Stronger Together chapter 152 (Patreon)

Harry's voice was almost pleading as he reminded me again "This is a  really bad idea." We were standing in a small field a pretty solid  distance away from the neighborhood with River Shoulders here for  backup. The girls were mostly stronger than us but Lea would know enough about  River to be good and all the precautions were specifically for Harry's  comfort. "She turned me into a dog you know? And she didn't even  apologize for it. She thought it was perfectly reasonable. That's the  kind of woman we're dealing with here."

I rolled my eyes,  giving River a conspiratorial glance and making a silent whip crack  motion. Harry spun on me and glared, despite me being sure he hadn't  seen me. Lash must have tipped him off. Tattletale. I sighed "It's fine  Harry. I'm here, River is here, and we're on a mission for Odin, with  whom smart beings do not fuck. Lea may be crazier than a bag of metal  cats in a blender but she isn't stupid. So cool it, we'll protect you  from the big bad redhead." Of course I was also worried about summoning  the Leanansidhe, much like Lea I also wasn't stupid, and wise men didn't  fuck with Lea either. But I was reasonably sure she was scared enough  of Odin not to interrupt such an important mission.

Luckily,  or from his perspective, unluckily for us, Harry had a direct line to  Lea, so summoning her was pretty easy. As shown in the books summoning  things Lea's level could be exhausting especially if you wanted to  contain them, but since he was her godson Lea wouldn't ignore even a  polite summoning from Harry. We just sketched out a quick circle on the  ground and then empowered it. Then it was a matter of Harry reciting her  name three times to call her to us. However, when it was time to  actually do it he hesitated.

River and I both glared  impatiently at him but he just returned the sour gaze "She turned me  into a DOG! It's not weird that I might be a little worried about it  happening again. I'm going to summon her just give me a second to  mentally prepare myself!" I threw my hands up placatingly and Harry took  a deep breath and released it slowly, obviously trying to calm down.  "Sorry, Lea is a bit of a sore spot for me. Just give me a minute ok?" I  had never considered it before but Harry had been dealing with Lea  since he was a little kid.

His faerie godmother had been  his personal boogeyman since he was way younger than I was. That kind of  fear doesn't go away just because you're an incredible badass wizard  P.I. To him, he would probably always be that helpless kid around Lea,  adults can seem larger than life even when we grow up, and for Harry it  would be way worse because Lea literally was larger than life. She was  an immortal sorceress second only to the Winter Queen in power. Hell,  that meant Lea could take Raven in a fight, which was pretty damn scary.  I took a step back to give him his space and waited patiently. He  deserved the time to sort his head out.

Finally after he'd  had a minute or two to calm down he closed his eyes and intoned Lea's  name. "Leanansidhe, Leanansidhe, Leanansidhe I summon you." I expected  her to just appear like any other powerful supernatural being but Lea  made a splash when she went places. There was a flurry of glittering  blue, green, and purple snowflakes whirling in the center of the circle  before they exploded outward. Some chips of ice cut my face a bit and  most of the snowflakes that remained whole drifted down to the ground  slowly in a dazzling riot of color and light.

Within the  circle where before there had only been ice and wind was a gorgeous  redhead in a very low cut green dress. Lea was absolutely mesmerizing  her cat slitted green eyes matching the green sequin dress that was cut  so low in the front you could see her belly button in the vee along with  a good half of her tits, which were absolutely perfect by the way. Lily  and Maeve had both given very strong impressions when I met them,  faeries were predators after all and sex was one of their main methods  of entrapment, be you male or female, it's why they were all beautiful.

Lea  didn't even bother to hide that. She was beautiful like a tiger was  beautiful. She would definitely eat you but she would look majestic as  fuck while she did it. Or maybe a preying mantis, Lea seemed the type to  decapitate a guy after sex. She took us all in and, completely at odds  with her statuesque implacable goddess appearance squealed with joy and  clapped her hands, bouncing up and down in a way that was made REALLY  distracting by her dress. Dear gods there was defying gravity and then  there was breaking the laws of physics. She flashed us a dazzling smile  "Godson! How wonderful! It's been far to long. And look, you brought  guests! Such strapping men, are they a gift for little old me?"

She  posed on a way that made the most of her dress and fluttered her eye  lashes with a coy smile aimed at River and I. Harry made a disgusted  noise and cleared his throat "Ahem, no godmother, this is my apprentice  Cameron and my friend, Strength of the River in His Shoulders." He made  sure to use River's full name to really drive home the whole forest  people thing. He gave Lea a weak smile "So how have you been godmother?  As you said it's been a while." I suspected because of the whole  inheritance aspect of this conversation he felt awkward just asking her  and giving her the boot.

Lea meanwhile was delighted "Oh!  Are we having a chat? I do so love catching up. I don't suppose anyone  brought some tea? Or perhaps some of those little finger sandwiches with  the cucumber and the cream cheese? Sans crust of course. We aren't  barbarians." She noted our blank stares with a very fetching pout "How  uncivilized, but I suppose we must take what we are given. Very well, I  have been lovely godson. I've inspired a very promising musician in  Finland. He does love to dote on me. The poor boy is completely  besotted, imagine how many wonderful  heartbroken songs he'll write when  he finds me in bed with his drummer."

Harry closed his  eyes with a wince, clearly nearly as uncomfortable thinking of his  terrifying godmother having sex with some guy half his age as he was  with the moral implications of what she'd just said. Which was fair,  despite being kind of a dick move it wasn't like she was killing anyone.  It wasn't really our business, besides which she hadn't given us a name  anyway. I'd actually forgotten Lea was a kind of dark muse, inspiring  artists to creative greatness by pretty much ruining their lives. She  must have toned it down for Harry. Letting some guys drummer put his  hand in her cookie jar was positively tame by Lea's standards. At least  from what the books said.

Harry's  voice came out slightly strangled as he responded "Hey, that's great  Lea. On a completely unrelated and entirely spur of the moment note, did  my mother happen to leave anything with you. Something you could give  me? Like some kind of inheritance maybe?" Apparently the whole,  pretending to have a civil conversation thing had been short lived and  he just wanted to get out of here. I kind of thought he'd wasted the  time to begin with but hey, family right? He kept his expression  politely interested as he asked but I could swear I could hear his teeth  grinding from here.

Lea  burst into a fit of laughter "Well that didn't last long. Yes, dear  one, Margaret did indeed leave something in my care for you. Why ever  did you take so long to ask? Honestly child, sometimes I despair of  you." She snapped her fingers dramatically and a black velvet box  similar to what one would keep an engagement ring in appeared in her  hand. "This little beauty is the sum total of all of Margaret's  knowledge of the Ways. The life's work on the mysteries of the  nevernever of a genius so renowned even the fae thought she was an  authority on the subject." She opened the box to display the bright red  pentagonal gem.

Harry  was frozen in indecision as he stared at the box. I knew how much  anything to do with his mother meant to him. It was why I'd decided not  to tell him Thomas was his brother. I let the vampire work up the  courage to reveal it himself so Harry could see his mom during their  meeting. I wasn't clear on the trigger for that spell she left behind so  messing with the whole thing seemed like a bad idea. Harry was in awe  as he gently reached out to take hold of the box. Before his fingers  could touch get within range Lea snapped the box closed, prompting my  boss to yelp and jerk his hand back.

Lea  tsk'ed good naturedly "Ah, ah, ah poppet. Not so fast. A warning,  before you take this heavy burden. All knowledge comes at a cost. For  most things that cost is the time spent learning or the power expended  in practice, but this knowledge is gifted from anothers work. You will  pay a price should you use it. I don't know the nature of that cost any  more than you, it could be a memory, or a dream, or even your ability to  speak. If you take up this knowledge, you must do so in full and  complete understanding of what you are accepting." She opened the box  again. "So. What say you, godson?"

He  reached out gingerly and took the box from her, not touching the gem  inside yet. Lea nodded in approval then clapped her hands once as if  acknowledging a resolution. "Well, that seems to be that all taken care  of. I would so love to stay and chat dear ones, but a lady such as  myself has obligations. If that's all you needed I'll bid you adieu.  Harry, dear, it's always wonderful to see you, River Shoulders it was  charming to meet you, and Cameron, I'm glad to put a face to the name I  hear ringing through the halls of power. Especially such a delicious  one." She shot me a wink "Feel free to summon me when we're in less  mixed company, I'll be sure to give you an...enthusiastic response."

And  with another gust of snowflakes she vanished just as quickly as she  appeared, and just as flashily. Harry was staring wonderingly down at  the still open box and the stone inside. His voice was a croak as he  muttered "This fits into the hole in my pentacle doesn't it?" He didn't  even need a response, he just reached down and picked it up, so driven  to be closer to his mother he didn't even consider the risks as he  popped it into place. It was fine, I knew what the price was, not  sleeping anymore could be worked around.

He  closed his eyes, bowing his head over the pentacle amulet as he  muttered a few things aloud. He looked so reverent and peaceful I  couldn't bear to interrupt, and neither could River so we just decided  to wait it out. Finally after a few minutes Harry raised his head with  tears in his eyes. "I can hear her voice. She's speaking to me, telling  me where to go, guiding me on my path." He snorted and wiped his eyes on  his sleeve "Damn mom, it's a little on the nose symbolically isn't it?"  He chuckled wetly before he nodded to himself, firming up his resolve  before he looked at me. "Ok, I got it. I know how to get to The Wild  Wood."