[KINDLE'S PoV]

In the ten years I've known her, Faye has made quite a habit of getting herself into odd predicaments and coming to me for help. This, however, was by far the oddest of them all.

She fidgeted in place, twisting her long black hair around her fingers and staring up at me with hopeful teal eyes.

I leaned against my bedroom door and heaved a sigh, shaking the hazy cloud of sleep from my mind. Faye had been at my door with the rising of the sun. I wasn't used to starting my day this early. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I thought I heard you say you had a human in your work shop?"

Faye chewed her lip and nodded. "I've had a lost human in my workshop for roughy a week now. She's really sad and keeps asking for her 'cellphone,' whatever that is. And she hasn't been eating much for the past few days... I'm really worried."

"Yeah, Faye, so am I," I hissed. I glanced down the hall then pulled her into my room. If Faye really had brought a human into the Order's manor, and if Lydia found out... I didn't want to think about what that could mean for Faye.

I sat her down on my bed and stood in front of her, arms crossed. At twenty-six years old, Faye was four years my senior. Why oh why did she insist on acting the opposite? "Alright. Talk slower. Explain."

"Last week I found a human just wandering the lower levels of the manor. She was kind of out of it, and dressed very strangely... She's just a scared little girl, Kindle. I don't think she's a threat to us. I don't even think she knows what we are."

Something in her tone caught me off guard. "What do you mean, 'what we are?'"

Faye touched the dark green scales on her temple. "She asked me why I wear sequins on my face. I don't think she's ever seen a mermaid before."

Strange. And not really something I wanted to deal with first thing in the morning. But it didn't look like Faye was going to leave without my help. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed again.

"She's in your workshop now?" I asked.

Faye nodded quickly. "Yes, she's still asleep. I've been letting her use my bed."

"And where do you sleep?"

"In my chair, or on the floor." She shrugged. "I have a lot of fabric laying around, so it's decently comfortable."

This was going to be a problem. A few years ago Faye decided to adopt a unicorn. She managed to hide it for nearly half a year— I thought she'd just developed a sudden interest in hay, which strange as it sounds is not out of the realm of possibility for Faye— It was harmless for the most part, until the thing kicked her sewing machine and I had to fix it for her. A human, though smaller, would most likely cause a great deal more damage.

"Alright, lets go see this human of yours."

I had to remind Faye to keep her voice down several times during the walk from my room to the other end of the manor where her workshop was located, but she continued to babble on about her new pet. "She says her name is Maggie, but I've taken to calling her Magpie."

"Why?"

Faye smiled. "A term of endearment. To let her know I mean no harm. Cute, isn't it?"

"You've been giving her food, letting her sleep in your bed, and probably talking her ear off for a week. I think she understands that your intentions are pure." We stopped outside Faye's workshop. I paused with my hand on the doorknob, turning to look at Faye. "She speaks Luminous, I take it?"

"Yes, but her accent is strange. And she uses words I don't recognize."

I considered what that might mean as I slowly opened the door. Was she from Canthor, perhaps? Or one of the smaller villages in a different territory? If so, how did she get here, and into our manor of all places?

Faye's workshop was dark, save for a sliver of morning sunlight dripping through the tiny window on the far wall. I couldn't see the human, or the boxes of fabric and other supplies Faye always had scattered treacherously around her workshop floor. I snapped my fingers to create a tiny flame and lit the first candle I found.

"Kindle be careful doing that, I have matches. You shouldn't overwork yourself," Faye chided.

"Overwork myself? This is nothing." I scoffed quietly and opened my palm to create a slightly larger blaze. I bounced it from hand to hand like a rubber ball, then extinguished it with a closed fist. "It's important to exercise one's abilities. Especially with the way the world is now."

"If you're sure," Faye whispered back, then pulled me further into her workshop. "Here, she's in the back room."

I pushed the curtain to the smaller room aside and lit a little flame to illuminate the human. I frowned and dropped the curtain back into place. "Faye, when you said 'she's just a scared little girl' I expected a child."

Faye frowned as well and pulled the curtain back to look at her again. "She is a child, the poor dear."

I rolled my eyes. "Well that child looks to be my age at least."

Faye smiled and raised herself onto her tiptoes so that she could pat me on the head. "You're a child too."

I growled under my breath at her affectionate touch, then gestured to the curtain. "So what are we going to do with her? Do you realize what would happen if Lydia found out about her?"

"Lydia won't find out. Because you won't tell her, will you?"

"Of course not. She's been looking for an excuse to kill you for years, and now you've got a perfect one sleeping in your bed!" I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. I really hadn't been awake long enough for this. I paced away from Faye.

"How about this: once she wakes up, we'll sneak her to the stables, get her on a horse, and take her to the nearest human village. I'm sure someone of her own species would be more help. And at least in a human village her risk of being murdered goes down a bit."

Faye shook her head so forcefully I had to backstop to avoid her wild curls. "Absolutely not! She's scared, and upset, and I really don't think she's from here, so sending her to a random human village won't help."

"Of course she's not from here, there are no humans for miles." Or there weren't, until this one showed up. Somehow.

"No I mean I don't think she's from here, from this realm. Think about it— the strange clothing, the accent, and just what is this 'cellphone' she keeps requesting?"

I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to laugh and say she was joking. When that didn't happen, I heaved yet another sigh.

"Where do you think she came from then, the moons?" My tone was sarcastic, but Faye's eyes still widened with enthusiasm. Before she could shout another harebrained theory at me, I shook my head. "Don't be ridiculous. She probably just hit her head or something."

Faye pouted, but then peeked through the curtain again and giggled. "Aw, she's so cute. And her eyes are green, isn't that interesting? Have you ever seen a human with green eyes?"

"I haven't had much interaction with humans who didn't have helmets over their faces."

Now it was Faye's turn to roll her eyes. "You're so negative."

She grabbed my arm again, this time to tug me from the room. "Come on, help me make breakfast for her. She likes muffins, but I ran out of those a few days ago so I want to make her more. Maybe everberry this time, they're in season."

"They're everberries. They're never not in season. It's in the name."

"True, but they're extra in season right now."

I let her drag me to the kitchen, hoping the whole way that we still had cake left over from the last Order member's birthday party. Because by the will of the gods, if I was going to properly deal with Faye's newest mishap, I deserved cake for breakfast.

Faye busied herself mixing the ingredients for her muffins while I sat at the table drawing meaningless patterns into the flour that covered it. We didn't have any everberries, so Faye settled for walnuts. We also didn't have any cake, so I settled for being justifiably annoyed.

"What time does the human usually get out of bed?" I asked.

"Maggie," Faye reminded me. She dropped her eyes to the mixing bowl. "She doesn't get out of bed, most days."

"What?"

"She's sad, like I said. She cries a lot. And asks for her 'phone' or my 'phone' or a 'phone' in general. She also asks what 'state' we're in— and apparently 'confusion' is not a proper answer?" Faye shrugged, her stormy eyes clouding over as she focused on stirring the muffin batter. "And after a while of that, she just rolls over and stares at the wall. She stays that way all day."

I nodded to myself. I knew the feeling. I didn't know what a phone was, but I understood depression. How many hours of my life had I wasted away in the same position?

"I'm surprised you didn't want to help me make the muffins," Faye noted as she slid the tin into the brick oven. "This is usually your thing."

"I'm not nearly awake enough yet."

When the muffins were done and had had some time to cool, Faye loaded them onto a tray and we returned to her workshop.

"Light the lanterns," Faye instructed.

I snapped my fingers and sent a little ball of fire to each lantern, filling the messy workshop with soft, warm light.

"Hey Magpie, wakey-wakey," Faye coaxed gently as she pushed the curtain back with one hand while balancing the tray of muffins on the other.

I moved behind Faye, trying to catch a glimpse of the human— Maggie— awake.

Maggie sat up slowly and rubbed a hand under her eyes. They were green, as Faye had said, though now they appeared more puffy and red than anything else. Her hair was blonde, and probably wavy when it was tamed. At the moment it was tangled and matted into some sort of animal's nest atop her head. She glanced around the tiny room, then at Faye, and her eyes welled with tears.

"I'm still here," she croaked out, her voice thick with emotion and sleep.

Faye smiled sympathetically and sat on the edge of the bed. The curtain fell back into place, hiding the two from my sight. I understood now why Faye didn't want to discard her to some human village. She had always had a soft spot for the pitiful. It's why she took in so many odd animals, it's why we became friends.

The look on Maggie's face reminded me of myself at my lowest point. It's something I didn't particularly want to be reminded of. I considered leaving. Faye could keep her human, I would ensure that Lydia never found out, but I didn't want to be around her.

Before I could get to the door, Faye pushed the curtain back again and beckoned for me to join her. "This is Kindle," she said to Maggie before I had even reached the back room. "He can be a bit thick-headed and grumpy at times but I promise he's a big ol' softy once you get to know him."

I wasn't sure what Faye expected me to do— shake the human's hand? wave? I didn't want to sit on the bed as well, the room was already small enough and I was a bit more intimidating than Faye... most of the time, anyway.

I settled for staying by the curtain and nodding my head toward her. I didn't want to risk a smile, so at the very least I made sure not to frown. "Hello... Blondie," I greeted. There. A 'term of endearment.' Faye couldn't accuse me of not being friendly now.

Blondie— huh, I kinda liked that— sniffled and narrowed her eyes at me ever so slightly. "Your eyes are strange."

Lovely. She was just as good at conversations as I was, it seemed. This would go well. "So are yours. Now that we've got that out of the way, do you have any idea where you are?"

"Amish country?" she guessed.

...Right. I wasn't even going to attempt to guess what that meant. "Can you tell us where you're from?"

"I've told Faye, repeatedly. She says the place I'm from doesn't exist." Blondie crossed her arms over her chest. "I say this place doesn't exist. I'm in a coma, or dead." Her voice quavered ever so slightly. "The door must have fallen on me when I walked through it, or something hit me on the head..."

"The door?" I asked.

Faye frowned at me. "She says she walked through a door and appeared in our kitchen."

I shook my head. "That's ridiculous."

"Ridiculous!" Blondie cried. She pointed an accusatory finger at Faye. "This woman claims to be a mermaid and I'm somehow the ridiculous one?"

Faye giggled. "She's cute, isn't she?"

"I'm also right here!" Blondie glared. "I'm going back to bed. Nice to meet you, Kindle." She snatched a muffin off of Faye's tray before rolling over to face the wall and pulling the blanket over her head.

"We'll try a different approach tomorrow," Faye suggested as we walked back toward my room.

"You can try whatever you want," I said firmly. "I'd like to opt out of this little project of yours. Besides, I'm too close to Lydia, and if you want to keep this a secret I'm not the person you should be seeking help from. Try Serpina."

"I don't want to introduce her to too many people at once. Serpina is next, then Emrys most likely— though then again maybe not, she'd probably tell Inari."

I clenched and unclenched my fists as we walked, trying to keep from shouting at her. "Why don't you introduce her to the entire Order while you're at it?"

Faye nodded sheepishly. "That's the goal, actually. Maybe everyone but Lydia and... her husband."

"Why? She's a human, our enemy by nature. You can't expect the others to accept her!"

"It would take time, but Kindle... she is like us. We may be different species, but we're all just as lost as she is."

I didn't meet her eyes once we'd reached my bedroom. "I'll see you later, Faye," I said, and closed the door. I stood there for a moment, then opened it again. "Faye—" I called.

She turned back to look at me expectantly. "Hm?"

"Find out what she likes, or if she has any hobbies. Give her something to distract herself with. It helps."

Faye smiled. "Alright."

I closed my door again.