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Gem, for that is the only name she lets anyone to call her, is an odd person. Except, Luusi finds that statement a bit misleading.
Luusi has travelled long and far, for her entire life.
From the moment she was discovered hiding behind baskets of stale bread in the remains of the overgrown bakery, to now, where she cares for the young of her illager clan and prays to every god she has ever heard of that the rest of the clan will return to them.
Luusi can admit, even though it sounds like thinly veiled arrogance, that he is knowledgeable. He knows a lot, maybe too much. Maybe more than one human ever should, maybe more than the little kid he used to be ever wanted to know.
Knowledge is power, though, so when Gem insists on being called Gem and nothing else, gives no indication that she has any name beyond that but surely she must, and words every sentence so carefully, Luusi knows.
Luusi was a curious child, once. She longed for more than her small village could offer her, and that curiosity never left.
So, of course Luusi wonders why Gem ever left the forest. Why she climbed so far up the mountain that even trees refused to grow, and then built a cabin from wood and geode and imbued it with magic.
He doesn’t ask. He respects the effort Gem puts into every word, careful to leave no debt and no grievance behind, on either end of every conversation.
Luusi wonders how hard it must be, to try and force herself into the mould of a human skin, even as her antlers tower above her and threaten her doorposts.
Not everything can be helped.
Gem looks human, mostly. Her bones don’t seem so much willowy and hollow as they do dense and strong. She towers above the height most human girls could reach by at least a few inches, like she tried not to seem so short and overcorrected.
But nothing’s hiding her eyes, so green that they could have been cut from a spring leaf and Luusi wouldn’t think it surprising, with the pupils slitted sharply, like a cat’s.
Her teeth are sharp, maybe a bit too sharp, but they take a second glance to determine that, and that second glance leaves the curious with a sense of offness, unnerved.
Her nails, when they aren’t painted over purple, seem a bit darker than they ought to be.
Gem is human, in the way that a wild wolf is a dog. Not quite, and everyone but the youngest children know that she isn’t, but it could be argued with some success that she was human.
Gem isn’t human, she’s as close to human as someone who exudes uncanny valley can get.
Luusi finds that Gem is uncanny valley personified, but that, unlike what Luusi expected to find in such a being, Gem is kind.
Or, she is as kind as a fae could be expected to be. She watches her words carefully, is so blunt that sometimes it’s painful, and seems to think over every word of an exchange before she agrees to anything.
When Luusi stumbles on Gem’s home, she is offered a deal.
Luusi will stock and staff the apothecary in Gem’s growing but empty village, and in return, Gem will provide Luusi and all of her clan’s young, all that is left of Luusi’s clan at the moment, with a place to stay. Gem doesn’t imply that they have to leave when or if the rest of their clan finally comes to find them, but she does insist that Luusi will not have to stay behind when or if his clan leaves.
She is gentle, too. When the little ones fall and scrape their knees and palms, she lifts them up and heals them and tells them that they owe her nothing for her kindness.
She nurses injured and sick animals back to health, and provides them with food and shelter when they inevitably grow attached to the being who was so kind to them.
Gem doesn’t really mind that Luusi mutters her very first spell under her breath whenever she’s nervous, that it covers the apothecary in thick rose vines and fills the surrounding grass with dandelions and cornflowers and lines the paths will towering lilac bushes.
Passing travellers find Gem unnerving. They shy away and say rude things to her. They ask Luusi ignorant questions about her, and try to demand equally bigoted answers.
Those kinds of people make Luusi seethe.
Luusi is not a kind person. He doesn’t think he’s ever been, from the first time he was hit for wanting to learn magic, to the moment where she barricaded herself in a flower-covered bakery to hide from what remained after the ravaging of the plague.
Luusi understands actions in reciprocity.
The clan saved him from the zombified remains of his village, and again when she caught the infection.
When travellers attacked the clan, Luusi forced the one spell she knew to grow thorny plants instead of harmless flowers to protect them.
They took him in and raised him as their own. Luusi trained as hard as she could with the old witch, learning as much magic as she could.
When their witch passed in a raid, Luusi did the best he could to fill their place, brewing potions and crafting charms and amulets to protect them. Luusi was too young to join the raid, the clan had insisted. Luusi didn’t allow herself to be relieved, no matter how the violence repulsed her. He had to protect his clan.
And Gem may not be part of his clan, but Gem has shown kindness to them where no others bothered.
“They just don’t know better.” Gem insists, trying to placate Luusi. He keeps muttering anyway.
When she’s angry, when she’s so angry that she seethes and feels protective violence bubble in her throat, the plants that grow from her spell aren’t pretty.
They are not the gentle blossoms of a peony or poisonous but harmless bells of a lily of the valley. They are sharp vicious thorns that spring from between the cobblestones of the path and the crevices in the walls and floors.
But Luusi has promised not to retaliate so he fills chests with vines and glares and spits back hard words, but does nothing against them.
That is all he is allowed to do.
Sometimes they go farther.
Sometimes, travellers spit cruel insults at the children. Sometimes, they try to get violent.
Luusi doesn’t always get to fight then. Gem is quick to protect the children, and she is strong enough to stop the travellers.
Sometimes, though, Gem gets tired.
Luusi loves those moments. Loves when her thorny vines are allowed to spill from every corner of the room and draw the blood his anger demands.
She is not kind. Luusi has never claimed to be anything less than vindictive, and one day he swears that he will join the raid, and will wreak vengeance on all those who hated her before she ever wished her skin might be grayer to match her family.
One day, he will learn to summon the vex and the fangs and he will protect his clan in a way he was not able to before.
Until that day, though, she will consider herself content with thorns and poisons.
Gem is kind. She deserves much more than human kindness. Luusi is not, won’t ever be.
Luusi is anger and vengeance and absolute reciprocity. He’s alright with that, he thinks. Maybe he is the dichotomy to match Gem’s. A fae with more kindness than any other, and an ex-villager with too much bloodlust.
Gem spends hours sitting on the floor of the apothecary, running her hands over the soft threads of the rug, chatting about everything and nothing at all.
The children run in and out, playing games like children are wont to do, often bringing flowers when they do.
They pluck the thousands of dandelions and cornflowers and poppies that Luusi grew by accident, gathering them in pretty bundles and putting them in wooden cups of water around the houses and the apothecary, and it doesn’t matter how quickly those flowers wilt because Luusi can always grow more if they run out, and the next time travellers pass through, he will certainly cover everything all over again.
Gem asks friendly questions that Luusi didn’t think anyone outside the clan would even think to ask. She wants to know how Luusi is doing, if she is worrying particularly over the state of her clan, what she thinks of the latest painting or toy or other creation the children have made.
And still, she seems to recognize that in some ways, Luusi might not be quite the adult he pretends to be because she compliments every batch of potion Luusi makes, and watches carefully every time Luusi attempts a new recipe or spell from Gem’s books.
Once, a group of humans try to invade the Crystal Cliffs, as the sign over the gatehouse calls this place. Luusi is a bit proud of the name, really.
But he knows these humans mean ill to him and Gem and his clan. It’s in their scowls and written across their sharpened blades and enchanted armour.
The children run, when they see the humans, as they usually tend to. They know the danger that comes from even peaceful ones, and these clearly aren’t.
Luusi forces volume to her muttering, letting bigger vines spring up from the path, ready to attack in any way they can. Oxeye daisies reach with thin but strong stems around their ankles, and Luusi readies to throw every potion he has prepared in the apothecary.
“We’re here to speak with Gemini, the ruler of this place.”
It’s only then that Gem appears, as if summoned.
“Who are you? What do you want with her?” Luusi demands, violence still brewing thickly in her heart.
“We are emissaries from Count Mother Helga of the Grimlands. We’re here to-”
“I’ll accept no message less than from the Count himself.” Gem cuts them off. “Leave.”
Either these weak humans find Gem much more terrifying than she actually is, or they just don’t care to be here. They cut through the stems of the daisies holding them in place, and leave as quickly as they’d come.
Luusi half expects to be scolded for her rashness. After all, if the soldiers were only here to deliver a message, then maybe they hadn’t been nearly as bloodthirsty as Luusi thought.
“You did good.” Gem says instead. “If you ever think we’re in serious danger, don’t let them past the gate.” Luusi grins, even as Gem passes him a hoe and they begin cutting down the brambles over the gate house.
By the time another messenger arrives, it’s been several long months, and Luusi has mostly forgotten about the attacking humans.
It hasn’t quite been long enough that when the party stops at a distance at the gate, Luusi isn’t already sending the kids away and checking over the potions tied to her belt and tucked into her bag.
They don’t move any closer, though, as one climbs off his horse, and seems to talk to the others for a long while before he steps forward.
The rose bushes start growing to fill the opening of the gate before Luusi even realises what he’s doing.
When she manages to stop muttering, the gate has already closed most of the way, only for one person to fit through easily, though more than two would be difficult.
The man, or at least he looks like a man, stands just outside the doorway Luusi had built by accident.
His clothes are dark, a red scarf around his shoulders. His hair is red, the same shade as Gem’s, and his skin is only just a bit more tanned.
He looks human. Luusi has the vaguest sense that he isn’t, though. It’s not like with Gem, where it’s obvious from the moment Luusi saw her. It’s still very present, though, an inkling of wrongness that leaves Luusi uneasy.
It’s a sort of unease that Luusi has grown used to, though. The sort of unease that leaves her relaxing because everyone else feels the exact same unease. There’s safety in it.
“What do you want?” Luusi shouts, not daring to get any closer to the man, no matter how presently unarmed he may seem.
“I’m here to talk to Gem.” He calls, and doesn’t move forward either.
“Stay there.” Luusi tells him, but she still speaks the spell to grow a few brambles over the doorway anyway. “Who are you?” She thinks to ask before she leaves.
“I’m called fWhip.” He says and Luusi smiles at the familiar dodging of that question.
She runs, then, as quickly as she can up to Gem’s house. She’s sitting in the centre of the floor, legs crossed and muttering a spell under her breath. It’s nothing powerful, just a spell that keeps the candle lit in front of her flickering with every intake of air.
Luusi knocks, careful to be quiet so she doesn’t disrupt her, and waving awkwardly when Gem looks up.
The flame goes out almost instantly, and she’s standing, a small smile on her lips.
“There’s someone here to see you? They’re outside the gate. He said his name was fWhip.”
Her smile slips away as the blood drains from her face. Luusi doesn’t think she’s ever seen someone so pale.
“fWhip?” She asks, her voice trembling.
“That’s what he said. Is he bad? I can send him away.”
“No, no, it’s alright.” Gem is bustling around the room now, tipping over piles of books and baskets of things in her search. “He’s not bad, it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting him, I didn’t think-” She cuts herself off with a choking gasp, followed by a forcefully deep breath. “I just…” Gem trails off, holding up an old dull sword and a metal file.
“What are you doing?!” Luusi asks, panicked when Gem takes hold of one of her antlers and lifts the sword. The sound of it snapping is somewhere between horrifying and nauseating. It’s a crack and a slice and a snap all in one, leaving the towering antler in Gem’s hand and a jagged base behind.
Luusi can’t tell if it’s painful or not, Gem doesn’t even flinch but just looking at it makes his stomach flip and his head ache.
Gem does the same to the second before Luusi can protest, and then Gem is pulling a thick beanie over her hair, followed by a hood.
“Does it look okay? Can you see it?” Gem doesn’t even seem to register that it might be a bit concerning to watch her cut off her own antlers like that, and just brush it off.
“Why’d you cut them?” Luusi asks, voice strained.
“fWhip’s my brother.” Gem tells her in halting statements, studying her reflection, which she quickly deems to not hide the remains of her antlers enough, because she jerks the hood and beanie off again, and tries to quickly fill down the stumps. “I don’t want him to know about the antlers cause they really were an accident, but he’ll blame himself anyway and he shouldn’t have to. It was my choice, and I really don’t mind them that much. But it’s fWhip-”
“He doesn’t know you have antlers?” If they were siblings, Luusi isn’t sure how he couldn’t know.
“I was born human, I messed up a spell and became whatever I am now, and I’m definitely not all fae because I can lie, but some things stuck but fWhip doesn’t know that and he’ll blame himself if he finds out, and I haven’t even seen him in years. So please help me hide it.”
“Alright.” Luusi agrees, with some reluctance. There really isn’t much to hide, after they’ve quickly filed down the rest of Gem’s antlers and cast a glamour to hide everything else. The antlers suddenly seem like they might have been most of what made Gem seem inhuman. They were certainly the most obvious part. “I don’t like this, though.” Luusi points out, as he picks up the antlers to hide out of the way.
There’s a slight groove in the wood of the doorway. Luusi grows a flower over it.
“I know, I’ll tell him eventually. I just can’t today.” Gem agrees, rushing out the door.
Luusi trails a bit behind, after stashing the antlers in the attic and locking it closed, something they don’t normally do.
Luusi doesn’t think she understands why Gem would hide something so important to her own identity.
But he thinks he might understand a bit more as she watches a more human looking Gem cut down the vines and throw her arms around her brother’s shoulders, both of them laughing joyfully before they start crying in each other’s arms.
If he had anything like that, he might be willing to hide himself to keep it too.
They spend hours hidden away in Gem’s house before Luusi comes to ask Gem what to do about the soldiers and fWhip, or maybe Count fWhip, Luusi isn’t sure what to call him, tells her that the soldiers can go home without him.
Of course, making them leave is much easier said than done, and Luusi ends up building a house of vines for them outside the walls for them to stay in when night gets closer.
She’s not letting human soldiers from a country as notoriously magic-hating as the Grimlands inside the walls, even if the Count is Gem’s long lost (?) brother.
He doesn’t understand why the Count of the Grimlands is a fae, and he doesn’t understand why Gem lets him think that she is human when he clearly isn’t, but Luusi doesn’t ask.
Luusi pushes away her curiosity, and sends the children to bed, still hiding their existence from the soldiers outside.
She hopes her clan is alright, and she hopes that the trail of flowers she left from their home to here will lead them to her.
As she closes up the windows of the apothecary and walks over to the building they’ve turned into a sleeping room until their clan comes for them, she glances up at the stars.
Maybe Gem wouldn’t mind too much if their clan stayed here too.
Luusi loves this place.
It just might be home.