A Rational Magic || ONC2022

Ten || A Little White Lie (Or Two)

"We're not ready for this," Lani announces three days after the slightly-more-dramatic-than-expected-fairy-smuggling-operation. "We're definitely not ready to do this."

"I'm pretty sure you established this twenty minutes ago," Katriel says. It's not got any bite to it, but Lani bristles anyway.

"We'd not be in this mess if it wasn't for your sister!"

"It's not Adalia's fault—"

"I don't care! Older siblings shouldn't abandon their younger siblings in strange worlds they know naff all about!"

I'm trying to ignore them, but it's unsurprisingly rather difficult.

I don't suppose you know what it's like to watch an argument like this, honestly. Lani... towers might be the wrong way to put it, but we're both almost a head taller than Katriel, and it makes the scene all the more strange.

But I digress.

Lani's eyes are bright, her face reddening either from the heat or from her anger. It's something I've seen before, but more often than not it's not directed at someone who can't really stand up for themselves. Who doesn't deserve it.

For a moment, I'm almost convinced her eyes are glowing.

The fairy-boy, meanwhile, doesn't look too bothered. I highly doubt he could do anything if Lani tried to like, hit him, but hey. I've been wrong about things before. I'm human.

His eyes are dull, almost, the greyish-green of them summing up almost everything I imagine he's feeling. Bored, for the most part. Lonely. Most likely a spark of annoyance, but little else.

"You two!" I'm forced to jump in once the fact that Lani's eyes keep glowing (albeit briefly) grows impossible to pretend away. "We have to prepare, right? Arguing like this is getting us nowhere!"

And do you know what they do?

Ignore me.

Well.

Why am I bothering? I could be getting so much more done on my own if I just left them to it... so that's what I do.

Both of our aunts are out — I believe they've gone shopping, and maybe to visit a friend — so none of us are allowed to leave. Officially Lani's in charge, but frankly I think I might as well take the lead. She's too busy upstairs, after all.

And Soren...

It's easier to hide a fairy from one person than it is to hide a fairy from three people, isn't it?

Unless said fairy happens to be arguing with your twin sister loudly enough to be heard from the kitchen...

"Who's Lani yelling at?" he asks as soon as I join him.

"A... cousin."

"In the attic?"

"It's a phone call."

Somehow, even with the polite smile still flickering on his face, I know he doesn't believe me.

But this... it's an Anya-and-Lani thing, and Soren just isn't meant to be part of it... as cruel as that sounds.

Besides, I'm confident that this will not be a fun little adventure, and putting all three of us in danger is an awful idea.

"You know, I ran into that boy you saved, when you first came here? Mercury, right?"

"Uh, yeah, him." Weird change of topic, but I'm grateful that he's letting my blatant lie slide. "How come you're telling me?"

"Just... thought you might want to know. That he's, like, okay, you know?"

So maybe I'm not the only bad liar.

"I was wondering, honestly."

I wasn't, I wasn't at all, but letting Soren know that I've seen through his lie might mean he asks more questions about mine, and I don't want to forget the details. I've heard enough stories about people failing to remember the overly complicated lies they came up with, and the consequences...

Well.

"So who's this cousin? How many d'you have?"

Damn it.

"The one Lani's having a shouting match with? That's Jade."

It's close enough to be believable, and since Soren doesn't know any of our cousins... it works.

"Yep, sounds like a Jade to me," he said pointedly as Katriel shrieks something about how he doesn't want to be having this argument. Great, because I don't want them having it either — that's two out of three!

"Look, our uncle was dead set on calling the child Jade, and they never picked another name." This is actually true. "When they realised he was a boy, they just switched his middle name out and stuck with Jade. I think it's a perfect name for him, anyway."

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean—" He flaps a hand around to 'explain' what he didn't mean, but gives up after several moments.

"It's fine! Uh, there's Ivy and Jade, not siblings — neither Mum nor Dad were only children — and there's Ruby, Jade's older sister..."

"Your family has a thing for four letter names, I'm noticing."

"Mhm... um, probably like nine or ten? Unless I'm forgetting someone... well, ten or eleven, including you, I guess."

"That's a lot."

"I've know people with that many siblings," I shrug, and honestly that's true as well. "Cousins... it's not the most ridiculous number."

"I s'pose not," Soren nodded, though he didn't really look convinced. "Mum's an only child. Uh, Sara, obviously. My dad... well... yeah."

Which really answered every question I had about the never-mentioning any male parent, didn't it? His dad just, well, yeah.

You know.

"So you don't actually have any cousins."

"Just two half-siblings last time I checked, which was... I'd have been seven when I last heard about them."

That. Well that actually did explain something.

What explained it better, though, was the quietness of his voice at the evidently 'shameful' admission of having half-siblings.

This conversation was flip-flopping all over the place, though, and I resolved to ask more about that particular elephant later on. Maybe when all of this was over and done with.

When Lani and I actually had the time to have such conversations.

"Say, um. I don't suppose you might know what the, ah, best plan for a hypothetical fairy-related adventure is? Like, you know, regarding food."

"Get up early — if you want to leave at midnight, do eleven-fifteen — and pack yourselves something," Soren said matter-of-factly, as if it wasn't the weirdest thing either of us had said in this conversation. "You don't eat anything you're given in Faerie. Everyone knows that."

And you should remember it.

The words went unsaid, but we both knew he wanted to say them.