Taken by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #8)(25)

“You look much better,” Nalan said as I sat back and warily scrutinized the feast that was spread out over the huge table. Nothing looked at all familiar.

“Thanks. I feel a lot better. What was that knock-out drink all about, anyway?” I asked as I picked up a dark red roll and began to slather it with something that looked like lavender-colored butter. It smelled a bit different from normal bread, but it still had that yeasty scent, so I felt comfortable trying it out first. “Were you guys putting some kind of spell on me?”

“Not at all!” Arala exclaimed. “That was just a relaxation tonic meant to open up your mind. We wanted to give you the knowledge you need to leave the Tua realm, but you were tense and tired. The tonic should have put you in a more receptive state of mind.”

“Unfortunately, it turns out that it was too strong for your constitution,” Nalan said. “Due to your shifter nature, it did no lasting harm, and simply put you to sleep. We will have to do this another way, but first, let us eat. As we understand, regular feeding is very important for your health.”

I reluctantly agreed, worried at this evidence that they were not all-knowing and could make dangerous mistakes. Did I understand correctly that their tonic could have killed me if I’d been human? How safe was the breakfast spread, then? I decided to eat only small quantities of any one food and use Fenris’s detection spells to ensure nothing was poisonous to me.

We spent the next hour talking over breakfast, or was it brunch? They might have entirely different mealtimes here than on my world, and it didn’t seem important enough to ask.

Nalan and Arala explained that they were the last of their line, and that the forest I had been traveling in was only a tiny part of their domain. They were old enough to live on their own, though they were not yet adults by Tua standards—having lived for a mere eight hundred years of our time. That put them close to Iannis’s age, I reflected, but they seemed to mature a lot more slowly.

I asked if the entire world was so sparsely populated as the bits I had seen, and they explained that there were a few small towns, but most of their world was wilderness. The Tua were not a particularly fertile race—they could only bear one child every five hundred years or so. Breeding with humans was far easier but frowned upon by Tua society. Even so, every once in a while, some adventurous Tua would take up with a mortal from the other realm. From their disapproving tone, it sounded like Ta’sradala had defied her own realm’s customs as much as Recca’s when she kidnapped Iannis’s grandfather.

I listened intently to their words, aware that, as far as I knew, no other human had ever gotten a Tua to sit down and talk about their society like this. Iannis and Fenris would be thrilled at this information, if I ever got out of here. “We regret that we insulted you earlier by questioning your relationship with Iannis,” Arala said as she polished off a leg of what seemed to be pheasant, if pheasant meat was deep blue. “While you were asleep, Nalan and I have been looking through and discussing your memories, and now we understand better why it is such a sensitive subject. As far as I am concerned, being part Tua, he seems a worthy partner for you.”

I wanted to say that the Tua connection was the part I could do without, but that would have been a lie. I would not change a single thing about Iannis, not even the bits he got from Ta’sradala.

“He is so busy lately that you don’t see enough of him,” Nalan added with a pitying glance. “Politics in your world seem quite complicated, and unnecessarily so. Here in the Tua realm, we do not much regard shape or size or the type of power we wield, since everything can be changed so easily. Things would be much simpler in your world if you all treated each other as the same race.”

“You should tell that to Ta’sradala,” I said, unwillingly amused by Nalan’s philosophic ruminations. “Some of us are pretty bigoted on Recca, I admit, but her sense of superiority is truly out of this world.”

“Well, of course, she is Tua,” Arala said, but stopped herself when she saw me bristle. “Oh, well, it’s not likely we could ever agree on that. You don’t know enough about us to have an accurate opinion.”

“That’s true, I guess, but I can’t respect anyone who blatantly abuses their power,” I said. “I guess there are good and bad Tua, just as there are good and bad mages or humans. But a bully is a bully.”

As we continued the discussion, I was impressed by how quickly they grasped concepts and ideas based only on what they’d seen in my mind. Broghan was curled up on a bench nearby, and his eyes flicked back and forth between us attentively, as if he were following the whole conversation. I wondered if he understood everything that was being said.

“I am especially interested in meeting your absent friend, this Polar/Fenris individual,” Alara said. “He is like you in some ways, Sunaya, and yet so very different, judging by his memories as compared to yours.”

“Oh! Right,” I said, remembering belatedly that they would have looked at Fenris’s memories too. No wonder they’d been so fascinated—he’d seen much more of the world than I had, and was a scholar of magic and magical history. “Hopefully I’ll get to see him again soon. I was so relieved when he called Iannis and confirmed that he was alive and well.”

“I’m certain he’ll return to you soon, no matter the danger,” Nalan said confidently. “He cares for you and Iannis very much—he will not abandon you entirely.”