Faerie's Champion

by M. H. Johnson

  In turn, Karine had gifted Jess with several sacred mithril artifacts, and the rights to use what resources she would, by way of thanks for saving Karine's family and their estates from being lost to Shadow forever. Jess had indeed forgotten, the great vault being just on the edge of Shadow, where reality and dream began to mingle, and memories of events transpiring within tended to fade with the light of dawn.

  "I see you did forget," noted a bemused Twilight. "Not surprising, really. But if you do choose to remove Zerona from the board, make sure she leaves no notes behind that points an incriminating finger at yourself."

  Jess nodded thoughtfully at that. "Twilight advises we make sure she leaves no deadman's notes behind, and I assume we should also check for any conveniently hidden pigeon coups that messages could be sent to our enemies by."

  “I’ve already taken care of that,” Twilight assured with a toothy grin.

  "Twilight!" Jess grinned. "I thought you only ate fish!"

  Her cat sighed. “Sometimes, exceptions must be made. Feathers, though,” he shivered. “I much prefer scales. Better yet, delicately poached morsels of flaky deliciousness. Speaking of which, I must admit to feeling a bit peckish.”

  Jess gave her beloved cat an indulgent hug, gamely scratching his favorite spots under his chin and behind his ears. "Of course I'll make sure my kitty has only the best! Our borrowed chef has been preparing the most delicious fish entrees for the student body entire. It is time to make sure you partake of the spoils."

  Apple, however, was gazing at Jess curiously. “Twilight is back, you say? I didn’t know he had left.”

  Jess nodded. "Yes. He left a few days before we came to this little pit of purgatory. He said he had to get a feel for the games of politics being played at Court, to best know how to protect us."

  Apple nodded slowly. “An invisible familiar would be an excellent asset in the world of intrigue.”

  Jess grinned. "And he took care of the Headmistress's pigeons. Now we just have to make sure to shred any notes before she can have them sent out, in case we have to eliminate her. But enough on that grim topic. We have a secret mission, remember? A tear in the fabric of reality, a mysterious portal to Shadow. Students lost to who knows what dark Abyss to search for and rescue! We've already wasted enough time with Lady Grimsly making me a pariah, isolating me from our fellow students. None of the girls would even talk to me before. Let's see if we can make any headway today, now that our enemies have been laid low."

  Apple smiled, a humorous rejoinder on the tip of her tongue, when she suddenly blinked and shivered. "Jess? Did you say... former head disciplinarian, earlier?"

  Twilight grinned.

  Jess sighed, but refused to look away from an increasingly alarmed Apple

  “By the gods, Jess, what did you do?”

  "Nothing," Jess quietly said. "I left that for the noble she had double-crossed. Good noblemen honorably knighted died, Apple, thanks to her treachery. Died by my mace, lest I perish myself. Tragedy that would never have occurred, had Lady Grimsly not sought my death."

  Apple swallowed and looked away. “It was Duke Smida, wasn't it? No, Jess. Please. Don't say anything. Everyone knows he's a powerful man and an honorable trader, but as hard and cold as the steel he forges, if he is crossed. If he is on good terms with you now, let's leave it at that.”

  "It is done, Apple. That's all that matters," Jess said.

  Apple swallowed and nodded. “Anyway, when not trying to placate the powers that be on your behalf, futile as that turns out to have been, I did do what I could to figure out what exactly is happening at this academy.” Apple sighed. “Even though everything seems fine on the surface, turns out it's anything but.”

  Jess raised her brows at this.

  “Some of the girls, when they've had a bit too much dinner wine, will confess, sometimes, that they are afraid to go to sleep at night. Afraid they won't wake up.” Apple shivered, her gaze growing haunted. “Everyone swears they know ghosts.”

  “Ghosts?”

  Apple nodded. "Girls they can almost remember. Almost. The dream of girls, once close friends, now forgotten as if they never were." Apple gave a nervous titter. "Of course, that's just one of the tales people like to tell, that we are all secretly haunted by ghosts, trying to enter our dreams, to make us think of people who have never been. But what happens if we start to believe those lucid dreams of friends we never had? We'll wake up and find them right where we always expected them to be, eating in the dining hall, attending classes, laughing at our jokes. Because we will have become ghosts, ourselves."

  Jess swallowed and nodded, feeling an icy shiver caress her spine.

  “Interesting,” Twilight said.

  “Have you met any of these ghosts?” Jess quietly asked.

  Apple gave an abrupt shake of her head. “I wanted to think it all a fanciful tale. Even should it be the heart of the rumor that your... patron? used to inspire you to come here. But all that aside, something truly scary occurred at the gala last night.”

  Jess blinked. “The gala was scary?”

  Her sister gave an exasperated shake of her head. "No, silly, the arrangement! These galas are carefully organized. Boys are never invited in excess of the girls attending, so that no young lord feels slighted. But last night, well, there were thirty fewer girls than boys attending. And that, Jess, is frightfully odd."

  Jess nodded. “Even with Duke Smida's knights attending under odd pretext, that would still only account for a handful more dance partners than expected.”

  Apple nodded. “And allowances are always made for such things.”

  Jess sighed, sharing a solemn glance with her familiar.

  Apple frowned. “What is it, Jess?”

  "I don't think those were dreams of ghosts that the girls were having," Jess said.

  “What is it, then?”

  “Simply put, the memory of girls who were once students known by all, and subsequently lost to the Dreamrealms, such that they are erased from this world entirely. It is as if they never were.”

  Apple paled “Oh gods, Jess, are you sure?”

  “No, Apple. Not entirely. But think about it. It makes sense. If girls have been lost to Shadow, such that everyone forgets they were ever here, no one even realizes that all their student accounts are off. If invitations were sent off for a gala weeks or months ago, and thirty students have wandered off into realms of living dream since then, well, everyone might have forgotten that those girls had even existed, but that doesn't change whatever invitations to eligible nobles or their sons were sent out, and there you have it. Thirty odd extra nobles attending a gala where the men outnumber the ladies.”

  Apple paled. “By the angels above, I hope you're wrong, Jess. I really do.”

  "You're not the only one," Jess said. "But now that my own problems are dealt with, at least for the moment, it's high time I focused on what really mattered. The well-being of these girls, even if half would as soon skip lunch as look at me.”

  Twilight turned his curious gaze full upon his mistress. “It does seem as if some level of Regio might be overlapping reality at this school, does it not? Fascinating. I thought I felt a slight tingle of… something. But it was faint, unlike anything I have ever sensed resonating from the Shadowlands before.”

  "Agreed," Jess nodded. "I know there is something, but as to what it is, how to even reach it, I haven't the faintest idea."

  Apple sighed. “I hate it when I only hear half the conversation.”

  Jess grinned. "Then let's gather Juliana and Rulia, then you can hear three-fourths."

  Apple chuckled despite herself, and together they left their quarters to do just that.

  31

  “So. You and your invisible familiar are actually here on a secret mission to find a mysterious portal to the Dreamrealms through which students are disappearing? How exciting!” declared Juliana as she nibbled on one of the breakfast pastries they had raided the kitchen for before retiring b
ack to Jess’s quarters. Frizzy brown hair set in attractive ringlets, wearing a light blue dress that matched her eyes quite nicely, Jess couldn’t help admiring how well a little confidence and care had helped her shy young friend blossom. Or perhaps it was the fact that all the girls who had so enjoyed haranguing her when Jess wasn't around had finally figured out that Juliana outranked them by leaps and bounds.

  She then flashed a shy smile Jess's way. “So, what do you think of my brother?”

  Jess chuckled softly. “He is a sweet, friendly boy, Juliana, and I am happy to call him a friend.”

  Rulia nodded and winked. “Johann is adorably innocent, for having a father hard as steel. As are you, dear Juliana. With wine, brandy, and some minstrels to regale us with flute and harp, I can imagine the four of us having a very memorable outing.”

  Rulia laughed at her friend's hot blush. “I tease you, my friend. But seriously, he is a fine looking lad, and if I hungered for a nice boy to warm my bed on a melancholy night, I wouldn't mind trading smiles with him.”

  Juliana nodded, cheeks still blushing rosily. “Well, anyway, Johann thinks you are both absolutely wonderful, and Father wanted me to stress that if either of you ever felt like visiting our estates, you are both more than welcome. We have fruit groves and steel smithies both on our properties...” She stopped then and looked away, as if embarrassed to come off so hopeful.

  Jess and Rulia exchanged smiles. “Perhaps we will, at that,” Jess said. “We could all go together, as friends calling on one another, one day, after semester.”

  Juliana, looking relieved and pleased at those words, nodded hopefully.

  "In the meantime," Rulia said, "it sounds like an exciting mystery awaits us! How do we find this mysterious portal, and what's our next step, once we do?"

  Apple tilted her head. "You're not at all afraid of getting sucked up into some shadowy alien world, Rulia?" Juliana paled at the thought, Rulia smiled and shook her head.

  “Far from it, Appolonia. To me it sounds like an exhilarating adventure.”

  Apple chuckled softly. "I can see what the appeal is between you and Jess. You're both cut from the same cloth."

  Jess turned to Rulia, unconsciously brushing a lock of hair from her lover's smiling features. "Well, the first step we must take in tracking down this rift in Shadow is just that. Finding it. Normally I have a sense for this sort of thing. I can sort of feel the Dreamrealms pressing against our reality. Mostly. But this time, for some reason I can't. It's like it's different. More ephemeral, somehow. But I know it's there. Somewhere. We just need to find it."

  Rulia tilted her head. “Can’t you just look to the horizon for a wavering castle shimmering like a mirage, or ancient fortifications oddly out of place, barely visible in the distance, and guide yourself to it, letting its image anchor you on a path through the border between this reality and the realm of dreams?”

  Jess sighed and shook her head. “It’s a good idea, Rulia, but…”

  “It should be,” her friend grinned. “I got it from your book, after all.”

  “Well, I tried it any number of times on the days I mostly had to myself, after Grimsly sought to break me. No luck. Nothing looks or feels out of place. There’s just a faint silver sheen of… something.

  Rulia stretched. “Well there has to be some clue, especially if your mysterious friend reports that students went missing, and Apple made a very good point about the inconsistent pairings at the gala. I've been here longer than either of you, I'm ashamed to say, and never are the boys allowed to outnumber the girls.”

  Apple frowned. "From what you've told me, Jess, when people are lost to Shadow, friends and family left behind tend to forget that their loved ones had even existed, as if the victims had dropped out of existence and time both. That's a bad sign, of course, since I think you also implied that, like as not, it means they've perished there as well. Anyway, they must have gotten there somehow."

  Apple gazed thoughtfully out of one of the opened windows for some moments, before a wry smile came to her face. "You have always had a knack for stories, Jess. Wild, improbable adventure seems to cling to you, whenever the world turns odd." Apple shrugged her shoulders. "Mayhap an element of that high drama is to be found, even here. Perhaps there is a secret clique here at the academy that seeks to master odd magics or unravel some forbidden mystery, all in some silly quest to win the heart of some young man that has struck their fancy. Or mayhap ancient ghosts of girls wronged by past head disciplinarians seek vengeance on the living. Who knows?"

  Apple grinned. “Of course, for all we know, the head disciplinarian's craziness went far beyond you, Jess, compelling girls to withdraw from their courses in that most sacred of all manners, fleeing for home before a single teacher caught wind of their desire to withdraw, all so that the crazy Grimsly wouldn't find out before they had fled. Gods only know what she would have done if she had feared looking bad before a fleeing girl's elders, probably threatening to beat and cage any students threatening to withdraw until they were too broken to dare protest signing away yet another year of their life.” Apple gazed solemnly at Jess. “I know you saw that hallway full of cells, Jess. That was an old wing for prisoners if I ever saw one, and for all that it seemed empty, all the doors open, and even if it is a relic of a bygone era, the fact remains that Grimsly chose to put her offices in what was once a goalkeeper's master room. Now if that wouldn't compel a girl to flee this madhouse, I don't know what would.”'

  Jess flushed in acute embarrassment, realizing that she hadn't noticed at all, having had eyes only for Grimsly, Aislin, and her terrified sister. And once the beating had started, she hadn't focused on anything at all, save Apple's horrified gaze, and resisting the urge to snap Grimsly's neck, then and there. An unforgivable lapse, really. What if an unseen enemy had been waiting in ambush?

  Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Really, Jess? I'm gone for a few days, and you didn't even notice a wing of cells that could have been used to cage you? Sloppy, mistress. Regrettably sloppy.”

  Jess flushed and didn't bother to answer.

  Juliana paled and shivered. “I had heard rumors that head disciplinarian Lady Grimsly was not one to be trifled with, that girls who were too uppity would emerge from her offices pale and shaken, refusing to say a word, and they might have been gone for days.” Maybe you are right, Apple. Maybe people were just fleeing from that madwoman.”

  Apple shrugged. “Then again, Jess is here, so I doubt the solution is that simple. Anyway, we won’t get anywhere just eating pasties here all day, tasty as they are. Some of us should go mingle with our peers and try to get an inkling of anything interesting. Mayhap there is some hidden sorority here at the school dabbling in forbidden arts. Or perhaps we could find some odd tomes giving clues to lost secrets or ancient wrongs committed on academy grounds buried somewhere in the library, and someone should tell the guards to check those cells, just in case.”

  Jess said, “None of those are bad ideas, Apple. I like the way you think.”

  Apple grinned. "Well, you should. We are sisters, after all, and I'm no idiot."

  Jess nodded in agreement. "True. Well then, much as I hate to admit it, you three would be the better choice by far for mingling with the students here. Grimsly did everything she could to compel our fellows to scorn me, and it might be awhile before they realize that I am now avoiding class entirely by choice, and not as some punitive measure. And of course, I doubt any of them yet realize that Grimsly will never be troubling anyone, ever again."

  Juliana paled and looked away, everyone present having the grace not to say what they already knew.

  Rulia smiled. “Perhaps the rumor will be that the head disciplinarian fled in shame when you threatened to reveal sordid details of her past indiscretions, and that your journey the other day was tracking down the proof that Grimsly had long thought safely hidden? All that anyone will know is that you have contacts in unexpected places, the sort of power these girls can respect, and
that crossing you is a bad idea.”

  Apple chuckled evilly. “Yes. That sounds like the perfect rumor to let blossom to life. But in the meantime, Jess still isn't the best candidate for inviting the confidences of our fellows.”

  Juliana gave a solemn nod, looking quite relieved with the turn the conversation had taken.

  "In any event, while you three are off doing social reconnaissance, I can be the one to look for whatever clues legend or history might have left us." Jess grinned. "Looking for records of ancient rites and mysterious arts is something my friends and I liked to do as a hobby, back at Highrock. So I sort of have a feel for what a dark tome dripping with eldritch lore looks like."

  Twilight cleared his throat at that, giving Jess a pointed look. "Okay, Twilight is the one skilled at hunting down compendiums of forbidden power. But I've found some interesting tomes as well, Twilight."

  Her familiar gave a bemused nod. "Yes. When it comes to unearthing ancient tomes involving herbal lore and adventurer's tales, you are the one to follow. Of course, your technique mostly involves looking for the most colorful volumes, or those with the faintest whiffs of ancient crushed herbs emanating from within."

  "Well, it was still interesting reading," Jess insisted, ignoring the curious stares her friends were giving her.

  "She often has these one-sided conversations," Apple noted dryly, earning solemn nods from their friends.

  “Very well then,” Jess concluded some moments later, after further quibbling with her familiar. “It's settled. You three go off and plumb our student body for all their juicy secrets, making sure no girl is still trapped in those haunted dungeons, while Twilight and I go questing for ancient tomes of eldritch lore.”