Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
The woman who accompanied Morgana when she returned was unlike anyone I’d ever seen. She was tall—five-ten or so—with an hourglass figure. Her hair hung down to her waist, a mixture of black and green. The green strands glowed with a faint inner light.
Her ears were pointed, unlike most Fae, and they peeked through her hair.
She had silver eyes, ringed with black, and her lips were petal pink, but I thought that might be their natural color.
She wore a pair of low-rise black jeans, a black cropped tank-top that barely covered her belly button, and a leather jacket, and around her left leg, she’d strapped a sheathed dagger.
She was beautiful, yes, in an alien sort of way.
But more than her looks, it was her energy that captivated me.
It wasn’t what I associated with Fae glamour—not the glamour I was used to, or that I had.
No, she brought to mind prowling through the forest at midnight, and deep caverns delving far into the earth.
She nodded solemnly as we sat there, waiting for Morgana to speak.
“This is Ashka, of the Crystal Fae. She’s the daughter of their queen’s Hunter,” Morgana said. “She’s here to work with us and to be a liaison between the Fae Courts and the Crystal Fae.”
I stood, nodding, but didn’t extend my hand. I wasn’t sure of their customs, so I decided to wait for her lead. I hadn’t been a goddess long enough to blatantly ignore my manners. Although, to be fair, most of the gods that I knew might be imperious, but they were polite. Over all.
Morgana seemed to understand what I was thinking. “You can shake hands. She understands many of our cultural traditions. The Crystal Fae might live in a hidden land over in the Realms, in Wildemoone, but that doesn’t mean they don’t understand this world and how it runs.”
Wildemoone? Wildemoone was a wild land, with Fae who had never been Earthside. Bordering Eldemere, the Elvish lands, the kingdoms were divided by a great forest belonging to Wildemoone.
I held out my hand. “How do you do, Ashka? I’m Ember. I’m…” I was never sure how to introduce myself since the Gadawnoin. How did you just come out and say, “I’m a goddess?”
“She’s my daughter-in-law, a goddess of the Fae Courts,” Morgana said.
“How do you do? You can call me Ash.” Her voice was low and smooth, and her grip, firm. Something in my Autumn’s Bane bloodline stirred at her touch, recognizing an odd kinship.
“And this is my son, Herne. Ember’s husband,” Morgana continued. “Herne, why don’t you introduce the others?”
Herne jumped up and shook her hand. “Welcome. These are our coworkers and friends. Viktor, Talia, Raven, Kipa—my distant cousin from Kalevala, who is Lord of the Wolves. This is Yutani, the son of the Great Coyote. And Wager Chance.” He pointed to each of them in turn.
Ash smiled, and her face lit up. “It’s good to meet all of you,” she said. She glanced at Morgana. “Shall I sit?”
“Please do,” Morgana said. “And, of course, this is my husband, Cernunnos.”
Ash settled in beside Morgana. She didn’t seem shy, that was for sure. In fact, I had the just assumed that she was observing us. After a moment, she said, “Feel free to ask questions.”
“I’ve never heard of the Crystal Fae,” Yutani said. “So, you don’t belong to either the Light or Dark Courts? Isn’t that awkward?”
“It can be,” Ash said. “Neither court welcomes our existence. They’re not fond of the Fae who come out of Wildemoone. They consider us wild and unpredictable.”
“Speak of the pot calling the kettle black,” I said. “So, you’re going to be working with us?”
She nodded. “We’ve been asked…” Pausing, she glanced at Morgana.
“The Crystal Fae came to me, asking if there was a way I could help them integrate into society here,” Morgana said.
“Well, I can guarantee that’s going to be a laugh and a half,” Raven said. “They don’t even like my kind, let alone yet another branch of the Fae. You do realize they’ll see this as a challenge?”
“Of course, which is why I was dispatched, along with a number of others, to cross over from the Realms to stake our presence here,” Ash said. “The Crystal Fae are connected to the Earth Fae, so we’re hoping that might help.”
“My father was part of the Autumn’s Bane,” I said.
“He was born into the Dark Court. My mother was Leannan Sidhe, one of the Light Fae. My grandparents from both sides killed them—and they would have killed me if I’d been home.
I’m not optimistic about your success here.
But we’ll keep you as safe as we can and do our best to convince Saílle and Névé to leave your people alone. ”
“So, you belong to both water and earth, then,” Ash said. “I’ve met a few who came from mixed fire and water bloodlines. It wasn’t the best of encounters.” She grimaced. “I have the scars to prove it.” Turning to Raven, she asked, “And you are Ante-Fae?”
“Yes, I am. Raven BoneTalker, daughter of Curikan, the Black Dog of Hanging Hills, and Phasmoria, Queen of the Bean Sidhe.” Raven held out her hand.
“You resonate at a different frequency,” Ash said, taking her hand.
“All things that come from the earth—most creatures who walk on the land, all trees, stones, bones, and crystals—I can read their energy signatures.” She nodded to me.
“You, I can read you have a birth connection with the earth, but I can’t pick up on your watery side.
In Wildemoone, we navigate at night by the auras of the trees. ”
I wondered how she’d fare in the city. “What about the concrete and the asphalt here? So much of the land is paved over.”
“Ah, but concrete comes from the earth. It has its own frequency.” She walked over to Yutani’s side, leaning over his shoulder.
He looked at her with a nervous shake of the head.
“And your technology? Do you realize how much quartz plays a role in your machinery? Your society practically worships data, and most of your data technology uses quartz in its processing equipment.”
“I never thought about that,” Yutani said, shifting from nervous to interested. He was, at heart, a techie.
“Exactly, so much of the city—the cars which come from ore, the computers, the food that sustains all of us—the energy is familiar to me, albeit in different formats.” Ash shrugged. “I’m looking forward to this.”
“Why did you decide to come out of hiding?” Talia asked.
“As more of the Realms’ citizens become aware—and intermingle—with this world, crossover will become far more commonplace. The dragons came out of the Forgotten Kingdom. So, too, it’s our time to emerge from the shadows.”
“Well, sit down. Would you like some coffee?” Talia asked.
Ash shrugged. “I’ll give it a try. Thank you.”
“I’ll pour you a cup. Pastries are on the counter,” Talia said. “Help yourself.”
As Ash headed over to the counter, I watched her. She moved fluidly, as though she felt at home in her body. No doubt, she was trained in martial arts, and she had some sort of natural magic, though I wasn’t sure what.
“So, what do we do about the boats?” Viktor asked. “There are bound to be more attacks unless those octopuses have fled the sound, and I doubt that’s happened.”
“There isn’t much we can do,” Herne said. “Not until something happens. We could ask Ashera if any other water dragons might want to join her in patrolling the waters, but that’s asking a lot. Especially since we have no idea what the Aqcarians plan to do next.”
“What’s going on? Who are the Aqcarians?” Ash asked, returning to the table with a plate stacked high with three doughnuts. She sipped the coffee that Talia brought her and winced. “Bitter,” she said.
“Try it with milk and sugar in it,” I said.
She added a splash of cream and a spoonful of sugar and tasted it, then gave me a satisfied nod. “Much better.”
Raven explained who the Aqcarians were, and about the giant octopi that Ashera had found in the waters of Puget Sound.
“They capsized several boats, and we managed to get recreational boating restricted, but apparently there was too much pressure from retailers down on the piers. The mayor removed the restrictions, and now people will be out boating again. Why couldn’t they just stick to Lake Washington?
It’s big enough for a day on the water.”
“Because people are greedy,” Kipa said. “So, back to what we were discussing earlier. Did you say there’s a connection between Jorgununda and Jormungandr?”
“It’s believed she predates the world serpent and is potentially his ancestor,” Cernunnos interjected.
“Regardless, until we know for sure that Jorgununda can’t bring about Ragnarok, we need to gather all our allies.
At this point, we do think that she means to hasten climate change, in order to destroy some of the coastlines.
Think: if she were to control the oceans, the world waterways would be cut off and international shipping would die. ”
I thought about what would happen if we had no commerce via water. It didn’t seem that vital at first, but when you really examined it, the loss would be catastrophic to the world economy. It was far too costly to transport all goods via air travel.
“Well, there’s not much more we can do now,” Herne said. “Though I did get a report that the deaths are starting up again, this time in Cannon Beach, down in Oregon. Erica is looking into it for us. She’ll contact you, Viktor, when she’s found anything.”
“Okay, then. That about wraps it up,” Morgana said. “We found a house for Ash over in the Redmond area, not far from Marymoor Park. 16650 NE 48th Street. We paid for a year’s rent so she won’t have to worry about housing.”
“That’s on my side of the lake,” Raven said. “We’re not exactly neighbors, but I live over there. I can show you around the area.”
“I’d like that,” Ash said. “So, should I start today?”