A Date With Faet

"Ok," Keira said, looking at me and Kelly. "So how do we do this? We need to find him first I guess? He can cross worlds, he can teleport. How do we track him down?"

I thought for a few moments, before I remembered something. "I saw a book..."

I stood up and moved to the bookcases and started searching them as I said, "I've looked at almost all these books over the past three years, I know I saw something that can help. I just have to remember what it was called, then find it again."

Kelly and Keira stayed where they were for now and just watched as I hunted back and forth along the shelves.

It took about ten minutes but I finally returned to join them at the table. When I sat down, I had two books. I set one of them down between the twins.

"You two should study that."

Both frowned, I knew they wouldn't be happy to see it. It was a book on mind magic.

I stated, "If you're going anywhere near Keenan, you need to know how to defend against that stuff. There's a counter-spell in that book that you both need to learn."

Keira nodded and picked up the book to have a look at it.

Kelly sighed, "I don't like having to learn that stuff, but you're right. We can't face him unprepared."

She looked at the second book I grabbed, "Was that the tracking magic you were looking for?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "There's a spell we can use, that I'm pretty sure he won't be able to hide from. It's 'blood magic'. Since you two are related to him by blood, we can use that connection to track him. Any other kind of scrying or clairvoyance spell he could block or hide from. But not this."

Kelly nodded slowly, "So one of us needs to donate some blood I guess?"

"I volunteer," Keira stated. "It was my idea, I'll offer the blood to find him."

"Thanks sis," Kelly gave her twin a brief smile. Then she asked me, "How's the spell work?"

I flipped through the book till I found it, then quickly glossed through it. It was probably some time last year or the year before when I read it, and I'd never needed to use it before. "We use a few drops of blood, work the spell, and from there it's like clairvoyance? I'll get a vision of him and where he is. If he's anywhere on Otherworld it should work."

"And if he's back on Earth?" Keira asked.

I shrugged, "Then it won't find him, but we'll know to go look for him on Earth."

Keira nodded, "Cool. Let's do it."

Kelly got up and gave the bell-cord a tug to summon a servant. After a minute or so a young butler arrived, and Kelly told him "Please fetch Muireann, or another healer? We need a blood-letting."

The young man looked a little surprised but he bowed "Yes m'lady."

After he went off to fetch us a healer, Kelly moved to the bookcases.

She asked, "Is there another book here that I could read, to find out about defending from mind magic? So Keira and I don't have to share?"

"Yeah," I replied. I joined her and quickly found the other book. "This one's a little uh, some of the other spells in it are a bit darker. I didn't think either you or Keira would want to see it. But it does have the same counter-spell."

Kelly sighed, then her twin offered "Here sis. You take this one, so you won't have to look at any of the nasty stuff."

They traded books as Kelly and I sat back down, and all three of us continued reading for now.

About ten minutes later we were joined by Muireann. She was alone, and carried a small bag with her. I hoped Maeve was merciful with Aoife, but I was afraid to ask the healer what happened to her apprentice. I decided for now I'd rather not know, incase the answer was unhappy.

"I understand someone needs a bloodletting?" the older healer asked.

Keira nodded "Yeah me. We need a little vial or something of my blood."

"Me too," I added. Both twins looked at me in surprise and I shrugged, "May as well use the same spell to find out what we can about Connor's fate."

I watched as Muireann worked with Keira first. She was efficient and quick. There was an incision, the vial was quickly filled, then she used healing magic to repair the wound. It was fascinating to see how the whole process worked, now that I could see everyone's auras.

When the incision was made there was a flicker of bright red in Keira's aura, and a split second later it was mirrored in Kelly's. Then when the healer worked her magic, her aura went from its normal warm orange to a bright white. Keira's flickered with some pink, and a moment after Kelly's aura flickered pink too.

The process was repeated with me, but I still couldn't see my own aura. Soon enough we had the two vials, one of Keira's blood and one of mine.

Muireann noticed the book I was reading, and commented "There's a spell in there you can use to keep the two vials fresh. Incase you need to use it again the future, you won't need to keep being bled."

"Thank you Muireann," I replied as she packed up.

By the time she left I'd found the spell she mentioned, and cast it on both vials.

The tracking spell required a bit of parchment which we quickly obtained, and with both twins watching I spilled a few drops of Keira's blood on it. I worked the spell over the blood and parchment, then used the fireplace to set the parchment alight.

As flames consumed the enchanted paper I got a clear mental image of our target.

"I can see Keenan," I announced. "He's still at castle Griofa. It looks like he's taken over the place? He may have everyone there under his control now. Or at least the officers. Either way he's got the run of the place."

When I first saw him atop the tower at the castle, he was too far away to really get a good look at him. About all I could tell was he was taller than Eamon, he had short red hair and was wearing an Earth-style overcoat.

Seeing him now through the spell I had a much clearer view of him. He was a tall man, something like six feet tall. His hair was short, and it was the same fiery red colour as Kelly's and Keira's. His eyes were bright blue-green. He looked to be in his mid to late forties in human terms, or into his sixth or seventh century in fae terms.

I also noted he was no longer dressed in Earth clothes. He now wore more typical fae-style clothes. He wasn't in any sort of uniform, but his clothes were nice. They looked expensive, tailored, and he was wearing some ostentatious-looking jewelry, including a fancy necklace.

That was all I had time to see, as the image faded when the last of the parchment was lost to the flames.

Kelly pointed out, "We better warn Maeve not to send any more soldiers there yet. If she does, they'll probably wind up under his control too."

"Good point," I agreed.

Keira frowned, "So our granddad's got himself a castle now."

The three of us looked at each other for a moment, then Kelly asked "So what do we do? Travel back to castle Griofa and confront him?"

"You could get us back to that spot in the woods again," Keira said to me, "Then from there we can teleport straight back to the castle. Right?"

I frowned, "It may not be safe. Keenan may have that waypoint guarded now. Even if he didn't know about it before he probably does now, if he had the dogs tracking our scent."

Kelly had an eyebrow raised, and asked in a slightly amused tone "Waypoint?"

"Uh yeah," I blushed slightly. "I started thinking of them as waypoints? It's easier to say than 'a place where the veil is thin'."

Keira rolled her eyes, "Whatever. The point is, what's our next move? We know where Keenan is, what's the best way to go deal with him? Without spending two or three weeks on horseback."

I sighed as I thought it over. Finally I looked back at her and asked "Keira were you serious, what you said at dinner last night? About taking him alive and transforming him?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I was serious about handing him over to our mom too."

"You know that will probably mean enspelling your mother as well, right?" I pointed out. "With a geas at least, maybe more. To keep her from abusing Keenan, and to ensure she doesn't come after us somehow."

Keira shrugged "Yeah I get it. I mean, I don't care so much what she does with granddad but I know you wouldn't want him to suffer above and beyond the transformation itself."

That led me to sigh again, "Yeah. Honestly I'm not sure I'm comfortable condemning someone to a lifetime of dysphoria, even if it is a fitting end for him."

She frowned, "You know he's done that and worse to who knows how many people, Tegan. When he takes humans to transform and sell, he's not picky about who and what they were to start with."

"Crap," I felt a little sick to my stomach at that thought. "I didn't need to know that."

We were quiet again for a few moments, till Keira pointed out "There's probably magic that would take care of the dysphoria, if that really bothers you. Like, make him accept the changes."

I shook my head, "That's mind magic. I won't do that. And anyways, there's an easier solution. We can still make him human, but leave him a guy. I mean, we don't have to change him at all really, apart from making him human so he can't work magic."

Kelly had been quiet while her sister and I discussed these details, but I knew she'd probably have something to say about it.

"Kelly? What do you think of all this?"

She already had a thoughtful look on her face, after listening to the two of us. She shook her head slowly "I'm not sure babe. I can tell you're on the fence about it, I guess I am too?"

After a couple seconds she continued, "I agree we need to do something about grandfather. He's had a hand in messing with your life, he's an enemy of the clann, and he's just generally an evil person. And Keira's plan would let us spare his life... No matter what we do though, there's going to be regrets. I mean, killing him, transforming him, whatever."

She paused again and I could see the communication between them through their connection. I couldn't tell which of them was 'talking' though, only that someone was.

After it stopped Kelly sighed, "As for our mother... She's his accomplice on Earth. And she used me to spy on you. Her crimes may not be as great as his, but I think she's an enemy of the clann as well."

They started 'talking' again over their link. I almost wished I could listen in, but I knew if they wanted me to hear what was being said they'd be saying it out loud, so I just waited quietly.

Finally Kelly nodded, "Ok. We'll go with Keira's original plan. Capture grandfather, transform him like she said from the start. Same thing you did to Liam, basically. Then we'll take care of the other details later. Including our mother."

I didn't reply right away, but I'm sure they both saw my eyebrows creep up. I hadn't expected Kelly to agree to Keira's plan. Or at least, not so quickly.

Keira looked at me and shrugged slightly, "In the end it's your choice Tegan, you're the only one with the power to do it. I know killing him would be the quickest and easiest way to stop him, to ensure he never hurt or threatened anyone else again. But I want more. I want him to pay for what he's done. To Amy, and to all the other humans he's hurt, who's lives he's stolen."

"Ok Keira," I nodded slowly. "I understand."

I gestured towards the books in their hands "We're not going anywhere though until you've both learned that counter-spell."

While the two of them got back to reading, I got a second piece of parchment and repeated the tracking spell. This time I used my own blood, and focused on Connor.

By the time the parchment was consumed I had some relatively good news for my mother.

Connor was alive and appeared in fairly good health. He was in a cell in the dungeon of the Ceallaigh stronghold, but as far as I could see he hadn't been mistreated.