Finley Cai Aies Hall May 5th,20XX

Mei nodded with a dull smile that managed to send faint chills down my back as I reported back to her and let me return to my desk to do my work, as opposed to sitting right beside her as before.

I supposed that was a sign that she was angry with me, or at least not as pleased as she had previously been but I was too engaged in my thoughts to pay it much mind.

It wasn’t like this was a normal relationship that could collapse over a petty fight anyways.

“Did you manage to do the 'very important thing’ that you had to do?”

“Ah, yeah. It all worked out somehow.”

Even I could hear how unbelievable I sounded, and my voice shook as I put up the already paltry response but I didn’t dwell on it or try to reinforce that everything was okay.

Thankfully she didn’t pursue it or try to pressure me into explaining more and after looking me over one more time returned to her work but the peaceful atmosphere we’d had before was gone and replaced with an awkward and tensioned feeling that refused to leave me alone.

I ignored the tiredness in my eyes and stared at the paperwork that splayed across the desk as The burdensome files could somehow change the reality of the situation.

“No matter how much I think about it, she smelled like a witch.”

Cai’s voice echoed in my mind and confirmed the truth I was reluctant to accept. So reluctant in fact that I began to think of alternative reasons why she had such a strong smell on her.

A witch’s magic, more specifically their curses, were pretty similar to that of a fairy but had a distinctly…unpleasant? yeah, a pretty unpleasant feel to it.

Sort of like turned milk or old cheese. Not quite toxic or poisonous but it was just off enough to turn the stomach. Between purifying a witch’s curse and that of a ‘contaminated’ fairy I would have a pretty hard time picking which to do first. Both were just so bad.

On another note, I was glad I didn’t have full access to my goblin traits as of yet or I might have thrown up. The scent of ‘clean’ magic wouldn’t do much but when magic was laden with ill intent it would stink much fouler than any Garbage dump.

“Ignoring the situation won’t make it go away but it’s entertaining to watch you try.”

Tsk.

Aies’s mocking voice snapped me out of my self-induced distraction and I was left with the thought that It’d been a while since he contributed to any sort of conversation with me. Theodulus might have said something to him or-

“It’s nothing like that, I just didn’t want to talk to you since you merged with Cai. You even kept his voice active as if anyone would miss him. But what are you going to do about Sparrow? It’s not like you can just pretend not to know and it’ll go away. “

I’d forgotten how frustrating it could be to have a conversation with someone in my head but Aies seemed determined to make it clear.

It wasn’t just that she smelled of a witch.

It was that no matter how much I wanted to wish it out of existence I couldn’t deny that she was a witch.

The ambient magic that floated around the studio and the bag of hair that she had hastily hidden under her desk. Her studio, which was usually a cacophony of activity and movement had been almost eerily quiet as well. It hadn't been because she was the only one there, which was odd in itself as it was the middle of the day, but more as a sign that she hadn’t been there. And judging from how thick the smell on her was I could assume that she had just returned from the witches.

It wasn’t like I felt betrayed that she hadn’t told me about her being a witch, it was a big deal and I was probably the last person in the world that could get angry for keeping secrets from others.

There was also the fact that we were never really that close. It wasn't that we were strangers but we were far from the sort of relationship where one would confide everything to the other.

Right now, the only person in my life I didn’t keep any secrets from was probably Theodulus but that was because I knew it would be ridiculous to try to keep any fully formed secrets from the man that could just create a truthful personality in my mind and force it to tell him everything. I choose to believe that he wouldn’t do that but the possibility did haunt me.

But I still couldn’t help but worry about her.

I was worried because I didn’t know nearly enough about the witches to know if I should be worried or not that she was one of them but also regularly met with them. I was worried because of the recent aggressions that the witches had been launching against the fairies and perhaps most importantly I was worried that at some point we might end up on opposite sides of a war.

Discovering her secret also made me think of all the other people I knew in the human world and what laid behind their masks.

To begin with, it was naive of me to have assumed that all my friends and peers were humans, but I could only be considered stupid when I remembered learning of how regular it was for the begins of this world to not only go there for dalliances but also to abandon the children if they didn’t inherit enough of their race.

And what about Will?

It wasn’t like I had a radar that could locate every non-human in my vicinity.

I could only ‘smell’ a witch when they used magic and I was in a state to purify it which was limited when I pulled back my magic and operated in the human world.

I hadn’t noticed anything off about Will but unless they were adopted siblings, which I knew that they weren't or were step-siblings from a witch-human pairing then he was probably a witch as well.

The realization of the two worlds crashing was too much for me and I pushed the paperwork aside, resting my head in my hands and closing my eyes.

The silent despair I was feeling didn’t last for long though as an arm suddenly slammed down on my desk and I looked up to see the concerned face of my fiancée, who had finally softened the cold expression she had carried ever since I came back.

“it’s time for you to turn in your highness. You look tired.”

I pulled my hands out of my head and where I was finally registered properly. This wasn’t the place to sulk over new discoveries and I couldn’t have her think of me as a slacker and treat me as such. It would be even worse if she thought that the work was too difficult for me to do and took it on by herself.

“Ah, no I’ve still got quite a lot to do, haven’t I? I had a lot to think about, but it was irresponsible to do so while there’s still so much to do. I'll finish up and then go.”

The cold look returned with a vengeance and the chill that tap-danced on my spine intensified.

It wasn’t so much that I was scared of her physically harming me, after all, if It really came to a fight I had an immense advantage of the restraints I had put on her, but I didn’t want her to …..

I wasn’t all that sure of the rest of that sentence but it wasn’t something I was willing to puzzle out right now.

In an unfairly charismatic move, she pushed back a few loose strands of hair that had escaped the eternal bun she usually captured her hair into and looked down at me.

“Excuse my frankness for a moment but towards you, I have a lot to say that I cannot say and I have a lot of questions that I cannot ask. Do I also have to have a lot of worries I cannot express your highness?”

I felt bad at being scolded but was also somewhat confused at where it was coming from. Was it because I had run away earlier? It was odd to be sure, but it wasn’t like it was completely irregular.

The timing between the human world and the fairy world was somewhat weird so to others my leaving to attend school or work or whatever would be seen as odd anyways.

She had never really seemed bothered before.

“Worried? About what?”

After an intense moment of eye contact, she once again pushed the loose hair out of her face and let out a frustrated sigh as if she could read my mind and was disappointed by them.

“Just… Go home and rest your highness. You are clearly in no state to work and while I know you don’t have to take my orders I hope you realize that I’m not asking.”

Although I could see the genuine worry in her eyes and expression I still couldn’t help but get angry as well. Today had been a long day, and I didn’t need to be antagonized on this front of my life as well.

I didn’t know why she was acting like this or what had happened to spur it on but it was really not appreciated right now.

“Well, you’re right in that I don’t have to take your orders Mei but It’s not exactly vice versa. While I don’t want our future partnership to be any more strained than it needs to be you also need to remember that you are no longer on the battlefield and you’re not an almighty general anymore. I’m not your subordinate that has to report every single thing to you and the repercussions of picking a fight and loosing are a lot harsher than being demoted a rank.”

She took a slight step back at my unexpected blow-up, but she wasn’t alone in her surprise. As self-aware as I was that I was being somewhat more than unreasonable I also couldn’t abate my frustration.

“I’m going to stay and finish what I have to do and if you would like to stay behind with me then feel free, I don’t particularly want to give you any orders to go away but I also don’t particularly want to order you to stay either.“

I faltered a bit at the end of the speech and it came out a bit more passive than I’d intended but I didn’t take anything back. Obeying her every word because of light intimidation wouldn’t help either one of us get along with the other and would set a precedent that I was sure I wouldn’t want to follow in the future.

Contrary to expectations Mei didn’t take any more steps backwards and leave the room, nor did she return to her desk but she instead grabbed a chair and dragged it over to my desk then sat on the other side of it.

“Fine. I won't try to send you away to rest anymore but can I at least help you with the rest of your work?”

She didn’t apologize for her earlier actions, but I didn’t particularly feel like she had too. I was even rather happy considering I would have had to apologize as well for threatening her back if she had taken the initiative. But she also didn’t seem angry or frustrated at my outburst in fact if my eyes didn’t fail me she looked just a tad... pleased?

I shook the probably wrong interpretation of her difficult expression out of my eyes and quickly got to work on the castle administration files. Trying to dismiss the one-sided awkwardness that had formed from the fight we had just had.

Was that even a fight? Or was that more an aggressive conversation? What even was a fight?

“Calm down and focus on your work maiden boy. Theodulus mentioned that you were a bit imbalanced since you haven’t been able to merge with me yet. I think you should take a few days off and chill in the human world for a while. You can also keep an eye on Sparrow for a while and keep her in the human world while you look into the witches a bit more.”

Aies’s dry sarcasm pierced through my somewhat panicked thoughts and helped me calm down as well as gave me a working battle plan.

There was nothing I could do about recent happenings but it was time to take preventative action.