Advent Story: The Fae World: Willow: On Earth (part 11)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

“Really? Willow asked, unable to believe what Alder was saying and yet she wanted to.

Alder smiled, as though he knew what she was thinking. “Really. I wouldn’t lie to you about this, Princess. It’s too important that you have allies on the council for me to even think of lying.”

“I have you.”

“I’m not enough, and we both know it.” Alder’s smile turned into a frown. “Both our lives changed because of what happened and yet we were still the only two who were thinking clearly enough to work out what we needed to do next. They were all clinging to a world they didn’t want to leave behind, a belief that the fae couldn’t possibly have used up all the magic a world held, and a fear that leaving would change everything for the worst.”

“It’s understandable,” George said, sounding thoughtful. “The human race could be destroying the Earth but no one wants to do anything about it, because that way they can cling to the belief that it’s not happening. Having the fae here might change things for us.”

“In the same way that living on Earth will change things for us,” Alder replied. “We need those changes. The fae need to stop being selfish and using magic all the time, because they can’t be bothered to do things without magic.” He sighed. “It’s not going to be easy for either race.”

Willow shook her head. “We never expected it to be easy, Alder.” She looked over at George. “We have help from the Prime Minister, which is more than I was hoping for when I appeared here, and if you’re right then we might have allies on the council. If we look at where we were this morning and where we are now then I think things are going amazingly well.”

“What I’m going to need is a map of all the places of magic in the country, if that’s possible, a list of all the fae who are here, and…” George tapped his pen on the desk. “Is there any way to tell if a human is part fae?”

“I don’t know,” Willow answered. “There may be signs, like humans having fae like ears or eyes, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll have any magical abilities.” She glanced at Alder. “It’s entirely possible that someone could look totally human and yet have fae magic. We just won’t know until it happens.”

“That’s was what I thought the answer was going to be.” George looked down at his notebook, scribbled something else, and then looked at Willow again. “We need to decide what’s going to happen to those people.”

Willow hated what she was about to say, more because it was the unfortunate truth that anything else, but she kept telling herself that George needed her to be honest with him. “The fae are unlikely to accept them into the places of magic, because they’re mixed bloods and the pure blood fae don’t like mixed bloods, so we’re going to have to work something out between us. I doubt the humans would fully accept them either.”

George, unexpectedly, smiled. “You’re right. I hate to say it, but there are too many of us who don’t like things that are different and not enough who accept the people who have differences.” He tapped his pen on the desk again. “Will all the places of magic connect?”

Not knowing the answer, Willow turned to Alder, hoping he’d know. “It’s not certain,” he said. “The few fae who did visit Earth at a time when the places of magic were more than they are now have some vague memories of there being two or three places of magic separate to the others, but that’s not enough evidence for us to say one way or another. With us here even those places might end up connected, so it’s not as though we could use those places for the mixed bloods, and I honestly think that it’s up to us to deal with the problem because we caused it.”

“I agree.” Willow bit her lip as she thought. “We’re not going to get the pure blood fae to accept the mixed bloods, but I’m almost certain that we have enough mixed bloods ourselves to create towns within the places of magic for both groups.”

“Is that a good idea, though?” Alder asked. “Segregating them may cause more problems in the long run.”

“Right now I don’t think we have a choice. Not all the mixed blood humans will even want to live with the fae, but we need to be able to give those who do a safe place to live and learn about being fae.”

“Would it work if we created border towns?” George asked. “Once I have a map of the places of magic I’ll be able to work out which towns, but if we make towns that are both within the places of magic and outside them then maybe it will work better than having mixed blood towns totally within the places of magic.”

Willow looked at Alder, who shrugged. “It might work. I just have a feeling that border towns might become a part of the places of magic, although…” She found herself biting her lip again, which was something she was going to have to stop. “Maybe we could work it a little differently. If we create towns within the places of magic that aren’t warded then it might be better.”

“The question becomes,” Alder replied, “what are we going to do about teaching the fae about the humans? There’s going to be a majority who won’t have any interest in the human race, because they are fae and therefore they are better, then there will be a minority who will be fascinated by them.”

“A school might be the way to go,” George suggested. “Where you can teach the human fae to be use their magic and the fae who are interested in humans about us.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.