The Queen of Arabeth

Chapter 7: Starting Over

The grass is spongy beneath my feet, dipping down softly with each step I take.

Celestia strides smoothly beside me, just beyond an arm's reach away. Her hands are clasped neatly behind her back. She slows, allowing me to set the pace.

We walk towards a creek tumbling into the palace pond a few meters ahead. My boots squelch as the plants surrounding us turn marshy. Small spurts of trees grow near the burbling water.

I duck my head beneath a branch, gripping the trunk for support.

Golden eyes watch me curiously.

"You leave for battle tomorrow? On the full moon?"

She nods and I can't fucking read her expression.

She's so poised, so elegant.

My insides are frayed and ragged and she doesn't have a hair out of place.

I glance over my shoulder. Between my and Celestia's guards a ridiculous amount of soldiers have trailed behind us.

I turn back to Celestia and breathe through the nerves. It's like the air between us is thicker somehow. Like we exist in a separate world from everyone else. "Can we..." I choose my words carefully, "get some privacy? I don't trust anyone else with this but you."

She nods and gestures curtly with one hand. "Leave us."

In a moment they're gone.

Fuck, this is worse.

All of her attention presses in on me, and I drop to one knee, digging through my bag to deflect it.

She stands before me, patient, waiting.

"That hasn't changed at all you know." I mutter.

Celestia tilts her head, an amused smile playing on her lips.

"You being so–" I gesture broadly at her, trying to find the word. Tall, elegant, powerful– none of them are enough to describe her. She crosses her arms, her smile widening as she listens to my heartbeat. "You're a lot, Celestia. I still get so mesmerized by you."

"What do you have to show me, little mouse?"

I blush furiously, ducking my head as I stoop closer to the water. Judging by the expression on her face, she sees it anyway.

"You go to battle tomorrow." I unfold the blank map, shaking out the bits of pine needles and dirt that have accumulated in its corners. "You need this."

She scans the yellowing parchment in my hands. A crude, simplistic map of Arabeth marks its front. Jagged mountains in the south, succubi's valleys in the west, and icy, elven lands in the north.

"This is a star mapper's guide. The only one left in existence, I think. Cole gave it to me the day my–" the air catches in my throat and I stumble over the words, "the day my parents died. I want to use it to bring peace to the fae."

I kneel on the smooth river rock, submerging the parchment in the stream. Beneath the water, the map comes to life. Varying shades of blue and black lines materialize, each marking miles of tunnels carved beneath the earth's surface. The lines spread in every direction, criss crossing beneath the mountains, connecting the different kingdoms like roots beneath the earth. Some stretch all the way across the map, from deep in werewolf territory to the high north, peaking at the edge of the elves' kingdom.

Celestia steps closer, her dark eyebrows furrowing.

I pull the map from the water, smoothing it out over a flat stone. "You've been mostly using the main eastern tunnel." I point, tracing my finger down the thick, blue line running beneath the mountain range. "It's wide enough to hold an army and opens frequently, but once you're in you're trapped. I think you should use some of these." I point to a handful of thin blue lines dissecting off the main tunnel. "They're smaller and open for shorter spurts of time. But they all lead into the main tunnel, opening up about twenty meters up the cave wall. You could send in a handful of soldiers, save your army, and pick off the wolves as they march through. The alpha wouldn't even make it to the trees."