Silver and Gold

Hi lovelies! I'm back with a new story, this time following Feldspar on his way to a happily ever after. It's a bit hard to categorize since most of my characters are bi/queer and sometimes poly. This will be a slow-burn romance focused on two men, and as always there will be fantasy and magic, too.

*****

Sunlight filtered through the branches of towering redwoods, bathing the floor of the Wood in dappled green light. The day was warm and the air soft. Iridescent blue butterflies flitted through sweet scented air in search of nectar from surreal tropical flowering vines that wrapped around the trunks of the towering trees. Deer picked their way through narrow tracks in the Wood to the churning creek that bordered it, taking care not to get too close to the other-worldly inhabitants that lurked beneath the rapids. Wolves patrolled the borders of their territory on silent paws, passing through patches of jungle, desert, and marsh that made up the enchanted Wood's patchwork topography.

At the very center of the Wood the sound of fiddles and laughter floated along the breeze, interweaving with the midmorning baseline of bird song and cicadas. Faeries made their way through their treetop community on rope bridges and ladders, descending to the forest floor to tend to their crops and care for the forest's other inhabitants as needed. The faeries, long thought extinct in America, had made their home in the strange Wood for an untold number of years unbeknownst to their nearest human neighbors.

A small, muscular faery woman strode through the Wood toward the very heart of the forest, fighting exhaustion and a persistent sense of unease. Gneiss had been patrolling a circuit of the Wood's ever-shifting borders, as she'd taken to doing recently. Despite the perfect spring day, she was on edge. Things were changing in the Wood. Change, she knew, brought destruction by definition. After decades of peaceful harmony, the last year had brought a human woman who'd become the Lord of the Wood's partner, an attack by rival faeries, and now the very real possibility that the Lord would reveal their existence to humans. The ripple effects of just one of those incidents were enough to put her on alert for trouble, let alone everything all at once. Gneiss played with the catch on the knife sheath at her hip, flicking the blade free and sheathing over and over it in a restless tic. Everything was quiet and as it should be. There was nothing overtly amiss and there hadn't been for months. Still, she couldn't relax.

Her destination lay at the heart of the community, where the enormous Meeting Tree stood. The ancient hollowed out redwood was wide enough to host the entire community for wild parties every night of the week, with room for a dais, dance floor, multiple banquet tables, and lounging areas throughout. With a winding staircase that ascended the interior of the trunk, the tree was more like a castle than a tree, and yet the wild magic of the Wood kept it vibrant and living.

The Lord and Lady of the Wood sat on their thrones of living vines on the dais in the Meeting Tree. The couple exuded vibrant, overwhelmingly alive magic that washed over Gneiss immediately when she walked in. All faeries of the Wood had some magic, but the couple was magic. It was the kind of power that could tear open the earth itself and knit it back together. Standing at the entrance to the large hall, Gneiss was struck by how mythic they looked. Seeing them in their public personas often gave her a mild feeling of vertigo. To her, they were just Mal, her friend and occasional lover, and Daniella, the human woman who'd stolen his heart.

"Gneiss, anything to report?" Mal asked his second. Gneiss sensed the instant attention of the few faeries lounging around the tree and pitched her voice loud and steady.

"No, my Lord. All is peaceful as expected."

Gneiss mounted the steps of the dais. Mal lowered his voice to avoid eavesdroppers. "And Feldspar?"

Gneiss frowned. Mal could be asking any number of questions about Feldspar. Which one, she wondered, was he asking. And more importantly, how honest did he want her to be?

She wondered if Mal had noticed the dark circles under her eyes. If he had, would he have connected her haggard appearance to Feldspar? She hadn't been able to fall asleep with the sound of Feldspar's sobs filtering up from his room below hers.

It wasn't just the noise that kept her up. If she was being honest, it was the guilt. Even though it was Mal who had broken Feldspar's heart, she knew she bore some responsibility for it, too. She was the one who had first suggested the three of them become lovers, and she was the one who had ignored signs that Feldspar's infatuation with Mal was getting dangerously serious despite being hopelessly unrequited.

She'd known Feldspar inside and out for years. If anyone should have realized how deep his feelings for Mal were, it was her. She was his friend and his lover, and Feldspar had placed his wellbeing in her hands. She hated herself for how she'd treated that trust. She and Mal had both known that Feldspar's feelings were deeper than theirs, yet they'd never seriously considered that their threesomes might lead to him getting deeply hurt.

For decades the three of them had moved fluidly from friends to lovers and back again. Then Daniella was sent to the faeries by a bad bargain. Mal had fallen disgustingly in love with the human woman within weeks of her arrival in the Wood. Gneiss had noticed Mal losing interest in playing with her and Feldspar almost as soon as Daniella arrived. Still, despite his obvious obsession with the human, falling in love with someone didn't necessarily mean you gave up your other lovers. At least, that was the faery way.

She'd learned quickly enough that although faeries weren't jealous, humans decidedly were. One morning Mal had come to her and Feldspar to tell them sex -- even kissing -- was out of the question going forward. He would be friends with them, but nothing more. Mal had said it so easily, with no hint of apology, as if he were just telling them that he needed to reschedule lunch.

Feldspar had received the news remarkably coolly. The second he was alone with her after Mal told them, he had dissolved into sobs. He had cried so hard he'd thrown up. She'd spent that night and countless nights after holding him through body-wracking fits of crying. Eight months later, Feldspar was still crying himself to sleep.

"Feldspar is well, my Lord," she said, keeping her tone light. "He was scouting in the mountains this morning and should report back soon."

"Speak of the devil," Daniella said from her throne. Feldspar strode in, golden skin glistening from exertion. Since the breakup Feldspar had spent almost every waking moment being active. He'd always been energetic, but that had been balanced by long hours lounging around the Meeting Tree with Gneiss, Mal, and their roommate Nephrite. Nowadays he was perpetually in motion.

Looking at him, Gneiss could almost convince herself that he was completely recovered from his heartbreak. The tall, blonde faery had never looked healthier. His golden skin was sun kissed, his muscles taut and defined from hours spent scouting the Wood's borders, hiking its mountains, and swimming its lakes. Only the ache behind her eyes was there to remind her that the longest he'd gone without waking her with his crying had been a week and a half.

"Good morning, Dani," Feldspar said, greeting Daniella with a dazzling smile and kiss on the hand. He inclined his head respectfully to Mal and pecked Gneiss on the cheek.

"Anything of note this morning, Feldspar?" Mal asked.

"Only that the mountain raspberries are ripe and the water wraiths asked me to convey that the fish have returned to healthy population levels in creek. Though, I do suspect they've developed a bit of a taste for land mammals."

Daniella grimaced and leaned closer to Mal at the mention of the wraiths, and Gneiss couldn't blame her. The creatures were gruesome and deadly.

"Good," Mal said, his tone making it clear that nothing else was needed. "Will you stay to discuss human relations with us? Gneiss and I have much to discuss before the envoy from the European faeries arrives, and you are welcome to join us."

Daniella cleared her throat pointedly.

"And Daniella, of course," Mal said, giving her a look so filled with admiration that Gneiss was tempted to slap it off him. She knew Mal and Daniella couldn't help being in love, but they didn't have to be so them around Feldspar.

"As tempting as that is, I have other plans," Feldspar said. Mercifully nobody asked what his plans entailed.

Gneiss watched as Feldspar continued a light conversation with the couple. He laughed when it was expected, and bantered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His uncanny ability to act was both fascinating and oddly irritating. Part of her wished he'd just show them how much pain he was in. She couldn't imagine it would do anyone any good. The fact was, it was just a shitty, sad situation. He was in love with Mal and Mal was in love with Daniella. There wasn't an easy fix to that.

She knew, because she had tried. She'd held Feldspar through his crying fits. She'd listened to him obsessively dissect every look, touch, and comment that proved his love would someday be requited. She'd encouraged Feldspar to pursue new interests and spend more time exercising. She'd initiated threesomes with no less than six different new men, taking care to curate them in hopes that someone would rekindle Feldspar's flame.

Eventually, she'd decided to give him space and let him sort out his romantic life on his own. He was suffering. There was no cause for her to complicate it more by dictating how he was handle his pain. Still, she worried. Feldspar, despite his peak physical condition and impeccable acting, was not doing well. And there was nothing she could do about it.