“Fair enough,” Brann said with a nod. They all filed in. Orin and Weylyn sat on my left, Keegan and Katie sat opposite them, conspicuously leaving an empty chair between them. Brann sat between them in an unenviable buffer position. He spoke first. “Now that we have a quorum… what would you like to ask us first?”
I folded my arms, keeping my gaze even. “So… are you all fairies?”
Orin gave a loud laugh, and Keegan leaked a giggle. A tremor shook the room as I bristled.
“Whoa, sorry, sorry!” Keegan yelped as he held onto his chair.
“Did I say something funny?” I was still peeved that they refused to just leave me in peace, but couldn’t answer a fucking question without guff, and I was almost enjoying acting like a Queen Bitch.
Weylyn cleared his throat. “The only fairies in this room are Katie and Keegan,” he said, and Orin smirked at the phrase.
“Hey, I’m a leprechaun! There’s a difference.” Keegan stated dryly.
“Is there?” I tilted my head. “No, seriously. Is there really?” I mean, the how the fuck would I know about it, anyway?
“Kinda,” Katie responded, sounding unusually tentative. “So, a leprechaun is… not totally the same thing as a fairy.” Did that carry a whiff of superiority?
Keegan gave her a cutting look. “Aye! Fairy folk act like they’re effin’ nobility. Not like us blue collar leprechauns.”
“Don’t you mean Green Collar,” I needled.
“Without digging up all that, we are both under the same umbrella,” Katie explained. “We’re part of the same ‘court’, but we’re not the same thing.”
“Court?” I asked.
“But not as bad as the Catholics and the Orangemen,” Keegan admitted.
“No, Fairy and Leprechaun are on the same side. Well, my part is.”
“But—” She cut Keegan with a look.
Then Katie went on. “When you’re looking at the ‘Fairy Folk,’ you’ve got the Seelie court, and Unseelie court.”
“Clear as fucking mud now.” I snarked.
“The Seelie court includes beings that respect humans. To some degree. Respect for the sacred nature of life itself, really.”
“How very tolerant. Like not stepping on a bug, you mean?”
“Seelie doctrines focus on positive ways of thinking. We’re home to elves, gnomes, pixies, fairies… even your very tall leprechaun friend.”
“It’s the Unseelie court to watch out for,” Keegan cut in. “They’re creatures of Autumn and Winter, and the darker ways of thinking. They take care of dealing with your trolls, ogres, goblins, kelpies. All cruel, cutthroat, manipulative. Deadly. Not good company for humankind, or for us, neither.”
“I’m not sure I understand all of this,” I admitted. “Why are they different from each other?”
“I daresay you’d have to dedicate more than a few afternoons of magical being research to that one,” Brann said, with typical academic detachment.
Keegan cut to the heart of it. “When it comes to the Seelie and Unseelie, we’re kind of…” He made a pass behind his ear, and his gold coin materialized. “Two sides of the same coin!” He began running the coin over his knuckles. “We are all related by magic. All of us are... mischievous, you could say, in our interactions with mortal humans, but there’s mischief ha-ha, and mischief mayhem. We’re very different in our behaviors and beliefs.” He tossed the coin over toward me, but it disappeared before I could catch it.
“So, you’re both Seelie, but Katie’s a fairy, and you’re a leprechaun?”
“That he is,” Orin chimed in. “And rather a bad dose of it at that!”
“First off, feck off, ya walking flea condo!” Keegan retorted. “And second off, I’m not a bad leprechaun, per se. Edna said I’m just a late bloomer.”
“He does apply himself,” Brann credited, “albeit with spectacularly bad results, empirically speaking, I mean.”
“Bollocks!” Keegan was getting all huffy.
“In case anyone remembers the fucking point?” Katie raised her voice over his hissy fit. “Now. Yes, I’m a fairy, but I am not a ‘high fairy’.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Keegan may suck at using his magic, but he’s got a shit ton of magic to use. Badly or not.” She hesitated. “Not me.” I could see it pained Katie to admit this, especially in front of Keegan, but she cared more about me getting the facts. “Truth is, I have a few magical gifts… but not many. Aside from moving stuff with my mind and talking to some animals, I have a ‘glamour’.”
“What, like magic eye liner?”
“It’s more a spell I can use in a pinch, for a little extra appeal. It helps make me more… convincing, when I want to be.”
I felt a little skeptical. Then it hit me. I’d seen her use it. Katie could always ‘turn it on’ at a bar, or a kegger. Just fucking dazzle people. But I never thought it was magic. “Show me,” I said.
Katie closed her eyes. Soon she was enveloped in swirl of phantom sparkles that you felt more than you actually saw them. Like she lived in a snow globe, and she could just shake it any time she wanted. I tasted the scent of flowers, as the wet smell of moss drifted around the room. Her hair was a shinier nut brown, with many more ringlets than before. I noticed her eyes, the color deepening to a moss green, sparkling with infectious joy. Her skin shimmered with a warm caramel glow. It was… almost hypnotizing. Differences so subtle, but so profound. Inviting. Compelling.
“So? What do you think?”
“Now that is some hella glitter,” I mumbled, staring. “Uh, actually, aren’t fairies supposed to have wings?”
“Yeah, aren’t they?” Keegan chimed in. That shut Katie down immediately. I felt bad – it
