Fair Deception

Chp. 7, Part II

"Do you want me to go too?" Broch asked and I shook my head. "Do you want a cup of tea?" I nodded, not trusting my voice, and heard him head into the kitchen.

I slumped back down onto the sofa. He just left. As angry as I had been with him, I didn't think Kalen would just leave me when I needed him as much as I did right now. I kept hanging onto the fact that he was supposed to be my best friend. But, he left. The tears started to build in my eyes again as I replayed the argument we'd just had. Screw him.

Grabbing the remote, I turned the TV back on. The Hobbit was still paused on my Netflix account, so I played it from the point I'd watched up to earlier and aggressively wiped the tears from my checks. I'd cried more in the last 24 hours than I had in the last few years!

Broch came back through with the tea and surprised me by keeping Jenna's pink doughnut mug and handing me a Lord of the Rings mug. As he sat down on the other end of the sofa, I raised an eyebrow at his choice.

"I thought that one was yours," he explained.

"It is," I replied, blowing on the hot tea. I paused, considering whether it was worth getting a scalded tongue from trying to drink it too fast. Broch took one look at me and then lifted the mug from my hands, placing it on the table before I'd had a drink.

"It's too hot."

I stared at him incredulously. "If I can manage three Unseelie in one day, I can manage a cup of tea!"

"Were you about to drink it?"

"Yes!"

"Then you would have been burnt," he said, amused and a little smug, "It doesn't hurt to take your time."

"Give me my damn tea," I demanded indignantly. He handed it back and I blew on it, not taking a sip for another couple of minutes because I could see him watching out of the corner of my eye. And, I didn't want him to give him the satisfaction of being right.

Broch had apparently never seen The Hobbit before, so I restarted the film. He was surprisingly good company; asking important, relevant questions about the film and only snorting a few times when the elves and dwarves came on the screen.

"What? Are they not accurate?" I asked, grinning at him.

"Elves only appear in the Seelie or Unseelie realms because, in reality, they aren't any higher than my knee," he said with a small smile.

The information piqued my interest. "So, are there many types of Fae that only appear in the Seelie or Unseelie realms?"

He nodded, "Yes, most Fae aren't capable of maintaining a strong enough glamour to appear in the human realm. Even those who are able to, sometimes find it difficult."

"How come?"

"Humans are peculiar," he said with a shrug, "It's difficult for Fae to copy, let alone converse, with them." His brain caught up to his words and he looked at me sheepishly.

"What is glamour?" I wondered aloud, diverting the conversation.

"It's a type of Fae magic. It's like camouflage really, it changes our appearance so we can fit into the human realm," he explained.

"So, are you using it now?"

"Yes."

"Does it take a lot of effort?"

"No. Well, not for me - I've been practising it for a few years at least. I'm not as good as Kalen though. His clan make their offspring start using glamour as soon as they are of age, and then they're put into the human realm to practise being around humans and blending in."