Chapter 17: 15: Confrontations

Eirlathion POV

After briefing Túeth about just how developmentally advanced her daughters were for a little more, he told her he would need a couple days to prepare them to meet her. They made arrangements for her to come over in the afternoon a few days later, and he went back home.

When he got there, he was incredibly shocked when he saw one of the girls sitting in a chair that had been pulled out. It was almost a commical sight seeing a little baby sit in a chair designed for an adult. Or rather, something about it felt very out of place actually BECAUSE she was properly sitting in it and wasn’t trying to do anything like stand on it or use it to climb up to the table or anything of the sort. No, she just sat in the chair. She was sitting in it sideways, having turned her entire body to look in his direction, but she was still sitting in it.

Eirlathion was tempted to think immediately that for something like this it had to be Aerien, but... there was no sign of Levin around anywhere. In fact, he could not see or hear any sign of any of them. The entire situation was starting to feel a little eerie as a matter of fact. Well, might as well settle which one she is with his typical method.

When he began trying to carefully sense the flow of mana and spirit energy he distinctly felt a monsterous ammount of both rolling off of the child in front of him. This was actually somewhat shocking. The ammount had increased again. Now that he was around her in a more open and free environment, he had been beginning to notice that on occasion the waves of spirit energy Aerien produced were not quite the same as those of a human. Unlike with humans, hers seemed to gain and decrease in strength. However, they always seemed to be at their strongest when she was mad at him, and this was easily the strongest he had ever felt them.

Eirlathion’s face twitched a little as he imagined what this was going to be like. This was really not something he needed right now. He had only just walked in the door, so why would she be mad at a time like this? And for that matter, just where is Levin anyway.

(Lie!) She suddenly shouts and points at him as he comes further into the house.

“Umm, hi Aerien. How did you get down here, did Levin leave you there?”

(I tell him to!) She responds in her broken baby elven. That got his attention. Did she mean that she told Levin to put her on the chair like that and leave her there? Certainly not, she must just not fully understand what she’s talking about or something.

“Heh, what’s that? Did you tell Levin to leave you alone down here then?”

(I did!) Eirlation didn’t quite know what to do with that response. He had been about to walk up the stairs to ask Levin to come down and get her since he knew she usually seemed to get upset if anyone else tried to touch her. However, that was a pretty definite response that for some reason she wanted to be down here like this. He wasn’t quite certain what to make of it, and this made him hesitate for a while.

“Well, why would you do something like that?”He asked, putting on an amused face and coming closer to her. He knew she was probably angry, but because she was a baby he could see her being angry as nothing really more than an innocent temper tantrum. Although, that being the case, Aerien seemed rather calm in her anger. He at least knew enough about children to realize this was very very unusual.

(Because you lied.) She says. At this, Eirlathion suddenly realized that this already unusual situation was a lot more strange than he had first given it credit for. Was she confronting him about something? This seemed incredibly out of character for something a baby would do in far more ways than just one.

“I lied?” He responds. He still couldn’t take this situation completely seriously, but despite that he also felt his blood beginning to run cold at this fairly direct accusation. “umm... how did I lie?”

(said we were sick.) Eirlathion’s whole body stiffened when she said this. She said it in a small voice. Not a voice that was difficult to hear, but it had gone from her confrontational tone to something that sounded more like... what? Disappointment? Embarrasment? Lack of confidence? It probably wasn’t disappointment. He would suspect that from an adult, but never from a little baby as young as her. None of that was the problem however.

This was very bad. That was the one thing he did not want the children to realize at this point. This was way too early. His only solice was that the chlidren likely didn’t know the method to open a door to this house, but at the rate Aerien’s mind seemed to develop he knew that was only a matter of time and it would probably happen a lot sooner than he thought.

He wanted to hit himself for thinking these children were well behaved and easy to deal with. Now he knew, they didn’t get into the typical trouble because they were so smart. However, with them being this smart there was an entirely different kind of trouble they could get into.

For now though, he had to buy time. Just a little more time to try to find a way to get things sorted out with them.

(You’re trying to lie again.) Eirlathion hadn’t even said anything yet, but she called him out before he could even open his mouth, before he could even think of what he was going to say. How? When he looked up at her, she was staring straight at him. Somehow, this girl with her large face still full and round with babby fat and whispy translucent hair matted against the top of her head seemed like she was peering straight into his soul.

“Ehh... look, Aerien. I wasn’t trying to be a bad person to you, Ok?”He let out a sigh. He was definitely in unknown territory with this girl here,

(Tell me why you lie) Aerien said. Eirlathion was beginning to get a very incongruous feeling with every word she said. It did not seem like any one thing she said had any particular issue with it, and it’s likely that even all together it would be entirely believable for a child to be saying these things. The intense look she was giving him was a little odd, but it was more a matter of the confident way in which she said everything and without even skipping a beat, as though she had been waiting for him to say something like what he just said. It was almost like she was actually steering the entire conversation.

Any single individual thing about this confrontation in isolation could be seen as perfectly normal for a kid a few years older than her to be doing or saying, but this sense that she seemed to have so much control over the exchange... it just felt... wrong, in an unsettling sort of way.

“Ahh... well, I think you might be a little young to understand that right now Aerien.” He answered, feeling like he was sinking in quicksand somehow at this point in the conversation. That was the exact reason he had not told them anything up until now, he was fairly sure they simply wouldn’t understand. How could a child understand that they were born as the result of their father doing something horrible to their mother, and that because of what their father was people were going to want to hurt them? These were things even an adult would have trouble fully understanding.

However, when he tossed this phrase out there, it was not with the air of a confident adult sheltering a child from the world. It was him tossing it out in despiration at this point and trying to escape from this unsettling exchange.

(I’m going to keep being mad at you if you don’t tell me.) A huge flag suddenly popped up in Eirlathion’s mind when Aerien said this one. It was almost as though he had just been hit with something. Of everything she had said so far, this was the first one that really REALLY seemed to encompass every single aspect of the unsettling feeling he had been getting completely on its own. In this moment, the fringes of unsettling suspicion that were lingering around the edges of his mind all simply clicked together at once.

He knew exactly what the source of the unease he had been feeling was now. The reason he had been feeling so uneasy since the moment he had begun this exchange with Aerien, it is because all of her words and actions are way too mature for a child her age. Her lisping speech and her limited elven vocabulary still make it sound very much like it is a baby talking, but there is a very definite sense of purpose and intention behind every single word that is spoken as though this entire thing was planned out in advance by somebody fairly used to having serious conversations of this sort.

Eirlathion looked Aerien straight in the eye. When he looked at her face, all he could see was a baby staring up at him. A baby that was a bit upset with him at the moment. However, the mere fact that this baby was matching his gaze as the seconds ticked by without fidgeting or breaking that gaze in any way seemed to further testify to a consciousness way beyond her years.

Could it be, a changeling!? Eirlathion stood up from his chair and threw it aside as though he was preparing for battle. This was the first time Aerien seemed to react in surprise, and he felt her aura intensify even further as she gripped the sides of her chair.

This intensification of her aura reminded him. She can’t be a changeling. He just might have thought that if it wasn’t for powerful aura filled with the spirit energy that should not be possessed naturally by any member of a fey race, and that mana that was far above and beyond what was natural for a fey to produce. And besides, why would a changeling risk exposing itself to get simple information like this that it should already know?

Eirlathion let out a sigh. “Aerien... wait there a minute, I need to go up and see the others.”After saying this, without giving any further explanation, he walked up the stairs to the second floor which he had prepared as the childrens’ room. When he got there, he saw Rolwen holding Gaerien, and Levin standing there. All three of them were completely silent and staring straight at him. He had grown used to them not having warm faces for him by this point, but this time they had something different about the look on their faces. They seemed a little confused, but at the same time their looks seemed to be saying he shouldn’t be up here right now and he should still be back down stairs.

“Levin, where is Aerien.”He asked. He was relatively sure that really was Aerien down there, but after the scary thought he had just had, he needed to make sure.

(What?) All three of them got a serious look of confusion on their faces at this question. However, that confusion on their faces ultimately served to ease his heart further. (You were just talking to her downstairs.) The boy kept looking between his friend and Eirlathion, but Eirlathion just had a relieved smile on his face as he heard this.

“Yes, that’s right.” He said. “That’s good.” He looked at the three of them and showed them an even bigger smile. “Thank you, I’m going to go back down and talk her now.”

“Wha..? Whad uuas dat?” He heard Levin’s voice talking in their own language as he left.

“I dunno, at uuas weird. He’z crazy!”

Eirlathion still had some trouble with their language. He could only guess at the meaning of what Rolwen had said in response to Levin, but he mostly knew the words Levin had used at least. They may think his actions just now were bizzare, but he had needed the peace of mind that exchange just now had given him.

Now, this just brought him back to his previous problem. He was still not really sure how he was going to respond to Aerien, but it was becoming abundantly clear that her growth was even more frightening than he had initially thought. If it was like this, well... he didn’t know the full extent of her growth, but it seemed there might actually be an existing possibility she could actually wrap her head around the circumstances of her own birth. It was pretty clear, he was going to have to tell her far sooner than he had ever anticipated. Not today though. His heart was simply not ready for it today.

By the time he got down, Aerien had jumpped down from the chair and was now using it as a support to hold herself up. This gave him still more peace of mind. It was still ludicrously early for her to be walking, but by now that sort of thing was expected from Aerien. The more important thing was that she actually did still need the chair to support herself, something a changeling would not require.

Eirlathion knelt down in front of Aerien, getting closer to her eye level, and smiled gently at her. “Aerien, I.. I’m going to need to think for a little while. I promise I will answer your questions later, Ok? Right now I’m really tired.”

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“Mmm..” She responds, furrowing her brows and clearly not happy about that answer. (You gotta tell me everything, Ok?) She said.

“Yes, I promise.” He said, shaking his head at himself. At this rate, he was certain she was going to hold him to that promise. If he didn’t tell her everything she wanted to know on this subject, he was probably going to have an even worse time of it than what he had just experienced.

(Ok!) She responds, and then lets go of the chair and begins stumbling, immediately loosing her balance and throwing herself at his folded leg. After she had successfully caught herself, Eirlathion felt her intense aura dissipate significantly. It was still strong, but now it was down to only being close to matching what the boys put out. She fixed her balance, using his leg as her support, and then she looked directly into his eyes with a smile. (Carry me up!) She demands.

Eirlathion shakes his head with a chuckle and lifts her up in his arms exactly as she had asked. At the same time, he has a very pleasant smile of his own. This would not be the first time he had picked her up, but every time before this she would immediately get very upset. This would be the first time she actually willingly allowed him to do this. “Alright. After I’m done telling you everything you want, I think I might have a few questions for you too little lady.”He said as he began to ascend the stairs once again in order to return her to her beloved human.

-

Aerien POV

Well, that kinda surprised me there at the end. He freaked out a lot more than I had expected. Things had more or less been going to plan until something I said seemed to set him off in some strange way.

The plan was pretty simple. And, actually, I had wound up making some modifications to my approach after talking thoroughly to Levin and Rolwen about it. As I was talking to them, I was painfully reminded of just how much we are influenced by our baby brains in these new bodies as they couldn’t help themselves but ask one question after another. They managed to ask slightly more informed questions than just saying “why” over and over again, but they were still acting very much like the children they looked like.

I realized I was going to have to modify my approach into something that wouldn’t be thrown off if my baby side started to take more dominance. So, I worked toward an angle of being obsessed and upset over the very central point I was trying to get down to from the beginning. That was the fact that he was lying about something. With that, I could allow baby Aerien to get swept up in the emotions she felt about being lied to and wanting to get him to tell the truth. Meanwhile, my past-life mind could make sure that the right key words were said to prevent him from weasling out of anything and continue guiding the conversation toward him telling me what we wanted to hear.

However, things went wrong at some point. Something spooked him, and I was still trying to figure out what. It all still seemed to work out in the end, he promised to tell me everything, but... I can’t help the feeling I tipped my hand way more than I had intended to.

I had already decided from the beginning how I was going to get back upstairs. I had seen how hard he was trying to work for forgiveness to close the gap between us. If you want to train someone to do what you want them to, you have to reward the behavior you are trying to promote. So, I was going to give him what he wanted, some kind of gesture of forgiveness. I was confident in my ability to drag something out of him, so I had always intended from the beginning to have him carry me back upstairs. What I got was not the information I wanted, it was just a promise. However, I decided to call it a successive approximation and just go with it.

When we got upstairs, he walked straight to Levin and put me straight into his arms. [Here you go,] he said, [you take good care of her, alright Levin?] He still had a bit of a haunted smile on his face, he hadn’t completely gotten over whatever it was that spooked him. [I’ll be getting dinner ready for all of you, things are going to start getting busy this week. We will have a guest over in a few days.]

A guest!? That’s new. Well, we haven’t really been around this house long enough to know how frequently he does or doesn’t have guests over, but he seemed to give the impression he didn’t have a very large social life with how often he had been over with us at the nursery before. Well, if that was the case, I suppose it might not be very soon that he makes good on his promise.

After saying this, he left the room and went back down stairs.

(What was that all about?) Rolwen murmers as he watches that guy leave.

‘Ether guy’I remind myself. ‘Remember, you’re supposed to forgive him. He’s Ether guy again.’Ether guy was certainly not his name either, and would definitely be seen as an insult coming from anyone but a baby just learning to talk. Still, it is definitely better than “that guy.” And besides that, I actually AM a baby just learning to talk, so it all works out ok.

(Aerien, what do you think?) Levin asked.

“uuh?”I respond, snapping out of my thought process.

(He was acting really really weird.) Levin said.

“Ummm...” I cast a glance down the stairs. I really wasn’t sure whether or not I should start making theories while... that, err... Ether guy was in ear shot.

You know what? Screw it. I decided I was tired of hiding so much, it was getting quite tiresome. I had already revealed that I was pretty darn intelligent. That may even be a large part of what got him so riled up. Him overhearing me talking smart was not going to make the situation any worse.

Or would it? As I was in the middle of thinking that, I just realized exactly what it probably was that got him so upset. The problem is, I had no way to explain how I knew it since it came entirely from my past-life knowledge.

(I think I know, but...) I make a gesture with my hand toward the far corner, farthest away from the stairs. This is the place where we have taken to doing our secret talks when Ether guy is here. The boys brought Gaerien and I over, and then we all crouched down in the corner and got our heads close together. Since I was going to do the talking and the boys were likely to be far more absorbed in listening, Gaerien took up position with her back to the wall and her eyes to the stairs so she could warn us if Mr. silent steps Ether guy came up.

(So, first, what did he say exactly when he came up here?) I asked to make sure. I was sure I heard him as clear as can be, but I pretended I didn’t so that they could repeat it. Doing so would probably help in their understanding.

(He asked me where YOU were.) Levin said, pointing straight at me. (Even though you were right down stairs and he was just talking to you, he asked me where you were.)

(Like he thought I might also be upstairs?) I asked.

(Yeah... huh!?) Levin responds, suddenly realizing the implications of that possibility.

(I think he might have thought I was a shape shifter or changeling or something.) I tell him. Actually, changeling is probably exactly what he thought. There was plenty of Earth lore about changelings associated with Faeries. According to Gaerien, Earth lore is likely to offer more insight to what was in this world than anything she could tell me, so that should give us a pretty good road map to what these changelings were.

(Changelings... err... well, they are closely associated with Faeries. You see, faeries kidnap children just like the elves did with you, but when a faery kidnaps a child, they replace them with a changeling and that changeling acts like the child and even uses their shape-shifting power to mimic human growth, they are very very good at acting like children, but since they are actually very old and very wise they can sometimes be caught by saying something that sounds like it should be too beyond what a child should know.)

I had actually clipped a little bit of Earth’s lore on changelings from that explanation. The changelings were actually supposed to be deformed fairies, something of a birth defect when a faery had a child. However, since Gaerien had told me that faeries definitely did not have children and were creatures that simply came into existence when a strong enough soul had a powerful will to live and became a fae, I could definitely rule out them actually being the offspring of faeries. That would be chalked up into the category of something that the Earth side had made up that is not actually how things work in this world.

At any rate, I had not thought of the possibility, but now that the possibility of changelings existing in this world had come up I realized it would probably be incredibly easy for me to be mistaken for a changeling. It was really no wonder Ether guy had gotten so upset. If I was the parent of a chlid who was talking like I was, changeling is probably the very very first thing that would jump to the top of my thoughts as well.

All I could do was apologize in my mind to Ether guy. If we could reach an understanding after he tells us everything, I might start seriously negotiating with the boys to let him in on our secret. If nothing else, it would make it a lot easier for us to talk to each other if we didn’t have to constantly worry about being overheard.

Author's note

Yeah, I know some of you might have been expecting the whole plan to blow up completely by Eirlathion showing up with their mother in tow, but I already used that one once when he knocked Aerien out with a sleeping drug and took them all to his house right before she was ready to tell the boys about her being a reincarnator like them.

Can't get in the habit of always doing the same thing, but also can't have everything just go according to plan either, and it seemed like a pretty darn good opportunity to introduce the concept of changelings to the universe.

Also, for anyone who might be interested, I have added a forward to the beginning of the series in which I talk about the inspirations for the series. You can read that if you want to get some idea about what you might expect to see going forward.

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