Private Tales A King’s Bargain

[Midir]

Midir's only response was a sly smile that lifted the left side of his mouth. Then his hand closed around her outstretched one and they were gone.

Existence blurred back into being to reveal a thick forest of pink trunked trees with bright blue pines that littered the forest floor. The sun didn't reach the forest floor and instead the two were cast into a cool shadow. Considering they were in the Dawn Court it probably wasn't an odd thing for the trees to be so brightly coloured. But what was odd about the forest was the silence. Even deep in the twisted wonderland there was life.

Midir released her once the world righted then cast his gaze upwards and around, a frown tugging at his brows.

"Hmm," was all he said before setting off to the West. "Her presence is spreading further than I thought."

 

[Fraeya]

For once, she was thankful he didn't let go. A part of her felt like her body was left behind at his winter palace. Stuck between wanting pass out and vomit her fingers pinched sharply into her own thigh to keep from doing either.

And for a few minutes as he took off, she walked like a drunkard. Her body fighting to remember what being tethered to a place felt like. "What was that," she finally breathed in a half-heaved question.

Troll shit.

Hands reached out, half-catching herself and half pushing off one of the bright pink trees. Teeth bit lightly into the inside of her cheek, forcing her limbs to act normally. To keep going. For her head to stop feeling so strange. Through the forest, she thought she caught a curl of smoke in the air ahead.

"There," she whispered and pointed.

 

[Midir]

Midir glanced down at her almost in surprise, as though he had forgotten he had just taken her with him on this journey.

"More powerful fae can use leylines a lot... faster than other fae," he explained as he studied her face in search of something. His green gaze pierced through the scowl and the way she bit down on her lip to something deeper. "It probably feels like a jump to someone like you," he mused as he thought through what he had done and then his eyes drifted away from hers to the direction in which she pointed. He'd caught the scent of the smoke on the wind too.

"I cannot go any further, not until you distract her," he reached a hand into the pocket of his dark brown leathers and pulled out a necklace which he dangled before her. "Rub the stone if things get... dicey. I'll try to arrive before she pulls your head from your body," he smirked.

 

[Fraeya]

"Sounds like a bargain," she replied stiffly and took the necklace quickly putting it on and tucking the bottom beneath her leathers. It was another layer over the tatoo he'd marked her with, curving around her slender neck. Taking one last deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she started forward.

And didn't look back at the Erlking.

The bright pink trees began to thin out. Now she could smell the smoke. See it curling from a round hut nestled within a convenient clearing. And there was something about the smoke that didn't smell quite...right. Fraeya paused in the treeline, taking a moment to scout the area. A gurgling fountain before the home. A cheery and cleared path that lead around the fountain and right up to the doorway, which was wide open.

The inked star that was just below the Erlking's marks burned at the back of her neck and for a moment she saw a shimmer in the air.

A glamor.

Adjusting her gaze, she looked at things from the corner of her eyes. The gurgling and cheery fountain from before was a smoldering firepit. The cheery path looked like crushed bones. In times like these she really wished she could be glamored. Because seeing the truth wasn't helping things.

Without wasting anymore time, she crept forward, avoiding the bones on the path as she approached the door. There was humming and whistling inside that was growing louder as she neared the hut.

 

[Midir]

Midir watched her go then leant casually against one of the trees. She was a funny little human, Delun's little bird. Why she hadn't yet asked to return to the human realm he was not quite sure, for he was certain that his scribe would let her go if she did ask. He was soft hearted like that. But would she go? Midir doubted it. As much as Freya spurned the fae and seethed about what they were, there was a part of her that burned to live within their world. The mortal one would seem too dull for her.

* * *
​

Inside the hut was nothing short of chaos. There might have been some order to it but if there was it was only known to the owner of the home. Stacks of shelves were arranged in haphazard angles and stuffed to the brim of trinkets, jars, weapons, and more. Calling the owner of such a home a collector would have been too nice a term. A better word to describe her would have been a hoarder.

 

[Fraeya]

Fraeya peaked inside the open doorway and took a tentative sniff. Immediately she was hit with the smell of the rosemary loaves Delun sometimes enjoyed baking. A smell she hadn't been prepared for. By the way this place looked and who she knew to be inside somewhere, Fraeya fully expected a musty or damp smell. Or perhaps a smell of fresh BBQ from some poor creature the Weaver was consuming.

A frown pulled on her lips.

Taking a very small, quiet breath she stepped carefully over the threshold and inside. She couldn't see the Weaver but she could still hear her humming. Relief when the humming didn't stop or waver.

The worst part was? She bet Midir was already on his way back to the Winter Palace having forgotten where she was entirely. Fae prick.

Soft-padded boots crept around a table stacked high with odds and ends. Tons of scrolls, jars of things she didn't want to take too long studying to see what was inside, and ornately carved boxes upon boxes with an ancient language that went beyond fae and something Fraeya didn't recognize.

Perhaps Lexi would know what it was, if she was here.

Easing around a wall of chairs with the grace and fluiding of someone who had lived with the fae her entire life, she went toward one of the back shelves, passing a window that looked outside. She couldn't explain it but there was something on those shelves that was calling to her. Fingers reached forward, giving one last wary look over her shoulder as she plucked three small round objects from the top of a dusty book midway on a shelf.

 

[Midir]

The humming suddenly came to a stop.

"She thought she was a little mouse..." a girly sing-song voice cooed and the house groaned as the sound of footsteps began to shuffle towards Fraeya.

"So the thief crept into the quiet house..." the voice continued and the footsteps suddenly seemed to be coming from every which way. The shelves themselves begun to tremble around her as though they were scared of the Weavers approach.

"But what she didn't know," she murmured, her voice sounding closer...

"... Was that inside was a nasty foe."

 

[Fraeya]

Oh HELLS no.

Reaching back, she grabbed a random bauble from the shelf and hurled in toward the opposite direction she turned and fled. The window was closest. Fingers scrabbled on the ledge as she went to push it open. But it didn't budge. Not ONE measly little inch.

Light green eyes snapped back to the door she'd entered. Just making out the top and crack of light and freedom it still offered. The only thing she could see from where she was standing with all the shelves and things blocking her view.

It was still open.

Pushing off her toes, the changeling dove under the table she'd passed on the way in and began crawling as quietly and quickly as she could toward that open doorway. Even as she crawled closer to freedom, one of her hands closed around the hilt of her bone knife and pulled it free.

 

[Midir]

"Do you know what I do to sticky fingers, little thief?" Though the voice whispered it would sound as though the words were spoken right into Fraeya's ear. When she turned however, she would still see nothing. The sound of shuffling feet grew closer though.

"I like to make a little dessert I call Sticky Finger Pudding," the woman cackled and suddenly the front door slammed shut. The windows shuttered and the table itself seemed to quiver.

"You have taken things that do not belong to you, little Mouse."

 

[Fraeya]

fuck...FUCK...fuckityfuck-fu-

She froze as the door slammed closed. The place was cast in darkness save for the flickering light of the dying embers in the fireplace near the opposite side of the home. Strange shadows danced along the walls from the smoldering rocks. Grip tightened on the hilt of the bone dagger.

Her other hand lifted and rubbed the stone of the necklace Midir had given her.

By the full winter's moon wild hunt, he was probably enjoying a nice dark red wine. Far away from here. His ancient fae mind completely at ease.

Digging in her pocket, she took one of the acorns she'd stashed there and brought it up to her lips, casting her breath upon the surface and releasing the magic that was there. With a swift flick of her wrist, she launched the small object across the uneven floorboards toward the door as she crawled toward the fireplace.

In about a second, her own voice erupted from the small acorn. A boon she kept at all times with her in case of situations like this. Even if she never liked to share her voice so easily and openly. There were too many stories of changelings being stolen in the night to other courts for talents far less than her own.

 

[Midir]

Those shuffling feet that sounded as though they belonged to an old frail woman suddenly vanished. A second or two after the acorn let out its sound the footsteps changed to one of a hunting animal. As did the snarl that came when the Weaver realised she had been tricked.

"Clever, clever little thief," she hissed and then stamped on the acorn, splintering into a thousand pieces. "But I can still.... smell you, little girl," she began to prowl along the stacks. "I can taste the fear coming off you. I think I shall bottle it like a sweet elixir by wringing out your skin once I have peeled it off your bones..."

 

[Fraeya]

Weigh tipped to the balls of her feet and she launched herself up and forward. Hands pulled down the shelves as she ran for that fireplace. Books, scrolls, jars, and other baubles falling in her wake as Fraeya pleaded to any god listening that it would slow down the weaver she imagined was just behind her.

She didn't risk looking back, though.

Neck craned looking for something...THERE! As she ran, her fingers enclosed around the hilt of a broom. With one large sweep, she dug that sturdy broom tip into the glowing coals and embers and swept them as much as she could out of the fireplace. A wave of ash and smoke filled the small place and up her nose and throat, making her eyes water.

Dropping the broom, she crouched and looked to scramble into the fireplace. But. It was too damn small. Perhaps a slight brownie would’ve been able to do it. But not her. Smoke covered, she spun around and readied her bone dagger. Fighting back a cough that wanted to rip it’s way free from her lungs.

 

[Midir]

There was a cackling and a screech as the Weaver launched herself after the noisy wake Freaya left behind her. Now, now she would have her precious prize. She would take her time with this thief, yes, much time. She would pickle parts so they lasted and she might savour them when she remembered this day. And her hair, the girls hair, she would use that in her next--

The screech turned into a shriek as the blade plunged through her heart. She stared unseeing down at it protruding from her chest and blood spurted from her mouth as she tried to form words.

"Taking up a job as a maid?" the Erlking asked in that calm, amused tone of his as the ash cloud settled to reveal the scene of the Weavers body on the end of his blade. He slowly took his eyes off the human and turned then down to the corpse instead. With a callous, uncaring wrench he pulled his blade free and let the body topple to the ground.

 

[Fraeya]

Fraeya blinked and stared. Not at his sudden appearance. Not at the quickly shriveling corpse of the Weaver. Not at the blade that slid like butter freely and easily from her body.

But at the Erlking's face. HIM. The leader of the dark ones. The slayer of villages. The leader of the Wild Hunt. The King of the Autumn Court. The eater of mortals. His gestures all calculated moves.

And he had a sense of humor?

Doubling over, she let the cough free from her throat. Then straightened. "You," she breathed. "How..," voice trailed off. Curled fist lifted to push the water away from her stinging eyes, only doing well to smudge more ash along her skin.

She wanted to say everything but being flustered left her tongue empty.

The door was still closed. The windows shuttered. The dying embers of what she sweeped the only minor light aiding her very human eyes. She went to step around the Erling, her hip jarring into the sharp edge of that cursed table. Biting back a curse and thankful to the dark for hiding her embarrassment, she reached the door handle and yanked. It didn't budge. She dropped her second hand and pushed. Then pulled.

Nothing.

A look over her shoulder as if she could imagine the smirk on the Erlking's face in the semi-dark.

"Can you get us out of here?"

 

[Midir]

Midir merely continued to stare at her as she spluttered and doubled over. There was no offer of assistance or water, no sign that he cared one bit about her state once he had assessed she was not hurt by the Weaver. What there was however, was a tiny curve of the corner of his lips that she seemed taken aback by the fact he had made a joke. He didn't comment on it further though. Instead he crouched beside the body that was shrivelling and begun to carefully shift through her clothes as though looking for something.

In a distracted manner he responded to her question.

"It will open when you put back what you stole."

 

[Fraeya]

Fraeya turned to watch him carefully. Her back leaning against the closed door. Arms crossed beneath her chest. She made no move to reach into her pocket to remove the items she’d stollen.

She struggled between being so close to reaching the end of her bargain with the Erlking. And being able to release that which has called to her.

“How…did you get in here?”

Green eyes watched the king quietly in the dark. Unabashed with how closely she stared, wondering what he was looking for.

 

[Midir]

Midir suppressed a sigh by thinning out his lips when she very pointedly did not put the items back nor tell him what she had taken.

"I'm the Erlking," he said as though explaining something very simple to someone very stupid. He searched a little while longer then with a noise of annoyance stood and cast his eyes around the room instead. Clearly he was looking for something in particular. "If a persons name enters the list there is no ward, no spell, no place they can go that will be able to keep me from reaching them," despite what the songs and rhymes made people believe.

It seemed even more ominous when the Erlking himself said it.

Without much more of an explanation he marched off into the bookcases to carry on his search.

 

[Fraeya]

She swallowed and after a hair of hesitation, she followed him. Moving much more cautiously in the darkness. And leaving a healthy amount of space between them.

Not that a few steps behind would do anything to save her life but it made her feel better.

A finger tapped lightly against the items in her pocket. Three small objects. Two simple rings. One she knew would slip easily on her own finger. The second was larger. She knew they were connected but didn’t quite know how. The third object was a tarnished gold coin.

Pausing at alarge, cluttered table by the door, she picked up a jar. Staring, she realized it held many small fingers, fingers that looked as though they were from babies. Her stomach roiled as she set it down.

“What’re you looking for?”

 

[Midir]

Midir stopped every now and then and plucked up some object or other. A feather, a tiny bird skull, an empty jewellery box. All of them he put back with a frown or a shake of the head then he continued on. Sometimes he would linger longer and close his eyes as though searching for some sort of connection but nothing did the trick.

At least not until he picked up a small, what appeared to be, a silver letter opener. Green gems that matches his eyes glittered in the slim handle and down the blade words in an old script were etched out. A dark, terrible smile curved his lips as the letter opener moved and shifted, grew longer till it formed a staff of brilliant white bone.

"What did you steal?" he countered as he set the rapped the cane down with a thud on the wooden floor.

 

[Fraeya]

To her credit, she didn't flinch as the bone staff thudded with a sound that filled up the eerie cottage. Her lips twitched as the wild part of her brain went too appropriate comments. Imaging the Erlking with a top hat and monocle. Or that the staff might be compensating for something.

Fingers pinched the inner part of her arm sharply to stop those train of thoughts for fear he might be able to read them. She swallowed as her features smoothed.

It’s not like she could refuse the Alder King. Holding his wicked gaze and that sharp smile like an edge of a knife, she dug into her pocket. Fingers enclosed around the tarnished gold coin only and drew it out. Pinching it between her thumb and forefinger she held it up.

“This.”

It wasn’t lying. Exactly.

“Will the house let you out with that?” Pale-green eyes drifted to the bone staff.

 

[Midir]

The Erlking quirked a brow and his lips turned down at the corners. Clearly he didn't believe that was all she had. However, he seemed to be in an indulging mood for he chose to answer her question instead of pressing on with his own. A decided change from the Autumn King she was probably accustomed to dealing with when their paths did cross. He rose the cane once more to run his hand along it and the thing seemed to hum with energy.

"Yes, because it belongs to me," his answer definitely had deeper meaning. Meaning she better put whatever she was hiding back. "This house is spelled as such; if an item belongs to you you may leave with it. If it doesn't, the house will not open," he swept a hand towards the door. "After you."

 

[Fraeya]

Burned biscuits and fiddlesticks.

A small scowl crossed her features.

Damn.

Curling her fist around the tarnished coin, she turned. Even though it felt like turning her back on a predator. Shuffling through the mostly dark back to the door she slammed the coin on the teeny-tiny clear space of a table right by the door. A few scrolls and other baubles shook, a feather fluttered to the floor unhappily at her force.

Huffing, she grabbed the closed handle and yanked.

It didn't budge.

Without looking back to the Alder King, she dug into her pocket a second time and took out the larger ring. Grumbling, she set it a hair more gently on the table. Her fingers lingered just a second too long before lifting back to the door handle. Stealing herself, she pulled a second time.

And was surprised to feel it open.

She didn't question or hesitate. And carefully stealing her expression, she stepped outside into the fresh air. The third item she'd stolen tucked safely still in her leathers.

 

[Midir]

Midir watched with quiet interest as Fraeya attempted the door the first time though was hardly surprised that it did not open. His eyes tracked every movement with care as she rummaged in her pocket and drew out another item to set it down before trying the door.

Both brows rose when it did indeed open. He could have sworn...

"Hmm," he mused quietly to himself then crossed the room with a long legged stride to follow her back outside the hut. Smoke puffed from the little chimney in a sickly weave where she had disturbed the ash in its hearth and it was quite possible to believe the owner of it was still alive.

"Let us walk for a bit, you have had quite the evening," he slid past her and started off down the forest path.

 

[Fraeya]

Ash-covered brows lifted in surprise as he spoke. And strode ahead. She was grateful though. If he’d wanted to try fey-line travel right now even though her stomach was empty she didn't think she’d be able to handle it.

Though she wanted very badly to slip the ring in her pocket on, she didn’t.

As they worked their way through the bright pink barked trees and neon blue leaves, she looked down at herself. What a sight. Covered mostly in ash. Beautiful leathers dirtied. Walking next to the most powerful being in the Autumn Court. He was quite clean. Clean as that bone staff of his.

But she was alive. And that was saying something. And she couldn't help think back to the moment of humor he’d showed. Would she ever see that again? Or was that a lapse meant only for an audience of one in a magical and deadly cottage?

Fingers brushed against the tattoo around her neck absently before falling to her side. Wait. The necklace. Lifting the chain above her head, she offered it back to the King.

“Here.”

She knew better than to say thank you.

 

[Midir]

Midir glanced at the necklace she held out. It swung side to side, catching the light and throwing specks of light across the leaf-riddled floor. Was this Dawn's version of autumn? Did the landscape seek to make him feel at home? His Dawnish Lover, the woman who had given him his only living son, had once said the Court only did as such with fae it found interesting.

"Keep it," he turned his gaze back to where they were going. If a fae wasn't too careful the landscape might shift and they should be hovering over the edge of a cliff between one step and the next.

"You will have need to reach me when you decide on your favour."