by Lady Ellen
Of course, Benson zoned in on this, “Oh, puleeezzze,” he groaned.
Persy scowled at him, “Benson, you are one tough audience to play, you know that?”
“Ah, yes my dear, but without me you might get all full of yourself, and become completely obnoxious,” he grinned.
“Humph. Not much fear of that, now is there?” Persy muttered as she stomped off down the hallway on to Science class.
“Hey...Persy!”
Persy turned around to see Rix jogging to catch up with her. “Hi, Rix. Where’ve you been?”
“Oh, got here late, had to see my naturopath. I seem to have this annoying rash that won’t budge; even with the herbals and homeopathics my Mom has given me,” she said, and walked along beside Persy, slightly winded.
Erica or Rix as she likes to be called, was Persy’s best friend since they met in a play group at four years old. She had a consuming passion for all things magical and mystical. When they were younger, all their doll playing was about witches, wizards and dragons. She always loved that Persy could contribute so many great ideas into their play. If she only knew.
Rix, Persy believed, would gladly give one of her appendages to be one of the Magical Folk. And the poor kid may never know how close she was to magic, in the person she often thought of as a sister.
“You up for a movie at my place after school?” Rix asked Persy.
“Can’t today, Rix, got a ton of homework and a few things to do at home,” Persy replied, thinking of her focusing practice. “Maybe at the weekend.”
“No probs,” said Rix, as they entered their Science classroom.
At the day’s end, Persy and Rix sauntered back to their lockers, when Persy noticed a very distinct coloured light swoosh past them to her right. She turned her head abruptly to check it out.
Rix asked, “What?”
That was a yellow alert to Persy. Obviously, Rix noticed nothing, so this must be magic.
“Oh, nothing...just thought I saw something...guess not,” she lied. Then it happened again, still on the right of them but back the other way.
The girls’ lockers were next to each other. When they arrived, Persy opened hers to put books away and as she bent in to put a few on the bottom, she saw it. A little glimmer of slivery-blue light glowed as if the light was bouncing off fog. In a matter of seconds a tiny form came into view, a very small individual with angular features and sharply pointed ears...and...yup...there they were...wings!
Persy knew about the Fairy folk in Bellarya and thought she had seen glimpses in the woods, but had never been contacted or tried to contact one. In Silent Speak she heard,“My name is Fawna. We must meet. Come to the very end of your Mother’s garden, just as the sun is beginning to set, about 8:30 tonight. Please, it’s very important!” And then with a very soft “poof”...she was gone.
When the girls walked home, Persy was distracted, wondering what was to come that evening.
“Persy, what do you think of that guy Jason Matchett? I’m pretty sure he kind of likes me, but I don’t know. He sure can be a jerk sometimes, you know?”
Persy and Rix were having a lot more of this type of conversation lately and she felt bad she wasn’t giving her close friend the attention she deserved and needed.
“I really don’t know him that well, but guys can be pretty lame, I think, especially at our age. I think it’s a guy thing so it makes it hard to know who they really are.”
“Yeah, I’m probably best to just give it some time and see how things go, I’ve never even had a guy for a friend before--so what do I know?” Rix said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Yeah, you’re probably right—me either,” said Persy. That doesn’t include Benson she thought, after all, they were stuck with each other.
“Heard that!” Benson yelled, silently.
Rix lived a half block closer to the school than Persy, so after they parted ways, Persy sprinted home. She wanted to get her focusing practice over with so she could think about meeting Fawna. She was now up to four minutes and climbing and she felt pretty good about that.
After dinner, Persy did homework and some spell practice, with a constant eye on the clock. At about 8:25, she grabbed her sweater, skipped downstairs and out to the back garden, Benson buzzing along beside her. She’d decided not to tell Angelica about Fawna yet, in case she tried to stop her meeting the fairy.
“I don’t remember inviting you,” Persy said.
“Wouldn’t miss this for the world, darlin.”
She walked to the end of the garden and looked around. Not seeing anything unusual, she figured she was a tad early and sat on a bench. In a few minutes, a glimmer started forming beside a particularly prolific rose bush Mom planted a few years back. Anything Mom put into soil grew like it was on steroids.
The glimmer morphed into a foggy shape and then a distinct little female. Fawna smiled up at them and flit over to Persy, perching on her left knee.
“Thanks, awfully for coming,” Fawna said. “Wasn’t sure you would.”
More Persephane Images Here
Fawna’s Plea
The fact was that relations between the Fairy Folk and Munz or Magical Folk were, throughout eons of time, precarious at best. Many of the fairies were very helpful and enjoyed sharing times and workings with other Magicals, but there were certainly those Fairies who were tricksters, mean or even malevolent. Fawna, when meeting Persy couldn’t know what her personal experiences with the beings of her world were, so couldn’t be sure this meeting would happen or if it did, that it would go well.
“I was pretty surprised when you appeared in my locker,” Persy said. “Certainly wasn’t expecting that, Wasn’t aware you could cross from Bellarya easily. But I’m happy to meet with you and it seems urgent. Right?”
“Oh,” Fawna sighed. “You have NO idea. I’m so glad I found you. I’ve never been outside of Bellarya before and it takes a lot of magical energy for me.”
Suddenly Benson chimed in, “Hey then, how do we know you’re not a morphed Kelpie or Phooka? Those blighters are nothing but trouble. You could be trying to win us over only to dish up some dirty on us.”
Normally, Kelpies and Phooka were quite homely, and that was being kind; the Kelpies with their bulbous bodies and sharp pointed teeth and the Phooka often having heads of men and bodies like horses. Both were very malicious and loved to raise havoc. It would take a very powerful one to change into the visual of Fawna, but with the help of a dark wizard or witch, it wouldn’t be the first time this act was used as bait.
“No, honestly,” Fawna pleaded, “You have to listen. I’m absolutely desperate.” She looked up at Persy with the saddest eyes. “There is a horrible situation in my world, and it was your world too, Persephane, until your mother brought you here. Angelica leaving was a large part of how this could happen. If she had been around, Melanthios wouldn’t have been able to get away with all she’s done!”
“Who’s Melanthios? And what’s she done?” Persy blurted out, more than a tad confused.
Fawna cleared her throat and began. “Melanthios is a very evil witch, but let me tell the whole story from the start, it’s going to make more sense that way.
Not long after you three Time-Linxed over here, maybe a couple of weeks, things back home started to change. At first, the Fairy Folk and other Magicals didn’t really notice much. The odd missing spirit, fewer flowers in the fields, waters lower in the streams, then one night everything changed.
We Fairies live in the astral plane as well as the magical multiverses, switching back and forth, mostly working in concert with Munz and Magical Folk, as long as we are treated well. You know how sensitive we can be, and that’s when the mischief happens, if we are offended,” Fawna stated.
“Yes, Mom has told me all about your kind. You can be a right pain in the butt if you are ticked at someone,” said Persy smiling.
“Oh, do tell,” sighed Benson. “I once had a fairy turn me a shocking pink. Just because I told
her that I thought her baby looked like a green jelly-bean with wings. Colour hexes are murder to get rid of.”
“But this had nothing to do with anyone being ticked,” stated Fawna. “All of a sudden we could no longer cross from the astral, to spend time in your realm, we were plain stuck in our world. It was unbelievable; no one could figure it out. No one could venture out to your world. No One! When anyone tried, it was like hitting a brick wall. BAM! And you fell back on your butt, stunned.”
Fawna sighed and continued, “Even the most powerful of Fairies, Our Queen Breena could not budge this Binding Spell. It’s now gone on for years and the Munz are forgetting about the Fairy Folk and not leaving bread, butter or the last of their crops for us to eat; there is not enough food in the astral plane for all of us to survive. Many of us live to work with the Munz and the Magical Folk. We love to sing, dance and celebrate the Eight Great Sabbats on that side and some of the best Fairy rings exist there, now we can’t do any of that. We are sad and lonely on top of being hungry. We need someone to do something.”
“Do you mean that absolutely no one has made it over to the Munz realm or Bellarya? At all?” Persy was incredulous, she couldn’t imagine the Fairy not being part of Bellarya or the Munz world. She was great friends with a Dryad (tree fairy) when she was younger and learned much of her tree lore from Aurora. Different trees mean so much to the Fairy folk and not all trees exist in their own world. Binding them to the astral plane is like cutting off half of their lives, a disaster for them.
“Well there are a few of us who have congregated together; some happened to be in the Munz realm when the spell was thrown. One of them, Durin, is a particularly strong fairy and was determined to put an end to the spell. He sent one of his worker fairies into Bellarya to the castle in which Melanthios lives, to hide in the trees nearby to try to see what she was up to. Durin didn’t see that fellow for days and so went to look for him. He found him in a terrible state, dead, laying there with an arched back, eyes wide open and a horrible grimace on his face. Queen Breena says it’s called the “Death Smile”. We are not sure what happened,” said Fawna.
“Its strychnine poisoning,” said Persy “Mom told me about it when we were studying herbs and poisons. You find it in the seed pod of a herb called Dog Button or Nux Vomica and you sure wouldn’t need much to kill a small being like a fairy. Who would do such a thing?”
“As I’ve said, Melanthios. She’s an evil witch who is on a rampage to control the world of Magical Folk and she knows no boundaries. She cares for no one. They say she has a heart as dark and cold as the bottom of the Vrims Abyss.”
“Vrims Abyss?”
“It the ocean off the east coast of Bellarya. Cold and bleak”
“Ah. Ok.”
Fawna continued. “Melanthios is determined to take over the Magical Folk and lead them all in the ways of the Ancient Evil Ones. Her followers are pushing her to show her power and she’s starting with the Small Ones, us and folk like us. And to make matters worse, with us being bound, the evil fairies, like the Kelpies and Phookas, you mentioned, Benson, are running amuck. Now the only Munz’s Fairy folk experience, if they have any at all, are all bad. They are not only forgetting us but hating any they do see.
The worlds of fairy, Munz and magic are in general chaos. We’ve lost the wonderful balance of our co-existing amongst ourselves and nature. Some fear she will take over all the magical creatures next and finally, the Magical Folk...the witches and wizards of our time in Bellarya will start Time-Linxing to other major magical times to poison them with her vile influence. We have to stop this madness!” Fawna’s eyes filled with tears.
Persy was not only shocked and horrified at this vicious plan of destruction of everything good, but left speechless with the thought that it could actually happen. She rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans.
“Whatever can make a person turn that evil?” Benson asked. “I knew that witch when she was young. She always liked to try the meaner spells. If an innocent insect or small animal died in one of her rituals, so much the better. But she, for the most part is controlled by her family members and in particular her mother. I would never have described her as purveyor of the Black Arts!” Benson was clearly shaken.
Persy turns to him “Who is...?”
“Wait, Persy, there’s more,” Fawna interrupted. “It seems it was a shocking rejection in affairs of the heart that really turned her. She was deeply in love with a great wizard, Evander, and they were planning to wed one spring. Just prior to the wedding, Evander came upon Melanthios in a small clearing in the woods, at sunset. There, she was performing a ritual involving the sacrifice of a small rabbit. Evander was purely of the White Arts, so was decimated to find out that his lady love could be that cruel and performing dark spells. He banished her from his life on the spot and from that point forward she’s sworn to uphold the Black Arts and bring them to their maximum power.”
“Cripes!” exclaimed Persy. “But why have you come to tell me this story? Is there something I can possibly do?”
Fawna looked a little startled. “Persy,” she said, “Melanthios is a First Order Witch. Do you know what that is?”
“Yes, of course. There are three orders, the First Order being the most powerful.”
“Yes, and now that you’re coming of age. I’m sure your Mom will be explaining it in detail, but for now you need to know what a formidable force Melanthios is,” Fawna said.
“Ok...so again...why tell me?”
“We need your help to break the binding spell. In less than a month you can Time-Linx, enter our world and help right this terrible wrong.”
“Fawna, as much as I’d love to put a stop to this-- whatever makes you think I can take on Melanthios?”
“Oh that’s easy, Persephane Pendrake. YOU are a very powerful First Order Witch. And what’s more - Melanthios is your aunt!”
Angelica Fills In The Blanks
“Yes, it’s true, Melanthios is my sister, your aunt,” concurred Angelica when Persy asked.
“As a child she’d cast spells which would cause blemishes or zits as you’d call them, or even warts on anyone she thought prettier than her. If a merchant caught her nicking an apple or tart from their stores and tried to punish her, she’d produce a curse to spoil all their goods,” Angelica sighed.
“It was mostly mischief we thought. Your Grandmother, Laurel, is one of the members of the Magical Folk Governing Council; you have to be very powerful to be elected to this group, so that just gives you a sense of our magical heritage and level of powers. Unfortunately, when that kind of power or energy turns to the Black Arts it makes for an ominous enemy.”
Persy squirmed in her chair. “Why haven’t I been told about her?”
Angelica patted her forearm which rested on her desk. “You know how resonances can be picked up across multiverses. It takes a powerful Magical to sense them, but certainly can be done. I chose not even to speak her name. After all, I had you in hiding.”
“Anyway, as she grew up, Melanthios would be constantly trying some of the meaner, but not yet, evil spells and charms. Mother always controlled Melanthios’ wand, so when she was allowed to use it to practice, Mother was always there. Then Mother would enchant the wand to become invisible so Melanthios had no access to it on her own.
That worked well until at about the age of fourteen, Melanthios snuck up and heard the enchantment on her wand being placed. It didn’t take her long to ferret out the anti-enchantment, that’s for sure. All I know is that when Mother was away from the manor, Melanthios would retrieve her wand and vanish from sight, sometimes for days. I can’t even begin to imagine what she was up to. As a younger sister, I was completely kept out of the loop.
That’s when she started throwing darker spells and curses, we believe. At first no one noticed when one particular farmer’s field was dying of drought and everyone’s around his was lush and green. Then as more and more strange occurrences happened, we in the family knew
what was going on. She was a bit on the edge, even then at such a young age.”
“A BIT...on the edge?” Benson cried out. “My dear lady, I’d say she’s taken the proverbial ‘jump off the cliff’! She’s bonkers.” Octave one+ and climbing.
“Cool your jets, Benson.” growled Persy, “Let Mom finish.”
“Then she met Evander when she was about nineteen and was literally swept off her feet. Mother and I felt this was exactly what she needed as an influence to come back to the White Arts because we knew he was completely against anything Black. Our first and main commandment in White Magic is, “To do no harm to any one or anything in nature”. Evander lived this credo to its fullest. And believe it or not, Melanthios did stop the Black Magic for some time...at least she apparently did. We really thought it was over, that she’d returned to us.
For whatever reason, she was compelled to perform a dark spell with the rabbit sacrifice--to this day I don’t know why. Evander caught her, with the rabbit’s blood still on her hands. Their romance came to a grinding halt. She was a broken woman for some time.
When she finally re-gained herself, there was no stopping her. She came back with a vengeance. It was reported that she was turning in Third Order Magical Folk to the Hunters. Many innocents lost their lives because of Melanthios.
What made matters worse, was that she hooked up with a very dark influence in Willow, an old Black Witch who lived in the Forest of Depravation in Bellarya, Waltham Forest in Essex, the Munz would call it in their realm, but of course, they would not see the wickedness. Willow has done a lot of damage in her time, but based on her level of magic, she was thought to be a mid-range First Order witch, so was probably delighted to get her mitts on Melanthios and train her. She knew this young vengeful Magical could create way more havoc than she herself could ever have dreamt of doing. What a thrill for her,” Angelica said.
“Mom, I think I need to know more about the Orders of Magicals. Just how does that work?” Persy asked.
