Grey Folk

Chapter 16

Emory led the way down the damp and dripping lower hallway to his swimming cave, and wondered again what he was doing. He'd never had a guest down here before, except Rita apparently, and he hadn't known that until minutes ago. She must have crept away one of the few times he'd invited her for lunch.

Sneaky faun.

Still, Midge's steady personality relaxed Emory, even if he hated the changes she brought with her presence. She wasn't overly nervous and shy, but she wasn't gregarious and dramatic, either, and when she spoke Emory found himself compelled to really listen.

Besides, Emory wanted to see more of what this strange creature might be capable of. It wasn't often one discovered a new species, let alone a species who didn't even know what it was, aside from essentially nothing.

"Your queen must be an idiot," Emory remarked, stopping briefly to ignite the two torches on either side of the entrance to the cave. He never lit them for his solo swims, but he'd had them installed just in case. Turning back to her, he almost startled away at how the blue flames leapt and danced over her skin, expanding the shadows beneath her cheekbones to near-ghoulish proportions.

Midge didn't agree or disagree, just looked at him through her flat grey eyes and waited for him to explain.

"Who creates something they don't understand and then just assumes it must be useless without fully exploring the possibilities?" Emory shook his head. "Her Majesty ought to suffer the consequences of enslaving her own children."

"What consequences would those be, for a Queen of the Faewild?" was all Midge would reply, still carefully neutral.

Emory shrugged and stepped through the open cave entrance, waiting for Midge to follow him before he made his way down over the slippery stone steps to the pool itself. The cave was a naturally-formed structure, perpetually warm and humid, and dimly-lit by the blue flames in the doorway. Still, the whole room held a gentle blue glow due to the bioluminescent algae that covered the cave walls and the bottom of the pool itself. A soothing ambiance to Emory, at least, and he hoped Midge liked it.

From the expression on her face, she did; she looked around, eyes wide and barely listening when he answered her question. "I don't know, exactly. But she ought to be careful, if the Raven Queen has assigned me to the case."

"Hm." Midge didn't acknowledge his veiled threat. Instead her bare feet carried her in front of him down the slick steps, moving with an unnatural grace and speed. It was as if stepping into the cave had activated her, somehow, and she sped all the way down to the pool itself, squatting and dipping her fingers into the glowing waters of the massive underground pool, then holding her fingertips up and examining them.

Emory followed her more cautiously, his heels slipping out from under him once or twice, until he arrived at her side. Kicking off his shoes and removing his heavy outer robe, he sat down at the side of the pool at her side and let his feet kick down into it. There were no steps leading into the pool itself, no deep end or shallow end; just a deep, clear pool and the burbling underground spring that fed it, gushing from the wall in the back of the cave.

"The water's so warm," Midge murmured, dipping her hand deeper into the waves and swirling her spindly fingers back and forth.

"It never gets that cool here," Emory said, kicking his foot up a bit higher and watching the blue droplets drip back down to plop against the surface tension of the pool. "I won't be swimming today, but feel free to jump in, if you wish. What is it exactly that happens when you're in the water?"

Midge was silent for so long, just staring into the deep blue pool, that Emory thought perhaps she was in a trance of some kind and had not heard him. Just before he repeated himself, however, she spoke.