NOVEL FROG 104. Exiled
It was Monday morning and I woke to the sound of an alarm beeping. My two beautiful girlfriends were already beginning to stir on either side of me.
Kelly reached out and turned off the alarm, then both her and Keira got themselves up. One of them went into our en-suite bathroom, the other went to the family bathroom in the hall.
The bed was still nice and warm and I thought briefly about just going back to sleep. In the end I decided to get up and be useful. I dragged myself upright and climbed out of bed as well. I found my nightshirt and fuzzy slippers, then made my way downstairs.
First order of business of course was coffee. I got the machine started, then I got to work making breakfast. I figured if I timed it right, the twins would have a half hour to sit and eat before they had to head off to university.
Forty-five minutes later Kelly and Keira came down the stairs together, both dressed and ready to go. I had the kitchen table set, pancakes and bacon ready, and fresh coffee waiting for them.
"Thanks babe, you're awesome!" Kelly grinned as she gave me a kiss before she sat down.
Keira kissed me as well then took her seat, "Thanks for breakfast, cutie."
Some time last year they finally stopped making a point of dressing the same. They still did it sometimes but it was more the exception than the rule now. Kelly tended to dress a little more professionally, this morning she was in black slacks and a white blouse, and she had some low-heeled shoes on.
On the other hand, Keira was still a lot more casual. She was in blue skinny-jeans and a green t-shirt this morning, and a pair of running shoes.
They still kept their hair cut to the same length but like their clothes, their make-up was also different nowadays. Kelly usually did her make-up in a conservative but stylish look that made her look a little closer to her actual age. Keira tended to just wear some lipstick to add a splash of colour, but she rarely bothered with anything more than that.
I figured Kelly was either trying to look more professional in preparation for her career as a psychologist, or maybe she just wanted to dress for her actual age. Both she and Keira were twenty-seven now, and they'd be twenty-eight in three months.
Dressed like that though, Keira still looked twenty. So did Kelly if she didn't put in some effort to make herself appear older. In the two years since I'd made them both fully fae, they hadn't really aged at all. They'd both be in their fifties by the time they looked twenty-one.
Much like me, I still looked nineteen despite having my twenty-eighth birthday back at the start of February. It was almost six years since my changeling egg hatched and I'd barely changed. I figured it would take another decade or two before I looked twenty.
"What are you up to today?" Kelly asked me as the three of us ate.
I thought for a few moments, then replied "I'm going to spend some time in my workshop."
After my mom gave me a share of the ransom for Lord Aengus two years ago, I managed to buy up more land on either side of us here. What started as a comfy little six-acre plot was now about a hundred and twenty acres. We still only had an acre or so of lawn with the house in the middle, but there were trees growing on either side. In another couple years we'd be almost completely surrounded by forest.
In addition to the trees, I'd had a workshop built on one side, and we had a cottage added on the other. Neither would be visible from home once the trees had fully matured, but both were easy walking-distance. And both had access to the road of course.
The cottage was there to provide lodging for long-term guests. Like we had a couple fae visiting for about a year, giving all three of us lessons on swordplay.
And the workshop was for me, to continue my jewelry-making endeavours. I actually stuck with that and graduated a few months ago. I also planned to take a goldsmithing course, but decided to take a six-month break from school before I dove back in and started on a new program.
"Working on anything interesting?" Keira asked with a grin.
I smiled back, "Perhaps. But if I were, I'd probably be keeping it a secret."
She and Kelly both knew I was planning on giving them something fancy for their graduations. And their birthdays would be in July, so I had lots of excuses to make them jewelry.
All three of us were already wearing some of my creations. We all had matching rings, or at least, mostly-matching rings. The bands were an intricate weave of two wires of rose gold and one wire of white gold, that represented the three of us together. Kelly's and Keira's rings each had a single small purple gemstone set in them, to represent me. And my ring had two small red gems, representing the two of them.
The rings were enchanted of course, that was part of the reason I wanted to learn to make my own jewelry. I could build magic right into my creations.
The rings allowed us to stay connected with a simple form of telepathy, sort of like mental text-messages. It was nowhere near as comprehensive as the link between Kelly and Keira, but it meant the two of them could communicate with me without words and over great distances, albeit in a limited fashion.
The enchantment also allowed us to instantly locate each other with scrying spells, and we could even teleport safely to each other from as far away as ten or twelve leagues, which would be useful in emergencies.
Of course the fact that the rings looked like wedding or engagement rings wasn't lost on Keira, who still teased that the three of us were all married. She and Kelly both followed through on their plans to change their last names two years ago, which only added to peoples' confusion on the subject.
"What's the plan for tonight?" I asked. "Should I fix up something fancy for dinner?"
Kelly shook her head, "No need for you to cook tonight babe. Me and Keira are going to pick up sushi fusion on the way home. We've already got the fridge stocked with hard lemonade and wine."
I grinned, "I like this plan."
Today was the first of May, Beltane. And in lieu of going to Otherworld to celebrate with our clann, we'd just have a quiet little celebration here by ourselves.
I couldn't really tell if Kelly or Keira missed going over there. If they did, they were keeping the feelings hidden, and neither had said anything about it. I missed it though. I missed being able to relax and visit with my parents, and I missed the loud boisterous feasts in the great hall.
The last one we'd been able to attend was Lughnasadh, at the start of August last year. We were planning to head over for Samhain when Maeve's courier arrived at the waypoint in my ravine with the bad news.
Just over two years ago King Cathal invited me to his court. He wanted to meet me, and he wanted me to meet his son Prince Odhran. In fact he wanted me to marry his son and become part of the royal family.
Needless to say I declined the invitation and refused to marry any man.
I later found out that the following year several letters passed back and forth between the king and my mother. King Cathal was trying to negotiate with mom to arrange my marriage. Apparently the king believed my mom had some kind of control or sway over me, that she could persuade me to comply.
About the only thing that accomplished was the king gave up on the idea of making me marry his son, and started trying to get me to marry his daughter instead. Rather than forcing me to be a wife to Prince Odhran, he wanted to set me up with Princess Áine.
It all came to a head last year at my twenty-seventh birthday. Me and the twins were over there for Imbolc and to celebrate my birthday, when one of the king's knights showed up. There were no more requests, no more invitations. I was being ordered by direct royal command to attend the king's court.
And of course I refused. I wasn't rude or violent about it, I didn't hurt or threaten the guy. I just refused to let him haul me off somewhere. I told him I wasn't refusing to attend 'forever', just that it wasn't convenient right then. I was only halfway through my college course. And Kelly and Keira had a year and a half left in their university courses. None of us wanted to drop out or put all that on hold.
So the knight returned empty-handed, told the king about my refusal to obey his orders and all that stuff.
When the three of us returned to Otherworld last August for Lughnasadh we found out there were warrants for our arrest. Nobody at castle Brádaigh would turn us in, but it meant we had to be careful. We couldn't travel freely in Otherworld any longer.
Then the news just prior to Samhain was the end of our visits. The king had installed two knights at castle Brádaigh to wait for us. He knew my mother wouldn't turn us over, but she couldn't refuse to accommodate his representatives. So she had to put up with a pair of knights in her castle, and me and the twins were basically living in self-exile on Earth.
If any of the three of us returned to Otherworld we'd be arrested and hauled off to the royal court.
I'd visited my parents a handful of times since then, but they were very clandestine affairs. I could cross over to the western woods where I'd arrive unseen. And from there I could teleport directly into my parents' private chambers within the castle. It wasn't ideal, but at least it meant I could see them now and then.
For the most part though, I stayed away. As did the twins. We celebrated the festivals ourselves here at home, we carried on with our plans and our education, and I corresponded with my mom and dad via letter and the occasional secret visit.
I figured maybe after the twins were done with university the three of us would discuss heading back over and dealing with the problem. Once they'd graduated they'd have time, and even if it took a year or whatever if we could get it all sorted out that would be nice.
Kelly still had plans of opening a psychology practice and helping fae and part-fae here on Earth, but that didn't have to happen immediately after she graduated. I wasn't sure what Keira's plans were, but she was still working hard on her history program at uni.
And my long-term plans were still up in the air. I wanted to do another year of college but I could put that off. Now that I'd graduated I really didn't have much going on here or in Otherworld, so I was basically free to do what I wanted.
I didn't want to just disappear over there forever though. I still had friends here, people I wanted to keep in contact with.
We still saw Elise on a regular basis, I was still really good friends with her. In fact we had plans to have her come stay with us in a few weeks, for the May long weekend.
And I was still close with Susan too. She and Kaitlyn came and spent two weeks with us over the winter holidays, then at March break me and the twins went out to Cape Breton and spent some time with them. Elise was invited too, but she had spring break plans with some college friends and couldn't make it.
So I wasn't ready to just leave Earth completely. But if I had to go for a year or so to placate the king, I figured I could manage that.
With breakfast done, Kelly and Keira each gave me a kiss, then they grabbed their bags and headed out to the car. I waved and saw them off, then went back inside. I tidied up the kitchen and washed the dishes, got myself dressed, then made my way over to my little workshop.
In another three or four years it would be absolutely perfect. It looked like a little log-cabin and it'd be nestled in the woods. There was a winding trail that connected it back to our home, and the drive out to the country road twisted as well. So when the trees were mature, the workshop would seem to be completely surrounded by woods. There'd be a little bit of cleared lawn and garden around it, and of course there was a small area to park a couple cars.
The trees that were planted two years ago were doing pretty good. Some of the evergreens were already taller than me and getting quite bushy. Most of the conifers were still rather spindly, but they were all coming along.
I had to resist the urge to shower them all in another blast of growth magic. It would draw too much attention if I had a mature forest pop up in a single season. It was tempting though.
With a smile, I opened up the shop and settled down at my workbench. Within minutes I was focused on the matching brooches I was designing for the twins' graduation.
