cohost!

They don't talk about it until nightfall. They just keep walking the trail, careful of their surroundings a bit more. Luna is clearly on edge the entire walk, but when Arylla tries to bring it up, the only answer is, "Not right now, please. I'll tell you tonight, I just need to clear my head."

Suffice to say, Arylla is worried. The idea that Luna was being tracked had been a hunch, a guess, a random shot in the dark at first, but now having confirmation that she is being followed sinks into her stomach like a dagger of anxiety. The intense frustration and seriousness emanating off of her during that battle, when all Arylla had known prior was someone lighthearted and a tad goofy, it all scared her to pieces. It still scares her.

But not scared for herself. Scared for what Luna might face on the road ahead.

After a bit of walking, Arylla confirms their destination with Luna: an elvish city to the north-east. The elves are known for their record keeping, especially in this continent, and so it's as good a place as any to start searching for ways to break Luna's spell. Arylla does wish she knew a bit more about the curse itself—it doesn't seem to impact Luna too negatively, at least—but it's more than clear that Luna doesn't wish to discuss it yet.

What Arylla would really like to discuss is the end of that fight: why Luna asked his name, and why she sounded both angry and vindicated that he didn't answer. Why she sounded so angry, yet tended to his wounds enough that he wouldn't bleed out on the road.

They finally settle for the night, camping out a short distance away from the road on the edge of the woods ahead. And it's sat side by side by the campfire, roasting sausages and beans for dinner, that Arylla finally asks, "So, what was that before?"

Luna, thankfully, seems more open to answer when she says, "What was what?" It's not accusatory or denying, or trying to act as though whatever Arylla is referring to is not abnormal or needs no discussion; it's simply a confirmation of which page they're on.

"You asked his name, and then clocked him out when he didn't answer," Arylla explains. "Why?"

"He... works for the ones I'm running from," Luna answers slowly. "Since they're too busy being pricks to get their hands dirty."

"How could you tell?"

Luna turns to face Arylla directly, and Arylla does the same in turn. "You said I punched him because he didn't answer."

"Correct."

"Except that's not why I did it."

Arylla raises an eyebrow. "Then why?"

"He couldn't answer," Luna says, and suddenly it all clicks.

When Luna asked Arylla's name, she specified to know instead of to have. She refused to take the bandits' lives, going as far as to mend their more fatal wounds. The curse she bears changes her eye colors, not to match a fiend, but—

"You pissed off a fae," Arylla finally concludes.

And Luna nods. "In a sense. Those bandits had no choice but to hunt us, having had their names stolen by the ones seeking me out, and when their leader couldn't answer—"

"It proved he was working for them!"

"Exactly."

Everything in Arylla's chest starts to bubble with excitement at a new answer for this mystery, and she can't help herself but ask, "How the hells did you piss off a fae that hard that they'd curse you and send bandits after you? Did you kill a fae prince or something?"

Luna stiffens, silent.

"Oh shit." Arylla eases a bit closer, and with a voice soft with worried, asks, "Luna, what did you do? Please say you didn't actually kill a prince."

It's a warm noise when Luna laughs at that. "No, I didn't," she thankfully answers. "It's... well. It's a bit more complicated, and I worry that if you knew, it would put you in danger."

"I'm already in danger, Luna," Arylla says, "and I'm not going to abandon you because of a little bit of danger."

It's a new character trait for Arylla, this strange sense of devotion. She's never truly felt so dedicated to keeping another person safe from harm, and yet from the moment she heard Luna's lyre on the tavern patio—no, from the moment Luna set foot into that small town on that rainy night—she's felt this need. Initially, she chalked it up to the mystery in Luna's story, wanting to unravel the strange enigma surrounding the girl.

Except a dedication to mystery has never made her feel this kind of attachment.

Because Arylla has been obsessed with mysteries since she was old enough to read, devouring tales of impossible murders and bewildering heists like a starved hound over raw meat. She spent months trying to convince her father to train her so she could become a bounty hunter, and when he finally relented, she went on to apply at the local guild so she, too, could engross herself in a mystery and solve it for herself. And while some of these jobs have placed her as protector for a noble targeted by the mafia or an investigator of a strange individual engaged in shady business dealings, her only desire to keep herself close to them was always so she could unspool the secrets they were wrapped up in.

Luna evokes that feeling, but there's more to it. It's one part a hunger for knowledge, and the rest... something else.

(Of course, deep down, Arylla knows what she's feeling. Of course, deep down, she runs from its truth.)

And when she sees Luna's lips part, answer about to make itself known to her, a part of her doesn't want to know the truth. A part of her wants to let Luna keep this secret.

"How familiar are you with the Seelie Court?"

Truthfully, Arylla has read up on a few historical texts on the subject. However, she also likes listening to Luna speak, so she says, "I know what it is, but that's about it."

"The Seelie Court," Luna begins, "is comprised with the royals, nobles, and representatives for the fae nations within its alliance. Similarly to how kingdoms and city-states will have a council and councilors, the Seelie Court is the council for a variety of fae nations."

"Sounds complicated," Arylla answers; even if she knew this, she still doesn't quite get politics.

"You're telling me," Luna sighs with a slight grin. "One of the nations part of the court is the Saturnii, fae resembling and taking after moths, and while being generally on the side of good, the Saturnii do engage in mischief and trickery from time to time."

"How do you know all of this?" Arylla thinks she already knows the answer, but she needs to hear Luna say it.

Instead of answering, Luna pulls a small necklace out from under her shirt. The charm is a round blue stone, held by small vines or branches wrapping around it, and glowing ever so slightly with some kind of magic.

That magic, apparently, is illusion magic, because when Luna takes it off, her form changes dramatically. Her hair goes from a soft brown to a pale silver, her skin paling completely alongside it. She pulls off her glasses and reveals fully black eyes, no iris to be seen. Her ears angle upward a touch, and on her forehead appear two feather-like antennae.

And then she stands, and reveals the brilliant pale green wings upon her back, almost like a silk cape.

She's beautiful, Arylla thinks.

"I am the child of King Atlas and Queen Samia Saturnii, Crown Prince Actias," she says, voice grand and hiding frustration, "and I hate it."

"You're beautiful," Arylla says instead of thinking.

Luna—Actias?—puts the charm back on and sits back down, once more appearing to be something resembling mortal. "I am not," she says.

"Why is that?"

"Most fae are able to shapeshift," she answers somberly, "except for my royal family. It was power we had sealed from us a long time ago, and so while many of us can use illusion magic to appear to shapeshift, we cannot fully physically change form."

"Hence the stone and the glasses," Arylla fills in.

Luna nods. "They hide my more fae-like traits, but a few things still peak through, like a weak wild-shape spell. Except it doesn't... it doesn't feel like my own body is changing form, but rather that I am wearing another skin overtop of my own."

Arylla holds her tongue.

"My parents... when they discovered that their firstborn was to be a girl, they had a magician alter the child's sex to be born a boy. However, the mind was not altered, and so while their crown prince was physically a son, I was... I was spiritually their daughter."

With an empathetic frown, Arylla says, "And you couldn't just change shape to be a girl, so you were stuck like that."

Luna nods. "They had me trained in combat so I may court the daughters of the Seelie Court to bolster our alliances, but I wanted no part in that. I wanted to be the daughter, and because of this stupid curse, I can't even do that. So I ran."

"And the bandits that we encountered—"

"My mother's doing, most likely," Luna sighed through gritted teeth. "She believes I was kidnapped, or led astray by a mortal or something, so she's been stealing the names of mortals to send them to retrieve me so that she can have her perfect son back."

Instead of saying anything, (because what, truly, could Arylla say?) Arylla leaned forward and pulled Luna into a tight hug. She squeezed the fae close to her, pouring care and kindness into the embrace.

And the words that found her were, "No matter who you are, I will stay by your side so long as you'll have me. You deserve to be who you choose, and I will not abandon you in chasing that goal."

She continued to hold Luna as she felt the tears run down her shirt, for while she wouldn't admit it, a small part of her had come to love the one in her arms.