With Lierthe signing the blood oath, his men automatically became ours since they had a blood oath with him to follow his orders. Immediately they were transported to one our hidden remote compounds so that they wouldn't know yet of where others were. He would go back and gather his sisters and other brothers so that they would sign and then the men under them would join us as well. The two brothers were bringing ten legions each and the 4 sisters husbands were each bringing eight legions each. That was more than three hundred thousand Fae warriors and soldiers, still not close to the sixty million that the king had. It really came down to which countries would send forces and how many they would send.
When we had sent Lierthe on his way to get the other oaths, Grier came out crying.
"Sin, I'm so sorry. He was watching me the whole time when I called you and I didn't know what was going on." She sobbed feeling guilty for what could have been a deadly trap.
"It's okay Grier, I was able to tell something wasn't right. That's why we came prepared. I would think about better wards for your place though." I console her and suggest that she do some investing into better security for herself.
I drive the car back with John and Thietian snaps back to the house. On the drive back John asks some questions that have been swirling around in the back of my mind as well.
"How does that many Fae survive underground? How come we didn't see a bigger influx after the supposed treaty?"
"I'm not sure, the little that has been expressed to me, is that a lot live in poverty underground. Unless you are lucky enough to live in the courts and surrounding area considered to be like our middle class. It always seemed like they were talking about a place that saw sunlight though." It definitely made one wonder where exactly they lived with that amount of numbers.
"I think Thietian needs to answers some questions. Don't you think so?" John asked.
I nodded, "Yes, I think he does."
...
Back at the house Elena has dinner already prepared and keeping warm in the oven. She was sitting with Cass talking about what had happened at Griers and upon seeing us, she hopped up and gave me a tight warm hug.
....(@_@)...
'Help unnecessary physical contact' had to have been written all over my face.
Cass jumped up and got Elena to let go so they could start setting dinner out.
I mouthed thank you as I went to put my weapons away and wash up for supper.
Once we were seated and eating, I brought up the elephant in the room.
"So Elena, John and I need to have a conversation with Thietian after dinner. We will return Cass to you as soon as possible."
She looks at her plate and sets down her fork. "It's fine. You may talk now."
She took a drink and began to eat in silence.
John and I stared at each other for a few seconds before John started. "Thietian, we want to know more about the Fae court."
Cass morphed into Thietian and Thietian looked to the side at Elena eating still before turning his gaze back to us. "What about it do you want to know?"
"Where is the Fae court located?" I piped in.
"....." Thietian stares at us both hard. "Not here." Is what he says before taking another bite of food from off the plate.
"This is very good, Elena. Thank you." He says quietly to her before turning back to us.
"Thietian that is not the answer we were looking for and you know it. How is your fathers army so huge without us being able to see some sign of that many Fae? I thought you were living underground? Where could that number have hidden?" I'm starting already to feel annoyed, I don't like that he's trying to avoid the answer like that.
"Our people do partially live underground, the lower class Fae do at least. The Faerie Court is actually not here.... but it is too. It's hard to explain it. The realm of faerie exists on a different plane then this, so it's still earth but not this earth. Are you following?" Thietian looked at us reading our expressions of confusion.
"Like an alternate dimension?" John looks baffled as his brows furrow in thought.
"Parallel universe?" I throw out.
Thietian pauses and his eyes go out of focus for a brief second, "Cass says yes, but not in the same way scientists theorize as it being an alternate timeline. It is a parallel dimension but it is one that one can travel between. If you know how."
"WAIT!" I throw my hands up to stop him in his tracks. "Are you telling me, that the Fae are really multidimensional beings?" I can only stare and wait in curious disbelief as I'm trying to comprehend what he's saying.
"Yes." Thietian nodded.
Elena who had been quiet this entire time still eating finally spoke up, "I'd like Cass to finish his dinner before it gets cold, please. This conversation is going to be more in depth than I thought." She returns right to eating and Thietian morphs into Cass and begins to eat.
"This is delicious, mi bella." Cass smiles and takes a bite of his food.
John and I are looking at each other slack jawed, with a blank stare across our faces.
"You two trying to catch fly's over there?" Cass asks and begins to croak like a frog.
We close our mouths but not before I stick my tongue out quick at Cass, like I just caught a fly.
Elena chuckled at us and shook her head to go back to eating. "How are you all able to go from being so serious to being so silly?"
John smiles at her, "Because we're family it's what we do."
.....
The next day we were all tired from staying up and discussing the Faerie realm and how it existed. We even got Turk to come inside and sit down with us to talk about it. After two hours Turk left complaining of a headache.
It didn't matter how tired we were though, because we were headed to one of the hidden compounds in the deep part of the wilderness to welcome Thietian's family and new allies.
We had been discussing how we were going to feed that many in number and Thietian said that they already had it figured out. When Thietian had initially started this planning he still had his own body and had put crops down with caretakers for each compound. Each compound was self reliant and didn't need much outside help. For the past twenty eight years that he's been in Cass's body, the caretakers have been canning, pickling, preserving, drying and everything in between the majority of the food that each place has harvested. Each one had a small herd of cows, goats, several coops for chickens, plus all the wild game available made them extremely self sufficient.
We were quite impressed with how the caretakers were not just farmers, but had medical, engineering, botany educations and the list was impressive for skills. Everything was ready to teach others too.
"What in the world were you really planning for Thietian?" John asked and I had to agree it seemed very well planned and almost excessive for so much at these secret, protected, remote compounds.
"Anything, everything, but mostly if my father was able to enslave the human race, I wanted to make sure that some amount of the human population could still live freely and have a place to still live. Now since we are, I mean Cass, is going to have a family it's a haven for them too. Where Elena and our son could live if we don't succeed." Thietian looks sad but we don't correct him as he shows us around waiting for his family to arrive.
We head inside to a giant mess hall, it could easily hold a couple hundred people inside it at a time. It's only one of four in this compound too. The apartment like rooms all around had their own small kitchens, for families and these mess halls were for those with out one.
Thietian takes us out to a central courtyard and we see Lierthe come walking out from the opposite side.
"We greet thee, your majesty." A chorus of us greet quickly taking a bow to the other prince.
"Brother! There you are! We just arrived and I don't think all of our men can join us here. There will not be enough room." Lierthe smiles uncomfortably at his brother.
"Well then I guess it's a good thing this is just for you and your men. Our brothers and sisters will have their own areas to go to." Thietian smiled knowingly at his brother. "Of course some of my men will be coming here too, there's plenty of work for them to do so they don't grow restless."
"What about their families?" Lierthe asked looking around.
"They may come too, as long as they are informed that they have to share in the work around here. Kids will be taken care of too." Thietian nods knowing he had planned ahead for such things.
Lierthe looks at me and the rest of the men that came with Thietian today and nods his head. "Your loyal subjects are here I see." His tone is slightly condescending but it's expected from royalty.
Thietian takes offense to it the way he stiffens before adding firmly, "My other family members John and Sin are here as well, and my loyal friends deserve more respect than that brother. Please try to remember that."
Lierthe seems taken aback in surprise before he smiles smugly, "As you say so. Come let's not keep our brothers and sisters waiting shall we?" He moves his hand and gestures to the side to let Thietian lead the way.
Thietian sighs and begins to walk back into another wing of the building and leads us following.
We are greeted on the other side by the the two brothers, the sisters and their families waiting patiently.
"We greet the royal princes and princess's." Our group, other than Thietian and Lierthe, give a quick bow.
They smile at us and look to Thietian, "Where can we talk then brother?" One of them asks.
Thietian tells a few others that are with us to go and prepare a meeting room with some drinks and chairs. They snap to it and then Thietian dismisses everyone else except me and John.
"Come on then, let us go talk." Thietian starts to lead the way and we all follow.
"We're sorry but this conversation needs to be between us." One of the sisters holds her hands up to stop me and John.
"Tellis, put your hand down. They are allowed in this conversation." Lierthe was quick to tell his sister that we are to be included.
It startled even Thietian to look at Lierthe with an odd expression before confirming to Tellis that we were to be involved in all serious discussions.
"My apologies." Tellis didn't seem offended by her brothers words but by the look on one of the other sisters face that she didn't approve.
I made a mental note to keep an eye on those two.
As we sat down in the meeting room, Thietian introduced us to his Fae family. We had already met Lierthe, Tellis (Tell-lis) was next to him with her husband, Dakor (Duh-kor). Then the sister who had gave us the look of disapproval was Nira (Near-ah) and her husband Balkin (Ball-kin). Their other two brothers Mirne (Mern) and Fuyerk (Few-yerk) and then the two other sister K'dara (Kee-dar-a) and Avari (Ah-var-ee). They're husband Cryus (Cree-us) and Hyatin (Hi-Ah-ten) sat by their sides and remained quiet but gave a small smile and nod to us when introduced.
He then asked his brothers and sisters what they wished to know.