“What are you thinking over there, Jasmine?” Angela asked me. I suddenly realized I was lost in thought, probably staring off into the distance.

“I…” I started to say, but trailed off, unsure of what I wanted to tell them. I gathered myself and sighed. “I’m just…I don’t want this to end. I like being…this. I like being your daughter, I like being…”

“Kept?” Angela finished for me, she stared at me from across the table with some concern as she sipped her drink. Around us, other people, dressed in medieval clothing milled around, talking, laughing, enjoying life, ignorant of the fact that three people sitting at the table here were immortal and that I had until recently been an eighteen year old man.

“I feel safe,” I admitted. “I want to be…like this.”

“Is that why we haven’t made any progress in our sessions?” Meredith raised an eyebrow. “You like being controlled? Still?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Angela informed me. It probably wasn’t a conversation that I would be able to avoid. “What we’re going to do now, is teach you to socialize. You suck at it.”

“What? No I don’t,” I started to argue. Okay, maybe they were right.

“Over there,” Angela pointed to our left; off in the distance I saw a primitive wooden stage with a gathering of people, and a single musician belting out some kind of old Celtic ballad. They were dancing, and singing – something I would have vehemently avoided in a previous life. “You’re going to go over there with us, you’re going to dance, you’re going to have fun, have a problem with that? Too bad.”

I sulked a little bit until Meredith looked at me with a stern expression.

“Don’t make us order you,” She lectured.

“Please,” I whispered. “Please order me.”

“Okay this is getting to be a problem, and like I said, we’ll talk about it later,” Angela began to lay into me. “Let’s go.”

We rose from the table, Meredith taking her hand in mine and leading me toward the crowd. I obediently followed, keeping one hand at my side, the material of my skirt bunched up in my fist to keep it from dragging against the dirt.

“Come on!” Angela smiled broadly and began clapping her hands as I was thrust with her into the mass of people. “Come on, follow our lead!”

Meredith sort of laughed at me as she started dancing to the music, and Angela grabbed my wrists, forcing my arms into motion.

“I don’t really dance,” I tried to speak loudly to make my voice heard over the music. From the stage and over the speakers, the old Irish tune was still being belted out, somewhat off-key: “Whack fol the dah, will ya dance to yer partner, Around the flure yer trotters shake, Wasn't it the truth I told you? Lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake.”

“You’re doing it!” Angela said encouragingly as she loosed my wrists and sent me spiraling back into the crowd. I immediately bumped into someone, another girl about my age who laughed loudly and grabbed my hands, leading me in the dance. I began to relax a bit and even laughed at myself.

“I’m Annabelle!” She shouted over the music, her words barely registered. “What’s your name?”

“My name is S…Jasmine! My name is Jasmine!” I shouted back. She smiled and nodded. We continued with the dance until the song faded out and the crowd began to disperse.

“Hey, you wanna go get something to drink?” Annabelle asked me. My ears were still ringing from the music, but my body felt so alive. I glanced back at Angela for permission, only to see her wave me off. Right, she wanted me to socialize. I looked back to Annabelle, she was cute, definitely cute with dirty blonde hair that hung about two inches past her shoulders, a freckled face, and dressed in a cute bodice top with a white chemise beneath.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I would…love that.”

As we walked, I became aware of Angela walking past me, and without a word, shoved a ten dollar bill into my hand. I clutched it and tried to stuff it into my pocket, only to remember I was wearing a dress, and this particular dress had no pockets.

“Are you from around here?” Anabelle asked me, leading us toward a concession stand. “You look like a fish out of water.”

“I do?” I asked curiously. I thought I’d done a pretty good job of blending in.

“Uh-huh,” She nodded. “So what’s your deal? You seem way too young to be a fae.”

“Wait,” I sort of gasped. “You’re…a fae? You’re…”

“Yes, silly,” She laughed. “If you were older you’d be able to pick us out in a crowd pretty easily. “

“I guess….I don’t know how it all works,” I admitted. “I mean I…how old should I be?”

“Sweetie,” She said with a bit of a giggle. “A fae is a person who has lived through many, many lives, it’s ascension. You’re way too young, unless something went terribly wrong. Either way…”

We reached the concession stand, I tried to had her my $10 bill as she ordered two lemonades only to have my hand gently pushed away, with her telling me she ‘had this’. I suddenly realized that I felt very, very at ease with this girl. Maybe more so than I’d felt with anyone before, it was a strange feeling.

“So tell me,” She said, as she led me away from the crowd and to a slightly more secluded spot, a picnic table beside a metal charcoal grill, inert, but still way out of place for a medieval fair. “What’s the deal? Who made you?”

“I…I think I’m a little confused,” I admitted. “This isn’t normal? There aren’t more…people like me?”

“New souls walking around with fae blood and immortality?” She giggled as she sipped on her lemonade. “No, never seen that before. It’s not impossible but I’m not going to lie here, we’re kind of elitists and…it really defeats the purpose of being a fae if…you know. So why? I’m really curious why someone would do this?”

“I…think it was an accident,” I admitted. “My life…before was really weird, I mean looking back now it was weird.”

“How so?” She stared at me intently, I was kind of getting lost in her eyes if we were being perfectly honest, and then I had to shake it off; the girl was my age, which meant…no, if she was fae she could be a lot older, right? Oh god how was I supposed to sort this out in my head?

“So it’s like…my parents were…Christians, really hardcore Christians, and…they…they believed things and they made me believe those things. It was so…odd growing up because if I had an opinion that was different than theirs, I was punished. I wasn’t allowed to talk back or debate with them; everything I said had to align with their views exactly or I’d be grounded, or beaten. Obedience was kind of the core of who I was growing up and…as I got older, I never really got over it. I guess I still haven’t gotten over it and…I think my friend Angela is trying to help me. She says I’m her daughter now.”

“Angeline took a daughter?” Annabelle said, craning her neck to see over my shoulder. “Either she messed up or you really are special. No matter what though, I think the best advice I can offer you is that you’re not your parents. I had a lot of parents throughout my lives, obviously, some were great, some were not so great, and one of the most important lessons I learned, was that while other people mold who we are to an extent, we decide who we are in the end. You’re in control, Jasmine, not your parents, or the ghosts of your parents, whatever the case may be. You didn’t have centuries of growth so you obviously didn’t learn this lesson. It’s okay, I mean, Angeline is definitely someone who will help you. One of the lessons you would have learned, had you been given the chance though, is that there are two sides to every story. Abusive behavior is learned. Living through every life, you get the chance to be the abuser, or be the abused. It seems kind of shitty, but…it’s how we get where we are. The most important takeaway is…our situation sit the result of circumstances seen or unseen, ours or someone else’s. One way or another, we’re all connected and we have to do right by eachother.”

“I think…I get it?” I was still confused. I was really confused.

“No matter,” She smiled, standing up from the picnic table and motioning for me to follow. “Let’s go this way, I saw your mother and Broderick walking toward the clearing.”

I followed her into the treeline, down a winding path, and just as I wondered whether or not I should be straying this far from the fair, we emerged into a clearing where Angela, Meredith, Broderick, and a few others were gathered.

“Jasmine!” Angela waved to me. “We’re just catching up back here, I haven’t seen some of these people in years!”

“Hello,” I said timidly. As I did, a few of them turned to me, one was an older, balding man, clad in a black jacket with a sword strapped to his back.

“What’s this?” The man turned to Angela. “Is that a pet? It’s ten years old at most.”

His statement elicited laughter from the others around. Angela crossed her arms.

“Very funny,” She said. “This is my daughter, Jasmine.”

“Pray tell,” A black haired woman said. “What is something THAT young doing among the fae?”

“Whatever she may be,” Angela explained to them harshly. “She is protected under the Contract of Eaves, she is not to be touched, apart from by those who entered into the contract with her.”

The clearing fell silent, and I noticed Annabelle turning slowly and stepping away from me.

“You…entered into the Contract of Eaves with your own daughter?” Broderick raised an eyebrow at Angela.

“For her own protection,” Angela said adamantly.

“You spoke to me as if I were an equal,” Annabelle glared at me.

“I…”I stuttered. “What was I supposed to-“
“You’re a slave, you’re under the Contract of Eaves and you dared to speak to me with such disrespect?” Her gaze was bearing down on me, I stuttered and looked over to Angela and Meredith for help, but all I got from either of them was a cold stare. What were they playing at? “Get on your knees!”

As expected, my body just responded. I dropped to the dirt, my dress tangling beneath me. I breathed heavily, I wanted to scream, I was so utterly humiliated and I didn’t even know what was going on.

“Angeline,” The black haired woman said. “You need to teach your girl manners.”

“I apologize for her,” Angela explained. “She’s new, we didn’t expect her to run into another Fae here, at least not without our supervision. We only entered into the contract a few days ago, she hasn’t had time to learn all of the customs.”

“I demand an apology,” Annabelle’s voice boomed above me. “I won’t have filth talking to me like it’s my best friend.”

I looked back at Angela again, my eyes pleading. She looked at me calmly.

“You’re going to have to do that, Jasmine,” She said softly. “Apologize.”

“I’m…sorry,” I whimpered. “I…”

“You’re sorry for what?” Annabelle suddenly slapped me, her hand blasting the side of my face, the impact radiating from my cheek up to my temple. I whimpered and nearly lost my balance.

“I’m…sorry I spoke to you,” That was all I could think of.

“And don’t do it again! You speak when you’re spoken to, don’t open your filthy mouth around me!” With that, she raised her left foot and kicked me in the chest, knocking me onto my back and forcing the wind from my lungs. I laid on the ground choking and wheezing while Angela simply shook her head.

“Jasmine, get up, we’re leaving,” She commanded me. I immediately rose and ran over to her, practically hiding behind her like a child. I was a child. “Broderick, we’ll be in touch.”

Broderick nodded as Angela and Jasmine led me from the clearing; I could feel all of their eyes upon us as we went.

“Do you see the problem now?” Meredith hissed at me. “Do you want people to be able to command you like that? You need to sort your shit.”

I wanted to respond, but I just couldn’t think of anything to say.