"Finish your job," he said. "Burn it."
The wind ruffled his hair. He stared at her with those limpid, haunted eyes.
Sajiana took the paper. It trembled in her fingers.
"If I untie the knots," she said, "They’ll sense it. They can sense a brink from across the earth. They’ll just send someone else after you."
"Burn it."
"I can’t."
"I’d rather it be now. I’d rather it be you."
"I can’t." She picked up her portfolio and put the drawing, still knotted, into her satchel. "If I don’t burn it, but don’t untie it, they won’t sense you. I won’t tug on your will. I won’t summon you. You won’t even know I still have your portrait."
He stared at her, full of questions.
"Go," she said. "Be free. It’s a command."
Long after the brink had gone, and after Sajiana resumed her return trek across the moor to Mangcansten, she took the portrait out again. She studied the tousled hair and large eyes, the shadows on the face, the play of lights across the shoulders, the stance. She did not summon. She did not call. After a time, she sighed, and put the portrait away. She didn’t knot a glamour cottage that night. She wanted to sleep under the stars.
***
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The Variance Court - Alexia Purdy
The Variance Court
Aylin never ventured out into the world. She lived in a land blooming, with greenery and full of shrubs, grasses, and flowers crowding her backyard. She’d never seen any towns or cities, and she barely ever saw other people. This one tiny bubble was all that composed her world in the land of Variance, where she’d heard stories of magical folk who roamed the earth.
She wasn’t magical though. It was dangerous to live here with no magic at all.
Aylin and her father had lived in a small cottage at the edge of the woods for all her life. It was a peaceful existence; calm, quiet, and full of nature. It bore the sweet fruits of their labors in their garden and sustained them well. Nothing and no one ever came or went, and the days were all the same, but she was never bored. Aylin loved the land and the solace. It suited her and kept her busy with chores and farming. The place was magical though, and ebbed its curious powers all around her. Even the creatures living amongst the stumps and tiny underground burrows adored her. Her kindness and love blazed from every pore of her body, and every creature in the land knew it. It was almost as if she was a real-life Cinderella.
When Aylin was fifteen, her father died. He’d taken down with a severe pneumonia after a long winter storm had caught him on the way home from the nearest town, where he’d gone for supplies. It had been his annual trip to the city. He’d spent a week with a violent, consistent cough he couldn’t shake until one day he did not wake up from his sleep, leaving poor Aylin to fend for herself.
Now she was seventeen and a tall, graceful young lady with alabaster skin, rose-colored lips and deep, earthy eyes. Her long brown hair was always neatly braided and pinned back, for she worked the earth with her hands, and all the animals helped her dig holes in her small garden. They were her friends and lit up the darkness threatening to engulf her with sadness.
Her days were spent peacefully but not without pain or suffering. Alone in the cabin at night was the worst time. There was no one to converse with and no one to read her bedtime stories anymore. All she could do in the waning dusk was read the old books lining the walls of the cabin she’d once shared with her father. She loved reading, and there were dozens of volumes filled with words to comfort her. Flipping through them by candlelight, she could lose herself in the stories, imagining worlds beyond the hills and the mountains, in places she’d never been. Places like foreign cities and towns where castles loomed high above and colorful people walked every street.
People.
She hadn’t seen another person in so long. No one knew she existed, and no one cared. She wondered if she should try to go to the city. She’d never been to the nearest town, and she was very low on supplies. She’d been recycling a lot of things and sewing patches on her clothes. Even her shoes were almost as thin as wearing nothing.
Sooner or later she’d have to go. There was money her father had left her, bags of gold coins he’d made sure to save for her and for their well-being. But she wasn’t sure how much things cost or if it would be appropriate to take gold. So she stayed on in her cabin, hiding from the world where nothing ever changed. She was too afraid to leave and experience things she’d never tried before.
One day I will, she thought. One day I will get my wish.
But for now, she would remain safe in her refuge.
He was a forgotten person, sitting on the sidewalk, worn down, and scuffed. A person nobody cared about and nobody wanted to know, let alone see. To cast a glance his way was to focus on the problems he represented, the problems most tried so hard to ignore: the homeless, the jobless, the hungry, the needy and, ultimately, the greedy, who refuse to share their wealth. I never counted myself as much of a giver; Heck, I could barely keep my own head above water as the college debt mounted and my pantry remained eternally sparse. I kept to myself and hoped the world’s problems wouldn’t touch me as I tried to make my way in this unforgiving world.
I wasn’t blind. I just didn’t have the time or resources to make a difference. That was the abysmal truth that helped me sleep at night.
On my way to my apartment, right off campus and near the baking asphalt of the Las Vegas desert, was where I’d see him, under the sparse but lush canopy of decades-old trees. He was always holding out a cup for change, whether sleeping, sifting through trashcans or relaxing under a tree singing to himself. His dusty and filthy trench coat covered whatever he held underneath, and a rugged hat topped the greasy hair that dangled down in stringy strands of charcoal black. He wore it all the time, and it showed. A scruffy beard covered most of his face and looked like it’d last been trimmed a millennium ago. I couldn’t tell what color his eyes were. I’d never gotten near enough to catch a glimpse. He was a forgotten person, one people like me rarely noticed… until one fateful day.
After failing my mid-term Microbiology exam, everything changed. I had studied hard for it all week, but the teacher was horrible; she jumped around in the textbooks, never sticking to the syllabus, always confusing the class. I really didn’t know what to do anymore. It looked like I would be repeating the course the next semester.
My mood had soured, and the late summer heat was having its way with my head. I swore I’d never take another summer course ever again. It left me with little desire to do anything but get home, plop down in front of the TV, and Netflix it out.
Hurrying on my way, I happened to walk past this man for the hundredth time. Not once had he ever spoken to me. I had never thought him capable of real conversation, what with his incessant babbling and singing. Today, I happened to notice him even more. Whether it was the scuffed, yellowed plastic casino change cup held out with dirt-encrusted fingers or the haunted, far-off gleam in his eyes, I won’t ever know, but it dragged me in as I tried to scurry past him before he noticed me.
Not today. Today, I heard him speak for the first time.
“Young lady, why so down?”
I stopped in my tracks, feeling his voice wash over me like an ice-cold shower. I turned slowly toward the man as though he’d been speaking an alien language, confused.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“There’s something on your mind. I asked you what’s the matter.” He blinked up at me with coherent eyes. I could clearly see their striking, clear-blue color, a translucent hue like the sky. The dark pupil in the center stood out like a blemish in the landscape of his irises.
“Oh, I….” I stuttered. The words refused to come and stuck in my mouth. He was shockingly interesting in a way, because as I stared, he didn’t look like the dirty homeless person ignorant of his own needs and oblivious to hygiene I had previously assumed he’d been. I could�
�ve sworn I saw flashes of someone else there, someone with the same eyes but with shorter, cleaner dark hair and a charming smile to boot—a handsome man dressed in the finest clothes I’d ever seen.
Like royalty. Only really rich and fancy people wore such things. But the university and surrounding grounds were nowhere near a rich neighborhood and as far from royalty as anyone could get.
“Nothing,” I finally responded. “I—I just failed my Microbiology exam. The teacher isn’t very forgiving, and I studied all week for it. Either she’s terrible, or I’m not very good at the subject. It doesn’t really matter, does it? I failed.” I felt the sting of tears behind my eyes, but I pressed them back. I couldn’t break down here, for goodness sake. Not in front of a homeless person I didn’t even know.
Moments passed, and I couldn’t move. I felt frozen in place. His face slowly morphed into a half smile, slightly wicked but mostly enticing and terribly handsome beneath the stubble that covered his face. I tried to look away, but it was as if some force kept my eyes glued to the man. How strange that I could see him now beneath the façade of dirt, hair, and sweat when before, all I had ever seen was a pile of human trash.
“No, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Such trivial things as school grades, teachers, homework… I never bothered with such things.”
“Of course you haven’t,” I scoffed. “Those things are obviously not high on your list of priorities.”
His eyes turned dark, and I felt the icy prick of his stare run along my skin once more. Holding my breath, I wish I hadn’t insulted him in such a brazen manner. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
When I could finally rip my eyes away from the man, the freezing air had returned to its previous scorching heat. I turned and began walking toward my apartment, which was just across the street, near the campus, but within walking distance.
“Wait. Wait, miss!” he yelled. “I have something for you.”
I paused, again feeling like I couldn’t move. Why was this happening? I thought might have to get a restraining order against the guy if he didn’t leave me alone. What could he possibly have for me? He had nothing to offer anyone, and owned nothing of worth. Right? What did a man with nothing have to give someone who has a lot more than he did?
He held out his hand, and in his dirt-streaked palm sat a stunning opal and platinum ring. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, and I wondered where he’d gotten such a beautiful trinket. Had he stolen it?
“I didn’t steal it. It belongs to me. It was my mother’s ring, and she was the queen of all the fairies.” His eyes shimmered along with the ring. It was mesmerizing, and I fought to swallow down my fear and not get hooked in his hypnotizing words. How was he doing that to me?
“You’ve got to be kidding, right?” I asked, my voice cracking as whatever hold he had on me remained firm. “Why would you want to give that to me?”
“It’s because you’re the only one who can see the true beauty in the world where others cannot. Besides”—his frosty blue eyes drilled into my soul—“this belongs to you. Well, sort of.”
I almost laughed out loud, but I kept staring at him, hardening my resolve against his eerie spell. I found it hard to breathe, hard to speak, and hard to move away from this person or alien or whatever in the world he could be. No one else was noticing our interaction, and I wondered if I could possibly be home already, snoring away on my couch, dreaming this insanity. I hoped I was. It was a nightmare, and I didn’t want to be in it anymore.
“That’s not mine.”
“How do you know? It’s beautiful and light. Made for you, in a way.”
“Nope.”
He grinned, and it reminded me of an image of the devil I’d seen in an old children’s picture Bible as a child. It was intriguing and frightening all at the same time.
“Take it, it’s yours. It can give you all you’ve ever wanted; all you’ve ever wished for. It’s part of you.” He cocked his head to the side, and all I could see was his handsome face beneath the stubble. The façade he wore was a mask hiding his handsome face, sharp jaw, strong cheekbones, and perfect smile. He was no homeless person. He had to be something else. Something I’d probably imagined.
No, I thought. To think I was imagining things would be admitting that I’d lost my mind, that failing that test had pushed me to the very edge of my sanity. I couldn’t accept that.
“I have to go.” I stepped back, relieved to find that the hypnotic hold he had on me was breaking. He frowned and watched curiously as I widened the space between us. I still couldn’t laugh. I could barely form words. As hard as I tried not to, my fingers were already at his hand, curling over the perfect platinum opal ring and snatching it from his greasy palm.
Feeling the cold metal against my skin, I moved it to my opposite hand and slipped it onto my finger. I couldn’t resist to save my life. There was no more willpower left. All I could do was inch away with all the determination I had left. The metal band called to my blood somehow, and I couldn’t leave without it. The odd thing was, the ring fit perfectly, as though it was meant to be on my finger. Like it had always belonged to me.
How odd, I thought.
“How can this be mine? I’ve never seen it before.”
He peered up at me, a satisfied smile flashing back.
“It always was. Make a wish. Anything your heart has ever desired.”
“There has to be a catch.”
I could swear I saw a momentary twinkle of wickedness in his eyes. There was nothing I wanted right now but to get back to the safety of my apartment and forget I’d ever spoken to this man.
“There is one catch for this power. It’ll give you the strength to summon the legions of fairies from the Variance and the ability to grant any wish you desire for yourself or for another.” He snickered. “Though I highly suggest caution when granting others’ wishes. Most of them don’t know exactly what they want. It can turn into a jumbled mess faster than you can blink.” He sighed, appearing exhausted for the first time.
“The Variance?”
“It’s the place from which all magic flows, the place where fairies live. The rightful rulers live there, but….” He suddenly looked lost in his thoughts, as if he’d transported himself to a long lost memory.
“But what?”
“They’ve been lost to us.” He focused back on me. “If you ever find you do not want this power anymore, find one of the rightful rulers of the Variance and give them the ring. They’ll know what to do with it, and your destiny will make itself known.”
“Rulers, wishes, and fairies? You’re completely insane, you know?”
I stared down at the stone as it sparkled in the sunlight, almost blinding me. When I looked back up, the man was gone.
I spun around, searching the campus for the homeless man, but he was nowhere to be found. In fact, no one was even looking in our direction. It was as if he’d never existed, and I’d been talking to myself.
“The hell?”
I did another turn, studying those closest to me. No one glanced my way, and none looked familiar. Not one of them resembled the man at all.
I groaned, closing my eyes before I reopened them and stared down at the ring once more, amazed I hadn’t imagined it. The metal hummed against my skin, full of magic. It was tantalizing to say the least.
“This is crazy.”
I turned and ran for dear life, as fast as I could. I didn’t live that far; the apartments across from the university were all I could afford right now. Hopefully when I graduated, I would get a good job and get out of the student ghetto hellhole.
The stress of failing my test and the odd encounter with the homeless man was increasing with each hurried step I took. Feeling absolutely defeated, I couldn’t wait to get back home to curl up on my couch with all the junk food I could scrounge up and binge watch shows on the TV. As I ran across the street, dodging cars running red lights without regard to human life, I cursed them under my breath while contemplating the events of the
day. A person doesn’t just give away a precious piece of jewelry without a reason. Something told me I was going pay dearly for it. If that homeless guy came around again, I would have to be prepared to give the ring back to him.
I had a feeling it was going to be hard to do.
Back home, I turned the ring around in my fingers. It was gorgeous, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I’d probably take it back tomorrow and return it to the homeless guy. He most definitely needed it more than I did. I had no idea why I’d even taken it from him in the first place. It was strange. It’d been like I couldn’t help myself. It had all come down to me not being able to resist the man’s present.
Was it a present?
Tired and confused, I placed it on the coffee table, grabbed the remote control, and switched on the TV. I flipped through channels until it felt as if it was just droning on and on. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to watch. Nothing looked interesting, and my eyes kept being averted toward the ring. It was all I could do to not stare at its glimmering sheen in the dim light of my living room. It was somehow begging me to slip it back onto my finger. I was sweating from resisting the urge to do so.
Leaning forward, I snatched up the ring. What the hell, I thought. It couldn’t hurt just to wear it around the house, could it? Slowly, I slipped it back onto my finger, feeling the nauseating sensation of resisting its charm fade away along with everything else.
The world disappeared.
I gasped. I was still sitting on my couch, but my apartment was gone. Whipping my head around, I saw trees and shrubbery in every direction. A sweet smell like honeysuckle clung to the bark of the trees, beckoning me to taste of their drops of nectar. Dandelion seeds floated through the air while birds chirped and fluttered. Squirrels, rabbits, and foxes ran about, pausing momentarily to study me curiously before heading off on their way into the high grasses or disappearing up the branches into the hovering canopy.
Once Upon A Curse: 17 Dark Faerie Tales Page 20