But it wasn't just him! Aspen was giggling. Wilder had a fist pressed to his lips, and Hawke was tittering a few octaves too high. Thankfully, Keir was looking between them, proving I wasn't the only one who missed the joke.
"What?" I begged. "Guys, I don't know this stuff!"
"Jevadu are wildlings," Keir said. "They're not sidhe."
"So he's not a she?" I asked, wondering what the hell they were on about. "Kinda canseethat."
"No!" Aspen wailed, tears starting to leak from her eyes. "Sidhe. The fae who are Winter or Summer. Wildlings are the third court!"
"Oh,thatsidhe." I groaned in embarrassment. "They sound the same!"
Aspen waved at her own face like she was trying to get some air. "Oh. Oh, that's too good."
"I'm still lost," I said, yet I was still smiling because seeing this group laugh this hard? What the hell?
Keir leaned in. "Rain, the sidhe are one type of magic. Seasonal. We can use both seasons of magic. Well, as a whole people we can. Most of us only use one, but the point is it's the same magic, just different seasons. Wildlings use your magic, which is the anti-magic to ours."
"Why no one's spells work on you," Hawke clarified.
"Oh." Yep, I was starting to figure it out. "So why are jevadu funny? Is there something wrong with Wild magic?" I was feeling a little targeted here.
"Because they don't understand jevadu!" Torian sputtered, still laughing and barely managing to control it. "Oh! Oh, that's..." Another little laugh broke out, but he was slowly regaining his composure. "Wow."
And I was still lost. "I completely missed that joke," I admitted.
"Rain," Aspen said, making me look over at her. "It's more a case of the faelings trying to act like they know what they're talking about when they clearly don't."
"Yeah, I missed it too," Keir admitted. "Jevadu are fucking terrifying. They're like the boogeyman of fae stories. The ones who walk among us, can suck out our magic - which is our life force - and walk away without being spotted."
"And they're people," Aspen insisted. "They're also real, have children with fae women, and the girls are fae, but the boys are jevadu."
I paused, looking between Torian and Aspen. "Oh. But Wild magic isn't evil."
"No, it's not," Hawke assured me. "It's just Wild."
On my shoulder, Jack was twisting his head. "Court!" he finally said.
"Yes," Torian replied, "you're part of the court too, Jack. And you're a wildling. See? We don't discriminate here."
But Jack looked over at Torian, then twisted his head first one way, then another. "Court?"
"This court," Torian said, "has Summer, Winter, Wild, and mixtures."
"Fuck monarchies," Keir muttered.
"Wait, why?" Torian asked.
Keir gestured at the entire table. "Because this is better." Then he tipped his head back towards the jesters' table. "Just look at them. It's all aboutSummer this and Summer that and how horrible the snow is, how long it's going to last, and how Aspen and Wilder are evil or some shit."
"What about jevadu?" Wilder asked. "Would you feel the same way if I was one?"
"But you're not," Keir countered.
Wilder simply smiled. "Are you sure?"
Maybe Keir was sure of it, but now I was starting to wonder. My eyes shifted between Aspen and Torian, rethinking all I knew about them, then over to Hawke and Wilder. None of them had been scared of my shadow magic. Not a single one had pulled away after I'd become the Morrigan. Or showed myself to be, or found out, or whatever the fuck had happened on the Solstice.
They also accepted Jack as royalty, and even called him "Highness" as if that was a real title. Never mind how their magic was just as weird as mine, but in their own way. Hawke's was without color. Aspen and Wilder used white. Keir used rainbow-colored, and even Torian used both.
