Page 77 of Light Fae's Love
Il Colosseo is gargantuan here in the Twilight Realm, as we park in the nearby parking structure and exit the garage, moving out onto the promenade. The place where our Council-fated test awaits is not a ruin here; hale and enormous, it dwarfs the surrounding ancient Roman buildings with it’s sheer size and scope, and magnificence.
In the Twilight Realm, the Colosseum is topped with statues of ancient angelics and demons; stern and austere, cruel and snarling, they stand tall on the promenade as well, guarding every entrance and gate. Faces stare at us from the walls; the place is entirely carved with likenesses of the godlike Ascendants both Fae and Vampires evolved from. It features them, rather than Vampires or Fae, because this building is older than both Lineages here in the Twilight Realm.
It was the first creation of those ancient Ascendants—when they Fell to Rome and never looked back.
We enter Il Colosseo through a main archway now, heavily attended by Vampire guards in scarlet and gold ancient Roman armor. The Council are not without pomp and circumstance, as we are admitted through a long row of guards with Vampire pikes; they part for us like we’re the most noble of guests or the most heinous of criminals, entering to face our doom tonight.
One guard in a gilded helm peels off from the end of the line, escorting us down the inner Colosseum steps. We are walked to the main floor of the ancient space.
Then all the way out into the middle of the gravel oval, where the guard leaves us to our fate.
We wait, and for a long while, nothing happens. True night is settling now, diamond stars beginning to pop out in the vast Twilight sky. Blue-violet torches burst to life all around us then, lighting up the main floor of the Colosseum and the arched tiers in a spectacular display of magic. That magic is cold, though, as those torches burn without the true heat of actual fire.
And the Council appears, swirling in through black Vampire portals all around.
The Council sit scattered up the tiers, extending up into the highest rows of seats. Though their sudden display of magic was spectacular, as they sit cowled in black all around and above us now, there actually aren’t that many of them.
I estimate about thirty individuals, though there could be more; the Colosseum seems empty by comparison, though those flickering, sorcerous torches are everywhere. This place was clearly made for other use than what the Vampire Council currently use it for. That current use is punishment, as the Council claps their hands as one now, sending a terrible dome of violet-blue fire and darkness swirling up all around us from those innumerable torches.
To seal us in—and seal our fate.
Quinn and I have a secret, though, as we wait for the proceedings to begin. Lucca, somewhere close beneath our feet, is waiting in the Ascendant’s ancient catacombs that the Vampires no longer use.
Not only have we restored our trio’s power today—and Quinn’s Night—Lucca has Alleno and Eiseth with him as protection and backup. They’re also there to hold a magical perimeter, so his Fae Light is not discovered when we do our ritual with the Revenant. And somewhere in all those cowled faces surrounding us is Arturos, our only known ally on the Council tonight, thanks to the Wanderer. It’s the best we could do, as we face them this evening.
And hope we can give them our Revenant-returning demonstration with nothing going haywire.
As that magical dome of darkness and wraith-fire goes up all around us now, I know we’re sealed in—everywhere except beneath our feet, where the barrier doesn’t penetrate the earth. Like Rome in the human world, this Colosseum has ancient ready-halls for fighters beneath it. Those are all warded to keep Vampires, Fae, and anything else out, especially while the Council is in session.
The deep Ascendant catacombs aren’t, however—and that’s where Lucca is tonight.
I just pray he’s close enough that our demonstration works. Because despite our revelry today and the way the Music poured through all of us at dawn, uniting our magics as we united our bodies, I’m not storing any of Quinn’s or Lucca’s power inside me anymore.
That all got sent back where it came from when we had sex and the Music united us with that incredible sigil of love. Though I feel more connected to Lucca and Quinn than I’ve ever been, I also feel how it’s only my magic stored inside my body now.
All of Lucca’s Light returned to him—somewhere beneath our feet tonight.
A spokesperson rises from the Council then. As they stand before us, just a single tier up from the main floor, the individual rises, throwing back their cowled hood. I see the ancient man with midnight-black skin and chartreuse eyes who was at our session before, standing tall in the deepening dark.
“Master Quindici DaPonti and his Kissed Dark Fae Ariana Summers, welcome to this Council session. Tonight we shall see a demonstration of a power you claim to possess—to return a Vampire Revenant, one of our lost ancient ones, to their physical form and sanity. The Council beseeches you; your time to prove your claim has come. Return a Revenant before us now, and show us you are worthy to claim your former Sire’s seat among us, as you believe you should have. Or fail—and lose your life, your Dark Fae’s life, and your entire Dark Haven. The time has come. Begin.”
As the aged man sits, not putting his cowl up anymore, as if he was chosen tonight to forego his mystery in order to be the Council’s spokesperson, Quinn nods. Then, reaching inside his ornate Victorian jacket, he withdraws the velvet ring box like he’s about to propose.
This case contains a nasty surprise, however, as he opens it and removes the Florentine Box in its tiny, sugar-cube form. I hear a rustle of surprise from the Council where they sit in the stands all around us now. It’s as if every sound in the Colosseum is amplified under the dome of magical wraith-fire and seething darkness.
As he sets the small cube on the ground in the center of the vast gravel floor of the Coliseum, Quinn turns and takes my hand, moving us a suitable distance away. Once there, he takes out the Fae amulet from inside his shirt, holding it aloft in his fingers.
Once again, I hear a strange sigh come from the Council that Quinn uses Fae-magic tonight. No one stops us, though, and no one tells Quinn he can’t use an amulet of Fae-make as he fixes his eyes on the tiny box now and sets his intention.
I know he did some sigil-work on the box today; something about its seal being unstable since Arturos was the one to close that Revenant in the other day, and Quinn needing to repair it now that his energy is recovered.
But that all happened earlier, to Quinn’s satisfaction; with a surge of amethyst light from the amulet, the box heaves out into its normal, gargantuan shape. As it does, I feel more than see the Council flinch back from what Quinn just did. A wave of Vampiric darkness rushes out around them as if for protection.
It’s not the Revenant swirling in its cage in full-size that has them worried, as it stares at me and Quinn now with its seething red eyes. It was the light from the amulet that hurt them.
The Light of the Fae, as they retreat in darkness.
I recall then that daywalking is a rare talent among Vampires. I now know that Quinn has it because he is still Fae—and I wonder if other Vampires who can Daywalk are actually Mentale Dark Fae in disguise, hiding in plain sight. There is no more time for speculation, though, as the moment to prove ourselves is upon us.