Ea left me with the Queens and my father.
"Viviendel," My father cautions gently. I fight the urge to glare at him.
"No," I pressure the Queens. Giving them the ultimatum. "We made a deal. Stick to it. I have days of rest to attend to."
I swear I feel Morana narrows her eyes at me beneath her mask. "And yet here we are, indeed we did say days of rest, and you have had that, we never said that you couldnt take tests in between your challenges. Which, by the way, is in a few more days since we are waiting for the right pers-" She coughs. "Moment to come along."
This time, I am the one who narrows my eyes. "So. What is this test?" I can't really argue with her logic. They never did say that I couldn't take a test in between. ANd honestly, I don't want Eirene to have to step in with her magical, wizardry hands.
Eirene's canine scratches against her green-leafy mask as she smiles. "Well, we have a list of questions. "
I roll my eyes. Duh.
Morana cuts in. "This time it will be about common sense."
I gape. ANd my father asks, incredulously, "Common sense?"
"Yes," Jorogumo answers this time. She is eerily silent. As always. But a type of sadness lingers in her clothes, in the way she walks. Every time she moves it is as if she is mourning the loss of somebody she fought with.
She hands me a piece of parchment, one with unbearably well handwriting that is enviable.
I sit down at the desk located in the corner of the room, near invisible. I take the pen out of my hair, making it fall around my shoulders. I shake it out quickly before reading. I feel the Queen's eyes on me as I do.
No pressure.
"C is the father of D, but D is not the son of C" I quickly scribble my answer. "D is the step-father."
"Imagine you are in the palace and everything catches fire, just beyond your desk is a door, the fire is in front of it, how will you manage to get out?" I scribble down 'Stop imagining'.
I hand the paper in and Morana swiftly looks through it. "1 out of 2." Eirene rushes to her and takes the paper away. Fire lights in my eyes.
"What did I get wrong?" I question.
"The first one." Jorogumo muses. "The correct answer was," She makes direct eye contact with all her eight eyes. "D was a daughter."
"On Abigor's name and grace and everything anybody does!"
Father puts his hand on my shoulder. "Calm it, Viviendel." He looks at the queens. "Thank you, but we will leave now." A low blow, saying 'Thank you' to a Faerie. Let alone a Queen . I smile at him.
Morana chokes, a very unladylike thing to do. Especially for a Queen. Gods, so very disgraceful. Especially as Erielle hits her in the back. I chuckle dryly under my breath. Trying to staunch my laugh.
We start to leave, but before we can make it fully out the door, I crash head-first into a male, chiseled abdomen. Ea's.
I stare up at him, dumbfounded, and his hand reaches out to steady me. Clasping my forearm tightly, he grins. "Let me guess, an ex Bwardipuginin came?" I flush a bright, stark green as I feel heat rise to my face.
"Hello, Ea." My father says. Stretching out his hand.
"Hello, Arwan." Ea replies, snaking his fin around my waist and shaking my fathers hand with the one that used to be on my arm. I go rigid. Ea and my father. Facing off.
"Hello, dearest Ea." I shrug out of his grasp. "As you can see, my FATHER, as you called Arwan, is here as well." So please don't try anything I want but don't add.
"I wouldn't dare." His grin broadens.
"What was that, child?" Father asks Ea.
"Oh nothing much, Arwan."
"Hmm," Father rubs his index and thumb finger across his 5/o-clock shadow.
"Ea," I glared at him. Sweetly. "My father and I are going to steal the room, you can go anywhere else. He says he needs to speak with me." I smile with the same amount of sweetness that I glared at Ea with.
He raises his hands. "I barely use the room anyhow."
"Unless he wants to fuck a cardboard cutout of Aîskhos." I mutter under my breath. Ea raises his eyebrows and I am forever grateful to the Gods that they gave me a mortal father. With mortal ears. And mortal hearing.
Which is bittersweet, by the way. I could be doing very sinful things a door down from my fathers own bedroom and he would never know. One reason for that could also be how he snores like a hog fresh out of the farm. But I blame it mostly on the fact that he is a mortal, and us Half-Fae and pure Fae know how to be quiet. But I swear he also has selective hearing, because he can pick and choose what he wants to listen to. If I ask him to help me out with a chore, Father won't hear me till I shout it in his ear. But if I am reading and flipping the page just a BIT too loud, he hears and tells me to quiet it down.
I really like the crinkly sound of paper rustling when you flip the page. What can I say?
"Bye then, Viviendel." He nods at me. "Arwan."
Then he disappeared and we started walking again. I loose a long sigh of relief. "So..." My father begins and I nearly groan. "You and Ea?" I nearly cringe.
"Nothing more than a few stolen kisses."
He nods. "Is he one of them... what do you kids call them?"
"Douchebag-" I say at the same time he replies:
"Love 'em; leave 'em types?"
"No, Father." I touch his shoulder. "He is just... well, a guard."
"Well," He cringes. "Be careful."
I chuckle. "I will. You don't have to remind me."
We arrive at the room and I open the door to the cramped space. He takes in the surroundings. "AT least in the palace, your room is actually clean."
"Yep." I rock back on my heels.
"Actually," He goes over to the windowsill and flicks a piece of dust. "Not that clean. Maybe I can still yell at you for cleaning up like back at home."
"No, father. You really can't." I smile.
He harrumphs. "Maybe you are right." He flicks another piece of dust that lands on his vest, he brushes it off. "I feel like my little girl has grown up," He purses his lips and a sadness enters his face. He touches my hair. people just wish one of the Queens would marry them or have them as a mistress." I wink. "But, I get to be the real deal. And mark my words when I say I am going to shove it in all those prissy, green girls who made fun of me in the village faces."
My father chuckles. "Well, Viviendel," He hugs me tightly. "I am happy you can finnaly show those girls what is up."
"You know, you have her eyes. And she had this same black tint to her hair,"
I smile. Knowing who he is speaking of. And I do. I have a black tint at the root of my red hair. And my green eyes.
"I know," I say. "You have told me this about a million times now." He smiles mournfully.
"Your mother was actually Freyja, darling."
My grin broadens. "I know."
His jaw drops. "WHy are you not passing out in a shocking fit?"
I laugh. "Because who wouldn't want to be the daughter of a queen?" I shrug. "I mean, originally, I said I didn't want to be a Queen as well. But... the appeal. What kind of girl would I be if I didn't want to be on the throne one day?" I question and he laughs again.
"You know, Viviendel?"
"What?" I narrow my eyes.
"You have always been," He pauses. "And I mean this with no hard feelings, warning." I steel myself. "You have always been very dramatic when nobody was expecting it." I pump out my hip and place my hand on it.
"Isn't that the definition of 'Drama'?" We giggle.
"By dramatic I mean sassy and arrogant, bossy and temperamental. Maybe even stubborn." I purse my lips. "But," Another sad smile. Father pats my hair as if I were a child. I smile and lean into his hand. "Then, when I expect that dramatic, impulsive behavior, you are rational."
"Drama is also defined as 'surprising' or 'unexpected'." I remind him.
And then he tells me everything.
So I guess Freyja wasn't all 'KILL-ALL-MORTAL-SOULS-AND-BANISH-THEM-FROM-TECH-DUINN' crazy as I originally thought she was.
I dont tell him Bayou figured all this out and wrote it in invisible ink on a parchment that wishes me good luck, I dont tell him that I figured this out days ago after I set the paper under the moonlight and found out what it truly said.
-*-
Each Moron got a different letter from Bayou. Each explaining why he left. Each one a lie, but one they believe is true nonetheless. Bayou must have instructed the maid to bring it around at the same time today, because right as my father leaves, she brings the letter to slip under our door. The maid almost looked shocked that she was being instructed to give it to me.The future Queen. She even curtsied.
The letter I was given, although I am by no means a Moron, was one exactly like Ea's. Even though I know that he was faking it all. As he wrote he made sure that the first letter in every line spells out vertically 'liar'.
Late at night, my sister called upon me. She told me that there were a few family issues that needed to be resolved. For a while now I will be out, so don't wait up for me, as far as I can see, I won't be back for a couple of weeks. I don't know, at this moment, right when I will be back. Tootles.
-Bayou-
I crawl into bed, noticing the absence of ea's body and how annoying he is like a brick to the head. I shouldn't be even thinking about him, if I have another test like today's tomorrow, I need to be rested and ready. Not worrying about sonme uniform guard who probably doesn't have anything that special, or anything bigger than normal.
Nothing other than normal. Nothing other than the awkward movements of every other lover who doesn't know where to touch, how to move, which way to go, or why they are doing said touching, moving, and going except the reason that they are drunk on Faerie Wine.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
I chant the word as I drift off into my unconscious realm and look at all of the things I could possibly do. Making a burger with chipmunks and getting it stolen by gangster ponies is what I end up picking.
And it was going to be a really good burger too.