The Present

 I settled down into my favorite fork of my favorite tree in the court, mostly hidden from anyone's eyes. 
If anyone was to look carefully they might see my red hair contrasting with the darkness of the bark and leaves, but most of the court was too busy with their own dramas and lives to be bothered to look for me.  I knew my foster mother would seek me soon enough.  She had a knack for needing me when I needed to be alone so it would not be long now.

My hands gripped the sweets I had managed to pilfer from the kitchen under the throne room, and I slowly begin to break the cookies apart, carefully eating each and every crumb as I hid.  Then all too soon I heard the summons from my foster mother.  For a moment I debated ignoring it but I knew if I did she would send her guards to seek me out and they were much less tolerant of me than she was.  I had scars on my back from defying them before.

With a sigh I dropped out of the tree silently and begin to make my way across the garden, dusting my hands as I went.  While she did preferred me to appear formal in her court, I did not have time to change into one of my formal court approved gowns so I sought her out still in my hunting gear, knowing she would be displeased with my appearance.  My legs carried me across the courtyard and up the stairs to her throne room, making long strides as I tried to appear calm but inside I was anything but.  The look of displeasure on her face as she looked me over was the highlight of the morning.  The guards often whispered I would have been more at home in pants than a dress but never within her hearing knowing her temper would cause them to lose their place in her bed.

"Athilephila, nice of you to dress up for our meeting," her voice was like ice, matching the frozen eyes set in her face.  I quickly dropped to one knee at the foot of the stairs below her throne, "My apologies my queen, Queen Valya," I murmured, looking at the carpet I knelt upon.  "I came as soon as I heard your summons.  Had I known you needed me in full court dress I would have used my powers of Telepathy to predict you would have summoned me and changed earlier."  My sarcasm earned a snicker from Telvon, one of my foster mother's newest guards.  He was still new so his frequent copulation with the queen caused him to have a more pleasant disposition than the older, more celibate guards. 
I heard my foster mother snap her fingers, and there was sudden silence.  Not even the creak of metal from the armor everyone wore, I couldn't even hear anyone breathing.  "Come here foster daughter."  the queen ordered, and I looked up at her as I stood, then made my way to the throne next to hers, a seat reserved for her heir.  

"Foster mother," I begin to say, only to be silenced by her putting a hand up to indicate I stop speaking.  "While you are wise to remind me of our relationship to each other, I will one day no longer put up with your impertinence.  You believe you are amusing but there will be a time when that mouth of yours will cause you more issues than you will be able to handle."  She then made a dismissive gesture to her guards and all but two left the room.  Her two oldest, most loyal soldiers moved closer to her as I crossed my legs and tried to at least appear somewhat royal.  I knew these two were not fooled but as far as the rest were concerned, I was the princess of the Unseelie court, so clandestine meetings between myself and the Queen were frequent.
"I hear you did very well in your trials," she said, her stature relaxing as she leaned over, placing her elbow on the arm of her throne, and resting her chin on her hand. 
With a shrug I reached down to pick at the leather on my pants, "I messed up a little but when your competition is only two other fae who's blood is dirtier than mine its not exactly hard to excel."  I risked a look at her, smiling as I seen her smirk, knowing I said the right thing.  "So humble." she murmured and sighed, sitting back up and resting back against her throne.  "You have come of age, so beautifully, and exceeded my expectations.  However, there are two more tasks you must complete..."

As I started to protest, after all I had done more than any other youngling in centuries to prove myself worthy of taking her throne.  The trace of seelie blood in me caused the courts distress.  They'd rather any other creature lead them than a Fae with mixed blood.  She silenced me again, and looked out over her empty throne room, and seen a hint of sadness behind her icy gaze.  "First, tell me of your tests again.  Tell me what you did." 
I groaned and uncrossed my legs, and crossed my arms, knowing the fact we were mostly alone was the only reason I'd get away with my open defiance.  "There was a magic test, a physical test, and an endurance test."  I muttered, then caught her glaring at me so I sighed, "What would you like to know about exactly foster mother?"  Her lips curled in a small smile, "Your powers. Your magics.  We all know your physical strength isn't impressive even if you passed the trials and you are proficient with your bow and staff.  I want more details on what the Masters found you could do."

 After listening to her, I slumped in my chair, staring into the distance blankly.  "You already know what they found out." I knew I sounded like a grumpy child but my powers still frightened me and the Masters I had, were not confident I'd ever be in one hundred percent control of them.  She looked at me then summoned one of the two remaining guards to us.  "Strip your chest." she commanded him and he did so, without hesitation.   She then waved her hand at his bare skin, causing slashes to appear, and bleed, his gasp of pain startling me.  "Show me, or he dies." she said looking back at me expectantly.  While I hesitated, she made the same motion at him, causing more cuts, more blood to flow down his stomach into the waist band of his pants.  "FINE, STOP." I shouted jumping up from the chair only to have her fingers encircle my wrist.  "You don't need to touch him, so show me from here."  Her eyes sparked with maliciousness as she looked up at me.

With a disgusted glance toward the woman I still called foster mother, I extended my hand out toward the guard, using the finger movements I had been taught, and ordered his blood to go back into his body.  Then twisting my wrist like I was turning a knob, her and I both watched as the blood traveled back up his chest, and into the wounds, the wounds healing as a moment passed.  Once he was healed I looked back down at the queen, "done?" I asked her coldly and yanked my wrist away from her grasp. "Almost." she said with a wicked grin.  "Now redo them."  I started to protest but seeing the look on her face I didn't bother, and instead twisted my wrist in the opposite direction, calling his blood back to me.  The wounds reopened, causing him to pour blood once more.  He stood there, looking at the Queen in fear but did not move, did not try to stop himself from bleeding out.  After what seemed like an eternity, she made a dismissive gesture and I immediately turned my wrist back, healing him once more.

The guard fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath, and dizzy I'm sure.  Having blood pulled in and pushed back into one's body can really do some weird things to your anatomy.  Seeing that the Queen was satisfied, I flopped back into my chair, and glared at the ground.  "Athilephila," said the Queen softly, looking over at me.  "What do you know of your parents?"  COnfused I looked up at her, "Only what you told me, my Queen.  That they were a mating couple who produced me and died shortly afterwards."  Her raven hair glowed dully in the dim lights of the throne room as she shook her head, and sighed softly, looking weary for the first time since I've known her.  "No child.  It is time you knew the truth about who you are, who you will be, and who you are going to be for this court."

With another sigh she dismissed her last 2 guards, leaving us alone in the the throne room, and she reached over, taking my hand in hers while she stared blankly forward.  "I felt you come into this world twice, Athilephila.  The first time, it was brief, and I had assumed you were still born.  Many of our kind, cannot survive the world once they enter it.  It depends on the couple, the courts, and many other factors.  But then, I felt you enter the world again. See, as one who is supposed to emulate fertility to our people, I used to be able to help babes live, and I could feel them enter this world.  However, as our numbers dwindle so do our powers."

As I started to speak, she held up her other hand.  "Silence.  I will finish my story," she said, glancing at me until I gave a nod showing I understood, then she looked back over the empty room.  "So to feel the same babe, enter into the world twice was nothing short of unusual, so I sought you out.  The day I found you, a great winged man had you.  He allowed me to take you, and bring you amongst our people so that you would live, and learn our ways, as well as the ways of others.  That day, I also found treachery among my court.  An unseelie noble decided to have sex with a seelie noble, and you were the result of that.  Luckily, the seelie blood in you is faint so you don't have too much light.  You certainly look unseelie..."  Letting go of my hand she reached up and twirled my hair between her fingers.  "But you still have some seelie.  The fact your powers can heal and kill... You can bring life back to plants, animals, people... as long as they haven't been dead too long.  And even if they have you can raise them to do your bidding.  That is a rare talent among our courts."

She dropped my hair and grasped my fingers once more.  "I had your parents killed.  When their encounter resulted in you, they should have let me know so I could foster you properly.  But they decided instead to let you perish in the snow, and then somehow the winged man brought you back."  I simply nodded, stunned by what she said.  I did not mourn my parents, you cannot mourn what you never had.  The admission from her though, that was unusual.  She usually did what she thought was best and never asked for forgiveness or gave care to what others thought.  "I tell you this because you are almost ready to rejoin your winged father.  He stated you have god blood in you and you are destined for things greater than ruling this court Athilephila." she continued.  "Two more trials.  I know you think you should be done but, two more and then you will go back to your winged father, fully pledged to our courts, and able to come and go as you wish."

With that she called for her guards, and as they came back in, two of them seized me, causing me to protest and start trying to fight but they had my arms locked in iron cuffs, which sizzled against my skin.  "What.. .why are you having me jailed?" I shouted at her as they drug me from my chair, and positioned me in front of her. The expression on her face was one of pain and regret, something no one had ever seen from her before.  "You are not being jailed, my child.  This next part of your tasks, is one no one likes, and not everyone will succumb to it.  So we need to take precautions to make sure you can't flee."  She gestured with her hand, and the guards drug me to the floor, and forced me to my knees, ripping the back of my tunic open to expose my bare flesh.  I heard the queen walk toward us, the rustling of her dress, her heels making muted clicks against the floor.  She crouched before me, cupping my chin in her hand as she lifted my head.  "I'm so sorry my child." she whispered, then looked behind me and nodded.  A door opened and I could smell the scent of burning metal, and I tried to struggle, but the guards were bigger and stronger than I was and with the cuffs on, I couldn't even call my magic.  She looked back into my eyes and murmured, "sleep" as I felt the metal touch my back, then I screamed once the heat set in, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as I shrieked.  The metal was still there as I succumbed to my foster mother's order, the pain making it so very easy to slip into a deep dark place.