54 - Dinner With Fae (1)

54 - Dinner With Fae (1)
After spending several more hours talking and having Frey explain everything to her, Clare felt her brain was about to explode with the information overload.
Thankfully, Lif came by and announced dinner was to be served soon, allowing Clare the chance to process everything. She knew Xavier was in the same boat as her, looking a little relieved when he heard the familiar’s words.
However as they were about to leave, Frey stopped them and said, “I know in the human world that family is a big, important thing where members love each other but it’s not the same here… Be careful around others and don’t let them speak down to you.”
Clare felt her big family dream shatter but it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it coming. Frey had acted indifferent about the idea of family and with how back stabbing he had made Fae out to be while they were talking, his words were no shocker.
But there had been a small part of her that hoped otherwise. Still, it was better to know than have her hopes crushed at the dinner table.
“Alright, I understand.” Clare nodded her head in understanding.
Happy with her respond, Frey led them to where dinner was being held. It was some distance away from where they had been, Frey explaining they were going to one of the public dining halls where the queen hosted noble Fae and family dinners.
Clare was a little exhausted with all the walking around when they finally got to the dining hall but quickly hid it, remembering Frey’s words.
And when they entered the room, Clare had to use almost all her willpower to keep a straight face on as to not show her surprise at the beauty of the room.
Gold tree branches wove around the room, decorating the walls with multi colored flowers. Balls of blue, white and gold light hung around the flowers, Clare recognizing them to be wisps from the illustrations Frey has shown her earlier of different magical creatures.
In the center of the room was a huge table that seemed to grow out from the ground, a few people already seated at it. But upon noticing who had entered, the Fae already there stumbling out of their tree trunk chairs to bow.
“Greetings your majesty.” One of them greeted in a monotone before glancing up and gazing at Clare. “May I ask who this is?”
“This is her highness, Princess Flora and her consort Prince X.” Frey stated quickly before turning to the couple. “Let’s take our seats.”
Clare silently nodded, deciding to go along with what Frey instructed. She had yet to learn much Fae etiquette but one thing she had learnt was introducing yourself to a Fae higher rank than yourself was a privilege.
And as the second highest rank in the room at that moment aside from Frey, it wasn’t ‘worth’ her time learning about the others seated at the table. All they needed to know was her title to give her the due respect she deserved as their princess.
Clare didn’t really understand the point of it, feeling it was a bit stupid but she wasn’t about to ruin thousands of years of tradition. Even if everyone around the table was technically family.
Of course, Clare still felt quite awkward as she sat next to Frey, X taking a seat on her other side. The Fae at the table glanced at her, expressions blank but Clare knew they were curious.
Clare snuck glances at them too, trying to keep a bored expression on her face. She noticed there were three men in total and two women. She wasn’t sure about ages because they were Fae with ageless skin and hair color didn’t help her figure things out either.
Because as she had learnt, hair color was based on the season you were born in. Not on genes like every other being followed.
White or silver and blue hair was for winter.
Red and orange hair for autumn. Sometimes Fae had yellow in the mix too.
Brown and green hair was for spring.
And finally for summer, you had green hair with flowers in it.
Clare being a summer baby had green hair with lavender flowers. She was a little confused since she had brown roots but Frey explained it was probably because of her werewolf roots and that the brown hair would eventually disappear.
Everyone also had forest green eyes, a sign of their royal blood, so all Clare could tell from the group was that they were all related to her by blood as either uncles or first cousins.
She was a little disappointed she couldn’t find out much but had little time to be when the door suddenly opened. Frey immediately could up and Clare followed suit along with Xavier and the others at the table.
She tried to bow like everyone else as she watched the queen enter, holding Alre’s arm as two other Fae flanked behind her on either side. Both were female Fae with one having red and orange hair while the other had green hair with roses in them.
Once the queen was seated at the head of the table, she raised a hand. “You may be seated so that dinner may begin.”
With those words, Frey and Alre took a seat. One female Sword then took a seat next to Alre while the other stood behind the queen. Clare and Xavier followed suit with sitting down before everyone else did so.
Once everyone else was seated at the table, food appeared at the table almost instantly, a few wisps fluttering around the table before heading back to the gold branches on the wall.
“Thank you most graceful Goddess for the meal.” The Fae Queen murmured in prayer before taking a small bowl of fruit.
When she had done so, everyone followed suit, Clare glancing at the food before her eyes. Most were plant based but there were a few meat dishes as well.
Once she had taken some food, Clare slowly began to eat, loving the flavors. But they were soon dulled by the awkward tension filling the two as everyone continued to silently eat.
Clare wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation. Everything was so different and the tension in the air was making it hard to eat. And the worst part was she couldn’t end it. Only the queen could and she didn’t seem to have a care in the world to do so.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity later, the queen finally said, “Swords, introduce yourselves.”