I look back down at the book, there is always a few references, but in this case there is only one. “For further information see ‘A History of British Elementals’ by C. S. Scott, 1835.”
I glance at the sections of the library that contain Pulania’s books of magiks. There is no such volume here.
“It was written by Walter Scott’s daughter, Charlotte.” It’s Pulania, she’s leaning against one of the bookcases with her arms loosely crossed. She didn’t surprise me, I felt her come in.
“So there would be a copy at Abbottsford?” Which was the house of Sir Walter Scott.
“Yes, and at the National Library, which is closer, but why bother with the book when you can check the source directly?” Pulania asks.
“You mean, Charlotte is still alive?”
Pulania nods her head. “She’s the head Hecatine, at the National Library.”
Oh, I’ve known Charlotte for decades, she’s a friend of ours and lives only a couple of blocks away.
“Well, let’s go then. It’s still morning, so she’ll probably be at work.”
The National Library of Scotland is only a short walk from Pulania’s front door. We gather up Gil… who rather oddly seems to be living here now. I must ask her about that. Ruby stays behind, she prefers the house.
As we’re walking along, Pulania has a very sullen look on her face. Gil and I are a bit ahead of her, Gil sidles up to me.
“What’s with Pulania, she looks pissed off?”
I look behind us. Pulania is scowling at the ground. “Yeah, she does. I’m not sure why.”
Should I ask her? But before I can, we’ve come to the front of the library. Pulania goes straight to the front desk, “We need to speak to Charlotte Scott. Is she here today?”
There is a bit of a ‘quieter’ conversation. Pulania was a bit abrupt when she first arrived, but within a few minutes, a lady who l know very well and only looks about thirty eight appears and directs us in to a small office.
“How can I help you, Pulania?”
But Pulania points to me.
“Umm, I guess it’s me that’s brought us here. I need to know about Elementals. You wrote a book about them?”
“Well… yes, I did. But…”
“So are you really Charlotte Scott, the daughter of Sir Walter Scott?” I ask.
“Well, yes I am. I’m a Hecatine.”
Well, yes, she is, she introduced me to the writings of Sir Walter Scott, among many others. I’ve been coming to this library for over a hundred years, and Charlotte has almost always been the one who greeted me here.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why you’re still alive. Why are you still alive?” I ask her. I mean, why is she? Hecatines don’t last that long.
Charlotte’s lips have pursed. I don’t think she’s going to answer, but she looks to Pulania, and Pulania nods.
“I made a pact. I had lost my children during childbirth. I made a pact that one should survive, and in return I would maintain certain histories. That pact is still in force. My child was born, though she and I could not stay with my family. I had to fake my death so that I could bring her up.” She sighs. “The other part of the pact continues, and I live as long as I must to keep my part.”
“And what happened to your daughter?” Is it an insensitive question to ask? I tried to ask it nicely.
“She died long ago. And then her daughters after her.” There’s a sadness in Charlotte’s eyes.
“Ask your questions,” Pulania interrupts.
I stare at Pulania for a second. But then continue. “Can you tell me about Elementals?” I ask.
Charlotte looks again to Pulania, who nods her head.
“What would you like to know?”
Chapter 14: Whoops
“I guess I want to know what’s so special about Dublin.” It’s my turn to look to Pulania for permission to continue, she knows what I’m on about – how much can I say about the Seelies to this woman? But she nods for me to continue.
“The Seelies are protecting it. They’re worried about the Elementals there. But I don’t understand why, why is Dublin so special?”
Charlotte leans back in her chair, I can see her mind going back trying to recollect the things that those of us with extended life have to cope with.
“There are more Elementals in Ireland than anywhere else,” she eventually answers. “It’s because of the proximity to the Faerie peoples, both Seelie and to a very much lesser extent the Unseelies. They mainly interacted with the peoples of Ireland, many of the Fae were spawned there, and from them, the ‘recent’ wave of Elementals. The greed for greater power has always been amongst us, but for those who strove to those ends, they often lost themselves. Though there are actually two types of Elemental, the Elementals spawned by Gaea herself are the true sprites of our world, and are spoken of in earlier alchemical texts and writings, but those are everywhere, lessened in number since creation, they are rare to observe, and are true children of nature. The Lady of the Lake was an Elemental of this sort. The other type, are those who have gone mad, and become part of nature as a result. They are wild, unpredictable, and dangerous. Their motives are indiscernible. Their numbers are centred in Ireland and to a lesser extent Scotland, Cornwall and Wales.”
“Hmm, I see, but why are the Elementals a problem now? If they’ve been around for so long, what’s stirred them up so much that the Seelies need to keep such a tight grip on Dublin?”
“To answer that, you need to speak to someone with a more intimate knowledge of the Elementals than I have. You’d need to speak to one of the main sources of my knowledge, her experiences were first hand. Mine is reference based.”
“And who would that source be?"
Charlotte looks again to Pulania for permission to proceed. Pulania nods.
“Pulania, of course.”
The steamie look on Pulania’s face has exploded ten-fold. Crap. She’s an expert on ficketty fecking Elementals, of course she is, and she’s totally pissed off that we didn’t even think of that. Gil and I share a look, a holy Gaea, we’ve majorly miss-stepped into shite look.
Crap.
“Oh,” is all I can say.
“Oh? Humph. Can we go back home now?” Pulania’s words are angry as she picks herself up and without further ado heads out the door.
“Thanks,” I mouth to Charlotte as Gil and I, much more slowly, get ourselves out of our seats to follow.
“Good luck,” she whispers to me.
I nod back, I think we’re going to need it.
By the time we get out of the library, Pulania is about a hundred steps ahead of us. She’s really angry at me.
As she passes around a corner at the top of the block, I come to a halt.
“I’m not sure we should follow her,” I say to Gil.
“Yeah, she’s really angry with you. You should have known better.”
“What?” I swat Gil’s shoulder. “How was I to know that she’s the prime source of knowledge for all things Elemental?”
“Hey, she’s your mother, not mine. Besides, popping out an Elemental and almost dying from it is bound to make you ‘Elemental’ curious. It stands to reason that she would have tried to find out as much as she could. Plus she’s had centuries to find the lore and knowledges related to them.”
“Oh. I hadn’t really thought of that.”
Gil goes a little bit contrite, “No, I hadn’t either, until just this minute, but thinking about it, I can see why she’s ticked off at you.”
Me! “Us!” I correct.
“No, you. I’m just the familiar.”
“Phaw,” she’s right though. It’s me she’s angry with. I should have connected the dots, though Gil should have helped.
Chapter 15: Coffee time!
I have a thought. “I haven’t had enough coffee today, we should go to my favourite spot, we need to give Pulania time to stew.”
“Oh, really?” There’s no enthusiasm at all in that question, G
il doesn’t like my coffee spot. The coffee is too strong for her there. She’s used to stuff that’s weak as nun’s piss.
“Yeah, I’ll give Master a call and he can join us there.”
A few minutes later and the three of us are ensconced at my Glebe Point Rd hang out in Australia. It’s late in the morning here. I don’t usually come this late, but it’s heading into winter in Oz so the weather is quite pleasant at this time of day, not too hot, and not too cold.
I’ve convinced Gil to try a hot chocolate, since I know she doesn’t like the stronger coffee here. The hot chocolates are to die for, if you’re in the mood for that. She also has some chocolate mud cake, I know she’s a chocolate fiend, so I think she’s going to be good. I wait to see. There’s a smile on Gils face, and that puts one on mine. Success! Gil can survive at my favourite coffee hang out! My life is complete, or it would be if I didn’t have to go back and face Pulania. Sigh.
Master is quietly sipping his coffee, watching me.
“Don’t say a word,” I tell him.
He’s trying hard not to smile at me, bastard. Or he would be if he had actually been born.
His perkiness is putting a damper on my mood. It’s reminding me about what I’m avoiding back home. I’m just going to sit here and sullenly finish my coffee now.
We all sit in silence for a while. I have a lot of thoughts to process, I mean, where does she get off being angry at me? Like, it was her who ‘forgot’ to tell ‘me’ that I have a sister. That’s not a small thing to leave out. Another thing, she could have volunteered information about Elementals. Did she do that? No, she didn’t. What about those cramps I had at Dunnottar, she probably has answers about those. Has she provided any answers there? Again, the answer is a big, fat, whopping ‘no’.
I’m sipping my coffee and building up my own angry cloud just thinking about it.
A few minutes later. “You know,” it’s Gil, “you can’t avoid her forever.”
Humph, at least she’s waited until I’d finished my coffee to say that.
“Yeah, I’ll see her now.” I’ve worked myself up to a nice level of counter angriness.
“She’s ready,” Master comments.
I am ready.
***
Pulania is waiting for us in the library on our return. She has Susan there too – obviously recruited as an ally, but if Pulania thought I’d be cowed when I came in the door, she’s got another thing coming. I go straight for the jugular.
“So any more secrets you want to tell me about? Is there another sister in the wings somewhere? A brother I should know about? Do I have an uncle whose a mass murderer who you haven’t spoken to in a few centuries? And you could have mentioned you were an expert in all things Elemental. Given what you’ve thrown at me already, it wasn’t something that I was necessarily going to realise. It’s not as though you’ve spouted a huge amount of information about them already.”
When we’d come into the room I could see from the look on Pulania’s face that she was ready to tell me off. I got in first though, and during my battering her face went from angry to uncertain. Now she’s actually looking a little thoughtful.
After a few seconds, she replies, “Alright then, just so you know, as a daughter of Gaea we have more family members than even I know about. You know about the Furies, but there are many others, just about every classical creature or being that you’ve ever heard of has some relation to us. It’s not going to be possible for me to list them for you, and yes, some of them are mass murderers.”
Humph, hadn’t thought of that. “Fair enough, but a sister is a little bit closer than some creature from ancient mythology,” I spit. I guess I’m still pretty angry with her, more so than even I’d realised.
“Yes, well, that was something I should probably have told you about. Except you have to understand, I haven’t thought about her for years. I never really had her as a child. She literally ripped her way out of my stomach, leaving me to die. She’s an Elemental, Amura. She has no feelings in any sense that we can understand. What motivates her may be beyond our understanding as well. She may not even have a physical form any more. The Fae born Elementals lose all of themselves over time, they become nothing more than the wind, or a storm, or a heat wave. They simply become pure nature.”
“And how long does that take?” I ask.
“Usually only a couple of centuries.”
What? “That’s not right then.” I guess my tone has dropped considerably. “She should be gone by now. Aren’t I centuries old? Over a millennia? She shouldn’t still be around.”
“No, she should be gone, and I don’t know why she isn’t,” Pulania answers. “I don’t have all the answers, Amura. I’m still puzzling things out too, but ask your questions, and if I can answer them, I will.”
I notice Master getting a bit antsy beside me. My eyes meet his.
“I should get going, you guys are good now, I take it?”
Pulania and I look at each other, and we accede with a short nod of our heads. No blasting here, but then I narrow my eyes at Master. He knows something, something important, and he’s ducking out so that he doesn’t have to face us. Coward.
He just shrugs at me as he reads my mind. “Too close for comfort, hey dude.”
He smiles. “Your family isn’t just Fae descended,” he says and then he’s gone. Bastard. Ficketty fecking angels. Urragh, another angel hint. I hate angel speak.
Chapter 16: Super Bitch
“Okay,” I slump in defeat, “can anyone interpret that last bit of angel speak. He was dropping us another hint, but I can’t get it.”
“I do,” Pulania answers. “He means that your sister isn’t a Fae Elemental. She’s also part of the blood of Gaea, she may be a true Elemental. That would explain how she’s lasted so long.”
“So what else does that mean?”
Pulania considers for a few seconds. “Well, she may be an immortal, or maybe a semi-mortal, like you and I. So she’s going to be around for a very long time. She probably still has some mortal form, at least, when she wants to have one. And I can’t guess at how wild she’d be, or what she may have learned. It’s been centuries, she would have seen quite a bit of humans in that time, she may have learned things. Although, maybe not.”
“Why is she stirring now?”
“I don’t have the answer to that. Learning about Elementals doesn’t necessarily get you into their heads. I can only guess. I’ve talked to Samael about her and he ‘nodded’ at the appropriate places – more angel speak, but he seemed to be indicating that I might not be too far from the truth. I think she’s stirring because of you.”
“Because of me?” I blanch.
“Yes, I think she can feel you.”
“Why is it always me? Okay, so why should I make a difference to her?”
“Well, you are related, we both are, so I guess she can feel me too, but more so yourself. You’re twins. And… well, if she is a true Elemental, she may be lonely. Samael and I always thought she went to Ireland because there are so many of the Fae Elementals there. She would have felt them, even from Scotland. They’re closer to her than I am, but if she’s a true Elemental, they’re not the same as her. She may sense in you something closer to herself.”
“So is that why I caused such a problem in Dublin back in the 1980s?”
Pulania nods. “She would have felt your evil doing, or more properly, she was attracted to a power that had some likeness to her own. You awoke her. I guess the Seelies have been guarding against that event ever since.”
“And why would that be? What’s one more Elemental to them if Ireland is full of them?” I ask.
“Power,” Susan answers. I’ve come to understand that when she considers things, Susan can come up with some pretty good observations. She’s still a silly bitch at other times, but she has her moments. “She’s powerful, isn’t she Pulania?”
Pulania nods again. “There is nothing else like her, she’s probably the most p
owerful Elemental in thousands of years. If she wants to start a hurricane, she could start the strongest storm there has been in millennia. If she wants to erupt a supervolcano, she could probably do that. Hell, she could probably raise a volcano to erupt in the heart of Dublin if she wants. The storms she’s caused so far are just her being curious. I can see why the Seelies have clamped down on any magiks in Dublin, they want her to stay asleep. They wouldn’t realise that it was only your and my presence, and our magiks, that are causing her to stir.”
“But that was her at Dunnottar, wasn’t it? That’s a long way from Ireland.”
“Yes, it was,” Pulania answers, and she sounded a little overly thoughtful from her reply. I wait for more. “Two things have happened with you in recent months. The first is that you’re much more powerful now than you once were. That means your sister can probably feel your magiks from a greater distance.”
She stops there and doesn’t continue. “Well, what’s the second thing?”
Gil pats me on the shoulder, like I’m a bit slow or something… maybe I am.
“You’re pregnant, Amura,” she reminds me.
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about that.” My face is probably blushing red. “Tadpole the Invincible.”
“Yes,” Pulania finally continues. “It could be that your sister can feel the baby.”
“That doesn’t make sense. How could she feel the baby?” I mean that just sounds weird.
“I can feel it, Amura,” Pulania tells me. “That’s why I pressed you to have your pregnancy test, I wanted to be sure of what I was sensing. It feels like you, but something other. I think to your Elemental sister it must feel like the closest thing to her there is.”
“Well,” I reply, “that’s wacked out. I mean, I can’t feel anything. Half the time I totally forget that I am pregnant.”
The Dark Witch and the Elemental Page 6
