The Warlock's Shadow

Fae Advice

(14 Days Until the Celestial Shadow)

Time was beginning to run out. We took a break to absorb everything we had seen and learned to come up with an actual game plan, but realized we had nothing to go on. All we had to go on was Kur’s trust that we could do the task at hand, and a few old books, some vague ideas and that was all. Worst of all, we had almost no time left.

The Celestial Shadow would be here in two weeks and it was basically all anyone would talk about on TV, newspapers, whatever. While Sasha, Lisa and I were finally able to catch up with school, barely, Ms. Nephinea was still helping me with my Essence Weaving as best she could. She didn’t have much to go on aside from my description of what Mr. Roland was trying to teach me. She understood keeping my darkness element under control, knowing the risks of it based on her expertise on history. I didn’t mind taking the Essence Weaving slowly though. I wondered if Kur could have helped with that at all? Speaking of Kur, we even visited him a few times over the last couple weeks. What he was good at was helping us feel at ease in the moment and giving us all a much needed distraction to clear our heads.

The week went slowly. Finally it was the end of the school week. When lunch came, we sat in the cafeteria in silence together for a while. None of us were actually hungry and haven’t had much of an appetite for a while. Except for Sasha, they were ravenous and just wolfed down their food. If Lisa and I weren’t hungry before, we definitely weren’t hungry now. Sasha stopped eating only to drink the typical drink for Fae and Half-fae, milk with a spoonful of honey mixed in. They downed it in a couple seconds and let out a large, loud, reverberating belch that temporarily silenced the whole cafeteria.

“Are you guys gonna eat that?” Sasha pointed to our food with their fork. We shook our heads and handed over our food. At least someone was willing to eat.

“What are we going to do?” Lisa asked concerned. “We’re basically no closer in knowing exactly what it is we need to do or we’re at least not confident in it.”

“Think Kur could help?” I asked, voicing my thought from earlier. “Since we’ve been visiting him more regularly just for fun, maybe he will be more willing to help us out?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Sasha said with a full mouth before swallowing. “I just hope he won’t get upset…I’m just now starting to get comfortable with him.”

“Do you have any other ideas?” I asked.

“Well,” Sasha said as they shoveled in and swallowed the last of the food. “When I was talking to my grandmother about translating that book? I asked where she learned how to do what she was doing.”

“Okay, and?” I urged them to continue after their long pause. “Don’t leave us in suspense.”

“She said she learned it on a trip to the Faewild,” Sasha said quickly.

“Wait, you can go there?” Lisa asked.

“Yes?” Sasha answered slowly. “It’s usually only accessible to other Fae. That way outsiders don’t get in and don’t get hurt.”

“Get hurt?” I asked. “What is in the Faewild that can hurt people?” Sasha gave a very nervous and fanged smile at us.

Sasha went on to explain that the Fae people usually kept the environment of their homeland secretive so people wouldn’t go looking and get themselves killed. Although that just raised more questions than it answered and made us want to explore it even more. Which in itself explained why they kept it so secretive. We all knew about some of the plants and animals as some of them made their home in the school’s courtyard. But how bad could the rest of it be?

“Can you set something up so we can visit?” Lisa asked. “We could ask your people and see if they might know more than someone else here about the Celestial Shadow and that sealing spell?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Sasha said. “But I can’t make any promises. The Fae that crossed over here a thousand years ago, aren’t the same kind of Fae that stayed behind.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“What I was told was that before the first convergence the Fae were split into two factions: Summer and Winter. The Summer Fae were the ones to cross over, so I’m a descendant of Summer Fae. But, the ones that didn’t want to cross to earth were of course the Winter Fae. They’re cruel and malicious. They are literal monsters.

“However, there apparently was a rebellion among the Winter Fae about five hundred years ago and a new faction was made calling themselves Autumn Fae. They don’t align with Summer or Winter and focus more on divination and stuff and it’s from them my Grandma learned to translate written Fae.”

“That sounds really scary,” Lisa said “Maybe it’s a bad idea.”

“Oh a lot of that are just tales they tell Fae kids for scary stories,” Sasha said casually. “I doubt it has to be that bad in reality.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “That sounded pretty serious.”

“Of course,” Sasha said. “Would I lie?” They wouldn’t. Honestly, Fae people were biologically incapable of lying so Sasha always told the truth. Or at least what they knew as the truth.

“Well, do you know how to get there?” Lisa asked.

“It’s hard to do but yes I do,” Sasha said. “Wanna do it tonight since it’s the end of the week?” We agreed as the end of lunch bell was ringing to meet at Kur’s late tonight and do some exploring. We went back to class, of course now, Lisa and I end up hungry not only for some new adventure, but also food. Go figure.

#

As agreed we met at the school around midnight, dragons latching on sleepily to our shoulders. We made sure we had as many bags of beef jerky as we could carry with us as well. It took us a few tries to open up the portal to head into Kur’s layer but we eventually found our way down.

“Oh good. My dear friends and hatchlings,” Kur said in a pleasant tone. “This is most unexpected. Or did I forget a planned meeting?”

“No this is something that is kind of impromptu,” I said. “We would like to ask if we could use your lair to open a portal to the Faewild. We figured this would be the safest place and you could protect this side of the portal. Do we have your permission?”

Hrrrmmmm…Kur hummed in contemplation. “The Faewild you say? Risky business. Very dangerous.”

“We know, but it’s a risk we need to take. There are some Fae there that might be able to tell us more of what we need to know.” It took a while for Kur to think about it and if he would be willing to be the guard on this side of the portal but he did eventually agree.

“I give you permission to open the portal here, on the condition your hatchlings stay here for their own safety. I would not permit unnecessary danger to come to them.” We talked among ourselves to come to an agreement. Lisa and Sasha would be ok, we can only hope that I would be alright without Nocturne. We also agreed to Kur’s terms.

“We agree,” I said. “Also we brought a gift for you,” We dumped out the bags and bags of beef jerky we were able to procure since we visited last. We were glad that all Kur wanted from us was just all the beef jerky we could find for him.

“Ah. Wonderful,” He said loudly. “All my favorite flavors. Oh, is that a new one?” He gestured to a red labeled back that said ‘Inferno Pepper’. “That sounds interesting. I might save that one for last.”

We opened a few of the bags for him as he opened his massive maw and let him munch on them thoughtfully. Afterwards we moved to a blank wall and Sasha said the spell to open the portal. It took them a good five minutes of chanting in a strange tongue none of us had ever heard. Sasha called it Gaelic. They said that their grandma said it used to be spoken widely by most Summer Fae and some humans, but it all seemed to be a dead language now.

Slowly the portal opened up. It started as a small circle in the wall and slowly it got bigger and bigger. Finally it was a six foot wide circle with gold on the edge and a clear image of what was on the other side, like looking into a window. The grassland on the other side looked so strange but at the same time a bit familiar.

“Okay, guys, it’s as wide as I can make it,” Sasha said. “It should stay open until we cross back through to this side. Plus once we get across I’ll use a tracking spell I learned recently so we can find the Autumn Fae.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Lisa, you ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s do it,” She said enthusiastically.

“Okay, Kur, we’ll be back as fast as we can. Keep the hatchlings safe for us,” Nocturne, Topaz and Zero all gave trills and chortles. Lisa and Sasha could hear their voices of well wishes and goodbyes and hopes that we stayed safe. I still couldn’t hear Nocturne, but I got the sentiment that he was with the other two saying the same thing.

“Follow me and stay close,” Sasha said. “Oh yeah and get a bit of a running start. It helps push through the threshold.” They ran into the portal and I could see it stretch as they ran and then rebound as Sasha passed through it. Lisa was next, then me. It was the weirdest feeling as I ran through. It felt like running into rubber and water at once. It felt fluid but as soon as I put any pressure on the portal it acted like I was running into clay. I ran and pushed through at last. Feeling the threshold all over my body like I was squeezing into a hole too small for me to fit into. As soon as I was out I shivered.

“Oh man, that did not feel good,” I asked. “Will it be like that when we get back to Elysia?”

“No, it should be easier and much less weird,” Sasha said. “The hard part was actually getting here. Now, about that tracking spell.”

As Sasha began the invocation of the tracking spell I took in our surroundings. There were some familiar things here that we have back in Elysia. Such as the blue grass and some of the plants around us. But that’s where any familiarity ended. The sky was completely alien. It was in a state of perpetual twilight, the stars in the sky were foreign, as well as the two very large moons that hung in the sky. Strange noises filled the air the longer I stood and listened. A primal fear ran through me. The kind of fear that small wildlife must feel when they think a predator is nearby. Who knew what was lurking in the nearby shadows. Who knew what things could see us. A blood curdling scream rent the air around us. It sounded like a mournful woman but also so piercing that it chilled my heart. It seemed Lisa heard it too and felt a similar way and moved closer to me, grabbing my arm and together we stayed within inches of Sasha.

“There. It’s done,” Sasha said. Lisa and I looked around them and saw a golden trail extending out from their feet as it trailed off into the distance.

“I hope it’s not far,” Lisa said. “This place doesn’t seem like the happiest place ever.”

“How do we know that the trail is the right one?” I asked.

“Oh that’s easy,” Sasha said. “A long time ago my grandma taught me a spell should I ever get lost. It was a tracking spell so I could get home. I just have to concentrate on what I want to find, say the incantation and boom, easy to follow path.”

“That’s all well and good,” I said. “But, this place is giving me the heebies and the jeebies.”

“Yeah, the Faewild will do that to you,” Sasha said. “By the way, before we go, I forgot to tell you something really important.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Under no circumstances are you to talk to anything here and especially don’t give them your Name.”

“Why not?” Lisa asked. Sasha went on to explain that if any creature that can speak out in the Faewild can get your true Name then they can do a lot of bad and nasty things to you wherever you are. Lisa and I both lost the color in our faces and gave an audible swallow.

“Alright, now that we have that cleared up, let’s go,” We began walking and stuck no further than an arm’s distance from Sasha for fear that we would be picked off like the potential prey that we were by who knows what horror lurked in the shadows. We walked for a while, but unsure for how long exactly we did walk. Time didn’t seem to pass here, or at least we couldn’t tell if it did at all.

Lisa and I were too busy looking around us like scared deer to notice that Sasha had stopped walking and we bumped into them. “Uh oh,” They said.

“Uh oh?” Lisa asked. “What do you mean, “uh oh”?”

“The tracking spell is split at a fork,” they said.

“Did you do the spell wrong?” I asked. I looked around Sasha and saw that indeed the golden line that we had been following had split at the fork with a large bush separating the directions, one going left and the other to the right.

“No, the spell was right,” Sasha said with confidence. “This is the work of Brownies.”

“Brownies? Like the creatures that kinda look like children but have curly hair, black eyes and play tricks?” I recalled from a xenology class I took in the past.

“That’s right,” A sing-songy child-like voice said from the bush at the fork. “You have to answer the riddle if you want to find the right direction.”

“Ugh,” Sasha groaned. “Not a brownie riddle. They’re impossible to solve,”

“Too bad,” said the sing-songy voice again. This time we could see the top of their head and beady black eyes as they popped up from the bush.

“Fine,” Sasha said, giving an exasperated sigh. “What is it?”

“Left is right. Right is wrong. Left is left. Right is right,” said the Brownie. Wow, Sasha wasn’t kidding. This really did sound impossible to figure out in any decent amount of time.

“Just how the hell are we supposed to figure that out?” I said.

“Should we just go left?” Lisa said. “The brownie said, “left is right and right is wrong” so doesn’t that mean that the only way is left?”

“Or it could mean what we think is the right decision is actually the wrong one, so we should go to the right,” Sasha said.

“Or, what if they’re tricking us more and both ways are wrong?” I suggested.

“That could be it too,” Sasha said. They sat and thought for a moment. “We go left,”

“Are you sure?” I said.

“Yeah,” they said. “Final answer, left.”

The Brownie smiled mischievously. “Left it is,” it said and giggled in a way that would make toenails curl. The right path vanished and so did the Brownie with another wicked sounding giggle.

“Yeah that cacophony laugh wasn’t ominous at all,” Lisa said. We decided to keep going along the path laid out before us and followed Sasha’s tracking spell. It led us through the woods. As we walked, out of the corner of my eye I could see movement that looked like tree trunks moving. But when I went to turn my head to look, it was as if nothing happened. No leaves or grass moved, but when I focused on moving forward all I could hear was earth moving, branches creaking and large thuds as if something heavy sat down on the ground. As we kept moving through the woods the trees got thicker and bigger and more dense the further we went. I seemed like the light was getting dimmer too.

“Is anyone else hearing that sound or is it just me?” I asked.

“No, I hear it too,” Lisa said. “I can’t see anything moving. But I just know the trees are watching and moving around us.”

“Don’t worry about the trees,” Sasha said. “Just ignore them. They’re harmless. Well, mostly.”

“Mostly?” Lisa and I said.

“Yeah they’re kind of sentient and very curious about anything new in their home. Also, I’m pretty sure we’re lost,” Sasha said.

“That’s not funny, Sasha,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, Sash, that’s not the thing we want to hear in a scary place where the trees are mostly harmless,” I said.

“Well you did, and we are,” Sasha kept on walking and we kept following. “Just look ahead, the tracking spell is gone.” We both looked around and saw no golden trail. “The trail disappeared soon after we got into the woods. I was hoping this trail had an end but it just seems to go deeper and deeper. But I think the spell disappearing is just an illusion.”

“Do we stop?” I asked.

“No, you don’t want to stop long when traveling here, especially in the forests. You’re constantly watched and you really don’t want to see by what. And if you look behind us, you will see there is no path.” Sasha didn’t turn to see, so I did. They were right. I only caught a glimpse of the trees as they finished moving and shifted, blocking our way back and the only way out we knew of.

“What do we do?” Lisa said.

“We keep walking,” They said. “We’ll think of something.” No sooner had Sasha said that, small blue lights encircled and orbited around us.

“Um, Sasha what is this?” Lisa said in a bit of a panic. She moved a bit closer to me and grabbed my arm again. The blue lights began to dance around us in all sorts of directions. “I’m kinda freaking out.”

Sasha put a hand out and stopped walking. One of the blue lights floated onto their hand. “Oh, hey there, little wisp. Can you help us out and find the Autumn Fae?”

The wisp did a loop and let out a chiming sound and all the wisps followed it and extended a line off to the side of us.

“Sasha what is this?” I asked uneasily. “I thought we weren’t supposed to stop.”

“These little guys are Wil o’ Wisps,” they said. “They really are harmless and will show us the safest way out of here. They tend to protect travelers and things that don’t belong. I guess we got lucky and found a small swarm of them. As long as some orbit around us while we’re in the woods we’re fine. You both can relax. ” We went off the beaten path following the little blue lights. It started as just a few orbiting around. And as we followed the path more and more were picked up and joined in the rotating ring. Slowly, the trees began to thin out and soon enough we were out of the woods and the wisps disappeared with a soft chime.

“Well I guess I was wrong.” Sasha said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Look,” Sasha pointed out in front of us. “The trail is gone.” Indeed it was. There was nothing there.

“So the brownie’s illusion wasn’t an illusion? They negated your spell?” Lisa asked.

“Apparently,” Sasha said. They shook their head and smiled. “Okay, now that we’re out of that mess, let’s try this again shall we?” Sasha did the invocation again as they wove their hands in the air, the golden path began to reappear. It extended out in front of us before banking left then a ways later to the right. We followed it over hills and valleys making sure we didn’t talk to anything or acknowledge anything in the distance or out of the corners of our eyes. Feeling like we walked on for hours, our legs getting tired and weak, we finally made it to a clearing and the golden trail leading to it. We saw a bioluminescent garden and a giant gnarled tree in the center.

“Oh look, we’re here,” Sasha said.

“That’s where the Autumn Fae live?” I asked.

“Sure is. Let’s go say hello,” said Sasha. We made the short trek over to the glowing glen with the giant gnarled tree. The garden was beautiful. All kinds of weird and fantastic plants made their home in this weird clearing. The tree in the center was bigger than we thought. Hundreds of feet tall and a trunk that looked just as wide. The closer we got to the tree we heard a shimmer in the air, something melodious, and magical. Plants and branches blew around in a windless breeze as three elderly women came up from the ground. They were clad in rich brown cloaks embroidered with golden leaves from many different trees. They floated in mid air and extended their hands palms up. Their eyes, the color of fresh mud and moss regarded us and seemed to be full of ancient wisdom. Their faces wrinkled with experience and the knowledge that came with it.

“Young seekers of knowledge,” the middle one said. “The threads of destiny weave a tapestry of light and darkness. You stand at a crossroads of worlds tasked with a burden of greatest importance.” Her voice rose and fell like the sound of a babbling brook. My heart pounded out of my chest not knowing what to expect. We all looked at each other intrigued and a bit confused. It almost seemed they were expecting us to show up.

“That amulet,” the one on the left pointed to my chest. Her voice was like wind through branches of a tree. The amulet glowed and pulsed slowly. “A beacon of ancient bloodlines bears the weight of a legacy. Its pulse resonates with the heartbeat of your world, for it is the key.”

I reached for it and grasped it gently taking in what they were saying. The silent thrum of the amulet’s pulse seemed to echo their words.

“But beware,” the third said. Her voice sounded like the rain. She gave me an intense look. “The path ahead of you is fraught with shadows as a dark adversary stirs within the spaces between realities.”

“The prophecy we reveal unto you,” the left fae spoke again. “Was written in the stars, woven within roots, and sung by the winds.”

“In your unity, lies the hope of worlds and in your choices, the courses of destiny,” the middle fae said.

“You,” The middle Fae pointed a wrinkled and boney finger at me. I was taken aback but looked her in the eye.

“Me?” I asked stupidly.

“Yes, you are suffering, are you not?” What did she mean?

“Um, no?”

“We can see you are. You’re cut off from the leylines of your world and ours,” The left Fae said.

“You need Adder’s ear,” The right Fae pointed to a strange plant in the garden. Then others, “Dragon’s Wax, Spider’s Blood, and Breath of Death. Gather in sufficient quantities and brew together.”

“Take the concoction every moon cycle for two full years,” the middle Fae said.

“This you need for when your time comes,” The left said. With that all three began to float backwards into the megalithic, ancient tree.

“That’s it?” Sasha said. “After all of that, we get here and they give us a recipe that we don’t know how to cook and some cryptic prophecy that doesn’t help in the slightest?”

“The prophecy does help though,” I said. I clutched at my amulet a bit harder thinking on their words. “I don’t know why but it makes sense. We have each other and as long as we’re united, it’s all we need.”

“I know of the potion they talked about,” Lisa said as she gathered the listed ingredients. “I’ve used it for removing stains, I didn’t think it had any real world use.” That thought was a bit frightening.

I felt the weight and pressure to succeed fall onto my shoulders. Sasha gave us another tracking spell to get back to our original portal and after a long hike we arrived, tired and exhausted.

“Alright, just like last time, just run into it. It should be easier than last time,” Sasha said as they got a running start and pushed through the portal. Lisa and I both made it through as well carrying armfulls of plant parts. As soon as we reappeared into Kur’s lair the portal closed with a snap.

“Oh good, you survived,” Kur said. Our dragons found us immediately and clung to us tight. “I trust your trip was successful?”

“I think it was,” I said as Lisa and I held up our botanical loot.

“The Autumn Fae were more cryptic than I remember hearing about,” Sasha said. “I was kinda disappointed.”

“Yeah but they gave us the cure for my Fae Flu side effects,” I said excitedly. “I’ll finally be able to do magic soon,”

“The important thing is that you’re here and safe,” Kur said. “I might also add that I believe dawn is approaching.”

“Oh, crap,” Sasha said.

“Yeah we need to get home, now,” Lisa said.

“Thanks for watching out for us, Kur. We owe you big time,” I said as we raced up the stairs to the surface.

“Any time, my friends, good luck,”

We each made it home just in time to not get caught being out all night, but consequently slept for the majority of the day. But while I slept, I dreamed. In my dream I faced off against a blackness that I couldn’t identify. It was a formless and shapeless mass that over and over tried to overtake me. I couldn’t find Nocturne and I couldn’t summon my darkness element either. It was a losing fight. Every time I’d get knocked down I tried to get up but that mass kept pushing me back down. The darkness began to consume me but then images of Lisa and Sasha came into my vision and I found my strength. They stood beside me and our united power pushed the darkness away.

I woke up with a start panting and in a cold sweat. I had only been asleep for a few hours at this point. I looked over and saw Nocturne laid at the foot of my bed on his back, legs twitching in a dream of his own, his tongue hung out of his mouth. The pressure to win and succeed was still heavy on me. As I laid back down looking up at the ceiling I wondered if Lisa and Sasha felt the same way. I also wondered if we actually could do this. Though the Autumn Fae didn’t offer a lot of direct advice, the fact is that as long as we’re united it can work and we will succeed. But until that time came, I needed sleep.