128. Exposited

It was probably close to midnight when I returned to Otherworld, in the small glade in the western forest.

I was struggling under the weight of the heavy duffel bag over my left shoulder, and I had a large insulated bag hanging off my right shoulder. It wasn't that heavy, but together the two bags were bulky and I was a small girl. I was also a bit of a weakling. To top it off my right leg was in pain from trying to carry too much.

Rather than take a break and put the bags down I focused on my girlfriends and cast the teleport spell.

A moment later I was in our room in the castle.

Kelly and Keira were already in bed, but both were startled awake when I set the heavy duffel bag down on the floor with a thump, accompanied by the clinking noises of the bottles inside. I set the large insulated bag down on the little table, and finally slumped into one of the chairs with a heavy sigh.

"Sorry," I apologized as I started massaging my thigh. "That stuff's heavy."

"What is all that?" Kelly asked.

Keira added, "And did you just cross over now? Sunset was hours ago."

"I had a bit of a busy day but got an idea and it took a little extra time to take care of it."

I got back to my feet and moved to the duffel, then opened it and tilted it so they could see inside.

With a grin I announced, "I stopped by the house and grabbed all the hard lemonade we had in the fridge. I also picked up a couple bottles of wine for you Keira."

My smile faded as I added, "Power was off so everything else in the fridge and freezer was spoiled. I threw it all out, but we'll have to deal with that when we're done here."

Kelly got out of bed and pulled out a bottle of hard lemonade. She twisted off the top and took a sip. "Not bad. Too bad they're not chilled."

I grinned again. It was one of the easier spells I knew, almost like a parlour trick really, but a moment later her drink was perfectly chilled. So were the rest of the bottles. I pulled one out for myself and offered Keira one as well.

Soon the three of us were sitting at our little table, sipping vodka lemonade in the dark. The twins were both naked, I was still dressed for now.

"How did it go with Sue and Kaitlyn?" Kelly asked. "And did you have time to talk to Elise? Actually how did you visit both out east and our place and still get back here tonight? I thought you wouldn't be back in Otherworld till dawn?"

Keira asked, "And what's in the other bag?"

"Sue and Kaitlyn are ok. More on that later because it'll be a discussion, believe me. Elise was out east too. Bit of luck there but she just flew out yesterday for a week-long visit, since she didn't get to see Susan at March break."

I continued, "At dusk I left Cape Breton and jumped to our property in Ontario, which put me an hour before sunset again. So I had time to check the property and load up on the booze. Then when dusk came, I jumped all the way out to Vancouver."

I nodded at the insulated bag, "That's full of the best take-away sushi I could find in downtown Vancouver. Tomorrow we're going to introduce our sept to the joys of sushi and hard lemonade. Anyways, when the sunset caught up to me out west I crossed back over here."

My girlfriends were both staring at me, and Keira commented "I never thought about using time-zones like that. We could pop out to Vancouver for a few hours then jump back home again. Like we could go out there for dinner or whatever."

"I guess?" I shrugged. "Maybe if we were on speaking terms with Kelsey it'd be worth it, or if we had other friends out there. Too bad Sue and Kaitlyn went east, that makes the time-zones work against us."

We were all quiet for a bit as we enjoyed our drinks, then Kelly asked "Ok so what did Susan and Elise have to say? I take it they're both all right?"

I nodded, "Those same two detectives dropped in at Sue's place three weeks ago and interviewed her and Kaitlyn. And they hauled Elise into the station and talked to her. But nothing's come out of it, they haven't bothered anyone since then. I scried for MacRae and he was at home in the city. I assume the investigation is on hold right now, since we dropped off the face of the Earth and they can't access our property."

"That's not so bad," Kelly said. "I mean, we figured they'd talk to your cousin and to Sue. I'm glad they aren't making life difficult for anyone."

I agreed, then added with a smirk "I used my bank-card a few times in Vancouver. It still worked so they haven't frozen our accounts. And it'll probably make the two detectives rush out west to follow up on that lead. I figured it would give them something to do, so they didn't feel like I'd forgotten about them."

The twins both rolled their eyes, then Keira asked, "You said there was something we'd have a discussion about. I assume our granddad's to blame again? More magic at the high-school?"

I sighed and had a gulp of my drink then warned them, "Brace yourselves for this one."

Kelly and Keira exchanged a glance, then both frowned as they looked at me.

"Kaitlyn figured out how to break part of the spell I put on her two and a half years ago. She's made herself fully fae again."

Both twins' eyes went wide in surprise. I turned my sight on in time to see their link buzzing with communication.

"What?!" Kelly gasped.

"How?!" Keira demanded.

I grimaced, "I know you're both probably freaking out but try not to get too upset alright? I freaked out too when I found out, but Susan's adamant that Kaitlyn isn't dangerous. She did it two weeks ago at the full moon. Since then she's still going to school every day. She's doing her homework, and studying for her exams. She helps Sue with the chores around the house. And she's planning to attend university in September. She's still a teenage girl. She's just fae instead of human."

"Kaitlyn said she did it so she can protect Susan and Claire and herself. She didn't reverse anything else. She's still a small young girl. She didn't reverse any of the stuff you did Keira. She told me she doesn't want to be a man again, and she told me she never wants to be the sort of monster she used to be. So she's fae, she has access to magic, but she's not using it for anything."

I sighed and concluded, "As near as I can tell, human or fae she's still doing her best to be a good girl, at least according to what Susan says is good. And she's keeping out of trouble. I think she was being honest when she said she just wanted to be in a position to keep herself and Sue and Claire safe."

The twins were quiet for another minute or two as they stared at me, but their link was still buzzing.

Finally Kelly asked "Babe? How the hell did she manage to make herself fae? I mean, you're the most powerful mage alive, I understand how you can break magic and do the impossible. But she was just a normal human girl when she reversed your spell."

That left me quiet for a few seconds, before I finally admitted "I don't actually know the details. I didn't ask her for the exact mechanics of it? She said she figured out my spell, what I did to change her in the first place. Then she figured out how to undo it, but she only reversed the part that made her human. She wanted to stay a girl, she said she didn't want to change how she looked. She said that's who she is now."

They looked at each other again, then Keira stated "When we're done everything here, me and Kelly are going out east to see her for ourselves. We're going to have some words with her and make sure there's nothing going on that you've missed or overlooked."

Kelly nodded, "Sorry babe but Keira's right. You saw her in May and you had no idea she was working on this. If she managed to do this without you noticing what was going on, who knows what else she's been up to that you haven't caught on to yet."

I sighed but nodded, "Ok, yeah that's a good point."

I added, "Just don't say anything to Susan about not trusting the kid, and definitely don't say anything about separating them or doing anything harmful to Kaitlyn. I said the wrong thing once or twice and nearly got myself tossed out of the house."

The twins exchanged another glance, and Keira asked "You're sure granddad hasn't been up to her old mind-control tricks? She could have been manipulating Sue over the past few months, you know?"

"I actually checked that at dinner," I replied. "As discreetly as possible of course, but I did check to make sure Sue wasn't under any kind of control spell. There was nothing. She honestly and genuinely likes the kid, and she considers Kaitlyn to be family now. They think of each other as sisters, and they're both highly protective of each other."

My girlfriends both frowned. Like I expected, neither of them were happy with this turn of events. There wasn't anything more we could do about it at the moment, but I knew they'd follow through as soon as we got back to Earth. They'd be out there confronting Kaitlyn and getting to the bottom of the whole thing.

"Oh," I added, "One more thing I should warn you about. Kaitlyn's appearance changed slightly when she made herself fae again. Her eyes changed colour, they look exactly like yours now. Emerald green instead of blue-green. She actually looks almost identical to you two now, apart from looking a few years younger and a lot smaller."

Neither Kelly or Keira were very happy to hear that.

Keira muttered, "If she tries changing her last name to Vale I'm going to kill her."

I grimaced, "She seems pretty happy to be a Connolly. Though I wouldn't be surprised if she started using Shaw as a surname. She and Susan really are that close."

Kelly sighed and drained the last of her lemonade, "Ok. We're really unhappy and uncomfortable knowing Kaitlyn is fae again, and confronting her is going to be pretty high on our to-do list after we get back to Earth. But there's nothing we can do about it now, so we may as well get back into bed and try to get some sleep."

"Yeah," Keira sighed as well. She finished her drink too, then smiled "I can't wait to see how Merryweather handles hard lemonade. I don't think they've invented carbonated drinks over here, it might be pretty funny watching all of them try it."

I grinned slightly, "I hope they like it. If the other fae don't like it, that's ok. More for us. But I hope Merryweather likes it, since they like sweet drinks."

I added, "As for sushi, I mostly got that for us. I know most fae are wary of human food, so if nobody else wants to try it that's fine. I also got some sweet things for Merryweather, so they wouldn't be left out when I offer the Earth food to everyone else."

Kelly smiled, "That's very thoughtful of you babe. But enough talk, it's time for bed."

"Right," I smiled back. I quickly drank back the last of my lemonade then got myself undressed, and let my girlfriends lead me into our huge comfy bed.

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