Thain didn't mention the previous night at breakfast. He didn't mention it while we walked through the city, or when we entered the palace and went down the long, torch-lit hallways that led to the library. By nature it wasn't unusual for him to not talk much, but I couldn't stop 

thinking about how he looked by the fire as I ran up the stairs and away from him.

Guilt sat like a stone in my belly, but so did the terror of facing my magic. I could feel it struggle against the seal, and it only grew stronger as I stayed in Thanantholl. The distraction was particularly fierce today, and I ran into Thain as he stopped at the library doors.

"Are you alright?" He asked coolly.

"Yes, sorry." I blushed.

"This is the Library of Autumn. The other courts have their own as well." Thain stood aside to show me the delicately carved wooden doors. A cold metal handle shaped like vines protruded from each side.

"That handle is iron, to remind us of the sacrifices it takes to carry the burdens of truth." He pointed to the left handle, then the right. "This one is silver, to remind us of the riches those truths can bring us."

"Does it matter which one we open?" I asked, my words bouncing off the stone floors.

"Every choice in the Wyldes matters." He stood back, letting me decide. I stared at the handles for a moment. My first thought was to suffer with the iron handle, even though it didn't hurt me to do so. My hand lifted towards it at first, but something stopped me. It made sense to suffer for the reward of knowledge, but I wasn't the one doing the suffering. The scholars inside, the fae of the past who spent hours writing the truths for the future to remember, those are the ones that suffered. I was here only for the riches of knowledge. I moved my hand and placed it on the silver handle. I looked over at Thain, who gave me a slight smile and nodded. I opened the door, and let us in.

"Was that the right choice?" I asked as we stepped inside.

"There isn't a right or wrong choice so much as your intent behind your answer." He stepped in behind me and shut the door with a soft click. "Rarely will you find an answer to be right and wrong. That's more of a human mindset, you'd do better in the Wyldes to open your options."

"I'll keep that in mind." Once my eyes adjusted to the candle light, I saw a room of books, scrolls, and shuffling scribes. The shelves stood in the middle of the room so the walls would be free to hold a collection of art.

"This way." Thain strode through the library and straight to the desk of a dusty grey satyr. He sat, hunched over a half-written scroll and occasionally drinking from a wine bottle. Thain held out a hand to stop me a few feet before we reached the desk.

"I told you, Memna will bring the documents when they are ready. Not a moment sooner." The satyr stroked his beard and continued scrawling.

"Do you want to try saying that again?" Thain growled deeply in his throat.

"Lord Thainalan!" The satyr shot up, nearly knocking his wine bottle on the floor. "Er, what brings you to the library?"

"I'm here for this one." He shook his head towards me. "You've heard the name Wren, even from all the way back here."

"Wren..." His nose flared and one of his goat ears twitched. "Wren! The youth?"

"Yes. This might be a once in a lifetime chance for you to tell the history of the fae to someone who isn't older than you." Thain leaned on the desk with both hands and murmured. "And she is under my protection from anything I deem as a threat."

The satyr swallowed hard. "Right, yes of course."

He looked around Thain to see me standing calmly with my hands behind my back. I wasn't sure why Thain was intimidating this little creature, but I didn't know much about satyrs either. Mila always said they were annoying and didn't want to talk about them.

"Hello, Wren." He scooted off his chair and approached me , and crossed an arm over his chest, the palace salute. "My name is Cosimo, the Caretaker of Lore here at the palace. I would be happy to give you a brief history of the Wyldes."

"Hello Cosimo." I shook his hand and looked to Thain, who nodded and sat against Cosimo's desk.

"I'll wait here, but this library isn't big enough that I can't hear everything. Behave, Cosimo." He immediately waved over a clerk and leaned over to talk to him.

"Very well, this way Miss Wren." Cosimo's hooves clicked on the stone floor as he led me to a far wall. Candles flickered from every angle, and I was mesmerized by an ancient mosaic that stretched from one corner of the library wall to the other.

"We'll start here, one of my favorite pieces. This is the tale of beginnings." Cosimo pointed to the first part of the mural, a collection of stars. "Before the fae, there were the Stars, and the Wyldes."

We walked slowly, and I drank in the artwork as Cosimo's light voice lilted me through the story. "One day, two of the Stars descended, creating the Mother and Father to all fae kind. They called themselves Titan and Oba. From them sprang all of us. High fae, satyrs, nymphs, elves, wraiths, kelpies, dryads, sprites, and every other sort of life the Wyldes hold today."

I leaned in to inspect the two figures, depicted with a shining light around their bodies they seemed to be creating the people of the Wyldes with magic. The next images were of a ferocious war, I grimaced, wondering what would lead to that.

"With their work completed, Titan and Oba returned to the Stars, leaving their creations with few rules. Those rules guide how our magic functions. I'm sure you've learned by now, we cannot lie, we cannot go against our word, and our magic is deeply connected to our emotions."

I nodded and we walked a little further. Cosimo stood much closer than was really comfortable, but when I looked at him he backed up as though nothing was amiss.

"With the Stars gone, there was no guidance. Three rules is not a lot, after all. A bloody war broke out as the fae fought to establish rulership over each other." We walked further to find a circle of creatures somewhere in the Wyldes. "After what we came to call the five hundred year war, a conference was held. Representatives of each faction came forward to end the fighting and attempt a peaceful agreement."

"Five hundred years?" I gasped.

"Yes, and another year for the conference." Cosimo moved along. "I'll skip the failed attempts, but suffice to say the end result is the four courts we have today. Moving down here, we see the establishment of boundaries, and first contact with humans."

"The fae were here that long before humans?" I asked, not that it surprised me .

"Oh my yes, and longer than I've gone into explaining, but here you see first contact." Cosimo pointed as he spoke. "Ancient humans were seen as little better than cattle. No magic, short-lived, and they breed like flies. Wars happened, human numbers against fae magic. Messy business. In the end, a healthy fear of the fae was established to simply keep them out of the rich lands of the Wyldes."

"I had no idea there were wars, that the humans could even fight back enough to be worth the effort." I traced the tile border of stars.

"You aren't the first human, well, part human, we've seen in these halls. So I'm told at least. They say the same thing every time." Cosimo grinned. "It's very rare, but it happens. Moving on, here we see the crowning of King Baeleon..."I was taken down the wall through coronation and war. The fae were not a peaceful people until very recently. Entire races have died out. A particularly terrible war had Cosimo stop to sigh.

"The war of the Wyldes." He rubbed his temples. "An opposition to the long-ago established courts. Some races choose to live in the unclaimed Wyldes rather than under the banner of one of the kings."

"Aren't there still fae creatures living in the unclaimed Wyldes?" I asked.

"Yes, some. Not nearly the numbers there were before this war." He stroked his beard as a sprite brought a wineskin over to us. "Oh thank the Stars, Ewen, I'll see you tomorrow, you can leave for the day."

The sprite nodded and scurried away as Cosimo inspected his drink.He drank deeply before continuing. "Let's see, oh right. This was the last time the four courts truly worked together so well. Countless lives were lost, sad really considering how slow our populations grow. Anyway, the courts won, but it was a near thing. Unseelie horrors, er, do you know about the seelie and unseelie?"

"Yes, I've been told a little about that." I said.

"Right, good. Many unseeley horrors were wiped out, but of course not completely. The dragons were wiped from these lands, none have been seen since but the devils can sleep for a century in hiding so who really knows. The elves were nearly decimated. Heh, now there was a faction that left cursing our names. They were banished from the Wyldes. Our kind doesn't live well outside the magic of our lands. I think they numbered five males anyway, so even if they live there remain only five. An entire breed of dryad was nearly wiped off the map, but the few who had remained loyal to the courts have really brought their species back to thriving. The selkies were banished, though a few weakened descendants still lurk the coasts to prey on humans from what I've heard."

"How awful." The mosaic spared no detail of gore as a dragon was gutted with spears. A dark blue fae was depicted ripping off something's head, I shuddered.

"What I'm truly glad to see gone are the upir." Cosimo scrunched up his face. "Now that's an ugly breed. Crafty things though, a couple may have survived, but none have been seen. Thankfully."I followed his eyes to a viscous woman in black, ripping the heart from a fae with a wide smile on her lips. Cosimo clapped his hands, bringing my attention back to him, and we began to walk again.

"Moving on we have the coronation of the Spring court's queen after her father was slain in the war."

Cosimo went on for a long time. There was much to drink in and the recurring theme was a semi-worship of the Stars. Not surprising after the tale of beginnings. The end of the mural, which now began to reach around the corner of the wall, was a fresher addition depicting the plague that wiped out so many young fae. It was a very sobering end to the mural. By the time we circled the room and I had been shown statues and paintings of famous fae, we found Thain sitting at the satyr's desk, reading from a crumbling tome.

"Finished?" He asked, closing the book.

"Indeed. A brief history, but it should suffice." Cosimo bowed and Thain gave the little scholar his seat back.

"Thank you. We'll be leaving then." Without another word, the dark fae strode for the door once again.

"Did he touch you in any way? Or behave strangely?" Thain asked, not looking back at me.

"No, would he have?" I remembered Thain's threats before my history lesson.

"No, don't worry about it. Just, watch yourself around satyrs. The young ones can't help themselves." He led us out of the palace and through the streets, my eyes had to adjust to the light.

"What were you reading that whole time?" I was curious what would interest the quiet warrior enough to look into.

"A history of witches." He said flatly.I stopped in my tracks, my heart pounded. "Why?"

"You know why." Thain snarled. He didn't stop for me.

"But what were you looking for?" I followed, but kept a healthy distance.

"You know what I was looking for, Wren." He kept walking. "You don't want to have this conversation here, let's go home."

It was true, I didn't. I followed in silence, over the bridges and around the trees, wondering if I would need to take King Baeleon up on his offer for palace rooms.

Other citizens of Thanantholl gave Thain a wide breath in the streets. All I could do was stumble after him, trying to keep up. My stomach turned into one big knot when we reached his quiet little street. The once welcoming door now looked ominous.

Thain still didn't look at me as he ripped the door open, scratching the paint near the handle. I meekly followed him.

As soon as we were inside the house, Thain shut the door and turned to me. "Do you want to explain?"

"Explain what?" I swallowed my terror at his pulsing anger and scowled at him, holding my own.

"Stop lying." He snarled. "I can smell it on you."

A ripple in his appearance flashed claws and muscles that weren't there before. His glamour slipped. Hells, he was suffocating me with a thick air around him, hungry and feral.

"You need to tell me what it is exactly that you want to know." I said calmly. "The word 'witch' brings a lot of thoughts to mind."

"Wairen told me about the marks on your back," he spat. Last night, the bath, Wairen would have seen everything. Shit.

"Yes, my magic has been sealed shut. Yes, by a witch." I was already backed against the door, and my hand itched for my axe for the first time in weeks.

"So you've known you have magic." He flexed his hands open and closed.

"Yes, I never denied having it!" I focused on breathing and watching Thain struggle with his glamour.

"Why is it sealed?" He said quietly.

"It was sealed when I was found in the woods." I said evenly. "My friend, a witch, unsealed it when I was ten. It didn't go well. I asked her to seal it up again."

"So you've been building it up all this time? No release?" He hissed. "That witch was a fool."

"That witch saved my life!" I yelled. "And what do you know of it? I can't even tell you who my parents were. For all you know I'm not even High Fae. What if I'm half nymph or sprite or whatever? I can't glamour. Maybe I should just go work for a shopkeeper who screams at her assistants like servants!"

"This has nothing to do with you being half High Fae, which you are by the way. I can smell it on you, we all can. Whatever you are is no lesser fae, and the fact that you've been in control of yourself is a wonder." A button popped on his shirt, which we both ignored.

"What is this about then?" I hissed.

"It's about secrets and lies." He growled. "It's about me trying to help you every step of the way, and you fighting it."

"I didn't ask you to!" I snapped, tears now breaking down my face. My back tensed, a flash of cool air whispered past my ear. A promise of what would happen if I kept provoking him.

"But you didn't say no either." He took a small step forward. "I've opened my home to you, I've been honest with you, and still you hide from me. What do I have to do to open you up? I can't heal you this way, you're completely closed off. You're part of the salvation of an entire race and still you recoil from us, from me, like we're some kind of monsters. You forget, Wren, that you're half monster yourself!"

Hands slammed on either side of me, his claws digging into the wood. His face was only inches from mine, and I could feel his hot breath fanning my face. My legs trembled in his presence. For the first time in days, I was actually scared of Thain.

"Thain?" Schula's voice cut through the door at my back. My heart thundered, but I couldn't tear my eyes from Thain. He took a step back and heaved with the effort to contain himself. He was upset. More upset then I'd ever seen him, more upset then when he killed the wraith. A brisk wind blew through the room, flickering the fire and scattering papers.

"I'm coming in!" Schula swung the door into my back, not knowing I was right there, and she half caught me as I stumbled. Those cool hands on my arms made me realize how warm I was. My back was burning. My seal was burning. And in my eyes, hot tears were burning.

"What's going on here?" She stepped into the room between me and Thain. Her nose twitched and she spun around. "You're being a brute. We're leaving."

"You knew." Thain growled.

"We're leaving," she spat the words at him like daggers of ice and fury. "I'll see you again when you can control yourself."

She slammed the door behind us, and hurried me out the front gate. A terrible roar shook the house behind me. I could feel it through the flagstones underfoot as birds fled the tree overhead. Schula kept an arm around me the whole time as she wound us though unfamiliar streets and over new bridges. A caw overhead told me Puko was following.

I sobbed, my shoulders shaking from fear and sorrow. Schula didn't say a word as she handed me a handkerchief. For now, that was no longer my home.