"Aline, focus," Kaelin scolded me, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. I wasn't sure what exactly was prompting me to dismiss everything he was trying to teach me. Perhaps it was the curious desire to see how a water fae reacted whenever they were pushed to the limits. Or it could have had something to do with the fact that I didn't see the need to figure out how to control water as easily as he did. I mean, I had other options. It wasn't like I needed my faerie powers. I had gotten along just fine without them until this point.
"Sire," Nahla ventured hesitantly. He turned to her with a frown.
"I've told you before, Nahla, call me Kaelin. You're my daughter's godmother. There's no need for formalities."
"Kaelin," she nodded lightly, "perhaps you should try a different means of provocation."
"Such as?"
"May I?"
"By all means." He stepped aside, allowing the tall, slender woman into the designated training area. She studied me for a few moments, her head tilted to the side. I frowned at her. What was she planning? Before I could formulate a possible answer, she had changed her form. Instead she was a living, breathing replica of Debbie. Debbie's familiar dark smirk spread over my faerie godmother's face.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I questioned, disdain tangible in my voice.
"An experiment," was her simple answer before she charged at me, throwing her weight against mine. Nahla and Debbie both had a good five inches on me—and at least twenty pounds. So I found myself on the ground rather easily. Nahla's hand was hovering at my throat, the cold chill of ice threatening to freeze my blood on the spot. Kaelin was holding his breath, hand on his sword as if he were ready to step in if necessary. But my godmother pulled her hand away, standing up and pulling me to my feet. "We do not play nicely, Aline," she warned me, holding on to my hand tightly. "They will try to catch you off guard and end you as quickly as possible. Do not trust your eyes."
"Then how am I supposed to see?"
"Feel who is around you." I looked at her doubtfully but did as she suggested, reaching out with my mind. When I did so, her disguise dropped. "We cannot alter our shapes physically as much as a skinwalker could. Ours is entirely within the mind." She tapped her temple for emphasis. "We can make the inexperienced see and hear whatever we want. We can be whoever we want. But only if you allow us to be. You are not human, but you have some very human notions about you. It would be best, if only for the time being, that you forget about those."
"I believe that's enough, Nahla," Kaelin said firmly, stepping into the training area to place a protective hand upon my shoulder. I resisted the urge to shrug off the contact. She looked at him, on the verge of disagreeing, before nodding. "I believe Aline is in need of a break?"
"And a few answers," I grumbled. Not knowing things ahead of time was starting to wear on my nerves. It made me want to smack all of them. Rather badly, I may add. He patted me on the shoulder before leading us away from the training area. I followed with my arms crossed, glaring daggers at the two faeries in front of me. Nahla was talking in hushed tones with him, arguing against something he was firmly set in. Apparently dropping the formalities was the only encouragement she needed for the beginnings of an outright mutiny.
By the time we had returned to the castle, dusk had fallen. "Are you hungry?" Kaelin asked, throwing a glance over his shoulder at me. I shook my head 'no.' Eating would only waste time and slow me down. Besides, for all I know, they could be up here eating infant babies or something like that. And I've always had a 'no eating other people' policy in place. They're too…dirty. Kaeline didn't press the matter, dismissing Nahla, and continuing with me to a part of the castle I had never been to before. "These are the royal sleeping quarters. You have your own room across the hall from mine."
I shot him a quizzical glance.
"You have always had a place here, Aline. Your mother thought it would be best if you remained in the mortal realm."
"You didn't?" I questioned, studying his reaction.
"No, I didn't," he replied quietly. "Not because I thought we might need you in times of war. But because you are my daughter. You belong in this realm."
"I'm Jackson Herveaux's daughter," I narrowed my eyes at him. "And I belong in the 'mortal realm' with him. And Alcide, Godric, Eric—hell, even Pam. I certainly do not belong here."
"You are your mother's daughter," he replied simply, kissing me on the forehead before retiring to his chamber. I stared after him for a minute, digesting what had happened today. With a final shake of my head, I turned and went into my own room. It was a rather beautiful room, I admitted silently. Of course I would never let on that I liked it. But it was decorated in many shades of blue—the royal blue the nobles wore right down to shades that matched Kaelin's eyes—and silver. It had always made me curious as to why silver had never had any effect on me. Silver could be deadly to weres. Even vampires. But I suppose that my fae heritage thwarted that gene.
The décor itself appeared to be from medieval times. I found this both pleasing and annoying. Medieval was beginning to become overplayed. It was often a way for decorators to appear knowledgeable while having the luxury of also being lazy. There wasn't much to learning about Renaissance décor. Decorators who repeated medieval styles over and over and over again are one of my pet peeves.
I opened the closet, finding a barrage of royal blue ensembles. Most were accented with lighter shades of blue and silver, just as my room was. I wrinkled my nose. The chameleon effect wasn't what I was going for. I began to dig until I found a small selection of mainly silver and white garments. Selecting the one that I assumed was designed for sleeping, I hesitantly put it on. It fit perfectly as if it were tailored to my body.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in," I called, admiring the effect it had on my body. Perhaps I would have to get some custom dresses designed once I returned home.
"Excuse me," a male fae bowed as he let himself in. He didn't go any further than behind the closed door. "I was not aware that you were getting ready to sleep."
"It's fine," I smiled. "I don't sleep much."
"The King suggested that I should come to introduce myself. My name is Bahari." I studied him. He was tall—as were most of the water fae, I was noticing. He was handsome in the way that all fae are handsome. Well sculpted features, aqua blue eyes, curly black hair, and overly attentive to me. It was both unnerving and flattering, this unwavering attention they had. Almost as if I were speaking the most interesting thing in the world. He also wore the garb strictly prohibited to nobility.
"It's nice to meet you, Bahari, I'm Aline."
"I know," he grinned. "Your father has been talking about you nonstop since Nahla has been coming to your realm to speak to you."
Instead of arguing, I was intrigued. "Has he?"
"He has. You are far prettier than I imagined," he said simply. "When he said that you were half werewolf, I expected—"
"Someone a little more savage?"
"Forgive me, I did not mean to be disrespectful."
"Everyone expects us to be barbarians," I laughed. "But we aren't all savages." I shot him an amused smile. "For a fae, you aren't too bad."
"You aren't so bad for a werewolf," he winked.
"What do you guys eat around here?"
He gave me a curious glance. "Typical things that are found in the mortal realm. We also have fruits and such that are native only to this realm." His speech paused as he studied me. "Are you planning to remain in our realm?"
"No," I said firmly. "I have people and things to return to."
"I'll be right back." Before I could argue, he was gone. I'm going to spend most of my time here staring after people in confusion. That irritated me. Pushing that to the side, I walked over to the fully stocked bookshelf against the wall. The fae apparently believe in being well read. Well that explains where I get that from. Jackson and Alcide have both found my fondness for books troublesome more than anything. Werewolves (especially the male ones) seem hell bent on simply taking action without ever bothering to obtain proper knowledge of a situation. It means that, more often than not, they end up in a whole heap of trouble. But then what's my excuse? I take the time to learn and I still get in trouble. …Okay, I usually take the time to learn.
There was a sharp knock at the door before Bahari let himself in. "I've brought you some food. I hope that you like it," he added nervously. He took the tray over to the small table in the far left corner of the room. Each room here was more like a mini apartment than a bedroom, I noted.
"Thank you," I nodded eagerly, taking a seat. He hovered awkwardly. "I can't eat all of this by myself. You'll have to help me." He gave a thankful smile before bowing into the chair.
"Princess—"
"Whoa, hey. Don't even go there buddy. My name is Aline. I'm nobody's fucking princess."
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to offend you—"
"No, I'm sorry. You all seem deadest on formalities." I offered a wolfish grin. "And I most certainly am not. Besides, I don't feel right even claiming any seat of power here. I'm the new girl in town. It's not like I'll really have a lot of pull where it counts."
"For the record, we don't really have towns, Miss Aline." I gave him a warning look. "Aline," he consented. "They're more like sectors."
"Sectors? How many of them are there?"
"One for each element: Sky, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. Typically only four are recognized, however. Those are the Sky—or air—Water, Fire, and Earth. We are the water fae, as I'm sure you've very well discovered by now. Maab and her kingdom are the sky fae. They have dominion over lightning. Damek rules over the earth domain. They typically rule over the very ground beneath us. Earthquakes are rather common there. It's why their live in the mountains," he pointed outside toward some rather ominous looking mountains. "And Seraphina is in charge of the fire kingdom."
"Are they allied with one another?"
"Usually we keep to ourselves. Sometimes warring simply to make points." He shook his head. "I always try to stay out of that. But it's hard to avoid when there are under a thousand of us in one realm. That's the funny thing. We don't actually die when we war with one another. Instead we merely injure one another badly enough to leave scars and leave it at that. As for the present time, however, Maab is the only one that stands alone if that is your question." I nodded. "Seraphina and Damek have both pledged the loyalties of their kingdoms. The Kingdom of Wood, a secondary kingdom, is within Damek's territory so they have pledged their loyalty as well. The Kingdom of Metal is in Maab's territory. They have offered a secret alliance but they can only do so much without her finding out."
"Then why is it so hard to overthrow Maab?"
"Because she outranks us on a technicality." I raised my eyebrows at him. "She is the eldest child of Mother."
"Mother?"
"The Goddess—Mother Earth," he waved his hand. "She has gone by many names over the centuries. But she created the fae to help humans survive her own elements. Until the vampires nearly drove us to extinction. Then we were allowed a realm entirely of our own. We could prosper here and remain rather happy but we seem to have stumbled on a small snag in the area of repopulation."
I gave him a curious look, causing him to shift uncomfortably.
"Most of our women have lost fertility. Those who can conceive are of great value to us. But they typically cannot carry a full term without some horrible mishap. That is why Maab wishes to gather those in possession of faerie blood in your realm and to trap them here."
"You don't agree with her?"
"She wishes to trap all of us here. The portals that bridge your world to ours and vice versa would be forever severed." A wry smile crossed his lips. "We would only ever see each other for the rest of our lives."
"That would drive me insane," I frowned. "How does she expect to keep the ones from my realm here?"
"There are certain items native only to our realm that, when ingested, will forever bind your physical being to this plane. Leaving this plane after ingesting it will destroy you. Literally. I've seen it happen a few times." A faraway look filled Bahari's eyes. "That is why I questioned whether you would be residing here permanently or temporarily."
"Was Kaelin planning to—?"
"No. The King would never force you into anything against your will. Perhaps he would have before your creation. But, now, he has a rather whimsical notion of mortals."
"I think I'm flattered. I expect that it was my mother's doing?"
"And a bit of your own. He's been watching you grow up." I gave him a look of intrigue.
"How?"
He stood, offering me his hand. "Come, I'll show you."
Usually I thank everybody in a little bit of a hodgepodge statement-but because so many of you had inquiries, I'll take the time to answer and thank you individually.
treewitch703—as far as I know, I haven't seen lakes quite like this before. I could be wrong. But I just took the idea of the lakes in the True Blood series and ran with it. ozlady80—yes! Michael is the archangel of war. Good literary catch. :)
Jupiter Water Goddess—I'm glad that you liked that line. And there should be some Godric coming up soon!
OrangePlasticGummyBear—thank you so much!
Andddddd (as always) thank you to the people who have favorited and subscribed to the Veldt!
~Lynn
Oh, one more thing. I wanted to share a little bit of where I got the title from last chapter-but I forgot. Oh the woes of a short attention span in the middle of a busy summer, no? Ha. Anyway I got the title while I was driving incidentally enough. It's the title of a song by one of my favorite musicians. (As of late anyway. I have a new favorite just about every Tuesday. But I've been stuck on this one for awhile.) His name is Sims and he's an MC/hip-hop artist hailing from the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. And listening to him on my drive in to work the one day just caused these little gears to click into my head: Aline would more than likely be a rather large fan of Sims. (And the whole Doomtree collective. But Sims is just so much of a badass that it seems like he would be her first choice. [He's also one of the best performers I've seen live recently. So much talent in one person. In all of Doomtree, really. Haven't found a collective that continually impresses me as much as these guys do. Inspiring in so many different ways.]) I could go on and on about that forever. But, instead, I'll simply leave you with this little YouTube link with the encouraged "hey, check it out" tagline.
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(Incase the embedding doesn't work and you're dying of curiosity, here's the link: /JmxOV8glq3I )