Chapter One: Exhaustion

                                    

                                          

~Lucien~
Lucien was exhausted after two long weeks of meetings and negotiating. They had gotten nowhere, and it had all just been a big waste of time and resources. He slumped into his favorite chair in front of the fireplace, brushing his hair away from his face. He took a deep breath and sighed. 
"Rough day?" Jurian asked while coming to lean on the mantle. 
He had been (Believe it or not) a breath of fresh air as the days passed with no progress. The humans argued almost as much as the fae did when it came to internal affairs, and it didn't help that he was fae himself.
"I do believe that they hate me more than they hate living in poverty." Lucien said in reply.
 Jurian smirked knowingly and huffed a laugh.
"I could have told you that, though they hate you less than most." He was right, of course that was due his time spent trying to build trust in the lords of the mortal realm.
 It was something that no other fae in Prythian had even attempted, even five years after the war.
"Hating me less than the High Lords that have forgotten them does me little good if they can't stop bickering long enough to get anything done." He could feel a headache coming on, they were regular these days and he grimaced against the influx of pain that shot through his.
"Is there a reason that you are pestering me directly after a meeting?" Lucien asked, not that he minded Jurian's company, but the man was aware of his frequent headaches and tended to leave Lucien alone until the morning after a meeting.
"Ah, always so perceptive Lucien. You have a letter from your dear friends at the Night court."
 Lucien balked at that; he hadn't gotten a letter from them in months. They seemed content to let Lucien be after last solstice when he 'attempted' to give Elain a gift. It was a simple satchel filled with seeds procured from the continent that he thought she'd love. Much to his chagrin she'd burst into tears and Lucien was promptly told to leave... He had not been back since. Jurian pulled the letter out of his coat pocket and handed it to Lucien. As always, the parchment was marked with the official Night Court insignia and stamped with Rhys and Feyre's crest. He broke the seal and read.
Dear Lucien,
You and a guest are Hereby invited to this year's solstice festivities to be held at the House of Wind. We will be expectantly awaiting your reply.
Sincerely, Nesta and Cassian Archeron
He stared puzzled at the letter in his hands, of all people he had expected an invitation from Nesta and Cassian had not even made it on the list. Still the sentiment was nice and so he supposed he would have to go, even if he was slightly terrified of what the sudden invitation could mean.
"Well fill me in, what does it say?" Jurian asked. 'You and a guest' the words rang in his head as he let out a laugh loud enough to have his companion studying puzzled.
"Care for a trip to the Night Court?" He would have asked Vassa, she was more adapted to inter-court warfare, but she had been using her time as a firebird to fly to the continent to look for a way to break her curse. Jurian simply smiled in that devilish way he often did and spoke.
 "What could possibly go wrong?"
~Elain~
She was in the garden when she felt it, a pull in her ribs that had her slumped from the exhaustion alone. Elain knew it wasn't her exhaustion that she was feeling but 'his'. He was tired at best and absolutely destroyed at worst. She had learned how to block it out most times but occasionally she let herself feel it, out of curiosity she told herself. What was he up to that had him exhausted to the point of near collapse? Was he fighting with his housemates? She had been told the two were notoriously hard to get along with. That didn't add up though, the last time she had seen Lucien was last solstice when he'd given her the most thoughtful gift anyone had given her in years and burst into tears.