Chalice of Life

by R. A. Rock

  “Fairy tale, too,” he finished, laughing hard.

  Tess and the other men smiled indulgently.

  “Can we get into the whole deal about these powers you didn’t know you had later?” Ethan said. “I’d really like you to finish telling us what happened. I’m particularly interested in how Perdira comes into all this. How did she end up signing the note? Is she the one who sent you here?”

  “Oh, your old flame.” Tess winked, and Ethan gave her a disgruntled look, which made her smile. “Yes, we’re getting to that.”

  “So Tess became the Keeper and we decided to get the Scroll for ourselves,” Finn said.

  “This story just gets better and better,” Ignis said in fascination. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because there’s this prophecy.” Finn told them.

  “There always is,” Ethan said in a resigned tone of voice.

  “I’m going to end the Severance,” Tess told them, causing another pause in the conversation.

  “You’re talking about the Severance?” Ignis said, disbelief all over his face. “The one that’s been in place for thousands of years?”

  “The one where the King and Dark Queen had a falling out?” Ethan took over the questioning, his face doubtful, too. “And split the kingdom in half, creating a huge Chasm in the middle of the land? The Seelie live on one side and the Unseelie live on the other? No one can cross? And the only time you’re allowed to see anyone from the other side is every hundred years at that ball?”

  “Yep, that Severance.” Tess gave one sharp nod, determination solid inside her. “There are several magical objects that we need to end it. Plus the Scroll.”

  “We?” Ignis’s copper eyebrows drew together.

  “I made a palm vow that I would help her,” Finn explained.

  “Ah,” Ignis said, pointing back and forth between Tess and Finn. “Before you two weren’t a thing anymore. I mean, that’s partly why she was crying, right?”

  “Right,” Finn said, his face unhappy. “We broke up right before we were sent here.”

  Ignis’s eyebrows nearly touched his hairline.

  “So, basically you just broke up like five minutes ago? Because you lost your memories as soon as you woke up on Earth?”

  “Basically,” Tess repeated, her stomach churning. “That’s what it feels like.”

  Tears came to her eyes and Finn dropped his gaze at this reminder.

  “That’s terrible,” Ignis said, his face compassionate. “I’m sorry about that. And you’re Joined, right? I can sense it. Hey, that’s probably how you two found each other, right?”

  “Yes,” Finn confirmed.

  “Wait, you two are Joined?” Ethan looked a little shocked. “That’s like being married, right?”

  “A Faerie Joining isn’t like marriage. It’s…” Ignis paused, trying to think of the right word.

  “Deeper,” Finn finished for him.

  “Stronger,” Tess added.

  They both nodded at the same time.

  “So, since you’re broken up but still Joined, it’s like you’re divorced but still are forced to hang out together?” Ethan summed up their current situation.

  “No,” Ignis said, correcting him as if he were an idiot. “It’s like they’re still married, living in the same house, and seeing each other every day. Except that they’re broken up emotionally. Far more painful. When they Unjoin, then it will be like being divorced but with less emotional baggage. The Unjoining takes away a lot of the connection and helps heal the heartache.”

  Ignis gave them a sympathetic look.

  “You should Unjoin as soon as possible. No, wait.” He held up one finger. “Strike that. You can’t Unjoin until you get back to Esper. Who knows what would happen if you did it here without enough ambient magic to work the spell? And you don’t want to have to go through that twice.”

  “Definitely not.” Finn shuddered.

  “So you’re saying that we have to stay Joined for our whole time on the Earthly Realm?” Tess felt sick.

  “That’s right,” Ignis said. “Or that’s my recommendation, at least. I don’t know what would happen if you tried to Unjoin with so little magic in the air. It’s a total toss up.”

  “That sounds…” She didn’t know how to describe how painful that sounded. She rubbed her hands on her thighs, thinking about how difficult this was going to be.

  “Like purgatory,” Finn finished, his brown eyes burning into hers. “A great English word that, according to my universal translation spell, means immense and almost endless suffering.”

  “Sounds about right,” Tess said, her heart aching.

  Shadows take me, Tess thought. How am I going to survive this?

  Chapter 16

  “So, the question is still why you were sent here,” Ethan said.

  “Wait, no,” Ignis said, shooting him a nasty glare. “You’re jumping ahead. Where were we? Right. You two are going to end the Severance, as unlikely as that may sound. But there is a prophecy backing Tess up, and Finn has made a palm vow that he’ll help her, so he’s in it for the long haul.”

  Doyle came in then, bringing supper. He wheeled in a cart with four plates with metal covers over them to keep them warm. There was a bottle of wine and four glasses, as well. The large man was dressed in an expensive tailor-made suit as usual, and though he was self-effacing, she knew from experience that he had a core of steel.

  And behind that expressionless face was a mind as sharp as anyone else’s in the room. Ethan had made a few comments that told Tess that Doyle was not a servant. Not really. He played the part when necessary, but that was not all he was, any more than a pretty woman was all Tess was.

  When Tessa smiled politely at him, he gave her a polite smile back. There was no warmth in it but Tess didn’t expect any. She had used Ancient Voice to manipulate him. She didn’t blame him for not liking her.

  “Let’s move to the table,” Ethan said, gesturing to the large table he kept in his study for when he wanted to spread out a lot of papers or hold a meeting.

  Doyle set out the plates and cutlery, as well as salt and pepper. Then he poured the wine. Tess found the sound of the liquid flowing smoothly into the glasses somehow soothing. The smells were enticing and her stomach growled.

  Doyle bowed and Ethan thanked him. They all sat down.

  “Now, where were we?” Ignis said.

  “Ending the Severance,” Ethan said, earning him another dirty look.

  “Yes, well, the thing is that as soon as we had taken the Scroll, about a week later was the Hundred Years Ball,” Tess said, unrolling her napkin that held a fork and knife.

  “Oh no,” Ignis said, laughing as he lifted the cover off his plate. “This story is better than television.”

  “So you were trapped at Summerswind Keep with the King and Dark Queen?” Ethan stared at the two Fae. Tess sat beside Ignis, who was across from Finn. Ignis had seated himself as far from Ethan as possible, of course.

  “And you had just stolen the Scroll that I would imagine they both wanted.” Ignis was still chuckling and shaking his head.

  Tess took the cover off her plate, smiling. It did all sound quite ridiculous when they told the whole story like this. She surveyed the supper. There were slices of meat, which looked very tender, with some sort of brown sauce over it. There was a pile of mashed potatoes with a pat of butter melting into the valleys in it. Beside the other two foods were green beans criss-crossed all over each other in a stack. And a soft roll was tucked against the beans. It looked absolutely delicious and Tessa’s mouth started to water.

  “Right the first time,” Finn said, putting a bite of meat into his mouth. He chewed and smiled in satisfaction. “We were trapped there with them and we had to stay alive, uncaptured. Plus, we had to get the Crown of Visions that was hidden under the castle.”

  “Holy shit,” Ethan said.

  “Why the Crown of Visions?” Ignis asked.

  “To read the Sc
roll,” Tess said. “Imagine our dismay when instead of ending the Severance, we read the Scroll and realized it was going to take a lot more work and we needed a bunch of other magical objects to actually break the spell.”

  “The Crown of Visions, the Scroll of Severance.” Ethan’s face was impressed. “You’ve got a lot of balls.” He bent his head and put a fork of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

  “Of course, they caught us in the end,” Tess said, lifting and dropping one shoulder. “But we got away from them, and Perdira helped us escape just after the Ball ended.”

  “Why would she do that?” Ignis said, suspicious.

  “Wait, Perdira’s was at the ball? I thought she died centuries ago.” Ethan was sitting very still, seeming to be what Tess would describe as… nervous?

  “She’s not exactly alive but she’s definitely not dead. She doesn’t have a body, which is why she borrowed mine for a while.”

  “She borrowed your body?” Ignis said, snorting with laughter and spilling his wine on the table. He mopped it up with his napkin, turning the white cloth pink.

  “Again, a very long story,” Tess said, not wanting to remember how bizarre that had been. She broke the crusty roll and spread butter on it. When she bit into it, she closed her eyes in pleasure. Ethan’s chef certainly knew how to cook.

  “She has a plan to get revenge on the Dark Queen, I think,” Finn said, not seeming to notice Ethan’s nerves, if that was what they were. When Tess looked up at Ethan, his eyes were big and he was staring into space as if remembering something.

  “What is it, Ethan?” Tess said, stopping with a forkful of beans halfway to her mouth.

  “Oh,” he said, shaking it off. “Nothing. That doesn’t sound good for anyone if those two powerful Faeries go at it.”

  “No, probably not,” Tess said, holding the beans in front of her mouth until she finished speaking. “But one problem at a time. First, we have to end the Severance. Then we’ll worry about what Perdira’s up to.”

  “Right now, she’s been helping us and we’ve really needed it, so we’re not too worried about why she’s doing it.” Finn set his fork down and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “That might come back to bite us in the ass. But what are you going to do?”

  He laughed.

  “English is such a funny language,” he said. “I don’t know how you people speak it all the time without cracking up. See?” He started to laugh even harder. “Cracking up is such a ridiculous expression and the words sound so funny.”

  Ignis and Ethan smiled at him.

  “It is weird using a universal translation spell sometimes,” Ignis said. “You never quite know what’s going to come out your mouth.”

  “Exactly what happened when she helped you escape?” Ethan asked. He lifted his wine glass and took a sip.

  “She pulled us out of the room where we were fighting the King and Dark Queen.”

  Tessa set her knife on the edge of her plate with a clink.

  “Fighting?” Ethan raised an eyebrow.

  “We weren’t doing that well,” Finn conceded.

  “She told us about the risks if she sent us through to the Earthly Realm this way, but we didn’t have a choice.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Ignis said, tilting his head and thinking about it. “You could have run to the Cradle in the mage lands? You could have taken an Angel Uber. You could have hidden in Ahlenerra.”

  “There was no time. The King and Dark Queen were closing in on us. If we called an Angel Uber, there would be a trail for them to follow. And yes, we could have run in Ahlenerra or elsewhere in Esper, but the King and Dark Queen could find us anywhere.” Finn sat back and took a drink of his wine. “Trust me. I’ve tried running in Ahlenerra. It’s not that easy. Here on the Earthly Realm, we’re relatively safe.”

  “And then there was the other problem,” Tess reminded Finn. She spread the brown sauce around on her meat and then cut a piece and put it in her mouth. The rich taste spread across her tongue and she repressed a groan. Damn, this food was delicious.

  “Oh, right,” he said.

  “What problem was that?” Ignis said, vibrating excitedly in his seat. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

  “Finn made a palm vow to kill whoever was responsible for the death of his… friend.”

  “And?”

  “And the person responsible was the Dark Queen.”

  “Ohhh,” Ethan said.

  “You can’t keep your vow to kill the Dark Queen, or bad, bad things will happen to Ahlenerra,” Ignis stated the obvious.

  “And if you don’t keep your vow, won’t the magic eventually destroy you?” Ethan said, shocked.

  “It will, and it is,” Finn said, his face desolate. “I’ve been able to get out of a lot of sticky situations in my life. Not sure how to get out of this one.”

  “Oh, but that’s why Perdira sent you here, instead of somewhere in Esper,” Ignis said, snapping his fingers as he figured it out. “The lack of ambient magic is actually good for you. The vow can’t kill you here.”

  “Right. But…”

  “There’s a but?” Ignis said. “How much worse could this get?”

  “He’s also dangerously low on Starlight,” Tess explained. “From the vow.”

  “But you should have years before that kicks in,” Ignis said, bewildered.

  “I would,” Finn agreed. “Except that we were at the Hundred Years Ball.”

  “Ah, and you Faeries get a little juiced up there because of all the magic at the castle.”

  “And he was in close proximity to the queen for a whole week, which we think, along with the extra magic, kicked the vow into high gear. Perdira sent us here because it has effectively stopped the vow from killing him. But now his Starlight is extremely low, which means if he stays here too long he’ll run out.”

  “When Faeries run out of Starlight, they die, right?” Ignis said.

  “That’s right,” Finn confirmed.

  “So, what happens when you go back?” Ethan asked.

  Nobody said anything.

  “Shit.” Ignis stared down at the table, considering the problem. “I’m not sure what you can do, Finn. I honestly wish I could help.”

  “It’s okay,” Finn said, trying to put on a brave face. “Hopefully, we’ll figure something out.”

  Ignis looked troubled. “If I can think of anything that might help, I’ll let you know, okay?”

  “Sure,” Finn said, trying for a smile but not quite managing it. “I’d appreciate that, Ignis.”

  Ignis pushed away his empty plate and stood up. “On that note,” he said. “I really have to get going.”

  They had finished their meal and the wine glasses were empty. Tess felt all the emotions that she had been holding back returning. They were pushing at her and she knew she couldn’t hold back the tears much longer.

  “I wish you luck on your quest, Tessa,” Ignis said, giving her a genuine smile.

  She felt a lump in her throat, and she nodded, unable to speak. They crossed forearms.

  “Thanks for your help, Ignis,” Finn said, holding out his forearm, and they crossed. “May the Stars shine their light upon you.”

  “Thanks, Finn,” Ignis said, his face was solemn, and the usual cheeky twinkle was missing from his eyes. “Good luck.”

  Finn nodded, looking worried.

  “You know,” Ignis went on. “You’re not bad for a faerie. You and Tess.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, Ignis.” Finn laughed, appreciating the comic relief. “And I must admit, you’re not bad for a mage.”

  “Who’d have thought?” Ignis said, grinning.

  Then Ignis turned to Ethan his expression grim.

  "I'm only doing this to help Rebekah."

  "I get it," Ethan said, biting down on the apology that wanted to escape him. It didn't matter how many times he said he was sorry to Ignis, he knew that he would never have the relief of being forgiven.

  Ignis didn
't say another word, only turned into a blue mist and floated out the open window.

  “Thanks a lot, Ethan,” Tess said, feeling less hostile toward him. “I really appreciate that you helped us out with getting our memories back.”

  “Yeah, man. That was really cool. And thanks for protecting us from the Dark Magic.”

  “No problem,” Ethan said, looking flustered as if he didn't know what to do with their gratitude and was uncomfortable with it. “I’ll be glad to get back to my career, once all this is settled.”

  For some reason, this hurt Tessa. It stabbed into her heart and she stiffened, feeling tears coming to her eyes that she vehemently blinked back. She would not cry in front of this asshole. Why had she thought for one second that he was a good guy? Why had she thought that maybe they were becoming friends? What an idiot she was.

  “Right, of course. You did it because you had to. Because you were forced to. Not because you wanted to. All you want is to get back to your music.”

  “What? No.” Ethan scowled. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Yes, Ethan,” she said, meeting his eyes for a long moment. “It is.”

  What a selfish bastard. She was a fool to think he did anything other than for his own selfish reasons. She needed to get out of here before she lost it.

  “I think I need to lie down,” Tessa said, swallowing. She didn’t meet Finn’s eyes. “It’s been a long day.”

  “There are rooms on the second floor,” Ethan said. “Pick any of them.”

  When she glanced at him, she saw he had a look of regret on his face. Whatever. Everything was always all about him. She knew that now. She just wasn’t sure why it upset her so much.

  “I’m a little overwhelmed,” Tessa explained. “That’s all. I need some time to process it.”

  “Sure,” Ethan said.

  And Tessa fled, feeling the eyes of the men on her as she went. When she reached the stairwell, she heard Finn’s voice and felt her heart break all over again.

  “Got any scotch, Ethan?” he said, his voice heavy. “Because I’m going to need a drink.”

  “You and me both,” Ethan answered.