I returned to the bar, still seething from how Pierre had wasted my time.
Jazz floated through the air—too lively, too smug. It grated against my nerves. A mockery, really.
You might think the magic was too harsh on him. But I was the victim here.
Pierre broke his deal with me. Where was his honour?
My father, Veravos, a powerful Dark Fairy, left me a legacy.
He was once considered the boogeyman of his era—a Dark Fairy who hunted only those who harmed the innocent.
He taught me many things, but the most important of them all?
Honour the deal.
He even taught me an ancient spell to bind people contractually with me, and have their own magic destroy them if they failed to fulfil it.
Powerful stuff.
Pierre deserved it.
Nonetheless, the Baltimorean Emerald was still missing.
Yes, that emerald. The one Pierre said could bend reality.
He didn't need to unlock its secrets—he just needed to hand it over.
But mortals always complicate things.
The Emerald. Brilliant. Cursed.
Once wielded by a tyrant known as the Love Fairy King—Baltimore.
He demanded blind allegiance. Used the Emerald to twist time and space into threads he could yank like marionette strings.
Every full moon, it granted a single wish.
Hence the name: The Baltimorean Emerald.
But fate had its own agenda.
My mother, Scarlette—a formidable Love Fairy with a taste for chaos—stood against him.
Where Baltimore craved devotion without thought, she believed in love that questioned, clashed, evolved.
She didn't just rebel—she rewrote the spell.
Severed the Emerald's tie to the moon and anchored it instead to a single being:
A Light Guardian.
A mortal, born without magic, tasked with protecting all creatures.
The hope? That such a being wouldn't abuse a wish.
Naive, maybe—but noble.
Because in the wrong hands?
You could wish for eternal darkness.
Destroy magic.
Burn the world into submission.
What did I want the Emerald for?
Not power. Not glory. Not resurrection.
I want it destroyed.
Such power doesn't belong to anyone—not anymore.
The Emerald is a fulcrum, and the wrong wish could tip the entire universe off-balance.
And balance?
That's what I've come to understand after lifetimes of watching civilizations rise and crumble.
But Gacanagh, you might ask, don't you have regrets?
Don't you have things you wish you could change?
No.
Even I don't tamper with fate. I am its catalyst, not its master.
I didn't claw my way through centuries to remake myself into a monster in a tailored suit just to let some cursed jewel unravel everything I built.
Still... sometimes I blame Scarlette.
She cast the Emerald into the mortal realm—a place where magic is but a whisper.
She thought the Guardian would pass it on like a dusty heirloom. Forgotten. Useless.
But magic has loopholes.
There are always... miscalculations.
Cities like Sommerville still hum with old power.
And Light Guardians?
They're not born wise.
They're fragile. Human.
Easy to corrupt. Easier to break.
That's the one flaw my parents didn't account for.
Because if a Guardian falls—
Whether by fear, force, or seduction—
They can still make the wish.
Centuries passed.
The Emerald was lost.
The Guardian, too.
And now, both are hunted.
Coveted by those who don't understand their power.
Feared by those who do.
Like me.
And I hope I'm still the only one who understands what they're capable of together.
Baltimore is dead.
My parents vanished in the war.
And me?
I'm the last one left who remembers how it began.
I didn't ask for this.
But here I am.
Trapped in a game older than memory.
The players change.
The stakes never do.
Pierre's scream still echoes in my skull.
Another pawn lost.
Another piece moved.
I've spent lifetimes collecting fragments.
Not to break the world, but to hold it together.
So I trace the Emerald.
I search for the Guardian.
And I wait.
Each time one falls, another rises.
The complication?
Light Magic sears through me.
I'm a contradiction in a bespoke suit—
Dark Fairy. Love Fairy. Predator. Protector.
So I move carefully.
One soul at a time.
The banshee is bound by my deal.
The kitsune owes me a debt.
Now it's time to find the Light Guardian.
You may question my methods.
The games. The lies. The bargains.
But someone has to stop this madness.
Before the fog thickens.
Before the next wish is made.
Prevention is always better than apologies.