[The tavernkeep—whose name Nova overheard to be Byrne—was marching directly toward the group. His lip was curled into a snarl, earthy form was sloughing apart, and firey hair was blazing from rage.]

[And, worst of all, his eyes were focused squarely on Nova.]

[Spéir immediately stepped to the side, clearing the path between the two]

Nova: [eyes all but bulging out of their head and ears drooping onto their shoulders, stares in horror as Byrne approaches]

Nova: fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—

Nova: he noticed me reaching for the ambrosia… I hadn't meant to, I just—

Byrne: (all the while, sharply) "who do you think you are, trying to take our rations without—"

Byrne: [stops in front of Nova, his eyes narrowed on them, and reaches forward to yank Nova by the wrist. Completes the motion, but—]

Nova: [at the same moment his hand closed around their wrist, warped their form to disappear from the seat and simultaneously reappear several feet away. Has a panicked grin on their face, their fae-ears lying flat back in panic, and their hands held up in surrender]

Nova: (interrupts sharply, panicked) "I didn't mean to! I'm sor—!"

Byrne: [eye twitching and ears pressing against his skull, moves to grab them again]

Byrne: "you little—"

Nova: [squeezing his eyes shut and turning his face away, quickly reaches into his cloak to pull out one of his Silina Emblems. Then, holds it out toward Byrne with both hands]

Nova: (desperately) "I'm from Silina! Please, have mercy! I come in peace, I didn't mean to do anything wrong! I'm just on my way up North!"

Nova:

Byrne: [silent]

Nova: …

Nova: [ears slowly perking up, hesitantly peeks an eye open and turns just enough to peer up at Byrne]

Byrne: [eyeing him critically. His blazing hair has died down to a steady flame, earthen skin has stabilized instead of sloughing off, and fae-ears are low as he eyes Nova suspiciously]

Nova: [heart skipping a beat and ears dropping again, to themself) … he's figured out What I Am, hasn't he?

Byrne: [plucks the emblem from Nova's hands, turning it around in his fingers as he eyes it skeptically]

Byrne: [after a moment, looks back up at Nova, eyes still narrowed and eartips lowered suspiciously]

Byrne: (sternly) "I think I need to take you to Archfae Kilrey."

Nova:

Nova: [eyes fly wide, heart skips a beat, and breath catches all at once as they stumble back in terror, ears drooping through their shoulders]

Byrne: [reaches forward to try to grab Nova by the arm again, but—]

Nova: [takes several stumbling steps backwards]

Scamall: [shoulders in-between Byrne and Nova, her ears quirked back and an arm held out to her side. Like she's... trying to shield them?]

Spéir: (hisses) "Scamall!?"

Scamall: [ignores him, still sparking up. Both her face and voice cold) "they're from Silina. If you doubt them, go on and bring the emblem to Archfae Kilrey. But leave them out of it."

Byrne:

Nova:

Both: [stunned silent, well aware Scamall was basically putting herself on the line for Nova]

Byrne: [snorts, but—with a wave of his hand and essence—jerks a wedge of dirt like a piston. The ambrosia beside it is flung from the counter, shooting at the side of Nova's head]

Nova: [flinching, quickly looks at the projectile over her shoulder. Simultaneously swept an invisible hand of essence over and around it, cupping the ambrosia in place to catch it a foot from her face]

Nova: [tense and frozen beneath her neck, breathlessly looks back to Byrne with wide eyes and drooping ears]

Byrne: [snorts angrily]

Scamall: [snarls and starts to step forward, her storm-hair popping and cracking—]

Byrne: [only flips on his heel, marching toward the door with his hair blazing and earthen skin sloughing again]

[He slammed the door behind him.]

[The tavern was dead silent.]

Nova: [swallows nervously, their ears slowly popping back up, as they hesitantly scan the room and clutch their ambrosia]

Faeries: [staring at her, but… soon look away, whispering amongst themselves]

[Out of everything that was whispered, there was one thing that stood out from the rest.]

[One that made Nova's breath catch and heart ache.]

["Dhia."]

[Not too many. Only a handful of them noticed, but that didn't matter.]

[Word was going to spread fast.]

Scamall: [stops in front of Nova, squatting just enough so she's at their eye level]

Scamall: [having returned to her earlier calm, pale blue form, offers Nova a sad smile... though there's a subtle tension in her shoulders]

Scamall: (voice gentle) "are you okay, little one?"

Nova:

Nova: [swallows, quickly looking away to hurry to sit down again. After he's seated, he immediately starts stuffing the ambrosia down his throat]

Scamall:

Wind: [stirs slightly behind him]

Nova: [focuses on eating and watching those behind him through his aura, praying they look away soon]

Spéir: [places a hand on his shoulder—]

Nova: [tensing and ears drooping again, turns their entire side intangible so Spéir's hand falls through it, releasing him. At the same time, quickly yanked away and turned to pierce him with a glare]

Spéir: [reflexively pulled his hand away as it fell through them, face twisted in disgust. But, all the while, ears lowered in anger, said harshly) "my sister asked you a question."

Nova: [seemingly ignoring him, forces themself to somewhat relax and continue eating]

Ambrosia: [the most delicious thing in the world, made of literal pure magic and honey… but Nova doesn't have the time or energy to appreciate it. She needs to hurry.]

Nova: [instead, satisfied that the other faeries had stopped watching her, reaches with her essence to pull more ambrosia rations from the counter, drop them out of view, and float them toward her]

Spéir: [snarling, sharply under his breath) "fae! Are you a thief!?"

Scamall: [at the same time, hesitantly moved to Spéir's side to gently place a hand on his shoulder]

Nova: [spares Scamall a glance, but quickly narrows her eyes—and a snarl—onto Spéir]

Spéir: [—at the same time, turned a sharp look onto Scamall]

Scamall: [meets Spéir's eyes with an uncertain look before quickly looking back to Nova]

Nova: [as they both look at her, pauses eating to retort sharply) "no, I'm a fucking 'saving our asses', if you'll let me eat!"

Scamall:

Spéir:

Nova: [turns slightly to reach over and behind the counter, where she grabs the ambrosia she'd dragged over]

Nova: [and back to stuffing her face!]

Air Siblings: [stunned silent and ears drooping, hesitantly meet each other's eyes, glance around the tavern, and then look back at Nova]

Spéir: (keeping his voice low, demands) "what do you mean, 'saving our asses'!?"

Nova: [half-groans, half-growls, rolling their eyes as they quickly erect a sound barrier directly around the three of them]

Nova: [once it's secure, narrows their eyes on Spéir again]

Nova: [pauses eating to practically spit out) "because Scamall came to my defense, they're going to hold you two accountable for me, too!"

Spéir: [though he's not sure exactly what the sound barrier is, noticed Nova build it and figures well enough what it's doing]

Spéir: [snarling, raises his voice to insist) "what do you MEAN!? What's wrong with that!?"

Nova: [freezes, their blood going cold, ears dropping, and eyes widening... but only lets themself falter for a moment]

Nova: [forcibly recollects themself with a sigh and an aggressive shake of their head before answering) "because I'm—I—"

Nova: [swallows against the lump in their throat as they instead look away and glare at a wall through tears]

Nova: (voice hard, but thick with pain) "—I'm not from Silina, I stole that! I'm wanted there! Now, with them taking that to the archfae, he's going to be able to reach out to her and find that out! And you two will get dragged in WITH me!"

Nova: [finished, quickly goes back to choking down as much ambrosia as she can]

Nova: … but what if they turn on me.

Nova: what if they decide the best way to survive this is to turn me in…?