by Bob Dattolo
My teacher nodded slowly at the phone before smiling slightly, “You do realize that it’s odd in the extreme to speak to a legend, right?”
The ancient fey laughed, “I see it around me far too often when dealing with someone other than another fey. I would give most anything to just be treated normally most of the time.”
My teacher twitched at that before nodding again, “I can see that. In that case, I apologize for saying that. And…if you ever want to go out to dinner or see a movie or anything like that, let me know? It may take me a bit, but I can see how it would get frustrating and lonely not being able to be seen as someone other than your reputation.”
My new mother’s voice hitched, “Thank you, Ms. Darvel.”
“Jennifer. Please.”
“Thank you, Jennifer. If you mean it, I will reach out?”
“I do.”
Oh, goody? Is it weird that my new mother and new teacher might become friends? On one level I think yes, but then I think about what she’s said about how people treat her, and I can’t help but be happy at that thought.
By the time I was done with my impromptu quiz, I realized everyone in my dozenal had already split up to do their thing. My phone had numerous updates from them on what they were doing in case I wanted to join them, but I missed my window it seems. It’s not like I can join up with them now that they’re away from the school. Not without a license and a car. Although I could get a taxi, I guess? Not that I know how to do that. I just know that they exist. For some reason, I think they really only exist in a city setting, and this is decidedly not in the city. Or near one, for that matter.
That left me with a ton of not much to do. I spent a few minutes fingering my books, just not in a good way. None of them really appealed to me, so I left them behind and toured our floor. Nothing and no one, just like I thought the texts said. My little internal debate about firing up the TV or learning to play a video game fizzled before I even touched the remote control.
So…what to do? My stomach took that moment to yowl something fierce, driving me from our floor. Maybe with the bad seeds gone, I can go to the main lounge room and see if anyone’s there? I don’t have any friends in other dozenals, but I’ve made connections there. Maybe someone will have food? Or know how I can get a taxi?
I can hope, right?
My time in school hasn’t been all that long so far, but I’ve been here long enough that I should have seen the main lounge. Given the warnings I was given my first day, though? Yeah, no, I haven’t even walked by the door just in case someone came out of the woodwork to go after me in some way. Granted, my acceptance of various things
Honestly, my first look at the room lets me see that it’s not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting something more…rapey? I know, that’s a stupid thought, but that’s what I’d started to connect together with the lounge. Our lounge doesn’t look like that, it’s actually pretty nice. This one is larger and looks just as nice. Comfy looking couches. Nice tables. Good lighting. Some bookshelves along one wall with a huge collection of paperback books. Multiple TVs. Some snack machines and soda machines. Two pool tables, like Steph mentioned.
And that’s it.
Or, no, there are some game systems and things like that, but I mean there’s no one there. It’s just me in this huge space.
The game systems are a mystery to me, so I leave them after looking at the remotes again for the TVs. I’m tempted to fire one up to see what’s on, but my interest that way is pretty weak at best.
The bookshelves actually contain hundreds and hundreds of books, all of them looking like casual reading things to me. That makes me wonder why people go for physical books, when e-books seem to be the rage among my fellow students. Steph has a few books, but she has the most out of everyone. I never did ask her why that is, and I probably never will. It doesn’t matter all that much, honestly.
The pool balls are heavier in my hands than I expected, and are cool to the touch. Bouncing them around the table is decently fun, although it’s pretty much the limit to what I can do. I’ve never held a pool stick and don’t know the rules in the slightest. I’ve seen people play on television in various shows and it looks decently interesting, but it’s not something for me to teach myself.
The snack machines look good, but my empty pockets mock me just a bit. As much as I’ve heard about machines that take debit cards, this one takes cash. Exact change, at that. Can you guess that I don’t have any cash? You’d be right, I don’t have any cash. At all. I’m getting a pretty penny from the government and the accounts from my parents are filled to the brim, which, actually…
Firing up my banking app, I take a look at my account balance and sigh before wiping at a tear and making a call.
“Daughter-mine?”
“Seriously? 25 thousand dollars?”
She laughed, not pulling me along this time. “You finally checked?”
“I did…but seriously? I don’t know a lot about finances really or how much things cost, but even I know that’s like a full-time job in a bunch of areas.”
She giggled, quite unlike a many-thousand-year-old fey, “It is, but you mean that much to me.”
My shoulders slumped, “You don’t have to do this! You don’t have to give me this much money!”
She sighed, “Oh Ceri…I make more than enough at my current position to cover anything you could want. Well, for the most part. Beyond that? I’ll be honest and say that I am phenomenally wealthy. Given what I’ve seen in the accounts I have been accessing for you based on the challenge, you yourself will also be very well off. I can set up investment accounts for you if you would like. My historical returns are sizable.”
Ugh, what the heck? “Okay, I’m good with that since I don’t know anything about investing, but why that much money?”
“Because I don’t want you worrying about money. I was born at a time when money didn’t really exist. We bartered for everything. I am, well, not quite royalty within the fey, but very close to that idea. Royalty in this case would mean that I am in the line of succession in case anything happens to the king. I am not. I have been offered that more times than I can explain, but I have sidestepped it each time. I don’t want to rule my people even if something happens. I will support our current king and I’m content with that. Given that, I have been granted a position that is not quite level with our monarch, but not that far below it. My word is law within my bailiwick, and I receive allowances and payments in accordance with my position. From a human’s perspective, I have more billions at my fingertips than any human that currently lives. I have had hundreds of human lifetimes to amass more and to get what I do have to grow. 25 thousand? 25 million? 25 billion? I could have passed any one of those to you and not seen a decrease in my net worth at the end of the year. And with that, I live within my salary here at the FBI without worry. I do not live ostentatiously. So yes, I gave you that much money. Don’t make me multiply it by a thousand just to prove my point.”
“No! No…please. I don’t need that much money. I was just shocked by the amount…although, given what you said, I guess it makes sense.”
She chuckled, “As you age, things will start to make more sense to you. Just as they did to me at your age. Even with that, I learn more every year that I am alive. Just as I learned more upon meeting you.”
The sound in her voice demanded that I ask, “What do you mean? What have you learned since meeting me?”
She sighed, sounding so wistful, as if long, long years have passed without her experiencing everything she ever wanted. A
nd now she has it. “I’ve learned love. I’m sure many will say that I couldn’t possibly feel that, but I do. As I said, I have been waiting for you since I was your age. I knew early that I would not be able to birth my own children based on the readings done for me, and I didn’t want one until I learned that. Then I learned about you and I hinged so much on you…and you have exceeded every dream that I had. I have spent centuries hoping and dreaming and yearning to finally meet you, and you’re here at last. When I looked down at you in the hospital bed and attempted to read you, I instantly knew that you were her. My daughter. Everything I built up in my head collapsed beneath the Earth-shattering reality of who and what you are…and I couldn’t be happier. If I were to die tonight, I would die with a smile on my face for having had you in my life for even this short time.”
My heart sped up, “Please don’t say that!”
She laughed again, “I don’t plan on dying any time soon. Not that most people do…but I would hope that I can manage to stay alive longer. It has to be easier when I’m not actively at war, don’t you think?”
That makes sense. “Okay, I guess so?”
I could hear her smile when she started talking again, “So yes, I’ve learned what love feels like. And it’s far better than I ever dreamed. Even after building it up for so long, it’s still better. Given that? You will learn more as you get older, just as I have. I may be far ahead of you that way, but it still happens even to people like me.”
That puts things in perspective. At least a little bit, “Thank you. So…thank you for the money? Not that I really have any place to spend it. Or a way to get there to spend it.”
“I understand. The driving manual is in your e-mail. I recommend studying it this weekend. I can get you in for a test next week to get your permit and then help speed along the process. That’s one benefit of being who I am, some of the rules that apply to others don’t apply to fey.”
“So you’re taking advantage of your position?”
“Of course! Using your position to your advantage when it does not hurt others is fine. It’s when you abuse your position just because you can and create pain and anguish for others that I have a problem with it.”
The darkness inside of me crept from the cubbyhole, making me growl, “I don’t like that…”
She practically purred, “Oh my. It’s nice to see that my soon-to-be daughter agrees with my stance that way.”
“I never knew I did, but I do.” Lord knows that I never even really thought about that before, yet here we are.
“Good. Good. Then I don’t need to arrange a lesson for you that way.”
“No. That makes me want to tear something up thinking about that.”
“In light of that, I’ll put things in motion once you let me know. Otherwise, what are your plans for the day?”
Looking around the empty room, I shrugged, “Not sure? My dozenal are all out and about. I don’t have a car to get anywhere or really know anyone else.”
“You could always use your wonderful portals to get places? If you come here, I can arrange lunch for you.”
Something in her voice had me cocking my head and thinking through what she said, “Umm…no.”
“No?” she sounded surprised.
“No. I’d love that, but that’s too close to being my mom in truth and I’m not yet 17. I’m not willing to risk you for something like that. Stopping over for a hug is one thing. A meal? That strikes me as a move in the wrong direction.”
She sighed, “I’m impressed. It’s true, to the fey, a meal shows…not control, necessarily, but a connection? If you came to me and I brought you out for food, it could be construed as me acting in a motherly fashion towards you. That wouldn’t happen with others, but given our current relationship, my king would be within his rights to decide that I broke the edict.”
My blood ran cold and the blackness roared up, taking everything over and settling my racing heart, “Two things. First, please don’t ever offer something that could put you in that position. There’s nothing in my life worth risking you. Especially not for a meal.”
I swear I could hear her nodding, “I understand. I will keep that in mind. And…two?”
My smile was cruel, “Two? I’m not your daughter yet. Not fully. That means I don’t answer to the fey king. If he ever moves against you, I will fight back or die trying. If I have to slaughter every single person in front of me until I find him, I will. I’ll rain death down upon the between lands to save you that will make the survivors weep in thanks at what passed them by.”
I have no reason to think that I can do that…except everything in me tells me that I can do that.
“And that, dear one, would be why my king forbade me from taking you on before you turned 17. I’ve learned quite a bit from him since you and I first talked. If I took you in at first? It would not have been pretty. It would have set things in motion that would have led to death and slaughter across the breadth of the between lands until you saved me.”
Oh…hell. “Are…are you serious?”
“I am. Between the two of us, we contain a sizeable amount of power that has not been seen for…well, for more than 2,500 years. Now that I know more, I can see why the decision was made that way. The original decision was that I could never be your mother. Then more readings were done and it was changed to you turning 18. The morning I learned about the change to you turning 17, I found that they did another reading, and things changed again.”
“For the better?”
“If we come together when you turn 17? Then yes. If not? Then no. Not at all. As you said, slaughter? The rivers would run red with blood and the fields would be mounded with the dead. The one that read our future killed themselves on the off-chance that we would not connect. That’s how fearsome the future would have been. For others.”
She let me think through things for a few minutes, “You know what? I’m okay with that.” The coiled monstrosity inside of me went back to its cubby. “Whatever gets us together sooner and stops others from being hurt is good in my book.”
This time I laughed with her, “I agree. Now, on that note, I need to prepare for a meeting coming up at noon.”
“Thank you for taking my call again.”
“Dear one, I would never not take your call. In a very real way, I have lived for you to arrive and take your place in my life.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hung up, leaving me in the empty room staring at my phone. What the hell did those magic users see in our future? And…killing yourself just in case something didn’t happen? What the fu…hell happened that they’d be that afraid of the outcome? What did I turn into? Did I really start killing like that? The only thing I can think of is that something happened to Rasphael. If that took place, then I can possibly see it.
That…that means that something’s going to happen. Probably after I turn 17? If so, what? God, I don’t know enough about the world to even be able to guess. Well, not accurately.
A few minutes passed as I bounced balls around and thought through possibilities. Nothing really struck me as being a solid guess worth more focus, so I’d let them bubble up and then disappear. I started to debate possibly trying to open a portal to the barbecue place again, but that fizzled just as it started when noise behind me had me turning.
“Oh…I’m sorry, am I bothering you?” Lacie stood in the door to the lounge, holding her elbows, shoulders slumped.
“No. You’re not bothering me. I was just thinking.”
She looked around, “What’re you doing here? You haven’t been here before?”
I shrugged and rolled another ball, “I don’t have anything to do. My dozenal are all gone and I was being quizzed and missed my chance to go with them. I figured I’d come see what’s happening here since the chance of someone trying to force me into sex has got to be lower right now.
She barked a laugh, “Lower right now? Yeah, yeah, you could say t
hat.”
“What’re you doing here?”
She shrugged, but looked uneasy, “I’m just sort of wandering right now.”
The look on her face had me moving closer, “What’s wrong? Did someone do something to you? Say something?”
She looked down, not quite meeting my eyes, “Do something? No. My dozenal…it’s kind of in an uproar right now. With five of us gone, there’s some fighting over the prime spot. I don’t want it, so it puts me in an odd position.”
“So they’re not blaming you for any of this?”
She shrugged and wiped a tear, “A little? Not much, but a little? Some of them said that I should have stayed quiet about what they did to me. They’re saying that I’m to blame for the challenge. That they wouldn’t have challenged you otherwise.”
“Huh, riiiight. Yeah, no, they’d have challenged anyway. They wouldn’t have driven all the way here with so many people and arrived at the same time without setting that up ahead of time. They’re not going to put that kind of effort into just showing up and spanking me. They wanted their pound of flesh. At a guess, it just pissed them off more. Then again, I can’t say that I’m overly worried about what their thoughts or concerns where. They set all that in motion themselves. They can choke on the results in hell.”
She laughed again, this time not sounding quite so bitter, “Yeah…yeah, you tore them apart.” She looked down again, “Umm, I’m sorry for what I did to you. Having Connor attack you.”
“I appreciate the thought, but we already worked through that. You don’t have to be worried about me doing anything after what happened. I still don’t care about being top dog. Tom’s still leading our dozenal. I don’t care who leads the class, but I sure as hell will stop anyone from being forced to do anything if I know about it. To that end? Please tell me if anyone tries to do anything to you. I seem to be chock-full of power, so I’ll be damned if I won’t do it to help people when I can.”