AS IF IT HAD become a religious practice, prejudiced people attacked Tallahassee routinely after the tragedy befell Sparrow Manor. The Council noticed this from their home in the city of Birdsong, which was located on Birdsong Island, an island shielded by a barrier dome in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. To conquer the raids on the human city they had grown to like, the Council gifted Tallahassee a guildhall for the Mage’s Guild—a society of healers, who threaded breaks in the energetic sequences of living things, and fighters, who specialized in offensive magic.
With the addition of the Mage’s Guild, Florida increased its support of integration, and a summer festival was created from that allegiance. With the Mage’s Guild, Florida’s governor and Tallahassee’s mayor presented a fae parade throughout the capital city each year. Vendors lined the streets, and booths would educate humans on fae culture. Over time, a few of the local humans were even recruited to intern with the guild if their energy was strong enough to learn the disciplines of magic. Since humans lacked hypnotic cells, magic was hard for most of them to learn.
The mages were called demons by the anti-fae radicals. And the anti-fae would constantly try to destroy Tallahassee as if it were tradition.
While Simon’s funeral was taking place and Esme was protecting the two stubborn goblins who would not go inside the church, mages of the guild and police officers patrolled the area. They were looking for anyone who posed a threat to the fae, which mostly were the rebels.
“It’s the end times!” a madman in his older twenties shouted with a strong southern accent into a bullhorn. “The world is ending!” He wore a brown coat, and his hands were wrapped in cloth. “The fae were sent to us to test our faith in God! Science is destroying us! I’m not a primate! I’m a man of faith!” He was preaching from the corner of a busy street in the Art District. “Come, join the rebellion!”
A fair-skinned woman was standing quietly on the corner of the street, eyeing the rebel with her doe-like brown eyes. She widened her gaze at the man shouting about the nearing apocalypse. Her navy suit was decorated with emblems of the Mage’s Guild. Rose was sewed into her blazer.
“Hey! Hey!” The dangerous rebel approached an elderly man walking out of a shop. “Can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?” The older man froze when the rebel leaned into him, grabbing his arm, and shouted loudly into his bullhorn, “We are all doomed!”
“Okay,” Rose whispered, trying to hype herself up as she looked down at the new ribbons on her brand-new suit. She had officially joined the guild, and her nerves were going haywire.
She turned to the hateful fanatic and the poor man. “You are disturbing the peace. Release your grip on this gentleman and lower your voice.”
The crazed rebel was slouching and turned to look at the mage. The older man rushed from the rebel and ran down the sidewalk once his arm was released.
“What did you just say? Did you threaten me?” The maniacal man who was part of the rebellion walked toward Rose.
“O-oh, I would never.” Rose held up her hands and crossed them timidly. “I just want the city to be at peace. That’s all.” The shy mage laughed nervously at the rebel glaring at her. “Can’t we all just get along?”
“I think you threatened me.” The rebel looked over at a police officer climbing out of a parked car nearby. It was Jackson. He was on his way to check on Rose. “This mage threatened me, officer!”
Jackson glanced at Rose, who looked rattled. He walked up to her and the angry out-of-towner.
“Thank god!” the rebel scoffed, thinking Jackson was there to aid him. “Now, we’re getting somewhere. Officer, this damn mage just—”
“Hands behind your back.” Jackson quickly approached the rebel and grabbed the man’s shoulder.
“What?!” the rebel shouted at the officer. He was used to the police who shared the same hate as him in the town he was from. “I did nothing wrong. I’m just doing my American duty and warning the true citizens about the fae!”
Jackson placed handcuffs around the man’s wrists and shoved him to another officer, who was jogging up, spilling her coffee. The rebel rattled his fists against the energy-infused handcuffs. He gritted his teeth from the soft buzz that was sent to his brain, sedating him.
The newly arrived officer looked down at the coffee dripping from her hand in a trance and asked, “What should I do?”
“Take him to the car,” Jackson told the officer. “I’ll be there in a sec.”
The officer nodded and took the detainee to their patrol car.
“Man, the station is getting full of these lunatics.” Jackson scratched his head and bowed a little at the mage. “I’m sorry about this, Rose. They just keep piling in from out of town. Talk about a great first day for you, huh?”
“It’s okay, Jackson.” Rose calmed down at the sight of a familiar face. She looked past him. “I don’t remember you having a partner.”
Jackson gave Rose a blank stare. “I don’t. I was dropping off some idiot, and she was sitting at my desk. I told her to move—made her cry,” he said, rubbing his neck. “I didn’t know she’s in the process of being reassigned. She was Terrance’s partner.”
“Is she okay?” Rose looked worried. “I know your voice can carry.”
“She’s fine. She’s just timid, like you.” Jackson grinned. Then, his grin flatlined. “I just want to let you know that Wren is bounty-hunting rebels on the wanted list again.”
“My lord…” Rose’s cheeks flushed in anger. “Don’t let Eudora know. I’ll handle this.”
“By the way… I heard Wren set her yard on fire.” Jackson widened his eyes and leaned in closer to Rose. “Mind reading and now fire-starting. Are you sure she isn’t a fae? Maybe a nymph, like Esme?”
Everyone was aware of the strange human who harbored even stranger abilities. Wren’s abnormalities had become well-known throughout the city after she went through a phase of repeating everything people thought out loud back to them. It brought her comfort to know that the voices she heard were not imaginary as she saw people’s reactions—though the people whose secrets were being revealed did not find it comforting in the slightest.
“You know very well that Wren is Eudora’s biological niece. She’s not a fae. She’s just gifted.” Rose did not want to talk about Wren’s strange abilities. The pain of losing Simon had affected everyone immensely, and Wren had reacted explosively.
Rose looked down at her hands clasped together. “So… how’s Terrance doing?”
“He’s all messed-up,” Jackson said. “He’s on leave and in therapy. That’s why I have his partner.”
He rubbed his eyes from lack of sleep. The police officers and mages hardly slept because of the frequent attacks in the city. “Shit. He may never return to work. Did you know Simon’s mom was laughing at the scene? Terrance said she even sang—”
Jackson noticed Rose’s teary eyes and bit his lip, frustrated about not thinking before he spoke. “I’m so sorry, Rose. That was tactless of me—damn it.” He looked up at the sky.
Rose extended her arm and patted him on his elbow. “It’s okay, Jackson. You mean well.” She looked around him and noticed that his temporary partner was being screamed at by the drugged lunatic caged in the backseat of the police car. “You better go help her.”
Jackson looked back at what was going on in his car. “Later, Rose,” he said, waving.
Rose waved at Jackson, who hopped into the driver’s seat and drove toward the Old Precinct. Novus and the Old Precinct were about two miles away, but everyone in the Art District could hear the bells that came from the church.
Rose sighed as she was left alone on the sidewalk, listening to the bells. Her two-hour lunch break was at twelve, and she planned to swing by the funeral for the after-service lunch. She was depressed that her first day was the same day as Simon’s funeral. But death was viewed differently in the fae world, and it was not severe enough to miss work.
Rose feared she had impulsively joined the guild when Simon died, trying to find answers of where souls went when the body perished, but what was impulsive about joining an agency after interning with them for twenty years?
*****
“No need to live in fear,” the priest told everyone inside of the church, staring at the orphans, who were no longer goofing around.
“What if the Mage’s Guild don’t help us?” one of the goblin boys asked the tall troll who stood in front of everyone.
“They will. The mages here like us,” the troll who stood between the funeral and the other orphans told the boy. “Wren and Esme’s aunt is a mage.”
“She’s not their aunt,” the boy said, correcting the troll. “Rose is their mom’s cousin.”
“Actually, you’re both wrong,” a goblin girl told them, feeling superior in her understanding of Wren and Esme’s family dynamic. “Wren’s real aunt, Eudora, adopted her and Esme after their parents were killed. Rose is Eudora’s friend and acts like Wren and Esme’s aunt.”
“Whatever… Still, what if they don’t care about us?” the boy asked the troll. “What if we get hurt, and the mages don’t help because they hate us? We belong to the Lower Courts.”
“Well, then…” The troll looked back at the short goblin asking all the questions. “If the guild doesn’t help us because of our class, then we don’t need them.”
The formation of the Council had begun with the merging of the five fae courts with equality in mind, but the nymphs, elves, and fairies had become classist over the centuries. The Council consisted of the kings and queens of each of the courts, and when the new generation of leaders came to power, they voted to split the courts into two ranks. Since three out of five were in favor of separation, the majority vote had won. The Council then divided the five courts into Lower and Upper to appease their people. The three leaders of the nymphs, elves, and fairies who sat on the Council did not agree with the classism their people had grown toward the trolls and goblins, but they each had their own court to run.
The six trolls who were orphaned with the twenty-two goblins released sparks of flame at their feet. And the goblins felt safe once more.
“We’ll create our own guild,” a younger troll who stood behind the protective troll softly bellowed. “We’ll call it the Trolls’ and Goblins’ Guild.”
“Yeah,” the goblin girl exclaimed. “We aren’t afraid. We’re brave!”
An older woman with dark brown skin and gray hair walked out of the kitchen and hushed the orphans, who were getting rowdy, with a gentle smile. “Go play in the North Wing.”
“What are you cooking, Bettie?” a troll asked the human who volunteered to cook for the funeral service’s lunch.
“It’s a surprise. Now, go play.” Bettie waved for them to run along.
“I bet it’s meat,” one of the goblin boys said, scrunching his nose at the goblin girl, who had shouted too loudly.
“Gross,” the girl replied, and they all ran away down the hall toward the North Wing, where the orphanage was.
Not allowing the shooting at Sparrow Manor to intimidate them, the goblins and trolls who lived in the South took advantage of the fact that Moonlight Hills had abandoned the fae-allied city. So, they migrated to the Floridian city over the years, wanting a better life. If the Upper Courts were too good for Tallahassee, then the trolls and goblins would seek to claim the city as their new home.
At first, the presence of the Mage’s Guild caused the trolls and goblins to think about fleeing from the city, as elves primarily ran the guild, and elves were notorious for loathing the Lower Courts. However, the Mage’s Guild in Tallahassee was run by a few elves who had strayed from their species’ prejudice, and they did not mind the fae from the Lower Courts.
Catching wind that the mages were nice to the Lower Courts, more trolls and goblins continued to travel toward the city. Anything was better than what they were experiencing. Looked down upon by the people of the Upper Courts, mostly because of their barbaric looks, goblins and trolls were often vagabonds. Traveling in communities, the Lower Courts never had permanent homes.
When the rejected fae first appeared around Tallahassee, they were not the fae the city was used to. They lacked the Upper Courts’ grace, but most people welcomed them. Since the reception of their presence was mostly positive, the fae of the Lower Courts felt confident that a new era was beginning and that their lives would change for the better by living in Florida. So, more trolls and goblins drifted away from their temporary hovels.
They had once traveled boldly with gold banners and smiled at the humans as they walked in the streets of southern cities. Most humans waved curiously at the trolls and goblins, but a few lunatics tried to kill them during their voyage.
As a result, the Lower Courts chose to migrate discreetly.
Traveling in groups, trolls and goblins would hide their children in sacks under their caravans. It was not unusual for many of them to have witnessed their families murdered in their youth. It was all too common.
The Lower Courts did not have Isis’ aid of teleportation, like Moonlight Hills had. Isis was setting up her new lab on Mars when the goblins and trolls were first attacked in the streets of North Alabama. Feeling the pull back to Earth, the demigoddess had notified Birdsong of what was happening. The Council wanted to give the Lower Courts aid, but they also wanted to avoid angering the Upper Courts, so they tried to tell the goblins and trolls to travel the wooded paths with members from the Tallahassee Mage’s Guild standing guard. But they did not listen to the very council who had placed them in the Lower Courts. They would rather risk their lives than kneel before the Council, including their own court leaders who had betrayed the original council’s creed of equality.
Since the fae had evolved from the katani with cells that hypnotized the world’s elements, they could manipulate the forces of the world. Goblins were known for their defensive magic, but their power took a large amount of energy. During migration, the parents summoned everything they could to protect the children. Even though the goblins often traveled with the trolls, the trolls’ power of fire did not protect them from unseen bullets and traps. The fae were restricted to their species’ hypnotic element unless they were mages. But becoming a mage was a long and tedious venture, and one had to be specifically recruited into the Mage’s Guild.
In the end, the orphaned children continued the journey, and it became routine for hordes of kids to arrive in Tallahassee. In no time, fostering the fae became as normal in the city as fostering humans.
However, the process had turned strict in recent years, as the newly elected mayor, Zara Adams, grew protective of the fae orphans. Knowing all too well how human fostering customs were flawed, the mayor granted the responsibility of overseeing fostering and adoptions to Father Bernie.
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