"So I take it by your early return that the Grimm Brothers have been safely retired to the Silent Court's halls."
"Pfff. No thanks to you." My sarcasm was returning in bounds. Gimlit just looked at me, the icy turquoise of his eyes cool and steady on mine as he waited for me to continue. It was no fun trying to fight with him. He just did not argue.
"And would it be safe to presume that mistress has acquired something to Tell?" He looked at me knowingly. How he knew was beyond me. But it seemed that whenever I learned a new Tell, Gimlit always knew about it. He had a strange affinity to me, and I to him. He kept me calm, and he knew my secrets.
It's said that he holds most of them in a spell in his heart. It's some strange hou-ha Other World magic. Supposedly, as the story goes, when I find my one true Tell, all my powers will be released and my guardian will be set free. Until then, Gim is stuck with me, and I him.
Not a hard bargain for me, really. Gimlit is the poor monster getting the bad deal--I mean, I sure as shit wouldn't want to live with me. I'm bossy, stubborn, a total slob, I never do what I'm told. Poor Gimlit, he doesn't stand a chance.
Thank the Prophets he's had a couple hundred years of knowledge and training under his belt. That, and he's the most patient creature I've ever met.
"It would be safe to presume," I said, a secretive smile on my face that I tried to hide behind a sip of the elderberry tea. When I acquired a new power, once learned, Gimlit would help me hone it.
I'd only acquired four since I'd passed into adulthood. It was said amongst my people that as I aged, my Tells would strengthen. The Way would be shown and my powers would multiply as I aged and practiced their magic.
My first Tell I acquired when I was nineteen. I'm a natural hunter, or at least that's what I thought. But that was my first Tell. If you lose it--whatever it is--and need to find it, I'm your girl. That's part of why I became a hunter. I'm good at tracking. I know where you've been. I can see what happened when the item or person you're looking for became lost. And then I can find the trail.
It's all a weird sort of hooey glamour. But it's mine. And it works.
The only downside--I get rewind with scent. Not pretty when there's blood and gore involved. The muck stays with you, like rotted sludge dripping through your senses.
My second Tell came when I was twenty-one. I think it's part of my father's gifts to me--if you want to call it a gift. I can call the tides. I just about drowned in my own damned bathtub the first time that one decided to offer itself to me. The water just kept rising and rising. I ended up flooding my entire apartment building, all twelve floors. To say the Super was pissed doesn't even begin to sum it up.
Needless to say, I don't live near other people anymore. And I don't take baths. Don't even own one. Showers only, for this girl. Well, I do own a tub--it's out in the shed for emergencies. But it's not in my house or hooked to any water. We have to schlep it in if we need to use it.
My third Tell isn't nearly as moving. I can glow. Call it having your own nightlight or glow stick. I'm part Pixie, and part child of a Druid Priest who worshiped the moon. I glow, but only when necessary ... or really annoyed ... or aroused ... or I need it the most ... or I'm tapping into one of my Tells. Yeah, yeah, I know, lots of glowing. Shut up.
Moon-glow, they call it.
And I've only glowed once during sex. My human boyfriend was totally wigged out by it. Oh, he knew what I was. The green hair and red eyes are a dead giveaway. Humans and Others have been mixing since the turn of the century. But the glowing really creeped him out. He broke up with me not long after that. Said it was him, not me. Whatever.
)
