isn’t him being here to begin with, it’s that he’s interrupting the flow of reality for mortals.” She felt that “du-huh?” thing coming over her again.
“Okay, look at it this way,” he said. “Why do Graham and Dmitri and the Others work so hard to keep ordinary mortals from becoming aware that they exist?”
“Because they’re afraid of how we’d react, that’d we’d try to exterminate them or put them in a lab and study them or something.”
“Right, because they know that humans are not willing to acknowledge right now that what they think of as the supernatural—as magic—exists.”
Corinne nodded. “Yeah, they think we’re primitive morons.” He sighed. “Compared to most other species, you are. Primitive, not morons. Werefolk were around for millennia before humans appeared on Ithir, and even though vampires were once human, they have a much deeper connection to magic than their human cousins ever did. And Fae…well, we left Ithir about the same time humans started realizing that round things made nifty accessories for the bottoms of their sleds. In relative terms, humans are like infants to us.” She couldn’t decide if she felt confused or just insulted. Or maybe both. “Right. We’re the cosmic equivalent of amoebae. Great. But that doesn’t explain why it’s so important to interrupt this Seoc guy’s tour of Ithir.”
“Actually, it does. The Fae left Ithir because the humans couldn’t wrap their minds around our magic, and rather than hide, like the Others, we removed ourselves from this world and closed the doors after us. But what do you think would happen if someone found the doors and showed everyone where they were?”
Put like that, the idea made Corinne squirm in her seat. She could imagine just what would happen.
People would either be frightened or fascinated. The frightened ones would try to destroy what they didn’t understand, and the fascinated ones would trample it in their eagerness to experience it for themselves.
Luc nodded. “Exactly. A person can learn to cope with a shift in their reality, but people , as a group, are a different story. If Seoc keeps this up, he’s going to open those doors. Then Ithir and Faerie will both suffer for it.”
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“Suffer, how?”
“Faerie would be overrun by humans. Some of them would be honestly curious, but some of them would be afraid or greedy or malicious and would destroy the world we’ve spent centuries building for ourselves.”
Yeah, she could see where that would suck. As much as she wanted to defend her fellow humans from being maligned, people did tend to be a hell of a lot stupider and more selfish than a person could ever be. As a reporter, she’d seen enough of the destruction people could create to know that.
She must have hesitated too long for his taste, though, because his eyes narrowed in a glare and he growled his next sentence.
“Then there’s the fact that if the balance between Ithir and Faerie shifts, all of the creatures we took with us when we left would come pouring back into your world. When was the last time you saw a real live nightmare?”
“Do you count?”
Okay, that was a low blow, but damn it, this was weird !
“I’m serious, Corinne.” He sounded as if he was scolding her, and she fought the instinct to apologize.
This was her world he was turning upside down, not the other way around. “This is bigger than your pique, damn it. Now are you going to be reasonable and help me out, or are you going to hide your frickin’ head in the sand and make me do this on my own?”
“I ought to.” Her teeth clenched so tightly she had to spit the words to get them out. How dare he take her to task for not leaping at the chance to become some sort of comic book crusader? “I ought to just leave you to do this your damned self. If I was dumb enough to be lied to, I must be too dumb to
“Okay, look at it this way,” he said. “Why do Graham and Dmitri and the Others work so hard to keep ordinary mortals from becoming aware that they exist?”
“Because they’re afraid of how we’d react, that’d we’d try to exterminate them or put them in a lab and study them or something.”
“Right, because they know that humans are not willing to acknowledge right now that what they think of as the supernatural—as magic—exists.”
Corinne nodded. “Yeah, they think we’re primitive morons.” He sighed. “Compared to most other species, you are. Primitive, not morons. Werefolk were around for millennia before humans appeared on Ithir, and even though vampires were once human, they have a much deeper connection to magic than their human cousins ever did. And Fae…well, we left Ithir about the same time humans started realizing that round things made nifty accessories for the bottoms of their sleds. In relative terms, humans are like infants to us.” She couldn’t decide if she felt confused or just insulted. Or maybe both. “Right. We’re the cosmic equivalent of amoebae. Great. But that doesn’t explain why it’s so important to interrupt this Seoc guy’s tour of Ithir.”
“Actually, it does. The Fae left Ithir because the humans couldn’t wrap their minds around our magic, and rather than hide, like the Others, we removed ourselves from this world and closed the doors after us. But what do you think would happen if someone found the doors and showed everyone where they were?”
Put like that, the idea made Corinne squirm in her seat. She could imagine just what would happen.
People would either be frightened or fascinated. The frightened ones would try to destroy what they didn’t understand, and the fascinated ones would trample it in their eagerness to experience it for themselves.
Luc nodded. “Exactly. A person can learn to cope with a shift in their reality, but people , as a group, are a different story. If Seoc keeps this up, he’s going to open those doors. Then Ithir and Faerie will both suffer for it.”
Page 31
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
“Suffer, how?”
“Faerie would be overrun by humans. Some of them would be honestly curious, but some of them would be afraid or greedy or malicious and would destroy the world we’ve spent centuries building for ourselves.”
Yeah, she could see where that would suck. As much as she wanted to defend her fellow humans from being maligned, people did tend to be a hell of a lot stupider and more selfish than a person could ever be. As a reporter, she’d seen enough of the destruction people could create to know that.
She must have hesitated too long for his taste, though, because his eyes narrowed in a glare and he growled his next sentence.
“Then there’s the fact that if the balance between Ithir and Faerie shifts, all of the creatures we took with us when we left would come pouring back into your world. When was the last time you saw a real live nightmare?”
“Do you count?”
Okay, that was a low blow, but damn it, this was weird !
“I’m serious, Corinne.” He sounded as if he was scolding her, and she fought the instinct to apologize.
This was her world he was turning upside down, not the other way around. “This is bigger than your pique, damn it. Now are you going to be reasonable and help me out, or are you going to hide your frickin’ head in the sand and make me do this on my own?”
“I ought to.” Her teeth clenched so tightly she had to spit the words to get them out. How dare he take her to task for not leaping at the chance to become some sort of comic book crusader? “I ought to just leave you to do this your damned self. If I was dumb enough to be lied to, I must be too dumb to
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