CHAPTER 105: FAE POLITICS

Prince Ash POV

The crystal throne burst beneath my father as I slammed my fist on the council table.

Shards of pure magic scattered across the floor while every fae lord in the room gasped in shock. King Oberon rose slowly from the ruins of his seat, his silver eyes burning with anger that could have frozen mountains.

"You dare show such disrespect in my court?" he asked, power crackling around him like lightning.

"I dare show the same respect you’re giving to innocent people who are dying!" I shot back, not caring that half the council looked ready to remove me on the spot. "While we sit here playing political games, the Void Walkers are erasing entire families from existence!"

My aunt, Lady Titania, laughed coldly from her seat. "Such love for mortals, nephew. How wonderfully naive."

The other council members murmured approval, their perfect faces showing nothing but bored amusement. They’d been arguing for three days whether to help the werewolves and vampires fight the Void Walkers, and every hour we wasted meant more people died.

"They’re not just mortals," I said desperately. "The werewolves, the vampires, even the witches - they’re all part of the magical world. If the Void Walkers kill them, we could be next."

"Could be," emphasized Lord Puck, the court’s top advisor. "But probably won’t be. The Void Walkers have always targeted beings with strong emotional ties. We fae are naturally more... removed."

I wanted to punch his smug face. "Detached? Is that what we’re calling weakness now?"

The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees as my father’s anger grew. "Enough, Ash. You forget yourself."

"No, Father, I remember myself perfectly." I stood up straighter, meeting his stare without flinching. "I remember that our people used to stand for something. We used to protect the balance between worlds, not hide behind our walls hoping danger would pass us by."

Lady Titania stood smoothly, her voice sweet as poisoned honey. "Perhaps Prince Ash has spent too much time among the lower creatures. It seems to have affected his judgment."

"My judgment is fine," I snapped. "It’s my conscience that won’t let me ignore genocide."

That got their attention. Several council members shifted uncomfortably. Even among the fae, there were lines that shouldn’t be crossed, and watching entire species get wiped out came close to crossing them.

"The boy has a point," said Lord Bramble, one of the older nobles. "If we allow the Void Walkers to grow stronger by consuming other magical beings, they may eventually become powerful enough to threaten even us."

"Exactly!" I jumped on the support. "This isn’t about helping mortals out of kindness. It’s about protecting ourselves by stopping a threat before it gets too strong."

My father studied me with those cold silver eyes that had intimidated me since childhood. "And what exactly are you proposing, my son?"

"Full intervention," I said immediately. "We open the ways between our realm and theirs. We send our best fighters, our most powerful magic users. We end this threat completely."

The council chamber exploded in shocked voices. Several nobles stood up, talking over each other in their musical fae language. Through the chaos, I heard fragments: "impossible," "too dangerous," "he’s lost his mind. "

Lady Titania’s voice cut through the noise like a blade. "Open the ways? Do you have any idea what you’re suggesting?"

"I know exactly what I’m suggesting," I said strongly. "The same thing our ancestors did when the dragon wars threatened to spill into our land. The same thing we did when the demon princes tried to attack the mortal world. We act before the threat hits us."

"Those were different times," my father said softly, and something in his tone made everyone else fall silent. "We were different then. Stronger. More united."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with magic. "What do you mean?"

"He means," Lord Puck said with obvious pleasure, "that opening the ways now would leave us exposed to other threats. There are forces in the deep darkness that have been waiting ages for us to lower our defenses."

"What forces?" I demanded, but my father held up a hand for quiet.

"There are things you don’t know, Ash. Things the younger age has been protected from." His voice carried ages of weariness. "The Void Walkers aren’t the only old evil that was banished long ago. There are others, sleeping in the spaces between worlds, waiting for any crack in reality to slip through."

My heart sank as I realized what he was saying. "You’re afraid that helping fight the Void Walkers will wake up something worse."

"Not afraid," Lady Titania amended. "Certain. The magical barriers that keep our realm safe require constant repair. If we send our power to fight in another world, those barriers will weaken. And when they do..."

She didn’t need to finish. I could see the truth in every face around the table. The fae weren’t just being selfish or weak. They were stuck in an impossible choice: help save the mortal world and risk destroying their own, or stay safe and watch other magical beings get destroyed.

"There has to be another way," I said desperately. "Some kind of compromise."

"There is," said a new voice from the room doors.

Everyone turned to see Queen Mab, my father’s sister, walking into the room. She’d been lost for weeks, off on some mysterious mission that no one would tell me about. Her arrival sent a ripple of nervous energy through the meeting.

"Sister," my father said slowly. "I didn’t expect you back so soon."

"I came as soon as I felt the barriers trembling," she answered, her dark eyes fixed on me. "It seems my nephew has been making quite the argument for war."

"Not war," I cried. "Justice. These Void Walkers are monsters."

Queen Mab smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant look. "Oh, my dear boy. You have no idea what monsters really look like."

She walked to the middle of the room, and I noticed that frost formed on the floor wherever her feet touched. Something was very wrong.

"I’ve spent the past month investigating these Void Walkers," she stated. "Learning their true nature, their real purpose."

"And?" my father prompted when she paused.

"They’re not invaders from another dimension," Queen Mab said, her voice carrying across the silent chamber. "They’re antibodies."

I felt my blood turn to ice. "What do you mean?"

"I mean reality itself is sick, cousin. Magic has grown too strong, too wild. The walls between worlds are breaking down because there’s too much supernatural energy building up pressure." Her smile got wider and more terrible. "The Void Walkers aren’t breaking magic randomly. They’re trimming it. Cutting away the excess so reality doesn’t collapse totally."

The room fell into stunned silence as the implications hit everyone at once.

"You’re saying they’re supposed to be doing this?" I whispered.

"I’m saying they’re doing exactly what they were created to do," Queen Mab replied. "And if we stop them, every dimension, every realm, every world where magic exists will tear itself apart."

My father stood slowly, his face pale. "Mab, are you certain?"

"Completely." She turned to face the full group. "Which brings us to our real choice. We can let the Void Walkers continue their work, watching as they remove roughly half of all magical beings to restore balance..."

She paused, letting the horrible math sink in.

"Or we can take their place and do the pruning ourselves."

The crystal walls of the chamber began to crack as every fae in the room realized what she was suggesting.

We could save the werewolves, vampires, and witches.

But only by becoming the monsters ourselves.