Fairytoes

Empty Inkwell Trinkets A darkened glass bottle that once held ink. There are remnants of fluid crusted on the bottom and rim. 80 Fairytoes Okenen cryptic | reserved | spiritual Arcane Runestone Dragonmade An ancient stone bearing the ancestral rune of the Arcanist. Such a find should be kept as a prized possession. 110 » The Mystic Scribe » she/her » ♫ Theme Spirit of the Arcane Familiar A magical spirit animal that contains the essence of the arcane. (Starfall Celebration Holiday Familiar 2017.) 0 » The Altar » lawful good » ♥ Circusmonster

Ever since she was a hatchling, Fairytoes had the ability to predict the future. It wasn't as straightforward as one might think, nor could she control the visions and psychic powers. It would start as a faint feeling, a premonition that felt almost fuzzy, as though it was hard for her to decipher it herself. The closer time advanced to the day of the event she predicted, the clearer it would become to her, so much so that she would have vivid déjà vu minutes before an event took place.

Why had she been blessed - or even cursed - with these powers? Was she a sort of demi-god? Could she be closely related to one of the deities of Sornieth? To the Arcanist that she so greatly revered?

Fairytoes had tried to trace her lineage once before, but the family tree spread farther and longer than she ever could have imagined. Though she was one of the oldest dragons in her current clan's lair, it was not easy to completely map the generations until they became untraceable, and even became so difficult that she gave up. The origins of her family tree and the source of her powers were ultimately unclear. So many ancestors came before her, but with the prevalence of exaltation, she wondered how much longer it would be until her lineage came to an end altogether. Even her parents and all her siblings from them had been exalted.

A premonition had come to her, one that told her she would leave her birth clan and join a new Arcane clan, as it was a vital step in finding a suitable mate. A mate who understood the same things about exalting as she did, and one who vowed to take on the same responsibility as her. Despite the discovery that her lineage was under threat by exaltation, Fairytoes devoted herself to produce offspring for the cause - exaltation helped the Arcanist, earned her clan honor, and helped all Arcane clans everywhere. Almost every hatchling she would ever have would be sent to a higher plane of existence. Exalting was a part of life and held great importance to spiritual dragons such as herself, and thankfully, the lair she would live in.

The premonition led her to find a fledgling lair in the Crystalspine Reaches. The lair was known as The Crystal Nook, situated in an excavated-by-hand cave, high up on one of the striking pink mountains. It had barely been established for two months, but the founders were as devoted to the Arcanist as could be. Finding it appealing, Fairytoes settled in, searching for a mate among the other dragons who were joining and building up the new clan which was based on the possession of Aura: a tangible power and force of will surrounding every dragon, giving a feeling of their personality before one could even meet them. Things were going well in getting the new clan started, but things wouldn't be peachy keen forever. Her uncontrollable foresight failed to warn her of this until it was too late.

Only shortly after her arrival, the hierarchy's structure began to break down and change drastically. At first it wasn't too concerning when the queen Arjibi took a new mate who replaced the former king Hydra, inner-lair dominance was ordinary after all. The fallen king Hydra took a new mate as well, and one of his new offspring would go on to be Fairytoes' mate. His name was Circusmonster, a guardian who was so very distinguished by his Aura of a strong and determined commitment to honor.

With age, Circusmonster quickly rose to the forefront when it came to protection of the clan and honoring of the Arcanist. When the proud warrior approached Fairytoes with the intention of courtship, she was pleased to allow it. The pair were Arcane-Strong and bonded over their dedication to their deity, with Circusmonster sharing the vow and responsibility of producing offspring for the Arcanist. Thus they had many together, most of which were indeed exalted.

Alone in their sleeping quarters, Fairytoes waited for her warrior mate to return from a long day of warding off hostile Beastclans. By this point, the clan's queen Arjibi had taken yet another new mate, casting aside the second king, only to be cast aside herself as the third king's supreme power allowed him to take total control of the lair, and take a new queen, banishing the progenitors to the darkest depths of the cave. Circusmonster had confided in her that while knowing his place and fulfilling his duties, he felt pain for his father Hydra and had not seen him since his banishment, and that fighting and protecting his charge was in memory of Hydra. The current monarchy were two foreign Shadow rulers, and the king was especially domineering, with a deadly and oppressive Aura that protected him from being challenged. A foreboding premonition began to creep up on Fairytoes before she suddenly blacked out.

She opened her eyes and found herself on the floor near her desk. Parchment had been scattered, the ink well wasted in being overturned, a quill by her hand, and an unrecognizable message that been jotted recently.


Fairytoes looked up from the mysterious message and around the room. A Hibernal Starbear had somehow arrived, and was resting nearby, but seemed docile. This creature was a known guardian of the Starfall Isles, and seemed connected to the message that had been written. Did the Arcanist do this? He clearly sent the bear, but did he write this message, and how?

Circusmonster arrived, surprised and delighted to see that a Hibernal Starbear had joined them. Her mate coaxed the bear to join him as his familiar, and afterwards Fairytoes decided to show him the cryptic note. Interpreting the message as the Arcanist being concerned for Fairytoes frailty, sending a Starbear for protection, blessing them and encouraging them to continue exalting their young, Circumonster immediately headed for the mouth of the cave, where he looked towards the Observatory and prayed, thanking the Arcanist for the honorable opportunity. Fairytoes stayed behind as the creeping premonition did not leave her mind.

Unfortunately, with the passage of time, it proved as foreboding as she thought it was. The foreign rulers who banished the Arcane progenitors had all but destroyed the lair. In their rule by scare tactics, the rest of the lair had become increasingly disorganized and oppressed. Over the years, Fairytoes discovered that her blackout spells were instances of spirit-writing as the Arcanist possessed her, and her fears were realized. The original message was not praise, but a warning. Circusmonster's near oblivious pride in his successes as protector, father, and in being blessed by the Arcanist kept them both elevated and kept afloat in what would be considered trying times by any other dragon in the lair. Beyond the blind pride in the Arcane, there was a great depression in morale and resources. The whole lair was on the brink of collapse: many dragons had no jobs, the only paltry income came from exaltation of young and dragons seemed to hibernate until it was time to produce eggs for profit.

Fairytoes and Circusmonster shared their outrage that the offspring they had been sending to exaltation for the purpose of honor, were nothing more than meager income for the foreign king. She watched her mate thrash around their room in horror and disgust as he came to the realization that everything he had done had been meaningless to a cruel and undeserving false king. He openly lamented that, like his father, he had failed to keep his charge safe, and Fairytoes tried to console him by taking out the original spirit-writing once again.

"The Arcanist has faith in us, he wants us to persevere," she cooed, tracing her claw along the long-dried ink, before pausing over the word 'exalt.'

Circusmonster refused to believe that the Arcanist would be proud of how the Crystal Nook had become, and he felt foolish to have been loyally serving a false monarchy while the rest of his clan suffered. Fairytoes suddenly began to seize and collapsed, but his fast reflexes allowed him to catch her with his wing. As he had seen this several times before, he knew what it was and wasn't worried. Circusmonster set her down gently and immediately supplied her with an inked quill and parchment. After an unknown amount of time, Fairytoes awoke from her blackout to find that she had spirit-written once again.


"It's time," declared Circusmonster before leaving their room, and no longer was the false king's well-being considered most important.

The shared sentiment seemed to be growing in the lair, proven when Circusmonster informed Fairytoes that his team of guards had been approached by a group of rebels with a plan to restore power to the original monarchy. There was not much Fairytoes could do to help them, other than keep the secret and connect with the Arcanist in hopes that his is what He wanted. The premonitions had began to take a turn, and she was instilled with a feeling of optimism.

The team of guards known as the Nox Guard, as well as the alchemist, gamemaster, and treasurer were conspiring to fund and locate gene scrolls for the fallen queen and king, Arjibi and Hydra. The visions started to become clearer to Fairytoes, and she knew that it would all come to a head very soon.

Visions of the clan's Exalt Expert, Aristheus, continuously popped into her mind. He was another dragon who was vigorously spiritual and dedicated to the Arcanist, but he was also, unfortunately, closely connected to the false king out of fear, and would undoubtedly expose their plans to him. Why then, was she so frequently experiencing visions of Aristheus?


Fairytoes was frozen. This had been the Arcanist's will from the very beginning, but it had taken years to realize it. They were tasked with - no - Aristheus had been tasked with the order to exalt the false monarchy. It was the only way to completely remove them and ensure the Arcanist's handmade progenitors could resume the lair. Had she misjudged the Exalt Expert? Even the Arcanist had faith in his ability to carry out the frightening deed.

September had come, and it was an eventful month with the Arcane holiday on the horizon. The Starfall Celebration was the most enjoyable time of year to any Arcane lair, and uprooting the false king before the holiday seemed like the best time to do so. With the progenitors fully gened and overall Aura and power increased, and the rebels feeling confident, everyone made a move on the day that a newcomer joined their clan. Hydra and Arjibi slowly moved up the ranks, undetected, as this new dragon had creepy and bizarre properties that blocked Aura and the detection of it - thus they were able to use her as a shield as they moved closer to the false monarchy. The Nox Guard could help harbor the progenitors even closer, and once there, the attack could commence. Fairytoes held her own position high in the lair as a spiritual scholar and mate to one of the guards, and so Circusmonster met with her once more before it all kicked off. Ambushing the false king was absolute priority, and though the false king's Aura was so violently powerful and sinister, every rebel felt that his reign of terror would soon end and pride would be restored to the lair.

That was, until Fairytoes heard the petrifying update.

"...ARISTHEUS DOESN'T EVEN KNOW?!" she couldn't help but shriek before clasping her hands over her mouth, wings fluttering wildly and ruffling her soft pink silks. Cirusmonster shushed her as politely as possible as Fairytoes began to question everything once again. How on Sornieth had they gotten to this point without getting Aristheus on board? How in the actual name of the Arcanist had they moved into position right outside the grand court which held the false monarchy, ready to barge in and exalt them, when they didn't even have the exalter himself? She nearly passed out on the spot.

Circusmonster gently yet firmly took her dainty hand in his massive one and held it. "What do your premonitions and visions tell you?" he asked.

Fairytoes focused and tried to summon the feelings to wash over her. It still felt as though things were going well, with visions of Aristheus crawling across the grand court to the thrones of tyranny. She didn't understand how they would convince him in such a short amount of time, but the visions didn't lie.

Still gripping her hand, Circusmonster grinned and repeated what she had once told him, "the Arcanist has faith in us, he wants us to persevere." She calmed, gave a determined snort and smiled back at him.

"You better not get hurt."

"I have a God on my side."

With that, he left to join the other guards and get ready to take back the lair. Fairytoes was in no position to get physically involved, herself, and so all she could do was wait in her room, letting the near-constant visions overtake her and hope that nothing changed for the worse in the next hour. The Hibernal Starbear stoically sat guarding the door as Fairytoes began to meditate; in this state she would be able to watch her visions as though she were seeing them live in front of her.

Aristheus had already arrived and upon being threatened by one of Circusmonster's teammates, as well as seeing the true progenitors with his own two eyes, he had been coerced and thrown into the grand court with an important choice to make. Fairytoes watched Aristheus crawl across the floor as she had seen in visions once before, and everyone waited outside as Aristheus stood in front of the thrones, thumbing through the books at his side. He hesitated while gripping the Book of Exalting, and Fairytoes' heart raced as she saw the vision of Aristheus launching the attack.

Aristheus sprung towards the king in a powerful leap, tackling and knocking him out of his throne. In the scuffle, the king's crown clattered across the cavern and Aristheus used his whole body weight to keep him subdued as the king's violent Aura flared like an explosion. Even in her bed chambers, Fairytoes could feel the Aura blast through solid rock to reach her, and it felt like death incarnate. Even behind the Aura-Blocker dragon, she knew the rebels had to have felt it too.

As the frightened and apparently powerless queen quickly made for the door, the Nox Guard stormed the court and cut her off from the exit. Fairytoes could feel the false king's Aura disappear as Aristheus kept him subdued, and the queen continued to dart back and forth like a trapped beast. Speech in her visions had always been fairly muffled and almost inaudible, so Fairytoes was struck with fear one last time as she somehow clearly heard the false king utter "Then, may The Shade curse you all."

She could no longer hear the vision, as usual, as Aristheus held the book in front of him and could be seen mouthing the incantation. The King was then exalted, leaving behind his belongings. The queen could do nothing as Aristheus exalted her, and as she disappeared to serve a higher cause, her crown lay on the floor where she once had been. Aristheus collapsed and lay curled up in the middle of the court as the Nox Guard left to break the news to the rest of the clan, and Fairytoes came out of meditation to find the Hibernal Starbear by her side and no longer at the door.

"The false monarchy has been exalted," the Nox Guard repeated several times throughout the lair. Circusmonster poked his head in the room and repeated himself before adding with a wink, "though I guess you probably already know that."

Fairytoes rushed to hug him before following him out into the halls of the cave. Arjibi and Hydra walked together to the cave mouth and shared a moment as they looked out into the world for the first time in years since their banishment. The once-depressed and hibernating lair was active, with dragons of all shapes and sizes roaming the corridors and rejoicing their freeing from total tyranny.


The clan celebrated the return of their benevolent leaders for the rest of the month, as Arjibi and Hydra took their place at the top of the lair once more. The Starfall Celebration coincided with the Crystal Nook's personal celebration, and the entire clan was filled to the brim with pride and joy. The king and queen nested together for the first time in years, and the hatch was during the holiday. They welcomed a new princess, Starlight, the firstborn of this clutch, and Circusmonster welcomed his new half-sister. Her birth and presence in the clan was a physical reminder of everything they had went through - she marked the dawning of a new age as the clan thrived. The night of Starlight's birth, Circusmonster once again returned to the cave mouth to pray towards the Observatory. He asked the Arcanist for forgiveness for serving the false king and dishonoring an Arcane lair, he thanked the Arcanist for everything he had done and inspired, and he vowed that with the progenitors back in power, that the Arcanist himself created, that exaltation would once again be sacred. The lair could once again devote themselves to the Arcanist with pride. From that point on, Fairytoes no longer experienced disturbing premonitions, only positive vibes, visions of success and good fortunes from her spirit-writing.

With the false monarchy gone, the clan's motivation and morale was bolstered. The gamemaster began to earn maximum treasure at an accelerated rate, all of which could finally be used for the benefit of every dragon in the lair. The bountiful daily treasure jump-started the clan's inner-economy and the lair was more active than ever as they prospered and revitalized more members with genes. Dragons acquired jobs, became well-dressed and expanded their territory as the future of the lair was now monetarily secured. It was well and truly a renaissance.

For the next several months, the renaissance was in full swing, and Fairytoes' predictions brought nothing but good news. Only a month after the progenitors won back the throne, Fairytoes appeared in the grand court to deliver the first good fortune after finding her recent spirit-writing, something that she had never been able to do under the false monarchy.

"The Forgotten Returns," she said cryptically. Though it may have sounded ominous, Arjibi and Hydra had faith that the Arcanist had been pleased by their return and would not let something bad happen so soon. Fairytoes experienced visions of an unknown Fae, Arcane, so close, so celebrated. At night, she tossed and turned, wondering who this was.

Only days later, her questions were answered when a Fae called Dingy arrived at the lair. The king and queen wept with joy at this, as apparently this was one of their first sons, from so many years ago, now returned home. He had left to find his place in the world, living in a nearby ally Arcane lair, but had returned home when rumor spread about the trials and triumphs the Crystal Nook had gone through.

The next several predictions were all good news, as expected. Fairytoes successfully predicted that Circusmonster would get his new genes, that the Arcanist would approve their request for more lair space and allow them to build an embassy near the Observatory to become a respected Ancient Lair, and that the deities would demand lair reform and allow clans to have even more space in what was known as a Hibernal Den. It was a streak of good luck and good fortune that the clan had grown accustomed to in only a few months time.


An unexpectedly foreboding premonition came to Fairytoes in the middle of the night. A vivid dream: an egg from another land, a feeling of increasing dread as it started to hatch, before revealing a horribly familiar face. She woke panicked and in a cold sweat, and quickly jostled Circusmonster awake, who was next to her. He could barely see her in the dark, but he could still make out her terror.

"He's back," she panted.

"Wha-? Who?" Circusmonster tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"You-know-who!" she hissed. "The false King! He's been reborn!"

"What?!" Circusmonster said even louder, her panic infecting his demeanor. The Hibernal Starbear began to grunt with increasing volume, and they looked to where it slept. It had awoken and was shifting anxiously as if it had been threatened.

"He'll find us," she began to cry. "He'll come back even stronger and find us, he'll take everything we worked for. Why would the Arcanist allow this?"

Circusmonster rose to his feet. "I'll tell my father."


If Fairytoes had already seen such a clear vision of the false king being reborn, it meant they didn't have much time. The Nox Guard was already at maximum power, and so they began to train additional dragons for more guard positions. Arjibi and Hydra prepared their lair in sadness and fear. No clan member wanted to lose the benevolent leaders, and certainly not to a false king they already fought off once before. The festival of Shadow had only just begun, and recalling that the false king had once been a Shadow dragon, everyone was on edge as they banded together and waited. They hoped that this was not real. They were wrong.

One day into Trickmurk Circus, he arrived.

Some of the largest dragons trained and capable of the most brute force were stationed near the cave mouth, and on the horizon fluttered a tiny, miniscule silhouette. The Fae had arrived, and was still an infant. The Aura had tinges of horrifying familiarity - and yet, so much different than before. As the reincarnated false king approached, he called out, "hello!"

Eyes darted, heads turned, the subtle confusion stirred among the guards before they parted slightly - allowing Hydra to pass through and into the frontlines, stomping as he walked, head bowed and wings poised. The baby Fae floated in the air only meters away from the cave of hostile eyes trained on him, and his Aura became more clear. Docile, lazy, unwilling to take charge...

"Um... so I had a feeling I should come here. Can I join your clan?" the Fae asked.

Hydra raised his head and puffed his chest. "What do you remember of the past?"

"The past? I was just born. Hey, can I come in? Seriously my wings are gettin' tired," the Fae begged.

Hydra glanced around before shouting, "alright, stand down." The guards receded into the cave and Hydra allowed the baby Fae to land on the lip of the mountain. The reincarnated false king was hesitantly brought inside to be discussed.

The baby false king was detained and guarded heavily as the council of elders met in the grand court, which Fairytoes was present for. There was arguing, crying, praying, and questioning from everyone involved. They arrived at the conclusion that the Arcanist had allowed the false king to be reborn but in a neutralized state, but were unsure if this reborn dragon actually had any connection to his past life. There didn't seem to be any memories or currently held ill-will, so it seemed like a predicament, with all the emotions running high. Fairytoes went into a blackout spell and was supplied with parchment and quill by the other elders. Everyone was shocked to see what she spirit-wrote.


That was it, yet what they had to do seemed clear, even if the reasoning was not. The baby Fae was accepted into the clan, though under watchful eye just in case. He was bestowed a new name, and treated the same as any new member. Fairytoes met him, just to prove to herself that this was really happening, but the Fae had done nothing wrong in his new life even if everyone was secretly skeptical of him. He was actually friendly, overly emotional for a Fae, and was sleepy most of the time. The true test was letting the Hibernal Starbear judge him, and so the elders watched as the guardian of the Starfall Isles verified the reincarnated creature's newfound good will.

After that, Fairytoes continued to make predictions of good news pertaining to the clan. She often wondered why the Arcanist brought the false king back as a good natured dragon, but explained it away as the deity being so merciful, divine and honorable. The Arcanist trusted them, and so they must do the same for him. The reborn Fae remained docile for months after his arrival, spending copious amounts of time in the Hibernal Den, staying out of the way and not causing trouble. In the end, the clan continued to thrive in its state of renaissance, just with one more clan member they never thought they'd have.

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