Awake: A Fairytale

by Jessica Grey

  “This borders on skanky!” she protested turning around to glare at Lilia. “I’m shocked at you! Aren’t you supposed to be from a more modest time? Decorum, chivalry, chastity, and all that crap?”

  “Silly girl,” Lilia winked at her. “Men were men in 1153 as much as I am sure they are now. Also, that looks more like what they have in your fashion magazines.” She leaned forward and mussed up Alex’s hair. “See, much more, what is the word?”

  “Sexy. You look sexy,” Becca supplied with a laugh. At Alex’s sharp look she added, “Not skanky, I promise, I wouldn’t let you look skanky. Although it’s probably a good thing you never dressed like this around Nicholas.” She nodded in the direction of the glass door. “Now go knock his socks off.”

  Alex walked toward the glass double doors at the front of the Historical Society. She was feeling somewhat resigned to her fate until she caught sight of her reflection in the doors as she opened them. Her resignation turned swiftly to nausea. Her dark blond hair, waving slightly from all the moisture in the air and mussed artfully by Lilia, tumbled around her face. The overly tight t-shirt was hugging curves she hadn’t even known she had. She wasn’t sure who was reflected in the glass, but it certainly didn’t feel, or look, like her.

  “Hi, Paul,” she said as she swung open the glass doors and walked in out of the rain.

  The lobby of the Historical Society building was decorated in elegant muted tones, with several priceless paintings gracing the walls, but it still had the uncomfortable feel as a doctor’s waiting room. There was a large counter taking up most of the room, from behind which Paul could monitor and halt all of the traffic coming through the door. The main archive rooms and research center were down the hallway that branched off of the lobby to the left. Alex had absolutely no idea how she was going to get Paul to turn so far to the right that he wouldn’t notice Becca and Lilia sneaking in the door and down the hallway.

  “Hey, Alex, how’s it going,” Paul said without taking his eyes off his comic book.

  “Um, it’s going.” Alex had paused uncertainly just a few steps into the lobby, not really sure what her next move should be.

  “What can I help you—” Paul finally looked up from his comic book and stared at Alex in shock. “Wow, you, uh, look different,” he managed finally.

  “Different good or bad?” she asked, and remembering Becca’s instructions, forced a smile, mentally channeling Lilia’s brain melting thousand watts.

  It must have worked, at least partially, because Paul looked satisfactorily dazzled.

  “Uh, good,” he managed.

  Alex recognized with a start that Becca might be right about Paul having a thing for her. The thought was a little unsettling. The huge age difference aside, she wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or scared. Paul was a nice guy, but when describing him the words unmotivated and socially awkward came to mind. Although, she would be the first to admit that she wasn’t the most socially capable person herself. Maybe like attracted like? Oh god, am I like a female Paul? At least I’m motivated, right? I won’t be living with my mom when I’m almost thirty? she thought wildly.

  Paul continued to stare at her, trying not to be obvious about the fact that he was checking out her unusually tight t-shirt, and failing miserably. Alex was staring back at him, trying to reign in her growing panic and also failing miserably. Realizing finally that she was going to have to make a move at some point, she sternly instructed herself to pull it together, pasted another smile on her face, and sidled up to the counter. At least she tried to sidle. She tripped over air a few steps before the counter, and ended up coming up hard against it, the counter pressing into her ribs. She stayed in that position, as if she’d meant to do it, and crossed her arm, she hoped casually, on top of the counter.

  “Hi,” she said to Paul, a bit breathlessly due to the countertop digging into her rib.

  “Hi,” he repeated slowly. He hadn’t moved from his chair but he had set his comic book down. Alex considered that a small victory.

  “So, um, how are you doing?” she asked, then felt like kicking herself. Her flirty conversation skills were obviously not up to par.

  “I’m okay.” His eyes finally met hers. He looked slightly dazed and Alex felt guilt and shame wash over her. Paul was basically a good guy. He always helped her out when she came on errands to retrieve obscure research material, usually sent by Nicholas who didn’t relish dealing with the Historical Society “lackeys” as he called them. The fact that Paul might actually have a crush on her, and that she was exploiting it, made her feel even more ashamed.

  She couldn’t do it. If there was even the slightest chance he did have a crush on her, there was no way she could take advantage of it, even for the greater good. Now the only option left to her was honesty. Or as much honesty as she could manage without having him call the loony bin on her.

  “Paul, I need a really big favor.”

  “Oh?” His voice was completely noncommittal.

  “Yes. A really big one and I’m sorry to have to ask. I need you to let me, Becca, and another girl into the main archives to do some research.”

  He regarded her with narrowed eyes. “And it’s not for GeMMLA?”

  Alex considered lying through her teeth and saying Nicholas needed them to do the research, but Paul could always call over to the museum. The last thing they needed was for anyone to try to go into Nicholas’s office to confirm with him.

  “No, it’s not,” she admitted. “At least not technically. But it’s really important. I would tell you why if I could, but I can’t. I just need you to trust me that I would in no way try to abuse the privilege of being able to use the archives and research center,” she paused, deciding how far she could go while still remaining in truthful territory, “or your friendship,” she added. “You’ve always been extremely helpful and kind to me and I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t absolutely necessary.”

  Paul studied her for another minute. “You know I am not supposed to let any of the interns in without official requests from their museum programs,” he stated, but Alex could hear in his voice that he had already half decided to help her. It was up to her to reassure him.

  “I promise I will never tell anyone,” she said sincerely.

  He sighed. “I’ll be here until closing, and we don’t have any other research center appointments scheduled for the day. So, if you are sure it’s absolutely necessary?”

  “I am,” she assured him. “Absolutely. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t.”

  “Then I suppose I can let you in for a few hours, but you have to promise to be extremely careful with any books you handle and put everything back where you found it.”

  Alex almost passed out from the relief. “Yes, I will. Put everything back that is. And not tell anyone. Let me just go get the others.”

  Paul nodded and she hurried to the front door, anxious to bring Becca and Lilia in before he changed his mind. She ran down the steps outside the building, trying not to slip on the wet cement as she gestured to the other girls. They joined her, in view of the glass front doors, Becca with a look of apprehension on her face. “What happened?”

  “He’s letting us in.”

  “He’s just letting us in? Two interns and a girl he doesn’t know?” Becca voice was incredulous. “What did you tell him?”

  “Just that I needed a really big favor, that he needed to let us all in to do research, and I’d tell him why if I could, but I can’t.” Alex grabbed her arm and tugged. “Hurry, before he changes his mind.”

  “That’s all you said?” Becca asked as she allowed herself to be pulled up the steps. At Alex’s nod she let out a low whistle. “Wow, he must like you more than I thought.”

  She flushed, embarrassed. “I hope not. I already feel bad enough.”

  Becca shook her head. “Poor guy.”

  Lilia trailed after them. She just nodded slightly when introduced to Paul. Alex noticed she didn’t give him one of her trademark s
miles and wondered why. As they followed him down the long hallway to the secured door of the research center Alex raised her eyebrow inquiringly at her. Lilia leaned toward her and whispered, “There is no use in me trying to distract him. He barely noticed me.”

  Alex wasn’t sure she was comfortable at all with the implications of that. She’d never known that a guy found her attractive before, never felt like she had any sort of power at all over a male of the species. It was a surprisingly unpleasant feeling. She felt vaguely sick to her stomach, and horribly guilty like she was going to end up kicking a puppy.

  As he unlocked the door and ushered them in, she managed to give Paul a weak smile. “Thanks. We really appreciate it.”

  “No problem, Alex. Hope you find what you are looking for.” And with a hopeful smile in her direction he left the three of them alone in the archives, closing the door behind him.

  ~ Chapter Fifteen ~

  “JACKPOT,” BECCA SAID with satisfaction as they stared at the row of books in the section marked “France.” Some were in English, some in French. They were all at least several hundred years old. She ran a finger down the spine of a dark blue volume. “There look to be about twenty that are promising.”

  “Let’s just grab a few each to get started.” Alex pulled a book of the shelf. It was in French so she handed it to Lilia and selected another one in English.

  Unlike the university library there were several tables in the Historical Society’s research center. Large, highly polished oak tables with surprisingly comfortable seats.

  “Wow, these are awesome,” Becca commented as she settled into a plushly padded chair. What are the odds we could sneak a couple of these out of here and over to GeMMLA?”

  Alex didn’t answer; she was staring at the title page of the large tome she had just opened. “No one panic, but the publication date on this book is 1710,” she said slowly. “I am really scared to touch it all of a sudden. This thing probably costs more than I will make in my first few years of post-college employment.”

  “Well, don’t tear or ruin it, and we won’t have to worry about how much it’s worth, right?” Becca said encouragingly.

  “Shouldn’t we be wearing special gloves or something?” Alex asked, still staring at the publication date as if it might leap off the page and bite her.

  Becca shook her head. “I read somewhere that’s kind of a myth, that as long as your hands are clean you are less likely to damage the book than if you were wearing gloves where you can’t feel the pages as well, so you’re more likely to rip them accidentally.”

  Alex gingerly reached out and touched the first page. It felt dryer and thinner than a modern book, but she was encouraged that it didn’t immediately disintegrate at her touch.

  Lilia looked up from the other end of the table where she was already rapidly flipping through the French text Alex had given her. “That book is nearly six hundred years younger than me,” she pointed out drily.

  “Very true,” Alex admitted, laughing. “I will attempt to be braver, then.”

  It was slow going. Even with three of them, combing through the books was a painstaking process especially because they couldn’t count on Arraine being obviously or correctly identified.

  In her third book Alex found her first possible reference. “There were many myths among the peoples of Southeastern France concerning a kingdom that is said to have once existed there,” she read aloud.

  The other two girls looked up from the pages they were bent over.

  “That must be it!” Becca said excitedly.

  Alex continued reading, “The stories about this kingdom hold that it was closely allied with the Fae Realm, or the supernatural world. According to the legends, hundreds of years ago the people of the kingdom turned against the fae, who then withdrew their magical protection from the country, causing it to decline and fall into obscurity.”

  “What would have caused such a rift between the fae and my people?” Lilia wondered out loud.

  “The only other thing this says is, ‘among the people of Southeastern France, there still exist some who claim to be descended from inhabitants of Arraine and pass the legend of the magical kingdom from generation to generation.’”

  “What’s weird to me is that the stories say the people turned their back on the fae first; it wasn’t like the fae just decided one day to smite the kingdom,” Becca said. “That’s assuming this is an accurate reporting of the stories, and that the stories themselves are true.”

  “At the moment, they’re all we have to go on. It’s not like we can go back in time and get more accurate source information,” Alex pointed out.

  She shifted uncomfortably as both Becca and Lilia eyed her speculatively.

  “Or can we?” Becca asked. “More like, have you already?”

  Alex looked suspiciously between the two other girls. “I’m sorry, what are we talking about?”

  “Your dream,” Becca explained. “If you were really dreaming as Lyssia, whether or not it was something that actually happened to her, I think it gives us a clue.”

  “It does? I’m not following.”

  “Probably because you are too close to it. Having had to experience it, it’s probably harder for you to see the little pieces that make up the whole.”

  “In your dream, as Lyssia,” Lilia filled in, “you had memories of my father, of tutors and handmaidens, who by the way were demi-fae themselves, refusing to acknowledge your—Lyssia’s—magical powers.”

  “Yes,” Alex agreed warily. Talking of the dream was making her anxious. She flexed her hand, the pale scars on her palms tingling slightly. “But I don’t understand—”

  “Does it not strike you as odd?” Lilia cut her off. “While I never received the full training that many demi-fae do, my powers were, if not encouraged, allowed to develop naturally. Everyone knew I had them. Those very same handmaidens taught me spells. They did not pretend the magic did not exist or refuse to talk about it.”

  Becca nodded in agreement. “That was what stood out to me too, and we can’t be talking about that huge a span of time between Lilia and her sisters either. Alex, how old would you guess Lyssia was in the dream?”

  Alex closed her eyes for a moment. She remembered the moist dirt against her skirt as she crawled into the hollowed out tree, the feel of the diamond and gold against her hand as she dug her fingers into the rich loamy earth—the image of Viola, her twin, running through the forest, her long strawberry blond hair escaping from its braid and curling around her flushed face.

  “I’d say the twins were in their mid-to-late teens,” she said finally, opening her eyes. “It’s hard to know based on Lyssia ‘cause I didn’t really see her, but what I saw of Viola looked about that. Oh, when I was dreaming as Lyssia I remember thinking Luke was older than me, so maybe sixteen?”

  “Let’s go with sixteen as a best guess. Even if they were born the same year their mother died, that’s less than thirty years after Lilia fell asleep. What could change so extremely in thirty years that magic wouldn’t even be talked about?”

  “It would have been less time than that.” Lilia stared thoughtfully at the book in Alex’s hands. “They were never taught any magic at all. Usually, if you are demi-fae you start coming into your powers as a toddler and learning simple spells by four or five. So it would have been maybe even only fifteen years after I pricked my finger.”

  “That’s a huge reversal—from there being magic all over the place, the fae being an important part of society—to nothing, not speaking of it all,” Becca pointed out.

  Alex furrowed her brow as she thought through her dream again. “No, not just not speaking of it. It was worse than that. That is why the twins were running, they used their magic and it angered people.”

  “They were in trouble for using magic?” Shock colored Lilia’s voice. “It is almost as if we are not talking about Arraine.”

  “Yeah, they were in trouble. Pretty bad trouble too. It felt like may
be they couldn’t go back. It was dire.”

  “Oh!” Becca burst out, half rising as if she had been propelled out of her chair. “You!” Becca exclaimed pointing at Lilia, “It must have been you!”

  Alex suddenly understood what Becca meant. The truth of it fell into her mind like puzzle pieces clicking into place. She didn’t know if while she was in her dream Lyssia had spoken or thought it, or if somehow she just had access to the pieces of what Lyssia knew because she had been her for the few moments.

  “I am sorry? Me?” Lilia put her hand on her chest, looking confused. “What was me?”

  Alex turned to her. “It was Briar Rose’s curse. The people of Arraine were okay with magic and with the fae walking among them when it was beneficial to them, but when the curse on you came true, they must have been angry. I don’t think Lyssia and Viola knew the whole story, but Lyssia at least knew that it was somehow related to what happened to her older sister.”

  Anger and guilt chased across Lilia’s face. “I hate to think I am responsible for the fae being rejected by my people.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Becca consoled her. “It’s Briar Rose’s. You were only a baby when you were cursed, and I don’t think there is anything you could have done to avoid it coming true.”

  “I’m sure she’s right,” Alex agreed. “And think how angry people would have been. I assume your family was well regarded by the people, and here you have a fae basically destroying the royal family. I’m surprised it didn’t start a war.”

  “Humans would never be able to wage an all-out war on the fae.” Lilia shook her head. “Anyone who tried would be wiped out in seconds.” She paused, deep in thought for a moment, then added, “It makes sense. I suppose that once I fell asleep the people of the kingdom would be angered. However, I do not understand how they would go from being angry at Briar Rose to being angry at all fae. My mother was fae, and there are hundreds of demi-fae throughout the kingdom, and at least four times that amount who are petite-fae.”

  “What is petite-fae? I am guessing it means little fae, but who or what would be one?” Becca asked.