Finn sat up and yawned, blinking and focusing her eyes on the source of the sound, dimly recognizing it. Gwen walked towards her, still barefoot, with a contemplative look on her face.
Finn frowned. The sound she was hearing was not that of bare feet. Looking behind Gwen, she spied a smaller person walking in the grass, shoes on his small feet, a look of wonder on his young face.
"GABE!!" Finn jumped to her feet and ran towards him, catching him in a hug so tight he began to squirm.
"That hurts, Finn," He complained from where his face was pressed against her. "Don't squeeze so hard."
"I'm sorry!" She cried, releasing him and dropping to her knees to see him better. "You're all right! Oh, goodness, you're all right!! How did you-- Where--" Tears streamed down her face as she clutched the child to her again.
"I never should have left you, or I should have turned back the moment I was well enough, or at least--" She sucked in a deep sob.
"Hush, Finn." Mayra cut her off, "You need to take a deep breath. He's here now. Are you all right Gabe?"
"I'm all right," Gabe said. "My friend helped me be ok."
"You mean Gwen?" Finn shot the Fae a grateful look. She would be thankful forever to this Fae woman who brought her precious little brother back to her arms after months apart.
"No, I mean, she helped too, but my other friend." Gabe continued. "He helped me have someone to talk to, and then he got the soldiers to give us more food, and a fire so we could see and talk, and he made it so I could get away and find more supplies. He said I couldn't tell anyone, but I'm sure it's ok to tell you."
"Whoever he is, I'm so thankful," Finn pulled him back into a hug. Gabe squirmed away again so he could talk to her properly.
"Oh, he's your friend too!" he chirped.
"Yes, any friend of yours is a friend of mine," Finn said gratefully. "That's entirely true."
Gabe rolled his eyes in his 6-year-old way. "No, I mean he's your FRIEND. Your boyfriend? He loves you. The soldiers call him Prince Derek, but he said his name is Roland."
Finn nearly fainted dead away.
________________________
After being gently comforted back to coherence, Finn sat in utter shock as Gabe told his entire tale. He picked up with the burning of the village, which Finn had seen, and moved on through his entire experience in the Dark Place, as he called it, how Roland came into the picture, Amelia's tale (Mayra was grateful to have news of her mother), and on through how Prince Derek aka Roland had made the soldiers start treating them better.
Finally, he came to the part where he escaped and got to the fire that Roland made for him, with supplies and things all around. When he explained how Gwen had showed up in the darkness, and then Roland had opened the door, Finn sniffled softly.
Gabriel had seen Roland just minutes before. He was all right. Right now he could still be thinking of her.
"I had no idea you were being kept in darkness," Finn lamented. "The last I saw you, they had you in a group in the middle of the village while it was on fire. If I'd known they had taken you there--"
"There's still nothing you could have done," Mayra put her hand on Finn's shoulder. "Focus on now."
Her little brother was safe in front of her. Amelia and the rest of her children were safe. Everything and everyone she loved in the world, for the moment, was in a delicate balancing act where no one had been killed or seriously hurt.
But Finn knew that delicate balance could tip into war at any time, shattering the lives of all.
"What can we do?" She finally asked Gwen.
The woman stared at her, "You're human, you can do whatever you want to do," she said, as if it were obvious.
"For the moment, I'm going to brush past the implication that since you are NOT human, you CAN'T do whatever you want," Finn rubbed her temples, "and ask this another way. What would be the best thing for me to do to be helpful in the prevention of the war? Where would I be most useful?"
Gwen watched her uncertainly. "I'm not sure I can answer that very well. I can lay out some of your options, but I believe I should stop short of advising you what you should or should not do concerning the war."
"Fair enough," Finn said, "Pretend we're just friends. Normal friends, thinking out options for what we can do now. Mayra, Gabe, and and other Fae who are apparently around us and listening but not visible, feel free to chime in here with anything helpful!"
"We could stay here, it's really nice!" Said Gabe.
"That's actually a really good option for you, if the Fae will agree to let you stay here until this is resolved. It's probably the safest place in the world." Finn pondered this. She would be more willing to take her own risks if she knew Gabriel was safe.
"It's not part of 'the world' as we know it, but I agree, Gabe should stay here if the Fae will agree," Mayra nodded, and both girls turned to Gwen.
"He is a delightful boy, and we would be happy to have him as a guest for a time," Gwen said obligingly. She really did want to help, and hoped any other requests made of her would be ones she could comply with.
"I can't stay here," said Finn. "I have to do something. There has to be some way I can help." She hated feeling useless almost more than anything else in the world. "Any ideas? Where to go, what to do?"
"Well, the two nations coming to war are Rhone and Klain. We can't go to Rhone because we would only be captured at best and killed at worst. We have no real hope of spying on them." Mayra thought out loud.
"So the only real thing we can do is attempt to help Klain," Finn finished the thought. "Even though we're exiled from there by the Provider. If we get caught back in the city..."
"And we're not warriors. What could we possibly do to help them?" Mayra added, plunging Finn into feeling useless again.
"We could try to expose the Provider as a spy... but I have no idea how. The General is aware and working on it, and we have no additional proof beyond what he could get." Finn had a growing headache.
Gabe spoke up from beside his sister, "When I want to help with something new, I have to learn how first. Like when Finn taught me to bake bread, and make tea, or Papa taught me to milk the cow. If there's nothing you know how to do, just perk up and learn something new!"
Finn smiled at the little chant their mother used to say to her, that she'd passed on to Gabe.
"You do have that healing tea recipe that would be of great use in a war situation," Mayra smiled helpfully. "Maybe we could get more recipes from Jimmy, something that would protect the city from invasion."
Finn perked up. "We could disperse the wolf repellant to the soldiers, that's got fairly common ingredients. The only problem with more recipes is the shortage of herbs across the kingdom. The Rhone seem to have stripped the land very thoroughly for whatever they have planned."
"Stripped our world... but not this one?" Mayra turned expectantly to Gwen, who had been observing the humans' logical outworkings with interest. Fae had extensive knowledge and access to much greater quantities of information than these simple people, in addition to being privy to each other's thoughts. She was not used to so many steps from question to decision.
"What are you asking?" Gwen blinked at them. Finn cleared her throat.
"We would love if you could give us any magical recipes that might be useful in the war, and the ingredients to make them." Finn creased her brow.
"Rhone has lots of magic," Gabe confided. "They can come and go from the Dark Place, they can make things float, set things on fire, make the animals do what they want... lots of stuff."
"It would be impossible to learn everything in time to be of significant aid... wouldn't it?" Mayra asked Finn sadly. "even if Gwen helped us get the herbs we want."
"We don't have to learn everything, just... some things." Finn tried to think of the most useful possible magical thing she could come up with.
"Gwen, if I asked you to help me create one specific type of herbal magic, would you be able to help me?" Finn asked.
The corner of the Fae's mouth twitched. "It has been many years since Fae have needed to rely on herbs as a source of magic. Long ago we bound it into our blood through great efforts."
Finn smiled hopefully, "Still, you know the principles, right? Let me tell you what I'm thinking..."