anarchist_queen | Crystaviel's Room at the Arms, Sunday Afternoon

The mocking had started soon after Leda had returned to school, after getting out of the hospital. She was the new girl, shorter than the average Elf, and had lived on the streets with halfies and humans. The clique in charge at Emma Shetterly High were all Dragon's Tooth Elves. Rich, snobby, and arrogant.

Leda had been a tempting target. She was still fragile after the failure of the Strange Pupae. They called her halfie, and mongrel. And that was when they were being nice.

All that changed one day after gym class when Crystaviel, the leader of the clique came to her rescue.

"Enough! Look at her ears. She's as pure as the rest of us. Leave her alone." She had given Leda a gentle smile. "What's your name shorty?" The kindness in her tone helped win Leda over.

Crystaviel had seen something in the showers. Something that had shocked her to her very core. Something she still could not quite believe. A triangle pattern of birth marks on Leda's left shoulder.

"So you like it here?" she asked her smaller friend. "The humans aren't treating you badly?"

Leda giggled. "Please I'm nowhere near the strangest thing here. Sure I got some annoying reactions on my way here, but once I arrived..."

"I'm glad. Can't say for sure how your parents are gonna react, but I'll try to smooth things over in that regard." Then she removed a bottle from her bag. "Care to make a toast?"

Leda said nothing, staring at the bottle of Peca.

Pretending she didn't notice, Crystaviel went on. "To...better understanding between mortals and Elves." She snickered. "It's nice to dream right?" Then she 'noticed' Leda's reaction. "Scent of Heather, what's wrong?"

"I uhm...I don't drink, Peca. Not anymore."

"What? Really?"

"It was starting to cause some problems. Some of my friends didn't-"

Crystaviel sighed. "Darling, they're humans. They don't, they can't understand the likes of us. Not truly. They can't handle the things we can. Of course something like this will scare them."

"That's not it." Leda protested. "Not completely. It was causing me problems. I had to drink it just to feel normal. That's not good is it?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you have a steady, and might I add, free supply it's not a problem. You drank only enough to feel normal right? That's all?"

"At first yeah. But it was getting worse. I finally thought it'd be better to throw it out."

"Are you insane? You know what withdrawal can do?"

"It got bad, but I got these pills-"

"Pills?! Human medicine?! Lords of Faerie girl what have they done to you?" She locked eyes with Leda, employing a power no one knew she had. Except for the few people she'd deemed it neccesary to use it on. "Peca is part of you heritage Leda. Take, a, drink."

Without even aware that she was doing it, Leda reached out and took the proffered bottle. She never saw the cruel smile on her friend's lips. Crystaviel knew that all it would take was one sip, and Leda would be right back on the track she wanted her on.

[Establishy only. Not for broadcast please.]