Rei and I walked in to find the others of our party already seated at the dinner table with Amoiraishe, but much to my surprise there was only one other person seated there. The biggest surprise wasn’t that there was only one though, but she appeared to be Human and I could tell as soon as I looked at her that she was wearing a glamour. Under normal circumstances, a guest wearing a glamour would be considered very rude in one of the Courts so I just looked at Amoiraishe with a stunned and slightly uncertain expression on my face. “A Human?”

“Ah! There you are, just on time!” Amoiraishe said with an enthusiastic smile while gesturing for us to sit. “Lark, this is my daughter Taelya and her fiancée Rei. Girls this is Lark, she’ll be playing a Bard and I hope that you’ll help her adjust and show her the ropes. Don’t worry Taelya dear, she has already sworn her oath of loyalty to both us and the Autumn Court. Unfortunately, she was the only one of the four guests that I invited who could make it here and participate under such short notice.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” the girl said. She was a girl, a Human, and probably in her mid to late teens, wearing a fashionable blue spaghetti strap dress with a mid-thigh hem. The glamour she was wearing didn’t change her appearance so much as distort my perception of it, so it was a little hard to tell any real details beyond that, though I figured that the glamour was coming from the pendant she was wearing and it made her look like she was in her late teens with blue eyes and long blonde hair.

I nodded and offered, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lark. So, you’re playing a Bard huh? Do you have an interest in music? Is that a glamour you’re wearing?” I already knew the answer to the last question, but I was curious to see how she answered.

“You could say that,” the girl replied with a bit of a giggle. “I guess that you could say that I’m a bit of a musician, but I wanted to learn dancing and stuff too so it’s cool that I could take those as skills. I’ve always believed that music is like magic, it has the power to bring people closer together. So, when Moira offered me a spot in the game and told me about the Bard class, I really wanted to try making actual magic with music. Sorry about the glamour, but it was your mother’s idea. I don’t want to be recognized by anyone who might know me and we didn’t have time to alter my appearance for the game. Basically, it was just jumping on in, choosing my skills, and then getting here for dinner before the other guests arrived.”

“Cool,” Lissany said, grinning at the other teen from her spot at the table. “So, how old are you Lark?”

“I just turned seventeen,” the blonde Bard replied. “I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do this, but I do my schooling online, I’m way ahead in my schoolwork, and I don’t have anything big scheduled until late January so I thought that it would be a pretty cool vacation for me.”

“Well that’s cool, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the game and you can always join our party while we show you the ropes. It’ll be interesting to have a Bard with us and I’m sure that Liss will enjoy having a girl closer to her own age in the group,” I offered.

“That would be great!” Lark and Lissany both enthused at the same time.

“I think you’ll love being in our party, Taelya is a great leader and we all spend a lot of time together, it’s like I have a family other than just Mom now, though it’s cool she’s playing this game with me too, I have the best mom in the world,” my Guardian gushed.

“I’m glad that we could do this together too sweetie,” Venika told her with a smile that lit up her tiny face. “You’re right too, we have a good group here, we take care of one another and it is sort of like a family, even Daenyss seems to be fitting in well with us.”

“Yup, that Nymph has guts,” Pete agreed. “The way she protected Rei and Tae from that fire spell was awesome. I think she’ll fit in well.”

“It’ll be interesting to have a Bard in our group too now, I can’t wait to see what you can do,” Grell added.

“Yeah, so welcome to the family,” Lissany said with a feline grin to the Human Bard. “Speaking of family, what do your parents think of you playing this? Couldn’t one of them join you?”

Lark looked down at the table, a sad look passing over her features. “I don’t really have a family anymore, I’m on my own IRL. My parents aren’t the greatest, the booze and the drugs were more important to them than me. I left them and their abuse as soon as I turned sixteen and could get legally emancipated, so now I’m on my own.”

“Omigod, I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to…” Lissany said, stumbling over her words.

There was a bit of an awkward silence then so I tried my best to give both girls a reassuring smile. “You couldn’t have known Liss, and that just gives us more of a reason to welcome you into the family, Lark. Most of us don’t have much family in real life. Nishalle and I lost our mom years ago and have no clue where our dad is, don’t really care where the asshole is either. Rei’s family disowned her when she came out of the closet, and Lissany and Venika only have each other. Daenyss doesn’t have anyone either I’m told, though she wouldn’t remember them either way.”

“Pete and I are both gamers, we don’t have much of a social or family life either,” Grell admitted.

It was a bit of a depressing topic so I decided that I should probably change it. Something that Lark had said earlier registered in my brain and I asked pointedly of my ‘mother’, “Who are these other guests that Lark mentioned? I assume that we’re waiting for them to arrive before serving dinner? I thought you just said that she was the only one who could make it on such short notice.”

“Lark was the only one of the four guests that I had invited who could make it, but we will have other guests… from the London, New York, and Tokyo offices joining us on Autumn Server for a while to observe things,” Amoiraishe clarified with a long and slow sigh and a look directly at me. “Consider them ambassadors, all of you must make a good first impression with them. The heads of the other offices are not completely behind all of my plans, though they have shown interest in a few things, such as the Guardian Class. They also want to get to know you better since you and I represent the Autumn Court and Server. I wish that I could tell you more, but I don’t even know who they are sending. I was just told before getting back into the game with Daenyss that their representatives were on the way. The techs on the outside sent me a message in-game this morning that they had arrived in town and were coming straight to the office to get plugged in, so given that it’s been probably an hour and a half in the outside world by now, they should be joining us in the game soon. We will have dinner when they arrive.”

“Just great, more diplomacy,” I thought bitterly to myself as Rei and I took our seats at the table, with me beside Amoiraishe. “Do you know anything specific about these ambassadors, Mother?”

“I’m afraid that I don’t know who they are sending, but they will likely appear as Yseil'dhraí of their Courts since they are bringing character data from their respective servers. They are probably trusted employees or friends of the heads of the other branches. Those heads would be the queens of their servers’ Courts so they have too much going on in their own offices to get personally involved until the tournament. They will likely have their princesses heavily involved in their own servers like I have been doing with you as well, so it will likely be lower-ranking Yseil'dhraí or trusted males. Spring Server is the one in Tokyo, Summer Server is in London, and New York is hosting the Winter Server, but that’s about all that I can tell you,” the Fae queen admitted.

Her comment about how they would appear probably meant that we were expected to stay in character as well and that wasn’t reassuring, especially since I really didn’t like having no idea of what we could be facing. I began to start going over everything that I knew of Fae culture in my mind. Only females bore the Danann’syr on their faces that marked their rank and position within the succession of the throne of their Courts. I would have much rather had been male in the game, there was less pressure that way and none of this princess shit.

Even though Yseil’dhraí males are taught governance and all of that stuff, just like the females, the closest thing that males could hope for was a military rank or being consort to a Yseil'dhraí female. Marriage wasn’t really a thing among the Fae though, with their highly sexual and polyamorous natures. So Consorts were usually favored lovers, or someone very close to a Yseil'dhraí female, but there was no real power attached to the position unless the person were a master manipulator and the Yseil'dhraí was very weak-willed.

Fae are also very keen on proper protocol. Lark’s glamour would not go over well if not immediately and properly explained. They would likely see it as a deception or insult, but they also wouldn’t come right out and bring attention to it in their hostess’s home. I figured that we would have to get ahead of that and address the problem when we introduced her.

As hostesses, we would probably be walking a fine line of being gracious and polite, but not letting them coerce or manipulate us as well. Interactions between the four Courts could be strained at times, it was why they only ever met for Councils when matters required the attention of all of the Courts. My memories of Fae culture told me that historically, the Queens were like the seasons that their Courts represented, it was seldom a good idea to have them all trying to make their presence known at the same time and in the same place. “Is this a good idea?” I asked, worried about this, especially if our visitors were as aware of the history of the Courts as I was, and I didn’t doubt that they were.

“If the Fae are going to adapt to this new world and properly fulfill our duties once again then we will need to work with not only the humans and other Races, but with one another as well. The Courts need to learn to communicate better with one another and appreciate not just our differences, but our similarities as well. The Four, the first of the Yseil'dhraí, were sisters before they were queens and many of us have lost sight of that, Taelya. We need to see this not as an imposition, but as an opportunity,” Amoiraishe answered with a smile, but behind that smile, her eyes looked as uncertain as I was. I couldn’t really blame her though, I’d probably feel the same if I were in her position and had the heads of the other branches of my business wanting to barge in and start looking over my shoulder, especially after what happened with the board of directors.

“Okay, so we’re not just going to have to try to be polite and gracious, but you want us to try to impress them and make friends as well?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes,” she confirmed with a nod. “Lissany’s class is of interest to them so we will use that. We will also use your use of Nature’s Call and how you have begun to build such a good relationship with the Humans in Haven.”

“Perhaps with the right skills this might go a bit smoother as well,” I suggested after a moment’s thought. “Do you speak Elvish, Lark?”

The blonde Bard quickly nodded. “I didn’t have to take too many skills related to my class so I was mostly able to brush up on dancing and take a few other skills that interested me. Moira suggested that I take Elvish since I would be staying here in the Glade and shadowing your group.”

I smiled, somewhat relieved at that. “That’s good to hear. We all leveled up during our trip so everyone has a skill point, I have two. I’m thinking that we should all have Elvish language as a skill so they can’t try to exclude any of us from the conversation, and it would only be polite to speak Elvish. I was hoping to have Daenyss learn a combat skill, but I’ll have to have her learn Elvish as well since she’ll probably end up interacting with them to some degree. Nishalle and Venika, I’d suggest Fae Culture for you since you both already speak Elvish.”

“Actually,” Venika offered with a pensive expression her face, “I think I’ll wait for my next skill point for that. I really think that I should take Monster Lore. We need somebody with that kind of knowledge in case you’re incapacitated or something, Taelya. With my ability to see ahead, even if it’s not that far, I think it should be me. I would be able to properly warn about what it is I see and have an idea on how to deal with it in case we need to react quickly.”

I quickly nodded in agreement. “You have a point Venika, I would want you in charge if something happened to me anyway. You seldom panic, we all listen to you, and you’re pretty adaptable.”

The others quickly nodded in agreement, though they decided to go with the skills that I was suggesting since they wanted to be able to follow any conversations with the new arrivals. Soon Amoiraishe had given them all the agreed-upon skills and we sat down to await our guests and dinner. For my skills I chose animal training and animal handling, to help in case I needed to ride or work with the vsilja or cú sídhe again. I figured that I could use the skills to mess with my sister a bit and that with the limited amount of gasoline available in Haven, that it might be a good idea to have another way to travel before the closed beta was done. Once Moira had given us each of our new skills I felt quite a bit better, though I was still a bit nervous about Daenyss not having the Elvish language skill yet.

“Worry not,” Amoiraishe reassured me when I voiced that concern. “We needn’t bother with that. I included the Elvish language in her class skills download package. She is still a little skittish though it seems and I would like for her to relax a bit and not have to deal with our guests until I know what to expect from them. She’s with the other Nymphs now, I believe, so I’ll have Naerysse warn her about our guests though. She could use the time learning from the others of her kind and there’s no sense bringing her here for nothing.”

“Thanks, Mom, I appreciate it,” I said in relief before letting out a slight sigh as I realized that I had called her Mom instead of Moira again. Since that seemed to be the least of my problems at the moment though, I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on what was ahead.

We were all getting fairly antsy twenty minutes later when Amoiraishe received notice that the players from the other servers had joined Autumn Server. While we had been waiting for them to show up she tried to give all of us a quick primer on the different Courts, for the benefit of those of us without the Fae Culture skill. She gave a brief history of the Fae, beginning with the Four, and explained that even though our guests would all likely be Yseil'dhraí from their respective Courts, they would look different than us because they were descended from one of the other four first Queens. Yseil'dhraí of the Autumn Court, like me and Amoiraishe of course, had red-gold hair and golden eyes, but those from the Spring Court had silver eyes and green hair, the Summer Court’s Yseil'dhraí had brown eyes and hair ranging in pinks and pale purples, and the Winter Court Yseil'dhraí all had blue eyes and white hair.

She had arranged for our guests to spawn outside the front doors of the estate so she stood up after receiving the message from the techs and said, “Our guests have arrived, I’m having one of the Brownies escort them here. Everyone be cautious, stay in character, and try not to let on that you know why they are here.”

We all stood as the dining room doors were opened and the Brownies led in our guests. It seemed to be a night for surprises because instead of three guests there were apparently four. Siggurd, the male Brownie who was the head of the royal servants preceded them and announced, “Your Royal Majesty, Your Highness, and guests. It is my pleasure to introduce Her Grace, Duchess Sahnae of the Spring Court, Lady Kinara, Countess of the Summer Court, and her father Maekin, and Narek of the Winter Court. Honored guests, I present Her Royal Majesty Queen Amoiraishe, Her Highness Princess Taelya, and Her Highness’s intended, Rei of Inari’s favored. This is Her Majesty’s younger daughter, Nishalle of the NightWind Clan, who also serves as Princess Taelya’s protector, and Her Highness’s Guardian Lissany. I also present our other honored guests; Venika of the Rosethorn Clan, Grell of Atlantis, Pete the Valiant, and the Lady Lark, a Bard of some renown.”

I took a moment to look them all over as Siggurd made the introductions. Sahnae was perhaps a little taller than me, slender, and had long leaf green hair arranged in a series of braids falling down to her hips. She seemed to be doing the same as me, looking over each of us in keen interest, examining us critically. It’s kind of hard to tell how old a Fae is supposed to be since supposedly we stop aging in our late teens or early twenties but, despite her youthful appearance, her silver eyes looked like those of a person who has seen a lot over the years. She seemed friendly enough, with a genuine-looking smile, a smile that seemed to grow as Siggurd introduced Rei. That didn’t surprise me too much since Rei is a Kitsune and Sahnae was from the Japan office.

The next that had caught my attention was Narek. He was as big as Pete was and had his stark white hair cut short in a crewcut, drawing attention to his pointed ears and the coldest blue eyes that I had ever seen. He was also the only one of the ‘ambassadors’ who was wearing armor and weapons, a pair of long curved swords crossed behind his back with the hilts easily reachable behind his shoulders. I had to suppress a shiver as I looked him over and he smiled at me. That was not a friendly smile, it was filled with lust and too much arrogance for my liking as his eyes roamed over my body. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going through his head. He wanted me, for both my body and my position. I had to work hard at not letting out a sigh as I wondered how long it would be before he started his games.

The pair from the Summer Court was a bit of a surprise. They looked to be this strange combination of relaxed and excited like they were genuinely happy to be in the Autumn Court’s Fae Glade and meeting us. The father was a Nyiir'dhraí with long chestnut-colored hair, bright green eyes, and a friendly smile while his daughter Kinara looked to be younger than Lissany, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. She was very pretty with long and loose hair that was the color of cotton candy and deep brown eyes. Those eyes took in the room and its inhabitants a bit nervously until they settled on Lissany and then they, and her entire face lit up with excitement. She practically flew over to my Guardian as she squealed excitedly and gushed, “Oh my Goddess! You’re a Beastkin, aren’t you?! I’ve heard about people like you! You’re sooo cute! Is it true that you can turn into an animal?!”

“Ummm… yeah, I can turn into a jaguar,” the Beastkin teen answered a bit uncertainly. Her eyes were on me and Moira as is she wasn’t quite sure how to handle the situation and the attention diplomatically.

“Lissany is also my Guardian,” I gently told the young Summer Court Yseil'dhraí. I wanted to help Lissany out and help Kinara feel more relaxed but I also wanted to deal with another issue, namely Narek glaring daggers at Lark. “She is a fierce warrior and a loyal friend. Since the three of you seem so close in age why don’t I have Lissany give you and Lark the grand tour of the estate after dinner? Lark only just arrived tonight as well. I’m afraid that she didn’t have time to make her character appear to her satisfaction and for technical reasons Mother kindly provided her with a glamour to wear during her time here.”

The reactions to my comment were various. Sahnae, the Spring Court’s representative smiled at me and gave a nod of approval that I wasn’t expecting at all. Lissany looked both proud and somewhat relieved, while Amoiraishe, Lark, and Kinara’s father all looked happy that I had taken matters in hand. Kinara herself suddenly went from looking afraid that she had just made a major blunder to being pleased as punch as she enthused, “That would be totes awesome, Your Highness!”

Narek’s reaction was only half what I had been expecting. His attention was now off of Lark and focused on Lissany in anger and disbelief. Those emotions were quickly channeled into a glare directed at Amoiraishe as he snapped, “You expect us to believe that this child is the fearsome defender who you have been raving to the other Queens about?! It is an insult to guards who have spent their whole lives training to protect the royal lineage that you want to replace them with something like that!”

Lissany tensed up, her tail bristling at his dismissal and his attitude and Amoiraishe stepped over to place a gentle hand on my Guardian’s shoulder. “Nobody is talking about replacing anyone,” she said firmly. “We need to change with the times, and an addition of a Guardian to a Yseil'dhraí’s regular guards will help to keep us all safer. Do not doubt her abilities because of her youth, she is loyal, fierce, and has already saved my daughter’s life on many occasions.”

The Winter Court representative glowered at Lissany a moment longer before gesturing wildly at me. “She’s no more than a child herself, and her inexperience would make it easy for someone to make it look like they were saving her life!”

I was seething now. I took a deep breath, focused on pushing all of my anger aside, and asked in a frosty tone, “Are you calling my mother, the Queen of the Autumn Court, a liar? Or are you insinuating that my Guardian is a liar and that I’m a fool? I am nineteen years old, an adult by Fae standards, and I expect to be treated by a guest in our home with the respect due to an adult of my position. I will not have you insulting my Guardian either, she has placed herself between me and harm with no thought of her own safety on several occasions. Her loyalty and skill are not in doubt, but your manners are. You come here as a guest armed and armored, you insult your hostesses, and you can’t keep a civil tongue in your mouth. You will mind your manners from now on or I will send you back to your Court in an urn.”

“Her Highness is correct Narek, I will tolerate no more of your rudeness toward our hostesses. They have done nothing to earn such behavior and you shame your Court and your Queen. We are their guests and we should act as such,” Sahnae put it with a cold glare toward Narek.

Amoiraishe looked a bit shocked. She had looked ready to tear his head from his shoulders, but I had beaten her to the punch, and that fury quickly dissolved into a proud smile as she added, “If you think my daughter a child, then I assure you Narek, it is you that is the fool. She has many battles to her credit, she has forged a peace with the Humans of the nearby village, and she is an exceptionally gifted Magus with a natural feel for the flow of mana. I have had to begin teaching her to control Nature’s Call since she instinctively used it last week.”

“That’s… most Yseil'dhraí are at least a century old before they learn Nature’s Call, even by accident,” Sahnae sputtered, the Spring Court representative’s silver eyes wide as she looked at me in awe.

“It’s true, we saw her use it for the first time and she’s coming up with new and amazing spells all the time,” Venika added. “She’s been teaching me and Haven’s sheriff magick too.”

“Could you teach me too, Your Highness?” Kinara asked her cheeks as pink as her hair. “Dad isn’t a Magus, so I haven’t had anyone to teach me anything more than the basics that I learned in my class tutorial yet. We’re probably going to be here for a while.”

I was a little uncertain about teaching anyone else, but I realized that this was an opportunity to help ease the tensions between Courts here and to show the London branch, and maybe the other branches as well, that we were willing to play ball with them to some degree. “I would be happy to, please call me Taelya though Countess, we are both Yseil'dhraí after all.”

“Cool! Thank you sooo much Taelya! You can call me Kinara too, I don’t really like using the titles anyway.” She looked ecstatic as did her father, who smiled at me and mouthed a silent “thank you”.

That was when the Brownies began bringing in the trays with dinner so Moira called everyone’s attention to the impending meal. “Come now, let’s sit and get to know one another better over a nice meal.”

Dinner was great, but then I was practically starving by that point and the Brownies take pride in their work, so that was to be expected. As we ate we all talked about Court politics, magick, building a good relationship with Humans and the other races, and about my party’s recent excursion into the city. Narek was silent throughout the meal, probably hoping that we would all forget about the hole he had dug himself into earlier. He did look suitably impressed by Nishalle’s telling of our battles with the Lindwyrm and the Tooth Fairies, but I didn’t expect an apology from him for his earlier behavior and rash judgments, he was too arrogant for that.

My sister had looked ready to help Amoiraishe skin Narek alive when he had dug that hole, she had only held back because I had handled it myself, though it was clear that she didn’t like or trust him from the way that she was watching him. Our friends and party-mates seemed to be of the same opinion, judging from the occasional wary glances they cast in his direction.

I found myself liking our other guests as dinner and the conversations passed though. Our new Bard, Lark, seemed to be friendly, confident, and a real go-getter. She also had a very nice voice and a wireless microphone that was imbued with power from her patron Goddess, Cerridwen, much like Rei’s Hoshi no Tama. She sang us a few songs after dinner and I could see why she chose the Bard class, she loved music, I could see her get lost in it as she sang and I could feel the power, the magic in her voice, without her even actively using her bardic abilities.

Lark was the type who was determined to be the best musician she could be and was always looking for ways to improve. She was thrilled to take dancing skills and had selected the skills for hip hop, contemporary dance, and ballet. She had already played three instruments before entering the game, violin, guitar, and piano. It was clear from the way that she talked about it that she loved music more than anything, it was her happy place, and it was probably what had kept her going through her parents’ addictions and abuse. She also had a passion for the environment, which became apparent as she engaged Moira and Sahnae in a lengthy conversation about environmental issues and what we could do about them.

Sahnae had been a pleasant surprise, and as dinner progressed she and Amoiraishe seemed to click. There was this mutual respect and understanding thing between them and I have to admit that I was growing to respect her too as she talked about Court politics and the things that we could do to improve our relations with Humans and the other Races. She never raised her voice or looked down at others, a stark contrast from Narek. Even when she had admonished him earlier it had been done in a steady and calm tone. She had been firm, but it wasn’t meant to put him down, but rather as advice meant to help him see where he was wrong and to ease the growing tensions in the room. I kind of wished that someone like her had chosen to play a Yseil'dhraí on Autumn Server, she would have made a fantastic princess.

Then there was Kinara, she was eager to make friends and looking forward to me teaching her magick. She was also young and impressionable and seemingly crushing on Lissany, who she was eagerly conversing with on what being a Beastkin was like, the latest music and movies, and just everyday teenage girl stuff. It was nice seeing Lissany able to interact with a couple of other girls around her real-life age, though she was getting a bit self-conscious about Kinara’s attention, especially once the young Countess insisted that we all drop the titles when talking with her out of the public eye. I will admit that it was nice to have people calling me Taelya rather than by my title, as she and Sahnae both seemed comfortable with doing.

Kinara’s father, Maekin was the quiet and stoic type, here to help his daughter with her new duty, and probably assigned by their Queen to be the eyes and ears. It was clear that he adored his daughter and would do anything for her, but rather than being spoiled she was turning out to be a sweet and kind girl. I liked that, it meant that he lavished her with attention and guidance rather than gifts like a lot of parents. The adoration was mutual too, from what I could see of her cautious glances toward her father whenever the young Summer Court Yseil'dhraí was unsure of herself.

After dinner, the Brownies informed us that the Lark would be staying just down the hall from my rooms in the west wing and that our ambassadors would be in the east wing along with Amoiraishe. With dinner finished most of my party mates returned to their rooms while Lissany took Lark, Kinara, and Maekin on a tour of the estate as promised. Moira had offered to do the same for our Spring Court guest Sahnae, and for the sake of diplomacy, I decided to give Narek the tour myself, though Nishalle had insisted on accompanying us.

Once the other groups had left to get started, talking animatedly amongst themselves, I turned to the Yseil'dhraí from the Winter Court and said, “Well, let’s get started on your tour of the estate so you know where everything is during your stay.”

He followed me without comment, Nishalle watching him carefully as we made our way through the large mansion. I was uncomfortable with Narek, he had been far too quiet and calculating during dinner, and his occasional looks in my direction meant that the games would likely start soon, I had only delayed things with my chastisement of him earlier. He still thought of me as young and inexperienced, someone that he could manipulate.

I started with the throne room and then the kitchens, the rear patio, the ballroom, and then led him up the large staircase to the second floor where the bedrooms were. I tried to make the tour as quick and painless (for me) as possible and soon we were standing in front of the door of the room that had been assigned to our Winter Court guest. I forced a sweet smile as we arrived and said, “And this is your room. I’ll leave you now so that you can get settled in, you must be very tired from your trip.”

“I’m not so tired, it wasn’t that long of a trip,” he replied with a shrug. Then he gave me an only slightly arrogant smile as he put his arm around me and added, “I think that I could manage the time to spend some time with you if you’re interested. I think that things would be more diplomatic if we got to know one another better.”

“Aaaaand there it is, the attempt to get under my skirts,” I thought to myself with a groan. It had been offered as getting to know each other over a fun little casual night of sex, something common enough among the Fae, so I couldn’t really call him on being an arrogant asshole without looking bad myself. So I carefully controlled my reaction, shaking my head and shoving back the nausea and attack of dysphoria to the back of my mind. Then I found myself happy to be saying something that I never thought I would ever say in my life, let alone be happy about, as I reached back and removed his arm. “I can’t, it’s that time of the month.”

Nishalle didn’t hold back, she was not only my protector and sister but also she was a Tokh'dhraí, and everyone expects them to be less than diplomatic, especially when they think that someone is going too far with their princess. She glared up at the large Yseil'dhraí, red eyes boring mental holes in him as she said very coolly and calmly. “Do you remember what Her Highness said earlier about sending you home in an urn?” When his cold blue eyes widened and she knew that she had his attention, she spoke again in a tone that sent a shiver down my spine. “If you try that shit again… if you make her uncomfortable or do anything that makes me even think that you’re playing mind games with her…” Then she vanished into her own shadow only to reappear behind him from his shadow to whisper in his ear, “You will find out the hard way that she’s the nice sister.”