And topping the list, the biggest regret of all: losing Azul.Why hadn’t she at least shagged him super fast before nobly letting him go?Responsibility sucked—and if this was the reward for it, then she failed to understand the virtue of it.
Much as she didn’t want to jinx herself by wishing for something to happen—no doubt anyone coming to fetch her would not be invested in making her situation better—she began to long for change.She also really needed to pee.
Cha was no mathematician or scientist, but she began calculating what would happen when she inevitably had to pee in her little egg.Much better than obsessing about certain tasty blue fae princes.Would she drown in it before her body ran out of the stuff?Maybe not if they never gave her any food or water.Still, soaking in a bath of her own urine was so far from a badass way to go that she deeply regretted that she hadn’t gotten killed in the fight.
But then… why hadn’t they killed her?Seemed like it would’ve been easier than wasting an egg on her.
The shell shivered around her, interrupting the morose thoughts.The top of the cell went transparent, then vanished entirely.Cha struggled to her feet, even more difficult this time, as she’d stiffened up during the long sit.A Sugarplum-type fae peered in at her.“Come out, human,” it said, its fluting voice so alluring that she practically longed to do its bidding, and probably would have even if she wasn’t desperate to escape her cell.
“How?”she asked, hoping her leaning against the wall looked saucy and cynical, rather than a desperately needed surface to prop herself against.
The Sugarplum simply reached in, fisted a hand in her jacket, and lifted her like a kitten by the scruff of her neck.Just delightful.Fortunately, it plopped her down before she gave into instinct and struggled like a frantic kitten with no claws.She managed to stay on her feet, just barely, and produced a sneer for her jailer.The man wouldn’t keep her down, even if the man was some gender-indeterminate, Moonstone fae.
They seemed to be on a walkway that surfed along in a sea of shimmering white egg-shapes.How unsettling.Was Monat in here somewhere?Cha had no idea how she’d find out or begin searching, but she had promised Dy, and that could be something fruitful from this shit situation.So, this was actually semi-close to the original plan, with a few setbacks.
If you counted Cha being also trapped in fae jail and probably dead soon as a “setback.”
“I’m free to go then,” she suggested to the Sugarplum.Couldn’t hurt to try.
The Sugarplum sneered mightily, doing a much better job than Cha had.“You now face interrogation and trial,” it said.“I seriously doubt the verdict will include freedom.”
“I have some lovely shinies you might care to look over,” Cha said, wondering if shedidstill have them.The chest of Phinny’s gems was in Katu still, wherever her baby cat had ended up.
The Sugarplum didn’t even pause to consider that half-baked bribe.“Come with me.”
“I need to pee first,” Cha said, not budging.
Can a sneer deepen?If so, that’s what happened.“Humans are disgusting.”
“Yeah, basically sacks of shit and pee,” Cha agreed amiably.“Good reason not to keep us around.I’ll just be on my way then.”
The Sugarplum—probably not her personal Sugarplum anymore, she was pretty sure, but it wasn’t like they wore nametags—seized her again by the back of her jacket and perp-walked her along at a truly uncomfortable pace for her traumatized body.Happily enough, however, they ended at a toilet facility that seemed to be designed for humans.Once Cha got over the relief of being alone inside, relieving herself, she received the extra delight of finding a shower within and various grooming supplies.
Bathing and removing the various goops out of her hair absorbed all of her attention at first.Finally clean and dressed again, she felt considerably less miserable.Surveying herself in the mirror, she found she looked, if not her best, at least reasonably put together.Then she met her own dark, snapping gaze in the mirror and asked, “Is it at all weird that they have a facility designed for humans here?Yeah.That’s what I thought, too.”
Something caught her eye in the corner of the mirror, a bit of dark metal and, saliently,notany shade of white.Cha pried it out from behind the pearlescent glass, the steel ring falling into her palm.The smooth metal circle was tipped with grinning skulls.Monat’s nose ring.Monat had been here.And she’d clearly removed the nose ring, screwing the skull head back on, before leaving it deliberately behind.Cha’s spirits, already abysmal, cratered further.
Though she’d locked the door, the Sugarplum opened it.“Come, human.”
“The name is Arantxa Evermore,” she replied jauntily, pocketing the nose ring, “though everyone calls me Cha.”
The Sugarplum simply reached in and dragged her out.She was getting more than a little tired of that.The restroom had been as windowless as the rest of the place.Even if they hadn’t disappeared her sword and magic wand—worthless piece of crapthathad turned out to be—she didn’t really have much in the way of options for escape.Without Katu, she could hardly get anywhere in Moonstone, even if she could figure out which way to go.Hitchhiking along the Moonstone Throughway would be a real treat.She snorted at the image and the Sugarplum smacked the back of her head with an extra appendage.“No laughing,” it said.
“Man, fairyland sucks,” she whined, earning another smack.Oddly it made her feel better.
*
The “trial” portionthat ensued was, of course, a travesty, though mostly harmless.Her expectations remained low to abysmal for any happy outcome for her and she couldn’t follow most of it.The trial involved a lot of posturing by various lovely, prancing Moonstone fae who argued amongst themselves in such ethereal, fluting tones that they sounded like an angelic choir.Cha might have enjoyed the pretty music, if not for the part where the lyrics were no doubt all about her imminent execution.
Trapped in a booth like an egg with the top cut off, pain washing over her in waves, and strapped in so she couldn’t even adjust to alleviate the stiffness setting in, and surrounded entirely by fae speaking in a language she didn’t understand, Cha had never felt so miserably alone in her entire life.
I will be missed if I don’t return,Dy had said, and it hit Cha with full, humiliating and agonizing force that she was going to die alone, and no one would know what had happened to her.And no one would miss her, not really.Dy would have Phinny and the kids.Azul would probably never give her another thought.
Depression set into Cha like a damp, winter chill, making her heavy and lethargic.She couldn’t do anything to affect her fate and that ground down her spirits even more.
And that was before the interrogation and accompanying torture began.
Abruptly done with their arguments, the Moonstone fae all turned to her, forming a loose circle of sneers.One produced the Moonruby wand and shook it in Cha’s face, demanding to know where she got it.
