Finley Cai Aies Regalis-Olcay May 23rd,20XX

Watching Heloise and Theodulus wreak chaos on the already chaotic capital of the witches was a sight to behold. Watching them rip through hordes of witches like water made me realize I had never actually seen a proper fairies fight.

I’d seen Mei fight her sister before but looking at the sight below us made me realize how much of an injustice I had subconsciously done to the combat practices of this world.

In Mei’s fight, her sister had been on a similar magic level to herself and had also been contaminated, I had also been too close for her to unleash her magic properly.

Under those circumstances, it was no wonder she had chosen a more physical style of combat and used her expertise and experience on the battlefields to overpower her older sister.

I’d been somewhat under the impression that was how all fairies fought but looking at my grandmother now I realized just how unfair that was.

She hung above the battlefield like a vengeful Valkyrie and materialized magic orbs the size of Galen. They hovered around her as she flung them into the masses of attacking witches, creating four for every two she sent downwards. The innocent and the guilty became one under her brutal attacks and joined their comrades on the floor as corpses. She would use the bow to snipe out the few witches that had escaped, and would occasionally load one of those giant magic orbs onto the bow, and fire it off at a distance like a bomb.

There was another difference between Mei’s fight and my grandmother’s massacre.

At the end of Mei's battle against her elder sister had evaporated into magic once she was defeated, there hadn’t even been as much as a hair left of her. The witches were different and although they did eventually return to magic, it was a much slower process.

The sight of dislocated limbs and disfigured corpses filled my vision and made me sick to my stomach. It was a distressing sight, but more upsetting was the fact that I didn’t feel much sympathy for the dying crowds below. It felt like I was watching a mass culling of farm animals, not to say that I saw the witches as animals. But the absolute lack of empathy for them scared me.

Jake had already asked Mei to knock him out after emptying the contents of his stomach into a bag. Even in his unconscious state he shivered and looked as terrified as one should be. His fists were closed into a fist and he sported a cold sweat that Tyus, who had been oddly quiet lately, helped him wipe off his forehead and throat.

I wasn’t doing so hot myself and kept my eyes directly on Heloise and Theodulus’s bodies, refusing to see the aftermath of each of their actions. I occasionally snuck a glance at Mei and was chilled at the sight of her looking down at the carnage with an interested expression. Her full lips moved silently as she tried to understand Heloise’s fighting style and the spells that she used.

Milo looked down as well but his eyesight was trained on the weapons he had created.

“Ah, I should have used the arm muscle to synthesize the string. The ones in the back are a little to stiff. And that Theodulus. That sword is too inflexible to suit his fighting style. A short sword would be much better, not quite a dagger, that would be too short. Maybe if I used the teeth of the four backed hunting beast? Not for a royal though, the blade would break after a single fight.”

And so he continued to mutter to himself.

I looked back down and focused on Theodulus’s fighting style.

Unlike my grandmother’s aloof style of blatant carnage, he fought like a mad beast. I had to focus my goblin powers into my eyes to keep track of him on the battlefield. He and Votric were surrounded by desperate witches that flung curse after curse on them and around them but the two goblins elegantly dodged each one and in a way that defied reasoning would even kick back a few at the witches that had captured them.

The blasts of magic that they had both sent out earlier had crippled the witches and made it hard for them to use magic effectively. Having them fight against the royalty of two races that were inherently stronger than them was just cruel.

It was a tragic scene that if I were so inclined, I would have painted, but I had never been much of an artist.

Unlike Heloise who fought alone, Theodulus and Votric’s fighting style was interesting. They used each other’s bodies as weapons and props, vaulting off each other and pulling each other out of harm’s way.

At first sight, it looked like a battle for power, where one and then the other would use their bodies to physically manipulate the other’s, but after looking for a bit longer I realized the absolute trust in the other that they needed to fight like that.

They fought with abandon and trusted the other to pull them out of the way if there was a hit that they could not afford to take. If there was an opponent that they found troublesome, they would bring in the other to attack the opponent at the same time.

Such an example was shown when Theodulus grabbed Votric by his left arm and without so much as a word of warning flung him up into the air, using his partner as a human bullet to take out a group of airborne witches that had been harassing them with curses from above.

Votric didn't resist the pull and found himself up in the air, nearly at eye-level with the witches and used a leg to kick a witch off their broom. He then used the broom as a vault to attack the second witch and continued along until he had taken out the whole team of five.

He fell back to the ground, where Theodulus kicked away an opponent and put up a palm, letting Votric land on it for a short moment before flipping upward again, this time to avoid a spell and kick a witch’s head off their shoulders.

Grotesque, but their movements were beautiful.

Although I paid attention to my grandparent’s battles I also kept an eye out for two red-headed witches. Sparrow, who I had full intention of just knocking out and taking back to the human world with me, and Rubella.

I didn’t quite know what I wanted done with her, but I knew I couldn't be as magnanimous with her as I was with Esmeralda.

I could tell Theodulus and my grandmother were looking out for her, but I could tell that they were more focused on showing their displeasure with the witches than they were on finding the one witch. Once they found her and punished her, then it would all be over and they wouldn’t be able to rampage as they could now.

I sat back from the edge of Galen’s saddle, having tired from looking at the chaos that was happening below and closed my eyes.

It was faint but the mark I'd put on Rubella's magic signature called out to me and told me her general location. It would be difficult to track her down amid the chaos of everyone pushing out as much magic as they could toward my grandparents, but I figured she would be using a lot of magic to escape, and the more she used, the easier it would be to find her.

While I trusted that my grandparents would find her and bring her to justice I felt the need to catch her myself. It was irrational of me to want and unfair to Mei that I was planning on doing what I was doing, but at the same time, I didn’t think I could sleep properly if I couldn't deal with that old hag with my own two hands.

I finally picked up a signal and recognized her magic. It was erratic though and was decreasing at a fast pace. She was in the middle of a fight and she was losing. I sped up trying to break the barrier; I couldn’t have her die before I got to her, especially not by some random witch’s hands.

A small patch of Heloise’s shield finally broke down, and only needed a solid hit to disperse. I prepare to slip out when a strong and steady hand landed on my shoulder.

“Your highness.”

I’d been found.

“Kindly step away from the barrier and return to your seat. I’m under orders to knock you unconscious if you attempt to escape.”

If an outsider were to hear all this they would never in a million years guess that these cold threats came from one's fiancée. I guess she was still mad about what I had done before.

I plastered on the sweetest smile I could muster in response and tried to bluff my way out of it.

“What do you mean Mei? I was just watching my grandparents fight and trying to see if I could replicate any of the things they’d done.”

She stared blankly at me and then pointedly at the hole in the barrier that was quickly closing itself.

“Ah, this? I guess I got too excited and ended up ripping it. I mean-“

“Where were you going, Cai? Or rather what was your plan?”

Although she tried to hide it behind a blank expression and tone I could tell how angry she was like she wanted nothing more than to knock me unconscious right at that moment.

“You- What do you think you’re worth Your highness? Do you think you're expendable? Or do you just not think that far at all? And what about me? Or Milo? Or your grandparents that would worry if you got a single scratch on your wings never mind got them pierced through like an amateur sewing project? And did you even consider that I, aside from being punished because you decided to be willful, would be worried about you? Honestly, Cai, I can’t decide if you’re that selfish or just an idiot sometimes. Is it that you’re that eager to risk your life? Or that you can’t trust in others enough to leave these things to them?”

The more she spoke the angrier she got. Her jaw tightened until I could barely see her tongue forming the harsh words that she spoke.

Question after question flew from her mouth into my ears but there wasn’t an answer I could give. I began to prepare what I would say next, whatever she wanted to hear that would calm her down but I wasn’t sure what that could be. I prepared to speak again but something about my expression must have set her off because she launched straight into another angry speech.

“And there it is again. That stupid placating expression, do I need to be placated? Is that what you think? Cai, is there anything you’ve wanted to do that I’ve honestly stopped you for? Do I even have the right to stop you if there is anything you want to do? Again, who exactly do you think you are?”

Her voice began to crack with frustration, and I felt worse and worse with every word. I mean, I knew she cared about me, and that I tended to act before thinking about others. I’d been called inconsiderate a million and one times before but it hit different when one was being yelled at for not caring about themselves.

I usually didn’t mind being lectured by someone that cared about me, and would usually listen, but only to the point that I felt they understood, which was rarely very far. This time, I felt the need to explain myself.

“Mei, Mei! Look. Can you- okay.”

I stopped trying to talk and took a deep breath. Somewhere out there, there was the perfect thing to say in this situation. Something that would calm Mei down and convince her to let me go, but I, or the me right now, didn’t have the words. At this point, all I could say or try to say was the truth.

I didn’t know how much my honestly would be worth right now, but it was almost all I had left. I didn’t want to knock her unconscious and tricking her again would only get her in trouble.

“Mei look. I- I was going to escape again, and I'm sorry for tricking you last time. I thought I was doing what was best for you, but I won’t apologize for sending you away since I don’t think my affairs are more important than you, or even your younger sister. If anything had happened to your younger sister because you weren’t there I'm sure you would have blamed yourself, and me, whether you acknowledge it or not. I would stay here and follow orders, but I need to deal with Rubella myself. I don’t want you to think that this is your fault or anyone’s fault but my own. But, the things she did to me down there…. What she’s done to my friends. I- I can’t leave that to others, Mei. I don't think I could sleep easily unless I dealt with her myself”

The anger drained out of her large dark eyes like a deflated balloon and I could see the guilt begin to flood in again as she remembered that I’d gotten hurt, that wasn’t what I wanted though. I didn’t want her to pity me or feel bad because I’d done something stupid and got hurt. I just wanted her to understand, and to let me go.

“I’m sorry Cai, I am. But I can’t let you go fight her by yourself. I know you’re angry, and if you were one of my soldiers, I would have let you go. But you aren’t one of my soldiers, you’re the prince. You’re so important that if I wasn’t lucky enough to be engaged to you, I would have had my wings cut off and been thrown into the human world to rot away as a punishment.”

“But you are engaged to me. And I'm Stronger than the vast majority of your soldiers! Why would you think they would be safer than I would?”

“Because they wouldn’t have a giant Royal target strapped to their wings! And you just consolidated to opposing magic types into your body? Even if you are stronger, you’re untrained and far less stable.”

Now it was my turn to get frustrated. I could see that she had already made up her mind on this and that there was nothing I could say to make her change her mind. It didn’t even have anything to do with my grandmother’s orders, she just didn’t want me to get hurt again.

As I revved up to try yet another argument Milo suddenly stepped in. twirling a dagger in one hand and odd circular object in the other.

“As difficult as it is to break the moment, I might just have a solution.”