Page 41 of Mistaken Magic

Lynngroaned. "Noone uses those terms.Iguess it was some bastardized version of someWelshorOldEnglish.Somethinglike that.Thecourts were named for the seasons, and their power waned when the other season was taking over, keeping balance in a way."

"Hereor there?"Iasked.

"Bothare the same,"Amyexplained. "Imean, it sounds like there's not a lot of land in the southern hemisphere there, and there's not a lot of magic here, but the court's weather is pretty close toEngland's."

"Cool,"Isaid, because that was not at all whatI'dexpected. "So, if those four areFaerieborn, thenI'mguessing all of you are from here?"

"We'reall faelings,"Lynnsaid. "I'mhalf fae,Mattis too, but both of his parents are half, instead of one of each like me.Um,Amy, you're a quarter, right?"

"Yep,"Amysaid. "Supposedly, my grandmother worked in theSummerCourtat one point, so my parents always sayI'mdescended from royalty.Shewas a cook, soI'mnot."

"Buta lot of people like to claim more prestige than they really had,"Lynnexplained. "Youknow, like making themselves sound more important.Ithink that's mostly because old habits die hard, and a lot of our parents still judge each other based on their former titles.Buthow fae are you,Chris?"

Heshrugged meekly. "Noclue.I'ma foundling,Rain, plucked from the foster system.”

Charlottesighed. "I'man eighth, andIhave just enough magic to make people hallucinate around me.Glamourssuck when they're out of control, which is howIended up here.Surprise, you've got some fae blood sort of a thing."

"Glamourskinda suck when in-control too,"Isaid. "Havingsomeone make you think you're somewhere else and it's so real it feels like teleportation?Kindashocking."

"Ican't do that,"Charlotteadmitted. "I'mmore of the pink elephant dancing at the edge of your vision."Thenher eyes narrowed. "Wait.Didsomeone do that to you?"

Iwaved her off, because the way her tone had changed made me think it wasn't a good thing.WhateverAspenhad done had been meant to help explain, butLiamwas right, she didn't understand things the same way we did.Knowingthose four were all pure-bloods, however, kinda made a few things make more sense.

ThenLynnsubtly flicked her finger to another corner of the room. "Now, if you're talking about social circles, see the group who all look like they're a little too stiff?Yeah, children of theExodus.Theirparents want to rebuild the courts here onEarth, and those kids are expected to make it happen.Well,Imean, they're the kids who actually agree with their parents.Mostof us don't."

"Butmost fae want the courts back?"Iasked. "Or, um, here?Whateverthe right term is?"

"Either,"Charlottesaid. "See, they were so used to the whole queen and duke type of setup that they're lost with this whole free-for-all thing humans do.Granted, when you spend a few centuries wishing you were a baroness or something,Iguess it gets to be a habit?"

"Right."Nevermind that feudalism sucked, and most people were peasants, but whatever.Icould only guess that the hope was that when rebuilding the courts here, they'd move up?Noclue - yetIcouldn't look away fromTorian,Aspen, and their friends. "Istill don't get how they fit in with all of that.Socially,Imean."

"Thecourt?"Lynnasked. "Yeah, just pretend like they don't exist.Thefour of them are powerful enough to make you disappear with a snap of their fingers.Theyalso keep to themselves."

"They'rethe real deal,Rain,"Charlotteadded.

"Soeveryone looks up to them?"Iasked. "Like, amIsupposed to kiss their asses or something?"

"No!"Lynnassured me. "Rain, they might as well not even exist for most of us.Imean, they rarely date, and they barely talk to anyone in school, but every girl has to try for one of those boys.Itnever ends well.Ifit even looks like the court is going to be friendly to someone, the jesters quickly put them back in their place.Thehalf-bloods don't want the pure-bloodsto assume their pedigrees mean anything,Iguess?Noclue, but considering there's only the five pure-bloods here?Well, besides the teachers,Imean.It'skinda not a fair fight."

"Ok, so who's the fifth?"Iasked.

"He'saround somewhere,"Charlotteexplained. "Hedoesn't fit with the court, though, because he'sEarth-born.Hisparents were already together when they leftFaerie, but he's never seen it.Kindalike most of us."

Mattgroaned. "Morelike sick and tired of hearing about it.Myparents idolize the place, which is ironic since they've never been there either."

"So, only a few of our teachers and those four have?"Iasked.

Lynnnodded. "Asfar as we know.Thingis, the court willnottalk about it.Ifyou try to ask, you get shut down fast, if not chased off.LikeIsaid, they don't mingle."

Chris, who seemed to be the quiet one, added, "Andthose four latched on to each other the moment they arrived.FirstTorian, last year, andHawke.Theycame together.ThenWildergot here.Tooka few weeks before he was in their crowd, though.ButAspen?Theypulled her right in."

"Keepin mind,"Lynnsaid, looking at me pointedly. "MostAPstudents here were enrolled by their parents.Realfae parents who want their kid to understand their ancestry.Tendsto make an impact when one shows up in the middle of the year."

Shemeant me.Iknew she did, butIwasn't special.Nomatter how much the circumstances might seem like it,I'dtested as being completely boring.I'donly been allowed in becauseAspenhad demanded it.Thenagain, if purity of blood mattered so much to these people, thenAspenwas basically the queen ofEarth.

Yetthat whole idea only made me even more confused.Wasit possible the "interesting" thing about me was simply thatIwas so human?Ifpure-blood trumped half-blood, andLynn'sfriends were acting like that was merely a fact of life, then didn't it stand to reason that a no-blood human was the lowest of them all?

Yeah, this was going to take a little more social dancing thanIwas used to.Normally, making a few friends was all it took to get ignored, andIwas pretty fond of sliding under the radar.Itmeant fewer questions about my past and less poking into stuffIdidn't want to talk about.Here, it seemed such mundane crap didn't matter, but ties toFaeriedid.TiesthatIhad exactly none of.

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