Excerpt: Fate of the Fae

My heart was trying to tell me something, but I refused to listen. She was such a whiny little bitch and I had better things to think about... such as where I was. It was so very annoying to wake up in a different bed than the one that you went to sleep in but I was getting used to it by now.
I rose and wrinkled my nose at the fact that I was naked, my swan-like wings folded at an odd angle as though I'd fallen asleep propped against something. This, too, was something that I was not going to become accustomed to because it was disgusting. I hated waking to wondering what I'd been doing. By now, though, it was such second nature that I shrugged it off and put on a robe beside the bed which I could only assume was meant for me as it was there and explored.
The room was full of someone's random clutter. Parts of a life which I would never share. Latent blue threads of power were woven through them and I relaxed. There wasn't red here, which meant I hadn't randomly fallen in love and forgotten to tell myself. Blue was just a hookup, a random moment in time. A funny thought as nothing was random in my world.
I went outside the room and peaked around. There were no windows but plenty of light from globes of spun sugar made to form like glass on the walls. I'd seen them before only in clans from the south and was glad to see that I was still among fae folk. The walls themselves were made from shaped limestone flecked with mica and that gave me pause. Only a few fae lived underground and they did so seasonally. I'd never been among a clan that practiced that particular tradition as most of the fae I'd lived with before had always been so busy fighting among themselves that stopping to work together even long enough to live was impossible. Only the strongest lived through the winter months. It made it so that babes and elders alike had to be hardy as sin to continue on and I'd always felt a kind of satisfaction to see the stronger silver threads of life emanating from those fae rather than the weak silver glows that had the impression that they could be fostered into a web of life. I should probably work on making my way out of here before I insulted someone.
Funny how I still gave a damn about that. It made no sense to, yet I still cared.
Shaking my head, I went down the stairs after using the chamber pot and found myself in another stone room. This one was open and contained several other rooms in a general area so one could cook, eat, and play comfortably in the same space. There was a single fae man there eating a plate of melon pieces covered with honey. Upon seeing me, he smiled and rose to kiss my cheek, re-folding the sparrow wings on his back. I tensed but let him kiss me, not sure how to put him off and unwilling to because it led to tiring explanations that he'd probably not understand nor did she actually desire him to understand.
No one was meant to understand Fate. Not even Fate herself.
“Ara? Did you sleep well?” He had a hesitance to his voice that made me want to smack him. What had those idiots done with our body while I was away? They knew I hated that nickname. The last Fate born to our people had called us Arachne. I saw no reason not to lay claim to that name and take pride in it, but apparently my other selves thought differently.
“I slept fine, thank you very much. Did you?”
He seemed off put by something and awkwardly indicated that I should sit. He asked if I would like a plate like his and since I was hungry I agreed.
Silence accompanied the meal for several long moments as he watched me and picked at his partially eaten food. Finally he set aside the two straight pieces of wood he was using to eat with and clasped his fingers together, his elbows on the table. “Ara, is there something wrong? You're barely saying anything and you're not eating. Have I done something to offend you?”
I thought about my answer before I even opened my mouth. I could be perfectly honest and tell him that I had no idea where I was or why, but I disliked appearing weak. Perhaps one of my other selves did so at some point or another, but not I. “I guess I am simply tired. How long was I asleep?”
His smile turned soft. “Not long. We were up until the third morning bell.”
I fought not to visibly show my distaste. I really could do without knowing what the emotionally driven part of me did in her spare time because it was simply sordid. The spacey side of me was hardly better but at least she managed to sleep in her own bed. I gave the fae man a smile which I hoped was convincing and returned to my meal. I attempted to make some light conversation and he seemed to relax. He really must have no idea who I was.
“So what are your plans for the day?”
“I thought I told you last night that I'm on duty today. Have to run to market to stock the palace kitchens since it's the littlest royal's birthday today.”
“It must have slipped my mind.” I murmured distractedly, preoccupied by the gold thread that flared up around him. Duty, yes, but there was love for this family here, too. The only clan she knew of which would have those kind of responses among the threads of Fate while also being a clan which hid underground for the winter was the one led by Jeremiah and Breena. They had a twelve year old daughter by the name of Miri and were closely intertwined with Skye's clan as well as most of the natural world.
“Are you sure you don't want to come with me? I'd really love for you to see more of my world. I know it's hard to trust people that've taken you in, but can't you let up just a bit today?”
I blinked slowly, vague memories surfacing as though they were someone else's of wandering lost in the snow, knowing that I was needed somewhere and not knowing why. I collapsed and was found by a field mouse and the next thing I knew I was underground. Apparently I was known of because I'd wandered into different households a couple of times now and was greeted with wariness but also kindness. The fae here didn't know what to make of me and thought I was a little off but deemed me harmless.
I wanted to laugh until I couldn't breathe but that would hardly gain me anything. There were more important things to do... like examining the threads of this community.
“I shall come with you. It would be lovely to learn more of your clan.”
“Perfect. Then you can tell me if it's anything like yours.” There was a question in his gaze, a wondering if I would trust him. Or if he would trust me. Good. At least this was a newer relationship so I wouldn't get those annoying pangs in my chest when I left this one and severed our ties to him completely so I would not wake in his bed again.
“Perhaps.” I would not lie to him. Truth was usually the best method for me. Although a fair amount of my success also came from knowing when to withhold some of those truths.
He went back up the stairs and since his behavior told me to follow I did. He had a couple of clothes that looked like they'd fit me hung separate from his so I browsed through them, trying not to appear as though I had never seen them before. I settled on the least revealing one, a piece of extremely tightly woven fabric tied together at the front so it would not impede my wings as well as a pair of night-dark pants. He did not leave or stare at me so I steeled myself and stripped out of the robe to pull the clothes on as casually as I could. Both were cut to fit me perfectly and I fidgeted as I tried to adjust them.
A kiss on my forehead distracted me. “You look fine, Ara. I left your powders and such over by the mirror.” He walked to the other side of the room, taking his own clothes off. To hide my blush I went in the direction that he indicated and found a wooden desk decorated to look like a toadstool. It had a mirror on it that looked like glass but, upon further inspection, was actually spun sugar perfectly compressed to make a solid sheet. It was further proof that I was in Jer's kingdom because workmanship of this intricacy and quality would never be in a fae home elsewhere. At least, not commonly being used as furniture rather than prominently displayed as a treasure. Not many of the fae could lower themselves to using their art with someone else's, which was what had to have been done for the mirror alone.
I knelt on the pillow by the desk as the surface of it was low enough to comfortably reach from there and bit my lip. I could do very little with makeup and was always both impressed and repulsed when I woke to find myself wearing the more intricate combinations of color on my face that my other selves could manage. Hoping that I wouldn't alert the male to the fact that something wasn't right, I tapped some of the powders on my face that matched the color of it and then added some brown color to my lids. I put just the slightest bit of kohl on my lashes and some coral extract on my lips and called it done. I didn't notice much difference in the mirror, but it looked all right. Why my other aspects insisted on makeup I would never know because it just gave me something more to pretend to be competent at when it was my turn to have our eyes.
I took one of the strings and wrapped it around my fingers while I braided a single small section of hair at the top of my scalp. My skin looked night cooled even in the warm light of the room and my eyes were a pale blue. They were a bit overlarge and my mouth a little thin. I never liked having my hair down in any of my forms because the long hanks bothered us when they touched our back so we all kept it up the same way: a loose bun of sorts at the back with a long, thin, single braid descending down the middle of our forehead from the left side of our part. It was long enough to play with without reaching higher than our stomach and seemed to get in the way but we all liked it. It was a fashion statement we'd picked up from the last Fate, the woman who'd taught us and told us of our traditions. We didn't keep many of them but those that we did we did so as a unit. I always wondered about that.
“You ready?” He was dressed in light brown colors from the vest he wore without a shirt to the boots. I cursed myself for drifting off and smiled, nodding and letting him take my hand to pull me lightly to my feet.
“Thank you. Where are we going first?”
“Well, I thought that we'd start by heading to the herbalists, then maybe get some produce and grains. The chefs love to make their own bread freshly in their kitchens before the meal. Something about it tasting better still warm from the fire. Bread's bread to me but they take such pride in what they do that it'd be a shame to take that from them.” He grinned and looked to me, having led me to the door of his house. “You sure you want to come with me? I could leave you at home if you'd prefer.” His demeanor changed very slightly, became wistful. “Or are you going to leave again? I know the folk around here are all good people and would take good care of you if you wandered off again but I'd miss you if you were gone.”
“I try not to plan anything. It just makes it harder when plans change.” It wasn't an answer by any means but he seemed to accept it anyway, shaking off his melancholy mood to continue on his way.
The tunnels that he led me into were covered with lights and full of bustling crowds of fae. Some were pulling wagons full of produce, some led miniature horses doing the same, and others were propped upon boxes which had been left out to tell stories or play music for the crowd. I did not see anyone throwing any money to the entertainers but occasionally one would step down and be offered a snack from whoever happened to be nearby.
“Is today a market day?”
My companion looked at me oddly. “No, it's been like this everyday. I thought you wandered through here on your way to my home.”
“Well, I thought it was a market day then, too.” I tucked my wings closer and sighed, glad that there was dirt beneath my feet now. We'd stepped off of the main road and there were several plants scattered throughout. It looked as though they were stunted and not growing as well as they could have but were still hale enough to exist in general which was very interesting to me. I didn't know what kind of magic would have to be used in order to help anything grow down here but the fact that it existed filled me with an odd feeling. It centered in my chest and made it less tense but I didn't really understand it.
“Have you been okay? You're acting like a totally different person.”
I cursed inwardly, my head bobbing very slightly while I said the word in my head. Then I forced myself to smile up at him and tried to simper a bit the way I imagined the way that one of my other selves might. “I am just fine. Are you sure that you're okay?”
“It's just that you're acting so distant. Did I do something wrong? Yesterday I thought that we shared something really special and today it's like I'm talking to a stranger.” He drew me closer by the elbows under the shade of some plant or other, his gaze intent on mine. “Please. You're unlike anyone I've ever met, Ara. Don't turn me into a stranger.”
I tried to hide my wince with another smile. “You are no stranger to me.” Despite how much I wanted him to be. “I am the same person as I have always been.” True, that person was not who he had been with the day before or however long she had been with him but he did not need to know that. “I do not know if I can stay for as long as you might like, though. I am not the kind to sit and stay in one place nor am I meant to.”
He gently reached up to tug on my braid very lightly, almost teasingly. “I have you here now. That's enough for me.”
I knew he thought that he meant the words but even as he said them I could feel a red string trying to weave it's way from him to me. There wasn't enough here to actually bind us yet and I would not be bound to him by this. He, though, would be bound to me and would hurt when that thread was snapped. Or when he was ready to integrate it back into himself. Either way, this could only hurt him. I had to get out. Soon.
Suddenly I realized that he was waiting for another response from me and I really did not have anything to give him. It might have bothered my other selves to not be instantly accommodating but such thoughts of giving comfort to others and working through my insecurities in order to help others. However it didn't bother me in the slightest. As long as I didn't arouse too much suspicion or hurt our body I was fine.
“Do you? I am not so sure.” My braid slipped through his fingers as I pulled back. I was not going to be able to do this anymore. I keep backing up and ignore his calling my name as I lose myself in the crowd of fae that were going from place to place or crowded around different people. I pulled my wings in tight to my body so that no one would pull them accidentally and melted away. My smaller form was more practiced at running than his was at chasing and I made my way through the crowd with ease.
Once I was sure that I'd lost him I took a moment to look all around me. It was a fairly standard area of town and I was used to finding my way in unfamiliar places. Unsurprisingly I gravitated towards a library and nodded to one or two of the clerks randomly scattered throughout. As I was not looking to ask them questions or to destroy anything they continued about their business as though I were not there. I went to the section about the local history and started browsing through.
It took me barely ten minutes to confirm that I was indeed in the place where I thought I was. Most of the histories I barely glanced at since they were mostly useless faerie stories about humans and human technology. It made poisonously green threads dance before my eyes like lights and it gave me a headache to focus on it for too long. I flipped through several dozens of pages to find the particular history of the rulers here. There were several mentions of Skye and Sarah which made my brow raise. Skye used to belong to one of the most dangerous fae kingdoms before he'd met his mate, a woman with a unpredictable blend of healing and death magic that had taken the fae world by storm in rumors and stories. They took some time to come and visit in Jer's kingdom during the solstices and would be down here to visit in a few days if the calendar against the wall was correct.
Perhaps that was why I had been drawn here. It certainly could not have been so that I could meet the fae with the sparrow wings.
Although I was not precisely sure just how my presence here would do any good. Or any ill... perhaps I was led here to spread a little mayhem. I was always up for a bit of that where the threads needed to be cut. Perhaps even over zealously so... but no matter. When culling needed to occur, they would occur. It was the natural order of things and although the fae whose magic dealt with death and life could affect things on some scale my power could do so very much more.
There was only one of my kind in the world in any given century. Only one who could see and manipulate the threads of existence to keep the world in balance between the forces of the world and its magics. It is a power that my other selves do not and can not understand. Even I only barely understand and only I am actually willing to use our power for what it is meant for rather than playing only with the red strings or those that concern the possibilities of life, the fine purple tenuous threads that are the easiest to sever but the hardest to craft. Perhaps only I would actually be able to discover our real purpose in existence.
Getting excited now, I blinked.