Under Three Moons - Chapter 2 - The Story of Fyonai

Tomerys brooded in the back of the night school classroom. Her rune tiles lay neglected upon her desk. Alchemical Runes was never her best subject. She could never remember what symbols correlated to each element. The rest of the class was setting up their ritual stars, placing the proper occult items and runes in the spires.

"Haxley, your black candle is in the wrong place." Mrs. Typhana, the night school teacher, told a scornful vamp in the first row. "We're turning water into clay, not summoning a demon sprite."

"If you want clay so much, just dig in the river!" the vamp student retorted. "I thought we were going to learn how to make water into faegin!"

"Mind your impertinence, child." Mrs. Typhana scolded. "You have to grasp the fundamental elements. And I thank you not to insult me by suggesting I encourage young vamps to drink faegin."

All the class were vamps and seemed distantly related. They all had alabaster skin, though some were ashen gray in complexion. The vamps of the night school were all born vampires. A vampire siring a young vamp was strictly forbidden and punishable by sun magic. Moreover, the sired vampires were frowned upon as lesser vampires, because it meant they had once been magicfolk and vampires have had Era-length wars with the magicfolk.

The vamp bloodlines were a convoluted chore to study, but each of these young vamps was related to ancient vampires, directed descended from the first vampire, Malys. Or at least, that's all Tomerys cared enough to learn. Genealogy was also a boring subject that she couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to. Besides, Mrs. Brieda greatly discouraged the subject, saying that obsessing over past glories is how war starts. Tomerys didn't know quite what she meant, but didn't question it.

She was still angry about Mrs. Brieda not telling her about their family ties. All these years, Mrs. Brieda had feigned ignorance, hiding the knowledge of Tomerys' mother. How could she lie about her own sister? To her niece? Mrs. Brieda had promised to tell her, but Tomerys wasn't holding her breath.

An explosion broke Tomerys out of her revelry. Over at an adjacent table, a sparkling purple flame had engulfed a desk, born from a alchemical ritual gone wrong. Several vamps hissed at the flames. A few even transformed into their bat forms to cower in the rafters. Tomerys eyed them jealously. She might have fangs, but her half-fae side prevented her from transforming.

Mrs. Typhana had extinguished the flames in a flourish of impressive vanishing magick.

"Oh, for Kalendisa's sake!" she said reproachfully to the bats in the rafters.

The bats squeaked indignantly.

"If you don't transform back in five seconds, you all get detention. 5!"

They all instantly spun back into vamps, re-finding their tables.

"The halfbreed didn't even move!" said one of the vamps.

Morla Osiris was a ruthless bully. Her jet-black hair, pearlescent pale skin, and ruby-red eyes meant she bore her infamous family legacy of ruthless vampire kings. Her own father had allegedly reformed but his daughter certainly held contempt for anyone not born a vampire, and who else could have taught her that?

"Do not use that offensive world, Miss Osiris!" Mrs. Typhana reprimanded.

"She probably set the fire." Morla accused Tomerys. "All faedra are fire-wielding banshees!"

"Detention, Miss Osiris. Your father may have influence over the town government, but he does not in my classroom."

Morla looked incensed, but she sat down at her desk, fuming.

"I see you haven't even attempted to make clay. Do you expect to learn your lessons through pure telepathy? I think you need a detention as well, Miss Brieda." Mrs. Typhana told her.

"That's not fair!" Tomerys shouted angrily.

"I hold all of my students to the same standard, Miss Brieda. This is not a slight upon you." Mrs. Typhana spoke sternly.

Tomerys very much doubted this. Everybody in the town slighted her for just existing.

***

Tomerys came home as the 24-hour clock on the wall struck 0. The house lights had been dimmed, though Mrs. Brieda was still away, her hands deftly knitting in an armchair near the fire.

Fire did not bother Tomerys. It was only the sun that made her skin crackle and itch. Though sometimes, during a full moon, her skin seemed to shimmer, like little facets of glowing jewels underneath. It didn't hurt. If anything, it tickled her and filled her with a peculiar energy.

She sat opposite Mrs. Brieda while she knitted. Mrs. Typhana had postponed the detention to tomorrow because she had other errands to run before the moon ran out. Mrs. Brieda would hear about it and she'd get an earful then. But it was hard to care about school when she was unwelcome everywhere she went.

"I want to know the truth." Tomerys said simply.

The knitting ceased. Mrs. Brieda sighed.

"Sometimes the truth destroys us, Tomerys." Mrs. Brieda commented sadly. "Sometimes the truth is humiliating and full of miserable things. Things I don't want to tell to a young girl who still talks to daisies."

"I don't talk to daisies. I talk to the pixies in the daisies." Tomerys said moodily. "What can be so bad you can't tell me?"

"There are evil things beyond your grasp of understanding. Things I never want you to have to understand. Family secrets that are so terrible that they are--"

She cut off, looking morosely at the fire. She took a moment to compose herself.

"I can tell you a little bit. The important bits. But please. Please wait until you're older to hear the rest." Mrs. Brieda begged.

Tomerys nodded, listening attentively.

"Your mother was called Fyonai. She was my little sister. We grew up with a father who...was not very nice." Mrs. Brieda said. "He had many wives and consorts. He had 26 halflings, Fyonai being one of the last."

"26?!" Tomerys exclaimed.

"He was impossible to please, our father. None of the halflings could live up to his demands. Except dear old Fyonai. She was his little princess."

Her face was now scrunched in woeful misery, tears leaking from her eyes.

"She couldn't take his demands, so she fled. But she ended up at the wrong part of town. Some marauders found her and rounded up a group of fae, intending to bring them as gifts for the vampire king."

Tomerys frowned. "Vampire king? I thought he'd been...taken care of."

Mrs. Brieda smiled sadly. "He had. But he had three ruthless sons eager to take his place. Each more sadistic than the last. But upon arrival, a prince met the marauders. Prince Olberon was nobler than most. He'd been disgusted with the notion of gifting faedra to the king. He let them go. But he found Fyonai captivating. And your mother found him equally so."

"But...it's not allowed. Vamps and fae can't have relations." Tomerys stated.

How many times had she been hammered on the head with this law? How many times had she been called a halfbreed and spat upon for daring to have wings and fangs?

"They had a...secret tryst." Mrs. Brieda described. "I won't tell you specifics, of course, but you were made in the course of their private times."

Tomerys knew of the process of mating and grimaced as she remembered school lessons about various body parts and embarrassing descriptions of what went where. Why any grown faedra or faelin would do that was beyond her comprehension!

"But her body...wasn't equipped to carry a half-vamp child." Mrs. Brieda muttered. "And she happened to give birth on a rare occasion. The Three Moons Convergence. It's when the Moons align in a triangular constellation and moondust falls upon the world. When they found Fyonai and you the next morning, you were a squirming mess of wings, covered head to toe in moondust. And your mother..."

She trailed off, sniffing. She conjured a handkerchief and blew her nose loudly.

"Your mother was absorbed into the roots of a Lacrimosal Tree. I'm sure you've been told about them."

Tomerys thought back to lessons about magical flora. The Lacrimosal Trees produced luna sap and its leaves were crushed up for potions. Mrs. Brieda told her to never go near the Lacrimosal Tree in the valley.

"Is that tree...in the valley...is that where she died?" Tomerys asked warily.

"Y-Yes." Mrs. Brieda answered tearfully. "And it's dangerous for you to go near."

"Why?" Tomerys asked grumpily. "It's where my mother died, why can't I go to the tree?"

"Because there is a reason it is called a Lacrimosal Tree. If one goes near the tree a loved one was absorbed into, a terrible depression befalls them, making them so desperate that they--"

Mrs. Brieda couldn't finish the sentence.

"But we use the leaves and sap for Apothecary. Wouldn't that have affected me?" Tomerys wondered.

"No. Those are byproducts of the tree. It's the connection to the roots that endangers fae. Merely touching its bark or the earth the roots reside in could be fatal."

They sat in silence for a long while. Tomerys could hear Mr. Brieda snoring from above. Their snowy foxcat, Opal, strutted into the living room, curling up beside Mrs. Brieda. She stroked the cat absent-mindedly, peering into the fire as though waiting for the flames to give her answers.

"You'll need your blood before Fourthday." Mrs. Brieda reminded her.

Tomerys yawned, getting up, intending to go to bed.

"I...you don't have to, but...would you like to start calling me...Aunt Brieda?" Mrs. Brieda asked.

Tomerys furrowed her brow. "I'm not sure."

"There's no obligation. I...I'm sorry I had to lie to you for so long is all." she replied.

"Why did you have to lie?" Tomerys asked.

"You know that your existence isn't particularly enjoyed by some townsfolk. In other hamlets, it is even more forbidden. I don't mean to frighten you, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was bounty on you right now."

Tomerys stared at the floor.

She knew she was a target for townsfolk gossip and vitriol. She knew her fellow students rejected her abnormality. But learning that people wanted her dead made her hate the lot she'd been dealt. She didn't ask to be born of two races. She wanted to be a normal halfling and go to normal school.

None of this was fair.