Chapter 4
By: Jaimi
Co-written By: Nevermore
Authors Note: Another huge Thank You to Nevermore for not only Beta Reading this, but also helping me add more to it. I've run into some serious writers block and Norm has really helped me out, adding to the plot and stuff. Please R&R and tell us what you think.
****************************************************************************
Trance woke with a start, and was alarmed to find someone in her room. After a moment, however, she relaxed. She had forgotten the unnecessary luxuries of the palace, of having someone wait on her and clean up after her. Her face wrinkled up in a grimace as memories of servants flooded her mind. She hated being looked after. Before she had left her father had finally relented and told the help to let her do things on her own if she wished. Over the intervening years he had apparently either forgotten, or found new servants that did not know about Trance's well-developed sense of independence. It was probably a combination of both.
"Excuse me," she said gently, speaking to the female from outlined by the hazy light of the rising sun, "but you don't need to worry about that, thank you. I'll take care of it."
"Oh, but Mistress, it is what I do," an unfamiliar voice replied. Just like I thought, Trance concluded, she's new.
"I know, I know," Trance quickly assured the flustered female Firestarter. "It's just that I prefer to look after myself, if you don't mind..."
"But it is what I do for this time," she repeated.
"Well, umm.... Why don't you take a break then and consider the time you're supposed to be in here as extra time for yourself?"
"But his Highness..."
"You let me worry about that. Now go on and relax for a bit."
"Yes, Mistress."
Trance smiled at the servant before climbing off her bed, and sighed in relief as she heard the door shut. Her relief was short-lived, however, as a loud knock sounded at the door. Groaning, Trance went to the door, swinging it open. She was dismayed to see her father standing there. She merely nodded before turning back into her room, not bothering to invite him in. He would take care of that himself. After all, kings did not deign to wait for permission to enter anyone's room.
"Welcome home," he said evenly. Trance shot him a withering look before returning to her earlier perch on the windowsill. "We are going to try once more to be pleasant, daughter," he continued in his monotone voice. "You had best respond properly to it; we will not tolerate your rudeness. Those thrice-damned humans have corrupted you. Even more rebellious then before you left. We never should have let you go."
"That's you trying once more to be pleasant?" Trance asked, wondering if her father had the slightest clue how cold and uninterested his voice sounded. Even Tyr, at his worst, sounded more pleasant. "Well how do you do, too, father?"
"Blast it child, you are an ungrateful one aren't you? What is it you want from me?"
"I simply want you to sound like you care whether I am here or not," Trance suggested, bringing up the one thing that bothered her more than any other. Perhaps if her father began to display some semblance of tenderness she would then address the rest of her laundry list of complaints.
"You should know that we care," her father answered. "It is you that has been indifferent. Remember that you are the one that left us, child. You felt the need to abandon your own people and associate with the mortals. And of all the species to fraternize with, you chose the humans. I would have thought we had taught you greater respect for your heritage... for your family."
"No, you aren't my family," Trance shot back, speaking before she took the time to think about what she was saying. "The people you forced me away from... they're my real family now." She almost gasped at the sound of the words escaping her lips. She had never known herself to be so cruel to anyone, especially her own father. To her surprise, though, and her disappointment, her father never batted an eyelash. He simply stood in impassive silence for several moments, betraying no sign of what he was thinking or whether or not he was going to respond.
"What?" he finally asked. "I am truly disappointed to hear you speak that way. Do you not know that you are far better than these friends of yours, daughter? You are not of their pitiful mortal bloodlines. They are nothing to you. There is not even a chance of ancestry, for all the fairies that defied the circle were banished and made mortal almost 10,000 years ago. Their offspring were made sterile. These are true humans that you claim to hold as dear as family. Do you know how that sounds?"
"I may not be blood-related to them, but I love them," Trance shot back, this time knowing exactly what she was saying. She was suddenly reminded of why she had left her home in the first place - the constant fighting with her father, the insatiable thirst to see how others lived, and the longing to find someone... anyone... that could ever truly understand her. "My friends and I love each other, we look out for each other, and we are there for each other through everything. Family goes so much deeper than blood, father, but you wouldn't know about that now would you."
"Mind your tongue child," the king stated. His voice held the air of authority, just as it always had in the past when Trance began to push too hard. "Remember that I am your father."
"You are the one that gave me life, yes, but that is all," Trance shot back venomously. Once again her mouth began to speak more quickly than she could think, and part of wondered where she had learned to be so cruel. "You don't care about me, father, and I really don't think you ever did. All that matters to you is that you look good, you remain powerful, and you marry me off to some good prospect of a husband to help expand your family's reign over this planet. I swear that sometimes I think you had me just so you had something to compete against the southern king's daughter. For a sophisticated race, you sure are petty. And you have the nerve to criticize the humans..."
If the pattern of Trance's argument with her father had seemed overly familiar, its ultimate outcome did not. She never saw it coming as her father's hand streaked through the air and slapped her. Hard. Perhaps the worst part of the whole scene was that when her mind had finally caught up with what she had said, she could hardly blame him. Trance truly felt she had deserved it. Trance's only real reaction was to reel back in shocked surprise, holding her hand to her face. Her father was seething as he pointed a finger at her. He made to say something, but with a shake of his head, he walked away, blue tail lashing behind him.
As the door slammed shut, she winced. She should not have said that, and she knew it. Trance's heart ached with the guilt of what she had said, but at the same time she was so angry about what her father had done. It was not simply the fact that her father treated either as a trophy or as a child, seeming to alternate between the two on an hourly basis. It was so much more, though she knew it all came down to the provincial attitude of her people, an attitude her father not only shared, but encouraged. It was what kept the faeries apart from the humans, and thus what kept her apart from Harper.
She took a deep breath and, still holding her hand to her cheek, she eased the sting and cleared the offending bruise that had formed. Damn that had hurt, more emotionally than physically. To some degree, Trance had always been at odds with her parents, especially her father, but they had never struck her before.
She was not surprised to hear another, softer knock at her door only moments later. She knew who it was. "Come in, Mother." At least she has the good taste to wait until being invited, Trance mused. Then again, she always had a bit too much taste.
The door opened, revealing Trance's elegant, graceful mother. She was a pink dreamer, a flier and every bit as beautiful as the Queen of the North was expected to be. Her mother offered a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
"Hello dear, it is good to have you home. Perfect timing too. Your father has chosen a husband for you. I think you will be pleased. You remember Randex, don't you? That gifted Firestarter from the Flint family? He really is an excellent teacher and a very nice young man."
Trance stared at her mother in disbelief. She had not been home more than two hours and already there was talk of her marrying... Randex? She groaned inwardly. He was such an arrogant, pompous... What would Harper say? ...jackass. Yes, that was right.
"But we can discuss that all later," her mother continued, seemingly oblivious to the reaction that Trance had felt she had displayed plainly enough. "My how pretty you are, even more so than when I last saw you. No wonder all these young suitors have asked for your hand."
"Hmph, I highly doubt my beauty is the reason for their interest, mother," Trance commented as she turned to look back out the window at the beautiful green landscape. "They all just want to have the small kingdom that comes as a benefit of taking me off father's hands."
"Oh dear, that is inevitable," her mother replied in an apologetic tone. Is she apologizing for the situation or the unabashed greed of these guys? Trance wondered. "But look what good it will do for you. Why, all the rest of the ladies are decidedly jealous of your beauty. Just the other day, Floreda overheard Helesa saying how you were so lovely, and it put quite a damper on her sister's daughter who..."
Trance sighed, and attempted to tune her mother out. She had heard this all before. Her father had always seemed to live for political power, while her mother focused her life on gaining social stature. Trance fought hard to remind herself that not all of her people were so shallow. Some held on to the ways that had existed millennia earlier, when the faeries were still united with humans on Earth. Trance could always tell these keepers of the old ways on sight - they were simply more grounded, somehow. Just as humans still lived, these faeries concerned themselves with more than gratifying their urges for acquisition, and instead lived in harmony with each other and their world, as they had once taught the humans to do so long before.
Now that it was just the fairies on their new world, and they had no outside interest, things had turned for the worse. Their innate talents provided for all of their material needs, so most of her people relied on petty, material interests to occupy their increasingly narrowed minds. Trance had not been alive during the times with humans, but she had heard the tales, and it made her ache for the reunion of human and fairies. They completed each other, somehow... they needed each other.
"Anyway, come along now dear," her mother said, causing Trance to leave her reverie behind and drift back into the conversation. "I came here to bring you with me to meet with Randex and his family. He is positively about to burst. He was so thrilled to meet your father's approval."
"I'll bet he was," Trance mumbled.
Her mother smiled tightly. "Come dear, I do not want to be late."
Trance did not try to disguise her aggravation as she outwardly groaned. She did not want to anger her parents any more though, if she was to get what she wanted. She stood up and reluctantly started to head out the door.
"Where are you going?" her mother asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
"I thought you wanted to go meet with Randex and his family," Trance answered, as if the answer should have been obvious.
"I do, but you are not going in that are you?" The tone of her mother's voice made it obvious that 'No' was the only acceptable response.
Trance glanced down at the cargo pants and blue sweater top she was wearing, a favored ensemble she had bought during her time with Beka when they dealt with Sam Profit.
"What's wrong with it?" Trance asked, though she already knew the answer. The same part of her that had caused her to lash out at her father's small-mindedness now made her challenge her mother's overdeveloped sense of etiquette.
This time it was her mother's turn to groan. "Oh dear, not only your attitude, they have also ruined your elegant dress sense," the woman lamented. She stood and walked to Trance's large wardrobe, and rifled through it for several minutes before pulling out a simple, but elegant, blue dress. She held it out to her. "Here child, wear this."
Trance stared at it for a moment, finally snatching it from her mother's grasp. She then walked behind her folding change room and slipped it on.
"There," she said, re-emerging. "Can we go now?"
"Hmmm." Her mother reached forward, removing Trance's hair clips, and letting her hair fall loose to frame her face. She then ran her fingers through it, styling it with practiced ease. "There, now we can go. Deny it all you wish, my daughter, but I know deep down inside you'll just love Randex. I think it will most certainly be love at first sight for the both of you."
Rolling her eyes, Trance turned and stormed out of her room. Her mother followed at a smoother pace, ever graceful, humming a pleasant tune that caused Trance's nerves to become even more thoroughly frayed.
More coming....eventually.
Jaimi Copyright@2001
By: Jaimi
Co-written By: Nevermore
Authors Note: Another huge Thank You to Nevermore for not only Beta Reading this, but also helping me add more to it. I've run into some serious writers block and Norm has really helped me out, adding to the plot and stuff. Please R&R and tell us what you think.
****************************************************************************
Trance woke with a start, and was alarmed to find someone in her room. After a moment, however, she relaxed. She had forgotten the unnecessary luxuries of the palace, of having someone wait on her and clean up after her. Her face wrinkled up in a grimace as memories of servants flooded her mind. She hated being looked after. Before she had left her father had finally relented and told the help to let her do things on her own if she wished. Over the intervening years he had apparently either forgotten, or found new servants that did not know about Trance's well-developed sense of independence. It was probably a combination of both.
"Excuse me," she said gently, speaking to the female from outlined by the hazy light of the rising sun, "but you don't need to worry about that, thank you. I'll take care of it."
"Oh, but Mistress, it is what I do," an unfamiliar voice replied. Just like I thought, Trance concluded, she's new.
"I know, I know," Trance quickly assured the flustered female Firestarter. "It's just that I prefer to look after myself, if you don't mind..."
"But it is what I do for this time," she repeated.
"Well, umm.... Why don't you take a break then and consider the time you're supposed to be in here as extra time for yourself?"
"But his Highness..."
"You let me worry about that. Now go on and relax for a bit."
"Yes, Mistress."
Trance smiled at the servant before climbing off her bed, and sighed in relief as she heard the door shut. Her relief was short-lived, however, as a loud knock sounded at the door. Groaning, Trance went to the door, swinging it open. She was dismayed to see her father standing there. She merely nodded before turning back into her room, not bothering to invite him in. He would take care of that himself. After all, kings did not deign to wait for permission to enter anyone's room.
"Welcome home," he said evenly. Trance shot him a withering look before returning to her earlier perch on the windowsill. "We are going to try once more to be pleasant, daughter," he continued in his monotone voice. "You had best respond properly to it; we will not tolerate your rudeness. Those thrice-damned humans have corrupted you. Even more rebellious then before you left. We never should have let you go."
"That's you trying once more to be pleasant?" Trance asked, wondering if her father had the slightest clue how cold and uninterested his voice sounded. Even Tyr, at his worst, sounded more pleasant. "Well how do you do, too, father?"
"Blast it child, you are an ungrateful one aren't you? What is it you want from me?"
"I simply want you to sound like you care whether I am here or not," Trance suggested, bringing up the one thing that bothered her more than any other. Perhaps if her father began to display some semblance of tenderness she would then address the rest of her laundry list of complaints.
"You should know that we care," her father answered. "It is you that has been indifferent. Remember that you are the one that left us, child. You felt the need to abandon your own people and associate with the mortals. And of all the species to fraternize with, you chose the humans. I would have thought we had taught you greater respect for your heritage... for your family."
"No, you aren't my family," Trance shot back, speaking before she took the time to think about what she was saying. "The people you forced me away from... they're my real family now." She almost gasped at the sound of the words escaping her lips. She had never known herself to be so cruel to anyone, especially her own father. To her surprise, though, and her disappointment, her father never batted an eyelash. He simply stood in impassive silence for several moments, betraying no sign of what he was thinking or whether or not he was going to respond.
"What?" he finally asked. "I am truly disappointed to hear you speak that way. Do you not know that you are far better than these friends of yours, daughter? You are not of their pitiful mortal bloodlines. They are nothing to you. There is not even a chance of ancestry, for all the fairies that defied the circle were banished and made mortal almost 10,000 years ago. Their offspring were made sterile. These are true humans that you claim to hold as dear as family. Do you know how that sounds?"
"I may not be blood-related to them, but I love them," Trance shot back, this time knowing exactly what she was saying. She was suddenly reminded of why she had left her home in the first place - the constant fighting with her father, the insatiable thirst to see how others lived, and the longing to find someone... anyone... that could ever truly understand her. "My friends and I love each other, we look out for each other, and we are there for each other through everything. Family goes so much deeper than blood, father, but you wouldn't know about that now would you."
"Mind your tongue child," the king stated. His voice held the air of authority, just as it always had in the past when Trance began to push too hard. "Remember that I am your father."
"You are the one that gave me life, yes, but that is all," Trance shot back venomously. Once again her mouth began to speak more quickly than she could think, and part of wondered where she had learned to be so cruel. "You don't care about me, father, and I really don't think you ever did. All that matters to you is that you look good, you remain powerful, and you marry me off to some good prospect of a husband to help expand your family's reign over this planet. I swear that sometimes I think you had me just so you had something to compete against the southern king's daughter. For a sophisticated race, you sure are petty. And you have the nerve to criticize the humans..."
If the pattern of Trance's argument with her father had seemed overly familiar, its ultimate outcome did not. She never saw it coming as her father's hand streaked through the air and slapped her. Hard. Perhaps the worst part of the whole scene was that when her mind had finally caught up with what she had said, she could hardly blame him. Trance truly felt she had deserved it. Trance's only real reaction was to reel back in shocked surprise, holding her hand to her face. Her father was seething as he pointed a finger at her. He made to say something, but with a shake of his head, he walked away, blue tail lashing behind him.
As the door slammed shut, she winced. She should not have said that, and she knew it. Trance's heart ached with the guilt of what she had said, but at the same time she was so angry about what her father had done. It was not simply the fact that her father treated either as a trophy or as a child, seeming to alternate between the two on an hourly basis. It was so much more, though she knew it all came down to the provincial attitude of her people, an attitude her father not only shared, but encouraged. It was what kept the faeries apart from the humans, and thus what kept her apart from Harper.
She took a deep breath and, still holding her hand to her cheek, she eased the sting and cleared the offending bruise that had formed. Damn that had hurt, more emotionally than physically. To some degree, Trance had always been at odds with her parents, especially her father, but they had never struck her before.
She was not surprised to hear another, softer knock at her door only moments later. She knew who it was. "Come in, Mother." At least she has the good taste to wait until being invited, Trance mused. Then again, she always had a bit too much taste.
The door opened, revealing Trance's elegant, graceful mother. She was a pink dreamer, a flier and every bit as beautiful as the Queen of the North was expected to be. Her mother offered a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
"Hello dear, it is good to have you home. Perfect timing too. Your father has chosen a husband for you. I think you will be pleased. You remember Randex, don't you? That gifted Firestarter from the Flint family? He really is an excellent teacher and a very nice young man."
Trance stared at her mother in disbelief. She had not been home more than two hours and already there was talk of her marrying... Randex? She groaned inwardly. He was such an arrogant, pompous... What would Harper say? ...jackass. Yes, that was right.
"But we can discuss that all later," her mother continued, seemingly oblivious to the reaction that Trance had felt she had displayed plainly enough. "My how pretty you are, even more so than when I last saw you. No wonder all these young suitors have asked for your hand."
"Hmph, I highly doubt my beauty is the reason for their interest, mother," Trance commented as she turned to look back out the window at the beautiful green landscape. "They all just want to have the small kingdom that comes as a benefit of taking me off father's hands."
"Oh dear, that is inevitable," her mother replied in an apologetic tone. Is she apologizing for the situation or the unabashed greed of these guys? Trance wondered. "But look what good it will do for you. Why, all the rest of the ladies are decidedly jealous of your beauty. Just the other day, Floreda overheard Helesa saying how you were so lovely, and it put quite a damper on her sister's daughter who..."
Trance sighed, and attempted to tune her mother out. She had heard this all before. Her father had always seemed to live for political power, while her mother focused her life on gaining social stature. Trance fought hard to remind herself that not all of her people were so shallow. Some held on to the ways that had existed millennia earlier, when the faeries were still united with humans on Earth. Trance could always tell these keepers of the old ways on sight - they were simply more grounded, somehow. Just as humans still lived, these faeries concerned themselves with more than gratifying their urges for acquisition, and instead lived in harmony with each other and their world, as they had once taught the humans to do so long before.
Now that it was just the fairies on their new world, and they had no outside interest, things had turned for the worse. Their innate talents provided for all of their material needs, so most of her people relied on petty, material interests to occupy their increasingly narrowed minds. Trance had not been alive during the times with humans, but she had heard the tales, and it made her ache for the reunion of human and fairies. They completed each other, somehow... they needed each other.
"Anyway, come along now dear," her mother said, causing Trance to leave her reverie behind and drift back into the conversation. "I came here to bring you with me to meet with Randex and his family. He is positively about to burst. He was so thrilled to meet your father's approval."
"I'll bet he was," Trance mumbled.
Her mother smiled tightly. "Come dear, I do not want to be late."
Trance did not try to disguise her aggravation as she outwardly groaned. She did not want to anger her parents any more though, if she was to get what she wanted. She stood up and reluctantly started to head out the door.
"Where are you going?" her mother asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
"I thought you wanted to go meet with Randex and his family," Trance answered, as if the answer should have been obvious.
"I do, but you are not going in that are you?" The tone of her mother's voice made it obvious that 'No' was the only acceptable response.
Trance glanced down at the cargo pants and blue sweater top she was wearing, a favored ensemble she had bought during her time with Beka when they dealt with Sam Profit.
"What's wrong with it?" Trance asked, though she already knew the answer. The same part of her that had caused her to lash out at her father's small-mindedness now made her challenge her mother's overdeveloped sense of etiquette.
This time it was her mother's turn to groan. "Oh dear, not only your attitude, they have also ruined your elegant dress sense," the woman lamented. She stood and walked to Trance's large wardrobe, and rifled through it for several minutes before pulling out a simple, but elegant, blue dress. She held it out to her. "Here child, wear this."
Trance stared at it for a moment, finally snatching it from her mother's grasp. She then walked behind her folding change room and slipped it on.
"There," she said, re-emerging. "Can we go now?"
"Hmmm." Her mother reached forward, removing Trance's hair clips, and letting her hair fall loose to frame her face. She then ran her fingers through it, styling it with practiced ease. "There, now we can go. Deny it all you wish, my daughter, but I know deep down inside you'll just love Randex. I think it will most certainly be love at first sight for the both of you."
Rolling her eyes, Trance turned and stormed out of her room. Her mother followed at a smoother pace, ever graceful, humming a pleasant tune that caused Trance's nerves to become even more thoroughly frayed.
More coming....eventually.
Jaimi Copyright@2001
