the lady of the lake

Mournful starlight bounced off the glassy surface of the water as the fairy queen's mortal life came to an end. The very fibers of her being unmade themselves as the lake, the forest, the moon reclaimed her for themselves. Born from magic and returned to magic, she was more alive than ever. Like melting snow, she had simply become something new and different. But still, she would be missed.

"Our queen, our queen!" The fairies descended on the grove like a swarm of locusts. The lights which they had long ago scattered through the trees shined as brightly as the stars above them. Made from snow and moonlight, they were indifferent to the biting cold. Their attention was fully fixated on the small group of humans who were huddled beneath them on shaking legs.

"Remember! The promise you made! You must stick to it!" The desperation and hope was shared from fairy to fairy, and soon it was known to all the forest: there would be a new queen crowned tonight.

"Fuck off! Leave her alone!" shouted Tara, waving her arm as she tried to fend the fairies away from her friend. There were hundreds of them, forming a furious cloud that threatened to obscure the sky. Despite their immense number, they managed to evade each other, and never collide.  But they paid no mind to the frustrated human who tried to stop them. Like gnats, even when Tara managed to fling one of the fairies aside, they returned, undaunted, to the swarm.

"What's happening?" asked Morgan. Madison was pale-faced with horror, while her lover tried to console her.

"Madison made a promise to the fairies," explained Abigail. "If she couldn't find a queen to take her place, she swore that she would do it herself. It was the only way that we could even have a chance of victory."

"But now the queen is dead," said Morgan.

"And so that means that Mads…" Tara's voice trailed off, having given up on stopping the fairies. All the humans could do was try to ignore their incessant buzzing.

"It means I'm stuck here. Forever." Barely managing to say it, Madison fell to her knees. Tara and Abigail both knelt with her, in sympathy and fear, but Morgan remained standing. She looked up, staring through the pulsing mass of wings at the moon high above. So high up as to seem indifferent to the affairs of humans and fairies far below. But as the moonlight fell across Morgan's face, she felt a tingling sensation beneath her skin, and knew that it was calling her.

"No, you're not."

"But the fairies… I promised. They won't take no for an answer. Believe me, I can hear them. Feel them."

"You promised them a queen, right?"

"Yeah, and so-"

"But it doesn't have to be you."

The other three girls fell silent. From the ground, Madison looked up into Morgan's face, not daring to believe what she was hearing.

"Morgan, no. No way. You can't, babe." Tara reached for Morgan, all the strength gone from her arms which just moments ago had shielded her best friend. Her hand sat limply on Morgan's shoulder, and Morgan pressed her cheek against it. In her heart, she knew it would be the last time.

"I can though. And it's the right thing to do. It shouldn't be Maddie's responsibility. I'm the one who brought you all out here. To try to fix my problems. And you did. Evelyn's gone, after all. So I'll be the one to stay here, with the fairies."

"Morgan… You…" Slowly, Madison managed to stand again, lifting Abigail up with her. She struggled to find the words; any words. But Morgan just smiled.

"Are you saying you want to stay, Maddie?"

The silence was all the answer she needed. It hadn't really been a question in the first place. She clenched her fist and steeled herself, facing up at the fairies once again.

"You'll accept that, right? I'll be your queen."

Finally, their attention shifted to her, as if just noticing her existence. Their dives and twirls angled closer to her, the eye of the storm shifting away from Madison.

"You would do. Yes, indeed! The moonsick one's kin would be strong. You aren't moonsick, are you? We'll know if you are. We always find out."

"I'm not. Look." She stretched her hand upwards, reaching for the sky. Starlight glittered at her fingertips, perhaps the same starlight that had fled Geladura's body. Morgan could feel the magic in her and on her, pulsing through her veins. "I was born for this, wasn't I?"

"Our queen! Our queen!" As the fairies' chants grew celebratory, Morgan couldn't help but smile. Finally, she belonged somewhere.

Turning to face Madison and Abigail, and especially Tara, was the hardest moment of her short life. She tried to commit their faces right then to memory. The unspeakable gratitude in Madison's eyes. Abigail's compassion for one facing eternity. The love between herself and Tara. She swore to herself, that whether she lived another hundred years or a thousand, that she would never forget their faces. And she never did.

"Is there seriously no other way? What if I stayed instead? You deserve to get outta here, Morgan! You deserve to be free!"

"So do you, Tara. I could never let you do that. I love you too much."

"But I love you too! So there's gotta be something that I can do, right? There's gotta be…" Morgan shushed her with a kiss. She hoped that she could convey all the things she felt, but didn't have the words for. That she never learned to say, but that she knew to be real. She hoped Tara could hear them. Could feel them.

"I love you," they said together, perfectly in sync. Tara tried to blink back her tears. Blinked again, and again, but it wasn't enough. They formed minute, icy trails down her face. Morgan thought about wiping them away, but didn't. Instead, she nodded towards the other two.

"Madison. Abigail. I owe both of you more than I can ever say. This entire forest does. And it always will. So, thank you."

"I wish we could've gotten to know each other better, Morgan. I do wish we could've truly been family," said Abigail.

"Me too."

"I don't really know what else to say, except thank you. For doing this for me. The fact that I get to go home at the end of all this… I don't know what else to say."

"It's fine. Sometimes you don't have to say anything," said Morgan. Madison nodded in response.

"So then, I guess that this is…" Try as she might, Tara couldn't bring herself to say what it was.

"Yeah. It is." Morgan closed her eyes and spread her arms apart as she faced the fairies. "I'm ready."

They wasted no time. Fairies circled over her head, chanting and chanting. Wind stirred the snow on the ground, forcing the rest of the girls away from Morgan. The pond rippled in the moonlight. From the darkness, the fairies brought forth a crown of pine and juniper, more rugged than the one that Madison had worn. As the crown was lowered on Morgan's head, Madison's dress shimmered and then reverted to her familiar, comfortable sweater and skirt.

In response, Morgan's form began to glow as the magic settled into her. It wasn't invasive, like she had feared. Instead, it was comfortable, like putting on her favorite outfit. It sat upon her shoulders as a cloak which she wrapped around herself as the rest of her clothes twinkled and morphed, becoming a red gown that flowed to her feet.

She knew, the moment the transformation was complete, that she had made the right decision. She was of the forest, after all, whether she liked it or not. But for the first time ever, the forest felt like home.

At long last, with balance restored, the fairies fell silent. They hovered in the presence of their queen with quiet reverence, their desperation and panic quelled.

Something wet brushed against Morgan's face, and at first she thought that she was crying. But then it came, again and again, and she realized it was snow. She opened a palm up to the sky, and snowflakes coalesced around it, twirling as gleefully as the fairies had. When they touched her palm, they didn't melt, but remained as perfectly shaped little crystals.

One last time, Morgan faced her friends. She had hoped to have more time, but already, she could feel the forest calling her back with urgency. There was much that needed to be done, and she was the only one who could do it. Besides, what else could she say that she hadn't already? It would only get harder and harder. So as she raised a hand in farewell, she knew that it was goodbye.

"Don't worry," she said, even as her voice faded into another place. "I won't be alone."

*   *   *   *   *

The seasons passed; unflinching, unwavering. New life bloomed and died. As time went on, the forest healed, and after a while it was as if Evelyn's influence had never been. Though many things changed, many things stayed the same, as well.

A legend started, as legends do, that if on a certain night you go to a certain lake in the middle of a certain forest, you might catch a glimpse of the fairy queen strolling alongside the water. Depending on who you asked, she might be accompanied by a gorgeous, snow-white cat. And as she stands there, gazing into the lake, you may see a certain magical mirage appear on the surface of the calm water: the beautiful image of the fairy queen herself, surrounded by her three smiling friends.

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Author's Note: Fairy Queen Morgan was an ending that I had originally wanted to include in the main HotW game. Unfortunately, we didn't really have the means to include it, and it got cut. The idea's stuck with me since then, so I decided to finally write it.