Midsummer Solstice

The party was in full swing. Alice was enjoying the various foodstuffs offered by the cooks of the caravan, while Ren was enjoying the drinks with gusto. Being raised as members of the upper classes, the two marked their age on the day they were born, but they still praised Lugh, Lord of the Sun, and partook of the festivities with a sense of abandon they rarely felt in their restricted lives.

Alexis stood to the side, his close cropped grey hair appeared black in the firelights. He was idly sipping wine from a skin, his eyes scanning the campsite warily. He knew tonight, of all nights, mana ran wild and passions spiked.

'We humans never think of how their emotions and actions affected the world around them. Even those children Blessed are acting out,' he thought darkly. As he looked around him, he saw Leo standing watch to the side, no feasting or merriment visible on his face. 'The boy looks almost as tense as I am. Can he sense it?'

Leo, feeling a piercing gaze on him, turned to see Alexis's eyes upon him. Flushing slightly from the intensity of his gaze, he nodded slightly to the older man, then returned his eyes to the parked wagons outside the campsite. His eyes were continually drawn to Alexis' wagon. He felt something both familiar and foreign there. It was the sensation similar to what a grown man might feel when returning to his former home. The building is the same, but everything within was different, having been replaced by a new owner.

Without realizing it, he began to approach the wagon's rear, drawn to that strange, familiar and yet foreign, feeling. As he left the protective warding, the feeling intensified, and he felt his connection to that strange presence grow stronger. The flaps on back of the wagon were gently opened, and for the first time since the caravan left the city, the woman in the back exited her tent.

The woman was beautiful and lithe. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back from her face, tied behind her head by a simple leather thong, revealing her small, pointed ears. Garbed in forester garb, her emerald eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight, her olive-tinged skin pale in the moonlight. Her slightly tilted brows lifted in surprise as she saw the face of the boy in front of her.

"Oh, it's you," her voice broke the stillness surrounding them. "The one who felt so familiar back in town."

Leo stood in silent confusion. 'Felt familiar?'

"Do you still only talk to yourself, little one?" she asked with a smile. "Or have you come to celebrate with me?" Leo's eyes lit with recognition at her words, and he blushed, embarrassed at both his manners and his poor memory.

"I have no real reason to celebrate midsummer, ma'am. I have no friends or family to celebrate with, no home or money to spend, or anyone who'd invite me to their celebrations. It's a hollow holiday for us orphans. Even the churches and shelters close on nights like tonight."

The elven woman's eyes filled with compassion, saddened for a moment at the young boys words. 'What life has he lived that no one would invite him to celebrate?' Looking more closely, she seemed to smell the sweet scents of spring's morning dew on him.

"You have her mark," realizing who and what he was, she spoke immediately without thinking. "Aurora."

Leo's face paled for a moment, hearing the name of the Fae with whom he had bargained.

"You must be quite lucky to have caught our Lady of Spring's attention, and for her to bestow her mark upon you. Tell me, do you know how the fey-folk, or elves as you call us, came to be?" Leo shook his head.

"It was through the marks of the Fae. Specifically, the courts of the seasons. The women, Lady of Spring, Aurora, Summer Queen, Titania, Lady of Autumn, Morganna, and the Winter Queen, Mab. The men, Lord of Spring, Angus, the Summer King, Oberon, The Lord of Autumn, Puck, and the Winter King, Aelfric. They each marked original humans, offering them their grace and talent. In exchange, the humans swore themselves to the Fae courts, and offered their children in exchange. These children, raised by the Fae, gradually altered into the race we are now, elves, with a unique connection to nature.

At least, that's how the story goes. And to any elf who takes a good look at you, you are obviously a child of Aurora. Though tonight belongs to her mother, Titania, and her husband, Oberon. Tonight, we fey-folk channel the abundant mana into turning the seasons, that Titania might more easily take her throne and offer summers bounty to us. Would you like to join me?" She offered her open hand to the young boy, smiling warmly as she invited him to take part in an ancient rite rarely seen by humans, and never before having participated in in recorded history.

Unaware of the momentous occasion, and equally unaware of the honor of even having been offered, all Leo felt was the sensation of someone inviting him to celebrate with them. Having spent nearly ten years alone, Leo reached out, tears slowly sliding down his cheeks, and took her hand.