Fairy Gifts: A Between the Worlds Anthology

by Morgan Daimler

  To her surprise as she neared Brynneth opened his arms and pulled her into a loose hug, but while it was unexpected it made her happy. As always the healer radiated an aura of calm and peace that was soothing and Allie relaxed into his presence gratefully. Like Zarethyn Brynneth’s hair wasn’t in its customary braid, hanging loose in a dark curtain, and he wasn’t wearing his uniform today although his black pants and dark green tunic were so similar that at first she hadn’t realized it. He held her close for a moment then eased back, “It is good to see you again Allie, I hope you are feeling better now.”

  “I am, thank you,” Allie said, smiling widely, “And it is good to see you as well.”

  “Uncle,” Jennaessiya said crossing the room to join them, her voice so sweet it grated in Allie’s nerves, “you should offer to give her healing if she needs it.”

  Allie flushed, “Oh that’s alright, you’re here as guests-“

  “Nonsense,” Jennaessiya said briskly waving Allie’s concern away, “He is here and he is a healer after all. And Jessilaen has told me you insist on seeing a human midwife, so it would probably be a good idea to have an actual healer check you anyway, to be sure everything is well with the baby.”

  Allie felt her annoyance surging again but Brynneth spoke before she could say anything she shouldn’t, “I have been checking on Allie regularly as well Jennaessiya, you will find she is quite wise in many ways and she realized that it would be good to have both a human doctor caring for her as well as an elven healer.”

  Allie bit her lip to keep from saying anything that would contradict Brynneth’s description of her as ‘wise’ as the two elves began debating the merits of Allie’s prenatal choices. Zarethyn had prudently chosen to stay by the fireplace for the moment and she didn’t blame him. Actually she wished she could join him. Bleidd drifted over and stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders as they watched the unfolding debate. “Brynneth is Jess’s great-uncle?” Bleidd thought to her, his emotions oddly unsettled.

  “Yes,” she thought back, “Didn’t you know?”

  “No,” he replied, obviously mulling that information over. “Only that they were close and they were friends.”

  “They belong to different clans – I think he and Jess’s grandmother have the same father,” she thought back, trying not to let him feel how amused she was by his obvious jealousy. Because she thought privately it is pretty funny if all this time he’s been jealous of Jess’s relationship with Bryn, thinking it was obviously something it wasn’t. Elves are pretty loose about almost everything but even they have pretty strict rules about incest.

  “If it will ease your mind Jennaessiya,” Brynneth was saying then, his feelings as perturbed as Allie could ever remember sensing them, “I will see if Allie would like any healing.”

  “I’m certain she would,” Jennaessiya said, smiling triumphantly.

  “Oh, I,” Allie stammered, realizing that everyone had turned to look at her. The sound of a car door interrupted and she was quick to step away blurting out, “I think Jess is back, I had better go make sure he got what Jason needed.”

  Bleidd gave her a look that made it plain he wasn’t fooled by her less than subtle retreat; Zarethyn and Brynneth both looked openly amused. Allie fled into the hallway and was almost run over by Jason who jogged past her to the door. “Finally! I hope it’s not frozen or we still have a problem,” he muttered as he passed her.

  She followed Jason out onto the front steps and together they watched Jess walk up carrying a bound turkey under his arm. Allie cocked her head to one side regarding the bird which still had feathers (all white), feet, and a head. As she watched the turkey kicked and tried to extend a wing, and she let out a small shriek. “Oh dear gods it’s not dead!”

  Jason’s shock mirrored her own. Jess tilted his head to one side, curious. “Of course not. It would be foolish to kill it and then put it in the car where it will bleed on everything and leave the scent of death. Now that I am back I can dispatch it easily enough and have it ready for Jason to cook.”

  “I’ve never cooked a fresh turkey before,” Jason said slowly. “Can you cook them right after you kill them?”

  “Jason! We are not killing it,” Allie said, watching as the turkey continued to struggle to free itself.

  “Why not?” Jess asked.

  “Allie, don’t go all bleeding heart on me now,” Jason said. “It’s a turkey. You think the one that’s sitting in the kitchen all extra crispy wasn’t alive and kicking before? Like it just came into existence frozen and plastic wrapped? No it probably had a great turkey life-“

  “Ahhh! Just stop! What is wrong with you?” Allie cut in, feeling her stomach turning at the idea. She was really glad now that she hadn’t eaten anything. “We aren’t murdering this turkey.”

  Jason rolled his eyes then made a point of ignoring her, “Jess how quickly can it be ready to cook?”

  “Jason!” Allie said.

  “If Bleidd is willing to lend his magical assistance to speed the process, I would guess within half an hour perhaps less.”

  “Guys! You can’t kill it,” Allie tried again.

  “Right,” Jason said, still ignoring her. “And how much do you think it’ll weight, you know once it’s all plucked and drained and everything?”

  “Around 20 pounds perhaps.”

  Exasperated Allie threw her hands up in the air making the turkey struggle harder in alarm. “See? It doesn’t want to die.”

  “Of course it doesn’t want to die,” Jason said, “but I want to have Thanksgiving dinner. And we’ve eaten turkey every single year without you complaining. This one will be delicious.”

  “Jason, how can you say that? It can hear you.”

  “This is hormones making you crazy, isn’t it?” Jason said, clearly frustrated.

  She gaped at him, “I can’t believe you just said that.”

  “Believe it,” he said, then to Jess, “Okay you go around back and do what you need to do. I’ll tell Bleidd you need his help then meet you in the kitchen.”

  “Jess, don’t kill that turkey,” Allie said in a last ditch effort to get the bird clemency.

  Her lover hesitated, looking cautiously from Jason to her. “I do not understand why this is upsetting you my heart. We needed a turkey and I found one, and it was no easy feat to acquire it either. None of the local farms had anything suitable so I had no choice but to go across the Border into the Holding. Turkeys are not as common there as they may be here or I would have been back sooner, but I thought you would be pleased that I succeeded in finding what we needed.”

  “I’m pleased,” Jason said, grabbing Allie by the shoulders and dragging her back towards the house, “and she will be too when she’s eating dinner in 5 hours or so.”

  “I will not,” Allie muttered, fighting tears. “I am not eating that poor turkey.”

  “She’ll change her mind,” Jason said pushing Allie across the threshold. “You go take care of it, and I’ll get Bleidd.”

  He closed the door quickly before Jess could say anything else then turned to Allie, “Listen I am sorry if you’re upset to have to realize at 38 that your food used to be alive and have a face-“

  “Hey!”

  “-but please don’t ruin this for me,” he whispered loudly, his emotions a press of desperation and hope in equal measure. “This is our first Thanksgiving without Syndra and Liz, and I was just trying to make it perfect and it’s been a complete train wreck. And I don’t want our memories of today to be of a fairy rat in our kitchen and you crying all day about the main course. Just, just please let me do this. Let me make this a good dinner for everyone, okay?”

  Allie looked at him, torn between wanting to run after Jess and wanting to make Jason happy. Jason won. Even as Jess spoke into her mind, asking if she really was alright and if he should do as Jason had asked, she knew that she couldn’t take this meal away from Jason. He had his heart set on it being a real traditional Thanksgiving dinner and s
he was realizing now that to him it represented more than the usual yearly chance to show off his cooking. This time it was about grieving for his friends and about moving forward into something new, a new iteration of life, and she could respect why he needed that. Her shoulders slumped under his hands. She thought resolutely to Jess, “It’s okay, I am upset but this means too much to Jason for me to take it away from him. Do what you need to do. Then come in here and comfort me.” She knew he was still confused about why she was upset to begin with, but she felt his pleasure at her words nonetheless. She took a deep breath and said to Jason, “Alright, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”

  He sighed. “It really is starting to feel like today is cursed isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, a little bit, even if it is just bad luck,” Allie agreed, sighing as well, and glad that whatever it felt like they weren’t really cursed. She didn’t want to go through that again. “But we’ll get through it, right?”

  “Right,” he agreed, then leaned forward and hugged her, hard, before stepping away to get Bleidd. She stood for a moment by the door, gathering herself, then followed him.

  She walked back into the living room as Jason and Bleidd were walking out. Bleidd gave her an apologetic look as he passed, but she could feel his relief. Trying not to let either her annoyance or the recent emotional upheaval show on her face, she forced a smile and continued into the room where her erstwhile guests where still standing. Jennaessiya smiled brightly at her return and moved to take her hand leading her over to Brynneth, “Now if that situation is settled, about the healing…”

  Wondering how much time it took to cook a turkey, Allie was certain it was going to be a very long afternoon.

  6 P.M.

  The day had been filled with pointless small talk about things in the Holding that Allie either didn’t understand or didn’t care about, and a painful dance of etiquette that had Allie’s teeth on edge. She had forgotten that so very many aspects of life in elven society were predicated on social rules that, she was convinced, had been created out of sheer boredom. Everyone had a specific rank and place in society based on a complex set of factors that included species, gender, role, age, and clan affiliation. Unbeknownst to her Allie’s place had been set higher than any of the men in the room because her mother was an elf, and so she was deemed on par with a full elf despite her human father, she was female, and she was at least nominally a member of the Elven Guard. Her youth and lack of strong clan affiliation may have weighed against her but she was pregnant, something that was treated as sacrosanct among the elves and the Fey in general. Jennaessiya outranked her, of course, but Allie had failed to realize that – socially – she would be above both Zarethyn and Brynneth, never mind Jess and Bleidd. She was used to interacting with them in entirely different capacities, in which she was the lowest ranking Guard member under Zarethyn’s command or as Bryn’s friend or patient and she distinctly disliked the stiff formality that was almost visible between them now, in what should have been a relaxed and comfortable holiday atmosphere. This is all his mother’s fault Allie had thought rebelliously, wondering how soon she could politely kick them all out. If it were just Bryn and Zarethyn here it wouldn’t be like this. We’d be relaxing and joking around. Gods I feel like I’m spending the day with Miss Amelia. No scratch that. This is worse.

  As the daylight faded and the light of the fire filled the corners of the living room she had finally given up on any pretense of human decorum. After everyone had enjoyed a selection of light finger foods in the afternoon – in what Allie would later describe to Jason, who was hiding all day in the kitchen, as blissful silence – they had all found seats around the room and resumed the small talk. The seating, of course, had been based on the same social ranking as everything else and she’d been painfully aware that Jess and Bleidd were at the bottom, and in that order. They had sat furthest from the fire, despite the fact that Bleidd was the one getting up and maintaining it, and on one of the older less comfortable couches. They had gone without complaint of course, without a word of any kind, but Allie was fuming over what seemed to be another example of an unfair system. Allie saw Jennaessiya eyeing her and was very aware of the open chair next to the fireplace. She’d ignored both.

  She walked defiantly over to where Jess and Bleidd were sitting and sat with them. One advantage to having elven guests was that they thought nothing about Allie draping herself over both her lovers, where human guests in a formal setting would have been shocked. In fact Jess’s mother was distinctly pleased by that choice, something that might have annoyed Allie under other circumstances but at the moment she was too tired and generally grumpy to care. For that matter normally Allie would have been too uptight and self-conscious to even consider walking over and purposely sitting on Jess’s lap then reclining into Bleidd’s chest. She was far past the point of self-conscious by now though and only her love of Jason was keeping her from simply walking up to her room and locking herself in. But since the turkey debacle things had actually been going well, if mind numbingly boring, and she could feel Jason’s excitement growing as the meal came together. If she stormed out now it would ruin everything and she just couldn’t do that to him, so she was clinging to her polite façade with growing desperation.

  So she leaned back into Bleidd and allowed Jess to wrap his arm around her waist and absorbed both their feelings with reckless abandon. They both had centuries of experience dealing with boring social situations while feigned polite interest and Allie hoped she could gain some of that by sheer osmosis. It didn’t seem to be working but at least the physical contact made her feel more grounded and slightly less likely to just tell them all to shut up. Although she did sit there with half an ear on the conversation fantasizing about doing just that.

  Zarethyn had gotten into a fairly involved discussion with his mother about a woman named Kresseallyn, who Allie gathered was someone’s cousin, and who had recently joined the Guard. Allie’s eyes were crossing as the two argued back and forth about whether the woman should be given even more than the usual number of extra chances that nepotism granted because she seemed to have no talent at all for anything relating to the Guard’s duties. Allie found her eyes drifting closed against her will, as their voices droned on, and then Jess was speaking in her mind, “Are you tired my love?”

  “A little bit,” she admitted to both of them, her eyes popping open reflexively, almost hoping they’d suggest she go rest. Anything to get away from this endless conversation, “and hungry. I hope dinner is done soon.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that you are hungry,” Jess said, his genuine pleasure filling her, “It has been a long time since you’ve said that, and truly meant it.”

  Allie felt herself blushing but she knew it was true. Since she’d been poisoned and even more so since she’d started getting sick right around when she got pregnant her appetite had nose-dived. She’d lost weight and struggled with dizzy spells and she knew that everyone was worried about her health. It had become a topic that she hated hearing about from anyone, even Brynneth.

  Bleidd reached up and started stroking her arm, and she shivered slightly, feeling his happiness mixing with Jess’s and having to fight annoyance again. In the background the voices of her guests droned on and Allie glanced at the clock on the mantle as subtly as she could – just past six o’clock. She fought a sigh and gave up any pretense of paying attention to the conversation, instead trying to guess by the smells wafting down from the kitchen how soon the food might be ready.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t stand one more inane conversation about another person in the Holding she didn’t know or care about, Jason finally came in. He smiled nervously around the room, “Thanks for being so patient, everything’s ready if you’d like to come sit down.”

  Allie all but leaped up, much to Bleidd’s amusement, and followed Jason eagerly down the hall. Bleidd was close behind her but Jess trailed with their guests and she could hear him trying to explain
to his family about the meal. A small guilty part of her knew she should be walking with him and at least trying to be a good hostess, but it wasn’t enough to slow her steps.

  The kitchen table had been transformed, the normally casual farm-style table now covered in a linen cloth and formal place settings. A glass of milk had been set next to each plate, in deference to the elves preference for that drink. Down the long center Jason had lined up the dishes of food, a real cornucopia of different choices, and looking at it now Allie would never have guessed that he’d had so many problems with everything. She could even look at the golden brown turkey in the center, already partially carved, without feeling a twinge of guilt, although being extremely hungry helped with that.

  “Wow Jason this looks amazing,” Allie said, consciously switching to English after a long afternoon of speaking Elvish, put off balance by how clunky the language felt on her tongue. She moved to the far side to sit down so that her guests could have the seating closer to the hallway and furthest from the still hot oven. Bleidd sat down to her left, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder before he pulled out his chair.

  Jason beamed under the praise, sitting at the end of the table by the open kitchen. “Thanks, it really did all come together once things were worked out.”

  Jess walked in with the others and Allie saw the confusion on all their faces. Of course she thought they don’t know where to sit because we aren’t following their rules. Feeling a lot more magnanimous than she had been a few minutes earlier Allie stood and gestured at the other end of the table, “Jennaessiya if you would like you can sit there, it’s considered the head of the table. Zarethyn, Brynneth if you’d like to sit on that side?”