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kajones_writingWillow almost nodded. The Prime Minister probably was going regret asking the question, but he’d already surprised her so she was even less sure what to expect when she told him why she was standing in his office. She could feel the door behind her and a part of her wanted to run away, because she was feeling overwhelmed again. For the first time ever she was stood in front of a human, who was looking straight back at her, and she had to tell him that the fae had invaded his country. Finally she ran a hand through her hair, gathered all her courage, and reminded herself of the speech she’d planned.
“I’ll be blunt.” Willow smiled, wondering when she’d been anything but blunt in the last few days. “My people were destroying the world we lived on by using all the magic and we had no choice but to leave. We had very little time to work anything out, because the decision makers were burying their heads in the sand, so it appeared that our only option was to travel to Earth. Earth has enough magic for my people to survive and we hope that the humans are magical enough to create more magic when we use it.”
There was a long silence. Willow tried to stay calm, it wasn’t as though there was anything the humans could do to force them back to their old world, but she didn’t want there to be a war. Humans could never win against the magic the fae used and then… She didn’t want to think about it. Even thinking about the possibility terrified her. Finally the Prime Minister nodded, tapping his fingers on the desk in a way that reminded her of her eldest brother.
“You’re seeking sanctuary on Earth?” he asked, but it wasn’t exactly a question.
“We are. I would have been in contact before, but…”
“Time was of the essence.”
“With every day that passed more people died and I did what I thought was best.” Willow shrugged. “Not everyone agrees with me, even now we’re here, but I felt our race would only survive if we travelled to Earth.”
“I’m not saying this is going to happen, but I what would the fae’s reaction be if we didn’t welcome you?”
“War, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Humans do have a form of magic, but it’s not the same as fae magic because it’s more…” Willow thought hard, trying to find the right word. “Passive. No human could gather the power together to create a fireball, for example, but if you put a wish out to the magic of Earth will do its best to fulfil it. It will take more time than fae magic and I don’t think any wish could get rid of the fae now.” She looked at the Prime Minister closely. “I doubt we’d do more than take over the UK, but the humans who survived the war would become nothing more than slaves.”
Another silence followed, longer than the previous one, before the Prime Minister nodded once more. “Thank you for being honest with me, Queen of the fae.”
“I don’t want war.” Willow smiled. “The fae are likely to stay in the places of magic, but having us here will change things. I’ve spoken to the fae who have a much better understanding of our magic than I do and having us live in the places of magic will cause them to grow. It’s possible that the places of magic will end up touching each other, so the humans will have less space.” She licked her lips. “There is also the possibility that some of the fae will leave the places of magic, to meet the race they now share a world with, and…” She sighed. “It’s likely that there will be children born of fae/human partnerships, some fae may choose to live with the humans, and we’re never going to be totally separate.”
The Prime Minister nodded. “I’m not certain exactly how this is going to work,” he said, tapping his fingers on the desk again, “but I’d rather not have war with the fae, so I have very few options.”
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at Willow and she was certain he saw more than most other humans would. “How old are you?”
“I turned twenty in the summer.”
“When would someone normally take on the mantle of being a Queen, or King, of the fae?”
Willow thought of her eldest brother, who’d been trained for the task, and her eldest sister, who wouldn’t have been viewed as nothing more than a scared child. “My father would have followed tradition. A fae monarch rules for around three hundred years, so my eldest brother would have been over three-hundred years old.”
“I take it he was one of the losses.”
“At this moment my father is my only surviving relative, but he’s in a coma he may never come out of.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The Prime Minister pulled a notebook towards him and started speaking as he searched his desk for something, “War is not an option, so I’ll play on the heartstrings of my people. Once they know what’s happened to your family and to the other fae there won’t be anyone asking for war. Laws are a different matter, but that’s something we can work out in a couple of days.” He smiled at her, a pen in his hand. “Do you have advisers?”
“Not really.” Willow sighed. “The decision makers, our elders, would have been my advisers, but I don’t trust most of them. So far I’ve found two people who view me as something more than a child and neither of them are much older than me.”
“Who are they?”
“One is an elder, but he’s in the same position as me. Older family members died, so he’s the youngest elder, and no one listens to him. Apart from me. The other I only met today. He’s a healer and I think he’d be happy to help me, as long as I don’t drag him away from his work too often.”
“That’s good to hear.” The Prime Minister scribbled down some notes. “I’ll be happy to help you with the human side of things, but I know we’re going to have one major problem.”
Willow nodded, holding back another sigh. “What’s that?”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
