Brigitte

No matter how much Brigitte hated to admit it, she almost felt naked without that little doll. After having something for nearly a thousand years, being without it was like missing a finger or a toe. Even though she could function perfectly fine without it, it still felt like something was missing. Her only physical connection to the human world had been severed, and, no matter how much she disliked humans, she really wasn't sure how to feel.

Brigitte looked out at the town she had been sent to save. Although it looked nothing like how she imagined her town - hers was at the edge of a forest, and this one was at the bottom of a huge mountain - it was every bit as lively. People, bundled in their winter coats, walked along the town's streets, it was hard to believe that in less than a day, all these people could be dead.

During this quest, Brigitte had done many things she hadn't thought she could do. She had escaped the Cat Sith and a royal human court. She'd killed a vampire who was out to kill her. She gave up the most important thing in the world to her. But this, this was one thing that Brigitte didn't think she could do.

After all, Brigitte was a fire archon - and fire was nothing if not destructive. Fire burned whatever it touched, turning it into ash, and destroyed it completely. Fire could sustain life, humans revered it on the same level as the gods for its ability to keep them warm. But in order for it to sustain, it has to destroy.

That was it.

Brigitte could save the people of the town, but only if she destroyed the town itself. Her heart hung heavy as she thought of what she would have to do - she would have to burn the town to the ground the same way her town was destroyed. But she thought of Emily, of all the hundreds of Emily's who lived in the town. If she could save just one of them, it would all be worth it.

Readying her resolve, Brigitte summoned flames in her hand. The town was going to be destroyed anyway, just now it would be destroyed by fire instead of ice. She had excused destruction before, but it had never been to help the thing being destroyed. This quest changed people, Brigitte thought, and she couldn't help but smile softly.

"Excuse me," a small voice said from behind her, tearing Brigitte from her concentration. She turned to see a young boy, no older than eight or nine years old, little more than a blink to Brigitte, but he was probably older than Emily had been.

"What is it?" Brigitte asked, she wasn't sure whether to be stern or gentle, so her voice came out as an odd balance between the two. No wonder the child seemed so confused.

"What are you doing?" he said, pointing up to her hands where flames were still gathered, where she was preparing to shoot them at the building.

Brigitte was stopped in her tracks for a moment - how was she supposed to tell a young child that she was going to destroy his home? She couldn't tell him that it was for his own good, but she couldn't be mean to the boy either; her conscience wouldn't allow it. It was for his own good though, she reminded herself, and adopted her usual harsh facade.

"I'm going to destroy that village," she said, a wicked smile plastered upon her face. It was fake, and most anyone would be able to see through it, but she hoped that the kid wouldn't. "And I will destroy you too if you don't leave this instant."

Brigitte turned away from the boy, unable, or perhaps just unwilling, to see the look on his face. It was too late for her to back out now, so, garnering the last bit of her courage, she threw her first bolt of fire at the village below. Her aim was good, after all, she had a millennium's worth of practice, and it landed in the middle of the street - close enough to draw attention from people, but far enough away that nobody was hurt.

Immediately, the people of the village began to scurry like ants away from the fire. The village seemed to be a fairly safe place, Brigitte was certain that fireballs falling from the sky weren't a daily occurrence for this village. Even from as high up as she was, she could see the terror on their faces. Mothers ran towards their children, hurriedly ushering them away from the fire, to the edges of the town where they could make a quick escape.

"Leave your village, pathetic mortals," Brigitte shouted, but her voice cracked as she did so. Always the kind of person to say what she felt regardless of the situation, acting was one of the few things she didn't have much practice doing. To emphasize her point a little more, she flung another fire bolt at the village. This one landed where the people had been before they started drawing back. Slowly, she would drive these people out of their village.

Running down the hill she had been standing on, Brigitte walked closer to the village, firing bolts of fire the whole time. Her aim was true, but it was never deadly, on houses and shops and streets, anywhere where people might try to go, but never at people themselves.

Out of the corner of her eye, though, Brigitte noticed a very familiar rag doll, curling up in flames at the edges of a shop.

"What have I done?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eira Ottoline

Our dysfunctional group of five had become a miserable group of two. And I actually felt bad about it. There was something severely wrong with me.

Greta woke me promptly at sunrise.

"Leave me alone," I muttered and rolled onto my side. I hadn't wallowed in a few hundred years, I was out of practice.

Greta nudged me again. "We need to hurry if we want to see the oracle! She only meets with one person a month, and if we're not the first ones in line we're doomed."

I rolled back to glare at her. "You're doomed if you touch me again."

"You can kill me, sure. Then you'll be entirely alone." Greta shrugged and moved around our little camp, packing up her sleep area.

I swallowed. "Well that's how I was supposed to do this quest. I took pity on you, that's why you lived this long. You think Seraphina would have lived as long as she did had she been on her own? Please. That whiner wouldn't have lasted a week. Pitiful." Was that sentiment in my voice? Gross.

"We lasted longer because we had each other," Greta corrected. She stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "And who's the pitiful one now?"

We hiked to the little village in the Tikit mountains, where the oracle apparently lived. It wasn't difficult to locate the oracle's hut. It was isolated from the rest of the village, but completely surrounded by people.

"We're too late," Greta breathed.

"No you're not, you're just in time!" A little girl exclaimed, rushing up to us. She smiled brightly and took my hand and Greta's. I pulled my hand out of her grip as if I'd been burned. How dare she touch me? Who even was she?

She led us to a pair of cushions on the ground near the hut. "Would you like tea? Cookies?" she chirped.

"No, I'd like to meet the oracle, annoying child," I hissed.

The little girl narrowed her eyes. "I work for the great oracle Delphinium, and she wants everyone to sit here and have a nice tea party before she decides who to speak to, so sit down!"

Greta and I both said own at once.

The little girl smiled again. "I'll go get you some tea!" She bounced off, her bright red curls flopping around. Greta and I only looked at each other in confusion.

About an hour later, when we were each on our four cup of tea, the over enthusiastic little girl emerged from the hut with a glowing blue crystal in her hand. Everyone in the crowd fell silent and watched her intently.

"Delphinium has made her choice." The girl's voice had taken on a breathy, powerful sound.

Everyone waited.

"Eira Ottoline and Margaret Cleo, the oracle has chosen you."

My eyes widened. Wow, how lucky was that?

The little girl held the hut door open as Greta and I made our way around the crowd. Before the three of us entered the hut, the girl smiled warmly at the grumbling cluster of disappointed people. "The great Delphinium thanks you all for coming and looks forward to welcoming you all again next month."

We entered the hut and I looked around... there was no one else in the hut.

The little girl sat down at an ornate wooden table in the center of the room and gestured to the seat across from her. "Have a seat, Eira, and we can get down to business."

"You... you're..?" I gaped at her.

"You're Delphinum?" Greta finished for me, her mouth hanging open just like mine.

The child who was apparently the wise, all-seeing oracle giggled. "You can call me Della. Now, sit."

"Um, okay..." I hesitantly sat in the seat across from Della. "How old are you?" I asked her.

"Seven and a half," she said with a smile. "I know, I know, you thought I'd be older... but everyone's a kid at some point, you know!"

"But there have been legends about "the great oracle Delphinium" for hundreds of years!" Greta argued. She stood behind me as there was only one chair.

Della shrugged. "It's a family name." She held out a tin of cookies. "Want some?"

"No," I answered quickly, "We want to know—"

"About the Tree, yep, I knew that. I was waiting for you to show up." Della stuffed a handful of cookies into her mouth.

"You knew we were coming?" I asked.

"Of course!" Della mumbled with her mouth full. "I know all the people I'm going to predict for in advance."

Greta shook her head. "If you choose in advance then why did you make it seem like some big decision? You had hundreds of people out there!"

"I like the company." Della shrugged. "People avoid me when there's not the possibility of me telling them their future. Being an oracle is a lonely life."

"Yeah yeah, woe is you." I waved her off. I couldn't care less about her pitiful existence. "Just tell me what I need to know."

"Okay." Della suddenly became serious. She closed her eyes and spoke in that mystical voice she used earlier. "Before the sun rises the next morning, this entire village shall be crushed under an avalanche. All of it's citizens shall perish if they are not evacuated before morning arrives." She opened her eyes and looked at me expectantly.

I blinked. "That's, um. That's unfortunate. We want to know about the tree though."

"And I'll tell you whatever you desire to know about the tree.... after you save my people."

"What?"

"You heard me, save them," Della repeated, her wide eyes watching me carefully.

"No. Sorry, no."

Della frowned. "Please, I would save them myself if I could, but I'm only a child."

"Why do you even want to help them?" Greta asked the exact question I was thinking. "You said they avoid you."

"But they're my people. I love them," Della sniffled. "Please save them. You have to!"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, you don't seem to understand who I am. I'm an Unseelie. One who enjoys murder and hates humans," I stressed. "Saving people is not something I do."

Della nodded. "I know, that's why your friend Marlow died. Cestil and Seraphina too."

I narrowed my eyes and clamped my mouth shut, choking back the urge to leap across the small distance between us and rip the little girl's heart out with my bare hands. "Exactly," I said through clenched teeth. "I'm clearly not the right person for this task."

She nodded again, more fervently. "Oh, but you are."

"Why?"

Della smiled with childish innocence. "Because you're selfish and scary!"

My nails scraped against the table hard enough to leave gouges in the wood. "Elaborate. I dare you."

She giggled, clearly not getting the threat. "You didn't save your friends because you were selfish. Marlow died because you were too afraid to face Cat Sith. Cestil and Seraphina died because you were, once again, afraid to endanger yourself. You're selfish because you always put yourself ahead of everyone else, even the people you care about—"

"I CARE ABOUT NO ONE!"

"Well of course not, silly! They're all dead."

My eye twitched and I said nothing. I was going to kill that child. Right here, right now. I didn't need to know about the stupid guardian of the Tree, I needed to make the stupid kid pay for making me feel emotions! How dare she?

"And you're scary because well..." she looked at me pointedly. Her eyes conveyed far too much maturity for a girl her age. "That scariness and selfishness are exactly what you need to save my people."

I crossed my arms tightly over my chest and leaned back in my seat. "I'm waiting for you to make sense."

"You want to know about the Tree, so you'll do anything. Even save my people, even murder one of your own," Della said.

A small smile curved my lips and I leaned forward. "Now why didn't you mention the murder bit earlier?"

I exited Della's little hut with Greta on my heels. "So how are we supposed to evacuate the entire village?" she asked me.

"Easy. We'll just explain the danger to them and they'll pack up and skedaddle."

Greta frowned. "Eira... have you never read about Delphinium? You can't ever repeat any detail of her predictions to anyone who wasn't present to hear it themselves. You can't even tell the people they're in danger."

I sighed. "Things can never be easy, can they?"

"Apparently not when you're trying to save the universe."

"Gross. We should do that less," I said, making a face.

Greta smiled. "Well hopefully after we fix the Tree we should never have to worry about it again." Her smile fell as quickly as it came. "But really, how are we supposed to save them if we can't warn them of the danger?"

"Well..." a small smile grew on my lips. "We could always put them in danger."

Greta shook her head and started pacing. "Yeah, you're pretty intimidating when you want to be, but not enough to send an entire town running for the hills—er—valley. If anything they'll just try to kill you."

I smiled. "Yes, thank you, I am intimidating," I agreed. "And I can get even scarier. Plus," I glanced up at the sky. The sun was right overhead. "When it gets dark, you'll be scary too."

"So we're just going to wait until night and then chase the entire town out of their homes before sunrise?"

I nodded.

"Worth a shot I guess."

When the sun fell, Greta shifted into her Gola form and snarled. "Scary enough?"

"Scrunch your face up and look a bit more feral and then you'll be good."

"What about you?" she asked, scrunching her face and baring her teeth.

"I've got it covered." I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Was I really going to do this? To save people? To save humans? Before I had a chance to second guess myself, I let my beautiful glamour fall for the first time in hundreds of years. I heard Greta gasp and I knew how I looked: every inch of my skin was covered in the most gruesome burn scars you could imagine. My hair was dead, my eyes were cloudy.

Greta tried to speak. "Eira I..."

I wrinkled my nose. Was that sympathy I heard in her tone? "Shut up. Let's go."

We ran through the town, snarling, shrieking, and destroying houses as we chanced the people out. It didn't matter what we did to their homes, they would all be destroyed by morning anyway. I tried to tune out the people's screams. They made me feel sick.

Usually I reveled in causing people cries of distress and suffering, but these screams were mostly due to my appearance, not my actions. I didn't enjoy being ugly.

At some point in the night we ran across the beautiful Selyse, another Unseelie. I snapped her neck to make myself feel better. It worked.

By sunrise, the entire village was cleared. After the avalanche passed, we realized we never got Della out of her house.

"Oh no, do you think she...?" Greta fretted.

I didn't get a chance to answer because we were suddenly embraced by a short redhead. I stiffened and fought back a hiss of disgust.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Della exclaimed. "I knew you'd be able to do it!"

"Yeah, great, woo, now tell us about the tree," I ordered.

"Alright, I'll tell you everything," Della agreed, her smile bright.

We sat on the ground and drank tea while she talked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Selyse Bellanessa Ivory

For once, her task wasn't made a hundred times more difficult by the robbery of her most precious asset. Since it was forbidden for her to speak of the prophecy, it hardly mattered that she couldn't use her voice at all.

Well, Selyse used the word hardly as a vague term. A better phrase might be that it mattered to her quite a bit, but had no impact on her ability to complete the task whatsoever.

She slowed her hike to shake her beautiful head. Why did the Oracle care so much about this little village anyway? It certainly wasn't anything special. Selyse had seen a thousand bigger, prettier, and more impressive civilizations.

She sighed, and rested her hand on a nearby tree. Once, her perfectly manicured fingernails would be a sharp contrast against the filthy wood, but no longer. Now her nails were jagged and dirty. Some of the dirtier spots made a good match to the bark.

The realization made her wince. A lesser Fae might tug at her hair in dismay, but she knew better than to do anything that might disturb her appearance further. At least her hair was still beautiful. She couldn't say the same for the red haired angel girl that had angered the Oracle's guards. That girl wouldn't be doing anything anytime soon.

A bird whistled overhead. The sound was lovely, though not as lovely as Selyse's own voice. She glanced up at the creature, and in the process she noticed how low the sun hung over the sky. If she wanted to reach the crest of the hill by the time it was dark, she'd have to speed up her pace.

Selyse sighed again, but this time she continued her hike. A bead of sweat formed on her brow. She flicked it away with a dirty fingertip before the perspiration could damage her facial beauty further.

Perhaps such an effort was futile. She had always thought she left those she manipulated with a positive memory of her, but Jaxon had treated her with hostility. Subconsciously, her hand touched the necklace around her throat. Perhaps her wavering beauty was what had led him astray in her absence.

When Selyse reached the top of the hill, the sun had sunk behind the horizon, and so had her doubts of her beauty. She was Selyse Bellanessa Ivory, the fairest one of all, the most beautiful Fae in the world. No amount of rough living could change that.

However, she had a new problem at hand. Her plan had seemed so clever from the village. Go to the top of the nearby hill, where it would be safe from the avalanche. Build a shelter tall enough to be seen from the town. Somehow get the town to come to her shelter and stay there until after the avalanche. Simple, it had seemed.

But now she could see holes in this clever plan that she hadn't before. She hadn't the slightest idea of how to build a shelter, nor of how to bring the humans there.

Perhaps her voice could have been helpful here after all.

Unbidden, a memory rose to the surface of her mind. Her mother, pressing a ring into her hand after Selyse agreed to quest to save the tree. Her mother had said if Selyse ever needed her aid, to slip the ring on her finger. Of course, Selyse had slipped the ring into her bag instead. She hadn't been able to imagine a day when her mother could help her.

Well, she thought glumly, that day had come.

It took her all night to find the ring from her remaining belongings. That may or may not have been because she fell asleep in the middle of her search for it, but as the humans said, potato-potato.

She couldn't help but cringe as she put the ring on, and not just because the gem was all wrong for her eye color. The elder Miss Ivory was more horrible in her nicest state than Selyse was in her darkest of Siren moods, and she didn't even have a pretty smile to soften it up.

A cloud of smoke puffed into existence in front of her. Rather than be impressed, Selyse crossed her arms and sighed at her mother's inability to arrive without making a scene.

Her mother didn't utter a word. She instead reached her thumb to Selyse's forehead. She could read people's minds that way.

If only she had bothered to teach Selyse that skill, then maybe Selyse would find it in her heart to love her old mother. But no, her mother had had to keep that lovely little skill to herself because she was an ugly wench.

"Hm," her mother said when she finally removed her rotten thumb. "I'll do you a favor. I'll build the shelter you desire, and give you the means of which to bring the humans here. But in return, I'll expect a favor from you one day."

Of course she did. It wouldn't have made sense to the woman that if she offered Selyse aid, then she shouldn't demand a price for it.

Selyse nodded. If she completed her quest and saved the tree, perhaps the Queen of Air and Darkness could arrange for Selyse to get out of that agreement.

Her mother left her with a castle on a hill, and a horn in her hands. Selyse couldn't see how the horn would help, but her mother had promised if Selyse blew it when she wanted the humans to come, they would come.

Not that Selyse trusted anything her mother said. But if she did do as her mother instructed, and she subsequently wasn't able to complete her quest because of it, she could blame her mother. She would just love to see her mother faced with the Queen's wrath.

Selyse pressed her lips to the horn. Should she blow it now? If she blew too soon, there might be time for the people to come to her hill, and then leave again. But if she didn't blow soon enough, then there might not be time for them to come at all.

A wave of nervousness wracked over her. If this didn't work, all those people would die. Children and teenagers and girls like her and boys like Jaxon would all be crushed to death in an avalanche.

She didn't know why she cared about humans. But she did know that suddenly she found herself praying that this gift of her mother's would work.

She blew the horn.