Discovering Fae
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When your family comes from, basically, immortals, your family tree can get a little... confusing. So, Immail was created by the Unholy One. A few dozen demons later, Naz, well... Garloth was created. Immail gets Soul Bonded to a Celestial. One line of that union created my branch of the family tree, the royal line that rules the Sidhe. Another line created Rollie’s. Now, millions and millions of years later, here we were.

“I feel so... young,” Mal said, and I gave him a flat look.

“I’m younger than you are,” I said.

“Gods, I feel like I want to hit both of you now,” Rollie said, huffing. “Can we maybe move this along? Fae and I were in the middle of something.”

“No. You’re not hurting her anymore,” Mal said firmly.

“I told you there was a reason, Mal,” I said, and he lifted my arm up to show me the cut there.

“You’re bleeding,” he said aggressively.

“Apparently, I never would have been able to control my magic the way my mother does. Those methods don’t work for us,” I pointed between myself and Rollie. “The gatekeepers? Apparently, it’s safer for me to learn how to control the magic there. With them. I left too soon and now I’m apparently a danger to the... veil between realms?”

“That about sums it up,” Rollie shrugged.

“I’m sorry, what?” Naz asked, holding his hand up. “The veil? As in the veil that also separates us from the underworld?”

“The same,” Rollie nodded.

“What if that Celestial was right about Fae being involved in reviving Lucifer, only she had no idea?” Naz looked at Mal.

“Gods, they’re still on that?” Rollie laughed and shook his head. “And they sent someone to what? Scare you?”

“He tried to kill her,” Mal glared at Rollie.

“Unless it was... what do the humans call them?” Rollie looked at Naz and made a gesture like ‘big’ with his hands.

“I believe they would be archangels,” Naz rolled his eyes. “Humans are so tiny minded, it’s embarrassing.”

“Right. One of those. Unless they sent one of those there’s little chance he would have done much to Fae,” Rollie nodded. “Her instincts are too good to just be natural.”

“Oh no. What fresh level of weird have we gotten to?” I groaned.

“It’s Immail’s bloodline, Fae, not the end of the world,” Rollie rolled his eyes. “Haddie and I didn’t inherit that. We had to work at our skills in battle and, let me tell you, it sucked.”

“Wonderful. Oh!” I looked at Mal. “Apparently, the idea to replace a Null wouldn’t have worked anyhow because of my super great grandfather, so... Woo.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Naz tapped his tail against his ankles. “It makes sense that a Null wouldn’t be able to drain that. The source is too pure.”

“The Unholy One is, apparently, one of the first fae ever created by the great powers that be, and since his blood made Immail it kills Nulls,” I made a face. “I can’t freaking get rid of jack shit.”

“You aren’t looking at the full picture,” Rollie sighed. “Yes, you have a lot of crap on your shoulders, but you also have a lot on your side. You have people that support you, a Bond that makes you stronger than Haddie and I ever were combined, even your very nature. I mean, heavy duty demon bones in Celestial wings? The feathers are better than any armor or weapon a blacksmith could make. You have the battle ability of Immail, once you get over the fear of getting hit. You have both Celestial and demonic abilities, plus full and complete use of every element, including spirit. Given time and practice, you will be the most powerful being to ever walk the earth.”

“And that’s what I never wanted,” I pointed my sword at him, then gestured around the farm. “I want this.”

“And that, my dear cousin, is something I understand,” Rollie nodded. “The fighting and battles and ambition was more Haddie’s thing than mine. At least, that’s how it was later. At first, I didn’t know what I wanted, so I followed her lead. I always followed her lead.”

“Yes, it was quite annoying. I didn’t much like her. She assumed her ass was suited to the Infernal Throne simply because of her bloodline,” Naz scoffed and rolled his eyes. “That’s not how this throne works.”

“I know that now, but we didn’t know that then. If Haddie did, she didn’t believe it,” Rollie said and put his sword over his shoulder carefully. “But if Fae tried to claim it now, she’d be dead before she got to even look at it. Without her magic functioning properly, those Sins will eat her alive.”

“The Sins have yet to rise,” Naz shook his head. “They have grown complacent in the thousands of years since they last left the Pits.”

“Once she reaches the Demon Lands, they will,” Rollie said with certainty. “Which is why we were trying to force her magic into reacting so she can learn how the spirit works in her.”

“Is that safe?” Naz tilted his head to the side.

“I can absorb it before it gets too far out of hand,” he said.

“But not too much or it could be bad for you, too,” Naz pointed out.

“I’ve been draining it off into the farm,” he shrugged. “Fae’s magic is defensive, but only after she’s been hurt or her emotions are very strong. I can’t go the emotional route, but I can hurt her just enough to get the magic jump started.”

“I’m not letting you hurt her. I don’t care if you’re family, I will stick you,” Mal put me behind him.

“Are you sure about that?” Naz sucked in a breath quickly.

“I prefer her in one piece and not bleeding, yes. I’m quite sure,” Mal snapped.

“Okay,” Rollie shrugged and tossed his sword away. “This is easier, anyhow.”

I didn’t even get to process his words until after he blurred with movement and had Mal by the throat and a knife in his hand going right for his side.

“No!” I threw out a hand and Rollie dropped Mal and clamped down on my wrist.

“Let it through. It can’t show you if you don’t look at it,” he said and slammed his palm into my chest, driving the air from my lungs and sending me sliding backwards in the dirt about two feet. “You have to let it out.”

“Easy for you to say,” I gritted at the pain in my body.

“Look at your Bonded,” he said, grabbing my wrist and twisting it behind me painfully so I had to look at Mal, who was on his knees with the pain. “You are hurting him, Fae. Stop blocking it so you stop hurting him.”

“No!” I yelled and felt something snap like a stick in a quiet forest.

The pain instantly shifted from spikes of agony all over my body to a cooling, warming sensation, like a cool dip in the water on a hot summer day.

′The air. Twist it around your fingers and get him away from my Bonded.′

I’m not sure how, but I knew what it was talking about without having to think.

I could feel the air around me like a blanket of energy that was waiting to be used. No, not a blanket. It was more like individual threads. So many of them that it almost felt solid but slipped right through my mental fingers as I tried to feel it.

In my mind, I grabbed a handful, twisted them around my fingers, and gave them a bit of something that was sitting in a deep well in the very center of my being. When I did, it was like they lit up with energy, asking for a purpose. There was no hesitation between the thought of wanting everyone away from Mal but me, and the powerful wall of air that threw Rollie and Naz yards away.

I whined and fell to my knees, exhausted, and the threads faded from the live wires they had been back into the dormant threads they were in the beginning.

“Fae!” Mal groaned as he got up and came to my side and I flinched away from him.

“It’s safe,” Rollie called from where he had landed in a heap.

“You don’t need someone to tell you that you can touch me, Fae,” Mal said, taking my elbow and helping me to my shaky feet.

“I don’t want to hurt you anymore,” I muttered, too tired to put any vigor into my words.

“You could never hurt me,” he put his arm around my back, under my wings.

Naz came over and stood on my other side, helping support my weight as Rollie brought a log of firewood that had yet to be split for me to sit on.

“That was a good beginning,” he said, holding my wrist in his hand gently. “It doesn’t feel quite as wild as before.”

“Will it always feel like this?” I slumped into Mal’s side as he stood beside me to brace me up as my wings drooped towards the ground.

“No,” Rollie chuckled and mussed my hair, making me scowl at him. “Eventually, you’ll build up the right type of strength to do that on a much larger scale and without being left in a puddle.”

He held up his hand and the clear blue sky darkened as thick heavy clouds formed, the wind picked up, and lightning arced across the sky in an angry storm unlike any I’ve seen before. Just as easily, it dispersed, leaving the sky clear once again.

“Showoff,” Naz scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Always the showoff.”

“I like the recognition,” Rollie grinned and shrugged before walking to his house.

“Is there anything else I should know about that you might be keeping from me, Garloth?” I glared at Naz.

“There is a lot,” he looked back at me. “I’m not sure you can handle hearing anything I would have to say.”

With a snap of his tail, he stalked towards the house as Rollie emerged with a cup and an apple in his hands. He looked after Naz for a moment before coming over to hand me the cup.

“He’s angry with you,” Rollie observed as I drained it and traded it for the apple.

“So is Blaine, for the record,” Mal added.

“Who is that?” Rollie asked.

“Her hellhound,” came the really angry reply that made me want to cringe and hide under the haystack by the small barn.

Rollie stared at Blaine for a bit before he started laughing, doubling over and clutching his middle in hysterics. Blaine didn’t even look his way, but the fox at his feet bristled and launched at him, biting and ripping at his legs.

“Ben!” I shouted and jumped up, grabbing the angry fox around the middle and hauling him back, only for him to wiggle out of my arms and attack Rollie again, who was still laughing as he grabbed Ben by the scruff and pulled him off of his legs.

“There hasn’t been and alpha hound in... well, I don’t think there’s been an alpha hound ever,” he said and popped Ben on the nose. “Transform.”

Ben yelped as the body of a fox was replace by Ben and I slapped my hand over my eyes.

“Clothes!” I yelled.

“Come on, little fox. Let her get scolded properly. I think I might have something that will fit... mostly,” Rollie said, steering Ben to the house by the back of his neck.

Mal pushed me down to the log again and picked up the apple from where I dropped it on the ground, handing it back pointedly.

“First, you are reckless and stupid for running off like that,” he said, making me flinch a little at the hostility in his voice. “We agreed, before coming to the Sidhe, that you wouldn’t do that. I don’t care if you are this uber powerhouse of magic and wings, you promised you wouldn’t go off without protection.”

“You commanded me when you said you wouldn’t,” Blaine crossed his arms. “It’s your right, as my master, but I thought you were more than that, Fae.”

Gods, I felt tiny and ashamed of myself with every word they said.

“I’m sorry,” I looked at the dirt and slumped further. “I just... I can’t... I killed so many people and it was so easy, it scares me. I have no idea what I can do or how to control it. I just wanted to be rid of it. I don’t want to be a monster and that’s exactly what it feels like the more I replace out about myself.”

“You aren’t a monster,” Mal snapped. “Monsters have no conscious, no remorse, no lines that they wouldn’t cross. They don’t stop to think about keeping the people they care about safe, because they don’t care about anyone but themselves. Monsters wouldn’t have blinked at the things they do, either.”

“I understand,” Blaine sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. “I know what it’s like to fear the things you’re capable of. But the next time you command me about something stupid like that, I’ll break the contract between us.”

“I’m sorry, Blaine,” I hunched into myself some more.

“I’m hungry,” Blaine grunted and went to the house, leaving me with Mal.

“That was by far the dumbest thing you have ever done, Fae,” he said and crouched in front of me, his hands on my knees. “The Sidhe is already dangerous enough, but now there are things coming specifically for you. I don’t care if you end up freaking immortal, I have to keep you safe. Do you understand?”

I nodded and dragged my toe around in the dirt between us.

“Please, don’t leave me again,” he cupped my cheek and leaned in to put our foreheads together, forcing me to look up.

I shook my head, and he kissed me softly before standing up on his knees and hugging me.

“Lift those wings up, Fae. They’re too beautiful to be on the ground,” he said in my ear, and I smiled as he lifted a little bit.

“Need some help there, Tinkerbell?” I joked when he grunted softly with effort.

“That would be nice, Tweety Bird,” he grinned, winking at me.

“That Puddy Tat is in serious trouble,” I laughed.