The Clash of Yesterday (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 0.5)

As for me, I’m sure I’ll be partaking in a bit of it all at some point, but for now, I want to hang out with my clan. The Bluff Dwellers are a close-knit community, and I don’t get to Brevala to visit often enough.

Our tent is easily recognizable by our green and silver colors, with a large flag flying at the top post with our clan’s crest—a stag’s head and two iron swords crossed.

The walls of the tent are rolled up, and there are tables set up inside where people are eating meals, drinking potent cocktails, and listening to music.

I see my great aunt Lelita in one corner, her table filled with younger fae children. Their eyes are riveted on her, and I know she’s telling some amazing story. She has a gift for words, and I meander over to listen.

“Now you all know the story of how we became Light Fae,” she says dramatically, looking each child in the eye. Lelita is much older than Brevala, which was created about four thousand years ago when the magical meteor came to earth. She was there at its inception, and though she’s ancient by most standards, she appears to be no more than thirty years old. Such is the gift of immortality.

All the kids nod because it’s a history they learn early.

“But,” she says in a low voice, “do you know how Brevala came to be the divided realm it is today and why the Meadowlanders are our sworn enemy?”

Some kids nod while others shake their heads. It’s also important history which is usually not formally taught until the kids are older, but Lelita clearly doesn’t care. It’s important to indoctrinate early so there is no questioning.

I walk away, not needing to hear our realm’s sordid past, which created a rift that split the society in two, spurred wars, and left far too many Brevalians dead over the centuries.

When I was a kid, I learned about those “filthy, evil Meadowlanders,” and I was taught to hate them early on.

The story was simple, and, as most feuds seem to originate, it came in the form of betrayal and was fueled by retaliation.

Brevala was created by two mated Light Fae who possessed a portion of the meteor stone that had come to earth in roughly 2000 BC. Fae do not marry in the traditional sense, not the way humans do, but they will often commit their lives to each other. Dahlia and Oretell were two such fae, not original fallen angels, but descended millennia before. When the meteor came to earth, they created their dream realm together as a mated couple. After settling their family and extended fae community who lived together in the Earth realm, they used the stone to bestow basic magical powers, which had been stripped when the angels were expelled, back on its inhabitants. More importantly, though, Dahlia and Oretell gave their people something Nimeyah never thought to do for the ones who followed her to Faere.

Wings.

When God sent the angels tumbling to earth, the biggest part of their punishment, the loss of their wings, was the most mourned. But those in Brevala got them back in rich, natural colors of brown, black, white, and gray.

For a few centuries, peace reigned over Brevala as the fae spread out and settled, creating new lineages through procreation. It’s not easy for two Light Fae to conceive, so fae children were celebrated as precious and divinely gifted.

But peace didn’t last long.

Dahlia found out Oretell cheated on her, and, in a moment of rage, she murdered him. Nothing can kill a fae except an iron strike to the heart or the brain, but Dahlia first took his head, then plunged her iron sword through his traitorous heart.

It’s said that the minute she did that, her pearl-gray wings turned the color of rage and fury—crimson red.

Oretell’s brother, Geseph, could not let that go unpunished, so he immediately retaliated by killing Dahlia. Before she drew in her last breath, she sent out her misery, her rage, and a request for justice to her family and supporters, asking them to take up arms and avenge her.

Those loyal whose support stayed true found their wings had turned blood red to match Dahlia’s hate.

Arnus, Dahlia’s brother, vowed to kill the entirety of Geseph’s family.

Geseph, in turn, vowed to slaughter any of Arnus’ supporters on sight.

So started centuries upon centuries of hate, war, and death. Eventually, boundary lines were drawn where Dahlia’s supporters and their descendants settled in the Meadowlands, now with blood-red wings. Geseph and his went to the Bluffs, which were the highland hills at the bottom of the mountain ranges.

I learned of this history when I was given my first sword to practice with at age nine. I was taught to brandish it with strength and precision and told there was never any shame in killing a Meadowlander if they encroached on our land’s border.