FOURTH BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF FANTASILIA SERIES
𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭. 𝘈 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘈 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦.
Xanthiene Vivenca, a fairy with a bounty for her soul, is caught between...
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2412, Iclis 16, Velpa
Nyxis sighed as he plucked noprary fruits from the Palace garden. Why would the Palace even need a private garden when the whole forest was theirs? Royal people were absurd. Did Nyxis really spend all his life being one?
He shook his head as he threw five, small fruits into the pile he's already making inside a woven basket by his feet. Just a few more and he'd have enough for another potion he'd have to force down June's throat.
A shriveled fruit, growing on a branch with a bunch that were still firm, caught Nyxis's eye. He clicked his tongue as he plucked the wilted fruit and held it up to the light. Such an imperfection shouldn't exist.
What if that fruit was a person? An entire territory? Would Nyxis step in, pluck it out, and crush them underfoot if he could? Nyxis scoffed. This was why he's never going to be a good ruler. He'd just end up like his mother—cold, inhuman, and perfect.
Nyxis shifted through dark green leaves and avoided the prickly thorns jutting from the thick, main branches. Being human was already an imperfection with their synnavaimis locked. It was like something important was missing from their souls that they had to make up for it by using escuira spells. That difference was what caused prejudice between them and the fairies.
He couldn't live with that but eventually, he has to. If only he could build for himself a perfect world where everything was fair.
All his life, he tried making up for that imperfection. That's why he buried himself in the potion-making industry. That way, he could help both fairies and humans alike. He could save everyone he could. He could help anyone without them hating him for what he was.
People, especially from the Commons, loved him for that. As long as he was helping people, whether directly or indirectly, he's still perfect.
He's perfect.
Then, it all eroded when he witnessed the battle in the Cardina Palace. His family had been hurting a lot of people but it still hurt when they died. He realized how little and insignificant he was in the face of war. It was another imperfection and Nyxis couldn't do anything about it.
His grandfather, the one that his mother had sent to the Disfavoreds just for being old and blind, told Nyxis that he needed to restore the throne to Cardina and that could maybe fix the growing unrest in the territory. It wasn't the chair his mother sat on. Before everything even started, Nyxis had one job which was to retrieve the thing his father stole from the rightful royals.
Instead of finding hope, it only introduced Nyxis to another glaring imperfection. He wasn't born for power and he would never be. So, when a chance was presented to him after the battle in Cardina, he took the way out. He gave the power back to Tobin Canraren, the rightful dynasty.
Did Nyxis do it because he wanted to redeem himself or because he wanted to run? Who knew?
Then he met Xanthy, a girl so imperfect she's glowing with her flaws. Instead of being reviled by her imperfections, he got mesmerized by it. How could a person, bogged down by life's circumstances, still emerge with a will to keep going? How, despite the countless unfairness Xanthy has lived through, was she still fighting?
