by Ana Xavier
This was all very nice, but it was also a distraction. A lovely distraction that I hoped to have more time enjoy later, but I needed to get moving on gathering intel if I was going to be of any use. To be quite honest, my two biggest suspects for chicanery were Thing 1 and Thing 2, the Master of Arms and his hot little honey. I wasn't sure what their deal was, but that little intro was weird. The million dollar was question was how had Set managed to project those images in my mind. Had anyone else seen them or had they been just for me? What a cringe worthy thought.
When I emerged from my bed chamber into the exterior sitting room, the Prince was standing alone in front of yet another giant marble fireplace. He was dressed in what looked to be a thick linen suit. The cut was impeccable showing off the broadness of his shoulders and rippling softly around his biceps. The dark color of the suit played against his skin making it look even more burnished than before. His amber eyes and ruddy hair shone in the light of the many torches and reflected he flames of the fire.
I fortified my mental wall as I took his arm. I knew there would be a sensation when I touched him, and I was not wrong. The sensation was even stronger here than it had been the first time.
He smiled down at me. "We'd better go. Auntie and Set are waiting for us."
The look of horror was real, and I didn't even bother trying to hide it.
"They want to get to know you. You know, see who we've invited into our home."
I nodded an agreement that I did not feel at all.
Set and Zorya were already seated around the round table in the surprisingly intimate dining room. The table looked big enough for at least 8, but there were only places here for 4. At least there were no surprises there. The table was dressed in ivory linen, the china gleamed, as did the gold hued cutlery. There were several serving bowls on the table as well as multiple jugs containing what looked like water and wine.
Set spoke first, "I hope you don't mind. I have dismissed the attendants. We don't require any extra ears for this." I didn't miss the little smirk that appeared on *Auntie's face, but I kept cool and simply nodded.
Tomas pulled my chair out for me. Unfortunately, I was seated next to Set not that sitting next to Auntie Z would have been any more fortunate. Set leaned close to me and sniffed. Did this dude just sniff me? I shot at Tomas without bothering to ask to enter his mind. I could tell by his cough that he got my message.
"You have done quite well emulating us, Dyana. Your scent is a bit off and, well," Set smiled brightly at me, "you know about your other gaffe, but overall very nice job"
"Thank you." I forced out, reaching for the wine that Tomas had just poured. I knew a bit about the Fae wine, it's unusual strength, but I needed something if I was going to be able to get through this dinner.
I felt a little nudge in my mind. It was not Tomas. It was Set. He was smiling at me a toothy grin that made me want to punch him right in the face. I lowered my wall just the slightest bit.
You've closed the back door. Very impressive. Remember there is almost always a second and sometimes 3rd point of ingress.
I pushed him back out and set up the wall again. Refortifying against him. What a creep!
The late dinner was delicious, and we ate in mostly silence after the first jab by the Set. A few just short of polite questions were thrown my way by Auntie Z. Tomas helped by fielding a couple of the easier questions about the Human Realm. I was feeling a bit loose thanks to the wine and decided it was time that I got a few questions answered myself.
"Set, I found very little literature on this realm when researching for this *mission." Set looked marginally surprised that I addressed him. "Why is there so little info available on this realm?
"Darling, girl. Why would we give precious information to outsiders?" Zorya asked.
"Well, for starters, when you need assistance from outsiders a little background would help." Trying my best to be nonchalant, I took a sip of wine. I could absolutely feel the anger coming off of Auntie Z. She probably should have waited to be spoken to if she wasn't ready for an answer like that.
Set decided to pick up the ball, "We don't share information so that it won't be misused."
That piqued my interest and I turned to face him. "Misused how?"
"For instance, people believe that iron can kill us. This was misinformation that we planted hundreds of years ago, just to see what would happen." Set looked me in the eye and continued, "Men are still making weapons of iron and coming to try to kill us with them."
"That information is still circulating. I saw it in at least 3 of the 4 articles I read. I wonder why it hasn't been updated?"
"Because we kill them, Dyana." Auntie Z looked at me over the top of her wine glass, a faint smile on her lips. "We kill them before they have the chance to correct the disinformation. That is what we do to someone that seeks to hurt us."
Score one for Auntie Z. But she couldn't really think that I was trying to hurt anyone at this table or Fae in general. That withstanding, what an interesting piece of information about the Fae. They intentionally plant misinformation. How close was the misinformation to the truth?
Tomas cleared his throat. "Thank you for joining us for our late meal, Auntie. Set." He nodded at them both in turn standing up to assist me from my chair. "I have a big day planned for our guest tomorrow. She needs her res."
Auntie Z smiled like a predator I had no doubt she fancied herself to be, first directing her gaze at Tomas and then landing on me. "You shouldn't go to bed on a full stomach. Please let us take you for a tour of the castle. It's lovely in the moonlight."
Set rested his hand over hers, "Zorya, there is much for us to discuss and it is getting late. Perhaps Tomas can give the tour in your stead."
"Very well. My apologies for being unable to escort you." She slid her hand out from his , reaching for her wine. I met my gaze over the lip of the glass. The look told me she would still be watching whether she escorted us or not. My look told her I hoped she liked what she saw.
The image of Set standing behind her, hands all over her, popped into my mind just briefly and without as much clarity as the images he had pushed to me before. My eyes flicked to him. He was looking at me innocently, smiling ever so slightly.
"Good night to you both and see you on the morn."
"Until then." I muttered, thankful to feel Tomas steering me out of the room and into the hall.
8
Those two were ridiculous. Between her throwing barbs for no reason and his porno picture show how was I supposed to be able to help the Fae? I was beginning to think they didn't even want help. Those 2 certainly weren't acting like it. They couldn't be a part of whatever scheme the Fae thought was underway. They were purposely being unhelpful, almost combative. No one would be that obvious. What was their deal?
I felt the soft tug of Tomas pulling me towards the left. "Where are we going?"
He smiled over his shoulder. "At last you have decided to keep me company and not be lost in your own thoughts! Shai be blessed!!"
I smiled back sheepishly. "But, seriously, dude. Where are you taking me?"
Tomas threw his head back and laughed. The same laugh the he had laughed the first day when he took me on my very first jaunt. The laugh that promised love, light, and more amusement than one could stand.
"That is the first time anyone has referred to me as a 'dude'. I think I quite like it."
"Is there an answer to my question coming any time soon?"
The only reply was more of that laughter - deep and inviting and urging me to join. I was Fae with a Fae Prince touring a palace carved into a mountain in the moonlight. My laughter joined his, the headiness began, and we were off on another jaunt.
9
We came to a rest at what seemed like the peak of the tallest mountain on what I think was the west side of the range. The view we were facing showed some desert greenery and not much else. I dared a glance straight down. The chipped face made the way down more like a cliff th
an a mountain side. Tomas, still holding my hand, pulled it gently turning my gaze from the precipice to what he had brought me here to see. The mountain top was no longer just a mountain top. It was a collection of pools. The pools, like everything else, were carved into the mountain. They seemed to step down one after another. I counted 8 and I was pretty sure that there were at least 2 more that were too far for me to spot from here.
"This is our reservoir - our main source of drinking water."
"It's amazing," I managed to stammer out. "How was it made?"
"Oh, you know" he shrugged, "fairy dust and all that."
I turned to look at him to see if he was serious. I didn't think so, but I didn't really know what to believe. He was smiling, the light of the moon dancing in his amber eyes, playing on his russet hair, and glossing off his burnished skin. "Are you serious?"
"Don't you trust me?" He retorted. He clutched his right hand to heart contorting his face with disbelief. "It was made with a bit of magic but mostly with the aid of the architects of the court."
I turned back to the pools, wanting to dip my fingers into the dark water and watch the ripple. "They are all connected?"
"Yes. The water is in its rawest form here on top and has been through several cleaning processes by the time it reaches the last reservoir and becomes available for the Fae of our court to drink."
"What about the Fae who are not of your court? Do they have similar set ups?"
He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I've more to show you. Will you see?" He extended his right hand.
"I would see, but I would not jaunt. Can't we just walk?"
He grinned. "How about we fly?"
Lowering his arm and rushing toward me, he took me in his arms jumping off the edge of the mountain. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his back in surprise just as he spread his wings. The whoosh of his wings was loud and almost frightening. I had just about written the wings off as disinformation. Where the hell had they come from? Had I not flown in so many of my other forms I probably would have fought him, but I loved the feeling of flying.
"I love your enthusiasm, but could you loosen the death clutch?"
I had been too enthralled by his wings and confused about how they were hidden so well to realize that my grip was probably going to cause us to crash. I touched his wings wanting to know all I could about them - how they worked, where they had been when I couldn't see them, what was their weight.
"Hey! You can't just touch a dude's wings." Tomas yelled over the wind.
I ignored him, feeling between his shoulders, touching where they met his back.
"Unless you want to plummet to the ground, you've really got to stop."
It was my turn to laugh - hard, carefree, and full of joy. "Then I suggest you land."
Tomas took me on a flying tour of the Court of Dusk. It turned out to be a thriving group of cities flanked on three sides by mountain ranges on the fourth by a large and somehow ominous looking body of water. The body of water didn't seem to belong in this land, not that I was any type of aficionado on what should and should not be in this realm. Yet, still, it didn't seem to belong.
When I asked Tomas about it, he told me that was a lesson for another day. I agreed to drop it for now, if he agreed to answer all my questions about his wings. This brought a fire dancing in the amber of his eyes. He smiled down at me, holding me closer than really necessary. I let him. The wind in my face, his body so close, the dreaminess of this entire experience - I didn't want any of it to stop.
"Tomorrow, Dyana. I promise."
We landed in the city center of the capital city, Petra. There were blocks of greenery surrounding by walkways leading to a tall building made of stone as exquisitely crafted as all of the buildings we had flown over and as magnificent as the entrance to the castle itself. Tomas told me that this was where his mother normally held court, where the keepers of the temples came to hold their rituals, and where tributes took place. It was in many ways the epicenter of the court far more than the palace was.
Tomas retracted his wings as we walked. I could no longer see them, but I thought I could see slits in the fabric of his top that must have allowed them to expand. Through the shirt his back looked so smooth and it was too form fitting to hide anything. So where were the wings now? I reached out and touched him again, running my palm down his chiseled shoulder toward the center of his back determined to find where those wings sprouted from. He stopped abruptly. I stopped with him, my hand lowering to where Speedy would normally be resting. Instinctively, I was on high alert.
"I didn't realize you were so forward." He said playfully. "Not that I mind."
"I'm sorry." I rushed along feeling embarrassed, "I'm just so curious. I've never seen anything like it. There's nothing in the literature -" He held up his hand. Thankfully stopping me from blathering on like an idiot.
"I know, and you will have your answers tomorrow. I promised." He took my hand in his as we faced each other under the moon of his court pressing my hand to his heavily beating heart. "Touching my wings does something to me. You know?"
If it was anything like what his hard chest and the look, he was giving me was doing to me, I knew it was time to get back to the castle and our separate rooms now. I shook my head that I understood feeling slightly chastised and wanting to continue touching just for a little bit longer.
"Was it in the literature what it's like to be with the Fae?" he waggled his eyebrows, "They say that you can never get enough once you've had a taste."
"I wonder who planted that little bit of misinformation." I snorted removing my hand from his chest and his grip with a smile.
"Ouch, you really know how to hurt a dude."
Back in my quarters, attendants had already laid out three choices of night clothes and drawn a bath which was somehow still steaming. I'm not sure how much of what I've seen is actually Fae magic and how much of it is my imagination at this point. It seems that they use magic for everything. I wonder if they tire like human mages or if their well is endless. I tucked that question away for Tomas and made for the bath.
As for the rest of what I learned this evening there wasn't all that much. I'd only met 2 members of the Court besides the Prince. His interest seemed more in having fun than it was in protecting whatever the Fae brought me here to protect. I still had absolutely no clarity about how I could actually assist this court. Auntie Z and Set were not so happy to have me here or at least not particularly welcoming. Neither of them really seemed to have very much to hide. Set certainly wanted me to know all about their sordid little affair. Auntie Z would be the perfect suspect with her blatant lack of hospitality, but villains were rarely so obvious.
In short, I saw nothing that made me fear that something was awry which was little comfort since I had no idea what passed for normal in the Court of Dusk. I wonder what makes the Fae think something was going to happen. Maybe it was paranoia. Whatever the case, this bath was going to be awesome.
I lay in bed reaching out to the astral realm, wondering if someone would answer me tonight. Ashka's voice would be welcome. I could do to talk to Tamra. Curse her for her shitty advice about my ears and ask her for a better advice on what I should be doing. There was no reply to my tentative hello.
I always wanted to be among the Fae. Even when I thought they were just part of some of the better tales of the old people, way before I joined the Council and found that they were actually real beings. That had been enough of a reason to take this mission, but I'm having some real second thoughts about my ability to be successful here with this little to go on.
If there was one thing I have learned in my short and sometimes unbelievably hard life, you take the good with the bad. There was still a whole hell of a lot of good here. It was truly possible I could learn to fly in a form that was close to my resting form. I could carry information back to the Council about the Fae so the next member could be prepared (unlike me). Not a bang up day, but n
ot a bust. I could live with that. I closed my eyes, not seeking to enter the astral plane or be summoned into it and found my way to sleep.
10
In the morning, I was awakened by the sound of birds that I wasn't familiar with outside my window. I could sense more than I could hear the bustling of the attendants of the court and its members in the palace. It sounded as if today was a busy day for everyone in the castle. Winter Solstice was tomorrow days and unlike holidays back at home, the Fae decorate, celebrate, and take it down in a day's period. Today would be a day full of preparation.
I loved holidays! I didn't have much of a family experience before I became a member of the council. I don't know if I would count that as a real family experience either, but Tamra was like an annoying older sister and Ashka a strict mother/father whatever gender Ashka was. I thought of her as a her, but she was pretty gender neutral so I wouldn't be too surprised if I was wrong there. The holidays brought out the best in most people in our realm so even without a family, there were plenty good tidings to go around. Too bad it takes a special day to make humans be humane, but I'll take it.
There was a soft knock at my door. It seems I wasn't the only one sensitive to sound in the castle. It was Neoni.
"Hello, Miss." She lowered her head in greeting and I did the same. "We have been asked to help make preparations for the festival before breakfast this morning."
"Umm..ok." I opened the door fully letting her in. I didn't expect the four additional Fae who trooped in behind her. "Is all this necessary for breakfast?" I asked.
N turned to me, unable or guileless enough not to hide her surprise. "Miss, they are here to prepare you ensemble for the Solstice Festival."
"Yes", an older Fae stated as she raised my arms and began taking measurements, "the Prince has given us very specific instructions."
"He has?"
"Yes, Miss. He has."
I stood still at the middle of the bustle. There were measurements taken and called out, swatches of color held up against my skin and separated into what I assumed were yes, maybe, and no piles, and the most amusing was Neoni herself. She was playing with my hair, I suspect she was trying to find ways to draw less attention to my ears.