They say never to judge someone before you get to know them, but Naomi thought it was a pretty safe bet to assume Félix was the very serious, no-nonsense type. If he was sitting there talking about fairies and magic as simply as someone might discuss the rain, what did that say about the validity of his story?
"Why are you telling me all this?" Naomi asked after a few moments of deep thought. "What does this have to do with me and my Shifts?"
"Good," Félix said approvingly. "You're asking the right questions. You see, King Oberon didn't want to be like the humans who enslaved and imprisoned his people. He did not want to force any of his subjects to live in the world he had created. He did not want anyone to feel trapped in Élphame. He wanted to give them a choice, a courtesy never offered to his kind by humans. So he made gateways through the Veil, so that travel between the two worlds might not be cut off completely, though he could never have foreseen the consequences of that decision.
"Though the gateways were a one-way ticket, some decided to take on human form and live on Earth among the humans. They gave up using their magic and tried to live their lives as humans, as they could not pass back into Élphame. They eventually married and had children with humans. But their children were... different, to put it simply. They weren't ordinary children. You see, these children had the ability to change from a human form to a magical one at will. They were also able to pass back and forth between the two worlds as many times as they liked. These children began a new era of magical being on Earth, and they were called Changelings.
"That is what you are, Naomi-- what we all are. We are Changelings, the children of humanity and magic. Your 'Shifts,' as you call them, are caused by the Oberonian Veil. The Veil is a living thing. It has its own energy that jumps and spikes from time to time. When these energy spikes of magic come, it pulls out your magical form. It is Élphame reaching out to you."
"What about that blue dirt Darcy threw in my face?" Naomi asked. "After it touched me I Shifted, but Darcy touched it and she didn't."
Félix turned to Darcy, looking irritated. "You stole my Pixie Dust? The Pixie Dust I explicitly told you not to touch?"
Darcy shrugged unapologetically. "Maybe."
Félix stared hard at her. "We'll discuss this later," he promised. Then he turned back to Naomi. "Like the Veil, Pixie Dust draws out your magical form. It reacts swifter than the Veil, but the Change does not last as long."
"So all those really quick Shifts I had last week..."
"My guess is you somehow came into contact with Pixie Dust and it forced you into your magical form," he explained. "How you came by the dust, I have a few theories." He shot a hard look in Darcy's direction. The message was clear. He thought Darcy had had something to do with it.
"I had to be sure you were one of us," Darcy explained defensively when Naomi turned her glare on her. "I couldn't show you all of this if I wasn't positive you were a Changeling."
"I was worried out of my mind, Darcy!" Naomi practically shouted. "I wasn't going to come here with you because I was worried I'd Shift right in front of you and I'd be dragged away to become a science experiment!"
"I know, and I'm sorry." She really did sound sorry. "I had hoped the Dust would work too fast for you to find someplace to hide, but I could only use little bits at a time and so the reaction time was always delayed and you were always gone by the time it took affect. Please, Naomi, you have to believe me. I didn't mean to make you worry. I'm really sorry."
"How come you didn't Shift when you touched it?" Naomi demanded. "How were you able to Shift at will?"
"All your questions will be answered, Naomi," Félix assured her before Darcy could answer. "But, for now, you must return to the world above. Darcy has informed me that her cousin Ezhno has accompanied you here. He does not know that Alec and I are here, and I would very much like it to stay that way."
"Why are you here?" Naomi asked.
Alec raise his stone-casted hand. "That would be my fault." Pip jumped onto his shoulder and started licking his chin.
"You are not to blame, Alec," Félix said, though he was looking at Darcy as he spoke, and Darcy was glaring right back.
They stayed that way for a moment, Félix staring calmly into Darcy's eyes while she glared angrily into his. "Fine," she said at last. "Let's go, Naomi. We'll come back after lunch, when Ezhno's asleep."
"Before you go," Félix said, standing, "you and I need to have a word, Darcy."
"I don't have anything to say to you," Darcy said, remaining seated.
"Just do it, Darce," Naomi said. "He's right. Ezhno's going to wonder where we went off to. If he knows about this place--"
"He won't come in here," Darcy said confidently. "There are strict rules about coming in here. It's for emergencies only."
"And you're so good at keeping the rules," Naomi said sarcastically. "If he suspects you broke the rules and brought me down here anyway, he will come looking."
"It's nice to see you have made a friend capable of thinking for once," Félix said.
"Don't try to help," Naomi advised. She turned to Darcy. "Just hurry up and get it over with. It's obvious he's not going to leave you alone until you do."
Naomi held her breath as Darcy shifted her glared between her and Félix. Finally she threw her hands up. "Fine," she spat. She stood and followed Félix into the next room to talk.
"Wow," Alec said when they were alone. "You got Darcy to do something she didn't want to? You must be a Hypno." He picked grabbed another plate of potatoes and started to eat them.
"Hypno?" Naomi repeated. "As in Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep?"
"Yeah. At least, I think so. After Oberon sacrificed himself to create the Veil, humans began to make stories and myths from the creatures and magical people they used to know, hence the gods," he explained. "Hypnos can hypnotize you into doing pretty much anything."
They fell into silence then. Naomi was near bursting with questions, but she knew once she started she'd never shut up, so she replayed what she had already learned in her head as she distractly petted Pip, who was still going to town on her potatoes. Naomi felt the low rumble of his purring.
According to Félix, every magical, mythological, legendary creature Naomi had ever read about was real and living in a magical world sealed off by a magical wall that a Fairy King had sacrificed his life to create and sustain. And apparently some magical creatures decided to live on Earth and had human-magic hybrid babies called Changelings who could change between their human form and their magical form. Okay, fine. Cool. That made sense-- sort of. But what Naomi had trouble getting her mind around was that she was one of them.
"So..." Naomi said slowly. "If there are thousands of different species of magical creatures, does that mean that there are just as many different kinds of Changeling?"
Alec nodded with a friendly wink. "You got it. The different species are called Families."
"Then what's my Family?" she asked, seriously hoping he wouldn't say something like Goblin or Loch Ness Monster.
Alec shrugged. "Hard to say. Changelings don't really give any physical indication as to their Family, so we usual tell by powers."
"Powers?"
"Each Changeling Family has its own skill set and magic," he told her, "something that's unique to them. Take me for example. I'm an Alchemist."
"So you can turn lead into gold?" Naomi asked interestedly.
Alec smiled. "Not just lead to gold. I can turn rubber to coal, plastic into titanium, elastic into pudding. Basically, I can transmogrify any inanimate object."
"Anything?" Naomi had gotten distracted and had stopped her petting of Pip, which the kitten did not seem to like. He butted her hand with his head until she resumed.
"Well, within reason," Alec said. "I can only do small objects. I've been practicing on my cast, see?" He lifted his arm from his sling to show off the polished rock. "Alchemists who've been practicing for decades can transmogrify entire buildings if they're powerful enough. But enough about me. What can you do?"
"I don't know," Naomi admitted, feeling a little embarrassed for some reason. "I've only ever been able to Shift, and I've never been able to control it."
"Oh," was all Alec seemed to be able to say, and they fell into an uncomfortable silence.
"I wonder what's taking them so long," Naomi mumbled after a while.
"Want to hear what they're talking about?" Alec asked mischievously.
"No," Naomi lied. "Well, yes, I do, but they left the room to have a private conversation."
"Shame," Alec said. "'Cause Pip here could've helped us out."
Naomi stopped her petting again and Pip meowed in annoyance. "How could he do that?"
"Want to find out?" Without waiting for a response, Alec turned to his kitten and said, "Come on, pal, you know what to do."
Pip meowed in response. He closed his eyes, twitched his ears, and when he opened his mouth it was not a meow that came out, but a voice-- Félix's voice.
"... do not approve of this. You are putting us all at risk."
The voice switched to Darcy's. "She can help. I keep saying that, but you don't listen! You never listen!"
Félix's voice came back. "She knows nothing of magic. Until a few minutes ago, she didn't even know her true identity. She cannot help us. She knows nothing."
"You're wrong," Pip-as-Darcy said. "Naomi has forgotten more about magic and Fairies than either of us will ever know. She can help."
"She lacks basic training and understanding," Félix said matter-of-factly. "We have too much going on to remedy that at the moment."
"I've told you before, Sunshine, I wouldn't have brought her into this unless I felt it was the right thing to do."
Félix scoffed, which was a strange sound to hear coming out of a cat. Naomi could practically hear the eye roll in his voice as he said sarcastically, "Feelings. Yes, because those are known to be a reliable source of information."
"Why you little--" Alec gently closed Pip's mouth before they could hear what Darcy had to say.
Pip blinked, as if coming out of a trance, shook his head, and went over to investigate the remains of Darcy's plate.
"How did he do that?" Naomi whispered in awe.
"Oh, he can pretty much do anything. Pip here is a Cat Sidhe," he said. "Basically, he's a--"
"A magic cat, yeah, I figured," Naomi said. "So, I'm guessing the stories I've read that say Cat Sidhes are witches in cat form are false?"
"Actually, it's the opposite. Cat Sidhes can look however they want, so they might take the form of a human and perform magic, making people think they're a witch."
"Neat," Naomi said appreciatively.
The sound of Darcy and Félix's footsteps returning sent Naomi into a guilty panic. "Quick," she said urgently. "We need to talk about something else." She looked around hoping to find inspiration to spark a new topic of conversation, but all she could think of was Alec's cat.
"So, why'd you name him Pip?" she asked casually as the footsteps entered the room.
"Actually, Pip is just a nickname. His real name is Pippenpadlospicopolis, but that's kinda a mouthful, so we just call him Pip."
"Pippenpadlospicopolis," Naomi said slowly. "Like from Avatar: The Last Airbender?"
"Exactly!" A huge grin broke out on Alec's face. "Finally, someone gets it!"
"Sorry to break up the fangirling, guys, but Naomi and I are leaving," Darcy said. Her face was red with anger and she spoke through her teeth. She blew a strand of her hair angrily away from her face. Félix didn't look so happy either, but Naomi decided that was pretty much his natural face.
"I'd probably better leave," Naomi said apologetically. "It was really nice to meet you, Alec. And thanks for the potatoes. They were delicious."
Alec gave a sweeping bow. "The pleasure was all mine. Au revoir, mademoiselle!"
Naomi laughed and tried not to look guilty when she turned to Félix. He didn't think she could do anything to help them with... whatever it was they were working on, and for some reason that really bothered Naomi. Yes, she might be new to this whole Changeling thing and have a few thousand questions, but knowing random facts about fantasy was one of Naomi's only talents, and it irked her to think someone was questioning her skills.
"Thank you for the history lesson," she said. "It was really interesting and... informative. I look forward to more answers, and I think you'll find I'm a fast learner."
"I hope for all our sake that is true," he said. "Goodbye."