I sat down at my desk, feeling very nice in my new sheath dress. I’d discovered, only that morning, that it had pockets as well! And they weren’t just small pockets, they were big enough for my phone and wallet, too! That was always such a welcome surprise.

We’d brought a lot of snacks from the house and put them into the fridge and cupboard in Fen’s office, and I’d made myself some tea at his tea station.

As I waited for my tea to steep, I typed in my login information, and hit enter, then waited for the computer to boot up.

When it did, I frowned. The icons that had been on the desktop the day before were all gone. I waited for a few moments, hoping they were just being slow to load in, but when they didn’t appear, I got up, and went into Axl’s office, taking my laptop with me.

“Something is wrong, all of the icons are gone from my desktop.” I opened the file navigator, and it came up totally empty as well. “Everything is gone, I think.” I frowned.

“What?” Axl frowned.

Fen appeared in the doorway that connected the two offices. “More trouble?”

“I don’t know? I mean, it’s trouble, but I don’t know if it was sabotage, or if I’m just having an IT issue.” I frowned.

Axl took the laptop, and clicked around. “It’s like it’s been wiped.” He muttered. “I think it was the saboteur.”

Fen sighed, “This is ridiculous. Not only are they sabotaging her, they’re sabotaging me by proxy. I was going to have her write letters for me today, but now that’ll be delayed until we can get her computer fixed, or an entirely new one."

“Yes.” Axl sighed.

“I’ll have to see if we can get in touch with that forensic IT person we used that one time. He’s usually pretty busy, though.”

“Oh, Thomas does stuff like that! He might be able to help, want me to ask him? He’s done contract work for homeland security before.”

Fen blinked, “Yeah, that’ll work. Can you text him?”

“Sure.” I pulled out my phone and shot Thomas a text. My phone chirped with his reply about ten seconds later. “He’s interested.” I told Fen. “I’ll give him your cell number so you can talk about it.”

“Alright, tell him to call me, that’ll be easier than texting it all.” Fen nodded. “I’ll work it out with him, Axl, get Mercy set up on another computer. Have the head of IT install extra protections on it herself, okay?”

“Will do!” Axl saluted, then left the office.

“I’m sorry this is happening, Mercy.” Fen sighed. “I promise we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“It’s okay. I’m not hurt or upset, just annoyed, really.” I shrugged.

Fen’s phone rang. “I assume this is Thomas.” he said, answering it.

I retrieved my tea from my desk, put some sugar and a splash of milk in it at the tea station, then sat down at the couch in Fen’s office to wait.

Fen discussed what we needed and appropriate pricing, and they seemed to come to an agreement. “Most of my employees are fey, and I’m willing to provide you with special glasses so you can see through our glamours while you're here, too. Or would that be too odd?” Fen listened. “Alright, sounds good. You’ll be here soon? Okay, see you then. Thank you.” the fey king hung up.

“Did he want the glasses?”

“Yes.”

“That doesn't surprise me. He does know about you all now, I’d want to be able to see you all properly too, had I only found out recently.” I nodded.

“If it goes well, I might ask if he’d like a more permanent contract. The person we usually use is hard to get in touch with.” Fen said thoughtfully.

“Oh that’d be cool!” I laughed.

Fen texted on his phone. “He said he could come straight here. I’ll have Axl meet him at the front door with the glasses and show him up.”

“Good idea.” I nodded approvingly, then asked, “Is there anything I can do while we wait?”

“Hmm.” Fen looked around the room, “I have documents that need filing.” he motioned at a filing cabinet with a stack of paper on top.

“I can do that!” I chirped, hopping up. “That’s easy!”

“Alright, go to town, then.” he nodded, motioning for me to proceed.

I grabbed the stack of papers, and started to file them away.

After about twenty minutes, Axl came in, Thomas on his heels, looking a little dazed and a little nerdy in the enchanted glasses. I'm sure the sheer amount of fey folk that he’d just been exposed to as he’d walked through the building was a little stunning.

“Hi Thomas!” I greeted my old friend happily.

He blinked, coming back to reality. “Iri- uh - Mercy! Hi!” He still slipped up from time to time and almost called me Iris, but he always caught himself. He did a once over of me, looking slightly perplexed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear business clothes. You look good.”

I blinked, caught off-guard and suddenly a little self-conscious, but managed to laugh a little, “It’s been known to happen! I do work in an office setting now, so it’s a necessity. But, uh, thanks.” Hopefully that hadn’t been too graceless.

Fen cleared his throat, drawing Thomas’ attention. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course.” Thomas turned towards Fen, then stared. “I-I…you look different?”

I grimaced, “Oh, I forgot to tell you! It’s a long story, I’ll explain later. I promise that’s still Fen, though.”

Thomas pulled himself together, shaking his head, “Right. Um…I…I’m grateful you took Mercy’s recommendation, and I’m happy to be able to try to help.”

“Here’s the laptop.” Fen handed the computer to him. “We’ll get you set up in a spare office so you can work without any interruptions. Is that alright?”

“Sure.” Thomas nodded.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

-

Irritated with the situation, Fen fiddled with the enchanted glasses he wore. Thomas’ comment on Mercy’s appearance had clearly made her uncomfortable. And then the man had continued to glance over at her as he discussed exactly what he planned to do with the wiped computer, though Mercy was oblivious to the attention, given she’d returned to putting papers into the filing cabinet.

Now that he’d seen Thomas and Mercy interact more than they had on the night Mercy had first traveled to Faerie, the fey king had a feeling that Mercy’s old friend had only very recently clued into the fact that she might be a suitable partner. Maybe he’d been stuck picturing the young woman as a little kid, and seeing her again after a few years had snapped him into the reality that Mercy was no longer a little teenager with a crush on her friend’s older brother. She was a very attractive, competent, sweet twenty-something who turned heads, Fen's included.

That added on to his annoyance with Thomas at how he’d treated Mercy in the past, though he was glad Mercy no longer had a crush on him. Crushes could be revived, though, given the right words or situation.

Fen shook himself slightly. No, no, it was over. He could tell Mercy didn’t think of Thomas that way anymore.

“Axl, take him to the office on the other side of yours and get him anything he needs.” Fen directed, wanting Thomas out of the way.

“Sure thing! But before I go,” Axl handed me a new laptop. “IT got everything loaded, but any files you’d made or emails you got on your account didn’t survive, but they did recreate your email address.”

“Alright. Thank you.”

Axl led Thomas away.

“I’ll go get logged in. Send me an email with whatever you want me to work on and I’ll get started.”

“Okay.” Fen nodded.

Mercy left, taking the new laptop with her.

-

Thomas came out of the office that Fen had him working in. “Hey.” he said.

I looked up, “How’s it going?”

“Come into Fen’s office with me and I’ll tell you in there.” he motioned for me to follow him, so I did.

Fen looked up from whatever he was working on as we entered, asking “Finished?”

“Yeah. It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Whoever cleared that computer knew what they were doing. I can see like, traces of what they did, but I can’t find a path back to them. I’d say it’s someone either in IT or with a strong background in it. I've honestly never seen anything quite like it before, it was very unusual."

Axl cut in. “Don’t discount magic, either. Some of us fey folk can adapt their magic to work both on and through technology. I think it would look very strange to a normal programmer.”

“Hm…Without knowing how that works, I can’t say.” Thomas shrugged.

“I didn’t think about that.” Fen frowned.

“I’m sorry I couldn't come up with more.”

“It’s alright.” Fen shook his head, “As long as you can confirm that it wasn’t just some strange computer glitch, and actually someone else deliberately deleting things.”

“Oh yeah, it was definitely done on purpose.” Thomas nodded.

“I mean, we thought so, but confirmation was important. Can you write up a report for documentation and then email me? We should start documenting everything. Mercy, right down everything that’s happened so far with the date of when it happened. I hope it won’t come to any kind of lawsuit, but if it does, it’ll help to have documentation.”

“Come with receipts.” I sighed, thinking that’s what Michael would have called it.

“Yes.” Fen nodded, smiling slightly. “Thanks for coming, Thomas. Can you get that report to me in the next couple of days?”

“Yeah, of course.” he nodded.

“Shall I walk you down?” I asked, “We can catch up a little on the way.” I’d tell him what happened with Fen. “If that’s okay, I mean?” I looked to Fen.

“It’s fine.” the fey king nodded. “I think you’ll be safe enough. Besides, Breya is still hanging around, even if you can’t see her.”

“Alright.” I nodded.

Thomas and I left his office, and as we walked to the elevator, then waited as it slowly made its way up to us, I gave a very brief explanation of why Fen looked different.

“That sounds painful.” Thomas said as the elevator doors opened.

“Yeah, I gather it was.” I sighed, we stepped in and I hit the button for the ground level.

“It seems like you’re happy here.”

“Yeah, I am.” I smiled. “Things seem to finally be going my way. It wasn’t how I ever would have expected stuff to play out, but it’s good.”

“It’s good to see you happy.” he said.

“It’s good to be happy.” I shrugged, “I’ve not had to worry about money for a while now. Really, the only thing I have to worry about anymore is spirits, and we keep a close eye out for them.” I mean, some fey folk had given me trouble, and one was currently causing trouble, but I wasn't all too concerned about it, given Fen and Axl were on the job.

“I’m sorry I never believed you.” Thomas muttered, looking away.

“I don’t blame you.” I told him. “I mean, it sucked to know most people thought I was a liar, but…well I don’t blame you.”

“I’m also old enough now to know I was really mean to you that one time. I should have let you down easy.” he sighed.

“Well, I’m just glad you weren’t happy to have a kid with a crush on you. That would make you a creep, and I’m glad you’re not a creep.” I snorted.

Thomas laughed, “Me too.”

The doors opened, and we stepped out onto the ground level, which had the front entrance. He’d likely parked on the street and come in that way. There wasn’t really anyone in the lobby, except for the front desk worker, and he was busy reading a book.

“You’re not a kid anymore.” Thomas said as we meandered towards the door.

“Well-spotted.” I rolled my eyes.

“No, I mean, well…” he hesitated, then blurted, “I’d date you now, I mean. We’re both adults, so it doesn't matter. If you’re still interested, anyways.” He went red to the very tips of his ears.

I blinked, taken aback. “What?”

“I…I see what I missed out on by crushing your spirit all those years ago. I wish I hadn’t because maybe you’d…still have a crush on me now. I don’t know if crushes last that long, though.” he was rambling, still very red in the face. “You’re really pretty, Mercy. And I’ve known you a long time, it’s comfortable with you.”

My comfort-level around him had plummeted to rock-bottom with just a few sentences. “Thomas, I’m flattered, but I’m…I’m not normal. I don’t want to ever have kids and I don’t really want to sleep with anyone, ever, if I’m being honest, which is why I’ve never really dated.” I felt my own face heat in embarrassment and shame at the admission.

“Oh.” he sounded surprised. “I mean, you might change your mind, Iris.”

Those words cut like a knife, and his use of my original name made me irrationally angry, given the situation. “No, I won’t.” I snapped, glaring at him, “And don’t use that name! I don't use it anymore. But just so you know, I will never date a man who says those words to me! Because if I do, I’ll spend my time second-guessing if he’s just dating me and holding out hope that I’ll change my mind, and not because he loves me enough to respect what I need in a relationship. It’s happened before, and I’m not ever doing that again! It was too painful!”

Thomas grimaced, “Ah, god…I’m sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut about the whole thing.”

“Yes, you should have!” I replied tartly, “Stuff like this makes me extremely uncomfortable!"

“I’m sorry, Mercy, that wasn’t my intention!” Oh yeah, now that I'd called him out, he was going to use my preferred name.

“Of course not, you wanted me to fall all over myself like a giddy child because the boy I once liked liked me!” I put a hand to my forehead, pretending to swoon, then dropping it and frowning at him, sighing and shaking my head disapprovingly, telling him, “I hope you find someone, Thomas, I really do, but it won’t be me, alright?”

“Yes ma’am.” he said meekly.

It was quiet for a few moments.

Still angry, I told him, “Well, have a nice day. Don’t forget to get Fen that report.” I turned and headed back to the elevator.

Thomas called, “You’d date Fen though, wouldn't you?”

I kept walking, lifting a hand and flipping him the bird over my shoulder without turning. “Goodbye, Thomas.” After storming to the elevator, I waited, fuming, but still not looking back to see if he'd left.

As the elevator went up, I took several deep breaths, trying to get my raging fury under control.

Unfortunately, Thomas had been right, I would probably date Fen if he asked. Not that he would ask, I wasn’t stupid enough to hope or think that he ever would. Because it would only lead to one, or both of us, getting hurt, and likely losing our friendship, which was the last thing I wanted.