise, "Since I last told anybody about this. Ah, no, actually...it hasn't been that long, only a few centuries."

"Let me guess," said Reginvalt, "Someone in the army you swept away knew, and you killed them because this is a national emba—ngh!"

"Witches are far more difficult than fairies. They are often self-made."

Witches?

"Understandable, I suppose. But witches—"

"They can make themselves immortal. We are also immortal. That would be a problem, you see, if what happened does not disappear."

"Don't tell me you killed everyone who knew."

Sepher shrugged.

"Elementals?"

"And now you."

King Sepher should have known, if he really had observed fairies—or at least King Reginvalt—for such a long time, that the fairy king may have at least stored the information he had gained somewhere in the time that they had been conversing. Indeed, Sepher knew that he would have tried. And indeed, fairies were capable of magic that elementals were not—even if air elementals had always been the more sentient amongst their own kind. However, with air elementals holding dominion over something so vital to basic survival to all living beings, only one thing mattered: who made the first move?

Reginvalt Boneflare came from a family of tinkers. He liked to be able to hold his magic in his hands.

He had noticed, for a long time now, that every breath he took was measured. He had been kept alive sufficiently to speak with the founder of Navitusia, sure, but a flow of magic would have disrupted his life force.

"...pft." Alone with the other monarch, he still chuckled. "You will learn, Sepher Andilet."