Blue

Fairy Tale Council (a.k.a. HQ)’s pale pink turrets came into view on the misty mountain a few feet away. Four individual bridges built from fragments of light and fae dust extended their welcoming hands from the silver gates that only we could sense. 

Crossing the gates required no effort as the castle recognized us as a part of its own. But my heart thumped faster than it did when we faced the caterpillar. 

At the rate it was beating, no one would ever doubt it faltered just seconds ago from the lack of life magic coursing through it. Not even the sensitive sprites Herman flagged down to carry Jayden Forst in a makeshift hammock of vines and parchment thrown together.

They flew away so fast after Herman briefed them on what to do, Aster, the tiniest of the group was left behind, gasping for air. I picked her up and plopped her onto my shoulder. Feeling her nuzzle against my neck was a little comfort against the emptiness I felt inside. Herman placed a hand behind me as we began the excruciating march towards the East Wing in silence. 

On any other day, the magic of the castle seeping through our skin would be enough to buzz our senses back to life. Now, I doubt soaking in a whole tub of Merlin’s most prized potions could lighten our steps. Worse still, the interior of the building was nothing like what we had remembered. Welcoming yes, but not a hint of silvers of the place we once called home. 

The walls were plastered with a new layer of lemonade pink completed with sickening patterns of small roses that made the room swirl. In place of pure white lilies and gardenias, pink roses and carnations adorned the crystal vases that line the walls. Light from the setting sun filtering in through the windows of stained glass, further enhancing the rouge shades of the place.

I closed my eyes the entire way to Lily’s room. 

More than my resentment for the colour, having to look at it no matter where you look was a killer to any healthy fae’s eyes. Especially for one already battling with the dizzy spell burbling from within.

By the time we bounded through the double doors (which were, thankfully, still white), my peripheral was flooded with so much sparkles I was grateful for the fluffy armchair to hold my weak frame in. However distasteful the colour might be.

“He’ll be fine once Lily comes.” Herman sank into the armchair beside me and placed his hand atop mine. 

I squeezed his hand in reply without opening my eyes, too tired to will my lips to move even when the sprites burst into the room and settled Jayden Forst on the long table before us. The vases of carnations that adorned the table were carried away by the pixies that stormed out of the room again. 

Aster mimicked Herman and patted my other hand with her tiny ones. Her oversized forget-me-not fell over her eyes a dozen of times as she tried her hardest to pat colour back into my skin. A weak smile found its way to my lips as I readjusted her cap and shook my head for her to stop trying. The little one only stared back at me, perplexed.

When the doors swung open again, Lily floated into the room with her pixie handmaidens in tow. Pink carnations dabbed in fae dust were woven into her creamy white hair and the bodice of her dress. The only part that revealed hints of white satin was the layers of petticoat that peeked from under her skirt as she moved. 

Other than that, our White Fairy had nothing on her that echoed her name. I wouldn’t be surprised if they begin to know her as the Pink Fairy in another decade or two. 

“Celastrina! Oh, my precious little violet,” Lily cooed as she pulled me into a floral-induced hug. Pollens from the carnations tickled my nose and made me sneeze when she released me. “Where have you been all this time?” 

“Lily, can we save that for later?” I squirmed and tried to peel myself away from her death grip. The last time we had seen each other was before Ella’s assignment, which was, approximately only two weeks ago. “We need your help.”

“Oh right, right. Goodness me. Where is the boy?”

Here here here! I wanted to scream as I hopped over to the table but Herman took over and explained to Lily what my current lack of speech abilities couldn’t. 

“Nothing a speck of fairy dust can’t cure.” Lily met my gaze with her own silver ones, a warm motherly smile spread wide across her face as she coaxed a handful of golden dust from the bud of white carnation pinned to her chest. 

With one hand holding onto her curved silver-white wand, she sprinkled it over Jayden Forst. But before she completed the spell, she whipped her head around and casted her eyes towards my waist. Her airbrushed pink cheeks paled instantly to reveal the former look of the White Fairy.  

A few seconds before the dust settled completely, she focused her attention in time to catch them with a circle of her wand and coaxed them to burrow their way into Jayden Forst’s chest. Its golden hue surfaced on his skin and reached into his once pale limbs. 

“There, all’s good and well,” she inhaled deeply, a hand over her eyes. “Now my child, do this old fae a favour and retrieve your locket will you?” 

Her handmaidens were efficient as always. Three carried a large feather fan into the room while the others ushered Lily to the nearest armchair. 

“Thank you, Lily,” I whispered and waved a hand over the chain around Jayden Forst’s neck. The bright blue of my locket wavered and dimmed to none. A loud sigh of relief escaped Lily’s lips when it finally found its way back to my waist. 

“Do not scare me like that again, child,” Lily breathed, fanning herself with a hand. The three pixies beside her wielded the oversized fan, dangerously unbalanced but Lily didn’t seem to notice. 

“I may look the part of a maiden but the soul in me isn’t. She no longer has a heart as strong as you younglings.”

I chuckled for the first time that day, feeling renewed magic coursing in my veins again. “You still have Tales ahead of you, Lily.”

Of course, no fae ever die from the faint of heart—that was just Lily exaggerating. It’s impossible for someone empowered with fae dust from head to toe to ever feel weaker than any of us combined. 

Time can cause illusions about having weakened bodies to immortals especially when they had been around since the realm was founded. Having hair as white as the elders of the human race happened to give Lily the legitimate excuse for it. 

“Now, be truthful with me.” Lily glanced at Herman and me in turn. “Why, of all places, were the two of you in the Void again?” 

She turned to Jayden Forst and back to the empty space between the two of us. “I believe Pinocchio’s Tale was long overdue.”

The sprites tumbled in from the arched windows in time to spare me some extra time. Several cups with scalloped edges in well, pink overalls, nearly flew out of their grasp but Herman caught them before they crashed to the carpeted floor. 

A teapot carried by two young sprites that followed after wasn’t entirely safe though. Since it was thrice their size and blocked their vision, the two didn’t realize their friends had stopped, bumped right into them and the teapot catapulted from their hands. 

Herman was too far, hands too preoccupied with the cups he tried to balance on both arms. Lily wasn’t fast enough to react with a time-stopping spell. Light brown tea fell in a shower over Jayden Forst like the golden fae dust before it. 

Wisp of steam filled the room, carrying notes of mint and chamomile as the lid fell and rolled to my feet. 

Blood rushed up to Jayden Forst’s face, his eyes sprung wide open before he yelped and vaulted off the table. He stomped the floor in pace of a strange dance I had not seen before, muttering ‘Shit, shit, shit’ under his breath. 

A moment of silence as Lily sent me a puzzled look. I returned it with a shrug. The Reader’s expression of words still escapes me most of the time. Except for the fluttering of their wings, the pixies and sprites were hushed as they watched. 

Herman eventually broke the silence spell exclaiming, “Welcome back, brother!” He threw his arms around Jayden Forst and forcibly rubbed his head.

“W-What are you talking about?” The boy thrashed to free himself but Herman was evidently stronger. “And stop that, will you? My head felt like it’d just been microwaved!”

“Sorry,” Herman pulled back, securing his hands behind himself in case he unconsciously reach out for the boy again. “It’s just that you’d nearly surrender yourself to Hades back there.”

Herman hadn’t acted this way ever since he returned from Snow White’s assignment. His eyes glistened with such pure joy it was infectious. I couldn’t help the silly grin that formed on my lips. 

If Lily felt it too, she made an effort not to show it other than the sparkles that she couldn’t hide from her eyes. Lily’s stubborn in that way, always insisting that the ‘Grand White Fairy’ charade must be erected in front of outsiders even though we both knew how much she was dying inside to give both boys a tight hug. 

Instead, she cleared her throat and went all out regal fae mom and turned to Jayden Forst. “Child, you do not speak like the mortals of Cendrillon. Which kingdom are you from?” 

Jayden Forst nearly tumbled to the ground when Herman let go of him and skipped to the side, his hands laced securely behind him the way a guard would before royalties.

“Jayden Forst, ma’am,” he winced and rubbed the invisible bruises forming along the side of his arms. “And according to Herman, I believe I am what you would call a Reader.”

With that single confession, chaos broke with pixies gasping and zooming out of windows flung open and sprites bumping into one another as they tried to scramble out of sight.

Lily’s short-lived charade was forced to end the moment her face fell. 

“Is anything wrong?” Jayden Forst asked the most obvious, his eyes trailed after the dust the little ones left in their wake.

Lily said nothing, her face an unreadable mask. My poor heart had probably given up beating again. 

Every fae moms and Authors knew that the situation is dire if the White Fairy did not react in a flustered manner. It meant she was thinking hard enough to not have the mind spared for reactions. And the White Fairy never thinks too hard.

The clueless Reader just had to say it right out loud and straight in the face. 

“A Reader, you say?” Lily confirmed in a slow, non-feeling voice, a perfect rose quartz fingernail tapping on the armrest. 

Jayden Forst opened his mouth to answer but I stopped him before the words rolled out. “We think that the Star plans to weave a Tale for Jayden Forst.”

I glanced sideway at Herman for a vote of confidence and began from how we first met Jayden Forst in the forest. What we had heard from him and how we had to come here in the end. 

Lily listened without a change in her expression. It’s the first time that I found her silver eyes intimidating. 

I stopped for the first change of breath just as Herman stepped in. A few spare parchments I had never seen before laid flat on his open palms. 

“I wanted to show you these first but…” He spared me an apologetic glance before passing them to Lily. 

Memories clicked in place with that single gesture. He was about to show me something before Jayden Forst collapsed. But after all that ruckus, I had forgotten all about it. 

“These were all written by my pen…” he inhaled deeply before continuing, “…. on its own.”

Lily’s expression shifted, though not in the good way. Mine probably mirrored hers too. 

Enchanted pens were always wielded by their Authors to pen a Tale, never by itself. Though it might possess life, it wasn’t blessed with a soul. One can only imagine what kind of Tale would be created if they were left to record things as they were without a speck of beautification. 

Surely no Reader would want to know that the hunter who helped Snow White was actually a fae dad in disguise. That would spoil the part where he ‘turned over a new leaf and saved her’ and it wouldn’t be a Tale anymore.

Lily skimmed over the pages, unblinking until she stopped and flipped them over, the words written hidden from sight. For the first time since the Tales began, she appeared her age. “You should’ve came to me earlier, my child.” 

She sighed a sigh-away-a-year’s-worth-fortune kind of sigh and directed her attention from Herman to me. “You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

I shifted my weight to the other foot and back again as she rose to her feet. Was that disappointment I saw in her eyes? Just what did the darn pen wrote?

“We can’t keep him here and risk pandemonium against the land just because of one of the Star’s whims,” she said, her voice took on a bitter edge at the mention of the Star. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if she was like the rest of us, that she only followed orders because she has to, not because she really agrees with Him.

“It will be up to the two of you to send Jayden Forst back to where he came from before anyone outside the walls found anything amiss with the boy.” She shifted her focus to Jayden Forst, a small smile softened the edge of her lips. 

“Child, do know that we meant no harm but we can’t afford to keep you here. Readers do not…agree with what this realm is made of. I think you are eager to return to your own land too, yes?”

To my utter dismay, Jayden Forst only hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. “I understand,” he said with a smile of his own, though it was not what he showed us most of the time. 

Was he sad? Disappointed? Or just drained?

“Great,” Lily announced with a clap and her handmaidens materialized again. “Shall we proceed to the next room then?”

For the briefest moment, her words escaped my ears. I furrowed my brows and stared hard at the little metal at my waist. A second back I was sure it glowed.

But not entirely in my colour.

It was tinted green.