Tales From the Fae – Part V: The Academy of Dana

Chapter 46 – Awakening

:: Miranda ::

When I awoke, I opened my eyes to a soft yellow orange light that didn’t seem to come from anyplace in particular. I could feel that someone was holding my hand, and when I turned my head, I saw Michelle sitting in a desk chair with her head and arms resting on the bed I was laying in. She looked asleep. Across the room, curled up in an armchair, was a faerie that I did not first recognise. When I did finally place her face, she smiled.

“It’s very nice to see you again, Miranda,” said Cailleach. “Feeling better?”

I took inventory. I was sore everywhere, and it felt a bit like somebody had turned me inside out and sprayed me raw with a power washer, but compared to what my somewhat soggy brain was remembering, it was heaven. I shivered at the thoughts that started to come back to me, and finally clamped off the flow of painful recollections altogether. The faerie nodded approvingly.

“Where am I,” I asked in a whisper, not quite sure how my throat felt, and very much wanting to let Michelle sleep.

“You are in the Healer’s wing of the Seelie Court. Don’t worry, you won’t wake her, as I have given her a minor sleeping charm to get some much needed rest. She hasn’t left your side since the incident.”

“Shaina…” I said a bit closer to normal volume.

“Yes. And to answer your next question, she hit you with a curse – a very very bad curse called Black Blood. It’s a curse used by the Sluagh. I will spare you the details, which I’m sure Miss Stuckey will want to lavish you with until you are ready to slap her, and just say that I was called because I have been successful in removing this curse in the past.”

“I take it you were successful this time as well, or am I still going to die?”

“Everyone dies, but no, you are not going to die today. The curse is gone, and although I was instrumental in its removal, you can thank your warrior guardian for ultimately providing what was needed to break you free of its hold. I would not have succeeded without her.”

“Really?” I said, and admired the slow even breathing of my friend.

“Indeed. She was brilliant when it was needed most.”

I took a really good look at the Unseelie faerie, comparing her in my mind to our first meeting. There was much more of her visible this time, and the brown patterns I noticed before on the visible parts her neck and arms were now completely unblocked from view. Elaborate tattoos covered most of her body, and although they were magnificent to behold, I doubted their presence was purely aesthetic. She was topless and had on only a thin skirt and some jewelry.

“I’m afraid my clothes were ruined in the process of freeing you… That black bile wouldn’t even come out with magic. Luckily, it wasn’t quite so resistant to cleaning in my hair. If my state of dress bothers you, I can cast an appropriate illusion…”

“Not at all,” I said truthfully. “You’re very beautiful.”

The faerie regarded me in a curious way and I wondered if perhaps I had said something wrong.

“I love your perspective on things, Miranda,” she commented. “Most humans would never be so bold. It’s refreshing.” She slowly unfolded herself from the chair, and after a stretch that left me even more jealous of the Fae woman’s body, she walked to the side of the bed. “Let’s have a look at you then. For now, I am the healer in charge, so no griping.”

As Cailleach pulled back my covers, I blushed realizing that I was completely naked. I was also relieved to see that I too had apparently been bathed. The blotchy patches on my body were bruises, not leftover bile.

She had me lay on my back and checked me from head to toe, touching sore spots, or asking me to bend a joint. I really started to see how much abuse my body had taken, as well as how much it had been rebuilt in the few hours since I had been in the arena.

“I didn’t know you were a healer,” I said as she had me raise my arms and checked my ribs one at a time.

“I have been many things in my days,” she replied without emotion. “I was even a pirate once.” She smiled down at me and I felt an odd tingling in my spine. It was the same kind of tingling that I got with Sheila-Kay, and I clamped down hard on my thoughts. Cailleach noticed and tilted her head. “Curious…” I saw her gaze drop to my breasts and realized that although I had managed to keep my brain in line, my body had already gone there.

“Sorry,” I squeaked in embarrassment. “I guess I’m not quite as bold as I thought…”

The faerie backed away a little, but not before I noticed her own nipples were present as well. “Not at all,” she replied warmly. “Though I am intrigued. Is it that you think I might resist your advances? I have had many human lovers you know.” She pulled the covers back over me and gently tucked them around my shoulders.

Now I really was surprised. “Did I think that out loud?”

She dropped back into the armchair and nodded. “I could tell you tried not to, but there are means of communication that require no conscious thought at all, especially with one you are in physical contact with.”

“Oh…”

“I would not refuse your touch, Miranda.” She said warmly. “It is an open invitation.”

There was a light knock on the door.

“Come,” said Cailleach in response.

Professor Brightly stepped into the room and smiled at me. “You look much improved.” He noticed the still sleeping Michelle and looked to Cailleach, who shrugged.

“She needed time to heal as well,” she said as means of an excuse.

Turning back to me, he placed a hand on my forehead, lightly tracing the mark that I knew still glowed there faintly. “I must apologize to you yet again, Miranda.” He sighed. “Though I knew Shaina’s plans concerning the arena, I was not aware of the curse she planned to use against you. It’s worth understanding, that no one was.”

“Black Blood is nearly impossible to trace through time,” mentioned the faerie from the chair. “It’s one of the reasons it is favored so by the Sluagh.”

“That may be,” continued the Headmaster, “but it is still my responsibility to protect my students… And it was a responsibility I was unable to provide for you. I am truly sorry.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that, but… wait… did you say you knew about what Shaina had planned for our match?”

He sighed. “As I have mentioned before, little occurs here in the academy that I am unaware of, especially when it concerns certain special students.”

I was confused, and also more than a little angry. “But… would you have just stood by and watched as they beat the crap out of us?”

“But they didn’t, Miranda.” He looked almost sad for me.

“That’s not the point!”

“Please try not to aggravate her, Marcus,” interjected Cailleach, obviously enjoying watching the man squirm.

“You were never in any danger from them,” he continued.

I was livid, and sat up in the bed, completely forgetting my own nakedness. “Would that be before or after Shaina blasted me with an untraceable Unseelie curse?!”

“Sluagh,” correct the faerie.

Both the Headmaster and I stared at the woman.

“Well, it is…” She settled a bit deeper into the chair.

“That was an unexpected outside event…”

“Which very nearly killed me!” I interrupted.

“Miranda, the whole point of the games is to prepare students for possible combat OUTSIDE the academy. When we saw what Grace and the others agreed to do at Shaina’s command, it presented us an opportunity to give you something that you would never have gotten had the games proceeded normally… Real danger.”

I said nothing.

“It was decided that we would let her plan continue as an actual match… complete with arbitrators, but so that you still believed it was unsupervised, thus the aspect of danger. You not only handled the situation perfectly, you won the match. May I be the first to congratulate you on your victory. Never in the history of this school has a first-year student won the arena tournament.”

I started counting in my head. I made it to eight…

“GET OUT!” I screamed.

The Professor looked like someone had slapped him in the face, which was actually what I really wanted to do, so the effect was acceptable. He seemed to start to say something else, but relented when he saw my eyes widen with rage. Accepting defeat, he quietly crossed the room and left.

“I’m going to relish this moment for a very long time…” said the faerie mostly to herself.

Still fuming, I considered my options. “Wake her up,” I demanded of Cailleach, and added, “please” when I saw her own eyes widen slightly. She waved her hand and nodded.

Gently, I reached out and placed my fingers on Michelle’s shoulder. The girl stirred groggily and then turned her head to face me. When she realized who was waking her, she nearly fell out of the desk chair.

“Ran!”

I smiled. “Hey.”

She reached out and pulled me into a hug before she realized I was still sore. “Uh… ow…”

“Oh, shit! I’m so sorry. Damn, are you okay?”

I turned a questioning gaze to Cailleach. When Michelle saw the Unseelie faerie, she seemed surprised, but not afraid. I did notice she blushed, however, at the state of her dress, and of mine for that matter.

“She is still recovering, but is, ‘okay’. The bruising will most likely fade within the hour.”

Michelle looked relieved. “You were a real mess when they brought you in,” she mentioned, and I could tell she was trying to hold back her emotions. I doubted Michelle had my ability to lock down memories.

“But I’m alright now, thanks I hear, to you.” I glanced briefly to the Fae woman and then back to my friend.

“Aww,” she exclaimed. “I did my part I suppose, but it was Cailleach that saved you, Miranda. And Clias… and Ananha. The three of them… they…” Tears started to run down her face and I could see that the memories were about to overwhelm her. I pulled her back into a looser hug and just held her for a few moments.

“Shh,” I consoled her. “You can tell me all about it later. For now, I have other more pressing news.” I released her from my embrace, but held on to her hand. The warm touch was very comforting to us both it seemed.

“Uh, oh…” she stated. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“We’ve been duped again, Shell.” I then when on to explain what the Headmaster had done in the games, and specifically how he had known all along about Shaina’s plan.

“Son of a bitch! And he let us walk right into that?”

I nodded. “To be fair, he couldn’t have foreseen the curse that Shaina carried, but the rest… yes.”

“Damn. Well don’t I feel used.”

“Miranda, if I might interrupt…” said Cailleach. “While I thoroughly enjoyed the tongue lashing you gave Marcus Brightly, you might want to go a little easier on him.” At the faerie’s words, Michelle’s brows went up in surprise.

“Why?” I asked.

“The gift of time sight is a double-edged sword. There is a wondrous power in knowing the future, but with that power comes a curse. You can no longer look at the world with the same level of randomness. As a faerie, I have always known this, and can no longer remember what it was like living life one moment at a time. Not so, your Headmaster. He is comparatively young in the Fae, and I’m sure, is still adapting to a fairly rare human gift.”

I considered this. I also wondered if Cailleach knew of my own limited ability to see the future? If she did, she wasn’t letting on. Several things occurred to me all at once.

“Michelle,” I said, turning to my friend. “I need a favor. I need you to go to the others and let them know what’s happened.”

I could tell she did not want to leave my side just yet.

“Don’t worry. I think I’m in good hands, here.” I smiled at the faerie, who nodded at the compliment.

“Alright,” she answered reluctantly. “Any specific messages for anyone?”

This question caught me a little off guard. “Yes. Douglas is probably going nuts with worry. Set him at ease first. The others can wait a bit.”

She nodded.

“Make sure Petra knows the WHOLE story, including who came to my aid and how I got here. Make sure she knows that the curse was Sluagh, NOT simply Unseelie.”

“Gotcha. Any more?”

I took a deep breath. “The last is the most important. It’s just for Candice. I need you to give her a message word for word…”

“I don’t have your memory, so please make it a short one, okay?”

“It is. The message I need you to tell her is, ‘No more Brownie wine.’ Got it?”

She looked at me a little funny, but nodded. “Yup.”

“Alright. Go.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead and she squeezed my hand then was out the door. When I looked to Cailleach, she was grinning from ear to pointed ear.

“This is going to be very very interesting,” she said slowly as her cold, light blue eyes positively twinkled with the mischief that she knew was afoot. “I haven’t had so much fun since Chicago in 1871.”

I frowned. “Didn’t much of the city burn to the ground that year?”

She chuckled. “Why yes. Yes it did.”