Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage

by Trista Shaye

  Kendel had wondered if he had assumed wrongly and this wasn’t her home and he had been extremely rude for thinking it and saying it aloud. But she had just confirmed it was, indeed, her home and he felt less bad on his part but more bad on hers. It wasn’t a very nice home. It was quite bare and he thought it probably got cold and damp in the fall and winter. He wondered how a fairy could stand to live on the ground, as he had assumed that was against their nature. Why did it look like she lived alone with an inch worm as company and why was this so called home so far away from the city high above and the other fairies’ homes – which he assumed where all up above. However, if every home was as well-hidden as hers then maybe he was surround by them on all sides and he just didn’t know it. He felt a twinge of guilt, but he honestly hoped his guest home was a bit nicer then all this.

  He didn’t have long to think on those things or to ask any of the questions in his mind, for Diana led them to a tree that had a staircase built into the wooden trunk. It spread outward from the tree in a spiraling way, swirling about and upwards to the fairy city above, tremendous in its towering height.

  “We had these built in a couple corners of town, in case someone has to carry a large load and can’t fly very well; otherwise we have no use for stairs whatsoever. If they weren’t here, there would be no way I’d be getting you up there by myself,” she explained, beginning to climb the curving stairway.

  “Once we do get up to the city, is there a way for me to get anywhere without wings?” the mage questioned, hoisting his robes and following after her.

  “We do have some rope bridges going from shop to shop along the branches – and some branches are thick enough to walk over from one to another,” Diana replied, fluttering up a ways and skipping a few steps.

  “Oh,” he gulped, looking down over his shoulder – it was already rather high for his liking and they were just going to be getting higher, without guard rails or safety harnesses. “Sounds promising.”

  “Can’t you just make yourself fly? Like, sprout wings with magic?” the fairy girl asked. She perched on a step higher up and waited for Kendel to catch up.

  “No, not really,” he replied, sounding concentrated and concerned.

  “Right, well I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said, noting his exertion.

  They had a long way yet to go.

  Kendel was on his hands and knees when they finally reached the top. He flopped out on his back on a thick branch and gasped into the sky for air. Diana felt a little bad that she wasn’t all that winded, and had just stood back looking about awkwardly and waiting.

  She showed him a couple of shops and passed a couple places one could go to eat before he explained he got vertigo from heights and wasn’t feeling the best.

  They promptly found his guest house and she said farewell to him before heading off to drop her things at the bakery and finally head home herself.

  The night air was crisp and the summer breeze felt nice on her face as she sped down towards the forest floor. It was quite dark but she had learned the best ways to see at night and also knew exactly where she was going. As she landed by her home and went to open the door, she noticed something shimmering in the moonlight just beyond her tree.

  Curiosity grabbed her attention, so she padded past the trunk on soft feet and peered into the night. A mushroom grove was just beyond, she had picked many a time there, but it looked odd somehow. She couldn’t tell very well in the faint light what it was that was different, but it sort of looked as if it had moved, or was in the process of moving.

  She didn’t really feel like traipsing through a mushroom grove at night and getting covered in spores – one could catch a sickness that way if you weren’t careful. She reminded herself to check on it in the morning and headed back to her home, to her friend the inch worm, and to bed.

  Five

  “Do you know anything about mushrooms?” Diana asked the baker, Mrs. Marrow, the next day when she popped in at her usual time to grab a lunch.

  “Hmm, not too much. Just about the ones I ask you for and how to bake with them and a few that are poisonous. What about mushrooms is it that you’re wanting to know?”

  “Well,” Diana straightened, a perplexed look on her face, hands on her hips, and half staring off into the distance, “I have a grove of them near my house, and I often pick some for you there. But this morning, they were all … well, moved and most were quite dead.”

  “Moved and dead?” the woman asked, repeating the girl’s words curiously. “Like how, missy? What does moved even mean? Did a squirrel run through them, breaking off their caps, and kill them all?”

  “Oh no, nothing like that. They weren’t trampled, you see. They’re moved, like …” she struggled to find the words. “They’re usually in a patch, spread out a bit and thick. But this morning they were in a circle around where they usually are and they were dead like they had been burned … but not. They were ashy grey colored and the one I touched was flaky and utterly crumbled when I barely put a finger to it,” she explained, still rather shocked and confused by her discovery.

  “A fairy ring,” the shop keeper gasped under her breath, a hand fluttering to her mouth.

  “A what now?” Diana asked, looking her full in the face, not sure she quite caught what the woman said.

  “Oh, never you mind, dear.” Mrs. Marrow’s normal unconcerned look had returned to her face and she smiled sweetly. “Isn’t it time for school? I saw you roaming about with the mage yesterday. Learning much?”

  Diana narrowed her eyes and wondered at the change of subject. But she knew better than to push for information, so she sighed.

  “Learning a bit. Their realm is much different than our own. I don’t think they even know what a snail is!” she exclaimed, tossing her backpack on and heading for the door. “Thanks for the sandwich,” she called and leapt out into the open air, reminding herself to talk to her friends about what she’d seen and to try to figure out what had happened. Because it didn’t seem like it was something good in the slightest and nothing bad had ever happened before.

  After Diana had hopped off her threshold and winged her way along towards the city’s boarding station, the baker felt her mind go all a-tizzy. Her golden plumed bird began to trill the hour and she patted it on the back nervously. She then grabbed her hat from the hook by the door, put her closed sign in the window, and locked the door behind her as she left her shop, muttering to herself all the way.

  Mrs. Marrow flew through the city’s middle branches, where her shop and all the fairy shops were located. It was the busy sector of the city and was always bustling with activity especially at this time of day when the children were all off to school and fairies were meeting with other fairies to shop or eat a late breakfast or early lunch.

  The baker nodded as she passed many on the branches and they nodded to her in greeting and general happiness. That was the way of the inhabitants of The Magic Vale; always kind and happy and open. ‘Well,’ she reasoned, ‘except towards Diana.’ But things were changing there as well, for the better.

  She kept a smile planted on her flushed cheeks and a twinkle, as much as she could help it, in her wide blue eyes. But inside she was flustered and panicked and all around worried.

  She slightly berated herself for not mentioning to Diana to keep her find to herself for now, or for not bringing the girl with her in the first place. But she didn’t want anyone to worry, even though she was quite upset herself over the matter. She almost flew into someone she was so frazzled. She apologized, tipped her hat and flew off towards the upper branches and the finer homes of the fairy nobility and the council.

  The council. That was where she needed to go; she had to tell them about this strange and disturbing occurrence. And that is exactly where she went.

  High up in the branches of the tallest trees in The Magic Vale, far above where she normally ever
went or had ever thought she would go. But dire news called for desperate measures, and these were now strange times.

  Mrs. Marrow was slightly surprised someone was there to stop her at the council room’s large decorative doors, as there was nothing but peace in The Magic Vale and there was never trouble of any sort. But she was so disoriented that she didn’t ask questions, she just stated her need to see the elders and inform them of the strange and terrible thing that had been seen down below – so far below.

  Because she didn’t know why they wouldn’t, and she definitely would have begun to ask the questions in the back of her mind if they hadn’t, they let her through to see the council. A couple of fairies were inside the main doors and opened the inner doors for her, announcing her presence and name to the seven eldest fairies within.

  The baker hadn’t seen the council’s chamber before, but, as she thought most fairies did, she had dreamed of what it would look like. As she saw now, her imaginings had never come close. The inside was large and round, reaching high to the sky. Up the sides of the walls it looked like tree branches climbed, intertwining in a dancing strength that met at the top and held up the glorious glass roof. The floor had a lush rug of silk that the butterflies and moths had worked hard to create for them as a gift of friendship long ago when the fairies had first arrived in The Magic Vale. Around the room, also in a circle, sat the seven chairs, large snail shells – also a gift – and in those, on feathery down, sat the seven elder fairies who held much wisdom and guided all the goings on of their realm.

  At first she was speechless and wasn’t sure how to start or where to begin – what greeting to offer or if she should curtsy or not. She did offer them a dip at her waist and bob of her head. Then she felt her words catch in her throat; how did one go about addressing elder folk of great importance like this?

  Then one of the seven spoke up, helping her out of her stupor.

  “Welcome and greetings.”

  “Greetings,” she answered back quickly, not wanting to seem rude.

  “Things are changing. Times are moving forward. We all feel it. Evil lurks in the shadows as it never has before,” the council member continued, sounding a bit grave.

  “How do you know that?” she whispered, unnerved by the pronouncement.

  Another member spoke, “Your very presence here is proof of what we talk of. We knew one day this would come. We knew one day things would change. Never before has a fairy come to visit us here in the council without a summons. What news do you bear?”

  Mrs. Marrow swallowed, at least they were expecting bad news so it wouldn’t take them by surprise. But the fact that they had been expecting it at all was upsetting to her. Why had they warned no one below of these things they were so sure would come – and now, by what Diana had seen, were surely here? She felt a twinge of something, but pushed it away. If anyone could help them with the problem of the mushrooms the council could; they would know what to do.

  “I bring news of that which you speak. A terrible thing has occurred in the forest near the base of our trees,” she breathed and then on the exhale let the words carry out of her mouth. “A fairy ring.”

  Even though they had said they were prepared for the news, the seven elder fairies all started and shared looks of unease and surprise. The baker was confused. They had foretold of this happening just now, why were they taken off guard? Her look of confusion said this to them and one of them spoke after a moment.

  “We had thought it would come about slowly, more subtly, in degrees. Not like this. So powerful, so fast.”

  “So much darkness, so quickly,” another added and they all shook their heads.

  “What will it do to the forest?” Marrow asked, not entirely sure of the fairy ring’s capacity. “What will it do to us?”

  There was silence as if they were weighing out what they could tell her and if they should even tell her at all. Eventually, they must have deemed her important enough to know, or wise enough to keep it to herself.

  “A fairy ring is of deep magic, the oldest kind and quite complicated. We remember when the spell was written for it back when we were children. It can only be cast by way of great sacrifice by either the caster or the recipient, and it could be for great evil or for great benefit.”

  “Then, how do you know it is not to our benefit?” Marrow interjected, latching onto hope, her eyes brightening. She had only ever heard that they were heralds of woe.

  “No, it is of no benefit, my dear woman. None whatsoever,” was the sad lament. “When it was written, it was for both good and evil, as were all spells, but as the world grew and ages passed, certain spells took to certain sides and the opposite side effects were either destroyed or greatly diminished. This spell was utterly soaked in darkness and all good intent was lost eons ago to the folds of time and lost in scrolls long forgotten.”

  “Then what ill is it that this brings to the land?” the baker asked, her heart beating faster. What hope there had been was now gone.

  “It depends on the plans of the one who cast it how fast it shall all take effect,” sighed a council member. “But it will start in the woods and leach its festering slime into the ground and the trees roots, rotting things from the inside out. The grass will wither, the trees will die and fall to the ground. The lakes and streams will be defiled and unfit to drink, the air will grow thick and unfit to breathe. Our forest friends – the birds, snails, centipedes, butterflies – they will all leave or fall to the same fate as all of us.”

  “And … to what fate is that?” Marrow dared ask after a pause of silence.

  “Extinction.”

  “Eradication.”

  “The wiping out of a race,” came the chorus of replies.

  The baker’s hand went to her throat as she gasped and blinked rapidly. “Can you not stop it? Since you were there when it was written, you must know how to stop it.”

  “Stop it? No.” They shook their heads in sadness. “Brace for it? Perhaps.”

  “We are old, close to leaving The Magic Vale in other hands and taking our final flights. We cannot stand against this, we have not the strength, or the knowledge.”

  “Then what can we do?” Marrow questioned, despairing at the knowledge that there was nothing able to prevent such a terrible tragedy.

  “What to do? Nothing but prepare for the last of our days. It may take half a year, or it may only be a month. Unless one knows the caster, one knows not the timeline.”

  “And there is no reversal spell you know? None that was written back when the others were?” She was desperate, not sure what this news would do to the other fairies – or if they’d even be allowed to know.

  “There is none that we know of – since the opposite effects were nullified ages ago.”

  “None other than yourself knows of this omen of woe?” A member asked her, she was certain they would want to keep the terror to a minimum but she wasn’t sure how that was going to happen.

  “Myself and one other, the one who told me of the occurrence, actually,” she replied, growing less afraid in her speech and more set in dull certainty of the doom to come. “She’s a child yet and has no idea of what she saw.”

  “Good.”

  “Still, we should speak with her,” the council murmured to one another. “We should prepare a plan for our end of times and she will be our mouth piece to the city in these days.”

  “Diana?” Marrow asked, surprised out of her sorrowful demeanor. “But it is as I said, she is only a child.”

  “Perhaps, but she had the foresight to warn you of this catastrophe and you in turn, the foresight to warn us.”

  Marrow let it all sink in. It was terrible and it was completely unexpected! Why was magic and darkness suddenly now creeping into The Magic Vale? Why now and not ever before? What had changed?

  Suddenly, her eyebrows jumped so far she thought t
hey might have left her forehead.

  “The mage,” she whispered and the council stopped their talking to look at her.

  “What? Speak up ma’am, we can’t hear you if you mutter.”

  “Something has changed in The Magic Vale, good council, as we now see it is something for evil. And the only thing that has changed from now until the beginning is the invitation of this mage into our midst, this wizard of another realm.”

  Silence filled the room for a time as the thought hung heavy in the air. Could the youngster from Castle Majestic really have brought with him the shadows?

  “Miss Mardell brought an unfavorable report of him to us on his first day,” a council member recalled. “She said he had been trying to light a fire in the school, even though it was summer, and nearly burned the entire place to the ground.”

  “It seems mischief was his companion since he first arrived,” another remarked in place of a pause.

  “And, he was with Diana the other day, the day before this morning when she told me about the mushrooms,” the baker broke in with another thought. “What if she accidentally led him to the place where he could set this spell and she has no idea how dangerous he is? What if none of us have any idea of how truly dangerous he is?”

  “We allowed him to come here in good faith. I can’t imagine he would be the reason behind the fairy ring.” A crinkled brow accompanied this statement. “And yet …”

  “But it can be the only explanation!” Mrs. Marrow exclaimed. “He has got to go! And our children must be kept safe!”

  “But if he goes,” a member spoke up, quieting them all. “Then so do we.”

  Odd looks and questioning glances were sent about of “how so” and “what do you mean by that”?

  “I mean, that as long as he’s here he won’t allow the fairy ring’s power to fully accumulate, he wouldn’t risk ending his own life in his sleep. No, he will wait until he is done here and then, he will leave and the ring will escalate to its full potential. The longer we keep him here, the longer we’re safe. And perhaps, in that time, we can think of something to come against the ancient spell and save ourselves and our land in the process.”