by Byrd Nash
“Count me in,” said Granite gleefully. “I haven’t had a good workout since I killed that creature we found living under Logan’s bed.”
“And I’ll come because I’m the only one who has seen it,” said Logan.
Brigit pointed her finger at Emma. “And you, little hacker girl, are coming to come so you can prove your innocence in the matter.”
Rules of the Game
As soon as she could, Em escaped. She felt physically ill and wanted to be as far from Celia and her friends as possible. Her rising anxiety made her stomach queasy, and her head was home to a thousand agitated bees.
She needed time to think and be alone. Normally, she’d retreat to her room, but that wasn’t possible. As it stood, she didn’t know if she had a place to stay. It was only natural that the naiad would side with her friends over someone she just met.
“It is our place. We have paid for it,” Obake reminded her.
Em didn’t bother explaining all the finer points of human interactions to it. The tsukumogami was a spirit spawned from a 500-year-old key. Being a tool spirit, it was rather mechanical in its thinking; the subtleties of human interaction were often beyond its comprehension.
On autopilot, Emma returned to campus. Exiting the bus, she saw the corner bakery where she had met Celia. It had the Internet. She could kill some time there while she figured out what to do next. Besides, a snack might help her feel a bit better.
Were they still open? It looked like they were.
Em entered to the smell of rich coffee and other pleasant baking odors. Since it was almost dinner, she looked over the shop menu. She ordered a sandwich, a cup of soup, and a glass of water.
At the table, she put her backpack to the chair next to her. She was deep in thought over her problem when a hand smacked the back of her head. She fell forward, grabbing the sides of her computer in shock.
“Hey, worthless,” said the hand’s owner.
It was that awful guy from her humanities class. The fact that he had just invaded her personal space so aggressively alarmed her. She had seen him be physical with others in her class with shoulder punches and arm slaps. He especially liked to bully girls, forcing them against walls or into corners, while he towered over them.
She stood up, her hand on her bag, ready to escape, but at that moment, her food arrived. Em wavered and forced herself to sit back down. After all, it was her food, and she was here first. It was a public place. She had a right to be here.
“What’s on your computer?” He had taken a seat opposite of her. Despite Em opening her laptop, he didn’t take the hint to leave. She gave him a look, something that usually was enough to drive others away, but this guy was simply too obtuse for pointed stares to pierce his thick hide.
When she didn’t reply, he continued talking.
“There’s a paper in our class where we need a partner. We should do that together. You may not be a looker, but you seem brainy. How about I’ll let you do the paper and not get in your way?”
Em hadn’t found a partner yet, and there was something to be said about having a partner that did nothing. It would give her free rein to do what she wanted. She wouldn’t be dragged down by another person’s stupidity.
On the other hand, she had enough on her plate, and doing a thirty-page term paper with no help wasn’t exactly something she wanted either. This guy was creepy and disgusting. Working with him would be masochistic.
Seeing that she wasn’t responding to his request, he reached over and rapped his knuckles against the lid of her laptop.
“Where did you get that gamer sticker? Your brother give it to you?”
She felt the earring in her earlobe awake. The tsukumogami transformed and dropped to her shoulder in its flying squirrel form.
“Do not touch the equipment.”
Of course, somebody this deaf wouldn’t hear a tsukumogami. He was the type that wouldn’t be sensitive to a marching band coming down the street unless the parade was about him.
“I don’t have a brother. The sticker is mine. I have the highest on-line score for that game.” Em needed to get the situation under control before Obake did something rash.
The bully sprawled, his stiff legs crossed at the ankles in the aisle blocked her path from leaving. His arms and elbows were all over the table, threatening to tip her water cup.
“So you’re one of those gamer girls? Pretending to be a geek so you can get a date with a boy? Or in your case, to pretend you’re a boy.”
Em felt her face burn with anger. Maybe she should unleash the tsukumogami? However, before she could do anything that crazy, a loud voice boomed over their heads.
“I think you’re in my seat.”
It was Granite, that fae wrestler friend of Celia’s. The eotan wasn’t a tall guy, but he was wide and unmovable as a wall. He was imposing, and his frown daunting. Being too focused on the altercation with her classmate, Em hadn’t noticed his entrance.
The bully jumped out of the chair, backing away from the fae wrestler. Em bit her lip to suppress her mirth.
“Yeah,” Granite rumbled, pointing to the door. “I think you have someplace else to be. Like yesterday.”
The intruder had no bravado left; bullies weren’t able to face down superior firepower. Granite didn’t bother watching him go. He took the vacated chair, saying to Em, “I’ve been all over campus looking for you.”
Granite reversed his phone to show her a map of all the free WiFi locations around the campus. She had to admit that it was a clever idea. Maybe he was smarter than he appeared.
“Well, genius, you found me,” Em said in a neutral voice. “I’d like to finish my lunch without dealing with any more attacks.”
“Go ahead,” encouraged Granite, whose features were once again back to their usual friendly appearance. “I’ll order a protein smoothie, and we can talk.”
“Hm,” mumbled Em around a bite of her sandwich, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. As he stood at the counter placing his order, she wondered where this talk he wanted would lead. He returned to the table. She started on her soup, letting him begin.
“First, I want to apologize for getting you on the bad side of Brigit. Brig is a decent sort, but she’s extra touchy about right and wrong, especially when it comes to her circle of bondmates.”
Em shrugged. She understood why the girl was angry. If someone had stolen her ID, she’d be furious. On the other hand, she changed her passwords regularly so no one would do exactly what Em had done with Brigit’s ID.
However, the damage was done. She didn’t see any way of fixing it. Her stomach became upset, thinking about it. She set aside her spoon.
“Since you’re human, I wanted to explain how fae relationships work —.”
“I get it. Celia explained it to me. Seems I’ve lost my roommate and put myself under some sort of curse.”
“Not a curse. Just a Fiat. Think of it like a challenge,” Granite assured her.
“Sounds more like a duel.”
“But fewer people die from Fiats nowadays.”
Em gave a wide stare, which Granite seemed oblivious to. The wrestler continued his explanation, trying to help her understand the situation. “I’m the one who made the mistake. I shouldn’t have tried to help a teammate cheat. I viewed it as a bit of a prank. I guess it wasn’t.”
“What will you do to make it right with your friend?”
“I’ll do nothing more to help Chad. The problem all started because we’re from the same court in the Perilous Realm. Some fae think that means there is a certain loyalty between you because you share the same sovereign. I stupidly let Chad persuade me into believing that was true.”
“Were you buddies back in —” since she didn’t know the right word, Em ended her thought with, “hometown?”
“No. I had seen Chad around, but we weren’t anything special. We don’t have much in common. Until he asked me for help with the test, we hadn’t spoken much at all.”
An employee brought
Granite his smoothie. Talking around mouthfuls that were disappearing fast, he continued his explanation. “It’s hard to remember that the rules in the human lands aren’t as flexible as those in the PR.”
“PR?”
“Perilous Realm. Back home, cheating on a test wouldn’t be a big deal. The PR has plenty of tricksters and hucksters. It’s a rough and tumble place. Only getting caught would have been a problem.”
Granite sighed, and considering his size, it was a big one. “Anyway, I got you into this mess with Brigit, so I’ll get you out.”
“I’m the one who answered the ad.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t know it was from a fae. You probably thought it was another human.”
“I don’t know that you should feel so guilty about it,” said Em, thinking it over, “but if you want to help me, I’m not going to say no.”
Granite smiled. He had a very nice smile, almost like a kid, thought Em.
“Yeah,” started Granite, “I met Brigit when she first arrived. Found her falling out of a tree. She didn’t know anything about how to get enrolled at LOTTOS or how to pick a good professor. She’s like the little sister I never had.”
He set down the empty cup down, the spoon rattling inside.
“I’m not sure how much Celia told you about us, but we all have a bondmate relationship. Brigit introduced me to Celia, and Celia introduced Brigit to Logan. Later, Brigit got me to help Logan out with a problem. It’s all circular. A bondmate relationship forms between beings from favors and tests.”
“Tests?”
“Probably not the right word, but it’s the best way to describe it. Like playing a game with someone to learn their strategy. Each time we have an interaction, good or bad, we find out what the other is like. Even failing a test means something. It tells you how much you can rely upon the other. Or not. How honorable you are. Or not.”
“Oh,” said Em. She took the tsukumogami off her shoulder and let her fingers play with it. “Which means you’ve lost face with Brigit and Celia by doing this agreement with your teammate?”
“Exactly. You’ve hit the nail on the head. The good news is, if I fix this problem, it can strengthen my bond with the group. For you, it could be a good introduction. You could show them that you respect them enough to recognize the problem. By fixing it, you show how honorable you are.”
Granite gave her a big smile and folded his hands, the size of hams, together on the table.
“We all mess up, but if we can repair it through our deeds, it shows that we are worthy of respect. That we respect our bondmates. To do nothing is by far the worst thing.”
“Ah. So you’re not here for me, but yourself. That explains it.” Em put her hand on her tray to return it. Granite hurriedly contradicted her. “Wait! That not what I meant.”
Em put her tray at the waste station, placed her silverware and cup in the tub, and walked out of the bakery. Her computer bag slung over her back; Obake riding her shoulder.
Granite hustled to keep up with her.
“You just want me to help you get out of trouble.”
“I could probably figure out a way to get back into Brigit’s good graces without you, but that wouldn’t remove your Mark of Injury. And a Fiat is a tricky thing, especially if it is between a fae and a human. Look at what happened with Logan last year.”
Curious despite herself, Em asked him, “What did happen with Logan?”
As they made their way across campus, Granite told her about Logan’s disastrous love affair with a siren.
Logan set a bowl of cream to the side of the stove for the brownie. He put another one on the breakfast table. Jib jumped up and started purring as it lapped up its offering. The púca had learned early on not to try to snatch anything left for the brownie.
Logan took a seat at the table. Placing his chin in hand, he watched the cat. “What do you think this thing at the library is?”
“Too soon to know yet,” the True Beast said. “We can assume it’s a destroyer, going by what that human Emma described.”
“What do you mean?”
Finished, the cat started cleaning its whiskers.
“I have my suspicions. Fae magic may not operate under the scientific laws of the human lands, but there is still a certain logic to it. What it can do and how it does it.”
“Could you explain what that means exactly? I’m still learning all this stuff.”
“After all the dust settled, I trotted over to Celia’s place and had a long talk with that creature.”
“Don’t call Emma a creature,” reprimanded Logan.
“I mean the flying squirrel that can change to an earring. That creature. Obake.”
“Oh. Yeah, I saw that but didn’t have time to ask what it was. I don’t understand why I didn’t see the earring as the squirrel. I’m supposed to see what is true.”
Jib had moved to work over its right ear with a wet paw.
“Don’t beat yourself up about that, bard. I didn’t see the earring as a squirrel either until it transformed. Obake explained it was a Japanese key, a tool. The squirrel form is a transformation. Like a shapeshifter.”
“Shapeshifters?”
“I can be a cat or a panther. Both forms are an aspect of my true self. The key and squirrel forms are the tsukumogami’s true aspects. Neither I, or Obake, use Glamour to transform. Otherwise, you would have seen through it as a disguise. On the other hand, when I use Glamour to try to be invisible, you still see me.”
The cat shook its head sadly in the negative as it chastised Logan.
“Where you keep fudging up is thinking that truth is always the same. That everything you see is exactly as you see it. Or that falsehoods are indicated with some blinking neon sign. You need to rid yourself of that notion if you plan on being a powerful bard-wizard.”
Thinking back on how Sibyl, the siren, had fed him half-truths which Logan had believed at the time, made him wince. He knew the cat was right. Thankfully, Jib ignored his embarrassment and told him more of what it had discussed with the tsukumogami.
“Its companion, Emma, ran tests using her computer. She wrote a story to examine what happened to the files.”
“Software,” corrected Logan.
“Software. The damage was concealed. It was so good, that I think a powerful magic user must be the culprit.”
Jib relaxed, laying on the table, tucking its front paws under its body, so they disappeared. It became a black brick with two glowing eyes. The púca liked instructing the human for the fae seldom wanted advice, even if they could benefit from it.
“Remember, I said magic had rules? Hiding, concealing, erasing something away is a particular form of magic. It will not surprise me if we are dealing with a Mindbender.”
Paul was the only Mindbender Logan knew. That didn’t make sense. “Paul wanted Brigit to find out who was doing it. Would he ask that of her if it was another Doppelgänger?”
“Unlikely. Paul would know Brigit wasn’t up to a Doppelgänger’s magical power. So he must think it is something else. Although it is irresponsible of him to demand our dryad fix a problem that falls firmly under the administration’s umbrella,” said the cat with a slight hiss of anger.
“I don’t like that Paul threatened her,” Logan told Jib. “I think that’s why Brigit is avoiding Celia and me.”
Jib gave Logan an owlish stare. Its tone was carefully neutral. “It’s good you calmed down our dryad princess. She is not going to let this rest. Taking care of trees and their offspring, even if it is books, is what she has dedicated her life to.”
Logan did a quick movement of his fingers on the table as if his hand was on the neck of his violin. “Knowledge is power, and this being removes knowledge. If it can steal a book’s identity, can it take information also from our minds?”
“Exactly,” said the púca, “you do catch on quick. I like that about you, bard. I consider this creature to be exceedingly dangerous. Our princess should not be involved.”<
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Logan repeated the drumbeat with his fingers. Thinking things over, he finally told the cat, “Brigit seems a bit edgy and upset. What do you know about it?”
Jib laid back its ears, its orange eyes narrowing, cheek whiskers on high alert. “Being fae, Brigit could have imprisoned your new friend and her rodent companion in a cloven tree. Gave them to some hungry Fenrir and let them devoured for the insult. Have you already forgotten how she took quick action dealing with those bog sprites that tried to poison her last semester?”
“Brigit is fair,” said Logan, defending his roommate. “Emma didn’t know she was hurting Brigit when she used her information.”
Cats didn’t sigh, so Jib gave a quick flip-jerk to its tail.
“Fae are very clear about their networks and bondmates. If you let a stranger into the circle, without proving them, you’ve just risked everyone in your circle. Because Granite, Celia, and you have welcomed this girl, you’ve placed our dryad princess in the middle of conflicting loyalties.”
“I was just being friendly —.”
Jib’s tail wiped sideways in a quick snap, causing Logan to falter in his statement.
“While humans can be friendly without a cost, I thought you had learned enough to know fae society does not operate the same way.”
“But Celia is the one who accepted her as a roommate.”
“The naiad has been in the human lands longer than our dryad. Celia can be flexible in her code and how she interprets the Laws of Civility. Brigit is hard-headed in this aspect. A black-and-white thinker. Or hadn’t you noticed?”
“Now, that you point that out, yeah, I see what you mean. But I don’t want Brigit to be angry. What can I do?”
“Humph,” commented the cat. “I don’t know how it works with your kind, but I would suggest you don’t feel the need to change another being’s emotional state. Let them sort it out for themselves. And if you must interfere, leave me out of it.”
After Hours
Logan and Emma sat across the library table, facing each other and trying to look innocent. Which they weren’t.
