~Maleus~
“Well, isn’t this a surprise…”
The domain of darkness and nightmares. Where nothing but the most unnatural and twisted of fauna and flora grow. Where the day was grey, the sun burning muted ivory, and the night was black with only the acidic neon glow of insects and the magenta eldritch flowers bloom. A land of shadow and fog that was ruled over the most powerful of Fae.
Me.
Yet dangling in my clutches, hanging upside down, was a lesser fairy of spring. Their eyes were large and their fear permeated through the tree of thorns and sharp blades off grass. Surely they knew the risks of trespassing my lands, much less the punishment for the crime of theft.
“Lo-Lord Maleus…forgive me, I should’ve announced myself.” Their pink hair paled just like their face, their eyes beginning to sunken under the toxic fog. Indeed, if they had sent a most humble request, they would’ve been able to enter my land without being eaten inside out of my fog. However, the tiny shimmering blossom they held in their hands would cancel that mercy out.
“That is the lesser of your crime, little pixie.” I sniffed as my tendrils lifted up the pathetic imp, it’s four transparent wing flapping with anxiety. It’s body vibrated, fingers fidgeting, it’s lips chattering as sweat like nectar dripping from it’s temples, ears, nose, and eyes.
The wretched was terrified, yet instead of dropping the one thing that would grant it mercy, the pixie held my treasure close to it’s chest, “My-My Lord, please…this flower is the only thing that ma-may help the good queen.”
“The ‘good queen’? I have met many queens and I suppose you lesser fairies may call some ‘good’. The actual question is…what gave you the right to take my flower?”
Any hint of pink from the pixie dissipated into an amusing shade of sickly ivory, “Please, please forgive me! I only mean to save the Queen and her-her baby. This flower, the last gift of Selene, is-is the last cu-cure.”
I glanced down at the little blossom glowing as if i was a fallen piece of the moon. A smirk danced on the edge of my lips, “A little superstition over my flower. You would steal for a fleeting taste of hope?”
The pixie, who lost all color in my grasp, shaking with a terror so palpable it tingled on my tongue, looked up at me, crimson irises glaring up at me with such misguided ferocity, I had to fight the urge to pluck them out, “For the goodly queen and her babe, y-yes.”
My tendrils lunged out, black daggers stopping millimeters from those oversized orbs, tempted to see if the insides would gush a liquid matching the iris. The imp flinches, eyes closing tightly, yet it did not dare drop my flower. Nor did it’s tiny fingers tightened it’s grip. A faint whimper escaped from it’s mouth, sharp teeth clenched. It would be so easy to just end it’s life and return Selene’s final gift to it’s solitary plot.
Yet for a moment, when gazing at the blossom in the squirming thief’s hand, I was blinded. In my domain of darkness, the flower was the only pure light; a flicker of life that didn’t belong in my darkness.
I scoffed, tilting my head, studying each petal and the pearlescent veins pulsing with life within each piece. It glowed with a light that lesser creatures might even call ‘Holy’. That kingdom of light and hope had inched closer and closer to the abyss, it’s greedy grasp encroaching into the void of which I ruled.
Trespassing, like this insignificant pixie. Coveting what rightfully belonged to me. The only light in my darkness could in fact be the impossible cure for that mortal queen.
Just like Selene, planting a seed of the celestial in the center of the void, an idea bore fruit. I allowed a single chuckle and the needlepoint tendrils slithered back into my forearms. I plopped the pixie onto my palm, it’s shivering pastel body immediately kneeling, head bowed low, “All you had to do, little imp, was ask.”
It’s head shot up in surprise, wide eyes glistening, “Lord Ma-Maleus, you would let this one take the blossom?” It’s teeth chattered before taking a quick breath, “Please?”
“The ‘goodly’ king can borrrow my flower to…attempt to save his ‘goodly’ queen.” I turned my palm over, the tiny fairy flapping it’s wings to avoid the snapping black fog prowling along the ground.
“Th-Thank you, thank you! This generousity will not be forgotten, your Emminence.” The little dimwit seemed to smile.
So did I. My lips curled into a smirk as I waved it away, the glow of the flower in it’s careful grasp fading.
Foolish tiny thing. Foolish mortals.
Words should be taken at face value.
