Chapter Text
In the end, Mom couldn’t hide from the Queen forever. She was summoned to the Queen’s Court, but Sylvester assured me that he had a plan, and he wouldn’t let her down.
I didn’t know how to believe him, especially because he was still avoiding my eyes. I knew he was angry about not being able to lock up my father himself, but I didn’t care. After everything that happened, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to have the satisfaction. At least this way I might actually be able to talk to my father one day.
To my shock and honest surprise, Sylvester did stand up for my mother. To my even bigger surprise, Quentin was the one who stepped forward and presented the pardon from the High King. I caught his eye, and he gave me a sheepish grin, confirming that he knew before I did. Somehow, I couldn’t be mad about it.
Tybalt wasn’t there, but Raj was, and so were Stacy and Mitch and Mom’s other friends. This day we won, even against the Queen. I didn’t know how Sylvester managed to get a pardon from the High King, or how much he knew or what he really thought about us, but for now, that was enough.
Danny drove me to the beach. Connor was already there, wearing nothing but his swim trunks. I took a moment to appreciate him platonically, then raised my hand for a high five.
“‘Sup,’ I said.
Connor smiled and gave me a high five. “Hey, June. Ready to go?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.”
Connor nodded. “June Daye, you are formally invited by Duchess Dianda Lorden of Saltmist to appear as a guest in her halls. May I be your escort?”
“Yes, you may,” I said, and he handed me a small bottle.
“Drink this. It will help you breathe underwater during the journey.”
So I drank it, and then Connor turned into a Selkie and I held onto him for dear life as we swam.
The journey to Saltmist was spectacular, if terrifying. I saw fish in the Summersea that I’d never seen before, and I felt like a mermaid despite knowing that I was far from one. All my memories of Disney came to the surface, a young child wanting to live in an underwater kingdom.
The less is said about the process of removing water from my lungs after arrival, the better.
Once I regained enough dignity, I followed Connor to meet the Duchess. He told me that Undersea Courts didn’t expect formal clothing the same way Shadowed Hills would, but I still put on a nice shirt and dark trousers just in case instead of my usual nerdy T-shirts and torn jeans.
Connor led me to a receiving hall. Patrick Lorden, whom I already knew, was talking to a woman I’d never seen before. She had skin the color of sand and sleek brown hair, but what drew my attention was her arms left bare by her clothing. She looked like she could break me in two without really breaking a sweat.
I presented my nicest formal bow. “Duchess Lorden,” I said. “Duke Lorden. It is an honor to be invited to your halls.”
The Duchess smiled at me. “June Daye. I am told that you are our Simon’s son?”
I was surprised by the possessive, but I nodded. “That’s right. It’s not something we advertise on the surface, for various reasons, but… yes.”
She frowned at my answer, and I was worried I’d offended her, but in the end she nodded. “Your family matters are not our own, as long as they do not hurt Simon, who is under our protection. You may call me Dianda, and my husband Patrick.” She hesitated. “Your father is in the room we prepared for him. I will allow you to see him because I know he’s longing to see you. I understand that you have many reasons to be angry. Still, I ask you to go in with an open mind, and if you can, compassion. If you upset him too much, I will ask you to leave. If you raise a hand or weapon against him, I will ask you to leave more strongly.”
I bit back my first response to that. The man took my mother from me for fourteen years, and she was worried about me upsetting him? But if I argued now, she wasn’t going to let me in at all. “Okay,” I said. “I accept the terms.”
Connor cleared his throat. “October has asked me to stay with June.”
I blinked at him. “Oh. That’s nice, but… I think I should go in alone.”
“Are you sure?” Connor glanced at his lieges, clearly not wanting to upset them, but– “You know, what if he…”
“I’ll leave the door open and scream,” I said. “It will be fine.”
Connor agreed reluctantly, and Patrick led me to a circular room with several doors.
“Thank you for helping me save him,” he said. “I know that the King of Cats wouldn’t have cooperated if you had said no.”
I stared at him, wondering if the Undersea had different taboos about saying thank you, or if he really meant it. “I… I have a lot of questions for him.” And only more now, that I knew about August and his apparent marriage.
Patrick nodded. “He’s in there,” he said, gesturing to one of the rooms. “And if you need me, I’ll be over here in my workshop,” he said, gesturing to another door.
I blinked. I didn’t expect my father to be housed so close to the Duke’s personal quarters.
“Alright. I’ll let you know.”
Patrick nodded and walked off, and I gathered my courage. I had no idea what to expect, but I needed to know what was going on.
I knocked. There were shuffling sounds from the other side of the door, and after a moment it opened, and the doorway held my father.
He looked thinner than Sylvester did, almost sickly thin, and his hair hung with a lack of effort that suggested it was in need of a haircut. His face was pale and there were bags under his eyes. But he looked like me in every other way.
He was also wearing a comfortable-looking bathrobe that covered the length of his arms. When he saw me, he stared in shock, and although he opened his mouth to speak, there was no sound coming out. There was silence between us for a while as we both studied each other with mixed feelings.
“Hi,” I said finally.
He swallowed and licked his dry lips before responding. “Hello,” he said, his voice hoarse from disuse. In every way he looked less like a monster and more like a stray animal who had just been given a bath and a clean room for the first time in years. I couldn’t find it in myself to be angry with him, regardless of Dianda’s worries.
“Can I… come in?” I asked when he didn’t move.
He blinked and moved quickly to step aside. “Of course! I didn’t think you would… I mean, I just thought…” He cleared his throat and I stepped in. As I passed him, I heard him say more quietly - “I didn’t think you were real.”
The bedroom was nicely furnished, although it lacked personal elements. The furniture was carved with floral motives and it was clear that a lot of care went into them. On second look, I recognized the elements of Patrick and Dianda’s magic, as well as my father’s orange. That was interesting. Perhaps more than you would do for a friend.
“Please, sit,” my father said. He closed the door behind him, but I didn’t argue. There were two places to sit - an armchair or the chair at his desk, since the bed didn’t seem like a polite option. I took the armchair and he settled into the chair at his desk. “It’s… June, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I said. “But you knew that. You wrote it on all my birthday gifts.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Yes, but I… wasn’t quite sure if you were still using it.”
I hadn’t expected that. I knew that people who only knew me second-hand as October’s daughter didn’t always realize the truth, and I’d never thought of how my father would think of me. Whether he would accept me. “I didn’t change my name,” I said finally. “It fits me well enough.”
He nodded. “June,” he said quietly, breathing my name out like it was a wonderful secret. “My son. I am so very happy to meet you.”
I could feel tears pricking my eyes at his words - or rather, his tone. He sounded so genuine about it. I glanced around the room to avoid his eyes. “So, is this where you are going to live now?”
He surprised me with his answer. “I don’t know.”
I looked at him. “Are they keeping you locked up or something?”
He shook his head immediately. “No, no. Patrick and Dianda, they… invited me to live with them as long as I want. But I fear that they will change their minds, after realizing the extent to which I am… broken.”
That was something familiar, at least. I fiddled with the fabric of the armchair while answering. “Good friends don’t care that you are broken. Mom thought the same, after she…” I hesitated. It felt strange to bring that up, but it was going to happen anyway. “After she came back. But Aunt Stacy and Uncle Mitch supported her, because they wanted her to be herself again.”
My father smiled sadly. “Your mother was hurt by the things that were done to her. She didn’t commit countless crimes and blackened her own soul in her quest.”
That was a good point, but it still didn’t ring true. The man in front of me wasn’t an unrepentant villain. “But why did you do it?”
He stared into the distance for a while before he answered. “Once upon a time, I had everything I ever wanted. I had a wife and a daughter, and I had a best friend who was like a brother to me. I wished for nothing more than to make my daughter happy and own the nicest vests in the Westlands. I wished desperately for another child, and I hoped that my wife would one day change her mind on the topic.” He blinked as he seemed to pull himself out of the fantasy, and gave me a small smile. “Then one day, my daughter disappeared. She walked out the door and never came back, and my wife told me never to return unless I have her with me. My brother sent his knights to every corner of the realm, but they found no trace of her. After a while, he urged me to move on. But how do you move on from losing a child?”
I leaned forward a bit. “So you went to someone else for help?”
He nodded. “You know, my sweet, they call the Luidaeg a monster because she gives you what you want, and she charges dearly for it. But the Luidaeg doesn’t lie. She tells you what you get, and what it will cost. She is far more fair than anyone in Faerie.” He shook his head and sighed. “When she told me that I could do nothing to bring my daughter back, perhaps I should have believed her. But that was the one thing I could not believe. So I went to someone who promised to help - someone who had no qualms about lying, and someone who never told me in advance what it would cost. By the time I realized what I signed up for, they had bound me too tightly to ever let go.”
“Was it Oleander?” I asked.
He shook his head again. “No. It is someone Oleander and I both worked for, although I imagine Oleander was far more enthusiastic about the prospect. I… I am unable to tell you much more, on account of the geas that binds me. I have looked for many centuries for a way out of it, but I’m afraid the binding is too strong for someone of my skills.”
I frowned. “And did this person help you find your daughter?”
His silence gave me the answer I was looking for.
“Would you ever return to them?”
My father shivered. “Not out of my own free will. Not unless…” He hesitated. “Not unless not returning would mean harm to you or your mother. But then again, if I did return, I would only become a weapon against you once more. In that case, I would rather… I would rather stop my dancing than to be used to bring you harm. Please remember this, if it ever happens.”
That was a bleak prospect. I didn’t want to lose my father for good before I had the chance to get to know him and figure out how I felt about all of this. “I want to know what you were like before this all happened,” I said.
He looked stricken by my words. “I will never be that man again, June.”
“I know. But maybe you can be someone in the middle. For me.”
For a moment, he stared at me like he couldn’t believe what I said. Then he let out a little laugh and covered his face with his hand. “I… Yes. I would be anything you want me to be, June. I just never thought… I never thought I would have the chance.” When he pulled his hand away, there were tears shining in his eyes.
My own eyes felt suspiciously warm. I nodded. “Well, then, maybe next time I can bring some of my favourite books and tell you about them.” I got some of them from his gift packages, after all.
Dad smiled. “I would like that very much.”
Our moment was broken by a hesitant knock on the door. Patrick poked his head in. “Is everything alright in here? We’re about to have lunch. June, we would love to have you as well, if you’d like to join us.”
Dad straightened suddenly. “I… need to get dressed for lunch.”
Patrick smiled. “Just be comfortable. You are at home.”
Dad opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. “I… I would still prefer to dress.”
Patrick nodded, his smile only dimming slightly. “June and I will wait outside, then.”
So I followed Patrick out.
“He doesn’t join us for the meals,” he said suddenly once we were out of earshot. “I don’t want to push, but… well, I was hoping he would agree if you were here too. I apologize.”
I shrugged. “It’s okay.” I felt a bit weird about being used, but they were also trying to mend their relationship, the same way I was. We were both trying to find a path to the man. “I’m curious to see what you eat around here.”
Patrick smiled. “Some of it might surprise you. I hope you like seafood.”
“I’m not opposed to seafood,” I said cautiously.
“You’ll have to get used to it, if you wish to visit,” Patrick said. “I… We would love to see you anytime you’d like. I will introduce you to my sons. Dean is around your age, and Peter is a few years younger. Dean takes after me. He’s more suited to the surface, but he doesn’t have many friends there. Perhaps you could…”
I nodded. I had a strange feeling that maybe Dean and I would be family one day. “Sure, I can show him around.”
Patrick gave me a grateful smile, and we settled in to wait for my father.