With her brother appeased and utterly unsuspicious, Talori was able to head back to her room. The problem was that the door was blocked. She was fairly sure she knew what happened so she swam around to the window and shimmied her way inside.
Sure enough, Brennan was asleep on her bed. He had taken advantage of no one being around to take a much-needed nap.
Honestly, she could use one too. There wasn't enough space to join him so she headed over to the sea sponge and curled up on it after sticking a couple of small starfish to her closed eyelids to block out the light.
She wasn't sure how long she was asleep before she was woken up by someone tapping on her shoulder and calling her name. She sleepily peeled off one of the starfish and saw that Brennan had an apologetic expression on his face.
"Sorry to wake you. I just wanted to know if I could get something to eat."
Talori took off the other starfish and immediately got up in a panic. She had meant to order him snacks when she got back but didn't because he was asleep! He hadn't eaten since breakfast! She felt horrible.
"I am so sorry! I will take care of that now."
She rushed over to move the chest blocking the door and gestured for him to get into the wardrobe before getting out the rather loud snapping clamshells used for summoning servants. Marlowe must have been in the area because she appeared less than a minute later.
"Yes, Princess?"
"I need snacks. A lot of them. I'm very hungry," Talori said as casually as she could despite how she was internally cursing herself for forgetting to take care of her guest.
"I will take care of that right away," Marlowe promised before nodding respectfully and swimming off.
Talori spoke in English. "You can come out now but I am unsure for how long before you will need to go back in."
"That's fine," Brennan said.
He emerged from the wardrobe and appeared to be stretching an appendage she couldn't see. His wings, perhaps? She had no idea how big they were or what part of him they were attached to but based on his movements now, she wondered if they were on his back.
She didn't know how they helped him fly either. He compared flying to swimming through the sky but swimming—at least for merfolk—involved a tail and sometimes arms.
He had arms but no tail. He used his arms and legs to swim and the motions were very different than what she was used to. He said he used his wings to fly rather than his arms or legs and she didn't know how that would work without seeing it for herself.
Maybe tonight after they went to the cave they could go up to the surface and Brennan could show her what flying looked like. She would get a better idea of it seeing it than hearing it described, even if he wasn't willing to remove his glamour from his wings because fairies didn't do that.
Talori was curious if it was possible for merfolk to use glamours. She had certainly never needed one because no humans ever came near their domain.
The magic items they had received from the witches made sure of that. Boats and such could pass around their kingdom's borders but not directly over it. The magic would lead them away.
It wasn't long before Marlowe came back and Brennan had to go back into the wardrobe but she left quickly. He devoured everything on the plate before thanking her and sitting down on the sea sponge.
"If you're still tired, you can go back to sleep. I don't mind. I'm wide awake now."
Talori shook her head. She had gotten enough rest for now. She didn't want to miss a moment that could be used finding out more about the surface.
"I am fine but thank you for your concern. I would prefer to know more about other fae."
Brennan had told her quite a bit about fairies and some about witches but the other fae races had only been mentioned in passing. She wanted to know more about them too, even though she wasn't ever likely to meet any.
"Suit yourself," he said with a shrug. "The fae races capable of language are fairies, witches, merfolk, elves, werewolves, and vampires. There are fae animals as well but the only ones I have experience with are kelpies. They're horses made of water that live in freshwater habitats like lakes or streams.
"As I said before, witches look the most like humans but happen to have glowing eyes in a variety of colors. The next most human-looking are elves. They are tall, sharp-featured, and elegant with long straight hair and ears that are less pointed than mine.
"They're pretty stuffy fae that care more about hoarding wealth than anything but they're necessary to our survival because they mate with witches, who are all female. They also run Elite Financial Solutions, the only fae bank where we can keep all of our financial information out of the hands of humans.
"They're really not that bad, even if they aren't the friendliest. They've adjusted to the human world better than most of us considering their propensity for big business but they never forgave the humans for cutting down their forests.
"Vampires basically look like the dark version of elves with black hair, white skin, red eyes, and fangs but I've only seen them a few times when I've been at a witch coven after dark. They have covens of their own and stick to themselves aside from getting blood pills and other magic items from the witches.
"Most of them live in the north but there are a few loners that live further south and work night shifts. I knew one of those once. A nomad named Nyx Edgecomb who wasn't into the coven life. I had an interesting conversation with her.
"Werewolves live all over the place in packs. They're a rowdy bunch and are very hairy with wolf ears, tails, and fangs. They might be tied for the strongest fae race with vampires but they don't attack unless provoked. They watch out for their own fiercely so if you don't mess with them, they don't mess with you.
"That's about all I can think of, sorry. I've interacted with other fae races in passing countless times but usually each race does their own thing. My friendship with Harmony is considered somewhat strange," Brennan finished apologetically.
Talori didn't mind. That was more information than she had ever thought she would get considering she didn't even know there were other types of fae aside from witches before meeting him.