Kingdom of Stars and Fire

Chapter 12

Aelin

Aelin woke once that night, to the sound of Aedion coming in their room and stealing back Lysandra. The three of them fell asleep, on the bed some time during the middle of the night, just to have Aedion barge in and take Lysandra away. For the first time in a long while, Aelin spent the rest of the night fast asleep, with no nightmares.

Feyre

"I don't trust them," Feyre said to Rhys the next morning. They were both still lying in bed, holding each other.

"I don't either. But I think they mean to help," Rhys said, kissing the top of her head.

"I don't like the fact that they have metal shields, and we can't know if they are telling the truth or not," Feyre responded.

"I agree, it worries me that we can't know what they are really thinking," Rhys commented, as he squeezed Feyre tighter.

"We should get ready, or else we are going to have to deal with getting another lecture from Mor," Feyre said. Rhys chuckled, as he swung his legs out of bed. Rhys walked into a closet and came out in a simple Illyrian leathers. Feyre decided to wear a simple red tunic and pants. They walked down the stairs arm and arm, until they reached the dining room.

Everyone was already there. Including Aelin and the rest of her court. Aelin elbowed Rowan. "And you were yelling at me to hurry up," she chuckled. He said nothing, and continued to eat his breakfast. Aelin and her court were dressed in Night Court clothing, as most of the clothing they arrived in yesterday were on the formal side. All of them wore tunics and pants and all of them were, still, armed to the bone.

"How was your night's rest?" Rhysand asked no one in particular. Aelin's court gave him a slight nod, and continued eating.

"So shall we get down to business. I sent out messages to the other Courts last night. We should have their response within a couple of days. Until then, I would be happy to discuss with you guys about Maeve. Her weaknesses, strengths, anything that might help," Rhysand said.

"What would you like to know?" Aelin asked, while shoving a piece of bread into her mouth.

"Does she have any weaknesses?" Cassian asked. Aelin nodded, "Fire. She fears fire. Same with healers. Any Valg fears the two, and she's a Valg queen," Aelin responded.

"Valg?" Azriel asked, confusion on all of the Feyre's inner circle's face.

"Another species, they are from a different world. One of their kings came to ours wanting to conquer it. Maeve also happened to be there, she was trying to get away from her husband, who was another Valg King. She pretended to be Fae, and somehow became queen of the Fae. All while hell rained lose on everyone else," Aelin said. They nodded in response.

"What are her strengths?" Cassian asked.

"She's extremely powerful. Likes to play mind games. She will try to get into your head. She also has very loyal spiders, but not sure if they are here or not. We wiped out every in our world. She also is good at "world walking", like creating portals," Aelin added. "Along with a bunch of other powerful magic shit that I don't even know about." 

"What do you mean by, she will try to get into your head?" Rhysand asked. Before Aelin could respond to anything Fenrys said, "She can make you see illusions, other realities that you will believe are real. She can ensnare your mind, and take control over you if you're not careful, or let the illusions break you." Gratefulness flashed in Aelin's eyes, before she turned her head away from Fenrys and looked at Rhysand.

"I don't know what sort of mind tricks you guys can do. But you guys already seem to be aware of the importance of mental shields, which is good. I will warn you though, don't fall for her tricks, if you do it's over," Aelin added.