as a child are real. They’ve always been real, lingering just on the other side of the Fade. I shudder at the notion.
“What about humans, then?” I ask. “Did we have wild magic and lose it?”
“No, humans were different… Long after the fae descended from the dryads, the ancient nature spirits made the humans from the earth itself. So, early humans drew their magic from nature.”
I try and imagine telling my friends at the academy that the first humans were made by dryads and that we once had magic. Just imagining their expressions nearly makes me laugh. “So humans and fae are more alike?” I ask.
“No…think of fae as an evolution that happened by time and chance. Humans were designed—of the dryads’ making,” Willow explains. “Not long after, the dryads died off, and the early humans were quickly ostracized. Some blamed them for the death of the dryads. But I think that anything different is all too easily used as an excuse for hatred.”
“So the great wars started and once more the elves stepped up to make a barrier, this time called the Fade, to separate the Natural World and the humans who came from it from the various peoples and creatures of Midscape,” I logic out. My brain is only operating at half capacity. Everything is exhausted, including the mush between my ears. If I don’t speak it all aloud I might not grasp the world I now find myself in.
“Exactly, Midscape is a between. But there’s just one problem. Can you figure out what it is?” He glances at me. Now my eyes follow his to the window.
“If you create a world between the Natural World and the Beyond…then it’s not natural,” I realize.
“Someone had to bridge the gap,” he encourages.
The truth is dawning on me brighter than the sun on the fields beyond. “The Human Queen.”
“You got it!” He leans over and flicks my nose. Then pulls back, startled. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I shouldn’t have—”
I burst out laughing and rub my nose lightly. “It’s fine.”
“You’re my queen, I really shouldn’t—”
“Willow, it’s fine,” I repeat, firmer. “It’s nice to have someone treat me kindly, like a friend.”
He looks suddenly uncomfortable and stands. When he continues speaking, his head is down and his hands are busy cleaning his tools and sorting his supplies. “In any case, yes, the Human Queen is Midscape’s connection to the Natural World.”
“Does everywhere in Midscape look like this? Springtime?” I ask.
He nods. “Because of the Human Queen—you—sitting on the redwood throne, nature could flow into this world.”
“Through me,” I whisper and shudder, thinking of the magic that raged through my body. The phantom pain of roots digging into me alights under my skin. The sensation of my soul, my life, being torn from my bones is searing hot. I feel a thousand needs screaming at me at once and I am just one woman; I couldn’t possibly help them all.
All I want is my shop. I want my patients. I want a world I can understand and a small corner to look after.
I asked to take care of people, yes… But nothing prepared me for this. Not my parents, not the academy, and not the Keepers. My ineptitude may be more of a detriment than an aid.
“Does that answer your questions?” Willow interrupts my pity party.
“One more.”
“Yes?”
“Why does the Human Queen have magic?” I ask. “No other human does.”
“Right, magic was lost to humans when the Fade was erected.”
I resist pointing out how unfair it is that the thing that keeps humans safe from wild magic—the Fade—is also what removed humans’ natural magic.
“Does the queen keep her magic because she marries the Elf King?” I pause. “No, that can’t be…because the magic comes to the Human Queen before she marries the King.”
“The queen’s magic is a bit of a mystery.” It sounds as though he’s wondered this many times before as well. “The prevailing lore is that the first Human Queen was actually, in part, an assistant builder of the Fade. Since she was, her magic can penetrate the Fade and that magic is passed down from woman to woman in the city where she came from.”
“I see.” I sigh.
“It’s not really a satisfying answer, is it?” He misreads my disappointment.
“It’s magic. I’m finding that magic only loosely makes sense.” I shake my head and murmur, “I just wish it were different is all…” Then, I continue stronger, “You were alive when the last queen was, right?”