Summer Garden

Summer

Summer walked into the kitchen slowly, her heart tangled up in knots. She knew what she had to do, and to be honest with herself, she'd waited too long. It was cruel. That didn't mean that she wasn't having palpitations at the mere thought.

She felt her ears flatten against her head and her wings spread as she saw Astrian humming to herself in front of the fireplace, with Trei sitting beside her, warming his hands. Flashes of violent thoughts ran through her mind about putting the Fae through a meatgrinder. She screwed up her face with determination, and settled her outward appearance.

Summer walked over slowly, sitting down next to Trei and fighting the urge to wrap herself around him. He looked over at her in surprise, "Summer. I thought you were dealing with a crisis of some sort?"

She stopped herself from glaring at Astrian, but her aura still changed colour quickly enough the butler flinched. "I am, but... It can wait."

Trei raised an eyebrow, "A crisis? Wait?"

Summer shrugged, "There's something more important I should do. That I should have done a long time ago, and I... I still don't know how to explain."

Astrian stood and curtsied, "I will leave the two of you."

"Stay." Summer instructed, "You're every bit a part of this, Astrian."

Trei glanced between them, "How is that?"

"Just... Give me a moment." Summer growled and then sighed, "To start at the beginning... I've met the mage who killed you, Trei."

He winced, "How is she?"

"Upset." Summer said sadly, "Apparently, you made an impression. She nearly ripped my realm in half trying to find you. To try and save you."

Trei sighed, looking down, "I'm sorry."

"So is she." Summer replied, wanting to stroke his face, "She loves you, Trei. Even now."

He looked up in confusion, "What? What is going on? People falling for me after I'm dead but not before?"

"The Fates." Summer replied, "They're... A series of powerful creatures. Older than the gods. One of them, became your first love. Unfortunately, she screwed up and now... Now you've got her power."

Trei went bolt upright, "What?"

Summer shrugged, "You're now a focal point of power in the universe. And that is why a fluke accident caused me to resurrect you. The universe wasn't willing to let you go."

Astrian frowned, "This is news, my Lady. When did the Lady Luna speak to you?"

"Right before I came here." Summer smiled weakly, "Trei... Fae don't fall in love. We imprint. Once imprinted, we never fall for anyone else ever again... It seems that your new power is letting you choose whoever you want. So far as I know, every Fae you've met since your resurrection, has fallen for you."

He rubbed his face, "Shoot. So I'm cursed then. I'm hurting all of you."

Summer shrugged, "I have first dibs, and authority the others don't. So they're not about to try anything."

Trei glanced at her with a half smile, "You're not angry at me."

"No." Summer shook her head, "I'm angry at myself for not telling you straight away. I'm angry that I ran from you... I don't care if this is some cosmic mistake playing out, I want you. I want you to be mine... But I won't force you. If I care for you at all... I have to let the choice be yours."

She turned away so he wouldn't see the tears running down her face openly, "And then, there's the other thing I kept from you. Why politics demanded we get married. Why the wedding has to be some stupid big event rather than us running away to a tiny cottage together like I really want to... I... I..."

Astrian spoke quietly, "The Lady Summer is our queen, Trei."

She felt his hand grip her shoulder and squeeze softly, "You didn't want me to see you as a queen, did you? You wanted me to see you... So that if I cared, I'd fall for you, and not the title."

Summer nodded silently.

He gripped her chin, turning her face, "Summer, I don't care if you're queen. You're kind. You're beautiful. I want to give us a chance... But it's hard to fall for someone who isn't here. You don't need to run from me."

"I do need to keep the world running, though." Summer said bitterly, "I'm still patching the hole Vastras made when she tried to find you."

Trei flinched, "Vastras? The mage was Queen Vastras? Seriously?"

Summer glared, "Yes. And she still wants you too. So I've got two Fae, a Fate and another Queen all vying for you."

Trei laughed softly, trying to hide his amusement, and Summer ground her fangs together. He shrugged, "Sorry. You're really cute when you're jealous."

The queen's mind hated her heart. Why did he have to be so good at disarming her? He hadn't chosen her yet! She shouldn't feel like she was floating just because he was willing to compliment her over something so small. All he'd done was say that she was cute. It wasn't an undying vow of love.

Astrian shot to her feet, turning around, and Trei looked at her in concern, "Oh shoot. Sorry, Astrian."

The butler didn't say anything, but her aura was clear. She was crying, trying to control herself. Summer buried her feelings of glee at her rival's plight, and spoke quietly, "Astrian. It's okay. You don't need to hide those feelings. We're all in this together."

Trei winced, "So... Lady Luna is the other one?"

"My sister, yes." Summer said, with just a hint of warning at the edge of her tone. The ghoul looked over at her, "Sisters. Well. This isn't going to be pleasant is it?"

Summer shrugged, "We all do what we can. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Where is Lady Luna?" Astrian asked timidly, still obviously fighting her tears.

Summer felt her cheeks redden, "We may have had a conversation."

Trei rolled his black eyes, "You guys fought."

"Yes." Summer replied and shrugged, "And Luna stormed off, after reminding me she saw you naked."

It was Trei's turn to blush, "It wasn't like that! And I wasn't naked!"

She crossed her arms, trying to feel unconcerned about the size of her chest, "She's seen more than I have."

The ghoul looked back and forth between the Fae, obviously beginning to panic. Summer sighed, and touched his shoulder. She ignored the explosion of images, smells and sounds, "Sorry."

Trei seemed to relax somewhat, but she could still feel the muscles knotted up, "I really have no idea what I'm doing."

She laughed, playfully shoving him, "And you think we do? Imprinting is a once in a lifetime thing."

He turned and looked at her, his cold eyes chilling a part of her soul, and letting another part take flight, "How does it feel to have something new for the first time in... How long?"

"Subtle." Summer glared, "Look, if you want my age... I don't really know, honestly. This lifetime, I'm somewhere around three hundred. Probably a bit more. As for since creation... I gave up counting generations ago. Somewhere north of a thousand."

Trei stared at her in utter disbelief, "Say what?"

Summer shrugged, "I'm old enough to remember humans being created. How does that sound?"

Astrian laughed nearby, unable to contain her humour at Trei's expression, "I'm one of the younger Fae, sir, and I can remember the gods giving birth to your race."

"I... I'm twenty three years old." Trei stumbled out, staring at Summer, "How do I not look like a child to you?"

"Because you're not." Summer replied easily and shrugged, "Look, I turn into a child every time I die. I go through the same maturation process, over and over. A child is a developmental stage. You've left it. The fact that our ages have nothing to do with our development is different. If someone tried to kiss a toddler Fae, they would still have their ass handed to them. I would expect a hundred year old to be equivalent to a human teenager, but they may have been different in their last lifetime. People are all different. Physical age doesn't have a lot to do with mental age."

Trei nodded slowly, "If I didn't die... You could never have spent your lifetime with me, could you?"

"I still can't." Summer replied, feeling her heart ache, "I will outlive the human race, Trei. Though you're dead, your body is still deteriorating. You can offset it with some of the magic Astrian has been teaching you, but in the end you have a mortal body. There is a limit to how many times you can renew it. There is a limit to how long your soul can bind to it. You might live with it for a million years, which may well feel eternal to a mortal... But I am eternal. I will still be alive when the stars burn out and the fundamentals of reality fall to dust. I will outlive the human realm's existence."

Trei looked down sadly, "You'll all outlive me."

"No, Trei." Astrian replied, sitting down slowly in front of him on the ground, and looking up at his face, "The Lady Summer will outlive you, but I might not. Lady Luna might not. We are not eternal, we are Fae. There is a limit, though a preposterous one, placed upon our existence."

He shook his head, "I don't understand."

"I was the first Fae created." Summer said slowly, sadly, "I am the template that all Fae were created from, but they aren't perfect copies. They have flaws that will eventually lead to their deaths, though as of yet no Fae has died of old age. They've been reincarnated, but not faultlessly. Each reincarnation causes... Errors... To appear in the fabric that comprises the magical matrix that binds the soul and life together to the flesh. That's not the case for me."

Astrian smiled sadly, "The Lady, so long as she is not murdered, will not only be the first Fae, but the last. That is her destiny."

Trei turned to her, looking with some sort of new appreciation, "That must be hard. Knowing you'll outlive everyone you meet."

Summer shrugged, "There's some I'd happily outlive."

"Don't do that." Trei growled, "Don't hide behind humour or distraction. Please. You were being honest."

Summer ran a hand through her hair, "Sometimes. It hasn't happened yet, Trei, ever. For the most part, I'm too busy to think about the far flung existential future. Just stopping everyone from killing each other is hard enough at times. We're on the verge of war, for the first time, right now. The Arbiter was supposed to be a role for someone to break the tie when the Council is voting, and then they were supposed to be a special Fae who could train military for the sole purpose of protecting us... And now Janus has spies everywhere, and we all know it, and can't stop him. He's been repossessing realms from those of us who can create them. We create worlds, and he rips part out of it out and adds it to his own - he's capable of creating his own, but instead of going to the effort... I don't even know why he's doing it. To unbalance us? To remind people not to oppose him?"

Trei sighed heavily, "The verge of war... And now you're marrying a dead mortal... Who keeps having Fae imprint on him... I'm a powder keg."

Summer nodded hesitantly, "Unfortunately. I need to know why and how people are imprinting on you. If it's just the five of us, then we can probably work it out. But if you stand in front of a public wedding and every female Fae imprints on you, we're going to have a problem."

"It isn't."

Summer blinked, "How are you so sure?"

"My suit." Trei shrugged, "I'm sure you thought the tailor and his assistants were all male, but one of them wasn't."

Summer shrugged, "Oh. Talin. She's pretty much a he. He is attracted to females. Maybe there needs to be some attraction there... On your part as well. You are the source of it all, in the end."

Trei absorbed the information slowly, "Oh. Fae have moved beyond that kind of persecution, then, I guess. Humans... Haven't. A hanging offence."

"Gods." Astrian said screwing up her nose, "What would they do to me?"

Trei raised an eyebrow, "You? I thought you..."

Astrian rolled her eyes, "I may have imprinted on you, mortal, but that doesn't mean you're the only one I've ever been attracted to."

Summer elbowed him gently, "Astrian became my servant a few lifetimes ago, Trei, because she's my friend. But that wasn't always the case. We dated once."

"For two hundred years or so." Astrian whispered, "Things became awkward when I was reborn, but we managed to form a friendship. A friendship that has survived many lifetimes."

Trei shook his head, and then glanced at the fire, "Uh, Astrian? Can you rescue that?"

Summer flicked her wrist, and the flames vanished with a puff of steam, quickly replaced by fog as the fireplace grew cold. The butler removed the charred meat slowly, and then moved towards the table, "I will prepare it."

Summer put an arm around Trei, dropping her head onto his shoulder and closing her eyes. "I'm sorry... For everything I've put you through... Everything I'm making you do... For not telling you..."

She felt his head lean onto hers, "I don't hate you, Summer."

Tears welled up in her eyes, "You should."

He didn't answer, his breathing changing pace, and she wondered what kind of thoughts were racing around inside that skull of his. Astrian would know. Even Luna might pick up on them, but for her, he was a blank slate. She liked it. Liked knowing he was his own person, that he wasn't constantly intimidated by her presence or trying to work out how to stab her in the back. He just was.