Chapter Text
Sookie snarled at the curl of hair that always fell over her face and shoved it away before her opponent could swing at her again. She dodged nimbly and struck out with her light, directing the blast squarely into the other’s chest. There was a grunt and a stumble and in that time, Sookie had launched herself to the side in a flanking maneuver and touched the point of her blade against their back. A chime sounded in the air. She smiled.
The pair danced away from each other, going back to their starting positions to begin anew. Bladework in combination with her light, her feet fast and balanced as a cat, the stubborn lock of hair falling over her face once more. She blew it away and blinked sweat from her eyes. Thrust, dodge, parry, duck, strike! This time her opponent’s blade was at her throat while hers was at their ribs. There were two chimes, one for each of them.
Again. And again. And again.
By the time the final chime sounded – the one that denoted the end of the bout – she was heaving for breath, had sustained a minor cut along her arm and had the grim satisfaction of drawing even with her instructor.
“You’re improving,” Claudine said with a smile. “Good.”
Sookie grinned and pulled out the tie of her long, messy ponytail so she could finally get the damn curl out of her way. She accepted the cup Claudine offered her and drank deeply, feeling the crisp water go down her throat and soothe every parched nerve. It tasted pure, like snowmelt. If she tried, she could probably trace it back to the glacier it had come from.
“When do you go back?” Claudine asked.
“Soon,” she replied. “Grandfather says the time is stretching.”
That isn’t the only reason, is it? Claudine thought at her. Sookie couldn’t ‘speak’ telepathically with everyone here, but it was useful with those she could. Especially now.
No, she thought back. But it looks better if the decision appears to be mine.
True enough.
“I could use a swim,” the fae said aloud. “Join me?”
“Just gimme a minute to put these up.” She brandished the blades they’d been dueling with and crossed the field to the store house.
Subjectively, Sookie had spent nearly a decade in this realm. It was one of several the fae used to keep themselves hidden, from other supes and each other. In that time, she had learned what it meant to be fae. How to harness her light, how to cloak her scent, to use her telepathy only when she chose. And in between all of that, she’d learned combat, both offensive and defensive, the history of her race and why they’d retreated from Earth, and enough of the language to get by.
She didn’t know how much time had passed for everyone else. It wasn’t supposed to be very long.
She did know that time had essentially stopped for her. She still looked 26, still felt it, too. At least physically. But she felt different in her mind. She had command of herself now. She had control and discipline. Maturity. She hadn’t considered herself a waitress from Bon Temps in a long time. Going ‘home’ was going to feel strange, more like starting over than returning. But she had to leave.
It wasn’t just the passage of time in her birth realm that had grown long enough to raise suspicions when she suddenly reappeared. Things were moving beyond her great-grandfather’s ability to stop them. Factions within the houses of the fae were splintered and turning hostile. She was half-caste, it was true. Well, more accurately, she was a quarterling. Among some of her kin on this side of the portal, that wasn’t enough.
Her spark made her an heir of Niall, a fully accepted member of the royal sky fae. Susanna Brigant. She still hadn’t gotten used to that. Plain old Sookie Stackhouse was good enough for her. And that human side made her an abomination in the eyes of others. One that should never have been allowed to live regardless of how deeply rooted her essential spark was, or the strength of her connection to it. She was in danger here. She was of bearing age and Niall no longer wished to risk her. She was going home by his decree.
She put away the blades and tried to gather up enough concentration to ‘port herself from here to the lake. But it didn’t happen. It was not a skill she was strong in, even rested. The best she managed was a sort of sidestep of a few feet. It was useful in combat, and even then just against a single opponent, but not much else. She shrugged and walked the distance, watching the horizon slope away from her to where it met the sky. Evenings here were a glorious riot of color. The sunset painted the sky in every hue of blue, gold and red. There was still something deeply satisfying in watching the sun go down without worry that things in the night were just waiting to come out.
Much of this realm was wide open meadows and seemingly distant mountains. One could reach that boundary of peaks, but it took focus. It was populated by few these days. There had been more when she’d first arrived with Niall all those years ago. Many had been here for decades according to their own internal clocks, resting in a place where time stood nearly still. It was considered a healing realm, where one might recuperate from whatever they needed to without putting too much of their life outside on hold. It had been perfect for Sookie to learn and grow into herself.
She admitted that she also had used her time to recover from all she’d been through back on Earth. It had been years since she felt any pangs about Bill. Or Eric. The scar on her belly from the stake had long since healed and disappeared from her skin, just like the tears in her neck. Every mark and claim was gone. The unfinished bond with Eric had dissolved like a sugar cube left in the rain. She was no longer conflicted about what she was. About who she was. Her head was perfectly silent if she wanted it to be. She could barely remember the girl who’d been overwhelmed by everything and covered it with a crazy smile.
Claudine had already started swimming laps across the lake and Sookie watched her for a while as she undressed. Fae were not modest, she’d learned quick and early on, and over time she’d lost that habit herself. She lifted her arms to the last rays of the sun for a moment, soaking it up like a flower, then jumped into the water, bringing its heat with her until she adjusted to the frigid temperature. She dove under and shook her hair loose so that all the sweat rinsed away. She and her cousin swam back and forth, more leisurely than competitively. The sun had dipped behind the mountains before they decided they’d had enough and clambered to the shore to find their clothes. In the gloaming that would last for hours, Sookie saw the tall figure of Claudine’s twin coming and nudged her cousin.
“Here comes trouble.”
Claude lifted an eyebrow but didn’t deign to reply. He had a tendency towards surliness with her. She had never figured out why. He spoke internally with his sister, shutting her out of the conversation with a shield. She didn’t let it bother her as she wrung out her hair and dressed again. She rarely let Claude bother her these days. It was Claudine who turned to her.
“You’ve been requested. By Grandfather.”
“At the Great Hall?”
“Yes.”
She strode off, leaving them at the shore, and made her way to the only large dwelling for any distance around. Her home away from home, as it were. It was a sprawling estate, full of nooks and crannies and strange passageways and false doors. And it was the seat of her great-grandfather when he was here. Which wasn’t that often. She hadn’t actually seen Niall Brigant in nearly two years. She wondered sometimes how he managed to keep all the various timelines he lived in straight. Or if each place he went suddenly reverted to his subjective time, so none was missed elsewhere. It wasn’t the sort of thing she felt like she could ask him. Not because he’d take offense, but because the lesson on how fae space time operated would be totally beyond her comprehension. She had enough trouble understanding how her light worked.
Two guards stood at the door of the estate – only present when their ruler was – and they bowed to her as they let her inside. She nodded back and walked into the Great Hall to find an uproar going on. Fae of every size and stripe were dashing around, some carrying weapons or bundles or trays of food, others bearing messages. From the snatches of thoughts she could catch, it seemed something had escalated in the never ending troubles with the other clans.
“Granddaughter,” Niall called to her when she crossed the threshold into a smaller hall where he was gathering a council. “It is time.”
A decade ago, she would have balked and bristled and been stubborn about it. Now she just signaled her understanding and made her way back through the cacophony to her room to throw together her pack. This was not her war. And even if it was, she hadn’t had the training the rest of his warriors had. A single decade was barely enough to scratch the surface. She might have pulled off a draw with Claudine today, but she was well aware that her cousin continued to hold back her true strength.
She packed up those things she wanted to keep from her life here – trinkets, books, clothes – and was back in the Great Hall less than fifteen minutes later. Some of the urgency of the fae had lessened, become more organized. Niall was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs that led to the private apartments.
“Come. I will escort you to the portal.”
“Can I ask what’s happened?”
“You can ask. But that does not mean I will answer.”
I do not wish to keep you in ignorance, but it might be better if you do not know what is planned, he added.
“Fair enough,” she said, to both statements. They left the Great Hall behind and he ‘ported them together into a distant part of the realm where the portal to the House of Gates lay. From there, she could find the entry back to Earth.
“I have made arrangements for you. My lawyer will contact you about them. Others will be waiting upon your return. And I will try to be in touch as soon as I am able.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
The portal shimmered, just slightly out of step from plain sight. Even after so long, Sookie could only see it in her periphery rather than head on. Niall turned to her and laid a kiss on her forehead. “Be well, Susanna.” He smiled at her scrunched up face at the name. “Sookie.”
“And you.” She bowed to him and he brushed it off. He hugged her instead, holding her tight for a breath before releasing her. The intensity of his warmth and love flowed through her in the brief contact, as it did with all fae. She cherished it, assuming it would be a long time before she felt it again.
“Go, now. Give me one less thing to worry about.”
She stepped into the portal.
---
It was a glorious sunny day when she emerged into the cemetery and she blinked at the change. The air was warm, heading towards oppressive with the humidity. But it was the kind of day that she couldn’t necessarily place into a season on first glance. Muggy weather in northern Louisiana didn’t narrow it down much. She walked towards the farmhouse, seeing if any of the flowers blooming would tell her more. But she was distracted from her search when the house came into view. It had been repainted, and had a new roof. The driveway bore a bed of fresh gravel. Her old yellow compact was gone and in its place was a cherry red hatchback she’d never seen before. Had she been gone so long?
Had Jason sold her house?!
She admitted, if she thought back to the day she left Earth, that she might not have given him the best impression of how long she’d be gone. She hadn’t known, after all. But it wasn’t like she was disappearing into thin air. Well, figuratively speaking anyway. She very much was disappearing from the face of the Earth. She’d told people she needed to get away for a while. That she would be back sooner or later. To not worry if they didn’t hear from her. She’d expected it would be a few weeks on this side. Maybe a month. It was going to be weird getting back into the rhythm of Earth after ten years in a fairy realm. She’d known that. But to have so much be different just in her first minute!
She’d reached the porch. An envelope was tucked into the screen with her name on it. Inside it was a key. Only then did she notice that the door was new too, and had a deadbolt as well as the handle lock. The key slid into it like a glove and she stepped inside.
The furniture was the same. The TV was new. The kitchen had an updated refrigerator and a larger microwave tucked under the cupboard. But her old double oven was still there, as well as the scarred table she’d eaten at for half her life. She turned around and saw the pantry that masked the cubby entrance. The light on it was green.
And suddenly it fell into place. She reached out with her mind, easily finding the void below her feet. Its signature was still familiar, even after ten years.
Eric Northman.
She looked out the window, gauging how much daylight was left. Hours yet. He was of an age that he could wake before it was fully dark, but he couldn’t move around much unless…
She went to the window and pulled back Gran’s old lacy curtains. Accordion style folding shutters had been installed. They looked mechanized, like they would close over the windows automatically without any need to be pulled by hand. She exhaled heavily in instant frustration. Not even ten minutes back on Earth and vampire bullshit was already creeping up to her eyeballs. She was half tempted to stomp her foot on the floor, like he’d hear it in his sleep. Day death, whatever.
Ten minutes back on Earth and he’s already got you acting like a petulant child, she chided herself. She twitched the curtain back in place and took her pack upstairs with her to see the rest. If nothing else, she should probably change out of these clothes. No one here would recognize a Sookie dressed in heather colored leather pants and tunic.
Every window had been outfitted with light-tight shutters, she saw when she entered her old room. Gran’s room. It still felt more like hers than Sookie’s. She’d only slept in it for a year before leaving. But all her clothes were there, neatly folded or hung up on the kind of hangers that would prevent wrinkles or stretching. There was no dust, no smell of disuse. She wondered if Eric actually spent time here or if he simply hired a crew to keep things tidy. She laid down her pack and got undressed. First thing first, she would shower, she decided. She walked naked from the bedroom to the en suite and found that all her old toiletries had been replaced with new. Fresh towels hung on the bars. Everything was so clean it sparkled. As irritating as he was when he was high-handed, at least he was thorough.
She stood under the spray for a long time, washing away the scent of Faery and relearning what her human self smelled like. Besides, the high-pressure shower head was delightfully relaxing. And she’d yet to run out of hot water, something else she assumed he’d had a hand in. By the time she stepped out, the sun had moved a considerable amount. She toweled off and wrapped her hair up and stepped back into her bedroom. The light was wrong. Lamps instead of sunshine. For the first time in nearly a decade, she jumped to cover her nakedness.
“Hello, sweet,” Eric said.