Gradually, Shane’s focus shifted back to the warm cup of tea in her hands and up to meet Maeve’s patient face.  She looked away quickly, suppressing a shudder, and looked back again, determination emanating from her whole body.

“Okay.  Tell me,” she said grimly.

“In your blood, in your ancestry, there is sidhe blood.  There is no way of telling how much, but judging from your radiance during *****, it must be a quarter or more.  I have never heard of anyone less than a quarter sidhe who has been as blessed by the goddess as you appear to be.” 

“Did you know…before?  Could you tell?”

“No, I had no idea.  I could tell you had some magic in you, but I thought it was from a lesser ancestry—not faerie.  If I had known, I certainly would not have bedded you so blithely.  For ***** with another sidhe, is one of the ways to bring a faerie into their powers.  It is not something done so carelessly…I only knew it from your eyes, when they changed.”

“Why were your eyes normal earlier?”

“Glamour.  I hide my true appearance with glamour…it is an illusion that I can impose upon others’ vision.”  As she spoke of it, a cloak seemed to drop over her features…dampening the glow and masking her eyes.  She still looked beautiful, but that otherworldliness was buried.  “I will teach this to you.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?  Why are you helping me?”  Shane asked, suddenly wary.  Whatever conclusions she had drawn, it was still obvious that she felt very insecure.

“Well Shane,” she explained.  “I do feel responsible.  And fate has set you before me.  I believe I have been chosen to be, for lack of a better term, your faerie godmother.”

The tension lessened as they both smiled at the idea.

“You are very young, only a child, a babe, by fey standards,” Maeve continued.  “So your powers before now were negligible, perhaps not even noteworthy.  But soon, now that you have come into your power, they will manifest themselves.  You must discover and learn to control them, for your well being and the safety of others.”

“What kind of powers?”

“Historically, the fey powers can be related to nature, such as an ability to grow plants or bring rain.  Love, which can be many types of seduction or perhaps the ability bestow love on others.  And violence, which was useful to the fey in times of war.  You might come to find that you have magical abilities that have aided you throughout your life–without you even being aware of them.  Soon, they will make themselves known. Keep in mind that almost all fey also have minor magics—glamour, strength, healing, immortality…” 

“Wait…now your saying I’m immortal?  I won’t ever die?!”

“No, immortality only gives you the ability not to age.  But you can still die of unnatural causes.  However, that may be an ability that you were not granted.  With as much human blood as you have, chances are, that you are still mostly mortal.”

“Mostly mortal?  What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, it is unlikely that you will age at the same rate as a full human would.  You should find yourself immune to most diseases, and recover from injury quickly as well.  It will be much harder to kill you now.”

“Heh…Handy that…”

Their discussion continued long after the teapot had been emptied and the snacks eaten.  By the time Shane had heard more than she could absorb, she felt that her brain was stuffed with cotton.  She agreed to stay with Maeve for as long as it took to get her powers under control, putting her life on hold until she could deal with returning to it.