by Olivia Hart
She’d refused to wear a saddle, informing me that if a rider couldn’t manage to stay in their seat without a saddle, they weren’t worthy of riding a centaur into battle. My arm didn’t shake anymore. A month of steady training with sword, magic, and riding had strengthened my body and mind.
As we closed on the dummies, I released my hold on Kasia’s waist, lifting my arm and focusing on my power as I prepared my swing. She struck out first with her spear, hitting the dummy square in the chest. A burst of power came from me. Liquid shadows flowed through the air and hit the second dummy in the face at the same time that I swung the sword, connecting with the top section of the other dummy.
Kasia slowed and looked at the dummies. “You’ve grown, Rose. Do you remember when you dropped the sword and almost fell off at the same time?”
I couldn’t help but giggle as I thought about the first time that I’d tried this exercise. What had they expected of a girl who had never done magic or held a sword?
“You have too. You don’t complain nearly as much about how slow you are when you’re carrying me.”
“I have never complained,” she said indignantly. “A centaur warrior does not complain about her tasks.”
“You’re right. They don’t complain. Gnomes complain. Centaurs bitch.” She snorted, the sound much more horselike than her other sounds.
There was still a light in her eyes that seemed to beam at me. Centaurs were notoriously difficult to work with until they respected you. I’d been an idiot fairy when I first arrived, and though she’d trusted Sebastian’s judgement, she didn’t trust me anymore than Enivyn had.
Now it was different. Just as Cara had done, each of the people in the village had tested me in their own way. They’d trusted Sebastian’s word before, but none of them had trusted me.
“Race you back to the village,” I said with a smirk.
“That is not a fair race. You do not use your feet.”
I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll use my two feet, and you can use any combination of two of yours. That way it’s truly fair.”
She snorted again. “Wings only. No magic.”
“Sounds good to me. Go!”
Kasia took off at a gallop. She would always win in an initial sprint. My wings began to flutter, lifting me off the ground. That was what I’d known how to do instinctually. What happened next was learned.
I leaned forward, my wings moving even faster, a blur of shadows on a sunny day. I could feel them working, the connection through the skin reverberated faster than anything I’d ever felt.
Unlike a muscle, my wings were made of pure magic, and they didn’t tire, burning magic to move rather than physical energy. I had to hold my body up, though, and that was tiring. My stomach and back tightened, holding me in place, as I edged ever closer to Kasia whose hooves pounded the ground in a cloud of sparkling dust.
Lights began to flash around me, faster and faster. The same lights that had surprised me in that field with the unicorn. As I flew, they clustered around as though I were being chased by a swarm of lightning bugs. Wisps, the Immortal Realm’s version of flies. Instead of consuming decaying flesh, wisps consumed the remains of spent magic.
Flying a little higher, I looked down on Kasia from above, and as I passed her, I tugged at her hair. She reached up and tried to grab me as we raced towards camp. I expected physical and magical testing almost constantly. The punishment for failure was pain, and I’d begun to accept that.
She missed my arm, and with her other arm, she tried to snag my leg. I twisted away, giggling as I passed her. “You’re as bad as the gnomes,” she snarled.
“You’re as bad as a unicorn,” I replied. “All snorts and snarls.”
That seemed to make her run just a little harder. She was faster than any horse I’d ever heard of. It had been weeks even after I’d learned to fly before I could beat her in a race.
My muscles ached as we reached the village, and I landed on the outskirts, just a few feet away from the first hut. Kasia slowed down next to me a few moments later breathing hard.
“You are much faster now,” she said, acknowledging her defeat in our little race.
“You were right,” I said. “It’s not really fair. My wings don’t ever get tired. I have no idea how you can run that far as fast as you do.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not, little fairy. We all have the gifts that we’ve been given. It’s the mark of an idiot to not use those gifts. I have four legs and a body built for running. You have wings.”
I nodded and began walking into the village with Kasia beside me. Andryn was digging a hole, and I smiled at him. “Need a little help?”
“I wouldn’t refuse it. It’d be nice to be able to eat a nice smoked boar tomorrow without having my back ache.”
Kneeling down, I reached out towards Sebastian who was out hunting the boar that would eventually go in the firepit. He was close to the maximum range of my powers. Maybe a mile away.
I couldn’t connect with anyone as well as I could with Sebastian. I was limited to a range of several hundred yards with the rest of the villagers, but Sebastian and I had a much stronger bond. I closed my mind, focusing on building the tether between the two of us. Silver lines that would connect our souls and powers temporarily.
Then, I felt the soil under my hands. With just a brush of power, I pulled the soil deeper, forcing it to compact in the circle that Andryn was digging. I looked up, and a round hole five feet wide had appeared.
Andryn was grinning at me. “Remember when you didn’t even know how to peel potatoes without a knife?”
“I’ll never forget. My hands still ache from that night. You could have told me that you could do it in a few minutes with magic instead of watching me struggle with them.”
He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“What are you wrapping the boar in this time?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Sinivyn’s going to gather some fire fronds.”
“One of the Fae could make a lot of money taking those back to the Mortal Realm. Who would have thought that any kind of greens would taste like chilis?”
“They wouldn’t survive in the Mortal Realm.” He began covering the bottom of the pit with wood that would smoke the boar. “Some plants like apples are simply different here. They’re native to both realms, but they draw in some extra magic from the world here. Others like fire fronds require the magic of the Immortal Realm. Their flavors aren’t developed from soil conditions. Instead, they get their spicy flavor from the magic that is in the very air that we breathe.”
I nodded. I may have learned a lot of things about the Immortal Realm, but I was still lost in so many ways. Luckily, no one had any problem explaining things to me once I’d told them that I wanted to learn.
“Does that mean that there are different places with stronger types of magic than others? Like, would Sebastian’s mists be weaker in some places than others?”
Andryn grinned. “That’s a good leap, Rose. Sometimes I wonder if being human for so long helped you learn faster.” He paused for a moment to think. “A good example is the Dark Court. It was built in a place where light magic was weak, a natural defense against the Court of Light. As it’s been inhabited and changed by the Dark Court, it has slowly become even more hostile towards those who use light magic.”
I nodded. “What about the Court of Light? From what I’ve heard, there aren’t very many magics specifically common amongst the Dark Court.”
He grinned again, enjoying teaching me. “The Court of Light saps the very essence of anyone associated with the Dark Court. Slowly, it drains them of their power, and if stay for too long, it can even kill them.”
I blinked in surprise, but Andryn seemed not to notice. “On that note, have you been training with light as well as shadow?”
I sighed. “Yes, but it’s a lot harder to use. Shadows seem so easy comparatively.”
“That’s because light is a Court of Light gift
when you are obviously Dark Court. You somehow managed to get both which is uncommon, but Queens have strange powers. You shouldn’t neglect it. Uncommon gifts are oftentimes some of the most powerful.”
“It’d be better if you’d said all that in a Yoda voice, Andryn.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What is a Yoda voice?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a human thing. Yoda’s like a really old green gnome who uses magic and says things backwards.”
He went back to stacking the wood. “That doesn’t sound like a compliment and is extremely confusing.”
“You just like to lecture me. I think it’s a Court of Light thing.” The light elf nodded and brushed his hands off.
“No, it’s an elf thing.” He stepped back and looked at the hole. “All prepped and ready for the boar and fire fronds. Now I have to make tonight’s dinner. Unless you want to help make bread and stew, you’d better move along. I hear that the shifter pups need some playing with.”
“I think I’ll pass on the bread making.” He nodded to me and I headed towards the shifter family’s hut. I could already hear the curses from Cara. Shifter pups were notoriously difficult to control, but they were easy to entertain. Cara just didn’t seem to understand how to be entertaining.
As I walked through the village, people waved and smiled at me. For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged. When I’d first gotten here, everyone had been wary, but as I’d learned more about them and my powers, I’d found ways to help.
This was exactly what I’d always wanted. People who genuinely cared about me and appreciated me. A place where the forest was always nearby. A world where things actually made sense.
It hadn’t been long since I’d come to the Immortal Realm, but now that I was here, I knew that I could never go back to my old life. I’d been an outsider there. This place, this village, this entire world made more sense to me. I may not have known very much, but every bit of information seemed to slip into place without any trouble.
I understood why the unicorn had attacked me, and I wasn’t afraid of seeing another one. I understood the pecking order within a shifter pack. I understood the centaur’s society and culture. Things just made sense.
The Mortal Realm was still a mystery to me even though I’d spent my entire life there. I still didn’t comprehend why Sasha had dated Tony. I didn’t understand why people made such a big deal about turning twenty-one. I still hated the idea of watching TV.
The only things that had actually made sense were the things that were closer to what happened every day in the Immortal Realm. Plus, I had magic here, and magic was awesome. I could fly! I could dig a hole in seconds. I could ride a freaking centaur.
I saw Cara pulling her robes away from the shifter pups in front of their hut. She’d been asked to take care of them while their parents were hunting with Sebastian. She looked absolutely miserable.
I smiled. I got to play with shifter pups.
My wings began to flutter with excitement. This was going to be fun. My feet lifted off the ground as my wings sped up. Silently, I floated through the air. The pups were facing Cara, and Cara was trying her best to keep them from destroying her robes.
Rushing through the air, an ear-to-ear grin on my face, I landed right behind them and pulled two of the four’s tails hard, and they yelped, immediately turning around and trying to bite my hands.
I saw their faces light up as soon as they saw me. I leaped backward, fluttering a foot above the ground and said, “I’ve got them Cara.”
“Thank you, Rose,” she said, her voice filled with exhaustion. All four of the pups raced towards me, and I began to throw slow moving bits of shadow at them as I fluttered backward just a little slower than them.
They dodged the shadows which wouldn’t have hurt them even if they were caught by it. Yipping at me as they ran, their tiny paws tore at the ground. A pack of miniature wolves chasing me as I flew through the air laughing.
Yes, this was the definition of a fantasy turned into reality. I’d never have found it in Mortal Realm. I was meant to be here. This was home. Finally.
Chapter 28
Sebastian
“We’re doing what?” I asked as I took off my cloak, draping it over the chair in our hut.
“We’re giving Enivyn a birthday party.” I blinked and cocked my head.
“What’s a birthday party?”
Rose grinned. “It’s a human thing. How many candles do you think the village has?”
“How many candles…? I don’t know, Rose. I don’t live here, and I definitely don’t do inventory for them. Why do we need candles?”
“For the cake, of course.” She dug through the pack of clothes that she’d brought from London. “You need candles for a birthday cake.”
“What are you talking about?”
She shook her head. “Nevermind trying to explain important things like birthday cakes to silly fairies. Just watch and don’t try to do anything. Just be pretty. You can do that, right?”
“I can just be pretty. Eventually, you have to explain yourself though.”
“Just watch and learn, old man. Sinivyn’s got Andryn working on the cake. I hope he doesn’t screw it up too badly. John’s teaching the village the song. Kasia said that she’d make crowns since nobody keeps birthday hats on stock here.”
I gave up trying to understand what this woman was talking about. Why would anyone need a crown for their birthday? And what did any of that have to do with a cake?
I watched as Rose took the necklace that I’d paid for with a dagger out of the bag that held her dresses. “Any idea if my dagger will cut this metal?” she asked.
“No idea, Rose. I don’t even know what that metal is.”
She shrugged and pulled her dagger from its sheath at her side. She set the necklace on the ground and slammed the dagger’s blade against it. The metal snapped with a clinking sound. Over and over again, she cut pieces off the necklace, and I watched without trying to help. I had no idea what she was going to do with it.
Then she put two ends together, and I saw light flare between her fingers. She held the two pieces together as the smell of burning metal filled the hut.
“Fuck,” she murmured, dropping what was left of the necklace and holding her finger. She winced as she pulled a droplet of the metal out of her skin. “Haven’t ever tried melting metal before. Maybe I should have done it a different way.”
She picked up the necklace that looked nothing like the original now and smiled. “What do you think?” she asked.
I hopped off the chair I’d been sitting in and walked over to her, taking the necklace in both hands. She had cut all the dangling bits off and shortened the chain until it was much smaller. Almost too small to fit around a neck.
“Kind of a strange necklace now. Why take off the sapphires? They were pretty.”
“Wouldn’t work for a crown. I didn’t have much else to work with, so this is the best I can do for a real crown.”
I blinked again, thoroughly confused. How could this woman confuse me when I was fifty times older than her?
“Alright, time to gather everyone together. If I teach you a song, will you sing it when it’s time?”
“I’ll do what you ask me to do,” I said, not really sure what I was agreeing to.
She sighed. “Nevermind. You just look pretty, okay?”
“I can do that.”
She took a deep breath and put the “crown” in a small pouch at her side.
“Let’s go. And don’t put that cloak on. This is a thing for friends, not creepy assassin guys.”
I chuckled. “Fine. I’ll be a friend today.”
She hopped to her feet, her wings fluttering and making the movement much more graceful. Then, she opened the door and walked towards the center of the village where someone had tied Enivyn to a chair and blindfolded him.
“What are you doing, Andryn? You were supposed to blindfold him, not tie him up like a prison
er!”
“He kept taking off the blindfold and sneaking glances. This was the only way to keep the secret.”
“Rose! You’re here! Save me please? Andryn won’t let me get up. I’m hungry. No one let me eat any snacks today!”
“It’s okay, Enivyn. I’m going to untie you, but you have to promise me that you won’t take off your blindfold. We’ll get you some food in just a few minutes, and it’s going to be the best snack ever.”
“Great! I love snacks! I won’t peek. I promise.”
Sinivyn walked into the village center carrying a candle, wearing a strange, braided vine on his head.
Then Cara followed him carrying a tray with a huge cake on it. It was a frosted, three-tiered cake with chocolate icing all over it. My stomach rumbled thinking about it. It had been years since I’d had a good cake. There hadn’t been all that many good reasons to celebrate in the past fourteen years.
Rose finished untying Enivyn, and he sat still at the community table.
Kasia began handing out the strange braided crowns to everyone in the village, and she even put one on her and her foals. Only the shifter pups didn’t wear them. Everyone put on the crowns and I saw smiles from many of the villagers. They all seemed to know what was happening. Even Cara cracked a smile.
Was I really the only one who didn’t know what a birthday party was?
Rose put her fingers to the candle wick, and it burst into flames. “Okay, Enivyn. Take off your blindfold!”
As soon as he could see, he squealed in excitement. “Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. A birthday party? For me? John told you, didn’t he?”
Rose raised her hand and the entire village began to sing. “Happy Birthday, dear Enivyn.”
I stared in complete bewilderment as everyone sang the words to the song as though they’d sung it a thousand times.
When it was done, people brought small gifts to him. One of the foals brought him a pretty rock. One of the villagers gave him a new bag. On and on it went. Enivyn’s smile seemed to grow with each gift.
