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agentqv · 2 years

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“We Will Speak Again After”

A Binx/Andhera Fanfic

Part II: Lion and Cub

Andhera laid there for maybe an hour, watching their beloved weaver’s slumbering form rise and fall with every breath. He thought about sleeping, but a wisping wind stayed his mind. When they were certain Binx was asleep (with a gentle snore), the prince sat up from the bedroll. The fire was still rustling and they watched it flicker, flames dancing northward.

The forest extended a long way, under the gaze of a waning crescent moon.

He told the yeth hound to take care of Binx, they’d be back soon. Grandpa Dog simply said “Sure.” Andhera recognized with what was going on, they didn’t have time to mentally interrogate that.

As they treaded through the dark forest, Andhera pulled from their shadow a pair of black scimitars, assembling them into a double-bladed one. He slashed them into the open air in preparation, focusing on forms and footwork. The prince was getting into a warrior’s mindset. His mind grew anxious, like before when they went to war.

Andhera remembered that fear, the quiet terror… but their fear had been worse at a time during the Bloom. He experienced sheer terror when Binx had been injured by his sister’s machinations. But before that, earlier that day… another terror had confronted him.

The young prince walked for several nervous minutes, until they reached a distant clearing in the trees, Moonlight was streaming down on a patch of wild flowers. The tree branches above swayed and the wind whipped at his face, almost playfully rustling his hair.

Andhera cleared their throat, to finally speak and make his fears real.

“That was a cheap trick, but that has always come with the territory, has it not?”Andhera huffed, pressing the weapon’s handle into his other hand and stabbing one of its end-blades into the ground. “You can show yourself now, Mother.”

A chilling winter wind erupted, rustling through the prince’s robes and harshly ringing the nearby trees. Any nocturnal animals present took notice and fled. Andhera pressed a sleeve to his irritated eyes, and looked again to see the wind had taken form before him.

For the first time in countless eons (if it had ever even happened), the Queen of Air and Darkness could be seen in the Mortal Realm. Her dark skin was almost bluish gray under the moonlight. Her long hair was weedy and unkept, draping down her dark sylvan form like an uncontrollable waterfall. A pair of sharp crimson eyes peered out of shadowy skin towards him. She walked barefoot, her robes dragged behind her and he saw grass sour and darken from her gait.

She was beautiful and unknowable. Sustained but chaotic. Darkness personified.

And she seemed especially playful this night.

“My son, you finally permit your poor mother to grace you with her presence.” Her slick voice echoes into the wind and haunts his very core.

“It’s not up to me to allow you to show up, that’s the unfortunate consequence of growing up under the tutelage of a perpetually uncaring helicopter parent.” Andhera was so proud of that zinger, but the Unseelie Queen seemed unaffected, her lips raised.

“I see letting that Crafter rid you of your sister’s spike has healed your confidence after our last meeting.”

That Crafter. Andhera’s eyes narrowed.

“Why are you here?” They asked, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“While I may abhor debasing myself with corporeality… This little visit is a fulfillment of my word. I promised we’d speak once you’ve had it out with your sister.” The young prince knew she saw no value in lying, keeping her word was essential.

Because a threat isn’t a threat unless you’ve been known to back it up.

“And are you impressed Mother? I beat her. I secured my inheritance from that jackal.” Andhera puffed out their chest, blade-end shifting in the grass. The Queen stepped past him, as soon as he turned, she was seemingly on the other side of him. “I figured you must be proud of that at least.”

Her feral scarlet eyes danced at the mention of pride. He tried to insight that, but it was such a fickle flicker of emotion. Was that gratification? Or was it embarrassment. After all Suntar was still alive and as thus an evergreen threat.

“Perhaps I am proud.” She said. “You performed your role exceptionally well, my little pillar boy… my little cub.” The Queen said that so delicately, it was cloying. Andhera sneered away at her mockery. “Broke bread with your old enemies and became allies to send your rival away to the Mortal Realm. Where you find yourself now, alone with your Crafter.”

“Her name is Binx.”

His mother knelt down to the bed of flowers, her dark finger sliding by the stem like a wisp. Andhera watched as black ichor erupted from the flower’s petals, rotting it away, the corruption spread to the other flowers, producing the same effect, black tears streaming from the flowers and mixing into the moonlit dirt.

Andhera grew frustrated, “Apologies Mother, but all this villainous posturing is entertaining to a point.”

“Why did you come with her? Why come all this way to this mortal infested cesspit?” The Queen asked, looking up to him from the flower bed. “Is it because the chaos from a restored Court of Craft could provide value to the Unseelie?” A frustration overtook Andhera in being analyzed like an ant. “No… not that.”

“What does it matter what my methodology is? As your heir it is my choice to lead the Unseelie Court in the way I see fit.”

“You’re being sentimental.” His mother announced, reading him like a book borrowed from the library. “It’s all bright and new what this Crafter has pulled out of you.” She rhymed, unexpectedly.

“She’s a Weaver of Fate.” Andhera corrected her. “The last one, in fact”-

“And you want to put a crown on their head.” His mother’s black carnivorous teeth glimmered in a venomous smile. “And I don’t mean just as knight serving their lady.” Andhera froze at the sudden turn in this talk. He hoped by leaving the Bloom they could escape these expectations. Seems it wasn’t meant to be.

“Well, erm. That’s kind of reductive, if you ask me-“

“But you’ve thought of it. Marrying the Crafter, making them your consort, uniting your peoples and ruling my throne together.” Her voice was insidiously slick and oily. Andhera found himself momentarily embarrassed that their mother wanted to talk about their love life.

But then again why wouldn’t she? Binx could be a wonderful pawn in their games.

“Depending on if your quest in this blighted sphere goes well that is…” As much as the Prince wanted to read that as a threat, the way it was announced wasn’t as much so matter-o-factly as it simply was a fact. Their fey magic waned here, outside their domain, and that made them vulnerable.

There was a reason why young lions didn’t last long outside the safety of their pride.

“Are you going to intervene?” Andhera asked. His mother unknowably continued to gaze at him, tendrilled hair blowing in an unnatural unfelt wind. “No. That’s not your way.” She drew closer to him, hand nearly reaching their cheek, but stopping just before contact.

“If this Crafter is to be your Queen someday, then know that she will always be in danger because of your sentimentality.” Her feral teeth were razors, viciously cutting the dark air and chewing the scenery.

In the few times they spoke, Andhera’s mother had a way of enunciating with an intense specificity. Much like the way her unloving wind could communicate everything in a breeze… her words however were far sharper.

“Love compromises everyone. Makes us weaker, like my sister. It makes us just like everyone else.” A target, she meant.

“Gee,” Andhera interrupted. “This sounds like more of a talk between you and Aunt Titania that you are desperate to have, I really shouldn’t intrude”- their mother snapped at them.

“Careful boy. I do enjoy you and your boldness… but not that much. You could indeed be my successor, my heir. But so were countless others, replaceable just as easily as your sister.” The prince groaned, he’s heard this lesson before.

“And in case you’ve forgotten, I beat Suntar.” Andhera challenged.

“And now you’ve tasted her ambition. Scions far greater than you have played this game and lost, and you’ve savored but a piece of it. Be careful not to choke on your greed, my little cub.” His frustrations grew as his mother turned away, ready to end the conversation.

And out of sheer idiocy, Andhera pushed his luck.

“And what of you? And your greed?” He challenged, his mother paused. “I do not apologize for my apparent avarice, and I make no efforts to dissuade you, Mother. I will never live up to your expectations and will always be a thorn in your side. If you wish me destroyed, do so and be done with it.” The Queen’s gaze became that of incredulous irritation.

“You hit me pretty hard in that fucking cave. Come on Mom, get it out of your system. Kill your boy, start the cycle over.” The wind surrounding them began to pick up, but Andhera didn’t care to notice. “After all, this weird ass lion and cub thing we’re doing here has gotten quite tedious.” A cold wind chilled the air once more.

“Tedious…” The Queen whispered. “You call me tedious?”

And Andhera could do her one better.

“I call you BASIC!”

It was a brazen valor that Andhera had recently discovered. The courage of beating his sister emboldened them. He thought by removing Suntar’s spike that they commanded the storm.

But she was the wind that fueled that storm, it was her that coursed through it all.

At his insistent insolence, the Unseelie Queen effortlessly flicked her hand and Andhera was pulled by wind like a fish caught on a line. He bolted across the field into a tree, dropping his double-bladed scimitar in the confusion. Just as a sudden blunt pain coursed into their nerves, he was whisked away into another tree, and then another.

And then he fell, prone on the ground if not for the wind pulling him up by his neck. It pierced the skin of his chin with a sharp biting cold, dark blood dripped from his neck. The Queen could smell it like a shark in water. She was an apex predator. She was a lion.

And Andhera realized they made the greatest mistake one in the Fey Realm could make.

He called the Unseelie Queen’s bluff.

Author’s Notes:

Okay I just need to take a moment to snicker. The dialogue originally ended at “You call me tedious?” But it occurred to me... that the funniest thing I could see Omar/Andhera doing in this situation (that would serve the story), was calling the Queen of Air and Darkness “Basic.” Like it’s such a brazen pop culture thing, and I love it.

When I conceived this story, I originally just wanted to do this scene and call it a day (because Aabria and Omar’s scene was so good and I wanted to see that promised second conversation). But I expanded and I’m glad I did.

There is a level of OOC I will admit for this. as much as I loved what Aabria was doing as the Queen, I really wanted to dig a little deeper into the potential psychology of this relationship, and that meant it couldn’t be all creepy posturing and letting Andhera do most of the talking.

I also figured there was some leeway because even though she’s emotionally distant and rarely speaks, it’s hard to reconcile that with the weird ways she treats Andhera in the form of wind (like she’s almost loving in that way). So for the sake of this story, Andhera’s mom is in as good of a mood as she can be.

As for the title of this chapter, I liked thinking of the Queen as akin to an evil Mufasa. She probably doesn’t love her children as much as she cares for the legacy of her throne (but in the right circumstance will feign love). Even though Aabria never said “My little cub,” I liked the idea of the Queen being more playful as if they had been looking forward to this conversation after Andhera proved their mettle, and calling Andhera her cub was such a cloying thing to say.

I’ve been on a Disney Renaissance binge and might have rewatched Lion King lately... I fucking loved it.

I also wanted to see Andhera’s mom dissect them (maybe literally) and their intentions with Binx and the Court of Craft (since the show treated it a little too ambigiously).

If we’re going based off the genre of ACOFAF, the idea of Binx someday becoming a the Unseelie Queen Consort, or even an unseelie princess is a big deal. But I also get why it wasn’t elaborated on in the show because that is heavily intertwined with Andhera’s storyline and Binxhera was an unplanned organic pairing and we don’t even know if a Binxhera wedding will ever happen (because I feel marriage for them is something you do for other people). And of course Binx’s own Court of Craft situation is complicated enough as is. Which makes it perfect to examine in a fanfic now that ACOFAF ended (unless we get a season 2, in which case nvm none of this matters).

Please tell me what you think.

#binxhera #andhera x binx #Prince andhera #Binx Choppley #Dimension 20 #Acofaf #A court of fey and flowers #the queen of air and darkness #grandpa dog #Lion King apparently #Unseelie #Princess Suntar

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