XX
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

"I should warn you," Aëghan told her, his brows furrowed with what she thought was mild concern- which in itself was surprising as the male hardly ever seemed concerned with anything- and his eyes piercing, "Dellanae is somewhat unconventional."

Lillian's brows raised at that and she made a broad gesture with her hand to their surroundings. "More unconventional than this?"

Around them sprawled the helter skelter array of settlements. Together, they stood upon a wooden platform raised high above the forest floor and it consisted solely of vines and flexible branches that bounced with each step they took. It had taken several moments for Lillian to steel her courage to ascend via the makeshift pulley system. Aëghan had to coax and cajole her to stand upon it, much to her chagrin. She was not particularly fond of heights and hardly trusted the machinations of the fae who had built the contraption and operated it. If she wasn't so consumed with her trepidation, she would have found the experience humbling and marvellous, but right then she could only latch onto the Dravolese's muscled forearm as their perch lurched with her abrupt gesture.

"Unfortunately, yes." His gaze dropped to where her fingers curled into his flesh, his expression unreadable, and an answering flush swept over her. It was not an unwelcome look, and she had been on the receptive end of that same intense stare several times. Lillian had caught him often during their walk through the forest simply looking at her, especially when she wasn't turned towards him. He appeared to catch himself after Lillian snatched her hands away and curled her fingers at her sides, and he grimaced when a ruckus permeated through the wooden slats of the door they stood before.

The house was built around the large trunk of the tree, interwoven into the boughs of protruding and lush branches. The roof and awnings were contrived of vines and a thick, grassy plant that webbed intricately through the other to form an interconnected pattern that was both wildly unsymmetrical and appealing.

When Lillian peered into the branches of the neighbouring pines, she discerned a network of rope bridges that connected each corresponding platform to the various cone-shaped houses. Flightless fae and one or two humans could be seen utilizing these as they convened on various settlements for whatever purpose they harboured.

The entirety of the contrivances that the fae had constructed amongst the grand trees of the forest reminded Lillian of a bird she had once read about in a book from her father's study that resided in tropical regions, that was able to procure a nest of such beauty and skill, adorned with pretty blooms and artefacts to add to its design in order to attract a mate.

Presently, she hovered as far from the edge of the platform as possible and pressed her shoulders far back, an amused look crossing Aëghan's face when he noticed her hesitance to linger beside him.

Shooting him a glare, her fingers curled against the ledge of a window she was now perched against. "Would you care to elaborate?"

His grin was unapologetically careless. "Perhaps it'd benefit those relentless sensibilities you harbour to stay away from any drink she offers."

"Who's there?" a voice hollered from the other side of the door before the barrier was thrust open to a barrage of debris falling upon them all. "Who's pestering me at this time? Is it- oh, it's just you, Aëghan. Have you come to ask me for more herb to smoke? Because I don't have any to give you, you smoked me dry, young man- oh, hello, dear."

Lillian hadn't known what quite to expect at the prospect of meeting Dellanae, but she hadn't quite expected... this. On top of a proficiency for loose words, the fae was remarkably young with an abundance of wild, buoyant russet curls that did not seem well acquainted with a thorough grooming if the dried leaves and twigs protruding from their depths were anything to go by. Her large, golden eyes took in Lillian with a keenness that was startling, and then suddenly she was being hauled inside Dellanae's establishment with remarkably large fingers that curled about her wrists.

"Why was I not given any warning that you were bringing a guest!" Dellanae wailed, leaving Aëghan to trail in their wake as she forced Lillian into a stool by a table that was utterly cluttered with knick knacks.

"Are you not a seer-"

Dellanae cut the Dravolese off with a look that could have beckoned storm clouds. She plunked her hands on her wide hips, thoroughly put out- a sudden and drastic change from her otherwise jovial greeting but moments before. "Watch your tone," she scolded. "Don't you think for a moment that I have forgotten about the hedgehog anal gland you promised to bring me but have yet to fulfil, and now you have given me the duchess-"

"I beg your pardon, but a hedgehog's what?" Lillian stood up suddenly, unnerved by the chaos unfolding within the small living area. Moths, or some sort of living winged creature, fluttered through the air like dust mites. Large hands came down upon her shoulders once more, and if it weren't for Aëghan's presence beside her as he too took a stool at the table, she would have balked more ferociously at being manhandled so astoundingly.

For his part, the male threw her a helpless look, a smile dimpling his cheeks and almost instantly putting her at ease once more. "It's best you don't know."

"Always with the dramatics with this one!" Dellanae threw up her hands and sashayed around the table, picking up random vials and bringing them up to her eye for a brief inspection before setting them down once more. "Just the other day he attempted to land that bumbling, graceless dragon on this here platform and damn near broke the entire thing! Even though a few of our human residents are quite accustomed to nudity by now, let me tell you that no one was quite prepared for our fearless leader naked as the day he was born swaying from a few tenuous vines twelve feet above the forest floor." Dellanae appeared to cackle at that before latching onto a large jar that was filled with little beige pebbles of some sort.

For his part, Aëghan looked nonplussed and leaned back in the rickety wooden chair he was placed in, folding his arms across his chest. In fact, he almost looked proud - "It was a sight no one was remiss on witnessing," he told Lillian with a sly wink.

She narrowed his eyes at him, opened her mouth to reprimand his boldness-

"Entirely depends on the viewer's receiving end." Dellanae waggled a finger under Aëghan's nose and he made a face of disgust before batting her away and covering his nose. "Now, you'll be wanting to know whose magic is still clinging to your wee duchess, I suppose."

Lowering his hand, Aëghan considered her warily as she came around the other side of the table in a swish of dark fabric that made up the long gown she was wearing. In the brief reprieve Dellanae afforded them while she grappled with the cork stopper of the large jar, Lillian hurriedly scanned her surroundings. As the exterior suggested, the interior was dominated by the presence of the huge trunk of the tree the house was constructed about. They were currently situated in a receiving chamber it seemed, with a variety of chairs and tables and shelves that were bursting with a menagerie of items that gave the area a sense of mindless clutter. Narrow wooden stairs curled around the trunk and led to an upper level that Lillian presumed would be the bedroom, but it would be easy to be proven incorrect in such an environment.

"If you'd be so kind," Aëghan murmured, and Lillian turned her gaze to him to find his attention had been almost rapt upon her once more as she took in Dellanae's surroundings.

"Of course, of course," the fae woman said excitedly as the cork stopper popped open. A sound of delight escaped her and she proceeded to dump three pebbles before Lillian. "You'll just need to eat this and then we'll begin."

She eyed the pebbles dubiously as they hardly resembled food. Perhaps something that had sustained an extended period of time in the sun? They were tiny and smooth, hardly bigger than her thumbnail, but all the same her time in the Otherworld had ensured she approached most food offered to her by the fae with suspicion, even if Dellanae seemed to need her to consume these for some sort of enchantment. Lillian looked to Aëghan but the male was of little help, a bland expression on his face, and he merely shrugged as if to say, I said not to drink anything.

Taking one of the pebbles between her thumb and forefinger, she brought the item to her nose and gave a tentative sniff. Finding it unassuming and odorless, Lillian glanced between Dellanae's eager and gleeful visage to Aëghan's, before resignedly popping it into her mouth.

Instantaneously, she began choking as her mouth flooded with a vile bitterness. "Oh, God," Lillian spluttered, covering her mouth. "That is awful-" At Dellanae's crushed expression, she caught her words and endeavoured to swallow the impossibly hard, distasteful morsel as best she could. After several tries, the thing finally made its way to her stomach and Lillian lowered her hand to clench her fingers together in her lap, a pained look on her face while she considered what in the damn hell she had eaten. "I mean, it's an acquired taste."

Aëghan reached over and plucked one of the pebbles up, examining it closely. "What the devil is it and why does she have to eat one?"

Dellanae folded her arms, indignant. "Is it not customary in human circles to serve one's guest food upon visiting?"

The Dravolese's eyes widened comically and then he rubbed the bridge of his nose, dropping the pebble to the wooden floor. "So I may assume Lillian did not have to eat whatever the hell these are for you to be able to tell us what magic brought her back here?"

"Of course not, that's absurd." The female snorted and considered them both as if they were half-mad. "Why would I need to serve the duchess vinegared lard balls?"

"Water," Lillian rasped, her stomach lurching.

Aëghan glared balefully at Dellanae before snatching a wooden carafe from the centre of the table, locating a viable container of sorts from the mess, pouring out some of the liquid and testing it first himself before pushing it before Lillian. She drank from it hurriedly, relieved to note that it appeared to be normal water.

"Oh, please, do not give me that look," Dellanae said to him snootily. "I knew from the moment I saw her just what magic she had encountered, even if it was so faint it was barely noticeable but it is clear enough."

"And?" Aëghan gritted out, his jaw clenching. "Do you recognise it?"

"Not at all." Dellanae grinned at the both of them benignly. "Similarly, I could not cast an accurate identification to the specific signature that lingered and cloyed the very air that we breathed during The Reveal, so it is hardly unsurprising that her's wouldn't be recognisable, too, and therefore entirely probable that it belongs to the same individual. Now," she paused, her gaze dropping to Lillian's upper arm with fastidious, excited intent, her eyes swirling, "what I can detect is yours, Aëghan, clinging to every inch of her skin, but most prominently here-"

"I believe we have worn out our welcome," Aëghan interrupted suddenly, his chair scraping back. He grasped Lillian's hand, hauling her to her feet. "Della, a pleasure as always-"

"Now, wait here, is this anyway to treat your hostess- I slaved away over those lard balls!"

"I have much to show my duchess," Aëghan said firmly, and dragged Lillian towards the doorway, but she dug her heels into the dusty floorboards.

"No," she told him firmly. He turned to her with a look of mild surprise, but his fingers loosened and then dropped from her flesh. "I wish to ask something." Lillian notched her chin up and tilted her head back to meet his depthless midnight gaze. "Privately, if I may."

"Lillian-"

"I am harmless, you buffoon," Dellanae cackled. "Go on, leave us girls alone for a moment. Perhaps the duchess is in need of some saucy dragon-taming advice-"

"No!" Lillian shouted, then winced at her loud tone, but not before catching the lascivious wink Dellanae threw her. "No, that's not it. Please, I won't be a moment."

Aëghan seemed to hesitate at her appeal, reluctance writ clearly across his face, but then he nodded once and, with one last quelling look in Dellanae's direction, ducked out the door and closed it behind him, leaving Lillian alone with the seer.

"Now then," Dellanae declared eagerly, procuring the odious jar of pebbles once more and brandishing it towards Lillian, "I suppose you'll be wanting more-"

"No, no." She held up her hands and refused with a polite, restrained smile. It was becoming abundantly clear that her dealings with Dellanae need be quick and to the point lest the flighty woman steer them drastically off course. "I have a question... a question about the mark."

Though it may have seemed impossible, but Dellanae appeared to still then, her golden eyes deepening to burnished copper and dropping to the top of Lillian's arm. "Ah, the sacred mark of the Draëllian god." A long finger pointed at her arm, at the place where the black band was hidden under layers of clothing and Aëghan's enchantment. "You bear it. Right there."

"You are able to tell?"

Dellanae's smile was exceedingly dry. "I need not be a seer to infer the cause of the dragon's cloaking charm against your flesh." She quirked a russet brow. "Curious, indeed."

Lillian frowned, her fingers curling into her sides. "Do you... are you able to detect the bearer of the other mark?"

"Your heartmate, you mean?"

The words made her heart clench and increase in tempo. She wouldn't nurture such fanciful notions for herself, could hardly stomach to think of it, but it was imperative she determine whether it had been made public knowledge yet among the fae that the marks were once again rendered into existence. "Yes."

There was a pregnant silence that lasted all of a few seconds in length, but it was enough to make Lillian suspicious. Dellanae's hesitation was almost imperceptible, but its presence suggestive of a falsehood. "No," she said flatly. "There is nothing that I am able to detect of it."

Lillian pursed her lips, knowing a lie when she heard one. But for whatever reason, the female was retaining that information from her, and she was determined to figure out why. Presently, however, to press for the truth would possibly incur further evasions, so Lillian compelled herself to leave it alone for now. She nodded to Dellanae, silently taking her leave, and pivoted to exit the establishment the same way Aëghan had.

"Wait."

Lillian froze, her fingers of one hand splayed against the dark wood of the door, and she turned her head slightly to regard the other woman.

Dellanae continued, her voice soft, lucid and devoid of any previous frivolity, "Lady Adams, if I may be so bold, our Aëghan is not all that he makes himself out to be."

"That is obvious, yet why you feel the need to tell me-"

Her eyes glistened, shifting to an almost translucent glow. "He'll be worth your time and trust, though there will be many obstacles yet to overcome."

Lillian stiffened, her brows snapping together. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Her gaze cleared then, the glow dimming to a muted tone of gold, and a small grin curled her wide lips. "Go to Aëghan now, dear, but remember... all things of unfathomable value are protected by seemingly impenetrable scales. Even a dragon has a heart."

Trust a fae to speak such fanciful words without a care to elaborate, Lillian thought darkly, and cast a glare at the seer before pushing the door open and exiting the cluttered little home way up in the boughs of a towering pine.

A/N:
So sorry for the long wait! I have been exhausted with capital Zzz's from work.

But I am still here though! Didn't go awol for ten years lol... 

Ash x