“Do you know what’s wrong with Allora?” Mitchell asked, his mind suddenly coming into focus.
Lady Luvari nodded.
“I do. She has been cursed. It is a very powerful spell and not one from this world. She is only alive now because I have placed her in stasis. If I remove the spell, she would not last the day. Likely, neither would you.”
“She’ll die?” Lethelin asked, speaking up for the first time since they’d started eating.
“In a sense,” Luvari said, turning her silver gaze towards Lethelin. “What is happening to her is not merely death. The curse is actually a parasite using her own mana to feed itself. As it grows, it will take more and more from her. When it has consumed all it can, the woman you know as Allora will die, but she will become something different. The hunger for mana will be all that she knows. She will become what is known as a mana wraith. She will grow insubstantial, a ghost, roaming the lands looking for any living creature she can to drain them of their essence, leaving only a lifeless husk behind.”
Her words sent ice through Mitchell’s veins, and he could see that Lethelin looked equally disturbed.
“How did she get cursed?”
“That I do not know. I only became aware of your party as you moved through the mountains,” Luvari said. “I am always looking for those whom I might aid in their time of need.”
The fey woman had an odd smile at those words.
“You live here?”
“At times,” Luvari said cryptically. “People who travel the mountain passes are either hunting for something or running from something else.”
“Desperate people,” Mitchell interjected.
“That is one word to describe them,” she answered back. “If I think I can offer a service to them, and they are able to meet my price, I introduce myself.”
“Many are not worth the trouble but,” Luvari paused and gave each of them a pointed look, “others are. When a far traveler with the heart stone of Awenor, a moon child, and an Onyx Knight enter the passes, that is worth a closer inspection.”
There was that name for Lethelin again. The traveler nickname was easy enough to understand in his case, but didn’t know why she kept referring to Lethelin like that.
“You keep saying moon child,” Mitchell interrupted. “What is a moon child?”
Rather than answer, Luvari turned her little smile to Lethelin and arched one silver eyebrow. For her part, the thief shifted in her seat and grimaced.
“Remember the story I told you about my name?” Lethelin said, a note of guilt in her voice.
“Yeah,” Mitchell said, trying to recall the fairy tale that Lethelin had recounted all those weeks before. “Something about Vish and Ithstasy falling in love with a farm girl?”
“Yeah,” Lethelin confirmed. “Remember the part about people who are conceived during the event – when the real Lethelin circles between the two moons for three days – having special gifts? That’s true.”
Mitchell thought back to the conversation in the back of the wagon. It had been the day they’d freed themselves from their captors, and he’d been pretty out of it, but he thought he could recall the story.
“So you were conceived then?”
Lethelin nodded and looked sheepish.
“Is that bad?”
“On the contrary,” Luvari spoke up and sounded excited. “It makes her very rare. Haven’t you noticed anything different about her? Something strange or unusual?”
Lethelin actually blushed.
“Compared to where I come from, this whole place is strange,” Mitchell said sardonically.
“Oh, come now,” Luvari said. “Something unusual even for this place and the people you’ve met.”
Mitchell paused. She had said she was not magically inclined and the mage catchers had confirmed it. She was human, not one of the other mix of races that populated this world but other than that…Mitchell blinked.
Actually, there was something very strange about her. Luvari grinned as she saw the realization on his face.
Lethelin had a way of simply disappearing – there one minute and gone the next, only to be there again later like nothing had happened.
“Is that why you can disappear?” he asked her, giving her a searching look.
“I don’t disappear,” Lethelin corrected him. “I don’t move at all, actually. When I sit still for a little bit people forget I’m there. And then they just… can’t see me. If I move again, usually the effect ends.”
“The gifts of the moon children are not usually magic in the way mortals think of it,” Luvari explained. “It is something else entirely. A touch of the divine. It manifests in different ways and there is no way to predict what it will be.”
“You, Lethelin,” Luvari said with a note of satisfaction in her honeyed voice, “are only the third moon child I’ve met in my time on this world.”
“Yay for me,” Lethelin said and crossed her arms looking like she wanted to be anywhere else.
Mitchell wanted to explore this more and gave Lethelin a look that he hoped conveyed that this conversation wasn’t over. Still, he knew it wasn’t the right time. Allora was the more pressing concern.
Turning his attention back to Luvari he asked, “So this vial can cure Allora? Stop her from becoming a mana ghost, or whatever?”
“It will,” Luvari said simply.
“And you mentioned a price,” Mitchell said. “What price? We don’t have much money.”
Lady Luvari giggled.
“My dear traveler, I have no use for gold or coin from any realm. One does not barter with a member of the fey with coin, my little mortal.”
From the corner of his eye, Mitchell saw Lethelin tense up.
“What do you want, then? Where I’m from, we don’t have fey.”
Luvari reached forward with delicate pale fingers and plucked the vial from the table as she stood.
“Fey such as I deal in knowledge, influence, and power. There is potential for all three in your party. It remains to be seen if you have something of sufficient value to cure your friend, but it was worth an introduction at the very least.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Luvari removed the few dishes to her kitchen area and then returned and stepped close to Mitchell. She bent down and gazed deep into his eyes. Her stare held him fast, and he felt that odd tugging at his consciousness again, much stronger this time, but with an effort he was able to resist the pull. He didn’t take his eyes off of hers, though. He felt a hand on his cheek and started at the realization that the fey woman was touching him. He hadn’t noticed her move.
“What memories lie locked in your head, I wonder?” Luvari’s voice was low and seductive. “What magic does your blood hold now that you possess the heart stone? What forces will you wield if you save the elemental and reclaim Awenor? What mistakes could you undo? The futures swirl about you and your companions like leaves in a cyclone.”
Luvari’s silver, unblinking eyes seemed to expand and fill his vision. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears thudding like a drum, and a tightness began to grow across his chest. He was falling. Falling into her eyes. At the edge of his vision, he could see… He could see… He could… Oh, god!
Luvari blinked and Mitchell was thrown back into his chair. Only he’d never gotten out of his seat. He sucked in a deep breath as the tightness across his chest drained away and Lethelin shot to her feet.
“What did you do to him?” she demanded of Luvari, who was slowly standing up with a satisfied look on her face.
“Nothing, my dear.”
Luvari smoothed her skirts and ran a finger through Mitchell’s hair playfully.
“I have not harmed him in any way. I was merely testing the limits of the heartstone’s protection of his mind to influence. You are a guest in my home and under the protection of the Laws of Hospitality.”
Mitchell tried to organize his thoughts as his heart rate settled.
“My mind has protection?”
“Of a sort,” Luvari said as she pulled a third chair from where it sat against the wall and seated herself across from them. “In the past, when a new monarch was chosen, they would have been taught the abilities of the heartstone. But your selection was somewhat different. Suffice it to say that it offers you protection against being charmed. I never had the chance to test its limits and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Please do forgive me.”
Mitchell thought about Lethelin’s insult towards their host and decided that since they’d been given a get-out-of-jail-free card for her faux pas that he would extend the same courtesy. He wasn’t harmed, after all.
“I accept your apology in the same spirit that you accepted Lethelin’s.”
Luvari gave a polite nod.
“Thank you.”
“Is this protection good?” Mitchell inquired, trying to shift the conversation back to more neutral territory.
“Quite,” Luvari said primly. “I suspect I could break through it, but doing so would likely damage you in such a way as to make you useless to me, or even kill you. But few others would have that power on this world.”
She made a small clicking sound with her mouth.
“The old gods accomplished something truly magnificent when they created the elementals on this world. Even my kind don’t fully understand them.”
Luvari looked thoughtful for a moment, but then brought her attention back to the present.
“Now, my price for the life of your friend.”
Mitchell shifted in his seat but said nothing. He had no idea what to even offer.
“First you, moon child.”
Luvari’s eyes slid serpent-like over to where Lethelin sat with her full red lips pressed tight into a hard thin line. Mitchell wasn’t sure if that was because she was angry or scared she might lose control of her tongue again. Either way, he was grateful she had control over herself.
“From you,” Luvari began, “I desire your blood.”
Lethelin’s eyes bulged.
“My blood?” the thief spat back incredulously.
“You said you wouldn’t harm us!” Mitchell said angrily as Lethelin spluttered.
“And I won’t. I don’t require all of her blood,” Luvari said with a small tinkling laugh. “She will survive the process with no ill effects beyond feeling a little lethargic for a day or two.”
“Why in the nine hells do you want my blood?” Lethelin demanded.
“You are a moon child,” Luvari answered, unperturbed by Lethelin’s anger. “Touched by the divine, as I said before. I could learn much about the old magics by studying you. I would prefer to delve into your mind and observe your talents under proper conditions, but I understand you are on a schedule. So I will settle for your blood.”
“I’m not giving you my blood, you…” Lethelin caught herself, before issuing a string of invective..
Luvari arched a delicate silver eyebrow.
“You… you can’t have it,” she finished, a dark red blush rushing in her pale cheeks.
“Nice save,” Mitchell said wryly.
Lethelin looked across the table at him and grimaced, but didn’t open her mouth again.
Luvari looked to Mitchell again and pressed on as if the outburst had not happened. Maybe she was used to people losing their shit when she set her price.
“From you, traveler, I require more. First, because of your position, second, because of your potential, and third, because Allora can offer no payment for saving her life. So you will need to supply something in her stead.”
Mitchell said nothing, feeling a knot form in his stomach.
Seeing he offered no comment, Luvari continued.
“First, I require your name. Your true name.”
Mitchell blinked at her.
“That’s it?”
Luvari nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
“That is the first thing.”
“But that’s easy, my name is–”
“No!” Lethelin barked suddenly. “Do not say your name!”
Mitchell stared at Lethelin, shocked by the vehemence in her tone.
“It’s just my name. She already knows it.”
Lethelin wobbled her head so hard she looked like a bobble head doll.
“She doesn’t know your true name. The name as your mother gave you as you were born. The name as your soul knows it!”
“I don’t understand,” Mitchell said, trying to wrap his head around the concept. He knew enough not to question this but it still didn’t make sense. “What difference does all that make?”
“Damn that woman for getting cursed,” Lethelin said under her breath. “She could explain it better!”
Lethelin took a breath and looked like she was trying to recall something.
“Your name is not just a collection of sounds,” she started, her voice uncertain. “It is like who you are. It is given by a mother and a father, and there is power in that. Their love gives it power. It imprints on your soul. To give someone your true name is to give them power over you.
“And she,” Lethelin said, looking nervously at their host, “Is a creature of Fairy.”
“A lady of Fairy,” Luvari corrected with a smile.
“A lady of Fairy,” Lethelin repeated. “She’s not a goddess, but she’s not far off.”
“Such honeyed words you speak,” Luvari said with a giggle. “Are you trying to get into my bed? You are quite fetching for a human. Keep talking like that, and I may just let you.”
Luvari licked her lips in a way that left no mistake as to the thoughts going through her head.
Lethelin looked horrified at the suggestion.
“So, if I give you my true name,” Mitchell said, trying to draw Luvari’s attention back to him, “You will have power over me?”
“I cannot enslave your mind, but I could bind you to me, if I so chose. I prefer to do that with only willing mortals, however. Doing it against their will can have undesirable results. But that is not what I wish your name for.”
“Then why do you want it?”
“What I intend to do with it is not your concern. I will vow that I will not use it to harm you or work against you in any way.”
Mitchell gave a frustrated sigh.
“You said there was more?”
“Yes,” Luvari answered simply. “I also require a memory. A powerful memory. Something that helped shape you. Something deeply personal.”
Mitchell looked over to Lethelin, who sat unmoving.
“What can she do with that?” Mitchell asked Lethelin.
“I… I don’t know, Mitchell. I’m sorry. I only know as much as I do because of old stories from when I was young. Allora could…” Lethelin stopped herself again, and a look of pain crossed her face. “All I can say is fey magic is ancient and powerful.”
Mitchell inhaled and let it out slowly. His mind was in chaos as he tried to weigh his decisions. He knew he was missing something, some vital piece that would help him navigate this swamp, but he had very limited information and felt like he was fumbling in the dark looking for a light switch that wasn’t there.
What would it mean to give up a memory? A memory that shaped him, who he was. Would he be a different person without it? Would he lose some vital part of himself? It must be important for this fey demigod to want it but he couldn’t begin to guess what value a memory would have. Nor did he understand the implications of having his “true” name. He was like a landed fish gulping air yet suffocating.
“Is there more?” he finally asked Luvari after a long pause.
“The knight’s price, yes,” Luvari confirmed.
“And?”
“In her pouch, she carries three pieces of Awen. I require two of them.”
It took Mitchell a moment to remember what she was talking about, but then recalled their fight with the assassin and the pommel stones he’d thrown at her feet to taunt her. Stones that had once been embedded into the swords of other Onyx Knights. Allora had held them with reverence, had prayed over each one. They were sacred to her.
“Those are not mine to give,” he said flatly.
Luvari gave him an almost apologetic smile.
“That is my price. The blood of the moon child, the true name of the traveler and a precious memory, and two of the stones carried by the knight. In return, I offer you her life and the potential life of Awen herself.”
Mitchell looked over to Lethelin who looked like she was torn between crying and trying to kill the fey woman, but she sat motionless. She would be able to offer no help. Mitchell had to decide this on his own.
“May we have a moment alone to discuss this? In private, please.”
“Of course,” Luvari nodded in consent. “I would expect no less. You may return to the cave and I will respect your wish of privacy. Take as much time as you need. I will not remove the stasis spell protecting the knight until you have either rejected my offer or accepted it.”
Mitchell nodded his thanks, then got to his feet. He reached his hand out to Lethelin, who took it and they walked back into the cave, the door closing solidly behind them.