I drove like a maniac to get home, to prove what I was told is a lie. My Aëlífa cannot be dead, she should have lived five times as long as me. My anger was directed at my brother, for he had phoned me, to poison my heart with his lies.
As I arrived at my home, Rodney came out to me and I saw how grief had darkened his eyes and etched his face and my rage trembled, collapsed, and I stared into his eyes as I demanded, “No!”
He placed his arm around my shoulders and gently drew me towards the door, the door I did not want to enter, for grief waited inside. At the threshold, I asked, “Has Tirafnaë returned?”
“She is gone, Tommy, they took her.” He has, ever since Aëlífa married me, called me by the name she gave me, Torimái. The old name, it made the evil he spoke of become truth and I went to my wife, my beautiful, dead wife.
As I sat on the floor, staring into the dulled eyes of my love, he told me of how he saw the faërie walk to my house and that my Aëlífa opened the door for them. Curiosity drove him and in the hope he’ll finally get to meet some of them, he walked over. The door was open, but when he entered he saw her lying on the floor and knew they have left, taking my precious daughter with them.
I leaned over so that my face would be all she would see if she were alive, and vowed, “I will bring her back my love. She is yours, mine, not theirs.” I gently closed her eyes, having seen them for the last time, and gave her cold lips my last kiss. I then turned to Rodney, “You must fly me to them, I must get Tirafnaë back. Is your plane fuelled and ready?”
His eyes did not flinch as I searched him for fear or reluctance, and simply answered, “It is ready, as always, but what flight plan do I give?”
“Whatever. Let’s go.”
As we flew, the sky was blue, untroubled and sunny, the planet that I thought loves us, entirely oblivious of my pain, of her death. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my images of the Land and I heard Rodney take a deep breath. I looked and saw a massive cloud line before us. We flew into it and I kept him directed so that we arrive close to the palace.
I lost myself in memories of my love, of our happy love that was so brightened by the spark of life, our beautiful Tirafnaë, our fourteen year old daughter. Maybe it was instinct, but I jerked and looked at my brother. He was slumped over and I could feel the plane was descending. In my minds eye I could see the low ridge ahead and knew we were about to crash into it. I pulled at the stick, pushing my brother back, and we just skimmed over the top and arrived within the Land.
I did not need to feel for a pulse, I knew that Rodney is dead. Dead at forty one years. Dead just days before his wedding. The coldness of heart, of this Land, froze me, so that all I thought of is landing safely, finding and taking my, no, still ‘our’ precious daughter back home.
Most ignored me as I entered the opening in the forest, walking to their destination with scarcely a glance at me, but five waited, facing me. My brother in law spoke for them. “You entered our Land in a machine. You knew it is forbidden. You brought one of them with you, and that too you knew is forbidden. You had the gift to find us, so we could not punish you with your death, but whatever blame and guilt there is, is yours.”
“I am not here to debate with you. I want our daughter back.”
“She is with her grandmother and there she shall stay. You are now Thomas and do not belong here. Never return, for next time it is your heart which shall stop.”
I stared with a hard knot of anger threatening to tear at me as I told him, “You knew that he is my brother. He was to wed and dreamed of having children. You stole the lives of his children when you killed him and his dream.” The rage grew, not a brightness of volcanic fire, just the total darkness of vengeance.
“As you stole from him, so shall I steal from you.” My dark cloud burst out of me and covered the light, the spark in every male mind within the Land. As they collapsed, I sensed myself growing, powers erupting like lava, covering my mind, dampening my pity for them.
The queen arrived, mother of my love and wife. Next to her stood Tirafnaë, but I instantly, with the new clarity of my sudden powers, knew that she is no longer my daughter, she is now one of them, without the murmurings of the heart for influencing her cold logic and faërie instincts.
She called out, “Stop father, let them live, please.” There was no emotion, just the fierce demand her people live.
“Can they…can you, bring back to life your mother and your uncle? Their fate is theirs. They too shall never have a child again. Any children born to the faërie from now on must be fathered by a man of our people, not of the faërie. As they killed his dream, so do I kill the dream of the faërie. It is time you stop existing as you are.”
As if ignoring me, she turned to her grandmother and explained what she knows of biology. The queen sent out and all the females stole from the dead males their sperm and using their abilities, ensured they fertilised an egg, so that within minutes all of them, including the queen and my daughter, were pregnant. I reached out and snuffed the spark in those meant to become male children, allowing only the son to be born to our daughter.
“You shall return with me,” I coldly ordered of my daughter, “or else they shall all die. Once my grandson is born, then you may return here – without him.”
The aeroplane lifted as I used my mind to raise it and we flew back towards my own world, to the Land of Mankind. I reminded myself the engine must be working as we arrive, and then sank back to stare ahead, while thinking of my daughter.
Her presence will be a stone weighing on my heart, but I have a secret hope that once she is back in our land, in our world where emotions drive us, the faërie magic will melt away so that she is my daughter again. ‘Do I have the power to help it happen?’, I asked myself.
I do not know. All I can do is hope and dream – and her son, grandson of my Aëlífa and myself, he shall be named Rodney and I will stay alive until I have ensured his dreams come true, whatever else happens.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)Written: 30th May, 2018
- posted on Steemit 31st May, 2018