Chapter Thirteen – Every Wish I've Ever Had

"T-t-to be-com…"

"You heard me right. To become Fae, are you ready?"

"What are you talking about?" Lauren felt the world turning topsy-turvy, she grabbed a seat in her favorite chair, breathing deeply and opening her eyes wide, trying to fight the urge to black out, which was swimming around her brain right now.

"This is an Elvish gift stone, it has the ability to grant the gift of being Elf and all that that entails. Before you refuse, let me just say Lauren, that you already are Elf."

Her head was spinning too much for this conversation right now. She tried with every ounce of herself to form coherent words. "What do you mean I am already Elf?"

"Elves are healers Lauren, which you already are. They have a deep connection to nature, which you already do."

"How do you know?"

"I know about your time in the Congo. I know that you prefer to be in places like this, like my hollow, than in big sterile labs. You only work from the lab because until now it's been the most practical place and you've had no other choice being enslaved to the Ash. You're more at home preforming field medicine, like you just did for me, because it allows you to be outdoors, where you feel a true sense of peace."

She stared at him in utter disbelief. "How do you know all of this?" She demanded, she set the box down, she wasn't angry, just becoming defensive, something didn't seem to fit. This was all too easy, she refused to believe that everything she'd ever dreamed was just about to come true.

"One of my dear friends is a mystic, a psychic of sorts. She knows all about you."

"And when did you have time to brush up on my history while you were lying on your death bed?"

"She came to visit me, she knew as soon as I got sick what had happened, unfortunately she didn't see that I would be cursed because the Korrigan's are very shrewd at hiding their true forms from other Fae, that is their specialty. She knew about you and your connection to Bo, whom she said had done her a great kindness in keeping it a secret that she was Fae. You see, she is unaligned and only a small handful of other Fae even know she exists, she knows you will keep her secret because you understand the hardships of being unaligned. She told me about you and that you would come to save my life, she told me your deepest desire, knowing that I would be bound by Elvish tradition to grant your deepest wish in return for you saving my life. When I called Trick, I told him nothing of the mystic stopping by and nothing of what I knew, I merely told him my predicament and asked him for his help. He reached out to you on his own and when you arrived I knew that Hella was right again… and here we are. You have a choice to make Lauren."

She shook her head in disbelief. This was all too much.

"I-I don't know what to say."

Tue came around the table and sat next to her, in a chair that was more his size. He held her hand in both of his, as she had done to him when they'd first met. "This is your deepest desire, your greatest wish and the only thing holding you back right now, is that for some reason, you don't seem to believe you deserve it." He shook his head, somewhat in disbelief.

Her eyes inexplicably began to fill with tears. She felt that this was how someone must feel when they'd won the lottery, utterly in disbelief and denial.

"But how-how can this be?"

"Lauren, fate is fate and it seemed to be fated that you were to come here and save my life. And all other things aside, I'm eternally grateful to have met you. You're special Lauren, you might not believe that but I do and obviously other people do too… Trick for one and you should not take that lightly. He's one of the wisest men I've ever known and that's saying something because I'm almost as old as time itself. This is a chance for you to make your own rules, no one deserves to own you Lauren, you're too special to be considered property and this is a real chance at freedom for you."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" Lauren asked, it was the only thing she could think to say, the scientist in her needed all the facts, she couldn't just rely on blind faith, that was who she was and that alone had led to the majority of her decisions in life, good or bad.

"What does the stone tell you?" He asked her, encouraging her to pick it up. She did so, turning it over to gaze at the glowing crystals inside. She felt so calm, so at peace, so at home. The only thing she could compare it to was the feeling she got when she was with Bo when they'd first met – but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind, now was not the time for those thoughts.

"I feel… safe."

"Being Elf is an enormous honor Lauren and definitely not something I take lightly and would give out willy-nilly. I only trust a handful of people in this world and Hella and Trick happen to be at the top of that list, so if they say you can be trusted and you are deserving, I believe them, but more over I now believe it for myself – I've seen it for myself. You're ready, but you still have to be the one to decide, to accept the stone."

The tears that had been stuck in her eyes fell and she shook her head, Tue stood up and cradled her head in his shoulder. She cried all over his bare chest and felt his strong hands on the back of her head, stroking her hair. She tried not to be so hysterical but she was still so in shock that she felt out of control of her own body.

Truthfully, she knew there was nothing to think about, no decision to be made. She trusted Tue because she trusted Trick, she had no reason not to. But that didn't make this all any less unbelievable.

The scientist spoke again, "Explain what all of this means to me, like I'm a child." She asked, sitting up and wiping her eyes, still sniffling to herself.

"As Elf, you will have three gifts, technically four... the power to somewhat control time in humans, the power to heal and also make ill and the gift of immortality."

Her hand came to her mouth, her voice caught in her throat and her eyes went blurry with tears again.

"I know what this means to you Lauren. But believe it, it's time." He told her firmly, placing his hand on her shoulder. "You must decide."

She shook her head and took a deep breath and let it out loudly. "Okay, what do we have to do?"

He smiled at her. "I'll be so excited to have you as a member of my clan Lauren, I'm already proud of the Elf I know you'll be."

She smiled warmly at him through wet eyes and shrugged, still in disbelief.

"All we have to do is, you hold the stone in your hand and I place my hands over yours and say an incantation and that's it."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

She stood up to ready herself, shaking herself a bit and rolling her shoulders back, almost as if she was bracing herself for a fight. Before Tue came over she stopped him. "Wait."

"What is it?"

"Will I – will I grow pointy ears?" She asked him, looking at his Elf ears.

He let out a great big belly laugh and slapped his knee. "Doctor Lewis! I'm shocked. You should know better. There are those of us that're impish Elves," He did a kind of curtsy and gestured to himself. "And those of us who are more human-like Elves," He gestured to her and bowed. She laughed at his antics and shook her head.

"Right… I knew that. I guess I'm just nervous."

"That is understandable but there is absolutely nothing to be nervous about."

She nodded and smiled at him, laughing at herself.

"Are you ready?" He asked her tentatively.

She took another deep breath, nodded and smiled. "I'm ready."

She cupped the stone in both of her hands, amethyst crystals facing upwards in her palms. He placed his hands on either side of hers and started to speak in Gaelic, she knew enough Gaelic from her time reading Fae texts to be able to translate his words as he spoke.

"Is beannaithe a bheith ar an sealbhóir an cloch agus cibé áit a théann siad go mbeidh sé dul. Ceangal a dhuit thy chumhachtaí trí cinn de na ama, leighis agus immortality. Agus as an lá seo féadfaidh sí a dtabharfar go deo amach mar Lauren an ELF na cloiche bronntanas Elvish."

'Blessed be the holder of this stone and wherever they go it will go. Bind to thee thy powers three of time, healing and immortality. And from this day forth may she forever be known, as Lauren the Elf of the Elvish gift stone.'

An incredible wind swept through the hollow though no windows or doors were open. Lauren's golden hair swirled around her head. She felt her body lift off of the ground but was not frightened, she'd never felt more utterly at peace. She tilted her head back, inviting the experience. Then a force shocked her body like a bolt of lightning, it was like pure energy surging through her veins. The feeling made her limbs fly apart, her body went limp as it was pulled continuously upward. She gasped and her hands fell open, if she'd still been holding the stone it would've fallen to the ground but it was gone. A purple light, like wisps of electricity sizzled in the air, she wondered where it was coming from and then she realized, it was coming from her. Her body was bathed in an amethyst glow while the rest of the hollow was filled with a golden light. The light intensified until it was so blinding that everything went white, then she fell to the ground and everything stopped – the wind, the light – everything started to go dark and she was reminded of blacking out in the warehouse with the Telepath… then the darkness overtook her.