“The
King is not seeing anyone.” Clara huffed, sounding exasperated, “Not even the
Lords and Ladies who rule over the subcultures of his Kingdom. He has no time,
apparently, to deal with ‘such petty concerns,’ despite our best attempts to
make him understand the situation.”
“Do
you want me to seek the creature out and...”
“No!”
Nadia shook her head violently, “Do not, Miss Twilight. This is our affair to
deal with and you are mortal, you break far too easily. The Crystal Compass
would not be pleased if we let a Havenkeeper get hurt. They like the fae little
enough as it is. If you try, I will send even you around in circles!”
Twlight
tried not to be insulted, she really did. It was a valid concern. Jack was
known for his playful nature, but he was also known as the ‘Harbinger of the
Winter Storm’ as he had, on more than one occasion been gifted with the ‘Wrath’
of Winter as he had been the closest Immortal of the Crystal Compass on hand
when something non-mortal had been preying on those of mortal persuasion.
However
she was honestly getting a little sick and tired of the ‘you’re only mortal’
issue. She fought monsters and magic on a regular basis in order to protect her
little Haven. She had been at Jack’s side through several incidents and helped
him all the way. She was not as useless as everyone seemed to believe. To hear
even Nadia, who had seen and assisted in the take down of some of the recent
non-friendly’s come out with it was exasperating.
“Fine.”
She shrugged anyway, trying not to show her frustration, “I just came up to ask
a favour. People are going to be searching for that missing kid again, can you
grant them safe passage through your forest, please?”
“I
don’t see why we should.” Clara grumbled, “My home is my home, you would not
let people traverse your garden however and whenever they like!”
“I’m
a Havenkeeper, remember?” Twilight reminded her with a chuckle. “Non-mortals
traverse my lands all the time.”
“You’re
a rare, almost extinct breed,” Nadia sighed, “I can tell you now that the child
does not take shelter amongst the trees of my forest, Twilight, my people have
told me such. At least the ones who can currently reach their trees have. So
there is no need for the search to continue within the confines of our lands.”
Twilight
grimaced at that. It meant that Mikey had obviously either gone in a completely
different direction or was within the dark spot of the forest. However if Nadia
kept her word and she would, the librarian knew, there was no way for her to
get there to find out.
“I
wish I could inform the searchers of that, but they would never believe me.”
Twilight tried, “You can keep them away from that dark zone, if you wish, but
the sooner they think they’ve traversed the whole area, the sooner they’ll
leave you alone.”
“Fine.”
Nadia huffed as Clara moved from Twilight’s shoulder to hers, nodding irritably,
“But only because you asked and only until they are done with the search. Then
the forest will not let them in so easily.”
“Thank
you.” The student grinned at the pair of them, “You’re the best.”
“We
know.” Twilight could barely hear Clara from just a few feet away, but she
caught the tiny fairy Queen’s comment and laughed as she headed back to her
bike.
One
brief call to Detective Ley later to tell her that the dryads reported that Mikey
was not in the forest, she finally got on the road, trying not to feel really
weird that she had just reported something a member of the fae had told her to
a detective. The trip to Plymouth was relatively quick once she actually left
the dirt track. Though it took her an hour to get across to the port city, she
welcomed the feel of the wind hitting her and the sounds of the road. The
hustle and bustle of the busy university town was a stark and interesting
contrast to the quiet and more often than not, peaceful village.
Her
friends were waiting for her as she pulled up, demanding answers from her about
the missing kid and whether she had seen anything as she tried to chain up her
bike and head to the one revision class she had before they were supposed to be
settling at the library.
She
answered their questions with ease, a bright smile she did not entirely feel on
her features as she remembered last night and the fact that right now there
would be people combing her home in order to remove the bugs that the police had
installed.
Still
her friends, who had been the ones to coin the nickname ‘Twilight’ in the first
place, were in quite a jovial mood. Once the initial questioning had passed and
they had sat through the revision session with the one lecturer Twilight had
that was guaranteed to put eighty percent of his students asleep with just a
short lecture, they dragged her out to have a little fun. Considering the state
of her bank account and the state of the accounts of her friends, who were all
shopaholics and had almost completely totalled their student loans for the
term, it was almost a relief to get dragged halfway across town for a burger
and an hour on the ice skating rink.
Hanging
out with her mortal friends was a breath of fresh air. They might have been
obsessed with that daft animated pony show that was so popular right now,
enough so to have nicknamed her after the book-obsessed librarian pony within
it but they were good for her. Though they had no powers and often just
humoured her when she said something odd, she did not have to worry about what
she said around them or guard her words or actions.
It
was okay, they had told her, that she was a little odd and occasionally talked
about the fantastical. They had decided years ago that obviously her creative
nature took over and ran roughshod over reality. They were used to it and it
made life more interesting. She did not have the heart to tell them that it was
all real. She was just pleased for their acceptance.
