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The Winter Court

the winter court was not a kind place for those who were unwary, and only barely tolerable for those who were cautious. the court of winter was a blizzard on the coldest night, a dark eclipse on the longest day, but it drew children to it all the same. far less than the courts of spring and summer, where sunshine warmed the fae realms and softened the sharp edges of their immortal inhabitants, but there were still a few.

for cold was more than darkness, terror, death. winter was more than a season of ice. winter was the first breath of frost on the window, a flurry of flakes on the wind, silver moonlight reflecting off frozen lakes. it was unkind, but there was sanctuary for those who look, who need.

the children who the winter court drew were not bright-eyed, smiling children who enjoyed a summer-soaked childhood. not those who were safe to explore their small patch of world with brimming curiosity, secure in the knowledge there was a home and warmth waiting. those who still held their innocence were drawn to the softer, kinder fae of the spring and summer courts.

the winter court was a place for the children who grew up too fast. who knew warmth only as a distant memory, kindness as an alien thought. they who struggled and clawed out their place in the world, with spitting defiance and a burning hunger for more than an endless existence on the edge of life, who felt safer cloaked in shadows and ice than golden sunlight.

for the children forgotten, there was sharp-edged sanctuary in the winter court. a cold peace, a dark safety, if they wanted it.

(and oh, they wanted. they wanted so much that had never been given.)

in winter, you could see them. the strangest kids, with eyes pale as ice and hair the colour of silver moonlight. they were changeling fae, winter spirits, who had names as many as the wind. when they spoke, it was the language of fae that spilled out cold and sweet, for the mortal world had never been kind to them. they had shed their mortality long ago, for colder and better things.

in this, at least, they belonged.