Chapter 29: Be Polite

Talori and Harmony kept talking as the latter worked until dinnertime, when one of the other witches knocked on the office door saying that someone had ordered pizza. Brennan seemed particularly happy about that.

"Pizza is a staple around here," he informed her.

The witch that came delivering the message noticed Talori then and gaped at her. "Harmony! Since when did you get a pet mermaid?!"

Harmony rolled her eyes. "She isn't my pet, Piper. She's a friend of Brennan's and we're currently involved in an information exchange. She saved his life before so now he's letting her stay with him to avoid some drama in her kingdom for a while."

Piper's glowing orange eyes nearly popped out of her head. "No way! I want in on this information exchange too!"

"I'll tell you everything she tells me later. My office is crowded enough."

"Aww, you're lame! And after I told you about the pizza too."

Harmony shrugged, not seeming bothered in the slightest though Talori got the feeling that 'lame' wasn't a good thing based on Piper's tone. The second witch didn't want to let it go and during the argument Brennan slipped out and grabbed half a box of pizza.

He flew a slice up to the top of Talori's container. "Here. Dry your hands first. Soggy pizza wouldn't taste very good."

She used the paper towel he gave her and took a bite before squealing in delight. So many flavors were happening at once and though it was a bit overwhelming it undeniably worked well together.

"You say this is a staple around here?" she asked after consuming the entire slice.

"Yeah. I told you before, food is one of the few things humans have done right. This here is called a pepperoni pizza because there is pepperoni on top. It's a kind of spiced meat but it isn't fish, don't worry."

"Piper, if you tell anyone I have a mermaid in my office, I'm going to use every trick my mother and aunt ever taught me against you. They've both been around for a long time so you better not mess with me," Harmony said fiercely.

Piper huffed. "Fine! Hog all the good stuff; you always do!"

Brennan scowled. "Talori isn't 'stuff', Piper. She's a fae as sentient as you or me so you need to be polite."

The witch was taken aback. It seemed as though he didn't usually speak to her that way. Talori couldn't deny she was touched that he came to her defense though she could understand why Piper thought that way given what Harmony had already told her about witches.

"…sorry. I just got excited. Your name is Talori?"

"Yes. I have agreed to exchange information with Harmony but I would be willing to speak with you another time. As she said, the office does not have much room."

"Aww, alright. I won't tell anyone you have a mermaid in here but it's going to get out sooner or later, Harmony," Piper warned before heading out.

Harmony looked at Talori, impressed. "You handled that very well. Thank you! Sorry about her."

"It is fine. What were you saying before about magic items?"

"Oh, right. Magic items are imbued with magic but it doesn't last forever. The shelf life and effects are dependent on how powerful the witch casting it is. Funnily enough, the protection your kingdom has is way too strong and messes with the humans more than it's supposed to because our strongest witch at the time cast it.

"The humans call it the Bermuda Triangle because they've noticed a pattern of weird things happening to ships or other vessels that try traveling through there now and then. They don't realize there is magic at play because they don't believe in it and think it's some big unsolvable mystery."

Brennan snorted. "I forgot you told me about that. Humans can seriously be so stupid."

"But hey, it works out well for us that way. We've managed to keep our existence largely secret for centuries. We've faded into nothing but stories. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to Halloween though. So many ridiculous, false witch decorations and movies. You've seen the costumes, haven't you?"

"Obviously. The fairy ones are all wrong too but what can we do?"

Talori tilted her head, curious. "Costumes?"

"Halloween is a human holiday where they dress up as something else. Oftentimes they end up dressing up as fae but they get us all wrong and it isn't like we can correct them without outing ourselves. I've seen some mermaid costumes too that don't account for the diversity in skin colors or the fact that you all have ear and elbow fins."

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It was strange to think that humans would dress up as merfolk to begin with. "You said mermaid costumes. Are they solely female?"

"Mermaids are considered girly here," Brennan said with a shrug. "All the costumes I've ever seen are female. Most of the merfolk in popular media are female as well."

How could an entire fae race be considered girly? Talori didn't understand that.

"It isn't much different for fairies. You don't see many human men dressing up as them, which is somewhat of a relief. We're considering girly too, which is incredibly stupid," he continued.

"Witches are also considered girly but that isn't a problem as we are all female," Harmony pointed out. "Magical men in human stories are called wizards, sorcerers, or warlocks. Those don't actually exist though."

Was that why her boyfriend was an elf? Talori had wondered. If they were all female, they wouldn't be able to keep the race going on their own.

"And that is why your boyfriend is an elf?"

"Yeah. Witches and elves are biologically similar enough that we tend to pair up. There are female elves but for some reason it's more common for males to be born. Every other race I've ever heard of sticks with their own kind."

Brennan nodded his agreement. "It's true. Even among fairies it's more rare for different elements to end up together. The most common inter-elemental pairing is water and wind because those are the most similar to each other."

"I see," Talori said.

He had previously mentioned that the various fae races usually stuck to themselves and that his friendship with Harmony was considered unusual. It made sense that even among fairies they wouldn't typically branch out going off of that.

There was still so much she didn't know about fae relations. She would have to learn if she wanted to get by in their world on the surface.

"Have you ever dated another element? I don't think you've mentioned that," Harmony said offhandedly.

"Not unless you count the earth fairy I went on literally one date with. Maybe I would have better luck with another element; water fairies all think I'm weird," Brennan said with a shrug.

"Why?" Talori asked curiously.

"Because I'm more interested in the ocean than I am streams, rivers, lakes, or ponds like the rest of them. What can I say? It calls to me. Saltwater is still water but they all think the ocean is too scary for one reason or another.

"At least the ones on this continent. I can't speak for water fairies who live on islands surrounded by ocean. They might be more open-minded. But everyone I've met thinks I'm odd for becoming a marine biologist."

"To be fair, you did end up blown away in a hurricane and had to be saved by a mermaid," Harmony said with a laugh. "Fairies have strong survival instincts because of how fragile they are."

"Gee, thanks."

"Nothing personal! Come on, you know that fairies are probably the least sturdy of all the fae races."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Where would merfolk fall on this scale?" Talori asked as the question occurred to her.

The witch shrugged. "Not sure. I don't know enough about your physiology yet. You're probably closer to the fairy end of things though considering you don't seem particularly strong against anything other than a current.

"There's nothing wrong with that. Witches aren't very sturdy either. We're powerful because of our magic but we aren't fast or strong and can get into accidents as easily as a human. We might have indefinite lifespans but that's only if we aren't killed first."

Talori knew that already because merfolk were the same way. They didn't die unless they were killed.

It was why the merking had been on the throne for so long. If her brother was going to take over, he would have to either kill him personally or arrange some sort of "accident."

The thought didn't bother her as much as it should have. She neither liked nor trusted the merking after both what he allowed to happen to their mother and what he tried to do to her. She had always been onboard with Zale's plan to get rid of him.

This would also involve getting rid of Queen Nerida and Crown Prince Merrick. She wasn't bothered by that either because they had always been so nasty to her and the queen was the one who got their mother falsely executed.. She would be getting exactly what was coming to her.

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