How to Catch a Fish (ManxMan)

Epilogue

~Epilogue~

"It's not your fault, you know."

I frown at the computer screen before looking over at Nero. "What isn't?" I ask, because there are a lot of things I blame myself for, so he is going to have to be more specific.

My fiance, who had been sitting on the couch up until now, walks up to my chair and rests an arm over my shoulder as he casually glances at the video on the screen - something about aliens and how the video creator will prove they exist - before he starts rubbing small circles into my shoulder. "The mission," Nero claries. "The fact that you couldn't find a door to Faerie is no failing on your part. I know you remember what was said at the meeting; the Fae aren't letting people in, and that has nothing to do with you specifically."

He is right in that the mission was a bust, as, even after three more days of searching, we still found nothing. Yellowstone is a giant national park, so it is not like we ran out of places to check, but Vepkoadur eventually called off the mission when it became clear that we were getting nowhere. Or, at least, I believe it was Koa's call, but the expenses might have also gotten high enough that the army's budgeting committee decided to cut us off, as it was a rather abrupt decision. Either way, though, it was a waste of time and energy in the end.

Still, I cannot shake the feeling that we might have found the doorway but ultimately missed it because the pathways into Faerie seldom look like one might expect. I would not be surprised if there was a perfect circle of mushrooms somewhere or two trees bent towards each other that would only look like a doorway from a certain angle. Fae paths have even been known to look like deer trails that are just oddly straight.

The hand on my shoulder stops, and I glance up at Nero, who just looks tired. Considering that we only returned to the castle recently, I am not surprised. We are both in desperate need of sleep, but neither he nor I feel like actually lying down just yet.

When I give no response, Nero sighs and reluctantly changes the topic, though I suspect that is only because he is tired, and he will bring my guilt back up again once we are rest. "Why are you watching conspiracy videos?" He asks. "You know those aren't real, right?"

"I was just watching a video about the first known sighting of a werewolf, which might have been real," I dispute, albeit weakly, as it was a pretty stupid video. Real werewolves are not repelled by the mere sight of wolfsbane, after all.

If they were, the Fae definitely would've used it against them in the Great Fae War.

"At least pick something more interesting than someone talking about little green men from Mars," Nero complains, pressing a chaste kiss to my lips.

Huffing, I scroll through the recommended stuff, but considering how many alien videos I have been watching, it is primarily sci-fi themed. The only one that does not proclaim itself as alien-related in the title is one about a girl becoming a statue after the statue comes to life, which sounds...weird. Clicking on it, I expect to immediately receive something with poor graphics, but I instead get a commercial.

"What is Verizon, and why is it Wireless?" I inquire, frowning while two people dramatically talk on their phones.

"It's a phone thing," Nero says, not even bothering to explain it. Considering that I know next to nothing about phones from this realm aside from the very basics, I cannot blame him.

When the ad ends, it changes into a slightly shaky video of a seemingly-crazy girl in the distance standing on the pedestal of a large, bronze statue holding up an even bigger sphere. The person taking the video says something about insanity and drugs messing with brains, but I mostly tune out the dialog, as what I can see of the girl's face looks eerily familiar, even with the distance, and I am straining my ears to hear what she is saying, as her mouth is clearly moving.

However, nothing she is saying can be made out by the camera, no matter how high I raise the volume, and I distantly note that Nero has fallen still beside me, silent as a rock.

After a moment, a police officer starts to approach to statue, looking exasperated, but before he can get close, though, the woman puts her hand on the leg of the statue, says something more, and then the statue turns from dark bronze to shimmering gold. There is an almost audible pause as everyone in the video that was watching tries to figure out what just happened, and in that moment, the suddenly-gold statue decreases in size to be about the size of a human before turning into something human, who is still on one kneel like the statue was.

All of this happens in a second, and the giant globe, which had remained suspended in the air while the statue-person shrank, suddenly falls now that there is no giant statue to hold it up. The woman puts her hands up to help the man catch it before it crushes them, but he seems to do just fine on his own when it lands on his shoulders, and he barely even flinches. That is, until the woman pushes him out of the way, and the globe falls a little more, landing on her shoulders instead, causing her to fall to her knees.

While trying to catch the globe, the woman turned, so she is now facing the man she pushed - and, subsequently, the camera, giving us a clear view of her face - but whatever she says is lost to the distance before she turns to gold, and then the statue of a man returns, growing back up to its original height before turning dark bronze and remaining still, erasing any trace that a woman was just there. The man formerly in the statue, who is now at the foot of the pedestal, looks around at all the gawking faces before vanishing without a trace.

Nero and I remain silent for a moment, both of us processing what it is we just saw. I was expecting...well, I was expecting just about everything but that, and yet...considering what she did to get me out of prison, maybe I should not be so surprised.

My fiance, though, seems to be struggling more than I am to comprehend it. "Wasn't that Heather?"

[AN: And that concludes the end of the new version of How to Catch a Fish. There will still be an extra added later (probably within the week) in a separate chapter as well as some deleted scenes that could add some more insight or background, if you're interested. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this rewrite!]

[NEXT BOOK: How to Be a God.]