by Brian Olsen
“It didn’t work,” she says.
“I was real, and not real, at the same time.”
Nate nudges me. “Schrödinger’s elf.”
“The spell wanted me erased from the world,” Tannyl continues, “Your magic protected me, but only for a time. I was drawn to the necklace, to its safety, but couldn’t find my way in. I was lost, and confused. My mind was addled but I knew I needed to find you, that only you could save me.”
“I had the necklace when the Moment was cast,” I say. “That’s why you appeared near me.”
Tannyl acts like he doesn’t hear me. Whatever goodwill he’s granting me must only go so far.
Gently, nervously, he takes Alisa’s hand by the fingertips. “When we kissed, I thought—”
“I feel something, but…” She pulls her hand away. “But I don’t know you.”
Hana takes the arrow that Zane had been holding. “She is Ree Vardanchild?”
“She is.” Tannyl takes another step back. “And she is not.”
Hana laughs. “And it is only because of Ree Vardanchild that we know what has become of us, and that I understand how a human can both be who she is, and not who she is.” She bows, still smiling. “We owe you a debt, Ree Vardanchild.” She looks Tannyl up and down. “You are that Tannyl, then. The latecomer, who explained to the tribes how we came to be here?”
“I am.”
“It seems we owe you a debt as well.” She slaps his shoulder. “I’m glad I didn’t kill you, then! Come, Tannyl Latecomer. Let us bring your human love, the logomancer who imprisoned us, and the logomancer who slaughtered our kin to see your queen, before you are later still.”
She strides off into the woods. Zigil and the other elves surround us, weapons drawn. We take the hint, and follow.
“How come I don’t get a fun name?” Nate says. “Not even, ‘and the short, cute one?’ Nothing?”
“You wanna be the kin slaughterer?” I offer. “You can have it.”
“I’m good. You didn’t laugh at my Schrödinger’s elf joke.”
“Didn’t seem the time. Well done, though. Funny and not funny at the same time.”
“Cute, but don’t try to out-funny the master.”
Tannyl walks along with us, inside our armed perimeter. “You are not known to me,” he says to Nate.
Nate sticks his hand out. “Nate Montgomery. Pleased to meet you. Any alternate reality boyfriend of Alisa’s is a friend of mine.”
Tannyl looks at Nate’s hand quizzically for a second before shaking. “I am pleased to meet you as well. Nate Montgomery? That is an unusual name for a human.”
“It’s Welsh, but I’m Mohegan. A hundred years ago or so some white people decided my family needed a last name that didn’t offend their delicate Christian sensibilities so they named us Montgomery for whatever reason.”
Tannyl frowns. “These white people had conquered yours?”
“Pretty much.”
“And they made you change your names?”
“Some of us, yeah. They wanted us to assimilate. Thought they knew better for us than we did for ourselves. They still do.” Nate shoots a somewhat nasty look at Zane. “You know, Tannyl, I’m not a big fan of comparing Natives to magical forest people. It’s kind of an offensive cliché where I come from. But it’s occurring to me that my people and yours might have a few things in common.”
Tannyl shoots a similarly nasty look at Zane. “Perhaps we do, Nate Montgomery.”
Zane throws his arms out. “Hey, I’m a Polish Jew. My family didn’t get here until the thirties. Don’t blame me for anything before that.”
“We all enjoy privilege from Native genocide,” I say. “Even if our families don’t date back hundreds of years. It’s not like it’s not still going on today.”
Nate nudges me. “Nice! I thought you tuned out my dad’s lectures.”
I laugh. “I like the history stuff but he loses me when he goes deep on economics.”
Zane shakes his head. “Whatever. I’m not playing the ‘top my oppression’ game with you today, Nate.”
“Perhaps I can play that game with you,” Tannyl says. “Nate Montgomery was not known to me, but you are, Desh Nonechild.”
Zane gasps and stops short. I grab his arm. “Zane?”
“Desh. That was my name. I remember.”
A prod from an elf gets us all walking again. Zane jogs to catch back up to Tannyl, and I keep pace.
“What else do you know about me?” he asks.
Tannyl shrugs. “Not much. We have met on a few occasions, through Ree. You were a fervent opponent of the Human King’s reign. The only logomancer to face him in single combat more than once and survive. I thought you honorable. Even admirable.” He snaps off a small branch and drops it. “Until you helped imprison us here.”
Alisa hasn’t looked up once since we started walking. Even as Tannyl says her former name, she keeps her eyes on the ground in front of us.
“I’m sorry,” Zane says. “I don’t remember that.”
“And that absolves you?” Tannyl asks. “Be silent, now. We have arrived.”
We pass through a dense copse of trees and come out in a large circular clearing dotted with simple structures. They’re basically lean-tos, barely providing any shelter. The branches they’re made from are rough on the ends, like they were ripped from the trees and broken to size.
Hana leads us into the center of the settlement, to the largest of the buildings. It’s one of the few that’s enclosed on all sides. Dozens of elves gather close and there’s a general sense of amazement and confusion. Alisa’s other name, Ree, is tossed around, and a lot of fearful mutterings are directed at me.
“Looks like a cut-rate campground,” Nate says to me. “Not exactly what I expected an elf city to look like.”
An elven woman steps out of the central shelter. “Because this is not what an elf city looks like.” She gestures to the surrounding structures. “But then, this is not our city. It is our prison.”
She’s tall. Like, six feet, maybe. And stunning. Her skin is deep, dark brown, and her kinky black hair flows down past her waist. She’s wearing a glittering green dress that somehow manages to catch the dim light of this horrible place and sparkle. If I didn’t know it already from her commanding presence, all the bowing elves would clue me in that this is Queen Dyllic.
I bow too, just a little. I’ve never met a queen before but it seems polite. My friends follow my lead.
“When your spell was cast,” she continues, “we found ourselves here with nothing but the clothes we wore and whatever we might have been holding in our hands in that instant. We hadn’t the tools to build proper homes, and the wood here is flimsy and breaks easily. We’ve made do.”
Nate starts to say something a couple of times but keeps having to swallow. Finally, he stammers out, “Sorry, Your Majesty. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She smiles at him. “No offense was taken. And call me Dyllic. It is not our custom to use such honorifics for our leaders. I know your companions, but not you. What is your name?”
“I’m, uh. Nate Montgomery.” He waves, a little awkwardly. “Hi.”
“Are you a logomancer, like them?”
“Me?” Nate laughs. “No. Just a guy. I’m not even…I’m not from that world. Your world. Just the current one.”
Dyllic frowns. “Please explain.”
“Oh.” Nate looks at me. “I might not be the best one to explain this.”
She keeps her eyes on Nate. “If you are different from the others, than you are best suited to explain that difference.”
Nate wipes his hands on his shirt. “Uh. Okay. That spell that put you in here, I guess it changed the world—”
“As if there had never been magic, or any beings dependent on magic. A new history was written, one where humans are the only intelligent life. Tannyl told us as much.”
“Right. Okay. So in the new world, the current world, there are a lot more peop
le than there used to be, right? And I’m one of those new people.”
Dyllic nods. “I see.”
Nate blinks. “You do? Because I’m living it and I don’t think I get it.”
“You were created by the spell, with a false history planted in your mind. Tannyl told us that humans’ memories had been changed. I did not realize the changes to the world would be so grand as to create new life.”
Nate digs his foot in the dirt. “Yup. That’s me, I guess. New life. Three weeks old. Fake history, fake memories, fake person.”
Dyllic hesitates, then puts her hand under Nate’s chin to lift his eyes up to her. He shivers a little when she touches him, but otherwise holds still.
“Many elves believe that our lives are given meaning by our relationships to others. You have friends whom you trust and whom you love. With whom you share jokes, and fears. Based on false memories or not, those relationships are real. You are real, Nate Montgomery.” She takes her hand away. “And quite handsome, for a babe of three weeks.”
She winks at him. The queen of the elves actually winks at my friend Nate. I have never seen him wear such a stupid smile before.
Seems like Nate’s audience is over. I take a breath and step forward. “I’m—”
Dyllic doesn’t put her hand up, or give me any kind of look. She doesn’t acknowledge me at all. She turns from Nate to Alisa and the message is clear. I am to shut the hell up and speak when I’m spoken to. My cheeks burn but I stay quiet. Zane takes my hand and I am very grateful for it.
“Ree.” Dyllic cups Alisa’s face in her hands. “Oh, Ree, our one true friend among the logomancers. I cannot convey how good it is to see you here. Thank the Logos you are safe.”
Alisa shakes. She looks like she wants to cry. “I’m sorry. My name is Alisa Green. I wish I remembered—”
“Shh, I know. But you are our friend, whether you remember or not.” She leans in close, her head tilted towards Tannyl. “And your heart will find its place again, when it is ready. Do not fear for that.”
She kisses Alisa on the cheek. Alisa puts her hand where Dyllic’s lips touched, and seems a little calmer.
The elf queen turns to Zane. He’s right at my side, holding my hand, but she doesn’t so much as glance at me. Her expression is unreadable.
“I have seen you, logomancer, with your fellows, although I’m not sure I ever learned your name.”
Zane throws his shoulders back. “Zane Winarski, Your Maj…uh, Dyllic. Queen Dyllic?”
“Just Dyllic.”
“Dyllic. I didn’t remember my old name until what’s-his-elf over there told me, but I guess it was Desh Nonechild.”
Tannyl, who’s been keeping a discrete distance, steps forward. “Desh Nonechild is the logomancer who last battled the Human King, Dyllic.”
Recognition flashes across her face. “Ah, of course. It was that final loss that prompted your act of desperation. The spell that destroyed our world, all to rid the humans of a problem they created.”
“Guess so.” Zane snorts. “Sorry. Don’t remember any of that and I’ve only heard your side, but feel free to blame me for whatever you want. I’m used to it.”
I nudge him. “Dial it back. This isn’t a teacher you can wise off to.”
He winces. “Sorry, Your…sorry, Dyllic.”
She nods. “Perhaps I am being unfair. You were one of many logomancers to cast the great spell. You should not bear all our blame, simply because you are the only one here to shoulder it.”
“I think…” He sighs. “I don’t remember much of anything. But I think we thought we were doing the right thing. Helping you. Saving you.”
“Yes.” She makes the slightest gesture with her fingers, but it encompasses the entirety of this limbo around us. “Saving us.”
“How are you surviving here?” I ask. “We haven’t seen any animals. Are you eating the plants?”
“This place is both real and not real.” She makes it seem like she’s continuing her last thought, like I never said anything at all. “And while we are here, so are we. We do not eat, or drink, or sleep. We exist.”
“They had been here a few days already when I arrived,” Tannyl says. “They did not know what happened to them. Some tribes blamed others, and there was fighting.”
Dyllic’s face falls. “We can not truly live here. But we can die.”
“I told them what Ree told me, and what little I witnessed during my half-life in your strange new world.” He bows to his queen. “The tribes united under Dyllic’s leadership.”
“I am honored to have been so chosen,” Dyllic says. “We have not elected a queen of queens in centuries. Only a great crisis, a threat to all elves, warrants it.”
“So you built this…uh…village?” Zane asks. “Or was it here already?”
“Nothing was here but the faded mockery of our forests.” Dyllic touches the building behind her, and some of the wood flakes off in her hand. “And village is a generous term, Desh Nonechild. We do not sleep, and the weather never changes, so we’ve little need for shelter. We build them partly for privacy, partly to fill the endless idle hours.”
“How many of you are here?” Alisa looks around the settlement. “A hundred or so?”
“All of us are here, Ree,” Dyllic answers. “All elves, in one place. This world varies little in its geography, but it is vast. ”
“But how many?” Alisa repeats.
The queen frowns. “I could not say. Millions.”
“Millions?” I’ve been trying to stay quiet, but I can’t help myself. “There are millions of elves in here?”
“We are not all one people,” Tannyl explains. “We are many tribes, with many leaders, many beliefs, many customs. But the logomancers put as all together. To them, we are all just elves.”
Nate holds his palm above his head. “I was right, we do have a lot in common. Up top, brother.”
Tannyl stares at Nate’s hand dumbly, so Nate takes his wrist and completes the high five for him.
“High five,” Nate explains. “You do it when someone says something you like, something you relate to. Or makes a good joke at somebody else’s expense.”
Tannyl nods as if he’s understood something profound. “Ah. Yes.”
“Dyllic,” I say. “I know you don’t want to talk to me. I’m sure you hate me, and you have good reason. But we came here—”
She finally looks at me. With that one look she conveys a million things. Disdain, distrust, wariness, but also, maybe, respect. As if she wants me to know she sees me as her equal, even though I don’t deserve it.
That is a hell of a look. It’s the look of a real leader. I wonder if I ever looked at anyone like that? If I could put that much meaning into my word, what kind of magic could I do?
“I know you, Human King.” She extends a hand towards the forest. “Walk with me, Monster Child. Walk with me, and give me a reason not to kill you.”
Ten
The grass and twigs under my feet crunch dully as Dyllic and I walk through the still forest. She makes much less noise than me, most of it from her dress dragging through the greenery.
She’s super intimidating so I’ve been waiting for her to talk first. Their settlement is far out of sight before she does.
“Tell me of yourself.”
“I don’t remember anything,” I say. “Only what people have told me.”
“I already know all I need to know about the Monster Child,” she replies. “Tell me of your new self.”
“Oh, right.” I pull up a piece of long grass and start twisting it in my fingers. “My name is Chris Armstrong. I’m seventeen. Um. I don’t know. I’m kind of ordinary, I guess. I go to school. I do a lot of extracurriculars. Oh, do you know that word?”
“I do not. Are they activities beyond the scope of your school’s curriculum?”
“Yeah. Wow, that was good.” The grass snaps and I drop it. “Wait, you pieced that together from the word? Are you speaking English?
I thought maybe there was magic translation happening.”
“I do not know what English is. I’m speaking the common human language.”
“The common human language from before is the same as English? Oh, wow.” I shake my head. “I wonder why not French or Russian or Chinese or any one of a million others. Nate’s dad would have a field day unpacking all the implications of that.”
“You have many languages in your world, it seems.” Dyllic tugs on her dress, freeing it from a root. “The humans I know have few. Perhaps the logomancers who cast this spell favored the language they already spoke.”
I nod. “Yeah, that sounds like something Mr. Liefer would do.”
“Mr. Liefer?”
“The head logomancer. The main guy behind the spell. Zane and Alisa’s boss, I guess.”
“Ah.” Her fingers trail through some tall grass. “You speak of Rahk Ungsilchild, leader of the human resistance. Yes, I have met him.”
And just like that, I know Mr. Liefer’s real name. He probably doesn’t even know it himself. Dyllic, Tannyl, all the elves, all the magical creatures trapped in these artifacts, they’ve got their full memories of the world before. I could learn so much from them. If I can convince them not to kill me.
“A well-intentioned man,” she continues, “although I always found him somewhat insufferable. But we were speaking of you, Chris Armstrong. Tell me more of these extracurriculars.”
“Oh, sure. Should we stop and rest for a while? We’ve walked pretty far.”
“Are you tired?”
I’m not. I’m not tired, or hungry, or anything. I guess what she said before, about the elves not needing to eat or drink or sleep, applies to us, too.
She wasn’t really asking, just calling my attention to it. She doesn’t slow her pace, and we keep walking through the woods. I hope she knows her way back. It all looks the same to me, like people running in old cartoons where the same background scrolls by again and again.
“Well,” I say. “I act in plays. Do you have theater?”
I catch a flicker of a smile across her face. “Yes. Yes, we have theater.”
“Right. I guess you would. And I play lacrosse. I do other things too, but those two are my favorite.”