The Trouble with Time, Part 2.16 - Left

Kevin and Sam are sitting on the well-worn couch, tensely waiting for Alice and the star to return. He has his hands on his knees and he's squeezing, knuckles white, almost hard enough to bruise, but he needs to feel something concrete right now. Even if that something is his own legs.

What happened to his life? He was doing well for himself, he'd left all this Fae nonsense behind and made a name for himself. But now he is back here, looking for a Heart of all things and they only had a few days left and if they didn't find it two of his friends would be stuck here. Honestly, they all would probably be stuck here, knowing the King... He'd come up with some kind of bullshit rule that would force Sam and him to stay as well.

Punishment for meddling... Oh why did he have to meddle? Why had he sent two humans in here in the first place? Why hadn't he comes get his stupid frostshrooms himself?

Well. He knows why. If he'd been the one caught, the punishment would have been worse than death.

Oh, if only he were here...

"Hey, Kev," Sam's soft voice snaps him back to reality. "How're you holding up? We haven't really had a chance to talk since... you know."

It's true, he realises. They haven't had a private moment, just the two of them, since... a few days before Alice's ritual. Wow, it's been so long. Feels even longer.

"I'm..." he starts, but can't make himself say he's fine anymore. He's not fine, he knows. Hasn't been for a while. "I'm tired," he says instead, which is true, but also the least of his worries.

Sam givea him a look. They know, they always know. He hates it, but he's also so very grateful about it.

"It's just... so much," he says with a sigh. "Ths stakes are so high, for all of us. And the probability of success is... less than optimal."

Sam huffs out a small laugh. The laugh turns into a sigh. "You can say that again. But we've been in tough situations before!" They nudge him with their elbow. They're trying to sound reassuring, but he can tell from their voice they're trying to reassure themself as well. "Remember that troll from Grisenn Woods? I thought for sure we were about to get eaten, but you managed to get us out of that one without a scratch!"

Kevin allows himself a small smile. "I do remember," he says. He lets go of his legs and runs his hands through his hair. His thighs tingle from the disappeared pressure. "If only the Fae had such an easily exploitable weakness as turning into stone in sunlight."

"Didn't you say something about that before?"

He turns to look at Sam, blinks. They look contemplative.

"The Fae are literal creatures and apparently can't lie," they say, rubbing a finger over their lip. "And their words are their everything." He had a vague recollection of saying that. "So if you can get into like, a paradoxical situation or find a loophole or something like that..."

"Sure, that's true, theoretically," he says, not quite being able to find the enthusiasm. "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is a lot easier said than done. That's the game of it, and it's the Fae's playing ground."

"Oh, don't lie, you love being the devil's advocate."

"I don't lie," he says. There's a pause. Sam shifts in their seat. Kevin is squeezing his legs again.

"I'm worried about you," they say, soft and gentle. He doesn't say anything. "I know this is hard for Alice, but I can see it's hard for you as well, and I don't think you should try to hide it. You seem to have a lot of past here, and I don't know why you had to stop visiting, but... if you ever need to talk, I'm here. You know that, right?"

They pause, fidget with their hands a little bit. He still doesn't say anything, just stares at the floor in front of him.

"You are one of my oldest friends," they continue. "And we've been through so much and I'd hate for this to be the thing that gets between us. So please, just..." They sigh. "Let me help."

He feels awful. He felt like shit before and now he feels even worse. He's all jumbled up on the inside and he doesn't know what he thinks or how he feels except it's bad. Sam is trying to help, he knows, trying to be a good friend. Which they are, but as much as he appreciates it, it just makes him feel guilty. He would love to tell them about his past, to Alice as well, but... How can he? Not here, not anymore.

So he's stuck, all the people and places and memories and feelings rushing inside him, festering, with no outlet. And it's terrible, it's horrible, it's going to drive him crazy.

Sam's been right, he really should consider therapy.

"We're back!" comes the sweet voice of Deneb from behind them and they both turn to see her and Alice approach.

Alice catches his eye for a moment, but she quickly turns away. She still looks tired and her eyes are slightly red and puffy from crying, but it seems she's a bit better now. He's glad. She doesn't deserve all this. Any of it, really.

"Now then, would anyone like some tea?" Deneb is saying as she's already in the process of brewing a pot. She hums an old lullaby as she scurries about, the whole cave filling with the melody and the soft clinking of utensils.

Kevin finds himself relaxing to the sound, his mind drifting back to happier days, back when he was a child. It's a nostalgic melody, one he's fallen asleep to countless times. He feels like he could fall asleep to it right now.

Deneb places a pot of tea on the sofa table with a clunk, jolting him from his daze. She pours them all a cup as he glances around, trying to see if someone noticed. It doesn't seem so.

"Now then," she says, settling down in the armchair. Alice has taken a seat on the couch, on Sam's other side. She's still avoiding his eyes. "It seems you have some business with me, hm? So tell me, what is your quest?"

"We're, uh... looking for a Heart," Alice says, uncertain. She's about to continue when Deneb laughs.

"Oh ho ho, are you now?" she says , a little twinkle in her eye. "Tell me, are you perchance Alice?"

Heat drains from Kevin's face. Why would she know Alice's name? Alice looks confused.

"I... am, yes," she says. "How did you know?"

"Someone dropped by, a while ago, and gave me something I needed to give to an Alice who came through looking for a Heart." Deneb has stood up, left her tea on the table, and is hobbling towards the back. "Now sit tight, dears, I'll only be a second."

The three of them exchange looks.

"Do you think she has it?" Sam whispers.

"This seems too easy," Alice whispers.

"This seems highly suspicious," Kevin says.

Deneb hobbles back over, in her arms a medium sized canvas bag. She sets it on thr table and sits down.

"There we go," she says and smiles. "That's for you."

"Who left it? And when?" Kevin asks as Alice takes a closer look. It's a simple bag, black with no decorations, one big pocket with a flap held closed by three large buttons.

"Oh, tracking time is so hard when you've been stuck inside a volcano for decades," Deneb sighs. She scratches her head. "But I'd say... 300 days? Maybe more?"

"So probably right after they took her Heart," he says. Alice is lingering, not sure whether to open the bag or not. "It's likely Vanessa has left it here for us."

"Well, I didn't remember to catch his name, but I doubt he's calling Vanessa," Deneb says. "That's a feminine name, is it not? It was a nice young man who dropped this off."

"A man?" Kevin says, surprised.

"Oh yes, he was quite lovely," she says, nodding. "Staying and talked with me for quite a while after his business. But yes, I think I recall him saying he was doing this on behalf of a Vanessa." She nods again.

"I guess that makes sense..." Alice says. "If Nessa is under the King's supervision, she can't have exactly been the one to leave us these bread crumbs."

"Ohh, I figured this had something to do with King Oberon, that big jerk," Deneb says. She leans forward in her chair, clasping her teacup tight. "Tell me, what did he do?"

"Well, the short of it is me and Vanessa came over to get some mushrooms and he happened to catch us," Alice starts. "He wanted to keep us here as punishment, but we made a deal where she would stay and I would leave, but I would have to come back within a year to try and find her again. And I did... But then he said that what I actually needed to do was reclaim her Heart. Because he'd taken it and hidden it somewhere."

"I see, I see," Deneb says, nodding along to the story. "How sneaky of him. You know, that's the problem with you Fae folk, always twisting words around to mean what you want. Very rude."

"Wait, 'you' Fae folk?" Sam interrupts. "We're human."

Deneb stops. Sits straight. Blinks. She looks at Kevin. He looks back.

"Oh, I did say that, didn't I?" she says and lets out a small laugh. "Silly me, what a slip of the tongue. There only Fae around here, after all! I've not seen a human in a few centuries at least, so please pardon my mistake."

"That's fine," Alice says. "But, um. You wouldn't happen to know where the King would hide a Heart, would you?"

"Well, as said, I've been confined here for quite a while now, so I wouldn't know where he hid this specific one," Deneb says. She leans in again and smirks, her voice dropping low. "But this isn't the first time he does something like this. So, if I had to hazard a guess... It's on his left."

"Really don't know what I was expecting," Sam says.

"His left? Could you give us something more?" Alice asks.

Deneb smiles, leans back and points at the bag on the table.

"Right," says Alice and reaches over. She pops open a button, then the second and third. She slowly lifts the flap up. She looks inside. "Oh."

Inside the bag is a ring of keys, another note and two sets of a palace guard's uniform.

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Hello I'm here I literally just finished this so if there's typos I... don't care. I'll beta another day. Unlike my usual style of writing in the middle of the night, I instead wrote this very early in the morning! Like, started writing at 6:40 early! Shocking, I know. Anyway went a big longer than originally planned, hence why it's "late" (it's not late) but I think I got some good stuff down :D

Anyway, next topic is "Lucidity", courtesy of autocorrected keymash! Byeeee!!!

Pie out.