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The fey didn’t answer. His eyes were on Gessa, who had just come in, her curly brown hair even messier than usual, a yawn threatening to split her face. She dragged a stool over to the counter, climbed up on top to pour herself some coffee, then plopped her butt down on the all-purpose piece of furniture to drink it.
“Gessa, do you know—” I looked at the fey.
Who was looking at the little nursemaid with an expression somewhere between curious and concerned. Like a sleepy, three-foot-tall au pair was a potential threat. Gessa yawned again.
“You have a name?” I asked the fey, more pointedly.
“What?” He blinked at me. And then blushed when he realized he’d been staring, not that Gessa seemed to care. She was staring now, too.
At his cookies.
“I . . . yes. Hemming,” he said, watching her scoot her stool over the floor and brazenly take half his stash. “But, uh, they don’t call me that.”
“What do they call you?” I was famili
ar by now with the fact that the fey had about fifty names each. But for some reason, this request only made him blush harder.
“Soini,” he finally said, like he was admitting something.
Gessa snorted into her coffee.
“What’s funny?” I asked her, but she just shook her head.
“It means ‘boy,’” the fey blurted out. “I’m . . . not as old as the others.”
No shit, I didn’t say. Because, despite what certain people believe, I do have manners. Sometimes.
“So, what are you doing here?” I asked instead. “Or do they regularly take boys on trips like this?”
“I’m not actually a boy,” the boy hastened to assure me. “I just haven’t really gone anywhere before, and my father thought—”
“Earth would be a good starter trip?”
He nodded some more, but this time, he was more animated. “I’m glad he did. It’s so interesting here. Home is beautiful, but nothing ever happens. I’ve only been here a short time, yet there’s been so much, well, happening.”
“We like to stay busy.”
Gessa rolled her eyes. I kicked her under the table. She stole my last cookie in retaliation, and I still had coffee left. I sipped it resentfully, and Soini looked back and forth between the two of us, apparently confused.
“So, you’re doing the tourist thing?” I asked. And got more confusion in return. “You’re here to explore, maybe take some pictures,” I rephrased.
“I—well, my father does want me to get more experience, but so far, the others haven’t let me out of the yard—”
Gessa opened her mouth. I kicked her again. She grinned unrepentantly and chewed at me.
“—but it’s mostly that I have a . . . sort of talent.”
“A talent?”
“Yes, a rare gift among my people,” he said, looking confident for the first time. “At least, it is these days. They say there used to be more of us, but some skills have diminished. But it’s thought to be really useful—”
“Useful how? What do you do?”
“It’s difficult to explain. It’s usually described as a kind of far-seeing, but that’s not really very accurate. I mean, we do see far, but—”
“So you’re a clairvoyant?”
“What? Oh, no, no—”
