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A Trade of Names

November 6th: A Faerie Asks for Someone's Name

The elf knew what she was doing was risky. To approach any of the fae was dangerous, and one that was a known exile of the courts doubly so. Unlike the others, they were no longer bound by the same rules, and could choose whether to risk breaking them. And yet, the elf knew better than to think her other options were any better. It was time to take a chance.

Halelia left the village behind, stepping beneath the shadow of the oak and leaping from root to root within the forest. She glanced over her shoulder, half-afraid that she was being followed, but none of the other elves and half-elves that populated the village were anywhere to be seen. They were likely preparing for the coming delegation of the 'proper' fae, due tomorrow, and were less interested in one little troublemaker than they were with preparing everything for their guests.

She had other plans. She had no interest in being there for the courts.

Stumbling around the roots of a particularly old oak tree, she realized she was in the right place with the faerie lights overhead. They were dull, barely there, and even her night vision could barely pick them out from the fireflies that called the tree home, but they were there nonetheless, flickering in green and red and blue.

"Nai, Nai, whisperer of the willows and outreached oak, hear me," Halelia whispered. "I come to trade. Nai, Nai, I come to trade."

She repeated herself with each new portion of the tree she touched, feeling, fondling for the gap that meant she'd found - or, more likely, been led to - the hole in the tree that was sometimes there and sometimes not. When the faerie within was willing to talk, or had something she wanted, then the tree was open. When she didn't -

But it was open. The young girl stumbled through, her ears reddened from the chill night and slowly warming again as she stepped within the shelter of the trunk. The passage in stretched out before her, too long and too short by turns. It pressed at her in impossible ways, only to finally spit her out with a strange contraction in the faerie's one-room home. Warm green light greeted her, and she turned to face its source.

Nai sat on a twisted throne of wood and vine, pulled from the earth and blackened at the tips with touches of rot and fire. The faerie herself was scarcely better, one half of her face burned to ash and the other touched by the gray-burn of frost. She ranged from ragged pants to scarcely breathing, but her one remaining eye was soft enough to take some of the fear from her appearance.

"You called my name, girl. Must be important."

"I want to trade."

"I heard, I heard. But trade is expensive, when you can't go home."

"I know."

"Must want something pretty badly, then."

Halelia nodded, and Nai gestured. The tree groaned around them, pulling a little tighter as the passage out closed. Little tremors shook the floor as minor servants of bark and earth, of stone and gravel dragged themselves from beneath the tree, pulling with them cups of shaped wood that were filled with a drink that she didn't recognize, yet steamed like tea and filled the air with fruity scents. One brought the faerie herself a cup, one she could barely hold in damaged hands, while Halelia took hers quietly.

"Well, girl?" the faerie asked. "Are you going to tell me what you want?"

There was no discussing price. There would be only one. It was good, then, that what she wanted was exactly what she'd have to pay.

"I want to get away."

"Heh. I can't help you there. The forest is broad, with too many paths claimed by kin of both courts." Nai shook her head. "And why would you want to leave?"

"They're coming. Winter. They're coming...and they're opening the village to them."

Nai hissed, half-reaching to the grayed half of her face before she stopped herself. She shook her head.

"What do you expect me to do?"

"Guide me. Tell me where to go."

"Hmmph. The only place that might be safe is below the world. The old tunnels, beneath the forest."

"I'll take them. Please."

"...I see. Oh, I see." Nai chuckled. "You would give me your name."

"Yes."

"And I would guide you, because with your name, you would be nothing but mine."

That was the idea. A faerie with your real name was able to take control, do what they wanted, live as you if they so wished. You would be nothing but their puppet, their power taking full control of you, until they decided to release you or until you had their name to use against them.

"And what will you do when you reach the other side?" Nai asked.

"Wait."

"For what, hmm?"

"For you."

"...Ah. Aha. I see." Nai, twice-burned, twice-banished, smiled in the twisted way that only she could. "I lead you away, and then you -"

"Serve you."

"...A banished fae and her elf servant. A most interesting proposition." She chuckled. "Will you not grow bored of serving me?"

"Better a servant than a prisoner."

Nai nodded, not restraining herself from touching her face this time. Either court was trouble, but one was far more restrictive than the other, particularly for those that were not fae themselves.

"A deal, then. Your name, girl. Your name."

Halelia gave it. There was no lie; she needed guidance, the sort that only a faerie in control could give, or she would never make it out of the forest alive...nor would Nai ever trust her on the other side, if she didn't deal honestly now.

Many would have called her mad to make a deal with a faerie and expect to get anything out of it. But she knew what was coming, and she knew that they were both desperate enough that the usual faerie games would take second place to survival.