“Why did you leave me, Light?” A woman cried with her head hung, her long light brown hair dangled in front of her face, hiding it. “Why?”

“Mirage.” A blacked haired, red-eyed woman said unsympathetically to the woman kneeling on the ground. “Come on let’s go.”

The woman named Mirage turned her head around and pushed her hair out of her pale white, tear-streaked face to reveal blaze orange eyes. “Midnight, please, just a moment more.”

Midnight let out a frustrated sigh and crossed her arms over her small chest, covered by her short, thick-strapped patched up crimson dress. “Come on! The elder wanted to meet EVERYONE at the town hall pretty soon! If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late!”

Mirage sighed and wiped her face as she stood up. She patted off the bottom of her short strapless light gray dress and faced away from the Celtic cross and toward her friend. “Fine, have it your way…just know that I’m coming back here as soon as the meeting’s over.”

Midnight nodded once and leapt into the air, halfway see-through crimson red faerie wings spread from her back. She floated there and waited as Mirage leapt into the air and halfway see-through light gray faerie wings spread from her back. The two friends turned and flew off through a thick forest until it broke into a beautiful good-sized city.

The city was more than beautiful to take in from where Mirage and Midnight were flying over it. The entire city seemed to be made of white stone that glistening in the current dismal light of the full moon looming overhead. One tall marble white structure stood proudly in the middle of the city while smaller white buildings – some houses or apartments, some small businesses, and some small taverns normally full around this time – surrounded it until the city curved out into a circle. The outer rim homes belonged to the knights who defended this city of white marble – they were called the Winged Knights.

Mirage and Midnight landed gracefully on their feet – both wearing ballet shoes the same color as their dresses and wings – in front of the center building and run into it as fast as they could. They ran through the main corridor, pushing anyone in their way out of their path as they ran into the main meeting room.

As they ran inside the room, every eye turned on them, convincing them they were indeed late. The elder cleared his throat to stop them from saying their excuse for being late before they said it.

“Mirage, Midnight, it’s nice of you to join us.” A dark brown haired woman said with her arms – covered with the sleeves of a long, beautiful gown – crossed over her large chest. “Isn’t it nice, Cloud?” She said sarcastically as she looked over at her husband, wearing a white suit.

The white-haired man named Cloud chuckled and said, “Come on, Hazel, give them a break. After all that’s happened, I would be concerned if they weren’t late.” He waved at the two girls. “Go, sit down.”

The elder – a very old man with graying hair, wearing light green robes – coughed for a moment before talking. “Now that we’ve all assembled, save for the Winged Knights, of course,” the Winged Knights were rarely allowed to leave the outer rim of the city, it was their duty to protect the city from the humans and wolves, “I will begin.

“For months now, we had been wondering…”

Mirage leaned back in her seat and stared up at the ceiling. Her thoughts left the meeting, left the building, and pretty much entirely left the city. For once, she was glad to be at one of the city’s completely too long meetings. She just wanted some time to think about everything that had made her lose her beloved Light – her betrothed and pair bond.

It was true that the humans from outside the forest had been the cause of, not only his death, but many deaths of the faeries in the city. But it wasn’t only the humans, the wolves were also to blame. The King and Queen of the faerie city – Cloud and Hazel – have been the targets for both of the other species because of their correct suspicions that the two were working together to eliminate the mostly peaceful faerie society.

Ten months ago, only two months before the attack from the humans and wolves, the three societies were living in peace. All of them were cooperating to keep the world together, and some faeries – including Mirage, Light, and Midnight – visited the human society often to try to make friends with them. It worked most of the time, but some people refused acknowledge their being there…and thus the hatred that still lingered triggered the attack that killed Light, two of the Winged Knights, and three other innocents.

Mirage allowed her eyes to close as her mind went back to ten months ago, the month she was wedded to Light, the month she made her first human friend, and the month that she became a parentless woman…