SPELLBOUND

Silence filled the vast throne hall as Evie's heart shivered from everything she heard. Her heart ached so much for the queen, for her people and this land. And she knew what she was feeling was not just mere sympathy and pity. It was much more than that, as if everyone and everything in this land has something to do with her. The emotions running through her is more than just on the surface. She could feel real pain in her heart and the sadness was similar to what she had felt when she lost her grandmother when she was a little girl. Though she was confused at why she was feeling this way, but she did not try to avoid these newfound affections that were flowing within her.

Trying to swallow the lump in her throat, Evie's eyes flickered towards the now empty throne. "Did the dark fae prince die?" she asked, her voice nearly a whisper. She somehow had a bad premonition even when asking that question.

"After the outburst of the queen's last attack," the light fae started, getting back into her story, "I found out that the everyone that was touched by the queen's light perished and disappeared, but there were a few of them who survive. The surviving powerful dark faes who had tried to escape and used their dark magic to block the queen's light had managed to stay alive, but they eventually turned into all sorts of ferocious animals. I've observed them in the past countless years, and I found out that they have become true animals. They behave and respond like how animals do, and I believe they would never return to their original forms ever again as I saw them reproduce and their offspring are also pure beasts like them. As for the dark fae prince…" she trailed off and her bleak eyes stared unseeingly towards the entrance of the great throne hall.

"Just like what the queen did to us, the dark fae prince also trapped himself inside this dark crystal so he would not perish nor get turned into a beast. Only the royals were strong enough to cast that magic on themselves. So just like us, the dark fae prince is still alive too and…" she paused as she looked Evie with grave eyes, "and he's going to break free from the crystal's entrapment very soon… no, I believe he must have already been freed by now."

Evie's eyes widened. "How did you know and how could he be freed?"

"He had been trying to get freed all these years. Thousands of years after the fall of the Middle empire, curious vampire hunters began to enter the land again and they found the dark fae's crystal. They took his crystal and brought it to the vampire empire. A vampire king had taken an interest in the figure which was within the crystal, and they had tried to break into it in the hopes of getting to the figure, but no one managed to. They kept the crystal in their castle and after thousands more years, the fae prince awakened and he started then to manipulate the vampires. That was the start of wars between the vampires and humans especially since he found out about the existence of human dragon keepers. The fae prince knew that the only way for him to be freed was by using the powers of the blood of light faes. He knew that only light faes could call upon the dragons. And that was why he had made the vampires hunt every dragon guardian that had ever appeared and got them to extract their blood."

Utterly speechless and shocked, Evie could not speak for a long while. Her brows knotted so tightly as she processed the things she heard.

"D-dragon guardians…" she stammered, "you're saying the dragon keepers are light faes?" Evie's eyes were wide as saucers as she stared at the light fae before her.

The light fae silently stared at her for a while before responding. "They are not light faes. However, it would be more accurate to say that dragon guardians are partly the descendants of the light fae. They carry the blood of the light faes in them. And that's why they have the ability to call upon the dragons."

"Descendants? H-how?" Evie wondered loudly as shock still filled her entire being, then suddenly, the fae princess came to her mind. The light fae had not mentioned anything about her yet! What had happened to her? Could it be that… no, the princess must be inside one of these crystals, right?

"And the… fae princess," Evie added immediately before the light fae could speak as her eyes wandered towards the crystals, "she's here, right?" Evie turned back to the light fae, expecting her to nod or give a positive answer to her question.

But the light fae shook her head. "She's not here, princess." She shook her head, sadness shining in her eyes. "Her Majesty the queen had banished her from the Middle Empire to save her life. The princess had been a target of assassinations ever since she was young and as the wars only got worse, the queen had made the decision to send her away. But years later, the princess returned as dark faes had found out that she had been hiding out in the human lands. So, she returned despite the queen's order. The princess had died the day that Crescia fell…" the light fae trailed off and drew in a shaky breath as if to compose herself. The pain in her eyes were even more vivid as she talked about the princess.

"I was with her when she died saving us… as she took her last breath, the princess told me she had left a child in the human realm. She had left him and her lover for fear that the dark faes would kill them. The princess told me, her son was a human and does not have any magic, so she chose to leave him… all for the sake of his safety." She paused again and stared at Evie intently. "The princess' son, the half fae is the first member of the now infamous Ylvia family who are the ones to produce the dragon guardians, your family…"