Mab's Burial Mound, County Sligo Ireland, Monday Night
It had been quite a production. One that set Leda's teeth on edge. Not because of anything specific anyone had said or done. But simply the fact of the rigmarole itself. This was meant to be a personal thing. A quiet moment for her.
But the word had gotten out that the Queen of Faerie was in town to visit the grave of the Legendary Queen, her own Great Grandmother. And things had just snowballed. There'd been speeches, and press, and ceremony and pomp and bullshit.
She would have been okay with just the documentary crew. She agreed to an interview with them. And she'd been happy to talk to the local historians and the archaeologists who were practically orgasming at the prospect of the local myth being true.
But everything else. It made her sick the way the politicians wanted to...what was the phrase? Make Hay? Make hay with her visit. So she'd taken a chance. It turned out that, whatever went on in the rest of this Earth, here, in Ireland, in the proximity to where magic had once been personified, it worked.
And an illusory Leda went along with all the herp derp, smiling and waving, and adding a stone to the mound. It even made a speech. Leda hid among the crowd of gawkers, disguised as a random tourist.
Now, after sundown she was back in earnest. Really, it was better to do this now anyway. The night had always been associated with the Unseelie, and as it turned out, Mab had been Unseelie. It made Leda grin to think that, her ancestor (though really was only three generations enough to call her an ancestor?) had been more concerned with the well-being and relations with the mortal population, than the Seelie.
"Hey Great Gramma." She knelt by the mound, where she felt she was closest to the head. Oh what the hell. "Your Majesty." Laying a hand against the mound, she haltingly began to speak. She told her Great Grandmother about her near death experience, and about the fear that had grown in her heart.
"I guess it really started when Triella died." she confided. "And when the border disappeared the second time I...sort of gave my other friends up for dead. But I didn't become conscious of it till I called Momo, and Triela was there."
They were all going to die. Momoko, James, Karla, Robin...their lives would be over in the Elven blink of an eye, and she would go on. She would barely be out of her "teens" by that time.
"The worst part is," Well, not the worst part, "Is now I understand why so few Elves are interested in getting to know humans. What would be the point? We live so much longer, that they used to think we were immortal. To us we change and grow at a normal rate, but they must see us as this unchanging, immovable creature."
She shook her head in frustration. "No wonder humans seem so much more advanced socially to me sometimes. They've had so many more generations to work with. We like to pretend we're so superior to them but fuck, we've only been around comparatively for what, ten generations? I'm afraid to really do that research. Really we're the children we pretend they are."
Well that had gotten off track.
"I know some Elves get off on the tragic nature of Fae/Mortal relationships. They fall in love knowing they're likely to outlive their one and only by centuries. Human Goths wish they could be that tragically romantic.
"But I'm just not like that." she sighed. "I don't like being sad." Or did she? She did love the gloomy rainy weather. "I just never thought about it before. It never occurred to me."
God what must it be like for Ember? Was she going through this about her friendship with Leda and her friends and family? Or was she looking forward to continuing that friendship for generations to come? Truth to tell Leda could see the appeal of that.
"And I know it's silly to think this! I know it's only a temporary parting. It's hard to get all 'fear of death' when you know for a fact there's an afterlife." That was one of the sticking points. She couldn't quite forgive herself for feeling this way, knowing what she did. "But...what if different worlds have different afterlives? Can Elves visit Humans in heaven?"
But...that was a silly thing to worry about too wasn't it. Faery and Earth were different dimensions, and she had known, on the border between the Realm of the Quick, and the Land of the Dead, that she was connected to people who had died on Earth. She was thinking of the Afterlife in terms of the physical world. And it was extremely unlikely such rules applied.
In an Omniverse that had placed like Fandom, and where the dead could come visit from time to time, no matter what world they came from or had gone to...
"Well, anyway Granny Mab, I wanted to come here just to say hello. I didn't mean to burden you with my adolescent angsting. But thanks for listening anyway. I feel bit better finally getting it off my chest."
She took from her pocket a handful of stones. One from Fandom, one from the garden back at the Danu Homestead, and one from the foundation where her mortal cousins had lived. She could swear as she placed them carefully among the others, she felt a slender, comforting hand squeeze her shoulder.
[Open for the callings and the textings and the glavin.]