A Fey Harvest (29 page)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“So should we mirror the High King?” I asked when we finally stumbled back to our room later that night.

“
About what?” Arach was already half naked, sitting on the bed so he could remove his boots.

“
About the fertility magic,” I pulled off my dress and kicked off my shoes so I could climb into bed beside him. “And Roarke.”

“
What about them?” Arach slid under the covers with me. “I hardly think it's appropriate to rub it in their faces.”

“
I need to share it with the other kingdoms, Arach.”

“
Vervain, how exactly do you plan on doing that?”

“
Well, I... we...” I gaped at him. “Oh.”

“
Exactly,” he sighed. “We can't go copulating in every sacred source.”

“
I could try simply placing my magic within it,” I suggested.

“
And what do you think land magic would do to the ocean?” He gave me a sad smile when my face fell. “I want to help them too, Vervain. I just don't want to risk hurting them in the process. We don't know what would happen in any other situation.”

“
I could ask Faerie.”

“
How could Faerie possibly know what the magic will do?” Arach shook his head. “She didn't know what it would do to Fire. This is a new road we're walking down. What you've done has never been done before and there is no way of predicting how it will react.”

“
Yeah alright,” I sighed. “So what, we just don't tell
anyone?”

“
No, we'll have to tell them,” he frowned. “You're right, we should probably mirror the High King but I don't relish the thought of telling him what I just told you when he inevitably asks for your help with the other fey.”

“
Well, Faerie did say they needed to change to come out of stasis,” I snuggled in to him. “The High King said it himself and has helped with the change. Maybe this is the way it needs to be. If I just handed them their fertility, they'd never become the fey they could.”

“
Destiny,” he whispered.

“
Or karma,” I smiled and drifted off to sleep in the arms of my dragon.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“
Well that went better than expected,” I said to Arach after we ended our call with the High King.

“
It's not like you're unwilling to help,” Arach shrugged. “The risks are just too great. I knew he'd agree with us.”

“
Either that or Faerie spoke to him,” I smirked at him as he walked to the door. “Where are you going?”

“
I'm going to check on the earth pixies,” he grinned, “They said they'd have another batch of jewelry ready today.”

“
You know they may be going back to the Earth Kingdom,” I warned him.

“
You told them what King Cahal said, right?”

“
I did.”

“
And I haven't noticed any packing, have you?”

“
No, but-”

“
Vervain, would you return to people who treated you so horribly just because they said sorry?”

“
No,” I huffed, “you're probably right.”

“
I believe they've also heard what Queen Aalish had tried to accomplish with Roarke,” he nodded, like of course he was right. The ass.

“
I really thought she'd changed,” I sighed. “She had made that comment, remember? Something about clearing away the cobwebs from her eyes.”

“
Yes, I recall it,” he shook his head. “Fey are complicated creatures and we can also be very focused on our grudges.”

“
You think?” I laughed. “Go on then, go to the pixies and make sure to check if they need anything.”

“
A Thaisce,” he winked at me, “I, unlike King Cahal, know how to treat my fey right.”

“
That you do,” I gave him a more sensuous smile and he left with a promise to return shortly.

I did speak to Cian on your behalf.

“Ah, I thought so,” I wasn't even startled by Faerie this time. In fact, I'd kind of been expecting her. “Thank you, I wasn't looking forward to telling him we'd solved the fertility issue but only for the fire fey.”

The fire fey have all shown an inclination to change and they also have you to guide them. They would have been the first to come out of stasis anyway.

“Nicely put but I didn't think King Cian would have seen it that way.”

He's fey but not entirely unreasonable.
Look at how he helped Roarke.

“
You planned that. Didn't you?” I remembered how she had said she'd been waiting a long time for it. “How long have you known that I'd help you change Roarke?”

Not known, wanted. Your husband is partially right about his theories on destiny. Magic does have a will of its own, here I am that will. I knew Roarke was unhappy with his lot and changing him gave me the opportunity I needed to really shake things up.

“You like him, don't you?”

I admit he is one of my favorite fey. I look forward to seeing his children.

“Won't he need a female fire cat-sidhe for that?” I cringed to think of what a bunch of little Roarke's roaming the halls would be like.

He will have his female. I can change more, remember?

“Great,” I snorted. “Uh, by the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you.”

What happens to faeries when they die?

“Yes,” I frowned. “You know not everything in my head is meant for your perusal.”

Relax,
she huffed.
I only see what you mean for me to see or are currently thinking about.

“
Oh, okay then,” I took a seat at the table near our bedroom window. “So, do you know what happens when a fey dies?”

Of course I do, I'm Faerie.

“Could you maybe tell me?” I rolled my eyes. It was like pulling teeth sometimes.

You saw what happens yourself. I hardly think you need me to tell you.

“What? When did I see this?”

At the battle with the Darkness. Don't you ever pay attention to anything you see or do you just expect someone to tell you what happened afterward?

“Just tell me, you obnoxious entity,” I grimaced out the window at the land as if it were her.

So touchy. Why do you want to know?

“I want to know if it's the same place the gods go to,” I shrugged.

This is about Odin not faeries.

“Yes.”

Gods don't go where the fey go.

“Where do we go?”

Well I'm not really sure where
you
would go, you're a rather special case, but normal fey are pure elements and as such, their energy cannot be destroyed, it simply transmutes. That's when the Great Magic comes into play, like with Roarke.

“
I have no idea what you just said,” I cracked my neck, she was already giving me tension.

Hello? What happened when we freed the fey souls from Andrasta?

“The arrow fell to the ground and glowed a bit,” I frowned. “The elements flowed back into you.”

Yes. Now you understand.

“They all become a part of you when they die? No wonder you're so irritating.”

I have a very sweet disposition but no, they don't exactly become a part of me. They go back into the elements which also reside here. I am not composed of elements, I am pure magic. The elements came from me.

“Okay Mother of Elements, what happens next? They just remain elements
forever? And what do you mean by here? Where are they exactly?”

Here as in here, all around us. They are in the fire in the hearth, in the breeze coming through your window, everywhere the elements take form. Now that there are fertile fey again, they will be reshaped into new fey, transmuted again.

“Reshaped not reborn,” I thought about it. “So they're not the same souls as they were before, they're new fey with the same energy.”

Yes but the fey have no souls and that is why they don't go where the gods go.

“What do you mean they have no souls?” I gasped. “Everyone has a soul, you can't live without a soul.”

Says who?
There she went, laughing at me again.
Fey were made from different magic than the gods and humans. They're powered by elements, I have no idea what type of magic made humans and gods.

“
You don't know?” I scoffed. “You're telling me there's something you don't know?”

How could I possibly know? I am the magic of this realm, I am Faerie. I have no place in the other realms, I've never even seen them before.

“Oh, right,” I winced, she sounded kind of upset about it. “I guess it would be hard for a realm to travel to another realm.”

Duh.

“Alright, fine, I deserved that but come on, one of the Houses of Faerie is Spirit. How can the fey be soulless?”

First of all, don't say it like that, you make it sound like they're monsters. Second, spirit is not the same thing as soul. Spirit is an element, it is the connection that holds all of the other elements together and that's why it rules them. It's like willpower, don't you humans say something has spirit when they show significant ambition
?

“
Yeah, okay, I think I get it.”

It is a life-force element. It empowers the others, without spirit they would not live but it is not a soul. The proper term is essence, the fey have an essence.

“So similar but different, okay.” I sighed.
“But King Cian once told me that my soul could be fey. Why did he say that if the fey have no souls?”

King Cian was using the word because you did, because it was easier to call fey essence a soul rather than have to explain the difference to you. Essentially, they are the same type of thing, just empowered differently. You've seen the hearts of the fey, you should know this. It's why the fey return to their elements and gods go elsewhere. It's all magic but they are different types and each must return to their own source.

“What was that?” I sat up straighter.

I said the fey return to-

“No, the bit about the source,” something had just clicked in my mind but I wasn't sure what it meant yet.

Everything must return to the source of its energy when it dies. Fey to the elements and humans to wherever they came from.

“And gods to their source of energy,” I whispered. “That means there has to be a source and therefore, there has to be a place for gods to go when they die.”

Of course there is, why wouldn't there be?

“Well none of the gods seem know about it,” I chewed at my lip. “Lucifer wrote some books where he mentioned an afterlife but most gods just call it the void and even then, they don't know where it is or what it's all about.”

So go ask this Lucifer guy.

“I think I will,” I laughed, “but you've just given me another clue and something to search for. Thank you for that.”

What are you going to search for?

“Duh,” I laughed at her. “The source of the soul.”

Epilogue

I've settled into life as the Queen of Fire and finally find myself able to enjoy it. I spend time with my fey now, even travel through the kingdom to see the villages and meet more of the fire fey. No one besides Fionnaghal is pregnant yet but I'm not worried. I know the magic healed them and it's only a matter of time.

Fionnaghal has started to show her pregnancy and the Hidden Ones are delighted. They've been talking to the children through her belly, as if they were already born. Laise set up a nursery in one of the caves off the main cavern, filled with things I have never seen before and have no idea what purpose they are meant to serve but it's warm and cozy and Fionnaghal loves it, so I do as well. I think it says a lot about how far the fire fey have come that Laise took as much joy in setting up Fionnaghal's nursery as she had with mine and Arach's.

The earth pixies have decided to remain with us for the time being. Although they were encouraged by King Cahal's message, one sidhe does not a kingdom make and they don't believe that the rest of the earth-fey will treat them as well as the King implied. I don't blame them, from what I've seen, a lot of the earth fey seem to have a stick up their ass. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Speaking of which, Queen Aalish and King Liam were imprisoned for their attempts at espionage. They were held for nine weeks in metal cells, cut off entirely from the earth element. I'm told it's a very uncomfortable experience. King Cian wanted to impress upon them the severity of the damage they could have wrought. He said that I'm integral to the welfare of the realm now and any actions against me were seen as actions against all of Faerie. Especially now that I've proven to be an avatar for Faerie and Faerie has proven what she can do with the elements. Pretty cool huh?

I'm not so sure how cool their vengeance is going to be though. Cause you know that woman is going to hold a grudge and cats are notorious for it. Go ahead and piss a cat off and see how long it takes before he stops pooping in your shoes. So I've got that to look forward to.

I haven't decided yet on the dragon baby thing but Arach insists that we have all the time in the world, which I guess we do. It's a good thing too because I don't think I'm ready to be a mother, it's hard enough to be a Queen.

Roarke has found five more cat-sidhe who chose to defect to Fire. Three men and two women. I was happy to host Faerie so she could change them all and we welcomed them into the House of Fire with open arms. Roarke's arms may have been just a tad more open to the ladies but hey, he's in charge of making a new race now, he has responsibilities... his words, not mine.

There have been some rumors about the other kingdoms feeling upset over the fire fey's returned fertility and my inability to help them. I actually offered King Guirmean the choice of helping him but he decided that it wasn't worth the risk. He didn't seem too concerned over it either but then again, if most of the water-fey are like him, they won't be in stasis for long. If only the
other kingdoms were more open to change.

I did hear that the air pixies are much happier though so maybe I'm wrong about Air and Earth. Maybe all of them can change and all that was needed was a little nudge in the right direction. I don't have a good feeling about it though.

What I do have a good feeling about is Odin. I'm excited to return to my research in the God Realm with the new clue Faerie gave me. It's not going to be easy but at least now I have a direction and the assurance that Odin is not simply gone. I'm going to find him, even if I have to make a deal with the Devil to do it.