We left the way that we came. Silently. Quietly. I cleaned the blood off of the floor of the shop. We packed our bags and left. Jade offered us refuge in the Medusa tribes. So that’s where we decided to head.

But before we would reach the Stone Desert…we would have to cross the Forest of the Fae.

“Is there no other way?”

“There is indeed no other way. The Fae forest is one of the only areas that has not been classified as a warzone. You will have to disguise Chryssie…after all, she is royal.”

“How can you tell?”

Jade tightened her lips. “Her hair. And eyes. Royal Fae have extremely pale blonde, almost white hair. The purer their blood is, the whiter their hair gets. And their eyes of course. Golden irises, round pupils. Most Fae have green irises with slit pupils.”

I looked at Chryssie, who was drawing things in the dirt.

“What do we disguise her as?”

“Another Medusa. Or we could partially petrify her to look like a statue…”

“No. Partial petrification is way too limiting on her. While I want her to be safe, I’m not going to encase her in stone. And how do we explain us carrying about a statue in the shape of a Fae child?”

Jade fell silent. “Poor girl…”

Ron’s face flashed before my eyes. I clenched my fists. Never again. I was stronger. I could protect us now. I was a Medusa with my petrification skills unlocked. I was a talented swordsman able to wield both Solarian Magic and Fae sorcery. And even more…I had the Devil’s 72 Commandments. I’d learned to command the Second Commandment, and was on the third one now. Wrath.

It was simple. Feel a sufficient amount of wrath. Which was difficult now, since I scarcely felt more emotion other than a very light joy and heavy melancholy. Nothing seemed to make my blood boil as it should anymore.

I was just tired. Why did I exist? Jade’s explanation, that I was a protector, a vessel for the darkest thing in the universe, was false. No, I willingly wielded it like a sword. How pitiful. Even the meanings that others blessed me with…I was still unable to uphold. I shook it off. The Third Commandment would unravel before me. With the amount of luck I had, I was sure to see something that would make me enraged beyond belief.

But would I again, be powerless to stop it from happening?

We entered the Fae forests on the second day of travel. Here, the trees seemed to be pillars holding up the sky. In the day, small pools of sunlight splattered through the treetop canopy, lighting up the small path that stretched and wove through the forests. At night, the light of the moon was drowned out by the incandescent light from the waves of fireflies that buzzed through the woods.

Chryssie was fascinated by the true home that she had never known. The Fae forest left visible effects on her. Her pale skin began to take on a healthy rosy flush. Her hair, while already an extremely pale blonde, grew lustrous and shone like the first snow of a winter.

Her irises became like molten gold, and the small pink flecks dyed it into the most brilliant shade of rose-gold there was. Jade and I could only do our best to cover up her snow-white hair and eyes. As much as we tried, the dye that we rubbed into her hair would always begin to show small traces of white by the next morning. Her eyes, which we slipped in an extremely thin piece of energy-infused jade (so that it was soft, and covered up her eyes naturally), did little to dull her brilliant irises when the sunlight reflected off of them.

And her natural Fae sorcery grew as well. Without us even teaching her, she could now easily command flowers to shoot out of the ground now, and overgrow trees and bushes into one strange shape another, often leaving me to revert them. And then leaving Jade to cover up the traces of Law.

High maintenance much?

On the fourth day, we reached a small Fae travel stop. We found a small table in the shade and sat down. A young Fae boy scampered over to us shortly.

“Good mornin’ sir. Good mornin’ missus. Can I getcha anythin’?”

“A pot of tea if you will, young one. And a small plate of steamed okra -”

“Under a roast pheasant. Then we would like some steaks if you will,” Jade cut me off.

I shot a confused glance at her. Chryssie was vegetarian.

The boy ran off with the order.

“Chryssie can’t eat meat,” I protested quietly.

“And the only Ancients that are completely vegetarian are Fae. The only ones. Medusa are never vegetarian. We need to let her have the okra and have her pretend to eat the meat too.’

I had almost forgotten that we were disguising Chryssie.

Chryssie fussed at her dyed hair, struggling to keep herself from finding the nearest bucket of water and dumping it on herself.

“It’s ok Chryssie. When we get to the Fae capital, we’ll change it to a lighter color ok? At most, it’s going to be another week. We’ll be in the desert in no time; you can take off the disguises then.”

Chryssie quieted, and muttered a string of unintelligible words. I noticed the grass begin to grow visibly.

“Come on Chryssie, hold in the magic. Don’t let it leak. Uncontrolled magic is very troublesome. Just one more week.”

The grass stopped growing.

“Good girl.”

“Here you are sir! Here you are missus!”

I nodded at the boy, patted his head and paid for the food in advance. I also gave the boy a copper to express my thanks.

We ate quietly and quickly, keen to avoid drawing any attention.

But, trouble always seems to find us. When we were about halfway through our meal, we suddenly heard an arrogant voice yell, “Who the hell is this? And who are these slimy snakes sitting in my spot?”