I blink at him. All this magic sounds absolutely horrifying. Offensive or not. “Is there much fighting between the courts then?” It’s something I’ve been wondering since he told me more about his parents and their feelings towards the other courts.
He purses his lips as he contemplates the question. “Yes and no. We’re not in a full-scale war, but there are some small skirmishes here and there along our borders and in the Twilight Veil.”
“What’s the Twilight Veil?”
“At what point do you think you’ll stop peppering me with questions on this journey?”
“Until I’m satisfied, or I return home. Whichever comes first I suppose.”
He smirks, his entire expression filling with mirth. “I can ensure you’re satisfiedandcome first. I’m sure that would cease the endless questions.”
I can feel my face heat as I grow flustered with his innuendo. “Ew, stop.” I shove at his shoulder, hoping to push him further out of my personal space, but he barely even stumbles a step. He lets out a boisterous laugh and it’s the first I’ve heard the sound leave his lips. It’s loud and unrestrained and it makes me want to get him to do it again. It sends warming tingles through my body. “Good to know it’s not only human men who can find a sexual innuendo in anything. Seems it’s a general male gender thing.” I roll my eyes.
“The Twilight Veil is pretty much a no man’s land between the two courts. There have been times when the two courts have come together in the Veil for ceremonies and such but no one has control over the place. In fact, there’s not a whole lot either court knows about it. It’s always been around and has always been something of contention between the two. The Unseelie King and Queen especially want to take control of the Veil. Although, if they had their way, they’d take over the whole of Alinea.”
My eyes jump in shock. “The Unseelie royals want to overthrow the Seelie Court?”
“Indeed,” he answers, lips pressed into a thin line.
“What about the Seelie’s? Do they want to take over the Unseelie?”
“From what I’ve been able to discern, no. They’re merely trying to retain and maintain their court. They don’t strive for power in the same way as the Unseelie. It’s probably safe to assume the Seelie would like to have control over the Veil, but in their eyes if they can’t have it, then neither should the Unseelie. And thus, it remains a source of conflict.”
The dynamics and politics of the courts are truly fascinating. I can’t imagine living in a place where people are constantly fighting over territories and control. My village experiences nothing like this so it’s entirely a new concept to wrap my mind around. I mean, I understand the concept of wars. We’ve heard rumblings around previous wars for crowns and land in the human realm, but we’ve been living in a period of peace since long before my birth.
“Is that all the questions?” Bastian asks. It’s not unkind but I can also tell that maybe my pestering is wearing on him.
My shoulders lift in a small shrug. “I guess that’s it for now. We still have plenty of time ahead of us for more,” I say with a wicked grin that earns me a groan of frustration.
We’ve walkedfor several hours, stopping only around midday when I think Bastian began to pick up on my growing exhaustion. That, or his super hearing could tell I was starving. He found a moss-covered log large enough for us both to comfortably sit on, resting our feet, while we tucked into the food he had packed. It wasn’t anything special, but enough to curb my hunger for another few hours of walking.
For the most part, we’ve both kept to ourselves, trudging forward in a comfortable silence. I’m not sure where his thoughts have gone but mine have been tunneling into several different topics.
My aunt is likely a Fae.
She almost certainly knows thatI’mFae.
My parents aredefinitelyFae.
And the most important one,I’m Fae.
The last one being the one that I’ve spent the most time on. Especially after all I’ve learned from Bastian on this trip. I couldn’t help myself and tried to look inside myself for my magic but I’m clearly doing something wrong because I can’t sense a thing. Or maybe he’s wrong to assume I have powers in the first place.
The other piece I kept thinking about was what comes next. What will I do after I speak to my aunt? Do I stay in Willowbrook with her and Tom knowing that there’s this other world out there? And one that I should technically belong in? Or do I leave everything behind to explore the place of my origin? I know I said I wanted to branch out and go on an adventure, but I didn’t think it would mean leaving my entire life behind completely in the process. But the more I think about it, what kind of a life did I really have in Willowbrook? Especially if I was so desperate to leave in the first place… Would I really be okay leaving Tom and Fleur behind in this journey to learn more about myself?
The answer I keep landing on is: I don’t know.
I’m hoping the conversation with Fleur will help me come to a decision, because at this moment, I really don’t have any clue what the right decision here is.
I can only tell it’s nearing dusk by the sun that’s quickly dropping from the sky. I’m distracted by the surrounding woods that I nearly startle when Bastian finally speaks. “We’re going to set up camp over that hill. It’s the safest place we can find along the path.”
I nod and follow in his path as we crest the hill, and he leads us towards a clustering of trees that create a well-sheltered clearing. I zoned out for so much of the walk that I didn’t fully take in most of the scenery. Though, to be fair, it hasn’t deviated too much from how it looks around his cottage. It’s still a densely packed forest that stretches to the sky, the leaves and grass are that Unseelie muted green-gray. The branches twist and tangle,almost like bony hands reaching. It’s not the most idyllic forest to be spending the night, but at least I don’t hear the ominous sounds of forest creatures as I had the first night. Tonight, it sounds more like a normal, human forest. Crickets and other insects, the nocturnal birds coming out to play.
“I know it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s only for one night, so I hope this is okay. We’re making pretty good time so we should be able to make it to Grimhallow by sundown tomorrow. We’ll get a room at the tavern there for the night, which will be safer and more comfortable,” he explains as he sets his bottomless pit of a bag on the forest floor and begins to unpack it.
I simply nod along. “How can I help?”
He pulls two rather large bundles from the bag and sets them off to the side as he removes another ration of the food he packed. “I have to go gather some firewood?—”
