by R. A. Rock
“Finn, come on, buddy,” he said, putting his hand on the Fae’s shoulder and infusing him with the tiniest tendril of magic. Only just enough. Ethan didn't like using magic this way. Avoided it usually at all costs. But this was Finn's life.
Finn opened his eyes, looking bright and alert once more. Thank goodness. Ethan let out the breath he’d been holding. This was getting ridiculous.
“What happened?” Finn said, glancing around. “We made it to the Passageways?”
“Yes,” Tess said, upset. “And you collapsed.”
“Again,” Jayde reminded him.
“I’m fine,” he said. Tess gave him a glare. “I’m fine. Really.”
He relented.
“Or as fine as can be under the circumstances. You know this may happen, Tess. You can’t get mad at me every time it does.”
Tessa’s eyes filled with tears and she turned away to the wall, folding her arms over her chest. Oh sheesh. She wasn’t going to cry again was she? Ethan did about as well with crying faeries as Ignis.
“Okay you three,” Jayde suddenly spoke, and though her voice was small, it held a note of complete authority. “You better start explaining.”
Tess drew a deep breath. “Right, Jayde. You might have trouble believing this but what we’re going to tell you is the truth.”
“Okay,” she said, waiting.
“Finn and I are Fae.”
“Fae?” Jayde said as if she didn’t comprehend. “As in fairies?”
“That’s right. We’re not from the Earthly Realm. We came here to get the Chalice of Life that you call—”
“The Holy Grail,” Jayde said, understanding how she fit. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No,” Tess said, watching her reaction.
“You expect me to believe you’re fairies? Like Tinkerbell?”
“Ugh.” Finn made a disgusted sound from where he sat on the floor. “That is the worst representation of a fairy I have ever seen. You Starless Ones get things really wrong sometimes.”
Jayde gazed at him, bewildered.
Ethan sighed. “We don’t have time for this. Just prove it Tess.”
“Prove it?” Tess said, looking at him. “How?”
“Turn into a Faerie,” he said as if it was obvious. He made a move it along gesture with his hand.
“Oh,” Tess said, understanding. He wanted her to shift to her tiny form, which would work because they were in the Passageways where there was enough ambient magic. “Hold out your hand, Jayde.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” Finn said and she gave him an annoyed look but complied.
Tess closed her eyes and focused. She felt herself falling and she began to fly. Her wings made a comparatively loud fluttering sound in the extremely quiet room. She opened her eyes and flew around in a circle, landing on Jayde’s outstretched palm.
Tess spread her arms. “Ta da.”
Jayde’s eyes were large and she was perfectly still.
“And just to be clear, I’m a Faerie all the time, not just when I look like this.”
Ethan furrowed his brow as he studied Jayde. “Are you going to pass out, mortal?”
“Mannegishi,” Jayde said, unfreezing.
“She’s speaking in tongues now,” Ethan said, shaking his head and turning away. “That’s it. There’s no reasoning with someone once they start speaking in tongues. Trust me. I know..”
“I’m not in a trance,” Jayde said, starting to smile. “You’re mannegishi.”
She pronounced it man-uh-gehsh, with no emphasis on any particular syllable, and you could hardly hear the ending sound at all.
“What’s that?” Ethan asked.
“Mannegishi,” Jayde repeated. “The Little People. My Kookum used to tell me about them. Sometimes, we’d sit by the water for hours, watching for them.”
Her face lit up as she talked.
“We figured because she was an old lady and I was a child, we ought to be able to spot one. You know, they say they show themselves to children and to the old, as well. Not to adults. But we never saw one. Not ever.”
She fixed her shining eyes on Tess.
“I never thought I would.”
“Look, I don’t know what your fairy tale says,” Finn cut in and Jayde whipped her head around to look at him. “But faeries aren’t like that. We’re manly.”
He glared at Jayde.
“Well, the male Fae are, anyway,” he amended. “We aren’t little—most of the time. We don’t grant wishes. We don’t have wands.”
“You don’t have pointed ears,” Jayde said in a small voice, sounding disappointed.
“Actually,” Ethan said, flicking his hand toward Tess and Finn and showing Jayde what was behind the spell.
Jayde sucked in a surprised breath. “You do have pointed ears.”
“Yeah, we disguised them to fit in amongst you humans,” Finn said.
Ethan waved his hand once more, no longer revealing the truth behind the illusion.
“What language is that you’re speaking?” Finn asked.
“What? When I said Mannegishi? That’s Cree. It’s an Indigenous language. My mother and grandmother are Cree.”
“Indigenous?” Finn asked.
“Yeah, you know. Aboriginal, Native, First Nations… Indigenous.”
“Ah,” Finn said, looking like that explanation hadn’t helped him much, even with the universal translator spell.
“You’re Cree?” Ethan said, surprised. “But you look…”
“What? Black?”
“I don’t want to offend,” Ethan said.
“No offense taken. I am. Half. I guess you’d call me African-American if we were in the States, but that just sounds weird to me. Nobody uses that term here.” Jayde shrugged. “I’m half Cree and half… well, my father was a first generation Canadian and his parents came from Barbados. So, whatever that makes me. A mix, I guess—like many Canadians are.”
“And that’s why you have such lovely skin?” Tess said.
Jayde gave her a genuine smile. “Yes, thank you, but I got my hair from my mother,” she said, running her fingers through her long straight hair that was so black it almost had a blue sheen to it.
Then she dropped her eyes.
“Canadian society is fairly accepting, but even so, I never really felt like I fit.”
“That must have been hard,” Ethan said, knowing what that was like. He never quite fit with the humans, nor with the Fae when he had spent time with them. Not with anyone, really.
“It was, sometimes. But with my Kookum, I always fit.” Her eyes got warm as she remembered. “I could always be me, whatever that was.”
“She sounds nice,” Finn said.
“She is,” Jayde confirmed, sitting down next to Finn. “Anyway, I was raised by my grandmother a lot of the time. My mother was away on digs, and lecturing, and all the things that being a highly respected archaeologist entails. When she was away, I stayed with Kookum. And we sat by the lake, watching for Little People.”
She laughed and Ethan watched Finn watching her. He seemed entranced.
“So, wait,” Finn said. “Different peoples intermarry here?”
Ethan guessed he was thinking of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts back in Ahlenerra. The two sides weren’t even allowed to see each other more than once a century, never mind intermarry.
“Well, there was a time when they weren’t allowed to. But yeah. At least in Canada, it’s pretty normal. And I think that the trend is spreading around the world.”
“Ha,” Finn said, clapping his hands once and grinning. “We should send Lorcan and Runa here, Tess. They could live like lovebirds.”
Tess laughed at the inside joke that neither Ethan nor Jayde understood. Tess explained.
“It’s just we know these two people who are in love but they come from opposites sides of our land and they’re not allowed to be together. So Finn thought they should come here because they would be allowed to get
married.”
“Maybe they should,” Jayde said, not joking.
Ethan narrowed his eyes at Jayde.
“Why are you taking this so well, mortal?” he said. “Shouldn’t you be more suspicious like most of your kind?”
“Well, Faerie,” she said to Ethan. “There are a number of reasons why I should believe you—”
“No, no, no,” Ethan said, holding up his hands and shaking them back and forth in denial. “I am not a Faerie. Do I look like a Faerie, Woman?”
Jayde lifted one shoulder and dropped it as if she didn’t think it mattered.
“To be honest, you all look human to me.”
Chapter 31
“Heck, I thought you were human until five minutes ago,” Jayde said. “I don’t think I’m the one to ask.”
Ethan gazed down in consternation at Jayde, where she sat on the soft-looking grey-carpet floor beside Finn. The four of them were in one of the weird, bare, grey rooms of the Passageways. He thought it must be after lunch now, but who could tell in these nondescript, empty rooms? Filling Jayde in on who and what they were was going remarkably well. Or suspiciously well, in Ethan’s opinion.
“But if you’re not a Faerie,” she went on. “Then what are you?”
Ethan continued to be struck dumb at the thought that she considered it possible that he was one of those inferior beings.
It had been so long since he had hung out with anyone who might question him that he didn’t quite know what to say. The other humans that he spent time with tended to agree with everything he said and talk about reality TV and their plans for their next social media selfie.
She thought for a moment and then continued guessing, since he still hadn’t answered her questions.
“The Hunters called you a Shifter. Are you a werewolf?” She sounded delighted by the idea.
“No. I’m not one of those damn dogs.” He really shouldn’t say that too loud, though. Rogan took offense easily and Ethan didn’t want to offend him if he could help it.
Jayde squinted her eyes, thinking. “Maybe a vampire?”
“No.” By this time, Ethan was so insulted, that he was beside himself. He couldn’t even speak.
Finn and Tess looked amused.
“So, then,” Jayde prompted. “What are you?”
There was a long pause.
“He’s a Hunter,” Tess said, laughing.
“I’m The Great Hunter,” Ethan said finally. It felt strange to say it. It had been so long. “The first. The original. The beginning of the race of Hunters.”
“Aha,” Jayde said, snapping her fingers crisply as if she had just figured something out. “You gave that Hunter crap for not doing his job properly.” Then she got a puzzled expression on her face. “What’s a Hunter?”
“We protect the Humans. Keeping the balance between them and the other supernatural creatures who walk the Earth.”
“Awesome,” Jayde said. Then a thought occurred to her. “But why didn’t that Hunter know who you were, then?”
Ethan felt mildly uncomfortable. “I haven’t lived amongst the Hunters in a long time,” he said, trying to act as if it wasn’t a big deal. “I leave the leading to my second in command, Rebekah—the Immortal Huntress.”
“Cool names,” Jayde said, her eyes sparkling.
“But back to why you’re so accepting of all this,” Ethan said, wanting to get the attention off himself.
“Hunter,” Tess said, calling him by his last name. “Leave the human alone.”
“No, it’s okay,” Jayde said. “I can explain.”
“You can?” Finn asked, turning his head to look at her.
She gave a nod.
“One,” she said, tapping her thumb with the index finger of her other hand, “I have been chasing unbelievable things my whole life,” she paused dramatically, “with unshakeable faith.”
Jayde took the time to meet each of their eyes and then went on when no one said anything.
“I did my Master’s degree on Medicine Wheels in North America and their connection to points in Europe like Stonehenge. I did my Ph.D on the Holy Grail, for goodness sake.”
“That’s a solid point,” Finn conceded. “We noticed that most humans don’t believe in any of this.”
“Right. But my Kookum always said that there would be things in my life that I wouldn’t understand. But just because you can’t comprehend them with the mind, doesn’t make them any less real.”
“Here, here,” Ethan said, pretending to applaud. “All right. I’m convinced that you’re convinced. Besides, your magical signature is definitely human, so you’re probably not something else in disguise.”
Jayde lifted her eyebrows. “You considered that a possibility?”
Ethan nodded. “Of course.”
“Wow.” She beamed. “Wait, I have a magical signature?”
“All of life does,” Ethan said. “If you didn’t, you creatures wouldn’t have things like love, hope, or happiness. You don’t have much magic in you. But you have some.”
“Wow,” Jayde said again, her face alight with wonder.
“Okay, now she’s on board,” Finn said with a smile.
“I’m on board. I’m all in. Let’s do this.”
The three magical beings smiled indulgently at the cute little human, so thrilled about magic.
“I’m too excited aren’t I?” she asked, looking a little sheepish. “About magic?”
“Not too excited,” Finn said. “But for us to be so enthusiastic about magic… well, it would be like if you were excited about your blood, for instance. Would you be thrilled about something so integral to your being and life?”
“No,” she said, understanding.
“You see?” he said. “Magic is what we are.”
“Oh man, that is so cool,” Jayde said, clenching her hands into fists, she was so excited.
“Now, there’s not time to explain everything, Jayde, but we’ll try to get you up to speed as we go along, okay?” Finn said.
Jayde nodded. “What do we do now?” she asked, jumping to her feet. “And where are we again?”
“We should go back to your place,” Tess said.
“We’re in the Passageways,” Finn said to her from where he sat on the floor. Jayde offered him a hand and he took it, getting up with only a little difficulty. “Have you ever heard of a faerie ring?”
“Those circles of mushrooms that grow on lawns sometimes?” Jayde inquired. “Or a faerie ring that fairies have revels in at night?”
“They’re one and the same,” Finn said, giving her a grin.
Jayde’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Faerie rings are how we travel on the Earthly Realm,” Tess explained. She directed her next words to Finn. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” he said, then went on with what he was telling Jayde. “And the reason that Revels are held in faerie rings on Earth is because there’s more magic there than in the surrounding area.”
“Are you telling me that the Omahk is a faerie ring?” Jayde said, a tiny frown line between her eyebrows.
“It is that and other things as well,” Ethan said, re-entering the conversation and trying the door as he spoke. It was locked. “Tess, can you open this?”
“Yeah,” she said, going and turning the knob. “It only opens for Faeries.”
“Are we not supposed to be here, then?” Jayde asked, looking nervous at the thought. “Some big, bad faerie is going to come along and give us heck?”
“He’s not big and bad,” Finn told her as they filed out into the hallway. “And you’re allowed to come with us.”
“What other things is the Omahk, Ethan?” Jayde asked as they began to walk down the seemingly endless hall.
Ethan glanced back at her. “Oh, the Medicine Wheel, like Stonehenge and various other spots that humans have identified as sacred places, are actually places where there are concentrations of magic.”
“Oh,” Jayde sa
id, her eyes wide with delight.
“The Earthly Realm has hardly any ambient magic,” Finn explained. “That’s why your species has evolved with so little in your system. You basically just have enough to survive.”
“Right.” Jayde was riveted.
“And the reason that there’s a higher concentration at the Omahk or Stonehenge is because magic leaks through from Esper in those places,” Ethan said.
“Oh, I know what I’ve been wondering,” Jayde said. “Can you explain why the equinoxes and solstices are so important to those places as well?”
Finn seemed pleased by her question. “Yes, there are surges of magic from Esper on those days, making the concentration higher than it usually is. High enough that even relatively insensitive humans can feel it.”
Tess had picked up a tablet, looked up Jayde’s address, and followed the map to a door. She set the tablet on a nearby shelf and tried the knob. It was locked.
“What in the Chasm?”
Finn tried the door next to him. It was locked too. They began trying doors up and down the hallway. They were all locked.
“What’s going on?” Finn said to Tess, who shrugged.
“No idea.”
They all turned at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. It was an old man.
“Who’s this?” Ethan said.
“It’s the Caretaker,” Tess told him.
When the old faerie got close enough, he began to speak and he didn’t seem kind and helpful like the last time Tess and Finn had seen him.
“What’s all this?” he said, fluttering his hands. “All non-Fae travelers must be approved. Where are your passes?”
“We don’t have any,” Ethan said.
“Ah, no passes.” The Caretaker shook his head. “That won’t do.”
“How do we get passes, Caretaker?” Tess said in a gentle voice. “Just tell us.”
“When you come into the room, there’s a… oh, I’ll just show you.” He took an enormous ring of keys off his belt and quickly found one and opened the door he was standing next to.
