Chapter Text
Saria sat on the floor of the sunroom, an old history book placed on her lap, legs crisscrossed.
“You said they looked like bat wings?” Clover quipped from above her. Her friend stroked the brush through Saria’s long blonde curls.
“Yes. I’ve never seen anybody else with wings like his before,” Saria flipped through the ancient pages of the book. She found it in the very back of the library, behind a stack of old paintings, and had to actually blow dust off of the cover. ‘Creatures of the Night’, the title said. Nyx was far from a creature, but it was worth a try.
The late afternoon sun shone through the stained-glass windows, casting the room in rainbow light. It was just after sunrise when she found Cresseida bidding farewell to her companion. The Summer Court female winnowed Saria back to the Spring manor where they ate breakfast before Cresseida left again. Something to do with court duties. Saria didn’t particularly care to know details, not with her mind whirring.
Clover showed up soon after, almost ripping at the seams to hear about the night before. Gossip was one of their favorite hobbies, after all.
Saria filled the female in on the party. The dancing and the music. Most importantly, on the beautiful male she met with dark, mysterious wings.
“Ugh. I’m so jealous, Sari. I’m never going to meet any handsome fae cooped up in that house,” Clover huffed out, sectioning a chunk of her hair into three. Her friend did not have the same luxuries as Saria. She could not travel to the Summer Court at her own leisure. Saria tried so many times, but her persuasiveness couldn’t get the female’s mother to cave. Even suggesting one of Clover’s seven brothers coming along hadn’t worked.
“Well, maybe one of your brothers will actually be useful and bring a good-looking friend home,” Saria teased the pale brunette behind her, flipping another page. Clover tugged roughly on one of the strands. Saria chuckled.
The two hung out for a while, laughing and joking about nothing and everything. Clover had braided and unbraided Saria’s hair about a thousand times before she sighed.
“It’s almost sunset. I have to go,” She patted Saria’s head and maneuvered herself out of the daybed.
“I wish you could stay,” Saria whined, standing up and following her to the door.
“I know. But mother calls,” The young female rolled her eyes before embracing Saria in a hug. For as long as Saria could remember, her friend was not allowed outside after sunset. Her mother feared the night, for some reason. “I’ll see you later?”
“Of course,” Saria hugged her back and held onto the open door as Clover walked down the stairs. “Get home safe.”
“Always!” The female called over her shoulder, pink dress rustling in the wind.
The silence was the first thing Saria noticed when she walked back into the manor. Her mother and father were still away at the Winter Court. There were no servants here, not since her mother had found a spell for tidy homes. She knew the book she left discarded on the floor would be tucked away neatly on her bedroom desk by now. It was a useful spell, but it made the place a bit…unwelcoming at times. Less lived in. Less homely.
Saria made her way up the swirling, white marbled staircase. Her sky-blue day gown trailed behind her like cascading waters off a cliff.
She tried not to focus on the silence as she sat at her desk, sketching in her journal. She’d long given up on the Nyx research. The smell of the old book made her head ache. Instead, she focused on her own research. Of insects, and animals and flowers and…shifting. How they looked, how they moved, how they grew, how she could force her body to do the same. The power had shown up on her 10th birthday, nothing but a kernel at first. But now, she could make small changes to herself. Purple colored nails, a strand of green hair. The power grew more every day, and she felt that sketching it out on paper helped her.
The flame in her lantern flickered out and she took that as a sign to go to bed. Humming quietly, she made her way to the open window. The moon high in the sky. Saria couldn’t help but think about the night before. How she laid under the same sky with Nyx. The way he looked at her. Her heart jumped at the thought. Silently, she closed the window and shut her curtains.
Saria had just dozed off when she heard it. A tap. Her nostrils flared, but she did not scent anything. She closed her eyes, deciding it was just her imagination until she heard it again. Coming from her window. A knock. And then another one.
Slowly, so very slowly, Saria stood from her bed. She grabbed the first thing she saw that could even possibly be a weapon. An old cricket stick. And at the handle of the stick was…well, it was the head of a green cricket. She rolled her eyes but held on tightly to it anyways.
As silently as she could, she moved closer to the window. Maybe she was dreaming or truly going insane, but she swore she could hear flapping. As if a giant bird had taken flight right outside her bedroom window. A knock came again. Saria sucked in a breath, raising the make-shift weapon in one hand and threw the curtains open with the other.
Her heart raced as she took in the sight before her. Shining in the moonlight, dressed in all black attire with large wings holding him up, was a smirking Nyx.
“Hello, Daughter of Spring.”