Chapter 56 Feeling Terrible. PS- Might Have Forgotten The Kind Of Novel I Was In
“It does not seem like you are interested with the events happening around us,”
Maeve— poor Maeve— who was still in shock turned to look at Amir who had spoken, finally giving him her attention.
He was laying on his side propped upwards, his lips pulled into a thin smile. She noticed as well for the first time that day what he was wearing— and adorned with.
Amir’s hair was let down, the jet black hair seemed longer too, swirling around him like the midnight sky and glistening like stars had been breathed into it with a singular celestial looking hairpin. A wide, Victorian-style filigree necklace made of silver with a central teardrop pendant.
His eyes were accentuated with cold, his cheekbones with silver blue shimmers.
He had on a silk dark robe with gold and silver brocade on the shoulders resembling phoenix feathers. Underneath is a black chiffon shirt left completely open from his torso to his waist and large sleeves that gathered at the wrist with ornate metallic cuffs
And billowing silk trousers, of course.
He looked… like a fever dream. Like a… jinn, for a better use of the words.
Maeve looked… well.
There was a floor-length veil made of fine-mesh tulle covering her entire body, shining with glitter-dust and micro-sequins that created a galactic or shimmering star effect across the entire surface with small white jasmines flowers woven directly into her hair and pinned through the mesh, creating a vine-like trail that ran from her head down to her waist.
Underneath, her dress… Not heavy silk, but transparent spider-silk that clung to her skin like a second layer. It shimmered with a faint, oily pearl luster that hugged her frame, looking like the wind ripples over the fabric.
And the smell of milk and freesia drenched her entire being.
She was also barefoot, and the tent they were in… she realized it was moving. People were carrying them somewhere in a palanquin. “Where’s Adrian?”
“He drifted away. Somewhere. I believe he is with your friend,” He wore a small smile at her. Amir looked… so much younger. Softer. “The Irae,”
At the edge of town? Maeve wanted to ask, but she understood why deep down. He clearly didn’t like the idea of her being married to an elf, and he probably thought this was beneath her.
Maybe he was certain she would leave the whole thing halfway through and come find me when she realized it was an institution meant to subjugate her.
It was hard to believe she was being subjugated looking at Amir’s face anyway. “Would you be telling me now why you are so absent-minded?”
The woman who sent me here and I am certain you hate, was once in a relationship with your brother and got pregnant by him. You’re an Uncle! And Cassian, who I’m also certain you hate— is half elf. Is that why he’s glowing? Is that why he has mommy issues? Is that why there’s no Vessel for the Queen? But what happened? Why? Nothing makes sense.
Aegon had said the moment she had realized she bore him a child— which was a source of celebrations for the elves as children were quite rare to come by, she had disappeared all of a sudden.
And they found out before she left that she had made Lir wed her in private, joining her to the branch of each person on Satyr’s life bond— then murdered him.
Maeve had asked how the other elves didn’t remember her if she committed such a terrible sin, and Aegon said she looked different from the girl they met. Like a copy but not the same person… and she didn’t act like she knew them either. They could not challenge her presence without evidence.
It was a large reason why their trust for humans worsened… amongst other reasons.
And Amir… Amir did not even know any of these things had happened.
He was younger when the whole thing had begun, and his father… not wanting to lead the boy into a whole revenge arc— because he knew his child, settled with telling him both Lúthien and Lir had tried leaving the village, and got attacked by some wild animals that lurked around Satyr.
It was what fed his behavior of knowing. Studying. Observing. He did not believe the animals would harm an elf without being attacked— which he blamed on Lúthien somehow.
All of this, of course, was told to her last night with Aegon adding that her and Amir had to wed soon. No reasons. No explanations… and now, here she was.
“You didn’t tell me you guys had Mates,” She wanted to change the topic. She had to. Maeve knew it wasn’t her place to tell him the truth and she probably never would. “Makes me wonder why I am doing this,”
“Mates are… fated beings given to us by our goddess,” He sat upwards, moving closer to her. Maeve fought the urge to move away. “Sometimes people find out when they are young, sometimes… they do not. We have not found a true fated mate pair since the curse began,”
“Ah,” Maeve was beginning to feel uneasy. Amir really did look gorgeous. And why did he keep looking at her like the world revolved around her? “How does one know they’re… fated?”
“Touch,” He responded softly. “Touching your mate is like… being kissed by the rain after years of burning heat. Water that could quench the thirst of a millennium. It’s like finding that one thing that you did not know you were looking for and going ‘ah, there you are,’”
“Sounds complex,” Maeve said. “Then why are you so… happy about this whole hullabaloo? You know you don’t have to, right? I mean, you’re practically selling out heaven to—”
“My happiness is nothing in the face of my people's existence,” Maeve watched the smile slowly go off his face. “Before you returned with the Orcs, I had tried my best to make my people comfortable with whatever might happen. They did not believe you would return at all, especially since there was the trial now. Other elf women stopped it because it took time and they are not very… patient. You were there so long I began to… think you would not return,”
Maeve let out a mix of a scoff and a laugh there. “We were gone for what? Two—”
“Six days,” He corrected her with a sharpness that had her feeling taken aback. When he realized that, he let out a sigh and raked a hand through his hair. “It is… the longest I have been away from you since we… met. I wasn’t sure… It was a strange thing. It was as if… you knew you could not fix the land, and decided to abandon us all here.”
Abandon me, Maeve had heard that part even though he didn’t say it and was beginning to shake her head.
Oh, God, no.
“But you came back, and you did not come back alone,” Amir let a soft smile come to his lips. “So much meat. So much food. The Orcs came, happy to help with what we had here. They are fun, happy and overall different than what we thought. And they hunt for us as well since we cannot kill. Plus this… the idea of a wedding has everyone happy. There is so much… happiness. You have no idea that even if… even if you could not fix the curse… I would not be angry,”
No. No. No. No.
Maeve knew it. She knew it like she knew what 328123 could possibly be… he was having feelings for her.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PARTNERSHIP? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PURE RESPECT THEY HAD?
“The life bond,” Maeve asked because Amir would never tell her about it. Because he had never brought it up. This marriage, as he knew, was a political farce. That was a personal question. For the safety of his people, he would not release sensitive information easily. “I know of the one between man and woman… but the one you people claim as ‘our’ life bond, like the branch thingy, what is it?”
Donttellmedonttellmedonttellme.
Amir adjusted, keeping his hand out. “Give me your hand,”
Maeve stared at it like it was the portal to a black hole. “Why?”
He chuckled softly. “I will not harm you today, or any day. So please, give me your hand, with the back of it resting on my palm,”
She did as he asked. It was then she realized he had soft hands— and long fingers. Maeve watched as he stared at her palm, his eyes glowing slightly before she noticed the lines on her palm… were glowing.
Her eyes widened slightly as she watched little gold translucent vines slowly grow out of it, wiggling when it was like three inches long as she heard herself whisper, “What is happening? You said elves don’t have mana,”
“We do not,” He stated, his hands slowly gliding over the vines. They followed his movement, his eyes crinkling at the edges as he looked up at me, "Every thing that lives has a core that animates them— my people call it Vaeth. We know how to assess it, how to use this essence to know… more of the world around us and how we play our part in it,”
Maeve felt her heart slowly sink. “Are you… are you saying—?”
“The life bond connected with the others opens a gateway and grants you the ability to see the past, present, and the future,” Amir responded, his eyes softening. “It’s a fragile gift, as we know others may try to abuse it which doing so might cause… damage to the rest of our kind, so we are… careful of who we tell,”
Oh.
He told her.
Amir… Amir of Satyr… had feelings for her.