The Foolhardies 7 An Indecent Proposal

"All right, this makes things simple. You bring Luca back and I'll go to the Fayne in his place," I said.

"It's not simple at all," Aurana's shoulders slumped. Her mask of passivity had fallen. "In fact, it's impossible."

"But, why?" I felt my calm shatter in the face of rising anger. "It's equivalent trade!"

"The Rule of Equivalent Trade doesn't work that way… A deal made cannot be unmade!" she explained, the frustration clear in her tone.

"I'm talking about a new trade," I countered.

"A done deal cannot be overridden by another one either," she fired back.

Aurana's own calm evaporated. She was all fire now, and deep in the recesses of my hormonal brain, I found aggressive Aurana to be kind of hot. This unnecessary mental admission allowed me to calm down long enough for an idea to pop into my head.

"What if we didn't use your rule?" I asked.

Her eyes narrowed. "Then how could we guarantee that neither of us would betray each other?"

"We just do. We trust each other. It would be a real partnership. One with no magical strings attached," I offered.

There was another pause. Aurana seemed deep in thought, no doubt weighing the options in her mind. Her eventual response was, "What do you have in mind?"

"That depends on why you wanted me? Because I assume you did. You wouldn't have gone through the trouble of setting up last night, otherwise," I deduced.

"Need I remind you that it was wasted effort on my part," she rolled her eyes. "Things would be much simpler if you just chose to help your mother."

She was right. Things would be simpler that way. However, there were a lot of people trying to help mom, but no one was there for Luca—no one except me.

"Luca needs me more," I said, flatly. "So… why do you want me?"

"Well… I want you to use your big brain to help my clan," she admitted.

Aurana's explanation was brief but it did provide me with much-needed insight into the situation of the Fayne. After the last fairy king died five hundred years ago without a successor, the twenty-two fairy clans who served under him went to war with each other for the right to become the next monarch. As one of the weaker clans, Aurana's Trickster Pavillion was in danger of being conquered or annihilated by their bigger rivals.

"I believe you possess the potential to help us become the victors in this war," she confessed.

That was really high praise I wasn't sure I deserved. Yeah, I was considered smart for my age, but I didn't think I was smart enough to win a war in another world. I admitted this to her.

"Because we live such long lives, fairies have become rigid in our thinking. We don't adapt quickly enough to changing circumstance," Aurana explained. "You don't share this… weakness. Your mind is supple and open to trying things most people wouldn't to get what you want."

She gestured to the circle of salt between us.

"This out-of-the-box thinking is something my clan desperately needs to become stronger."

"I'm sorry," I raised a hand, feeling bewildered. "Why do you have such a high regard for me?"

"Because I've been watching you this past year, and I saw more potential in you than your brother."

Aurana admitted that her clan had been monitoring Luca to ensure he grew up healthy and strong. Her discovering my talents was just a happy coincidence.

"Luca's growth satisfied the elders. They believed he would make a good soldier. I argued that your intellect would be far more useful to us, but my opinion was disregarded," she said.

My eyes narrowed at the thought of my little brother risking his life in some fantasy world. He was fourteen. He shouldn't have to be anyone's soldier. Being the big brother that I was, I told Aurana how wrong it was that they forced him into such a life.

"I don't expect your sympathy, Dean, but my people are dying, and unless the war ends, more of your people will die too," she said.

I sighed. I knew there was no point arguing about this. Her beliefs and mine were just too different, our worlds too alien from each other. So, instead of whining about the unfairness of it all, I asked her how this would help us both get what we wanted.

"I don't have the power to break Luca's slave mark but my older brother, Auren, is the current clan patriarch… he might… if he were to become the next fairy king," Aurana suggested.

"Equivalent trade… right," I agreed. "And he needs to be king to do this?"

"Slave marks are powerful old magic. Only a fairy wish could break it, and only the monarch can grant those," she explained.

"So if I helped him get the throne…" I began.

"Then granting you a wish would be an appropriate reward," she finished.

Aurana raised a finger to my eye level.

"However, you need to be the one most responsible for our victory. This will ensure no one in the clan will object to your wish."

"Become the hero, huh?"

"As I said, you're a smart guy, Dean. You catch on quickly."

Aurana and I were staring into each other's eyes, our smiles wide and mischievous, and it was only then that I noticed how she was an inch and a half taller than me. This slightly depressing thought nearly dampened my excitement at the plan we cooked up.

I stepped forward and over the line of salt that protected me from her fairy powers. This was my gesture of trust as well as my way of showing her my resolve.

"All right, Aurana, I'll fight in your war, and I'll do whatever it takes to help you win it," I said with as much conviction as I could muster.

"Well, if you're willing to do that much," Aurana stooped down on the grass and picked up my mother's necklace. It was already around her neck when she got back up. "I have to respond appropriately."

She raised her hand and then pulled out the object she'd hidden somewhere behind her.

It was a sword hilt made of sturdy redwood. It had a grip that was seven inches long that ended in the carved pommel of a sharp bird's beak. The wooden cross-guard on the grip's other side was of two falcon heads at each end.

Aurana tightened her grip on the handle, and a second later, shadows sprang out of the hilt and hardened into a three-foot-long single-edged blade. Wispy black vapor leaked out of its charred edge.

This was my very first encounter with a shadowblade—and to fairy magic—so I believe my heart jumping into my throat was an appropriate response.

In hindsight, I really shouldn't have worried as Aurana obviously didn't mean to turn her weapon on me. Instead, she used it to chop off her hair. In one graceful swipe of the blade, she cut off her golden locks to chin length.

"Whowhoa!" both my eyebrows rose in surprise. "What are you doing?"

The golden necklace and its locket dangling from Aurana's neck were more prominent now that her golden locks had fallen away.

"You aren't the only one who needs to show their resolve," she answered.

As she loosened her grip on her sword hilt, the shadows that formed her blade lost their hardened form and slinked back into the sword hilt from where they came.

"Cool," I said, appreciatively.

Aurana grabbed a few strands of her golden locks and weaved them together into a bracelet. Once she completed it, she pulled my left hand toward her and wrapped her do-it-yourself bracelet around my wrist.

"I give you a piece of me as the proof of our bond," she said. "Do you accept?"

"Yes," I answered without hesitation.

She smiled that gorgeous smile of hers. Once more I felt captivated by her otherworldly beauty.

"And I accept your gift," she placed a hand on my mother's locket, "as proof that you have become a visere of the Trickster Pavilion."

Immediately after she said this, both the necklace and bracelet began to glow a soft golden light that disappeared as quickly as it came.

"What is a visere?" I asked.

"It's the term we give to humans of Mudgard who frequently visit the Fayne," she answered.

"Mudgard?" My forehead creased. "Your name for my world is Mudgard?"

"You humans used to build your homes with mud, right?" she reminded me, playfully.

Before I could respond to her jab at ancient man, Aurana took my hand in hers, and with our fingers intertwined, she led me to the very center of the Elfwood Circle Stones. That spot where I stood when I heard Luca's voice in the wind.

She stepped in front of me. Our eyes met.

"Oh, wait," Aurana placed the sword hilt into my free hand. "You can have my falchion. I'm not much of a warrior… And don't call me Aurana anymore. From now on, I'm just Aura."

"Why the name change?" I asked this while I tightened the grip on the falchion's hilt and watched the blade reform itself.

"Aurana Trickhaven cannot fight alongside you, but a regular elf maiden named Aura certainly can," she explained.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You're not planning to just watch from the sidelines?"

"I meant what I said, Dean," she pursed her lips. "You and I are partners now."

I sheathed the shadowblade and offered the falchion's sword hilt back to her.

"Then you'll need this," I said.

She shook her head. "I don't need it. I've got other tricks."

"What kind of tricks?" I asked.

"You'll see soon enough," she answered.

I tucked the falchion's sword hilt into my belt temporarily. I would look for something to sheath it in once things calmed down.

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As my eyes met hers once again, the female elf who was now Aura asked me if I was ready. I responded with a nod because I couldn't speak. It was a big moment and there was a lump in my throat.

"Don't read anything into this, okay?" she said right before she kissed my forehead.

This would have been the perfect rom-com moment if I wasn't suddenly lifted off my feet immediately after her lips touched my skin. It was like a great gust of wind had sprung from under me, and in the next breath, I was propelled into the sky with my wild, panicked scream dying in my throat.

Chapter end