The Fae World: Arkal: Art: Freedom (Part 3)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1
Part 2

“Draven asked me to release everyone we can trust. He was going to talk to the girl.” Art bit his lip. “I hope he choses not to collar her because those things…” He shuddered. “Even though I know he made the right decision I wish I’d never had to live through that. We have no idea how many years have passed between then and now, we have so much to learn about the world we have found ourselves in, and it feels so much like we’re starting again.”

Rhonwen nodded. “I know.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “Doing that the first time was hard enough, although I do think that Draven and Willow were right to make the decision they did. Going to Earth would have been a mistake.”

“Yes, it would.” The King’s reaction had been expected by Draven, but he knew it was the only logical thing they could do. “They had more than enough to deal with without us there. I wish they had managed to find us an uninhabited world, but I know they had a limited time in which to search and create the door that led her.”Art sighed. “Until the fae started leaving Kalinia behind there was no chance of the King doing it, because he thought that their worries about the world dying were unfounded, even though I’m certain he must have been able to feel the same things we did.”

“Maybe he didn’t.” Rhonwen looked at Art. “We both know how much he’d changed and I think there is a chance he couldn’t feel the way the magic was fading from Kalinia – or if he did he was ignoring it because he’d had enough. Draven told me he believed there were more days when the King wanted to die than there were when he wanted to live. If it hadn’t been for Draven I have a feeling we would have stayed on Kalinia until the end, but he was hoping that a new start would revive his father.”

“It did, in a way.”

“Just the wrong way. I’ve always felt sorry for Draven, because he had to deal with so much, and now he’s King of this…” Rhonwen gestured. “We survived the war, but should we have? Learning to live here again is going to be more difficult than it was the first time, but we really don’t seem to have any other choice, because we’re here, we’re collarless, and we have choices to make.”

“Not everyone will be willing to follow him.” Art started thinking through who he was going to uncollar and who he wasn’t. “The problem is I’m not certain who might have changed their alliance when Draven made the decision he did, as there were a lot of unhappy voices when he announced that we would be surrendering. I only have three names in mind that I am entirely sure of and the others… I worry that they might, after having been collared for as long as we have, work against our King.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.