A Fey Harvest

by Sumida, Amy

  I can't describe to you how happy it made me. To have fought so many battles lately and then to finally win one without any loss of life, to instead gain the possibility of new life, was such a gift. I thought of Odin and how the fey could be added to the long list of people he'd saved the day that he gave his life for mine. If he hadn't saved me, I never would have been able to become a host to Faerie and Faerie would have never saved us all from the Darkness. I never would have taken Demeter's magic, never would have helped Samantha conceive, and never would have given the fire fey back their ability to procreate. There would be a lot of children born because of Odin's sacrifice. A lot of lives that would have otherwise never been given a chance.

  “Vervain?” Arach's hand was on mine.

  “I'm okay,” I smiled at him. “Just thinking about how none of this would have been possible if Odin hadn't saved me.”

  “We all owe him a great debt,” he agreed. “But if you think about it, think of all of this that has come to pass because of you, it feels to me like Odin's death was predestined. He was meant to take your place.”

  “I don't like to think like that,” I frowned. “I don't like the thought of destiny or of him being meant to die for me. It feels like I have no control over my own life.”

  “That's not what destiny is about,” Arach shook his head. “Destiny is a path for magic. As magical beings, we must travel the path, like we travel the Aether between realms. The Aether will take you where you want to go but if you try to travel it without thought, without purpose, it will take you where it wants to and you may never get anywhere at all.”

  “I don't get it,” I grimaced.

  “Okay, let's look on it another way,” he sighed. “You work with magic, you know that intent is everything.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you intended to kill Demeter,” he looked at me for affirmation and I nodded. “You intended to come back here and defeat the Darkness.”

  “Yeah but Demeter intended to live and I'm sure the Darkness did as well.”

  “Yes, and here's where destiny comes into play,” he grinned. “Destiny is like a magical mediator. She is the magic's intent and magic wants what every other living thing wants.”

  “To live?”

  “Yes, to live and to thrive,” he smiled and glanced around the hall. “Magic wants there to be more magic. So destiny helps those who further the goals of the magic. You intended to kill Demeter, which would lead you to helping your friend conceive a child... more magic. Which would lead you to returning to Faerie and helping to save the fey... more magic. Which would lead to your empowering the kingdom of fire with fertility... more magic.”

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you,” I laughed. “I found a way to empower the Froekn and Intare with fire.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “While I was last in the Human Realm, there was a huge forest fire,” I couldn't believe I'd forgotten all about telling Arach. “I went to help the humans put it out and ended up pulling all of the fire energy into me. I was full to bursting with it and it sort of just automatically sought paths to flow down. At first it went to my lions but then even that wasn't enough and since I share a connection with Fenrir, I was able to send the energy to the Froekn.”

  “You solved their fertility issues too, didn't you?” His dragon eyes were intense on mine, his hair looking like rivulets of blood beside them.

  “Yes, I believe I did,” I swallowed hard. “Why does that seem to upset you?”

  “The fire magic is fey magic,” Arach glanced around the hall at the rejoicing faeries and then back at me. “You shouldn't have been able to use its energy to power gods. It's impossible, like using water to fuel a fire.”

  “Like growing a human flower in the Faerie Realm with god magic?” I smiled softly at him. “I think I finally know what being a triple being is all about.”

  “What's that?”

  “Acceptance, as always,” I laughed. “I'm here to show the gods, humans, and fey that your differences can be overcome, that if you accept each other, there can be harmony.”

  “Yet another reason for destiny to promote your cause,” Arach whispered. “At a time when the the three realms have become open to each other once more, when the possibility for war hovers on the horizon, you are here to show us the way to peace. Your existence could potentially prevent the loss of life, the loss of magic.”

  “So you're saying that destiny chose a side?”

  “I don't know,” he shrugged. “I don't know if there really is destiny or if magic just has a way of preserving itself but I do know that I've had moments when I've felt that my choices have been encouraged by something other than myself. That I've been urged into one direction or another. Not forced, not pushed, but persuaded, led to believe that other choices would be wrong.”

  “I call that intuition,” I grinned.

  “Call it what you will,” he nodded as if I'd made his point. “I think Odin's intent was to save you at all costs, even the cost of his own life, and I believe that he too must have felt this intuition, the touch of destiny telling him that his choice was right, that it was for the good of all.”

  “I still want him back,” I gave Arach a guilty look. Out of all my men, he was the least into sharing.

  “Of course you do,” he smiled gently, “how could you not want back that kind of love?”

  “Thank you,” I kissed his cheek.

  “For what?”

  “For understanding.”

  “Vervain,” he chuckled. “There are things I've given up for you but really, I rarely have to experience the sacrifice of it. You're here with me constantly as far as I'm concerned and although you have other lovers, I don't really have to share you with them. It's just the knowledge that you are with them that I have to deal with and granted, it is hard for the dragon in me to accept, but what I get in return is so much more than anything I've had to give up.”

  “Even if I never have your dragon babies?” I grinned.

  “There will be children aplenty in the Fire Kingdom now,” he stroked the hair back from my face. “I am content to wait and hope.”

  “To destiny,” I held up my glass to him and he clinked his against it.

  “To destiny.”

  “To destiny,” Roarke added, shoving his glass into the mix.

  “That better be the last intimate moment you interrupt, Fire Cat,” Arach growled.

  “It's King Fire Cat now,” Roarke sat back and winked at me.

  “Watch it,” I warned him before Arach could continue. “He gave you that title and he can take it away.”

  “Can he?” Roarke sat up in dismay.

  “I'd find a way,” Arach smiled evilly.

  “Oh, I've just thought of something,” I looked over Roarke's new eyes. “You'll have to get some green contacts or something because when you go back to the God Realm, I won't know of this change yet and your eyes will give it away.”

  “Contacts” Arach lifted a brow.

  “She means contact lenses,” Roarke explained. “They are clear discs that humans wear over their eyes to help with vision. Some of them come in colors, so they can change the color of your eyes.”

  “Humans put things on their eyes?” Arach was horrified. “As in directly on their eyeballs? Willingly?”

  “It doesn't hurt,” I laughed at him. “They're very thin and flexible.”

  “And totally unnecessary for me,” Roarke smirked. “Have you forgotten about glamor? I can simply magic my eyes to look any way I'd like them to.”

  “Oh damn,” I huffed. “I hadn't thought about that. Hey can I do that? Change my eyes to blue or something?”

  “Don't threaten me like that,” Arach looked even more horrified. “I love your eyes just as they are.”

  “Boring brown?” I lifted a brow at him.

  “Deep walnut with streaks of chestnut and golden highlights,” Arach was leaning toward me as he spoke. “They glow when we make love.”

  T
hen I was kissing him and it was fabulous until an annoying fire cat-sidhe interrupted with a loud throat-clearing noise.

  “I wonder what color my eyes will be when I make love,” Roarke mused.

  Arach lifted his face slowly from mine, his eyes filled with murder.

  “Why don't you go fuck yourself and find out,” he growled at the cat.

  I've never been more proud of him.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “So should we mirror the High King?” I asked when we finally stumbled back to our room later that night.

  “About what?” Arach was already half naked, sitting on the bed so he could remove his boots.

  “About the fertility magic,” I pulled off my dress and kicked off my shoes so I could climb into bed beside him. “And Roarke.”

  “What about them?” Arach slid under the covers with me. “I hardly think it's appropriate to rub it in their faces.”

  “I need to share it with the other kingdoms, Arach.”

  “Vervain, how exactly do you plan on doing that?”

  “Well, I... we...” I gaped at him. “Oh.”

  “Exactly,” he sighed. “We can't go copulating in every sacred source.”

  “I could try simply placing my magic within it,” I suggested.

  “And what do you think land magic would do to the ocean?” He gave me a sad smile when my face fell. “I want to help them too, Vervain. I just don't want to risk hurting them in the process. We don't know what would happen in any other situation.”

  “I could ask Faerie.”

  “How could Faerie possibly know what the magic will do?” Arach shook his head. “She didn't know what it would do to Fire. This is a new road we're walking down. What you've done has never been done before and there is no way of predicting how it will react.”

  “Yeah alright,” I sighed. “So what, we just don't tell anyone?”

  “No, we'll have to tell them,” he frowned. “You're right, we should probably mirror the High King but I don't relish the thought of telling him what I just told you when he inevitably asks for your help with the other fey.”

  “Well, Faerie did say they needed to change to come out of stasis,” I snuggled in to him. “The High King said it himself and has helped with the change. Maybe this is the way it needs to be. If I just handed them their fertility, they'd never become the fey they could.”

  “Destiny,” he whispered.

  “Or karma,” I smiled and drifted off to sleep in the arms of my dragon.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “Well that went better than expected,” I said to Arach after we ended our call with the High King.

  “It's not like you're unwilling to help,” Arach shrugged. “The risks are just too great. I knew he'd agree with us.”

  “Either that or Faerie spoke to him,” I smirked at him as he walked to the door. “Where are you going?”

  “I'm going to check on the earth pixies,” he grinned, “They said they'd have another batch of jewelry ready today.”

  “You know they may be going back to the Earth Kingdom,” I warned him.

  “You told them what King Cahal said, right?”

  “I did.”

  “And I haven't noticed any packing, have you?”

  “No, but-”

  “Vervain, would you return to people who treated you so horribly just because they said sorry?”

  “No,” I huffed, “you're probably right.”

  “I believe they've also heard what Queen Aalish had tried to accomplish with Roarke,” he nodded, like of course he was right. The ass.

  “I really thought she'd changed,” I sighed. “She had made that comment, remember? Something about clearing away the cobwebs from her eyes.”

  “Yes, I recall it,” he shook his head. “Fey are complicated creatures and we can also be very focused on our grudges.”

  “You think?” I laughed. “Go on then, go to the pixies and make sure to check if they need anything.”

  “A Thaisce,” he winked at me, “I, unlike King Cahal, know how to treat my fey right.”

  “That you do,” I gave him a more sensuous smile and he left with a promise to return shortly.

  I did speak to Cian on your behalf.

  “Ah, I thought so,” I wasn't even startled by Faerie this time. In fact, I'd kind of been expecting her. “Thank you, I wasn't looking forward to telling him we'd solved the fertility issue but only for the fire fey.”

  The fire fey have all shown an inclination to change and they also have you to guide them. They would have been the first to come out of stasis anyway.

  “Nicely put but I didn't think King Cian would have seen it that way.”

  He's fey but not entirely unreasonable. Look at how he helped Roarke.

  “You planned that. Didn't you?” I remembered how she had said she'd been waiting a long time for it. “How long have you known that I'd help you change Roarke?”

  Not known, wanted. Your husband is partially right about his theories on destiny. Magic does have a will of its own, here I am that will. I knew Roarke was unhappy with his lot and changing him gave me the opportunity I needed to really shake things up.

  “You like him, don't you?”

  I admit he is one of my favorite fey. I look forward to seeing his children.

  “Won't he need a female fire cat-sidhe for that?” I cringed to think of what a bunch of little Roarke's roaming the halls would be like.

  He will have his female. I can change more, remember?

  “Great,” I snorted. “Uh, by the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you.”

  What happens to faeries when they die?

  “Yes,” I frowned. “You know not everything in my head is meant for your perusal.”

  Relax, she huffed. I only see what you mean for me to see or are currently thinking about.

  “Oh, okay then,” I took a seat at the table near our bedroom window. “So, do you know what happens when a fey dies?”

  Of course I do, I'm Faerie.

  “Could you maybe tell me?” I rolled my eyes. It was like pulling teeth sometimes.

  You saw what happens yourself. I hardly think you need me to tell you.

  “What? When did I see this?”

  At the battle with the Darkness. Don't you ever pay attention to anything you see or do you just expect someone to tell you what happened afterward?

  “Just tell me, you obnoxious entity,” I grimaced out the window at the land as if it were her.

  So touchy. Why do you want to know?

  “I want to know if it's the same place the gods go to,” I shrugged.

  This is about Odin not faeries.

  “Yes.”

  Gods don't go where the fey go.

  “Where do we go?”

  Well I'm not really sure where you would go, you're a rather special case, but normal fey are pure elements and as such, their energy cannot be destroyed, it simply transmutes. That's when the Great Magic comes into play, like with Roarke.

  “I have no idea what you just said,” I cracked my neck, she was already giving me tension.

  Hello? What happened when we freed the fey souls from Andrasta?

  “The arrow fell to the ground and glowed a bit,” I frowned. “The elements flowed back into you.”

  Yes. Now you understand.

  “They all become a part of you when they die? No wonder you're so irritating.”

  I have a very sweet disposition but no, they don't exactly become a part of me. They go back into the elements which also reside here. I am not composed of elements, I am pure magic. The elements came from me.

  “Okay Mother of Elements, what happens next? They just remain elements forever? And what do you mean by here? Where are they exactly?”

  Here as in here, all around us. They are in the fire in the hearth, in the breeze coming through your window, everywhere the elements take form. Now that there are fertile fey again, they will be reshaped into new fey, transmuted a
gain.

  “Reshaped not reborn,” I thought about it. “So they're not the same souls as they were before, they're new fey with the same energy.”

  Yes but the fey have no souls and that is why they don't go where the gods go.

  “What do you mean they have no souls?” I gasped. “Everyone has a soul, you can't live without a soul.”

  Says who? There she went, laughing at me again. Fey were made from different magic than the gods and humans. They're powered by elements, I have no idea what type of magic made humans and gods.

  “You don't know?” I scoffed. “You're telling me there's something you don't know?”

  How could I possibly know? I am the magic of this realm, I am Faerie. I have no place in the other realms, I've never even seen them before.

  “Oh, right,” I winced, she sounded kind of upset about it. “I guess it would be hard for a realm to travel to another realm.”

  Duh.

  “Alright, fine, I deserved that but come on, one of the Houses of Faerie is Spirit. How can the fey be soulless?”

  First of all, don't say it like that, you make it sound like they're monsters. Second, spirit is not the same thing as soul. Spirit is an element, it is the connection that holds all of the other elements together and that's why it rules them. It's like willpower, don't you humans say something has spirit when they show significant ambition?

  “Yeah, okay, I think I get it.”

  It is a life-force element. It empowers the others, without spirit they would not live but it is not a soul. The proper term is essence, the fey have an essence.

  “So similar but different, okay.” I sighed. “But King Cian once told me that my soul could be fey. Why did he say that if the fey have no souls?”

  King Cian was using the word because you did, because it was easier to call fey essence a soul rather than have to explain the difference to you. Essentially, they are the same type of thing, just empowered differently. You've seen the hearts of the fey, you should know this. It's why the fey return to their elements and gods go elsewhere. It's all magic but they are different types and each must return to their own source.