Chapter 14 Fourteen.
I never really knew much about my parents, other than the fact that they were the best anyone could ask for—and war orphans, exiled to the outskirts of Eris. Why they were exiled, I don’t know. At ten years old, it didn’t seem important enough to ask. My parents rarely spoke of Eris, and when they did, it was in hushed tones.
Once, I had gone along with them inside the wall of Eris when they secretly went to consult with some of the most powerful witches to aid my brother's muteness, but still I barely learnt a thing about my Kingdom. My parents said nothing either, but they taught us the language of the Fae and the language of other Kingdoms. Since the Kingdom of Māui, Cessi, and selenium spoke the same language, it made learning easier for my brother and me. And later, when we escaped Eris and found refuge in Māui, that knowledge helped us blend in.
My parents never spoke about Eris history, nor did the academy I attended in the Shadow Moon Pack ever say anything about it. So, what Katniss is saying now feels impossible to believe.
“I don’t believe you,” I spit, disbelief clouding my thoughts as her words replay in my mind like a scene from a tragic play in a theatre. “You’re making that up. Faes would never use magic to harm others.”
“Is that so?” Katniss lets go of my hand and turns to the crowd. “People of Māui, it seems our little Fae here is unaware of the true history of the now-fallen Kingdom of Eris, and the terror unleashed upon the world. Shall we enlighten her?”
“Teach the bitch!” One screams from the crowd.
“Don't kill her! Let her bleed to death on a stake!” Another says.
Katniss simply laughs as she brings her gaze back to me. “Long before the Kingdom of Māui was re-established under King Sven father, almost fifty years ago, the longest ruling King in Eris history, Lord Yangtze, had about a million slaves. Can you believe that? A million slaves! Werewolves and Lycans from Māui, Cessi, and Selenium. They built the walls surrounding Eris. He used his magic to bind them to his will. The blood and tears of those slaves built the Kingdom of Eris, not your kind. Our. Kind. Did! The fall of Eris wall ten years ago was unjust? Don't make me laugh. It was justice. We only took back what our ancestors built.”
I shake my head, stunned, my mouth hanging open. “It’s a lie. My people would never…”
“Why would I fabricate what's part of our history?” Katniss snaps. “Even now, generations later, the scars remain. Every household in Māui has a story of suffering under Eris’s rule. You say your people would never? Before Māui rose, every Fae in Eris owned slaves, treated them like filth, like they were nothing, no less than nothing. You think you're treated unfairly, but do you know what our grandparents felt? Despair. Enslaved, beaten, chained like animals by the hands of the Fae, sold like dogs meant to serve and lick the feet of their master.”
There's silence everywhere.
Katniss continues to speak, voice heavy with emotion. “Only under King Māui Magnusson did our kind rise and take back what was ours fifty years ago. Cessi and Selenium stood with us. Together, we reclaimed our lands and our dignity and built the wall surrounding each of our Kingdoms. Since then, to honour the courageousness of King Māui leadership, what once used to be the Kingdom of Lothal turned into the Kingdom of Māui.”
I stare at the ground, stunned into silence. Everything I thought I knew begins to crumble. I always believed the Fae and Elves were the most powerful beings in existence, but I never imagined we used that power to dominate, to enslave.
After Eris fell, I’ve asked one question all my life: Why?
Why us?
Why is my kind so hated?
But it's quite funny how I never once asked the more important question; What?
What did my people do to warrant the wrath of six united nations, including the Kingdom of Māui?
What did we do to make even the Kingdom of the Eldians, the land of Elves, abandon us, despite our shared lineage and goddess?
Katniss steps closer, her voice dropping to a chilling whisper only I can hear. “Your kind did nothing wrong? An insane statement to make, if you ask me. Now, for each day that you live as a slave, I hope you never forget what your kind once used to do to my kind. This is about letting the world never forget what your kind did. What the Kingdom of Eris was.”
She turns away from me, raising her voice so that all can hear.
“Tell me, people of Māui, what crimes do you remember?”
Voices rise from the crowd, one by one.
“They carved runes into our babies’ skin—binding spells so they could never shift! That's how Omega's were bred!”
Tears fill my eyes again at the revelation. I feel betrayed and humiliated by my own people… how could they? Omegas exist because of my own people? The thought of it makes me remember the other Omega's I stayed at the Shadow Moon Pack with.
I also had a friend named Katniss. I remember her pencil-thin frame as she worked her way through cleaning the pack after her parents abandoned her for not shifting — a condition I now know is caused by my own people. It tears me apart to know my own kind indirectly caused Katniss and the other Omega's sufferings.
“My grandfather was forced to walk on glass for days just to prove his loyalty to a Fae lord who laughed as he bled!”
“They bred our grandparents like cattle. Stripped their mates from them and gave them to whore houses!”
“They took pups at ten winters old and made them fight each other to the death in the pits for entertainment and gambling!”
The crowd roars louder, each memory darker than the last.
My hands tremble. I steal a glance at King Sven, almost forgetting he's behind me, and catch him wearing the most stoic expression as he surveys the crowd. I wonder what's going through his head, but knowing him, he's probably enjoying my humiliation.
Katniss' voice slices through my thoughts and the roar of the crowd as she talks again. “Eris built its empire on horror. Their streets were lined with enchanted poles where heads were hung like lanterns. Your kind did nothing wrong?” She leans in again, her eyes blazing. “Tell me a better lie.”
A heavy silence follows.
I can’t breathe. My chest rises and falls rapidly. I want to scream that they’re wrong, but inside my heart… I know. I know they're right.
“I didn’t know…” I whisper, but my voice is barely audible. My knees weaken, and I sink to the ground, unable to look anyone in the eye.
I feel Katniss' gaze on me. Her tone softens, just slightly. “You didn’t know. I believe that. You’re young. You weren’t there, just like I wasn't. But ignorance doesn’t erase history.”
There's a small shuffle that earns my attention. I look up and through my tears-filled eyes I see a child step forward from the crowd, her face smeared with dirt. Her voice is quiet but sure. “My grandmother still wakes up screaming. She says she can still feel the silver chains around her wrists and ankles.”
And that’s when it truly hits me.
The atrocities of Eris didn’t just happen five decades ago—they live on in memory, in trauma passed down through generations. The pain isn’t history to them. It’s now. And that's why they took their revenge ten years ago. That's why they think my kind is cursed and they continue to hunt what’s left of us. The pain never left them.
And suddenly, I understand.
I understand the glares. The hatred. The fear.
I understand why no one stood by us when the walls fell.
Because to the rest of the world, it wasn’t a tragedy.
It was simply justice.