Part three of Fractured Faerie Wings
Do not ask for a truth you are not ready for.
The scent of damp woodsmoke had been returned, handed back to the universe and exchanged for the scent of apple blossoms, the noise of the city exchanged for the buzzing of polinators. Here, she was not wet. She'd never seen it rain here. There was a bit of common sense that jarred her, spoke in a soft whisper that it had to rain here sometime. How else would the trees grow? Her hand rested upon the bark of one such tree, and she gazed up into its branches. The apples that hung on it were every stage of ripeness and the flowers in every moment of bloom. But where was He? And where was She?
She wasn't there, it seemed, but He was sitting beneath one of the trees, softly strumming a dulcimer. It didn't surprise her in the least that he was playing her instrument. She didn't wonder for a moment how it had gotten here. At home, it was broken and regularly lost tuning because of it. Here, it sounded like a miracle of sound. She supposed that had something to do with whose hands it rested in, whose knees it sat upon.
Truth can damn you, as surely as it can bless you. Are you ready for the sign?
As she approached, He set the instrument aside and gave her a smile. The Blonde Bard. He reached for her hands, drawing her down into the carpet of grass. Here, she did not have to worry that the apples would rot on the ground and draw stinging wasps. She allowed herself to be pulled into his embrace.
"Why am I here?" She could not find other words.
"I think you know."
"I came here."
"You came to me."
"... I came to you." It wasn't as hard to admit as the girl had intended. It was the truth, a soaring but terrifying truth. After almost six months of Him taking interest in her, she'd accepted and come to the deity's side.
"Oh, it's been longer than that. You've been mine for a very long time."
And one truth often brings others in its wake.
And so there was music, and there was love. It was as though music itself loved her, and the strings hummed in her blood long after the song of her screams faded from the sky above the orchard.
"I forgot to ask for my boon."
"My blessings are always yours, so long as you are Mine."
She awoke to the smell of a familiar room, the warmth of home. He was there, her beloved, his brown hair dampened by the rain. He appeared concerned, but perhaps not as much as she would have thought. They spoke of how he'd found her, unconscious in the rain, and brought her home. He fed her, and they spent the evening watching cartoons to try and force the serious nature of the situation to recede into the background.
At one point in the show, a character had a revelation about the nature of his own self. Acceptance. It pulled a thought from the girl. All you have to do is accept. And though she was not ready to embrace, she was ready to know, to accept. And the sign, some vague thing of unimportance to anyone else, followed in the animation of the show.
It was like being struck again, electricity pouring through weary veins. The sure knowledge that she was fae, was something other than human. But the knowledge was not embracing, and thus her power would not be hers yet. But. She knew. For now, that was enough. However, she found herself suddenly at a loss. She'd wanted to know, wanted this fact so much, that she had no idea what to do with herself now that she had it. She didn't even know which faction she belonged to.
All things in time. She would find the answers. They would find her, when she was ready. For now, it didn't matter. For the moment, all that mattered was the warmth of his embrace, the steady sound of rain outside, and the knowledge that she had just a bit more information than she'd had before.
Be ready. When you let go, you will truly be ready.