Aggu paced before the pool, panicked and pleading, “Why? Just tell me why you’ve done this. Why!”

The water must have been deep for a giant to sit, and it reach his chest. It resembled a small tub at this point. Regardless, Wyrn’s father cast his eyes down at the water rather than his frantic wife.

When begging didn’t work, she started to curse. That failed, too, so she got more creative—more desperate and started gathering clothing to tie together.

The makeshift rope plopped in the water but the man in question ignored it.

On the second attempt, Aggu gave up, falling to her knees.

“Why?”

It was the first time she showed actual emotion past rage. One tear came and the ground shook when she shouted at him.

“You had no reason to do this!”

The pool of water was a wonder to behold. Though it appeared wet, parts of it snaked around the giant’s arms and even his neck.

“If you think,” Wyrn’s father said, picking his head up, “I’m going to go home knowing that my son’s wife has signed away her entire life on our behalf, knowing he’s alone while my family is whole, then what kind of person do you take me for?”

Aggu sat back on her haunches, covering her face.

Her tears were genuine, and her husband regarded her, finally.

“I’ve known you were a Fae for years. But….” He shook his head, hurt, “You never told me what being with me meant. You’ve been suffering all this time.” With a scoff, he hung his head once more. “I’m better off here.”

“No.” Aggu’s voice came out strangled. “It didn’t matter what it was beyond what I gained from it. You gave me far more than any fairy could ever dream. Giant, human, or otherwise, I finally understood why the Fairy Queen’s love was so deep for her giant. Yours for me rivaled even that. A moment of pain meant nothing to the happiness.” Her blue eyes were red and raw when she begged him, “Please, you can still come out. You’ve made no wish; you’d given no oath. Please do not leave me here like this—”

“Like what?” His large eyes scanned the room. “Like some part-time mercenary?” When she bit back a cry, he said, “If it’s a life for a life, I will wish for our son’s life. What more could a father do?”

He left the word as a challenge, but the woman did not take it. The man knew his wife was a Fae, so he must have known—or suspected—something about Wyrn as well. And he hadn’t cared; he was giving his life to prove it.

“But you don’t have to,” Aggu whispered. “Should there be a goddess, she can grant it in exchange for a celebration in her honor or some such nonsense.”

“Then let it be a living god,” her husband challenged.

Hands braced on the floor, Aggu wept. “It doesn’t work like that. It must be a fairy otherwise they would have replaced her by now. It was designed to save the Fairy Queen. It must be another Fae.”

Wyrn’s father looked beyond her then said, “Our son’s getting weaker so let’s say what we must to one another.

“Think of the others. They can’t have children without someone granting them a blessing.”

“Then I can wish for that, too,” he insisted. “The single life of a giant is worth many.”

Wyrn still shivered and Vadde, despite her small size, stood by his hand, struggling with what to do. If she entered now, would Wyrn’s father be spared?

She lost her chance when Aggu stood to her full height. The anguished fairy no longer cried. In fact, her gaze held hatred.

Her husband tried to reach out, perhaps to touch her face with one finger, but the water anchored him like a rope. He couldn’t leave the pool.

“Forgive me.” He then asked, “What do I do? Don’t let me waste this.”

Aggu stared through him but wiped her eyes and muttered an answer.

The giant in the water muttered his name, then gave an oath, “…Of the giants, do pledge…to serve The Living Goddess forever more.” Once he was finished, the water rose up to encompass him.

Black lines raced across the giant’s body, eventually converging on his back. He looked over his shoulder at the tattoo.

Vadde readied her heart for her turn. After planting a kiss on the back of Wyrn’s hand, she made her way to the pool.

Aggu had already beaten her to it.

The distraught fairy drudged into the water, ignoring her husband’s protest, and once she was in the center, wearing a scowl with no end, she turned and gave her name and made her pledge.

The water turned white and sucked her in.

Shaza and Bonn gasped but were relieved when she surfaced again.

Five minutes later, body considerably bigger with each step until she was beyond her human height despite the wings at her back, Aggu walked from the water.

Her husband stood but shrunk the more he advanced. He was twice his usual size as a mortal. The ground shook with his every step. Somehow, they both met in the middle body-wise—his small giant size, and her larger fairy height.

Aggu walked past Vadde and knelt, her now white hair hanging down like a curtain of water. She held Wyrn’s face and let out a low exhale.

The black words once on his back, ran up his skin till they gathered on his face then flew away.

Another spell faded, then another. On the final spell, the black ink fell on the floor and gathered together. It then dissolved into the ground, revealing a small red body.

Jeze.

The little fairy awoke with a start, gasped, and took flight without looking back. Matax, watching from high above, zipped out after Jeze.

Finally, Aggu stood and turned to Shaza who took a step back.

Aggu’s eyes lingered on the succubus for ages before Aggu gave her back to her and made her way to her husband who’d stepped from the water.

“Wait,” Vadde called. “He doesn’t want to be a fairy. He wants to be a giant. How can we do that?”

The new Living Goddess paused in her stride but didn’t look back. “He’s no longer bound by any spells. He was meant to be the new Fairy King. And the Fairy King, freed, can do whatever he wants.”

Once Aggu reached her husband, she wrapped her arms around his torso, and he leaned down to hug her in turn. He gave Bonn a satisfied smile but said nothing otherwise.

Wyrn was a fairy once more, and with wings. Instead of a blue color, his body was bronze.

Bonn scooped him up. Shaza got his clothes. Vadde worried they would leave her, but Shaza picked her up as well. No one knew what to say to the embracing couple, so they instead walked out. It was a lot of work getting Wyrn home. He slept but not soundly and more than once, his wings fluttered furiously, and he took off.

Shaza caught him each time, her hearing alerting her.

Finally, Vadde lay beside him, tangling her body to his.

They left the forest by evening. Bonn tried everything before finally discovering that if he simply covered the wings with all of his hand while in giant form, Wyrn would return to his human state. After that, it was a matter of tying his torso. This same method worked with Vadde as well.

Wyrn didn’t easily come to terms with the way things ended. More than once, he visited his parents, but his mother refused to see him. Six months passed before he understood why.

His back bound, he rested forward against the fence, watching Bluebell’s new foal feed. Something slammed into him, hugging him from behind.

He’d know that rude person anywhere.

“Evening, Princess.”

Vadde leaned around to see his face. “It’s been ages since you’ve called me Princess. Am I in trouble?”

“Hardly.” After a long bout of silence, he admitted, “Sometimes when I stand perfectly still, memories flood me. And not from just my own childhood but the previous Fairy King’s very life and the one he lived before that. And before that. It’s interesting but…terrifying. I was not a just ruler.”

Vadde hesitated but held his shoulder. Usually, she was fascinated by all things about the fairies—everything but past memories. The Fairy Queen had been loved far and wide. The Fairy King, less so.

Some days Wyrn would tell her what he’d learned, but there were times when he’d get quiet.

The king hadn’t been a good person. Perhaps that was why Wyrn made it a point of duty to visit the temple regularly. Vadde feared being back there but traveled with him out of duty.

Prince Orm, that bastard, had also made it out, albeit naked and on his own save for a new pair of water nymphs hovering close. Eating from the previous nymph couple came at a price—a marking. Nothing’d been heard from Orm in the past year.

“Do you miss it at all?” Vadde asked, because sometimes she herself missed being in fairy form.

This time, too, Wyrn avoided her question by turning in her embrace. He draped his arms around her and tugged her close.

“We’d never had a wedding ceremony,” he said. “Let’s have one in Mother’s honor.”

The first successful birth of their village came a year later. But it was the second that truly mattered to all of them.

Wyrn, now an expert in shedding and regaining his mortal form, flew around, frantic in his preparation.

“You’ll make yourself sick with all this worry,” Vadde warned, watching him.

“Less talk and more undressing. Get up here,” Wyrn snapped.

Vadde couldn’t transform at will. In fact, she needed Wyrn for each instance. After she was naked, she held out her hand and he gave her one tug and she shot into the air and into his arms.

Flying on her own was not something she liked attempting, though when Wyrn held her hand, she would try.

“Come. We’ll be late.” They zipped out the open window and were in time to see Bonn and Shaza make their way up those endless steps at the tower.

Shaza was slow moving but that was more than expected.

Wyrn and Vadde remained out in the open area as Shaza rested near the pool.

Vadde had trouble seeing what was happening. Wyrn was the worst, his pacing back and forth frayed her nerves as well.

The moment they heard a baby’s cry, Wyrn took flight without Vadde who took to running instead. That wasn’t fast enough so she jumped and managed to bob—fly towards the commotion.

As usual, The Living Goddess and her guardian were gone before they even arrived.

Wyrn stared at the water, searching for them.

Vadde slipped her hand into his.

“I wasn’t very good to her,” Wyrn said. “But even though that wasn’t me, I can’t shake the guilt. I just wanted to tell her how sorry I am.”

His mother had done unspeakable things on his behalf. Surely, her love wasn’t disputed.

Vadde often wondered how someone so filled with hate as Aggu found so much love to offer Wyrn. Over the months, Vadde’d come to understand. Aggu’s love for her husband fueled her devotion in caring for what he treasured—his sons. Wyrn’s father, for all his faults, cherished Wyrn and therefore, Aggu did as well. Time and time again, Vadde felt unworthy in the face of such love. “It’ll be a while before she can face her family.”

Speaking of which, the ruckus outside meant Wyrn’s brothers had finally arrived.

Bonn stood proud with his son in his arms. When the child began to grow, he hurried out and down the steps. Several other brothers released their power in order to get a better look.

Shaza appeared peaceful enough and Vadde was glad to help care for her until her husband’s excitement could calm enough for him to remember he had a wife as well.

They made it home in good time, but Wyrn surprised her by not going back to his typical, human size. Per his usual habit, he sat atop the fence keeping Bluebell and her offspring.

Vadde was wobbly as she flew up to join him.

“You don’t want to be big again?” she asked.

He had no words for her for some time. When he spoke, he stared out at the sky. “I think,” he said, interlocking his fingers with hers, “I should like to be in my true form for a bit longer.” When their eyes met, he admitted, “I can disguise myself as a duck anytime.”

End