A Rational Magic || ONC2022

Eleven || A Stranger's Help

Anya and her hypothetical questions. Come on, who wouldn't see through that?

But at least Soren got that little detail into her head. Someone who doesn't read as many fairy-related stories as I do might not remember key information about fairies that tends to be extremely important.

We've already — well, I've already — told Katriel and Adalia our names, but I think we're alright there. One, Kat learned Anya's from me shouting at her, not by asking, and two... well, actually... I might be in trouble on that front.

Bit of a hypocrite, aren't you, Lani?

But Soren, unfortunately, does have a very good point about fairy food. I kinda forced Anya to read through a book I brought with me to get the general point across, and while she wasn't happy with me... eh, she can be unhappy.

And under no circumstances are you meant to be rude or offensive in any way. Which is really just common sense, isn't it?

I don't know, of course, if Azaevelum is entirely like the Faerie of my books, but Kat won't say a word about it to either of us.

Names... it comes back to names a lot. We know his name, his sister's name, and Anya called him 'Kat' to his face yesterday without thinking, and with no reaction from him.

At all.

Come to think of it, Kat and Adalia both have feathery wings, which isn't exactly the little-girl-stories of gossamer-like butterfly or dragonfly wings... but Emily Feather's fairies had feathered wings, right? And that had the whole 'fairy food' problem too...

I'm really not sure how significant Soren's warning to Anya might be, but you're always better safe rather than sorry, right?

That's why — at eleven-fifteen, because Anya apparently thinks Soren's thoughts on all of this are law — we're in the kitchen, trying not to make too much noise as we work. Kat, helpful as he is, is watching us dart around collecting this and that and maybe another one of those.

He appears to be alright where he is, though, so we're both letting it slide.

And besides, it's not like he knows where anything is.

"Oh!" Anya gasps as a bottle falls out of the cupboard, crashing to the floor and sending its lid skittering across the tiles... along with several small tablets. She kneels to inspect the bottle itself, and lets out another "oh!" of surprise.

"That's not the medicine cupboard."

"Astute observation there, Lani," Kat quips, but he looks just as confused as I feel.

"It's... what the..."

Do I want an answer?

Frankly... no.

So I turn back to the bag I was trying to pack, and when neither of them are watching me, I add two knives to it.

Just in case, y'know?

~|•

Getting out of the house was too easy, I decide — about halfway to our general destination of the woods. Somehow, it's walking through Terrenfell that provides our problem.

Or problems.

Here's the thing. It's a quiet town, and there's no reason for anyone to be wandering around it at midnight. Maybe the odd person could make sense, but surely a group of six or seven walking down the very street we were about to take is too strange to ignore.

"Let's not go down that street," Anya hisses, twisting her head to look back the way we came. "I think we could turn left where we went straight and still get where we need to go..."