Blissa had gone for a walk to think it over. What her father had proposed would give her what she wanted — Edmund. But it would take away a huge part of her life: her fairy powers. She’d had them since she was a babe. They were a part of her, and the idea of giving them up, even with the great love she felt for Edmund, was a tough prospect.
She walked down to the Crystal Pond, planning to head toward his castle again. She wanted to talk to him. It was her luck that when she arrived at the pond, Edmund was lying near the water’s edge, looking as if he might be taking a nap.
It was likely the aftereffects of the honorserum. It was meant for fairy digestion, and could be used in interrogations. It made the fairy violently ill if he lied after having drunk it. For humans, the effect was deadly. And even when telling the truth, humans often felt just wretched after taking it. She realized she should have come sooner. Edmund would not have known to bring someone to help him home. She walked over to him, and he was on his back, his eyes closed.
“How are you?” she asked, and his eyes popped open.
He smiled at her, and she sat down beside him. “I’ve felt better, but I suppose it could be worse. I could be dead.”
Blissa frowned. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t known my father intended to do that.”
“As I told him, it was a good idea, given my father’s history. He was right to do it, and I think I fared alright.”
“You have,” she said, but she didn’t smile. “He says we may be together.”
Edmund sat up and looked her straight in the eye. “Really? He said we could be together? I convinced him.” He was beaming now.
She wanted to share his joy, but she couldn’t entirely, not knowing the price it would cost.
“What’s wrong?”
“The price is steep. I have to ...” she wasn’t sure she was ready to say the words aloud, but Edmund was watching her expectantly. “I have to give up my fairy powers and my claim to the fairy realm throne in order for us to be together.”
He started shaking his head immediately “No, Blissa, surely he can’t mean it. You love being a fairy.”
Did she love it, or was it just that it was the only thing she knew? “Do you love being human, or do you think if you were suddenly imbued with fairy powers that you could adapt?”
He shook his head again. “It’s not the same thing, Blissa. One involves receiving, the other involves taking away. Surely you misunderstood. Your father wouldn’t want you to give up that part of yourself.”
“My father wants me to be happy,” she said.
“But could you be happy if you had to give up so much to be with me?” he asked, leaning forward so his forehead touched hers. “You are the most wonderful being I have ever met and I think I would be in misery without you, but I would rather be in that misery than to know that I have caused you to lose a part of yourself.”
She closed her eyes, amazed at how clearly he’d put this into perspective. “Magic is a part of me, but it’s not all of who I am,” Blissa said. “Still, it’s a large sacrifice. I should think on it.”
Edmund pulled his head away, and closed his eyes. “No,” he said. “You shouldn’t think on it.” He gritted his teeth and then took a deep breath.
He was apprehensive, and then suddenly there was a void. As if all his emotions had been sucked into it and she felt nothing from him. It was as if he’d erected an emotional barrier, and she wondered if there was ancient magic that imbued all rulers, whether they be fairy or human, with the ability to shield their true emotions from those with the power to sense them.
His sudden barrier frightened her a bit. His tone, when he spoke, finally, was somber and resolute. “You must tell your father that we will part ways.”
She shook her head, not wanting to hear this. “I ...” she said. “I don’t want us to part ways, Edmund.” And she felt the loss of him, even though it wasn’t real yet. It hurt beyond measure.
He patted her shoulder and said. “I was wrong to raise your hopes, Blissa. The cost he has proposed is too much. I’d thought the fairy world was like the human world. I thought alliances were forged through marriage, not that marriage meant abandoning part of yourself.”
Blissa’s heart seemed to stop in her chest as her brain turned over the words he just said. “Alliances forged by marriage — is that what you said?”
“Yes,” he said, tentatively.
“And how do these alliances work?”
“It matters not, Blissa,” he said. “Your father has indicated the fairy world is not like the human one.”
She shook her head. “I know what he said,” she tried to keep her voice calm, and she even sent a wave of peace through Edmund. “Just explain how it works in the human kingdoms, please.”
He looked into her eyes, seemingly torn as to whether comply with her request. After a moment, he nodded and spoke. “Usually, kingdoms that are friends strengthen their alliances by marrying princes and princesses. But, if a nation has been at war and they wish to make peace, the peace is strengthened through the marriage of a beloved prince to a beloved princess.”
She smiled. “I think that may be the solution, Edmund,” she said. “I don’t know that my father considered it. But, it’s a brilliant idea. He can rescind the law and as an effort to show our goodwill, we can marry.”
“And you wouldn’t have to give up your fairy powers?
Blissa wasn’t actually sure, but it seemed if the marriage were part of an alliance to strengthen the relationship between the fairy realm and Edmund’s kingdom, it wouldn’t be as necessary. “Perhaps not,” she said, standing.
Edmund didn’t stand. He still looked fatigued. “Where are you going?”
“I need to talk to my father about this. I’ll send my friend Eldred to help you, alright?”
Edmund nodded and Blissa hurried back to the castle. She ran straight for the oracle den, a little building near the castle where oracles were trained. Once there, she hurried inside, breathless from the run, and called for Eldred. The main room of the den was empty, but a moment later, Eldred appeared from a doorway to the back, and Blissa said, “I need a favor.”
She was about to explain when she heard and awful cry come from the back. It sounded like Dwennon. A moment, later Dwennon emerged from the back room, his hand clutching his head. “Get Hilly and the other healers and take them to the king’s chamber,” the older fairy said to Eldred. He turned to Blissa. “Hurry to your father’s chamber. He’s about to have a schism. I just foresaw it.”