Season Sisters

{First 4 chapters only}

Zane Joly

Before We Begin

I suppose it is fitting that I start. What with my job being bringing new life and all. Rejuvenation, beginnings, that’s my thing. And I think the story works best this way anyways.

Hello. My name is Spring. Most mortals call me Lady Spring. I am also known as the mistress of earth, healer, life-bringer, and mother of wood elves. But just Spring is fine. To clarify, I am not the actual season itself, just a fey tied to the natural concept. Not much about the existence of me or my sisters is simple sadly. We are goddesses, avatars, archfey, many different names that all more or less mean the same thing.

Me and my sisters are here to tell our story. It is a story that spans centuries, full of both love and suffering, of death and new life. We each have, well… different views on events. It just wouldn’t be fair if only one of us got to tell the story. 

My sisters can be extreme, so I have always tried to be the gentle one. Perhaps that was a mistake. Well, I won’t waste any more of your time. Let us begin.

The Birth of Magic

Year: 0

The first thing that I was aware of was the earth. Soil, infused with water, full of tiny air pockets, fertile, warm, and touched by roots. I was born from a blade of grass and its roots. I sprang up from the soil, a tiny piece of vegetation and dirt melding together and expanding into a goddess. With eyes I had just gained I looked down at my form. I was green, with bits of brown mixed in. I had two arms, two legs, and a central body. I felt my face. Two eyes, nose, mouth, two ears on the side. I cannot explain how I knew what all these things were, I simply did. I reached my hands up to my hair. Long vines came from my head and trailed down to my feet. My vegetation hair was full of offshoots, flowers, thorns, and leaves.

I looked around. I was in a forest, surrounded by trees, with grass at my feet, though I didn’t need my eyes to know that. I could sense the earth beneath me, the plants that surrounded me. I flicked a finger and sent out a thought. The grass around my feet grew denser and taller. I giggled. How fun.

I would have experimented with my talents more, but I saw movement. A beam of sunlight, slipping through the leaves above, became brighter. The sunlight shifted just as I had and formed a rather similar looking shape. A figure with two arms, two legs, a face and torso. Her skin was a yellow honey color at her face, and transitioned to a bright red at her fingertips and feet. Her hair was simply heavy golden locks that fell across her shoulders. What truly made this figure unusual were her wings. Six wide dragonfly wings fluttered behind her, keeping her feet a few inches above the ground. Despite this, I noted I was still taller than her. The wings shone like the rays of the sun, and when this woman opened her eyes, I saw that they glowed as well. A low heat rolled off of the woman, warming the soil and air around her.

“Who are you?” I asked, and both of us were surprised that I had spoken. I did not know how I knew words, I simply did. I knew several languages, in fact, even if I was not yet aware of the species that spoke them. I noted that my voice was loud, bright, and a little deeper than I’d expected.

“I am myself,” responded the woman, and her voice was smoother and more fluid. It was a voice of power and command. “Though I do not know what my name is. You?”

“I’m in a rather similar situation,” I responded. 

Perhaps we would have said something else to each other, but then we felt another approaching. A decaying leaf fell from a nearby tree and twirled through the air. Before it reached the ground, it had transformed into another woman. She had a form that was slender and strong. Her skin was an orange-brown color, and her hair was a mass of leaves in shades of brown, red, orange, and yellow, reaching down past her waist. The new woman stared at us for a second before saying, “Can either of you explain what’s going on?” Her voice was softer than mine, though it did not have the sunlight woman’s smooth purr.

“I am afraid that we cannot,” said the second woman, the one with wings.

“She was born about seven seconds ago, and I’m only a few seconds older than her,” I explained.

“So is there another one coming after me?” the third woman asked. All of us waited. Nothing happened. Then I felt something in the soil beneath my feet. I reached down, and felt a small stream of cold groundwater flowing from an aquifer beneath us. In this cold water, something was forming…

She burst up from the ground, causing me to stumble back. The fourth woman stood, observing us with black eyes. Her skin was an extremely pale blue, and her hair was white and clung to her head like it was wet, trailing down just past her shoulders. Attached to her back was an intimidating pair of skeletal wings, and I couldn’t tell if they looked more like they were made of ice or bone, although I had never seen either, I simply knew what they were. She stretched her wings and I had to divert my eyes and squint. Her skin and wings glimmered. She didn’t glow as the sunlight woman did, she harshly reflected the light around her. Her very presence made the air feel colder.

The cold woman stood there and said nothing. “Can you speak?” I asked.

After a brief pause of consideration, the woman who had burst from the ground answered, “I can.” Her voice was as impassive as she was and it had a certain beautiful quality to it, though her consonants were articulate and sharp.

The four of us waited. Nothing else happened. “I don’t think any more of us will be coming any time soon,” said the woman with hair like leaves. She looked down at the grass at her feet in curiosity, and the green blades around her began to blacken and decay. How unpleasant, I thought.

A long, strange sound came from above us, and we looked up. A massive thing twisted across the sky. It was like a serpent made of blue, green, and violet light. It looked like its form was falling apart, its light fading away at the edges, and the thing started to plummet down to the ground, though it thankfully didn’t head towards us. It passed out of our sight. I could sense the disruption it caused in the earth where it landed, a few miles from here.

The woman with dragonfly wings looked in the direction of where the thing had fallen and vanished in a flash of light.  The one standing on the dead grass followed a moment later, disappearing in a breeze. The one with glittering skin’s form dissolved and flowed away. At the time, simply appearing where you wanted to be seemed a perfectly ordinary and practical method of travel to me, and I presumed they had gone to investigate where the thing in the sky had fallen. I sank into the earth and a moment later, I rose back up next to the others, in the grassy meadows outside the forest.

The creature made of light lay on the ground. It had bunched itself up a little more, but its edges were dissolving away. But then a new transformation overtook it, and a hard crystalline surface rose up to cover it. The crystal was about forty five feet tall and twenty feet wide, and it jutted up from the ground. Its surface was a shifting kaleidoscope of hues and colors. It felt different from the earth around it, not natural, not within my pull.

“I don’t think it’s alive, if it ever was,” said the one with hair made of leaves.

The sunlight woman flew forward and landed delicately in front of the crystal. She rested her hand against its surface before drawing it back. Trailing after her fingers was a thin strand of multicolored light. She flicked her wrist and the strand flew out, striking the ground a few dozen feet away and exploding. A crater ten feet in diameter smoked in the soil. We all looked from the crater back to the crystal.

“This crystal holds incredible power,” said the woman with dragonfly wings.

“Then perhaps it should not be used,” spoke the one that glimmered, “This power could be dangerous. It should be prevented from access unless absolutely necessary.”

An idea came to me. “I think I know how to do that.” The others looked at me as I stepped up to the crystal. I reached down and pressed my hand against the grass. I recalled the trees of the forest and willed the grass to reshape its structure, to become like those trees, but far more.

Wood burst up from the ground and wrapped around the glowing stone, expanding until none of the multicolored light could still be seen. I stepped back. I felt tired, but the feeling faded.

“Excellent,” said the dragonfly winged woman. “That’s taken care of. What do we do next?”
The question was answered for us when we spotted a figure crest a nearby hill. The figure was shaped like us, more or less. They stared at us and we stared back at them. After a few seconds, this newcomer started walking down the hill towards us. As they came closer, it became increasingly clear they were not like us. They had less color to them; their skin was a plain brown, they had short dark hair, and they had dirty gray cloth wrapped around them. These made them distinct enough, but what really made them different was that they did not feel the same as the others. They lacked the presence the four of us had. They might have looked somewhat like us, but they felt more similar to an animal, like the birds of the forest.

“Who are you?” the newcomer asked, in one of the tongues we knew.

“We don’t really have names,” I said, “We’ve only existed for a few minutes. What about you?”

“I-I’m Oklan,” they answered, “I’ve, um, existed for nineteen years. Oh, and I’m human, though I’m not quite sure what you are. I saw one of the primordial gods fall around here. Did they turn into that tree?”

“A creature of light fell from the sky here, if that’s what you mean by a primordial god,” said the woman with leaf hair, “It turned into a crystal, but we covered it with a tree.”

“...ah,” said Oklan. I did not at this point have much experience reading expressions, but upon later reflection I identified the mortal as being uncertain, cautious, and more than a little confused.

“Oh, do you have names for us?” I asked, “You seem to know about these sorts of things, after all, you have a name. Do you think you could come up with names for us?”
“This creature is going to define our names?” the woman of sunlight asked.

The woman with leaf hair shrugged and said, “It’s as good a source as any. It’s not like we had any ideas of our own.”

“Oh very well,” said the dragonfly winged woman.

Oklan swallowed. “Okay,” they said, “Give me a moment, um…” They looked between us, and an idea seemed to come to them. “You could be named after the seasons. Summer,” they pointed to the woman of sunlight, “Autumn,” the woman with leaf hair, “Winter,” the one with skeletal wings, “and Spring.” They pointed to me.

Summer tilted her head. “Hmm. Yes, those names will do.” I noticed that Winter’s eyes narrowed when she said that, but she made no comment on it.

“Well, I’ll just go then,” said Oklan, stepping away.

“To where?” I asked. I had seen very little of this world, and I reasoned wherever this curious individual had come from was sure to be interesting.

“My village,” they answered, continuing to walk backwards, as if we might not notice they were leaving if they didn’t turn away.

“May we go with you?” I asked 

The mortal stared at the four of us for a few seconds, weighing their options before saying, “Of course. Just, um, follow me.” Oklan turned and began walking away, and the four of us moved after them.

After about a minute, Summer asked the mortal, “Why are you walking?”

This seemed to confuse Oklan. “What… should I be doing?” they asked.

“Appearing where you want to be,” answered Summer, in the tone of one stating the obvious. I too had been a bit confused about this slower method of movement.

“I don’t know about you, but I need to walk to get from place to place,” said Oklan, “or run I suppose, or ride a horse. But running is tiring, and I don’t have a horse, so I’m walking. That's how it works for pretty much all humans.”

“Peculiar,” commented Autumn, “I could sense that you were weaker. There’s a certain energy you’re missing. You just have a sort of fragile life-force in you, and I don’t think it would be hard to snuff it out.”

Oklan’s eyes widened. “...oh” they murmured, “Don’t, ah, don’t do that. Please.”

Autumn seemed to consider the matter for a moment, before shrugging and looking away from the mortal, much to their relief.

Oklan continued to lead us, and it wasn’t long before we came to their village. Several dozen stone and wood square structures were arranged in loose lines, a few of the buildings larger than the others. The earth beneath these buildings was curious. Compressed, fewer roots touching it. I felt something else and looked. Nearby, there were gardens and farm fields. Plants bred for consumption were arranged in neat, artificial rows. How odd.

“Hmm,” said Summer, “I suppose there’s potential, but it’s rather dull.”

“It is, well, only a village,” said Oklan, “Um, other people can explain things to you better than me.” The mortal hurried down to the village and we followed. Between the buildings, there was a busy crowd. People were excitedly talking with each other, but fell silent as the four of us approached.

“So,” said Oklan to the gathered villagers, “The primordial turned into a crystal apparently, which is now inside a tree. And these four women just appeared and have supernatural powers. Their names are Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer.” With the attention of the crowd on us, and our attention on the crowd, Oklan scurried out of sight.

“What are you?” asked one of the people, a wide man wearing a leather apron.

“We’re not entirely sure,” said Autumn, “All we really know is that we’re not the same as anything else.”

“Oklan said you had powers,” said a woman with graying hair, “What can you do?”

“We don’t fully know that either,” I said, “I can grow a tree and sense the earth.”

“I can feel the air,” said Autumn. She raised a hand, and a strong breeze blew by, before suddenly ceasing. “I can also do this.” Once more, the grass close to her withered and blackened. A few of the nearby people stumbled and started to sway.

“I believe they get your point, Autumn,” said Summer. The leaf-haired woman observed the staggering people for a moment before glancing away. The grass stopped blackening and people regained their footing, looking frightened.

“As for myself,” Summer proclaimed, drawing attention back to her. She lifted up a hand and a beam of light burst forth, lancing into the sky. She twisted the hand and the light disappeared, but bright yellow flames formed, dancing around her. With a flick of her wrist, the flames dissipated.

“What about you, Winter?” I asked. The humans shuffled back a bit. Autumn had already established we could be dangerous, and Winter was the most intimidating of all of us.

“Very well,” Winter said, in her sharp voice. She spread her skeletal wings, and the temperature plummeted. To me it was simply a curious sensation, but the humans started to shiver and wrap their arms around themselves. When they exhaled, steam formed in the air from their breaths. Frost formed on the ground beneath Winter. She delicately lifted a hand, and sharp shards of ice formed in the air in front of her. They gently spun around and around, pointed edges glistening. Then Winter lowered her hands and closed her wings. The ice disappeared and the temperature rose slightly, though it still needed time to warm up to what it had been before.

“So you can’t do any of that?” I asked the shivering mortals.

“N-no,” answered one of them, “We c-cant.”

One of them with a less chattering jaw asked, “Are you new primordials?”

“Hard to say,” answered Summer, “We only saw one ‘primordial god’, very briefly. It hardly seemed like any of us. But I can certainly see how we’re somewhere between that thing and you, so you may call us… the new gods. Or the goddesses.”

“Well, you know about us now, so can you tell us about yourselves and this world?” I asked, “I know all the words to everything and what all the animals and plants and land formations are, don’t ask me how, but I don’t know much about you. Are there other humans?”

“Yes,” said one of the villagers, “In the eastern lands, it’s us humans, though there are different tribes and peoples. To the west are the trolls. They’re larger than us and have blue skin. They can heal from nearly any wound. Far to the north is the Forest of Scales, and that has things called scaleren. They’re halfway between lizards and humans. This world is called Primordiala, if you, ah, didn’t know.”

That sounded like there was far more to this world than I had thought. I knelt down to the ground and pressed my hands against it. I tried to spread my awareness as far through the earth as possible. I could feel dozens upon dozens of miles, but I could tell I was nowhere near feeling the full extent. “Sisters!” I exclaimed, because I couldn’t think of a better way to refer to the others, “This world is large! Extremely large!”

“Where is the largest gathering of you humans?” Summer asked.

“I believe that would be Morgandal,” answered a woman in the crowd, “The great city. Trolls and humans live in it-”

“It is unholy to live with those monsters,” said an older man, and the woman rolled her eyes.

“Anyway,” she continued, “Morgandal probably has the most humans, and certainly has the most people. It’s far, far to the northwest, beyond the mountains. It’s in the territory of Morga, which it’s named after.”

“Then we shall go there,” said Summer, “I wish to see what a city looks like. Come, sisters.”

The Great City

Year: 0

Summer closed her eyes and quietly said to herself, “Morgandal… far to the northwest… the great city.” Then she vanished in a flash of light. I too concentrated on the description given and willed myself to be there. It was a more intense sensation than traveling to the crystal had been, likely because of the far longer distance.

I found myself standing next to Summer at the top of a hill. Trees surrounded us, but I could sense they were a different kind than those in the forest we had formed in. Summer was staring down the hill and I followed her gaze. “Oh,” I said. Morgandal was indeed impressive. Stone buildings in many shapes and sizes populated the flat land, and there were more of them than I could count. Figures moved between the buildings, mostly smaller humans but with a fair amount of larger figures, what I assumed were trolls. I could feel the earth was different here. More stone, pressing the soil down. There were paved streets between the buildings instead of paths of worn dirt. Several roads led away from the city, pointing in different directions.

Autumn and Winter appeared next to me and Summer, and took in the view as well. “Remarkable,” breathed Summer, “These beings, lesser though they may be, can produce some magnificent things. How did they construct all this without using powers like our own?”

“It seems… unremarkable to me,” said Autumn, “The wind is blocked by these buildings. The life force here is stagnant and limited.”

“I agree with Autumn,” said Winter, “I fail to see the value here.”

“Nonsense,” said Summer, waving a hand dismissively, “Let us go and speak to these mortals.”

Three days after we had arrived, and we were still in Morgandal, more or less. Autumn and Winter were both gone, exploring Primordiala. Summer and I stayed, and I intended to leave to see this world for myself when either of the others returned. I thought I should keep Summer company, though she seemed interested in little else besides the city. She investigated every part of it and learned everything she could. The city-state of Morgandal was ruled by an elected governor, a troll woman named Estona. Summer had seemed to decide she qualified as an advisor to the governor, and observed her and how she ran the city with interest. Estona always seemed a bit nervous around Summer, but she could hardly tell a goddess to leave her alone.

“Spring, I heard something concerning,” said Summer, “These mortals die if they do not have food, which they grow as crops in farm fields. Well, apparently their crops have not been doing well this year, which could cause some people to die. Have you looked at the fields yet?”

“No,” I said, “I’ve been meaning too, but there’s just so much around here to see.”

“Go see them,” said Summer, “You have a talent for dealing with plants and dirt, yes? Can you correct whatever is wrong with their crops?”
“I’ll see,” I said. I headed out. I’d felt the fields in the distance before, but hadn’t noticed anything wrong with them.

As I walked, people started to follow me, looking nervous and hopeful. They had probably heard that I was going to help their food problems. I still wasn’t entirely sure I could. I was still young, and hadn’t yet learned the full extent of my powers.

I reached the fields, and was soon amid stalks of corn. I could see that many of the stalks were short and weak, without much food on them. If I paid attention to the soil, I could feel that something was wrong. There was no disease among the crops, but the soil didn’t have enough nutrients or water in it. The rains had not fallen at the right times recently. I didn’t know how I knew that, it just seemed obvious.

“Can you help us?” asked one of the city-dwellers who had followed me.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I answered. I knelt down and pressed my hands to the soil. My vine-like hair grew and buried itself into the earth. The magic inside me, inside my blood, poured down into the ground, spreading across the field and up through the crops. I willed growth and abundance into the crops and used my power to make the earth fertile. All around me, the fields thrived and flourished. The joy of it was indescribable.

I stood, my hair uprooting itself from the ground. The mortals who had followed me stared around in shock at the corn stalks that now stood tall and healthy, full and ready to be harvested. The amazement on their faces brought me almost as much joy as the act of bringing fresh life to the plants. I knew in that moment that this was my purpose, to nurture and grow.

A week later, Winter was still gone but Autumn had returned, and recounted what she had seen. Autumn continued to disappear and return frequently, while Winter remained away. Summer and I enjoyed hearing Autumn’s accounts of the rest of the world. I had put off my own plans to explore, I had become preoccupied with helping to grow the fields. Summer was still quite interested in how the city was run, and now offered the governor advice quite regularly.

I was in the fields by one of the roads when I felt someone approaching. Someone that wasn’t human, yet didn’t feel like any of my sisters. There wasn’t reason for one of the goddesses to use the road anyway. Curious, I left the fields and went to go see for myself. Sure enough, a figure was walking along the road towards me. He was taller than a human, but more slender than a troll. His skin was gray, his eyes were black, and his hair was white. He had no mouth, and I noticed he didn’t cast a shadow.

“Hello,” I said, “Can you speak?”

“I can,” said the stranger, his voice simply echoing in the air without a mouth to come from.

“Oh, wonderful,” I said, “I am Spring. What’s your name?”

“I am named Kikorix,” answered the shadowless man. I inspected him closely. He did have that power that me and my sisters had, but not to nearly the same degree. It was like a candle next to a bonfire. Still, he was more like me than a mortal was.

“How long have you existed?” I asked.

“Ten days, I believe,” said Kikorix.

“Me as well,” I said, “I was created with three sisters. Or, rather, others like me.”

“I manifested in isolation,” said Kikorix, “I have met mortals though. They had a road in their town, and I asked where it went and they said to a city, so I walked for ten days and nights, and I see the many buildings behind you, which I assume to be the city.”

“So you cannot simply appear where you want to?” I asked.

“It would have saved me quite a lot of time if I could. Though I’m not surprised you can, you… well, if it isn’t impolite to say, you radiate power. Are each of your sisters as powerful as you?”

“Well, more or less,” I said.

“Well then I feel foolish,” said Kikorix, “I have only known mortals, and thought myself the most powerful being in this world. It would seem that I am, at most, in fifth place.”

“Well, me and my sisters actually met something more powerful than us,” I said, “A great being of light called a primordial. It turned into a crystal, and even then held immense power. But that’s beside the point. Come, I’ll introduce you to my kin and the city.”

Kikorix was not the only one of the beings who were like me and my sisters, but lesser. Two more came to Morgandal, and Autumn recounted meeting a few on her travels. She had found humans that had referred to these new creatures as fey.

It was a few weeks before Summer became the new governor. The mortal governor Estona seemed like she had seen this coming and gave the position up to Summer without raising objection, and remained as an advisor. In the following weeks, Summer proved to be a quite effective ruler, and would entrance the people of the city with displays of her magic and ability to twist light. Kikorix and the other fey became something like her personal assistants, while I continued to make the fields flourish and grow. Autumn continued to travel, and she described meeting strange creatures in the western lands, things that were not mortals, but were different from the fey. We decided that we could meet these beings in time.

Three months later, Morgandal was thriving with the help of me and Summer. News was spreading of the fey and of the goddesses, and more people came to the city. New buildings had started to be constructed. One day, Summer gathered me and Autumn together.

“Sisters,” Summer said, “I believe it is time to leave Morgandal.”

“Finally,” commented Autumn.

“Oh be quiet, you’re barely ever here,” said Summer, “We are leaving the city so that we may create our own. I believe that with our direction and assistance, mortals are capable of constructing some marvelous things.”

“What about Winter?” I asked, “She is still away.”

“She was unhelpful from the very beginning,” said Summer, “We don’t need her. Let us depart.” She reached her hands out to me and Autumn and together, the three of us vanished.

Demons

Year: 10

Summer, as it turned out, was capable of being quite efficient. She and I moved from town to town. I would bring fertility and growth to the local fields, and Summer would bring them knowledge of construction and organization she had gained from her time in Morgandal. I could shape the earth to form roads between settlements allowing for trade and growth. The fey we encountered quickly came to serve Summer, some instinct from recognizing her power that was so much like theirs, but greater. We sometimes came across warring mortal tribes. Their conflicts always confused me. I suppose to such temporary beings, killing each other didn’t mean much. These wars seemed to intrigue Autumn, but Summer would end them quickly. No one was going to argue with a goddess, especially when she conjured a massive pillar of fire as an “explanation of power”. Summer’s talent for controlling light fascinated and entertained mortals, and my ability to bring fertility and food could resolve many conflicts. Forming cities took time, and we would only stay in each town long enough for the process to get started before moving on, planting seeds of civilization across the land. Fey were left behind to help oversee the growth of cities. In our travels, we discovered two more great crystals radiating with power, and I covered each one in vegetation just like the first.

We proceeded like that for a decade. I gave fertile farmlands to feed growing populations and roads to connect them, Summer brought order and control, and Autumn continued to wander. Winter never returned. Until, one day, we did.

I was standing beside Summer as she surveyed the building of a storehouse. Autumn wasn’t far, standing and staring at the horizon, the wind dancing around her and grass beneath her feet decaying. Then we each felt a familiar cold. We turned and saw her standing there, just as glittering and bright as before.

“You,” said Summer with disdain, “You were gone for quite some time.”

Winter sighed in irritation. “I come bearing news, sister. It regards your precious city, Morgandal.”

Summer’s eyes widened. “What? What’s happened?”

“Come see for yourself,” answered Winter, before turning and disappearing. Summer frowned and vanished a moment later. Me and Autumn followed behind.

The four of us rematerialized in the center of Morgandal. The city had grown nicely, I could feel more buildings through the earth, and that some of the old ones had grown larger. “Goddesses!” exclaimed a nearby human citizen.

Summer looked around. “What is it, Winter? Did you just wish to waste my time?”

Winter said nothing. She just stood, waiting. “Who are you?” asked a new voice. We turned to see a figure walking toward us. Even for a fey, she looked strange. She was large like a troll, but her skin was deathly pale. She had three burning yellow eyes and hair made of long flexible bony spikes like small spines. Her arms were clawed and too long proportional to her body, and her legs looked like they belonged on a goat.

“This is my city,” said Summer, “I should be asking who you are.”

“Yours?” asked the figure, “This city has been claimed by the Demon Empire.” There was a pause as each side sized up the other. I could sense power within this figure, but it was different. Her magic did not feel like a fey’s, nor was it similar to the great primordial shards. It was something different entirely. Still, she seemed far weaker than one of us, roughly on the same level of the lesser fey like Kikorix. I could tell she was aware of this, as I saw a touch of fear come into her face as she sensed our power.

“Where are the fey I left to rule this city?” Summer asked.

It was Winter who responded, “Killed. The demons deemed them threats. They took the city yesterday. Mortal resistance was understandably minimal.”

Summer turned on Winter. “You will explain how you know all of this, now.”

The “demon”, as Winter had called this creature, seized the moment of distraction. She raised her hands and lines of yellow light formed in the air, forming an abstract shape. Winter flicked a hand and a long blade of ice formed and lashed forward, bisecting the demon. The lines of yellow dissolved and the demon’s form fell apart into dark smoke.

“They are known as demons,” said Winter, undisturbed, “And they turn into smoke when they die. You haven’t personally witnessed it, but fey dissolve into a sort of mass of liquid light.”

“That wasn’t what I asked you to explain,” said Summer, her wings glowing brightly.

“Of course,” replied Winter, “In my time away, I investigated the creatures to the west that Autumn described. Demons are immortals, but they are not like us or even like lesser fey. Their forms are more unnatural, as you saw, and their magic functions differently. They are each capable of summoning certain runes, which can create different magical effects, like destructive fire, opening gateways that cross large distances in moments, and taking control of another’s body. Their magical gifts are far less individual. They are not simply born out of the natural world as we are. There is a set of nine islands, called the hells. These islands are made of lifeless black stone and hold a magical substance called hellmagma. Demons are born from this substance. Perhaps the most significant difference between them and us is their psychology. Demons are ambitious. Each of them desires nothing less than total power and domination over all they encounter. This makes it difficult for them to work together, but more motivated to achieve things. Several of them have decided the best way to realize their ambitions is to cooperate. This begrudging confederation is called the Demon Empire. They intend to control all of Primordiala, including Morgandal and all of your cities.”

“They think they can challenge us?” Summer asked, “This one was killed with ease, what difference does a few more make?”

“I have not yet mentioned the most important part,” said Winter. She seemed almost amused as she watched Summer, “They have their own gods. The archdemons they are called. There are five of them. I have seen them, and they are monsters, both within and without. They each have immense power in rune magic, but also have a specific talent. They rule over the other demons, and are a threat to even you.”

“And why did you not tell us of this before they tried to take my city from me?” Summer asked.

“I thought it would only concern you when they threatened your cities,” said Winter, “I have come to rejoin you in fighting back the demons. They are the greatest threats to our existence.”

“Fine,” said Summer, “Then we will go to these archdemons and end this threat before it grows further.” Then she disappeared, and Autumn followed behind her.

Winter was about to vanish as well before I said, “Wait.” My sister stopped and turned to me. “Are you leading us into a trap?” I asked, “Because that’s what this feels like.”

“I entertained the idea,” said Winter, “Siding with the demons against you. But the archdemons cannot be trusted; I would enter into no alliance with them. I would sooner side with Summer than them, despite how her condescending nature grates.”

Winter disappeared and after a moment’s hesitation, I followed.

The hell islands were unlike anywhere else I had ever seen in Primordiala. The ground beneath me was made of hard black stone, and I could feel demonic magic infused through it. This earth was not natural, it was not within my control. The island was small, and in the center was a building made from the same black stone. Several demons stood around it, each as bizarre and disturbing as the one we had met in Morgandal. “This is the Ninth Hell, home of the archdemons,” said Winter, “They are within that building there.”

The four of us moved towards the building. Demons moved to block our way, but stepped aside when they saw Summer. I could feel the power rolling off of her like heat from a fire, and the demons could sense it as well. The power of the four of us was roughly equivalent, but Summer had a talent for presenting it, for being able to make those around her feel all the magic within her.

We entered the building and moved along a short stone corridor with a pair of black doors at the end. Summer shoved the doors open. Inside were five figures who had been talking. They stopped and turned to look at us. Winter had been correct in describing the archdemons as monstrous. One was eighteen feet tall, had a single orange eye, and had long sharp horns protruding from its back and head. One had wings, mismatched arms, and two heads. One had a large mouth in his torso, and an assortment of spindly limbs with golden eyes embedded in the legs. The most normal looking one appeared to be a human, but had four arms and a serpentine lower half. The one that disturbed me the most was one at the back. He wasn’t as large as most of the others, but a large set of horns rose from his head, and he had no face. His limbs were slender and sharp, and thin tendrils trailed from his arms and back. He looked like he was made from the same stone he sat on. In each of the five, I sensed an immense power, enough to rival even ours. For the first time in my existence, I felt afraid.

“Ah,” said a voice echoing through the air, and I knew it was coming from the faceless archdemon, “The archfey. We thought it would take you longer to come.”

“You had the audacity to send your wretched demons to take the city that I helped preserve and grow,” said Summer, “Agents of your empire killed fey loyal to me. I will not let such actions go unpunished.”

“I believe you misunderstand the situation, little goddess,” growled the large demon with the single eye.

“It would seem it is you who misunderstands,” said Summer, “Allow me to explain.” There was a blinding flash. A flood of fire consumed most of the room, though it didn’t touch me, Autumn, or Winter. When the flame dissipated, the roof had been blown apart and the archdemons stood dazed but not seriously injured. The light from Summer’s wings had dimmed and she was clearly drained.

Autumn rushed forward in a blur and leapt at the many-limbed archdemon, and the battle began. The archdemons conjured runes of glowing light, which sent forth destructive fire, lightning, and blades of solid darkness. Summer flew, answering with her own fire and beams of light. Autumn moved with remarkable speed and every time she struck a demon, their skin withered and blackened where she had touched them. Winter summoned floating weapons of ice to fight with. She wrapped chains of frost around the winged archdemon and whirled him around in the air before slamming him into the one with a snake tail.

Meanwhile, I stood paralyzed with fear and uncertainty. What could I do? There wasn’t a plant to grow anywhere nearby and the earth here wasn’t mine. My abilities were useless.

The archdemon with two heads and wings tried to fly up, but Autumn lifted a hand and clenched it. Winds rushed around the demon, blowing against his wings and pushing him back down to earth. While Autumn was distracted, the archdemon with too many legs finished a rune of golden light. A blast of lightning struck Autumn in the side, leaving a burn mark on her skin. The two headed demon backhanded Autumn, sending her flying into a wall.

I rushed over to Autumn and knelt beside her. Despite her injuries, my sister looked more excited than I’d ever seen her. “These things can fight,” she said.

“Give me a moment,” I said. I rested my hands against the burn marks on Autumn’s side. There was a green shimmer and the wound mended, the blackened skin turning back to Autumn’s natural orange-brown.

“Oh,” I said, a little surprised. Perhaps I could do something useful. I then felt Autumn kick me, sending me tumbling several feet away. Autumn rolled the opposite direction as a blast of hellfire struck where the pair of us had been moments before. The blast had come from the demon with too many legs and arms, who Autumn charged at again.

The battle was too much for me to follow. I focused on not getting hit by any of the spells flying through the air. Sometimes, when one of the others were injured, I would heal their wounds. But unlike my sisters, I was not a goddess of combat. The fight remained between us gods, I imagine the lesser demons on the island did not want to risk getting involved in a conflict of such powerful beings.

After a while, both sides were tired. My own magic was feeling drained from healing, and my sisters looked even more fatigued. The archdemons weren’t looking too good either. Their wounds slowly regenerated, but they were still covered in scratches, burn marks, and spots of decay. The one without a face seemed undamaged, and I remembered he had stayed out of most of the fighting. “Well?” asked the voice of the faceless demon,  “Do we have your surrender?”
“You will have nothing from us,” spat Summer, “Except for our wrath. If you cannot be bested in personal combat, you will be destroyed through other means.” With a flare of fire, Summer disappeared. The rest of us followed after her.

We were at one of the hills outside Morgandal. Summer looked like she was thinking. “What do we do now?” I asked her.

“We can no longer simply guide mortals,” Summer said, “Not if the demons threaten to take what we have earned from us. No, the time has come for war. Autumn, Winter, gather mortals and fey and prepare to fight. I will unify the infant cities into an empire and continue to assist in their growth. Spring, you will help maintain the fields and extend this blessing to new territories. We will make an empire, one to rival that of the demons’. The Fey Empire.”