As they were finishing breakfast the next morning, Silver Lady handed Chise a small folded paper with a slight smile.
"What's this?" she asked, looking it over. There were no names, addresses, or seal upon it; only the faint hue and pollen of a flower pressed firmly against it adorned the outside of the pristine white paper.
Chise unfolded the stiff sheet and quickly scanned the short missive, then reread it again, more slowly. "Well?" asked Elias, a touch impatiently.
"It's from Titania—she says she would like, at our earliest opportunity now that we've settled in a bit, to meet our sweet babe."
Elias stiffened. "I don't like this, Chise."
"I know."
"Even if she likes you, this is likely to be dangerous. And we have no idea how they will react to Thistle."
At the sound of her name, Thistle looked up from her perch upon his lap, where she had been determinedly exploring his last sausage. "Na?"
"Na," Elias replied firmly, jiggling her upon his knee for a moment. She giggled, clutching his securing hand, and bounced a few more times after he stopped in a vain attempt to start him up again.
"Na!" she insisted, bouncing harder; "Na, na, na, na na na! Na!"
"Na," he finally sighed in resignation, as Chise giggled, and gave her a few good hard bounces, much to Thistle's delight, before continuing an absent-minded jiggle.
"—Where was I?" he asked, somewhat plaintively.
"Danger," Ruth helpfully supplied, as Chise glared at him.
"Yes. Danger."
"Fine," Chise sighed, "Danger; but is it really likely to be more dangerous than ignoring her summons?"
"Mm. More dangerous? Less?" His shoulders slumped slightly. "I suppose complying with her summons will be less certainly dangerous than not. But I still don't like it. We don't know what she wants."
"Well," said Chise, reading over the note again, "Apparently to meet our sweet babe."
"And she'll definitely be there?— No, I suppose she'll have heard the moment we left the garden."
"Mm." Elias was even more reticent than usual as he strode along, Thistle wrapped protectively in a warm blanket as well as his arms.
"Elias, can—can you slow down a bit?" Chise panted. Even Ruth was having to trot to keep up with the mage's brisk strides. "You're going too—whup!"
Without breaking stride or uttering a word, he scooped her into the crook of his arm, transferring Thistle to his other as he continued through the woods.
The indirect sunlight filtering through the high, leafy canopy filled the clearing with a soft, green light. Butterflies danced about the ancient wreckage of an oak that must have heard the language of the Pax Romana in its prime, as Titania gracefully stood and stepped down from its mossy embrace, reaching out welcoming arms as she drew near. Elias set Chise down, but kept a possessive hand about her shoulders, drawing her close.
"Ah, at last! And here is our dear hatchling, my sweet darling babe! Dear Thorn, beloved Robin, how wonderful for you!" She drew a loving hand down Elias's clenched jaw as she spoke, and pressed a gentle, chaste kiss to Chise's forehead, before stepping back to regard Thistle softly. Thistle looked back uncertainly, and snuggled a little deeper into her father's arms.
"And greetings to you, little one! Child of Robin and Thorn, how are you called?"
"You may call her Thistle," said Elias stiffly. Thistle gave her thumb a few steadying sucks.
"Thistle," murmured Titania. "Welcome to my lands, Thistle. You may call me 'Grandmother,' if you so desire." She held out a hand, and after a moment's hesitation, Thistle reached for it, her own slightly slobbery. Titania took it solemnly, giving it a reassuring squeeze, before leaning in to plant a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Granddaughter," she said softly, smiling.
She then stepped back, still holding her hand, and turned to the clearing, raising her voice in a clear call. "Do you hear me, my children? Fairies of Albion and Tir na nÓg, I claim this one as my granddaughter! Treat her with the respect due to her as such, or you will answer to me."
A throng of Ariels arose from the clearing around them, circling at a cautious distance as larger shadows moved in the shade of the encircling trees. Elias released Chise to embrace Thistle more closely, but Chise stepped forward with a smile as one particular Ariel dared closer. "Ariel!" she smiled. "I've missed you!"
The tiny fairy fluttered in to press a kiss to her cheek before perching on her shoulder. "Chise! How ya doing, sweetie? Has the bonehead been behaving himself?"
"He has," Chise laughingly reassured her, as Elias huffed in annoyance and turned aside with Thistle squirming in his arms, trying to reach the darting Ariels over his shoulder. "It's been ages! What have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know, the usual," the fairy waved dismissively, cuddling close to Chise's ear and embracing a strand of her hair. "I'm just so glad we're finally allowed to visit you again!"
"What do you mean, 'allowed'?" Chise tilted her head, trying to understand, unconsciously echoing her husband's gesture.
Ariel drew back and crossed her arms in annoyance, blowing a lock of hair out of her eyes. "That bonehead—"
"Ariel, please don't call my husband that."
Ariel humphed, but continued, "The Thorn Mage put up wards all around you! None of us could get anywhere near you!"
"I know he strengthened the wards around the house, but—" Chise began soothingly. Elias seemed absorbed in adjusting Thistle's blanket.
"Not just the house; around you! And then the Gealach told us to all leave you alone and not even try to get around them." She sighed heavily and pouted. "I wanted to be there! I didn't even get to see the birth!"
"Elias?" Chise raised questioning eyes to him, and he sighed in turn.
"You were dreadfully weak, Chise. We were afraid you might even need to relocate to the Anthill again to recover. You couldn't afford to have anything leaching away your magic—"
"And I agreed with his apparent assessment, and enforced his quarantine of you," Titania interjected, raising her chin as she glanced away from Thistle. "You know that there are dangers in the world, and not all of them are readily apparent. There has not been a child born to one of us—"
A deep, if muttered, grumble interrupted her as the Spriggan glared at them from the shadows of the stump, his hounds trailing out from behind it. Ruth stepped forward to stand guard beside Chise, keeping a cautious eye on them.
"There has not been a child born to one of us," Titania continued firmly, "in an age. I wanted you to be neither endangered nor harassed. Which you will not be," she added loudly, causing the other Ariels to flit skyward in alarm.
Ariel took the opportunity to flutter cautiously closer to Thistle, ignoring Elias's glower. "Hiya, sweetie!" she said softly, careful to stay just out of reach of the grabby little fingers. "I'm your neighbour, Ariel! Pleased to finally meetcha!"
"Titania," Elias growled, "I did not drop their wards."
"They are no longer necessary," she waved dismissively. "All have seen me accept her as my own bonny kin, and none will dare approach her with ill intent."
"You know perfectly well that ill intent and ill results can be two very different things," he snarled. Chise stepped to his side, laying a calming hand upon his arm. It was as hard as a rock beneath her touch. " I will not have you undoing the protections I lay in place upon my wife and my—"
"'You will not'?" Titania echoed, her eyes flashing up at him. "Do not mistake my kindness for weakness, Thorn. I am queen of all the fae in these lands; all the fae. I command rarely; but my commands will be obeyed. If I deem them unnecessary, none will gainsay me. Not even you."
Chise swallowed heavily, before forcing herself to take a small step forward, capturing their attention, and giving a respectful bow to the faerie queen. "Please, accept our apologies, and forgive him," she said softly, hands politely on her thighs. "We do not mean to imply any weakness on your part, or any reluctance of any of your subjects to obey you."
Elias huffed; she gave his ankle a slight nudge. He subsided.
"Please understand that we have borne the brunt of many attacks over the years, many of them unexpected. It is difficult to accept so suddenly that we are now safe."
She dared to peek up through her hair to Titania; she was watching her with arms crossed, but the hint of a fond smile played about her lips.
"You have been kind to us," she continued, returning her glance to the grass at her feet. "And we are much obliged. Perhaps you will do us the additional small kindness, unnecessary though it is, of permitting my husband's wards to remain in place about us, so that he may more easily be assured of our safety?"
Chise fell silent, waiting. After a moment she heard Titania's low, musical laugh, and her fingers gently raised her chin to meet her dancing eyes. "Sweetly spoken, dear Robin! Thorn, you should follow your wife's lead more often; she is wiser than thou. Very well." Titania gently stroked her cheek before dropping her hand and looking up at Elias. "If you acknowledge that they are pointless with my protection, I will permit you to place whatever wards will make your own guardianship of your wife and child feel more secure, unnecessary though they may be."
Chise turned to Elias as well as he took her hand, a glitter of love and pride in his eyes. Giving it a gentle squeeze, he gave a sweeping bow that was hardly sarcastic at all, saying, "Well aware am I of my wife's good sense. I will allow her wisdom to guide me in this, and agree that your protection is far abler to keep her and our daughter safe from the fae of Albion, and—" he gritted his teeth slightly— "And thank you for permitting my unnecessary wards to remain in place about them for my own peace of mind."
"Then it is done," smiled Titania, turning from them in a regal sweep. Ariel gave a startled squawk as she was unceremoniously forced well back from the trio by the return of the invisible shields. "Oh, and Thistle, my darling granddaughter." Titania stepped close again, taking her tiny hand in hers once more, and pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Fare thee well for the nonce; I shall see you anon. Meantimes, go with my blessing upon you."
Stepping back again, she gathered them with her eyes, adding, "I shall see you all soon, my dear, sweet children. Until then!"
Stepping lightly across the grass, and followed by the remains of her dispersing entourage, she mounted the white donkey that Spriggan led from a sheltering tree, and gaily rode into the eternal twilight lingering beneath the overlacing boughs.
"I don't think your wards slowed her down at all, Elias," Ruth commented, still looking after her.
Elias huffed. "No, she was very careful to make that clear." He scowled after her before once more gathering Chise up to sit in the crook of his other arm. "Chise, do not trust her," he warned uneasily. "She is not as human as she appears, and the 'kindness' of the fae is not always a kindness to humans. Do not forget that, please."
"I won't," Chise reassured him, snuggling against his shoulder. Thistle reached for her; Elias carefully juggled her into her mother's waiting arms before shifting his hold to embrace Chise more securely against him.
"You say that," Elias said glumly. "Yet you often seem to take her at face value. Do please be careful."
"I will," Chise said softly. "Thank you for the reminder. It is not… out of place."
"Ah. Well, then. Good."
"I am glad that she seems to be so accepting of Thistle, though."
"Mm. Well, she is correct; to the best of my own knowledge, no fae, nor, I suspect, even some part-fae thing such as myself, has had offspring in Albion in centuries. She will be most interested in her."
The mage's long strides carried them swiftly back through the forest as Chise mulled that over.
A/N: *Sigh*
I really am sorry about how long it's taken me to get these chapters out. All I can say is that there's been some weirdness in my life over the past few months (no, really? *eyeroll* I mean beyond the Great Global Quarantine) that has left me kind of uninspired and having a difficult time doing much beyond napping and browsing Tumblr. And I can't say the quarantine is helping with that; I've always had a hard time writing with others in the house. My prime writing time seems to be the couple hours before lunch. Hubs heads out to work, I get the kids off to school, finish my second coffee, and get some writing in before he comes home for lunch. However, we're all now in quarantine together (we started self-isolating at the beginning of March when Canada began to see its first Covid-19 cases)— which doesn't leave me a lot of privacy in which to write. My desk is set up in a corner of the dining room right next to the living room, where hubs hangs out. And of course the kids are at home full-time now, too. Thank the gods I haven't yet had to try and write any smut with them all at home! Aargh. Also, hubs is slowly going stir-crazy and is coping by roping us all into helping with all the reorganizing and spring cleaning he's been wanting to do forever but never has time for. Last week we pulled everything out of the garage, assembled a huge new shelf in there, and loaded it all back in again. I mean, it's MUCH better in there (you could barely get a foot inside the door anymore beforehand); but all that doesn't leave me much writing time either. Also it explains all the extra naps.
So I'm not going to promise that the next one is going to be out "so much quicker," because I'm pretty sure I've been saying that pretty much right from the beginning with this one, and keep failing to deliver. Pretty sure by the end of it (which, yes, is STILL around three chapters away, lol) this fic and Thistle herself will be the same age.
What I CAN do is assure you that, in I guess about the quarter century since the very first time I wrote and posted a fanfic online in the mid-Nineties (on a little Hellboy fansite that almost certainly doesn't exist anymore, although the fic itself is still online here), I have never ever once in all that time abandoned a fic, and I certainly don't intend to do so now! :)
I do also deeply appreciate each and every review; they really do help to encourage and inspire me. So, uh... subtle hint? ;) But I'll keep plugging away at it and trying to write as much as I can. But I can barely keep track of what day of the week it is; I certainly don't want to make any assumptions of when the next one will be up. I do know basically what's going on, though; it's the bit I was going to have in this chapter but then Titania Got Ideas and went and did her own thing instead. So now I've got to put that bit into the next chapter instead, which is why we're STILL at least three chapters away from the end, ha ha. Blame her. But at least I don't have to figure out what happens next!
Anyways, if you have an account here, hit the Follow button down below to be notified when "Thistle" updates; alternatively you can follow my fanfic account over on Tumblr, at krysslabryn-fanfic. (dot Tumblr, dot com), which exists solely for fic update notifications (and very very occasionally something related; it's got a couple of pics of Thistle up there as well, for example). And stay safe! We'll be okay.
See you again in a little while. ~K