I said the most impossibly insightful thing one could say at a moment like that. "But the unicorns died out a few hundred years ago."
"Disappeared," Korr corrected. "The last herd disappeared."
"Same difference," I said. "That city on the southern coast is overrun with demon-bugs but nobody seems to know about that either. In hundreds of years nobody's seen a unicorn. Not even the dragons or gryphons or anyone."
"And there were only a few in the last herd," Ormiss said darkly. "If the stories are believed to be true. Some of them came below to be with the hippocamp, while others went past the dragon's mountains to that small valley along the sea on the other side. But the dragons have never found a trace of them."
I tapped my fingertips together. "But why did the unicorns disappear? We know the sea-serpents went into the deep ocean looking for magic, but what about the unicorns?"
Korr shook his head. "Not even we know. There are varying stories, and there's probably truth in all of them. The unicorns had been in decline for centuries before they actually disappeared. Some said the herds were fighting amongst themselves and killed each other off, some say they suffered heavy losses in the various shifter wars, others say they were betrayed by the sea-serpents for their magic and it broke their hearts, so they died, some say they were hunted for their horns. The unicorns were aloof and mysterious at the best of times."
Ormiss cradled his elbows in his opposite hands. "Unicorns had great magic and were fierce in battle, but by all accounts, they loved deeply, and could die of broken hearts, hence why they always kept everyone at horn's length. The way to kill a unicorn was to earn its genuine trust and love, then betray it. Personally, I think that sounds like a lot of work, and a harpoon would do the trick more efficiently."
Itek raised a brow. "So you believe they were hunted?"
"Why not both hunted and betrayed? Not necessarily in that order. It's well known that the wolves hated the unicorns."
Well, I hadn't known that.
"And that nobody likes the ravens," Itek said dryly.
"Except the wolves," Korr said.
Ormiss gave Korr an impatient look. "There has always been tension between the high-magic shifters, like the dragons and the unicorns and the sea-serpents, and the low-magic shifters like the wolves and the ravens and even humans. It has nothing to do with affection, but everything to do with alliances and ambition. Do you think we paired my cousin with the Lord-Raven because it was a love match or because it was some good-will gesture? It was because it was our turn to stop being ignored, and now she is gone, and the Lord-Raven is probably relieved he is free to court something more influential. Like, say, a dragon, because there is now a dragon in Haven where he can press his case."
Well, then why would the Lord-Raven want a solitary unicorn who can't properly unicorn? I couldn't bring him wealth or power or influence. He'd want me as some skirt or something, to have back-up bastard hybrid babies, assuming Aeon had been right that I could actually produce offspring like myself. The first time I gave birth to some unimpressive offspring, he'd toss me into the harbor and use the water to literally wash his hands of me.
Korr acknowledged this with a grim nod. "I agree. The world is dying and the shifters are on the verge of another war, but most of them haven't realized it yet. Nor can any shifter ignore the humans and the demon-touched. Everyone always forgets the humans."
"We'll fight over what livable land and water will exist, and the humans seem least affected by the taint," Ormiss said darkly.
Wow, it was just so much fun for them to talk about me like I wasn't even there.
"The great magic of humans is their ability to adapt." Asund shrugged. "They can live alone, or in groups, and in groups of any size from small to large. They can consort with demon and angel, they can breed with shifters or themselves, they have no magic of their own but can sense it and can't suffer magical injuries or wounds, they are not picky in their diets, and we know the taint is magical in origin, because the humans simply aren't as affected as shifters are. If a war broke out, the smart shifters would ally themselves with the humans, but be careful doing it."
"Why?" I asked curiously. Asund was in the business of war.
Asund's expression was curiously dark but matter-of-fact. "Because if I were a human, I would do everything to turn the war into a siege. I wouldn't try to win. I'd drag it out for as long as I possibly could, and I'd pull the war into the most contaminated lands I could possibly make a stand. Because I'd know that the taint is spreading and getting worse, but my forces would be least affected. The corruption would weaken my enemy for me. And I can promise everyone right now, the humans already figured this out. There is a reason the weaker shifter races maintain good terms with humans. The elder shifter races are idiots that way."
Ormiss snorted. "And as usual, the hippocamp are forgotten and dismissed, but we suffer the consequences of the land-dweller's nonsense all the same."
Korr said, "Which is why I was sent to Haven, wolf. And the other shifter races are right to be cautious about humans, because if the taint isn't stopped, eventually, the humans will rule us all, and they are much like wolves in their desire to rule and answer to no one. I for one do not want to be ruled by some petty human despot who only has power over me because I've been weakened into a very attractive garden-lizard by some earth-rot."
Itek rubbed his head. "So we won't tell the Pantere Priestess of Dreams Theia is a unicorn. We won't tell anyone."
And there they were, talking about me like I wasn't even there again. They were talking about unicorns, they weren't talking about me. This wasn't about me at all. It was about unicorns.
"There's no point in telling anyone anything." My spine was still broken, and I didn't feel like a unicorn. But what did a unicorn feel like? The revelation didn't feel like much of anything. It all sounded like it made sense (aside from the fact that the unicorns had disappeared long ago), but... it also made no sense at all. Unicorns could purify water, I remembered hearing something about them being able to dip their horns in the worst water and it would become pure, but I just sort of made groddy water less groddy.
"I'm so glad you agree," Asund said. "Because if anyone found out your blood and tears were pure, raw, healing magic, someone would try to turn you into a milk cow."
"The healing powers of unicorns were legendary," Itek said with one eye on me. "And perhaps a bit exaggerated, but that they had the power to regrow limbs--"
Korr looked up. "...and bring back the dead?"
We all looked at Korr.
We sighed.
"What?" Korr asked innocently. "We need a necromancer."
"Or Ethat could just stop eating his victims," Ormiss suggested.
Ethat slicked down his scales and made a I don't mean to, it just happens sort of noise.
And now, once again, not talking about me, but talking about what they wanted and needed.
"I would imagine that there's more information to be found in Haven's vaults," Itek told Korr. "But if we start sniffing around unicorns, the Lord-Raven will immediately want to know why. Theia's already caught the Lord-Raven's eye. A unicorn would be beyond tempting. And worth starting a war over."
Not this unicorn. This was getting annoying. Maybe I should just change my name to Unicorn so I'd feel like a person.
Korr nodded just once. "If there would be a war. Which I am not sure there would be."
Wow. I'd been kind of right! I mean, it was a shitty thing to be right about, but I'd gotten it right.
Asund added, "Even if she was a demonstrable unicorn with full magic, the wolves still wouldn't go against the ravens over one unicorn. The Lord-Raven would take Theia, and nobody would help us get her back. It'd be a huge victory for the ravens and their cronies."
Asund at least got a point for referring to me by name, and not the unicorn or a unicorn.
"While the older shifters looked weak and useless," Korr said, annoyed at his own species.
"While the world rots," Ormiss concluded.
Okay. I didn't want to talk about unicorns anymore. "We're far from Haven right now, so the Priestess is a better first stop. And we don't know I'm a unicorn, or even a purebred if I am sort of one. Maybe I'm a hybrid. Maybe I'm a mutt where enough unicorn rose to the surface. Or a homunculus made from left over body parts someone had in jars."
Meaning, I'm still Theia, please talk about ME, thank you.
Now they all gave me an askance look. Korr raised a finger. "Did you just say homunculus?"
"What the hell is a homunculus?" Asund asked.
"A creature made from assorted bodyparts and animated through demonic or angelic alchemy," Ormiss said. "They don't have souls, so there's no chance Theia is a homunculus. But the thought of some re-animated homunculus unicorn is... horrifying."
"Would it even be possible?" Asund asked Ormiss.
Ormiss grimaced. "Theoretically? Yes. A shifter's magic isn't tied to their soul. Demons have already proven that when they possess a shifter."
"But the soul's still in there during possession," Itek said.
"Debatable," Ormiss said, "but not my area of expertise."
"But if the magic is tied to the soul, would it be possible for an angelic entity to transplant a unicorn soul into a human body? Like a reverse possession." Asund asked.
"Wouldn't a reverse-possession be more the unicorn soul getting transplanted into an angelic entity?" Itek pondered. Asund made a noise of assent.
Ormiss sighed. "Am I really having a rather horrifying conversation with a wolf and a cat-bird about divine trans-spirtual alchemy while hoping to the gods none of us actually know enough about the matter to know what we're saying?"
"I know how to read too." Asund replied with great cheer and big eyes, like he was a pup announcing he'd caught his first mouse.
"I never said you were stupid," Ormiss snapped.
Asund flicked him the middle finger and waggled it around.
"Where did you even learn that word?" Korr asked me.
What, I wasn't allowed to know a few big words? Tynne's mother had been big on books (not that she'd ever encouraged the servants to learn to read), so I'd overheard her using big words to smack people over the head with. I might be an illiterate, naive, ignorant sorta-shifter, but I did know words. And sometimes, I even knew big words. "I'm ignorant and uneducated and naive, I'm not an idiot. And I'm fine if we don't mention to anyone you think I'm a unicorn."
"We don't think it, we know it," Itek said.
"Okay, fine. Think I'm a unicorn."
"Do you not want to be a unicorn?" Itek asked.
Ethat snorted fireflies.
I glared at him. "I grew up thinking I was human, and I'm fine to keep thinking that. I want to figure out where I was, and why I was there, and maybe find the hippocamp princess so that we can stop the Lord-Raven for his shenanigans, although I kind of feel sorry for her, because he's a jerk and she probably deserves better."
"You didn't answer my question," Itek said.
"I don't feel anything about being a unicorn," I retorted. I literally felt nothing at the suggestion. How was I supposed to feel? Was there a book on this someone could read to me? Why was everyone acting like my reaction to everything was wrong? "You guys are all hung up on what I am, and I don't care what I am. I care why, and I care about how. I'll care about what I am when I figure out the other two things."
They all gave me blank looks. And I recognized the blank looks: the exact same looks the high-breds at my old enclave gave a servant when a servant tried to explain something concerning low-breds. Because occasionally the high-breds gave a damn about those things, usually when it affected their meal service.
None of my consorts were low-breds. Not a single one. Ormiss was a Lord-Regent and perhaps a future King, for fuck's sake. Korr had been raised to be an ambassador. Itek was probably from some fancy nest, and Asund was an Alpha's brother.
I blew out in frustration. "You guys are standing here trying to figure out what I am. Angelic reverse-possession? A unicorn soul stitched in a human body? But none of that matters. We need to figure out where the hell I've been my whole life, and how I got there. You're a bunch of high-breds trying to figure out place settings for a banquet when the servants are trying to tell you there's not enough clean water for twenty people."
They exchanged looks.
I huffed again. "Can we go? I want to get to the Priestess, because I want to know where I've been all my life. You guys just want to know what I am because it's all politics. You just want to know where I fit into all your schemes. You gave Ormiss crap for trying to make it so I was forced to stay below with him, but you guys aren't any different. You're all going to try to make me fit into your schemes."
"We aren't going to use you," Itek said.
Bullshit. "You won't mean to, but you will. At least Ormiss is honest about it. Sort of."
"We need to keep you safe," Korr said. Ethat snorted fireflies and bobbed his head.
"Right. Safe. Safe as in nobody else can touch the unicorn unless we say so? What if I wanted to give the ravens my blood, so that everything was equal? You guys would shit yourselves. Every single one of you has always been more obsessed with what I am than I ever have been because you're instantly jumping to how can she be useful to my people or how can our enemies use her against us. Even looking for where I've been and who did it to me isn't about trying to make it so I can sleep at night, it's still more how can this knowledge be useful and what weapons does my enemy have. It's not someone did something horrible to my consort and we need to figure it out because she deserves answers. I'm just some political and military problem you're trying to solve, not your consort who wants answers."
Ethat shifted into human form. Fireflies rose off his hair in shimmering waves, and his magic rose off him like a green pollen mist. He reached for me, but stopped short, his elegant hands grasping but not touching. "My love, our love, none of us have ever used you--"
"Don't you dare try to convince me my feelings are wrong, and I'm just too ignorant to understand, so my feelings are wrong and therefore I shouldn't feel them," I snapped. "Ormiss played his games, but I also realized you lot are all playing your games too. It's not about my past or what happened to me or how I feel about it. It's about what your people need, and what you can get from the situation."
Ethat quivered all over.
Korr put his hand on Ethat's chest and shook his head once. Ethat made a whimpering trilly noise. Korr shook his head again.
Okay. Fine. I'd made my point. "Let's go. I want to see this Priestess and get my answers."
/***********
Peeps-
My husband is currently cooking something and it made me realize I am hungry. 0_o I hate it when that happens. Like I'm just here doing my work and type type typ--
FOOD.
._.
Cheers --
Merry
(provoked hungry pantster)
************/