Seven Deadly Sons

Ameline. (32)

After the witchmages brought me back down to the Afalon residential rings, I had plopped Oliver on the ground and demanded he walk from now on.

He had sat, determined and chastised, and watched me strut off toward my home on the farm for at least a good couple of metres before he begrudgingly stood and ran after me. Thats the thing about his breed, they must always be in front.

He ran ahead, sniffing all manner of plant-life and ladies shoes alike. Several women turned their noses up at me, walking along in their undercourt garb. The section I lived, and now Oliver too I suppose, was not the most prestigious of rings.

Of the whole circular city, the OverCourt — of which I had just left, good riddance — was where the court was situated and all affairs conducted by the royal family and their master of ceremonies. Below that, the UnderCourt where all more... unseelie affairs were conducted by their own court and rules.

"Oliver!" I snapped as he licked up something disgusting from the tarmac. He looked up at me, innocently, then quickly continued eating as I got closer. "Stop it!" I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck as the little monster growled at me, before he turned around and went to bite me.

Huffing, I realise him back to eating his rubbish and went on ahead. Before long, he caught up to me and went on ahead again, into the second ring. Happy as ever.

The northern quarter, where I live, is otherwise collectively known as the farming side. The southern quarter, the semi circular side facing the Underseas waters, was known as the shipping side.

They were like opposites, in terms of where the rich preferred to live. On my side, the further away from the floating court you got, the poorer you were; hence why the farms backed on to the infinite Hang Wood. Whereas, the further from the island on the shipping side you live, the more money you tended to have. The four rings were continuous and unobstructed, but it was clear to see where one began and the other finished.

Right now, Oliver was running through the Rain row, as named by residents — this road was the only direct eastern one out of the city. Rain row sold all manner of craft, but only bespoke items were sold in these shops. Where the north and south met was the blur in cultures, where all the creatives tended to live. On the eastern side, the road that leads straight to Elfame no less, was where the experts in craft lived. The hands for hire, the professional travellers between worlds. If you needed a living being to get something done for you, thats where you'd look.

That was also where someone, someone not unlike myself, may look for answers to an impossible task — well, several impossible tasks. Several creatures of the fær were renowned for their ability to simply know.

Oliver passed through all the main colourful shops and onto a less refined road. The tarmac was brushed by dirt, then swallowed entirely by it. The flower and dress and paint shops disappeared, and in their place plants and cheaper residential properties grew in their place.

We had entered the fourth ring, where my home in a shed lay.

At the very end of the road, a wall of trees grew. Hang Wood.

And, directly left of that — right before the forest grew — the fence around my sleeping mule stood. I remembered, with a shock, that I had failed to kill a real prince. The portal still stood, revealed to him now.

A problem for a later date.

There were only two portals directly to earth that I knew of; the one in the Elfame royal palace and the other deep within Hang Wood. The only other way of travelling was a closely guarded secret of the royal family — and with them all hopefully dead in a fortnight, that shouldn't be an issue.

I enter my slot, ensorcelled to open only to me. Didn't Tierney enter without invitation? A stray thought came to me, but I dismissed it. Again, for another time.

Thats when I realised all my stuff, besides the mule, was gone.

"No." I breathed, shocked into stillness.

Quickly, as if pulled by strings, I shredded apart all the straw in the small slot. Oliver had trotted over to the mule, who now stood at all the fuss.

"Where is everything?" I asked again, getting choked up. All of my possessions, gone.

Sinking to the floor beside my now only two possessions — and both animals, something I never understood the bond humans had with, ironically — I tried to think through how and why.

And then I remembered, again, that Tierney had walked in uninvited once before. He could again. Or someone else could? No. It could only be him.

Standing, I straightened my spine in confidence and my mule seemed to mimic me.

Thats when I saw it.

I had never put a chain around my mule. Especially a gold chain, more suited to a neck. Walking round in front of him, with Oliver jumping around happily in the hay in the background, I lifted the engraved gold piece to eye level.

The royal insignia.