Discovering Fae

We got to the house and Mal grinned an evil smile as he pointed out that Bianca’s flashy red sports car was coming up the driveway behind us. We got inside and I took off my heels, carrying them in my hand as we walked to the living room where my parents were sitting.

“What’s with the evil looks?” Mom asked immediately.

“Oh, not much,” I said, hearing the door close and the annoying clicking of heels on the floor. “Just that we’ve just been given notice to get out.”

“Excuse me?” Mom said sounding like she was one wrong word from turning into the next natural disaster.

“I’m sure Bianca is just dying to tell us herself, isn’t that right?” Mal smirked and turned to his step-mother.

“Get out,” she said with a self-satisfied look on her pinched face. “All of you.”

“Excuse me?” Mom repeated and I could actually feel the anger coming off of her in harsh waves. “Don’t get me wrong, I will gladly leave, but are you serious right now?”

“Yes, right now,” Bianca smirked, missing the point completely.

“This is going to be good,” Mal whispered at me as he put his arm over my shoulders and pulled me over to stand next to Dad. “Wanna take bets on how long it’ll take? I have fifty on a minute.”

“I say two minutes,” I whispered back.

“Thirty seconds,” Dad added with a wink at us.

“Of course,” Mom said in an unusually sweet tone. “Quinn, when we get home, do remind me to make sure Bonnie here gets what she deserves?”

“As you wish, Justine,” Dad nods and I had to stifle a laugh as Bianca started processing that.

“Malachi, go help my daughter pack her things,” she said, stressing the part about me.

“Right away, your majesty,” he says, his eyes shining with mirth as Bianca grew pale.

“It’s about time we all went home, anyhow. Fae has recovered enough to make the trip without too much trouble and since Malachi is her Bonded... well, they both will be quite busy since they’re next in line for the throne. The last thing we want is for them to bring themselves down by being associated with such poor connections as you.”

“You both owe me,” Mal winked at me, and Dad then chuckled. “You both glare the same way.”

“It’s uncanny,” Mom smiled over her shoulder.

“Quinn has a bit more ice, though. Scarier,” he said, leading me out of the living room towards the stairs.

“What can you take?” I asked as we walked into the bedroom.

“Nothing I really need,” he shrugged. “Aside from clothes, which I’m sure is included in the list of things bought by King money. Wait... there is something...”

He handed me my bag, the same one that I had lived out of my whole life and grabbed a small leather pouch.

“Start packing. I’ll be right back,” he said and left quickly.

I shrugged and started putting things into my bag. I paused as I looked at the handful of photos that were in frames. They were all new and started when Mal had said he was one of my Spirit Bonds and went all the way up until the day before he left.

Those went in the bag, and I zipped it up before Mal came back with a painting that was so small it fit in his hand, like any normal photo would. He looked down at it before putting it in a side pocket.

“The old man will probably throw a fit when he realizes it’s gone, but I’m not leaving my mother here,” he said.

“And I doubt it was bought with King money, so it’s not on the list of things you can’t take,” I smiled at him. “Ready?”

“More than ready,” he nodded and put the bag over his shoulder.

We walked into the living room in time for Bianca to come practically running out so fast, she nearly knocked us both over like bowling pins. Her face was pale, and her eyes were as wide as saucers with sheer terror. Dad looked a little bored with two bags at his feet while Mom looked like she was incredibly smug.

“As satisfying as that was to see, should I be worried that my father will be drawn into your retribution?” Mal asked.

“He is as much to blame as she is,” Mom crossed her arms.

“My father has plenty of things he can be blamed for, but this isn’t one of them, Mary,” Mal sighed and put his arm over my shoulders and pulled me against his side. “My mother was not married to my father when she had me. I may have had the name, but I was still only a bastard. He may be the head of the family, but if he pushed the elders too far, they wouldn’t have hesitated to find another. He used his position to allow me as much freedom as he could manage.”

“That’s not saying much,” I muttered.

“Bond or not, the elders would still insist I be of use to the family. An apprenticeship I would hate and, eventually, a wife I hated more,” he grimaced.

“They would still make you marry?” I gasped.

“Yes,” he sighed. “Disowning me, when he has been claiming me as his son, would take time. About as long as it’s been since we told them we were Bonded.”

“He’s a clever man, your father,” Dad said with an amused smirk. “He’s been using the family name to keep you safe until you grew up. When you ended up Bonded, he gave you freedom from that name. He’s very clever indeed.”

“Yes, he’s quite crafty,” Mom snorted. “Very well, I’ll keep him out of it. Should I extend that to the rest of the family?”

“Nah,” Mal waved his hand like he was shooing a fly. “They can all rot for all I care.”

“Good,” she clapped her hands together. “If we’re all ready to go, I suggest we get going. Quinn and I have been away for a while now and running the Sidhe waits for no one.”

-----

We stopped to say our goodbyes to Nando’s family and to let Ben and Blaine know about our plans. Both were against it, just as Mal had been, but, just like Mal, they agreed to go with me only because “it wasn’t safe to go alone”, which I was wholly prepared to do.

I didn’t remember much of the Sidhe from my previous stay, but I did remember the feeling. It was like there were stray hairs tickling all over my body. It smelled cleaner, too, without the stench of pollution we’re so used to on Earth. The days were brighter, and the nights were darker, and the silence was quieter. Everything here was closer to the pure essence and meaning of itself.

I could feel the difference before I saw it. I felt like coming home after a long trip. I didn’t have much to compare it to, but it was like the softer muted version of how I felt when Mom, Dad, or Mal hugged me. I belonged here as much as I belonged with them.

Going to and from the Sidhe was an odd experience. All the folk stories about portals were true and they were the only ways to get back and forth. The portals were, mostly, permanent and stationary, cared for and watched over by stewards. They originated either on Earth or in the Sidhe and could take you any place you wanted, with a small tweak of the magic holding the portal open.

The more stable a portal was, the less you suffered for traveling between the realms. Most official portals were very stable, so the symptoms were mild, even for first time, Earthbound travelers. Black market portals, like the one Ben arranged to take the guys to the Sidhe to find me, were created on the spot and typically by individuals that weren’t very skilled in creating them, leaving them unstable. The effects of those were severe, even to frequent travelers.

“We’re about a twenty-minute walk from the city of Nydal,” Dad said as he looked around.

“Or five minutes, as the fairy flies,” Mom winked.

“Malachi clearly doesn’t come here often,” Quin said, pointing at Mal’s wings. “He’s drooping.”

“What?!” Mal said, turning to look at his wings which were, indeed, sagging a bit. “This is embarrassing.”

“Why?” I tilted my head a little. “No one takes to traveling back and forth very well. Everyone knows that.”

“It’s a fairy thing, little one,” Dad said, picking up the three bags. “Kind of like how you women don’t leave the house without your hair done just so.”

I pointed at the haphazard messy bun that felt a little lopsided on my head.

“Right. Not a good example,” he chuckled.

“Fairy pride, dear,” Mom said, linking her arm with mine and started walking. “They’re pretty touchy about their wings. Snobbish, even. It’s a very sensitive thing.”

“When you came back from the “creepy bat place”, and you had to take pictures the second you did and them have them put in newspapers, magazines, and all over social media... That’s what droopy wings are to us,” Mal explained as he fussed over his wings.

I shook my head and Mom rolled her eyes. And they say we’re high maintenance.

As we walked, I had a chance to actually take in the world around me. We were in an open area with no visible roads or paths around and the almost knee-high grass didn’t appear to be maintained. Each blade was fine and wispy, almost like hair and had small tufts of white fibers going up and down each blade, giving the pale green of the field a cloud like cover. There wasn’t a breeze that I could feel, but the delicate grass still swayed and released the occasional tuft to float away.

Occasionally, Mom would push or pull me several steps to the side, making our path a serious zigzagged mess.

“It’s the pixies,” Mom whispered to me after a while. “They’re terribly protective right now, since it’s nearly the summer solstice, which is the season of mating for this particular species. Their burrows are deep and vast, but if we get too close to one of their mounds... Nasty little ankle biters.”

“I don’t see anything,” I said with a small frown.

“You’ll end up in a heap of trouble if you only use your eyes, little one,” Dad said.

“Most fae have at least a trace of magic in them, even if they can’t actually use it,” Mal said, giving his now perky wings a little shake for good measure. “If you know what to pay attention to, you can sense other fae around you, to an extent.”

“Really?” I asked, remembering Geezer saying something about “feeling” the plants around me. “Does that apply to plants as well? If their dangerous or not?”

“I suppose it could,” Mom shrugged. “I don’t know of anyone that’s that sensitive, though. I doubt even the high elves can do that without lifetimes of practice. Why?”

“That annoying old man said something about it,” I answered. “I wasn’t going to stick around for lessons. I wanted to come home.”

“There’s very little he could have taught you that I, or someone we actually know, can’t teach you,” Mom said. “Whoever he is, he’s lucky I can’t get to him.”

-----

Nydal was a small city nestled in a valley along a low mountain chain, but it was busy with all kinds of commerce. It wasn’t a hub of trade, like the larger city of Giarth to the south or Ruta to the west, but it had specialty goods, like spices and herbs, that couldn’t be found anywhere else, which was why Mom and Dad had a house here. Mom, apparently, loved the pink sage in the local lamb stews.

The house in question was a quaint two story with three rooms, one of which had been turned into an office that was littered with papers and documents with official seals. One bedroom was decorated in powder pink and muted lavender, filled with stuffed animals and toys for a baby or small child and the other was shades of blue with shelves lined with thick books and the odd knick-knack.

“It’s strange,” I said as I dug out a change of clothes to fit the cooler weather of the mountain valley.

“Which part?” he smiled as he laid on the small bed. His legs hung off the end at his knees making him look rather silly.

“Being with my parents in a house that could have been my home,” I said, looking around at the childish decorations. “It makes me wonder how different things would have been if Ricca hadn’t stolen me.”

“Well, I doubt you’d have spent much time on Earth, much less been in public school,” he said, putting his hands behind his head. “Victoria wouldn’t have had it out for you, so you never would have ended up in that pool and made the Call.”

“So, if you had known that I was royal that first day, you wouldn’t have been a jerk?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I didn’t say that, woman,” he glared playfully. “I meant what I said in that letter, you know. I believed I had no other choice than to do as I was told by my family. I was drawn to you from the first time I saw you and that was a problem. I wanted to run away from all of the responsibility I thought I owed them and that was... dishonorable.”

“But leaving me wasn’t?” I asked.

“It was the worst mistake of my life, Fae,” he said.

“You came back,” I smiled softly. “We were working it out before I was taken.”

“I know what you’re trying to do,” he gave me a narrow look before he closed his eyes to let me change clothes. “Nothing will ever be enough to take away the guilt. I had two choices and I picked the cowards way out of having to choose between you and a family that never cared.”

“You’re here now,” I said, pulling the sweater over my head. “I am mad about it still, but I don’t hold it against you. I don’t think I could, even if I wanted to.”

“And that’s why I’ll never be able to make it up to you,” he sighed.

“Don’t be stupid,” I said and sat by his hip, leaning into him when he turned to his side. He was the perfect chair. “It happened and now it’s fixed. You have to stop beating yourself up. You were incredibly dumb, and your logic was similar to that of a moron, but it’s in the past now. I like to think we’re both better for it. Stronger.”

“I’ll never make it up to myself,” he said. “My stupidity hurt you. If I hadn’t had left, neither of us would have been distracted that day.”

“You can’t possibly think that the outcome would have been any different,” I looked at him critically. “That cellar was a strategic nightmare. There was only one way in or out and it was underground. We never should have been there in the first place after the club was compromised.”

“And if I had been there-,” he started, and I pinched his side.

“Stop dwelling in the past, Malachi. You made a mistake. We paid the price. Now, move on,” I said.

“You paid the price for my mistake,” he said and sat up.

“Last time I checked, relationships aren’t one sided,” I snapped. “If you keep stressing about the past that can’t be changed, you’re going to miss out on the best parts of our future. Which is the bigger crime here? Don’t rob me of the good things yet to come by letting the one mistake taint everything. I forgave you the instant you came back.”

“You mean after you kicked my butt?”

“I pixie dusted the floor with you, Tinkerbell,” I smiled.

He rolled his eyes and shoved my shoulder hard enough for me to fall off the bed, laughing.

-----

Ben and Blaine joined us just before dinner and they seemed excited to be here again. I didn’t know that, out of all of us, only Nando had been born on Earth. Until recently, only Ben had been a frequent traveler between the realms, which explained why Blaine still looked a bit out of sorts.

“You know, it’s nothing for us to arrange official travel, you know,” Mom said as we ate.

“Less expensive, too, since your part of our family,” Dad said.

“Honestly, the frequent traveling is being helpful. The family business is doing well so we can’t spend it fast enough,” Ben said.

“I don’t want details,” Mom said, holding up her hand.

Ben smiled, flashing sharp teeth and ears.

We finished eating and cleaned up the table so Blaine could unfold a map unlike any I’ve ever seen before. It was flat paper, like normal maps, but when he tapped it, it changed. It showed vegetation density on one tap, another had roads and trade routes, and yet another made the map rise and fall to show the topography. The final tap showed all of them overlapped and little markers dotting around the area.

“I still think this is a bad idea,” Blaine sighed.

“Get on with it,” I said.

“We followed sightings from the manor to this area,” he said motioning to the map. “It’s on the edge of the Malokian region, so it’s gotten pretty difficult to get any more leads.”

“No kidding,” Ben shook his head.

“Fae, I do not want you anywhere near this place,” Mal frowned.

“I second that,” Dad shook his head, looking at the map.

“Keep talking,” I said, ignoring them.

“It’s a dark place, full of all kinds of nasty people,” Blaine said after a moment. “The Malokian region is pretty much the underbelly of the Sidhe. If you have any shady business to do, it’s done here. It makes sense that Zane would end up here, even Hazed. People tend to stick to themselves and are pretty tight lipped.”

“But everyone has a price in Malokia,” Ben added.

“Unfortunately, when hunting a Hazed Morphi, the price is pretty high,” Blaine grimaced.

“Why?” I asked.

“A trophy,” Dad said. “Like a deer head on a wall.”

“That’s sick,” I gasped.

“It’s double edged for Zane,” Blaine added sadly. “He’s a dog Morphi, which is pretty common, but it’s his size and strength that make him valuable.”

“How do you mean?”

“If he were to have joined a pack, there would be no doubting that he would be the alpha,” Blaine shook his head. “There aren’t many Morphi born that are naturally inclined to be in a leadership position.”

“So, we really need to find him before a hunter does,” I nodded. “What’s the most recent information?”

“Here,” Blaine said, pointing at a location on the map after another moment of hesitation. “It’s from before you went on your little trip, and we haven’t had much luck affording the information from there.”

“It’s because you have no reputation in Malokia,” Dad said, sitting back in his chair.

“Sadly, he’s right,” Blaine said. “They don’t like outsiders much.”

“Can’t we just royal them into line?” I asked.

“Not if you want Zane alive,” Mom snorted. “If word gets out that royalty is looking for a Hazed Morphi, there will be a mad dash to collect his head.”

“And simply paying them what they ask for is asking for bad information,” Ben added. “You have to deal shady to get what you want.”

“Fine. Let’s go then,” I said, cracking my knuckles.

“She gets this from you,” Mom said with a smile at Dad.

“Nuh-uh. I am not taking all the blame for that,” he laughed. “But all joking aside, Malkoia isn’t a place you can just go into and muscle your way around. It’s been the hardest region to bring to heel because it’s controlled by gangs and crime bosses.”

“Even now, it’s a serious thorn in my side,” Mom groaned.

“We need a plan before we go into this place unprepared,” Mal said. “First thing needing to be addressed is Fae’s safety.”

-----

It’s been hours and everyone is still talking in circles. Everyone except, oddly enough, Dad. He keeps looking at me, like he was trying to figure something out. When the sun started coming up, I had enough and left them to figure it all out themselves. As much as I wanted to just go, I did promise Mal I wouldn’t leave his side. I didn’t have much knowledge of the Sidhe, so I wasn’t too keen on it anyhow. I just hated waiting.

“Come with me,” Dad said as I made to go up the stairs.

He led me outside and out of the city a little way.

“Hold your arms out in front of you,” he said, showing me what he was wanting.

I clasped my hands together and lifted them shoulder height in front of me, my back straight and neck stiff. He walked behind me and put his hand on my back, right between my shoulder blades, like he was measuring with his hand. Then, he poked his finger into the space between my spine and my right shoulder, making me yelp when it hurt.

“I thought so,” he nodded, his wings flexing slightly. “You’re going to have wings soon.”