How dare she talk to me like that. My fucking mother just died!
“Who cares about the humans or Earth—or whatever she does! My mother’s work can wait,” I yelled, hot tears springing the edges of my eyes.
Trissa sighed, reaching up to rub her temples. I didn’t want to be standing in the bathroom with my mother’s dead body any longer.
“Because … your mother’s work involves saving Faerie. If you don’t pick up where she left off immediately … we fall.”
Kira’s sharp intake of breath matched my own.
“What? How can that be?”
Trissa looked one final time at my mother’s body and then led me out into the small living room.
“Come, the elders are calling you.” She weaved through the small space until we reached the backside of the blue door we’d come through.
The elders.
My stomach dropped out. I saw them only a few times a year, once at the midsummers festival and once at the winter solstice. If you saw them outside of that, you were probably in trouble. They stuck to their land at the very back of Faerie, near the Tree of Life, and read books all day or did whatever it was elder Fae did. My mom dealt with them a lot, I knew that, but they kept to themselves when it came to everyone else.
When we exited the blue door and back out into Faerie, the sun was just coming up over the protection shield. Slivers of light escaped through the top and kissed the green grass. Without a word, I let my wings carry me up high above the people. I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, and flying was something of a relaxing gesture for me, so I decided to just travel to the elders that way. Trissa didn’t complain, kicking up off the floor after me. It was only after I left that I realized I’d forgotten to thank Kira for her help with my mom. I’d have to find a nice way to thank her later.
I was heading for the elders’ home when a blue light below caught my eye. A group of Fae were standing around a young couple, and despite my complete and utter depression for the loss of my mother, excitement thrummed through me.
“Can we watch? Just for a minute?” I begged Trissa.
She looked down at the young couple, a small pained smile on her face.
“Alright, just a minute.”
We flew lower, still far enough away that we wouldn’t interrupt, but close enough to see what was happening.
Soulmates.
They were so incredibly rare now after most of our race was lost to the Dark War. I’d only heard of half a dozen couples in my twenty years, and I’d only ever seen one … until now. This was my second.
The female Fae was unloading some bulb squash. She looked mid-twenties, and I didn’t recognize her. She must have lived at the edges of the shield, a garden tender by the looks of the dirt under her fingernails. The guy was a market stall tender, and they were standing there in shock, a dozen bulbs of squashes dropped at her feet as blue light pulsed off their chests in the same rhythm as if they shared the same heartbeat. Tears lined her eyes as he reached up and tucked a lock of petal-green hair behind her ear. He was looking at her like she was the most treasured item in the world. They say when you met your soulmate, it wasn’t really a feeling you could describe. Your soul recognized them as your other half and everything that seemed so out of place before now made perfect sense. That’s what Glena told me anyway. She and her husband were soulmates.
“Okay, Lily, we must go now.” Trissa tugged at my arm and I found myself being grateful for this small moment of happiness.
On one hand, my mother had died, but on another, two souls had found each other and would now have children and be happy together.
Flying higher, I tried to imagine that maybe on its way to the upper realms, my mom’s soul had urged the girl to leave the farm and deliver the squash herself today, just so she could meet her soulmate.
When I came in to land near the large octagonal hut with its colorful crystal windows, I clutched my mother’s locket in my hand, still in shock at her passing.
Trissa stepped forward and rapped on the large walnut door. I should probably have changed my clothes. One didn’t present themselves before the elders in their night clothes, but I didn’t care. My long cotton-candy-pink hair hung in ratted clumps at my shoulders and I had blood on my hands and shirt, but again … I couldn’t bring myself to give two fucks. I was numb, the pain of grief keeping me from anything else right now.
The door opened, seemingly on its own, and we entered. I’d never been inside of the elders’ home. There were four elders and their home reflected that with four quadrants, each having their own door or wing. The elder of Winter’s door was black, with the snowflake emblem overhead. Elder of Summer had an orange hickory door with a bright brass sun emblem. Fall was a birch with leaf emblem, and then for Spring, my court, was a door made of bamboo with a flower emblem. Without a queen, they were the closest thing we had to a ruling monarch.
This place was incredible, larger than any home I’d ever seen. Probably because it was four homes in one.
I gasped when we stepped further inside and the light hit the colorful crystal windows, dancing a rainbow on the floors and walls. Golds, greens, blue and hot pink, it was stunning. Looking up, my jaw dropped. There, in the middle of the home was a courtyard, open to the outside. And standing in the center was the Tree of Life. My mother spoke of it often, said it gave Faerie its power and kept us safe from the river, which tried to swallow us. Seeing it now, my legs went weak and I had the strangest urge to bow. The home wasn’t really closed in like I’d thought from the outside. The entire home was built in a circle around this one tree at its center. Yes, it had outer walls, but no roof, and the middle of the home, where the tree was, was all raw earth and grass, which gave way to a wood flooring near the bedroom doors.
“Greetings, Lily, daughter of Violet. Our hearts weep for your loss,” a voice called behind me.
It was the elder of Summer, my favorite. Indra. She had caramel skin and long orange hair that fell to her back in waves. I bowed, aware that I looked like a freaking train wreck and this was soooo not protocol. “Thanks.”
The other elders walked out from their rooms and stood behind her. Trissa took a low and long bow, probably more proper than mine. “I’ve informed her she must be trained at once but—”
“I have some questions.” I tilted my chin high.
Indra nodded. “Please … sit. Your mother wanted to be the one to explain, but we will have to do.” She gestured to an open library type of room, where on the far wall there was another blue door…
“Is that?”
They nodded in unison. “There are many blue doors.”
What the hell? How come my mother never told me any of this?
I could barely focus, wading through my grief and being told I needed to pick up my mother’s work was unsettling. I sat down in a red velvet chair and looked up at the elders around me. They were so … normal. I mean, they were radiating power; their wings even glowed with magic, but they were … so approachable. The Winter Court elder, Aubin, was tall with pale white skin and black hair. I normally feared him when I saw him walking around town; he had a natural resting asshole face, but here, in this setting, he looked kind and full of compassion.
“But the enchanted shell… I thought…”