Chapter 116: 115. Evaluated

"Your mom might be right, you know?" Keira said as she lay on the bed.

The three of us were in our usual room now. The door was locked, servants couldn't come and go, and the three of us would teleport in and out. Our backpacks were next to the wardrobe, our weapons leaning against the wall next to our backpacks.

Kelly and I were sitting at the little table by the window. Before the room was locked, seneschal Owen brought a tray of refreshments in for us. We had a pitcher of juice, another of water, some fresh fruit, a loaf of bread and bowls of honey and jam.

I frowned at Keira and asked, "About what? Can you be more specific?"

Keira smiled "Sorry. I was thinking about what she said, that you might have to break some of your own rules. And what she said about it being easier to deal with the humans, than trying to confront the king."

"I don't want to start using mind magic," I stated. "You're talking about not just two detectives but also their bosses, and anyone else involved in making those kinds of decisions. That'd involve reading minds, tampering with memories or outright erasing things. Maybe even mind control. That's too many lines I don't want to cross. And we could be talking about a dozen or more people involved. I don't actually know how many."

"I know Tegan," Keira replied. "But I mean, technically nobody would actually be hurt. Nobody would be killed. We're just talking about a few little pushes here and there. Even if it is a dozen people. At the end of the day they're all still going home to their families, getting on with their lives."

She sat up as she continued, "Going against the king could drag our whole clann into a war. It could see your mother stripped of her titles and rank, it could cost your family everything. Not to mention thousands of lives lost if it becomes an actual battle or something. Clann Brádaigh versus the rest of Otherworld... Even with your magic on our side, it's still not great odds."

I shook my head, "For almost six years I've been told how evil mind magic is. For all this time I've refused to do it. I've been forced to break that rule and use mind reading, and I hate to admit that's become a tool I've used more often. It really is a slippery slope, and I absolutely don't want to get started doing anything worse than that."

After a moment I added, "Anyways even if I did break all my rules to 'fix' things with the human cops, the king could just find some other way to mess with us. He could threaten Elise or Sue. He could even threaten you two. It's me he wants. Heck he might even see you and Kelly as obstacles, maybe getting rid of you two would leave me open to hooking up with his daughter or something."

Keira pointed out, "You know even if we do somehow fix things with the king, you'll still need to fix things with the humans if we ever want to return to Earth. The king won't have any reason to help. And just calling off his agents or whatever won't make our problem with the cops go away."

"Yeah I know," I sighed. "I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. I'd still rather resolve things here first, then at least we won't be trying to fix one thing while two more problems crop up."

"I guess," Keira said.

Kelly had been quiet through this conversation, just watching and listening while Keira and I talked.

I looked to her and asked, "Do you have any input on this stuff, Kelly? I know you've been opposed to me using any kind of mind magic at all, right from the start."

She nodded slowly, "You're right. It's evil, and it's a slippery slope. I don't like it, it's too easy to abuse."

I could tell from the tone of her voice she had more on her mind. She was quiet for another few seconds though as she seemed to be thinking something over.

Finally she continued, "Having said that, we might have to do it anyways. Like Keira said, even if we resolve things with the king somehow, we'll still need to deal with the human authorities. I still want to finish my education and set up a practice like I've been talking about for years. Keira wants to continue working at the museum. I know you want to go take another course at college. And we all want to see Elise again, and Sue. We don't want to just turn our backs on all that and never return."

Kelly shook her head and sighed, "We can't do any of those things if the cops are trying to arrest us."

I stared at Kelly for a few moments as that sank in. I was expecting her to agree with me that mind magic was something to be avoided at all costs. The last thing I expected was to hear her actually considering it might be necessary.

After a few moments I just sighed again, "Like I said, we can worry about that when the time comes. For now we need to figure out what to do about the bigger problem. Do I just surrender and face the king, or do we try and figure out another way to deal with him, that doesn't involve going to war?"

Keira said, "If you just surrender to the knights, they'll probably treat you as a prisoner. They'll know how dangerous you are, with your magic and everything. That means they'll stick one of those collars on you, and maybe put you in chains too."

The collars Keira mentioned were treated with magic-suppression spells, and were used on mages or other prisoners who were known to have magical skills.

From what I'd been told, the effect was a little like what we'd all experienced at Lord Aengus's private chambers at castle Faoláin, but localized to the fae wearing the collar. Having one of those locked around my neck would cut me off from the world's magic. The difference was only the wearer is effected, so while I'd be unable to cast spells, I'd still be vulnerable to any magic thrown my way.

It was a scary prospect, though I was pretty sure there were ways to get out of it. Mother said as much, when we first discussed going after Kaitlyn. She said it was almost impossible to keep powerful mages imprisoned, because they always found a way out. Considering how powerful I was compared to even strong mages like Kaitlyn used to be, one of those collars might not be as effective on me as people would expect.

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The prospect was still frightening, but I wondered if I should see about getting my hands on one. I knew I could trust my girlfriends to unlock it, but I figured it might be a good idea to get some experience with it and see if I could break free.

I was still thinking about that when Kelly spoke up again.

"Then they'd haul you off to the royal court, and possibly toss you in the dungeon for a while. Whatever they ended up doing with you, you know it wouldn't be pleasant."

"The king wants me to marry into his family," I pointed out. "He probably thinks once I'm part of his family, he'll be able to use me for my magic. It doesn't do him any good to stuff me in a dungeon."

Kelly sighed, "Babe you're fae and you're only twenty-eight years old. He could leave you in a dungeon for a century and you'd still have another nine hundred years or so for him and his son or daughter to exploit you. And if they left one of those collars on you they could potentially mess with you all that time too."

"Crap," I sighed. I hadn't thought about that side of things. Of course I knew how long my lifespan would be, and I knew fae can afford to be patient. But having been raised on Earth, continuing to live there and having human friends, I still occasionally thought about time in human terms.

I was quiet for a bit as I started feeling trapped again. It was the same every time I thought about it really, there were no easy answers. No way out that didn't involve fighting, breaking my rules and crossing lines, or just giving up and letting the king do what he wanted with me.

After a few moments Keira spoke up. "So let's rule out surrender for now. And it sounds like we've all agreed going back to Earth and dealing with the humans is on the back-burner until we've dealt with the king. So that kind of leaves us with only one way to proceed."

She paused a moment, then said "So lets talk about treason. If we kill the king, Prince Odhran will take over and we already know he's trouble. Maybe Princess Áine won't be so bad? We should find out how many kids the king actually has and who's next in line, but assuming it's just the two, if Cathal and Odhran were to meet with accidents that would make Áine the queen."

Kelly and I were both staring at Keira.

I stated, "I don't want to kill anyone. I really don't want to go assassinate the king and the prince."

"The prince nearly had you assassinated," Keira pointed out. "You going after him is just self-defence in my book."

"I don't think the king will see it that way," I sighed.

Keira shrugged, "Ok so instead of killing them, you crush them with your magical might. Do what you did to Kaitlyn. Or do something else. Leave them both unfit to rule, so Áine has to take over. Or, I know you'll hate this suggestion, but use mind control and just make them leave us all alone. Cathal gets to keep being king, Odhran stays a prince, everyone goes home alive."

I just sighed and shook my head as I slumped back in the chair. "I can't even consider that Keira. It's too much. It's too wrong."

"It's survival," she stated. "You have all the power in the world, and I think it's honourable that you don't want to use it like that. But you can't expect everyone else to play by your rules unless you're prepared to enforce them. You want everyone to be nice and leave you alone, but that's not going to happen Tegan. Whether human or fae, people are greedy, stupid, selfish, whatever. There's always going to be someone who wants to use you, exploit you, or just wants to kill you because they're jealous of what you've got."

I wound up slouched way down in the chair, with one hand sort of covering my eyes and rubbing my forehead. I was stressed, and Keira's words hit a little harder than I expected. On the one hand it almost sounded like she was pushing me to go pick a fight with the king, but I knew she was right. And I hated it. I really did just want to be left alone, to have a quiet happy life. And I hated to admit that it probably wasn't going to happen, unless I actually fought for it.

"Hey Keira?" Kelly said in a quiet but firm voice. "I think that's enough for now."

My emotions were churning with that struggle inside, and Kelly must have realized how uptight I'd suddenly become. I kept my hand over my eyes for now as if I had a headache. The truth was a little more embarrassing. I'd almost started to cry. From the frustration, the helplessness, the unfairness of it all.

And the worst thing was I couldn't just get up and go for a walk to clear my head. I couldn't wander along the castle walls, or go down to the study and lose myself in a book. I was stuck here in this room with Kelly and Keira. We may as well have been locked in a tower. Our cell was nice and comfortable, but we were still basically prisoners here as we hid from the two knights who had the run of the castle.

Keira was quiet now, she either realized I'd hit a limit or maybe Kelly told her through their link.

Kelly suggested in a gentle tone, "Babe why don't you lie down for a bit? Have a little rest, try and unwind."

"Ok Kelly," I nodded. "Good idea."

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