Book 2 Season's Change Spring's Revenge

17c Confessions of a Mad Prince III

They had done enough for the night. It was time for him to sleep. She took his hand and led him from the training room floor and over to his pallet. "Rest as a human does. Soon you will only take your rest as a Faye does. I know you can do this Kotas. I know you can. You think your anger and desire for revenge is wrong. You think wrong." She looked at him sternly. "It is not."

Avriel closed his eyes and curled up on the soft furs of his pallet. He wrapped heavy furs around himself and got comfortable.

"I will watch over you, Kotas. Rest. We will try again tomorrow." Katana was a little taken aback by her sudden desire to move his hair away from his handsome face. She was more shocked to realize that she found his face handsome. He was human. It would have been a simple thing to do, but he looked so vulnerable lying there wrapped in the furs like a childling. A childling with long dark hair, green eyes that hinted at blue, strong hands, a strong heart and a sharp mind; a childling that she knew was untested yet grown. She watched his face as sleep took him. It would be one of the last times he would sleep like a human for a long while. She saw the relief on his face when she spoke to him of his anger when she told him it was okay to feel what he felt. That he would do the right thing. He was her Kotas her Stupid Human. He would. She smiled and moved to her pallet. She sat with her legs crossed beneath her facing the cave entrance. She laid her blades across her lap and relaxed into reverie. Her body settled itself into a slow rhythm as her heart slowed and so did her breathing. Though her eyes were closed, Katana could 'see' everything in the room with her. She could sense the changes in the air and detect the slightest sound. She was locked into the world, hypersensitive to every sound every shift in the air. Asleep but awake. That was reverie.

She listened to Avriel's breath as his chest rose and fell with that familiar rhythm that was his being. He was asleep, locked in his own world. She took joy in the peace she felt from him. It had been quite some time since she felt it last. He was relaxed and calm, breathing slow and deep.

There was something very special about that human. She did not know what it was. He was unlike any other human; any other being, she had ever encountered. She wanted to tell herself that she understood him. Sometimes she did. But the truth was, more often than not, he left her confused and wondering why and how he did the things he could do. He was a human, but he moved like a Faye. He learned faster than any male Faye she had ever trained. She wondered if that was the nature of a human because they do not live very long or just that one. She could not know. She turned her focus inward to her own heart. It had changed so much in the time that she had spent on the surface. She could not believe the things she had seen and experienced, the beings she had encountered; the good and the bad.

She had encountered Dark Dwarves. They were just as vile as her people were, maybe worse. They did put her in a cage, beat her and then sold her to the brigand. She'd met other humans, the caravan crew and also that brute's captives, and the beasts that the caravan kept and used. She'd met a fairy or two and a Faye that was a complete contrast to her. Not all of her experiences on the surface were bad. Some were good. Somewhere beyond that.

Katana opened her eyes as the moon slipped below the horizon. She felt rested and relaxed. She looked over at Avriel as he slept. He had not moved once the whole night through. His breathing was steady and true. He was caught in a deep sleep; much like the ones, he slept when he was still sick and healing. He had not slept so deeply in a very long time. She decided he needed the rest. She let him continue to sleep undisturbed while she got up to prepare for the day. She was uncertain how many more troubles he would need to give to her before he could achieve the balance he needed so that he could enter reverie. He was so close she could feel the magic surrounding him when he tried then recede when he failed. She never knew that reverie was magic. It was natural to her, as innate as breathing. If she would have known, maybe she would not have suggested that he try. He was human. Humans could not command magic. Yet he was learning to use it without realizing that was what he was doing. Perhaps all that she had learned of humans was a lie. Or perhaps Avriel was an exception. She went about relighting the fire and preparing a small meal for them. She woke him when it was done. "Avriel," she gently called to him from the other side of the fire. "Kotas?" She called again because he did not respond to his given name.