I should have known better than to take her word for it.
She's even sealed the record... Such a shady deal, of course she would have. He was not supposed to be here, really, and the legality of him inheriting the debt was no doubt a big deal back when he came through. I would be surprised I didn't hear about it back then, but then again I try not to hear about things like that.
Oh, we're going to have to go back there, aren't we? Of all the places Fate would have us go...
"Alright," I say as I finally come to a stop. We were walking quite fast, I realize as I take in our surroundings. We're already almost out of town. It's much less crowded here, which is good. No prying eyes or ears. I turn back to Charlie. "I, uh, I guess I have to tell you a bit about my... family--"
I blink. I look around. I open my mouth and then close it again.
"Shit."
Charlie's not there.
~x~
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
How could I have been so stupid?! I didn't make sure she was following me, I should've checked, it was so crowded and who knows why she was stuck, she could have gotten lost or heaven forbid taken, or--
I fly around town as fast as I can, following the route I took back to the town hall. She's not there, but something has clearly happened; there's a disgruntled gerblin picking up stuff from the ground as a few passersby look on and chitter amongst themselves. I would ask if he's seen a human, but he doesn't look like he'd take kindly to that. Instead I head back to the inn.
She's not there. I sigh and tell the clerk that should she see her, tell her to stay there and send me a hail. Then I'm off again.
I'm not sure where to look, honestly. I spend a while just flying all over town, hoping that I would find her in the crowd. I don't. She is nowhere to be found. I've covered almost all of the town limits, but have seen no sign of her. I've asked a few townsfolk, and gotten some direction, but to no avail.
She must be moving around as well and we keep crossing paths. It's annoying, but I don't think she'd be safer staying put.
What do I do now? There's been no hail from the inn, so she hasn't gone back there, and just flying around randomly is getting me nowhere. I have to stop and think for a moment. Where would she go? Back towards the forest? Maybe, but I doubt that... the forest is big and there's no specific place for her to go there. Not that there's really a place like that in the town either, she she didn't go back to the inn or stay at the town hall.
Wait. Could she have--
No. No way.
She might've though. She's resourceful, she would find out where it is.
Would people tell her though? Someone would, if she kept asking. Could she really...?
I take a deep breath to calm myself and head westward.
~x~
The big iron gate looms above me. I never understood why she insisted on getting an iron gate. Or, I kind of understand it. If no one can open the door without burning themselves, then no one can come in unless she so wishes. It is very intimidating if nothing else. I wonder if Charlie will find it so too, even if as a human she can touch iron.
Maybe I could just wait here...? No. No, I have to go in, Charlie might already be inside and if there's one place I can't leave her alone in, it's in there.
I sigh and drop myself into the In Between before manifesting in the Human Realm. The forcefield over the house makes it impossible to enter anywhere else than through the gate, but then again that only applies to normal people. The forcefield is only a problem if you're in the same plane of existence as it. When I'm past the wall, I return to the Faerie Realm.
I can hear her voice in my head. "Cheater," she would say, but with a smile and a tint of satisfaction in her voice. Like she's proud of me for bending the rules. And I do bend them, I bend them like no one else does.
Suppressing the urge to just leave, I walk up to the house and open the door.
"Lin," says a voice as soon as I enter. A figure, up on the second floor, at the top of the large staircase. A shiver runs down my spine despite my best efforts. It's been so long since I last saw her, but she's still the exact same.
"Mama," I say. She starts down the stairs, the long trail of her midnight blue dress dragging behind her on the ground. Her hair is almost to the ground as well, glittering as it is with gemstones worked into the small braids in it. A circle sits on her brow, though I do not know on whose authority.
"Honestly, Lin, you should have hailed," she's saying. "I could have prepared something! Although," she grins, her pearl white teeth flashing dangerously, "a surprise attack is often the most effective."
"Is she here?" I ask instead of giving her an answer to that. She blinks, a split second of confusion on her face, before it's overtaken again by the carefully guarded self-satisfaction.
"You will have to be more precise, dear," she says. She's at the bottom of the stairs now, standing in front of me.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," I say and turn. This was a bad idea, I should never have come here, I need to find Charlie, I have no time to play with her--
"Leaving so soon?" she says, not a hint of sadness in her voice. "Of course you are. After all, what's the point of staying if there's nothing to be gained?"
I grit my teeth. "Exactly," I say.
"Unless, of course, there is something to be gained," she says. I open the front door. "I hear you dropped by the Records earlier."
I stop. I turn. She's looking at me with a positively predatory smile.
"What, you think I wouldn't hear if someone went snooping into records I'd sealed? Please." She waves a hand and walks over to the side, to a small table with three chairs around it. She seats herself in one of them, setting the hem of her dress aide with a flourish. Then she gestures at one of the other chairs.
I hesitate. This is why we're here, originally. To find out what happened to Aidan after she bought him. But still...
I start to fly towards the table and she puts a hand up to stop me.
"If you think I'm going to sit with you looking like that, you're sorely mistaken," she says. "You know how I feel about faeries."
"You are a faerie," I point out.
"No," she hisses. I flinch back slightly. "I am not a faerie. They are insignificant, ditzy little creatures that cause more trouble than they are worth. I may have been born into a faerie family, but make no mistake, I am not one of them."
She settles back down and I take a moment to recompose myself. Then I land on the ground and change form. She watches the process like a hawk.
"You truly are quite magnificent," she says as I sit down on the other side of the table. "So much power, raw, unadulterated power. What must it feel like, to have that coursing through your body?"
"I am not here to talk about that, you know as much," I say, not meeting her piercing gaze. "You had your chance to try and understand my power, but you failed and I have moved on."
"And yet, here you are again!"
"Not because I wish to, I assure you," I say. "If you have something to tell me about your purchases, now is the time."
"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," she says. "You are the one in search of information. I do hope that you're prepared to pay the price of it, too."
I take several deep breaths. "What do you want?"
"I haven't quite decided yet," she says, leaning back on her chair. "This is all so sudden. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon."
"I wasn't expecting to see you ever again."
"So bitter," she tuts. "Are you still mad at me for what happened? It's been so long, you should really learn to let go."
"Let go?!" I shriek, slamming my fist on the table. The chair goes flying behind me as I jump to my feet. "You're the one who taught me to never forgive! You're the one who told me to always trust people only until I can stab them in the back! You're the one who said that everybody is expendable! You fucked up my childhood, you fucked up me, and now you think that you can sweet talk me into forgiving you for everything that you did??
"You used me," I say, standing up straight. "All throughout my childhood you used me, used my power as a Betweener for your own gain. For status, for power. You never helped me to control it, never taught me to understand it. You just used me, just like you use everyone else around you. Fae, human, it doesn't matter; anyone can be tricked into being indebted, right?"
A heavy silence settles over us as I struggle to keep down the emotions that erupted from within me. For so long I said nothing, but now... now I said everything.
She stares at me, an expression unlike any I've seen on her before, one I'm unable to decipher.
The loud creak of the front door breaks the silence and we both turn to look. I inhale sharply.
Charlie!
"My, my," she says, her voice like honeyed poison and I turn to look back at her, panic rising in my throat again. She looks me straight in the eyes and grins. "A bit hypocritical of you, isn't it, dear?"
______________________________________________________________________________
Yes hello it's 2AM and the internet doesn't work orz
Sorry this is so late, I had another busy day and I couldn't focus on writing in the train so I had to wait until I was home before I started and at that point it was pretty late and now it's even later and I'm just gonna go to bed now I have Gigantti in the morning bye~~
Pie out.
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