69. Disconcerted

"I'm sure you're wondering why I am here m'lady," Colm stated. "King Cathal has sent me as his representative. As you may imagine, he was unhappy to learn of the attempted assassination of a fae noblewoman on Earth. He was also disturbed by the news coming from counties Cathasaigh and Donnghaile."

I watched as Maeve's expression flicked between annoyance and unease, before she once again got control of her emotions.

"And what is your business with me, sir Colm?" she asked him. "Do you bring word for me from the king? Or have you royal orders for me to obey?"

Colm shook his head, "No m'lady. I do however have a letter for you to read."

He slipped a hand into his jacket and pulled out a carefully folded sheet of parchment.

I watched as my fae-mom accepted it. Her expression once again flickered between several emotions as she read the document. Of course I couldn't see what was written, but I could see a large fancy seal at the bottom of the sheet.

While Maeve was staring at the letter Colm stated, "As you can see m'lady, I am the king's representative in this matter. I am his ears and his eyes. And to some extent, I speak for him."

My mother finally folded the letter up and handed it back to the knight. "Very well sir Colm. I am at your disposal."

That surprised me. As far as I could tell the guy was a glorified fae cop, but apparently Maeve was now answering to him. Which meant I had to answer to him, along with Kelly and Keira.

Colm tucked the letter away again and asked, "What news have you, Lady Maeve? What can you tell me about the current state of affairs here in County Cathasaigh?"

I watched my fae-mom hesitate, then she started talking. She told him what me and Kelly and Keira suspected, the stuff we talked about back when the three of us first got here. And she told him the same stuff she told me at Samhain, about captain Eamon and her fears and suspicions.

Colm listened quietly to all of this. When Maeve was finally finished he gave her a slightly apologetic look and asked, "If I may be so bold m'lady, when was the last time you toured your castles along the southern border?"

My mother appeared somewhat uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassed. She looked down at the table, then replied quietly "I have not yet found the time, sir Colm. Not since taking my mother's place as countess. I do receive regular reports of course, if anything were amiss I would be informed."

"In my defence," she added, "I have been countess of Cathasaigh less than three decades. And of that, nearly twenty-three years were spent searching for my missing child, and dealing with the loss of my husband."

Colm nodded quietly.

After a few moments, Maeve admitted "I've only visited the southern border once, in the company of my mother. I was still a child at the time, it was just after my fiftieth birthday."

"Do you know when your mother last toured the area?" Colm asked.

My fae-mom frowned as she thought about it. Finally she sighed, "It was before Connor and I were wed. Thirteen decades ago at least, perhaps more."

The knight sighed slightly, then he looked at Maeve with another sympathetic expression. "Forgive the delicate question m'lady but your mother Lady Aisling, she passed away rather young did she not?"

That caught my attention as Maeve barely spoke of her own mother, at least with me. I'd heard much more about Taralynn than my fae grand-mum.

"Yes," she sighed. "She was barely past her ninth century. She was taken ill, and passed before any of our healers could identify the sickness."

Colm nodded, "And you are still in your fourth century. A very young age to take control of a county as large and important as Cathasaigh."

After a moment he observed, "It has been a tumultuous time for you, m'lady. Within a few short years you lost your mother, had a child, then lost both child and husband. And at long last you recovered both, only to have your husband once again taken from you. And now you face unrest within your county, and the possibility of war with one neighbour, while another may have designs on your land."

Maeve frowned. "What is it you're saying, sir Colm?" She sounded defensive, and I didn't blame her.

He shook his head "Do not be alarmed, Lady Maeve. The king is not unsympathetic. He knew Lady Aisling well. He also knew Lady Taralynn. King Cathal's father was the one who granted Lady Taralynn the rank and position of Countess of Cathasaigh. Understand that the King is in no hurry to see the Brádaighs deposed. He's also troubled by the personal challenges you have endured over the past three decades."

Colm added, "I am not here to judge you or see you replaced, Lady Maeve. I'm here to help you."

"Thank you sir Colm," my fae-mom seemed to relax slightly. "I'm pleased to hear that."

The knight stated, "Our first order of business must be to ensure the border is secure. We must visit castle Griofa and verify its status. If your commander there has betrayed you, he must be removed. If you would assign a representative to accompany me, I will go to Griofa myself."

Maeve hesitated for a moment as she considered his words. Then she turned towards me and the twins.

"Tegan, Kelly, Keira. You will accompany sir Colm to castle Griofa. I will assign lieutenant Gaelen to escort you, along with a contingent of soldiers. And servants and bearers of course."

I felt my eyes widening and I'm sure Kelly and Keira were just as surprised. The two of them hadn't even been part of the clann for a full week and they were already being ordered to take care of important Brádaigh business.

Before I could ask how far away it was, the knight spoke up again.

"M'lady, I believe time is of the essence. We cannot afford the weeks it will take a large column to travel there and back by horse. We need to move faster."

Colm glanced at me and added, "I understand that Lady Tegan is skilled with magic. I believe she could arrange for herself, her companions and I to reach Griofa much more quickly. If the four of us travel light we could be there in days."

Now my mother looked stressed and anxious. "Sir Colm you are asking me to send my twenty-five year old child into a potential war zone, with but a single knight as her only protection."

He nodded slightly, "I understand your concern m'lady, but this is imperative."

Maeve took a deep breath, then let out a deep sigh. She got to her feet and stated, "I must consider your request. For now, you are my guest. I will have a servant prepare a room for you."

With that, she picked up the letters she'd received, then turned and left the room.

I glanced at Kelly and Keira again, then looked at Colm. "Just how far away is this castle?"

"I believe it is some sixty or seventy leagues away," he replied.

Kelly got up and went to one of the bookcases, and returned with that large geographical tome.

She set it down on the table for me and Keira to see, and she flipped through the pages till finding the map she was looking for. Rather than the whole of the Southern Marches, this time we were looking at a map of Cathasaigh alone. It had much more detail on it, including castles, keeps, and other strongholds.

"Here's us, at castle Brádaigh," Kelly indicated. The spot was roughly in the centre of the county in terms of east and west, and about two-thirds the way up from north to south.

Colm leaned over and pointed to the south-west corner, "That is castle Griofa."

I stared at the map for a few moments then looked up at the knight, "I've never been anywhere near that part of the county before, sir Colm. I certainly can't teleport us there. How do you think I'm going to get us all the way to the south-west corner of the county?"

He had a sip of wine then smiled, "There are other means of magical travel, m'lady. How do you think I got here from the royal palace so soon? That's a journey that would take five weeks if I'd come by horse."

After a moment he added, "I understand you can cross worlds Lady Tegan. If you can do that, you can get us to Griofa."

I had a hundred more questions to ask but before I could say anything, seneschal Owen arrived at the door and bowed. "Sir Colm, I am to escort you to your chambers."

Colm drained his wine then stood. He gave the three of us a slight bow, "Lady Tegan, miss Kelly, miss Keira." Then he turned and left, following Owen.

I sighed and looked at my girlfriend, "You'd better keep reading that book on magical defence Kelly." Then I looked at her sister, "And keep studying the combat spells, Keira."

"I'm Kelly, she's Keira." Kelly replied. "And yes, we'll both keep studying. It sounds like we might be needing this stuff sooner rather than later."

I looked back and forth between them both, then sighed again, "Sorry Kelly, sorry Keira. I think the stress is starting to get to me."

"It's ok babe," Kelly replied. "We get it."

After a moment she added, "C'mon, let's go to our room."

The twins picked up their books, and before we left the study I quickly found and grabbed the book on fast-travel spells. I needed to find out what sort of magic Colm was referring to.

By the time we reached our room I'd lost track again of which twin was which. They both steered me to the bed and we all sat down on the edge of it together.

One of them slipped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug, then the other's arm went around my waist as she leaned closer against me as well.

"You're really tense babe." That came from the one on my left, who had her arm around my shoulders. I figured that was Kelly, since Keira didn't normally call me that. I wasn't going to make any assumptions though, I'd been wrong too many times lately.

I sighed, "Why can't I tell you apart anymore? I hate guessing wrong and getting you both upset. I hate not knowing who's who."

"Sorry Tegan," the one on my right said. "We've been having a lot of fun with it. It kind of feels like when we were little kids, when nobody could tell us apart, not even our mom."

The one on the left answered my question, "There used to be some really subtle differences between us. The freckles on our cheeks were slightly different before. Probably because I got more sun or something? It was almost imperceptible but I think that's how people could tell, once they got to know us."

"Our mannerisms helped too of course," the one on the right added. "If we act a little more different, then its easier to tell us apart."

I looked back and forth between them, "So those subtle differences are gone? My spell did that?"

"Yeah," the one on the right nodded. "It took me and Kelly a day to realize it ourselves, but we're absolutely identical now. We can't find a single thing that's different."

Now I finally knew for sure which was which.

"Believe us, we've checked." Kelly added.

"Except the scar," I sighed. "You got shot, Keira didn't."

Kelly said quietly, "That's not going to help, babe."

To my surprise they both started unbuttoning their blouses, then opened them. I looked back and forth between them again. Kelly still had a mark on her right chest, visible just above her bra. It had faded enough that it didn't even look like a scar anymore, it was more like a large pale freckle.

And Keira had an identical large pale freckle on her chest too.

I stared for a few seconds then frowned, "That's not possible. Is it? How is that possible?"

As they both buttoned up their tops again, Keira replied "We asked Muireann if there was any weird fae twin stuff we should know about?"

Kelly continued, "She said fae don't have twins. In all of the Brádaigh clann history, there's never been any twins. This castle has stood about fourteen centuries, and there's never been a set of twins born here."

"So it's kind of uncharted territory," Keira concluded.

By now I had a cold, heavy feeling in my gut. I'd never even thought to check or ask about fae twins. I just assumed it was a normal thing, like it was with humans. My mind reeled as this news sank in. They were only twins because of their human heritage. My spell removed their human side but kept them identical. It actually made them even more identical, and now I worried what else it may have done, since apparently fae twins didn't happen naturally.

"Babe, it's ok." Kelly stated as she pulled me into a hug and gave me a kiss. I'm sure she saw how pale my face had gone. "Me and Keira are ok. Like we said, we've been having fun with it. We've been discovering new things about ourselves. It's nothing bad."

Keira's arm slipped around my waist again as she leaned against me too. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "Kelly's right. We're fine. It's been fun. Neither of us are upset with you for not knowing which of us is which. It's not your fault, and we've been going out of our way to make it harder."

I just sighed as they both held me close in between them. "I should have asked. I should have checked. I should have known. Maybe I shouldn't have done the spell on both of you at the same time..."

They both gave me a gentle squeeze at the same time, and Kelly whispered "Don't beat yourself up, there's nothing to be upset about."

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