Private Tales Dancing Round the Truth

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Many thanks, young lady. If you need something to do with those idle hands of yours, feel free to drop by again."

"I will keep it in mind," she said in a dulcet tone. Raea turned from the waving resident of this nowhere town on the edge of the Steppe, pleased at the added wait at her waist. Not bad pay for keeping that leather-faced woman company and helping round the homestead for a few days.

She knuckled her back, wincing. She hadn't realized when she set out on this final, grand adventure that there would be so much mundane work in the life of an adventurer. She spent more time running errands on the occasion she found herself in this or that small hamlet than she did wielding the delicate sword she had just belted back on.

Everyone had to eat, even her. The money she could draw on came with strings attached that she did not wish to pull. That scar was still tender, a self-inflicted wound that was every bit as necessary as it was painful. Her heart would mend - maybe, if she lived long enough - but the missed opportunity to see a world denied her? She ached for the suffering she had delivered to her Ma and Pa, but their suffocating embrace had been too much.

Her heart twisted in her chest. She had made her decision, and that was final.

The path wended its way down a slope to town. The little village had maybe a hundred people living within its bounds and probably fewer. Raea paused and looked back; low ridges of grass and stone marched away toward the invisible mountains, and the empty grasslands faded into the distance westward. She stopped to admire it. At this time of day, with the sky edging toward a fiery display with the end of the day, it was unlike anything that could be seen at home.

With a huff and shake of her head, she scoffed at herself. No time for this. Been neglecting other things.

She struck off down the hill with renewed purpose.

At the edge of town right where a little brook burbled merrily along was an inn. Unlike back home, this place was quiet and reserved. She couldn't remember the name of this town, but it was on no trade route and received so few visitors that the children had gaped at her when she had arrived days ago. The inn served as a community center that had a few rooms to let and a meal (likely the same one the owners were having of an evening when there were guests) to share.

"Miss! Miss!"

Raea found herself startled by a boy of about eleven who had come running round the corner of the squat inn. He had the bright-eyed excitement of just about every boy she had seen at his age. She couldn't help but smile. "Yes, little man? ", she asked in a lilting tone.

The sound of laughter and conversation rolled out an open window from within. "Is that a real sword? Is it? Can you actually use it? Is it heavy? My Da' says swords aren't worth a good plow," he said. Each question seemed to stumble over the last. His face crumped for a moment in thought, and then he shook his head. ""m sure its a good sword though," he added.

She wanted to laugh but didn't. The light of it still danced in her forest-green eyes, made deeper by her ghostly complexion. "I'm sure he did," she said with a smile. "And it is a good sword, but it's not as good as your Da's plow."

"Ya," he said and paused. Suddenly bashful, he looked at his feet. "Can I...can I see it?"

She did laugh then, a sweet sound. "Why not? Your Ma might get upset with me, though." She didn't wait for him to say anything though; she drew the blade with her right hand and then held it point down. The blade was not truly a rapier, but nearly as thin and light as one. Light enough that she could wield it, at least.

"Thats...!" His eyes were big and round, filled with excitement. Somewhere in the distance, a woman's voice called. A sharply drawn breath, and then the youngling was tearing off back around the corner of the building, kicking up dust. "Gotta go, lady! I wanna see you swing it but I better..." His voice trailed off as distance widened.

She was left alone in the yard of the inn, blade in hand. She stood there for a moment, then lifted the blade. It had been a few days since she went through the various forms. Her tutor had been the best money could buy, even if her mother in particular had been against her learning such a skill. As if it mattered back then.

Good as dead anyway. Her smile faded for a moment, but only for a moment. In the next breath she was moving through the series of forms - names forgotten as the useless information they were. It wasn't long before sweat beaded on her face and ran down her back and between her breasts. She moved as though facing an invisible opponent, breath coming short too quickly. The movements were practiced but not expert; she was too young to rise to such expertise.

Probably never would get old enough to, either.

Wasn't a reason to give up, though. Wasn't a reason not to reach for the stars, either. So she danced with the thin blade in hand, heedless of any spectator.

Lost in the dance.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan enjoyed being entertained. He was the Lord of Games, after all.

Though now, he wasn't sure it meant anything, with the war that had been looming on the horizon finally having arrived. There was no more time for games in a war. Or at least none that were amusing.

He'd sat around his family's estate with few things to do, and his mother must have gotten tired of his grumping about so she sent him out to small, nearby human village to 'run some errands'. He knew she didn't really need anything from the small town, but she made good excuses about certain things that only humans knew how to do and make. It was complete nonsense, all of it. What could the humans do that the Fae couldn't do better?

Now, errands aside, Thallan found himself quite entertained. He leaned with one shoulder on the side of the only inn in this village, an apple in hand. He had illusioned himself so that any gazes would not linger on him too long- they'd slide right off as if he was not important. He took a bite of his apple as he watched the girl talk to the little boy and showed him her sword. He almost snorted out loud. It was a pretty thing, but how well would it hold up in a real battle?

The little boy was called off, and then the girl rose the sword and swung it, fighting against some invisible opponent. He remained silent until he could not watch her shoddy form any longer.

"Good Gods, girl, are you trying to pull a muscle in your back?" he spoke up, raising his voice a bit to catch her attention. "You're swinging with your back, which could not only injure you, but also leaves your legs vulnerable to be knocked out from under you. If you're going to fight with that thing, on the ground with a broken back is not where you want to be."

As he spoke he walked towards her. When he finished he bit and held his apple in his mouth, and drew his own sword. He demonstrated the correct stance, both hands on the hilt of his sword. He grinned at her around the apple, then relaxed his stance. He finished biting off a piece of the apple and resheathed his sword.

"See?"

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

That happy, carefree place shattered with unexpected words. The adventuress started and stumbled mid-thrust, struggled to regain her balance for a brief moment.

She snapped her head toward the source, chestnut hair fluttering in the ever-present wind coming off the grass. For a moment, she found that she was at a loss for words; the speaker turned out to be a fire-haired man who was easily head and shoulders taller than she was. He was almost certainly not a local, either.

His bearing was awfully familiar to her. She was not nobly born, of course, but she did come from exceptional wealth. His clothes, the way he stood, and most especially the tone of his voice immediately struck her with a sense of deja vu.

"I don't swing or cut," she said in that same lilting tone even though she in the privacy of her own head she added 'at least not on purpose', despite her tutor's best efforts. "The edge is not the weapon, the tip is," she explained as if by rote. If her words held a hint of defensiveness to them it couldn't be helped.

Her eyes roved over this male in front of her despite herself. It was difficult to look at him for any length of time, which was a shame because he was well made.

Still toff though. She lowered the blade in her hand but did not let it rest on the ground (which was forbidden). Even if her arm burned like fire. Even if her cheeks were flushed with exertion, making her pallor all the more evident.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan noticed how she couldn't seem to focus on him and released the illusion on him. He had forgotten, and she deserved to be able to look at him, especially if he could focus on her.

At this angle, he could see the sickness he had smelled from his earlier position. He was confused. There was something off about her- he sensed she was Fae but she didn't look anything like his kind. She looked as if she were near the brink of death with her pale, thin skin and deep set green eyes.

He had nearly forgotten her weak and defensive response as he inspected her. Why was he sensing she was a Fae, if she looked nothing like one? Rounded ears, short and small stature, and most importantly, he could not smell an ounce of power and magic off her. Was she glamoured perhaps? He wondered who had managed to glamour her so well to even fool him. Certainly not her; he'd have smelled the spell on her.

"Who are you?" he asked, his expression more serious.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

Something changed, and she found she could keep her eyes on this male. And wasn't that a thorny problem? He was well made even if the arrogance poured off him in waves. He reminded her of other elfin men and women she had seen in her travels; tall and handsome, long pointed ears.

Most of them had been more aloof than arrogant. Guess not every specimen could be the same.

"Just an adventurer," she said. There was something about this fellow that struck her, but she couldn't put a finger on what. Not to mention that she could only too easily see a bounty for her return home being offered. Hard pressed to believe that word of her vanishing would travel so far afield so quickly, but stranger things had happened before.

"Why would a nobleman such as you care about a wanderer like me?" Assumption made, but he filled the part. Something about the way he spoke made her bristle inside even if it ran contrary to her usual even temper. Only a faint echo rang in her voice.

 

[Thallan]

Did she know she was Fae? He suspected not, he only sensed confusion and defensive indignance from her. She claimed to be just an adventurer, but he thought there was more to that story.

He wondered for a moment briefly if he ought to tell her she was Fae. If she truly didn't know, it'd be a big blow, and he knew she'd blame him for that for all of eternity but if he didn't tell her, she'd never know the potential she held.

He did not miss how she'd called him a nobleman, and did not argue with her. He'd not exactly tried to hide his status, anyway. He took a bite of his apple as he thought on what to say.

Eventually, he decided he ought to tell her. What did he care what this girl thought of him, anyway?

"You're Fae. High Fae, like I am. Did you know?"

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

She blinked at the statement, silent for a moment.

And then she laughed.

There was nothing of the sweet, high-spirited thing she had loosed earlier. This was more derisive and disbelieving.

"What," she managed after she caught her breath. "What would ever make you think that? Someone would have told me that I was some fairy-tale monster!" Certainly her parents, who were very much not fae at all. Certainly all the physicians and healers and voodoo doctors that had seen her throughout her life.

"You aren't either," she added as the last of the laughter bubbled to the surface. "Unless you eat children," she added.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan raised an eyebrow when the girl laughed. She didn't believe him. So she didn't know what she was. Well, she was certainly in for a surprise.

"This is no fairy tale, girl; this is the real world. Why would I lie to you about this? You're Fae just the same as me. You don't look it, but you are," He replied, his voice solid and unwavering. "Fae don't eat children, either. High Fae, at least."

A thought occurred to him as she continued to laugh. He didn't voice it, especially after considering how well his last proclamation went.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"I'm a lot of things, but make believe isn't one of them," she said.

Of course she had heard the tales of the Fair Folk. Mostly they all claimed the immortal beings were simultaneously myth and monster. Both terrible and beautiful and capricious and vain. Looking again at this man, she could certainly see a streak of that running clean through him.

"The Fair Folk are immortal. Stronger and faster than humans, and I am neither of those things." She huffed a laugh at that, wincing as pain sliced through her. It was a constant companion, never far away. She simply bore it as she had for the last dozen years.

"Why do you care, Lord Fae? Even if you are, I am surely not." If he was, then she was playing quite a dangerous game. But then, it was easy to be brave when the stakes was a life that was forfeit anyway. "My Ma and Pa are neither fae, so how could I be?"

 

[Thallan]

"You're glamoured. Someone with a good bit of power has concealed your Fae nature and hidden your powers. I believe that is why you appear so frail. You've never touched your magic, have you?"

Even though moments before he'd decided not to tell her of his thought, he'd ended up telling her anyway. Maybe her health was something she'd take seriously.

"How sure are you that your 'Ma and Pa' are your birth parents? They might even be glamoured Fae as well."

He knew this was likely blow after blow for her, and he honestly could not fault her not wanting to believe them. But she must come to her senses eventually. If she didn't, it could kill her, ending her life early even for mortal standards.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Merchants with a good bit of money," she said quietly. Too quietly. Her parents were quite obviously her parents. How could they not be? And what would any of the Fair Folk gain by playing the part of ordinary humans for decades? "Anyway, to what end would playing the part serve?"

She finally sheathed her blade. Her arm ached just holding it off the ground. She was uncomfortably aware of how accurate his assessment of her frailty was. She was equally uncertain how he could even tell beyond the cursory look he'd had of her.

She might stand up to a charging bear, or to a brig brute that outweighed her... but this was a different story. She had been questioned about her worthiness for a job before, had been doubted in her abilities.

"Why would anyone bother?" She was uncertain, but she had had enough of this conversation. She spun to walk away. "I find this chat unfunny my Lord," she said, adding a bite to the last word.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan let her speak. He got the feeling she was trying to convince herself more than him. He was still and silent until she turned around to leave. He nearly reached out to grab her arm to pull her back around to face him but something stopped him. Instead, he spoke up.

"What if you're walking away from a chance to live? To truly live, and not just survive? To have real adventures, and lots of them?"

There were plenty of reasons for people to lie and pretend, more than Thallan could list. He would know. But there was never any good reason for one to walk away from an opportunity such as this.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

She stopped. She didn't know why she even cared herself. This man was a complete and total stranger to her. As if that wasn't enough, he was a self-proclaimed mythical being.

She half turned to him. "Why. Do. You. Care." She bit off each word, sharp as the blade at her waist. Why am I getting angry? This is just some unknown stranger. Why should he be able to get under my skin so?

"You know you are just... just some man I never knew until two minutes ago?" Her eyes locked onto his face, glittering in the dying light of day.

 

[Thallan]

"Why does it bother you so much?" Thallan turned her question back on her, not answering the one she asked him.

She did have a point, though. What right did he have, telling her to accept her apparent destiny? He supposed she had gotten his interest. It was rare he saw a Fae glamoured so well and in her situation. He wanted to know why.

"Why don't you care?" he asked after a moment of silence. He took a bite of his apple, finishing it off and tossing the core over his shoulder.

"Leave if you want, but you can't say I told you so,"

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

She was silent for a long moment. Don't talk to stranger. Not even beautiful ones. Seemed a simple enough commandment for her family.

Only... she spent days without any kind of companion. Maybe that was why she gave his words any credence at all. Especially because they were flatly absurd on their face.

"Why?" She ran a hand through her hair, uncertainty painting her stance. "Other than you just casually trying to tell me my entire life is a lie? That I am the biggest dupe in the world?" That every memory was false, every struggle overcome pointless if not outright meaningless.

But most burning of all, that the fate she had been given was a falsehood too. It was too good to be true, and thus improbable. "I don't know why you would shatter the peace I have come with what...what will happen to me." That was a lot more uncertain.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan watched her in the moment of silence, crossing his arms over his broad chest. Soon he would have to leave, to return home to his mother, no matter this girl's dilemma. He could tell she was especially struggling with the fact that she might actually have a life. Hope was dangerous.

He was quiet for a moment after she finished speaking, his gaze focused on her. She was likely the most stubborn person he had ever met, but the joke was on her- his patience was nearly endless.

"The truth can be hard and some people don't deserve it. But if you could use it to lead a better life, turn down a new path, why shouldn't you?"

The Fae had a complicated relationship with the truth. They could speak no lies, and instead relied on wording and silence (and illusions in Thallan's case) to hide things. Thallan was rather fond of the truth and sought to find it in everything he did, while at the same time making it near impossible for anyone else to discover his truths. The truth was indeed hard and complicated, and when it came to him, no one deserved his truth except him and maybe even his mother.

But this was the girl's truth, and he really shouldn't have had access to it in the first place. He was glad he did, or else she'd never know any better, but it was hers to handle and hers to accept or deny.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Just saying you speak the truth doesn't make it so," she countered.

She was like many of the mortal races of Arethil: ignorant of the immortals that walked among them, generally unseen. The fact that fae-folk could not lie might be general knowledge to those that knew of them, but it wasn't to her.

This nameless man had simply stated unvarnished truth without any equivocations, not that she could believe it on his word alone.

She spun and stalked off. Or tried to stalk off, anyway; a wave of dizziness struck and she staggered. Fresh pain flared, driving icicles of white-hot agony into her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but all she managed was a mewl of pain.

Clutching at her head, breath hissing between her teeth, she collapsed like a doll with its strings cut.

 

[Thallan]

She continued to deny the truth and he was about to settle for watching her stomp off indignantly before he sensed a wave of pain overcome her. He closed the distance between them and was there to catch her when collapsed. With one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders, he carried her limp body away princess style.

His house was not far off from the small village they were in, and he walked quickly, only barely slowed down by the girl in his arms. However close it was, he still could not walk there and be home before dark, so he shifted, taking the large distance and making it shorter by bounds through space and time. With this, he got them to his house as the sun was setting. He was rather exhausted and quite thirsty, but he was more concerned with how his mother would react.

He carried the girl in the front doors as they were opened by lower Fae. His mother appeared in the great hall from a side room and her smile froze when she saw the girl in his arms.

"Thallan...?" she started, her voice unsure.

"I'll explain it all, Mother, I promise, but right now I need to set her down in a bed. Do we have a guest room ready?"

His mother nodded and he carried Raea up the stairs as servants hurried around him. He laid her down on top of the bed in a guest room, taking a moment after to roll his shoulders and stretch his back. He was surprised at how light she was, but then she looked so frail and sickly he really shouldn't have been.

Then he went downstairs to tell his mother what had happened.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"Mother!"

She sat bolt upright for all of a moment, then reeled and fell back to the bed in a swoon. A moment later, her eyes opened again. She almost wished they hadn't; her head ached like daggers were driven deeply into her skull, fire and ice racing through her veins by turns.

After a moment, the extremity of it slackened. She lay in her own sweat soaked blouse and trousers, the taste of bile filling her mouth. When she sat up again, it was much more carefully and with increasing confusion.

There was a blank spot in her memory. She did not remember this place. The furnishings were as fine or finer than anything she had known from before her flight from home. Everything was in earthen tones that made it feel homely. If there was an air of disuse to it, well, that was fine.

What was more pressing was where was she?

A moment passed, and memory slowly seeped in. A man, nameless, and an argument. She couldn't remember the details...

...fae...

She blinked, kicked her legs over the edge of the bed and stood unsteadily.

 

[Thallan]

It hadn't taken more than a few minutes for Thallan tell his mother what had happened, and she had gone full mother hen on the poor girl laying unconscious in her guest suite. She had sat by the girl's bedside, sponging a wet cloth on her face, making sure she was comfortable.

Thallan kept to his own room, staying out of his mother's way for the next hour and a half, until she came into his room, saying that the girl had awakened.

He followed her into the guest suite where Raea was standing by the bed.

"Hello, dear. I am Elasha, and this is my son Thallan," Thallan's mother was the first to speak and Thallan felt childishly annoyed that his mother had given away his name to this stranger; even if it wasn't his hidden true name. Why did the girl get to know his name and he couldn't know hers?

"Would you like a bath and a change of clothes?" Elasha went on. If Thallan hadn't loved his mother so much he would've physically thrown her from the room.

Even with a bit of rest (however unwillingly), Raea still looked worse for wear. Thallan was curious what sort of magic she had and if she'd be able (or willing) to use it at all or if she would just crumble into a pile of dust blown away by the wind.

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

The door opened and she started, reaching for a blade that wasn't there. The sudden movement didn't agree with her, either; she immediately clutched her head as pain spiked again, forcing her to sit down.

The pain faded quickly, but still left her stomach summersaulting slowly. She looked up through hooded eyes and regarded the pair. At the first glance of Thallan, memory flashed and her lips tugged downward in a frown. The man that had made unsolicited commentary on her sword play with all the arrogance and hauteur of a noble's son.

The woman though...

Taller than Raea herself but blade slender and with the same red hair as her son, she had that matronly air about her. She was also devastatingly beautiful, with that fiery red hair running in a wavy fall down her back. Where her son wore haughtiness like a cloak, she had wrapped herself in kindness.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times before finding her voice and managing the question that immediately burned in her mind. "Where am I?"

Something whispered in her mind. Fae. He said he was fae. I am in some fae .... house. Manor. Monsters... Except, looking at Elasha she couldn't quite see it. Looking at Thallan, for that matter. Maybe that whole conversation about faeries was some fever dream; even if she was not feverish now, it wouldn't be the first time nor likely the last.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan finally spoke before his mother did. "Our home. You fainted and I brought you here." It was rather blunt and perhaps not nearly as nice as his mother had said it but it was the truth.

"When you're ready to talk, I'm right down the hall. I know you don't believe me... but I believe there is some sort of glamour hiding your true form. And if it were broken... you don't even know how relieved you'll feel."

He would let his mother pamper her, get some semblance of health back in her, maybe put her in more in her right mind, if she had one.

He turned to leave, but paused and turned back around to face Raea. "You're not a prisoner here, leave if you want to, but its your own grave you'll be digging."

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"So you say," she said stiffly. She waited until he had left the room, and then turned to Elasha. "He says you are Fae." There was just a hint of question in her voice. At least her words were much more warm with the matronly woman than they had been with Thallan.

Thallan. He had not given her his name, at least not willingly. The adventuress looked to Elasha and offered a wan smile. "I am Raea, by the way," she murmured. She tried to stand again, but her head threatened to split in half again and she sat back down with a grimace and a whimper.

 

[Thallan]

Thallan left the room, but that did not mean he did not hear the Raea give his mother her name. He wondered if perhaps Raea and his mother would become tight friends and he couldn't decide if that was good or bad.

Elasha moved towards Raea as the girl showed signs of being very unsteady. "A pretty name. But names can wait. Your health can not,"

She helped Raea lay back down on the bed and only once she was certain Raea wasn't going to have another episode like Thallan had described did she relent her care. She pondered the girl's earlier statement, though she was more pondering the girl than the statement.

"I am Fae," Elasha replied. She traced a finger along the long, pointed tip of her right ear. "We can be mistaken for elven, but we have different abilities. Like elves, we have pointed ears, we are tall and beautiful, and we live longer than we should."

She said it all so matter of factly and calmly, as if it was no big thing. She was quiet for a moment before she continued to speak, bringing up what Thallan had told her earlier. "You are Fae, my child. I can smell it on you, even if I can't see it. Thallan is right, a strong glamour is hiding your best qualities."

Raea Stormcrow

 

[Raea Stormcrow]

"It can't be," she breathed. How could she be something entirely different than what her eyes perceived? "The Fair Folk are spoken of in whispers." She paused, staring at the ceiling. "The kind told to children that misbehave."

Beasts that captured mortals and drug them into watery graves. That caught them in the woodlands and shredded them alive. Or worse fates. Being used for amusement, broken physically and mentally before being cast aside to die. Or, if you were lucky, simply caught in pacts or bargains that were one-sided or tricksome in nature.

"Why would someone change me outwardly to hide something like this. How would they?" Her head pounded with her pulse, and she pinched her temples with her right hand.

She didn't want it to be true and could not make herself willingly accept it as the truth. It meant her entire life was a lie; her parents, her suffering, her loves and hates and all of her adventures. Even her courage was called into question. He made her sick to her stomach to even contemplate it.