A Court of Stars and Snow

Chapter 1

In the midst of the dim pub lights and celebrating patrons, I can see nothing, hear nothing aside from the occasional cheers and the tunes produced by the band behind me. By some miracle, no one ever gets tired of the same songs every night; on the contrary, they tend to request repeats before we could even consider performing something new. Stuck in their ways perhaps, but it makes us money and makes our lives easier. The rush of performing still hasn't gotten old, and I doubt it will; it's what I've been raised for. After my parents up and disappeared when I was about 3, the Covey found me and gave me a home. Put a guitar in my hand the second they figured I could hold the weight, and had me sat at a piano the moment I was tall enough to see. Singing was always my favorite though- and I really took to playing and singing simultaneously, as it gave me another opportunity to perfect my voice.

    With this, naturally by now I've worked myself up to lead singer; we travel throughout the human territory on our island, playing for whoever will pay us enough to get by. Although they tend to pay slightly less, my favorite gigs are those in the villages and estates closest to the wall; or, I guess where the wall used to be. It's been about a month since the war, and despite efforts to rebuild the Covey returned to performances about 1 week after; helping with the reconstruction wherever we land during our off time. Tonight, unfortunately, is not one of my favorite locations, as it is on the end of the isle closest to the continent. The closer we are to where the wall once stood, I always feel this pull- almost a comforting feeling; though I'd never tell the others of it.

    As we finish the last song in our first set, I snap back from my thoughts to the roars of the crowd. "Thank you all so much! We'll be back in about 15 minutes. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves!" I announce, causing a few boos from those who were invested in the music. As I turn to walk off the stage to get a drink, however, I see Harper coming over- our mandolin player, and the sort of matron of the Covey. "Hey Lia?" "Yes?" I replied. "There's this guy looking for you out back apparently- he was pretty adamant that he needed to talk to you as soon as you can." Who could need to talk to me that bad, I wondered. But I nodded and headed towards the back door, ensuring our bouncer and friend, Xavier, saw me as I left- just in case.

    "Uh, hello?" I said as I exited the pub, not seeing the mystery man. I began searching the small alley area until I heard a voice cut through the night like a blade of ice, making me jump and whip around; "I'm sorry to pull you away from your work" the man said. As I calmed my startled heart, I took in his appearance; tall, well-built, with almost an eerie grace about him- he had to be fae. However, the stillness wasn't the most attention-grabbing thing about him; that had to be his actual features. His hair was platinum, nearly white with eyes so light and blue they looked as if they could be crafted from ice themselves. And then there was his complexion- very slightly tanned skin, making the rest of his bright features pop. It almost seemed as if he was meant to be as pale as his hair, but had instead gone somewhere new and had spent enough time in the sun to gain some color. I broke out of my daze as I realized he was speaking to me. "I'm sorry I startled you, it'll only take a moment I promise. And I won't hurt you if that's what you're thinking. I'm just here to talk." He seemed prepared for this, as if he knew exactly how I would take his presence and came anyway. "Talk to me?" I responded, "What could any high fae possibly want with me?" He looked at me in what almost seemed like awe for a moment before steeling himself once again and replying cooly, "So you noticed?" "How could I not?" I answered, confused how he could ever think I wouldn't know. "I- never mind. I had a question for you; more of an offer really, if you'd like to interpret it as such." "An offer? For me. A human." I retorted, with an almost sarcastic tone. "Yes." Not much of a talker, this one. Okay. "Well then Mr. Fae whose name I don't know, what are you here to offer me?" I jested, hoping to get something from him other than that stoney look. "My name is Zane." Zane, huh, pretty ordinary for Fae. "Okay Zane, I'm Lia. Nice to meet you. Now what's that offer? I've really gotta get back soon." He looked at me for a moment as if considering if this was really worth it; good, I thought. At least there's some sort of emotion. He seemed to decide it was, however, because he began to speak.

"How would you like to come to Prythian?"

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There's chapter 1! I 100% had this idea and started putting this story together at like 1 am so pardon my delulu lol, but yeah I'm really excited! I'll try and have chapter 2 up soon, but till then stay safe have fun and thank you for reading :)