Black Browed Night

Late 3rd Aeon - Age of the Vampire Chapter Four

Through the years, as I watched Caliban grow and train to have a hope of gaining some form of magic, my own son's fluke of nature solidified the hardening knot within my core. Viewing how Caliban couldn't command any element to servitude, he couldn't even jump through nature, the first lesson of Fae magic. No matter how many lifetimes I had lived, Caliban remained constant as water running down engraved trails. Though I could agree it wasn't fair to judge him to my standards, the world I had helped shape demanded a stronger mould of leader. Caliban could never be moulded into what Illyria needed him to be, or what I wanted in a son of mine. Thus, my conundrum weighed heavily on my consciousness.

Your vampires lack the capacity to fight the Goodfellows and Oberon. It isn't enough.

"Neither is civil war," I warned low, wanting nothing more than to protect my children from such dismissive comments, even from a god.

If your children are to have any hope of surviving till next season, they need the settlement. Setebos stated the obvious in the most patronising tone, as if he didn't think of me to have already come to such a conclusion. You need to destroy the Goodfellows.

"I can't, Setebos." I lowered my eyes, serving our spectacle memory of Ariel. "I'm not strong enough to take them all out."

I thought the Fae can't lie, Setebos edged. Sycorax, the majority of magic comes from inside. The use of crystals is just to focus on the intended outcome. You raised these creatures from the earth, birthed them from death. The power you need is already within. Your denial keeps it locked away.

A spark of an idea crashed through, preventing anything else from obstructing its path to my mind. As the pieces of my scheme fitted together, I stared once more at Ariel, still defeating all vampires coming their way, and down at the map of Illyria. My blood had congealed, thickening as it dried surrounding the opal rock till it was stranded. Alone and without aid. At the opposite end of the map, Caliban was fiddling with other pieces marking our weakness and targets. Conversing with the vampires well enough, but from their restrained eyes, they didn't view Caliban as an heir yet. Not without magic.

What are you thinking, Sycorax? Too busy to indulge my attentions. Setebos recalled my notice to his presence.

Ignoring the guilt of rebuking Setebos, I turned to Ariel at the far end of the chamber. "Ariel, come here," I summoned, and always true to fashion, once pinning their enemy into submission, Ariel relinquished the sparing. Watched from every spare pair of eyes as Ariel approached me, I felt more protected than ever at having so many devoted children.

Breathing heavy with a fine sheen of sweat glistening against their dark hue, their opal golds flared brighter than a sun in the natural gloom. "My lady." Ariel bowed, waiting for instruction, as our relationship had always been. Tense.

"I want you to bring me one of your kinsmen, untethered to their master. Capture them and bring them here," I commanded, watching their shock and self-censorship taking hold of their conscious morality.

"For what purpose, my lady?"

"That isn't for your concern. Just bring one back, unharmed but bound. You have till sunset." As the sun had already started its dusk descent, I was testing Ariel and their loyalty to me.

Ariel bowed, accepting their task. "Yes, my lady." My servant departed through a rotten wooden panel leaning against the chamber's walls.

What do you need with another Goodfellow, my love? Two cannot serve you.

"The second isn't for me." I stared towards Caliban's eyes, observing the non-existent aura that should've swirled within his irises. Yet dead empty eyes stared back, but hopefully not for much longer. Caliban had never been given a Goodfellow for a servant; naturally lacking magic, they most likely couldn't detect him without a protector. But I was hopeful that this could prove to be the right course to correct such a wrong. Caliban will have his magic one way or another.