After all the upset and shocks from our trip out east, the remainder of the week and weekend went pretty smoothly. Me and the twins spent those days working with our sept, to help them adapt to life on Earth.

On Friday Padraig watched with interest as I used the riding-mower to cut the front lawn. I wound up giving him some lessons on that, then watched as he attempted to cut the back lawn. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad considering at that point he'd had exactly two rides in a car and had never driven anything apart from a horse. Still, it was nice to see him trying to learn Earth stuff, and he was eager to make himself useful.

I was in a bit of a panic Saturday afternoon when I realized I hadn't seen Merryweather and Petunia in over a day. I worried they'd flown off to explore the world, and I kept thinking of all the ways they could run into or cause trouble. Fortunately they turned up Saturday evening in the cottage, watching anime on the TV.

When I spoke with them, I found out they hadn't actually left the property. They were under the cottage floorboards, setting up a little home for themselves. I should have realized from all my visits to the Duma that pixies lived underground, since there wasn't any indication of above-ground homes for them. Apparently they lived in burrows along the outer edge of the top of their Duma.

Rather than digging something themselves here, Merryweather and Petunia just found a cosy little spot beneath the cottage, and used a stolen pillow and blanket to make it comfortable.

I had some concerns about them living 'outdoors' like that, and I warned them how cold it got around here in the winter. They seemed quite happy with their little home for now, and if it did get too cold they said they'd come inside. Assuming they ended up staying on Earth of course.

By the end of our first week Laoise was pretty comfortable with the various appliances in the cottage, she was using the stove and microwave and oven to prepare meals for Padraig and Siobhan and herself. She thought the fridge was a fantastic invention, and she was happy doing laundry with the washer and dryer.

At that point the only one I was worried about was Siobhan. She still seemed uncomfortable or uneasy most of the time. From what I'd observed she seemed to divide her time between hanging around with her sister, making use of our archery practice range, and doing solo training drills with her sword.

We were still having our dinners out in the backyard, we made frequent use of the bbq and the fire pit. The weather was nice, it was relaxing, and even Siobhan seemed calm when we were sitting around the fire. The food we brought from Otherworld ran out after the fourth day so all our guests were eating Earth food now. There weren't any complaints, though I had a feeling it would take a little longer before they were actually used to it.

As usual I had no idea what the pixies ate, but they seemed to be doing just fine here. And of course they were always around to partake in the hard lemonade. And a bottle of maple syrup mysteriously disappeared from our kitchen at some point during the week.

By Monday evening we'd been back on Earth for eight days, and things almost seemed to be getting into a routine. Kelly and Keira were planning to start going back into the city soon so they could get back to the last of their university work. They were both still looking forward to finishing their courses.

We had one last bit of unpleasant business to take care of, and the time had come to address it. It was the tenth of July and that government minister was due back from his vacation late tonight. He lived in a fancy mansion in a gated community a little ways north of the city. I toured the area by car on Sunday to get a look at the place and familiarize myself with the location. It was about eight leagues from our home, so it was fairly easy to get there by teleporting.

My girlfriends and I stayed up late to wait for his return, and I kept an eye on the guy's home with clairvoyance spells.

It was just past eleven when the minister and his family got home from the airport, and it took them another forty-five minutes to get themselves sorted out and into bed. I waited another ninety minutes or so just to be sure, then at at half past one in the morning I teleported into the upstairs hall of his mansion.

As soon as I was there I used sleep spells on the two teens first, then moved closer to the minister's bedroom and used another sleep spell on his wife. I put enough into the spells to ensure his family would stay sound asleep till at least eight in the morning.

With that done, I took hold of the double-doors that led to the minister's bedroom and swung them wide open. I turned on the light as I strode into the room.

The minister sat bolt-upright in shock, while his wife remained asleep next to him.

The right honourable mister Thomas was an average-looking guy in his fifties. He had short hair that was probably light brown or dark blond at one point but was now mostly grey around the sides and balding on top. He had some extra weight on him, especially around his midsection. He was wearing light-blue pyjamas, and there was a pair of well-worn brown slippers on the floor next to the bed.

He picked up a pair of glasses from his bedside table and slipped them on, then grabbed his phone as he demanded "What the -"

His eyes widened as he obviously recognized me. He gasped, "You! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to have a little chat," I replied calmly. "Put down the phone, you won't be needing it."

Thomas turned to his left and looked at his wife. He sounded nervous as he asked "What did you do?"

"Just a sleep spell," I said. "Your wife and kids are ok, they're going to sleep through our meeting. Now leave the phone and come with me."

He hesitated a moment, before he set the phone back on his bedside table. He got out of bed and stepped into his slippers as he asked, "Where are we going?"

I shrugged, "Your office will do fine."

He turned out the light and closed the doors as we left the bedroom, not that his wife would have noticed. I had him lead the way as we went down the large staircase and across the spacious front hall. We wound up in a large wood-panelled room, with a big fancy desk and some plush leather chairs.

Thomas turned the light on as we entered, then moved to sit behind the desk.

"Nope," I stated. "You sit there."

I directed him to one of the guest chairs. I wasn't taking any chances of him having some sort of panic button or something back there.

He glared at me but he sat in the guest chair. As I slipped into the large luxurious leather seat behind his desk I cast a mind-reading spell on the minister, then sent a message to my girlfriends through our rings, "All clear. Come on over."

Kelly appeared standing next to me on my left, Keira appeared on my right.

Thomas looked startled when the redheads appeared on either side of me, but he quickly got over the shock.

"Breaking and entering is bad enough," he stated. "I'm a member of parliament, you know how serious this is? You're already under investigation, this little stunt of yours will put you away for a long time."

I ignored him for now, as I started looking for information. I expected to find he'd been coerced or maybe enspelled by some of Cathal's agents. What I found was a lot more surprising.

"So he wasn't coerced," I said to my girlfriends. "He was bribed. A hundred fae gold coins, to organize the police investigation and harassment campaign against us. And he knew we'd done nothing wrong."

Kelly looked surprised, "Is he fae?"

"No," I replied. "He knows about us and the shadow economy though."

Following that thread through his memories, I discovered he wasn't alone in knowing about us. Several more top bureaucrats in his ministry knew about the fae. And outside his offices, he was aware of another half a dozen ministries who knew about us. They all just turned a blind eye to our kind though. They even orchestrated cover-ups to prevent knowledge of us getting out to the public.

They knew fae were almost undetectable and usually dangerous, so the unofficial position was to just stay out of our way and let us do our thing. That was news I'd have to decide what to do with later, but I had a feeling I should relay it back to Queen Áine at some point.

By now the minister knew I was reading his mind, but he still didn't seem too worried.

He stated calmly, "I know about your kind, and I know about you three. I know you're a pacifist, miss Vale. You're one of the 'good' ones, I know you aren't going to hurt me."

Keira looked unimpressed as she asked him "Is that so?"

Thomas sounded confident as he continued, "I don't know why King Cathal wants to stir up trouble for you lot, but after this stunt I promise you'll have more trouble than you can handle. Earth is not going to be a safe place for you any more."

All three of us smiled as I replied "You obviously haven't heard the news. Cathal is no longer king of Otherworld. I personally put an end to his reign, and I eliminated his son too. My girlfriends and I have already closed the police investigation. You're the last loose end."

The minister's confident act faltered slightly. He shook his head, "I don't believe you."

Kelly glanced at me and asked, "What are we going to do with him?"

I thought it over and compared this guy to MacRae or his boss. MacRae didn't know about the fae, but he was a prick. The top cop wasn't even that, he was just doing his job. Thomas though... He knew about the fae. He knew about Cathal. He was basically on the king's payroll. I figured that was the difference between him being just an annoying human, and being an active and willing participant. He was an enemy agent. He was both an enemy to me, and a traitor to the humans he was supposed to serve.

"I thought we'd be freeing him from some fae tampering," I replied to Kelly. "Then I guess I figured we'd just let him go. Now I think... Well, I'm going to have to do something else."

Thomas looked less and less confident as I spoke. I was still in his mind and I poked around to see if he had any sort of contingency plan incase his dealings with the fae went bad. I couldn't find anything though. He was basically just banking on his position as a public figure and a government minister, hoping that his position made him valuable enough to the fae he dealt with that they wouldn't want to get rid of him.

Keira offered, "Want me to handle this Tegan?"

"No thanks," I replied. "I'll do it myself."

He looked at Keira then back at me again and gulped, "You're not going to kill me. You don't do that, you don't hurt people."

I shrugged, "I'm sure you know making deals with the fae is dangerous."

Thomas started trying to offer me a bribe, but I used a sleep spell on him. He slumped down in the chair as his eyes fluttered shut and he started snoring softly.

"Tegan?" Kelly asked softly. "What are you going to do?"

I sighed, "I'm taking care of business."

My first thought was to just end him. I knew a spell that would simply stop his heart, people would think it was a heart attack. But I didn't like the idea of his wife or kids being the ones to find the body. So I'd leave him alive, but he wouldn't be a threat anymore. Not to me, or anyone else.

I figured, humans would call it an aneurism or something like that. He'd be alive, he'd be functional, but he wouldn't remember much of the past fifteen years. That was how long he'd known about the fae, how long he'd been in public service. He'd know who his wife and kids were though, I wouldn't take that from him.

He'd probably wind up on medical leave, and I knew he'd have a good pension. His family would get to keep him, but his career was over.

The spell only took a minute or two, then I got to my feet.

"Let's go home. I need a drink."

My girlfriends just nodded quietly. I waited to make sure they both teleported home first, then I followed.

With all three of us safely back at our place, I went into the kitchen and grabbed myself a hard lemonade. Keira opened a bottle of wine, and Kelly got herself a hard lemonade as well.

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