Chapter 1: Beauty in Cruelty

There's beauty in cruelty, beauty in cruelty...

An explosion makes the ground shake as my mother holds my sister and I.

Venus dreams in all green

Deadly and great is he…

My mother sings sweetly trying to calm us. Rubbing our hair and covering our heads.

Halfling of the sundew faes

Hero and savior to all of us in Obe

The fighters are bombing the halflings in lower Obe wishing to kill us or thin our numbers. Screaming and cries filled the air outside.

Slaughtered all evil with an iron fist

After justice he disappeared into mist

Datura's cries broke her silence. I looked over to my twin sister. Someone so pure, whom had never experienced any type of war. She cowered in fear trembling in mother's arms like a newborn babe.

Legend says he walks among us

Grateful and humble is a must

I pet her head trying to give her comfort. She looks at me, her lavender orbs full of fear and uncertainty.

Beauty In cruelty, beauty in cruelty…

A frantic knock comes at our door. My mother's grip tightens around us as she shakes her head not to open it.

They begin to kick the door. Datura screams and my mother shushes her.

They get it open. There in the dust of the now fallen door stood Zinnia de Astarales. The Lieutenant General of Obe's army.

"Did you think I'd let them take out my most valuable 'Bishop of the Damned?'" he asks offering his hand toward me to help me up.

His pale blue eyes were piercing and his platinum blonde hair lay messily in a low ponytail.

"Who's your favorite Sun fae, Yousef?"

We don't move an inch.

"You all need not be frightened. I'm here to take you to safety. Holy commander and I got orders to help your family Mandrake," he explains smiling sweetly.

Before I could stop myself I hugged him tightly, trembling in his arms. Tears brimming in my eyes as I blinked them away.

A tall fae with mint hair walked in next. His armor was pure white with a wing on one side. His facial features otherworldly.

"We have time for your flirting later. Now we must go."

"Who are you?" I ask.

"Does it matter halfling?" He asks walking out.

"Holy Commander Louis the II. He not do scary once you get to know him. He is right we should go," Zinnia says holding my hands.

Datura and mother followed us closely. There was pure chaos around. Buildings I had seen since I was younger were destroyed. Carnage lay around us.

Datura crying. She looked around frantically. She lost her footing and fell over a body. The halfling was still alive and grabbed her ankle asking for help. She went to prop his head up as Louis stabbed his sword through the injured eye.

"The best you can do for these people is kill them. Their sad pathetic lives serve no purpose other than war and cheap labor," Louis says walking away just as quickly as he came.

"How do you get to determine that? That halfling had dreams and goals and you acted like they weren't…"

He grabs her by her throat.

"You will speak to me like you have sense or I'll kill you too," he says coldly. My sister gasps for air. Punching his face with weak punches as she got lightheaded.

He throws her. She gasp for air and coughs as she is on her hands and knees.

She limps back over.

"I'm surprised you can still stand after that throw. You are the weak one after all. Playing house while your sister is off doing military campaigns," he mocks.

She slaps him leaving a red mark on his face. Walking past him tears in her eyes.

"Is that how you feel too?" She asks me. I look away ashamed at the fun I had poked at my sister.

"No, it was just light fun," I explain.

"Do you also actually dream of being a comfort woman as well. The king would never have a halfling such as yourself. Your skin is much too dark to even be seen as dainty or beautiful to him. Your sister thinks you are all but useless, but would never say that to your face because you have such fragile emotions." Datura's eyes brim over with tears as she runs into the chaos.

"Datura!"

"Our job is done. Kill the weak one and deliver you," Commander Louis says beginning to walk away.

"What?" I ask confused.

"King Oberon knew she had no use for campaigns and we were ordered to kill her and bring you and your mother to the palace grounds. Commander Louis didn't have the heart to kill her in front of you. He was hoping this would happen and she'd die in the crossfire of bombs."

"No, I'm going after her," I frantically say, shoving Zinnia off me.

"You go and forfeit your mother's life. She would die easily in the next campaign anyway. Plus she makes you weak," Louis explains.

I felt my world crumble as I lost track of Datura in the chaos and smoke. My other half, my best friend and my sister.

My mother doesn't shed a tear. Her face was stoic.

Zinnia gets close to my ear tickling it with his breath.

"If she's your sister, I'm sure she'll survive.You need not fear," Zinnia explained. Looking down at me,he gives me a reassuring smile.

I nod hoping he's right.

~~~~~~~

Datura POV

I ran quickly looking for cover. My greatest fear was realized. Being seen as useless by my sister. Nothing more than a joke to her and all her comrades.

An arrow went through my flesh as I screamed. The blood quickly spreading. I wrip it out quickly.

As I ran, the tears made my vision blurry. From the street I was grabbed.

"Datura being out in the open is dangerous," I hear a raspy voice say. I immediately recognize it as Ocotillo. The half desert fae. I turn around to hug him tightly.

"Sephtis is looking for your sister now."

"He won't find her. The royal guards took her."

"He won't take to them taking his lady," Ocotillo jokes.

"She's never going to say yes to his proposal," I explained weakly looking up to him.

Ocotillo is very tan with completely black eyes and he has frilled ears with long pretty eyelashes. His hair was black as night and went a little past his shoulders. It was always messy and unkempt.He is a desert fae and lizardman. A combination I never expected to be so pretty.

"I think he knows. He's never going to stop trying. He loves her that much," he explains. He begins to sniff.

"Your brother is a brave man to try to bed my sister."

He giggles.

"I never thought of it that way. She strikes fear in everyone, yet all he sees is a sweet poor misunderstood girl. Datura, do you know that you're bleeding. It smells like a fatal wound," he explains.

A bomb goes off nearby.

"Bombs getting closer. I have to stay here. Don't want anyone looting our store. But if you think you could, you should make your way to the sacred tree. The one you, me and Willow used to play at when we were kids. It'll heal you."

"What about you?" I ask.

"I'll be fine. I have my scales to keep me safe," he says, growing more on his body, smiling at me. 

I wave shyly to him as I make my way down the states holding the wound.

The tunnels were mostly dark illuminated by the faintest bit of torches that hung on the wall.

Instead of fear, I was weirdly calm. A wave of calm washed over me like I was under a spell. Getting to the ladder I climbed until I could see daylight. Scraping my knee on the foliage that had grown heavily over the abandoned village tunnel.

As I walked to the tree, there stood a figure. Covered in leaves. They're braid touched the ground as they stared at the tree.

"What brings you here?" It's voice thundered and echoed in my ears even though they were so far away.

"Protection, kind spirit."

"I'm not a spirit. I'm just the protector of Nylian. The sacred tree that Satan tried to destroy."

"I've never seen you before and I grew up here," I explain.

"Was there a reason for you to see me before?"

I find myself dizzy from my blood loss. I look up to see my hand covered in blood.

"Kind protector, I'm sorry I cannot bow respectfully. I'm wounded," I get out.

"Wounded, why didn't you start with that?" He quickly turns around. His eyes are red and so are his eyelashes.. Contrasting with his green hair.

He lays me on my back. As gold fills the air.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," I get out.

"I can't heal you. But I know someone who can. Just hold on okay. You're going to be fine. Try to control your emotions. I took your fear and betrayal away. But they are weighing heavy on your heart now. Do you wish to die?" He asks.

I nod tears running down my cheeks.

"Death is not an option now, Datura," he says my name.

"How do you?"

"I've known you since you were a child."

My eyelids get heavy as a blanket of warmth engulfs me. And the protector of Nylian fades from my view.