Chapter 19 Manipulative Lies
Getting dropped on the ground blindfolded is probably the last thing that I expected to happen to me in the fairy realm.
My shoulder hit the ground first, making me squirm in pain from the impact. Having been blindfolded with my wrist tied behind my back is kind of enough to make me curse, which I am glad that my mother is not around to hear.
"Careful, Oelnhir!" I hear a female voice, the same one that I have heard from the stranger who abducted me from my room, says. "She's someone who bears our prince's mark. Surely you don't want to anger him by harming his human, do you?"
His human? My lips twitch at the comment. I am grateful that they are keeping me alive, but to refer to me like I am someone's property is just plain disrespectful, which is why I cannot help but fight the sneer when they begin to remove the blindfold from my eyes.
I fix my attention on a red-haired fairy man who is glaring at me while raising his brow. "This is the human that the prince imprinted on?" He questions. "She doesn't seem that impressive to me."
Again, I find myself feeling insulted because it seems like all this fairy ever says to me is negative things. I want to throw something back, but I am afraid that I might say something that might offend him. I have to remind myself that these people are unseelie folks.
I decided to turn to the female fairy instead, who seems to have her hood over her face, to ask the question that's been bugging me since they took me from my room. "What do you guys want from me?"
"Oh my, going straight to the point, are we? You're not even going to ask where you are?"
"What's the point if I am in a realm that I am not familiar with?"
The female fairy guffaws before pushing the hood off of her face, revealing a familiar face that has greeted me before. "What spunk. I never took you for such a type of person."
When my brain clicks into place and I remember where I've seen her before, all I can do is stare at her. "Y-You're that girl from that marketplace!" I begin to stutter. "You sold us those emerald stones!"
"Bravo!" The female fairy claps in delight, and for some strange reason, she seems relieved that I recognize her.
"It's been days since I have seen you, so I thought that you must have forgotten about me.
" For a kidnapper, she sure does have such a kind smile and a friendly demeanor. Is she really an Unseelie folk?
I press my lips together when I start to realize that she seems a little different. Before, I vaguely remembered that her skin is yellow and her hair is close to an electric blue. But now she has black hair and purple skin.
The female fairy must have notice my questioning stare because she starts to explain herself. "I use glamour to change my hair and skin color."
"Uh-huh.." I nod slowly, like I even understand the concept of their magic.
Oelnhir lets out a loud sigh as he heads for the female fairy. "Efeiza, why are you being too friendly with her? She's human. What's more, she's clearly siding with those liars!"
I don't know what this guy's problem is, but the longer that he opens his lips, the more that I want to ignore my restraints and hit him.
"Shut up, Oelnhir. She doesn't even know anything."
"That she," I say, interrupting their conversation. "Is right here listening to your exchange. It would be nice if 'she' gets in on the conversation and got an explanation."
The two of them stare at me before Efeiza laughs. She points at me before looking at Oelnhir. "How can you not like her?! Now, I can definitely see why our prince took an interest in her." She smiles sweetly at the male fae before crouching down before me.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Oelnhir reacts when he notices that Efeiza is starting to untie my wrist. "What are you doing!
? She's our prisoner."
"No, she is not!
" She glares at him. "We brought her here to talk.
" When she returns her attention to me, her expression changes into a complete one-eighty degree.
Her expression begins to brighten, flashing me the friendliest grin I have ever seen a fairy wear before.
"There, there, little human. Does that feel better? "
If she only wants to talk to me, she sure has a funny way of expressing that.
I suddenly turn mute when I hug my hands close to me, so I can only nod at her in response. A joyous bark catches my attention, and I begin to see Jade running towards me in the opposite direction of where I am facing.
Jade, who is no longer trying to hide his original size, looks a little bit intimidating. He pauses a few distance from me and starts to crawl until he is at my back before rubbing his head on my arm.
"It seems like Renegar misses you." Efeiza reaches out and pets Jade.
"Renegar?"
"His name, obviously." Oelnhir says, crossing his arms. "I can't fathom the disrespect when I heard you calling him Jade."
"What's so wrong with the name? I think he likes it." Efeiza, who seems to have been on my side since a while ago, defends me. Her smile begins to dwindle before she sits back. "Livia, that's your name, right?"
I don't even want to ask how she knew—she probably heard Zhier calling me that while we were in the market.
"I have to ask you something. Have you seen or have you been in contact with our prince?"
Now, it is my turn to stare at her, thinking that she is joking with me, but after seeing the expression on Oelnhir's face, I guess that she's being serious with her question.
"No." I say softly, like I am delivering bad news.
"Sorry to say, but I don't think that I have even seen him.
I don't even remember how I got this mark, if I am being honest." I raise my left hand to show them the mark placed there.
When I see how their expression drops, I quickly ask them.
"Why did you assume that the Unseelie prince would be in the Seelie Palace? "
"Because the last place that Prince Klovis left to before he disappeared is in the Seelie Palace." To my surprise, it's Oelnhir who answers me. "Also, Renegar has been called by his highness to protect you." Jade flops on his belly when he hears his other name getting called.
"This doesn't make sense." My brows furrowed together. "Zhier said that Klovis just disappeared. He told me that the Unseelies are pinning the blame on them and are about to start a war. That's the whole reason why he is trying to get me to help him look for Prince Klovis."
Oelnhir scoffs. "That's total bullshit. There's no way that you are going to believe that."
"Fairies don't lie. I don't think that Zhier can say those words to me if he is lying." It's not like I am trying to defend Zhier, but there's something in my gut feeling that's telling me that we are missing something in this conversation.
"Even though we are Unseelies, we cannot lie either!" Oelnhir yells. "Our prince has been missing for so long that we had all but given up hope, but just recently we've begun to sense his consciousness returning, albeit it seems to be in and out of focus, as if he were sleeping."
"I am not saying that you are lying. I am just laying out that there's something weird here."
"Yeah, and I am looking at it." Oelnhir looks at me with malice in his eyes. He looks at the earrings that Zhier gave me and I finally understand his hate for me.
"Oelnhir, shut up!" Efeiza got up, glaring at him warningly before looking at me. "Livia is right. We are missing something."
"You don't, but your partner is clearly lacking manners." I can't help but answer. Seeing the bewildered expression on Oelnhir's face gives me a sense of satisfaction, knowing that I have at least said something to him.
"Stop it, Oelnhir!" I almost laugh when Efeiza catches him instead of me. The look of disbelief on the male fairy's face is so priceless that I wish I would have caught it on camera. "Livia, are you sure that's what the Seelie Prince told you?"
"I'm positive." I say. I want to tell her that it is pretty much the reason I don't want to trust them. But hearing their side of the story, I don't think that they are lying either.
And it seems like Efeiza has the same idea as I do because she begins to nod her head when my eyes reflect the same thoughts as her.
"The Unseelies would not create a ruckus if Prince Klovis wasn't missing and if we weren't certain that the Seelies had him.
Renegar wouldn't have come to you if it did not sensed its master.
" Efeiza pauses, looking at me to see if I am still listening.
"For a fairy to be able to tell a lie, there are only two reason for it.
One, they truly believe the information that they're given. Second, they manipulated the truth."
I fall silent. From the amount of time that I have spent with Zhier, I can tell that he must be on the first case. Then again, how sure am I that I can trust Efeiza? For all I know, she's the one manipulating the truth.
"How should I know if I should believe you?"
"The fact that we are letting you go back to the Seelies." She gives me a small smile, probably feeling offended that I did not trust her. "I did say that we were only here to talk, right?"
A strange black bird with four wings starts to descend and land on Oelnhir's shoulder. The fairy man turns to Efeiza with a deep and urgent look.
"We're out of time, huh?" She sighs and looks right back at me.
"Livia, I wish that we can talk some more, but it seems like the Seelie Prince is coming.
" She grasp my shoulders, looking me dead straight in the eyes when she says, "The reason our Prince went to the Seelie palace in the fist place is because he learned something.
..something that he wouldn't even tell us unless he gets proof.
But from the look on our young lord's face, I can tell that it's something big.
I know that you have been digging up information on your own, so I am telling you this right now in case you find something that might boggle up the entire realm: Be careful who you trust—better yet, don't trust anyone. Knowledge can be dangerous."
"Efeiza," Oelnhir calls for her. "We have to go."
Efeiza gets up, pulling a knife from under her clothes, and makes a cut on her arm.
"What are you doing!?" I watch as the female fairy starts to slather her blood on Jade's face.
"We want to make it like Renegar—or Jade—protected you. We can't have them learn that we wish to establish communication with you."
"If you wish to talk to me, how the hell am I supposed to call you?"
Efeiza smiles. "Of course, you can just ask Jade for that." She winks before putting her hood over her face. "Keep safe, Livia. Until our next meeting."
The two fairies were gone long before I could blink twice or even register all the information that I had just gathered. But this meeting does give me one useful piece of knowledge that I did not even bother to tell Efeiza about.
I know who told Zhier about Prince Klovis going missing.