The Reckoning

Mei Ruan: March 30th, 20XX

Jaya burst into my room like a rampant beast and immediately unsettled the peaceful atmosphere.

Judging by the furious expression on her face and the fact that she had never come to my courtyard in the three years I had been home, I knew something had happened.

I got up and saluted her as usual, pulling in one wing and inclining my head toward her. Before I could ask why she had suddenly invaded my personal space, she brought out her wand and exploded her dreaded vines of magic at me.

The bronze light extended from the hilt of her wand as she neglected to properly channel it through the tip and wrapped wound my torso, binding my wings to my back.

I resisted the urge to fight back as I felt the vines tighten enough to hurt and pull me up into the air. Another tendril made its way up from y torso to the back of my head and forced me to look straight ahead at her.

The intensity of the pain increased as she tightened her grip on my body and the back of my head. Her face twisted into a sick blend of pleasure and rage as she released her anger on my body.

She had yet to say a word of explanation, but the longer I stayed silent, the angrier she became. Before I could adjust to the pain, she forced a tendril around the hilt of my wings and forcefully pulled at them, like she was trying to rip them off my body.

The excruciating pain wracked through me and clouded my thoughts like a bloody haze. The facial paralysis spell I’d cast on myself flickered in and out as she attacked me.

I could see my expression crack under the spell as Jaya’s magic interfered with it. For the first time in a while, I regretted lining my walls with such a reflective surface.

As things stood, I couldn’t do much else but watch my face flip from a blank expression to an agonized one.

It was painful to begin with, but having to watch my older sister torture me was another level of unpleasant.

She increased the pressure on my wings and pulled so hard that I could almost feel them loosening from my shoulder blades. It hurt so much, but I would not give her the pleasure of hearing me beg her to stop.

No matter how angry she was, she wasn’t stupid enough to cripple the general of her Duchy. It was painful and humiliating, but this was as far as it would go.

I slammed my lips shut and instead strengthened the partial paralysis spell on my face, mentally repeating the short spell like it could make this all stop.

She finally calmed down and loosened her magic, unwilling to deal with the repercussions of crippling the current general of the Ruan Clan army.

“I heard that Linus boy came to see you and begged for you to take him back”

No matter how hard she tried to hide it, I could hear the jealousy in her voice. It raged with every word she flung at me, and her knuckles gripped so tightly around her expensive wand that I feared it would break.

“What? Were you so antsy about meeting the prince that you already prepared a backup? Don’t forget Mei, you are marrying into the royal family. That poor prince has been in the human world for so long, I’m sure he would be most disappointed to hear of this. Can you take responsibility if he declines our offer of marriage because of this?”

In just a few sentences, she turned something that had nothing to do with her into a treasonous crime.

The pressure on my wings increased yet again as she noticed my line of vision stray towards the small air duct in the ceiling. I tried to shoo the small and disobedient creature away, but the shock had frozen her in place.

“Mei!”

Jaya called my attention back to herself in an amused tone. Now that she had ‘guaranteed’ my obedience to her, she wasn’t as angry as she was before.

Something clicked in my mind and I stared down at the woman I couldn’t bear to call my elder sister any longer. I wondered how she had become like this.

Back when we were children she had always been a sadistic loser, but it would always stop at leaving slightly venomous snakes in our beds or telling us the wrong times for meetings.

It had been frustrating, but she had never physically harmed us. Heck, she would even protect us against others who attempted to bully us.

She had only changed when our mother had gone into early retirement. That old hag had decided we were old enough to take over the duchy and had run away to the borders.

Truthfully, none of us were quite old enough to run a duchy on our own, so she had divided up the Clan between the three of us. She had even given a sizable part to Aruna, who hadn’t even crossed her first century.

Aside from being thoroughly unreliable as a mother, she had tried her best to divide up Clan evenly between us three girls.

She had given me the legendary Army of the Ruan clan. The intelligence and trade routes had gone to Aruna, and the impressive political power and status had found their place with Jaya.

It was perfect on paper, but in reality, things had fallen apart within the first year Jaya had become the Duchess.

Instead of using the power to grow the power and wealth of the Clan, she just used the army to bully the smaller families into bending to our will and used the intelligence and trade networks to find petty gossip.

It was bad, but until recently she had left us alone and had completely ignored our existence. I didn’t know what about her had changed in this past decade, but it had tipped her over from just being mean to becoming the cruel fairy she was now.

She had always somewhat looked down on us because she was the only one out of the three of us that had a fairy father. My father was a human who had passed away a long time ago, and Aruna’s father was a witch.

We all qualified as ‘full’ fairies because my mother had completely wiped out whatever traces of the other races from us, but the ‘full blooded fairies’ still liked to look down on others.

I tried to signal Aruna and get her to leave, but she was still frozen. I loved Aruna so much, but I was confident that if there had been any other children than the three of us, she would not have inherited as much as she did.

“Duchess Ruan. If you know I met with Akseli, then you should also know that it was he that barged into my courtyard demanding to speak. I explained my situati-”

Jaya suddenly looked up to the air vent and a dark feeling spread through me. I broke character for the first time in years and yelled at her. I’d only wanted to distract her, but it had been the wrong move.

“Duchess Ruan!”

A soft smattering of noise echoed from the vent as Aruna abandoned her slow but effective stealth movement technique.

She was strong for her age but was pitifully weak when compared to Jaya or me. After seeing Jaya completely overpower me, she must have realized just how bad it would be if Jaya got her hands on her.

Jaya’s eyes narrowed into an evil expression.

“Jaya, you really don’t have to.”

I tried to bargain with her despite knowing it wouldn’t work. I didn’t want her to harm our younger sister, but I also didn’t want to have to act against her once she did.

She paused and lowered her wand, like she was listening to me, but before I could keep talking she sent out a violent stream of bronze magic.

The harsh magic sawed out a hole in my ceiling, and she used her free hand to wrap magic around Aruna’s slender body and pull her down like a small animal.

Jaya let out a haughty laugh at the terrified expression on her youngest sister’s face and spoke in a light tone.

In any other situation, I could have described such a tone as teasing, but the look on Aruna’s face made it hard to hear it as anything but a threat.

“My dearest baby sister, Aruna. So interested in the way I discipline your elder sister?”

The little fairy shook her head at hypersonic speed and stuttered out an apology.

As she did so, scared tears streamed down her face. Jaya had loosened her grip on her body, so she tried her best to keep herself afloat. Her wings flapped at an irregular pace as she cried out an excuse, occasionally being so scared that she forgot to flap.

“O-Of course not Elde- Duchess Ruan. I w-wasn’t interested at all!”

I knew Aruna wasn’t too familiar with Jaya. After all, she spent most of her time by her father’s side and had only met Jaya when our mother was around.

Now that it was just the three of us, and I was essentially out of commission, she was so scared that she could barely fly on her own.

I had been so patient over the years, and I’d been planning to last out a few more. But seeing Aruna like that was the last straw for me.

I’d put up with all of Jaya’s bullying because I thought she would eventually get used to the power and would come to her senses. I’d put up with her to keep the order that our mother had so carefully settled on.

I’d put up with all of it for the sake of the Ruan clan, but at this rate, the Ruan Clan would horridly collapse within itself.

Jaya extended her wicked vines towards the child at a familiar trajectory. She obviously intended to give her the same ‘punishment’ as she had given me, but I couldn’t let them land.

“Lillian.”

A dark shadow materialized in front of me and Jaya paused her spell, looking on in cruel curiosity as she watched what she thought was a futile rebellion.

“Awaiting orders, General Ruan.”

In the end, no matter how badly she had treated me, she was still my elder sister. I looked down at her from my elevated position once more and whispered the last offer.

“Let her go, Jaya. If you let her go and you leave my quarters, I won’t act.”

She grew attentive at the heaviness in my tone and slightly loosened her grip on Aruna.

However, this hesitation didn’t last for long and she gestured around the room with an obnoxious laugh.

She looked at me, still trapped in her web, and laughed loudly and obnoxiously. She then condescended me, speaking in a faux-pathetic voice.

“What? Are you going to send Lillian to fight me?”

Her voice broke off into insane giggles that grew in intensity and she got angry.

“Even if you’ve never been properly schooled, you should at least know that a lower-class noble could never defeat me. Even if she fought with her life, she would only barely be able to land a scratch.”

And then to prove a point she completed her spell and grabbed Aruna by the hair, the wings and the throat.

Binding her wings and pulling at her hair, Jaya tightened the last vine around Aruna’s throat that because of her youth was still a tad chubby.

“Duchess Ruan! I’m sorry! I reall-ack”

As it gradually deprived her of her ability to breathe, I keep my eyes trained on Jaya and then whispered the last words I would say to her as her younger sister.

I’d looked forward to this moment for so long, but somehow the words stayed in my throat and refused to break free. They hurt me to say, despite all what she had done to me and despite my best effort, it came out barely loud enough for her to hear.

“Remember, Jaya. This was your choice. Lillian, begin.”

Lillian looked at me for permission once more and with no hesitation chanted a short but incredibly strong spell and the room went dark, leaving Lillian, Jaya, Aruna and I were its inhabitants.

The servants that had hung around the edges of the scene were long gone, and a sharp sense of loneliness penetrated our bones.

Thick bronze chains hung in mid-air, glowing like spectral chains, and illuminated the expanse of darkness.

In her surprise, Jaya loosened her chokehold on Aruna and turned towards me as the little fairy slumped onto the floor. Her heavy breathing synchronized with the heavy clanking of the chains and created a haunting melody that filled the otherwise silent room.

The sudden change of scenery startled Jaya, and she was likely scared, but she wasn’t one to admit to feeling such inferior emotion. She faked bravado and spoke authoritatively.

“What nonsense is this, Mei? Stop it before I have to make you.”

Her vines tightened around me again, this time with much more force than before, but I was no longer obliged to accept such ‘punishment’. I reached out a bare hand to the surrounding vines, gathered them all into my palms and in one satisfying jerk, broke them.

Lillian stepped forward as well, wearing my mother’s official seal, her pass to the family’s judgement state and held up a projection screen on which my mother’s furious but tired face could be seen.

At first, Jaya was angry at such a blatant act of defiance from me, but then she paled as she realized the full implications of her situation.

“You used it.. the reckoning spell.”

“I had no intentions too until you hurt Aruna like that.”

Aruna, who remained on the floor, looked up at my words and widened her already large eyes in surprise and confusion.

Lillian purposefully turned the screen to let my mother see Aruna as she was, and the angry lines on her face only deepened.

I let the scene speak for itself and quietly bowed at the screen. Unlike with Jaya, I had to execute a full bow to show the gravity of the situation.

“Mother. You told me that once I started this spell, it would be hard to return to how things were before. Through your aide I have shown you how Jaya has ruled the Duchy for the past few decades. I do not think that she is fit to rule the Duchy any longer, but I will abide by your wishes. Do you grant me permission to continue?”

I spoke formally and kept my head down as I waited for an answer. It was a long four seconds of silence, but the heavy sigh she let out was enough of an answer.

“Raise your head Mei, I won’t interfere unless I see fit.”

Despite all the evidence I’d sent through Lillian, I could see how reluctant she was to go through with this. I didn’t have as much of her support as I would have liked, but it was enough to do what I needed to do.

I unsheathed my wand for what felt like the first time in forever and pushed it upwards towards the origin of the thick bronze chains.

“I, Mei Ruan. Second Born of the Ruan Duchy and general of the Ruan army hereby brings Jaya Ruan, firstborn of the Ruan duchy to a Reckoning.”

The chains slightly resisted my commands; a result of my mother’s wavering will and reluctance to punish my elder sister. I pulled out more of my magic and forced them toward Jaya.

She first tried to struggle against them and when that failed she tried to run away. The chains resembled a sea of snakes and grew more furious every second she resisted them.

They wrapped around her limbs, scraping away at her thin skin as she defied being bound.

“MEI”

She roared my name like a caged beast, but it did nothing to sway me. This was something I should have done years ago... The only reason I had waited so long was because I was weak.

I’d hoped she would come back to her senses and realize how crazy she had become.

As nice as that hope had been, it was a foolish one. And it had led to many people, including myself, being harmed.

Lillian used a spell to keep the projected screen elevated in the air while she positioned herself in the middle of the room. I took my place a few feet across from her and began the official trial.

“Aruna. Can you please repeat what mother said to all of us when she divided up the clan?”

A small light lit up within her eyes as she struggled to her feet, too tired to even fly. Her voice was hoarse as she repeated ad verbatim my mother’s words.

“Mei will lead the military of the Ruan clan. She will protect our best interests and defeat those who work against us. Aruna will be in charge of the trade routes and intelligence systems, she will secure our wealth and sniff out any plots against us. Jaya will have the political power and be the official head of the Ruan clan in my absence, with the help of her two sisters and her own skills she will protect and lead the two of you in maintaining and furthering the reputation of the Ruan Clan.”

Still speaking in a low tone, I asked the first question to Lillian, who acted as both my mother’s representative and my witness.

“According to what you have observed so far, do you think I have upheld my duties?”

Lillian put a hand on top of her heart to show her honestly but before she could Jaya interjected. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to figure out a way out of the reckoning before her turn came about.

“I request the use of the Truth Cap. Lillian as served as both a worker and a nanny for both Mei and Aruna. I do not doubt her loyalty to the clan, but I worry that her proximity will cloud her opinion.”

Jaya showed how scared she was by recklessly suggesting that our mother’s most trusted Aide was corrupt. I looked down on her for making such a careless mistake, but I couldn’t blame her. After all, it was always a scary thing to face the repercussions of one’s actions.

The ‘truth cap’ was a torture device invented by the goblins during the First Fae-goblin war. It made one incapable of telling a lie and would viciously slice off a shred of the wing each time a lie was told, unconsciously or not.

The wings were like the earlobe in that, aside from some cartilage to give them structure, they were mainly just soft tissue. They were mainly decorative limbs and relied on magic to pull our bodies into the air. Because of this nature, they were incredibly sensitive to both magic and pain.

For her to request the use of such a thing on Lillian…. I could see my mother’s usually bright eyes dim further in disappointment.

She let out another heavy sigh and rested her forehead into her palms.

“Permission granted.”