"How can it be more complicated than this?" Vanessa asks icily, living up to my nickname for her.

"You're complicated!"

"Witch!"

Not the best start, but it can be saved.

"It really isn't that bad, mom just worries too much. They are honestly a bit of a delight to have around. Just look at how much Alexa likes them and she doesn't like anyone!"

Nailed it. Pass the buck.

"Everyone likes us!"

"Y-yeah they uh... they aren't bad at all. I don't hate them on my wings, I suppose. And though they like to trick me," Vanessa's eyes narrowed, "and bite me sometimes," they narrowed further, "and freeze my hair... Uhm... They said we were in danger and needed to be protected so they are coming along whether we like it or not because Damien has to be alive for the ceremony and that's all I know stoplookingatmelikethatpleaseitshisfault!"

Alexa finishes her statement, nay, her interrogation, and passes the ball right back into my court.

I sigh and rest my face in my palms while setting my elbows on my knees. It wasn't going well anyway, I should just have accepted my defeat from the start. I'm an idiot.

Vanessa looks at Emily with an eyebrow raised while Emily just shrugs her shoulders, giving her a helpless look.

Vanessa moves to sit opposite us on the couch and Emily follows. The two stare at us and the fairies intermittently before Vanessa finally decides to break the stale air with her lovely voice.

"From the top, Damien. Leave nothing out. This trip is for you, we don't need to go," she says, pointing at herself and Emily. "If we must, we will call it off, so be honest."

"Aye we'll tell you!"

"If he lies we shall rat him out ourselves!"

"We shan't let him lie!"

"The proud Fae never lie!"

Well then! All chances of escaping a full explanation areeee gone. At least, for the most part. I'm sure if I left specific parts of conversations out they wouldn't blow the whistle.

Alright, time to come at this like a politician.

I retell everything that had happened from the point I escaped the house until this morning, expanding upon whatever Vanessa and Emily questioned. When I got to the part about the bracelet, I received a glare from Emily. I had told her it was a gift for healing Jade and it was... I just hadn't impressed upon her that it had something to do with a ceremony or the fact that I literally couldn't remove it.

To be fair, I hadn't even known it was a part of a ceremony until this morning, only that by accepting it I had tied my fate to a group of immortals who acted like children.

The Fae had been nodding along the entire time with my statement.

"... also, they claim we are in danger."

I finish before getting into the rest of the things that had happened this morning, namely a certain... incident. If I bring this up first, and after all the other stuff I've already said, maybe I can get them to focus on this part while forgetting about the rest. Maybe.

"Oh? And what are you in danger from?" Vanessa asks.

"I'm not sure, mostly their antics from what it sounded like," I reply honestly.

"Nonsense!"

"We be saints!"

"I'm pretty sure I remember hearing, 'mortals fall often' and, 'especially when pushed' out of two of the eleven of you here. If that's not foreshadowing, I don't know what is," I say.

Honestly, on the one hand, I love that they don't lie, but on the other hand I wish they wouldn't just showcase their intentions. I'll be worried the entire trip while near anywhere dangerous to fall into.

"You will be fineee."

"Coward."

"Reaction training!"

"So," Vanessa says, drawing attention to herself, "what danger is it that you say we are in, Fae?"

"Not we, they!"

"The girl and the chosen!"

"We will protect, worry not your furry little head."

"... would you just answer the damn question?"

That draws the room to silence immediately.

A cold sweat breaks out on my back. I knew Vanessa and the fairies wouldn't get along, but I'd hoped to avoid any actual conflict before the trip began in earnest. It seems that was too tall an order.

The Fae all stopped flying about and the same short red-haired Fae in a white suit came forward.

"You demand an answer?"

Please don't say yes please don't say-

"Yes."

The male Fae just laughed at that before replying.

"You can not see what we can. You will never know what we know. You think to demand something from whom you can't even begin to understand, silly mortal. If we truly gifted you with our knowledge, you'd fall to the ground an invalid. You think yourself so big with your hundreds of years of age? You are but a spec, nae, less than a spec of dust to those that matter. We grace you with our presence alone. You should kneel."

A heavy silence once again gripped the room. I slowly crouched in my chair, readying myself to pounce on Vanessa and close her mouth by force if I had to. Having her piss off the entire group of fairies before a two-month long trip would them would not bode well for us.

Luckily it never came to that.

"Or at least make us crepes!"

"Yeah!"

"She probably hates puppies!"

I snorted at the last statement while holding back full-fledged laughter, prompting the fairy to smile in my direction and Vanessa to glare.

"Ohhhhkay! Then, was that all they said then? Ominous danger?" Emily asks, quickly changing the conversation, which I instantly jump behind.

"So yeah, that's about it. Until this morning nothing too interesting had happened, then they decided to swarm us and demanded to come along."

At this, the Fae chose not to nod along to my statement, instead, they glared at me.

"They pulled us out of bed and basically threatened us. If we refuse them I'm sure they'll burn the hou-"

"LIES!"

"Burn HIM!"

They piled on me, all eleven, freezing parts of my skin and singeing my hair off. I did my best not to scream but they began to bite with their razor sharp teeth and I started thrashing. I jumped up and bolted from the room, dragging the demons with me.

Evasion of sensitive topics: success.

Alexa watched on as her Aunt clenched and unclenched her fists, sitting on the couch across from her. She could feel the heat the older Celestial was putting off. Emily was smiling awkwardly and Alexa herself was doing her best not to make eye contact with anyone in the room. Damien had made a smart move, exiting the room with the premise of the Fae harassing him. She just wished he'd got her in on it, but then again she had left him out to dry during breakfast.

"What do you think they meant?" Emily asked, trying to get the conversation moving slightly.

"I don't know, ask the damn creatures that," Vanessa replied.

"Alright, alright Nessa, no need to bite my head off. Even if they didn't answer though I'm sure we can piece something together based on what they said. Maybe the kids are being watched? We were careful, but it's always a possibility that someone saw Damien."

"... that is not entirely a bad line of thought, but I think it's Alexa being watched, not Damien. The fairies did say they were both in danger, not just him," her Aunt replied.

Alexa looked up at her name and re-focused on the conversation.

Why would she be under watch?

"I wouldn't put it past her mother or one of the other families to keep tabs on Alexa. If a member of a group that was at odds with us were to capture her, we would have to go into negotiations. My sister would do anything to get her daughter back, so sending some spies to look after her isn't too far fetched. The problem with that though-"

"Is that they know Damien can manipulate mana," Emily finished.

A minute passed where nobody spoke. Alexa didn't really understand what the big deal was. It wasn't the Empire that had found out, it was her mother.

"Is it really that bad? Mom wouldn't tell anyone since we are family, why are you worried about that?" She asked.

"It's not a problem if your mother knows sweety," Emily replied, "The problem is if it wasn't your mother who had sent people to watch you. Or if not only your mother had people keeping track of you. What if someone else was watching? They might not bother with you, but Damien..."

Alexa then realized the problem and began to worry. Because of her...

"Shouldn't we cancel the trip then? I know Damien would be bummed but isn't it dangerous to go out?" She questioned.

"Yes, maybe we should hun. I'm sorry, I know you were both so excited to go as wel-"

"No, I think we can still go." Emily had begun to respond but was cut off by Vanessa. "If what Damien said is true, he and you are currently being protected by the Fae. I've never heard of them attacking anyone, but I'd imagine they do based on the rumors of those who kill their kind going missing. If their statement earlier is true, then perhaps they've already chased off those that are watching. Right now could be the safest time to go on this trip if after the 'ceremony'," Vanessa used airquotes, "they will stop protecting you both."

"What if the Fae were lying?" Emily asked.

"The Fae never lie," Alexa responded.

Damien had told her that. It was an ironclad rule. They may bend truths and be childish, but they never lied. They took pride in telling the truth and had no reason to lie.

"What if they were, though?"

"They don't. It's like they can't. Damien said so. He knows about them... somehow. They mentioned..." she trailed off.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to say this, after all. If Damien didn't want her to know, it was only certain he hadn't wanted his mom or Vanessa to know even more so.

"They just mentioned that they didn't lie as well. It, uh... yeah. They don't lie, trust that. They might not answer any of your questions but they don't lie."

Alexa had taken a page out of Damien's book and tried to bring the trauma from the earlier conversation back to cause the discussion to shift away from this topic. From what she'd seen him do, purposely upsetting people or making them focus on specific parts of the talk would get them to overlook other things. Hopefully she hadn't botched it too hard with her stuttering. Lying was super hard for her; it didn't come naturally at all.

Vanessa and Emily shared a look before turning back to her.

"...Alright. We will go then, let's load up your things and get moving. We've wasted too much time here already. Do you think we should wait for Garrett to get back or...?"

"No it's fine, let's just leave the door unlocked for him. Eventually, he'll make it back and I doubt he grabbed our keys on the way out," Emily replied with a chuckle.

Alexa did her best to repress the sigh of relief that wanted to escape her lungs. Apparently, she'd succeeded. Or not and they'd decided not to question her on it. Either way, it was no longer her problem for now. She hopped off the couch and made her way to the door only to open it and see that everyone's baggage had made it on the carriage already. Damien was just walking inside as they came out of the room, all the fairies clinging to him with their hands or teeth. It looked painful.

"Hey! We just finished loading all our stuff. Vanessa, they threw your bags off but I put them back on for you. I'm really sorry, I hope nothing was breakable in there," Damien said when he saw them.

"We hope there was!"

"There was a loud crash!"

"The loudest, and they caught fire!"

"She must be a witch!"

Alexa reached back and grabbed her Aunt's hand, rubbing it slightly to try and calm her. This was going to be a long, long trip.