"Were you living in the Fae realm before this?" she asked softly, easing the question into the space between them like a whisper on the breeze that blew in peaceful green plains. She didn't want to push him, just coax him open, little by little. After assuring him that his pain would be safe with her. Pains were more difficult to talk about than secrets because people would take advantage of pain more easily. Even unknowingly.
"Yes," he said, his voice low, almost lost in the sound of water. "I lived there for about four hundred years. Then, for a hundred more… I've lived among humans."
Ren smiled gently. "So you're familiar with many human rites."
He nodded, a wry glint in his eye. "I've watched them rise and thrive, fall and decay. I've seen many of your ancestors. Who are… in part, mine too."
Her breath hitched. He was opening a door, letting her glimpse a sliver of the vastness he carried inside. It meant a lot.
