Chapter 1A Story's Beginning

In the middle of a jungle of city buildings filled with false moons shining along the ever awake paths through Boston, a lone maidean fought her way through a sea of dreams, rushing to get back inside the steel walls that loomed ominously over her and so many others. Ever since she was young, city walls always felt like a prison that kept her trapped within the poisonous fire that threatened her world and kin. A pretty prison filled with sweet faux promises, but a prison nonetheless.

A tea kettle scream succeeded where her own mind did not in waking her. The smell of cooking meat and dough filled her nose rousing her just that much more. She couldn't help but wonder what Nessi was making this morning. Mince pies from a random pigeon she harvested, maybe biscuits and gravy with sausage thrown in, or better yet she's finally doing something with the bear meat that's been sitting in the freezer since spring. With a groan she rolled herself out of bed and into the kitchen, grabbing a robe on the way to be somewhat decent in Nessi's presence.

Following the scent of a good meal she wandered down the ladder at the edge of her bed and into the living room, taking note of how organized it was since she left it last night so that she could properly thank her. She swore that if Nessi had never moved in then she would have lost her head if it wasn't attached. Good thing she wasn't a Rokurokubi, otherwise she would really have to worry.

"Good morrow Aibhlinn! 'Nother late start today I see, tsk tsk. You'll ne'er get a husband at this rate. Come now child, sit. Sit! I have Irish stew turned pot pie with pigeon 'stead of lamb fresh out the oven." Nessi cried from the counter top she was settled in at. She wasn't a tall thing, coming in at only a foot and some inches but her personality filled the room in ways size couldn't. Her black eyes devoid of any iris or pupil carefully watched as the steaming stew pie floated its way from inside the firewood oven to a trivet settled in the middle of the small dining room table squeezed into a corner of the kitchen.

Tea cups, saucers, bowls, and spoons followed and settled themselves into their appropriate spots. Grabbing a cloth Aibhlinn carefully lifted the once screaming kettle and placed it onto its own smaller trivet. Breakfast was served. Turning back towards the counter she watched Nessi get up and jump to grab one of the many small bridges Aibhlinn made, so she could easily travel the tiny home, and made her way over to the table, jumping down and settling herself back in against the wall. Tying her coarse hair out of the way Nessi clapped her hands together and the food started serving itself. As a changeling Aibhlinn had telekinetic powers as well, to help ensure that she could wreak havoc on any human family she was placed into as a child. But she much preferred doing things the human way, without magick. It was much more satisfying that way.

"Thank you for the food and for cleaning up the room last night Nessi." Aibhlinn said as she spooned honey and milk into her saucer as the kettle poured itself into her cup.The brownie she lived with was really too good for her. She inhaled the tea fumes as she mixed, thanking the gods that tea was invented. She stopped stirring and put the spoon down on the saucer. Gently lifting the cup she took a small sip of the concoction she had made. Dandelion tea was one of her favorites and she loved when Nessi brewed the leaves in the water as it boiled. To her it personally tasted better as the water soaked in the flavor more that way.

"'Twas noth'in lassie. I enjoy this kind of work, you know that." Nessi replied. Indeed Aibhlinn did know that. Nessi was a mother but her young had long since left the nest and found homes of their own. Nessi missed caring for them. Hence why they made such a great team.

"Regardless thank you. The pie and tea taste great. Do you have any plans for the day while I'm gone?" Aibhlinn asked curiously. As a person who worked in both the Fey and Human worlds Aibhlinn could be incredibly busy, rarely getting a moment's peace much less a day off. It was calm moments like this that she really treasured.

Nessi on the other hand didn't have an official job, she cleaned and cooked Aibhlinn's house for something to do with her days and for payment on letting her stay, especially since Aibhlinn freely gave Nessi whatever she needed or wanted. The small bridges leading all over the house was merely one of many things Aibhlinn had done for the matronly brownie and Nessi payed back in whatever she could. For example the curtains hung over the many windows were hand embroidered by the small brownie. One of her many crafting hobbies and Aibhlinn often came home to some new craft that decorated the comfortable home making it just one step closer to being perfect each time.

"Nay, not really. I was thinking of visiting the Dridder's market to see if I can find some fabrics. Your clothes are getting worn and it's not proper for a lady your age to be runnin' round in torn up skirts, and holey blouses." Nessi ranted as she sipped her tea. Aibhlinn rolled her eyes good naturedly as a grin made its way on her face.

"Tell Lucas I say hello then, and that he and Drucilla should really come around sometime. There isn't much room in this house but the yard has plenty for two tarantulas."She said as she carefully spooned some stew into her mouth. As rambunctious as she was she still behaved like a lady at the dinner table. If only to please Nessi.

"Aye, I will. And you? What does the busy changeling have today? A break I hope."

"Nope, I get to go to work to check in and then do some house calls. Make sure everyone is being treated properly and all that. Here's hoping they are." Aibhlinn raised her tea cup in a toast and Nessi followed her. No she didn't want anything to go wrong today, for that meant abuse and she hated it when that happened. Especially to children in the system. They already lost so much, they didn't need more pain on top. "And then after that I promised Tesla I would bring some sassafras to her. She's having issues finding a job. Apparently a lot of humans don't like it when females are seven feet tall and muscled. They find it terrifying."

"Why is she trying to find a human job anyways? There are plenty of jobs for a big, strong lass like her in the Fey world. She doesn't need a human one."

"Apparently she met someone," Aibhlinn started "a human someone."and Nessi straightened up quickly as a flash, her full attention on Aibhlinn.

"A human! What does she want with a human? There are far more interesting lads in our world. Less boring, more respectful and, well, not human." Nessi cried out. Aibhlinn laughed at Nessi's outrage. While she understood very well where Nessi was coming from, especially in her line of work, she also knew there were some very nice, respectful, and not boring humans out there. And she hoped for Tessa's sake this was one of them.

"Well this human is special according to Tessa, they're lively, respectful of the earth, and most definitely not boring," Aibhlinn said with a wink, "Apparently they remind her of dryad." Nessi sniffed at this, "They're also not a lad but a lass. Tiana is her name I believe. Tessa wants to be respectful of her culture like Tiana is of ours so she's trying to find a human job to get human money to go on human dates. It's why she asked me, I'm one of the only Fey who works in their world that's not an ambassador of some sort or work for that Bureau." Aibhlinn paused and sighed. Staring into her teacup she could feel sorrow and guilt, rising and mixing as she remembered her own struggles with the world that as comfortable as it felt, she never quite belonged to. "Unfortunately it's hard to get her anything since she grew up Ilragorn. She learned to sharpen swords and wield an axe, not English and math. She's lucky to know how to read a little bit of Orcish. Not to mention we would have to fake her documents."

She gripped her teacup in both her hands and felt more than saw Nessi's hands grip one of hers.

"I understand ceann baeg." Nessi said quietly. Ceann baeg, little one. It was an inside joke since Nessi was quite a bit older than Aibhlinn but she was also quite a bit smaller than her too.

Aibhlinn smiled at Nessi before glancing out towards the window. Storm clouds hung in the air blocking any sunlight that might have been coming through. Picking up on her thought process Nessi commented, "They've been there a week now, not a good sign that is. Be careful out there Aibhlinn. Something's stirring I'm sure of it." Aibhlinn nodded gravely, smile dropping, she could feel the energy as well.

Letting go of Nessi's hands, Aibhlinn blinked and all the dishes lept from the table into the sink and left overs floated gently to a waiting Tupperware before sealing itself away into the fridge. Dishes waited patiently in a line as the lather brush worked on them one at a time before rinsing themselves clean and moving to the drying rack. Thankfully there were never many dishes. Their home was far too small to house more than five people comfortably, depending on their size of course.

"Well I think it's time for me to get ready for the day. Thank you again for breakfast, and Nessi, have fun at the market. Make sure to grab yourself something too." Aibhlinn said rising from the table, smoothing out her dress robe in the process. Giving a small wave to Nessi she headed back to her room to grab some clothes before taking a bath. Given her good record she could afford to be a few minutes late to work to use a little sassafras luck magic of her own.

•

Aibhlinn slipped and slid slightly as her boots struggled to catch their grip to the sidewalks she trotted along. Maybe Nessi was right about needing a new pair. Rain had started sprinkling during her bath and now it fell heavily on her way to work, largely obstructing her view, and the large galaxy printed umbrella she held in one hand did nothing to keep the water from hitting her, to the point that she wondered why she even owned the stupid thing when it rarely ever helped her. Her other hand clutched a cotton candy-colored backpack to her chest, trying her best to keep it and the contents it held as dry as possible. Then her eyes finally caught sight of her destination, the whole reason she was out in this storm, her workplace.

Hurrying up the steps she burst through the doors to the quaint little building that was home to her office. Upon entering, she set her umbrella right by the door and promptly rushed to her desk and collapsed into her chair. Taking a deep breath, she focused her mind to get ready for the day's tasks. She sat up fully once her breath had evened out and pulled out a folder that contained multiple smaller folders, from her backpack and began to focus her mind into her work mode. She searched through the papers for only a minute before taking out the appropriate ones and settled them to the side of her desk before replacing her laptop with a bit of excitement. Opening the laptop she started to clack on the overused keys and started the old hunk of an electronic.

Today was the day she got to visit a few of her kids in their new homes. She worked for child protective services and was in charge of home placing and the inspections that came after a child was placed in a foster home. She was also in charge of withdrawal if it was, unfortunately, necessary. Each folder contained information on a child she had placed, their history and where they were now. Along with the foster family's information.

She hummed to herself while she started to flip through her planner to see which children she got to see today.

Brown eyes, short black hair and a slim pale body belonged to a girl named Abby Tarinhall. Age 10, rescued from a home that she apparently was kidnapped into after the "mother" came across Abby as a babe with her actual parents drugged out of their minds. Thinking that she was helping, she took Abby and brought her up in the family. Unfortunately by law it was considered kidnapping regardless and the mother had to face jail time. Abby had been placed in the system since her parents had ODed in those 9 years she was taken.

The next one was another girl, new to the system. Mixed skin on the lighter side, like caramel, with dark brown eyes and even darker curly brown hair peeking out of a hijab. This one was a really sad story and tugged on her heartstrings every time. Almost 12 years old and she had almost everything happen to her. Scars from gunshots, knives, cigarette burns. A black dot under her knee cap after a pencil was stabbed into her by her own brother and left the led behind. Even her eyes held scar damage as they had originally been blue before the iris had been burned after a trip to an ophthalmologist by her own teacher. Starved, dehydrated, and even been molested by members of her family but never fully touched as her father planned to sell her for a high dowery. No, this one was one of the worst cases she'd seen and yet little, and she was little, Farheen lived up to her name's meaning in still being happy and curious. She would always be affected but it was good to see her fighting past it. She had been placed into her uncle's care for now in his Masjid, the name for a Muslim church Aibhlinn had found out, until they could determine a more permanent solution.

The next child was a boy, Hikaru of 14 years of age, tall thin and had incredibly pale skin with white hair and almost silvery eyes. The son of a Yuki-onna, Aiko and a human male, Brent. Usually cases like this were because the human parent couldn't understand the magic they were with and so in fear took it out on the Fey, or the Fey became too haughty and treated their human partner as a slave. This time however was far more common than that, but just as sad. Brent genuinely loved his family to the point that when Aiko died of a sudden disease he drank himself to death in his sorrow. Leaving poor Hikaru by himself. He was in the American system until his Aunt Akemi came to get him.

Green eyes widened as a small smile crept up on her pale freckled face. Of all the children she had in her care, this one had to be her absolute favorite. Of course she loved all of the kids that came to her through the system, even if they did come to her through sad means, it was the whole reason why she was here in the first place, in this job and in this suffocating city after all, but this one child held a special place in her heart.

Wide bright blue eyes were hidden behind round spectacles and long dreadlocked hair surrounding a dark, freckled face flashed through her mind.

Nicholas Benjamin, an eight-year-old boy in the system since he was three when his parents were killed. In the official police files a wild dog or some other equally large animal had gone rabid and his parents had been an unfortunate collateral in its rampage. What had happened in actuality was that a serpopard, an Egyptian creature with a large cat's body and the neck and head of a snake, had somehow got loose in downtown Boston where they just happened to be living. The poor boy had seen the entire thing from his crib and has been traumatized by it ever since. Especially since nobody believed him about what had happened, believing it to be a child's imagination exaggerating what had really happened.

It didn't help that Nick had the sight, whether he was originally meant too or if it had been a result of what he had seen no one knew. Whatever the reason Nick now had the gift of seeing through Fey glamour, there were limits of course. Certain Fey were far stronger than others but he could see through most, and that caused an issue in giving him a home and life he deserved.

No one wanted to house a child who claimed to see things that, to the normal human eye, couldn't be seen. Granted living in Rhode Island, as heavily populated with humans and polluted with toxins as it was, there weren't too many to be seen, as most Fey were not powerful enough to handle living in such an area, but that didn't mean there were not any around at all. After all she had met nymphs who lived in a nearby park on several occasions and the rivers and streams back in her hometown had many a merrow that she often played with before and after school. And she herself was a changeling, a fairy who replaced a human couples' baby when she herself was a babe, in order to wreak havoc and bring bad luck to them over and over till they banished her. She snorted, as memories of her own first family came up. They had actually loved her no matter what damage she had brought to them and they had earned her love in return until they had left her.

She quickly shook her head to bring herself back to reality, there was no reason to go back down that road. She had come too far and had too many people depending on her to go down that route. Glancing at the clock on the other side of the office space she saw that there were still two hours to go before she had to make the first check-up. Groaning she smacked her laptop with her hand and it finally booted up. Typing in her password she pulled up the files on the newest addresses the children had been sent to, so that she could figure out the best routing system to each home.