Teodora, who for the last few minutes had been looking like a fish gasping on land, finally managed to put together a cohesive sentence for the dullahan head watching her from the table. “I’ve got about twenty and counting questions rattling around my head right now, do you mind if I ask some?” Speaking felt extremely unpleasant as the second tongue she had gained from the earlier potion helped her converse in the same language as her savior.

“Same could be said on my end, ya plan on doin’ me a similar courtesy?” The head said with a snort. “Like fer starters, yer business out in the middle of nowhere, yer name, or maybe even a thanks?! We go out of our way to save yer sorry behind and the first thing to come out of yer mouth after drinking that tonic is a curse?! Here I was thinkin’ people had manners still…”

A moment of silence hung in the air. Teodora, while grateful for the aid, still knew better than to trust the fey. Not to mention giving her name was a big no-no as far as the stories went. She looked down and then back at the head on the table before saying, “Thank you for saving me.”

“Now was that so hard?” The head cooed from the table, voice dripping with something between mockery and malice. A knock on the table caught both party’s attention, as the body of the dullahan made a series of gestures, turning its back to the boiling pot.

As the pair continued to ‘talk’ with each other, Teodora’s mind began to wander before being caught by the bubbling brew that was left on its own. It had begun to give off the faint scent of raspberries had started to waft towards Teodora’s direction, but it was like someone had taken those raspberries and then moved it through a patch of grape vines. Teodora wasn’t entirely sure why that was the connection she was making with the smell, but it was accurate despite the fact she didn’t know what it could mean to smell like grape vines. She was tempted to crawl over and look into the pot while whatever was in there was cooking, but decided maybe it wasn’t a good idea to move a bunch while injured to a certain extent. A cough drew her focus back to the present matter at hand, the dullahan that seemed to have some interest in her.

“My body here thinks I oughta letcha ask us a question since yer probably confused, even though you haven't earned one yet,” A hand reached over and flicked the head on the ear. “Ouch! Just because I’m right doesn’t mean you need to get all violent about it!”

Teodora found the pair’s actions to be amusing, the way they acted more like siblings rather than two parts to the same whole. It made her feel oddly at ease, contrary to the insane circumstances she found herself in. But she reminded herself that they were fey, and she wasn’t in the best of bargaining positions.

“If I can ask something then I’d like to know if I could have your name, or names?” She tried to look innocent as she asked the question. Given all the time she spent with her nose in a book, she knew something about how these things worked. Fey asks for your name, you give it, they control you. You ask first and they might be more open to treat you as an intellectual equal, kind of. Fey, as of a few hours ago, were just another myth that she could only see in stories.

The head on the table opened her mouth as if to reply before closing it and letting a smirk creep across her face. “Oh ho, don’t think I can just give that to ya fer free. Maybe if you'd answer a question for me, then I’d happily give ya a name.”

Teodora’s eye twitched, that wasn’t a good outcome for her. “Well, you did save me, I suppose I can do that much. What might you ask of me?”

“Hmm, if I had to ask one thing, I’d just love to know what you are,” The head said with a glimmer in her eyes. Her body slumped its shoulders and turned back to the pot as it was starting to boil over. “Ya see, I can’t fer the life of me figure out where in the wilds yer comin’ from. No antlers, no wings, not even pointy ears. Makes a girl wonder, yes?”

This was an unexpected question. On one hand, Teodora could lie and make something up which could keep her origins safe but put her at risk of pissing a fey creature off. On the other hand, she could tell the truth which would be safer for her but possibly entice this dullahan to use her for escape. Neither were exactly good choices, but they were the only things she had at the moment to work with.

Yawing, the head smacked her lips and spoke, “You know what? I think I might have an inkling as to what you are actually.” Teodora froze for a moment, wondering if she was going to find herself in that pot soon. “Yer round ears, unfamiliar clothing, plus that piddly amount of magic in yer mana pool, almost makes me think about the stories Auntie told us when we were growin’ up. What'd she call ‘em again?”

Her body didn’t bother to turn around, only waving a hand above its neck, before focusing back on finishing whatever it was cooking, pouring it into another glass vial. That raspberry smell had gotten stronger and took on an odd reddish green color as it poured from its metal container to the clear glass bottle.

“Right! Colormen, er wait no, it’s humans, isn’t it? Sorry, yer throwin’ me off with usin’ only one hand.” The dullahan head said as its eyes looked back over to Teodora, who had turned a shade paler. It was hard to tell if it was because she was nervous or if it was a side effect from all the bleeding earlier. Either way, the human girl had a somewhat sick look to her face as she realized she’d have some explaining to do. “So, what’s a- oh hey, yer not looking so good. Umm, that recovery tincture ‘bout done yet? We’d better give it to her before she faints again.”

The body snatched the finished potion from the metal holder it was sitting in and turned over to face Teodora as she began to sway a little. They moved closer and carefully held the glass vial up to the girl’s lips, tilting it back just enough so that a trickle of the oddly colored liquid could escape. Teodora scowled at the body and reached out, snatching the bottle and drinking the contents on her own. It tasted like dirt and raspberries had been turned into a jam together, but someone added a pinch of chili pepper for an extra kick.

After Teodora had swallowed the last of the magical mixture, she could feel something happening to her body. The weakness she had been experiencing faded rapidly as the color returned to her skin, though she also found herself growing hungry all of a sudden. Whatever the dullahan had given her, it was definitely making her feel better than how she felt when she woke up.

“Okay, can we please stop having me drink random liquids now? Frankly it’s getting old and if we’re going to continue, I’d prefer to actually know what’s going into my body,” Teodora quipped as she tried to keep the same level of confidence as before the dullahan had identified her as a human. “Also, can I get something to eat? I don’t know if it was because I was asleep or because you gave me that weird drink, but I could really use something to eat right about now.”

Despite her attempts at humor, on the inside Teodora was absolutely livid with fear over what was going to happen to her given how close she was to death earlier today. If the stories she had read all her life had any grain of truth to them, then that would mean she was in a situation so dire it couldn’t be described with any number of words. Not to mention the fact that not too long ago she had learned that magic was locked into the plane of existence for some reason, which she could only assume to be a negative one, and now a fey creature has learned that a human has stumbled on through that barrier. Teodora had to choose her words carefully if she didn’t want all of humanity to suddenly find fairies and monsters from myth to be on their doorstep in the morning.

“Sure, sure. But how ‘bout answerin’ my question. Are you a human?” The head asked, nodding at her body who moved over to some crates where they pulled out some cured meat and oddly colored fruits. They returned and offered some to Teodora, first giving some to their head to show it was safe to eat. Of course, nobody actually knew if it was safe for the human girl to eat something magical in nature.

Teodora held her gaze with the head on the table and swallowed her fears, and a piece of fruit despite her better judgment. “Can you give me your word that whatever I tell you won’t bring me any trouble?”

“I promise that no harm should come from this exchange of information.” There was a sparkle in the detached head’s eyes, as if there was a flicker of magic there. Her voice had dropped almost all traces of the accent as she seemed to intensely focus on what was about to be said. “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes, we do.” A strange feeling enveloped the pair, making them both aware that the verbal contract they had made carried some kind of weight.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Well then,” the head started, “guess I can make those magic pacts after all. At least to some degree. As an act of goodwill, I’ll give you a name you can call me.” Silence hung between them for but a moment before the head spoke again. “You may refer to me as… Shea.”

Shea’s eye twitched for just a moment, as if she had expected something else to happen, but nothing did. There was a sigh of relief and the sound of metal armor relaxing as the dullahan’s attention returned to their human guest.

Teodora looked at Shea, before giving a name of her own. “Then you can call me Teo, Teo the human.” She put on her most charming smile and hoped that she didn’t accidentally stumble into a Fey trap.

A shrill laugh pierced the twilight air as Shea’s head somehow seemed to bend backwards. “A human, aye? Gotta say, long time since yer lot came ‘round our parts.” Her accent had started again, like it never left in the first place. “You must have one helluva story to tell then, bein’ the first human to tread our soil in who knows how long.”

“Oh well, I always was told I’d stumble into trouble one of these days.” Teodora laughed, still cautious of the dullahan’s motives. “So, since we’ve exchanged names, can I ask some more questions?”

“Don’t suppose there’s any reason fer you not to.” Shea’s body walked over and held some cut fruit out to their head to eat, before tossing the leftovers into the flame on their neck.

“Great. Now where to start,” Teodora paused for a moment to consider her options, “let’s start small with how you’re eating for one thing. I mean, you’re not actually attached to a stomach I’d wager.” Her eyes shined with childlike curiosity, there wasn’t a trace of fear left behind from her earlier encounter with the mngwa as she focused completely on asking the questions that had always burned inside her mind ever since she started down the path of myths and folktales.

The head on the table looked off towards her body, pondering the question, before an expression of understanding dawned on her. “Yer an odd one Teo, but sure how I eat is a small thing. Anything that goes in my mouth burns, just like what goes through my neck, take a look fer yerself.”

Shea’s body lifted their head off the table and brought it closer for inspection. There was a dull yellow glow at the back of the throat, similar to the flame on their neck. After a moment, they pulled back and placed their head back on the table.

“So, everything you eat just burns? How does that feed you though?” Teodora’s mind had, at this point, completely forgotten the fact that she should be careful when dealing with Fey creatures. She was again lost in her passion for all things fantastical. “Is it transported via a portal in the flames to your stomach? Do you run like a furnace?”

With a chuckle, Shea rolled her eyes. “Dunno, as you can probably guess, I’m not much of a learn-ed person. Our aunt probably knows, though I don’t feel like visitin’ her just cause yer curious ‘bout how I eat. My turn, how d'ya find yerself bein’ chased by a mngwa through the outskirts of the summer territories?”

“Summer… territories?” The gears in Teodora’s brain turned to put things into perspective. “OH! Is that how the Fey Wilds are divided up? Like one fourth of the total space is for each respective season?”

“Right, but isn’t that common knowledge? I mean, aren’t you some kind of mage scholar comin’ in so you can, I dunno what you bookish types do fer fun, collect potion ingredients?”

Teodora almost choked at that, suddenly a whole other world had been open to her mind which only sent it further down a spiral of what ifs. Shea snickered and whispered something to her body as she stared at her new human companion with amusement. A few moments passed before she decided to bring her acquaintance back to reality.

“So not a mage then? That just adds to the pile of questions we’ve got.”

Hearing that seemed to snap Teodora out of her imagination as she looked back at the head on the table. “Huh? Wait, I just realized you’ve been talking like you and your body are separate people. Aren’t you technically the same person?”

“Nope, me and ma body here are more like partners in crime if ya catch my drift. Ever since we separated, we’ve been able to think independently-like from each other. Now how about you keep answerin’ my questions while you rest up some more, like how’d ya get in here if yer not some mage?”

Teodora paused for a moment and looked for her bag which had been removed from her person while she was unconscious. It was lying in the grass a little way away from her, so she pulled it closer and pulled out the leather-bound journal. “I dunno, I found this book and followed its maps and instructions which lead me here. Well, not ‘here’ but it did allow me to get into the Fey Wilds in the first place.”

Shea studied the cover with extreme interest, reading the old script and mumbling, “The… Beast Journal?” Her body reached for it, but as her hand drew close it felt a quick jolt of magic that warded it off. The flame on her neck hissed in indignance as it shaped itself in such a way that one might consider it to be a glare as Shea retracted her hand and resigned to watch from a distance. “Guess books like me ‘bout as much as I like ‘em. Shit stings.”

“You can read this? The only way I can read the cover is by using the eyepiece in the book.” Teodora looked over, ignoring the strange reaction her new dullahan companion had over just reaching for the book and then quickly withdrawing their hand.

“Course I can read, how’d you think I made those damn tinctures for ya to understand us and get patched up? I may be a clever swordswoman, but I ain’t no alchemist. Didn’t yer parents teach ya how to read the old runes?”

Teodora scoffed and said nothing as she looked back at the book through the odd eye piece, opening it to find the page on dullahans. Shea’s body lifted their head off the table and moved around to stand behind their human companion’s shoulder, allowing their head to read something. However, as Shea tried to focus on the runes that were written on the page, they began to melt and pool together like an ink stain. Of course, Teodora had no such issues thanks to the looking glass and continued to flick through the pages until she found what she was looking for.

Name: Gan Ceann (Dullahan)

Classification: Mid-ranking Unseelie Spirit

Magical Affinity: Unpredictable, Highly Varying

Threat Level: Mid-High Grade

Resistances: Mid-Grade Physical Resistance, Low Grade Magical Resistance

Weaknesses: Anointed Weapons Kit (Gaelic Prayers preferred), smothering their body’s Soul Flame greatly weakens physical and magical abilities

Frequency: Irregular, most common during the Wild Hunt but still a rarity to be seen

Gan Ceann are humanoid in shape alone, with the exception of a head attached to a neck and are often armored to some degree and armed with weapons made of metal or bone. Originating from the Unseelie Courts of Ireland, these creatures are known for their excellent mastery over martial weaponry and horseback combat. It is unknown how they exactly came to be; however they are as intelligent and well-mannered as any man I’ve met so long as one is not foolish enough to challenge their prowess. There is one of their kind that stands above the rest however, simply known as Cóiste Gan Cheann or Headless Coach, who has led multiple Wild Hunts across several centuries. Cóiste Gan Cheann was often seen with another important being of legend, Cóiste Bodhar or Death Coach, a seemingly living carriage that is drawn by a single white horse that serves as transport to the afterlife in a violent manner. Through use of trampling and a whip made of human spines, the pair have claimed many lives for several centuries before retiring to tend to their family. The Cóiste Bodhar has not been seen since then, for more information find the page describing the Cóiste Bodhar in the section about unaccounted-for myths.

* Sixth Keeper, Águistín Cellachán

Like with the previous entries, there were a set of hand sketched images of dullahan’s in various actions. The one in the center carried a long whip, possibly made of spines as it appeared to have slight ridges on its sides, in its left hand while carrying its head under its right arm. Surrounding that were images that included a pair of dullahan’s racing on horseback, one relaxing and having an animated conversation with its head, another swinging a sword through the air, and one final one that showed a dullahan dressed in plain clothing rather than the armor the other were wearing, while holding its head aloft in a way that reminded Teodora of a famous play. She hummed to herself as she glanced over the information relating to a dullahan’s weaknesses, but still tucking the information away just in case. Calliope knew some Gaelic, maybe it would be a good idea to ask for her to bless a knife or something. Teodora chuckled at the thought, ignoring the pointed look she was getting from over her shoulder as she finished looking over the page and closed the book.

“So, you came by this book and then… what? Happened to find a weak point in the veil? You can’t really expect me to understand ya if all yer gonna say is that you picked up this journal and then ended up out here.”

Teodora shrugged her shoulders and put the book back into her bag. “Well, I did find something called a Gate. The book told me how to open it up and bring me here, speaking of, I really should be going soon.”

“Yer not going anywhere.” Shea said flatly.

Panic settled into the back of Teodora’s mind. Was she about to discover that her actions had consequences, after so many years of just getting away with things? “What do you mean? I’ve got to get home.”

“What do I mean? Hells below, you nearly died to a mngwa and had a chunk of yer flesh ripped out, and you want to walk on yer own through the bloomin’ wilds?!” The head cried in alarm. “I’m beginnin’ to think yer head ain’t right after yer brush with Ol’ Death.”

That caused the girl to pause. She was rushing the whole recovery thing, plus she was brushing off the fact that she could have been killed earlier today if not for the, so far, very reasonable dullahan. Teodora took a moment to really think about the implications of what her day had shaped up to be.

Finding a magic book, then a possibly sapient magic portal, walking into a whole other plane of existence, almost dying in said plane of existence, and now she’s getting her wounds bandaged up by a resident of that magical plane who is giving her sound advice on how to not worsen her condition.

Teodora looked over at Shea with a distant expression. “You know what? You’ve got a point. I learned magic is actually real and then almost got killed by it, maybe I should lie down for a bit longer.”

“Finally! That’ll be the first normal thing you’ve thought to do since I met ya.”

“Yeah, it’s not like I need to get back any time soon, the Gate didn’t seem to give any signs that it was closing when I left. Staying shouldn’t be a problem–” Teodora paused mid thought. “Maldito sea.”

Shea cocked her head, or at least attempted to while being seated on the table and having very little neck to work with. “Come again lass? Don’t think I know that tongue.”

“I messed up big time. We’ve got to move, like now,” Teodora responded while grabbing her bag and pushing herself off the ground. With shaking legs, she moved closer to the head on the table and looked Shea in the eyes. “Can you get me somewhere fast?”

The dullahan shifted and her body walked over, crossing her arms. “Depends, what’s wrong?”

There was a moment of tension as Teodora rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “I may or may not have left a magical gateway to the forest outside of my home open for anything to just wander on through.”