Darkness and Light

by Elle Casey

  When he was finished, I waited a few seconds and then asked, “So, how do you feel? Different?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Did you feel anything in the amulet?”

  “No, I didn’t. Is that bad?” Tony looked to Dardennes for guidance.

  So did I, anxious that something had gone wrong. Or that something wasn’t happening that should. Dardennes had always said that there was no guarantee that we were fae – just that we probably were, based on our performances during the test. I figured with Tony’s supernatural-like ability to feel my vibes, that meant he was definitely fae, no question.

  “It’s different for everyone. Don’t let it concern you. I believe you have made the transition.” He looked to Céline and she nodded. “The only issue is ... well ... we aren’t quite sure what type of fae you are.”

  Tony just stared at him blankly.

  Well, this is a surprise. “So what the hell does that mean? I mean, what do we do from here?” I asked.

  Céline answered my questions. “He will be sent out to train with various groups until we see what skills manifest themselves.”

  “I want him with me,” I said, matter of factly.

  “That may not be possible,” said Dardennes.

  “Yeah, well, then he needs a daemon or something. My first day out at training some Dark Fae tried to turn me into a pincushion; and they’ve already shown how interested in Tony they are by enlisting Ben to try and win him over and become his best friend.” Pfft. As if that could happen.

  “Don’t worry, Jayne, we will see to his security,” said Céline.

  “Forgive me if that doesn’t fill me with the greatest sense of relief,” I said wryly. Chase having been nearly turned into a cadaver not so long ago was kind of hard for me to forget.

  “Jayne, it’s okay,” said Tony. “I’ll be fine. I’m sure they’ll take care of everything.”

  “There’s a new daemon who just came in with one of the last changeling groups,” suggested Chase.

  “Who are you talking about?” asked Dardennes.

  “Scrum.”

  “Scrum?” said a chorus of four voices – mine, Tony’s, Becky’s, and Finn’s.

  Dardennes nodded his head slowly, ignoring our surprise at this person’s unfortunate name. “That might work. At least until we know what Tony can do for himself.” He looked at Céline. “Could you please make the arrangements? Move the rooms and so forth? You can put Scrum on the other side of Jayne, and Tony one door down.”

  “Yes, fine. I’ll take care of it.” She moved to leave the room. “Ivar, come with me please.” Then she looked at me. “Jayne, you did well today. We are very proud of you.”

  I don’t know why that made me so happy, but it did. “Thanks.” I could feel my face burning a little.

  The door shut behind her.

  “Yes, well, you do know how to ruffle feathers, don’t you, Jayne?” Dardennes raised an eyebrow at me.

  I just shrugged in return, by no means giving him an apology. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

  “You may take Tony to his new room shortly. Why don’t you all go have dinner first?” he suggested.

  “Best idea I’ve heard all dang day,” said Finn. “I’m starvin’.”

  “Me too.” Spike held out a bent arm. “Becky? Shall we?”

  She laughed and went along, looping her hand through the crook of his elbow.

  I took Tony by the hand. “Come on Tones, you badass fae. Let’s go get some grub.”

  Chapter 9

  “Do they eat regular food here?” he asked as we walked out the door.

  “That depends on who you’re talking about,” I said, looking at Chase.

  “What?” asked Chase, genuinely in the dark about what I found so amusing.

  “Nothing.” I didn’t bring up the fact that he ate meat off the buffet that was still moving and pretty much every other gross thing they offered here. I had vowed many meals ago to support his disgusting eating habits and huge appetite because I was sure it was what kept him so huge and super muscular; and no fae chick wants a wimpy daemon watching her back.

  We got to the dining hall and filled up our plates, taking seats at our usual table that now had some other changelings sitting there too. We were the first changeling group that had gone through the recruiting process, but there were many others who had come through since. They looked up to us, most of them afraid to even talk when we were around. I wasn’t sure why, since we hadn’t done anything to make them afraid – maybe our reputations preceded us or something. I had done a few messed up things on my first day, including putting Céline into some state of suspended animation, not to mention doing pretty much the same thing to a whole group of thirty elves right after. Now that I thought about it, it was highly possible that they’d heard about it and were a little afraid of me. But they didn’t need to be. I could control my power over The Green now. Well, mostly anyway.

  “So who’s this Scrum kid?” I asked Chase, watching as he chewed a mouthful of mystery meats.

  Tony watched him eat in fascination. He looked down at his own plate and then back at Chase’s. Tony had a few slices of beef, a carrot, and some salad on his plate. Chase had squirming meat, meat that was motionless, a mountain of pasta, and a giant bowl of pudding. Three slices of bread were balanced on the side of it.

  Chase pointed to a nearby table with his fork. There were a few changelings there; all of them looked younger than us. This was not promising.

  “Which one is he?”

  “The one in the brown tunic.”

  Oh, yeah. Duh. The daemon all wore brown tunics. We had changed back into our fae uniforms when we were on the plane, so it was easier to see who was part of what race at the compound. Tony was the only one still in human street clothes. I knew there would be outfits waiting for him in his room by the time we got there. I wondered if it would be Ivar doing all the housework or if they would recruit a brownie to take care of Tony’s room and stuff. I had one for my room. His name was Netter and I paid him off every day with a token chocolate ball. He had no idea how easy they were to get and that they were no big deal to the rest of us. He thought chocolate balls were the food of the gods.

  I looked over at the fae they called Scrum. He was sitting, but from the looks of it, he was several inches shorter than Tony. His body was shaped like a keg of beer.

  “He’s a daemon?” I asked, disbelieving my eyes.

  “Mmm-hmm,” affirmed Chase around his mouthful of food.

  I watched as Scrum stood up, not realizing that his napkin, which was partially under his plate, had somehow gotten caught in his belted tunic. As he pulled away from the table, the plate went with him. The guys at his table tried to warn him, but his attention was caught by Chase at our table.

  “Oh, hey! Chase! What’s up?” He moved one step closer, attempting to walk in our direction, but right at that moment his plate left the table completely, spilling its contents all over Scrum’s legs and his chair and crashing to the floor.

  He stopped moving as the feeling of lukewarm mystery casserole and smooshed peas hit the material of his pants, quickly soaking in to reach his legs. He looked down at the mess. “Oopsy. How did that happen?”

  “Chase,” I said, instantly pissed and worried for my friend Tony’s welfare, “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This is Tony’s protection?” I was totally disgusted with Dardennes all over again. Just when he started acting cool, he went and did something totally screwed up like this – assigning a complete doofus to be Tony’s protection. I was trying to ignore the fact that it was Chase who had suggested Scrum in the first place and just focus on the fact that Dardennes had agreed to it.

  Chase shrugged. “He’s a good guy. He just needs a little fine-tuning.”

  “I’d say it’s more like a lotta fine-tunin’, if you ask me,” said Finn, smirking. “Don’t worry Tony – I’ll keep an eye on things for ya. The green elves know how important yo
u are to Jayne, and they wanna keep her happy.”

  “Maybe you’ll do some training with me, Tony,” said Becky brightly. “I’m a water sprite. Maybe you are too.”

  “How will I know what kind of fae I am?” he asked all of us.

  “Well, I can pretty much guarantee you’re not an incubus,” said Spike.

  “Yeah, maybe we can figure out whatcha are by process of elimination,” said Finn.

  “How can you tell he’s not an incubus, Spike?” I asked.

  “Because, he’s eating all that regular food and I don’t see any glow in his eyes.”

  I pulled Tony’s shoulder so he was facing me, looking into his eyes and seeing that Spike was right; no hot-blooded red stuff going on there. His eyes looked gray to me. I looked at Spike’s plate, noticing that he didn’t have much food there. I guess I’d never paid much attention to his diet before. I wondered what he ate instead, and then quickly decided I didn’t want to know.

  “Tony, what color are your eyes normally?” I asked. I didn’t remember them being gray. I was pretty sure they were normally brown. It’s what made him look like such a sad puppy sometimes.

  “Brown.”

  “Huh. That’s what I thought,” I said, thinking about what this might mean. I was going to have to ask Céline when I saw her again.

  “Why?”

  “‘Cuz they’re gray now.”

  “Really?” Tony looked at us, his head swiveling back and forth. “Does anyone have a mirror?”

  “You have one in your room,” said Becky, straining her neck to see his eyes better. “Yeah, you do have gray eyes now. Cute.”

  “Oh, Tony,” said Finn in a high falsetto voice, “your eyes are sooooo cute now.”

  “Shut up, Finn. You’re just jealous,” said Becky, trying not to smile.

  “Jealous of who? Tony? No way, lady. He’s got Jayne attached to him at the hip. I ain’t jealous ‘a that, no siree bob.”

  I smacked him on the arm. “Watch it green elf, or I might forget we’re friends.”

  “Ain’t no chance ‘a that. You’re stuck with me, Mother.”

  I grabbed a fistful of his tunic. “Call me that one more time and see what happens.”

  He held up his hands in surrender, laughing. “Okay, okay, mercy! I give up. You’re the boss. I’ll shut up now.”

  Tony smiled. I was glad to see that their teasing amused him and made him happy, even though it made me want to smack somebody. Those green elves calling me Mother made me a little nuts. The whole idea was too stupid to consider; I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of responsibility or if I even wanted it. When I’d gone through the interview process to qualify for the fae test and they’d asked me what superhero I wanted to be, I’d picked Mother Nature. I really hadn’t thought too hard about what my life would mean if it were actually true. Now every time the subject came up, I’d think of a million other things I’d rather worry about – like the Dark Fae that were trying to steal my best friend Tony, for instance. Now that it wasn’t so much of a problem anymore, though, I was probably going to have to start dealing with this Mother issue. Ugh.

  Just then Scrum showed up at our table, covered in food stains and smiling like an idiot.

  “Hey guys. What’s up?”

  Spike got up to leave. “Well, I’m gonna leave you kids to ... uh ... whatever this is.”

  Finn joined him. “Yeah. Later. See ya’ll at breakfast.” He held out his hand to Becky. “Come on, girl. Let’s blow this joint. I need some help with somethin’.”

  Becky eyed him suspiciously, taking his hand and standing. “If this is another one of your teleporting experiments, I’m not interested.”

  As they walked away I could hear him trying to convince her. “No, no, it’s nothin’ like that. This time I need you to show me ... ”

  I couldn’t hear the rest of it, and I probably didn’t want to either. Finn and Spike were always trying to figure out how to develop different powers they thought they might have. Neither of them was content with the amazing stuff they could already do, especially Finn. Becky could do things none of us could, and that drove him crazy. I think Finn and Spike had made some sort of pact to become Super Fae or something stupid like that. Guys. They’re all the same. Little boys in bigger bodies.

  Scrum stood there looking nervous, waiting for someone to acknowledge him.

  I sighed. “Hey. So, I hear you’re the new daemon on the block.”

  He shifted from one foot to the other, back and forth. “Yeah. I guess so. I’m with Chase.”

  Chase’s eyebrows lifted, but he kept on eating.

  “How do you like it? I mean, so far?” asked Tony, smiling at him.

  “Oh, it’s cool. Being a daemon is ... pretty awesome.” He looked at Tony’s shirt, his eyebrows screwing up in confusion. “Hey, what kind of fae are you? Your clothes look ... well ... not fae.”

  Wow. And it only took him half the dinner hour to notice that. I guess ‘observant’ isn’t on the list of this daemon’s qualifications. He must be pretty low on the totem pole to not have been a part of the assembly from hell. I had thought everyone was there.

  “I was just made a changeling. Less than an hour ago. No one knows what kind of fae I am yet.”

  “Huh. Is that normal? All the guys who changed with me, Dardennes and them kinda knew what we all were, even before the change.”

  Tony shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s all new to me.”

  “What kinda stuff can you do?”

  I interrupted. “Hey. He said he didn’t know.”

  “Oh, bonkers, I’m so totally sorry. I talk too much. People say that all the time. I mean, now fae say it all the time.”

  “Bonkers?” Did my ears fool me or did he really just say that?

  He looked sheepish. “Yeah. I’m not allowed to swear.”

  “Says who?” As far as I knew, there were no cuss-word police around here. Otherwise I’d be doing hard time by now.

  “My grandma. She died just a little while ago, may her soul rest in peace for all of eternity. She was a stickler for the rules. No swear words and no elbows on the table.” He looked embarrassed, “ ... And a few other things I hate to tell you, but also no farting except in the bathroom ... ”

  “Holy shit, dude, too much information!” Damn, what was this guy’s problem? Was he mental? Now I was really starting to worry about Tony again.

  Chase was trying to keep a straight face but was failing badly. I nudged him. This guy was full-on annoying and Chase’s smile just pissed me off. Now I was good and cranky and this kid was gonna have to suffer the consequences.

  “Listen, if you’re going to be hanging around, you need to get one thing straight: if you give me a headache, I’m gonna kick your ass. And vomiting your personal stuff all over us is giving me a headache.”

  Tony’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Jayne, chill. He’s just nervous.”

  I looked at the daemon kid and he did look like he didn’t know whether to run, cry, piss his pants or all three.

  I instantly felt bad. “Listen, Scrub, I’m just tired and stressed and hungry. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. Just ... sit down and shut up for a few minutes, okay?”

  His smile was right back on his face like it had never left. “Okay! It’s Scrum by the way, not Scrub, but don’t worry, I get that all the time. I’ll sit right here with you guys. That’s cool. I can be quiet. That’s noooot a problem at all. I totally understand the headache thing. My grandma used to get them all the time. She’d send me to my room for hours and hours. That was the only thing that seemed to make her feel better. I think she liked the quiet, like you.”

  Chase kept eating, but placed his other hand over the one of mine that had balled up into a fist on the table.

  “Breathe, Jayne,” said Tony, a smile in his voice.

  I looked at him. “Don’t fucking start with me, Baloney head.”

  “What?” he laughed. “I didn’t say anything.”

&n
bsp; I think even if I slapped him right now, he wouldn’t stop smiling.

  “I’m happy that my misery makes you happy, Tony.”

  “Good. Now eat your dinner so you can show me my new room.”

  “Don’t be so excited,” I said as I shoveled a fork full of I don’t know what into my mouth. “It’s a windowless cell.”

  I smiled at the look of horror on his face.

  “But they’re not bad, really,” jumped in Scrub or Scabs or whatever the hell the kid’s name is. “They’re warm enough that you don’t get cold, you get a nice quilt for your bed, ... ”

  I tuned out the rest of the shit that he was barfing out all over the table. I had a feeling I was going to have to do that a lot in the future with this doofus. My thoughts turned to my windowless room and my little friend Tim who I hoped was still sleeping through his pain.

  “I’m gonna get some fruit for Tim.”

  “Who’s Tim?” I heard the kid ask as I walked to the buffet.

  Minutes later we were all walking down the hall to my room, Chase leading the way. The Scabs kid kept talking and talking and talking. I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t hoarse, if he talked like this all the time. And how the hell had he made it through the Green Forest and the changeling test? His talking would have alerted every single fae in the whole damn place, which meant he would have had a lot of fights on his hands. I made a mental note to ask Céline about his performance. Or maybe I could find one of the changelings that went through it with him who would tell me.

  We got to my room, and I put my index finger in front of my lips. “Scabs, you need to shut the hell up now. I’m not playin’. I have a very sick pixie in here, and if you piss him off, he’ll pixie-zap your ass.”

  His eyes got big and round and he whispered, “Is that bad?”

  “Yeah,” I said, deadly serious. “It’s real bad. It’s worse than being killed and eaten by an orc.”

  He looked like he was going to have a stroke. I put my finger up to my lips again and raised my eyebrows, mouthing the words, “Be quiet.”