Summer's Brightest Star: Prologue

Feb 22, 2012 18:43

Title:  Summer's Brightest Star
Fandom:  Iron Fey (Julie Kagawa)
Rating:  PG13
Warnings:  Titania uses derogatory slurs throughout the passage.
Summary:  Titania succeeds in bringing down the human who dared have a child with her husband.  All does not go according to plan however, when she finds she could have a daughter of her own.
Pairing:  TBD
A/N:  Wow, this is rather convoluted, actually.  This is a fanfic of a fanfic of Shakespeare...  kinda.  I highly recommend Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series for light reading.  The love triangle is remarkably well done, with three likeable protagonists and a believable world.

*~*~*~*

 “Please…” the human murmured weakly, her tresses soaked in blood. “Do not harm her…”

“And why should I listen to you, mortal?” Titania sneered, perfect lips pulled past perfect white teeth, deadly in her anger.

“Because she is your husband’s daughter…”

“All the more reason to do away with her now.” Titania smirked, enjoying the woman’s struggle against inevitable mortal death. “Before she shows up in my court years later, a whelp that knows nothing, especially her miserable half breed place. Trust me, this is kinder.” She jeered. “’Twould not be a fate I welcomed for my own child.”

“But…” and here the mortal dared to meet her eyes, dared when the adulteress had no right to. “Swear to me, Titania. I command you… Tallantiana Rhodesehera…” Titania froze as the air rippled in recognition of her True Name. “To love her as your own, care for… Meghan… as your own. By my dying breath… love her…”

The mortal fell limp and the Summer Queen snarled. How dare this miserable human know her True Name? Someone would pay for this… Oh, to be saddled with a misshapen half breed… Still… she was drawn to the overturned bassinet and picked up the child in her arms. She loved the babe, by the fabric of her very being she knew she could never let the girl child come to any harm. It opened its eyes and stared at her in wonderment. What a beautiful child… Titania’s long, graceful fingers brushed the corner, the rounded tips of the half breed’s ears, and marveled that the contact made the babe’s ears pointed. She really was one of the most beautiful humans. No wonder Oberon had taken such a fancy to the mother. Because a human could have a babe for Oberon, and not Titania. But now… now she had a daughter of her own.

“Are you going to kill her?” Robin Goodfellow’s resigned voice spoke from the door, still in what must be a tremendous amount of pain. His leg was bloody and twisted in an unnatural direction, and although his burns were healing quickly, they still were horrendous. Titania suddenly shook herself as she remembered why she came here. She had worked her way around the enchantments set up by her husband’s supporters in court, and very stealthily had not let on that she knew. Oberon had never suspected that she would actually do anything; he had underestimated her once more. And the final guardian, Robin Goodfellow, had failed. True, he had put up much more of a fight than a jester had right to give, though since he was one of the oldest fey, ‘twas only natural. No one ever really suspected how much power there was behind those green eyes of his, that he and Titania had secretly vied on an off for the last millennia for amount of power in the Summer court, but unlike everyone else, even Goodfellow, Titania never underestimated anyone, and that was why she was Queen and they weren’t. Except that mortal bitch. How in all of Faerie did she know her True Name? Oberon. Oberon must have told her. No matter, the knowledge had died with her. She would make her dear husband swear by the power of his True Name never to reveal hers again. And thus Titania dismissed the matter from her mind.

“You cannot stop me.” She said, and both of them knew that he indeed couldn’t. What was a wounded jester against the full strength Summer Queen? But Goodfellow must not have heard the last words of the whore, must not have known that she had bound Titania by her True Name. She thanked every star in the heavens above that Robin Goodfellow of all people, lapdog of her husband, should not know it. But here, she could use this to her advantage.

Titania gazed at the corpse lying by her feet, nose wrinkling in distaste. Disgusting, how they polluted the world even after they died, left messes for others to clean up… In that moment, she felt pity for the mortal, and decided to do her a service, grant a boon, in exchange for the daughter. Because nothing ever was free, especially never a gift. She would never be in debt to a mere mortal. Titania touched to body with no small amount of discomfort. She focused a small amount of glamour on it and it became a juniper bush, and then she brought forth the memory of life from within the wood, and returned it to life effortlessly.

The Summer Queen turned, babe in her arms, making sure to support the heavy head with her arm. “I am willing to deal with you, Goodfellow, for your and the babe’s life.”

Goodfellow’s face twisted in five different ways at once, in a way that was somewhat more comical than his normal pranks and tricks. “What are the terms, my Lady?”

“You will never speak of this event again; anything to do with this place or this memory. Not to my husband: not the fact that I was here, nor the fate of the whore, nor the fact that I am not the girl’s mother. Nor will you intimate to him that I could have had the possibility of being here, if he does discover what happened. Secondly, you will accompany me on a journey to the River of Dreams.” Titania stated regally.

Goodfellow’s eyes bugged at the terms, and one could see the trickster’s mind racing at a million miles an minute until his expression grew into one of anger. “Well excuuusse me, your Majesty, but if you had intended to keep Meghan for your own, you could have just had a changeling put in place and not murdered two innocent lives!”

Titania’s glamour flared out in her rage, and half a moment later lightning crackled around them and her face was gnome’s palm’s width away from Goodfellow’s. “Do NOT tell me what is right nor wrong, Goodfellow.” She hissed, in all manner as dangerous as an asp. Goodfellow’s green eyes widened and despite his best efforts to the contrary betrayed his fear for her to see. “I did not want to take the babe, nor did I want to love it, but the whore cursed me. And do not for a moment think she did not get what she deserved. The tramp too.” She pulled away again, forcing her glamour under control before it alerted someone to her presence. The banished fey were drawn to large amounts of glamour like satyrs to a keg of five hundred year old wine. “Do you agree to the terms, Goodfellow?”

Goodfellow looked to be swallowing a bitter pill. “Oh of course, your Majesty, but we’ll see if you still want me on this little vacation of yours after a few days. I’m staying with Meghan.” The air around them hardened for a moment as bargain was witnessed and dealt. Then the air cleared.

“And furthermore,” Titania continued. “She shall no longer go by the name of Meghan. That is a common, vulgar, human name.” She gazed down at the child in her arms, lips tugging upward. Her blond hair was enough like Titania’s to pull off the deception, and the bright blue eyes were Oberon’s. There was no denying it, she wanted the child, wanted it badly. She began to talk in a soft, sweet voice. “You, my love, are the most beautiful star in the sky. My little star…” She brushed stray whisps of hair from her forehead lovingly.

“My lady…” Goodfellow sighed. “If you want to pull this off, we need to start for the River of Dreams as soon as possible. And I sure hope you know how to get there, cuz I sure don’t. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna be stuck wandering around the Wyldwood like a banshee without a facial. Have you ever seen one? It’s kinda depressing, I wouldn’t recommend it - “

“Quiet Goodfellow!” Titania snapped, clutching her child closer. “This is why you are the most annoying creature at court! The only way you could possibly be more annoying is if you seduced my husband.”

“Who’s to say I haven’t? My master is quite… experimental.” Goodfellow wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, “Although I might say, your royal Highness, that you are looking mighty fine today…” He trailed off and gave her a mock smoldering look, running his eyes deliberately up and down her body.

Titania rolled her eyes and shot him a glare. “Trust me Goodfellow, when one has the entirety of the Summer Court available for bed partners, you are the last person either of us would pick. You’re just a little…”

Goodfellow pouted, and then dropped the act like a stone. “You wish, your royalness, you wish… I can be quite charming when I want to be.” He muttered dark things under his breath as he healed the last of his wounds to travel. “Come on, we need to find a Trod.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And that's the start!  How did you like her Royal Highness?  Was Puck in character to you?  Please tell me what you think.  <3

iron fey

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