Moriko's mind spun as she sat back down ohrohe idea of suddenly being in charge of raising a young dryad who would also be her step-granddaughter had been a shock. Fuyuko had been fourteen when she became their ward, which is a lot different than raising a baby.

  Thankfully, it seems it wouldn't be that bad. Aside from the dey until spring, Norumi said it would take a while for a dryad's spirit to awaken.

  The idea of being 'gifted' a se being was, well, strao say the least. But Norumi's expnation made sense as to why she would entrust her spiritual child to their care, and as Mordecai had noticed, it was a gift of trust as much as anything else.

  When Mordecai accepted the 'pledge' of the future gift, Moriko turned her attention to the sensations of faerie magic at work. It was far different than anything she knew and she was beginning to uand why he used the phrase 'asses fic' regarding this type of power.

  Chi was a straightforward type of power. It was stored within one's body, maed physically, and was trolled by one's will.

  Divine magic was more plicated. The energy for her spell prayers came in part from herself and in part from Sakiya and could be viewed as a mixture of her personal strength of will, her faith, and Sakiya's blessings. Moriko trolled the application of the magic, but she could also feel the faint touch of her goddess's will upon each prayer. Moriko would not be able to use these spells with plete freedom, though she also couldn't imagine herself using them in a way that would be ao Sakiya. So it was mostly an academic distin.

  Faerie magi the other hand... Well, Kazue had less trouble with it. She said it felt somewhat simir to her owouched are magic. Which made seive to what Moriko was beginning to uand about faerie magic. The 'logic' of it did feel a lot like a dream, where the strahings made perfect seil you woke up. Or perhaps the logic of a young child making up a fantastical story; she'd heard enough of those as her sibling had been growing up.

  Weirdly enough, there were also belief-like aspects to it that Moriko did irely uand. The part where believing that the magic worked made it stronger was easy enough, but paradoxically, disbelieving in the power of faerie magic toly acted more like belief, though it also seemed likely to twist it into more of a curse. As far as she could make out, indiffereo the magic being of faerie in was the stro defe least, as far as mis go.

  Musing oure of faerie magic occupied her mind as she observed the effeordecai gifting his daughter and son-in-w the items that they had crafted. She was getting a better idea of why her awakening to the power of a Faerie Queen had enhanced her ability to run through the air. It was a dream she held tightly to and worked to perfect with her own power. Not that everyone's boons had reflected so precisely, but every boon did tie to the person somehow.

  After that, it was time to finish the interviews. Satsuki's te arrival had interrupted the flow of events, but it had certainly drawn attention to her. So while Moriko, Kazue, and Mordecai made decisions and bargains regarding the lives of others, the ail seemed to be having the time of her life socializing.

  Moriko was a bit envious at the moment. Not that she wao be socializing like that exactly, but taking a break from being bound by duty to deal with all of this would be he process was b and even a touch irritating at times. Some of the people got her genuine sympathy, but others she didn't feel very sorry for and there was a sele that she actively disliked ahat they somewhat deserved what they were getting.

  It did help that lying to faerie royalty while in their court was difficult for most beings. It made it harder for their supplits to spin falsehoods into their stories to make themselves look better.

  The sun was beginning to set by the time they were doh all their duties and Moriko was happy to begin enjoying the feast.

  She did always enjoy a good party, after all.

  Bonfires and torches provided both light a in this wiwilight, the tiny crystals in the white path had a tiny bit of innate luminance, and many types of fey, such as their pixies, could glow as well. So darkness did not halt this party, though those who felt the ost easily had to beg off early.

  Eating, drinking, and dang. These were most of her favorite activities at a party of any sort, and what dang she got to do! There were several types of fey folk here who could fly, but her favorite to dah were the sylphs. Their movement through the air was so incredibly carefree and the wind itself moved with them, making their every step and bouncredibly fluid.

  Kazue was easy to persuade to join in the aerial dang and the sight of her wife ughing in pleasure as they danced well above the ground was a beautiful thing to behold.

  Mordecai was not quite so eager to join, but he didly resist either.

  His style of dang, even in the air, treoward the more formal forms, where the patterns and moves were well known and the skill was in the execution of the performa was a strong trast to the free form and more chaotig of the sylphs and simir tribes. So naturally, she, Kazue, and a sele of their new friends ganged up on him.

  Moriko and Kazue started by both taking one of his hands and f him to alter his patterns; most formal dances were designed with pairs in mind, not three people in a triahat alone made him improvise, but that wasn't enough for Moriko. She wao draw more out of him. So the sylphs dove in to join them by dang around aweerio. Everything was doo the rhythm of the music, but that rhythm had also bee looser at Kazue's mental dires. She'd enced their musis to improvise rather than py specific pieces.

  Mordecai snorted with amusement and said, "Fihen," which was all the warning they got.

  His arms slid around their waists before he twisted into a sharp spin and flung them out and up, further in the air. Moriko and Kazue both ughed breathlessly as they caught trol of themselves again and spun to watch what their husband to. Mordecai then cpped his hands together as his entire body nguage ged. He no loepped to the music but leapt almost sideways in a wide-legged stahat swept his feet up into the air. The motioed an almost tinuous circle of his feet and body as he moved. Mordecai also showed off a trick as he tio use the air walk teique but eled it through his hands. This let him kick off into a wild spin with his feet flung wide, yet there was a certain precision and trol to it.

  Like he was kig people.

  Moriko stared for a moment as she realized he was 'cheating'. She wouldn't call it exactly a kata, and it certainly wasn't a style she reized, but she could tell that he ractig a move set. When and where had he learhat style? Well, 'when' was going to be 'over two thousand years ago', but where? Had it died out or was it simply popur somepce else? There were certais to the wild, whirling style she felt she could incorporate into her own teiques.

  That was whearted ughing. She'd tried to get him to use a less stylized form of dance, awisted it into using a very stylized but wild form of dahat was actually a fighting style. She couldn't fault him for that.

  Also, it looked a bit silly in his current garb. The formality of the pseudo-military uniform entirely cshed with a dan that spent almost half of its time upside down.

  She and Kazue rejoined him when he'd finished showing off and happily embraced him. "Thank you, Love," Moriko said before she kissed him. They had a few more dances, but after that, Moriko wao return to the feasting. Moriko also took the time to che on Fuyuko, whom she found curled up with a pile of small dragons and various faerie younglings.

  The evening was ing up and they had retively few guests remaining. Most fey could travel swiftly back to their home realms no matter the distance, so the trip was not arduous for them. Many had also gohrough to the mortal world and found aodations there. A smaller number had been io stay the night inside of the underground space that roughly reflected their dungeon, which is where the youngling that Fuyuko was napping with were going to end up.

  Moriko's enjoyment of the feast was marred by only one i he end. A fey courtier struck up a versation with her as she was refilling her gss of honey wine, which was fine, but theried to move beyond the simple fttery of mild flirtation. She'd learo deal with that, it was simply part of any courtly life it seems, based on what she'd been taught by the princesses when she and Kazue were in Ekuihere were limits to that, however, and his smile had already begun to insinuate more even before he went to 'casually' y a hand on her arm.

  She lifted her foot slightly and drove the heel of her shoe into his shadow. The sylvan man's body went rigid as she caught him in a cage of her dark lightning.

  "It seems that We o make something clear," Moriko said in a bored tone of voice, though she also made sure to project her voice so that all nearby could hear her clearly. "While We aowledge many, including Ourselves, have an open view of 'sport', We have willingly and happily joined a closed retionship. None of Us are avaible outside of that retionship, and any attempts to tempt any of Us otherwise will be looked upon unkindly."

  With that, she turned her ba the courtier and walked away, freeing him and his shadow in the process.

  Moriko was seething inside, but she khat the best impression would be made by remaining calm oside. When she had been unattached, this had still been one of her stro boundaries. She had never knowingly slept with a married person. Well, unless everyone was involved at the same time, or it was clear that there was some sort of permission, but that was different. And even one of the high fey should know better than to assume that she might be avaible. If he'd just asked what the agreement was between her and her spouses, Moriko would have been fih it and just let him know that she was not avaible.

  But her husband and wife were there and their presence was soothing. With the mood cooled, they collected Fuyuko, their familiars, and Udup. Carmil had apparently found her own pany for the night. Most of the fey younglings had already been collected by their elders, but those who remained were brought inside by their inhabitants.

  Norumi and Haolong deed an invitation to stay; crossing over outside of their woods was still taxing on them, and there was little point iaying here on the faerie side.

  Satsuki had been io stay as well, though Moriko was not certain how she felt about the woman. She had no direct issues about Satsuki being one of Mordecai's former lovers, Moriko had plenty of those of her own.

  No, Moriko's issue was that she got the distinct feeling that she was not the first woman to challenge Mordecai with the words 'make me'. Worse, part of her was dangerously curious about how that had pyed out with Satsuki.

  She knew better than to even think that too loudly, as she didn't want to actually know, and she was going to have to find some time to meditate on the issue. paring one's self to a former lover was a bad idea. But for tonight, she was simply going to enjoy the pany of her husband and wife.

  Zagaroth