st_onecoldfox

The Goblin Market reminded Mildmay of some parts of the Lower City. 'Cept how it was full up with fairies, and everything he'd heard about 'em felt like Keeper's first and strongest lessons 'bout what to do when you saw a fuckin' Cabaline wandering around: don't even try to start nothing, just fucking run, and warn anybody you came across. So's he was already all kindsa wary before he even saw her. Long, loose waves of hair, black as obsidian, against skin paler than Mildmay's but with the glint and shimmer of opalescence. But that was wrong, 'cause those were softer stones, and there wasn't nothing soft about the fairy lady who'd caught his eye as she passed through the market square. Something about her said she was harder than diamond and more dangerous than any snake. Just the thought of letting her maybe get behind him set Mildmay's teeth on edge.

He mighta been one redheaded human with a limp in a sea of fairies, but Mildmay melted into the market crowds like he'd never even been there as he followed after her. It was maybe a septad-minute when she stopped, giving a viper's smile to a fairy with wild spikes of long blond hair, mismatched eyes – and no, that didn't stab at all – in a sparkly black frock coat and enough ruffles for Felix's wardrobe.

"Another, Jareth?" Mildmay her her tsk as he slipped closer. "You really should stick to mortals. It's so much sweeter that way."

The other, Jareth or whatever, sang his response, and Mildmay couldn'ta told you what he said. He was too busy trying to shake off whatever magic was in the music, that had everybody nearby leaning in.

He missed part of what she said too, only catching then end, "-f you must." She gave a wave of her fingers and kissed the air between them. "Enjoy your prize. But don't say I never warned you."

Then the two fairies parted, and Mildmay was torn on who to keep in sight. Maybe it was the magic. Or maybe the instincts that'd kept him alive if not whole. Or maybe Kethe nudging him along. But Mildmay was shadowing the fairy lord before he made up his mind to do it. Which was when he saw the kid – fairy, yeah, but still just a kid – trailing along after him, eyes like saucers of awe and want.

Shoulda known he'd wind up in a fuckin' fairy labyrinth. 'Cause that was just his life. Even without Felix, it turned out. But fairy magic or no fairy magic – and there was plenty of it, but that was a story for another time – Mildmay never got lost. And he didn't here.

It was hours, at least, before he made it through the heart of the labyrinth and out the other side, carrying a wailing fairy kid, leaning heavy on Jashuki as he dragged his bum leg behind him, and gritting his teeth against the pain. A too tall fairy, skinny, seeming almost all arms and legs they were, like the rest of him? her? all stretched out too far, rushed up to them and pulled the kid from Mildmay's arms, wrapping the kid in a tight hug.

Mildmay could hear the kid talking, all rapid-fire rambling the way little kids did when they were over-excited, but powers and saints, Mildmay was just trying to keep from falling over, and he didn't hear a word that was said.

Until the tall fairy fucking bowed. To Mildmay. "You have saved my son."