The next day, Ashton joined Alexo on the bank of the pond and squinted into the water. "I need to ask Svernin something," he told Alexo. "How do you get his attention from up here on the shore?" If anyone would know how to get Svernin to surface, Ashton figured it was Alexo. 

"Like this."

Ashton turned in time to see Alexo grab a flat stone from the ground and send it skimming across the pond. It hopped four times before sinking, and Ashton stared.

Within a few minutes, the dark head of a water sprite poked out of the water, midnight eyes glaring balefully.

Ashton flinched back, but Alexo waved furiously. "Svernin!" the woodlands called. "Come here! Ashton has a question for you!"

The water sprite disappeared back under the water, resurfacing within seconds right at the bank.

Alexo grinned and reached his hand out to pull Svernin out of the water. Ashton watched in disbelief as the broody sprite actually reached back for the woodlands, huge talons closing around Alexo's smaller fingers.

Dripping wet and scowling, Svernin crossed his arms over his chest once he was on solid ground and stared at Ashton. "What do you want?" he asked.

Ashton was speechless for a moment before shaking his head and taking a breath. "I... I want to learn more about... being a sprite," he began hesitantly. "My connection to magic is gone now without my wings, and I was wondering if... you know... you could teach me a few things?"

Svernin shot a glance at Alexo, who was watching the whole interaction curiously. Ashton realized belatedly that Svernin might not want a woodlands to know the trade secrets of being a sprite, and he shut his mouth

"Get out of here, woodlands," Svernin suddenly said, and Alexo frowned back. 

"Excuse me?" the woodlands demanded.

"I have to talk to your friend about sprite things," Svernin said. "You can't hear about it."

Alexo opened his mouth to argue when Svernin hooked his talon around the waistband of Alexo's pants and pulled him in for a fierce kiss before pushing him away.

"Bye," he said. 

Alexo rolled his eyes, but Ashton could see the blush dusting the tops of his high cheekbones as he opened his wings and took off without a word.

Ashton stared at Svernin, completely at a loss. Svernin glared back. "What?" he demanded, and Ashton shook his head.

"Nothing," he managed. "Ummm... but about the magic thing earlier. I've been feeling really drained, and I think it has to do with the fact I can't access magic anymore. But it seems like sprites are able to do something with magic directly in the water, and I wanted to learn how to do that."

Svernin plopped down on the ground, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

"Hmm," he said. "You're not wrong. We do access magic directly from the water. We can't use it on the surface, but that doesn't really matter. We're not out of the water for long periods of time, anyway."

Ashton sat down cautiously. "Pulling magic directly from the water?" he echoed. "I've never even heard of such a thing. How did I not know about this?" 

Svernin scoffed. "Full blooded sprites don't learn any of this until they're ten," Svernin said. "If you got your clan crest at that age and pledged your loyalty to woodlands, then why would your sprite family explain it to you?"

"Huh?" Ashton was confused to hear that sprites learned about magic so late in development. His mother had been teaching him about magic since he was old enough to fly. "Why do you wait so long to teach your younglings about magic?"

"We want them to develop their own relationship with the water," Svernin explained. "We don't let them of the water until they're ten, anyway. The surface isn't safe for a developing sprite, after all."

He yawned, looking bored.

"Once they've developed their relationship with water and magic naturally, then we take them up to the surface," he continued. "They feel the difference right away, and that's when we explain the finer points of magic. It's essentially just putting a name on a feeling they're already familiar with."

"But... my little siblings don't spend all their time in the water," Ashton argued. "They're only two... wait... I guess now they're almost three and four springs actually... well... they don't have wings like my brother and me. My parents mainly treat them like sprites, but they're allowed out of the water."

Svernin shrugged. "I can't speak for your parents, but it's probably because they're halflings. You all live by your mother's clan, right? They probably don't want to stop your siblings from getting to know that side of the family."

Ashton was quiet for a minute, considering. I'm getting off track, he realized. I need to ask about magic, not how sprites raise their younglings.

"So... these finer points you mentioned," Ashton began slowly. "Can you explain them to me? How does magic in the water work?"

"Water may not be a living thing, but it's a life source." Svernin's dark eyes lost their characteristic glare as he gazed out at the water. "That's magic in and of itself. You submerge yourself in it and let it move through you."

"I've been submerging myself in the fish tank, but I don't feel any different," Ashton pointed out.

Svernin sighed, seemingly annoyed by all of Ashton's interruptions. "Since you're so new to pulling magic from the water, a sterile, human tank isn't a good place to start," Svernin explained. "It's harder to feel the magic in there. It's better to learn from a natural source, one that has many living things in it."

Svernin kicked at the surface of the pond and eyed Ashton. "I can show you better in the water," he offered. Ashton looked over at Niles, who was weeding the lilacs and chatting with a couple garden pixies as he worked. 

I don't want to worry Niles by disappearing on him, Ashton thought. But it's so rare to get Svernin to talk like this. I don't want to interrupt his willingness to help by telling Niles where I'm going. 

Finally, he turned back to the water sprite and shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

Svernin nodded and got up at once, slipping under the water and disappearing entirely.

Ashton stared down at the glassy surface of the water, the few ripples from Svernin's entrance already fading. He glanced back at Niles one more time— for reassurance, for help? He wasn't sure. And he wasn't sure why he felt so unsettled.

Taking his last breath of air, he stepped into the water, walking out until he was fully submerged and using his gills.

It was darker underwater than it had been on the surface, all the stones and plants cast in a murky greenish hue. Ashton turned towards Svernin, but the sprite was already gone. Ashton whirled in the water, bubbles trailing in his wake, but all he saw were feathery ferns swaying with his movements.

I'm right here, you guppy, he heard in his head, and he spun around to barely see Svernin's outline by the ferns. The grayish green of Svernin's skin blended seamlessly with his surroundings, and Ashton realized that he must stick out with his lighter woodlands coloring. 

His own little siblings were a jewel green and a muted blue color, his dad a light slate blue. Only he and his woodlands brother didn't mirror them in color. No wonder his father never tried to make him spend time underwater. Between his coloring and his wings, he wasn't suited for sprite life.

It had been a long time since he communicated with other sprites underwater. He tried so now, pushing his thoughts out toward Svernin. Can you... hear me?

He just barely caught a glimpse of the other sprite nodding, his long black braid floating up around his shoulders. Svernin must have noticed Ashton squinting in the gloomy light because he swam closer and smacked his shoudler.

Stop trying to use your surface senses, Svernin chided. You'll just confuse yourself. You're not used to how things are supposed to sound and look underwater. Just focus on how things feel.

Feel? Ashton thought towards Svernin tentatively, and the sprite nodded. 

Close your eyes if it helps, he suggested, and Ashton did so.

Svernin pushed on his shoulders until he sat on what felt like a large, flat rock. Ashton stayed there quietly, lips slightly parted to breathe and allow the water to flow through his mouth and out of the gills on his neck.

Focusing on the water around him, Ashton noticed the warm and cold currents that flowed past him. They carried the ripples of movement from the small fish darting in and out of the reeds, the slight vibrations from the water filtering through his and Svernin's gills.

Eventually, Ashton opened his eyes to see Svernin sitting silently beside him. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to be concentrating. Ashton studied him for a moment. His pose looked awfully familiar. The longer he looked, the more that feeling grew, until he recognized it with a little gasp. Of course. Svernin was restoring his magic.

As a woodlands, Ashton was taught from an early age how to identify strong magic sources, the most obvious one being the mother tree. After making a physical connection with the magic tree, faeries slipped into a meditative state, concentrating on the swirl of magic and redirecting it into their wings. It looked like that's what Svernin was doing now, though there was no familiar light, no spark of warmth that marked the transfer of magic.

Svernin lazily cracked open an eye to look at Ashton. Do you feel it? he asked, and Ashton shook his head helplessly.

The magic is all around us, Svernin explained. We are inside it. If you're open to it, it flows through you.

But... how? Ashton asked. How do I accept the magic without my wings?

Svernin flicked his forehead, and Ashton flinched back. You don't need your wings to capture magic when you're immersed in it, Svernin insisted. It flows in with your breath and settles into your blood. Sit still and try it.

Ashton settled down and tried to do as he was told, but nothing seemed to be working. He was just growing frustrated when Svernin's low voice sounded in his head again.

You know, winged faeries and sprites used to be one and the same, Svernin said. Since sprites could exist both in and out of the water, some of them began to venture so far inland that they eventually lost their gills and developed something else: wings.

Like... dragonfly nymphs? Ashton asked hesitantly, and Svernin nodded.

Yes, exactly like that, he confirmed. The faeries that kept going up to the surface soon lost their gills and their connection to water. As surface faeries moved farther from the water, they needed a way to let magic travel with them. So, wings developed as both a means of movement and a storage site for magic.

Ashton stayed silent as he processed this new information, and Svernin continued.

But we sprites remained true to our origins. While wings became your medium and conduit for magic, water stayed ours.

Svernin turned to look at him, his inky black eyes unreadable.

We are just as magical as winged faeries are, but we can't use magic out of the water. That's why faeries on the surface don't know any of this. They're never in the water with us. If they were... well... they probably still wouldn't be able to tell. They don't breathe in the water as we do, so they can't feel the magic in it.

Svernin seemed to be done talking at that, so Ashton turned away and closed his eyes again. He focused on his breath, on the way the water moved through his mouth and out his gills. He tried to imagine pulling something more from the water, something besides just oxygen.

And as he focused on that, a familiar warmth blossomed in his chest, the same warmth that he would have felt in his wings. It spread out through his whole body, and his eyes shot open, startled.

Svernin was staring at him, pointed teeth bared in a satisfied smirk. There, he thought towards Ashton. Now do you get it?

Ashton nodded, completely overwhelmed by the feeling. Magic, he breathed. It had been so long since he'd felt its rejuvenating embrace, and he relished the feeling now. A few tears escaped his eyes, untraceable in the water surrounding them.

***

Niles was waiting for them by the pond when they resurfaced. "There you are," he said, looking noticeably relieved. "I thought you might be in the pond, but I wasn't sure."

He handed a clean rag to Ashton, which he gratefully accepted. Svernin ignored the towel that Niles offered to him, preferring instead to plop down on the grass in a puddle of late afternoon sunlight.

Alexo popped up from behind Niles' shoulder as Ashton was wringing out his hair, and Ashton couldn't help but notice that Svernin perked up at the sight of the woodlands.

"Hi," Alexo waved, grinning. Svernin hmphed a greeting. 

"There you are," is all Svernin said.

Alexo dropped down to land beside them. "How was your swim?" he asked, ignoring Svernin's comment.

"...Unexpected," Ashton answered. He wasn't sure how much he was supposed to share with someone who wasn't a sprite, so he left it at that. Luckily, Alexo was very polite and didn't press for more answers. Instead, he took to studying the two of them.

"Hmm, Ashton, you'll need some frog leathers if youre going to make a habit of swimming like a sprite," Alexo noted, looking at his dripping pants.

Ashton sighed. While Niles was very good at making clothes for pixies and woodlands, he didn't have any materials on hand for sprite clothing. Like flying faeries, most sprites wore only pants, but instead of using soft woven fibers to make the material, they used leather made from frog skin.

"Probably," he agreed. "But I've never hunted a frog before, let alone learned how to process the skin into leather."

"I can make you some," Svernin offered, and Alexo looked at him appreciatively. "There are plenty of frogs in the pond."

"There are?" Ashton asked incredulously. "I didn't notice anything besides a bunch of little fish." He turned to look up at Niles. "Why doesn't the protection spell keep out the frogs?" he asked. "Frogs will eat pixies if they can catch one."

Niles pointed at the circle of rocks that lined the side of the pond facing the garden, and Ashton saw that they had protection runes painted on them.

"They can't approach the actual garden," he explained. "They can leave the yard but can't get closer than the pond. The pixies know not to get too close. The frogs are good at keeping the bug population down."

"Ah," Ashton said, and the conversation continued.

Ashton tuned the others out as he looked out over the water. So that's what it feels like to be a water sprite, he mused to himself. It felt so foreign to him, new, but slightly familiar, as if he could just barely remember his early childhood in the water, long before he had affiliated himself with his mother's clan.

But that didn't matter anymore. Not when he was so far removed from his clan. Actually, being a sprite didn't really matter, either. Not when he was living with a human instead of other faeries.

Ashton stared up at Niles, studying his face. The human was laughing at something Alexo had said, and Ashton absentmindedly wondered what it would feel like to have Niles' lips pressed up against all of him, to feel his breath in his hair, his warmth on his skin.

Niles wiped his eyes, still chuckling, and Ashton snapped back to reality. What in the abyss's name are you thinking about? he scolded himself. He turned away from Niles, his face flushed, and wandered back over to the pond to try to cool off.

***

Niles sat there as the three faeries talked, enjoying their interaction. Ashton seemed quite at ease with the other two faeries, and he was pleased to see him carrying out such a normal conversation. Ashton used to be hesitant to speak to anyone, even other faeries. But it looked like that reluctance had passed.

Eventually, he reached for Ashton, who had slightly separated himself from the group to look back at the water. The other two faeries turned to him in surprise.

"You ready to go inside, Ash?" he asked. "You should put on some dry clothes."

Ashton looked down at himself as if just remembering that he was still damp with pond water. "Oh, yeah," he responded.

He walked back slowly and climbed up into Niles' hands, pushing off from his fingers to sit in his palm. He waved at the other two faeries from his perch. "See you later."

Alexo smiled and waved, while Svernin gave him a curt nod. They were already engaged in conversation again when Niles and Ashton left.

Ashton seemed pretty tired from his excursion in the pond, so after changing and eating, he immediately disappeared into Niles' pocket for a nap. Niles just smiled and patted him through the pocket before turning to his work.

It was a pile of work he had been dreading. He had been periodically getting updates from the legal side of Ashton's case for the last few months, but since his main priority was Ashton's health and recovery, he hadn't been too focused on it.

Unexpectedly, it seemed like the captor had signed a full confession, and it had recently been released to Niles. Niles was shocked by the turn of events, as the kidnapper had stubbornly been sticking to a plea of not guilty. Maybe they had offered him some sort of deal if he confessed.

Niles didn't really want to read it, but he figured doing so would help him better understand what had happened to Ashton. If he knew what Ashton's experiences were, he could create a better treatment plan.

So, with his patient in his pocket, Niles grimly began reading through the police records and captor's confession, feeling sicker with every word he read. The captor gave a detailed account of what he had done to Ashton, and Niles' whole body was shaking by the end of the report.

The paper slipped from his trembling fingers, and he took his glasses off to press his fingertips against his eyes.

What did I just read? he wondered, horrified. A tear slipped out, then another one, and soon he was crying silently, keeping one hand cupped over his shirt pocket to make sure Ashton was still asleep.

Ashton. No wonder he was terrified of everything. It was no small miracle that Ashton was still sane let alone actually improving. Niles didn't think that he would have survived it if he had been the one to go through it.

What are you? he thought, feeling the outline of Ashton's small body in his pocket. What are you made of that makes you so resilient?

He glanced down at the faerie, who was curled up against his chest, long, wavy hair falling into his eyes. His chest rose and fell in peaceful breaths, and he looked... fine. Like none of what Niles read had ever happened to him.

The judge had sentenced Ashton's kidnapper to 45 years in prison with no chance for parole. But just looking at the fragile being in his pocket, Niles was frustrated that the sentence wasn't harsher.

It doesn't matter, Niles sighed. Ashton is safe. Other faeries are safe. They'll never encounter each other again.

________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Ashton's connection to magic is back! He'll mostly be limited to internal magic from now on, but at least it will help him with a full recovery. 

Thanks for reading! See you in the next part.