by Alexia Purdy
Shade’s grandmother was a thin, graceful lady. Her waist-length, silver-white hair swayed softly in the wind, and her big brown eyes glinted ever so slightly when amused. Shade thought about Lana’s wrists, so thin and bony they looked almost as frail as sugar sticks. Her skin was soft and thin with some wrinkles around the creases. Her face was smooth, though. Only faint lines of laughter crinkled when she smiled and became noticeable around her mouth and eyes.
She was like no one Shade had ever met. She seemed to be able to soothe and calm Shade with just a word or a stroke of her hand on Shade’s face. Her hugs felt like hot chocolate on a cold January day after playing too long in the snow. Her clothes fit loosely but elegantly as if flowing around her in clouds. She was the essence of a calm spring morning under a shady tree.
Lana told Shade once that she was just the same. Her magic would embrace others, a calm and warmth which would extend to all whom she loved. Lana warned her that by not being a full-blooded faery, she wouldn’t be immortal. Like Shade, she was part fey and part human. Her mortality weighed on her like a dreaded task waiting to be done. She didn’t age in human years but not too far from it. She could live maybe two lifetimes instead of one with Faerie blood inside her, yet would it be enough? Shade had just gotten to know her grandmother and felt like there had not been enough time to get to know her more. She knew Lana wouldn’t be around too much longer, but what could she say? She wished she’d met her sooner, but that wasn’t how things had gone.
Lana told her that things didn’t happen the way they should, especially in Faerie. She would’ve liked to have had more time to train Shade in the arts of Changeling magic and such. There were also so many stories she would love to tell her about her life, her past and her son Verenis. She had tales of his adventures, life in Faerie and life abroad in the human world.
Lana taught Shade a variety of tricks and added to her stock of fey magic every day with her witty lessons or assignments. She knew that even in this lifetime, there wouldn’t be enough time in the world to know everything she could’ve learned from her grandmother.
