Hell's Consort

Chapter 718 - The Fall Courts

Newest Chapter for Highest Tier (September 2021)

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Archdemon Empress Luna

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Autumn has a unique beauty, but there was a certain harshness to its atmosphere.

The temperature changed every hour, and the leaves were quick to shift their colour as they fell.

It was apparent that Autumn Faeries used spells and incantations because their air turned a salmon pink and deep orange.

The breeze was fresh and calm with a fragrance of homeliness.

She smelled the season in her every breath as their group walked in this cosy hearth.

It was well known that the Autumn Court was equally evil to the Winter Courts..

They usually keep to themselves similar to the Winter Courts.

If another creature challenges their pride, then they could turn vicious in the blink of an eye.

The Winter Courts were colder and more calculating than the Autumn Courts.

They showed no emotions, and they resort to manipulation and underhanded tactics.

However, Luna can tell that they had a more excellent side than any other Fae when returning great favours, especially now that the Queen had accepted them and ushered them inside the gates after proving that their intentions were genuine.

The Fair Folks of the Autumn Courts were influential right now since the Summer was about to end and the Autumn season was about to come in.

They passed through the marketplace on the way to the Autumn Palace.

Every Autumn Faeries lowered their heads in greeting the instant they saw the Queen and her Cadre.

They also extended that same level of respect to their Apollyon, Luna and their envoy.

The heady aroma of nature flowing in her lungs back and forth energized her, anchoring her feet to the ground and propelled her mind to the sky at the same time.

The Fair Folks were dressed in vibrant hues as carnival clothes, matching the trees around them.

Luna felt blessed to have seen such beauty.

Her eyes loved seeing the bold and homely colours of small villages and shops, and the Kingdom's skilful artisans were masters in their chosen crafts.

Most of them specialized in hearth magic and potions.

Lovely garments for men and women displayed in fancy shopping boutiques were mostly knitted more than woven and sewn to protect them against the cold.

The preserved food on their jars had several enchantments on them to make it stretch.

A hearty soup could turn into a potion and moonshine doubly so.

The Autumn Fair Folk were known for their distilleries over the Faerie Realm, including their vampire blood wines.

It was the only refreshment that a Vampire could drink aside from biting someone's neck and nuzzling the warm ichor straight from the carotid.

Nevertheless, they should be careful about what they eat or what they ingest in this Court and take whatever the Queen offered them.

Of course, this will only apply to Princess Sapphire and Xerxes since Luna and Apollyon will feed off each other. At the same time, the Archdemon Familiars, along with Rere, can either snack on stray souls or drink or whatever they want.

They should better Not cooking and baking all the time also allowed the Fae to focus on work more quickly.

Most of the Autumn and Winter Courts creatures were mostly Vampiric Faeries, but Luna figured out that their diet wasn't strictly blood.

They could still eat solid food, sometimes similar to the Summer and Spring Faeries if they craved it.

It didn't make them sick like how Apollyon would—considering he was a Vampiric Fae like them—but the lifestyle he had grown up was that of a vampire.

She knew Apollyon would rather die than eat cake as the Autumn Faeries do.

Luna thought that Sir Tristan--Princess Ourania's fiance whom Sloth just beheaded recently during the duel at the Colloseum—would fit in this Court and if the mysterious bastard truly belonged here.

Where did Princess Ourania meet that strange Fae, anyway?

Did the Queen of the Fall Courts even know who he was in the first place?

What would she do if she found out that Sloth had beheaded an Autumn Fae and a knight at that?

Cold sweat trickled down her back as she clung to Apollyon's arm while their group followed the Queen's lead.

If the Queen found out about this or Sloth might reveal it by accident, their days in the Fall Courts were numbered.

The Autumn Palace, a sprawling castle built in trees and rocks with its uppermost levels only visible above the ground while the bottom was tunnelled a few stories into the stone, was located at the centre of the Autumn Court.

It was too large and spacious that they could probably walk from one end of the hall to the other and take half the morning to accomplish.

Layers and circles of sentries rang around the entire Court itself. Yet, it was more powerful around this Palace and its nearby trees and gardens, atop the moss coated shingles and the stone blocks which the palace was made of.

No enemies can approach the Fall Kingdom without the Queen's knowledge, and none can leave without her permission, either.

The Queen of the Fall Courts introduced herself as Queen Morgan.

According to what Luna heard while Princess Sapphire and Apollyon exchanged their information at the Summer Courts, Queen Morgan was known to delight in meddling into other creatures' affairs often to humiliate them--especially nobles and royalties--if she was sure she was capable of winning.

She was the epitome of Autumn herself.

Luna also noticed that the Autumn Fair Folk could come off as intense, mystique, eerie, devious, captivating, all the same as what she could figure out from Queen Morgan's Cadre, who trailed behind them in silence with their long staffs in their grasp.

Three of these wooden staff were positioned horizontally around them as if their group consisted of animals who needed to be caged for the Autumn Faeries' safety.

'Apollyon.' Luna called her husband through their mind link to initiate a conversation.