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Chapter Text

Chapter 1

         “Katya!” A loud voice bellowed across the grounds.

         Katya’s head jerked up as she recognized her father Nikola’s voice. She glanced up at the sky and winced, noticing the low hanging sun realizing that she had lost track of time. Pushing herself off the ground, Katya started running home, her bare, calloused feet digging slightly into the rain-soaked ground as they carried her home. “Here Papa,” the blonde called, seeing her father standing behind their house. The small wood and thatch structure was situated on the edge of the village near the forest and resembled all of the other houses in the village.

         “Katya,” Nikola yelled, “You’re supposed to be helping your mother finish the chores while she watches your brothers, not gallivant around in the fields.”

         “I was with Dieter watching the sheep Papa,” Katya replied, skidding to a halt in front of the large man.

         “Dieter is capable of guarding the sheep himself Katya, he is a dog, that’s what he’s trained to do,” he said, pushing the girl towards the house. “Now go help your mother.”

         The girl grumbled slightly but obediently walked into the house, spotting her mother Nadya mending clothes and stirring a pot over the fire while her youngest brother Aksel was in a sling strapped to her breast. “Katya,” the woman said, seeing her daughter walk through the door. “I need you to help me fix dinner and watch your brother Milosh while I’m mending clothes. Where were you?”

         “Out in the field with Dieter and the sheep,” Katya said, “He needed my help.”

         “Dieter is perfectly capable of taking care of the sheep by himself, which is I’m sure what your father told you,” Nadya countered. “Now Katya, I have clothes to mend, a babe suckling at my teet, and another child rolling around somewhere. Remember when we talked a few months ago what would happen when the new baby came, about you taking on more responsibilities?” Katya scuffed her foot on the floor but nodded her head. “You need to start stepping up and doing more things around here Katya.”

         Katya pouted, “You mean I won’t be able to go out and spend any more time with Dieter? What about play time with Abigail and Mislav?” She threw her hands about, gesturing further in the village where her twin playmates lived with their father, the village chief Borislav.

         “Dieter is needed to help with the sheep, you know this. As for your friends, you will not have as much time with them, but I promise you will be able to spend time with your friends when you complete all of your chores,” Nadya waved her hand and motioned to the pot bubbling over the fire.

         The girl moved towards it and crinkled her nose as she inhaled the aroma of cabbage stew and pork. Summer had shifted into fall and the harvest was quickly approaching. The crops would need to be brought in, and the supplies divided up between what would be sold and traded to their neighbors, and what would be held back for the family to use through winter. The plants harvested early in the summer were starting to run low, but there was still enough to turn into hearty stews to keep them strong and full to get through the work needed to bring in the harvest and prepare the fields for winter. Any silage remnants from the plants would be preserved for the animals to also eat during the winter, but luckily the sheep and the goats ate anything in front of them. “I need you to cut an onion and put it in the stew, then go out back and milk the goat for you and Milosh, and fetch the ale for your father and I for dinner,” Nadya’s voice came, interrupting Katya’s musing.

         “Mama,” Katya protested, “Cabbage and onion stew?”

         “Yes, cabbage and onion stew, it’ll be good for you.”

         “But what about cheese Mama, or carrots? Maybe turnips?”

         “When it is time to harvest the crops and your father has enough to sell, we’ll be able to get cheese, unless you would like to take the time and make your own out of the goat’s milk?” Katya crinkled her nose again at that. She didn’t like making cheese and didn’t want to have to go through the whole process and wait for the milk to curdle, or give up any of her milk. “That’s what I thought, so you’ll have to wait,” Nadya said, removing the baby from her breast and repositioning him in the sling.

 “Yes Mama,” Katya grumbled as she pulled a dried onion from the herb rack and started chopping it into the stew, ignoring the tears leaking from her eyes. She stirred the pot a few times before leaving it and grabbing the bucket to go to the back to milk the goat. She was used to this chore, having done it many times in her ten years along with tending to the sheep with her Papa. Now her mother expected her to help her out a lot more with the household chores staying inside rather than being outside for most of the day like she was used to.

         She squeezed at the goat’s udders harder than she intended, causing it to protest physically, stomping at the ground and shaking its head. “Sorry,” Katya murmured, milking the goat as her father had taught her. She liked being outside, playing with her friends, running through the fields, even doing outside chores. She was not looking forward to more inside responsibilities. The girl returned with the milk and helped her mother churn part of it into butter before she started to clean the rest of the house.

         The sun sank low in the horizon, blanketing the sky in darkness by the time Nikola returned from the fields. The large man fell into his seat, Nadya instantly placing Aksel in his arms while she ladled stew into the bowls on the table. “Cabbage and onion stew Nadya?” The man moaned, agreeing with his daughter about the smell of boiled cabbage.

         “There’s some salted pork in it, you might not like it, but it’ll keep you strong,” the woman said, a no nonsense tone to her voice. “There’s planting to do and sheep to be shearing to make sure we have enough money to afford more seeds to replace what we lost.”

         “Sometimes, wife, I wonder who’s in charge here,” Nikola grumbled as he stood up to place Aksel in his crib, kissing Milosh’s head and ruffling Katya’s hair.

         “If you don’t know who’s in charge after all of these years of marriage, then I wonder about your intelligence,” Nadya quipped, strapping the babe back to her chest so that he could feed while she ate. She was older than many of the mothers in the village with three young children, having had trouble conceiving after Katya was born. It was six years before she fell pregnant again with Milosh and then Aksel two years later. Few children survived past infancy though so Nadya was determined to make hers strong enough to live, to survive. Katya was a wild child, but strong and healthy, Milosh as well and she’d be damned if Aksel was not as strong as his siblings.

         Nikola just grunted into his stew, slurping it down to quench his growing hunger. Katya followed his example at the cabbage stew quickly hoping to avoid the taste. Once she put the cabbage in her mouth though the taste seeped onto her tongue and into her nose. Her entire face scrunched up and she shuddered but one cruel look from her mother silenced any protests she had.

         Her brother Milosh slurped happily at his soup, splashing it slightly on the table while he ate, earning a disapproving reprimand from Nadya. “Katya, when you finish your stew, clean up the bowls and take care of your brother please,” the woman asked, wincing when the baby pulled too tightly at her breast.

         “Yes Mama,” the girl grumbled, quickly downing her food. She helped her brother finish eating while her parents ate, cleaning him up and putting him to bed as soon as he was done. By the time she finished with Milosh, her parents had finished eating and she helped her mother clean off the table and the dishes.

         “Mama, Papa, can I go see if Mislav and Abigail want to play?” Katya begged, her wide green eyes pleading with her parents. “I haven’t seen them all day.”

         “It is night time Katya,” Nikola replied, settling into his chair before the fireplace, a large mug of ale in his hand.

         “There’s a full moon out tonight Papa, plenty of light.”

         “But all kinds of creatures will be out with the full moon as well,” Nadya countered, putting Aksel to sleep for the night. “Werewolves, witches, fae…”

         “Mama,” Katya whined.

         Nikola sent Nadya an amused look before glancing down at his daughter. “You stay out of the woods and leave Dieter alone to guard the sheep,” he stated firmly, giving the girl permission to go see her friends.

         Katya squealed, “Thank you Papa, I’ll be back later.”

         “Be careful Katya!” Nadya called out after her daughter before looking back at her husband. “Honestly Nikola.”

         “She’ll be fine Nadya,” he waved off her concerns, drinking his ale. The woman rolled her eyes at her husband and looked out in the dark again before seeing to her other children and preparing for bed.

         Katya raced through the village, heading for the largest wooden structure close to the center of town. She saw the flickering light of lit animal fat through the cloth covering the windows and knocked hesitantly at the door.

         Borislav’s wife, Elena, answered the door, looking down at the girl with a raised brow and a slight sneer. The woman had never liked the young girl, finding her too wild and rowdy for a young lady. She hoped that the girl would start to behave properly since Nadya had the baby but it didn’t seem to be affecting the girl’s behavior. “Yes?” She asked, looking down at the girl.

         “Um, I was wondering if Mislav and Abigail could come out and play?” Katya asked hesitantly, her spirit wilting slightly under Elena’s expression.

         “You do know that it is after dark?”

         Katya wilted even more, “There’s a full moon out tonight…”

         Two small bodies, both slightly bigger than Katya, crashed into Elena’s back, peaking around their mother. “Katya!” Abigail greeted, her curly brown hair tied back around her neck while her dark eyes glittered in the low light.

         “Please can we go out and play mother?” Mislav asked, his own long brown hair tied back like his sister’s.

         Elena looked down at her children in disapproval but Berislav’s deep voice came from inside the house. “Let them go Elena, it is a full moon, and running off some energy will do them some good.”

         The woman huffed and glared down at the girl before looking at her children fondly, “Go on, have fun, but don’t go in the forest.”

         “Yes mother,” Mislav and Abigail called, running out of the house after their blonde friend.

         “Your mother scares me,” Katya whispered once they were far enough away from the house.

         “She’s a scary person,” Abigail agreed, nodding her head. “Just the other day she laid into Father something fierce when he stomped into the house with mud caked on his shoes. I’ve never seen him afraid of anything, but she had him quaking where he stood.”

         “Some of the other women in the village say that she’s bitter about not having any other children,” Katya said. “I heard that old gossipy widow woman Elke who makes the goat cheese and the master hunter’s wife Freja talking one day when I was running errands for Mama.”

         “You know they have nothing better these days than to gossip,” Mislav scoffed. “Silly old women.”

         “What do you expect the women to do when the men are out fighting, hunting or working?” Abigail asked her brother. “You can’t begrudge them from something they obviously take pleasure in.”

         “They’re talking about our mother Abby!”

         “Sometimes she might deserve it,” the girl countered, “You know very well how she treats some of the people in the village.”

         They both looked over at their friend who shrugged. “She hates me, I know it, everyone knows it, she also terrifies me enough so that none of the old horror stories that Mama tells me work because Elena is far more terrifying.”

         “She stars as the witch in all of your nightmares then?” Abigail teased her friend.

         Katya shuddered, “Scary, but we’re wasting time. Even though it’s a full moon, I don’t think my parents will let me stay out too long. Let’s get to playing!”

         The three took off running through the fields once they hit the edge of town, running through the crops, dodging the plants, running around them and coming to the fields where the animals graze at night. Nikola and Dieter had taken the sheep into the pen for the night to keep them safe from stray wolves and the other men of the village had done the same. The fields were devoid of animals so they ran through the fields, unhindered, chasing each other around, laughter echoing in the night.

         A whisper of sound moved through the air, causing the children to pause their activities. The sound frightened Mislav and Abigail but intrigued Katya, calling to her. She couldn’t place the sound, couldn’t place what it was, like music, or song, lyrical, but quieter and more magical. “What’s that sound?” Katya asked, her voice breathless but her eyes bright.

         “It sounds weird,” Abigail whimpered, shrinking back slightly. Mislav nodded in agreement with his sister.

         “No way, it’s beautiful,” the blonde said, her feet drawing her towards the sound. “It sounds like the wind whistling through grass with birds singing, but also so much better.” Her feet carried her through the fields to the edge of the forest.

         “Katya, no,” Mislav insisted, grabbing the younger girl’s arm. “We can’t go into the forest, it’s the middle of the night!”

         “Come on Mislav, don’t you want to know what that sound is?” Katya insisted, her eyes searching the darkness in front of her.

         “Not enough to risk disobeying my parents,” the boy said, tugging the girl away. “Come on.”

         Katya looked mournfully back at the forest as her friends drug her away.

         The song plagued Katya’s mind for weeks, haunting her waking hours with memories of whispered promises and pleadings. She longed to go to the forest to seek the sound, but she heard it not during the day. The girl sought to return to the forest at night in hopes to catch a faint whisper, but her friends were quick to tell their parents what they had heard and the whole village put a ban on anyone entering the forest after dark. The elders were especially spooked by the sound and Katya didn’t understand why they were afraid of such a beautiful song.

         So Katya was forced to wait, practicing the virtue of patience, which was never her strong suit. Summer fully gave into fall and the autumn harvesting season came. The days grew shorter, which left her little time for exploring or her friends, as she was busy with helping her mother with her brothers and her father with the animals and the harvest. She would leave in the morning close to dawn and return after sunset, exhaustion filling her body. Other days, when Katya wasn’t in the field, she was inside tending to her brothers and helping her mother make clothes and shoes for winter.

         Four moon cycles passed and Katya was freed with the first snowfall. With no whisper of the song reaching the ears of the elders, the ban was lifted though Katya knew that she, a child of only ten autumns, would still be prohibited from entering the wood after dark. She knew she would have to wait for the light of the full moon before exploring the forest for the sound; she was not foolish enough to enter in complete darkness.

         “Mama,” Katya started, addressing her mother as she cleaned up from their evening meal. It was the first full moon after snowfall and Katya knew it was time to make her move. “I know it is dark out Mama, but I was wondering if I could go out and play. The snow is light on the ground and I wanted to play in it before it got too heavy.”

         “And is there a reason you cannot play in it during the day?” Nadya asked.

         Katya huffed, “We’re always working during the day, so there’s no time. I’m either helping Papa with the animals, running errands for you or watching Milosh and Aksel.”

         “Let her go out, Nadya,” Nikola said, walking over to his wife. “She’s been working hard these past few weeks and deserves a break.”

         “She’ll catch her death out there Nikola, the first snow is always the coldest and she has nay meat on her to protect her from the chill,” Nadya countered, glaring at her husband.

         Nikola scoffed, “Katya takes after me, she’s a sturdy kitling, hardy. The cold won’t bother her one bit.” The man turned to his eldest child and appraised the anxious expression on her face, “You’ll be okay, won’t you Katya?”

         “Yes Papa!” The girl replied gleefully, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet.

         Nadya glared as her husband and daughter looked at her with matching eyes, one set glittering in amusement, the other set wide and pleading. She rolled her eyes, “Fine, but you better dress warmly. One sniffled from you tomorrow morning, and you are locked in the house for the rest of winter.”

         “Yes Mama,” Katya squealed, pulling on her thick wool clothes and animal furs before tugging her boots on and heading out the door. The girl visited Dieter in the stables with the animals, patting the dog softly on the head. She took a deep breath and headed out into the fields, sliding gleefully on the snow. The sparse winter foods had been plated weeks ago and small plants were pushing up from the ground through the snow. Running through the garden, she jumped over the fence and into the pasture fields, her feet crunching on the dead grass and crisp snow.

         She waited. The moon rose slowly in the sky as she waited. The world was still, quiet, until she heard the sound. It was soft, soothing, but her sharp ears caught the noise and her feet carried her towards the song. Katya stopped at the edge of the forest. The leaves had fallen off the trees, allowing more light to trickle through their lumbering forms, but shadows still danced and swayed on the ground.

         The song continued to swirl around her, enticing her to enter the wood. Taking a deep breath, Katya stepped into the forest, her ears trained on the soft melodies echoing through the trees. She didn’t know how far she walked before she spotted a light shining in the darkest part of the forest. Katya hesitantly followed the song, moving closer to the unnatural light.

         She paused, hiding behind a tree when she saw shadows dancing and moving, following the rhythm of the song. Cautiously peeking around the tree, Katya held in a gasp at the sight of figures of different shapes and sizes dancing in a circle around a glowing light. The small clearing where they danced looked untouched by the harsh winter. No snow touched the ground and the moss and grass were bright, summer green and flowers were blooming as if it were spring. Glancing up, Katya noticed that the branches of the field facing the clearing were full of bright and vivid green leaves.

         Katya hesitantly moved around the tree, stepping further into the clearing before a hand grabbed her arm and jerked her back behind the trees. The blonde started to let out a squeal of protest but another hand clamped on her mouth, stopping the noise. “You have to be quiet,” a voice hissed in her ear before letting her go.

The girl whirled around to face whoever grabbed her and green eyes met clear, bright blue. Katya blinked momentarily before her eyes skated over the rest of the figure. Long brown hair with white streaks framed a pale, young face about her age. Blue eyes locked with green again and Katya realized that the other girl was assessing her as well. “Who are you?” Katya demanded, not recognizing the girl from her village.

“You’re the one who is out here in the woods far from home,” the other girl retorted, one of her eyebrows quirked in amusement.

Katya scowled and huffed. “Fine, my name is Katya, now who are you?”

The other girl smirked, “I am called Iseult, but most call me Isa.”

“Isa,” Katya, “Isa means ice.” The blonde looked at the other girl in suspicion.

“And Katya either means pure or chaos,” Isa said, a smirk still present on her face. “Which one were you named for?”

“That is none of your business,” Katya hissed out, her cheeks burning a bright red. “What are you doing all the way out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing though, but I think I already know.” Isa moved around the girl and looked into the clearing, observing the dance. “You were drawn here by the song.”

Katya glanced curiously at the girl before looking at the dancing figures. “Did you come because of the song as well?”

Isa shrugged, “You could say that.”

“Why did you stop me from walking further into the clearing?”

Blue eyes glanced back at her and Katya froze momentarily as the eyes assessed her. Isa looked away and nodded to the circle created by the dancing figures. “Do you know what that is?” She asked. Katya shook her head, staring at the girl in confusion. “Look closer, see the mushrooms just under their feet?”

The blonde pressed herself closer to the other girl and peered into the flickering light and dancing flames, barely making out the ring of mushrooms on the ground. Something about this all sounded familiar, almost fanciful, like a tale her mother had told… “A fairy ring,” Katya gasped. “It’s a fairy ring, a gateway between this world and the land of the Fae. It is said on nights of the full moon, Fae travel between the realms to dance in the rings, wanting to attract mortals they could curse for daring to cross the circle.”

Isa winced at Katya’s words, “While not entirely true in why they dance, I’m sad to say that the end result is correct. People, mainly children, are called to the ring and cross, allowing the Fae to curse them.”

Katya took in Isa’s words and looked at the girl, really looked at her. She was thin, but not sickly, her body strong, hidden under unusual clothes, much too thin for winter weather. The blonde could just make out the sharp point of her ear when the brunette pushed back a lock of hair. “Fairy,” Katya gasped out, “You’re a fairy.”

“That’s a very general term, but yes,” Isa replied, “Now pipe down or they’ll hear you.”

“No, what, are you trying to trick me?!” Katya accused, “Trying to get me to walk into that ring to curse me?”

“If I wanted to curse you, do you think I would’ve stopped you from being a complete idiot and just walking into the fairy ring?”

Katya stopped short and thought about Isa’s words. “No I guess not,” she groused. She glanced back at the figures dancing in the ring. “You don’t really look like them though, the ones dancing in the ring. They’re smaller, but look more mature, more grown up. You’re just a girl.”

“There are all kinds of Fae,” Isa replied, “Or are you claiming that all mortals look the same?”

The girl just shrugged. She hadn’t seen any for herself, but she heard the older men and warriors speak tales of men with skin painted blue or others with skin as dark as night. Her mother had told her not to believe such tales from the men as they usually exaggerated to herald their own ‘heroic’ feats in battle. Isa was none too impressed with Katya’s answer. “You need to get out more,” she said, glancing back at the dance.

“So I tell my Mama, but she’s all ‘You must stay home and help me with your brothers,’” Katya rolled her eyes. “Quite a bother really.” Isa hummed and continued to monitor the dance while Katya watched her. “Why do you not have wings? I thought all fairies had wings?”

“Most fairy-folk can fly, but not all,” Isa corrected. “And yes I do have wings, but they can be quite annoying at times. Móraí says I just have to get used to them is all.”

“Mor-what?” Katya asked, confused.

“Móraí, my grandmother… look never mind, you really shouldn’t be out here, you’re just a girl.”

Katya bristled at Isa’s words, taking offense to being spoke to in such a condescending tone. “What do you mean I’m just a girl? I don’t know about fairies, but you don’t look all that much older than me.”

Isa glared back at the girl, her ice blue eyes glittering in the dim light emanating from the fairy dance. “How do you know how old I am? I could be far older than you are.”

“You could, but you’re acting like a brat so you’re definitely my age.”

“Look, you’re just a human. You would’ve fallen right in their trap if it wasn’t for me so the least you could be is grateful for saving your life.”

Katya brushed away her words, “They wouldn’t have killed me.”

“Probably not,” Isa conceded, looking back at the group, “But they would’ve made you wish you were dead.” She glanced back over at the dance and noticed that the participants were vanishing one by one. “Look, the dance is over, I have to go. Don’t come into the forest at night again.”

The girl growled at the order as the fairy girl slipped away in the darkness. “Who does she think she is, ordering me around like that,” she sniped, stomping her foot slightly. She stood there in the darkness for a few more moments before the reality of her situation caught up with her. “Oh no,” she murmured, gazing into the sky. The moon passed the halfway point and descended back to the horizon. “Mama’s gonna kill me,” she muttered as she took off back towards the village, never seeing the blue eyes staring after her in the darkness.

Chapter Text

Luck might have been with her when Katya went out into the forest, but the fickle lady was not with her when she returned. Nadya was furious that she had stayed out so late, and forbade her from returning to the forest for the near future. Katya protested that she returned before the moon had disappeared in the horizon, and her father chuckled at her words. Her mother glared at the both of them and ordered them out of the house.

Katya thought about telling her friends what she had seen when she snuck into the forest after dark, but memories of how they reacted to the song the first time they heard it held her back. She spent her days helping her father with the animals and preparing the crops for winter. The girl kept herself busy, helping her father get ready for winter and helping with her growing brothers, but her traitorous mind wandered back to the mysterious, annoying fairy with ice blue eyes. Her nose scrunched in irritation every time she thought of the other girl and she counted the days until the next time her mother let her go out in the forest during a full moon.

The days passed, the moon cycle came and went, and winter fully descended, freezing the earth with her cold, filling the air with her bitterness. Katya spent her days doing various chores and keeping her brother Milosh occupied while her mother took care of Aksel. The babe was growing and could sit up on his own, but still took most of his nourishment from their mother’s teat, much like the sheep sucklings in the field. Katya awoke after a particularly cold night tucked against her mother while her brothers slept on her father. She reluctantly pushed away and left the warmth of the cot, tugging on a few layers of clothes and her shoes to stave off the cold. She tiptoed to the door to not attract attention from her parents and opened the door. Silence and secrecy went out like a candle when she saw the fresh layer of snow coating the ground. It was one of the last snowfalls of winter because buds were already peeking out on the trees and plants dotted around their home.

Nikola and Nadya awoke hearing their eldest squeal and groaned when they heard the cries of delight proclaiming winter had brought one last beautiful snow for the season. “I’ll go check on her,” Nikola whispered, climbing out of bed. He urged his wife to stay in the warmth with their younger children before searching for their rambunctious blonde child.

“Papa!” Katya squealed out again on seeing him, “Look Papa, Winter has brought us one last snow before she takes her leave! Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It is beautiful Katya, but what are you doing out here in the cold?”

“It is too stuffy in the house Papa. I wanted to come out and see how Dieter did with the cold.” She let out a big grin and twirled around, small powdery crystals flying up with her feet, “And when I saw all of this, I couldn’t resist playing in it.”

Nikola looked around and took in the layer of snow that covered everything in sight. It was not a thick layer of snow, merely one last dusting before spring arrived. “It is kind of Winter to provide us one last beauty before the seasons change. When it melts the ground will be wet enough to get the seeds in for the spring planting.” He turned his attention back to his daughter, “Have you not grown tired of playing in the snow after a long winter?”

“That was different snow, this is End of Winter snow,” Katya replied. “It’s different.”

“It is beautiful knowing that Spring is right around the corner,” Nadya’s voice came from behind Nikola as the woman approached the door.

“I thought you went back to sleep my love,” the man commented. He turned to his wife with a questioning look while Katya continued to spin gleefully in the snow.

“I’m awake, might as well be up,” Nadya replied. “And Milosh heard his sister crowing on about snow and woke to the morning’s light as well. Now Katya, come inside so you can have your morning meal. You can go back out and enjoy this final blessing of winter once you’re done so long as you take Milosh with you.”

“Yes Mama,” Katya replied, racing back into the house, her blonde hair flying behind her. She helped her mother prepare the morning meal, and eagerly set into her bowl of porridge, wanting to finish so she could return to the outside. Katya finished and pulled on her heavier clothes before returning outside with Milosh chasing after her.

She played with her brother Milosh outside in the dusting of snow, chasing the small boy around while he ran around in the powder. Her mother found having two little ones underfoot while she was working was difficult so tasked Katya with taking care of Milosh and teaching him about plants and flowers. With spring coming, he would soon help his father and sister in the field growing food that they needed to eat and trade. The blonde girl spent only a little while teaching the boy about the plants Nikola would soon be setting seed out for before the lure of playtime became too great for the both of them. She trooped guiltily back to the house with her brother toddling behind her, both wet and covered in dirt and grime.

Nadya sighed at the sight of her children and rolled her eyes, “Take your clothes off and get dried up and brush as much dirt off you as you can. You’ll have to wait until after dinner to clean up with any leftover water.”

“Yes Mama,” Katya said, already stripping off the layers of clothes she had put on to keep out the cold and helped Milosh do the same. The boy took off through the house when she had stripped him down to his undercloth, running into their Papa when the man walked through the door.

“Well, my son, looks like you had a good day out with your sister,” Nikola said, hoisting the small boy up over his shoulder.

“Best day Papa,” Milosh replied laughing. “Katy talked to me about the plants and then we played in the snow and Mama was irritated when we came back all dirty.”

“Yes, Mamas do that sometimes,” he smirked, setting the boy down, “Now go put some more clothes on my son.” The toddler ran back to his bed to find some of his extra clothes while Nikola moved to the baby crawling around on the floor by his wife’s feet. “And here’s my other boy,” Nikola exclaimed, swooping Aksel up off of the ground. “Your sister is going to teach you how to be big and strong just like she is with Milosh, right Katya?”

“Yes Papa,” the blonde replied, puffing out her chest a bit to make herself appear bigger, stronger.

“Yes yes, big and strong, now settle down for dinner,” Nadya said. She set bread, cheese, salted meats and vegetables on the table. Winter had been long and they were running low on provisions, but the woman had managed to set aside enough to last them through until the spring harvest.

Katya devoured her helping of food and bounced slightly on her seat, ravenous from her day of playing in the snow. The freshly fallen snow made her think of the fae girl she met the last time new snow was on the ground. What was her name? Katya’s brow furrowed as she attempted to remember, she knew that the white-haired girl had mentioned her name but her memory grew fuzzy when she thought about that moment. She knew the girl had told her her name, but nothing she did would help her recall it. 

“Can I go out and play tonight Mama, Papa?” She asked. “The sky is clear and there will be a full moon out so I will be able to see.”

“Absolutely not,” Nadya replied as she held Aksel to her breast with one hand and ate her own food with the other.

“Awe, Mama,” the girl whined. “Why not?”

“Because the last time you were out at night, you came back hours later from who knows where, and while Spring is coming, it is still cold at night,” her mother’s eyes bored into hers. “What if you get lost and manage to catch your fool death of cold out there?”

“It’s not that cold out at night right now Mama,” Katya returned. “And I wasn’t out that long, the moon was not even halfway through the sky when I came back.”

“Katya,” Nikola warned. The blonde girl turned her big green eyes on her father, pleading with him and he shrugged. “It’s up to your mother Katya, don’t look at me.”

Green eyes turned to stare into a matching pair, her lip quivering for added effect. Nadya pinched her nose and sighed, “Fine, you may go out, only after helping put Aksel and Milosh to bed.”

“Thank you Mama!” Katay giggled, jumping up to help clean up from their evening meal. Nikola chuckled and Nadya rolled her eyes, muttering about rebellious, wild children.

The blonde girl could see the moon peeking over the horizon when her mother let her out of the house. The older woman wanted to wait until there was some light on the ground to guide the girl in the darkness. “Are you going to play with Mislav and Abigail?” Nikola asked as Katya bounced slightly by the door.

“Elena doesn’t let them out to play at night much.” Katya made a face, “Even during the summer when days are longer and warmer she is reluctant to let them out. Plus, I don’t think she likes me.”

“Elena always was a difficult one,” Nadya murmured as she fussed over her daughter. “Even when we were younger.”

“You knew Elena when she was younger?” Katya scrunched up her face.

“We were from the same village, the one on the other side of the forest, Elena was several years older than me but I do remember her being a bitter harpy, youngest of her sisters. She didn’t have much of a dowry after they all married, and it was only her looks that prompted a good marriage.”

“Her looks?” Katya thought about the older woman, slouched body, dried out skin and hair.

“Hard to imagine isn’t it?” Nikola whispered to his daughter, wiggling his eyebrows.

Katya giggled and Nadya stifled back a laugh, “Alright that’s enough you two. Katya, you can go out and play now, but if you’re going to continue to use that example, before the moon is halfway in the sky.”

“Yes Mama,” Katya called as she ran out the door.

“That girl is going to give me gray hairs,” Nadya sighed, turning back into her house and leaving Nikola standing in the doorway. Nikola chuckled at his wife and glanced out at the small form of his daughter for a moment before following his wife.

Katya ran through the fields, playing lightly through the fine dusting of snow and marveling at the flowers and plants peeking out from under the fluff. When she was sure she was out of sight of her house, she quickly made her way into the forest, the light from the full moon guiding her way. It didn’t take her long to locate the same tree she hid behind months ago, and watched as the fairies danced to the haunting melody. She watched them for a few moments, her eyes drooping slightly as she was lulled by the soft, enticing music.

Wakefulness filled her body when she felt a presence nearby and eyes watching her.

She whirled around, her green eyes meeting a pair of ice blue orbs glowing in the darkness not far from where she was perched. “So you do come out every full moon,” Katya whispered, running over to the other girl.

Isa rolled her eyes at the human’s exuberance and glanced between her and the dancing figures around the fairy circle. “Of course, I told you that I come and make sure that silly children like you don’t get lured in by the troublemakers’ dance.”

“I didn’t come to watch the dance this time,” Katya scowled, “Well I did, but anyway, I wanted to come and speak to you.”

“And why do you think that I would want to speak with you?” Isa returned, her brow arched in a questioning manner as she stared at the mortal in front of her.

“Well,” Katya drawled out, unsure how to continue. She didn’t think this far into the conversation. “You’re the first fairy I’ve ever met, and I bet that I’m the first human that you’ve ever met, so maybe we can learn from each other!”

“Why should I wish to learn about humans?”

“You spend time in the human world, don’t you want to know more about it?”

“I have already seen much of the human world, and I have to say I’m not super impressed.” Isa crinkled her nose, “You trample and rip apart forests without any care to make villages and settlements that smell of rank and despair.” She narrowed her eyes at the girl in front of her, “And you’re foolish enough to return to a fairy ring during a full moon, knowing the dangers present here.”

“I didn’t come here for the fairy ring though, I came to see you!” Katya let out a sigh, “I just, you’re the most interesting thing around here. There are not many others my age in the village or nearby to play with, so it is either play by myself or help my mother with my younger brothers.”

"So," Isa started. "You're suggesting a… friendship of sorts. Usually humans don't befriend fairies unless they want something."

“Well, I want to be your friend if that counts…”

Isa hummed and thought about it, “You want to be my friend… shall we make a deal?”

Katya shook her head, “Oh no, no deals, I know better than that. Papa always says never make a deal with fairies.”

“He probably also told you not to talk with one if you encounter them.”

“Yes, well…” The human girl shrugged. “Do you want to be friends or not?”

Isa tilted her head and studied the strange child. She was the first human she had ever really encountered or spent time with. Her grandmother always told her that humans were selfish creatures, and getting involved with one would only lead to trouble. Staring at the girl in front of her who was looking at her with wide blue eyes, and a bright smile on her face, Isa wondered if that assertion was true. "Alright," she said reluctantly. "We can be… friends."

Katya did her best to restrain the squeal that was about to erupt from her throat, but couldn’t control the bright smile that crossed her face. “Friends,” she squeaked. “Friends.”

“Should you not be doing… human things?” Isa asked, directing her question to the base of a tree where a little girl was curled in a bed of moss.

“Should you not be doing fairy things?” Katya retorted, shooting a glare above her to where Isa was lounging on a thick branch. 

“I lured a human into the woods,” the fey replied. “Pretty sure that qualifies as ‘fairy’ things.”

“You know what I mean,” the girl groaned. “Actual fairy things, like magic and stuff.”

Isa hummed at the question. It was such a human thing to ask, but she could understand why the girl was probing in such a way. She knew of the stories told about her kind, and the previous experience Katya had with fey kind, being lured into the wood by a magical song, it was no wonder that the girl assumed they all had magic or did the same type of magic. 

“It might come as a surprise to you,” Isa started. “But I am a winter fairy, my magical abilities extend to making snow, ice, cold, and other things associated with winter. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to be doing magic with spring just beginning.”

“But you could if you wanted to,” Katya countered. “You could make it snow in spring or summer if you wanted to?”

The fey scrunched her face as she considered the girl’s question. Could she make it snow in the summer if she wanted to? It wasn’t something she had ever thought about, why would she want to make it snow in the summer? Snow did not belong in the summer, snow belonged to winter and the transition of seasons from fall to winter and from winter to spring. Snow does not belong in the summer, so why would she want it to snow in the summer?

When she voiced her questions, the human girl let out a sigh of exasperation, “Haven’t you ever wanted to do something just because? Not because of any reason, but just because you could?”

"I-" It's not something she ever considered, using her magic to do what she wanted to do, not for a trick or any kind of reward, but just because she could. "That's not really how fairies work," Isa finished. "Doing things because we could, that's more of a human thing."

“Well that’s boring,” Katya sighed, pushing herself off the ground. “Let’s do something fun.”

“I’m not going to annoy the spring fairies by causing a snow storm when they just started their work.”

"Nothing like that, just come with me." The human girl bounced up from her seat and motioned for the fae to follow her. "Come on," she said. "Let's go do something just for fun."

The Faeling watched the human girl skip away before she turned back and gave an impatient wave. “Well,” Kate repeated. “Come on, follow me.”

Isa sighed and slipped from her perch before following the girl further into the wood. The light from the full moon was enough to illuminate the forest floor as they carefully stepped around roots, rocks, and small plants cluttering the underbrush. “Where are we going?” Isa asked after they had walked for a few minutes.

"There's a small pond out here, I've been to it a few times with Papa and Meesha," Katya replied. "The forest looks different at night though, so I don't remember exactly where it is."

The Faeling cocked her head and tried to remember what she could about the wood. It was different from the fairy realm, the trees were less talkative and didn't hum with energy. She could feel the faint traces of magic within them, and carefully touched it with her own magic. It was brittle and faint in the trunk and branches, just barely thrumming as buds of new leaves carefully grew after a long winter, but it was strong in the roots, pulsing just under the surface and through the ground. She carefully sent her magic through the roots, and an image of the forest around her appeared in her mind. Plants, trees particularly, had an excellent sense of direction, older mature trees more than saplings. There was a faint protest as they were still waking up from their hibernation, but as a winter fairy, her magic was more attuned to the sleepy thoughts of the hibernating trees.

“The pond is southeast of our position,” she announced after a few moments. “We're not that far from it."

"Whoa," Katya gasped. "How did you do that?"

"Fairy magic" Isa shrugged. “It is too difficult to explain the entirety of what I did, especially to a human with little to no experience dealing with fairies.”

“So the more I get to know you, the more you’ll tell me?”

Isa cocked her head, “Not exactly. It is more like the more time you spend around fae beings, the more you will understand. It is called The Knowing, the more you experience, the more you know. That is the way the world works, but for fae, it works in a mysterious way. Knowledge inadvertently filters into your mind and imprints on your soul, when you need it, you will know it.”

“That would be nice for other things,” Katya grumbled. “Being able to just know something.”

“Yes, well, that only applies to information about fae, doesn’t really work with anything else. We have to learn things just like humans do.” They stopped at the edges of the small pond Katya was aimlessly searching for, located just far enough into the wood that most of the villagers were hesitant to visit it. Forests were dangerous places for the unaware, uninformed, or unaccompanied, so it was best to steer clear of them except when absolutely necessary. The hunters and warriors in the village would venture into the wood, but never alone. They would travel in pairs with their dogs checking their traps, or looking for deer or boar wandering alone. The hunters realized though they were rarely the only predator in the forest seeking prey. After seeing the fairy circle and talking with Isa, Katya realized the adults were concerned about more things than wolves and bears in the dark of the forest.

Katya crouched down to the ground and started searching through the damp leaves on the ground. "Ah, here we go, I knew there was some still here," she mumbled to herself. She stood up and revealed several small, flat rocks in her hands. "My Papa showed me this," she said. "You just have to hold the rock sideways like this, flick your wrist, and then throw the stone at the water…" She releases one of the rocks in her hand and it skipped twice across the surface before sinking. "And that's it, you try to see who can get the most skips."

"And what purpose does this serve?" Isa questioned, hesitantly taking one of the stones.

"It's fun." Katya shrugged, "Go on and try it."

The fairy girl hesitated momentarily before copying the movement Katya did and tossed the rock towards the water. It hit the surface and immediately sank beneath the water with a plop and a thunk. "Ah," Katya said. "That happens, you need to toss it as flat as possible." She gave the other girl a few more rocks. "Here, keep trying, you'll get the hang of it. I'm going to find some more rocks, I know the stream and some birds drop some around the bank of the pond." She set out searching for more rocks while Isa kept throwing them at the water, a determined frown on her face.

When Katya returned with another handful of rocks, she watched as Isa tossed a rock and it skipped halfway across the pond before sinking beneath the surface of the water. “Look, see, you’re getting it,” the blonde girl crowed. 

Isa shot the other girl a broad grin, “You’re right, this is… very fun.”

They continued throwing rocks, exclaiming in joy about successful skips and yelling about rocks that hit the water with a ‘plunk’ and immediately sank beneath the surface. Katya didn't notice the longer they stayed in the forest and the higher the moon rose in the sky until it was reflecting in the water of the little pond.

"Oh no," Katya groaned when she realized how late it was. "My mother is going to kill me if I don't get home soon."

"Móraí will also be expecting me home," Isa said. "I should get back to the fairy ring." She glanced over at the human girl, "Do you know the way back to your village?"

Katya turned and gazed thoughtfully through the trees, "I think so… maybe that way?"

Isa rolled her eyes, and whispered a few brief words before blowing a quick burst of air. A line of frost appeared on the forest floor, settling on the leaves that covered the ground. "Just follow the frost," she said. "It should end just at the tree line."

"Awe, do you not want me to get lost?"

The fairy snorted, "I just don't need another human girl getting lost in the woods to be eaten by whatever creatures roam the night."

At that moment, a wolf howled in the distance, causing both girls to freeze. "Ah, yes, well," Katya started. "I should be going."

Isa nodded and looked back at the pond, "It is a shame that we used all the rocks, this was quite fun."

"Don't worry, the pond always gives them back," Katya replied. "There's always rocks here to use." Another wolf howled and the human girl took a step away, "Ah, I have to go, I'll see you again?"

The fae tilted her head as she thought about the question before nodding. "Yes," she answered. "We will see each other again."

Chapter Text

It was quite a mysterious thing, being a friend of a fae. Sometimes Katya would see Isa every moon, sneaking out on the nights of the full moon to find Isa watching the more troublesome spirits dancing in the fairy ring. Other times, several moons would pass before she saw the fairy girl again. Katya thought about asking her what she does on the nights of the full moon when she was not observing the fairy ring, but she held the questions inside. While she knew that she and Isa were friends of sorts, Katya knew that questioning a fairy too much could be dangerous. 

Many moons had passed since that first meeting; the moons turned to years, and the once ten year old girl had grown into a thirteen year old girl on the cusp of adulthood. Not quite a girl anymore, but not yet a woman. It was a confusing time for Katya, her emotions were all over the place, and it seemed her other friends in the village were also experiencing the growing pains. 

Mislav and Abigail, both fourteen, had started to be given greater responsibilities now that they had entered adulthood according to the traditions of the village. As children of the village chief, more pressures were placed on them, so they rarely had time for their young friend anymore. Mislav was training with his father as a hunter and a warrior as well as being apprenticed out to the local carpenter in the village on the other side of the wood to learn a new skill. He would be gone for weeks at a time to learn from the man, only to return and learn different skills from his father. 

Katya sighed wistfully as she thought about her friends; she had been given extra responsibility as well but she didn't know if she appreciated it or not. She let out another groan as one of the spring lambs born a few months ago rammed into her legs again. "Not again," she grumbled, shooing the lamb away from her shins. "No, go away- ahh!" She cried out as she felt a sharp set of teeth sink into her ankle. The girl turned around and found a tiny puppy biting at the leather of her boots. "Duxi!"

The puppy released her shoe and looked up at her, a wide smile on his face as he panted and yapped at her. Duxi had been a gift from her father after he bred Dieter with a bitch from the village on the other side of the wood. Nikola received one of the pups after he was weaned as payment, and he gave the furry creature to his daughter to train to help her with her new responsibilities. He was supposed to grow and help Katya look after the lambs, but so far all he wanted was to bite and destroy things.

"Duxi, no!" Katya ordered when he started to chew on her shoe again. "Duxi sit!" She took a dried piece of goat jerky out of the pouch tied to her waist. When the black dog plopped his butt on the ground, she gave him some of the jerky. Her father taught Dieter to herd the sheep from the small field they used to the pen and eventually into the barn, and he agreed to help her with training Duxi but ultimately his obedience training was left to her. Teaching a puppy and making sure the adolescent lambs didn't knock her over and trample her was not the kind of responsibility she was hoping to achieve.

"You can always help Aksel and I in the house making cheese," Nadya called as she walked to the pen where her daughter was with the lambs and her puppy. "Or Nikola and Milosh milking the goats." 

Katya scrunched her nose at the thought. She hated milking the goats, and was grateful when her younger brother was old enough to start helping with the chores. It meant that her father was often too busy to spend with her as he taught his eldest son how to work chores on the farm as well as complete his own work. Her mother was typically responsible for taking the milk from the sheep or goats and making cheese to sell at market in the closest town or trade with their neighbors. She helped with cheese making when she was younger, but she preferred to be outside taking in the sights and sounds of the world around her. Aksel was still a babe but he was old enough to entertain himself while their mother worked, so she wasn't immediately needed to watch the younger children. She knew that she would have different responsibilities as she grew older, and that her Papa would need to spend time with her younger siblings to teach them the work he knew, like he did with her. She just wished her responsibilities were less… bitey.

“Oi, Duxi!” The puppy had started nibbling at her ankles again, and the leather of her boots was worn enough to feel the brush of sharp teeth.

Nadya worked to stifle the chuckle threatening to escape her throat and wished her daughter well before returning to the house with her four year old in tow. Katya kept working with Duxi for a few more minutes, teaching him to behave, but the puppy quickly grew bored and started chasing after the lambs. They were as tolerant of the puppy's shenanigans as she was, so they bounced at him whenever he approached too closely even though they were about the same size at present. Katya eventually let out a groan and sank down against one of the far posts of the pen, just watching the animals under her care run wild.

"Doesn't seem like the dog training is going well," a voice whispered right in her ear and Katya let out a bloodcurdling scream as she jerked away from the voice.

She turned around and saw Isa crouched just outside the pen, a mischievous grin on her face. "Isa," Katya groaned, rubbing at her ear. "Don't do that." 

“Sorry,” the fairy giggled. “It was just too easy.”

Katya grumbled as she straightened her clothing before realizing the reality of the situation. Her friend was at her house, not in the woods, and it was the middle of the day, not at night time. “Wait!” She whirled around to face the fairy. "You're here!" She exclaimed. "You're in my village, at my house! During the day!"

“Yes?” Isa cocked her head, unsure as to why the human was so excited by a simple concept.

“I didn’t-” Katya wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. “I didn’t think you could leave the forest, and during the day and- you look human, how do you look human?”

“Fae can do all kinds of things,” Isa whispered. “And just because you’ve only seen me at night in the forest doesn’t mean that I only appear at night.”

“I thought fae could only crossover on the full moon?”

The ice fairy snorted, “If that’s what makes humans feel better, you can keep thinking that.” She shook her head, “Some of the weaker species of Fae can only crossover to this world on the full moon, or significant dates like the equinox or samhain, but most of us can cross whenever we want as long as there’s a fairy ring.”

“Is that why you’re all so protective of fairy rings?”

“Partially, but also terrible things have been known to happen to those who cross a fairy ring without permission.”

A curious gleam entered Katya’s eyes. “What kind of things?” 

The fae just shook her head and looked around. “So this is a human dwelling place, it’s different from how I imagined.”

“Is it different from where fairies live?”

Isa hummed, “Each species of fae have their own types of dwelling place. Some choose to dig holes in the earth, others perch in the trees, and some still prefer the depths of water to anything land provides.”

“What is your home like?”

“Maybe one day you’ll be able to see for yourself.” The words were out before Isa registered what she was saying and she froze. The human was contagious. 

“Really?”

Isa just shrugged and continued to look around curiously. She knew that humans lived inside… houses, buildings with walls and a roof to keep out elements and things that spell danger. The human world was full of danger it would seem, danger that was often increased with the presence of her own kind. Enough so that they needed to hide away in shelters to keep out the danger, the elements, anything that could bring harm… which were many things.

“I would show you around, but my mother is inside with my youngest brother,” Katya explained. “And I’m supposed to be training Duxi here.” She glared ruefully down at the puppy that was happily rolling around on the ground in front of her feet as he chewed on his back paw. 

The fairy hummed and glanced down at the furry creature on the ground. “Humans use dogs for different things don’t they?” Isa questioned as she knelt down to lure the dog towards the fence where she was standing. She conjured a few snowflakes around her fingers to amuse the creature, causing him to bite at the air. “We don’t have dogs at home,” she commented. “Just wolves or wild dogs.”

“No dogs?”

“Humans domesticated them for work and companionship,” the fairy replied. “The fae realm has no need for them for work, and companionship is granted to all who live there so many animals run free, co-existing together.”

“Wolves are a bit scary here,” Katya said. “Especially when they get close enough to take one of our sheep.”

“Another one of the dangers of this world then.”

Katya shrugged and glanced back down at the puppy at her feet who had given up chewing on her shoes, and was simply drooling on them as soft snores left his mouth. “I should probably get him back to the stable for his nap, Dieter will be in there with him later to keep him out of trouble.” She glanced back up at the fairy, “Do you want to… I don’t know, look around, maybe play for a bit? I’ve finished most of my chores for the day, and I wouldn’t need to be back home until closer to sundown.” She tilted her head and thought for a moment, “Though, how will we explain you? Most of the people are suspicious of strangers.”

“Could just tell the truth,” Isa shrugged. “I live with my family in the woods, there’s a bigger village on the other side of the forest isn’t there?” At Katya’s nod, the fairy continued, “If anyone asks, I live closer to that village.”

“How’d we meet?”

“The truth, in the forest.”

The blonde girl scrunched her nose, “How’d you know about the other village anyway?”

“Same way I knew about this one,” Isa replied. “There are some fae that visit human villages, and they tell stories of human ways. Beyond that, I have seen people in the forest foraging for wild food such as berries and mushrooms. There are a few who even remember the old ways and leave little gifts for the forest spirits or any fae that wanders through in hopes of currying favor to ask for a blessing.”

“A blessing?” Katya murmured. “You mean that’s true? Fairies grant wishes? I thought that was only tails told by old people or girls moaning over some boy.”

Isa smirked, “Looking for a love charm no doubt. There aren't many fae that will dabble in love, and fewer that would lower themselves to such favors. Mostly humans ask for things such as good harvest for their crops or safe lambing or foaling season, or even for blessings for a wee babe or two.” She shrugged a bit, “They leave food or other offerings in the forest to appease old gods or spirits, and the fae respond when pleased by what they find.”

“Do all fae give blessings?”

Isa shook her head, “No… and the ones that did are doing it less and less. People do not leave offerings much anymore, so the fae who would give blessings have been coming less and less."

Katya tilted her head, "I don't recall anyone in the village leaving offerings in the forest. Maybe my grandmother did, but she died when I was younger before my brothers were born."

"Not many people still follow old customs. Few people believe in spirits or old gods, so the offerings are few for fae to find in the woods. The good fae who would grant blessings rarely come to this world anymore, only tricksters and troublemakers that are used as warnings for little children to stay out of the forest."

The human girl thought about what her friend said, but pushed the more complex thoughts out of her mind for the moment. Isa was here, in her village, and she wanted to show her friend around, let her see what humans were really like. “Well since you don’t have much experience with humans, I’ll show you around the village, see how humans really live and what we do.”

Katya scooped Duxi up from the ground and carefully carried him back to the barn where her father had set up a little kennel area for the puppy. When he was older and trained, Duxi would be allowed out with the sheep and other animals, but until then, in the pen. The puppy whined a bit, but soon yawned and was sleepily cuddled with a few animal pelts and a large bone that had been leftover from his dinner the previous day.

The girl carefully snuck out of the barn so as not to disrupt the sleeping puppy, and found the other girl waiting for her outside of the building. “One tour of a perfectly normal human village, coming up,” Katya announced when she fell in step next to Isa. 

“Have you been to many different human villages?”

“Just one,” Katya shrugged. “The village on the other side of the forest. Papa took me to pick up Duxi because he felt I was old enough to travel with him. Other than that, no, I mainly help Mama, look after the boys, or tend to the sheep.” 

“Would you like to venture further, see new places?”

The human girl hummed, “It would be fun, but I think my life will continue to be here in this village. My parents were born here, my grandparents settled in the area and helped to build it up, this is where we’re from.”

Isa looked at the girl strangely before looking away. “Maybe in time you’ll come to see that the world has more to offer you than just this place.”

"Maybe, I'm hoping when I'm old enough, Papa will take me into town with him when he goes to sell the sheep's wool," Katya replied. "The weaver's guild always manages to wash it and spin it into beautiful yarn to make clothing."

"Is your family the only family that keeps… sheep?"

Katya nodded, "We have the largest flock in the area anyway. We have goats too, and Mama has mentioned getting chickens off of Brana since she always seems to have an excess amount. She’s an older woman, lives further down in the village but closer to the forest, ah, here, I’ll show you.” The girl grabbed the fairy’s hand and tugged her along behind her as she darted a few lanes over to the south side of the village. 

The forest surrounded the village on most sides except the north where the land was cleared out for agriculture growth. Her house sat on the northeast side, close to the forest but closer to the wide field for her family to keep sheep and other livestock. The village was built on both sides of the Rhine which cut a winding path through the countryside, and a sturdy bridge was constructed years ago and continually maintained to connect both sides of the village. Despite being on the river, the village was isolated due to the forest and the superstitious nature of people. The path traveling through the forest southeast towards larger towns and villages was used, but only when needed and only during the day. Isa might maintain that fewer people were venturing into the wood to request things of the fey, but that didn’t mean people still didn’t fear them, or other things that crept in the shadows of the trees. 

It didn’t take long for the two to reach another house that sat on the outskirts of the village, closer to the forest than Katya’s own house but still set away from it. A small plot of land was churned on the one side of the house and the rows were planted with various vegetables that did well in the summer months. Just behind the shack, Isa could make out a smaller building with several chickens clucking around the yard. A small fence kept the chickens from wandering too far beyond the yard and garden, but it was easy enough to get around for a predator. As she drew closer, the fairy could feel the slight tingle of enchantment that saturated the ground and encased the house in a layer of protection. “Ah,” she murmured, drawing Katya’s attention. “Fairy protection, the woman who lives here has been favored by the fey.”

“Really?”

Isa hummed, “I can feel the magic, it explains why… Brana was it, hasn’t lost any chickens, they’re protected.”

“How does she have fairy protection?”

“Most likely she follows the custom of leaving an offering in the forest with her request. Something simple like this would be easy for even the lowest of fey. She must have been leaving offerings for a long time for the magic to have saturated the area so completely.”

“I thought you said not many fairies visit this world to participate in such things?”

“Not many do, which is why I wonder which one would do this.” The fairy shook her head and turned her attention to Katya. “I thought you were going to be showing me more human things, not more fey magic?”

“Look, Brana has chickens, do you have chickens where you’re from?” Katya questioned. Part of her tone indicated that she was defending her choice to tug Isa all the way over to the widow’s house, but the rest of her really wanted to know what it was like in the fey realm. The other girl already told her they did really have dogs, but did they have chickens? Sheep? Goats? Maybe the animals that creep through the forest like wolves or bears?

“There are birds, but not chickens,” Isa conceded. “You eat these, yes?” The fey clicked her fingers together and a few of the birds clucked over to her in a curious manner. She did not want to breach the protective layer of magic that outlined their inclosure for fear of angering whoever set the protections. Gesturing the birds over for a closer look though was harmless since the intent was pure, and intent is everything with magic.

“Or the eggs when they haven’t been…” Katya sought for the word but it wasn’t coming to her. “Ah, when they aren’t baby chickens.”

Isa nodded in understanding, “We have birds that behave in similar ways, and some fey do consume their eggs. My species, though, we tend to stick to fruits, vegetables, and grains.”

“Sounds like our summer meals, though we usually have milk or cheese from the sheep and goats. Rarely do we have meat, only if we have traded for it or Papa had to put down one of the sheep.” Katya rubbed her stomach, “He had to put down one of his ewe a moon ago after it had broken its leg as a way to show mercy to the beast. Mama cooked some of it for dinner, salted more, and traded the rest. Those days were good eating.”

“My kind of fey prefer fish or anything from the water if we’re to eat meat,” Isa replied. “There is a river through your village, surely you get fish from there?”

“I catch a few small ones in the spring and summer,” the human girl nodded. “I got some tips from some of the elders that fish the river. The fish are plentiful then, but as Autumn and Winter grace us, ice covers the river making the fish inaccessible. Ah, that’s the next place we should go!” Katya grabbed Isa’s hand again and started tugging her away from Widow Brana’s house, but at a more sedate pace. “So that fey protection thing,” the girl started, her voice a whisper in case anyone overheard them. “If I were to leave you an offering in the forest, would you provide a blessing to me? Would it be like at Widow Brana’s house, or would it be more vengeful spears of ice since you’re an… you know, an ice fairy.”

“Winter fairy,” Isa whispered back her correction. “And just because my magic lends better to winter, doesn’t mean that’s the only thing I can do.”

“So if I left an offering, what would you do?”

“You’ll have to leave offerings and find out.”

They came to the river a short time later, and Katya showed Isa where the men liked to fish on the bank, or occasionally down in the shallow areas when the water was low. The fish were more plentiful in the morning, so the bank was quiet at that time of day. The normal people who had lines or nets in the water were most likely working their regular jobs, hunting, or tending to animals to support their families. The fey pointed out a few places for the human to try landing bigger fish when she had time to fish before Katya was tugging her away to their next destination. 

The village wasn’t as large as the one on the other side of the forest, or further down to the larger city of Frankfurt, so it wasn’t large enough to have a full market for the inhabitants to peddle their wares. It was large enough though to have its own blacksmith that handled the smithing work for the people, as well as trimming the hooves of the livestock animals in the area. Several other craftspeople lived in the village, such as a carpenter, a weaver, a mason, even a small inn for people traveling through the area. Most kept small gardens and animals to provide food and other wares to trade with each other, or to sell to travelers moving to larger towns. Isa could see how the small group of humans had banded together for protection but also to meet the needs of the whole community. It was a hard life as for all things for the average human. There were lean years where the crops refused to grow or famine when the animals died, but despite the hardships, the village continued. She didn’t know if she would call it a thriving community, but the inhabitants were alive and the town was a shelter and comfort for all who called it home. 

“Your village is lovely,” Isa commented as they made their way back to the human girl’s home after walking through the entire village. 

They had stopped briefly back at the river as the sun started to go down, and Katya managed to catch two fish using the tips Isa had given her. They weren't as large as some of the fish caught by the men in the village, but they were large enough for dinner. She tied them together with some twine she usually kept on her and started carrying them back to her home. “Once you get past the smell,” Katya joked, nudging the other girl. 

Isa crinkled her nose at the thought of the excrement and feces just littering the ground, both human and animal. “How you live with it, I will never know,” she grumbled. “So unclean.”

“The animals make it worse because they just go everywhere, and in the cluster of houses and buildings in the center of the village, it is bad, but closer to where I live, not so much, especially when you have a dug out area set aside for such things.”

“Human life seems so… complex,” the fairy commented. “Fighting and bartering for food, shelter, battling for survival against harsh conditions, not to mention other forces beyond your control. How do you manage?”

Katya shrugged, “We just… do what we can.” They made it back to her house, and the human girl finally noticed she was still holding onto the fairy’s hand. She thought about letting go, but found that she didn't want to, not if it meant that the other girl would leave. It was fun having a friend around, more constant than Abigail and Mislav, and seemingly closer to her own age unlike the other children in the village. 

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Katya blurted out before she could stop herself. 

"What?"

"I, ah, well, we'll probably have fish and some of the vegetables from the garden. And it's getting late. I know you don't have to worry about the forest, but it'll look weird if you just wander off this close to nightfall and I-"

"I'll stay," Isa replied. "I mean, if it is alright with your parents."

Katya tugged the fairy to the door of her house and pulled her inside. "Mama!" She greeted when she saw her mother standing close to the fire in the hearth. "I brought a friend home for dinner, and we caught some fish!"

"Katya!" Nadya yelled. "Where have you been all day? Your Papa has been looking for you."

The girl winced, just remembering the rest of the chores she was meant to do. "Ah, I forgot, I'm sorry Mama, but Isa came for a visit and I wanted to show her around the village!"

Nadya turned her attention to the girl standing next to her daughter and paused. There was… something about the girl, something unusual, something both cold and warm, something dangerous but welcoming, as if- She shook her head, she was too old to believe in such superstitions. "Hello, Isa was it?" She greeted, taking in the deep brown hair pulled back into a braid and crystal clear blue eyes.

"Iseult ma'am," Isa corrected. "But Katya calls me Isa."

"Isa helped me catch some fish," the blonde girl repeated, handing the fish to her mother. "I thought she might be able to stay for dinner and for the night so she doesn't have to walk home in the dark."

"I live in the forest with my grandmother," the brunette replied. It was impossible for fey to lie, but they could walk around the truth if necessary. "I met Katya one day when she was playing in the forest."

"Are you sure your grandmother won't be worried about you?"

Isa shook her head, "No, she knows I can take care of myself."

"Well, you will stay the night, don't need you walking through the forest after dark," Nadya insisted. "Katya has her own space now that she's getting older, so you can stay with her."

“Papa built a room for me just off the barn,” Katya replied. “Since I’ve taken more responsibility with the sheep, it’s my job to watch over them at night and help if there’s any trouble.”

“And you’ll catch up on the rest of the chores before dinner,” Nadya ordered. “You’ll have time while I prep and cook the fish. Isa, would you like to help?”

The blonde let out a small noise of protest at the idea of leaving her friend, but the dark look from her mother sent her scurrying outside to finish her chores for the day. She cleaned out the barn and the pen where the animals were kept in record time, and started tilling the area of the garden that was to be prepped for the autumn planting. 

The sun was just disappearing below the horizon, casting the world in darkness when Nikola retrieved his daughter for dinner. “I heard you retrieved two good sized fish with your new friend,” Nikola commented as he clapped his daughter on her shoulder. “They will make a fine feast tonight.”

“You don’t mind that I spent most of the day showing Isa around the village?” 

“I would have appreciated it if you had told me ahead of time that is what you were doing,” the man admonished. “Worried your mother and I, but unlike some of the others in the village, I feel it is best to play while you are still considered a child. Work and responsibilities come in time.”

His words stayed with Katya throughout dinner, swirling in the back of her mind even as her family subtly attempted to question Isa about her family, where she came from, and how they met each other. The fairy dodged around the questions as best as she could, and none of her family suspected anything amiss, not that Katya could tell anyway. It wasn’t until much later, when the two were tucked into her bed in the barn that the girl was able to tell her friend about what her father said to her.

Isa paused for a moment and considered the man’s words before she spoke. “And this… is upsetting to you?” She questioned. “Being given freedom to play as a child?”

“No,” Katya said slowly. “It just… it’s different from the rest of the families in the village. Many of my friends my age or older, they’re already given more responsibilities and have less time to play. Abigail’s mother and father have already started discussing betrothal agreements, and she’s only a few years older than I am.” The fairy waited as the other girl tried to get her thoughts in order. “I guess I am… grateful to my parents for letting me have more time to behave as a child even though I know the time is short.”

The fey thought for a moment, the concerns of humans far greater than she imagined, and decided to aid her… her friend. “Let’s take advantage of it then,” she declared. She rolled off of the stuffed straw mattress and pulled Katya after her. “Come on, follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Katya asked as she pulled on her shoes and overcoat over her shift and followed the fey out of the barn. 

“Ssshhh, just come on.” Isa gestured to the blonde to follow her, and they carefully made their way into the forest. 

Katya carefully trailed after the other girl as they wound their way through trees thick with foliage and other underbrush that littered the forest floor. They eventually reached a small clearing in the forest, just a simple meadow that Katya had never encountered despite her years of exploring the woods. “Where-” She started, but Isa held up her hand to keep her quiet. 

“Just watch,” Isa murmured as she tugged Katya down to crouch down in the grass. The blonde waited a few moments, following the brunette’s lead, and opened her mouth to ask another question when a flicker of light caught her eye. She squinted, thinking she was seeing things, but more flickers of light came until there was a symphony of light flickering and dancing to a song not heard. 

“What are they?” Katya whispered, her eyes wide.

“Fireflies,” Isa returned. “They dance to attract mates, but also to express joy, sorrow, and everything in between.”

“What are they dancing for right now?”

“Just look how they move, what feeling does that create within you?”

Katya could feel it, bubbling just under the surface, and spilling outwards. The desire to laugh and dance, to move along with the creatures creating such spectacular lights. A giggle squeaked out of her mouth, followed by another, and another, until she was tugging Isa up from the ground to dance with the lights. She knew that she was growing up, but just for a few moments, she wanted to dance in the forest with her friend.

Chapter Text

Seasons continued to fade as the human girl and the fairy continued their odd friendship. They both grew as moons turned to months and years. Katya let out a grunt as she wacked the furs and thick wool her mother had stored away from the previous year. The cold season approached again, harvest was soon to be upon them, and the nights were growing colder with every day. Katya had now survived sixteen winters, and was starting to take her place within the society in the village. Her parents had allowed her more freedom with her childhood, but as the moons continued to change, she continued to grow so she was forced to leave childish things behind. 

Not all childish things had to be left behind however.

Katya continued to beat at the furs and woven blankets until the dust was shaken out, and she returned the items to the house. “May I leave now, Mama?” She asked as she entered and saw her mother finishing the final repairs on their winter cloaks. Milosh and Aksel were growing like weeds in fresh earth, and needed their clothes repaired regularly due to all of the scrapes the two got into and the growth spurts they hit. Milosh, at ten summers, was old enough to start taking care of the sheep and Nikola was showing him the same way he showed Katya when she was his age. 

"Is Aksel still at school?" Nadja asked, not looking up from her task. A traveling monk had moved into the village the previous year and offered lessons to learn to read to any who wanted to learn in exchange for a few basic supplies as he established a little garden near his cottage. Several of the matrons of the village sent their young children to him to teach for some time in the morning, while others would attend later in the afternoon.  

"Yes, it's barely mid-morn," Katya responded. "You still have some free time away from him."

"Just wait until you have your own little ones, Katya, and then tease me about getting some peace," the woman retorted. "You have finished your chores?"

“Yes, Papa is having Milosh attend to some of them as he is learning, but I finished the more difficult ones.” She gestured towards the pile of furs and cloaks she had attended to, and returned to the house freshly aired out. “May I go?”

Nadya tilted her head and gave her daughter an assessing look. Katya held her breath, momentarily afraid that her mother wouldn’t let her go, but held back a squeal when the woman nodded her head. “Make sure you take the fresh bread to Isa's grandmother as a thank you for letting you visit for a while, and showing you the best places for herbs and edible plants in the forest,” Nadya said, wrapping up two of the fresh loaves of bread she baked in the wood furnace that morning. “Take some of the cheese as well, fresh churned from goat milk a few days ago.” The girl carefully packed everything her mother handed her in a bag and slung in over her shoulder. “Do you have your cloak? An extra shift in case you need to wash your clothes-”

“Mama!” Katya protested. “I’ll just be gone for a few days, and I can borrow something from Isa if something happens.”

“I guess so,” Nadya sighed. “I just don’t want to send my daughter off as a poor guest and leave an unfavorable impression.”

“I’ll be fine, mother, Isa and I have been friends for years.” Katya glanced outside, “I want to get going before it gets too late, Duxi and I will see all of you in a few days.”

“Don’t tell me you’re taking that dog with you,” Nadya groaned. 

“You know he would be worse if I didn’t bring him.” With those words, Katya skipped out the door, her trusty dog following in her shadow. It had taken weeks of discussion and pleading for the girl to get her parents to agree with the scheme she and Isa had come up with, and not that it was time, feelings of nervousness, excitement, and apprehension settled in her chest. She entered the woods and carefully traced her steps on a familiar path that she has walked numerous times in the past few years. The scenery looked different during the day, more inviting and welcoming, but the deeper she ventured, the more darkness settled around her. Eventually she came to the small but familiar clearing and found Isa waiting for her there.

"You're late," she stated, her words belying the slight twinkle in her blue eyes.

Katya snorted, "Some of us have chores to do."

"Yes, well, we should get going if we want to be able to take advantage of the time."

The human girl stepped forward, hesitation slowing her steps. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Katya questioned, glancing down at the ring of mushrooms uncertainly. 

Isa rolled her eyes in impatience at the sudden hesitation of her friend. "I've visited you now a few times, and you've asked about visiting my home. When I finally get permission from my grandmother, you're suddenly shy?"

"No," Katya protested. "Ah, Duxi's nervous, that's all." The dog in question was carefully sniffing at the mushrooms that made up the fairy circle, and wagged his tail a bit when he heard his name.

The fae hummed, "Right, Duxi's nervous. Doesn't have anything to do with you being nervous "

"No," the blonde blustered. The bravado only lasted for a few moments before she cracked. "Alright, yes, I'm nervous, what if I step through the ring and I get turned into fish guts, or all I taste is onions for three months, or I can only walk backwards for eight days!"

"Katya, what are you talking about?"

The human girl exhaled, "Some of the older people in the village have told stories, people who have stepped into a fairy ring and have never been right since."

"They probably didn't stumble their way into the fae realm," Is a clarified. "Stepping into the fairy ring doesn't automatically mean you're transported to a different realm. It is considered rude, so the magic protecting such things retaliates in mostly harmless ways."

"Tasting onions for days is not harmless," Katya countered. "You're sure this is fine?"

"You're coming with me," Isa said. "If you're with me and you have pure intentions in your heart, the magic won't hurt you, just transport from this world to another one."

"And Duxi?"

"He'll be with both of us, so he'll be fine," Isa replied. "You know he won't be separated from you, so we agreed to bring him along on this adventure."

Katya held her breath for a moment and then let out a loud exhale of air before nodding. "Yeah, yes, let's do this, I'm excited to finally see you're home." 

Isa carefully stepped between the human and her dog, and grabbed Katya's hand in hers and wrapped her other hand around the leather strap around Duxi's neck. At the slight nod from her friend, she carefully led the two into the fairy ring.

Katya wasn't sure what she was expecting when she entered the fairy ring to be transported to another world. A flash of light, the feeling of wind whipping around her, a rush of heat, something. She didn't expect to step through a ring of mushrooms in the middle of a forest and instantly be in a different forest without any kind of preparation or transition. The only way she’d be able to tell that she was in a different forest was… well the colors weren’t quite right, the light was different, and the air… She wasn’t sure how to describe it, the air smelled and tasted like the air deep in the forest the morning after a rainstorm. It was fresh, and clean, and… She could go on with different words to try to fully understand the world around her, but Duxi darted off as soon as Isa released his collar. 

“Duxi!” Katya yelled out and was about to dart after him when Isa set a hand on her arm.

“It’s okay,” the fairy said. “He won’t get into any trouble, he’s just curious.”

“Are you sure?”

Isa nodded, “Promise. The other fey will probably be just as curious about him as he is of them.” She tugged Katya’s hand, and pulled the other girl in the same direction where Duxi had disappeared.

“Where are we?” Katya asked as she followed behind the fey. Her eyes taking in the clear and crisp colors and details of the world around her. 

“This is the Infinite Forest,” Isa replied. “Every fairy ring in the world leads to here, but it’s a different ‘here’ each time.”

“What do you mean?”

“The forest is, well, infinite, but also small,” Isa attempted to explain. “For anyone with malicious intent that makes it past the fairy ring, they’re lost in the forest, forever. But, for fey, the forest takes them to the ring they wish to use and then back to where they came.”

“The forest does that,” Katya gasped. “How?”

Isa shrugged, “The trees are old, very old, trees like that have a magic all their own, and minds of their own. You ask them for things, and they might be willing to grant your request.”

“Wow,” the blonde murmured. “Are there any trees like that back home?”

The fae paused as she thought, “This world is saturated with magic, so it makes sense the trees are magical. But I’ve heard tales of old trees in your world, trees that have seen empires rise and fall, possibly even old enough to have witnessed the first humans stepping cautiously through the forest.”

They emerged from the protective canopy of trees, and Katya let out an involuntary gasp at the sight before her. The place was… beautiful. The leaves of the trees were various shades of greens, and the blossoms and flowers, reminiscent of spring, were every other color Katya has ever seen, even a few she hasn’t seen. Creatures… beings… strange beings Katya has never seen before floated lazily through the sky. Others zipped around closer to the ground, and more still could be seen inhabiting the fields, the trees, the water. The world teemed with life and abundance, but not in a packed, overwhelming kind of way. Nature and life were perfectly balanced in such a place where every creature had precisely what they needed. If she were honest with herself, she would admit to feeling envious of the obvious peace and harmony present in the world the fae occupied. 

A snuffling noise caught Katya’s attention, and she glanced over to see Duxi rolling in a patch of fuzzy moss, light grumbles and snuffles escaping his mouth as he wiggled. “Duxi,” Katya stomped, calling the dog. “Stop that!” Several small creatures gathered around the dog, and squeaked and squealed as they poked at his head and stomach, causing the dog to wiggle further into the moss. “Duxi!”

“It’s alright Katya,” Isa said. “He’s just having fun and they’re exploring.”

“What are they?” The girl asked as she drew closer to the creatures clustered around her dog.

“They are fae,” the fairy replied simply, earning an eye roll from the human.

“I know that, but what kind of fae.”

Isa tilted her head as she thought about Katya’s question. “I am not sure if there is an adequate word for it in your language,” she replied. “All fae are fae, though some have different roles in this world. I guess you could call them lesser fae?”

“Lesser fae,” Katya repeated. “Are they… well, what do they do?”

“They were once abundant in your world, more so than any other type of fae though you never saw them. In that world, they’re only visible to newly born children and occasionally animals.”

Katya thought about when Aksel was a babe and he would giggle randomly while playing in his pen where their mother placed him as she worked. “The giggling?” She questioned.

“Yes, exactly. They make the babes laugh and collect joy from them to bring here, and they use it to help paint the sky.” Isa gestured above them to where Katya saw the beautiful colors earlier. “They’re also the few fae that do not require a fairy ring to travel between worlds, they just go back and forth, seeking out joy.”

The human girl looked at the strange creatures circling around her dog, lazily rubbing his nose or belly before floating away to allow another to take their place. She wondered if some of them had been the ones to visit her or her brothers when they were just babes still attached to their mother’s chest. 

Duxi stood up and shook himself from the bed of moss and continued sniffing around as Katya continued taking in the sights of this new world. A small stream trickled down a bed of rocks before falling down into a crystal blue pond that held enough water to swim or bathe as the stream continued down through the forest. Isa reached up into a tree near the small pond and pulled out a small bunch of berries. "Do you want to try some?" She asked, handing the bunch to her friend.

"Isn't there a warning about taking food from a fairy?" Katya asked, her voice tinged with a bit of suspicion. She still took the offered food though, knowing that her friend wouldn't intentionally hurt her.

"Would you believe me if I told you most of that was superstition?" Isa started. "Part of it is really just hospitality and fairy customs merging together. Some humans have stumbled into this world, or lured in by the dance, and they're given food and shelter, but then offer nothing in return. You will be fine though."

"Why?"

Isa shrugged, "You offered me hospitality in your home in exchange for nothing more than friendship. In this, we are equals so you may eat the food, enjoy our hospitality without any repercussions."

Katya glanced down at the berries in her hand, shrugged, and pulled them off the branch and popped them in her mouth one by one. "These are so sweet," she exclaimed, her mouth full of the fruit. "And yet refreshing, how is this happening?"

"Magic of course," Isa giggled. "It's in the soil and water, of course the plants would grow magical as well." She grabbed Katya’s hand and tugged her forward, “Come on, there’s more to see outside the forest.”

“Outside the forest?” The blonde questioned, “I thought this was it?”

The fae shook her head, “I told you, fey live in different places. Some live in the forest, in trees, or in the water, in the air, we couldn’t all live in different places if all there was here was forest.” 

Katya followed along behind her friend, her hand still clutched firmly in Isa’s hand. It was becoming a more regular thing for the fairy to reach out and touch her in some way, something that didn’t happen when they originally met. Initial moments of suspicion and standoffish behavior had given way to casual touches and brief embraces. Sometimes when Isa reached out for her, her heart would pound, and her breath would shorten, but other times warmth would fill her to the point she thought her heart would burn out of her chest. She didn't know what it meant, but she was ever grateful she had a friend like Isa.

The two walked until they reached the edge of a cliff and Katya gasped as she glimpsed islands floating in the sky with roaring waterfalls trickling between them until eventually flowing to the ground. Further out, she saw rolling fields of flowers and grass, colors more vibrant than anything she had seen at home. Large mountains in the distance were topped with snow, and eventually fading down to soft rolling hills. A magnificent lake, or was it a sea or ocean, took up the space in between, and she saw creatures leaping out of the waters, playfully skipping through the waves. She could see hints of different creatures, beings, flocking through the sky, rolling through the fields, taking up every space imaginable but living in harmony with each other. "There are still fights and squabbles," Isa commented as if reading Katya's thoughts. "But this is a mostly peaceful place."

“It’s amazing,” the blonde breathed. “I thought the forest was impressive, but this… are those floating islands?”

Isa glanced up, “Yes, that is where I live most of the time, with my grandmother and the other dark fae.”

“Dark fae?” Katya questioned. “What’s a dark fae?”

“Fairies that are more in tune with the night,” Isa replied. “Many of them deal with dreams.”

“I thought you were a winter fae?”

The fae nodded, the white strands of her hair glinting in the sun, a contrast to her darker hair. “I am, my father was a winter fae while my mother and grandmother are dark fae. Many would say I’m half and half since I have both abilities, but I lean more towards winter than the night.” She glanced back up towards the islands floating in the distance, “We’ll have to fly to get up there, so we’ll have to find you and Duxi a ride.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t carry both of you, so we’ll need to find something that can.”

“No, what do you mean fly?”

Isa stared at her friend for a moment. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that I have wings?”

"Well I've never seen them so you'll have to forgive me for doubting their existence."

Isa rolled her eyes and walked back to the trees, glancing far up into the canopy. She quickly found the one she was looking for and touched the base of the trunk. The tree glowed for a moment, and a leaf came fluttering down from the top. The leaf grew in size as it approached the ground until it was large enough to safely accommodate the human and her dog.

“That’s a leaf,” Katya stated as Isa gently nudged it over to her.

“A passenger leaf,” Isa added. “From the Gavoy Tree. The leaves have the ability to grow in size and transport passengers anywhere they want to go within the fae realm.”

“Do not all fairies have wings?”

“No, well, not wings the way you are thinking anyway. Some run as if they have wings on their feet, others swim to the deepest depths, while others grace the sky.” The brunette sent her friend a sorrowful look, “And others still had their wings taken from them due to circumstances out of their control. Thus, the Gavoy Tree evolved to allow for more options for those that live here to travel wherever they please.” 

“So the world adapted to accommodate for needs,” Katya mused. “Oh, to live in such a world.” She glanced down at the leaf hesitantly, “So how does this thing… work.”

Isa ushered Katya and Duxi onto the leaf before moving to the front of the leaf by the stem. “Just grab the stem here,” she indicated. “And direct the leaf where you want to go.”

“What do you mea-aannn.” The sound left Katya’s throat as she grasped onto the top of the stem, and the leaf shot off the ground. The leaf zipped over the edge of the cliff and sped towards the ground, skirting through trees and brush as it went. Duxi clamped down on the back of Katya’s tunic and held on as they roared through the trees on the back of a leaf. They emerged out of the forest and started racing across the surface of the lake, water spraying on either side in their wake.

“Katya, Katya!” The blonde heard Isa’s voice and she glanced around until she saw her skimming alongside them, magnificent white wings extended to glide through the air. “Katya, you have to slow it down!”

“I don’t think it wants to slow down!”

“It’s responding to your feelings,” Isa explained, her voice calm. “You have to calm down, and communicate that to the leaf.”

“How am I supposed to calm down?”

“Just breathe Katya, take a few deep breaths,” she soothed. “You can do this.”

Katya clenched her jaw for a moment before carefully inhaling and exhaling. Her joints relaxed, and the death grip she had on the stem of the leaf relaxed as well. She felt the leaf slowing down and her panicked grip on the stem eased until the leaf finally came to a stop, floating above the water’s surface. The blonde carefully pried her eyes open, and let out a whoosh of air when she realized that they had stopped. Duxi released the back of her tunic and collapsed in a heap, his breaths coming out in frantic pants.

“Are you okay?” Isa asked.

“Yeah,” Katya wheezed. “I’m, we’re okay.” She glanced up and finally took in the sight of her friend with her wings fully extended, hovering carefully in the breeze skimming the water. “Whoa,” she murmured. “Yout wings, they’re… beautiful… and huge!”

“Well they have to be big enough to carry me through the sky,” Isa replied, a bemused expression on her face. “They’ll keep growing as I do.”

“Are they pure white…” Katya started but she noticed bits of brown and black feathers buried deep under the white down. 

“Not fully," Isa answered. "Dark fae's wings are black, so even though I lean towards winter fae heritage, the dark feathers are still there. Actually helps to keep my wings warm during ice storms."

"I remember when we first met you said you didn't care for them, why? They're beautiful."

Isa scrunched her face as she tried to remember, "Ah, it wasn't about the appearance, they just take a while to grow into, that's all. They were gangly, unruly, always getting in the way. I flopped about a bit as I learned to fly, but eventually we grew together." Her wings gave a few powerful thrusts and she pushed herself further into the air, doing a few lazy loops over Katya's head. "See?"

“Well now you’re just showing off,” the blonde stated.

The fairy grinned and settled into an easy hover over the water. “You can fly now too,” Isa replied. “If you are brave enough to try to control the leaf again.”

Katya narrowed her eyes, and let out a huff of air as she stared down the leaf stem. “Just picture what you want it to do,” Isa offered. “Take a deep breath and don’t be afraid.”

The blonde grabbed ahold of the stem again and carefully imagined slowly ascending in the air away from the water. The leaf vibrated momentarily and Katya slammed her eyes shut, her hands tightening around the stem again, but the image of calm, easy rising stayed firmly fixed in her mind. “Katya,” the fairy gently called. “Open your eyes.”

Katya slowly opened one eye and then the other, and she gasped when she realized she was floating peacefully in the air. Duxi sniffed curiously at the leaf and poked his head over the side before ducking back down and lying at Katya’s feet. “I did it!” She squealed, bouncing enough to shake the leaf. “Ooh no, don’t do that.” The leaf stabilized out and Katya glanced back up at Isa. “Now what?”

"Well, where do you want to go?"

"Everywhere," Katya exclaimed, her eyes searching the world around her. The colors, the vibrancy, the life around her, all of it called to her, so different from home where things were starting to die back as the fields were prepared for harvest. Some of the trees had changed colors for autumn, but others started to darken as the nights grew colder. She missed the beauty and freedom that spring and summer brought, and this world teamed with life and color. 

"Well, since you're only here for a few days, it'll be difficult to go everywhere," Isa commented. "Why don’t we go to my home? It’s a good first place to start on your first visit to our world, and you can meet my grandmother.”

“And she’s a dark fairy?”

“She is, but you don’t have to be afraid.” Isa flapped her wings a few times to push forward through the air. “Come on, follow me!” She flew high, zipping around the clouds and magical waterfalls that fell from the numerous floating islands that dotted around the skies. 

“Do dark fae live on all of these islands?” Katya asked as she followed the girl with her leaf, her voice carrying on the wind.

Isa hummed, “Dark fae are not the only ones that inhabit these islands, and they live elsewhere as well. The majority of the dark fae live on the largest of the floating islands though.” They flew higher to be able to look down at the floating mass, and Katya realized that it was larger than it first appeared. She didn’t know if it was a trick of the eye or magic at work, but the island seemed to grow in front of her. It was darker than the rest of the land around them, but in a way, it made the colors richer and more vibrant. Katya could see other fairies with dark black wings flying around the island and to other areas of the fairy realm. She noticed a few shot curious looks at them when they spotted her with Isa, but only one approached them as they made their way down to the ground. 

A tall fae with long dark hair and large magnificent wings walked up to them as Katya and Duxi sat down on the ground, the Gavoy leaf fluttering away in the breeze. The blonde stared at the woman in awe; she had never seen someone as beautiful or with such a… presence as the fairy in front of her. Dark eyes glowed gold momentarily as the woman stared down at her and Katya felt that the woman was seeing through to her soul. 

“Móraí!” Isa chastised. “Stop using magic on her!”

The golden glow vanished out of the fae’s eyes and she looked at her granddaughter with a soft smile. “My apologies, Iseult. It is… refreshing to be in the presence of a human with the capability to believe in things beyond the mundane. If you would please introduce us properly?”

Isa sighed, “Grandmother, this is my friend Katya, Katya, this is my grandmother, Aisling. She is the… chieftess? Of the dark fae clan.”

“You are welcome here Katya,” Aisling nodded her head. “My granddaughter has told me of the great hospitality you showed her while she was visiting your realm, so we will do the same here.”

Katya wasn’t sure about the proper courtesy of greeting important fairies, or just greeting fairies at all, so she executed a slightly clumsy curtsy. “It is an honor to be here,” she replied, the formal speech having been hammered into her by her mother on the off chance the king or some lord would pass through the village on the way between the major cities. 

Aisling stifled back a smile at the girl’s actions and nodded her head at the both of them. She quickly pushed off the ground with a few thrusts of her large wings, and in a few moments, she was gone, vanished into the dark canopy of trees and looming mountains that covered the majority of the floating island. The few fae that gathered in the nearby vicinity to watch the greeting also vanished, accepting the presence of the human girl as if it was an everyday occurrence that a human ventured this far into their world.

“So that was your grandmother,” Katya muttered when she, Isa, and Duxi were alone… or mostly alone. A few smaller fae lazily floated around Duxi and the dog continued in his attempts to lick or eat them. “You didn’t tell me that she was so…” The blonde wasn’t sure what word she was searching for, so she just waved her hand around to get her point across.

“It’s difficult to explain her role with the dark fae clan, and the fairy realm altogether,” Isa explained. “Chieftess is probably the closest word in your language, but that doesn’t fully cover everything.”

“So what does she do?”

Isa motioned for Katya to follow her through the trees until they eventually reached an intricate staircase carefully carved into the side of a living tree. They started up the staircase and Katya had to keep herself from marveling at her surroundings as she focused on Isa’s words. “The dark fae,” Isa continued. “Are in charge of all of the fae. Since they are associated with sleep and dreams, and dreams are from what the first magic was born, it makes sense. The dark fae act as… adjudicators or arbitrators of this world, and my grandmother is in charge of all of them. She was training my mother to eventually take her place but…” 

Katya was quiet for a few moments. She knew, or at least she suspected, that her friend did not have parents. She never mentioned them, and Katya never asked, but she couldn’t help herself this time. “You never have told me what happened to them…” She mentioned quietly. “Your parents I mean.” 

The fae stopped and her face scrunched into a peculiar expression. “It’s too complex to discuss now,” she said slowly. “And you’re only here for a short time. Would rather you make happy memories.”

They continued up a few more steps until they came to large areas, rooms, buildings, seemingly made out of the trees growing around them. “Wow,” Katya gasped as she took in the area around them. “This is where you live?”

Isa giggled, “For most of the time, when it isn’t winter anyway.” She showed the blonde to her room, occupied by the softest bed of moss Katya had ever felt, and continued to show her around where the dark fairies lived. The region was dark, but it was the kind of dark that existed during the full moon or when Isa took her out to view the fireflies. Several of the trees glowed with a soft light to illuminate the space and display the rich colors that decorated the forest. “It’ll be difficult to see all of this realm before you have to go home,” Isa commented. “But we might be able to see most of the dark fae territory.”

“It’s beautiful,” Katya commented again, unable to come up with any other word to describe the world around her. Beautiful, amazing, magical, none of them seemed to fully describe the world, but they were the only things she could think of at the time. “I don’t even know where to start, I want to see everything!”

The fairy reached over and took Katya’s hand again, drawing the blonde’s attention. “Hey,” she commented softly. “We have time, we have time.”

Chapter Text

"Do you have to go Mislav?" Katya questioned her betrothed, watching as the man gathered a few belongings in his satchel.

“I must Katya,” Mislav answered as he lifted his pack and carefully strapped it to his back. “The Northmen are getting bold as they head further and further inland to steal people and resources.”

“We’ve been safe so far in our village, we’re further west and south than they like to travel, so what does it matter?”

“It is only a matter of time before they reach us,” Mislav countered. “They have already started siege on Cologne, if we do not do something to stop their advance, we’ll be next on their way to Frankfurt after they burn their way through the forest and countryside, taking our resources, our-” The man stopped and shook his head. “Those… Berserkers, they’re nothing but animals, and they must be stopped."

"But why does it have to be you?" Katya continued. "We are supposed to be married soon."

"And I will be back in plenty of time for the wedding," the man continued. 

"Well you can't blame me for being nervous," Katya replied. "Everything we have heard about those berserkers… they are vicious. I don't want anything to happen to you."

Mislav gave his betrothed a tight smile and squeezed her shoulders. "I will do my best to come back to you," he answered. "When I return, I will be a man. I will build our house for us and we will be married."

"You better," Katya insisted. "I'm not living with your mother."

The man let out a slight noise as he adjusted his bag on his back. "Do not worry Katya, Miklán will be with me," he mentioned, referring to his sister's betrothed. He was a warrior from a neighboring village, and had first come to their village the previous year searching for new recruits to protect the Rhineland against the Vikings. Many in the village were worried about the sieges, but Elena wouldn't let Mislav leave to fight until he was older. She also wouldn't let Abigail marry until the fighting was over and Miklán was free to settle down. 

Katya hummed, the other man had survived more encounters with these… demonic berserkers than many could boast, but the idea of Mislav going off to face them still left her feeling unsettled. A stray thought lingered at the back of her mind, but she didn't acknowledge it as she watched the collection of men from their village load up with supplies and trek north out of the village towards Cologne. 

"I'm very grateful your brothers are too young and your father is still needed here," Nadya murmured as she joined her daughter to farewell the men. "Though I know several of the others look at him in contempt that he does not go and fight.”

“Some of those same people will be at our door come the ice and snow to get meat when we have killed some of the older livestock to get through the winter,” Katya countered. “Some sheep, pigs, maybe a few of the goats. They know that Papa is needed here to help look after the livestock and the winter crops.”

Nadya scoffed, “Knowing and acknowledging such truths are two different things.” She glanced over to where Elena was clutching onto Mislav with Miklán standing near them. “I can’t imagine what Elena is feeling right now. She had such difficulty conceiving children, only to now send one off to war…”

“Borislav is staying behind as well,” Katya said. “I don’t think his leg could withstand the difficulties of battle, not after the last one.” The village leader had left to defend against raiding forces several winters previous, only to return with a mangled leg and scars on his face. The scars and injuries healed, but a limp remained, enough to make him useless in battle, but not difficult enough to keep him from his work. 

Nadya let out a snort, “War is often decided by old men, but fought by the young, that is the way it always has been.”

Katya turned her attention back to where Mislav was gathered with the others. Their eyes met briefly, and he shot her his typical crooked grin, the one that always made her laugh and sigh in exasperation. Miklán clapped him on the shoulder and the two turned to follow the rest of the caravan out of town. Many of the men were from other small villages, all gathered to head north to defend their region, to fight for the preservation of their families. “He better come back,” she murmured to her mother. “I don’t know what I will do if he doesn’t.”

“I’m sure he will try,” her mother replied. “You two have always had a good relationship, he will try to come back to you.” She squeezed her daughter’s hand, “We must ask the gods now for his protection.”

“The gods,” Katya mused. “Don’t let Friar Tomas hear you say such things.”

“Always a good idea to ask whatever higher power you believe in for protection,” her mother said. 

"I-" Katya's voice broke off, her mind still churning the thought that briefly popped in her mind. "Where are Papa and the boys?"

"Out readying the fields and animals for winter," Nadya replied. "Milosh wanted to see the men off, but your father and I decided it would be better to keep them occupied and out of the way. They would also make an attempt to sneak away to fight, boys don't fully understand the trauma of war." She let out another snort, "Of course, men don't understand such things either."

Katya didn't say anything but she knew that her mother's father and one of her brothers died in battle. It greatly impacted the rest of the family, and led to her mother marrying her father at a young age, younger than she wanted any of her own children to wed. "I- I'm going to see Isa for a bit," she said. "Do you need me for anything?"

Nadya shook her head, "No, but see if she has any more mushrooms in her store, could use them to firm up the soup we will be eating this winter." 

The blonde nodded and carefully stole away from the village. She ignored the suspicious looks from others who watched her go, she had been dealing with the looks for years. It was well known she had a friend that lived in the forest with the amount of times Isa had ventured to the village to visit with her. It didn't not stop the suspicious thoughts and looks though, people who were wary of her visits to the dark wood, her entering and exiting unharmed, as if protected by supernatural forces. No one voiced the thoughts, not to her anyway, but she still felt the looks and heard the whispers. She didn't know if being friends with Isa offered her protection from the more sinister creatures that lived in the forest, or if her friend had placed a measure of protection over to move freely. The idea of protection though is what drove her deep into the forest now, and carefully stepping into the fairy ring. She had visited the magical land several more times since the first time she and Duxi had stepped through the fairy ring, and each time, she discovered something new and magical. 

It took only moments for Katya’s world to fade around her and the vibrant colors of the fairy realm to enter her field of vision. The stark difference between the two worlds always startled her when she first appeared from one world to the next, but she blinked away the emotion to focus on the task at hand. She needed to find Isa. 

Following a familiar trail, Katya wound her way out of the Infinite Forest to the cliff that overlooked the entirety of the fairy realm, as far as she could see anyway. With winter coming where she lived, Katya knew that Isa would most likely be in Winter with the other winter fae celebrating the coming season. On one of her trips to the Fae world, Isa had taken her to Winter and introduced her to the remaining members of her father’s family and his clan. She attempted to explain how different parts of the world had seasons at different times, not all the same seasons, and different clans responded to different regions. The information was lost on Katya beyond understanding that certain types of fae helped the seasons to change, and once she learned that, she demanded to see the gardens of spring, the fields of summer, and the forests of autumn. Her eyes drifted to the far side of the realm where the winter mountains towered over the surrounding lands, the snowy peaks a stark contrast to the blue sky around them. 

Katya quickly located a Gavoy tree and called a passenger leaf down to the ground. It grew in size as it approached her until it was large enough for her to carefully climb on, and grasp the stem. The leaf lifted from the ground, and Katya crouched down as it zipped through the air, heading straight towards the winter mountains. The passenger leaf crossed the expanse in mere moments, and soon it was setting down underneath an expansive, evergreen forest close to the mountains. The blonde carefully stepped off the leaf and took stock of her surroundings. She had only been to the winter mountains once since she had started visiting the fairy realm. She loved playing in the snow and sliding down the hills on sleds, and marveled at several of the winter fairies shooting down the hill on polished, thin pieces of wood. Despite the fun aspects of winter, Katya was never fond of the cold and dark that came during the winter months, even in the magical fairy world, so she preferred to visit other places.

Now though, now she needed to talk to Isa. 

The blonde found the marked tree she was looking for and headed right, following the path to Isa’s home in Winter. The snow had yet to arrive in her village, but the cold was enough for her to be wearing her winter boots and clothes, a fact she was thankful for due to the deepening snow as she trudged through the forest. The forest thickened around her, and she carefully pushed through the needled branches of the dense evergreens. Her eyes fell on the form of her friend as she came to a small clearing in the forest, and she had to fight back the gasp that threatened to leave her mouth.

Isa was standing in the center of the clearing, her bare feet brushing the top of the piled snow beneath her. Soft snowfall danced around her in rhythmic patterns as she glowed slightly in the dim light of the forest, the brightness of her hair and wings accentuated with the light. Her friend had grown as she had, but while she grew into the beauty of womanhood reflected by her mother, Isa had started to grow into the ethereal beauty of the fae. Her features weren’t as defined as her grandmother’s and it made Katya wonder how long it took fae to mature… and how long they lived.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and cleared her throat as she stepped into the clearing. The snowflakes swirling around Isa softly fell to the ground, and the other woman opened her eyes to look at the blonde. “Katya!” Isa greeted, a wide smile on her face. She took in the slightly distressed look on her friend’s face and the smile transformed to an expression of concern. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Mislav…” The blonde started, but her voice stalled when Isa crossed her eyes. “I know you don’t like him…”

“The few times I met him, he was a complete and utter boar.”

“- but please hear me out,” Katya continued.

Isa sighed, “Yes, alright, I’m sorry, that was rude of me.” She closed her eyes and shook her head before focusing back on her friend. “What about Mislav?”

“Northmen are advancing further south and are starting to lay siege on Cologne,” Katya started. “Many are worried about what would happen if the city fell and the berserkers continued south.”

“That is why… Miklán originally came to your village isn’t it?” Isa questioned. She hadn’t ventured to the human village in several moons, close to a year, but remembered all of the changes and interactions Katya mentioned with the inhabitants of the village. 

Katya nodded, “Yes, it’s been… Things have been getting rough, people and supplies aren’t traveling much due to people being afraid of the Northmen. Several of the men of the village are leaving with Miklán to help support Cologne… including Mislav.”

“I’m…” Isa wasn’t sure what to say.

“It’s… I’m so scared Isa,” the blonde continued. “This… the berserkers, they’re not normal, not human, they’re vicious. I’m so scared that Mislav won’t come home.”

“He’s strong, Katya, and Miklán has been helping with training and weapons development from what you’ve told me.”

“It’s not enough though,” Katya cried. “That’s why I need your help.”

Isa’s eyes widened, “My help? What can I do?”

“You’re a fairy, can’t you cast some type of protection magic to keep him safe?”

“You said it yourself, I’m a fairy, not a sorceress. And besides that, I’m a winter fairy, I don’t have that type of magic.”

“You have to be able to do something Isa, please!” Katya pleaded. “I don’t want Mislav to get hurt, he has to come back.”

“Why is this so important to you?” Isa countered. “I know he’s your friend, but did you not tell me before that war, disease, famine, strife are all things common in the human world, are they not just a natural part of life?”

“Well, they are but this…” The blonde struggled for her words. She didn’t know what to say, she hadn’t told her friend that she and Mislav were betrothed since it was such a recent development. “Mislav and I are betrothed,” she said finally. “We’re going to be getting married."

Isa was still for a few moments, "What?"

"It's a recent development," Katya continued. "Our parents worked it out, and I care about Mislav, he'll make a good husband. I don't want anything to happen to him."

The fairy stared at her for a moment before looking away, her eyes searching for nothing through the darkness of the trees. "I haven't told you what happened to my parents yet have I?" She started. She didn't wait for Katya to answer before she continued, "Fae believe in what is called a mate, someone that their heart and soul chooses to spend their life with, I believe humans refer to the concept as soul mates but it is not quite right. Souls are not halves, they are whole, but in this, it is the whole soul recognizing another. It is difficult to fully explain, and some fae do not desire for such things. It is a beautiful thing, but dangerous, because if something were to happen to one mate, the other will fade from a broken heart."

Katya was quiet, "Is that what happened to your parents?"

Isa nodded, "I was just a baby, so I didn't remember, but my grandmother told me. My mother… she was in the human realm and she was captured by a human, someone desiring to be a wizard, to use the magic of a fae to protect them and produce conjuring tricks. Not all fae magic is the same, and the human grew upset when my mother couldn't do what they wanted so… he killed her." She let out a deep breath, "And after the death of his mate, my father couldn't survive. Grandmother says he rallied for a time for me, but he ended up fading a short time later.”

“Isa, that’s…” The blonde didn’t know what to say, to know that such heartache happened to her friend due to the actions of humans. “Why does your grandmother allow you to venture into the human world knowing such a thing happened to your mother?”

“Free choice is an important part of fae upbringing and fae culture in general. She could no more deny me the chance to venture to the human world if I desired than your mother could deny you learning to care for your animals.” She shifted her eyes back to her friend, “But you see why it is dangerous to fiddle with fairy magic, trying to get it to behave differently from what it is.”

Katya circled back in the conversation and realized why Isa told her the story of her parents. “I know it’s a big ask, but there has to be something you can do.”

The winter fairy let out a sigh, “I’ll see what I can do, I make no promises though, magic doesn’t always work the way you want it to.”

The blonde grinned and she bounced over to hug her friend. “Thank you,” she cried. “I knew I could count on you.” When she pulled back, she glanced at the sky, “I should get going, I didn’t tell my parents I was coming to see you, and they’ll be worried if I’m out late.” She turned to walk away but before she left, she glanced back at her friend. “Oh, you didn’t say, what happened to the man, you know, the one who…”

“He was cursed,” Isa replied, her tone dark. “He was cursed with unimaginable torment and pain for the rest of his days, as are all who cross the fae.”

Winter descended with a burst of cold wind and a hard frost that nipped at the plants not yet pulled back for the year. The harder, winter stock of crops endured the plunge in weather, but the more delicate summer and fall plants left to rot in the fields quickly withered and died from the chill. The goats huddled together for warm during the night and nibbled on the dying plants during the day, while the sheep remained unbothered due to the sturdiness of their hefty coats. Several of the chickens were killed to provide meat and broth base for winter stews for many families in the village as the biting winds made their homes even colder than normal. Katya could see the gratefulness in her neighbors’ faces when she delivered freshly slaughtered chickens or other fowl to their homes. They often sent her back home with whatever they could spare, which wasn’t much in the winter, but it was enough to show their appreciation. Her family still had a stock of the salted pork and goat from the animals they killed around harvest, which allowed them to keep more of their birds for egg production rather than much needed meat in the winter. The ones that were killed were the older birds that showed difficulty dealing with the cold, and they continued their usefulness in death in order to ensure the continued survival of the village. 

Katya let out a puff of air as she trekked through the woods, checking the different snare traps Milosh had set in an attempt to catch some of the smaller rodents that didn’t hibernate during the winter. Several of the hunters in the village taught the younger boys how to build snares and where to place them, but her younger brother was notorious for forgetting to actually check them to see if he had caught anything. This task often fell to his older sister who was used to trooping around the forest searching for mushrooms and other edible plants, and since she was sent out to check the traps, anything she did find was given to Duxi. The dog followed after his mistress, his nose to the ground as he sniffed through the dusting of snow on the ground.

The blonde glanced around as she searched, hoping to see her fairy friend popping out from behind a tree despite knowing it was unlikely due to the season. It was always difficult to spend time with Isa during the winter due to the busy schedule the winter fairies had sending out snow and ice and other weather related events. They had managed to meet up at least once a week though, but it had been several moons since she last saw her friend, not since she ventured to the winter mountains to seek out her friend. 

She continued trekking around the forest, her eyes open for tripped snares or any edible plants that would draw in small animals. Milosh had set ten snares from what he remembered, and so far, three were set incorrectly, two were tripped with nothing trapped in them, and another two had small squirrels stuck in them. She had yet to locate the last three snares, but she didn’t have high hopes in finding much success in Milosh’s attempt at hunting. “He should probably stick to farming,” Katya grumbled as she found two more traps poorly set. “Or take a few more lessons.”

She abandoned her search for the last snare and set off back to the village, whistling for Duxi to follow along behind her. She emerged from the forest a short time later and she was met with both of her brothers running up to her. “Katya, Katya!” Milosh yelled, his gangly legs quickly pulling him ahead of his younger brother Aksel.

Aksel was not one to be left behind and pushed himself faster, also screaming out his sister’s name. “Katya!”

“Calm down, what’s wrong?” Katya said once the two had reached her. Duxi gave the two a little warning gruff, but Katya quickly sent the dog home to watch the animals.

“A rider came through town,” Milosh said, his words coming out in breathy pants from running. “He said a group of men are heading this way and that they look like they’ve been to the wars.”

“It could be Mislav and Miklán,” Aksel picked up where his brother left off. “Mama sent us to find you so you could get to the road and meet the group when they come in.”

When Katya heard the group was spotted, her eyes widened and she immediately picked up the hem of her skirt and started dashing towards town, her brothers hot on her heels. She reached the center of town by the road and found many other members of the village waiting in anticipation as well. Many were waiting around the road, eagerly hoping to see loved ones and friends returning home from times of war. Her mother and father were also waiting by the road, and Katya quickly went to stand with them. "Any sight of them?" She asked.

"None yet," Nikola responded. "The rider that came through said they were still further back, but they should be here soon."

Katya glanced over to where Elena was clutching on to Abigail, and Borislav was waiting with an anxious expression on his face. They were waiting for two loved ones to return to bring with them hopes of the Northmen retreat. Other members of the village clustered around, soft murmurs echoing around and even softer prayers being offered to whichever deity was listening.

It wasn't long before the weary band was visible, Miklán in the front riding on a clearly exhausted horse. He made his way over to Borislav, Elena, and Abigail and dismounted in front of his betrothed. "Where is Mislav?" Elena asked, fear in her voice as she stared at the man.

Miklán signed and a stone dropped in Katya's stomach. "I'm sorry," he replied. "We arrived in Cologne and managed to repair much of the city, and a few of us were sent after the raiders to Dorestad to defend the river." He shook his head, "It was a massacre, the city is completely gone, and Mislav… he took several strikes meant for me." 

Blood rushed through Katya and she heard a pounding in her ears. Elena let out a scream and collapsed on the ground sobbing. Borislav attempted to console his wife but she just struck out at him in her grief. "Katya…" Her mother's hand on her arm drew her attention away from the scene, and she realized that many were looking at her as well, waiting for her to melt down.

She backed away from the scene slowly and shook her head. "No," she muttered. "No." She took off running, back to the forest, ignoring the cries and shouts of her name as she crossed through fields and into the safety of the trees. She blindly picked a familiar route through the trees to the fairy circle and disappeared into the different realm.

"Isa!" Katya cried once she reached the infinite forest. "Isa!"

The fluttering swoop of large wings reached her ears as Isa landed a short distance away. "Katya," she greeted, her voice laced with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Mislav is dead," she said, tears choking her throat. "He was killed by the Northmen."

"Oh Katya," the fairy breathed. "I'm so sorry."

"You were supposed to protect him." The blonde couldn't keep the accusation out of her voice, causing Isa to take a step back.

"I- I told you, magic doesn't always work like that," she said. "I don't have the magic to offer protection, just the ability to wish him good will and courage."

Katya let out a barking laugh, "Courage, courage is what killed him, saving Miklán's life."

"Then he died an honorable death, laying down his life for another."

"He should have survived!" Katya returned. "You should have done more!"

"What would you have had me do, Katya?" Isa yelled back. "Drop an avalanche on the Northmen, freeze them in their steps?"

"Yes, something, anything."

"Such things would disrupt the balance of nature and the cycle of life, it is not possible for a fae to do such things."

Katya scoffed, "I knew you never liked Mislav, but I didn't know you would just let him die."

Isa narrowed her eyes, "I didn't let him die, he made his choices-"

"You have magic, you should have done more!" Katya continued, her mind replaying Miklán's words. "This is your fault."

"I know you are upset and don't mean your words," Isa said. "I will leave you time to think and process everything that has happened." She pushed off the ground and disappeared into the air, leaving Katya alone with her thoughts.

Katya stilled as her friend flew away, her mind flickering from one thing to another. Grief still clung to her, but as she stood there in the forest, the grief slowly started to transform into anger and resentment. She turned and made her way back to her realm, her rage simmering just under the surface of her skin. She paced around for a few moments, her anger continuing to build. She didn’t know who she was angrier at, Miklán for convincing Mislav to go to war, Mislav for going to war and dying on her, or Isa for failing to protect him. She whirled around to stalk in the other direction again and she realized she was in front of the fairy ring again. In her rage, she reached out and struck at the mushrooms that made up the circle. She continued clawing at the ground, decimating the circling as her anger drove her movements, never noticing the stillness of her surroundings.

A loud clap of thunder broke her from her rage, and Katya glanced up and took in the swirling storm cloud directly overhead. She stood up from her position and finally looked down at the ground to the destroyed fairy ring and the dirt caked under her nails. “Oh no,” she murmured as another clap of thunder and bolt of lightning flickered above her. 

A light voice echoed around her as the storm grew, causing Katya’s blood to run cold: “ He wha tills the fairies’ green, nae luck again shall hae: And he wha spills the fairies’ ring betide him want and wae. For weirdless days and weary nights are his till his deein’ day…”

The voice stilled and the storm ceased, leaving Katya standing in the still forest, her feet barely brushing the edge of the destroyed fae circle. She glanced down at the destruction, regret filling her soul in the places left by rage as it fled her body. She turned and made her way out of the woods, rubbing her hands on her clothes as best as she could to rid themselves of the dirt. 

“Katya!” Her mother called when she spotted her walking across the field towards home. She ran out to greet her daughter, “Where have you been, we’ve been looking all over for yo- ow!” Nadja jerked her hand back from where she reached out to touch Katya, only to be met with a sharp sensation striking her hand.

“Mama, what’s wrong?” The blonde reached out for her mother, but she barely grabbed her hands when the older woman yelled out in pain again and jerked back away from her daughter.

Katya stared down at her hands in horror before glancing up at the fearful expression in her mother’s face. “I-” She started. “I think I’ve been cursed.”

Chapter Text

The early morning rumble of animals and carts moving around the city pulled Katya from her slumber. She let out a groan and pulled herself out from beneath her blanket off of her straw mat, and briefly opened the shudder held in place over her window. She was instantly hit by the smell of animal and human waste and other garbage that littered the street. Her face twisted in revulsion, and she immediately closed the shudder in hopes of keeping the smell out. Duxi grumbled from his mat by the door, and Katya carefully scratched him behind the ears. “I know,” she said. “But a new day starts whether we’re ready for it or not, so best to get up and get ready for work.”

The dog let out another series of grumbles before getting up and slowly stretching one leg at a time. He carefully made his way over to the door and scratched to be let out to pee, and maybe chance on a few scraps for breakfast thrown out from one of the nearby houses. Katya opened the door and watched as her dog wandered over to the nearby lane to add to the already large pile of animal waste present in the city. She left him to his devices, knowing that he had developed a reputation through the city for being vicious towards anyone that looked at him, or her, in even a slightly threatening manner, so he didn’t need her looking out for him. She just hoped that he didn’t try to make off with anyone’s chickens again.

Katya carefully closed the door, and changed out of her shift into her clothes for the day. She noted that her pile of “cleanish” clothes was slowly depleting, and she would have to take the bundle out to the river in order to wash out the animal stains and smell that clung to her these days. It didn’t take long for her to wash her hands and face with the basin of clean water she retrieved the night before, and grab a few pieces of several days old bread from her cabinet as she left her house for work. Calling the little shack she lived in a house was a bit of a stretch since it was barely big enough for her, Duxi, a small table and stool, and the small fireplace where she kept a pot of stew boiling for most of the day. The wind bit through the thin wood and sound easily carried through the structure, but it was home and it had been her home for close to three years.

Three years. It had been three years since the incident and her entire life had fallen apart. Three years, three years since she had been cursed, and three years since she had been touched by another person without sending jolting pain through them. Her family originally stood by her and tried to adapt to her new situation, but it didn’t take long until the rest of the village found out what she had done and what happened to her. Old superstitions ran deep in the heart of many members of the village, especially in the face of the Northmen encroaching further in the country. They cast her out, sending her away for fear that she would bring the wrath of the fae on their entire community. She thought about telling them that fae didn’t work that way, they didn’t transfer grudges against one person to an entire community, but then she would have to explain how she knew such things and why she did what she did.

There were days she wished she could take back what she did, to go back in time and stop her past self before doing something that would cost her… everything. There were other days she cursed her old friend, cursed her for what she did, or really didn’t do, cursed her for not doing something. In moments of clarity though, she knew that everything that happened to her since the incident was her own doing. She told her horrible things would happen, she just didn’t know, or care, what that meant at the time. She thought the most horrible thing had already happened when Mislav didn’t return, but she was a fool to confuse momentary pain with suffering.

And still there were days where she longed to see Isa again, to tell her she was sorry. Mislav not returning from war wasn’t her fault, and realistically Katya knew that. The dangers of life were a threat they all faced at one point or another, and war was especially dangerous and chaotic. The mulish, petulant part of her though wondered at the point of being friends with a fae if they couldn’t help her when needed to avoid life’s dangers. It was on the darker days when she longed for companionship of some form, even just a welcoming hug, when such thoughts perpetuated her mind, blaming Isa for everything wrong with her life.

After the village started clamoring for her removal, Nikola helped Katya and Duxi leave in the middle of the night for the village on the other side of the forest. It was there that they managed to secure her transport to Frankfurt. Cologne was still a mess from the raiders, and it was too close to her village. Rumors and suspicion would follow on her heels, but her family hoped she would be able to disappear better in a larger city. She had taken to wearing longer garments covering her arms and hands, trousers instead of a dress or skirt, and a scarf wrapped around her face to hide everything but her eyes. People looked at her strangely, but it was easier to hide idiosyncrasies in a city of several thousand than a small village of several dozen. 

Once she was settled in Frankfurt, Katya quickly found work taking care of animals and other livestock that lived in the city. Animals and plants so far were the only living things that were unbothered by the curse that plagued her every movement and every touch. Duxi never left her side, and she found the chickens, goats, and pigs she took care of were non judgemental presences that simply wanted care from her. They were much more forgiving than their human counterparts. Except for horses, Katya has found that several of the horses in the city stable were just as judgemental and obnoxious as their owners. The owner of the stables offered her and Duxi the use of the shed behind the stables since it wasn’t currently being used for storage as long as the stable stalls were mucked out before she attended to any other work in the city. 

The horses stomped and snorted in their stalls when Katya opened the stable door, many of them impatient for their breakfast. “Alright, simmer down,” the blonde murmured as she piled in buckets of hay and oats to each of the stalls. Once the beasts were busy eating, Katya quickly scooted around and mucked out the stalls as best as she could around the great brutes. She would try to circle back to a few of them later that day after her other work was completed and give them a more thorough cleaning if the owners of the horses took them out for the day. Katya easily cleaned out the pins with the more agreeable horses, and gave the cranky ones a wide berth after giving them their food for the day. 

“I’ll come back and check on you later,” Katya replied. “You great brutes.” The horses stomped and whinied at her words and she quickly left the barn before they could get louder and more indignant with her. She sighed as she tugged her jacket further around and tucked her scarf further around her face in her hood. The extra layers of clothes helped to prevent people from accidentally brushing against her and receiving a shock for their troubles. They also served as added protection for the warnings her mother slammed into her head before she was forced to come to the city. 

“Men rarely view women as worth anything,” Nadya warned. “Except as a pretty face and a body to warm their bed. I don’t worry about this with you because of your situation, but I worry what will happen to you if they try. Keep your face and body disguised, Katya, as much as you can. This might be the only thing that keeps you safe.”

Katya set out to her work for the day, feeding the pigs and caring for the goats just on the outskirts of the city. The sun had risen a little further and more people were out and about as she wound her way through the streets to the edge of the city. Many of the animal pens, other than the horses, were kept close to the city walls in order to keep much of the smell and waste away from the main areas of the city, but the stench still carried through the air. Most were used to it, and just ignored it for the most part. Katya wondered if she would ever get to that point, or if some day, she would be forced to leave the city and live a life of seclusion away from everyone and everything. She clutched her jacket tighter to her at the thought before releasing her grip; maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, to be alone, maybe it would allow her more freedom than she currently had.

She arrived at the animal pens and found a few other workers there already cleaning out the different areas and moving the animals. She quickly sent Duxi in with the goats and had them out of their pen and out of the city into a small field to graze. She had to make sure to stay and watch them because the dumb things would eat half of the city given the chance. She stayed with the goats for a while as they ate grass, weeds, small trees, and whatever else they could get ahold of before ushering them back into their pens and taking out the next batch of goats. Duxi let out a huff of annoyance as one of the younger kids clambered on top of him, but he learned to tolerate the movements of the stupid creatures. 

“Did you hear about the hullabaloo in the city?” Katya heard one of the other workers lob the question to the man digging through the slop in the pig pen. The others rarely spoke to her, giving her a wide berth most of the time due to her own aloof nature and the hefty presence of Duxi at her side. It was rare for anyone to speak to her, but it often gave her more time to listen to what others were saying. 

“Yeah, some important person is apparently going to be coming through town today,” the other replied. “The lord mayor is hoping they will be generous with their money as they’re traveling through town, but you know these rich types.”

“Any idea who it is?”

“Word is it is a prospective wife for one of the princes, probably will become a concubine though as typical with the royals.” The man shook his head, “To go back to the days of Charlemange eh?”

“Come off it, like you were alive during his reign, you’re not that old.”

The two argued about the current governing royals and their predecessors, but Katya moved away from the argument. A wealthy, probably noble woman, would be traveling through the city on her way to meet the royals as a potential bride. Although Frankfurt was the capital of East Francia, the King and princes rarely stayed in the city, but rather outside of it to avoid the stench of city life. The impact of royal presence was still felt around the city though with the presence of defensive fortifications surrounding the town, and the amount of wealth and commerce that frequently swept along the main streets. 

Fear clutched at Katya’s heart at the realization of the presence of a potential royal bride being near the city, what it meant for her. Frankfurt was an important religious center as well as the seat of royalty; few people near religious centers believed in magic, but enough still existed that they would see in her the work of a supernatural force. The least she would fear from them would be banishment from town, the worst… She shook her head, it would do her no good to think of worst case scenarios. 

The kid finally climbed off of Duxi and he got up, herding the second batch of goats out of the pen towards the fields to eat their fill for the day. Katya knew the only reason she was able to have this job instead of caring for the pigs was due to her dog’s presence, and that made her extremely grateful. The goats might be smelly and stupid, but pigs were vicious. She led the goats a further distance from the city and the defensive trenches built around it to more fertile fields. The stumps where once tall, proud trees stood still littered the field, the logs no doubt used to build the wall that surrounded the city of Frankfurt. She mourned for the forest that was, the creatures that lived there, the magical beings that no doubt once danced under the light of a full moon deep under the protection of dense foliage.

She wondered if any in the city remembered the forest, if they had heard the songs that sounded through them as tricksters attempted to lure unsuspecting humans into their trap. Or did fairies no longer frequent this forest before it was felled to expand the growing city? Fewer and fewer danced in the forest during her childhood years, choosing instead to remain in their own world where they would be safe and protected from the growing ignorance and fear of mankind. 

None would visit your home wood now . The words struck her mind unbidden and Katya nearly flinched back from the thought. It was right though, none would visit the forest now, not after what she did. She wondered if that changed the forest anyway, if the animals were being cared for, if the change of the seasons was still magical, if the first freshly fallen snow still brought joy…

The sound of shouts and hoofbeats striking the ground broke Katya out of her thoughts, and she glanced around. She and her little herd of goats had wandered further from the city than she realized. They were well out of sight of the city walls, and over one of the neighboring hills. She followed the sound and saw a band of marauders had taken a carriage on the main road. The expensive make of the wheeled vehicle brought to mind the conversation of the men earlier, a wealthy bride was coming to visit the princes. She was about to urge Duxi to herd the goats further away so they don’t get caught up in whatever was going on down the road, but a woman’s shrieks met her ears. Katya looked back towards the carriage and saw one of the men rip a woman out of the box, and toss her on the ground. 

Her mother’s warning echoed in her mind, and she knew she couldn’t stand by and watch it happen in front of her, not if she could do something. “Hey!” She shouted, running at the men, her voice muffled by the scarf over her face. “Get away from her!” 

One of the men turned towards her, his sword out while another nocked an arrow on their bow. Miklán’s words from years ago as she watched his brief training sessions with Mislav and the other men in the village came to mind, and Katya started zigzagging to avoid any potential arrows. Duxi charged ahead of her and lunged at one of the men, grabbing ahold of the arm and biting down hard. Katya struck out at another one using the staff that she held to steer the goats from the city towards the fields. She knocked one in his knee and another on his wrist, forcing him to drop the short sword he held. As she moved, she didn’t notice as one of the sleeves of her jacket crept up, taking her tunic along with it. One of the men grabbed at her, grasping onto the exposed skin on her arm. 

Katya could see it in his eyes the moments the shocks started running against his system. They widened, but instead of releasing her arm, he clamped down further and she could see the shocks growing in pain and intensity until he was forcibly thrown back from her, releasing her arm in the process. Katya looked between him and her arm before ripping the gloves off her hands and grabbing ahold of one of the other men. She released him after a few minutes and he dropped to the ground. Duxi released the man he was laying into and the bandit hobbled away as quickly as he could and the last one still standing grabbed his horse and bolted back down the road. 

The blonde let out a few puffs of air as she calmed down before she looked around for the woman who had been yanked out of the carriage. The men that were with her had been killed by the bandits as they took the vehicle and a few of their horses ran during the commotion, but the sturdy carriage horses remained where they were. The woman was on the ground and struggling to get up due to the weight of the dress she was wearing. Katya moved to help her, but pulled back when she realized her hands were still exposed. “Ah,” she muttered and glanced around for her gloves. She found one tossed to the side, slightly dusty from the dirt on the road, and Duxi brought her the second one that landed in one of the ditches that flanked the sides of the road. 

“Are you okay?” Katya asked when she turned back around to the woman. Now that she was closer, she could see that the woman, the potential bride, was younger than she was. She couldn’t help her up, didn’t even attempt it since she saw first hand what the curse would do to someone touching her, even with the protective barrier of clothing. It wasn’t worth the consequences that would come, even as she had to watch the woman flail around in an attempt to right herself.

“Ah, yes, better now with your assistance,” the woman replied, her heavy Latin accent making it difficult for Katya to understand her words. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

The woman gestured towards the men’s bodies still laying close to the carriage. Katya was sure the second one she grabbed was just unconscious from the shock, but the first one… 

Before Katya could think of something to say, shouting was heard and the two women turned to see a group of riders coming from the direction of the city. They reached the two women shortly. Katya recognized the lord mayor as he jumped off his horse to check on the woman on the ground. “Lady Adelaide, are you injured, did this ragamuffin hurt you?” The mayor asked, shooting a contemptuous look at Katya as she stood not far away from the lady.

One of the other men moved to grab hold of her but Duxi got in between them and growled, blood still glistening on his teeth. “No, no,” Lady Adelaide replied. “This… person saved me from bandits that killed my guards and driver. No, no, they must be rewarded.”

The lord mayor turned to Katya and she instinctively took a step back as his gaze met hers. “Who are you?”

“Ah, no one, I live at the stables,” Katya squeaked out. “I help keep the horses and goats.”

The man grunted, “Hmm, animal stench, makes sense now. Well, Lady Adelaide believes you should be rewarded, so we will see to it.” He waved his hand towards the men that accompanied him. “Make sure to take care of those men and help Lady Adelaide into her carriage.”

“Ah, wait a moment,” Lady Adelaide held out her hand. She looked over at Katya and motioned for her to follow. “Walk with me a moment.” The blonde hesitantly followed her and Duxi padded after them. “I saw what you did,” the woman said after a few moments. “To those men.” Katya struggled with a reply but she saw the woman hold up her hand again. “Pray, don’t worry, I won’t tell. In fact, I think I can help you, I think we can help each other.” She glanced back to where the men were gathered. “I am here to be a prospective bride to one of the princes, but I believe my father would prefer if I married into West Francia royalty instead, so I will be leaving here after a short stay. I would like you to come with me as a guard.”

“I’m not a warrior, m’Lady,” Katya protested. “I’m just a shepherd, shepherdess.”

“Yes, well, I believe that you will do a fine job as a protector,” Adelaide answered. “And we’ll be able to move more places, have more freedom if you’re with me and your… skillset.” She tilted her head, “You can’t want to stay here and stay around smelly, stupid beasts… and their animals for your entire life.” 

“I…” Katya had thought about it. It would be a boring life, but it would be a life.

“You may bring your dog with you if you desire.”

A small room at the back of a stable constantly wearing thick layers to cover her skin and keep anyone from bumping into her, or the chance at some kind of freedom… “When do we leave?” Katya asked, finality and resignation in her voice.

A wide smile crossed Lady Adelaide’s face, “We’ll need to stay a fortnight at least, but after that, we can leave on our travels. What do they call you anyway?”

“Katya, my name is Katya.”

The uneven gait of the horse underneath her jarred Katya out of her thoughts. Her attention snapped back to the present and she took stock of her surroundings. She and her fellow warriors were traveling through the eastern region of East Francia towards the Slavic state of Greater Moravia, escorting some noble to the new Grand Duke's estate to barter a greater connection between the two houses. Duxi huffed slightly from his position walking next to her horse, his age displayed prominently in his slower gate and the white hairs growing on his face.

It has been four years since Katya left Frankfurt behind and started a new life as a guard for Lady Adelaide. She no longer wore long tunics and gloves to protect people from touching her skin. She still wore a scarf and hood to cover her face and head, but paired with a wrap around her bust, a sleeveless tunic, braces on her wrists, leather trousers, and boots. In wintertime, she wore a thick wool coat to cover her torso, but for the most part, she dressed simply. It was a novel idea, to use her curse in a way to better her and Duxi's life so that she wouldn't have to hide away. She was a warrior now, a mercenary, she was supposed to bring pain to those that rose up against the ones she was charged to protect. It was not the life she envisioned, wasn't close to the one she dreamed of still when she closed her eyes, but it was the one she had.

She served the Lady Adelaide for a year after the woman had offered to hire her as her personal protection. The lady was correct when she surmised that her father would send for her before she had a chance to marry into the royal house of East Francia. She hailed from Paris in West Francia, and the Marquis had his eye on West Francia royalty once the sons of the king settled down. Katya left Frankfurt with Lady Adelaide to Paris, and from there, she traveled to many regions working as a guard for noble houses.

Her time with Adelaide stuck with her the most, not only because the woman gave her the opportunity to leave behind fear at being discovered and to embrace her difficulties as a benefit to her life. No, Adelaide helped her to realize further things about herself that she didn't know, different ways of the world she was ignorant of, and despite the turmoil it caused in her mind, she was grateful. The woman never touched her, mindful of what happened to people that did touch her, but Katya still felt her gaze. She didn't know what it meant until she caught the lady in bed one night with her handmaiden.

Katya did not know that women could lie with other women the way that women laid with men. It was not something that was done in her village, and not something she encountered in her days in Frankfurt. Not that she encountered much during her life in the city outside of shit and stupid animals. She moved away quickly without disturbing the lady and her maid, but her mind churned around the image. After that point, she watched them closely, noting the lingering touches, the blushing looks when they thought no one was watching, the feelings evident on their faces shown in the privacy of Lady Adelaide's rooms. It all made her think and made her wonder.

It made her wonder about her own lingering touches and looks shared between her and her old friend. Moments shared between the two, hidden away from everyone else, not because of the shame of the action, but the need to disguise supernatural forces. 

She continued to wonder after she left Adelaide's service, and the ideas stirred in the back of her mind during every new contract and every new place she visited. Now, seven years after she left her home behind and fourteen since she first encountered the fae world, she could acknowledge that there was… something between Isa and her. It grew slowly, so slowly she almost didn’t notice, but looking back, something was there, something in the touches, the looks, everything that was shared. She wondered if Isa knew, if she knew and never said anything because Katya never acknowledged it. She wondered if it was more for Isa, if she felt more than the friendship that was between them. 

Then Katya… Katya wondered, did she feel more than what she thought. Was the affection she felt for her friend more than just pure friendship? Would it have been more if allowed to develop and flourish? Would everything had turned out the way it did if she had known about the possibility of… something between them? Would Mislav still be alive if she had admitted to something being between the fae and herself?

That thought sent Kate careening back to the present moment. Nothing would have changed Mislav’s fate, nothing except him choosing not to go off to war. Mislav chose his path, and Isa was right, there was nothing she could have done for him, such things were outside the realms of even the fae. She knew this after years of experiencing the terrors of war and battle, nothing could stop that, or protect the people involved, except for the people themselves. It was unfair of her to ask, this she knew now, and it was unfair to blame Isa for what happened. Mislav made his choice, what happened to him was a direct result of that choice and the choice that others around him made. 

Katya held her hand up, signaling the caravan to halt their movement as she sensed something wrong in their surroundings. She knew Duxi sensed it too because she heard the faint rumbles of his growling from the ground. “Something is wrong,” she murmured, her eyes scanning their surroundings. “The area is too quiet.”

“The horses are antsy,” one of the other guards commented. “They can sense something in the air.”

The blonde pulled her sword out and held it in front of her. “Be on your guard,” she said. “Something is out there.”

The man in the carriage knocked impatiently at the roof, encouraging his driver to continue, but the man ignored his demands. He knew better than to go against the commands of the guards around them. The riders stilled, their horses shifting slightly underneath them, their faint sounds of agitation and Duxi’s growling the only sounds to be heard under the stillness. 

An arrow shot out from the trees around them and embedded itself into one of the guards behind the carriage. “We’re under attack!” Katya yelled. “Defensive positions.” More arrows flew out of the trees as raiders appeared from under the cover of dense foliage. Only a few arrows found their mark, but it was enough to cause uproar with the horses and the remaining guards. 

Katya cut down with her sword towards the bandit closest to her, and connected sharply with his shoulder, causing blood to spurt and forcing him to drop his sword. Her sword wasn’t sharp enough to cut through the arm, but it was enough to incapacitate the bandit. Before she could strike at another bandit, an arrow struck her horse and the beast reared, knocking her from her seat. She hit the ground with a thump, losing her sword in the process as the wind was forced out of her lungs. She lay there stunned for a moment before turning over and crawling to her feet. More bandits flooded from the trees, armed with arrows and crossbows. Several of the mercenaries that were with her were lying dead on the ground around her with a few of the bandits they had slayed. The remaining bandits had already started attacking the carriage, and picking off the rest of the mercenaries that weren’t fleeing from the trouble. 

The blonde grabbed the bandit closest to her, and could feel the moment the shocks started to hit his system. He fell back away from her, and she struggled to her feet. She looked around, her eyes searching for Duxi before landing on him a distance away, a large gash on the side of his body, and shallow exhales of breath puffing out of his mouth. “Duxi, no!” Katya cried but before she could reach him, an arrow slammed into her shoulder, jerking her backwards.

“We heard about you, we did,” one of the bandits hissed, an arrow pulled taut on his bowstring. “The demon mercenary that can kill people by touching them. We heard you was protecting this rich man intent on making himself richer, stealing from us folk, well, we decided to do the stealing ourselves. And yous can’t kill what you can’t touch.”

Another arrow slammed into her, this time her stomach, and she fully fell to the ground. Katya looked up at the bandit with a grimace on her face as she felt blood start to slowly leak out of her mouth. The man stepped closer, careful to stay out of reach of her hands, and carefully nocked another arrow on his bow. Just as he pulled it tight to fire it right in the center of Kate’s defiant expression, he was jerked from view. The other bandits in the area were also grabbed, and sounds of screams met her ears before there was silence. 

The quiet sound of footsteps brushed her ears until a blonde woman with gleaming red eyes entered her field of vision. “Those bandits aren’t the only ones to have heard of you,” the woman said, her voice thick with an accent typical of Slavic peoples further east. “A mercenary able to kill adversaries with only a touch.” She clicked her tongue, “My, my, to find such a valuable gift manifesting as a human, that’s powerful indeed.”

“Gi-gift?” Katya gasped. “Not gift-”

“Oh but it is, and a powerful one, would be quite handy to have on our side.” The woman reached for the scarf wrapped around Katya’s face. “Now who do we have under here…” As soon as Katya’s face was revealed, the woman smiled, “Oh my, I do believe you will fit right in with my daughters.” 

“Du- Duxi,” Katya started, tearing her eyes away from the woman to glance around. 

“Duxi?”

“I believe she refers to the dog Mother,” another voice sounded and a woman with strawberry blonde hair appeared next to the other woman. The two women conversed for a moment and Katya tried to follow, but she was fading in and out of the conversation.

“She’s fading fast,” the first woman spoke. “We’ll have to change her fast.” The woman reached out to touch Katya, but she felt the moment her hand made contact with her skin and she pulled back with a gasp. She repositioned herself and Katya felt teeth brush across her neck. “This will only hurt for a moment dear.”

Katya thought the burning would last for an eternity, hours, days, weeks, she lost track of time, but it seemed to intensify with every beat of her heart, until, one moment, the beating stopped. Her eyes opened, first one and then the other, and she was met with a world she had never seen before. It was similar to the one she knew, but it was… sharper, more detailed. She could see the dust particles floating in the air above her head, she could see each individual leaf on the trees above her, even a small squirrel stashing away nuts for the winter. She could hear insects chirping around her, the wind whistling through the grass, the trickling sound of a small brooke. As her eyes and senses adjusted, she realized that she was in the world she knew, but it was sharper and more defined than she had previously experienced.

A slight noise in her vicinity drew her attention, and Katya was immediately on her feet, a snarl leaving her mouth before she knew what was happening. Her eyes fell on three women, two blondes and a reddish haired woman. Only one of the blondes was unfamiliar to her, the other two Katya remembered from before the fire started. “Who are you?” She croaked out, her voice strange to her own ears.

“We will explain in a moment dear, but first you must eat.” The woman who bit her gestured to the previously unseen body on the ground in front of her, and Katya pushed away, confusion on her face. The woman sighed and carefully slit the man’s throat. As soon as the scent of blood hit the air, Katya pounced, her mouth latching onto the open wound to allow the red liquid to trickle down her throat. She lost herself into the sensation, the unacknowledged burn at the back of her throat easing with every drop she drank.

Once finished, she released the body and let it fall, a horrified expression twisting across her face. “Don’t be so alarmed dear,” the woman said. “This is your reality now. You, we, are vampires.”

“Vampires?”

“Mhm, blood-drinkers. I am your sire, Sasha, and these are my adoptive daughters, your new sisters, Tanya and Irina.” Sasha gestured between the two women behind her and Katya eyed them warily. 

“Why did you do this to me?” Katya asked.

Sasha grinned, “Your gift, dear girl, your power, you will make a wonderful vampire, a powerful vampire. You were dying, it would be a crime to let such a gift die with you.”

“It’s not a gift,” she bit out. “It’s a curse.”

The blonde woman tutted, “So many humans look at such things beyond them as curses, but in reality it is a blessing. You were meant to be something more than what you are dear.”

Katya opened her mouth to contradict her but shut it again. It would do no good to try to explain the particulars of the curse and how it came to be, even to women who were supposedly part of the supernatural world. “What about Duxi?” She asked. “My dog, where is he?”

The three women looked at each other before Sasha turned back to her. “I’m sorry, dear,” she said. “He didn’t make it out of the attack you were caught up in.”

Tears filled Katya’s eyes as she fell to the ground but they refused to fall. He was the last part of her life, the last thing that connected her to who she used to be, who she wanted to be with her family, with Isa. “My life,” she gasped. “My family, my-”

“I know it’s hard,” Sasha said. She held her hand out to brush against her shoulder but she stopped just before she made contact. “We will be your new family, you don’t have to be alone. Your human memories will eventually fade away, and they will hurt less and less each day, I promise.”

Katya glanced up as the other two women came forward and knelt next to her. “What is our new sister’s name?” The one called Irina spoke.

She wondered that herself, who was she? Was she even Katya anymore? Every part of Katya was gone, her family, her life, Duxi, Isa, who was she? “Katrina,” she answered after a moment. “My name is Katrina.”

Chapter Text

Kate hummed as she exhaled, the breath unneeded with her vampire physiology, but welcome with the sense of normalcy it brought. The warmth of the room prevented her breath from showing, but she knew the crisp, cold air lay just outside the walls of her sanctuary. She carefully dipped her brush into the deep ultramarine blue and mixed it with linseed oil on her palette before adding it to the swirling vortex of colors on the canvas in front of her. The blues and violets glowed with a deep light while the reds and yellows popped with vibrancy. The greens and pinks danced throughout the image, a picture of a blossoming forest in springtime. The scene was idyllic and magical, the next in a long line of paintings depicting enchanted forests, mysterious waters, and other magical lands and creatures. Numerous paintings littered the walls of her studio, and several more were tucked away in boxes ready to ship out to their new homes. The viewers and buyers of her many pieces believed she dreamt up the fantastical images of mystical lands and magical creatures, and she was content to let them believe such things. No one would ever believe the images were pulled from memories of a time long ago, a time when things were different, when she was different.

The blonde carefully pulled out the painting that always sat unfinished, hidden away in the corner of her studio under layers of paintings and canvas coverings. She didn’t look at it often, the memories still too painful in her mind. Sasha had told her that her human memories would fade during the change or with every year she continued to live in her new existence. It was just her luck that she remembered everything in perfect detail. It could have been a side effect of the curse, forced to remember everything that was and everything that she lost through her own actions and decisions. Kate lifted the drop cloth off of the painting and carefully brushed her fingers against the image of white feathers glowing in the blue light of a full moon. Brilliant flowers of varying hues almost danced around the figure, illuminated with tiny lights that floated around the scene. The painting was almost complete, except for the empty void where the face of the figure should be. Kate could never find it in herself to complete the work, to paint her full image in the scene, not after what she said, not after what she did.

Kate carefully folded the painting back under the numerous drop cloths, and set it back in its hiding place. Her family normally didn’t intrude on her private space, but on the off chance they lost their damn minds, or one of those nosey Cullens decided to visit, she didn’t want them to find the unfinished work. Is- her, she was not something she wanted to discuss with her family, with anyone. She glanced back at her current painting, still unfinished on her easel. It would be so easy to add the faint hint of an outline deep in the forest, or the brush of a feather close to the foreground. It would be so, so easy to give into the desires of her heart and the soft murmurings of the traitorous side of her mind. Without her conscious permission, her hand reached out to grab at one of the brushes, so, so easy.

A knock on the door broke her out of her daze, and Kate swiftly pulled her hand away from where her brushes were kept near her palette. “Kate,” Irina’s voice called, muffled even to vampire hearing due to the thickness of the door. “You’ve been in here a few days and you haven’t fed. Tanya’s called a family meeting so make sure you grab a little something before you come up to the house.” Her sister’s voice faded slightly, and Kate could hear careful steps moving away from the little cabin until she was left alone.

And just like that, the spell was broken, the bubble of peace and occasionally anxiety that existed between her and her paintings vanished, leaving behind a feel of what could have been. She stared regretfully down at the glass of brushes before shaking her head. “Ah, it’s for the best,” she muttered to herself. She carefully cleaned up her station and covered her painting and palette to protect them from potential dust or debris that would damage the surface. 

It never boded well when Tanya called a family meeting, especially a last minute meeting. Nine times out of ten, it had something to do with their ‘cousins,’ the Cullens, and all of the drama they brought with them. She grabbed two pints of bagged blood out of the cooler she kept in her studio, and quickly downed the contents. The constant mix of animal and human blood kept the Alaskan coven’s eyes more of a burnt orange color rather than the solid gold preferred by their Cullen “cousins.” Carlisle and Edward often had many opinions on their choices, not that she gave them much time or opportunity to voice them. 

Kate left her studio, and carefully locked the door. Despite it being April in Alaska, snow still lingered on the ground due to a recent cold spell. Small flowers and various plants peeked through the bits of white slush on the side of the walkway on the way back to the main house. The three sisters originally settled deep in the wilderness of Alaska after their sire was destroyed, far away from human populations, but close enough to reach the Russian settlements. They viewed the men's treatment of the indigenous population, particularly the native women, as vile and inhuman, so it was only fair that such monsters feel the ire of a greater predator. 

As the years advanced and the culture changed, they settled further into the wilderness between what is now Denali National Park and Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Their new brother and sister, Eleazar and Carmen joined them shortly after the relocation and adopted the animal diet they had started to supplement their feeding in between trips to snack on the colonizers. Eventually it was easier to switch completely to animal blood and avoid human contact altogether, except to pick up key supplies or satisfy hobbies, such as Kate's artistic endeavors. Once the method for storing blood was developed, the Alaskan coven created a company to offer to buy infected or expired blood from hospitals and blood donation organizations. Such blood could not be used safely for human uses, but it made no difference to vampires needing to eat. Blood fresh from an artery still was preferred, but for vampires that desired privacy and to not move around, the company was a godsend.

Kate's studio was a short walk away from the main house for a vampire, despite the fact it was several acres away, so she easily reached the house in a few moments. The house was large based on Alaskan standards; five bedrooms, each with an accompanying bathroom to offer privacy to the different members of the coven. They didn’t need to sleep, or bathe regularly, but the feeling of water on their skin from a shower or soaking in a tub was too comforting to give up. The water was drawn in with a pipe from an aquifer deep underground, located only through the use of their vampiric senses. 

The house was a more recent construction, built within the last thirty years as an upgrade from their previous home. The original cabin they built years ago was long gone, lost to changing times and technological development, and abandoned in their move further inland. The house they built in the intervening years still stood and functioned with some minor adjustments made over time. The number of changes needed to fully bring it into contemporary times was too great, so a new house was built and the old one was regulated to a guest cabin.

Despite being built with modern technology, the coven’s new house was still located in the Alaskan wilderness and so was built with those specifications in mind. Irina carefully designed a pump and filtration system to bring the water into the house for bathing and washing, and then pump it back out into the environment once it had been cleaned of chemicals and impurities that might be caused by the soap they used or their venom. The heating unit in the house and the other buildings on their property originally ran on wood stoves, but the further development of solar technology allowed them to put more electricity in the house with the solar panels on the roof. They were basically useless during the winter months, but they didn’t need to keep the house that warm, just enough to keep the pipes from freezing and for things to feel comfortable for the family of vampires. The wood stoves worked well enough for such things.

The original house sat on the opposite edge of their property with close to a hundred acres between the two. A few other guest cabins were added for various friends who were in the area and needed a place to rest out of the weather before continuing on their travels. The Cullens imposed on them a few times, sometimes for an extended period of time, but they would quickly grow tired of the lack of internet access in the guest cabins and the remoteness of Alaskan life. The only ways to get to their property were by hiking through rough terrain and dense forest, or taking a small plane from Fairbanks to the little landing strip they maintained on their property. They kept a small prop plane on the property for times they needed to get supplies from Fairbanks or Anchorage, and a smaller bush plane at a small lodge they owned closer to the easily accessible areas of Denali National Park not far from Fairbanks.

Kate opened the door to the house and found her coven mates seated on the large, plush living room furniture that was scattered through the central room. Tanya was seated in her typical recliner, Carmen and Eleazar were on the love seat, and Irina was on one side of the sofa, leaving the side closest to Tanya open for her missing sister. “A full family meeting, must be serious,” she commented, weaving her fingers through her platinum blonde curls. “What is it this time?”

“Yes Sister, what have the Cullens done this time?” Irina asked. 

“I never said it was the Cullens,” Tanya countered.

Irina just snorted, her straight blonde hair shifting slightly as she shook her head. “It’s always the Cullens, they have become ever more bothersome since we decided to update the house and acquire those… mobile phone things. Makes it even more annoying that Alice just helped herself to our phone numbers when she ‘saw’ them in a vision.”

“Did Carlisle call you Tanya?” Eleazar asked, bringing the conversation back to focus. He knew Carlisle from his days with the Volturi and found the man fascinating at first, but over the years of friendship between the two men, he came to agree with the sisters’ way of thinking. The Cullens were… tiresome.

“He did,” the coven leader admitted. “They have… a problem.”

“Of course they do, and I guess they need our help?”

Tanya hummed, “It is a tricky request he has asked, and I wouldn’t agree to it without discussing it with all of you first.”

“What has he asked?” Carmen questioned.

“Edward,” Tanya said slowly. “Has become infatuated with a human. The one that drove him here months ago.”

“Ah, La Tua Cantante , his singer,” Eleazar commented.

Tanya nodded, “Yes, Edward is convinced she is his mate, something about needing to overcome the allure of her blood, or some nonsense. Either way, he somehow worked around telling her what he is, and she figured it out.”

The other members of the Alaskan coven let out a series of groans, and Kate pinched the bridge of her nose in an effort to stem the headache that she knew would form if she were human. “Is he an idiot? Don’t answer that, what is he planning on doing if the Volturi finds out?” She asked, moving her hand away from her face to clench into a fist.

“Unfortunately, we’re dealing with one problem at a time,” Tanya continued. “The weather has been mostly mild in that part of Washington surprisingly, but shortly after school concluded for the year, a thunderstorm rolled in, and we all know what the Cullens love to do during a thunderstorm.”

“What does a stupid baseball game have to do with anything?” Irina demanded.

“Apparently Edward wanted to show off for his human, and brought her along to the game. While they were playing, a group of three nomads showed up and caught her scent,” Tanya explained. “The one is apparently a gifted tracker, and set out to hunt the human as some kind of game of sorts. His companions apparently have gifts as well that is making it difficult to find them.”

“They want our help to deal with these nomads?” Carmen asked, seeking clarification.

Tanya let out an unnecessary exhale as she sighed, “Not exactly. Carlisle has requested that we allow the human shelter here while they deal with the nomads.”

The rest of the coven were quiet for a few moments before reacting. Irina immediately exploded, her tone furious as she cursed the Cullens for daring to bring them into their mess. Carmen and Eleazar whispered to each other in Spanish, always reverting to their native language when upset. The only ones that didn't say a word were Tanya who sat and observed their reactions, and Kate. Kate though, she wasn't sure what to think.

Tanya eventually grew tired of the noise and issued an order for quiet. "They can't be serious Tanya," Irina demanded. "Why must they bring us into their rule breaking mess?"

"They are our closest allies, so it makes sense that they would reach out to us," the coven leader countered.

"What about Kate?" The pale blonde continued. "You want to make her feel uncomfortable in her own home? Or drive her away to one of the cabins or outer homes?"

"I know that, which is why I said that I would discuss it with all of you before giving them an answer," Tanya replied. "There are the rules to consider, yes, but also Kate's comfort."

Kate glanced down at her hands, she knew what they were referring to when they spoke of her comfort. Her gift they called it. Sasha thought it was a vampiric gift manifesting as a human, a remarkable find. She knew that was one of the reasons she was turned when Sasha stumbled across her after that vicious battle centuries ago. The coursing tingle of electricity that sparked across her hands and shocked anyone she touched or anyone that touched her. Her gift.

Only she knew what it really was, her curse, carried with her from one lifetime to the next. Her burden to bear for what she did, a fae curse. Those who knew the truth were long gone from the world, and she knew her family would never be able to accept the truth that she knew. And she didn't want to share it with them, to share her greatest shame and regret. 

"It's alright Irina," Kate said, halting her sister.

"It is not alright, Kate," Irina countered. "You should be able to be comfortable in your home."

"It doesn't bother me to wear long sleeves and gloves when I need to," Kate countered. 

"Do you think you will need to take such measures?" Carmen asked. "You have come such a long way from when we first met."

Kate carefully scooted to the edge of the couch and reached across the space to carefully touch the Spanish woman’s leg. If she didn’t have enhanced senses, she would have missed the minute ticks and twitches around the other woman’s face as the electricity started to dance through her system. She pulled her hand away after only a few seconds, but Carmen still visibly relaxed in her seat. “That is the most I can control it,” Kate replied. “It would be ten times worse for a human, not lethal, but would definitely leave some lasting damage. I will wear long sleeves and gloves while the human is here as a precaution. It does not stop all of the shock, but it will help mitigate some of the pain.”

“Are you sure Kate?” Tany asked. “We don’t need to do this, Carlisle informed me they already have a plan B in case we said no.”

“They are our allies, as insufferable as they are, and they have asked for our help. We may not agree with many of their choices, or this decision to bring a human into our world without a clear plan to turn her, but we need to help them with this.” Kate quirked her brow and grinned, “Besides, I think we have the easy end, we’ll just be babysitting, they’ll be routing a group of nomads.”

Tanya hesitated before nodding, "If you are sure, I will go ahead and call them." As she finished speaking, her phone rang, and she glanced down at the screen and rolled her eyes. "Hello Alice." The older vampire left the room, carrying the phone with her as they all heard Alice squeal excitedly about how much they appreciate us letting Bella stay here.

“So her name is Bella,” Irina mused. “I wonder what type of person it takes to ruffle Edward up so badly, the boy has a perpetual stick up his ass.”

“We will find out tomorrow,” Tanya said as she walked back into the room. “Rosalie will be escorting her to Fairbanks, and then she’ll use the plane we keep there to fly her here. She’ll take the plane back with her when she leaves.”

“That’s a bit surprising, I figured out of anyone, Edward, or at least Alice, would bring her,” Kate commented. “Isn’t Edward the one that is obsessed with her?”

“Apparently Edward believes he and Alice would do more good attempting to track the nomads with their gifts than escorting the human here,” Tanya replied. “Rosalie was the only other one that could bring her since she has her pilot’s license. I’m not letting Emmett touch one of our vehicles again.”

Kate rolled her eyes, remembering how the giant, oafish vampire had wrecked two snowmobiles and an ATV doing his ridiculous stunts before he was prohibited from touching anything owned by the Alaskan coven. The only thing that saved him from being permanently banned from their territories was his mate’s agreement to replace what he had broken. They, of course, abused the privilege greatly as a way to teach the spoiled vampires a lesson as they had Rosalie purchase newer models of the vehicles her mate destroyed. 

“When are we to expect them?” Carmen asked. “If we are to house a human for an indefinite period of time, we will have to get supplies, food and such,”

“Tomorrow,” the strawberry blonde replied. “They managed to get two of the last seats on a flight to Fairbanks, and will arrive here sometime in the afternoon.” She turned towards Carmen and Eleazar, “I’m going to ask the two of you to fly into town and get supplies, while Kate, Irina and I get the house ready.”

“The human is staying here, in this house?” Irina screeched.

“Where else would she stay?”

The blonde woman waved her hands, “I don’t know, at any of the other houses or cabins we have on this property?”

“And if those nomads were to sneak through our defenses and get to the girl while she was alone in one of the outlying properties?”

Irina clicked her mouth shut and turned her head away, a clear sign that she acknowledged Tanya as correct but was unwilling to voice the sentiment.

"I thought so," Tanya continued, ignoring her sister's complaints. "We will assess the situation the Cullens are in when Roalie and the human arrive here tomorrow. We will provide sanctuary and aid as needed according to the alliance we have with them. However, if we feel that they are bordering on breaking the law, such as never planning to turn the human, we will have to regroup and plan for such possibilities."

"You would risk drawing their ire if we turned the human ourselves," Eleazar pointed out. "Edward might not be the only one with reservations about the change, Rosalie and Carlisle have strict feelings on it as well."

Tanya shook her head, "We will have no choice, I will not involve us in another breach of the law that could put us in danger."

Eleazar shook his head, “Aro’s… fondness for Carlisle tends to lead him to believe that he and his coven may behave as they wish without repercussions.”

“Would Aro let them get away with this, violating the secrecy part of the law?” Carmen questioned.

“Honestly, he would probably use this as an excuse to get something that he wanted,” the man continued. “Though, I’m sure if he had both Edward and Alice in his guard, he would quickly regret it.”

“He would deserve it though,” Kate snorted. “They all would, they’re all equally annoying.”

“We don’t know what the Cullens plan to do yet about the human,” Tanya interrupted before they could spinoff into a new tangent away from the issue at hand. “We must be ready for any negative decision they make in order to avert possible catastrophes. In the meantime, we will get the house ready for a human to stay here for an indeterminate period of time.”

“Better not be a long ‘indeterminate period of time,’” Irina grumbled as she stomped away from the living room. “We don’t need to get involved in all of this Cullen drama.”

“Where are you going sister?” Tanya called.

Irina whirled around, “To get the house ready! There are sharp things in here from our collections that might damage something as fragile as a human, and like hell am I going to leave my first editions out for greasy little fingers.”

“I’m going to put her in the spare room across from Kate’s bedroom,” Tanya said as her sister continued to stomp through the house. “Make sure there’s fresh towels in the bathroom.”

“Fine!”

The strawberry blonde turned to her curly haired sister. “I hope that’s fine,” she said. “I know you prefer your space, but it’s the most put together guest room we have right now, and your bathroom is the cleanest-” A loud crash was heard upstairs as more grumbling ensued from their sister. “Eleazar and Carmen’s is still a mess from… what was it you were doing?” She turned the question to the two still left in the room.

Eleazar opened his mouth but Carmen set her hand on his leg. “Why don’t we go ahead and get the plane and go into town, get some food and other things humans need. Do we even have pans? We have an oven, but do we have a skillet…”

“There was that one, but I think it exploded when I was attempting to melt glass…” Carmen tugged Eleazar out of the house as quickly as possible, grabbing her purse and the keys to the plane on the way out through the small mudroom at the back of the house. 

Kate waited a few moments to ensure they were out of hearing range before she spoke again. “I think it’s cute that Carmen tries to cover up how big of an idiot Eleazar is,” she commented, a smirk on her face.

“He’s trying at least,” Tanya said. “He wants to be able to help counteract toxins and other pollutants in the environment in order to protect our home, he just… goes about it in the wrong way the first few times.”

“Many of the times.”

“Is that not the point of experimentation? Trial and error?”

The blonde hummed, unconvinced but willing to table the discussion for the moment. Eleazar was enthusiastic about his experiments and hobbies, but sometimes he got a little carried away, like the time he kept an orphaned seal pup in his bathtub for three months until it could mature and be released into the wild. It was before the time of rescues and rehabilitation organizations. The man found the pup crying on a rock, and the soft-hearted vampire couldn’t leave it there to be food for any predator that came along, it at least deserved a fighting chance. The smell of fish stayed in the house for months, but he did manage to release the seal pup once it was big enough, after it had tried to make a meal out of a few of his fingers. 

“Kate…” Tanya started, drawing her sister’s attention. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know you like to keep your distance because of your gift, and I won’t do anything to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“I know that, and I’m okay with this,” Kate replied, stressing her words. She wanted Tanya to understand that she was… well she wasn’t okay with the situation. She wasn’t okay with the Cullens and their decisions impacting their lives. She wasn’t okay with being imposed upon to be complicit in rule breaking. She wasn’t okay with being drawn into more stupidity. But she was okay with offering shelter in time of need, and she would be okay with someone else around, someone potentially in her space. “I’m sure that Eddie has told her all about who we are, our abilities, and our ‘succubus background.’” Kate rolled her eyes, “When the human gets here, we’ll just have to stress further the no touching thing, other than that, it’ll be fine.

She hoped it would be fine.

Chapter Text

Curiosity tinged the air as the little bush plane the Alaskan coven kept just outside of Fairbanks bounced down on the little runway at the back of their property. True to their word, Rosalie called the Alaskan coven once they had arrived in Fairbanks. Never one to waste words, the blonde Cullen informed them that she and the human were making their way to the lodge where the plane was housed and they would be on their way as soon as she received clearance from ground control. Kate often thought that out of all of the Cullens, Rosalie was the one that would fit in most with the Alaskan coven, if she didn’t have her idiotic husband that is. Emmett was strong, stronger than most vampires she had encountered, but he never bothered to learn control to temper his strength and enthusiasm, often resulting in needless, wasteful destruction. It was definitely behavior that none of them could tolerate for an extended period of time. 

It was a moot point to imagine Rosalie, and with her, Emmett, as members of the Alaskan coven because neither one of them could tolerate the more remote existence the coven led. They were too addicted to the lifestyle the Olympic coven led, the cars, the houses, the numerous belongings. Emmett with his game consoles and Rosalie with her cars and garage work spaces. 

The plane slowed down as it rolled down the runway until it eventually turned and started heading back towards where they were waiting by the hangar. The propeller wound down before eventually stopping as the plane stopped in front of them. The pilot side door was pushed open, and Rosalie, with an annoyed expression on her face, quickly stepped out and made her way over to them. “Well, she’s your problem now,” she said, exasperation coloring her tone.

“Problem with the human, Rose?” Tanya questioned, a smirk on her face. 

The blonde let out an aggravated sigh, “I just don’t like playing a babysitter, or being forced into this situation because of Edward’s obsession.”

Kate turned her attention away from where Rosalie and Tanya were discussing the situation with the nomads to the side of the plane where the human was struggling to get out. She let out a low chuckle and flashed to the right hand side of the plane and quickly opened the door. Brown eyes met burnt orange and Kate was immediately struck with… something. Long brown hair was pulled back into a messy braid at the back of her neck, while a Seattle Seahawks hat was tugged down on top of her head. A thick plaid, flannel shirt covered her arms but was open in the front to reveal a Seahawks jersey underneath. “Football fan?” Kate couldn’t stop the words from leaving her mouth as she took in the young woman’s outfit.

The human blinked before glancing down at her jersey. “Ah, yes,” she answered. “I had mainly Cardinals stuff, but decided to pick up some stuff while we were at the airport.”

“Wouldn’t it be more expensive at the airport?” Kate honestly doesn’t know why she’s still talking. “That’s what I’ve always heard anyway.”

“It can be, but honestly, for stuff like this,” she said, plucking at her shirt. “It’s not terrible.”

Kate stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do next before she realized the human was still tugging at her seatbelt. “Oh, here,” she said. “Let me get that for you, it’s always been a little sticky.” She reached over and unbuckled the seatbelt, careful not to touch the human in any way.

“Thank you,” the girl replied, shouldering her backpack. “And you are…?”

“Oh, I’m Kate,” the blonde replied. “Welcome to Alaska.”

“Thank you, everything is so beautiful here. The scenery was amazing on the way here from Fairbanks.”

“It is beautiful here, have you ever been to Alaska before?”

Before the girl could reply, Rosalie’s voice cut through their conversation. “Isabella!” The Olympic coven member called, and the human sighed as she made her way over to where she was standing. “Bella,” the blonde started. “This is Tanya, the leader of the Alaska Coven. You will be staying with them for a while until we get this situation sorted out. Tanya, Bella Swan.”

“Welcome Bella,” Tanya greeted. “Or do you prefer Isabella?”

“Ah, Bella’s fine.” The brunette clutched at the strap of her shoulder bag on top of her backpack. “Thank you for, you know, offering to take me in.”

“The Cullens are our allies, and when they called for help, it would be wrong of us to not answer.” It was a diplomatic answer, Kate knew it, Tanya knew it, and she could tell that Bella knew it too. Rosalie though, Kate could tell from her expression that she wished to be anywhere but there at present. Anywhere except back with her own coven maybe, considering the contentious relationship she always had with the Cullen patriarch. “I would warn you though,” Tanya continued. “We live a very rural life here in Alaska. No TV, no cars, we have limited satellite internet-” 

“I thought you didn’t have internet at all?” Rosalie interrupted.

“- In the main house.” The strawberry blonde gave the other vampire a hard look. “If you need anything from town, we’ll have to take the plane to the lodge close to Fairbanks and drive from there. Other than that, we have ATVs, hiking, camping, and other outdoor types of equipment here.”

“Oh no, that’s fine, I’ll be fine,” Bella replied. “I have a few books with me, and my sketchbook. Might need a few other books, but I’m guessing if you don’t have consistent internet access, you’ll have books.”

Tanya smirked, “Oh, we have books, that’s more Irina’s area though, so you’ll have to contend with her if you need more reading material.” She gestured towards her straight haired sister.

Irina narrowed her eyes at the human for a minute before sniffing delicately. “Well, let’s hope that this situation resolves itself before you need too many books.”

“If you’re all making friends now,” Rosalie interrupted. “I really should leave. Apparently we have a group of psychopathic nomads to track down.” Kate could see that the younger vampire wanted to say something else, but she just clenched her teeth and climbed back into the plan. The three sisters quickly ushered the human away from the aircraft before Rosalie could start it up and accidentally take the young woman’s head off in her haste to leave. They watched the plane quickly gain speed going down the small runway before pulling up into the sky, heading back in the direction towards Fairbanks.

“Now, Bella,” Tanya started once the noise of the plane was far enough away. “As I said, we live a rural existence. The closest cabins to the hangar here are guest cabins, but to keep an eye on you, you’ll be staying with us in the main house. We don’t think it is proper to just pick up and carry you back to the house since we just met, so one of us will show you how to use the ATVs we keep on the property and give you a little tour, if that is acceptable.”

“I can do it.” Kate didn’t know why she said that, she didn’t know why she was out there at the airstrip at all. She was mildly curious about the human girl that had stuck-up Edward so discombobulated, and that brought her out to greet the plane when it came in, but to agree to help her drive back to the house… and show her around the property… “I mean, if that’s okay with you Tanya?” Stop talking Kate, just stop talking.

Tanya stared at her younger sister for a moment before nodding. “Ah, yes, of course, you know where the ATVs and suits are, make sure to point out the more treacherous areas while you’re out.”

Kate turned to look at the human just a few paces away from where she was standing. “Alright, well, we should…” The blonde rubbed at her nose for a moment, fidgeting in a way that she hadn’t since the first few years after her turning. “Um, the ATVs are this way, in the shed, along with some… some warmer clothes and such, to keep up appearances if we’re ever spotted out on them.”

She waved her hand for Bella to precede her into the small hangar and storage area where they kept their plane and other larger vehicles. Kate took a minute to study the human as she walked over to study the various ATVs they kept on this side of their property. The girl, no, the young woman was not what she initially expected, not for the object of Edward’s obsession. She was… average wasn’t the right word, she was beautiful, but in a very ordinary human way. It was the type of beauty that girls developed in their teens, it was unpolished, unassuming, a girl transitioning from child to woman. 

Vampires were beautiful, Kate knew this, she vividly remembered the startling change in her appearance from human to vampire after seeing herself for the first time after her transition. In essentials, she looked the same, two eyes, nose, mouth, hair, cheekbones, but everything was more pronounced, sharper, duskier, designed specifically to draw humans in, to set them at ease because how could something so beautiful be so dangerous? It was a different type of beauty than what humans had, beauty without strings attached, a beauty that was natural, and not designed to draw in prey. Kate would almost say it was an effortless beauty that humans carried, but she knew some people spent time and energy to appear as flawless as possible. No, Kate would say that human beauty was unencumbered by such things like instinct or need, but rather more natural and enlightening, something that made them more beautiful than vampires.

For a brief moment, she wondered at the kind of beauty another would hold after time and maturity and wisdom took hold of features memorized during childhood games and long days spent talking.

Kate shook the memory and question out of her mind, no use wondering about things never to know. She turned her attention back to Bella and saw she was examining one of the sport ATVs they kept to enjoy the thrill of racing cross country during the long days of summer. “Those have a bit more speed,” Kate said, walking over to them. “Used for racing mainly, we have a few trails for such things here, but if you’re not familiar with driving a 4 wheeler, probably should stick with the standard entry level vehicles.”

“Oh good, I’ve driven a dirt bike before, unsuccessfully, and I didn’t want to crash one of these things either.” The human bounced off the 4-wheeler, and picked one of the sturdier entry ATVs Kate pointed out. 

“Do you have your driver’s license?” Kate asked when she handed her a simple jumpsuit, pair of gloves, and one of the helmets. 

“Hmm, oh yes, I’ve been driving a few years now,” Bella replied. She set her bags down and tugged the jumpsuit over her clothes and put the gloves on her hands. Kate grabbed her shoulder bag before she could, leaving Bella with just her backpack to contend with. The brunette narrowed her eyes at Kate but didn’t say anything regarding the bag. “That reminds me though, how do vampires get their driver’s licenses? You have to have your face in the system, take the test, get it renewed, a whole process.”

“Most of us don’t have a license of any kind,” Kate answered honestly. “We learn to drive cars, fly planes, drive boats through our time and experience as more hobbies really. We keep planes and these vehicles here more for sport and basic necessity at times, but for the most part, most vampire covens do not possess belongings that could lead to them being tracked. Any property obtained is typically held in perpetual trusts with lawyers paid to stay quiet, and money is made through treasures sold, investments, or different business ventures run by humans.” Kate tilted her head, “Honestly, the only covens I can think of that indulge in luxuries such as cars would be the Volturi or the Cullens.”

Bella snorted as she shoved the helmet on her head. She didn’t say anything else, just examined the 4-wheeler to determine the controls. Kate quickly pointed out the throttle, brakes, and other parts to control the vehicle before handing her the key. She pulled on her own clothes and helmet, and swung her leg over her own ATV. She tapped a button on the helmet, triggering the small radio communication device inside it. “There’s a close range radio in the helmets,” she said, drawing Bella’s attention. “It’s good to stay in contact, even for vampires. Sometimes whiteout conditions here means visibility is less than zero, at best.” She motioned for Bella to push the button on her helmet, and then the two were off, tearing out of the hangar into the Alaskan wilderness. 

They took it slowly, starting with the guest cabins close to the hangar, usually occupied by the Cullens when they were in the area, Kate informed the human, before moving on to other key areas of the Alaskan coven’s property. They crossed over streams, passed through fields and forests, and ascended part of the mountain range that stretched between Wrangell St. Elias and Denali National Park.

“So, what do you think?” Kate asked, flipping her visor open to better look at the brunette. “How do you like Alaska?”

“It’s amazing,” Bella replied honestly. “Truly, it is beautiful. I don’t think I’m going to mind this little ‘graduation vacation.’”

“Is that the cover for this?” The blonde continued. “A graduation trip?”

“Hmm, yes, all last minute of course. The school year ended, graduation, then that stupid baseball game.” She let out a sigh, “Going on a graduation trip was the best excuse the Cullens could come up with.”

That statement, combined with the human girl’s earlier words and Rosalie’s attitude, brought many questions to Kate’s mind. She questioned Bella’s relationship with the Cullen coven and how she came to be involved in this situation. There was no way she was Edward’s mate, not if she was his singer, but she had many questions regarding how the human was dragged into this situation. 

On a small mountain in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness was not the place to ask such questions though. Kate snapped her visor closed and revved the engine of the ATV. “It’s getting late,” she said through her mic. “Even though the sun is still up, it’s late, we should probably get to the house so that you can get some food and rest.”

“Know much about humans do you?”

“No,” Kate admitted. “But I can hear your stomach growling from here. Best to show you the house and feed you before Alice sees this and thinks we’re abusing you or some nonsense.”

The brunette just hummed again and started her own ATV. Kate quickly turned and sped back down the mountain before she could change her mind about questioning the human further. What had Tanya said about how Alice phrased their relationship with the human? Edward thought the girl was his mate, in actuality she’s his singer, and… what else? Did they make assumptions about a possible relationship between the two, or did they not ask and Alice not clarify?

It took another 45 mins winding through trails to reach the main house. Kate had no idea they had traveled so far during the tour. Judging by the exhausted expression on the human’s face, she made the right decision to return to the house rather than keep exploring the wilderness. Oftentimes Kate was out there for days, weeks at a time with nothing but some light campaigning gear to keep out of the elements. When one had immortality, it was easy to lose track of time. With a human in their midst though, someone who’s days, hours, minutes were structured with needs, it made her more aware of the passage of time.

They pulled up to the house, and the other four members of the Alaskan coven emerged from the building at their approach. “Did you have a good tour of the property?” Tanya asked, focusing her attention on the human.

“Oh yes, it’s amazing out here,” Bella replied. “I am so going to get lost though.”

“Yes, well, one of us will always be available to escort you somewhere if needed.” The strawberry blonde turned towards the final two members of her coven. “These are our last two coven mates, Eleazar and Carmen, they have acquired food and other supplies for your use while here. We have a small kitchen, though probably best not to let Eleazar assist you in there, he tends to cause things to explode.”

Bella blinked, “On purpose?”

“Yes.” “No.” Carmen and Eleazar responded at the same time.

“I do not cause explosions on purpose,” Eleazar continued. “Just sometimes experiments don’t work out, that’s all.”

“Well, I am hungry but I also feel a bit gross and tired, so maybe just a sandwich and then a shower.”

“I can-” “I will make-” Carmen and Eleazar both spoke at the same time again, and they glared at each other until Eleazar backed down.

“I can make the sandwich for you,” Carmen offered. “While you shower, then you can just go straight to bed.”

Bella narrowed her eyes at Carmen and studied her for a few moments. “When was the last time you made a sandwich?” She questioned, a suspicious tone in her voice.

“Ah… never?” The brunette vampire replied. “But, well, how hard could it be?”

The human just hummed and listed out what she would like on a sandwich if they had it available. Carmen disappeared into the kitchen, a gleeful look on her face with Eleazar trailing behind her like a wounded puppy. 

“I might start to like you,” Irina said, drawing the human’s attention. Kate knew that her sister was determined to dislike the girl due to the Cullens action of drawing their coven into their mess with the shadow of the Volturi looming over both groups. Hearing her state that she might actually like the girl was just a bit too shocking for Kate as she gaped at her sister. Irina grabbed the shoulder back from her curly haired sister and led the human inside to show her to her room and the bathroom where she could shower. 

Kate made to follow them but Tanya held her back. “Help me move these into the storage shed.” She motioned to the ATVs that Bella and Kate had ridden to the house, but Kate knew from her sister’s tone that there was more that she wanted to say. Rather than wheeling the vehicles into the shed, they each picked one up and deposited them inside the building so they would be easily accessible while the human was staying with them. Kate shed her jumpsuit and helmet, storing them away in the designated areas as well. 

When she turned around, Kate found Tanya giving her an assessing look. “What?”

“You were quick to volunteer to show Bella around,” Tanya stated. “I’ve never known you to take to someone that quickly.”

Kate’s eyes darted away, “Yes, well…”

“Kate…”

The curly haired blonde sighed and scuffed her feet against the floor. “You know I wasn’t against the human coming here,” she said finally. “I wasn’t, not really, I was wary because of…” She held up her ungloved hands and they both could see the faint sparks of electricity dancing between her fingers. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, not anymore, and I didn’t want to chance accidentally touching the human or her bumping into me.” She let out a whoosh of unneeded air, “But I agreed to shelter her because of our relationship with the Cullen coven, as allies and such. I planned to go out there to greet the plane when they came in and leave, maybe take shelter in my studio for a while, but…”

“But?”

“But…” Kate shrugged. “I don’t know, when I looked at her, saw her… I felt something.”

“Something… like the mating bond?”

Kate shook her head, “No, I… I thought so, but it didn’t feel like what I thought the mating bond would feel like, not like how Eleazar and Carmen described. It was close though, and it was something. When I saw her, I felt… changed somehow, like this cur- this gift, my gift, it didn’t matter, it didn’t define me.” She gave another shrug and let out a sigh, “I don’t know what it was, but the human, Bella, she made me feel something, and before I knew what was happening, I wanted, offered, to spend more time with her.”

Tanya tilted her head, her eyes far away. “And you’re sure it wasn’t the mating bond.”

The younger vampire nodded, “Yes, it felt, well, it felt as if there was something missing.”

“I don’t know of any other bonds, other than a familial bond, but you would recognize that.” The coven leader tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Whatever it is, dear sister, if she makes you feel something after all this time, then I am happy. Just maybe we shouldn’t mention this to our ‘cousins.’”

“Speaking of them, it seems that either they did not provide us with all of the information or we made some assumptions about their relationship with Bella,” Kate told her sister. “Probably would be a good idea for us to ask her some more direct questions about the situation so we have more information.”

Tanya let out a sigh, “Yes, you’re probably right, and we, I, should probably do that sooner rather than later. I know humans are tired after travel, but we should be aware of what we’re dealing with so we’re not blindsided when something happens.”

They left the shed and made their way to the main house. The sound of water running from the second floor alerted them that their guest was still taking a shower, and the small argument occurring in the kitchen informed them that sandwich making was more difficult than it seemed. They walked into the kitchen and found Carmen and Eleazar arguing over the remnants of burnt toast and soggy bread, and Irina smirking in the corner sipping a glass of blood soaked wine.

“Apparently making a sandwich is more complicated than originally surmised,” Irina explained when Tanya and Kate walked over to her. “Carmen burnt the bread, and Eleazar tried to show her how to do it, and completely soaked it in this… Ranch thing, whatever that is, and then they started arguing about whose fault it was and now they’ve moved on to… something that happened in the 1700s, I lost track.” She took another sip of her wine, “Who needs that… television thingy when there’s entertainment such as this?”

“Have you tried to get them to stop?” Tanya asked as she poured herself a glass of wine and mixed a bit of blood into the drink. It was difficult for vampires to consume human food due to the lack of a proper digestive system, but drinks, particularly fermented drinks and other alcoholic beverages were easier to manage, particularly when blood was mixed in with the liquid. 

“And end my fun? Why would I do that?”

Kate was the first one to notice that Bella had finished her shower and had come back downstairs to find the vampires clustered in the kitchen, two of them drinking and two more arguing over ruined bread.

It was strange for Kate, to be attuned to someone so quickly, to just know they were there without having to stretch her vampiric senses. She could say that she noticed the human by hearing her heartbeat coming closer, or detecting her specific scent, freesia, mixed with the strawberry scented shampoo that Kate preferred. But she knew it was something else, something else that pulled her to the strange human woman, something that she did not yet understand.

Bella shuffled further into the room, a towel twisted delicately around her head to hold her wet hair away from her dry clothes. An amused expression crossed her face for a moment before settling into an unimpressed look. She let out a low cough, drawing the rest of the vampire’s attention. She didn’t need to draw Kate’s attention, she had it the moment her foot hit the first step to descend floors. Kate would need to think on that later. The human glanced at the ruined bread on the counter and let out a low chuckle. “Do I even want to know what happened?”

The two arguing vampires attempted to reply but Tanya silenced them with a look. “Probably best if we just move past this sandwich thing,” the coven leader announced. “And probably best if you take over making your own food to prevent such things from happening again.” She addressed the last of her statement to Bella, and the human just nodded her head.

Tanya glared at Carmen and Eleazar and shooed them out of the kitchen while Bella cleaned up the mess the two had made on the kitchen counters. “Honestly, it is like dealing with children sometimes,” she muttered to herself.

Irina poured more wine into her glass and turned to the human. “Bella,” she started. “I’m assuming you know about the family dynamics our Cullen ‘cousins’ prefer. The nuclear family as it were, mom, dad, children and all that.” She snorted, “Not that that makes any sense, Carlisle and Esme were both in their twenties when they were changed, teenagers for children? Please.”

“I don’t think they realize how odd it is,” Bella replied as she carefully made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the stove. “Even with the adoption story, it’s a bit weird.”

“Mhm, yes, well, every now and then they try to push the same narrative off on our coven, with Eleazar and Carmen as good ol’ mom and dad. Can you imagine?”

The brunette snorted, “Really? Those two? They could maybe parent a cat because that’s more servant/master relationship. And weren’t all of you adults when you were changed? Would you need to appear to have parents?”

“My sisters and myself were all in our mid 20s when we were changed,” Tanya said. “Eleazar and Carmen were slightly older, but you’re right, we don’t really lead existences that require us to have the façade of a traditional family unit. No one would believe it anyway.” She took another sip of her drink before setting it down to face the human. “Now, Bella, I know you want to eat and go to bed, but I was hoping you would be willing to answer a few questions before you went to bed.”

“Uh, sure.” Bella plated the sandwich she was frying, and sat down at the little kitchen island. “What do you want to know?”

“Some more information about this situation and how you came to be involved with the Cullens,” Tanya said. “We were given some information, but my sister Kate seems to think that what we were told was incorrect.”

The human took a bite of her sandwich and hummed around the mouthful of food. “I moved to Forks, Washington last fall. I first met the Cullens when I started school, but mainly Edward at first since he and I shared a science class together. The first day of class he bolted and I just ignored him.”

“That is when he came here for a week,” Kate said. “When he mentioned his singer.”

“What happened when he returned?” Tanya asked.

Bella shrugged as she took another bite of her food. “Nothing really. It was a chemistry class so I had already been paired with someone else to complete the labs, so he just sat on the other side of the room and stared at me, brooding. I next encountered Alice when she pushed herself into my space, and from then on, I couldn’t get rid of either of them. Edward followed me when I was out with my friends, invited himself to dinner, shooed them away. Alice dragged me out for some shopping trips and stuff, but basically the rest of the year was me trying to finish my work with them around me all the time.” She let out a sigh, “I couldn’t really make any new friends with their constant presence, so I eventually just… gave in to their demands. Spent time at their house, weird game nights with the whole group. It wasn’t hard to piece together what they were, or they weren’t human anyway, and they confirmed it.”

“And you just kept going to their house?”

“I never went to their house,” Bella corrected. “I was brought to their house, all the time. I never sought them out, they came to me, constantly.”

“We were led to believe that you and Edward were dating,” Irina said slowly. “And that Alice was your best friend.”

The brunette snorted, “Maybe in their dreams. It was painfully obvious they wanted to play happy family and wanted me to be the next part of their family, but that’s not for me. Alice constantly wanted to go shopping or change my clothes or hair, while Edward was always around sniffing and staring at me. He claimed that he could read minds but mine was silent to him.”

“He couldn’t read your mind?” Kate interrupted. 

Bella nodded, “That’s what he claimed anyway. He always asked a bunch of questions, many of them intrusive, and he got annoyed when I chose not to answer some of them.”

Tanya hummed, “That makes sense, you could have a partial gift manifesting as a human, Kate did as well.” Kate felt Bella turn her attention to her, but she decided not to meet the human’s eyes. She knew it wasn’t a gift, but she didn’t want to explain that to anyone else.

“Edward is probably used to collecting all of his information by reading the surface thoughts of people around him,” Tanya continued. “So it must annoy him when he couldn’t do that to you. What about the others in the coven?”

“Carlisle was always doing doctor things, but I think the ‘silent mind’ thing intrigued him. He had a weird glint in his eyes that concerned me. Esme tried to feed me all the time, but she wasn’t a very good cook. I’m not sure about Jaspar, Rosalie, and Emmett. Jasper kept his distance, and Rosalie was always a straight bitch to me, so Emmett stayed away as well.”

“Explains Rosalie’s attitude when she dropped you off,” Kate commented. “She was never one for new things. What about the nomads?”

“About a week after graduation, I was looking at courses for the Port Angeles community college, when Edward and Allce showed up and dragged me to a baseball game. It was very boring, and then the three nomads showed up. I guess one is a tracker, hunter? And he decided I was his next game, and the other two help him. Next thing I know, everyone is growling, and making plans for me to come here.”

“So you really were just kind of dragged into this situation then?” Tanya asked for clarification. 

Bella just hummed again and finished her food. Tanya gave her leave to head to bed, leaving the three older women in the kitchen drinking blood soaked wine by themselves. “What are we going to do about this Tanya?” Irina hissed. “The Cullens have dragged us into a bigger problem than we thought.”

“I have no idea sister,” the strawberry blonde replied. “I have no idea.”

Chapter Text

To say that their routine was disrupted due to the presence of a human in their home would be a lie. In truth, Kate was surprised by how undisrupted their life was. Bella just settled into their home with little fuss, and went about her business like her life hadn’t been fully uprooted and displaced into a home with a bunch of vampires. She read books with Irina, did experiments with Eleazar and Carmen, went on flightseeing tours with Tanya, and rode out on an ATV with Kate. She was a seamless addition to their coven, but Kate tried not to spend too much time dwelling on that notion. If she thought too much about how the human just fit with her coven, in ways that even she didn’t, she would start thinking dangerous thoughts about the human never leaving. She still didn’t know what it was between them, and it left her feeling uneasy. Eleazar agreed that it wasn’t a mating bond but was at a loss as to what it could be, which only intensified the distress Kate felt. 

They received sporadic updates from the Cullens, just brief notes here and there that they were still tracking the nomads and laying false trails elsewhere to try and distract them. It had been over a month since Bella first arrived in Alaska, late June quickly giving way into July and August, and the other coven was no closer to dealing with the problem than they were when the human was with them. 

“Honestly, how hard is it to catch three rogue vampires,” Kate muttered to herself as she set her paintbrushes to the side. She had rarely come to her studio since Bella had started living with them, choosing instead to remain close to the main house if need arose. The more time passed though, the more she felt the need to return to her paints and pigments, and the world she created when she set brush to canvas. 

Despite the pull to return to her studio, Kate could not paint. She was… distracted, decomposed, unsettled, more words than she could think of but it didn’t change the fact that she could not paint. Whenever she set her brushes down, she felt herself pulled to the painting that sat hidden at the back of her studio. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she didn’t know why the human fascinated her so much. It was not the mating bond, she knew that much, but it was… there was something there that drew her in, that made her want to spend more time with the human. Perhaps that is why she was so distracted, she had questions with no way to get answers.

A knock on the door of her studio broke her out of her thoughts and Kate realized she had lazily drawn a portrait of Bella with the spare pieces of charcoal she kept scattered around the space. The faint sound of a heartbeat just outside the door clued her into who was on the other side, and Kate scrambled, shoving the sketch and spare canvas under other prepped canvases waiting to be painted. She brushed a bit at her smock before deciding to pull it off and toss it over one of the chairs perched by her desk. “Hi, hello,” Kate said, opening the door to find Bella on the other side, her hand raised to knock again.

Bella blinked, and lowered her hand. “Hi,” she greeted. “Did I interrupt you?”

“Um, no, what makes you think that?”

The brunette pointed to her own ear, and Kate lifted her hand, cursing a little when she found a paintbrush and a pencil shoved haphazardly behind her ear. “That’s nothing,” she said, pulling them out and tossing them away. “That’s for, um, something else. Can I help you?”

“Oh, Irina sent me,” Bella said. “I was looking for you, and she told me I could find you out here. Said this was your art studio?”

“Oh yes.” Kate gave a nervous look inside before turning back to the human. “Would you like to see them?”

“You don’t mind?”

“No, ah, no I love showing them to people,” Kate said. “Just don’t tell the Cullens, they’re not allowed in here.”

“Seems like there’s quite a few places on your property where they aren’t allowed.”

“They’re nosy and destructive, so we set clear boundaries with them on where they were and weren’t allowed,” she replied. “Of course a few of them have breached those boundaries over the years, and Tanya expressed her displeasure to Carlisle. We have been around far too long to put up with their nonsense.”

“How old are all of you anyway?” Bella questioned. “Or should I not ask? They did not tell me much about all of you except that you were cousins of sort and shared their diet, though not completely, judging by your eyes.”

Kate studied Bella for a moment and didn’t find any judgement in her eyes, just curiosity. “Do come in, take a seat, it is warmer in here than outside, the solar panels and stove are doing their job today.”

“July in Alaska isn’t that cold,” Bella said as she followed Kate into the small studio. “Courtesy of climate change and all that.” She set a thermos down on the table, and Kate eyed it curiously. “Hot chocolate,” the brunette replied. “Carmen insisted.”

The blonde hummed, “I have lived long enough to see the summers getting unbearably hot, and the winters colder than I thought they could be.”

“How long have you been…” Bella gestured. “You know, a vampire.”

“Over one thousand years,” Kate stated after a moment. She glanced around her studio and started searching through one of her piles of sketches until she found the one she was searching for, tucked away towards the bottom of the pile. “Our sire, Sasha,” she said, handing Bella the image. 

“She’s beautiful.”

Kate nodded, “She was, she changed Tanya, Irina, and I, Tanya was her niece, and then they found Irina and I at different times.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I can’t tell you Tanya and Irina’s stories, but I was in a small skirmish, I was working as a mercenary you see, and I was wounded. The three of them found me, and Sasha changed me.”

Bella glanced down at the paper in her hand. “What happened to her? The Cullens, they didn’t say, but they did tell me not to ask.”

“You always do this well doing as you’re told?”

“What can I say, I’m a rule follower.”

The blonde stifled back a smirk as she took the paper back from the human. “She always wanted a family, ever since she was human but the life she had… It wasn’t possible for her. She changed Tanya, Irina, and I as a way to build a family for herself, but it wasn’t enough, she wanted a child. So she broke one of the most important rules that govern vampires by changing a little boy.”

“Other than being terrible for the boy’s family, how was it wrong?”

“Humans turned too young are called immortal children,” Kate explained. “They are almost impossible to control, they never grow out of that constant need for blood and violence that makes up much of a vampire’s first year of existence. We had no idea what she had done until we caught up with her, but by that point, Vahili had destroyed two small villages and the Volturi was coming for us.” Her face twisted in disgust, “We were only spared because Sulpicia saw we did not know what Sasha had done.”

“Sulpicia?”

“One of the Volturi queens, I’m guessing that Carlisle or Edward told you about the kings?” At Bella’s nod, Kate continued, “The queens are mated to the kings, and they divide duties completely. Marcus and Didyme usually govern day-to-day activities, while Cauis and Athenodora deal with issues of war or dispensing punishments. Sulpicia and her mate Aro have similar gifts, they can see thoughts and memories with just a touch, though Sulpicia does not need that at times. Whenever the guard has to go out to deal with rogue vampires, one of them goes with them to ensure that people are punished appropriately for their crimes.”

“That’s… well, it’s not democratic, more… sensible?”

“Vampire mates are partnerships,” Kate said. “They work better together.”

Bella hummed, “When Edward, and then Alice, tried to convince me that Edward and I were mates, they kept referencing that mates can’t be away from each other, which never made sense because Carlisle and Esme could be apart all day and it didn’t seem to bother them.”

Kate snorted, “I don’t think Edward is mature enough to have a mate, and Alice, well, she’s far too enamored with her gift. Relationships are different for every mated pair from what I understand, it is about the needs of those involved. Some vampires have independent spirits, and that is reflected in the mating bond while others require more comfort and physical attention.”

“I’m guessing you learned after observing Carmen and Eleazar for all of these years?”

“Well, yes, and a few other mated couples we have come across, never managed to find mates for ourselves though.”

They were silent for a few minutes before Bella shook her head and looked at the contents of the small studio. “Will you show me your paintings?”

The blonde perked up and ushered the human to side of the room where her finished paintings were carefully placed against the wall waiting to be packed and sent to the different galleries where she sold work. “These are beautiful,” Bella murmured as she glanced through the work. “So many colors.”

 “Vampires can see a wider spectrum of colors than humans,” Kate mentioned. “So I try to use a blending of colors to replicate what I see, which results in very colorful works.”

“Where did you get the idea for fantasy scenes and landscapes?”

Kate opened her mouth to issue her normal reply when anyone asked her the question, but she found herself wanting to tell the human the truth. I used to visit the fairy realm long ago, and these paintings are representative of my memories of a better time. That is what she wanted to say, what she almost said. It was startling how secrets she has held for years wanted to be unraveled when the human woman was around, Kate really didn’t know what to do with that realization. 

"When I was a girl," she started. "Some people still believed in the magic of the forest, the dangers of the creatures that lived just beyond the unseen, the wonder of a world beyond our own. These paintings reflect what that world would be like. It reminds me of when I was younger, when I was human."

"So you remember a lot of your human years?" Bella questioned. "Edward always told me those faded during the change and even more over time."

Kate nodded, "It does happen, some vampires forget completely. I guess I am one of the unique cases where I am blessed, or cursed, to remember my human life in intimate detail."

"What were you like? Did you always want to grow up to be a warrior mercenary?"

"Ah, no," she shook her head. "Options were limited for women back then, not as limited as people think, but still limited. I thought I would get married and continue to live in the village where I grew up, maybe be a shepherd and farmer like my father. That didn't work out the way I thought it would."

Bella studied her for a moment and for once, Kate envied Edward's gift. She wanted to know what the brunette was thinking, what was going through her mind. It would do no good though, since the human was silent even to mindreaders. Bella turned back to the paintings and continued to look through them. "Do you sell many of them?" She asked after another moment. "I don't imagine that fantasy landscapes sell well to the elite art collectors in the major galleries."

Kate snorted, "That's an understatement. No, these do not get picked up by major galleries, for that I am thankful because it does afford me a bit more privacy. They go to a few speciality galleries, and some fantasy conventions now. Even a few authors have purchased them for inspiration for illustrations, but nothing major. I use most of the money to sustain this hobby and some of our other needs. Anything left goes to local organizations to support Alaska, either the environment or its people."

"Very noble but also pragmatic," Bella noted. "Taking care of your home. Though I also imagine your other needs have something to do with your eyes being closer to an orange color than gold or red."

"Noticed that did you?"

"Hmm, it was one of the things Edward huffed about when he was against sending me here away from the nomads," she replied. "Something about how all of you clearly can't control your 'baser instincts?'"

Kate snorted, "Eddie just doesn't like that Tanya and Irina think about sex a lot when he's around them. They do it mainly to teach him a lesson about poking around in other people's heads. As for our diets, we do mix human blood and animal blood, which they're not happy about."

"Does human blood make that much of a difference?"

"Neither human or animal blood is sustainable as a long time food source," the blonde explained. "Killing humans especially, eventually someone will notice. The sloppy ones always do. There might be people that slip through the cracks and no one cares if they vanish, but as times are changing, it's harder to truly know if just snatching someone off the street will be safe. And animal blood…" She exhaled. "It's not our natural food source, so even though nourishment can come from it, it's not filling, not completely. You're always hungry so you have to hunt more.”

“And that can damage the ecosystem,” Bella continued. “Wouldn’t be near as bad if it was only one or two vampires hunting mainly deer since the drop in predators means that prey animals are in a higher number, hence the reason for hunting seasons, but a whole coven around? And some of them hunting large predators?”

“Exactly, it’s not… sustainable.” Kate walked over to the small fridge/freezer she kept in the studio and opened it up to remove one of the pints of blood from inside of cold storage. “So we, as a coven, founded a company that would purchase old blood, expired blood, or tainted blood from hospitals and blood drives, and the money they received would be used to fund more blood drives. The blood is then purchased by different covens around the world that prefer to live somewhere on a permanent basis.” She tossed the bag back in the fridge, “We have to drink more, since a single pint of blood is different from the 8-12 pints normally in the human body, but it allows us more freedom and doesn’t draw as much attention.”

“What do you do if you run out of blood from the hospitals? People don’t donate as much these days.”

“With enough monetary benefits they do,” Kate said. “The larger collection areas in big cities run blood drives that provide gift cards for people, a decent sized gift card. Restaurants, grocery stores, online retail, whatever they would like. Clean blood from healthy people goes straight to local hospitals, while blood tainted from drugs, tobacco, or other reasons are immediately frozen and bought by vampire covens.” 

The human girl let out a low hum, “If only you were like the vampires of fiction, able to nip just a bit of blood and leave humans none-the-wiser.”

“Yes, well, that would be something now wouldn’t it?”

Bella looked at her again, and again Kate wondered what was going on in her mind. What was she thinking when she stared at her so? What was it about her gaze that made Kate feel as if she were searching for something… and what made Kate feel afraid that she would be found wanting?

“You told Irina you were looking for me,” Kate stated when she recalled Bella’s words from earlier. “What did you need?”

The human blinked for a moment before straightening. “Oh yes, I was looking for you, well, kind of. I was hoping to find a good place on the property to sketch, get the truly Alaskan wilderness, maybe take some photographs at a later point? Eleazar has this ancient film camera he said he’d let me borrow so I could understand ‘the superiority of film photography.’”

“Ancient camera,” Kate mused. “I’m sure Eleazar loved that, will you be developing the film yourself? He has a darkroom setup for his own amusement so he wouldn’t have to send the film out.”

Bella shrugged, “I’m not sure, photography isn’t really my thing, I prefer sketching, but we’ll see.”

Kate’s nose wrinkled for a moment as she thought about the brunette’s question. “I think I know of a few good places, trees and mountains and valleys and such, even a few branches of the river.”

“Any place to see some of the Alaskan wildlife? You know, without getting eaten.”

“If it’s bears you’re looking for, Katmai has a lot of brown bears, but as for close by, there are quite a few things to see. Moose, goats, bears, caribou, wolves, there’s lots to see if you know where to look.”

“Can we go now? Well, today I mean?” Bella asked. 

“Isn’t it getting late? It should be well after 7 by now, shouldn’t you be having dinner or getting ready to sleep?”

“I haven’t been sleeping well since I arrived here. It stays light here so long and you don’t have blackout currents so the sun is shining in my room for a long time at night.”

“Ah, we didn’t think about that,” Kate muttered. “The sun being up for a long time during the summer doesn’t bother us.”

“I’ve sort of adjusted, but all that means is that I get more sleep in the AM hours than PM.” 

"You should have said something."

Bella shrugged, "I didn't want to be much of a bother. You didn't ask for me to come, I was dropped off and you were asked to keep me safe from psycho vampires. I didn't want to be too much trouble."

"Bella," Kate said. "You're not a bother, we enjoy having you here."

"Really?"

The blonde wanted to reach out and touch the other woman, wanted to push the bit of brown hair that escaped from her low ponytail out of her face, but she couldn't. It had been a long time since she actually wanted to touch someone else. A stray desire popped up every now and then, but for the most part, she knew what would happen if she did and it kept the desires at bay. But this human… it made her wonder if she was more dangerous to them than the coven originally thought. 

She tugged the gloves on her hands a little tighter, and her mind searched for a way out of this situation. "Um, you said you wanted to go sketching, so let's get the ATVs and go out. You're right, it's still light out, so might as well take advantage of it." Kate gestured the human towards the door of her studio, and quickly closed everything up in the building. 

As she locked the door, Bella voiced another question. "Before we go," she started. "I wanted to ask, what's missing from your paintings?"

"Missing?"

"Just a feeling I got when I looked at them," she explained. "They were beautiful, but I felt as if something was left out, so I wanted to know what was missing?"

What was missing? The question haunted Kate all the way to the equipment shed where the two pulled on suits over their clothes and took the ATVs out of the building. They quickly drove away from the main property and disappeared into the wilderness. Kate followed a barely marked trail that her sisters had marked years before and occasionally checked to ensure that humans or other vampires weren't encroaching on their territory. The trail wound skirting around the edge of the mountains until they came across a well hidden offshoot of the Tanana River. 

The dense forest of evergreens around the little stream kept it well hidden from view of anyone flying over, and the remoteness of the mountains between Denali and Wrangell St. Elias kept all but the most adventurous away. They were still on property held by the coven since they owned thousands of acres in the area, and they had posted signs against trespassing except for through hikers or those foraging for native fauna. Fortunately the popular peaks in the area were on the opposite side of the mountains so they only found faint traces of human presence on their land. 

"Wow," Bella murmured as she sat back on the ATV. "It's beautiful, so completely untouched by the presence of humans."

“That’s the nice thing about living in Alaska,” Kate replied. “It’s so remote, reminds me of home almost.”

“Giant mountains, vast fields, and evergreen forests?”

“Well, not exactly like home, just the feeling is the same.”

Bella turned her gaze to the other woman. “Sometimes I find,” she said. “That home is not necessarily the place you’re from, but the people you’re with.”

“Home is where the heart is then is it?”

“Isn’t it?” 

Before Kate could reply, Bella swung off her ATV and started picking her way through the undergrowth and rocks to find the best place to perch to sketch. Kate watched her go for a few moments, her words swirling in her mind. Of course she had heard the human saying ‘home is where the heart is,’ but she had never really given it much thought. Isa’s image came unbidden to her mind, followed immediately by Bella’s face. She shook them both away, it would do her no good thinking in that direction, or any direction. But still… she couldn’t help but feel… no where has really felt like home, not in a long time. At first she thought it was because she was missing her family, but she knew deep down, nothing truly felt like home since she lost Isa. Her life with her sisters, her coven though… it was close.

She swung herself off of the ATV and carefully made her way over to where Bella was precariously perched on a boulder close to the small stream. The brunette’s hands carefully held onto her piece of charcoal and sketchpad as she sketched different parts of the world around her. From what Kate could see of the paper, she did not sketch the entire scene in front of her, but rather small studies that best captured the world around them. The way that a rock sat partially submerged in the stream, a tree on the bank, the fish lazily swimming in the river. It was a method she often employed when she was trying to recall a specific tree or cloud formation, she would sketch them out by themselves until she was satisfied with how she had captured the memory, only then would she paint them into the composition. 

“Do you enjoy sketching?” Kate asked, breaking the quiet around them.

“It keeps my hands busy,” came Bella’s reply. “And it’s nice in the way that it’s so… mindless. I can sketch what I see around me without having to truly think about it.” She tore her eyes away from the paper in front of her to look at Kate. “That’s not so true about painting since you have to keep track of the composition while you’re creating the work.”

Kate shrugged, “You’re probably right, but vampires can think about multiple things at one time.”

“Must be nice… must be crowded, all those thoughts.”

It was an odd statement, not as unusual as some of the other ones the human had said, but it was still strange. “It can be,” Kate conceded. “But I also find it helps me think, gain clarity over things that have been bothering me.”

“And what has been bothering you recently?”

Kate became painfully aware of how close they were. She could feel the heat emanating from the human through her clothes and her breath brushing against her face. Brown eyes met burnt amber and for a moment, Kate forgot. She forgot Edward, her coven, her sisters, Isa, she forgot everything… Except her curse.

A twig snapped behind them and Kate whirled around to find two sets of red eyes leering at them through the tree line. A man with dirty blonde hair slowly stepped out of the vegetation followed by a red haired woman, both with twisted expressions of glee and malice on their faces. “Well, well,” the male sneered. “Looks like the tip Laurent got from those yellow eyes paid off.”

“James,” the woman said. “We need to go.”

“Not without my prize.”

“You’ll have to get through me first,” Kate said, moving Bella further behind her.

“Easy enough,” he growled before launching himself at the blonde vampire.

The woman glanced at the fighting vampires for a moment before taking off into the trees. Kate didn’t pay her much attention, her eyes focused on the male in front of her. Her instincts were screaming at her to defend the human, to protect Bella from the threat in front of her. It wasn’t until she reached out to grab the male did she realize that the gloves were still on her hand. 

With her gift blocked by the clothing covering the majority of her skin, Kate had to rely on her rather rusty fighting skills. The male, James, tossed her around a bit, but Kate gave as good as she got, returning blow for blow, trying to keep the fighting away from Bella and hoping her family heard the scuffle soon. Movement out of the corner of her eye, a flash of red, distracted her for a minute, allowing the other vampire to seemingly gain the upper hand as he knocked her to the ground. The strong scent of human blood entered the area, and the male let out a pleasurable hiss at the scent. 

A brief glance informed Kate that Bella had cut her hand on one of the rocks, and was not actually injured. The moment was enough to distract the vampire, which provided Kate the opportunity to slip one of her gloves off and grab James’s hand. Electric sparks flew from her fingertips through the male vampire, paralyzing him. Kate quickly ripped him apart and set his venom ablaze with one of the lighters she always kept on her person. A loud screeching sound came from further in the trees, and Kate turned to see the red haired woman seething. The other vampire glared at the two women with hatred in her eyes, and Kate thought for sure she was going to attack. Her head tilted to the side for a moment before she bolted back through the trees heading south. 

The sound of rushing footsteps met their ears and barely a few seconds later, the other four members of the Alaskan coven appeared by the stream. “Redhead,” Kate said. “She went that way.”

Eleazar and Carmen chased after the woman while Tanya and Irina stayed with Kate and Bella. “Are you both alright?” Tanya asked. “We heard the fighting and came as soon as we could.”

“We’re good,” Kate wheezed out. “Bella scraped her hand.”

Irina tended to the human while Tanya stared at her youngest sister critically. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, just ashamed at how rusty I am,” Kate admitted. “I’ve been relying on my… ability far too much.”

Eleazar and Carmen returned a few moments later, disgruntled expressions on their faces. “We lost her,” Eleazar announced while Carmen hissed. “She seemed to know when we were closing in on her, she managed to stay one step ahead of us. I think she’s gifted with some kind of evasive ability.”

“What exactly happened?” Tanya asked. 

“Maybe we can take this back to the house before we get into what just happened?” Kate suggested.

The coven leader nodded, “Carmen, will you and Eleazar get the ATVs back in the storage shed. Bella, do you mind if Irina runs with you back to the house?”

The brunette shrugged, “Fine with me, but Kate, are you alright? A few of those moves, it looked like he really hurt you.”

“I’m fine, he took me by surprise a few times, but he didn’t hurt me.”

Bella nodded, and with that, the coven departed, returning to the safety of their main house at the center of their property. With Bella yawning and rubbing her eyes by the time they got back to the house, Irina quickly bundled her off to bed and returned just as Carmen and Eleazar walked through the door. Kate quickly filled them in with what happened while she and Bella were out and Tanya let out a hiss.

“I am seriously displeased,” she said, her eyes black. “And the Cullens will answer for this.” She stomped off to her study, her phone in her hand as she pulled up Carlisle’s number. 

“It looks like the tracker that was after Bella has been killed, but why do I feel like this isn’t over?” Irina questioned, a pensive expression on her face.

“If that woman was the tracker’s mate,” Carmen stated. “I fear it is far from over.”

Chapter Text

Carlisle blustered a bit before admitting that he told the third member of the nomadic coven, Laurent, about the Alaskan coven after he expressed interest in the animal diet. Tanya was furious at how stupid the man could be, but quickly released her anger, it would do her no good to screech at the younger vampire. She knew he was foolish and optimistic, stupid as Irina viewed it, but he would never change the way he viewed the world. After hearing about the death of the tracker, the Alaskan coven could hear Edward in the background demanding that they go to Alaska and retrieve ‘his’ Bella from the clutches of the dangerous sisters. Kate wondered if he knew that they could hear him or if he just didn’t care? They insisted that they would only allow the other coven to enter their territory if they had proof they were taking care of the other members of the nomadic coven. Tanya did not want to deal with vengeful coven members if they didn’t need to, especially if one was the tracker’s mate.

After some arguments back and forth, it was decided that Bella would remain in Alaska for the foreseeable future until the rest of the threat was neutralized, as long as it was okay with her family. As a result, several more months passed, summer faded into fall, and Kate swore she was losing her mind. The longer the human stayed with them, the more she felt, and the more she really didn’t know what to do about it. Feelings and thoughts she had pushed down to the recesses of her mind for over a thousand years had roared to the forefront of her mind and they would not be pushed back again. She has thought about her human life, Isa, more in the last few months than she had in the years since she was turned, and she didn’t know what to do with that.

October in Alaska was a complicated month. Tourists were returning to their homes from the summer cruises, and visitors for winter sports and activities had yet to arrive. The days were getting shorter and the nights longer, and animal migration patterns were changing as many headed down from the Arctic circle and bears readied for hibernation. Light dustings of snow returned to the landscape at night, but were chased away during the day due to still above freezing temperatures. The harsh and beautiful landscapes of the mountains where the Alaskan coven called home started to lose the bright colors of summer and ready for a long winter.

Despite the mess with the tracker at the creek, Bella has insisted on exploring as much of Alaska as she could. Tanya was hesitant about allowing her to go a great distance from her territory with unknown vampires still a threat, but she reasoned that the human was not a prisoner. During the warmer times in August and September, she forced the three sisters or Carmen and Eleazar to accompany her to the different parks and protected areas in order to take advantage of her exile in the frontier state.

The change in weather curbed her exploration slightly, but Kate was starting to realize that not much could shake the human. "Hopefully you won't have to stay here through the winter," Kate mentioned to the woman as she poured a bowl of cereal. "I know the cold often bothers humans."

"Actually winter is my favorite season," Bella countered. She poured milk in the bowl and sat down with her breakfast. "I used to go skiing and snowboarding all the time with my family. We love winter sports."

"You have more family than just your grandmother?"

The brunette hummed, "Mostly cousins. They don't live in Forks, so I haven't seen them in a bit but I have talked to them. They're all super jealous that I'm having an extended vacation in Alaska."

"They wouldn't plan on coming here would they?" 

Bella shook her head, her mouth full. "No, no they live further away so it would be difficult to get here."

Kate studied Bella as she ate her food and worked on a crossword in this puzzle book she picked up the last time they were in town. The brunette glanced up and noticed the blonde was still looking at her. "What?"

"Nothing, just still trying to put together the puzzle that is Bella Swan."

"Hmm, you don't happen to remember the name of the sorceress that helped with the golden fleece do you?" She questioned, glancing back down at the puzzle. "5-letters."

"Medea I think."

"That's it!"

Before Bella could present another clue from her crossword, Tanya stormed into the kitchen, annoyance coloring her entire face. “Family meeting!” She called, summoning the other members of the coven. “Bella, you stay, at this point you’re part of the family and this pertains to you anyway.”

Bella shrugged and continued eating as the other vampires trickled into the room. “I’ve just received another call from Alice,” Tanya announced once everyone was collected. “The entire coven will be arriving here within a few hours.”

“Do we know why?” Irina asked.

Tanya shook her head, “Alice didn’t say, but she sounded spooked.”

“She must’ve seen something that scared her,” Carmen concluded. “If they were coming because they killed the remaining nomads, they would just inform us of this.”

“It’s no use speculating now,” Tanya commented. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

“Are they going to use the plane to get here?”

“No, they’ll be running, which is also unusual, but I think they’re spread out and will be converging here.”

“So they’ll be bringing more drama here?” Irina rolled her eyes, “Fantastic, I’ll be in my room meditating in preparation for idiocy.”

The strawberry blonde released a sigh as her middle sister disappeared. “Can I ask you four to get the cabins ready?” She asked, looking at the others in the room. “Make sure the solar panels are working, the water is on, and everything is aired out.”

“I don’t think I’ve been to your guest cabins yet,” Bella said as she rinsed her bowl out. “Kate showed me where they were the first day, but I haven’t thought about them.”

“They’re nothing fancy, just small cabins, big enough for one or two people to stay in them.” Kate pushed away from the table, “Come on, Carmen and Eleazar will take two of them, and we’ll clean out the other two. You can take the ATV from the garage, I'll run next to you and show you the way."

Bella nodded, and pulled on a warmer track suit and headed to the garage. Kate shifted slightly on her feet outside of the house until Bella rolled the 4-wheeler out of the garage. “Ready?” Kate asked as Bella cranked the small vehicle on and shoved her helmet over her head. The responding nod was her only answer, and Kate took off through the trees, running slowly to make sure that the human was still following her. 

It only took about 20 minutes to reach the cabins by 4-wheeler, but Kate knew it would take even longer for a human to walk the distance. Kate gestured for Bella to park near one of the cabins, and she stopped by the human once she had cranked the engine off. “If you’ll head on in this one,” Kate said, handing her the key. “I’ll clear out the one just down from here and come back to help you. Just need to open the windows, pull the dust covers off the future, and make sure everything is operating correctly.”

“Just know that I know that you, Carmen, and Eleazar could have completed this in no time without waiting for me.”

“Yes, but you do like to feel useful, and if you’re going to be part of this coven, then you must pitch in every now and then.” It took Kate a full second to realize what had come out of her mouth and Bella’s eyebrow quirked up in interest at her slip.

“And is that what I am now?” She asked. “A member of this coven?”

“Um-m…” Kate’s brain sputtered to a halt. Literally stopped providing any sort of help, what good was venom and blood keeping the brain active if it cut out at important moments?

“I’m just teasing,” Bella murmured. She lifted her hand to set it on Kate’s arm but hesitated before falling back to her side. 

It was a quick enough movement so that didn’t have to shift away to keep the human from touching her, but Kate was surprised by how much she wanted to know what Bella’s hands felt like on her skin. Years of practice of living with her curse, she’s been able to ignore how much she desired to feel another person’s touch. But here, with Bella, she yearned.

“Besides,” Bella continued, not knowing, not possible knowing the turmoil in Kate’s mind. “I know that’s more of a decision for Tanya as coven leader.”

Maybe it was time for her to be brave? “Yes, yes she would be the one to decide that,” she said. “But maybe that is something we could talk to her about… together.”

The brunette ducked her head, but Kate could see the blush creeping up on her cheeks. “Yeah, uh, yeah, I would, um, I would like that.”

She watched Bella enter the cabin in front of her, leaving the door open to let fresh air enter the structure. Kate lingered out of the building for a few minutes before quickly running to the other cabin that was her responsibility to clean. It was the largest of the cabins they had, large being a loose term since it only had two bedrooms compared to the single rooms of the other three cabins. The solar panels on the roof of each cabin were efficient enough to run the heated floor and water heater, but other than that, the cabins were bereft of electrical components. Guests should at least be glad they don’t have to heat and warm the water with a small wood stove anymore with the solar panels and batteries they put in a few years ago. The cabins were shut up and the water emptied from the pipes during the darkest parts of the years when the solar panels and batteries would be getting minimal light. 

It wasn’t quite that time of year yet, but winter was coming, Kate could taste it in the air, the hint of an early snow gracing the clouds that covered the sky. She worried that it was a sign to come, fear clutched at her long dead heart. Tragic things always happened to her in winter. 

“A newborn army!” Tanya exclaimed. “What do you mean newborn army?”

“Um…” Alice started. “Well, I mean… a newborn army.” At the hard look from the Alaskan coven leader, the psychic continued. “You know I’ve been looking for any sign of Victoria after you managed to kill the tracker, but it’s been dodgy. She didn’t seem to be making many decisions, just running based on instinct.”

Eleazar snorted, “That’s what happens when a vampire loses their mate, she is out for revenge and running on instinct.”

“I thought you were supposed to be tracking her,” Tanya questioned. “The tracker managed to make it around you and find us up here, did this Victoria do the same thing?”

Carlisle cleared his throat, “We think she has a gift of some kind that helps her to evade our efforts and we don’t know much about the third member of their coven so Alice is unable to look for him to see her plans. Just brief glimpses.”

“Those were enough to provide us with information about the newborn army,” Jasper said. “Those and the deaths between here and Seattle. They’re too spread out for the Volturi to notice but-”

“But your history with the southern wars provided you with the knowledge you needed,” Irina finished.

The blonde man nodded, “Yes ma’am, I recognized the signs. Many of the warlords would take similar tactics to avoid notice from the Volturi, and it makes me wonder if the nomads had any ties to the southern wars that would further their actions.”

“Whether they do or not is irrelevant,” Tanya stated firmly. “Their past actions are not the problem, their current actions are the problem.” She turned her attention back to Alice, “When are they coming?”

The brunette opened her mouth but Edward interjected, “I hate to interrupt.” Kate nearly snorted, he loved interrupting. The copper haired vampire shot her a withering look before turning his attention back to Carlisle. “I must object to Bella’s presence here, this discussion is no place for her.”

“Since these ‘discussions’ directly impact me,” Bella replied. “Where else would I be?”

“It is not proper for you to be hearing such things,” he continued. 

“What you believe Bella should and should not be hearing is none of your concern Edward Cullen,” Tanya barked. “She is not of your coven and for that matter, she can make her own decisions.”

“Not part of our-” Edward snarled and whirled towards Kate. “I knew that sending her up here was the wrong decision, not only could you have killed her with your uncontrollable gift, but you’ve turned her against me.”

“Would you like to see a demonstration of my uncontrollable gift first hand, Eddikins?” Kate asked, sparks flying between her fingers.

“Enough!” Bella yelled, slamming her book down on the table. “Edward, shut up. The nomads are hunting me, they are targeting me, so I need to be part of the conversation. And I never was part of your coven, you followed me around all the time, interrupted me spending time with my friends or my grandmother. If I’d rather join the Alaskan coven, that is none of your business.”

“Bella, we-” 

“There’s no ‘we,’ Edward. I make my own choices, I’m part of this conversation, whether you like it or not.”

Carlisle cleared his throat and opened his mouth but Tanya held her hand up. “Carlisle,” she started. “From one coven leader to another, this is our territory, and Bella is a member of our coven. You entrusted her into our care months ago, you should have known that we would give her the choice of joining our coven.”

“We had a prior claim,” Edward pouted, and Irina shot him a withering look.

“She’s not a toy, Edward, she's a person, a grown woman who can make her own choices,” she barked. “Now let’s get back and focus on the issue at hand, being I don’t want to die because of your stupid and choices.” She turned her attention to Alice, “When are they coming?”

Alice hesitated for a moment but her mate squeezed her hand and she continued, “Just after the first snowfall.”

Tanya nodded, “The air smells of snow, it should be here within the week. A little earlier than usual, but not completely out of place. Did you see where or do we still have time to set that ourselves?”

“That was hazy, so we could in theory scout an area,” Alice replied. “They’re going to be coming from the east, that is all I know for sure.”

“We have time then.” Tanya sighed, “Since they are coming into our territory, I will be taking the lead on the decisions as the head of the Alaskan coven.” Carlisle opened his mouth but Tanya just glared at him until he closed his mouth again. “Jasper,” she said, turning her attention to the old soldier. “You have more recent experience with newborns, can you make sure your coven is up to snuff to deal with them?”

Jasper nodded, “A month would be ideal, but if we start now, we should be prepared to deal with them when they come.”

“I will help you Jasper,” Kate said. “The two of us should be able to work faster than just one.”

“And I will oversee,” Tanya said. “Eleazar, Carmen, and Irina will scout around and lay trails to make sure they are lured where we want them to go and away from humans.”

Irina pushed herself out of her chair with a huff. “So stupid,” she muttered before whirling towards the Cullen coven. “If the Volturi finds out about this and it comes back on us, I will personally set each of you ablaze, starting with Eddikins.”

The group disbanded and the Cullens reluctantly trudged out of the house following Jasper to start training to take on the newborns. Tanya, Kate, and Bella were left sitting in the main house in the living room. Kate saw both Edward and Alice shoot Bella beseeching looks to get her to follow them, but the human steadily ignored them in favor of returning to the bowl of cereal she had acquired earlier. The blonde stifled down a smirk as the human ignored them, causing the vampires to huff and stomp their way outside. “Such drama queens,” she murmured, too low for Bella to hear, but her sister caught the words.

“So what should I do?” Bella asked, turning to Tanya. “I don’t like just… waiting around, it’s boring. Is there any way I can help?”

“Not with the fighting unfortunately, but there’s nothing stopping you from watching and learning what you can.” A thoughtful look crossed Tanya’s face. “Actually, we might be able to use your scent to set the location if they are using your scent as a base. Apparently Alice found that they had broken into your room in Forks and taken a few of your things that still had your scent on them.”

Bella narrowed her eyes, “Nice of them to tell me that my grandmother was in danger. Since I just spoke to her, I’m assuming she’s fine, but were they going to tell me?”

The strawberry blonde sighed, “I cannot explain them, the best we can do is deal with the situation we have right now. If you provide enough clothing with your scent on it, Irina, Eleazar, and Carmen can use it to lay false trails to the location of our choosing, something that will give us the best advantage.”

“I have some worn clothes in my room,” Bella said, setting her empty cereal bowl down. 

“I’ll help you gather enough,” Kate said, following the brunette up the stairs. “How are you really feeling about all of this?”

“Upset, annoyed, irritated,” the brunette replied, flinging shirts and pants out of her dirty clothes basket. “I didn’t ask for any of this, and dozens of people are hurt, have been killed basically because of all of this.”

“Bella,” she said quietly. “You didn’t do this, you didn’t cause any of this. We’re going to take care of this.”

She exhaled sharply, “I know, I have faith in all of you, it’s just all… I don’t like this, any of it.”

“It’ll be alright Bella, we’ll get through this.” Kate hesitated before she continued, “And maybe… after… we could continue our conversation from… well.”

“I… I’d like that.”

Kate let out a breath, unneeded though it was, it was still a comfort. The time had come, the day of the battle. Alice had foreseen the newborns would come with the first snowfall, and it occurred merely days after the Cullen coven arrived on their doorstep. The danger of living so close to a National park in the middle of the highly popular Alaskan frontier meant that humans were often popping up in weird places close to the edges of their home, so finding a spot remote enough to hide the evidence of what would occur was… tricky. The last thing any of them needed was the Volturi getting wind of this situation. 

The blonde and her family were lined up just outside the tree line of a snow covered field much further into the wilderness than most humans tend to venture with winter coming. They stood just outside a thin line of trees, watching, waiting… waiting for what, who, they know will appear on the other side of the field. The Cullens were next to them, Jasper and Emmett in the front, spoiling for a fight with Carlisle, Edward, and Rosalie just behind them. Alice and Esme waited behind the groups of both covens with Bella, the last line of defense for the human if something were to go wrong. Edward, of course, protested vigorously at Bella’s presence at the battle, but he was immediately shot down by all of the Alaskan coven and Bella, who were the only opinions that mattered. 

Kate exhaled again, waiting. She could feel the electricity of her curse dancing under her skin, sparking across her fingertips. She had to do this, needed to do this. The sound of Bella’s heartbeat was the only noise disrupting the space, and even then it was so quiet only vampires could hear it. The familiar thrumming was a comfort to her ears, having grown used to it during the few months the brunette had been living with her coven. She had to do this. For her coven, for Bella, for what could be growing between them.

A vampire appeared across the field, her red hair and eyes gleaming in the Alaskan sun as the day slowly gave way to night. More vampires appeared behind her, numbering close to 30. Their behavior was erratic, thoughtless, their movement driven by instinct more than any rational thought that came with age and experience. Another vampire appeared behind them, darker skin, his expression hard as he corralled the newborns forward. The other member of the nomad coven, Kate mused. He must be the one controlling the newborns.

"Well, well," the redhead started, her voice dripping with malice and rage. "What do we have here? It's so nice of you to bring the human out to die, that way we don't have to hunt her down."

"Leave this area," Tanya ordered. "This is our claimed land."

"Not without my pound of flesh!" The woman, Victoria, hissed. "You killed my mate!"

"He was hunting a member of our coven on our territory," Tanya continued. "It was our right to dispose of him."

Victoria growled again, "If those other freaks had just handed over their pet, then he wouldn't have been in your territory." She stopped abruptly and exhaled, "But no matter, you will all die now and I will enjoy draining the human dry right in front of you."

With a flicker of his hands, the darker skinned vampire in the back released his hold on the newborns and they hissed, charging at the two covens. Victoria and her covenmate disappeared in the mass of movement as the vampires clawed at the ground. Kate, her sisters, Emmett, and Jasper charged forward, while Carlisle, Edward, Rosalie, and Eleazar and Carmen split to the sides to tackle any threats that would try to splinter off. Tanya was clear with her orders, they all must be killed, no exceptions, she would not have an uncontrolled newborn loose in Alaska to decimate the human or wildlife population.

Kate grabbed a hold of the first newborn she found, her curse surging forward, short circuiting all of the synapses left in their brain and nervous system. She ripped their head off with a growl before moving to the next one. 

She cleaved through three more before she caught Victoria in her sights. Rage filled her as she saw the redhead attempting to slip through to get to Bella at the back of the field. She saw the moment red eyes fell on her and they narrowed. "You," Victoria started. "You killed my mate!"

"Make sure to greet him when I send you to hell!" Kate moved to grab her, but Victoria spun away, striking at the clothed parts of her body. Evasiveness, she remembered. She wouldn't be able to rely on her curse alone. 

They danced around each other, clawing and scraping at whatever they could. Victoria grabbed one of Kate's arms close to her shoulder and yanked, attempting to take it off, but Kate moved just enough to prevent her arm from coming off, just not enough to keep it from dislocating. Kate let out a groan of pain, and curses at herself, she had grown complacent over the years in Alaska. 

Before she could adjust, Victoria grabbed her around the neck and started to pull. She could see from her eyes that her curse was impacting her from skin to skin contact, but she was already too far gone from the death of her mate to care. "I'm going to kill you and your little human pet too," she hissed, her eyes a flat black color.

Kate gritted her teeth as she felt her skin starting to crack. "Katya!" A familiar voice rang out through the air, saying a name she hadn't heard in centuries. 

Suddenly, giant icicles shot up from the ground and pierced the vampire in front of her. Victoria let out a grunt of surprise which quickly turned to horror as the vampire slowly started to turn into ice. Kate could see the venom leaking from her mouth freezing along with her skin and eyes until Victoria was nothing but a statue frozen in time. The stillness around her told Kate that the battle was over, and she could see from her position on the ground that more frozen vampires were scattered around the field.

Soft footsteps graced her ears and a figure knelt next to her, and Kate met glowing blue eyes with her own. “You,” she murmured. “It’s you.”

“Sshh, Katya,” Bella murmured. “Just rest, just rest.”

Somewhere between the field and her home, Kate passed out. It wasn’t really the unconsciousness that comes to humans when they’re overly stimulated either through the senses or from pain, but it was similar. Vampire senses can take more information than human senses, but if they needed to reset, they would, ceasing all forms of awareness for a bit as they recharged. The over stimulation of touching other vampires, something she hasn’t done in well over a millennia, fighting, the pain of having her shoulders dislocated, and the shock of seeing- It was too much.

Her senses returned to her, and she came to in her room. The soft plush of the comforter on her bed was underneath her and she blinked as the woodgrain of her ceiling slowly came into focus. She heard a soft humming, a sound… no, a song, a song from years ago, one that she remembered from her childhood… but not from her childhood, from… somewhere else. She turned her head and her eyes fell on Bella sitting snug in the little window seat in her room, her back hunched over her sketchbook that was propped on her legs. She was the source of the humming, causing Kate’s brow to furrow in confusion.

Bella glanced up and blue eyes met orange. “You’re alert,” she said, setting her book to the side. “How are you feeling?”

“It…” Kate really didn’t know what to say. “It’s you.”

Bella, or really Isa, ducked her head and tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Kate could see the hair shimmering slightly before the brown faded to white. Several streaks of dark hair remained, darker than Kate remembered, but it had been… a long time since she last saw her- the fae. Other features of Bella’s shifted until Kate wondered how she never noticed the similarities between the two.

Kate sat up a bit and took a good look at the fairy. The once soft features of youth had sharpened and she realized she was staring at a full-fledged fae, no longer the faeling that she knew, but an adult with the power and ability to match. “How are you…” Kate didn’t know what to ask. “How are you here?”

Isa sighed and ran her hand through her hair, a gesture that struck Kate as both familiar and strange. “It’s a long story,” the fae stated.

“I have time,” Kate said. “A lot of time.”

Chapter Text

Isa stomped her way back through the fairy ring, her legs tripping over her long wings as they unfurled to fly her home. The fae fell to the ground with an ‘oof’ and she glanced at the wings sticking out from her back. “Stupid wings,” she muttered, struggling to her feet. She flapped her wings a few times and took off from the Infinite Forest to head deeper into the fae realm. Her wings faltered a bit and dipped down as she attempted to gain altitude to reach the floating islands where the dark fae dwelled. She touched down on the floating land and flopped down on her face as her large wings tripped her again during the process. Rather than force herself upright, Isa remained sprawled on the ground, the soft moss and cool rocks beneath her felt refreshing after a long night of standing guard close to the fairy ring.

The familiar sound of fluttering wings and feet softly touching down near her had Isa looking up to see the concerned and slightly amused expression on her grandmother’s face. “Long full moon, Isa?” 

The girl attempted to roll over to better see her grandmother but her large wings kept getting in the way, so she just collapsed back into the ground beneath her. “Yes,” she muttered, her face pressed into the moss. “Pixies are so annoying, and troublesome really, why do I have to babysit them?”

Aisling stifled a smile at the petulant tone of her granddaughter, and carefully pushed against her wings. The wings fluttered in annoyance a bit before folding down against her back and disappearing from view. She flipped the child over and brushed brown and white strands out of her face. “All dark fae have to take turns managing the lesser fae,” the chieftess replied. “It helps to ensure that they don’t bring more trouble to the realm with their mischievous ways.”

“I’m only half dark fae though,” Isa said with a pout on her face. “Why do I have to do it?”

“Only half dark fae doesn’t mean you're half as responsible.” Aisling tapped her nose with a smile. “Just means you have twice as many responsibilities since you have to oversee troubles as well as help with winter.” She took in the slightly pensive look on her granddaughter’s face and her smile slipped to a more concerned look. “What’s wrong?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t hmm me, you have that expression on your face whenever you’ve done something you don’t think I’ll be happy about.” The elder fae gave the younger a stern look, “You might as well tell me now, save yourself some trouble.”

Isa sat up and twiddled her thumbs for a few moments, not making eye contact with her grandmother. “I kind of met someone…” She started. “A human.”

“A human?” Aisling blinked. “During the full moon?”

The younger fae nodded, “Just a girl, so it wasn’t like…” Her voice trailed off, the unspoken words between them. Not like her mother. “She was about to step into the fairy ring, lured in by the song, and I couldn’t just let her go bungling around.”

“She could see the pixies in the fairy ring?”

“Mhm,” Isa replied. “Just barely, but yeah, she could see them. I wonder if she still had some of the ability leftover from childhood to see magic and things beyond what adults believe.”

“Some humans do keep such an ability into adulthood but eventually lose it due to lack of exposure.” Aisling gave her granddaughter a curious look, “What do you plan to do with this… human?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, do you plan to go to the human world and see her again?”

“You would allow that?”

Aisling sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “As much as I would love to protect you and forbid you from contact with the human world, that is not our way. Humans are frightened of the forest where fairy rings dwell, you might never see her again, and yet there is a possibility that you might see her. Either way, it is a learning experience, and one I will not deny you.”

Isa touched down on the ground, barely staying upright as her wings swooped around her, causing a burst of air to flutter under her feet. She flailed her arms a bit to keep her balance and managed to prevent herself from falling face first into the moss again. The wind fae that helped most of the young faelings learn to fly had told them that they needed time to grow into their wings, and that it would happen when they were ready. She was well past ready for her wings to not be giant and to not trip her every time she tried to take off and land. 

Once she had stabilized herself in the air, Isa pumped her wings a few times to propel herself higher in the air before she started flying towards her home with her grandmother. She saw a few other Faelings from her flight classes working with their parents to practice their craft and grow their skills. She felt a brief pang in her heart that she would never have that, never learn directly from her parents, just the memories they left behind. She glanced towards the winter realm for a brief moment before veering towards the dark fae realm. “Móraí,” she called when she landed in the clearing close to the home she shared with her grandmother. “I’m back!”

“Fair tidings, Isa,” the dark fey greeted as she appeared in the clearing in front of their home.

“Fair tidings, grandmother,” Isa replied. She bowed slightly, mimicking the instructions the faeling tutors provided on proper etiquette for greeting elder fae.

Aisling gave her granddaughter a small, but proud, smile as she ushered the younger fae into the small glade they called home. The large trees stretched high into the air, casting shadows along the ground, curtaining the world around them in darkness. Soft lights from luminescent plants illuminated the spaces as Aisling led Isa through the rooms built high among the trees. The dark fae preferred to live among darker trees such as ebony and walnut with the occasional willow and yew trees to provide variety to the wood. The summer fae preferred mighty oaks and hickories for their homes, while the winter fae chose evergreens that could survive the harshest of winters. As fairies were born and grew, the lands grew with them to accommodate more trees and the homes they created, though oftentimes elder fey chose to fade from one existence to another as time passed. Aisling considered it briefly due to the grief of the passing of her mate and child, but the presence of her young granddaughter kept her grounded. She once hoped her home would be filled with the bustling sounds of fairies and faelings squabbling as they grew.

Now it was just Aisling and Isa, though she did not know how long her granddaughter would stay with her considering she had her own home, a small blue spruce just starting to grow in the heart of the winter wood. “How was your time in the mortal world?” She asked, her wings brushing against her granddaughter softly as she guided her to the hearth at the center of their home.

“Good, I spent the day with Katya,” Isa replied. “She introduced me to her new dogs, and then we went for a walk in the woods. I showed her the fireflies.”

“She’s become a good friend to you hasn’t she?”

Isa nodded her head as she sank onto the bench covered with plush moss. “At first I found her annoying, just a human girl who wandered along, getting herself into trouble, but she grew on me a bit, especially after we spent more time together.”

Aisling hummed, the suspicion she held since her granddaughter first returned talking about the human girl she met in the woods further taking root in her mind, and she bit back a sigh. It wasn’t what she wanted for her, being bound to a human. Humans came with complications, misunderstandings, ignorance, and a finite amount of time. That could change of course, but only if the human was willing to leave behind everything they knew and embrace the unexpected and unknown. And if Aisling knew one thing about humans during her long life, the unexpected and unknown terrified them.

This girl, this Katya though, maybe…

“Have you thought about inviting her here?” She asked.

Isa startled, “Here? The fey realm? You would allow it?”

“She’s your friend,” Aisling stated. “She has proven herself to be a good friend at that, and has shared part of her world with you. It would be rude for you to not do the same.”

Isa perched on one of the large branches of the tall pines in the winter forest, her mind whirling through the past few days. Katya had been visiting and she gave her friend a brief glimpse into the wonders of fey magic. They explored the dark fae realm and winter, and took a brief foray into summer to swim in the crystal blue rivers and jump off the waterfalls. It was fun and exciting, more fun than Isa had had in a long time. But with the fun and excitement, other feelings started to arise, sensations and feelings buried deep within her, causing Isa to venture to the edges of winter to gain some quiet and distance from what was sparking turmoil in her mind, in her heart.

She felt her grandmother’s presence before she saw her, a comforting weight in her heart and then a figure tucked on a branch on the other side of the tree. The two sat in silence, resting in the stillness provided by the winter realm. There were places where fey gathered to frolic and play in the snow or skate along the frozen waters or enjoy warm drinks sipped next to a roaring fire. The creatures the winter fae cared for normally bellowed and chittered through the forest, and the plants hummed and sang as fresh snow and ice dripped around them, none of them harmed by the cold. In the brief moments just before dawn when light was barely brushing against the different floating islands and lands comprising the fey realm, winter was still.

“A snowflake for your thoughts?” Her grandmother intoned and a smile curled across Isa’s face.

“You think my thoughts are worth so much?”

“Your thoughts are worth a multitude of things, one beautiful, pristine snowflake is paltry in comparison.”

“I do not have such thoughts worth even a single drop of rain at present,” Isa mused. “Let alone something as complex as a snowflake.”

“I see Katya and her friend have returned to the human world,” Aisling commented after a few moments.

“They have.”

“Did they enjoy their visit?”

Isa sighed, “I think so. I showed her around Winter, she met a few of the other fey and feelings. I pointed out where Spring, Summer and Autumn were and then we walked around the Dark Forest. It was a good visit, I had a lot of fun. Duxi chased a lot of the pixies, I thought they would try to turn him into a mushroom.”

“Oh, I heard the grumblings, but I do believe most of the pixies were invigorated by his presence. They don’t get to terrify the mortals as much as they used to so they had fun with the creature.” She studied her granddaughter for a few moments before speaking again. “Is the lack of your friends what brings you out here with troublesome thoughts?”

The winter fey let out another sigh, “Perhaps.”

The elder fey waited as her granddaughter sorted her thoughts. She knew what troubled the younger fae, but she also knew it was important for the girl to come to her own realizations and make her own decisions. “This place,” Isa started, “Was always beautiful to me. The snow, the lights, the crisp air, but I realize now that Katya has returned to her own home, it’s not quite as bright as it was before, not quite as… magical, and I don’t know why.”

“Do you not?”

When Isa did not answer, Aisling dropped off her branch and flew in front of the younger fairy. “Take some time to think about it,” she said, allowing the breeze to hold her aloft away from the tree. “Analyze your own heart, you’ll find your answer.”

She took off into the sky, leaving her granddaughter alone with her thoughts.

Pain clenched at her heart as Katya’s words ripped through her, the accusations hurled like stones, piercing like arrows, hard, sharp, striking deep at her heart. Did she want Mislav to die? Was that what Katya really thought of her? Did she think so little of her she would wish death on a mortal simply because she didn’t like him? Fey were naturally vengeful creatures, they had long-lives and even longer memories. Fey curses lived on long after the original fae that wrought them had passed from this life to the next, but they were not cast on a whim and a fae’s anger was not stirred lightly. 

She didn’t care for Mislav, she thought him a bore, dismissive and prone to posturing, anger. She thought Katya deserved better. She knew Katya deserved better. 

She first felt her heart break when Katya came moons ago, speaking of her betrothal, begging to protect her intended from harm. She could protect him from cold, summon snowstorms to hide them from view, but she could not guarantee his safety. Human conflict was not something the fae interfered with, not anymore. She remembers the stories told to the faelings by the elders, memories of wars fought with magic and flash, might and fury as fairies picked sides in the battles of mortals, pitting them against each other, causing ruin in both realms. When the dust settled, they realized all that was left was ashes and regret, and the revelation came, humans and magic were a dangerous combination, and magic should have boundaries. 

The changes were gradual, so gradual that by the time humanity had recovered and reformed into civilizations, magic itself had adapted, almost as if to say ‘no more.’ It had limitations, self-set boundaries that guided fae actions. Those limitations bound fae’s interactions with mortals, she could not interfere, not in the way Katya wanted.

And now, now Mislav was dead, killed in a senseless war, and her mate was heartbroken and furious.

The words stung, the anger Katya hurled as a protective measure for her own heart hurt, but nothing hurt more than the pain echoing behind her mate’s words, the anguish in her eyes. Isa knew her friend didn’t love her betrothed, she wasn’t in love with him, but she cared for him greatly. Love was a luxury to humans; most relationships, marriages, were built through convenience, connections, business transactions between families rather than emotions. 

“You have magic, you should have done more! This is your fault!” Kayta’s words echoed in her mind as she pushed off the ground, her wings pumping the air around her to force it to bend to her will. She flew quickly, trying to escape the words attacking her mind and striking at her heart. She turned back briefly to look at Katya, to watch as she shook in fury and grief before she stomped away. 

Isa glanced in the direction of the winter island, the towering peaks of glaciers and mountains, but turned towards the dark forest. She had barely touched down on the ground when she felt a great shudder rake through the realm, causing the animals, the trees, the ground, the very magic that makes up the realm to screech in agony and anger. 

“What was that?” Isa muttered, watching as the statuesque trees around her fluttered their leaves angrily as a violent wind tore through them.

“Katya has done something very foolish,” her grandmother’s voice sounded and Isa turned to see her grandmother with several other dark fae elders.

“Katya? She was just here, I saw her returning to the human world.”

“Aye,” Morwain, an elder fae with long dark hair and beard, spoke, his voice gruff. “She was here, and her anger was palpable, but in her rage she acted foolishly.

“What did she do?”

“She struck against the fairy ring,” Aisling said. “She destroyed it.”

“No!” Isa cried. “Ah, no, she didn’t mean it, she, she was angry, hurt, I-”

“What is done is done,” Morwain continued. “She acted against a fairy ring, so the realm responded.”

“I’m sorry, Isa,” Aisling murmured. “Katya… she’s been cursed.”

Isa shook her head in disbelief and pushed off from the ground again. Her wings pumped furiously as she headed towards the infinite forest, but when she reached the spot of the fairy ring, all she found was scorched earth. “No, no no no!” She turned and located the closest one and immediately stepped through, appearing on the other side of the forest from the normal fairy ring. She darted through the forest, her wings disappearing on her back to not hinder her movement as she picked her way through the dense brush and foliage. 

She reached the edge of the forest and Katya’s family farm when she saw Nadya recoil away from Katya, her hand burnt from where she made contact with the young woman’s skin. “Katya, Katya!” Isa yelled, trying to get her attention. When the two didn’t respond, the fae tried to go to the, but she was pulled back.

“Iseult, stop,” Aisling said, grabbing her granddaughter’s arm. “She cannot see you, she has been afflicted with a fey curse, there’s nothing you can do for her right now.”

“But Móraí, I, she-” Isa wheezed, hyperventilating as sobs built in her throat.

“I’m sorry,” Aisling murmured. “I’m so sorry.”

“Iseult.” Her grandmother’s voice rang out across the dark fae realm, drawing Isa’s attention. She had been practicing creating delicately crafted snowflakes, each one beautiful and unique as they grew crystalized structures. Before Ka- well, just before, she had been able to create beautiful wonders of individual flakes meant to emphasize the simple beauty of winter, the sight of clean, fresh fallen snow, the sun glinting off an expanse of white. Now though, after being separated from Ka- her mate, she couldn’t do it. She could still bring winter, but rather than beautiful snowfall she created vicious ice storms that burnt and scorched with ferocity, leaving damage and destruction in their wake. If ice storms had increased in frequency around the world, well, that was hardly her fault.

Isa pushed away from the tree where she had been practicing and took off into the air, her wings moving the air around her to take her above the treeline. Flying through the trees was always a fun experience of darting in and around obstacles, but the urgency in her grandmother’s voice pushed her to quickly locate the elder fae in the council area for the dark fae. She carefully dropped into the small clearing tucked into a dense copse of trees, and found her grandmother speaking to another older fae. The two fae turned and Isa immediately recognized Dafne, the Seer. She was an old fae, older even than her grandmother, and was gifted with Sight but at the expense of her natural vision.

The elder fae’s milky eyes held a deep image of the universe with millions and billions of stars, and Isa often wondered how many worlds she could see with her gaze. “You called,” the winter fairy stated, turning her attention to her grandmother.

“Dafne has seen something,” Aisling replied. “She came to me, and I thought it would be best if she spoke to you.”

Isa gulped and turned her attention to the Seer. Dafne focused her unseeing gaze on her, and the winter fairy fought hard to not fidget under her stare. “You have experienced much in your life, child, more than many triple your age could claim.” Dafne’s voice was like rushing water pouring down a stream, slowly wearing away at everything around it until nothing remained. “But I am afraid you have much more to experience still, and little time with which to grasp the reality of what is to come.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mate is in trouble,” Dafne stated. “She will be afflicted with another fey curse that will change the trajectory of her life.”

“Katya?” Isa gasped. “What other curse?”

“The blood drinkers,” the oracle answered. “A vampire.”

“What? No, I, we have to do something!”

“There is nothing you can do,” Dafne interrupted. “It has already begun as it was always meant to be, there are some of these blood drinkers that need her in their lives, now more than ever.”

“So what do I do? Just let her become a vampire?” Isa asked. 

Dafne nodded, “There is another there though that needs your immediate help, and I’m sure he would appreciate seeing you again.”

Isa’s brow furrowed as she thought before her eyes widened. “Duxi!”

Aisling gestured for her to go and Isa immediately took off, her wings unfurling around her and she pushed herself into the sky, gaining altitude to quickly drop into the Infinite Forest. The Forest held all of the fairy rings connecting the worlds, and Isa tugged on the bond in her heart, pulling it tight to find the correct gate to lead her to Katya. She followed the sensation and emerged in a field next to a road with strewn bodies and wreckage. She noted the oppressive presence of a strong fae curse and noted three women gathered around a body prone on the ground. Katya . Her heart thrummed painfully in her chest as she heard her mate’s cries as cursed venom burned through her veins.

She longed to go to her, Dafne’s prophecies be damned. She longed to halt the fire coursing through her, and soothe the aches and pains life has caused. Dafne’s words ringing through her mind kept her rooted where she was crouched. There are some of these blood drinkers that need her in their lives, now more than ever. One of the blonde women bent down and lifted Katya from where she was convulsing on the ground and they disappeared, leaving only dust in their wake.

Isa turned and followed the spark of life she felt near the wreckage and she found Duxi underneath the felled body of one of the rogues. She carefully pushed the body off of the dog and held her hand over the creature. “Oh Duxi,” Isa murmured. Though the dog didn’t breathe, she still felt life in his frame. “Don’t worry, Duxi, I’ll take care of you.” She carefully picked him up and returned to her world through the fairy ring. 

She burst out of the Infinite Forest and angled her body towards the domain of the water fae. Her grandmother was waiting for her next to a tall fae with scales covering parts of his arms and legs. “Lord Bren,” Isa nodded her head before setting Duxi down in front of the lord of the water fae. “Can you help him?”

“Water is healing,” the fae responded. “Where there is life, water can heal, but he will not be as he was. He will no longer be an ordinary dog, but a fae, like all who live in this world.”

“He’ll be alive,” Isa stated quietly. “And he’ll be himself, doesn’t matter what he looks like.”

Lord Bren nodded and the water healers set about doing their work, nurturing the life Duxi fought so hard to keep and bringing it to the surface. Isa moved to stand next to her grandmother, her hand reaching out to grasp onto the older fae’s robes like she did when she was just a tiny faeling not old enough to fly. “Will he be okay?” She murmured as she watched soft lights and drops of water float around the prone form of the dog.

“I think you got to him in time,” Aisling murmured, squeezing her granddaughter’s hand. “Dafne’s message came in time.”

“Not in time to prevent this from occurring in the first place.”

Aisling tugged her granddaughter away to a quieter corner to leave the healers to work in peace. “I know you are displeased with what Dafne told you must come to be,” she said carefully.

“I saw her there, Móraí, I saw her writhing in pain as the vampires changed her. She was hurting and I couldn’t help her.” A tear softly slipped down Isa’s face, freezing as it went before transforming into one perfect snowflake. “Why must this be? Why are there things that continue to separate us?”

Aisling sighed and gestured for her granddaughter to sit down. “You know, I suspected I knew what this human was to you the first moment you mentioned her,” the elder fae commented. “My suspicions were confirmed when you first brought her through the circle.”

“How did you know?” Isa questioned. “I didn’t even know, not until-”

“Ah, yes, but you weren’t grown yet,” Aisling continued. “How were you to know what you were not prepared for? But surely you suspected something when your growth pattern adjusted to fit Katya’s after you met?”

Isa shrugged and picked at the plants growing along the edge of the lake, her mind whirling around thoughts of Katya. She knew the human was her mate, but when did she know this, did she start to realize it the last few years of their friendship, before the incident with the other girl’s intended ripped them apart, or did she know before then without acknowledging that she knew? “I think by the time I really knew anything, or could acknowledge that I knew, she was betrothed to that boy from her village. She was… she seemed happy, I didn’t want to disrupt that, even if I knew I would lose her.” Isa glanced away, “Not every fae ends up with their mate, especially if they’re human.”

Her grandmother nodded, a sad smile on her face, “Yes, my own experiences speak to this, though since I got your mother, and you, out of the brief encounter with my mate, I cannot regret too much.”

“Did Dafne foresee what came of your mate?” Isa asked. “Or what would happen to Máthair?”

“If she did, I have not asked,” the elder fae replied. “I feel she sought to interfere in your case due to the long friendship with your mate, and the eventuality of two fey curses interacting with each other in young Katya.”

The winter fairy was silent for a few moments as she thought. “Do those vampires truly need her in their lives?” The unasked questions lingered in the air between them. Will she be alright, will this separation be worth the pain, will they be together again…

Aisling studied her granddaughter carefully before answering, “Dafne has not told me much, as true with all Seers, but she did tell me that Katya’s presence in their lives now would save them from great sorrow later.” She reached out to squeeze Isa’s arm, “And that you will be reunited again, if we plan it correctly.”

“What-” A bark interrupted her words and Isa was forced back as a fluffy dog barreled into her. “Duxi!” Isa exclaimed once she had extracted herself from the wriggling excited mass. She pushed back to examine the creature. Black and brown fur was now streaked with white and a set of shimmering, translucent wings fluttered from his back like a butterfly. Despite these changes, Isa could tell he was still the same, he was still Duxi. 

“He is a strong one,” Lord Bren stated, floating over to them. “He wanted to live.”

“Duxi has always been a fighter,” Isa murmured as she stroked the dog’s long fur. 

Lord Bren nodded, “He is a fae now, and not an average fae as pixies and sprites, his will has chosen him as a winter fae, so he will have to stay with you, Isa, and you will be tasked with watching over him.”

Isa scratched Duxi behind his ears as she spoke to him. “I’ll take care of you,” she murmured. “And we can tell Katya of all we have done together when next we meet.” Duxi licked her hand, a concerned look on his face as he whined at the name of his master. She turned her gaze back to her grandmother, “When will we see Katya again?”

“You can watch over her as much as you’d like,” Aisling replied. “If it does not bring you pain, but being reunited with her, I’m afraid that will be a long time.”

“How long?”

“Not long for a fae, but a long time for a vampire. I am afraid that Katya has difficult times ahead of her.”

Chapter Text

“Duxi’s alive?” Kate gasped, her mind whirling with everything Bella… no, Isa told her. I was her mate, she’s my mate? Does that explain my feelings for Bella? Me being turned by Sasha was foretold? Her mind ran through various thoughts and questions, each one more confusing than the last until she grasped on something so incredible it was unbelievable. “But, no Sas- they told me that Duxi, everyone by the road was dead when they found me.”

“To them, he probably was since his heart had stopped, but I felt the spark of life still in him,” Isa replied. “The water fae are gifted healers, Lord Bren particularly, if anyone could save Duxi’s life, it was him.”

Kate blinked, unsure of what to say. “I… that’s…” What could she say? What could she say about the best friend she had as a child, as a human, was here in front of her? What could she say about the information she had been given? What could she say about the best friend she hurt and betrayed so grievously watching over her for years, centuries? What could she say about the fae, the woman saving her beloved dog, her childhood companion? What could she say about her greatest regret looking right at her?

“How is he doing?” She asked instead, focusing back on her childhood companion and protector, a treasured gift from her Papa.

“He adjusted well, and is now as much fae as he was a dog, always fluttering around, chasing the faelings and pixies.” A fond smile crossed Isa’s face, “He often accompanies me to this realm when we think winter needs an extra special touch in different parts of the world.”

“The seasonal fairies do not help every year as they used to?”

Isa shook her head, “No, the world is changing, people want to believe in magic, but they don’t, the fae are not needed much in this world.”

Kate, no, Katya didn’t know what to say to that. She knew the world was changing, but to actually live in a world where the fae no longer ventured. She remembered visiting the homes of the seasonal fairies with Isa, the vibrant blooms of spring, the cool breezes during summer heat, the crisp air of fall, and the beauty of winter. The harsh, cold winter air was made bearable through the beauty of freshly fallen snow, and the heat of summer managed by cool, evening rain. The fae tended to these things, small and large, and to not have them present in the world anymore… It was a sobering dose of reality.

“How… how is everyone doing with these changes?” Katya asked.

The winter fae shrugged, “We adjusted. We knew it was happening, our relevance in this world was decreasing even when we were children, it was only a matter of time before we were no longer needed. Some of the fae were saddened by this, but it is the natural order of the world. Even fae have their time, having replaced the primal elemental spirits that once roamed free. Times change, but in our home, we are happy.”

“And what about…” What about Them ? Katya wanted to ask. What about them? Isa was her mate, she was hers, where did that leave them if the fae no longer lived in this world? She chose not to voice the question, her mind still wrapping around the idea, and returned to the present situation. “So how did you end up posing as a human and living in Washington?”

“Dafne again,” Isa signed. “Now mind you, she didn't tell me what was going on before she sent me off, just said that it was time for us to be reunited.”

“You said your grandmother was with you, did she know?”

“Probably, I gave her a right talking to when I called her after I saw you that first day I was here.” She rolled her eyes, “Doesn't tell me anything, doesn't do anything when a vampire starts following me around, just hums and sips her tea, tells me I’ll know what to do when the time is right, just continue on with business as usual.”

“How did two fae meld seamlessly into human society?” Katya asked. “From what the Cullens said, you were from one of the local families.”

The winter fae waved her hands dismissively, “Easily enough with magic and a tiny bit of truthfulness. I moved in with my grandmother, but she moved there a bit before I arrived. With a bit of magic, it was like she was always there, the matriarch to the Swan family, husband deceased, son and daughter-in-law moved away. I moved in with my grandmother for my final year when my parents moved abroad.” Isa shrugged, “There was enough truth there, the Swan family had lived in the area for generations, the last one, Charlie Swan, married a flower fae, and they gave grandmother access to their house and name to help settle in. And it wasn’t hard for a dark fae to slip through the mind and plant some memories to help sell the story. Everything was in place before the Cullens arrived in the area, and I moved just before the school year started.

“All those things you, Bella,” Katya corrected. “Mentioned, your friends, cousins being jealous of living here, you were talking about the winter fae weren’t you?”

Isa cracked a smile at her words, “Despite living in an enchanted forest where it is always winter, there is something about it here in this world. Clearer, a bit more crisp, natural.”

Katya hummed, processing her words. “I always have thought Alaska to be a magical place, but I guess for those use to magic-”

“There’s more magic in ordinary things than people realize,” Isa replied. “A beautiful sunrise, freshly fallen snow, a single dew drop clinging to a leaf. It’s a different type of magic, one that is harder to find but worth seeing.”

They were silent for a few moments, both thinking about the situation they were currently in. The secret was out, they were mates, confirmed by… a fairy oracle. What the fuck is my life?  

“How did I not recognize you as my mate?” Katya asked. “Not… not before, but when I met you, Bella, again, when the Cullens brought you here, why did I not recognize who you were to me?” It wasn’t necessarily true that vampires recognized their mates on sight, especially if the other half of the pair wasn’t a vampire. It was something that developed with time, and if Bella, Isa was her mate, why did she not realize after months together? 

“You developed feelings didn’t you?” Isa questioned.

“Of course I did! How could I not, Bella- You, you’re funny, intelligent, beautiful and-” Katya had a hard time describing the feelings she had for the other woman, the feelings she developed for her when she thought she was a human. “You… you saw me, when no one else had for a very long time. I, it didn’t… it didn’t feel like a mating bond, like what others had described, but with the curse, I thought maybe it was the best I was going to have.”

Silence passed between them for a few more moments before Katya continued. “Were there any earlier times?” She asked. “Time we could have been reunited before now?”

“Dafne’s visions are not like Alice Cullen’s,” Isa replied. “They are not subjective, not exactly, she can see multitudes of outcomes, but as an oracle, she sees what will be, what is meant to be, rather than what she wants to be.”

“Alice-”

“Sees what could be and decides to accept or change it depending on her will,” the fairy continued. “But what is meant to be is hidden from her sight, probably to prevent any potential meddling that could muddy the waters.”

“So is the future really set in stone?”

“More like there are fixed points, outcomes that are inevitable,” Isa replied. “The sun will continue to rise in the east and set in the west, the world will continue to turn, and magic, to some extent or another, will always exist and impact the world in great ways and small until the end of time when everything is reset and the sun rises in the west.”

Katya thought about the fae’s words, her mind rolling around the concept of ‘meant to be.’ “Mislav’s death,” she said after a moment. “Was it one of those ‘meant to be’ events?” Was my anger at you for nothing, was all of this pain-

“All humans die, Katya,” Isa murmured. “That is their fate. They must die to face another life, whether that life is what comes after death, or something different altogether.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

Isa stared at Katya for a few moments, studying her face before looking away, “You mean, was he meant to die when he did, in conflict with the berserkers as they pillaged their way closer to your home?” Katya nodded, and Isa sighed. “I don’t know, Dafne has never offered that information, and I have never asked, but I will tell you this-” She gestured around them and towards Katya, “This, you becoming a vampire, this was always your fate, whether we met or not, whether you married Mislav or not, whether you destroyed the fairy ring or not.”

“Why?”

“You’re a fixed point in the lives of your sisters, Katya,” Isa replied softly. “They needed you. It is what stopped me from coming to you when you were hurt by that band of robbers set on the carriage, and what stayed my actions later. You-” The winter fairy broke off, not knowing how to explain what she needed to say. “You have no idea how important you are to them, how necessary it was for you to be here. Tanya is the coven leader and Irina the quiet defense, but you, you were the key for keeping them together, both when you were first turned and after Sasha died. Especially after Sasha died.”

“What would have happened if I wasn’t with them?”

Isa shook her head, “They wouldn’t have made it. The bond between Tanya and Irina is strong now, but it was still fragile back then, with both of them only having been turned a few decades before you and just a few years separating them. Tensions would have continued to rise between them with only Sasha as a buffer, and when she was killed, it would have broken them apart completely, the coven bond fractured, never to be repaired.” She paused again, “Carmen and Eleazar would have been forced to stay with the Volturi since Aro only let them go so Eleazar could spy on your coven. They would have been alive, but miserable and it would have put a strain on their relationship.”

“Dafne saw all of this?”

“Dafne saw many things, sees many things, and she saw that you were needed, here, with your coven for a time until it was safe for us to be reunited.”

“And what happens now?” Katya asked. “We have been reunited, everything is out in the open, we know what we are to each other, what does that mean for us now? Me a vampire, living in Alaska, you a winter fairy, living in the fairy realm, what does the future hold for us?”

Isa shrugged again, “I don’t know, choices have to be made, decisions thought through, but Katya-” The fae reached out and set her hand on Katya’s wrist, and for the first time in a long time, Katya felt the touch of another person, skin on skin, without the threat of electricity dancing along the surface. “I want you to know,” the fae continued. “That I am here for you, whatever is decided, and I am very glad to see you again.”

“I’m surprised you don’t speak of love.”

“Love takes time,” the fairy replied. “I loved you when we were younger, but it was a different, immature love. It was jealous, spiteful, not a true love but the imitation of it often felt in youth, similar to the feelings young Edward Cullen was developing for who he thought I was. It’s simple, obsession, just an imitation of what love actually is.” She shifted her hand softly and started running her fingers over Katya’s. “Real love, true love, that takes time.” She looked up, ice blue eyes meeting orange, “I would like to have that time though.”

Katya squeezed her hand and smiled, reveling in the ability to touch, to be touched. And to be touched by her… her oldest friend, her potential mate, her… Isa, it brought back sensations, feelings, memories, things she thought were long buried in the past. “I would like that too, and to have the chance to get to know you again, over 1000 years is a long time to be apart.” She reluctantly detached their hands and glanced around the room again, looking for something to change the conversation away from the heavy conversation. “So I’m surprised that my coven and the Cullens have not stormed into the room with everything that has happened.”

Isa chuckled, “Oh, I’m sure they would love to, but I froze them to the floor downstairs while you were recovering.”

“You… froze them?”

“Not like Victoria,” the winter fae said quickly. “Just their feet or their legs, and in Carlisle, Edward, and Alice’s cases, their mouths.”

The blonde snorted, “What were they doing?”

Isa rolled her eyes, “Edward started demanding what I had done with ‘his Bella,’ which was never accurate since I wasn’t his anything, Alice was moaning about not ‘seeing’ any of this, and Carlisle started freaking out about witchcraft.”

“I’m not surprised, he was born and lived through the worst of the witch hunts in England during the Caroline era. What did my family do?”

“Not much, Tanya and Irina looked at me suspiciously, Eleazar was trying to figure out what gift I had, probably still under the assumption I was human. Unless one has encountered the fae, people don’t think about them being real, even those suffering from a fae curse such as vampirism.”

“I thought you mentioned vampirism was a result of a fae curse, do you know how?”

The fairy shook her head, “No, it’s been so long ago, and the curse has evolved since then. My grandmother will be here soon, she probably knows.”

“Aisling is coming?” A sliver of dread raced down Katya’s spine. The elder fae often terrified her. When her dark eyes stared at her, Katya felt she was looking straight through to her soul, and she wondered if the elder fae found her wanting.

“Do not worry about her so much, Móraí likes you, she will be pleased to see you after so long.” She pushed up from the bed and turned towards the door. “We probably should go down and free the rest of them before she arrives, though I might leave the ice on a few of them, don’t need them insulting an elder fae and causing more trouble for themselves.”

Katya followed Isa down the stairs and found her coven and the Cullens exactly where Isa said they were. Carlisle, Edward, and Alice were confined to a wall, ice holding their legs in place and covering the bottom half of their faces and necks so they couldn’t speak or move their heads. The four members of her own coven and the remaining members of the Cullen coven were seated comfortably in the living room, or as comfortably as possible with ice covering their ankles and frost creeping up their legs. 

Isa snapped her fingers and the members of the Alaskan coven were free from their seats. Tanya and Irina immediately came up to Katya. “Kate, are you alright?” Tanya asked, her eyes searching her sister for any lingering injury.

“We would have been with you if this one had not trapped up down here,” Irina accused, glaring at Isa. The winter fae just smirked and a chilling winter wind whipped through the room, biting through the cold skin of the vampires and freezing their venom even further. 

“I thought we developed a better relationship than that, Irina, during the few months I’ve been living here,” Isa stated as the wind stilled. 

Irina studied her critically, “You share a few traits with Bella, but we all know the girl is human, and you clearly are not.”

“And we have to wonder what danger you pose to us and what happened to the real Bella,” Tanya stated as she glanced at her warily.

“And why you have kept several of us frozen in pace and gagged,” Jasper mentioned as he looked over at his mate worryingly.

“Tanya, it’s okay,” Katya replied. “Isa and I are old friends, she’s not going to hurt anyone here.”

“Isa?”

Katya waved her hand at the fae, and Isa slowly shifted her appearance to the more familiar guise she had worn for the past year. “Bella?” Esme exclaimed and tried to move from her seat but the ice around her held firm. 

“I’m very sorry to have misled you,” Isa said, her voice gaining a lower pitch that Katya did not realize was absent when she was speaking with the fae in her room. “My goal was to be reunited with Katya, and this was the best way to do it.”

“Katya?” Irina questioned.

“My name,” Katya replied. “My real name.”

“You told us your name was Katrina,” Tanya said softly.

Katya grimaced, “I, that wasn’t my best decision. After everything… I just wanted to separate myself from who I was as much as possible. My life, Katya’s life, had been shit for several years at that point. Changing into a vampire was my way to a different life, one where I wasn’t Katya anymore.” Isa reached over and squeezed Katya’s hand and the blonde smiled. “Seeing Isa again, she reminded me of who I was, who I am, good and bad memories. I met Isa when I was a human, just a girl really, all of what, 9, 10 summers?” Isa hummed and Katya continued. “Due to… things, we were separated, and necessity kept us apart, but we’re together again.”

“Together…?”

“She’s my mate.” Isa and Katya spoke at the same time, their hands squeezing together as they spoke.

Edward started wiggling more furiously from his position frozen to the wall, his expression twisted as he raged in silence. Isa exhaled and shifted back into her natural appearance as she walked up to where he was contained. “I’m sure you’re saying something only the lines of ‘she’s my mate’ or other nonsense against Katya, but let’s be clear, I have known Katya was my mate for a long time, I endured this separation for the good of others, and I put up with you stalking me in order to be reunited with my mate.” She snapped her fingers again, and the ice disappeared from around the Cullens, causing Edward, Carlisle, and Alice to fall to the floor in a heap as it released them. 

“Witchcraft,” Carlisle muttered again, and Isa fought the urge to roll her eyes again.

“Magic,” Isa corrected. “Not witchcraft. Most witches suppressed their magic due to men like you, I’d be surprised if there were any left in this world.”

“Witches are real?” Katya asked and Isa turned her attention back to the platinum blonde.

“Fairies, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters are real, why wouldn’t witches be real as well?”

The blonde nodded, “Well, you have a point.”

“We’re getting sidetracked,” Tanya interrupted. “Are you a witch? Kate said she met you when she was a child, and as far as I knew, witches were mortal.”

“Ah yes, but there was something else on that list I gave, wasn’t there?”

“You can’t be a werewolf,” Irina announced. “The children of the moon have all been killed.”

Isa shook her head and her appearance changed again, her hair blending back to the white with dark streaks Katya was most familiar with but instead of stopping there, her clothes changed as well. The jeans and hoodie morphed into ice blue trousers that clung tightly to her legs and a matching cloth wrapped around her breast and tied behind her neck. Large feathered wings sprung from her shoulder blades and settled behind her, their appearance making the room seem even smaller and colder. “You’ve changed since I last saw you,” Katya murmured. 

“So have you.” The two stared at each other for a few moments, deaf to the sounds of chaos around them as Edward and Carlisle spoke of sorcery and demons and the others yelled questions and sputtered exclamations. 

Katya turned her attention back to her sisters. “Tanya, Irina, this is Iseult, or Isa as I call her, my oldest friend. She’s a winter fairy.”

“Why did you not tell us you were associated with-” Tanya’s words broke off. She of course had heard stories of the fae folk when she was younger, but she never encountered them. After she was changed by Sasha, she assumed most of the legends referred to vampires and not actual fairies. But seeing the proof in front of her…

“I mentioned when I was changed that my ‘gift’ as you called it was a curse, but you didn’t listen,” Katya pointed out. “It was, in fact, a curse, a fairy curse.”

“Oh, did you curse her?” Emmett asked, pointing at Isa. “That’s harsh.”

Katya shook her head, “No, I- it was my fault, I got mad at Isa for something out of her control and did something foolish. I destroyed a fairy ring, the fairy ring that helped Isa and I first meet.” She gave her sisters a rueful smile, “At least now you know why I always steered clear of them.”

“Why did you come back now?” Tanya asked, turning her attention to the fairy. “Why go through all of this deception?”

“There is an oracle in my home, one that sees what can be, what will be and what should be. She saw Katya’s turning, and I was there to witness the event after she told me, but I could not stop it. She saw Katya was needed in the lives of you and your sister, your coven.” She glanced between the strawberry blonde and Irina and back to Eleazar and Carmen. “But she also saw how we would be reunited, when things were more settled. My disguising myself as a human helped to reunite Katya and I, and settle things between us. The old feelings of hurt and constant feelings of loneliness giving away to something new. It also didn’t hurt to take a few rogue vampires out of play before they became even more dangerous.”

Katya explained what Dafne had foreseen about the fate of the Alaskan coven if she had not been turned into a vampire. Sasha’s death was a fixed point due to her own inability to let go of her human life and the child she lost, but the fates of Tanya and Irina were not set and were therefore changed due to Katya’s presence in their lives. 

“So what will happen now?” Tanya asked, looking between the two. The fact that her sister was mated to a fairy, a winter fairy she learned through the explanation Katya gave, explaining the presence of ice in the room. She fixed her gaze on Katya, “You’re a vampire, Kate, she’s a fairy. Can you… be together?”

“Vampirism is an evolved form of another fae curse,” Isa said. “Vampire venom and allure would have no effect on fairies.” She glanced over at Katya, “Tanya is right though, about the vampire fairy thing.”

“In what way?”

Isa sighed, “I’m a fairy, a Greater Fae now if you want that distinction, and you know the Greater Fae do not linger in this world.” She let out a soft exhale, “Especially not anymore.”

“Oh.”

“And those afflicted by a fae curse cannot cross through a fairy ring.”

“Ooh.” That was a problem. She went back to her earlier question. “What does this mean for us?”

Isa exhaled again, “Decisions will have to be made.”

“What kind of decisions?” Irina asked.

Before the fae could answer, a knock sounded at the door. The vampires in the room froze and glanced at each other, who would or could come to their door this far from civilization? Isa’s wings faded away as she stepped towards the door, the magic around her taking a blue-ish white tint, the color of evening snow. “Don’t panic,” she said as she opened the door. “It’s someone who has been waiting to see Katya for a long time.” A wiggling mass of black and white fur hurled through the space on sparkling butterfly wings and sent Katya sprawling to the ground.

“Duxi!” She cried, clutching the dog to her. It was him, it was Duxi. His fur had gained an extra color with the distinguished white streaks gracing his fur, and of course the glittering wings fluttering softly on his back. But it was him. Her dog, her constant companion when she fled her home, her best friend.

He wiggled and whined in her arms and attempted to lick every inch of her while maintaining physical connection. “I’ve missed you so much!” Her voice came out as a mixture between a whisper and a stuttering sob. When she awoke as a vampire, she mourned her life, her humanity, her family had long been mourned, but she still held hope she could be reunited with them. Hearing Duxi’s fate from her sisters, that nearly broke her. “Look at you,” she said as she pulled back to look at him. “Your wings are so pretty!”

Duxi bared and carefully licked at her knees. “And the white fur is lovely as well, very distinguished.”

“Woah, does that dog have wings?” Emmett exclaimed. “That’s so cool, can I pet it?”

At his words, Duxi growled, bearing his teeth at the hulking vampire. The man held his hands up in surrender and backed away. Duxi sat back down, his wings fluttering against Katya’s side as he wiggled to be as close to her as possible. She felt them as they brushed her clothes but it was less of a tactile sensation and more of an emotion settled deep in her bones. 

“Your dog,” Tanya stated. “The one that accompanied you when you worked as a mercenary?”

“He was a gift from my Papa,” Katya replied. “He went with me everywhere. After I… after I destroyed the fairy ring and was cursed, he came with me in my exile. He was with me every step of the way. When you told me he had died, I was… devastated isn’t a strong enough word to fully explain how I felt.” She turned her attention to the dog at her side and ran her fingers through his soft fur. “Isa told me she had found him when you were concerned with my turning, and took him to the water fae. They saved his life and he’s been in the fairy realm ever since.”

“Speaking of fairy, where did Bella, er, Isa go?” Eleazar asked, and the vampires realized sometime in the chaos when Duxi charged in, Isa had slipped out.

Katya stepped outside and found Isa speaking with Aisling a distance from the house close to the edge of the forest that sits on part of the Alaskan coven’s property. The elder fae was exactly as Katya remembered her, and she wondered again at the impact the passage of time had on the magical beings. “Aisling,” Katya bowed, remembering the manners instilled in her long ago.

“Katya,” the dark fae greeted. “It is good to see you again.”

“You as well, though I understand you have taken to visiting this realm more frequently than you had before.”

“Mortals no more believe in the concept of fairies than they do the idea of magic,” Aisling mused. “We are safer due to their ignorance, though their disregard of nature leaves something to be desired.” She turned her attention to her granddaughter, “Has she decided yet?”

“No, we haven’t had that discussion,” Isa replied.

“Decisions will have to be made,” Aisling cautioned. “And soon.” The dark fae assessed the other vampires that had made their way out of the house before disappearing into the woods, her image fading among the shadows.

“What decisions?” Katya asked, directing her attention at Isa. Duxi fluttered over and snuffled carefully at Katya’s legs and sat down next to Isa, resting his head against her hip.

Isa smiled softly and petted his head as she attempted to form the words that had stuck in her heart the more she observed Katya with her coven. “As mentioned,” she started. “I’m a fairy, and you’re a vampire, this makes any potential relationship between us tricky.” She turned her attention to the blonde. “Katya, I, neither Duxi nor I can stay in this world, not for long, not forever. It is fine for visits, but long term, it is… draining. We must return to the fairy realm.”

“You’ve said this, but what does that mean for us?” Katya asked. “Am I expected to stay here and wait without you, both of you until you can return?”

“You can stay here with your coven, that is certainly an option,” Isa nodded. “And Duxi and I can visit if that’s what you desire, or…”

“Or?”

“Or you can come with us,” she replied.

“I thought those inflicted with fae curses could not cross the boundaries into their lands?”

“They can’t, unless they decide to become fae themselves.”

Katya’s breath caught in her throat, “What?”

“Come with us,” Isa pleaded. “Become a fairy and let us truly give what is between us a chance to grow.”

“I can become a fairy,” Katya stated. “Just like that.”

“With help from the elder fae like Móraí and Lord Bren,” Isa confirmed. “Fey magic is all about change, growth. Believing that as a vampire these things are denied to you was part of the original fae curse, but that doesn’t make it true, not forever.”

“What about my sisters, my coven, my life here?”

“They are not tied to the fae realm like you are,” Aisling answered as she reappeared at the treeline followed by several more elder fae. “For animals, creatures such as Duxi, they can bond with fae transformation magic on their own due to their ties with nature, but humans, even afflicted by a fae curse such as vampires, they need to have a bond with the realm, such as the bond of soulmates.”

Could I do this? Katya thought. Could she become a fairy? Leave everything behind, her family, her coven, and leave with Isa and Duxi to live in the fairy realm? She dreamt of the possibility of living in that realm when she was a child, having adventures with the winter fairy, exploring the different areas where the fae dwelt. 

If she was being honest with herself, she wanted it. She wanted to be with Isa and Duxi, but could she? Could she leave her sisters behind? “My sisters-” She started, but Tanya’s voice interrupted her.

“You should go,” the strawberry blonde said, stepping up to the group.

“Tanya?”

“You should go,” the older vampire repeated. “Go with Bella, Isa.”

“Irina?” Katya turned to her other sister when she moved to stand next to their coven leader.

“Tanya is right, Kate,” Irina said. “This is your chance to rid yourself of the gift, curse that has plagued you for over a thousand years.” She glanced over at Isa before leaning closer to her sisters, “Besides, if my mate turned up, looking like that, and asked me to run away with her, you don’t think I wouldn’t ditch you two in a split second?”

Katya and Irina sniggered while Tanya rolled her eyes. “What I’m sure our sister means is that this is your opportunity to be with your mate, something all of us have dreamed of for years. And I’m assuming this won’t be a goodbye considering your mate seems fond of the weather in this part of the world.” The statement was partly a question directed at the winter fae standing a few feet away, and Isa nodded.

“Of course we wouldn’t stay away forever,” Isa replied. “I know I wasn’t honest with all of you about who I really was up front, but I enjoyed getting to know you while I was here. I wouldn’t want to keep Katya from you.”

Tanya nodded, “My only concern is the Volturi. We would never seek them out, but they-” She glanced in the Cullen coven’s direction, “Are not as circumspect. If Aro sees this conversation and finds anything out about… fairies…”

“We can handle them, but to put your minds at ease…” Aisling snapped her fingers and the seven members of the Cullen coven disappeared. “They will remember nothing of this time,” she said. “Nothing of the newborns, the tracker, nothing of Bella except for as a regular human they encountered during their time in Forks. And to the world at large, there have only ever been two sisters in the Alaskan coven. Katya will be safe, protected in your memories that none will be able to see.”

“It’ll be so nice not to have to deal with them for a while,” Irina groaned. “Could you implant the thought for them to move to Siberia? Permanently?”

“I will take the request into consideration.”

Eleazar and Carmen walked up and bid Katya and Isa farewell, and returned to the house to give the sisters a moment alone. 

Irina hummed and turned her attention back to Katya. “So you go, live in your fairyland, and come back to tell us all about it.”

Tanya reached out to touch Katya’s arm but stopped herself. “Yes, go, and make sure to bring us something when you come to visit.”

Katya felt a brush of cold air against her skin and she turned to see Isa swirling a fine mist around them. “You deserve to be able to hug your sisters,” she said. “Go on, it’s alright.”

The blonde hesitated for a moment before lunging at the other vampires. Her arms wrapped around them and for the first time, she did not feel the familiar pull of electricity surging to the surface. She was able to hug her sisters tightly to her for the first time without fear of hurting them. Tanya and Irina clung tightly to her for several moments before pushing away, wiping at translucent venom tears that fell from their eyes. “Now go on,” Tanya ordered. “Get out of here before we start thinking of your fairy name.”

“I was already considering Sparkletits,” Irina said. “Or Shockybell.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Katya groused. She squeezed their hands one last time before moving to stand next to Isa.

“Are you ready?” Isa asked. 

Katya took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded. Isa reached out and took both of her hands in hers. Light started swirling around them and Katya saw a fairy ring appear around them and the elders. “Don’t be afraid,” the winter fairy murmured, and Katya shook her head.

“I’m not,” she said. “How can I be? I’m with you.”

Isa grinned and Katya returned the smile. Maybe it wasn’t love just yet. Maybe it was the first blossom of spring, or the first crisp snowfall of winter. Maybe it was the first star of the evening and the creeping colors of sunrise. Maybe it was quiet evenings by a lake or hectic afternoons chasing chickens. Maybe it was afternoons of adventure and evenings spent in quiet companionship. Maybe it was hands held while trying something new or comfort offered in the throes of grief. Maybe it was the first touch after long separation, maybe it was a hug given when two souls reconnected. Maybe it was sacrifices and choices made. Maybe it was the light dancing in her eyes or the warmth pooling in her heart.

Maybe it was love afterall.