REALM'S END (BOOK OF FEY 1) (27 page)

Guilt

They held the ceremony in the late afternoon. Sephoria and the Great Rowan presided over the ceremony to send on the Fey known as Jafe. As was their custom, they did not delay, it was imperative to return a Fey’s spirit to the homeland, as quickly as was possible. Reuniting in the spirit world of Fey brought the spirit an opportunity to heal.

Though there was a sense of surety among the inner council, of Jafe’s guilt, the tribes were called to gather, as was the custom. Any tribe member who was not away from the community met in the great circle by the sea, as all would lend their energy to send him forth on his return journey. There was keening and many songs to assist Jafe’s spirit in its return. Afternoon turned to eventide before the circle was emptied of all the citizens who came to honor the passing Fey.

Afterward, Sephoria made her way to Lindel’s bonding tree, using her ability to transport by magic for she hoped to travel unnoticed. She even allowed herself to enter directly into the tree’s inner chamber, though it was considered impolite to do so. She found Lindel and Lisl sitting; their heads bent low in the required prayers. A great peace radiated outward from Lisl. However, Lindel’s energy was a mixture of shame and pain. Sephoria cleared her throat. “I hope you both will forgive my intrusion and my lack of courtesy by transporting into your home this way.”

Lisl lifted her smiling face to her teacher. “I expected nothing less and you are always welcome teacher,” she said. Lisl rose from her seat. “Come and sit wise one and I shall make us tea,” she said, motioning to her now empty chair.

Lindel raised his head too, he blanched. Sephoria saw his washed out color, even by itself, it was more than enough reason for the unannounced visit. “Lindel I see you are suffering greatly over Jafe’s death. At this rate if you do not stop this ego suffering, you will not be here for Briok’s return,” she said, soothingly as she lowered her bulk into the empty chair.

Lindel’s eyes grew bright. “You believe wise one that Briok will return?”

Her craggy voice rang out, as she looked deeply into Lindel’s face. “Of course he will, of that I have no doubt at all. It’s his destiny to save our people from extinction. He must return in order to do that.” Sephoria reached out and let her gnarly hand and stroke the Fey’s arm. “You have come to the inner self now, it seems ugly, it feels ugly to you because you are awakened, but don’t let the grief, or the shame turn you from your intention.” Her voice turned soft, as she spoke gently to her friend.

Lindel’s head bowed, orange tears began to stream unabated down his face.

Sephoria sat quietly, patting Lindel’s hand, while he wept. “Remember don’t let your tears wash away too much of your life force. Briok will need your strength in the coming days.”

After a while, Lindel reached up and wiped the orange tears away. He forced himself to sit erect and to take deep cleansing breaths. Finally he raised his eyes and looked into the depths of the wise woman’s dark pupils.

“It may seem a great burden, for it is harder to live with our own failings, much harder as you will learn, but we can’t succumb to our shame. We must forgive ourselves, and move on so that our growth can benefit the next generations.”

Lindel nodded. “How does one reconcile hurting someone to protect others?”

Sephoria laughed wryly. “My son, it takes a great deal more wisdom then I have acquired, to answer such a deep question. Perhaps, after Briok leaves us, you will come to the college and spend your days looking for such an answer, as you might find. It has long been on my mind that we need to honor all the Fey within the college, not just the young sisters who may someday replace me.”

Lindel sat quietly considering Sephoria’s words. “It may be so mother, it may be so,” he said, with a nod of his head.

“Good I can see now that you are past the worst of it, but be ever vigilant, for without diligence, this disease will return to blight your spirit. Be true to yourself first, and all will be well. I need to go now, there are other urgent matters,” Sephoria said. She turned to wave at Lisl who stood in the shadows, close by. “He will be fine now. Prepare now for the child will soon return, or so the Rowan says,” and with that she disappeared.

It Hits the Fan

The door burst open, the sisters’ voices rang out in screams but still they managed to turn as one, poised and ready to stop whoever dared enter their home. Before them an exhausted James rushed into the cottage with a pike he had rescued as he had passed the sheep shed. The young Fey fluttered overhead.

Seeing that the women were unharmed James threw the pike to the floor, and rushed to take Meredith into his arms. “Oh my darling I was so afraid for you. I swore, I would kill any man who brought harm to you,” he whispered.

Meredith returned his embrace, she sighed deeply as she allowed herself to relax, for a moment within his strong grip. She wanted nothing more than to murmur her love to him, but knew the eyes of the others were upon them. Finally, she broke the hug and stepped gently away from James.

Holding him at arm’s length, Meredith said. “I have something to tell you, James and it isn’t going to be easy.”

James stepped closer and taking her face in his hands he leaned forward and kissed her deeply on the mouth.

Meredith found she’d temporarily lost her voice. She cleared her throat and took James’ hand in her own. “Darling I haven’t been completely honest and for that I am sorry. Originally we came,” she said waving to her sisters who stood nearby, “to help Gwenth with her destiny, but it hasn’t worked out quite as we planned. Her fate is more entwined with the Fey then we ever imagined.” Meredith felt her voice and her nerve falter further, as she began to speak about the shape shifting, and of being witches.

James listened as she began the tale of how she had come to be here. “I already know most of your story from Briok. At first I found it hard to believe what he told me, but I kept seeing his wings rising and falling and realized if the story seemed too farfetched, how would I ever explain his wings? But the part where I’m a God, that’s new. Briok said you thought it was my Anna who was the witch. The stories don’t match. Why? Then there is the part where I heard you say you helped Gwenth go on this journey to a faraway land. Is that true?” James felt his anger growing as he realized these women; these witches had played with his daughter’s life. He felt himself growing taller and taller; his head bumped into the rafters from where he looked down on Meredith. “Are you saying you are behind my daughter to be sent off alone to a dangerous world?”

Meredith knew there was only one choice. To choose anything else would be to force her sisters into a position of protecting her, which she knew they would do to the death. She forced her body to grow and twist grotesquely in front of the man she loved. “Who are you to order me about, or try to frighten me like an old woman?” She pointed to his height; “this magic isn’t mine, but your own. How dare you mislead me for so long,” she yelled in fury at him.

“Stop it right now!”

James and Meredith both whipped their heads around and saw that Gwenth stood in the doorway of the sleeping room, her face was splotchy and red and the bodice of her blouse was clearly soaked from the tears she’d cried.

James longed to leap over these women and grab up his daughter and hold her close. He wanted to protect her and take her away from here before the villagers arrived with sticks and fire.

Gwenth’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Who are either of you to pass judgment anyway,” she yelled at them. “If it weren’t for you two, none of us would be in this trouble now. You broke the old laws didn’t you father. And you,” she said turning on Meredith, “you used us for your own ends,” she screamed.

Suddenly Briok swooped down amongst them all. “Listen to me,” he shouted.

James swung at the Fey, narrowly missing the boy.

Briok tumbled through the air, barely slipping out of the way in the nick of time. He forced his wings to carry him back in the fray, while being careful to stay out of arms’ reach. He yelled at James. “Remember the villagers? They are still on their way, and if we do not get away now, we may never get away,” he yelled at the enraged James!  Turning to each person in turn, he gave them a beseeching look. “Please if we don’t get away very soon, there will be nothing left to fight about and both your world and mine will suffer. Please,” he begged. His wings held him aloft before their eyes.

Reval broke in, “What is this talk about the villagers,” she asked, from where she stood by the fireplace?

In a flash Briok understood that James in his pain wanted the villagers to come, and take the women away as witches. Briok turned towards Reval and signed. “Your neighbor has claimed all who live here are witches,” he hesitated a moment. “I think it was the night I flew through the storm to get Gwenth here. I think she must have seen me,” he hung his head in shame.

“Nonsense child,” Reval said gently. “Whether you were seen or not, is not the trouble, this witch talk is like a cancer upon the humans. They like to scare themselves and others with their talk of evil and they have long believed evil of anything inspired of magic,” she snorted. “That woman next door, I have met her, she looks for trouble, wants trouble to come, and if she cannot find it, she will make it up. It’s only funny this once, because her claim is true.” Reval snapped her fingers and a cane appeared. Pushing her weight down on it, she raised her great girth from the armless chair. She turned towards the group and snapped her fingers. “Now that I have your attention, you will all listen to me. Do you understand? We are going to work together to save the children and Gods willing we might get lucky and save both worlds, because if it doesn’t work Briok’s people will need a world to come too!”

Meredith, James, Hectain shook their heads slowly in agreement.

“As for you two when we get to where we are going, if you aren’t too busy saving time, maybe there will be time to finish your fight,” she said, sending a withering glance, toward the married couple. “Shame on you both,” she said, her index finger wiggling at them.  “Hectain, you will come with me please, we need to talk to the Corvine and see if they are willing to distract the villagers so that we can get the Dembys out of the rafter.”

Hectain nodded, she had never seen her sister so forceful or sure of herself. She would do whatever Reval asked if for no other reason than to get her alone to ask her about the change in herself.

“Good now, Meredith show James the Dembys, maybe it will jog his memory, we could use a God’s magic right about now. Briok you help Gwenth pack the baby’s things, we will all be leaving shortly. All right then you all have your orders, get to it.” Reval snapped her fingers, and she and Hectain disappeared.

Pit Comes Clean

Pit hurried as fast as his squat legs would carry him, which wasn’t fast at all; he had to talk with both the Rowan and Sephoria. He had to explain what had happened with the Dembys. He knew the Rowan’s memory was long, but he was not sure that it extended as far back as to when he had first arrived. He pressed on, huffing as he climbed through the tunnels towards the Rowan’s sacred heart room. He knew with certainty that his life force was slowly ebbing away. How many eons he had lived he could not say, he could still remember his arrival in the Realm and his mission, which oddly enough hadn’t meant much until recently. Now suddenly as he was winding down and his life was clearly ebbing, the struggle was upon them all, and he found he was hard pressed to carry out his duty.

He stopped outside the Rowan’s great door and spoke the sacred words, the door swung in and he stepped across the threshold into the golden lit room. The warm energy renewed him almost immediately, and he hurried toward the sacred seat. To his surprise, he saw that Sephoria was waiting there as well, by the looks of it; she was in a deep trance. He hesitated for only a second, whatever happened now; he had to have their help.

Sephoria lifted her head and turned his way as he approached. “Mind if I help,” she asked? Not waiting for his reply, she shifted the energy in the room and suddenly he was stood directly in front of the seat of the Rowan and the wise woman. “There that’s better. You look peaked,” Sephoria said, to the meteorite.

“Thank you wise one,” Pit said, bowing low. “I fear your people may wish they had not befriended me, all those long millennia,” he said, staring at the ground. “I’m afraid I really have not been a good friend.”

Sephoria threw her head back, and laughed heartily. “What? After all these years, you’ve finally come to tell us of your treachery? Funny timing don’t you think?”

Pit heard the Rowan’s laughter in his mind and understood things weren’t quite as he’d thought. “You mean you’ve known all these years?”

Sephoria smiled upon the stocky meteorite. “Well, let’s just say we suspected for a long time. You did a pretty good job of hiding yourself, but well… let’s just say we were certain when the fourth Dembys turned up missing. That was all the proof we needed.”

Pit sat down on his haunches as he tried to take it all in.

“You look shocked little one,” the Rowan’s voice said, in Pit’s mind.

Pit looked up at the great benevolent tree and felt the love and strength rolling off it into his own body. Pit bowed low, “Yes great one, I believed all this time that you were unaware of the part I played in the Dembys arrival.”

The Rowan laughed. “Not so little one, Sephoria and I both had heard the tales as we were growing up of your arrival, and of course the previous keeper, the Great Cedar tree, passed on the legend of a sacred stone that would share of itself, making time travel possible. It was when the fourth portion of the Dembys went missing; we were reminded of the legend and of our suspicions, that you were the stone. Did you not wonder, when Sephoria suggested you use the warm sands in the travel cavern for your health?”

Pit’s small eyes blinked several times as he understood his mission probably had never been hidden from these two or from their elders either. “But why did you help me? Didn’t you understand it would be the end of your world?”

Sephoria smiled upon the small meteorite. “Has it never occurred to you, that we knew already our world would end? Nothing lasts forever, not worlds, or tribes, or even ideas. We recognized right away that if you were in fact the keeper of the Dembys, your mission might in fact help save our world, albeit in an unusual way, but certainly it would be a more graceful ending. We have seen you as our potential savior all these years. It did no harm to make room for you within our world, and if you were indeed the keeper of the Dembys, then we might benefit when the time came.”

Pit looked from the Sephoria to the sacred seat. Once again, he bowed low, and let himself linger in that way for a moment. Finally he raised his eyes. “It would be my great honor to assist your world to evolve then. I see I have been the lucky one all these years to have been taken in by a truly wise people. Can I ask what will become of the red haired girl that you guard?”

The Rowan’s voice rang out clearly in Pit’s mind, and spoke of all that might yet transpire, if all things fell correctly. Pit’s eyes opened in wonder. Again he bowed low and held the position longer then was required. “You are a truly wise people. I wish I could save your world, for I am afraid that after it passes away, it will become nothing more than a story told round the fires.”

“Nonsense, worlds evolve as you say, our people will pass away for the most part yes, that’s true but their lives will not be cut short in any real sense, because it was meant for them to give themselves in this time, but our world will continue, our people will grow and change, something that cannot happen here ever as we all know. This world was always meant to be temporary. It would not have lasted even this long, if things had unfolded as the God’s meant for them too. Now at least, our children will travel to the future and seed another world. One that has many eons yet to live, so don’t be sad Pit, we were born for this,” Sephoria voice rang with courage.

“Come little one, we must make plans to help one another, the time for the child’s return is growing ever nearer,” the Rowan’s voice rang out clear, like a wake up bell in Pit’s mind.

“Yes soon, but I have to tell you about the Dembys,” Pit said speaking quickly.

Sephoria cocked her great leafed head and looked at the meteorite standing before her. “What is it, friend?”

“Well it’s not quite what you think. It may not be important at all but I think you are confused just a bit and later it may matter.”

“Speak then little one.”

“I didn’t exactly bring the Dembys here. You see I am the Dembys or rather they and I are one.  When I arrived I broke off four parts of my body and let them fall upon your world. I knew they would find save haven and build a beautiful home for themselves. One in which your people could harness to travel in time. Two pieces will arrive soon, I think and I took back the third piece so no one else can use it to leave the Realm. The fourth as I said is still missing.”

Sephoria laughed again. “Well good on you Pit. You have surprised us both. We figured you had been responsible for the Dembys arrival, but we never considered that you were the Dembys. We had just been discussing how to find the missing Dembys to see if we could assist the return of the children.” Sephoria chuckled. “We never suspected that you were the Dembys. We’ve been afraid of just what you’ve said that someone took the Dembys off world and the child would not be able to return without one to connect with. So you will be able to act as a conduit for the Dembys to connect with and return here. Bravo!”

Pit smiled, “True, but there is still one piece missing. The one that Ricter used to travel to the future with, I haven’t been able to locate it as of yet. That in itself is very odd.”

Rowan’s great baritone voice broke through their revelry. “It’s good you have shared this. Who can say how it might affect things. At least for now we know the children can return, and perhaps the others will yet find the missing Dembys.”

“The enemy surely has the missing piece. If we continue looking for it won’t that endanger more of people,” Sephoria asked Rowan?

“No let the search continue. Perhaps keeping the missing piece hidden will prove distracting enough for the enemy. We need to direct our attention toward the children, now, unimpeded.”

Sephoria nodded her head; there was great wisdom in this. “I only wish there was peace for all of us in this time. I still have a hard time reconciling the division that has come to our world.”

“It is never comfortable to acknowledge the ugliness of one’s own world,” the Rowan’s voice grumbled deeply. “Still we must try to find compassion for those who cannot see the truth. The pain strikes an injury to all of our hearts, something not so easily healed. Compassion may come to be the only balm we have left as we move towards the end of our world. We either choose to move through life from a place of love or a place of fear. Remember that Sephoria, for I sense you too may yet have a great test. Now, come into the inner chamber. Pit, I will make way for you. We need to apprise Lillith so she can prepare as well. It has been a very long time since she has moved in freedom in the world. It is going to take time for her to get used to the idea.”

Sephoria stood and reached out a branched hand towards Pit. “Take my hand my friend I will lead you within the Rowan’s chamber.”

Pit reached his stubby arm upward, straining to touch the wise woman’s barked and gnarled fingers. As their fingers touched Pit was surprised to feel the clingy skin of a Fey, and then the room was empty.