Chapter #01: Unseelie Then

Have you ever had a moment where something happened - something so monumental - that it completely altered the trajectory of your life? I have. Multiple times, in fact. The first time was when I was just six years old. 

I was asleep in my bed. It was a warm summer night, a light ocean breeze wafting in through my open window. I was having a nice dream about candy and toys or something when I was gently shaken from my slumber. 

“Mordekai, honey… Wake up.” It was my mother. Her voice seemed worried. Urgent. She flipped my bedside lamp on and pulled me into a sitting position.

“Mom… What’s going on?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes sleepily. 

“I just wanted to hold you and sing to you,” she said with a faint smile.

“Mom, I’m too big for that stuff now!” I insisted. 

“Hush now.” She ignored my protests and pulled me into a tight hug anyway. She began rocking me and singing. Her voice was always so beautiful. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey…”

I felt the usual warmth of her healing magic as she sang, but I wasn’t hurt or sick, so it confused me. I looked up at her face, as if suddenly realizing that it would be the last time I saw it. I made it a point to memorize her features - like me, she had sun-kissed peach skin, black hair, green eyes, and pointed ears. At first glance, we looked more like elves than faeries, but that was just because we only summoned our wings during flight. 

“You’ll never know dear, how much I love you…” As she continued, I heard people shouting out in the courtyard of our castle. 

“Where is she?!” a man demanded. 

“Somebody find that Unseelie bitch!” cried another. 

Mom’s voice began to crack and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Please don’t take my sunshine away…”

“What’s going on?” I was worried now too. 

“Don’t worry about it, honey,” she replied as she set me back down and headed towards my door. “I just wanted to sing to you. Go back to sleep now.”

“Mom, wait!” I reached a hand out for her as she slipped out of my room. I jumped out of bed and chased after her. I ran down the hall to the massive twin staircases that connected the second floor landing to the spacious foyer of our castle. 

I barreled down the stairs just in time to see a squad of police officers storm the foyer and slap magic-dampening handcuffs on my mother. The front double doors were open and I could see an angry mob of people outside in the courtyard. Many of them were holding up their magitech smartphones and recording the events unfolding. 

“There she is, chat!” yelled a woman angrily who must have been livestreaming to her viewers. “Aria Hexum must be exiled! Down with the queen!”

Everyone in the crowd began chanting that over and over again. “Down with the queen!”

I was so scared and confused. I began crying. “Mom, what’s going on!”

“Go back to bed, Mordekai,” she insisted. She was crying too. 

“Don’t you ever speak MY son’s name again, Unseelie filth!” came an authoritative voice from behind me. I snapped my head around to see my father, King Lucien. Tall and powerful, he was admired and feared by everyone. Unlike my mother and I, he had long silver-blue hair and purple eyes. 

“Dad, what’s going on?!” I ran to him weeping. “Why are they taking Mom?!”

He kneeled down and looked me sternly in the eyes. “Son, she is no longer your mother, my wife, or the queen. She has turned her back against the Seelie Court and become an Unseelie.”

I had heard people speak of Unseelies as apostates who rejected the teachings of our goddess, the Evermother. But at only six years old, I hadn’t yet grasped the full scope of that. 

“But I don’t want Mom to go!” I cried. I felt heartbroken as I watched the police drag her out the door and through the crowd in the courtyard. Dad pulled me into a hug and carried me back to my room. We sat down on my bed. 

“You’re still very young, so this may be difficult to understand,” he said. “You see, son, thousands of years ago, a group of very bad people used Chaos Magic - the most wild and dangerous type of magic - to create the world’s first demons. That was the birth of the Crimson Calamity, the darkest period of our history. In the end, the Evermother sacrificed her physical body to destroy the demons. Chaos Magic has been forbidden ever since.” 

“But what does that have to do with Mom?” I asked as I wiped my tears away. 

“She was caught using that very same Chaos Magic,” he revealed, a look of disgust on his face. “To bring that into our home and risk another Calamity… Such a sin will not be tolerated and cannot be forgiven.”

“What… What’s gonna happen to her?” I was almost afraid to ask. 

“She will be exiled from the Seelie Court, like all Unseelies. You would do well to forget her and focus on being the best prince you can be. One day you will be king, but the people will not follow you if you show weakness by sympathizing with Unseelies. Do you understand, son?”

“Yes, Dad…”

He nodded his approval and then left my room without another word. I sat there for a long moment, and then walked over to look out the window. The view encompassed a great deal of our capital, Seelie City. I could see the docks down by the harbor, past the courtyard and the Market District. Magitech vehicles drove the streets despite the late hour. Many of them were probably the mobs heading back home after storming our castle. 

I spotted Mom in the distance, being pulled out of a cop car at the docks. I began crying anew. As if sensing my gaze, she turned back and waved at me, tears still streaming down her cheeks as well. The police marched her onto a ship and she disappeared below deck. I stood there weeping as I watched the vessel sail away until it vanished from view…

***

“Happy Birthday, dude!” came a voice from behind me. My best friend Samreon Qhousalar walked over and stood next to me as I looked out my bedroom window. He was a faerie too, but he had dark brown skin, curly black hair, and pink eyes. We were both dressed in fancy formal suits befitting our noble status. I hated it. “Um… are you okay?”

“Not really, dude,” I said after a long sigh. 

“What’s wrong, man?” he inquired, wrapping an arm around me. 

“It’s been like ten years since my Mom left, and even after all this time, I remember it as vividly as the day it happened. I keep looking out at that harbor, just hoping I’ll see a ship return with her.”

“It must be hitting you hard today of all days, huh?” Sam gave me an empathetic look. 

“I hate that she’s not here for my birthday…” I began to cry a little. “Especially this birthday. I mean, every young faerie dreams of the day they turn sixteen, but without my Mom here to see me become a man, it just feels… worthless.”

“I know it’s a tough situation to deal with, man,” Sam pulled me into a tight bro hug. 

“I just wish my dad wasn’t so strict with this Unseelie crap,” I said as I grabbed tissues from a box on my nightstand to wipe my tears. “Maybe they could have worked something out and my Mom would still be around…”

“He may be the king, but he still has to answer to the Elders,” Sam reminded me. I didn’t want to hear it, but he was right. “And the public. I’m sure he was under a tremendous amount of pressure to exile her. Not saying I agree with it, just that I understand why he did it.”

“To be honest, I’d rather just run away and not deal with all this,” I confessed. “I hate that my father is expecting me to be as cruel and heartless as he is. I hate being forced to conform to this royal prince crap. I hate this suit I’m wearing. I hate that I’m about to be paraded in front of a bunch of uppity nobles who only care about wealth, power, and glamour. I want to be free. I want to go explore the Expanse. I want to find my mother…”

“Well, there will be lots of girls our age at the party, so that’s something for you to look forward to!” Sam said with a smirk, trying to cheer me up. I gave a small grin in response. “I, of course, will be looking at the other boys instead.”

“Oh, of course,” I replied, my smile bigger now. 

“So, you gonna be okay then, dude?”

“I’ll manage.” I sighed. “Hey, Sam? Thanks for being here.”

“Don’t mention it!” He grinned and winked. “I’ll see you downstairs at the party.”

Here we go, I thought to myself after spending a few more minutes alone in my room. Then I headed downstairs as well. 

Remember when I said that I had experienced multiple moments that altered the trajectory of my life? Well, the next one would take shape before the night was through…