Ezra hated being questioned. He never knew any more than anyone else, yet because he was the princess's Spirit Guard, people expected the most from him.
"I told you, I don't know anything. She's just.. she's gone."
The archfey in front of him leaned forward on the table they were sat at. "You humans lie so easily. Let's go over everything again. Start with where you are from."
"Aris, come on you know me!"
Aris rose an eyebrow. "Don't make me force you to speak."
Ezra groaned and leaned back in his chair. "Okay, fine. My birth name is Ezra James Trice, but Calixa gave me the last name Ostium. I don't remember where I'm from, not exactly, just that it's from somewhere in the human realm, on the continent of Evira. I don't remember being taken to the Feywild, I just know I was no longer a child when it happened. I was raised by a handmaiden in the castle who insisted I spend time with the princess to get to know how life here works. Calixa and I became friends, she asked me to be her Spirit Guard some time later, and I started training. I got my official status as Spirit three years ago."
"Then you know her best."
"Look I still don't even really know what being her Spirit means. The Queen's Spirit keeps telling me I'll know eventually, that one day our role just makes sense, but it was too difficult to explain. For now I feel no different than any of the other four, who have known her longer."
"Do you remember anything about the last day she was here?"
Ezra crossed his arms and looked off to the side. "She knew she was leaving, I know that much."
"You didn't stop her?"
"You don't think I would have if I knew that was what was wrong?!"
"How do you know that she planned it?"
Ezra sighed deeply. "She took us five out for a drink, congratulating us on how well we were doing our job since the rumors about the Midnight Sun being after her head started. She claimed we deserved a break. It was fun, we don't often all go to celebrate together. But it was out of the blue. Calixa took some time with each of the four elemental guards, Raine - sorry, Air told me something seemed off with her. Calixa didn't speak to me until I escorted her to her room, since I was on guard duty that night. I was all kinds of confused, so jasmine blossoms started blooming like crazy, which she found funny. It felt almost normal, until she kissed me."
"And why did that stand out?"
Ezra rolled his eyes. "You fey never see any meaning in that, it's your weakness. She claimed she wanted to show a human sign of friendship, which she clearly had confused for a hug. But what was odder is that she had never done that before. We always just accepted it as a fact: we were friends. She never made a point of showing it. I thought it was the wine talking, and maybe selfishly let it speak. She laughed when I explained her mistake, took one of the jasmine blossoms that grew around me, and retired for the night."
"You never heard her leave?"
"She's as quiet as a shadow, and probably left her window open beforehand. I heard, saw, guessed nothing except for the fact that she was behaving oddly. But everyone has weird days, right?"
"The Summer Light doesn't."
"She never wanted to be the Light, leave her alone with that!"
The archfey grinned then. "That, Spirit, was all the information I needed. You can send in the next Guard."
Ezra left the room quietly, before running out towards the forest, through the trees, to a cliff. He sat on the edge of the rock overlooking the Yearning.
He had no idea where Calixa might have gone, but he did know one thing: he had failed his job.
Comments (6)
See all