6 First Contac (2/2)
When Aurana saw the redness on my face, her own cheeks turned a shade of apple.
”I meant something like a business partnership… a mutually beneficial one,” she quickly corrected.
”Oh, yeah. I knew that…” I replied just as quickly.
Seconds ticked by into a full minute before Aurana thought to continue our conversation. It seems she needed the time to get over her embarrassment.
”All cards on the table, yes?” She asked.
”Yes,” although I said this without hesitation, I wasn't completely smitten by her. A part of me was still on guard and still waiting for the other shoe to drop. ”So… how can we help each other?”
”First thing's first. You need to know that a fairy trade is binding to both parties. It cannot be undone or bamboozled or forgotten. We must both uphold it less great tragedy strike the rule-breaker,” Aurana recited as if she were reading from an invisible textbook.
”Sounds serious,” I joked, lightheartedly.
”It is,” she responded. ”We call this the Rule of Equivalent Trade, and it is the one rule no fairy can break.”
”Why not?”
”It just isn't done. Not in the last five hundred years…”
I placed both my hands in the pocket of my jeans.
”I assume you're telling me this to prove you won't go back on any agreement we make tonight?” I guessed.
Aurana nodded. ”Fair trade. That's what I can promise you.”
”Great, cool, thank you,” I said, as a sudden panic began to fill my thoughts. After all, it was now or never. Do or die. ”I would like to make a deal.”
”I assumed as much.” Aurana smiled. ”So, you would like me to heal your mother's sanity—”
”What — no!” I interrupted her.
Aurana frowned at the interruption but said nothing.
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”Hold on… you can do that?” I couldn't help asking. Mom seemed so far gone that anything short of magic might not make her better again. ”You can just… heal her? And not just temporarily like last night. I mean, really make her better again?”
Aurana was still frowning when she answered, ”Yes. It's why I was there last night… to show you it was possible.”
Now, she looked smug, and I have to say, her face was very expressive.
”But in order for me to heal your mother, I would need equal—”
”No, thanks… that's not what I want.” I said, quickly.
It was tempting. It was very tempting. Honestly, I would have said yes in a heartbeat if there wasn't something even more important I needed to ask for.
Aurana's face, crunched together as it was at that second, was the textbook definition of bewilderment. ”A-are you certain?”
I shook my head before I finally revealed the reason I summoned her. ”Luca. I want to trade my life for his.”
That was my moment of truth because even I wasn't sure I could say it. To sacrifice myself for someone else—even if it was Luca—that took guts I didn't think I had. Not until that moment.
”You know about my missing brother, right?”
Aurana nodded slowly. Her face was smooth impassivity, and I wondered how long she could maintain it.
”Were you the one who took him?” I asked.
”No,” she blurted. ”It wasn't me.”
I breathed a sigh of relief at hearing her answer. It would have been infinitely harder to work with the fairy that was responsible for my family's recent problems.
”But you know who did?” I prompted.
Despite how honest she seemed, I reminded myself that the pamphlet warned summoners from completely believing the fairy they summoned as they were experts at bending the truth.
”I do,” Aurana said, after a pause. ”One of my clan's elders took Luca to the Fayne.”
My eyebrow shot up. ”What is the Fayne?”
”It's our word for the realm we call home,” Aurana revealed.