by Gabi Moore
The only reason they had become involved in the war was to protect their won autonomy. Anything beyond that, was never acknowledged. As a result, a great many of the Revolutionary Army soldiers never quite found it inside of themselves to trust the Wilder Fae with any aspect of battle at all. Even when the sacrifice of the Wilder Fae saved countless lives, and enabled the support and tactical knowledge necessary for us to survive the final battle against Xan.
I stopped moaning, and allowed myself to find a sense of composure. I knew that whatever this one wanted to talk about, it must have been important. I also noted that I was not dead... which meant that there was a great deal for me to learn from what they might have to share.
"Aria, you don't recover quite as quickly as you used to."
I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out who it was that spoke to me. The mask extinguished all defining characteristics of the face, and the eyes were not familiar enough to me to do any good.
"Don't try figuring out who I am. If I wanted to tell you that, you would already know. Just as if I wanted to kill you, you would already be done.
I'm aware of your mission into the Material Plane, and I'm also aware of the good intentions you have for moving forward. You are a strong and noble warrior; you always have been. In fact, this is the only reason you are alive right now.
I've come here to tell you that the reasons behind your current mission are not what they seem to be. Mistakes that you make will cause traumas to ripple outward across all dimensions. Our seers have warned us of your ignorance, which is why the plot had been formed against you and the human in your care."
At the mention of Erol, my eyes lit up again, and pain flashed across my face.
"No need to worry. The human has been drugged, and sleeps now by the sea, in the company of his animals. At this point, the only person you should be concerned about is yourself."
At this, she produced a knife which I knew to be wickedly sharp. She grabbed the knife by the hilt and began to press it slowly into my mouth. As the blade touched each cord, they were severed, without so much as a fraction of hesitation. The cords did not stand a chance against the edge of that blade. One by one, the thin cords snapped, each time relieving pressure on my jaw. I began to sweat, as the blade inched close and closer into my mouth. My muscles twitched with involuntary fear at the prospect of the sadistic intent of this rogue fae.
When the last cord was slit, I felt the blade just brush the side of my lip as the woman pulled the knife out from my mouth. The taste of blood seeped into my mouth, and I licked my lips subconsciously in an effort to heal this tiny wound.
"You killed a good friend of mine, and I would be happy to feed your blood to the hillside."
The statement was not a threat, but a cold and soberly delivered fact.
"Then why don't you?"
The woman hung her head for a moment, and then raised it up toward me once more. When she saw me again, she had a smile on her lips. The smile was one of a person who has inside information that they will never share. I myself have smiled that way at people in the past. The smile is one that says, ‘I know why, but you'd never believe me’.
"Let's just say you and I are little more than character being moved along by the hand of fate, and right now, it is not my responsibility to kill you, though at some point, it most definitely might be."
"Why not do it now, and save yourself the trouble?"
"For the same reason you wouldn't... which is perhaps another reason why I'm going to let you go."
"Doesn't make sense," I began. "If you were going to let me go in the first place, why go to the troub--"
*SLAP*
"Next time, I'll use the flat of my blade..."
Too cocky. I was getting too cocky.
"You are bright, and that has served you well, but you are dealing in matters that are far outside of your comprehension. I have brought you here to deliver you a warning."
The way she glared at me, I felt the heat of her stare burn through any defenses that I might have possessed.
"Do not forget where you have come from, as you move forward on your path. If you do, I swear to every one of the Gods that my blade will taste your blood once more -- and this time, I will let it drink its fill."
My lip stung as a subtle reminder as the woman backed away from the tree.
"If you and I have reached an understanding, I will take you and your friend to the portal you seek."
Chapter 15
I was cut free from my bondage. What's more is I was gifted the very dagger that loosed my bonds.
"For you to remember all of the potential behind the power you possess."
"Or to stab you in the back..."
She didn't respond, she only walked through the underbrush, back toward the trail we had both ascended. She walked in front of me without fear. Of course the inclination to strike out at her would be there. She had totally and completely caught me. There was no other way of seeing the situation. The grace had to do with how she treated me after I was captured.
Ultimately, I realized she had actually given me a gift, in her own way.
The descent back down to the dunes was slow and contemplative. She was in no obvious hurry. What's more is that the sun was already low in the sky by the time we slid down the dunes that lead back toward the beach. In the lapse of consciousness, we had lost an entire day.
In the distance, both dogs started hollering at us, announcing our presence.
As though the dogs themselves had awakened Erol from whatever spell he was under, I watched as he sat up in the back of the truck. Amethyst ran up to see me, and stopped short of our approach. Her ears lay flat on her head, and she growled, but there was an air of uncertainty in her tone.
"Give it up Amethyst... we can't always win."
I got a small yelp in response, and our new 'guide' received nothing more than a sharp snorting blow from Amethyst's nose. Figuring she was as satisfied as she was going to get, she bounded back to Rosemary and Erol, communicating her concerns the entire time.
"Amethyst... that's enough girl."
When the two of us approached, both Rosemary and Erol were wary about our approach.
"How long was I asleep?"
"You slept the entire day," the woman responded. 'I had to have a word with your friend here in private. Your dogs kept you company."
"You poisoned me?"
"Best to let that one go, Erol."
He looked somewhat confused, and uncomfortable, then relented and sat down on the bed of his truck.
"Good. Now that we're all together, I have a few announcements. Erol. The information that got you here was sufficient, but you are going to need something else if you want to move forward. That information is what I am prepared to offer the two of you. You are both free to take the information or leave it. At this point, I am one hundred percent detached from whatever future you two choose to bring about."
"That's a lie."
"I didn't say I would remain detached."
"Exactly one hour ago, the two of you were dosed with the most potent psilocybin that grow in this region. Your psyches, as well as your physiologies are different, so I would not expect that the remainder of the night would be similar by any stretch of the phrase for either of you. However..." She took a long breath, and let her chest and shoulders fall into a relaxed and composed position."… they are certain to be highly formative. May the gods show you the way forward. I will lead the two of you toward your final destination. You will come together to perform the magic necessary to open the portal, and the hand of fate will guide you further from that place. May the gods care for us all."
"You aren't going to tell us your name?"
"I need no name, as to you, I am no more than Psychopomp."
"You mean to say we are going to the realm of the dead?"
"And beyond, is my hope."
The sun was already inches away from kissing the horizon. Stretching out over the vanishing point, bril
liant hues of red, pink, and violet spread throughout the air. When the sun hit clouds, the light reflected and modified its appearance even more; creating one of the most beautiful sunsets I had seen in my entire life.
"Come, quickly. Leave everything behind. We will need to hurry if we want to get to the peak before the sun sets. If one is going to initiate the catalyst for Ragnorok, one might as well do it with auspicious timing."
"You think this is the end of the world?"
"It's the Death archetype, Erol. We are moving toward a closure of one mode of experience, and pushing into the next."
The words had been straight from my memory of Thane. Whatever synchronicities were guiding this moment, were far too ironic for my own liking.
"Very rarely does the Death card actually mean someone's physical demise, though that is something that has surrounded your movements thus far."
Her ominous warning echoed in the back of our minds as we followed her up the same trail I had ascended earlier. I realized that in my haste, I had missed out on the beauty of the area. The grasslands that jutted out from between dunes contained a mixture of soil that was conducive toward the growing of bright blue fungi.
"These are the clue," Erol said, mostly to himself.
The dogs padded along after us, and the rats were left to sit in the truck, alongside whatever gear Erol may have had the presence of mind to bring. We were on our own now, and on our way, even if we now kept stranger company than before.
Right when we started walking past the final area of the trail that I remembered before the assault, my vision began to shift. The world around me grew more vivid, and I felt an incredible burst of energy growing inside of my body. The fatigue that I had felt previously was gone, and I was left in a state of nervous arousal.
The fluctuation in my energetic state seemed to be tied directly to fluctuations in my field of vision as well. As I grew more and more aware, the world around me seemed to arc, and glow with the colors of the sunset. Leaves, that had moments before, been the colors of the changing of the season, now caught a light which brought them to life beyond my wildest imagination.
The hillside was on fire, yet none of it would burn up.
We were walking within a perpetually renewing world. In spite of the fact that we marched on toward the embrace of some form of death, the earth itself was reminding me, in its own morbid way, to be at peace.
I tried to understand what Erol was going through at that time, but could not.
He had withdrawn into himself, and stuck close to the two dogs which walked close by his side. I could tell by his expression that he was bewildered by his experience, but no more information was made clear to me. I realized in that moment just how little I had endeavored to connect with Erol, during my time here on the Material Plane.
A sense of guilt and frustration came over me, as I realized that to me, Erol had been nothing more than a tool to achieve my own ends. The questioning of my own assumptions meant that I could no longer be sure about whatever purpose I had set out for in this world. I could no longer be content to think of myself as a savior of the Fae race, or some agent sent on behalf of a failing government.
I had my own agency to worry about, and I would be held accountable for my own decisions in life, not the decisions I made in the name of some cause or paradigm.
One foot moved in front of the other, and the world around me grew darker with each step.
At the next opportunity, I stared off into the sunset in order to verify my delusions.
Was the sun actually setting?
Were we missing our key opportunity?
The glance revealed that while the sun was setting, it had far from disappeared behind the horizon. As a matter of fact, it appeared that only my eyes had grown more acutely sensitive to the light of the world.
When I looked forward, and saw our nameless leader, they seemed somehow more familiar than before. I recalled a moment from years ago when I had walked behind a figure such as this with Thane at my side instead of Erol.
Then everything came flooding back to me.
The fire that surrounded us came from the preliminary attack from Xan's army. The knowledge that I was moving forward, walking to my death. The feeling that I would be held accountable for my actions regardless of which side of the conflict I was on.
"It's all cyclical."
The woman turned her head toward me and grinned, though I could not see her face, I knew her expression from the light reflecting in her eyes. She knew where we had come from, and it seemed like she knew exactly what each of us would be getting out of this experience. There were things that she understood that she was not telling us, critical information about the events that would unfold.
She knew everything, but then again...
Then, as I saw her, and my conceptions began to change, so did she.
Instead of seeing a woman who was masterfully leading us down the road of our fate. Instead of seeing some puppeteer, I saw a woman who was brave enough to let us make our own decisions, instead of pushing forward toward some private goal, she was allowing others to play their role within the greater theater. We were all moving forward together. I realized that I was both correct, and incorrect.
What was more important was that I realized how impressionable my thoughts were as I worked to understand the world around me.
"I thought you knew what was going to happen, before it did."
The woman let out a long exhale, and composed herself. "I have an idea of what might come to pass, because I know what is needed to achieve that which you are searching for. However, I can't know the future any more than anybody else. As a matter of opinion, I sincerely doubt that any one of us can actually know the past."
"I remember you," I said, without hesitation.
"No you don't," she replied in an instant. "You remember impressions which lead up to the most traumatic experience of your life. Many Fae lost something precious that day, and you were one of those cases of interminable suffering."
"Your vision of the world in the past is just as narrow as your vision of the world in the present, and it's not your fault, though you could work to change it if you liked."
"How do you mean?"
She shook her head, and remained silent.
You already know, came a voice in my mind, as clear as anything she could have expressed in her words.
I struggled for a moment, and nearly fell faint on the trail.
"How did you do that? I closed those off years ago."
"Let's be real about it," she replied, her voice audible this time. "You put up very weak defenses of denial and isolation. Your abilities may have atrophied, but you have everything you need inside of you."
It was too much. The pain was fresh, and my reality continued to shift toward reliving the traumas of the past. I lost touch of where and when I was. The hillsides seemed unstable in my mind, and I couldn't tell if I was living in my memories, or my mission on the Material Plane.
From behind me, I heard the sound of a bark.
Leaning down to the ground, Amethyst came up to me and licked my face graciously. The warm, wet and enthusiastic affection of the dog brought me back to reality. For a moment, I was able to center myself again; though I realized in that moment just how easy it would be to slip into madness and trauma.
"If you must choose to be irresponsible, at least do yourself the favor of not lying to yourself."
Looking up in that moment, I saw Erol's sympathetic face.
He offered a hand, and pulled me up to my feet. His eyes were full of compassion, and I got the sense that while he didn't know what I was going through, he was suspending his own difficulties in order to care for my own. I felt selfish, but his smile dismissed those thoughts from my mind.
"We're almost there."
The message was simple enough. When I turned to face the peak of the cliffs, I could see the sun was more than halfway set behind the horizon line. The colors had changed from vibran
t pinks and violets to a blood red sphere of fire that was sinking into the sea.
Our guide pushed forward, unheeding of my troubles. Her callousness brought me to hate her, but it was only a passing feeling. I saw her in that moment as the being she was. Her own hurts, and insecurities were as apparent to me as anything else in the vivid world that I occupied. I nodded, and followed her lead toward the top of cliffs.
Within a minute, we were on top of this hill, looking west, over the sea. The peak housed rocky soil, and a lonely, wind-blown tree whose roots dug fiercely into the side of the cliff. I felt the wind beating on my face, and heard the sound of the waves echo up the walls of the cliffside.
"Remove your clothes. Here you will open the portal."
Chapter 16
She brought the two of us together like we were getting married.
When I raised my head up to look him in the eyes, I saw that he was turning his gaze elsewhere. A rich crimson glow filled his cheeks, and lines of worry wrinkled his brow.
"Cut it out..."
I had to tell him to come off it. There wasn't any room in our experience for that kind of bashful shit. I may have been feeling a bit nervous myself, but this wasn't the first time that I had been called to share my body in the line of duty.
"You'll enjoy it more if you don't think about it too much."
"Actually, I don't think that's going to work this time."
He caught me off guard, once more. I had pinned him for a total and complete wimp of a man. There must have been some kind of internalized prejudice there, because I totally misunderstood his statement.
"I've done research into this sort of thing. Using Sex as a mechanism for opening portal has a historical precedent. The problem is that you need to be one hundred percent present with the other person during the entire experience. There can't be any second-guessing about your intentions either. If you want this to work, we had better take it seriously."