Chapter 21 #2
“I need you to tell me everything about Prince Sterling and who he was or is, and I want to hear it now,” I said to Everett when we returned to my suite.
Everett grabbed a chair from the small dining table and brought it over to the foot of my bed.
“Get settled,” he said as he gestured toward my bed.
“You remember how I mentioned to you that I had a nanny while growing up? Well, she’s human.
She’s the human who gave birth to me. My parents are both scholars who work closely with Leni at the royal library.
They are always so very busy with their work, so they hired Annika to look after me, and she did so until I turned eighteen.
You asked why I treated you as an equal.
It’s because a human raised me, and I see humans for who they actually are—generous, loving, fun, and thoughtful people.
Not what the elite fae think they are: animals who lack self-control. ”
I interrupted Everett. “Wait, I have a question. What did you mean when you said that Annika gave birth to you?”
“It’s the curse that was put on our people by the Obsidian Court.
Our people cannot procreate on their own.
Our scholars have spent years searching for a way to cure the curse, but no solution has been discovered yet.
They were able to figure out that a fae man and fae woman could use their arcana to create a baby with the help of an arcana master.
All that was missing was a proper vessel to carry the pregnancy, as fae women could not.
This was where the human women came into the picture.
After the atrocities of the war with the Obsidian Court, some of the human women volunteered to carry fae pregnancies.
For hundreds of years, this has been the way the fae have created their families. All because of the humans’ generosity.”
Silence fell between us as I tried to digest what Everett had just told me. For hundreds of years, they had let human women sacrifice their bodies so they could have children, and they had the audacity to treat them like they were second-class citizens.
Something wasn’t adding up.
“If human women are so vital to the fae, why are humans in general looked down upon and treated so poorly?” I finally asked.
“From what Annika told me, relations between the fae and humans were quite amicable for years after the Obsidian Court conflict. However, somewhere along the way, things began to sour. Prominent elite fae started spreading the rhetoric that humans were lesser beings because they couldn’t access arcana, which eventually led to the separation of the fae and human quarters.
It’s unfortunately a sentiment still shared by many of the elite fae today. ”
“I don’t understand why human women would allow their bodies to be used like that if that’s the way they’re viewed by the very beings they’re helping. That seems like a lot to give with nothing taken in return. This doesn’t make sense. I also don’t understand how this relates to Sterling.”
“Patience, Aurelia. I’m getting there,” Everett chided.
“You’ve travelled briefly through the human quarter.
I’m sure you saw the disparity between where they live and where the fae live.
Human women help out the fae because they are paid very well for their assistance.
There are some families whose only income is brought in from women carrying fae babies.
Everyone else finds work as either manual labourers or hired help around the court.
Humans hold all lower-level jobs. Any position of importance or power is held by a fae—because arcanal ability is everything.
“This disparity between the fae and humans has caused a willingness by some to do anything they can to make a few coins and provide for their families. Which leads me to the most vulnerable among them all—the women who work in the pleasure houses. Fae men seek … What is the word they use to hide their depravity? Comfort. That’s it.
They seek the comfort of human women at these houses, where the power imbalance is heavily in the fae’s favour.
These women are subjected to all manner of abuse at the hands of the fae.
Your prince is widely known as the worst offender.
Whispers in the human quarter are that any woman who entertains him for the night turns up beaten or missing.
The women are absolutely terrified of him, but there is nothing anyone can do, because he’s the prince.
Who is going to hold him accountable for throwing away women who are viewed by the rest of fae society as trash?
Human women are good for only one thing in the eyes of the fae: carrying our children.
Anyone who does not want to be part of that is disposable. ”
I sat there in shock as I let Everett’s words sink in.
There was no way that the sweet, loving soul I had spent the last few weeks with was this horrible monster he was describing.
Had Sterling’s amnesia caused him to change who he was as a person fundamentally?
Did he have the capacity to be this low-life predator, while also being a funny, charming, and genuinely kind man?
My mind couldn’t comprehend this. None of this made sense in light of what I had experienced with Sterling.