“I thought he was going to lose us at sea,” Elwin grimaced. “Dump us in the ocean.” He gave Prin a sheepish look. Elwin had been wrong this time but he still thought it was better to be a little paranoid.

  “Why would he do that?” Prin wondered. He scooped scrambled eggs onto his plate and carefully added slices of bacon along side with the ornate, delicate silver tongs.

  “What is her problem?” Aster wrinkled her nose and cast a look over her shoulder at Dru, who was now sitting at a table with her feast.

  “I thought it was because she didn’t want you to tell her uncle she was hanging out at Mama Kris’s place.” Elwin said. “But I guess that’s not it, since how could you tell him now? And what would it matter.”

  “I don’t get in people’s business like that!” Aster said, indignant. “She’s a grown adult anyway. Maybe if little Valor were gambling in a brothel we might have a different story . . .”

  “What could it be then?” Elwin wondered.

  “Why don’t we just ask?” Prin said. He added a pastry to his plate and veered off toward Dru’s table.

  “No, don’t do that --!” Aster started after him, but turned back to the buffet when she saw he wouldn’t be listening.

  “Yeah, he’s un-deterrable.” Elwin said. “When he sets his mind to something you might as well roll with it.”

  Aster laughed half heartedly.

  Elwin and Aster finished loading their plates and joined Prin where he already sat at Dru’s table.

  “This is pretty nice, eh?” Dru asked. “Lucky we got kicked off the last ship.” She scooped big bites of pancakes into her mouth like a starving orphan.

  “So, Druanna—” Prin started.

  “Actually, you know what? That’s not really my name.” Dru said suddenly, in between bites.

  “I thought the captain said it was?” Elwin asked. How shady was she, really? It just increased over time.

  “What is it then?” Prin wondered.

  “It’s, never mind.” Dru waved the question away. “Dru is close enough.”

  “Devil Dru.” Elwin said.

  She gave him a cheeky grin. “That’s right!”

  Prin watched her intensely. “Dru, more importantly why do you treat Aster that way?”

  “It’s not important. I’m not bothered,” Aster lied.

  Dru frowned and sighed, taking a brief pause in her eating. “I don’t like his – her – their kind, is all. It’s not personal really.”

  “Is that it!?” Aster said. “Really? Look, everyone at Mama Kris’s knew you had a thing going with Jules, even if it was casual. And he was a –“ She gave Prin a little sidelong look of concern but plunged on anyway, lowering her voice. “You know, a prostitute, for years before moving into management. It wasn’t exactly a state secret or anything. And it didn’t seem to bother you. Nor, hanging around and laughing it up drinking with the girls. But never me, you always gave me the cold shoulder or left the room. What gives?” She was leaning closer to Dru who was sitting across the table. It was clear that this treatment really had bothered her, or at least seriously peaked her curiosity.

  Elwin wondered if this was really about Jules after all, who might have been fooling around with Dru but seemed to have a somewhat more than casual attachment to Aster. Dru didn’t seem to be the type to get jealous over a man though.

  Dru barked out a laugh. “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it!”

  “Huh? What then? Cross dressers?” Aster asked.

  “No, course not.”

  “Red heads?”

  “No.”

  “Short people?” Aster appeared to be grasping at straws for what her kind could possibly be.

  “No. Although I do find it creepy.” Dru said.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Fashionable people?” Prin suggested. “Beauties?”

  “Do they really not know?” Dru pointed at Prin and Elwin. She laughed. “I mean, wow, I knew you two were na?ve farm boys or whatever, but – Okay, I realize you don’t see them around every day. Maybe there aren’t any where you come from.”

  “Any what?” Prin was becoming exasperated.

  “Fae.” Dru motioned at Aster before nonchalantly stuffing an entire donut into her mouth.

  Aster put her hand to her hair. “I didn’t even realize you knew about Ruby, that’s what I call her. And – He-eyy, you have been giving me the stink eye for way longer than this little guy has been following me around.” She narrowed her eyes at Dru. “So tell me the truth.”

  “Huh?” Dru leaned closer and stared into Aster’s hair. “There’s another one riding on your head? And you still pretend not to know what I’m talking about?” She snorted. “Whatever.”

  “Are you saying Aster is a fae?” Prin studied Aster with his head tilted from one side to the other, narrowing his blue eyes in concentration.

  “Fae, fairy, undying ones, forest folk, whatever you want to call it. They have a lot of names.” Dru said.

  “I beg your finest pardon?” Aster’s mouth fell open. “I- what – I come from a long line of completely human people.”

  “Allegedly.” Dru said.

  “There are some interesting stories but – It’s all just rumors!” Aster said. “I’ve never been anything but extremely human myself!” Her cheeks turned as red as her hair, and she completely forgot she was supposed to be eating.

  “You sure protest a lot.” Prin said lightly. He smiled at Aster.

  Elwin didn’t think he meant anything negative by it, since to him it didn’t change anything and therefore didn’t really matter either way. “And you know what they say about the one who protests too much.” Elwin teased. Although, it certainly seemed that if it was true Aster didn’t realize it herself, or hadn’t given it much thought anyway.

  Aster shot Prin and Elwin a betrayed look, before turning back to Dru. “If I was fae wouldn’t that have given me some sort of advantage in life!?”

  Dru started coughing, almost spitting out her food, she gestured dramatically at Aster.

  “You don’t know my life!” Aster crossed her arms over her chest. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. I don’t even know what would make you . . . make such an accusation in the first place.”

  Dru caught her breath and stood up from the table. “Don’t eat my food.” She teased Prin, with a little wink. She went over to the other side of the table and stood next to Aster. “Can you stand up for just a minute?”

  Aster looked up at her for a moment in silence, before warily getting up and standing beside her. “Now what?”

  Dru put her hand at the top of her own head. “Average right? Give or take.” She lowered her hand to the top of Aster’s head right above her hair. “Whoosh. Exhibit A. Fairy folk are very short. Or, sometimes very tall or in another way physically different from most humans. Especially, if you discount the inches added by hair and boot heels. Also, the fact that Aster is a man, and this would be a very abnormal height for an adult man. I could rest my case here.”

  “This is bull shit.” Aster said. “Height passes down through the family, and also . . . there are plenty of people with birth defects that cause them to never grow past a certain height.”

  “You are not a dwarf.” Dru said dismissively. “I have known plenty of dwarves and you look nothing like one. Anyhow, Exhibit B: Unnatural hair color.”

  “Dye.” Aster countered. She stuck her tongue out at Dru. “Is that all you’ve got?”

  “Okay. What about this.” Dru reached out and squished Aster’s face like a squeak toy. “Pretty. Too pretty. There were a lot of great looking girls at Mama Kris’s but she knew what she had with you, that’s why she couldn’t let you go too easily. The other girls couldn’t compete, not with all the cosmetics in the world.”

  “I’m flattered that you think so.” Aster said dryly, voice distorted by the face squishing.

  Prin let out a little giggle he couldn’t suppress. He seemed to be enjoying this.

  Dru let go and wiped her hand on her pants, as though she didn’t want Aster’s germs. “There’s also the matter of age. Having fae blood makes you very slow to show your years. I bet Aster here is way older than he looks.”

  “Once again, I’m flattered.” Aster said. “But in disagreement.” She waved her hand. “For my field of work, I am already an elder. And I look every bit of twenty-five.”

  Dru cocked her thumb at Aster, “Ya’ll have no way of knowing if that is true. I bet he’s been twenty-five for decades.”

  Aster sighed, looking world weary, or at least tired of this game. “I would hope I would be wiser if I had that many do-overs.”

  “That’s enough.” Elwin said.

  Prin reached out to Aster, pulling her into a comforting hug.

  “I haven’t even gotten to the most compelling one!” Dru exclaimed. “Okay, exhibit D, E, whatever, I lost track. Point is, Aster has unnatural . . . supernatural charm. Haven’t you noticed how everyone he meets is taken in by him? Everyone. And sometimes they even repeat the same phrases? Like: “Aster is good at his job, very good.”, “Aster is as beautiful as a doll”, “Aster is the only favorite I have ever had.”

  “Word of mouth is how the business works.” Aster said. “It’s normal to praise your favorite, and give them gifts, that sort of thing. It’s not my fault if people don’t think of more imaginative things to say.”

  “But the starry-eyed look they would have when they left your room.” Dru said. “It’s not normal.”

  “Honey, maybe I am just really that good at my job, former job, you ever think of that?” Aster smirked. She stayed in Prin’s arms, leaning into him.

  “Fae have mysterious ways about them that can scramble your brains.” Dru made swirly motions at the side of her head. “That’s why they absolutely cannot be trusted. And why you should spend as little time in their presence as possible.” She went and sat back down in front of her plate of food. “Luckily for me I’m immune to all that stuff anyways.” She stuffed a bite of pancakes in her mouth.

  After they had finished eating, although Aster seemed to have lost her appetite, Laine returned to walk them to their cabins. She pointed to two side by side rooms.

  “There are two double cabins. I hope that will be satisfactory.” She said cheerily. Laine handed a key with a keychain shaped like the ship itself to Elwin, and one to Dru.

  Aster cast a sour look at Dru before snatching the key from her hands. “It’ll be just fine, thank you.” She cast a beaming smile at Laine.