114. Explained

The three of us emerged into another small glade, surrounded by dense forest. The sun had just come up here as well, though barely any sunlight was making it through the thick forest to the east of us so we were in the shadows.

Kelly and Keira were disoriented as usual, but I hadn't had that problem in years. I had my shield spell ready just in case, but the area was deserted. This forest was still off-limits, the only fae who frequented it at all were Feichin and his family.

While my girlfriends were recovering from the trip I used a scrying spell to check on my parents.

They were still in bed, asleep from the look of it. I let my focus expand slightly and verified that there was nobody else around in their private chambers within the castle. The three of us could teleport straight to my mother's sitting room, without anyone detecting us.

"Babe?" Kelly suggested once she recovered, "Maybe me and Keira should wait out here, while you go first? So you can warn Maeve that we're coming. Rather than all three of us dropping in unexpectedly at once."

Keira said, "That's not a bad idea, considering the situation. We'll be safe waiting here, and we can stay in touch with you through our rings."

I shook my head, "My parents are still in bed, so they're not going to notice us. I'll jump to the sitting room and you two follow, ok? We can wait in there for my mom to get up."

Both redheads nodded their agreement, and I focused on my destination as I cast the teleport spell. A few seconds later the twins were with me again. We left our backpacks, bows and quivers on the floor next to the sofa.

Kelly and Keira got comfortable on the sofa. I closed the door to the room first, so any servants who happened to come by wouldn't see us. Then I joined my girlfriends and the three of us relaxed as we waited. We didn't talk much as we waited, there wasn't really anything to discuss. I was actually a bit excited though, I hadn't seen my folks in almost six months.

It was about an hour later when the sitting room door was suddenly opened. My mother must have been going past and noticed someone had closed it.

She looked startled as she realized the three of us were here sitting quietly on the sofa. And I'm sure the twins were as surprised as I was as we all got a good look at her.

My mother was wearing a loose shapeless ankle-length dress kind of thing, which was probably comfortable but definitely not her usual style. The reason for the unusual outfit was obvious, her belly was huge.

"Tegan!" she gasped as a wide smile appeared on her face. "What are you doing here? And Kelly and Keira, what brings you all here?"

I got to my feet and went straight to her, to greet her with a hug. "Hi mom! Something's come up and we need to talk when you can spare us some time today."

The hug was a little awkward with her tummy in the way, but seeing her again brought my mood up higher than it had been in the past couple days.

I added, "You're looking good by the way. You look almost ready to burst though, when are you due?"

Mom held me for half a minute before she let go again. She blushed slightly, "Some time around Lughnasadh. Or perhaps right on Lughnasadh itself, if she has your sense of timing."

Kelly and Keira both got to their feet to greet my mother, though they were both still staring at her. Neither of them knew she was expecting.

My mom greeted them back with a smile, then she looked to me again and asked "What's happened? I see you've all brought full packs, and your weapons. You aren't here for a quick one-day visit then off to Earth again."

I sighed, "It's a long story. If you haven't eaten yet, maybe you should get breakfast first. Then we can discuss it."

She looked worried. "You're all still fugitives here, the warrants for the three of you are still in effect. I can keep you hidden in the castle for a day or two, but if anyone is scrying for you they'll likely find you."

"Good point," I frowned. "I should have enchanted some anti-scrying charms for us."

My mom asked, "Are you still training to be a jeweller? Perhaps you could craft something."

I grinned, "I actually graduated that course a couple months ago! And yes, I could craft something, if I had access to a workshop."

Mom finally said, "All right Tegan. I'm going to take breakfast with your father. I'll leave you three here for now, and be back to see you in a little while."

She turned and exited, and closed the door behind her.

I moved back to the sofa to sit down with my girlfriends again. As I did, they both turned and swatted me on the upper arms at the same time.

"Ow!" I complained. "What was that for?"

Kelly demanded quietly, "Why didn't you tell us Maeve was expecting!?"

"You must have known," Keira added. "You didn't act shocked when she came in."

I pouted as I rubbed my arms, "She told me the last time I was here, back before the winter solstice. And she asked me to keep it to myself, that's why I didn't say anything."

The twins seemed to accept that, they were both quiet for another minute or two. Then Keira commented with a grin, "Well that's pretty exciting. In another two months you'll have a little baby brother or sister."

"Sister," I replied. "Mom already told me it'll be a girl."

I added, "She needed a spare heir, since I keep getting into trouble. You know, pissing off royalty and risking my life and hanging out on a different planet and all that stuff. And she needed to guarantee someone will keep the family name going, since I won't share a bed with a man."

Kelly frowned, "I'm sure that's not why your parents decided to have another child, Tegan. Maybe after all the recent hardships and all the time they spent apart had something to do with it?"

"Maybe," I shrugged. "But she actually told me back in December it was because she needed a back-up heir, and she needed to guarantee another generation of Brádaighs since she couldn't rely on me to have kids."

Kelly looked a little shocked my mother would tell me that.

Keira grinned, "Maybe seeing the miracle of birth with your mom will inspire you. Who knows, maybe in another year or two you'll be ready to squeeze one out for the clann."

I made a face, "Not likely. Maybe ask me again in two or three centuries."

Keira teased me a bit more about the topic while Kelly stayed quiet. Eventually the conversation died out and I took a moment to cast some anti-scrying protection spells on the three of us. That would last a few hours but I'd have to keep renewing them as long as we were in the castle, just to be safe.

Eventually mom returned and took a seat in the chair across from us, while seneschal Owen followed her in with a tray of refreshments. There were some drinks, a plate of snacks and a bowl of fruit. He set it all down on the table then exited, closing the door after him.

"Help yourselves," mother said, gesturing towards the table.

I grabbed a glass of juice, but was more interested in getting down to business.

"The three of us were forced to return to Otherworld, because someone has set the human authorities after us. They've been given information that Sir Colm claimed he destroyed two and a half years ago, and they've been led to believe Kelly and Keira and I are involved in some sort of criminal enterprise. I'm positive the king's behind it. He's made it impossible for us to continue living on Earth."

My mom's expression grew dark as she I continued to talk.

"Obviously there's a lot of secrets involved in living on Earth. They don't know about fae or Otherworld, they don't know about magic. There's no way we could have convinced them we're innocent of the stuff they suspect, without revealing the truth."

I sighed and added, "The only other option would have been to use some significant magic against a lot of influential or important humans, to force them to stop the investigation and leave us alone. Which I'm sure you know is something I don't want to do. I bet the king knows it too, which is why he knew this ploy of his would probably work."

"So what do you intend to do?" mother asked. "You're fugitives here too Tegan. Unless you mean to surrender yourself to the king or his knights, you won't find a quiet peaceful life here either."

I shook my head, "I don't know. We're not going to just give up and surrender, not yet at least. What I'm hoping is we'll figure out some way out of this. Some way to fix things."

My mother sighed, "Tegan I know you've imposed some strict rules on yourself regarding what you do with your power, but you may have to consider breaking those rules. It's not safe for you here, and between confronting the king or confronting some humans, you know it will be infinitely easier for you to deal with the humans."

Her voice took on a warning tone as she continued, "If you go up against King Cathal, you could have all of Otherworld against you. And it would put me in the position of either following you into a war against the king and the rest of Otherworld, or I'd have to completely disown you. That means taking away your title and rank, leaving you with nothing."

"I know mother," I replied sadly. "That's why I wanted our visit to remain secret as long as possible, so nobody would know we're back here. I don't know yet how to deal with this, but I do want to deal with it. I can't live my whole life as a fugitive, neither can Kelly or Keira."

My mom was quiet for a few moments. She looked stressed, and I was about to add to that.

"There's something else," I said. "Six days ago, a fae assassin made an attempt on my life. He very nearly succeeded, too."

Mom's eyes widened and her face went pale. "What?! What happened?"

I told her the details of the attack last Monday, at least the parts of it I was conscious for. Then Kelly and Keira took over and finished the story. When the three of us were done, mother knew how close to death I'd been, and that the assassin was sent by Prince Odhran. I even had the prince's note in my backpack, and I pulled it out and handed it over.

My mother was upset, relieved, and livid. I could almost hear her teeth grinding as she glared at the parchment, before she set it aside.

She took a few deep breaths then sighed, "Unfortunately there's very little we can do about this. I will send a formal complaint to the king. I'm afraid the best we can hope is he'll have some stern words for his son. After all the king doesn't want you dead, he wants you under his roof and under his control."

I nodded, "We figured there wasn't much you could do. Still, a complaint is better than nothing."

Mom slowly got to her feet. She said "I've instructed seneschal Owen to prepare your room, it should be ready now. You'll have to teleport there and back, to stay out of sight. And it won't be safe as a long term solution. I'm afraid I just don't have any safe way to let you three stay here for any length of time."

Kelly asked, "It's not going to cause you trouble is it, having us here?"

"Not right away," mother replied. "The longer you're here though, the higher the chance you'll be found. And the longer you're here, the less believable it would be for me to claim I didn't realize you were hiding in my castle."

"Can you give us two days?" I asked. "We'll try and figure out our next move in the next forty-eight hours. If we have to, we can just stay on the move for a bit. Bounce back and forth between here and Earth."

Mother nodded, "Very well Tegan."

She continued on her way out of the sitting room, while me and the twins gathered up our things then teleported directly to our room.

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