The Fae King's Ruin

The Help

“Are you approving this trading agreement scheduled for the fifth of the month?” Aislin asked Avery as the latter thumbed through the contents of a large folder.

“Mhmm,” he hummed, glancing at her. “Agreements from that pile are for approval.”

“Then what else does this need so you can release it?”

“My signature. Oh, and the official stamp of my office.”

Aislin thought about it. “And what does your pile require?”

“Uhh, reports, and more agreements that will power and feed the isolated patinas for the next three years.”

Aislin frowned. “That sounds like a logistical nightmare.”

“Not really, since the portals are a huge help. The goods just need a lot more manpower to be able to deliver it from one patina to the other due to the size of the portal that would have to be summoned and kept open for an extended period of time.”

Still, it seemed to her as if there was too much work being applied for single shipments. She had already sifted through a handful of the agreements and had become quite curious if there was something that could be done to expedite such processes.

“I think I would like a tutor to learn what I must when it comes to the trading you facilitate for other Fae settlements,” Aislin announced after a few moments of silence. “But not only that. I want to learn about the other things you do as well when you run the Seelie Court. You do things very differently than we do now in Mhoryga and I find that I want to help you optimize certain areas that need it.”

If she had been nervous before revealing what she desired to do, that feeling would have been washed away by the brilliant smile that broke over Avery’s face. Despite his hair sticking out in odd directions from having run his fingers his through it multiple times, the rumpled nature of his white dress shirt, and the tired quality of the tightness around his eyes, his bright grin had seemed to wash it all away.

"I would be thrilled to personally oversee your education, Aislin,” he said enthusiastically. "Maybe this could be a learning opportunity for us both. As long as you aren't busy, of course.”

"Perhaps we can shadow each other in the afternoons. Take right now as an example,” she said. "Just sitting here and helping you has opened my eyes to a very important aspect in the kingdom.”

"Not to mention, I get a huge motivation boost working with you beside me."

Aislin pinched her lips together. "Maybe this is not such a good idea after all."

"No! No, I'm kidding!" he insisted. Avery's grin turned sheepish as he combed his fingers through his hair again. "I swear I was joking. Of course, I will behave. I promise upon my crown that I shall be strictly professional during our… er, private tutoring.”

She did not believe him for a second, especially with the kind of innocent sparkle he had in his golden eyes, but she let him think she was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Honestly, if males were as easily sidetracked by working with their significant others, then it came to her as no surprise that they had tried their hardest to keep females out of important political and organizational platforms until recently.

Shaking her head, Aislin proceeded to duck down and read through the rest of the agreement when the loud 'bang!' of the door alerted them to the presence of none other than Lady Catteline. Avery scowled at his favorite cousin, setting down a heavy glass figurine of a turtle over the paper he had been studying before standing. 

"Catt, not that it is not nice to see you because it usually is, but what are you doing here?”

The Lady, however, was not paying attention to him. Her cat-like, slitted green eyes were trained on Aislin. 

As she strutted closer, she tried not to swallow in fear at the sheer focus that the King's cousin had. The last time the Princess had been on the receiving end of her stare had been when Catteline had gotten into a screaming match with her own cousin, right after they both discovered the Proxy Clause that Aislin masterminded.

Was there some odd chance that Catteline’s ire at what she had done was delayed by a couple of odd weeks and the Lady of Montfoltier had decided that Aislin should receive it now?

Catteline, in all her burnt orange-gowned glory, stopped just in front of her and said, “I need you.”

Honest to gods, with the fear Aislin felt, one would think that Catt was conscripting her to help hide a body. “With what?” she asked, her voice a little shaky.

“You have been taught to fight, am I correct?”

Aislin blinked at her. “Uh…”

The blonde female rolled her eyes in impatience. “What’s tripping you up with what I asked? It’s a yes or no question.”

“Catt! Don’t talk like that to the Princess,” Avery chastised heavily, but the two females in the room were past hearing anything outside their own sphere of conversation.

“I want to know if you can teach me how to fight like a princess,” she said, no hint of mirth on her severe profile. “I’m assuming that your cousin taught you how.”

“He did,” Aislin answered slowly before shaking her head. “Forgive me, but I don’t understand. Has something happened to you? Should we be concerned?”

Catteline quickly shook her head ‘no’. “No, nothing has happened. At least not yet. But I want to be ready, just in case.” The Lady took a seat on the chair opposite them. “I have seen the way you walk around these halls, Aislin, and it was only recently that I realized I would never be able to feel as freely as you do in the home of people who had once been your enemies if I did not know how to defend myself even without the need for guards.”

Avery sat down, frowning at his cousin. “Catt, what had brought this on? Is something the matter?”

She sighed heavily. “I just need to be able to learn defense from someone who understands the position I am in. Aislin had been heir apparent to her brother once and Unseelie politics is dirtier than a bar table. I want to have the same set of skills that allowed her to survive in that snake pit.”

“Because you have realized you had finally, fully entered one yourself,” Aislin added for Catt, seeing the flash of truth in her green eyes and finally understanding her point. Still, she shook her head, unsure of how to proceed. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin, Catteline. Aelthrys had been the mastermind behind all the skills you see in me that you seem so deadset on having. And given previous encounters, I do not think you would appreciate working with him.”

Her shoulders began to deflate. “So you have no idea how to teach me?”

She shrugged. “Not the most technical ones, but I can go through the basics with you. Besides, I think I have to start from scratch all over again since I hadn’t trained in a very long time.”

A slow smile crept its way on to Catteline’s glossed lips even as Avery shook his head and asked, “Aelthrys trained you? How?”

Aislin frowned. “Sword, mostly. But I can do hand-to-hand as well when in a pinch. He thought it was a good skill to have, and it is.”

As the King sat reeling, Catteline turned to her. “Great,” she breathed. “When can we start?”

“Tomorrow, then. I’ll see you before dawn.”