Vingaza was about to puncture the man's heart with a tendril of dark energy when he saw him smile. “What do you find so funny about your last moment of life?”
“You don’t know, do you? Anwar didn’t challenge your god. He pulled him into the mortal plane. The other gods had to come and stop Anwar from killing him. Your god is afraid of him. Killing me only guarantees that the Black Dragons will be destroyed. My life for all of yours? That is a sacrifice I am happy to make.”
For the second time that day Vingaza lost his temper. He flung the tendril of dark magic out and severed the man's head. He released the body, and it fell to the ground next to the head, pouring blood all over the ground.
Vingaza walked back to the guild house. Sitting in his office, he fumed. The man was a fool. No mortal could challenge a god. Not even the Father could force a god onto the mortal plane. He knew it was impossible, but somehow there was a hint of doubt. It was such a ridiculous claim, but the man had spoken it with such surety. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He had to get ready. They were already behind. They were supposed to leave to meet the orcs today, and this had taken longer than anticipated.
Chapter Fifteen
Real Fairies
Anwar fallowed the beautiful ball of light through the trees. It wasn’t really light that surrounded her; it was something magical. It was like the essence of light. She was intoxicating. Or it, he wasn’t really sure. He didn’t know much about fairies.
They had walked for a long time. Finally they entered a clearing. They could see the sky. Hundreds of balls of light flew all around the clearing. There were hundreds more in the trees. In the center of the clearing was the biggest tree any of them had ever seen. It was the Fairy Tree. The trunk itself was a hundred paces wide at the base, and the branches rose hundreds of feet into the air. The tree radiated a golden light, as if the tree was somehow made up of matter and light combined.
Floating down from that tree was the brightest of the lights. The fairy in the light was the most magnificent of beings. It radiated love and happiness.
Anwar could not take his eyes off of her. It had to be a woman. Nothing that was not female could be so beautiful. She was coming toward him. He lost his mind to the magnificence of her. He forgot what he had come here for. All he knew was her.
Navaeh dropped her eyes. That had to be the queen. She was the most beautiful, brilliant creature. She did not deserve to see her. It was more magnificent then anyone’s eyes should be allowed to see. She knelt down, putting her hand in the soft grass. She felt more alive then she could have ever imagined. The connection to the world was almost unbearable. It was almost too much. If she felt the life of the world the tiniest bit more, she would likely lose her sanity.
Rundo was more than hypnotized. He fell to his knees. He leaned back, never taking his eyes off of her. His mouth hung open and his eyes tried to jump out of his head to be closer to her.
Even Grundel was amazed. He had to give in to her beauty. This may not be a place for a dwarf, but there were worse places you could be stuck. All of his suspicion and mistrust fell away when he saw her. This was too pure a being to be untrustworthy.
The sound that came from her was more than beautiful. All of them were hypnotized by it. No words were spoken, but they all understood the beautiful sounds. Words were not worthy of her. “I have been expecting you. The goddess Mishima came to me. She requested my assistance. Before I do this thing I must ensure that you, Anwar, understand the risk. She is your wife. I can feel your love for her. It radiates from you, and it is a beautiful thing. Your love is more pure than most mortals are capable of. You must understand that her soul has been free of her body for a long time. When a soul has been free for that long it is hard for it to remain confined inside a body again. Do you understand that when the link is restored her body will most likely die?”
As hard to hear as this news was, the sound still came out beautiful. It was unnatural for something so terrible to sound so amazing. The mention of Mariah had broken the trance, but he still couldn’t ignore the beauty of everything around him. He looked at Mariah. “I understand. I can’t allow her soul to be lost. If I lose her, at least her soul will find its way to Mishima.” The words sounded terrible coming out of his mouth. Words should not be spoken here. They were unnatural here.
“You understand the consequences to the one you love, but do you understand the consequences to yourself? Your love is more pure then most mortals can ever know. The loss of something that pure will threaten to destroy you. You are too powerful to lose yourself if you lose her. If you lose her you must hold on to the memory of that love. If you do not you will become the opposite of what you are and what she loved.”
He didn’t quite understand what she was saying, but he understood the idea. “I will not become evil if that is what you mean. I will never forget her. I will honor her memory if she does not come back to me.”
“You are very dangerous. I could be putting the fate of the world at risk by doing this, but your love is pure and your heart is good. The Father save us all if you lose yourself. Set her down here.”
Anwar and Grundel unstrapped the litter and carried it to her. They set Mariah down on the grass in front of the fairy queen. Navaeh and Rundo never looked away from her.
“Anwar, you must take her hand in your own. Your connection with her is strong. It will help guide her back.”
Grundel stepped back. He looked at Navaeh and Rundo. He was pretty sure that neither of them was even aware of what was happening.
He looked back to Anwar. He was holding Mariah’s hand in his. The fingertips of his other hand rested on her cheek.
“I will use her body as a passage into the waiting. Hold on to your love, Anwar. No matter what happens. Hold on to that love.” The fairy queen dropped down onto Mariah’s chest. Then the light that was more than light was gone. The body of the fairy queen lay lifeless on Mariah’s chest. She was beautiful. If the gods had attempted to create women with identically perfect features they would fail. She was a tiny little sculpture of perfection. Anwar stared down at her. He watched her as she was lifted with the rising and falling of Mariah’s chest. It took a controlled effort to look away from her, and back at Mariah’s face. He focused on their love.
He thought about how she made him feel. He remembered her. She was selfless and caring. She was a nurturer. He remembered how she had helped him though the trauma of losing his family. He remembered how she had left everything she had ever known to follow him to Ambar. She had always put him first. She had always put everyone else first. He loved her. He loved her more then anything in the world. He had loved his family, his brothers and sister, his parents. The love he had for her made that love seem miniscule.
Mariah’s spirit floated through the waiting. Her awareness was still with her body. She did not know who or what she was. She did not think or feel. She floated. All her spirit felt was freedom. She floated. She simply was. She saw the lights of other spirits and she watched them be guided away by other spirits. She didn’t understand, but she saw. She had no awareness of time. She floated.
Then she saw the light. She couldn’t comprehend color or beauty, but that light pulled her. She followed the light. Then the light was trying to make her give up her freedom. She didn’t understand, but she knew she was being pulled away from the freedom. Then she felt it. The warmth. There was something there, something more than freedom, something that was stronger than freedom. She followed the light into the warmth.
The light immediately surrounded the fairy queen again. She lifted up over Anwar’s head.
Anwar looked up, and then back down at Mariah. He watched her eyes open. He loved her beautiful eyes. They were soft and caring. But he saw something else in them now. There was a pain that had never been there before. She smiled up at him. “Anwar.” She whispered. Her voice was worthy of this place.
“Mariah. You're ba
ck. I missed you. I love you. I’m so glad you are okay.”
“Anwar, I am sorry.”
“No. There’s no reason to be sorry, Mariah. I love you.”
“Anwar, I have to go. My spirit was free for too long. I didn’t know it then, but my spirit was growing in the waiting. It won’t fit in my body. I don’t really understand it, but my body can’t take it. I am dying.”
“No, Mariah. I will save you. There has to be a way.” He looked up at the fairy queen. “Tell me what to do.”
Mariah raised her hand to his face. He looked down into her eyes. “I love you, Anwar. It's okay. I am going to Mishima. She will take care of me. The world needs you, Anwar. Help them. Don’t forget me, Anwar. Remember how much I love you. You will love again.”
Anwar knew then that she was really leaving. There was nothing he could do. He didn’t want to make this harder for her. “Goodbye, Mariah.” Tears were running down his face. “I will always love you.”
She smiled at him and then closed her eyes. A single tear ran out of the corner of one eye and fell down the side of her face.
Anwar lay his face against hers and cried. He did not know how long he stayed there like that. When he woke up, Mariah was dressed in a thin white linen dress. Her hair had been done. She was lying in the grass next to him. She was motionless, lifeless. Even now she was beautiful. How could he ever let her go?
Chapter Sixteen
Saying Goodbye
When Anwar awoke, some fairies came over to where he lay next to Mariah’s body. He heard the music that was fairy speech. “The queen has given her permission to honor your wife by burying her under the Fairy Tree. You can, of course, take her with you instead, if you choose.”
Anwar looked at the tree. It was beautiful. He couldn’t think of a better place to let her body rest. He nodded his head. A dozen fairies floated toward her body, but he stopped them. “I will carry her.”
The fairies backed away. Anwar bent down and picked up his wife. He could still smell her. Silent tears ran down his face as he walked toward the tree. He didn’t even realize his friends were waiting for him until he got to the base of the huge tree. Grundel was standing neck-deep in a hole that he was digging. Rundo and Navaeh were watching him. At least they would be aware of what was going on now. They needed to say their goodbyes. He set Mariah’s body down on the grass next to the hole. He felt empty. He felt lost. He didn’t know what his purpose was anymore. When he had walked into this clearing he had been filled with hope and joy. All he could feel now was pain and loss.
The fairy queen came floating down out of the tree. Anwar still appreciated her beauty, but he was no longer mesmerized. He couldn’t say the same for Navaeh and Rundo. They were both staring, their eyes bulging out of their heads, and their mouths hanging open.
“Anwar, are you ready for this?”
He looked at his wife lying on the ground. “I will never be ready for this. I don’t have a choice though, do I? She will find peace with Mishima. I have to do this.” He said the words, but they destroyed him.
He watched through blurry, tear-filled eyes as Mariah was wrapped in huge leaves. One leaf would have covered her whole body. They wrapped three of them around her. Then the fairies lifted her up and lowered her into the ground.
“Would you like to say any words?” the queen asked him.
With eyes full of tears he walked over and looked into the hole. “Mariah was the most amazing person I ever knew. She lived her life for everyone else. Everyone who came in contact with her was better for it. Goodbye, my heart.” Anwar grabbed a handful of dirt and dropped it in the hole.
To his surprise Navaeh had stepped up to the hole. “I didn’t know Mariah long. The time I spent with her was too short. When I was lost, Mariah brought me back. The world is a lesser place without her in it.” Navaeh grabbed a handful of dirt and dropped it in the hole.
Rundo came up next. Tears were running down his face. “Mariah was a dear friend. She taught me that every person has a place. She showed me that you can be whatever or whoever you want to be. She taught me to live life and not to run from it.” He tossed a handful of dirt into the hole.
Grundel was standing on the other side of the hole. “Mariah helped save my home. During the fight with Miskrull she saved my grandfather, the king of Evermount, from his wounds. Then she saved his hand, after a wound that would have likely made him unfit to sit the throne. My family and my whole race owe a great debt to this woman. Her life was taken in the same halls that she protected. She will not be forgotten.” He grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it in the hole, and then he went to one knee and slammed his fist to his chest.
Grundel stood up and went to pick up the shovel. “Let me.” Anwar said. He pulled off his shirt and grabbed the shovel. He would bury her without magic like he had the rest of his family. He began scooping shovelfuls of dirt onto her body. Tears filled his eyes. The muscles in his forearms and biceps bulged. The wound in his arm opened up and started bleeding. He didn’t care. He hardly even noticed. The pain just mixed with all of the other pain he was feeling. Tears and blood poured from his body and dripped onto the dirt that he was covering his wife with. When he was finished he set the shovel to the side. He walked across the clearing to the horses. Lying on the ground next to the rest of the gear was his staff. He picked it up and walked back to his wife’s grave.
The fairies didn’t know what he was doing, but they flew in front of him to block him. “You cannot use magic in this place,” he heard one of them say in that musical tongue.
“Let him pass,” the queen said. Anwar looked up at her. “This tree is sacred. If you harm it you will never leave this forest.” Then she flew out of the way.
Anwar connected with his magic through his staff. He felt everything around him. He could feel the life force of this place, the magic flowing through everything. It threatened to consume him. He focused his energy. He pictured his wife as she had been at their wedding. Wearing that beautiful red dress covered in rubies with the low cut in the front, showing just enough to be alluring, but not enough to be revealing. Her curly, dark brown hair hung down past her shoulders. Her beautiful brown eyes promised comfort.
He pictured her like that, standing there under the tree, on top of her grave. He linked that image with the magic illuminating that tree. Everyone gasped as Mariah stood before them. Glowing in a beautiful light, her dress glowing red, her skin glowing in a golden light. It was Mariah made of light. Anwar released the magic and dropped his staff. His connection to everything around him gone, the pain flooded back in. He sagged there, staring at the woman he loved. The woman he would never see again.
“Thank you, Anwar, for blessing this place with the beauty of your wife. She will be remembered here for eternity.” The words were beautiful, but they didn’t ease his pain any.
Fairies came from all over to see what he had done. Hundreds of them were all around them. The light was beautiful. Then they began to sing. None of them understood what the music meant, but it was the most beautiful thing any of them had ever heard. Even Grundel was finally mesmerized.
When the song was done the fairies dispersed. “Anwar, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. When you are ready to leave I will have one of the fairies lead you out of the forest.”
Grundel stepped up next to Anwar. “So we can leave? Everyone we talked to told us that if we came in here we would never be allowed to leave.”
“Humans believe that we abduct them because of the pixies, who lure men into the forest. The pixie is an abomination of the fairy. The fairy is the essence of purity. That is why we are able to travel into the waiting, and between planes. Thousands of years ago an evil wizard abducted a fairy who traveled outside the protection of the forest. He transformed himself, making himself as small as a fairy. He mated with her and the offspring was the first pixie. Pixies are beautiful and enchanting. They have long lives longer even than dwarves, but they do age and die. They are mortal. Un
like fairies, pixies have only daughters, so they must breed with mortal men. That is why men are often lured into the forest. Once the men are with the pixies they are enchanted and never want to leave. They breed with the pixies for the rest of their lives. The men are happy and treated well, so we do not interfere. The pixies will not bother you again.”
Anwar looked around. He didn’t care about fairies and pixies right now. Mariah was dead and he needed to repay Delvidge for that. They needed to get back and stop whatever he was sending against Evermount. Once Evermount was safe, he would learn how to control all the power he had and then he would go after Delvidge.
The fairy queen must have seen something in his face. “Anwar, remember to hold on to the love that you and Mariah shared. If you don’t, you could become the thing you hate most.”
“I will remember. I will never let go of her. But we need to get back. Delvidge was not finished when he attacked us. He is starting a war with the dwarves. We need to get back and help fight that war.”
“Fae will guide you to the edge of the boundary. Navaeh will not be returning with you.”
Rundo immediately became defensive. “What? You said we would all be free to go. What about all that fairies are the essences of good stuff?”
“Navaeh’s connection to the world is too strong. The magnificence of everything she has felt here is too great. If she left the forest now the loss would be too great, and she would soon die.”
Rising of a Mage: Book 03 - A Mage Risen Page 8
