The Anima [completed]

17.

17.

"Okay, we are almost there. We will need to approach the market separately. So I will go first, then you and then Lucius later. This will make us look just like buyers." He opened my palm and handed me a gold chip. "This should be enough to buy yourself a scarf and drape. Use it to cover your face and hair."

"Okay." I smiled, staring at the gold coin in my hand. I was definitely going to use some of it to buy Virgo a gift.

Alvar began to strip off his white coat, and laid it on the grass in front of me. He muttered under his breath, and steam peeled off his hands and onto the coat. Soon enough, the white darkened and became black, destroying his label as a rich upper class man and becoming a normal man just wearing a fancy coat. I chuckled to myself, picturing him as a middle class man in the real world, working an office job nine to five. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I didn't believe any Fae could handle the mundane word and it's struggles, with their Glamour handing them everything they desire. Come to think of it, I didn't actually know how old Alvar was or even if he was paid for the work he did. I knew little about the inner workings of the First Plane, when I ought to have known the basics.

"How old are you, Alvar?" I asked abruptly as he began to drape his coat back onto his body.

"I do not have an age." He stated simply, like it was the easiest fact on the planet.

"What?" I didn't care how rude I sounded; I was confused beyond belief.

"We do not have the same concept of time as you do. We are born of the earth, we are a part of it, and so we live on with it."

"So you can't die?" I said aghast, throwing my hands up.

"No, we can die. Our life is lived by our possessions. The fibres of our being." He guest urged to my dress and began to mumble under his breath, turning the material as black as his coat. "If you destroy a Fae's possession, then you kill a part of it. Kill all its possessions, it can die."

"How does that even work?"

"Well, like the earth has trees and plants, and when they die a part of it dies. It's the same for us."

"But you can't kill the earth by cutting down a tree." I pointed out.

"Precisely. The dirt and the rock are the foundations of the earth. We have foundations too, that's why it's basically impossible to kill someone."

"So what is it? You're foundation?" I asked. Alvar paused, sliding a blade out from his boot and securing it in his belt.

"Our names. And our hearts." And then he swiftly turned away from me, and began stalking in the direction of the market, leaving me standing in both amazement and complete awe.

What a way to live.

I finally understood why Alvar and Lucius gave the Fae's tooth to the Duchess. In someone's possession, a piece of them, you could find power. It just kept getting more curious. I wondered if his words meant that they could die by piercing their heart, but I wouldn't try it on a chance.

I waited ten minutes, and then started in the same direction Alvar had gone. It wasn't long before trees had started sprouting once more in a lush forest, and the sounds of Fae civilisation was greeting my ears: a light buzz mixed with chipper chatter and the occasional bought of bellowing laughter. I emerged from the trees to a large open clearing with stalls on either side of it, much like the one in the Kingdom, and was met with a magnificent sight. Small trees with faces held beautiful fabrics in their hands, pushing them into the arms of the crowd of people passing by, trying to make them buy it. Cow sized fox pelts hung off hooks in another stall, managed by a tall humanoid creature with grey skin and large tusks protruding out of its jaw. And tiny little pixies, no larger than my hand, flitted in and out of their own stall, pressing jewels into the faces of Fae women that looked wealthy enough; wings and magnificent drapes around their bodies.