Unexpected Bonds
POV: Alexandra
I walked out of the house encouraged that Jess was probably going to be able to have her pups in the future. I smiled at myself for at least helping her out. Whisperia was out in the middle of the field speaking to herself or so I thought. As I neared her, I saw a small animal in her lap. She was stroking what looked like a yellow rabbit. She smiled up at me as I neared, “I found this little guy out here injured. Do you think the potion would work on her?” I shrugged, “I don’t really know but we can bring her back to the house. Lucy can talk to animals so I’m sure she can tell her what ails her and we can figure it out. Sadly, we don’t have an extra potion that will work on the creatures here.” She sighed and looked down at the animal, “I understand. At least we can try to help her with traditional means and Lucy can tell us if she’s in a terrible amount of pain and I can feed her some beleesy plant.” Beleesy plants were known to be an effective pain killer for the animals in Vellum. The only place you can get beleesy plants were in the deepest part of Blackwood. House Batiste makes some profit on it by dealing with Toby’s family since that is farmland. I sat down and stroked the small animal. It looked up at me at that moment and nudged my hand. I felt a shock of warmth as the creature snuggled with my hand. I looked up at Whisperia, “What is this creature? Does it normally give off such warmth?” She looked at me confused, “Warmth? No, it’s just a sunbeam rabbit. They are often found in these fields since they have the most exposure to the sun.” I thought that perhaps the rabbit understood my soul parentage and knew that she was in safe hands since she was created by my soul father.
I closed my eyes and inhaled the clear and crisp air to give myself a moment to catch my breath before I began the ritual. I knew this would center me for the best results. Whisperia spoke, “Are you just about ready? I don’t want to hurry you along but I need to get back to the Glades so we can wrap up over there.” I opened my eyes and nodded, “Yep but before that…can I ask you a question?” She smiled, “You mean besides the one you just did?” I giggled, “Very clever, dear aunt. I just wanted to ask about the little girl Tilly.” She frowned and looked down, “It was so sad to see that happen.” I nodded, “I agree. Were you guys able to give her the potion?” She smiled and nodded, “Yes, we thought she was going to pull through even. She slept through the night but during that time she passed away in her sleep. I was there when it happened. It was very peaceful, she just stopped breathing.” I sighed, “Do they know why the potion didn’t work?” She shook her head, “Doc did say he would do a post-death analysis and send it to you when he was ready to report on it. He thought you might ask that question knowing how invested you were in healing the child.” I picked a blade of grass out of the field and let the wind carry it out of my hand, “I think we should get started.” I closed my eyes and focused.
Sometime later I produced the bowl of tears of the sun and we were on our way back to the house. We walked down into the basement where my parents had set up a hearth for me and I had decided this would be my lab as well. Jheelis was in the room putting away the supplies we had brought from Seely. He looked back and smiled a big toothy grin at Jheelis, “I don’t believe we’ve met sweet, beautiful lady.” She ducked behind me and I giggled, “Sorry Jheelis, Whisperia is painfully shy. You won’t get anything out of her.” He shrugged, “I don’t mind. She will eventually open up to me.” I pushed on his chest as he began to approach her, “Best to be balanced here. She may seem really timid but she is a powerful witch that will make you pay for getting in her space. Moreover, she is the sister of the King of Witches, you really don’t want to upset him.” He threw his hands up, “Sorry Whisperia, I don’t mean to offend. I just happen to think she is incredibly beautiful and I wanted to get to know her.” I shook my head, “She’s much older than you. She’s my aunt after all.” He smirked, “Works for me. I like older women. I will heed your warning and back off but I hope to be afforded the opportunity to show her that I am a great guy.” He looked over my shoulder at her and winked, “I should get going now. Your mom said she’d show me to the room they set up for me. She wants me to get settled in since I will be going back and forth for now.” He walked out of the room and Whisperia exhaled, “Thanks Xan. I don’t know what he wanted with me.” I turned at her and giggled, “Has a man never flirted with you?” She blushed, “F-flirt? He was flirting with me?” I nodded, “Sure seemed that way to me.”
We set to work on the potion and after a while, we had a dark purple liquid in a case of vials the Queen had sent with us. I didn’t know if it was a great idea to send Jheelis out today so I would send him late tomorrow morning. I grabbed a vial so that I could give it to him to heal the deep scratch on his cheek. I wanted to go check on Jess and I needed to set my room up to have Lucy with me. I didn’t want her playing with things that could hurt her so I felt like I had to small childproof my room. I turned to Whisperia, “Thanks for coming for me. I think we’re done for the time being.” She nodded and opened the portal in my lab. She turned to me, “If I were you, I would probably lock up the room and seal it with your fire magic. This will prevent anyone from coming in with a portal. Those vials are pretty valuable.” I nodded at her, “I fully intended to. That potion isn’t easy to make.” After she left, I heard a knock on the door and Jheelis stepped in. I handed him the vial, “Just the man I was going to go see. Here take it, just a word of warning that you’ll probably be out for a long while during the healing. That makes my plan to send you tomorrow with the first batch useless. I guess that’s fine since I’d like to talk to Ny first.” He looked down at the bottle, “This will take the scar away?” I nodded at him, “It should. Did you need something from me?” He didn’t take his eyes off the bottle but he did nod, “Yeah, your mother said that it was nearly time for dinner.” I gasped, “How long was I down here?” I scooped up the sunbeam rabbit that Whisperia left and walked out of the room, “I need to find Lucy too.”
I shooed him out of the room and I locked then sealed the room and we went up the stairs to the foyer. Lucy had been waiting in the room with Ny. She jumped up and ran toward us then stopped when she saw the rabbit in my hands, “She’s hurt.” I nodded at her, “Whisperia found her in the meadow just outside of the woods. I figured I would bring her here so you could tell us what is going on with her.” She nodded then took the rabbit from me, “She’s pregnant but she thinks something happened to her babies because her tummy hurts.” A thought had dawned on me when she mentioned pregnancy, “Wait for me here, I think I know someone who can help.” Derek had left me and Whisperia to join Toby in Jess’s room so he could help watch her. I figured Toby could be spared so I went to grab him. He told me that he could perform the diagnostic on the rabbit but it would likely take some other magic to heal her since it was a pregnant animal. He thought maybe Tyleesh would be the best one to treat her. He came down with me and he noticed Jheelis leaning on the wall in the corner and he whispered to me, “God, he’s gorgeous. Who is he?” I whispered back, “He’s a fae from the King’s court. He’s helping to move some potions to Seely for me. I don’t think he is interested in men though. He hit on Whisperia earlier.” He blinked at me stunned, “Really?” I nodded, “She didn’t take well to it either. She hadn’t realized he was flirting with her.” He sighed, “Tragic.” We walked up to the rabbit and Toby directed Lucy to place her on the blanket we brought down and he conducted the water diagnostic test. He shook his he and chuckled, “Well, Ms. Lucy, her babies are fine. She has indigestion from something she ate. Tyleesh can help you take care of her. He’s in the greenhouse if you want to bring her out to him. He’s fae from the forest tribe so naturally, he would be inclined to help care for animals.”
Jheelis leaned forward, “Did you say Tyleesh of the forest tribe?” I looked back at him, “Yeah, he’s a ward of my house since Queen Reina asked my grandfather to take him in.” He clenched his jaw, “You said he’s in the greenhouse?” Ny sprang to her feet, “You shouldn’t go there just yet. I don’t know if he will be ready to see you.” He groaned in frustration and walked over to the door. I shouted at him, “Where are you going?” He stopped as his hand wrapped around the doorknob, “Out. I need to take a walk to get some air.” I shot a look at Ny but turned back to him, “Please be careful. These woods can be easy to get lost in.” He squeezed the knob so hard that you could see the white of his knuckles, “Fine, I will try.” He left the house, slamming the door behind him. It caused Ny to jump and prompted a whistle out of Toby, “Gorgeous and brooding. I think I’m going to need a glass of wine.” He walked off toward the dining room as my mother walked into the foyer, “What the hell was that?” I turned to her, “That would be Jheelis throwing a hissy fit but I’m not quite sure why. I’m sure Ny can explain that to me. Right, Ny?” She sighed and sat back down on the bench near the front door, “Well, the story was that their parents died but in reality…the mother was sent back to Seely at the King’s orders. He made her a concubine as punishment for betraying the Seely Realm.” I gave a confused look, “So you mean to tell me sending Tyleesh and Panshad wasn’t really necessary.” She widened her eyes and shook her head vigorously, “Oh no! My father would have had them executed in front of their mother if my mother had not sent them away. Your grandfather rescued them and her from that fate.” My mother saw the tears pooling in Ny’s eyes and walked over and sat next to her. She pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back, “Oh dear. What life must you have had to have such a man as a father? I’m so glad we never got to meet him. He happened to be on a hunt when we were visiting.” I spoke after Ny composed herself, “I’m confused though. Why would Jheelis care about Tyleesh?” She fidgeted with her hands and sighed, “Because the concubine in the King’s court is also his mother. Jheelis and Tyleesh are half-brothers.”
