Lupi 04 - Night Season

after a moment he shrugged. “We is thinking Theera is not knowing when we planning to leave City. If she translocated back to Rohen, is meaning she knows we about to leave and no reason for her staying in City.”
    â€œWhat’s Rohen?”
    â€œTheera’s liege is being her half sister, she who is called Theil Ná Rohen. Rohen is being Theil’s estate, her land, you understanding? All sidhe who is ruling is having tie to land. Theera is no mage—she is not casting translocation spell. Theil is mage, but not of degree to cast such spell, either. But Theil’s lord—who is true lord of Faerie, as he is having land in Second Realm—is very skilled mage. He makes charm device, gifts it to Theil for using to return to Rohen. Theil is letting Theera using charm. Only goes one place—Theil’s home in Rohen.”
    Untangling Bilbo’s syntax was giving Cynna a headache. “So Theera’s sister has this device and loaned it to her. It’s the device, not her own ability, that lets her translocate?” When Bilbo nodded she continued, “But it still takes tremendous power. Translocation is like opening a gate within a realm.”
    â€œTheil is having much power. She is tied to her land in sidhe way, so has much power to drawing on. Theera not having such power, but her half sister is letting her use device, so is using Theil’s power, not own.”
    Maybe the sidhe here weren’t as powerful as she’d feared. Still…“But they—the sidhe—are kick-ass spellcasters. Why can’t they find it? Or do you think they already have?”
    Glances were exchanged—this time among Bilbo, Tash, and Wen. Tash spoke. “The sidhe do not often act together. There are four major sidhe estates in Edge—Rohen, Gabotá, Leerahan, and Fa Nioth. They are sometimes friendly, always rivals. We think it possible that one of the estate lords has the medallion. If so—if it has reached that lord’s land—neither the gnomes nor the other sidhe would be able to find it magically.”
    â€œAnd yet I’m supposed to.”
    Gan snickered. “That’s your Gift, right?”
    â€œWhy is that funny?”
    â€œIt is!” Gan insisted, as if she’d argued with her. “Don’t they all think humans are no-sums? Plain old worthless, huh? Now they have to admit they were wrong.” She grinned at Bilbo—always an interesting sight, since she’d kept the pointy teeth of her demonhood. “Wrong, wrong, wrong. You were wrong.”
    There must be some powerful taboo against killing not-quite demons, Cynna reflected. Or Gan would be dead right now, judging by the look on Bilbo’s face.
    â€œWhy not admit it, Councilor?’ Daniel Weaver said suddenly. “After years of suppressing us, treating us like the bastard stepchildren you think we should be, you’ve had to admit a human can do what you can’t. What the sidhe can’t do.” He looked at Cynna. Real anger—old anger—stirred in his eyes and tightened his mouth. “It’s the nature of a Gift, sweetheart. It takes an adept to duplicate through a spell what a lupus does naturally—change his form. It takes an adept to duplicate what any of the Blood do naturally through their innate magic.”
    For a second Cynna was so preoccupied with the casual way he’d called her “sweetheart” that she didn’t catch up with his words. “But humans aren’t of the Blood.”
    Gan snorted. “You are so stupid. All of you. At first I thought maybe you knew what you were talking about, but you don’t. There’s no difference.”
    Cullen had quit slouching. “Human magic doesn’t look the same,” he said slowly.
    â€œSo? I guess demon magic looks different from lupus magic, too, doesn’t it?”
    Cullen nodded. His face was closed down, revealing nothing.
    â€œWhat does ‘of the Blood’ mean?” Gan said. “Means you have inborn magic. That’s what a Gift is. Inborn magic.”
    Cynna was trying to think of why that was wrong. It had to be wrong, didn’t it? Everyone knew humans were not of the Blood. Everyone. Witches, shamans, lupi all agreed on that. Could everyone be wrong about something so basic?
    Being of the Blood meant being born with magic, innate magical abilities that you just did, no need for a spell.
    Being Gifted meant