The cold

Aching backs and angry kings

Neil made his way to the library, humming in a low volume, rubbing his aching back. It's been a few days since the whole kidnapping incident, and Neil still jumped when anything took him by surprise and he also found it a tiny bit difficult to eat, every time he put food in his mouth he'd remember how badly that ork thingy shoved food down his throat. He wondered if that thing was mean by itself or if it was ordered to be mean. It was scary all the same. He winced when his back started acting up again, Nerezza was trying to teach him how to use his wings. He'd always thought that people with wings would start flying the moment they got them, but apparently it was hard work. It involved a lot of falling down, a lot of crash landings, unwanted attention from a few curious birds and a sore back. It even involved aching wings which he didn't even know was possible. Nerezza was a relentless teacher, she wouldn't give him a break no matter how hard he begged , not even when he did so with tears in his eyes. In the end she only stopped because Loki turned her into a white mouse for five whole minutes, laughing wickedly as a very mousy Nerezza fiercely scratched his leg. Nerezza huffed when she was turned back, her face red with anger, literally,  probably something Loki did. He tried his best to keep his laughter in, he really did, but when he burst out laughing, an annoyed Nerezza left him and Loki in the dust muttering something about tomorrow.

Neil figured he could spend the rest of the day reading about different types of fey and mild stuff like that, not having the mood to do anything that requires energy what with the way Nerezza made him work his poor bottom off in the morning .  Now that Nerezza had opened the mysterious fogged up shelf ,Neil had access to a lot of fey based books, no more annoying secrets or at least he hoped there weren't any more things that were kept from him, now that he knew what feys are. He took the green book and settled , not really in a hurry to go home after his mom scolded him royally for not telling him where he was the past few days, he didn't want to worry her unnecessarily. He sat at a little corner with his book, letting the book carry him to a world of Bokkas, brownies and dusklings.

It startled him when the king, Abbadon, walked into the room, quite irritated. He had already gotten over his unease when it comes to Abbadon,  realizing that his cruelty was based more on the fact that he tended to do a lot of stupid things when angered. Besides , based on what Damien told him, it was because of Abbadon's help that they found him. If he hadn't been found when he was, he shuddered to think what might have happened. Sure, he trusted Loki's powers a lot, despite how much of a man child he is, but it didn't make it any less scarier when the ork was banging at the door trying to get in. It was actually quite a surprise that the door didn't fall apart  from the way the ork was throwing his weight at it.

Abbadon looked quite disturbed, his mouth pulled to a grim line , an angry frown on his face, pretty much how he'd expected Abbadon to be based on all the rumors about the tyrant king. Had he not noticed the way Abbadon's hands literally shook from anger or the thin layer of sweat on his forehead, he wouldn't have thought anything was amiss.Neil wondered if he should ask Abbadon if he was okay , he didn't want Abbadon to lash out at him, after all the man wasn't known to have a sweet temper. He sat there, awkwardly staring at his book for a minute or two, it always made him feel all weird and dorky when people near him were angry.

He finally decided to gather all his guts together ,clear his throat and ask the king what the matter was, might as well go with the flow. Abbadon seemed surprised at what he'd asked him, like the fact that something was wrong wasn't obvious enough. "A lovers spat of sorts, that is all" Abbadon answered in a surprisingly calm voice. It was now Neil's turn to be surprised, a lovers spat? Hissana didn't look like he was mean enough to fight a bunny, let alone someone as intimidating as Abbadon, but then again he was clearly judging a book by the cover, he had never been around Hissana long enough to claim to know him. He kept quite after that, he had no business to meddle or nose around a fight between two lovers, he knew he'd be extremely pissed if someone tried to nose around something between him and his boyfriend, if he had one. 

Both Neil and Abbadon turned to the door when Damien walked in, opening the door with a small bang. He looked slightly miffed or perhaps irritated, Neil wasn't sure which. He stared at his brother awkwardly for a second or two, unsurprisingly enough,  Damien acted rather weird around his brother these days, Neil figured he would too if he ended up getting help from a person he very much hates. "We'll have to go to Lady Legasus's court tomorrow, she demands to see the newly born blood fey. " Neil's years perked at that , hell, Damien was talking to him, and from what little he learnt about feys, Lady Legasus was the queen of the seelie court, and she wanted to see him?! He really  hoped she was a very homely sweet potato shaped lady that tossed around blessings like nobody's business, the case not very likely but who knows, she was after all the one who made the funny fountain in the garden. A very tiny voice in Neil's head reminded him that the late king wouldn't have found the fountain funny if he could see it for what it was and that this queen did kill an evil Santa Clause.