SILVER WAS CALM as he settled on a large rock, watching Kane fidget with an amused smile.

"Pick a number one through ten."

Kane cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. "Why?"

"Do it." Silver crossed his legs. His back was impossibly straight and his sword laid across his lap. He waited, watched, and didn't elaborate. "Well?"

Kane muttered profanities under his breath then said, "Seven."

"You may ask seven questions."

Kane's eyes bulged. "That's not fair! I promised my loyalty and you said you'd tell me what I wanted to know. I can't learn everything in seven questions!"

Silver raised a hand, bringing an end to the rant Kane was building up to. "I'm aware of that. However, we've arrived where you need to go." Silver tapped the center of the large oak tree looming over them. "It isn't safe to be out during this hour but I know you'll talk my ear off if I don't answer some questions now. I'll indulge seven questions then I'll take you where you need to go."

Kane swallowed the last of his words. His fingers skimmed over the fiery red hairs of his impeccably trimmed beard. He had a lot of questions after years of being left in the dark.

"Do you know why I'm cursed?"

Sympathy clouded Silver's features. He shook his head and his long tresses of brown silk followed suit. "No. Only your family and the fae that cursed you know that."

Kane visibly deflated. "Oh. Ok. Then, can you tell me about this?" Kane held up his necklace. "The faerie star. What exactly is it?"

"The faerie star is many things. A protective shield, for one." Silver attempted to touch the pendant and it zapped him again. "See that? It means that no fae will ever be able to take it from you. If I tried to forcefully remove it or hurt you, the pendant would kill me."

Kane frowned, toying with the cold metal. "That makes no sense. Why would it protect me from the people that cursed me?"

"You're the firstborn son, yes?"

Kane nodded, no longer interested in wasting time on how Silver knew so much. Clearly he was a man with a lot of life experience.

"Do you have cousins?"

"Yeah."

"But you're the only male."

Kane hummed, reflecting on his childhood of tea parties and playing princess. His family kept their hair long so he blended in with the gaggle of girl cousins.

"Firstborn sons are the most important child because they're the heirs. Daughters you give away. But sons you keep to carry on the bloodline," Silver said. "So the necklace goes to you, protects you, because your legacy matters the most. You will ensure that the curse carries over into the next generation."

Kane blinked. "Well that's... an archaic way of thinking."

Silver chuckled. "The fair folk are traditional people. Our curses reflect that."

"So, then, without the necklace, the fae, they'd hurt me?"

"Mhm. They wouldn't need to trick you into a contract to do it either." Silver smirked when Kane avoided his pointed stare. "There are many types of fae. Some are kind. Others are malevolent. Many don't care about humanity because of how greedy and destructive they can be. But those that'd torture you simply because they can would do so in a heartbeat."

Kane clutched the faerie star like a lifeline. He was floored. The pendant protected him only so he could pass on the curse. His ears were ringing while Silver continued to speak.

"The septagram has an odd number of points. See how it traces as a continuous line?" Silver asked, finger hovering over the star and tracing it repeatedly. "It's unbroken. A symbol of eternity, if you will. It also represents celestial magick, making it the most powerful symbol in the world."

Kane listened intently. Silver explained how each of the septagram's points represented a separate direction. North, South, East, West, Above, Below, and Within.

Below and Within were hidden from normal sight. Only those of magickal descent were able to see them because that was where the other realms existed. Worlds where creatures of myths lived and flourished even as Kane's world died.

"So does that mean—"

"You only have two more questions left," Silver interrupted. "Make sure it's something you actually want to ask before you ask it."

Kane paused, mentally counting how many questions he'd asked. "Fuck me," he muttered. Silver was right.

"Sorry, you're not my type. I prefer twinks."

"And I prefer women," Kane fired back, ignoring the way Silver cackled like an old hag. "Stop trying to distract me."

Silver gasped. "Do you really think that I would do that to you?"

Kane placed his hands on his hips, staring at the laughing man blankly.

"Fair enough," Silver conceded. "Ask your last two questions."

Kane shuddered as a cold wind blew over his bare arms. Tucking his hands under his armpits for warmth, he swore when he realized he never went back for his jacket. And, wait a minute, he patted his jeans down and groaned. His phone was with his jacket, discarded somewhere in the woods with Silver's taxi.

Kane sighed. That was a problem for another time.

"You knew about my fears. Can you tell me why I'm afraid of those things?"

"Because they're 'tween's," Silver replied. "Physical representations of an in-between. You fear them because of what it represents and what lives in a 'tween."

"Huh?"

"Think about it this way. Humans fear snakes. Why? Because your ancestors feared snakes. Humanity thus evolved to have a natural fear of snakes." Silver spoke slowly, clearly egging him on with that cheeky grin. Kane bit his bottom lip to keep from playing right into his hands, staying silent. "Your cursed ancestors passed their fears onto you. Deep down you knew that 'tween's were to be feared because a part of you knew what lived there. Fae."

Kane touched his cheek when an old memory resurfaced. He closed his eyes, ashamed by the sting of the slap and the red that once bloomed there. His grandmother tried to chase his curiosity away with stern words and love. But his paranoid mother resorted to much harsher methods.

When she caught him taking too long to pass through a doorway he got hit. If he wasn't careful closing the window then that was a ruler to the back of the hand. The one time he brought a small mirror into the house his mom shouted until her face turned red. Then she made him smash and throw away the pieces at midnight as punishment.

He didn't blame his dad for leaving Kane and his family of hogwash. How he managed to stick it out until Kane was four was a miracle in itself.

Kane opened his eyes, no longer fully blind to the Pendragon woes.

The worst part was that Kane couldn't even hate his mom for her actions either. The curse claimed them all in different ways. With his mom it was her mental stability. She had none. All her life she was barely getting by. Then she snapped when Kane was born. His little sister dying of SIDS when Kane was three drove her completely off the deep end.

If his grandma hadn't intervened and taken him away, Kane wasn't sure where he'd be right now.

Silver gently touched Kane's elbow, startling him. "Sorry. I called your name three times and you didn't reply." The scent of roses bloomed between them and Kane's body relaxed. "What is it?"

Kane rubbed his temples, tossing his memories into a safe and throwing away the key. When he focused on Silver his eyes no longer shimmered with tears from the past.

"Some things finally made sense. That's all." Kane leaned away from Silver's touch, avoiding eye contact. "So, water is in-between land and the sky. Windows and doorways are in-between being in and out. A deep hole is in-between up and down..." Kane lingered on his last two fears. Mirrors and midnight. A light bulb went off while he toyed with the septagram. "Midnight is in-between night and day. And mirrors... I don't know."

"Mirrors are 'tween's. Their entire existence serves to be a portal between realms. Admiring oneself in its reflection is only its secondary use." Silver grinned at him in a manner that made Kane's skin crawl. "Care to know a creepy fact?"

Kane side-eyed Silver. "I'm pretty sure you know by now that my curiosity is saying yes."

"The reflections that you see between the hours of three and six am aren't of yourself." Silver howled with laughter when Kane froze like an icicle. "Anyways, what's your last question?"

Kane buried his now amplified fear of mirrors and asked, "Do you know why I'm allergic to iron?"

"Iron is the ultimate weakness of the fae, not an allergy. It probably extends to you because you have some fae blood in you."

"That doesn't make sense. Why would my family be cursed by the fae if we're descended from them?"

"Well, you're not all fae so..." Silver shrugged, ending the conversation when he stepped towards the tree. He placed a hand on the jagged bark. A low groan filled the air. The tree shuddered and twisted then split down the middle to reveal a glassy doorway.

"What is that?" Kane asked, body moving without his consent as he edged closer. His curiosity purged his mind of all other thoughts. He grasped the cold bark for balance when he caught a whiff of sweet air and heard the sound of soft waves. "Is this some kind of magick portal? A 'tween?"

"It's where you need to go," Silver said. His words were muffled by the time it reached Kane's ears.

"And where do I need to go?" Kane leaned closer. The glass fluttered against his face. It didn't cut him, only caressed. He saw a world of ethereal pastels and twinkling water. Landscape that was much different from his dying world. "What is this?"

"Home. The taxi said that you needed to go home."

Kane stepped through the magick portal thinking it was the way back home. But what he found wasn't at all what he expected.  

🗡

Vote and/or Comment if you enjoyed this part!

🗡

QOTD: Do you think Kane was right to trade his loyalty for knowledge now that he finally has some answers? Why do you think the taxi wanted Kane to go "home?" What is this "home" that Silver has taken him to?