Aelin's head hurt, really fucking hurt. She felt like it had been flattened under a horse's feet then exploded and crushed up into fruit juice. Oh dear gods had she not been this hungover in a long long time. Fae hangovers were different from this, they were bad in a different way, and much more easy to handle than human hangovers. Yet here Aelin was, stuck in her human body after one of the best nights out she'd had in a long time.
She had won, and she was never going to let Cassian forget that. Despite him getting desperate at the end the few hours on the rooftops then through the woods had been full of conversation and just some very drunk platonic bonding.
He was so similar to the cadre that it had almost hurt to look at him some times. She had swung round to plunge a blade into him only to catch a glimpse of his face and just see Lorcan, or Fenrys, or even Rowan. The warriors frame, despite his wings just brushed against something within her and it hurt so badly to be separated from them that she had fallen back into the lull of the wine.
That also helped explain how drunk she had felt the night before, she had gotten on it like a dependence, just to avoid the pain in her heart and the scar on her soul.
As she lay in a state of semi-consciousness, she tried something she hadn't tried before, something she had been scared of trying. She reached into herself and felt for her ties, her blood oaths and her bond to Rowan. Her mental fingers tentatively brushed over them, they were there, she realised.
The blood oaths were strained, which she worried about for a moment, before deciding she would definitely rather they be strained than limp, it meant they were still connected. But some of her deepest bonds, the most important ones, seemed... different. The ones most precious to her, they felt strange, and almost foreign. The contamination to her closest held ties made her feel sick to the pit of her stomach, so she tucked them away and focused on opening her eyes.
Aelin inhaled deeply and cracked open an eyelid to see the room around her. She was back in her room in the House of Wind, the room was half-lit, clearly to help her obviously aching head. Aelin made a low groaning noise, to alert those she could sense in the room that she was indeed awake.
Immediately a large shape moved in the corner of her vision, and she felt a cool glass of what she hoped was water being pressed into her hand. Very slowly, she grasped it and moved upright enough that her shoulders were propped up in the pillows. It was all Aelin could do to half-sit there and settle the glass on her chest, still holding it as she tried to wake up properly.
She knew well enough the one to give her the glass was Cassian. "I'm gonna need," Aelin began to find Cassian backing off already. So she let out another groan, this time of anoyance and insisted, "Ginger root."
Cassian made a confused sound then asked, "You want a... ginger root?"
Aelin took the glass to her lips and gave him a thumbs up as she sipped the cool water. It soothed her wrecked throat, she hadn't even realised it had grown hoarse from yelling the night before.
She hadn't been 100% sure who else the second person in the room was until she heard Rhys throw something at Cassian. A raw ginger root.
The Illyrian caught it but looked confused, "Do we need to cook it?"
In response Aelin just held out a hand towards him, palm flat. He cautiously placed it in her hand and moved back again. She bit into it like an apple, narrowing her attention on just biting and chewing, blocking out the pounding in her head and the pain in her chest from being so far from home.
She could tell they were both staring at her, but she kept her eyes shut as she ate, then drank the entire glass of water and placed it gently on the bedside table. Aelin counted to 60, taking deep breaths throughout the minute. Then, with great care, she pushed herself up to sit up properly in the bed and opened her eyes slowly.
Rhys stood with his back to her door, as if she might try break out of her own room, his deliberate positioning made her pissy, but she reminded herself she would do the same and took note of Cassian hovering a couple steps away from her right side, on the opposite than the door. He looked a bit sheepish and his eyes kept flicking around the room.
"Cassian." The general's name sounded strangely like an order from the High Lord, as if he was impatient of the dilly-dallying and wanted things to get started. Aelin couldn't help but wonder how long they had been waiting for her to wake up.
After one more slightly unsure shuffle, Cassian stepped forward and bowed his head to her. "I apologise for everything that happened last night."
Unable to resist Aelin pulled a helpless face and asked in a simpery lady-like voice, "What happened last night?"
The paling of the two males faces were worth it. Cassian looked like he had just swallowed a bomb and Rhys's expression just went blank, and she could see him re-evaluating everything he knew about her yet again.
"Celaena, do you not remember what happened after dinner?" The High Lord pushed off from the door and frowned at her in concern. She watched him shoot a look at Cassian that said 'Exactly how strong was that wine yesterday?'
Aelin desperately sat up further, patting the sheets around her in an acted panic. "Why can't I remember?" The hoarseness in her voice was perfect of acting a voice crack into that question, and she prided herself in how despairingly pathetic she sounded.
"You drank two bottles of the strongest Faerie wine in Prythian." Cassian sounded utterly defeated. "Then we had one of the most interesting duels of my life, and you broke into the Riverhouse."
Aelin gaped like an idiot little human lady and half-whispered, "And what do you mean by... duel?" She dragged her features into the look of someone mortified over cheating on their husband and watched Cassian's confusion grow.
"Oh no no no, I mean a literal sword fight!" She deliberately allowed herself to wince at his loud voice, he had to know she was still hungover.
"Though... you may have had some kind of duel with Azriel, I wouldn't know." He turned his head and stared pointedly at Rhysand, "I was..." he gave a very false smile, "cleaning up outside."
Aelin also purposefully ignored that dig but asked in a quivering voice, "What about Azriel?"
To her surprise both males shifted slightly, though the High Lord less so. She supposed he was more used to the idea of Azriel having lovers, given that he would be aware of anytime the spymaster took off while away from home. Cassian would probably just think he was working the whole time, "Uh... well you can maybe talk to him about that."
She gave him an unsure smile, but one full of childish naivete.
"You threatened to kill my son." Rhys's voice was stone-cold quiet, and Celaena saw him make a decision in his eyes to ignore Feyre and look at this how he would before.
"How can we be sure you aren't just acting now so we think you didn't actually intend to kill my son. Any half decent assassin would definitely try to make us think they didn't remember, hell they don't even have to be a real assassin to do something so easy."
At that, Aelin dropped the smile, and narrowed her eyes rather intensely on him, "Don't refer to me as half decent." Insinctively she growled at him, and thank the gods her damaged throat meant it sounded like something near threatening. "I was the most feared and deadly assassin in my city, and the whole nation. So don't ever insult my work like that again."
Then she sat back and brought her legs further under her, half crossing them under the blankets. Rhys didn't look surprised, she hadn't thought he had believed her, Cassian however, his memory seemed a little fuzzy despite the lack of an obvious hangover.
At that thought Aelin shot him another glance out the corner of her eye, and saw he didn't look incredibly surprised, perhaps the memory wasn't as fuzzy as he was letting on. He definitely had believed her for a second though.
She smirked at him and chuckled slightly, nobody knew quite what to make of her, that was for certain.
"I remember asking last night, but I don't remember the answer," Cassian mused, "But where did you learn to fight like that?"
Aelin couldn't supress the exhausted sigh which rippled through her and she rubbed at her eyes.
"The ginger's kicking in, I would be happy to explain who I really am to whoever," she shrugged in acceptance, and Aelin realised she wouldn't regret talking to these people, she decided she trusted them. "Whoever wants to know, I'll tell."
The two warriors seemed surprised but Rhys nodded, "The others are having brunch in one of the sitting rooms, we can go there and you can talk. If you're up to it?"
She just nodded in near defeat and went to get up but Rhys interupted again, "However, I need to talk to you privately first."
This seemed to be the first Cassian had heard of it, as his head shot up and he stared for a moment before straightening and moving towards the door, they passed by each other and Rhys took a seat in the comfortable chair Cassian had been obviously avoiding sitting in. The general nodded to his High Lord, "I'll go and let them know she'll be joining us shortly." Then he was gone, and Aelin settled back down into the pillows, stretching out her legs and turning her full attention to Rhysand.
Question time had finally come it would seem.
"Please bear in mind I will save information based on my occupation for later where everyone is present." Aelin couldn't keep the snarky tone out of her voice, she frowned at that then muttered, "Ginger needs to kick in quicker."
The High Lord was watching her, but he seemed calmer than he had since she had bumped into him outside his sons door last night, or rather this morning.
"I just have some questions about last night." He was calm, but not deadly calm, she could tell her lack of reluctance to talk now the cat was out of the bag meant he was no longer so tense.
"Ah," she raised her eyebrows at him and let out her breath through her too blunt teeth. "By the way, I'm not here to kill anyone, I genuinely just fell through a whole in the world."
She was still unsettled by the fact she knew Rhys and Feyre, though she never would have thought their personalities were as they were, well Rhysand was definitely as kind as the male he had been when he slowed her descent, yet Feyre was... Aelin really didn't know. She didn't know why Feyre rubbed her up the wrong way, but maybe it was because Feyre only had one other female in her life, other than her sisters. People in those kinds of circumstances are always a little strange.
"So you are an asssassin?"
Aelin took care to nod gently, the ginger root was working marvellously as always yet she still didn't want to rattle her brain too much.
"Where did you get the weapons for last night's fight?" He didn't seem surprised that she had found weapons, he more likely wanted to know how and when she got them when he had likely instructed she be watched.
"Don't be mad at Nuala and Cerridwen," Aelin said with a sweet smile, "I'm very good at sneaking around."
He looked as tired as she felt so she took pity and answered properly.
"There's a, what I can only assume, old training room if you go down 2 floors at the stairwell with the white azaleas in a red vase. Then a left at the bottom, second right and its the dark wood door which has a mended hole in it from a sword about a foot up from the floor to the right hand side. Was repaired with a very light coloured wooden board, can't miss it." Aelin gave him an easy grin, rattling off the directions without much thought.
The High Lord stared at her blankly for a moment then nodded and went "Yeah, I'll maybe look later..." he then frowned at her again and sighed, "I really don't know how we missed how sharp you are."
Aelin levelled him with a look, "You do know how you missed it Rhysand, you just don't want to admit it."
She almost felt bad for that comment, because he gave her a look which told her the honeymoon era of his marriage was well over and now he had to deal with the aches and pains every married person had.
Other than Aelin of course, because her and Rowan had never lied to each other, never had one overly protecting the other. Their relationship was built from suffering, anger and lingering pain and despair. As well as the pairs stubborn personalities and their determination to take care of their kingdom and friends.
It seemed Feyre still had a lot to learn in the world, but it wasn't her place to wrestle in on that, she was sure with a mating bond and eternity, they would work it out just fine. So she continued to answer Rhys's questions, explaining how she had just picked up the weapons and hadn't realised they usually caused trouble, as well as giving him the gist of their rooftop battle, the sliding down the mountain, and the little bit of gymnastics she had performed over the old ruins. Aelin also mentioned the first real wound, which had been given by her and which she was still pretty proud of. She made sure to mention that the people of Velaris had indeed seen them, but worked out they were drunk pretty quickly and left them be.
Of course after mentioning how she loved the woods on the way to his Riverside house, she just shrugged, "Anyway you know the rest from there."
The High Lord nodded wearily and Aelin couldn't help herself from asking.
"Are you feeling okay?"
He rested his head in his hands and let out a bone-weary sigh, "Devdan wouldn't go back to sleep last night, kept screaming that he wanted to play with his new friend."
Aelin's face broke into a great big grin and she exclaimed, "Really?! He's already asking after me?" She sat back up in the pillows round her back and wiggled her shoulders playfully, "Well it's just part of my charm, got everyone chasing after me."
His face broke into a gentle smile, "He really does seem to love you," as he got to his feet he added, "You can come play with him at the Riverhouse sometime."
Aelin lifted the blankets off herself and beamed, "Oh I would love that too, I'm missing all my friends youngsters back home."
She was busy finding a dressing gown and some kind of footwear, so much so she didn't see Rhys's face turn to one of surprise, which was quickly wiped away and he merely hummed in agreement, seeming to sense Aelin hadn't really meant to say that and wouldn't appreciate questions.
Just as he was half out the door he stuck his head back round the corner and gave her the most genuine smile she had ever seen from him, and couldn't help noticing for the first time that he was actually gorgeous. She returned the smile a bit more gently and paused to hear what he had returned to say.
"40 feet down the corridor to the east, turn right continue for 10 foot then its a left and an immediate right by the painting of a rather ugly fellow with a parrot." He half-laughed at his own joke and added, "Try not to get lost, oh and you might want to bathe," he wrinkled his nose then gave her a lazy smirk which caused her to throw a pillow at his head so hard he just dodged it and went off down the corridor laughing merrily.
The door itself clicked closed after he went and the lack of ventilation meant Aelin decided maybe a bath was a good idea after all.
AN: Anyone else notice how theres no fucking plot to this? That's because its the first part of what was written as one chapter, which had already had a third section taken out. That one chapter of just the first 2/3rds was over 5,000 words. So enjoy this little bit of filler as we hit the interim between Part 2 and Part 3. Hey anyone else notice I got myself some parts? Theres 6 planned in total with 36 chapters, including those already posted, but I've already made 2 extra because this original chapter has been split in 3. Great... just great... Thanks everyones who's here, sorry for errors and hope you're all looking forwards to the upcoming chapters, I promise things are about to get very exciting!