Reggie & Ryssa and the Summer Camp of Faery

by Bo Savino

Chapter 20: The Hall of Futures

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  The parade of children and elders traversing the streets of New Faery City from the lake was separated into two distinct groups. The first included the elders in the purple robes that alternated with black and white. They walked ahead and alongside of Reggie and Ryssa. Aurelius strode in front of his niece and nephew, his eyes focused straight ahead.

  The remaining children from Team Phoenix made up the second part of the procession. Reggie glanced back to see the Phooka twins directly behind them, leading the Team back to their quarters. Since his own group hadn’t changed direction yet, Reggie assumed both were headed to the same location—the Sithin mound—the Heart of New Faery.

  Jet gave him a thumbs up, letting him know—

  What? Reggie wondered. That everything was going to be okay? He didn’t think the Phooka boy could give him that certainty. Maybe he meant the Team stood ready to offer them whatever support they could? Judging by the mixture of concern and determination on his teammates’ faces, Reggie thought that to be more likely.

  They arrived at the Sithin mound, and the two groups split off from each other. Members of Team Phoenix secretly clapped Reggie and Ryssa on the back or else gave them gentle squeezes of reassurance as they passed them into the main entrance of the mound. The elders that Reggie and Ryssa followed went around to another access, one the twins hadn’t seen before.

  This entrance held a deeply sloped, wooden arched hallway that wound its way down and around what seemed to Reggie to be the outer circumference of the Sithin. It opened at the bottom into another hallway that led either way, both ends disappearing behind a curved central area.

  Reggie estimated, from the distance downward they had traveled, that this central area had to be beneath the Arena Court—although he was learning quickly that appearances were deceiving in Faery, and were particularly true of the Sithin.

  They turned into the hallway that led to the right, passing a few entryways on the outer side of the circle. Some had carved doors to block the view of passersby. A few had arches that opened into rooms where members of the Fey could be seen engaged in various activities from sitting hunched over desks, writing or reading enormous books, to sitting around tables and chitchatting with each other.

  It’s Fey central, Reggie thought to himself as a few glanced at the group traversing the outer corridor, the office complex of Faery.

  A massive double archway on the inner circle wall caught his attention. Beyond it was a huge room that Reggie guessed to be about the size of the central part of the Arena Court, if you included the water area up to where the seats started. The same thirteen robed figures from the Team Matching day sat in front of large crystals the size of vanity mirrors. All circled the larger, flat crystal of the Lia Fial. There was no time to see any more than that. If he slowed his pace, he wouldn’t be able to keep up.

  Not far past the opening that led to the inner room, the elder Faery turned into yet another arch on the right side of the hallway. The thought of the inner chamber was pushed from Reggie’s mind as he saw what the new room held. It was a large, domed area, at least double the size of the Team Phoenix common area, and appeared to contain a scale model of the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico areas.

  Reggie could see, in fantastic detail, the land, homes and cities of the state of Florida. The islands around the Caribbean were clearly depicted, as well as one off the west coast of Florida that he had never seen before. He realized that it was New Faery. Reggie marveled that an island, almost a quarter of the size of the state, could be kept so well hidden from the eyes of those on the mainland.

  “Observe,” one of the robed men in purple and white said to Aurelius. Reggie tried to peer through the wall of robes to see what they were looking at. The man moved his hand across the top of the model, like wiping a chalkboard clean.

  Reggie saw a circular formation of clouds appear just south of an island he knew to be Cuba. The formation moved in rotation as it moved across the land mass. Bewildered, Reggie watched for a moment before realizing what it was. He looked at his twin, who watched the map with a puzzled frown.

  “:Ryss, it’s Faery Doppler.:” When Ryssa’s frown deepened, he added, “:They’re watching a hurricane over Cuba.:”

  A light of understanding touched her eyes, and Reggie turned his attention back to the map.

  “This one was heading directly for us,” the man in purple and white was explaining.

  Reggie could see the path of the hurricane coming across the Florida Keys and rounding the lowest part of the peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of moving into the Gulf like most storms, this one hugged the west coast of the state, and looked as though it were headed directly for New Faery.

  “We made the necessary adjustments to produce a path that would take it into the open waters to avoid the more populated areas,” the man frowned at the scene before him, “when the whole thing was yanked from our hands and this happened.”

  Reggie watched as an almost tangible green wall sprang from the island of New Faery and headed directly for the hurricane. The storm veered away and moved inland and was cutting a path that took it northeast across the state. It was strange. Reggie could see little things flying around as the storm raged across the mainland. Suddenly he realized it was pieces of towns, cities—the homes and workplaces of those caught in the path of the storm. Reggie’s heart dropped into his stomach.

  “The magic was ripped from our hands,” a woman in purple and black muttered. She held her hands up to Aurelius, shaking them at him. “Right out of our hands!”

  “What are you teaching these children, Lord Aurelius?” This came from a tall, slender man dressed in purple and black.

  “Nothing, Lord Sigh. We were having boat races. I was teaching them Water magic.”

  “Water magic didn’t do this.” Lord Sigh’s voice grew heated. “What manner of darkness do you bring to Faery now, Aurelius?”

  Aurelius raised an eyebrow. Reggie instantly assumed it was at the man’s lack of using his title. Jet had explained to Reggie that to do so was an insult. From the look on Lord Sigh’s face, Reggie knew he had meant the insult.

  “Was darkness detected in this magic?” Aurelius indicated the green wall that went into instant replay mode, moving again and again to push the hurricane to shore. “Well, was it?”

  Lord Sigh scowled. “No.”

  “Then don’t make such accusations again.” Aurelius’ eyes glittered with an undercurrent of warning.

  “It had to be dark magic,” Lord Sigh hissed angrily. “That is the method you used with storms in the past. How did you do it this time, Aurelius?”

  Reggie and Ryssa exchanged stunned looks. Their uncle—Lord Aurelius, the pompous stuffed shirt of the Seelie Court—had once engaged in the use of dark magic against Faery? The memory of a previous conversation tickled Reggie’s mind, but he couldn’t call it forward.

  “I didn’t do this,” Aurelius said softly.

  “Perhaps you didn’t mean to,” Lord Sigh stepped forward threateningly, “but you managed to do it somehow. We are trying to determine how.”

  “Lord Aurelius.” The man in purple and white held Lord Sigh back with a restraining hand. He stepped closer, ready to come between the two if necessary. “You were once at such a level in both Air and Water magic to have surpassed rank and title in Faery. We all know this. But only through dark magic were you able to perform at that level. If you have found a way to perform at that level without the use of dark magic, your skill would be invaluable in combating these storms attacking Faery.”

  The man paused, looking at the other elders gathered in the room with question. They all nodded, giving silent permission to say what had not yet been said.

  “The truth of the matter,” the man sighed, “is that our efforts are proving to be—unsuccessful.” The admission seemed to roll with pain off his tongue. “If you had not done whatever it was you just did, then for cert
ain—”

  “You don’t know that,” Lord Sigh spat. “The last move we made might have—”

  “For certain,” the man took back control of the conversation with a warning glance. “This latest attack against Faery would have succeeded.”

  “I am distressed to hear that, Lord Hurq,” Aurelius said with concern. “That does not bode well for us.”

  “No, it does not. But now you understand the true crux of our dilemma. They have finally succeeded in overcoming the efforts of our most powerful storm elders. With minimal effort, they will breach our defenses the next time.”

  “Who?” Reggie asked.

  The elders turned to him, startled, as though they had forgotten the presence of the two children in the room.

  “Are you saying the hurricanes that come this way have been a direct assault against New Faery?” Reggie tried again to get a response. “Who would do that?”

  “These children should not be here,” Lord Sigh grumbled. Nods of agreement from the other elders followed.

  “Lord Aurelius—” Lord Hurq started.

  “I was not responsible for turning the storm.”

  “Perhaps we should have the children wait outside the Hall of Storms while we address this—” Lord Hurq continued with a frown.

  Aurelius shook his head, trying again. “I was not responsible—”

  “The children, Aurelius,” Lord Sigh growled.

  “The children,” Reggie was sick of being ignored and having the elders talk over his head, “are the ones who turned the storm.” He looked at Ryssa’s stricken face, but the truth was going to come out eventually, even if Aurelius did seem to be trying to protect them. “Or at least Ryssa did—I only helped.”

  The elders looked as though they had been struck.

  “I didn’t even know about the stupid storm.” Ryssa avoided looking at them. “I was only trying to protect us against the Black Knight.”

  “Children,” Aurelius tried to raise his voice over the last part of Ryssa’s statement, but the elders’ response to the words “Black Knight” overrode it. It was fear—and shock—that took the pompous attitudes out of the elders and somehow made them less—lofty.

  From Reggie’s point of view, it brought them to a level more—human to deal with. He took a small measure of satisfaction in that knowledge. Or at least he would have, if they hadn’t been staring at him and Ryssa like undesirable mud slime from the bottom of a rock. What was going on here, anyway?

  “Children,” Aurelius’ voice echoed softly in the silence-stricken room, “please wait in the hall.”

  Reggie wanted to yell. He was tired of being on the outside. He wanted answers. Whether it was an understanding that he wouldn’t get any, or the silent request for patience coming from his uncle, Reggie didn’t know for sure, but he turned to leave.

  “Come on, Ryss.” He grabbed his twin’s arm and pulled her toward the door.

  Outside in the hallway, Reggie turned back in time to see Lord Hurq wave his wand toward the archway. The interior of the arch sparkled for a moment before it was clear again.

  “They locked us out.” Ryssa stared dumbly at the arch.

  Reggie nodded, knowing she could see the magical pattern that had been put into place. He’d figured as much.

  Now what? Reggie wondered. The edge of the archway that led to the interior chamber of this level caught his eye. He strolled casually in that direction and Ryssa followed. He didn’t know whether or not they were supposed to be wandering about, but he thought he’d take advantage of the fact that there was no one there to tell them they couldn’t.

  Reggie peeked around the outer edge of the archway.

  Everything seemed the same as when they had passed it a short time earlier. Thirteen brown-robed elders sat at crystal mirrors surrounding the Lia Fial. He and Ryssa slipped into the room unnoticed by those inside. They stood back, taking in the scene with quiet curiosity.

  The first thing Reggie noticed was that the Lia Fial wasn’t sitting on the floor. It was suspended over a pit. Multi-colored, steam-like wisps rose from the cavity, brightening the Lia Fial in muted rainbow tones.

  The crystals weren’t mirrors as Reggie first thought. Images moved across them like those displayed on a television screen. Every few minutes, one of the elders would retrieve a small crystal from a bucket next to them. They would then hold it to the surface of their screen and freeze the image. As the smaller crystal lit with flaring colors, the image would vanish. The smaller stones were then tossed into the pit beneath the Lia Fial.

  Reggie didn’t know how long he and Ryssa watched from a distance, but his inquisitive nature got the best of him. He moved closer to see what images played across the surface of the larger crystals. He was right. It was like watching television.

  On the screen in front of him, he saw the Hall of Storms with many of the same people who had been in there earlier. But this image also showed Medwyn and the man from the disbanded House of Nightfall. Lord Hurq was pointing at a storm on the three-dimensional model while Ryssa looked on in panic.

  The elder at the screen raised a hand and froze the image before turning to look back at Reggie. Reggie found himself looking into the same amethyst-colored eyes that had stared out at him from under the hood the day of the Team choosing. A smile formed on her lips, matching the amusement in her eyes.

  “You shouldn’t be here, little one.” The woman’s voice was gentle and rolled like music across Reggie’s ears.

  “I’m sorry—I didn’t know.”

  “But you suspected.”

  Reggie just nodded. What could he say?

  “This is the Hall of Futures,” she informed him as she rose from her chair.

  “Futures—plural? As in more than one future?”

  The elder laughed, but moved to block the images of the other crystals from his view.

  “There are more futures than just one. You have a future, I have a future—each individual has his or her own future.”

  “Oh, I get it. I thought at first that you meant there was more than one possible future.”

  “Ah, but there is,” the elder said knowingly. “Our futures are shaped by the choices we make. So the future lying before us now may change if we make a decision that changes the path we take.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like what?” The woman paused as if to think it over. “Well, for instance, if you had chosen to ignore your sister’s cry for help on the surface of the lake—you might not be standing here right now.”

  Reggie nodded thoughtfully. “So, if I hadn’t helped her, I’d be dead?”

  “Perhaps.” The elder tilted her head.

  “Would I have been?”

  “Would you have been what?”

  “Dead?” Reggie persisted.

  She laughed. “Little one, never waste time wondering what could have been. The moment is past and cannot be retrieved. Look to the now.”

  “Don’t look to the future?”

  “No.” The elder shook her head. “The future is not yet written. It can be changed, so why look to something that might be when you can focus your energy to work with what is?”

  Reggie nodded again, but it was all so confusing. He looked at Ryssa and saw her staring intently at one of the crystal screens. Concerned, he went to move her away, but was drawn to the same image that held her rooted in place.

  Team Phoenix was gathered around a dying tree on one of the training fields. Crowds of Fey sat in seats along the outer edges of the field.

  It’s an image of the competition, Reggie realized in wonder.

  The crowd in the monitor gasped in horror as a fireball came down to engulf the tree and the Team beneath it. The elder chose that moment to freeze the image. The smaller seemed to suck the image from the larger crystal, because it was gone. The elder tossed the smaller crystal into the pit beneath the Lia Fial. Reggie wondered which of the many colored wisps rising from the pit fed the image to the Stone of Destiny.
>
  Tears rolled down Ryssa’s cheeks. The elder gathered his twin in her arms and gently urged her from the room, motioning for Reggie to follow.

  “Listen, children—” the elder said quietly as they exited the room through the double archway.

  “Does this mean we’re going to die?” Reggie interrupted.

  The elder hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “That is one possible future.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Ryssa said forlornly.

  “None of us do—or at least most of us don’t.”

  “How can we make it not happen?” Reggie demanded.

  “Little ones,” the elder sighed, “this is why the Hall of Futures is avoided. Not even the Ard Ri passes through that doorway. Do not focus on a future that could come to pass—you must work with the now to create the future that will come into being.”

  “But how do we do that?” Ryssa asked.

  “I have no answer for you.” The elder shook her head. “The number of potential futures being shaped is too great. We are given only fragments of them. None of us truly understands how those pieces fit together. But if you see yourself headed into a future you don’t like, you need to make changes in the now to create a future you would rather have come to pass.”

  “But how do we know the choices we make won’t be the ones that take us into a future we don’t want?” Reggie asked.

  The elder smiled. “You don’t. Let your hearts guide you. Your future will reveal itself there better than any other place you might think to look.”

  “I don’t get it,” Reggie mumbled.

  “You will.” The elder shrugged. “Or maybe you won’t. Just make the best choices you can—it’s all any of us can do.”

  Reggie noticed compassion in the elder’s eyes. Behind her, he saw Aurelius stepping out of the Hall of Storms, holding a last minute conversation with Lord Hurq.

  “Find the heart within you, little ones.” The elder moved back into the Hall of Futures, leaving Reggie and Ryssa with confused and miserable thoughts.