Verdigris

When I came to, I was in an unfamiliar surrounding. It looked like a tree house. I was lying on a beautifully crafted vine bed . The walls were made with vines as well instead of your usual wood. I stood up and went outside and came face to face with Firtha who seemed to be bringing some things to me

"Aadvitha you're awake. You were unconscious for a week. How are you feeling?"

"I feel much better thank you. It feels like the roles have been reversed. Not long ago I was the one waiting for you to come out of coma"

She laughed and brought me a bowl of some medicinal soup

"Drink up. Even tho you're awake now, your body is still a bit weak because you've been lying down immobile all week"

I took it and gulped down the whole thing scrunching my face . What sort of concoction is this? It's so bitter. She handed me an apple and I immediately bit into it. It was sweet and crunchy with just enough juice. This place is really worthy of being the land of faes. But... It's not like I know any of this. I can only ask in confusion.

"Now can you tell me what's going on? And what is this place? Who are you?"

She looked slightly apologetic and fiddled with her fingers

"When you left to go bath that evening, I waited for a long time but you didn't come back. You don't usually take that long to bath so I went to search for you but didn't find you. I did detect a whif of arcana magic around that area but I wasn't too sure so I followed the trace and tried not to get caught. I found out that they had taken you to Drayven's palace so I couldn't carelessly follow anymore. I disguised myself as a servant and entered the palace. I gathered information on the layout and secret passages and caused a diversion so I could come and save you. You see I'm a fae. And I used earth magic that day. You know , to break the wall. I didn't actually break it, just made it crumble. You are currently in Verdigris. The land of faes. My apologies for not telling you this before. You saved my life and I owe you a favor. I should have been up front about it with you"

"Verdigris. It's a beautiful place. It's okay. I don't blame you. It's right not to trust people easily. The fact you came to rescue me is enough to repay the favor of me saving you. Could you tell me more about the magic? I grew up in a human orphanage and they didn't teach us anything about magic and then I was taken as Drayven's blood slave so there was an even lower chance of me getting any education." The book didn't say anything about the types of magic. Oh my gosh did I read some unfinished script or what?

"Oh my! I didn't know that. I'm so sorry. How long did you stay there?"

"Not too long thankfully. I was sixteen when I was taken there. My birthday is in a few weeks. Then I'll turn eighteen. I think almost two years."

"You were there for two years? Then why are they so many scars on your back? These aristoractis vampires, don't their blood slaves have a slightly high status? At least no one can bully them. How come you're different? Or did he do all this himself?"

"No he's too lazy to do that. He had people doing it for him. He doesn't even need to lift his fingers "

"Wow. I heard of his cruelty but I never met someone who experienced it firsthand before "

She looked a bit depressed and just when I was thinking of wether to console her or not, gathered herself and was back to her cheerful self.

"Anyways you're here now. Don't worry I'll protect you! I'm going to teach you just the basics so that you won't be left behind, later I'll ask Aes Sídhe for you to join our classes."

"Who is Aes sídhe?"

Her hand flew to her mouth

"Oops . It's the elder. You can't call him that outside though. He's really particular about his tittle"

"Ohhh got it"

"Okay let's start. Do you know the story of how our world was created? "

"The valley lord?"

"Yes. At least you're not totally clueless. You see after the valley lord sealed his primordial spirit, it caused a surge of energy to erupt and many things were destroyed."

I frowned when I heard this

"Didn't he love his creations the most? How could he bare to harm them?"

"Beforehand he created a shield and asked them to hide and not come out for three days at least. By then the effects would have been greatly reduced. The amount of energy in the air would have been just enough for humans to develop magical abilities as well. But they didn't listen. Ironically, it was the vampires who did. They had dealt with him before and knew he was a man of his word. So the humans who called his bluff and went outside his shield during that period of time were wiped out. After the time he asked them to wait was up, the humans were still scared because of what had previously happened to the other humans who went out so they decided to keep waiting and let someone test it out first. Vampires came out and they absorbed the magic in the air. But he had previously cursed them so his light magic turned to dark magic inside them. That's arcana magic. They mostly use spells and incantations. Dragons were also born due to this situation. Some of the excess energy condensed and formed the first dragon egg. Because it was squeezed into the egg, the essence heated up and after it was born, it had breath attacks and could spew fireballs . It was also extremely fast and had regeneration abilities. To top it off, it was resistant to magic. Especially dark magic. It caused a lot of chaos at first. When the dragon reached the age of four, it gained human form. And it was a she. As for faes, we were the last to show up of all the creatures related to the valley lord. The first fae was a tree that had sprouted just outside of the valley lord's enclosement chambers or tomb or whatever. She absorbed magic until she grew consciousness and a body. As something that was born directly from the land he had blessed, faes were the ones with the purest of magic so they were the ones who benefited most from his light magic. But only the descendants of the first fae queen have light magic. Every other fae has essence magic. We manipulate fundamental essence and natural elements. Our magic is called essence magic. After it all, humans finally decided to come out but the amount of magic in the air was now pitifully thin and only few of them with superior genes were able to awaken magic powers. Few of them got healing powers and alot of them just got strenghted. Humans were the ones who were supposed to enjoy the most benefits but they were the ones who had less. Because they don't listen to instructions. As if there wasn't enough chaos in the world, a bunch of demons were thrown down from Aethoria like this world was just a garbage dump. As the species grew, fights were inevitable. They were civil wars and fights for territory. Until the leaders of the four races came together to discuss a thruce. The territory was divided into four places according to everyone's habits and borders were erected. After that there managed to be a bit of peace as they were no inter race fights anymore"

"I didn't know so much happened. I just knew that faes were born from nature and the valley lord's magic essence created dragons. I didn't know there was such a deep story behind it" Well no shi- the book didn't say anything about any of this.

She suddenly grabbed my hand and skipped outside, her bell like laughter floating to my ears

"Oh well. Comon let's go. I'll introduce you to everyone. They have been dying to meet you. Alot of faes have never met someone from outside the forest "

Her enthusiasm infected me and I found myself laughing along with her. She introduced me to everyone we met along the way and they were all so nice. We went to Aes sídhe and she told him about my learning and he begrudgingly agreed.

Welp. It's not like I could magically become a fae now could I?

But after sometime I noticed that despite being friendly the people we met were all very respectful towards Firtha so I asked

"Why do all these people treat you with so much reverence? Are you the queens daughter or something?"

She twisted her fingers together and refused to meet my eye

"Don't tell me you're actually the queens daughter!"

"No, no I'm not. My dad is the prince"

"Who's the king then?"

"There is no king. "

She sat under a willow tree and looked off into the distance

"My aunt was supposed to be queen. But she died and so my dad had to take her place but he never agreed to change his tittle"

"Oh my that's sad. May I ask how she died?"

"She was cheated out of her feelings by a dragon and ended up dying because of him. That's why we don't have any interactions with the dragon clan. Because we have a blood fued. All dragons are traitors. Especially Drako Faigor, the current dragon king. He is my aunt's son"

"The dragon king is your cousin?"

"Of course not. He's just my aunt's son."

I could hear the wheels spinning in my brain

"What are you talking about?"

"I do not accept traitors like him as part of my family "

I pat her head gently

"I don't think it works that way Firtha "

"I know. I know. I never got to meet my aunt. Father said she was the kindest woman there ever was. I wish I had got to meet her"

"Firtha, you're royalty right?"

"Yes"

"So you have light magic?"

"Yes I do, mine is green. My dad's is purple. Do you want to see it?"

"Of course!"

She stretched out her hand and whisps of green light flowed and formed different patterns. I couldn't bare to take my eyes off.

"It's really beautiful "

She smiled

"Thank you.Do you want to meet my dad?"

"Sure. It would be an honor to meet the ruler of the faes"

We went looking for her dad and found him with the fae children. She called out to him in a loud voice

"Father this is my friend. The one I've been telling you about."

He raised his head and glaced at me. His eyes paused slightly on my face and there was a faint light in his eyes, when he met my eyes he returned to indifference and nodded to acknowledge me.

I bowed slightly

"It's nice to meet you sire"

"Firtha has said alot about you. Is the environment to your liking?"

"It is, thank you very much for accommodating me"

"It's okay. Make yourself at home. You are Firtha's friend after all"

We excused ourselves and I was still pondering the look in his eyes when he first saw me. Could he be interested in me? It didn't look like that though. Oh well. What can I do. Everyone here is weird. Firtha seems to be the only normal person in this place.

She took me around the village and by the time we got back, we were both dog tired. She left to go to her treehouse and I turned in for the night. I'll take a bath tomorrow. I'm too tired now.