The Bad Fairy (girlxgirlxgirl)

52. Nerves

💧

"Orders from the new king!"

Whispers and yells spread out over the palace. A palace which previously consisted of a whole lot of fairies pretending to be asleep, is now a palace full of very much awake fairies running around left and right. Soldiers rush down the hallways loud enough for the entire palace to be woken up. Their boots are heavy against the stone floors, their swords are drawn, full armour is on and unlike a usual nightly patrol, they yell and shout and get angry at anyone acting too calm.

This is the night of the blue moon. The wind is howling and the rain is drumming on every surface possible. The king's personal soldiers have told other soldiers and servants about what is going on. Their words spread like wildfire, friends bursting into each other's rooms to see if they have heard the news. The soldiers standing in front of the queen's quarters grow incredibly surprised, and are startled awake from their standing slumber, when ten royal guards suddenly barge in front of them.

"Open up the doors. Orders from the new king."

"New king?"

They look at each other, confused. In just a few minutes, nobody in the palace will be confused. And in just a few hours, nobody in the entire capital will be confused. Everyone will know what is going on. It might be the middle of the night, and fairies might need all the sleep they can get, but on the night of the blue moon, anything can happen.

"Which new king?"

The lower ranking soldiers that guard the queen's chambers are not entirely convinced by the higher ranking king's soldiers, who stand stoic and increasingly irritated in front of them. The guards, who are dressed in royal silver, look to the highest ranking among them to say something. He takes a step forward, slamming his lance to the floor. "The new king, his majesty king Nayan, has ordered the arrest of the queen. Open the doors or let them be opened for you."

The guards quickly move to the side, but the surprise doesn't fade away from their faces. They burst open the doors and rush inside, spreading mud and loudness into the otherwise peaceful chambers of the ageing queen. The first thing they see is a younger servant girl, who quickly drops her silver tray of evening cakes at the sight of them. She scurries off to stand against the wall with her head bowed. The candles are lit inside the room and the servants are still awake, the guards observe. That must mean that the queen is awake, too.

One of the guards turns to the servant, voice rough and words short. "Where is the queen?"

Having no choice, the girl who has probably served the queen Magnolia for as long as she can remember gently raises her head, hesitates for a second before pointing at a door leading to the left from the entrance hallway. The guards nod to each other, immediately running towards the door. Some of them stay by the entrance, however, putting their lances upright on the floor and making sure nobody runs away.

The guards enter a huge living area, where there are silky smooth green sofas lined up in a circle around a small coffee-table with flower decorations everywhere. Queen magnolia is sitting on one of the couches, dressed much more comfortably than usual because of the sense of danger that surrounds the blue moon.

To everyone's surprise, her youngest son is sitting next to her, prince Astaroth or Astro, for short. He looks up at the guards as they barge in, surprised and immediately turning serious from the bored expression he wore before. He gets up and draws his sword as the guards immediately stop, one of them reading out what they came here to do.