Something felt off when I woke up. I opened my eyes to a simple room of greens and yellows. My bed was warm, I had a water pitcher and towel, my things were set on a chair, and in the mirror on the wall I could see my reflection. Nothing was wrong, and yet something was off.

"Puko!" I shot up in bed, my head swirling from last night's wine. I hadn't seen Puko since we entered the city. He always came and went as he pleased, but he did have a tendency to wake me up. Maybe he didn't like the Spring lands, maybe he couldn't get to me inside the palace. I didn't like it, but I decided to give him a couple days and see if I could find him outside.

I reached up to touch my hair, and decided I needed a bath. I began gathering my things when a soft knock at my door startled me.

"Yes?" I shoved my fresh underthings into the towel in my arms.

"It's me." Schula's voice came through the door. "Are you going to take a bath? I was thinking about going soon."

I opened the door to find her with an armful of clothes and a comb in her other hand. "I was about to go myself."

"Shall we then?" She grinned at my armload, and offered me to take her arm like the males in the Spring court did. I giggled and took her offer, lacing my arm through hers.

"Should we tell Eberon where we're going?" I asked as we passed through the common room.

"I already told him I was going, I'm sure he'll figure it out." We closed the door softly behind us and turned towards the main corridor. Schula took us to the lion fountain and turned two lefts towards the baths. Few other bleary-eyed fae were up, and when we reached the baths they were nearly empty.

Hot pools of water steamed and fogged the room. Ivy grew everywhere, but the ceiling was made of glass and sunshine lit up the room so it wouldn't be dark. The sky was bright and cloudless overhead.

"I can't believe how addicted to a hot bath I've become." I tossed my clothes in a basket by the wall and rushed for the water.

"I can't believe you took cold baths before now." Schula took more time folding her clothes, but she soon joined me in the water. She sank in, melting off her glamour and returning to the icy white fae I knew.

"So, you spent the afternoon with Caldon." Schula relaxed against the edge of the pool, but kept a wide grin on her face.

"You told me to!" I sank down low as my face reddened. I didn't want to be talking about Caldon when I was naked in the bath.

"So what do you think of him?" She prodded.

"Well...he's the most energetic fae I've ever met." No lie there. "He's very thoughtful, and has a silver tongue. I, I don't know what to make of him."

"Caldon likes what he does here for Diamid. He's charming, and he genuinely worships the females he courts." She turned to me. "I don't know what it's like to go through what you've been through, but I'll wager you haven't been sought after by many men."

"No." I sank a little lower. "Who want's to be with a half fae?"

"Well, I think Caldon does." Schula scooted closer to me on the bench. "I'm not telling you what to do, or what you should be ready for. Maybe you don't like males, maybe you don't feel ready, but if you do, I'm telling you that Caldon is good. He won't treat you wrong, and he won't make you do anything you don't want to do. Just don't expect anything permanent from him."

"It sounds like you know that personally." I focused on choosing soap from a tray floating close by.

"Oh, I do." She plucked the nearest soap off the tray with a wicked grin and began cleaning herself. "Caldon isn't going to give you a mate for life, he doesn't dote on a female that long. He is, however, a fantastic lover and he is emotionally available. A fling like that can do wonders for your self-esteem."

"I don't know that I want a lover!" I hissed, blushing. "And what makes you think he wants that of me?"

A smoky quartz flashed through my head.

"He asked for my blessing. Caldon and I go way back. We went from enemies, to lovers, to friends." The soap glided down her arms as she cleaned. "He really brought me out of a dark place. And, I love you both. If it would make you both happy, I would like it to happen. If that's what you both want of course."

"Isn't it, I don't know, shameful?" I had caught teenagers in the mountains tumbling naked in the woods. You don't bed a girl you don't want to marry, or at least you don't get caught doing it. Not when you're human.

"This isn't the land of men, Wren." She looked at me with those pale, gentle eyes. "It's rare to find one you would call your mate for life. There is a bonding ceremony, like a human marriage, but our population survives on lovers. When you're talking hundreds or thousands of years of life, a mate is a pretty difficult commitment to swallow. Besides, taking a lover is perfectly acceptable here. It's good for the soul, anyway."

"That makes sense." I finally selected a soap and ran it over my neck. "I just don't know if I could do it. I'm not, I mean, all the fae are so beautiful. How is a half human supposed to compare?"

"Wren, you and I are no different. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin for a very long time." Schula turned me around and washed my back, being careful of the markings and blocking view of them.

"You?" I whispered.

"Yes me. A life being looked down upon can do that to you. You spent your life that way, and now you have started to believe those things too. You are not worthy, you are not beautiful." She scrubbed my hair and I let down my braids. "Look, all I'm saying is follow your heart. You aren't with the humans anymore. This is what the fae do, we live, we love, we cry, we fight. Why live life bottling yourself up when you might experience something instead?"

"I'll try to open up more." I was glad she couldn't see my face. I'm sure it was as red as Eberon's hair.

"You don't have to open up if you aren't ready." She finished my hair and helped me dunk it under the water. "But if you are, Caldon isn't a bad choice at all."

"I'll keep that in mind." I said. Schula gave me a hug and left the bath, combing her hair while I finished scrubbing my own body.

Caldon. Could I do it? Could I really just take a lover like that? The witches did it, they wouldn't take a husband, but they took lovers to make children. Bryn would even go out at night to tumble some woman or other when we made our trips to Sulls.

I pushed the thoughts away for now. I'd decide later. First things first, I was expected to see the king at lunch, and I needed to get ready.  

"Wren, you know I care about you, right?" Schula asked, drawing me from my thoughts. 

I smiled into the water, blushing. "Yes, I care for you too, Schula."

"Wonderful, because after this we're stretching." Schula giggled.

Ugh.

~

Caldon came for me just before midday, as he said he would. Schula and Eberon hadn't specifically been invited to the picnic. They could have come anyway, but Eberon insisted he and Schula had things to discuss. Schula, the devil, saw me off with a wink.

The conversation was light as Caldon led me through the twists and turns of hallways. Even so, I couldn't remember a word either of us said. I was too aware of my breathing, my heartbeat, and my warm palms. Lovers. The word thundered in my head. Something I never thought of for myself. Ever.

A dark blue fae crept to the edge of my thoughts, and I shook my head to clear it. 

No, I wasn't ready for a lover. Was I?

"Wren?" Caldon stopped.

"Hm?" He had said something. What was it?

"I said we're here." Caldon gestured to an open doorway before us.

"Oh, right." I know I was blushing as he escorted me into an open glen. The sky overhead was unhindered, and if I didn't know any better I would have guessed we were in a garden outside. The ground was dirt and grass, sloping gently up to a hill. The king sat on top a grand blanket and cushions. Settled around him were several fae, including the princes and Master Draedon.

"His Majesty requests you join his family," Caldon said softly. "On his left is Prince Alban, Prince Arran, and Master Draedon that you met last night. To his right is Princess Vray, the twins' mother and her mate Lord Norfeld."

"Thank you," I whispered. We approached the top of the hill and King Diamid waived us forward.

"Sit! Join us, Wren." He had an air of command despite looking little older than me. His daughter and her mate were smiling as well, and Master Draedon nodded at us.

"Thank you Majesty." I bowed and took the indicated seat. Caldon bowed and left.

"Sorry to have met you under such grim circumstances," Diamid said, plucking a grape from a bowl in front of him. "A beautiful sendoff though."

"Father, maybe we should speak of lighter things?" Princess Vray nodded towards me. "It's nice to meet you, Wren. Caldon tells us you are enjoying the Spring lands?"

"I am." A twinge of burning at my back itched, but I ignored it. "Dwellonmar is a lovely place, the slopes of your roads remind me of growing up on a mountainside."

"Surely not as steep as all that." Lord Norfeld laughed, putting a hand on his mate's shoulder.

"A mountain?" Arran perked up from his wedge of cheese.

"Like the Winter's Teeth?" Alban hissed.

"Gracious no, not there." King Diamid patted the princes on their heads and laughed, filling the glen. "Tell me about your home in the mountains, Wren. How did such a young fae survive the cold winters?"

"Well, I lived in a log cabin built by my guardian. He was a woodsman, a woodcutter for the surrounding villages." I wiggled a little in place as the itch on my back didn't relent.

"Wasn't it cold?" Vray asked.

"Sometimes, not all year." I answered. "I lived through each season as it came. I could never have imagined the Autumn lands and Spring lands as I know them now."

"How can you live through all the seasons changing all the time?" Arran asked skeptically. 

"Hush Arran." Princess Vray told him. "Even princes have to let their guests talk. We invited Wren here, after all."

"Sorry, Miss Wren." Arran shied away behind Master Draedon, playing with a pink willow blossom in his hair.

"Please, I'm honored for the invitation." I bowed my head and channeled my inner Eberon. "Feel free to ask me anything."

"Did you have a tutor?" Alban asked, the king chuckled and plucked another grape.

"No, no tutor. Well, a woman did teach me to read and write and things, but I'm sure I'm not very learned." I answered.

"A woman?" The king turned to me. "Did the humans treat you well?"

"Ah, well for the most part no. They shunned a half-fae. The unknown scares them." I gripped my hands in the grass around me, trying to ignore my itching back. "There were a small few around me though who treated me well."

"And were you afraid at your first fae encounter?" Vray tilted her head.

"Truthfully yes." I remembered at the last minute what Thain had said about lying. "But any fears I had are disappearing as I meet more fae and see more of the Wyldes."

"But you are half fae yourself," Lord Norfeld said.

"True, and that scared me as well. I didn't know what sort of powers I may develop, or if I would watch those around me grow old and I stay young. I had no one to tell me what it would be like."

"How dreadful." Vray lowered her head.

"What powers have surfaced for you, Wren?" Diamid asked. "Nothing too troublesome in your human home I hope."

I squirmed, not wanting to say. "I, well there was an incident when I was young, but we were able to clean it up."

"Oh?" The king narrowed his eyes. "What exactly happened?"

I was trapped, I realized. Not in a cage or locked in a room, but I was trapped on this open hill, in a beautiful garden glen, by the high society of the fae. The burning in my back increased, something pressed in on me, screaming at me to keep it a secret.

"I-"

"CAW" 

I was saved by a fat shadow of feathers.

"Guards!" Lord Norfeld called. The princes squealed in delight as Princess Vray and Master Draedon scooped them up in alarm.

"Puko!" I gasped as he righted himself on my lap. "Your Majesty, I am so sorry."

"You know this bird?" Diamid asked in surprise.

"Yes, he traveled with me from the mountains." I got a firm grasp on his feet, sealing him to my knee. "I am so sorry. He's probably just frustrated he couldn't find me inside the palace. I usually sleep with a window open for him."

"What an...odd bird. What did you say his name was?" The king was focused on Puko's clouded eye. A pang shot through my back.

"He's been called a lot of things since he found me on my journey." I searched for names the others called him, particularly Eberon had a number of things to call him. "Troublemaker, Feather-brain, Menace."

"Menace!" The twins squealed. "Can I pet him?"

"If he'll let you I don't mind." Relief flooded me. The princes scurried from the grasp of their caretakers and rushed to Puko. I thanked him silently for his cooperation in the distraction, and vowed to give him a big bowl of cherries as soon as possible.

"Sire?" A guard approached.

"It's fine." The king waived a hand and the guards retreated.

"You said this creature follows you?" Lord Norfeld asked.

"Sometimes. Mostly he just bothers me for food in the mornings." I shrugged, keeping my tone casual. "It's true what they say, if you feed an animal it will follow you forever."

"I want to feed a wolf!" Arran yelled.

"I want to feed a bear." Alban growled. "My bear can eat your wolf!"

"Ahem." The princess gave the twins a sharp look, and they settled down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was around. I can try to send him away." I offered.

"No, it's fine." Vray sighed. "They need to learn control."

"Sorry, Mother."

"Sorry."

"Your Majesty?" A train of servants approached with what must be lunch. Aside from Diamid's bowl of grapes, I hadn't seen any food yet.

"Yes, yes set it up." He was still staring at Puko, but waived the servants forward. The rest of the lunch was uneventful, and I was allowed to leave when it became clear the twins needed a nap.

The king still watched Puko.

My seal still burned.