Britannia: Theft (Ravenclawjedi42’s writing thread).

Ravenclawjedi42 · August 31, 2023

I was bored and decided to write something. And so then I decided to post it on the shard. I will try to post chapters somewhat regularly, but it may end up unfinished like my Stormlight Archive Fanfiction.

Prologue: (warning: contains mentions of death, and suicide.)

Spoiler

Prologue:

Bathampton Down, Somerset, England, 542 C.E.

Aquae Sulis, Britannia, Res Publica, 1295

“Arthur? Arthur, get up. We have work to do.”

Arthur stared at the wall, trying his hardest not to listen to what the aes sídhe was saying. Yes, they had work to do. But Arthur would try his hardest not to do that work.

“Arthur? Don’t you care anymore?”

A lone tear fell down Arthur’s cheek, bringing a warmth where it went, but the cold air quickly took that warmth away, like this creature took everything Arthur had away.

“Gwarcheidwad,” Arthur said, using the Welsh name for the aes sídhe. “I haven’t cared for years now. I did this for you, thinking you needed it. Until I realized you didn’t.”

“But I do. If you could see what these invaders will do, you wouldn’t have any hesitation. They are like the Romans, but worse, so much worse. Though this area will stay independent for many years before being conquered, and the language here will remain spoken, by some at least, South-Eastern Briton, where the invaders have landed, will become their land, the Land of Ængle, named for the Anglii.”

“That is not such a bad thing. That area is mostly Christian by now, and if we let them have there, they will leave us and the Scotti alone.”

“But they will not. They will take both these lands, and Éire, too. And not too long after, they will invade the homeland.”

“The aes sídhe homeland? But you said that it was across the sea, impossible to reach?”

“Not impossible. In five hundred years, people from the north will come to trade, and five hundred years after that, people from these lands, and areas south of it, will come to invade. Though the homeland will gain independence, with many states covering it, they will, on the north, be the states of the conquerors, like South-east Briton will become.”

“Like I said, that is not such a bad thing. Do you forget that I am Roman in blood?”

“In this case it is. Most humans in the homeland will be killed by the descendants of the people we fight. The only way we can stop this is by making sure they cannot settle on these Isles. You must stop them, King Arthur. You must.”

“I am no king,” Arthur said. “You know that.”

“You will be if you continue to fight back against these conquerors. You will be named King, you will marry Guinevere like you always wished, you will train a group of knights that you will lead. All you need to do is work with me against these conquerors.”

Arthur hated how well Gwarcheidwad could twist words, make Arthur want to do everything she said. It was how she quickly made Arthur loyal to her, winning him over—he was just a boy, then—with honey-coated words. And she had done it again.

“Fine,” Arthur stood, standing up. “I will gather the army. We will attack the city in an hour.”

That night, the city was theirs. Arthur’s soldiers celebrated, dancing through the streets of the city they had just captured. And Arthur felt horrible.

Gwarcheidwad was gone, enjoying the mineral baths this city was known for. And so Arthur felt disgusted. He had killed a thousand soldiers, the bulk of the army, all people who had lives. Arthur hated killing so much, an ironic thing for a soldier. But Gwarcheidwad always made him want to do it.

Arthur knew, then, that he couldn’t continue, didn’t want to continue. And he knew the only way he could stop her plans, but he had to do it now, while she was gone.

So Arthur drew his sword. Excalibur, it was called, given to him by a strange woman who lived next to a pond. And he stabbed himself in the chest.

Part I: Come:

Chapter one:

Spoiler

Manhattan, New York, United States of America, 2015

Manahátaan, Lenapehoking, 2768

It is quite a strange thing to encounter a demon when getting yourself a cup of tea. It is certainly not a situation that Zinnia ever expected to get herself into. But happen it did, happen it certainly did.

Zinnia didn’t detect anything when the demon entered the house, though she later knew it must have at some point. No strange sounds from downstairs, no unusual scents. At the time when the demon must have come in, Zinnia was in her bed, unable to sleep, a common ailment for the fifteen-year-old. Though it was nearly impossible for her to get a good night’s sleep, there was one thing that helped her: tea. So she got out of her bed, left her room, and walked through a hallway into the living room.

It was there that Zinnia first felt something off, something that scared her, though Zinnia dismissed this in the moment to her fear of the dark. Still, she really felt that there was something next to the sofa, a humanoid figure. Zinnia’s natural response to this was to turn on the light.

And she found that there was a humanoid figure standing next to the sofa.

Zinnia, who was Lesbian, did not typically find men attractive. Still, occasionally she would see someone that she simply had to admit was handsome. When she saw the demon, it was one of those times.

He had brown hair, no beard, and light eyes that seemed to portray both a wisdom and age and a knowledge of all space and time, yet also a childish playfulness Zinnia would sometimes see in her younger brother, George.

Zinnia screamed, but no one came. Surprising, as a scream like that would be sure to wake her mother, if she was even asleep by now.

“What are you doing here?” The man asked her. It was then that Zinnia noticed something…off about him. He was hovering an inch above the ground, or at least it looked like that. It was highly unlikely that he really was hovering, it must have been a trick of the light.

“Wh-what am I doing here?! This is my home! What are you doing here?!”

There was silence after she spoke, and then the man–more like a demon–responded. “This is awkward. I didn’t expect anyone to come here. If you had all just stayed in your beds, this wouldn't have happened.”

“Get–get out of my apartment!”

The demon–Zinnia had begun calling him that, even though it was unrealistic–paused for a moment before speaking.”I…thought that this was my apartment. 4D.”

“This is 3D,” Zinnia said, unimpressed.

“It is?” he said. His eyes focused on the hallway behind me. “Um…I’ll just be going now.” The demon ran from the room. Zinnia didn’t believe what he had said about him thinking this was his apartment, but he was gone and there wasn’t anything she could do. Or maybe she was dreaming right now. That was actually the most probable answer.

As Zinnia prepared tea for herself, she saw briefly out the window two fairies carrying a child together, but as her vision cleared she saw no fairies.

Just two crows and a dead animal.

Chapter two:

Spoiler

Chapter 2

Rome, Italy, Lazio region, 55 B.C.E.

Roma, Res Publica Romana, 699

Manius Acilia Scaevola loved to fight. Against invaders or rebel tribes in the peninsula or near Rome. Not against a bunch of Gauls in unexplored territory.

Of course, Father was overjoyed. He always spoke about how Scaevola needed to prove his worth, do more than what he already did. No matter that Scaevola was instrumental in putting down that last Thracian rebellion.

But now he had to go all the way to Hibernia and invade lands where no civilized folk had been before. For someone he didn’t even like.

“Soldiers!” the man said. “I know many of you have reservations about invading these areas. I have even found propaganda saying that these islands don’t even exist!” Scaevola didn’t believe these rumors, his reservations were for a different reason. “Those rumors are wrong! Even the Greeks, our inferiors, have reached this archipelago. If we do not invade these parts, we will be worse than the Greeks. We won’t be truly Roman if we ignore these places. If we do not do this soon, I fear that those Gauls will ally with the ones in Gallia, and perhaps even invade the empire!” Scaevola knew this was untrue. A bunch of ununified Gauls, laking a common leader, fighting against the strongest empire in the world…it was impossible. Besides, Scaevola doubted there was any connection between the Gauls in Gallia and the ones in Hibernia. “So yes!” Caesar said. “Yes, we will fight! Yes, many of us will die! But is it not for a good purpose? Or would you prefer for that traitor Pompey to take them from us?!”

This was why Scaevola hated Gaius Julius Caesar. He was so good at using the words his squealing voice threw out and twisting them. Whenever he spoke, he was ethical and correct about everything, and Pompey was…well, Pompey was Pompey. He might not be that great of a person, but compared to Caesar he was amazing. Yet Caesar’s style of giving speeches was perfect at exaggerating Pompey’s mistakes and getting rid of all the things he did right.

And of course, it sounded realistic.

“Spears at the ready!” Caesar shouted. “And…MARCH!”

As harsh military music was played, Scaevola began marching towards his doom.

Chapter 3:

Spoiler

Manhattan, New York, United States of America, 2015

Manahátaan, Lenapehoking, 2753

“Well, I’m off to work,” Mother said. This would leave Zinnia alone with her little brother George, as Father was gone on a trip for his work. “While I’m gone, take George down to the clothing store, will you?”

Zinnia grunted from her chair. It was Zinnia’s favorite chair, big and puffy and covered with blankets. Her plans for today included nothing but sitting on her chair and staring at images of cute baby animals on her phone.

Mother kissed Zinnia good-bye and left the apartment. While sitting, Zinnia heard something.

Someone was playing the piano.

The piano in Zinnia’s house was almost never played. Father, who could play, would occasionally play a few melodies, but if he was gone then the only person who could be playing was George.

But the music sounded good. So it couldn’t be him.

Which meant that it had to be an intruder.

Zinnia grabbed a broom and crept to the other living room (there were two in Zinnia’s apartment) where the piano was. And there she saw…

No, it couldn’t be.

George was playing.

He sat on the piano, barely reaching the keys, playing this beautiful, beautiful song. Zinnia knew nothing about music–aside from the occasional random fact about the clarinet, as that was what her friend, Clyde, played–but she could tell that this was beautiful even without knowing the correct vocabulary to describe it. But…how could George be playing something of this caliber. George, Zinnia’s four-year-old brother, who had never had musical training of any sort. Zinnia still couldn’t believe that he was the one playing. Although it wouldn’t make much sense for an intruder to come into Zinnia’s house and start playing piano.

“George?” Zinnia asked.

George yelped and ran past Zinnia into the hallway. Zinnia heard the door to his room slam closed. Wasn’t he a little young to slam doors?

Zinnia realized that she was in the mood to annoy her little brother, and she knew just the way to do that.

“George,” she said, knocking on his door.

“What?” he asked angrily.

“Mom says we need to pick up the clothes from the store.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

“Well, we have to see if they fit,” Zinnia said, saying the first excuse she thought of.

“Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine,” George said, emerging from his room.

The two siblings left the apartment and walked a few blocks to Taylor’s Clothing, a small clothing store run by Mother’s friend, an old man named Taylor.

“Zinnia!” he said. “You grew!”

“I’m a teenager, Taylor. Growing’s what we do.”

“Yes, but you don’t need to do it so fast. There’s no hurry. Soon you’ll be taller than me.”

“I already am taller than you, Taylor.” Taylor was quite short, around five feet tall. Zinnia was quite a bit taller than five feet.

“Well, you don’t have to rub it in…”

George laughed, which Zinnia thought was uncharacteristic of him. George was usually quite serious. But kids change. George was getting older like Zinnia was getting taller—too fast in the eyes of many.

Taylor frowned. “George, your hair got so long!”

Zinnia looked at George’s hair. He had gotten it cut just last week, but it was getting longer already. He had told Mother that he liked it longer, around shoulder-length, so it made sense for Taylor to comment on it. But it was already quite a bit longer than yesterday. He must be at an age where your hair starts really growing. Did that happen?

“We’re here to pick up the clothes, Taylor,” Zinnia said.

“Oh, of course!” Taylor grabbed a package from under his desk and Zinnia took it. “How has George been these days?”

Why was he asking about George? Zinnia wondered. “Good. I saw him playing piano this morning, which was weird. I don’t remember Father ever teaching him with any success, but I suppose he must have.”

“Was he good?”

“Yes, actually! It surprised me quite a bit.”

“Ah. I might have to take his measurements for next time, he grew so much.” Taylor pulled out his phone. “This can do all the measurements for me!” he said.

After pressing a few buttons, Taylor frowned. “I guess he didn’t grow that much after all. You’ll have to excuse me, I have a phone call I need to make.” Taylor walked down into the back room.

“That was strange,” Zinnia said to her brother. “Come on, we had better head back now.”

As the two of them left, Zinnia saw George staring intently at the shop.

As if there was something he hated in there.

Chapter 4:

Spoiler

Chapter 4

Manhattan, New York, United States of America, 2015

Manahátaan, Lenapehoking, 2753

Valkyrie walked through the streets of New York. This city was not her home, no matter how much she wished it would be. Home had been quite hard to find these days, after she–

Don’t think about that! she reminded herself. New York would have to be her home for now, until…until what? Perhaps New York would have to be her home forever.

Valkyrie was a soldier. She had been like that for several years, after hearing her parents’ and grandparents’ accounts of the civil war that destroyed her nation. At age four, she had declared herself a soldier. Most kids who think things like this as small children change their minds by the time they were Valkyrie’s age, after seeing the intense training that went into fighting. Not Valkyrie, though. Valkyrie kept at it. Grace thought that she was crazy, of course, but Grace thought a lot of things.

Unfortunately for Valkyrie, Grace was usually right.

While the fighting was Valkyrie’s favorite part of being a soldier, she understood the essentiality of other roles. Like the one she was doing now.

Recruitment.

Valkyrie walked into an apartment building, under the guise of a senior in high school. Thanks to the information that Taylor had gathered, Valkyrie knew where to go. A little older than she was currently, but close enough to her current age. She pressed the button for 3D and waved at the camera. She was lucky enough that this person, this “Zinnia” went to a school where they sent students to the people’s houses to make sure they were still going to the school the next year. Making Valkyrie’s job much easier.

The buzzer buzzed and Valkyrie entered the building.

Zinnia went back to her armchair after pressing the buzzer button. But maybe she shouldn’t sit down, if the representative of her school was about to arrive.

Zinnia’s school, to see if people were going to stay at the school, sent seniors to make sure they were enrolled, know when the first day of school was, and when the first PTA meeting was, etc. As school started in a week, it was around that time of the year, hence why the 12th-grader was here.

A knock came to the door, and Zinnia opened it. There stood a girl, slightly taller than her. She was athletically fit, had pale skin, green eyes, and was very ginger. Her hair was an orange of a shade not usually seen, that almost hurt the eyes to stare at directly. But even more identifying than that was the way she carried herself, akin to a soldier, with a straight back and as if she had a dagger at her side.

“I know, I know, the hair. Anyway, I’m Valkyrie O’Sullivan, and I am not from your school. I represent the United Coalition Against the Madaallt and other Chaotic Uses of Magic, or UCAMCUM. I’m here to tell you that your brother has been kidnapped by Fae.”

“Is this a joke? My mom did always say that the school shouldn’t trust teenagers with this sort of thing.”

The girl–Valkyrie–sighed as if regretting something. “I have proof. You’ll have to trust me, though. We need to get to the Base.”

“The what? School?”

“In a way. Bring the fae, if you have to.”

“Do you mean George? Will this be dangerous?”

“Not unless you make it dangerous,” Valkyrie replied simply.

“Fine. Let’s go. George!” she called.

“What?”

“We’re going on a little trip with this girl. She goes to my school.”

George emerged from the hallway. “Where are we going?”

“To my house,” Valkyrie said. “And we have lots of small children there…”

Chapter 5:

Spoiler

I’ll write this eventually.

Chapter 6:

Spoiler

Chapter 6

Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, 2015

Lenapehoking, 2753

After a long train ride through the city, Valkyrie led Zinnia down a busy road and stopped at a building. The building was white marble with strange friezes, and a similar architectural style to buildings like Grand Central Terminal or town halls or the Lincoln Memorial, an imitation of Ancient Greek or Roman temples.

“What’s this place?” Zinnia asked.

“The headquarters,” Valkyrie replied.

“Of?”

“You’ll see. The fae’s still there?”

“Why are you saying that like it’s such a bad thing? He’s not even a fae, he’s human. And he’s following me, but he seems to be a little scared by something.” Indeed George wasn’t talking and his hand was limp in Zinnia’s. He seemed terrified, a look that Zinnia had never seen on him.

Valkyrie walked up a flight of stairs leading to a porch outside of the building. Zinnia went to follow her, but found herself walking through…something. Something that felt extremely hot to walk through, but somehow not in a bad way. When Zinnia had walked through the invisible “wall” she felt cleansed, as if she had just taken a shower.

Valkyrie paused on the porch, looking down at Zinnia and George. The porch had a small wall on its left and right, on which candles of many colors rested atop.

Zinnia felt George stop moving, and his grip on her hand grew tighter. “George,” she said. We need to go in here.”

“I don’t wanna!”

Zinnia pulled George to her and up the steps, but as she did he changed. Around where Zinnia had felt the warm invisible wall-that-could-be-walked-through, George grew. He, under Zinnia’s eyesight, became a very handsome young man with brown hair and eyes.

“Alright, fine, I’m a fairy. Big deal,” he said in a strong, stereotypical Brooklyn accent.

“George? What–”

“I’m a fairy. Me and three others snuck into your apartment. Two of us grabbed your brother, I Changed into him, and you met the other. He was the one you talked to yesterday night, the unexpected stranger in your apartment.”

“But why?” Zinnia asked. “Why would you–you monster–steal my brother.”

“It was an act of Theft. And it was very important. Are there any officials I can speak to?”

“Yes,” Valkyrie replied. “We’ve got many officials here. I get the feeling we’ll have a lot to talk about, so why don’t you two come in?”

Edmund Tremblay watched the people walk in. One was definitely a fae, with a very distinct magical signature. One was Valkyrie, with her distinctive orange hair. One Edmund didn’t think he had ever seen in his life, with brown hair in a ponytail and tan skin.

“Valk!” Edmund said. “Where’s Grace?”

“Grace should be in her room. Why? Want to ask her out?”

Edmund blushed. He wasn’t sure why he had ever confessed his love for Grace in Valkyrie. He had hoped that his crush’s sister could help him with this sort of thing, but currently all that he had gotten was teasing.

It probably didn’t help that Valkyrie was four years older than her.

“So who are these people?” he asked. “Why is there a fae at the headquarters?

“It’s complicated and confidential,” she said, which in Valkyrie meant “I’m too lazy to tell you.”

“Well, you had better be on your way. Where are you going?”

“To Professor Leroy’s office.”

“Of course. Gobbur knows he’s the only adult here with any sense.” Edmund said comments like that just to annoy Valkyrie, and sure enough….

“Don’t say that! The others are trying their best.”

Edmund smiled. “Exactly.”

Valkyrie shook her head and walked away. Edmund smiled. Another successful annoyance. Then he stood up, and walked in the direction of Grace’s room. She would definitely want to hear about these new recruits that Valk was bringing in.

Valkyrie continued walking with Zinnia and the fae down the hall. The kid seemed like he was a nice person sometimes, and definitely was, if he didn’t waste so much time trying to annoy Valkyrie.

“Who was that,” Zinnia asked.

“Some kid who goes to school here. Don’t know what he’s doing here on a weekend. Has a crush on my little sister.”

“Ah,” she replied. “Do you support them, or…?”

“Can we talk about literally anything that isn’t my little sister’s love life? ButIthinkthey’dbegoodforeachotherIjustreallydon’twanthimasabrother-in-law.”

“Yeah, we can stop. Butwhosaidanythingaboutmarriage? He’sinlikesixthgradeandIdoubtyoursister’smucholder. Ihighlydoubtthey’dgetmarriedunderanycircumstances.”

“Grace is in the ninth grade. But yeah.” Valkyrie checked to see if the fae was still following them. He was, silently and often glancing behind them.

“So this is a school?” Zinnia asked.

“Kinda,” Valkyrie replied. “Professor Leroy can explain it better than I can. The two of you will have a talk about all this soon,”

“Looking forward to it.”

Valkyrie stopped walking. “This is Professor Leroy’s office. Don’t…just don’t be mean to him. Be respectful and don’t embarrass me or anyone else. Understand?”

The girl nodded.

“All right then. After you.”

Chapter 7:

Spoiler

Chapter seven:

Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, 2015

Lenapehoking, 2753

Zinnia knocked on the door, and heard a voice telling her to “Come in!”

She walked through the door, a reddish wood with no knock, and a knob with a strange symbol carved into it. It had an F in a strange font, that might not have been an F, next to a L with a diagonal line coming from the top. In the room there was a desk made from the same wood, and a charcuterie board that only had some crackers, many types of cheese, and some sort of herb. Behind the desk sat a man with black hair, a very big nose, full lips, light skin, and blue eyes. He looked to be in his mid-40s. Engraved on the desk were the words “Philip Leroy” and below them were other words in a different alphabet, that reminded Zinnia of the symbols she had seen outside of this building.

“Hello,” the man said to Zinnia. “How can I help you?” The man had a strong French accent.

“Um, my name’s Zinnia, and Valkyrie brought me here. She said that you could answer some of my questions…?”

“Of course, of course. What was it that you found confusing?”

“Um, everything. I don't understand anything that I heard.”

“Since when?”

“Since Valkyrie brought me here. Apparently my brother was kidnapped by a fae and there was something about magic and I understand nothing.”

The professor looked confused for a moment, then smiled. “Of course. I thought you were one of my students. Well, congratulations! Your brother was kidnapped by the fae, you said?”

Valkyrie barged through the door without knocking, followed by the not-George.

“Professor Leroy,” Valkyrie began.

“Please, call me Philip.”

“I can’t call you that! It’s so unprofessional. Anyway, there was a type III changeling left at her house, in exchange for her brother. We found out based on a tip-off from Taylor. What I’m wondering is why the fae would attempt something so drastic.”

“An interesting probl-”

“I can answer that,” the fae interrupted. “But I don’t want her,” he pointed at Zinnia, “to hear.”

Philip sighed. “Zinnia?” he asked.

“Yes?”

“Wait outside my office. Or is there anywhere better she should go?”

“She could go with Grace,” Valkyrie suggested. “My sister’s good at explaining things.”

“Not a bad suggestion,” Philip replied.

“What?!” Zinnia exclaimed. “This is the fate of my brother we’re talking about. I deserve to know this!”

“Yes,” Philip said, “but no one’s going to know anything if you don’t leave. Fae get very particular about who can and cannot hear what they have to say.”

“And Grace knows pretty much everything there is to know about fae-” Valkyrie interjected.

“No human could ever know our secrets,” the fae said. “None of you, even this ‘Grace’ could ever come close to knowing what our elders do.”

“Maybe, but Grace comes very close for a human. She probably already knows why these pups want him. So go to Grace. We’ll tell you what happens later.”

It was, as predicted by Valkyrie, Grace’s knowledge that convinced Zinnia to cooperate. What if Grace did know something about George. Not as much as this person would know, of course, but it would be something. “Fine,” Zinnia said. “Which way?”

“Go upstairs. This building is seven stories, the top two are dorms. My sister has room 719, once you're on the seventh floor there are signs all around, you should be able to find her room.”

Zinnia nodded, opened the door, looked regretfully at the room with the fae, and left in search of the seventh floor.

Sorry, I don't know how that ended up bolded, but it's not letting me unbold it.

Chapter 8:

Spoiler

Chapter Eight:

Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, 2015

Lenapehoking, 2753

Zinnia knocked on the door belonging to Grace. The door was made of a normal, boring wood covered in stickers. Zinnia didn’t know where anyone would get all these stickers. Many had political slogans warning against climate change and in support of queer rights, but most she didn’t understand. Several were in some sort of foreign language, seeming…celtic? Or was that something else?

“Come in,” a voice replied in a slight Irish accent.

Zinnia opened the door. The first thing she noticed was the sheer amount of books in the room. Bookshelves were along nearly every wall, completely full and with books stacked on top, it seemed every available surface was covered by a book. A girl maybe a year younger than Zinnia sat at a desk, reading something and writing something else in a notebook. Her hair was the same color as Valkyrie’s but she had freckles on her nose and definitely seemed shorter than her sister. The boy from earlier who had talked to Valkyrie at the entrance sat on a stool made from books.

“So Valkyrie revealed absolutely nothing about why she was going into headquarters with a fae? This disturbs me. Why would there be a fae here?”

“That’s her, there,” the other person says.

“What?”

“The other person Valkyrie and the fae came in with just walked into your room.”

The girl–Grace–turned to look at Zinnia. “Oh yes,” she said. “I thought you were Robert. So, can you explain? There hasn’t been a fae in this base in quite a while.”

“I don’t really understand…they said that you might know.” Was the boy an informant or something?

“I understand nothing. Gobbur knows Valkyrie tells me absolutely nothing about her job. Why don’t you start with who you are?”

“Well, my name’s Zinnia Clark, and apparently my brother was kidnapped by fay?”

“A fae stole your brother? They haven't been this drastic in years. Perhaps a quest will be needed, when the fae want something they want it. Did you feel anything when you walked up the stairs in front of the base?”

Zinnia was put off-guard by the sudden directness and seeming irrelevance of the question.

“Um, yes,” she said. “It was a strong heat that felt like it cleaned the grime of the city off me. It felt nice.”

“Ah. Congratulations. You don’t know what that means?”

“No. I didn’t understand it, really. I still don’t.”

“Well, yer a wizard, Zinnia.”

“I–what?”

“You’ve got an ichor-blood combination running through your veins that can channel Gobbur and make vague symbols have extraordinary effects. So, is there really a fae in the Headquarters?”

Zinnia nodded. “I think so.”

A knock came on the door. “Come in!” Grace said. A teenager around Grace’s age walked in, with brown hair, light skin, carved features, and piercing blue eyes. He seemed to project order where Grace showed chaos, calmness to Grace’s unrest, control to Grace’s emotion.

“Fae in headquarters,” Grace said simply. “She came with it. Doesn’t understand anything.”

“What I understand,” Zinnia interrupted angrily, “is that my brother was kidnapped and I need to get him back. What more is there to know?”

“‘There’s always one more thing to learn,’” Grace replied.

“Well I don’t care what there is to learn. All I need to know is where George is and how to get him back. Everything else is secondary.”

“Yet no. Knowledge itself is power, the ability to do anything in the whole world excepting that which cannot be done. But I digress. The truth is that you will need to find out so much about this world to succeed at anything, not least of which is finding your brother. If there is any hope to succeeding, you may have to learn the fae tongue–a long mystery, but if there is really one in headquarters perhaps they can teach me–the proper customs, the reasons they took him, whether it was governmental or independent, you’ll have to tell us about yourself and this brother of yours, Valkyrie will insist on getting the mission approved and we’ll have to explain the entire thing to the teachers, and they’ll tell us lots of information about the entire thing…there’s lots of knowledge to be learned necessary to your quest and there always will be, no matter what in the future occurs or doth not.”

“You can tune her out,” the person who had just some in said. “They’re meant as soliloquies, not monologues. I never listen.”

Grace sighed. “My roommate, Robert.”

Another knock came at the door, this time in a stable rhythm.

“What do you want?!” Grace called out, in quite a different manner than her previous “come ins.”

“Is the girl here?” Valkyrie asked from outside.

“Her name is Zinnia and yes. You never answered my question.”

“Let me in and I’ll introduce you to Human-Lover. A fae who can teach you his language.”

The door was open within three seconds. Valkyrie stood at the door with Not-George, who stayed quiet.

“Hi!” Grace said to Not-George. “What’s your name? In your language?”

“Xai-tsiyet,” he replied while making some sort of hand gestures. Grace gasped and said something to him so fast and filled with long words that Zinnia couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

“Let’s leave the two of them alone for now,” Valkyrie said to Zinnia. She smiled at Robert, scowled at the boy who made a face back, and led Zinnia down the hall. “I assume you want the briefings of the meeting?”

“The…yes. Yes, I’d like the briefings.”

“You may not believe it, but your brother is a prophesied hero of the fae, something like an incarnation of Gobbur, I’m not sure exactly.”

“He—what? My brother is…what’s Gobbur?”

“Ah yes, I keep forgetting how little you know. Well, I’ll bring you to professor Leroy, he can-”

“No.” Zinnia stopped walking and grabbed Valkyrie’s arm. “Valkyrie, ever since you arrived at my house everything has been ‘I’ll bring you to X and they can explain it.’ No, Valkyrie, tell me now. What is happening to my BROTHER?!”

Valkyrie sighed at Zinnia screaming in a manner that suggested that she was used to yelling. “Fine. I’ll explain. But I’m warning you, I’m not the best person for the job.”

“I don’t give a @#$&. Tell me everything.”

Valkyrie sighed again—she seemed to do that a lot—and cleared her throat. “In the beginning,” she began, “the earth was new and volcanoes covered our planet. Those volcanoes made it almost impossible for advanced life-forms to form, and so a force came into existence to deal with that. Jialdúr, this force was called, and it destroyed the volcanoes and poison in the air and defended life. This force, as it grew, divided into two forces, attack and defense, or Goddur and Mallum in Llagsk.”

“Llgask?”

“Language of magic, you’ll probably end up learning it. Anyway, Jialdúr’s two parts separated drastically over the years, to the part where they both felt threatened by the other. Gobbur decided to put itself into a land, and settled on a group of Islands in the northwest of Europe, the British Isles. Gobbur and Mallum were always forces, but at times they seemed to be human and at times to be forces. They each started out as simply magic, but when Gobbur became the Isles, it gave itself a physical form, pure Gobbur.” Valkyrie pulled out a glass jar filled with a milky white substance that Zinnia couldn’t tell whether it was a solid, liquid, or gas. It seemed to be all three, yet at the same time none. “This is some of it, harvested from one of the wells. Anyway, Gobbur realized that the physical form of it, spread throughout Britain and Ireland, was extremely powerful. It is, by the way, I’ll tell you why later. So Gobbur decided to turn itself into ten parts. The first was pure Gobbur, what I have here, a combination of all the others. Or, more accurately, what all the others were derived from, but Grace can argue with you about this all day. Gobbur in its physical form is represented by this symbol here.” Valkyrie pointed to a symbol on the side of the jar which Zinnia had seen on the outside of the building, a strange combination of a circle with triangles overlayed on it, a line going through the center, and a dot on top. “The remaining nine became the elements. Each was given a symbol. Fire, lighting, air, space, water, snow, earth, and stone.” Valkyrie pointed to a tattoo on her leg, of a downward-facing triangle with a line through it and a dot on top. “This is stone’s symbol. Each person has an element corresponding to their personality, that is the focus of their magic. Mine is stone. Most people get their elemental symbol tattooed on their body, but it’s not required anymore, after the passing of Sling vs. Polondi in ‘76. Back to the plot, Mallum desperately wanted to control Gobbur and reunite Jialdúr, and it tried unsuccessfully every time, as each time took more of its magic, and since Gobbur had more it would always emerge triumphant. But Mallum had an idea. What if it put itself into a group of people, and convinced them to take Gobbur. The first group of people were the Tuatha dé Danann, which invaded Ireland several thousand years ago. Then the Milesains, the Fomorians, the Celts, the Romans, the Vikings, the Angles, it went on and on. Mallum, after realizing that these invaders, though successfully taking control of the Isles, their souls were being corrupted by Gobbur. So Mallum decided to corrupt the people of the islands itself. This filled them with a desire to invade other lands, and that’s what they did. Ireland, Jamaica, India, and so many other lands were conquered by Mallum through the same nation that had always been Gobbur’s. This advanced Mallum and its ability to control those isles, but did not help it take control of Gobbur. Mallum tried many times to use its newfound followers to take the magic from its own land and control it, reuniting the two forces. Gobbur fought it back every time, though, by taking control of some of the people in the endless battle between the two forces.”

“And this is relevant how?”

“Well, some of the invaders of the British Isles were the Tuatha dé Danann, who came from North America not too far from where we are right now. They took control of Ireland, where I’m from, for a little while before the next bunch of invaders came. There was a genocide against them, and they either returned to the homeland, on this continent, or burrowed deep into hills in Ireland where they would live. In Irish they are called the aes sídhe, the people of the mounds, but we more commonly call them the fae, using the latin name for them. Historically they were very mischievous creatures, and would sometimes steal children and replace them with changelings, fae trained from birth to impersonate humans, to live with them. Sometimes it was just them being playful, sometimes they wanted humans to raise as their children, sometimes they had important reasons. We haven’t heard of the fae stealing children in over a hundred years–Grace probably knows the exact date–so that makes it all the more curious why they suddenly took your brother. Was there anything strange about him? Anything…supernatural?”

Zinnia thought about this for a moment. “No…? I don’t think so.” She thought harder, and remembered something. “Yesterday, though, I saw him playing piano. He’s never had any musical training before, and yet his music it… it sounded beautiful. I guess that that was after they took him, though.”

“Ah, yes. The classic music trick. There were historically two ways of finding a changeling. One was trying to catch them playing music, as all fae are instinctively good at music. The other was to brew eggshells in either tea or beer, which would confuse the fae so much that they reveal their true form.”

“So where is George?” Zinnia was getting annoyed. She didn’t care about all these strange words, all she wanted was to get George back. Despite what Valkyrie and Grace had said, it just all didn’t seem relevant to George.

“We don’t know. We haven’t been able to locate their current home, despite many attempted searches. But in our meeting, Human-Lover–the fae who was impersonating your brother–revealed that your brother is very unique. He has no Mallum, and his soul is made out of Gobbur and only Gobbur. According to Human-Lover, this person, called the something-in-fae-I-can’t-pronounce, was prophesied to save the fae from Mallum when they needed it most. They took him because they say they need him, and don’t seem eager to negotiate with us to give him back to you and your family.”

“So what’s going to happen?”

“Well, most likely a group of adults known as Questers will go and try to find the fae colony, and attempt to negotiate, possibly aggressively, for your brother. It should work, the Questers are people who have been training since childhood for quests like this for the U.M.C.A.M.C.U.M., the organization that runs this base and 458 others around the world, with a 78.6% success rate.”

“A 78% success rate? I am not willing to risk the life of my brother with a…a…” Zinnia did the math in her head, “a 32% chance of death!”

“It wouldn’t be a 32% chance of death. That would just be the chance that he doesn’t get rescued. And it’s actually even higher than that, because the Questers have historically been skilled in fae-related quests, so it would probably be more of a 5% chance of failure in their quest.”

By now the two of them had reached Philip’s office once again. Valkyrie knocked on the door to a stable rhythm.

“Who’s out there?!” A voice screamed from inside that was most definitely not Philip.

“Valkyrie O’Sullivan, coming with Zinnia Clark so that Philip can give her the initiation talk.” She seemed unfazed by the yelling from inside.

“Well, get out, he’ll talk with you later!”

“Yes, Professor Holmes. Come, Zinnia.” Valkyrie led her down the hallway once more.

“Professor Holmes? Is he like a descendant of Sherlock Holmes or something?”

“Zinnia,” Valkyrie said as if ZInnia was crazy. “Sherlock Holmes doesn’t exist. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made him up.”

The two of them stopped outside of a door near Philip’s office with more of those arcane symbols that Zinnia had been seeing around. “Common room,” Valkyrie said. “Just a place for students to hang out.”

“So this is a school, then?” Don’t get distracted, Zinnia reminded herself. You need to find George, not fall in love with this place. Zinnia was not, of course falling in love with a place she knew almost nothing about and had only been in for the past hour. But she couldn’t deny that…she liked it here. She liked it a lot.

“Yes,” Valkyrie responded. “I’m assuming you go to a different school, in fact I know you do as I impersonated a student of that school to get into your building, so as such you’ll probably get placed into our accelerated weekend program.”

“Accelerated weekend program? Valkyrie, I’m going into tenth grade. Do you have any idea how much homework I get? I don’t have time for an accelerated weekend program.”

“Of course you have homework. But this is more important. You must get your training. Or…or bad things will happen.”

It seemed that Valkyrie wasn’t very good at making threats. She opened the door, revealing a large room with sofas and tables and a buffet at one end. The room spanned three stories, with entrances and staircases on the wall. The room was painted white almost completely, and the glyph that Valkyrie had shown Zinnia that represented Gobbur was on a large banner. Valkyrie led Zinnia to a sofa. The place had many people around, but Valkyrie stayed apart from all of them.

“Um, are any of these people your friends?”

“I don’t have friends. I like rules too much for anyone to befriend me. And I just arrived with Grace a few years ago, so it’s just the two of us.”

“Oh. What about the people in Grace’s office? Robert and the other one?”

“Grace’s friends. I don’t know them too well, they spend all their time studying or something. I never liked studying. Far too boring.”

“I don’t have many friends at my school either. Me and Clyde for the most part, kind of also Laila but she doesn’t know Clyde so well. I also have track starting up in a few weeks, I can’t really do this weekend program thing. I don’t think I even want to do it.” That was a lie. Zinnia couldn’t pinpoint an exact reason, but she very much wanted to do it.

“You need to. Or the bad things will happen.”

Zinnia sighed. “What bad things?”

“Not in a position to tell you. Overly complicated, too. Philip might explain it.”

Zinnia sighed and grabbed a deck of cards from a nearby table and started to shuffle them. Zinnia always felt better, more in control when she had cards in her hand.

“Um, do you want to play something?” Valkyrie asked her.

“What? No, I was just shuffling cards. We could if you wanted to, though. Do you know spit?”

“No. Care to teach me?”

“Sure.” Zinnia cut the cards expertly in her hand, handed one half to Valkyrie, and began counting her own.”

“That’s not how you deal.” Valkyrie said. “You take one from the top and give it to the person on your left, take the next card and give it to the person on their left, and so on and so forth. This method is not–”

“Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five,” Zinnia whispered to herself. “Give me one card, please.”

Valkyrie scowled but did as Zinnia commanded.

“So, in Spit the object of the game is to get rid of all your cards. Go sit on the other side of that table.” The two of them went to the table and sat down across from each other. “First organize your cards like this.” Zinnia put her cards in front of her, and Valkyrie copied, seeming like she tried to do every exact movement that Zinnia did. Zinnia put her remaining cards in a pile on the table, and Valkyrie put hers right next to it. “No, you put yours here.” Zinnia gestured to where Valkyrie's pile would go. “So, you can stack your fives. Put one five on top of the other.”

“Like this?”

“Exactly like that. Then turn the card under the five that you previously moved over.”

Valkyrie did so.

“I’m going to count down ‘three, two, one, spit!” and we’ll both take the top card from our piles and put them here. This area will be where you put your pile. Ready? Okay, three, two, one, spit!”

Both girls took their top cards and put them in the center. Zinnia’s was a jack and Valkyrie’s was a four. Zinnia saw that she had a ten and a jack in her piles, and put them down in that order.

“What are you doing? What should I do now?”

“Right. So you can put cards down that are one higher or one lower than the card below it. Like you have a five in your hand, you can put that on your pile.” Valkyrie slowly did so, while Zinnia internally winced as she had just turned over a three.

“Can you put cards on the other person’s pile, or just your own?”

“Any person’s,” Zinnia responded as she played and turned over cards quickly. Zinnia had gotten second place at a spit tournament at school, losing to a person named Joseph Alexander who had incredibly fast reflexes.

Valkyrie slowly put cards down, but Zinnia was clearly winning. Eventually they both ran out of moves. “So what happens now?” Valkyrie asked.

“We both spit again. Three, two, one,”

The two of them kept playing for a few minutes, while Zinnia explained how each round ended, with both people racing to slap the smaller pile. “Then the entire game doesn’t matter!” Valkyrie said, exasperated. “Why would they make a game where you do all this gameplay that doesn’t matter?!”

“Ever heard of Quidditch?” Zinnia asked.

“Oh, yes. Grace is always complaining about how it works.”

“My friend Clyde, too. I only saw the movies, where they didn’t really explain how it works, but Clyde actually read the books. I don’t know how she does it? They’re so long. I can’t read anything over 300 pages.”

“I know! Grace is currently obsessed with this series called the Stormlight Archive. She says that all the books are over a thousand pages.”

“Wow. That…might be longer than anything Clyde’s ever read. Nowadays he mostly just reads nature journals, which I tried reading once. They are so long.”

Zinnia played her last card and slapped the smaller pile.

“Oh, I completely zoned out, sorry. What do we do now?”

“Well, I add this pile to my own, and you add that one to yours, and we do it all again.”

At that moment somebody tapped Zinnia on the shoulder. It was Philip. “Come with me,” he said. Zinnia smiled at Valkyrie and walked away with Philip.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Ravenclawjedi42

Edema Rue · August 31, 2023

3 hours ago, Ravenclawjedi42 said:

I was bored and decided to write something. And so then I decided to post it on the shard. I will try to post chapters somewhat regularly, but it may end up unfinished like my Stormlight Archive Fanfiction.

Prologue: (warning: contains mentions of death, and suicide.)

Reveal hidden contents

Prologue:

Bathampton Down, Somerset, England, 542 C.E.

Aquae Sulis, Britannia, Res Publica, 1295

“Arthur? Arthur, get up. We have work to do.”

Arthur stared at the wall, trying his hardest not to listen to what the aes sídhe was saying. Yes, they had work to do. But Arthur would try his hardest not to do that work.

“Arthur? Don’t you care anymore?”

A lone tear fell down Arthur’s cheek, bringing a warmth where it went, but the cold air quickly took that warmth away, like this creature took everything Arthur had away.

“Gwarcheidwad,” Arthur said, using the Welsh name for the aes sídhe. “I haven’t cared for years now. I did this for you, thinking you needed it. Until I realized you didn’t.”

“But I do. If you could see what these invaders will do, you wouldn’t have any hesitation. They are like the Romans, but worse, so much worse. Though this area will stay independent for many years before being conquered, and the language here will remain spoken, by some at least, South-Eastern Briton, where the invaders have landed, will become their land, the Land of Ængle, named for the Anglii.”

“That is not such a bad thing. That area is mostly Christian by now, and if we let them have there, they will leave us and the Scotti alone.”

“But they will not. They will take both these lands, and Éire, too. And not too long after, they will invade the homeland.”

“The aes sídhe homeland? But you said that it was across the sea, impossible to reach?”

“Not impossible. In five hundred years, people from the north will come to trade, and five hundred years after that, people from these lands, and areas south of it, will come to invade. Though the homeland will gain independence, with many states covering it, they will, on the north, be the states of the conquerors, like South-east Briton will become.”

“Like I said, that is not such a bad thing. Do you forget that I am Roman in blood?”

“In this case it is. Most humans in the homeland will be killed by the descendants of the people we fight. The only way we can stop this is by making sure they cannot settle on these Isles. You must stop them, King Arthur. You must.”

“I am no king,” Arthur said. “You know that.”

“You will be if you continue to fight back against these conquerors. You will be named King, you will marry Guinevere like you always wished, you will train a group of knights that you will lead. All you need to do is work with me against these conquerors.”

Arthur hated how well Gwarcheidwad could twist words, make Arthur want to do everything she said. It was how she quickly made Arthur loyal to her, winning him over—he was just a boy, then—with honey-coated words. And she had done it again.

“Fine,” Arthur stood, standing up. “I will gather the army. We will attack the city in an hour.”

That night, the city was theirs. Arthur’s soldiers celebrated, dancing through the streets of the city they had just captured. And Arthur felt horrible.

Gwarcheidwad was gone, enjoying the mineral baths this city was known for. And so Arthur felt disgusted. He had killed a thousand soldiers, the bulk of the army, all people who had lives. Arthur hated killing so much, an ironic thing for a soldier. But Gwarcheidwad always made him want to do it.

Arthur knew, then, that he couldn’t continue, didn’t want to continue. And he knew the only way he could stop her plans, but he had to do it now, while she was gone.

So Arthur drew his sword. Excalibur, it was called, given to him by a strange woman who lived next to a pond. And he stabbed himself in the chest.

Oooo. That was very fun. Twists on well known stories, especially when making them darker, are incredibly fun. I admit, I don't really know the story of King Arthur very well, but I still liked it. There was some very fun eloquent descriptions of emotions that were very nice, especially towards the end. I'm curious to see where it goes from here!

Ravenclawjedi42 · August 31, 2023

2 minutes ago, Edema Ruh said:

Oooo. That was very fun. Twists on well known stories, especially when making them darker, are incredibly fun. I admit, I don't really know the story of King Arthur very well, but I still liked it. There was some very fun eloquent descriptions of emotions that were very nice, especially towards the end. I'm curious to see where it goes from here!

Thank you! I don’t know much about Arthur, either, so most of this was made up by me. I’m going to do some research about him for other parts of this, but he doesn’t show up again for a while.

Shadowed · September 5, 2023

as an english person and english history/lore enthusiast this makes me happy not to mention the great writing in there! if you’re interested in learning more about those kinds of stories, i really recommend Storyland by Amy Jeffs, it explains british lore really well (but if you don’t want to/aren’t interested that’s also fine, i just thought i’d mention it)

Ravenclawjedi42 · September 5, 2023

1 hour ago, Shadowed said:

as an english person and english history/lore enthusiast this makes me happy not to mention the great writing in there! if you’re interested in learning more about those kinds of stories, i really recommend Storyland by Amy Jeffs, it explains british lore really well (but if you don’t want to/aren’t interested that’s also fine, i just thought i’d mention it)

Thank you for the praise! I’ll look into that work.

Ravenclawjedi42 · September 12, 2023

It’s been a while since I posted a chapter here, mainly due to me not really liking how chapter one was coming out, but while I’m still not entirely happy with it, here’s chapter one: (note: this begins part I, called Come) (note 2: I may add more to this chapter, I’m not deciding if I want to end it here or not).