Chapter 21 - Forgiveness

"Do you know what you're doing?" Hannah asked as she watched Jasper slice a cauliflower. He spared her a glance and smiled smugly .

"Well, milady, you should know that i’ve been cooking since I was eight." She raised a brow at him, completely amused. But she had to hand it to him, he sliced like he knew what he was doing, at the very least.

"That's so, and who taught you, if I may ask?" she reached out for a slice of tomato and bit into it.

"Well, my Mama did. She reasoned that if I ever fell in love with a woman who couldn't cook, we both wouldn't starve." He winked at her and she nearly had a laughing fit, successfully resisting when she remembered Martha was upstairs resting.

“ Is your mother a seer or something?" She asked teasingly and he chuckled.

"Or something I should think. I guess you could say she is highly intuitive." She pondered that, and wondered what his mother was like, what meeting her would be like.

"What's she like?" She asked quietly after a while, and it took her a moment to realise that she had blurted out her exact thoughts, she hardly ever did that. He seemed to think for a moment, thenHe looked up from his slicing–He was doing the peppers now– to look at her. His expression turned gentle before he went back to his cutting.

"Well. She's a bit shorter than you, a bit on the plump side. Stern, but not without her tenderness."

"You miss her?" He let out a soft laugh.

"I'm a grown man, Hannah."

"A grown man, certainly. But I haven't known age to be a barrier when it comes to love." He smiled at her words.

"She'll love you." It was Hannah's turn to smile.

"Do you think so?" He shrugged, his impossibly-handsome -Jasper shrug.

"I love you."

Her heart fluttered. She was grateful she had a man who could make her heart flutter.

She watched the way he elegantly sliced a bell pepper and a thought hit her.

"Maybe you could teach me, To cook." He tilted his head to the side.

"Sure, you have the face for it."

She laughed at the seriousness of his tone, and he smiled, happy he had been able to take some of the worry from her eyes, happy to see the glow in her eyes, he hadn't known he'd missed right until that moment.

"All this laughter, and without me, not fair." A hoarse voice said from the kitchen doorway.

"Martha!" Hannah cried, and stood up from the chair she'd taken at the dining table and rushed to the woman. She wrapped her arms around her and sighed in blessed relief.

“ precious child,” martha said, and ran a hand down Hannah’s hair,

"We were so worried." she said as she pulled away and looked into the older woman's eyes,

"How do you feel?"

"Thirsty, I suppose." She said truthfully and Hannah led her to the dining table, where Jasper had gotten up from, pulled out a chair for her. And then Hannah made her way to the tap and got to filling a glass cup with water.

"Here you go, drink now." Hannah said as she brought the glass to her mouth, but Martha patted gently the hand that held the glass, and took the glass in her hand.

Hannah sat beside her, and Jasper sat across from them and they both watched Martha with keen eyes.

"The way you both watch me, it is as if you expect me to perform a magic trick." Martha said mildly.

"No, not a magic trick, Martha. We both are just really worried about you." Jasper said, and his words had Martha's eyes growing watery.

"No, Martha, don't do that." Hannah said, taking the elderly woman's hands in hers. "You'll get me going as well."

"Forgive me, dear."

"Ah, no, Martha. There is nothing to forgive, and we won't be hearing another word of it." jasper said.

"Do you remember what happened?" Hannah asked, when she saw that the woman was seemingly better, and her colour looked better, healthier.

"I remember hearing your voices, but they were far away, as though i heard the both of you speaking from a different room. I remember this heaviness that bore down on me like a thousand pebbles, and i was afraid my heart would never be light again. I have had visions that have pulled from my strength some, but nothing like this. This all but consumed me." Hannah covered Martha's hands with hers, with hopes of giving comfort and Martha embraced the warmth of it all, and like that they all stayed for a while, until Hannah remembered something, her eyes growing wide with it.

"Martha, before you-" Hannah wasn't quite sure what to call it, "well before you ‘fell asleep’ so to speak, you said something about fairy blood. You said it to Jasper, you said to him, ‘fairy blood’," she added,turning to face Jasper.

"Fairy- oh yes, indeed. Jasper." She said looking down at the table, her brows drawn together in contemplation and then She looked up and straight into Jasper's eyes.

"Fairy Blood, run through your veins."

Jasper laughed. A deep heavy rumble that made him clutch at his chest. He waited for Martha and Hannah to laugh too, but neither of them did. Martha looked serious, and Hannah looked terribly confused, but something in her expression told him she believed Martha's words.

He looked at Martha again.

"What?"

"Only a fairy could make a seer in such a state as I was, come out of a vision."

" But I didn't. I couldn't have."

"When those visions we're sucking me in, pulling at the best of my strength, what did you say to me?" Martha asked quietly, compassion filling her voice. But Jasper didn't answer, and so Hannah did.

"You told her to wake up, you said 'wake up, now.'" And an eerie silence followed her words, one filled with so many questions. Hannah Looked contemplative, Martha gaze was set on something on the table, as though she was having a vision.

"I think I would know if I carried fairy blood in my veins, Martha." Jasper said, trying to fight this, “ Hannah?” he said looking at her, but she shrugged, looking lost and weary. but Martha's words rang true, and Hannah, although seemingly still confused, believed. He could see all that.

"No, Jasper. You wouldn't, not if one of your parents is human. Not if the other is a fairy"

"Both my parents are human, I assure you." He picked up the tray in which he had sliced the vegetables in and made his way to the kitchen counter, busied himself with the remaining preparations for the soup he had in mind. His parents we're human, both of them really, he carried no fairy blood in him. To him, that was the end of the matter. But something deeper, something completely annoying, told him it wasn't the end of the matter, that there was more- hadn’t he experienced more, these past few weeks?- and that all of this was true.

But then, fairy?

He would know, wouldn't he? Someone would have said something. And yet, he wondered still which of his parents was the fairy, it was a silly thought, but he could not help but wonder all the same. Stranger things had happened, indeed, stranger things unfolded before his eyes almost everyday these days. So as he put a pot on a burner he wondered. He thought the whole thing crazy and unfathomable, almost impossible, but he wondered.

Hannah was at a loss, and had no words to say. And for the first in a long time she didn't know how to give comfort. She didn't know what to do, with a grandmother who was sure she knew her words to be true, and a beloved who had no stomach for the words she said.

Seers aren't always welcome. She heard the words of Martha echo in her head and her heart broke for her, was that how she felt now? Not recieved?

Hannah let out a deep breath and Martha looked at her.

"He'll come around." Martha mouthed, and Hannah wanted to sigh and rest her head against Martha’s breasts. But she only nodded. For she knew she would have to be strong for both Jasper and Martha. They needed her. In truth, they all needed each other. Finding out you had fairy blood in your veins was not everyday news, neither was having your strength totally drained out of you for your gift of sight, a daily occurrence. nor was having an ancient deadly Athànatoi trying to reach you, to harm you, a very happy situation. Yes indeed, they all needed each other.

°°°°

Jasper set bowls of soup before Hannah and Martha and placed bread on the table. He had turned down their offer to help, saying something about wanting to care for them. And although that was true, very true indeed, he knew he also did so because of his need of the small tasks to keep his mind busy, and to also find the words to ask his questions.

But as for the questions, he waited till their bellies we're full, especially Martha's. She still looked a bit weary. And fairy or not, he cared about her.

"Jasper, this soup is wonderful." Martha said honestly.

"It is. And to think I feared how it would turn out." Hannah teased.

Jasper shook his head at Hannah with a smile.

"Thank you, both of you."

They ate in companionable silence after that, each lost in their own thoughts and a while after, when they were done eating, Jasper was the first to speak.

"Martha, how can we know for sure that I have fairy blood?" He wasn’t giving in to the fact, he told himself. He was just curious.

"Aside from what happened earlier, I am not so sure what powers you may or may not possess. For you see, you are only part fairy, and although this is not at all impossible it is also indeed, very rare. So as to how we can know for sure, only time will tell. But in truth, asking your parents might be one of the surest ways."

"One of the deadliest too." Hannah swallowed a laugh, but Martha only cocked a brow.

"I believe they would be honest with you."

"And if the one who is human knows nothing of the other's fairy lineage? That's a big can of worms I'd be opening up."

"No, that won't be easy, will it? I could do some asking, I happen to have all manner of people come to me for one purpose or the other, although I don’t always have the answers to the questions they come with, I am hoping one of them just might have an answer for me."

"Thank you. If anything bizarre happens I'll let you know." He said, sincerely wishing nothing of the like did.

Martha nodded, and getting up, began picking up their bowls, when Hannah began to object she smiled and shook her head.

"I need to do this." And although Hannah didn't understand, she let it be. And at Jasper's signal followed him to the living room.