The rain wasn’t letting up, and with distant thundering threatening more both Keira and Naima decided that they should cut their losses and head back to camp. Unfortunately many in their group were not of the same mindset and they decided to attend a rave in the opposite direction. Which left both of the girls to walk back alone. And this time there were no crowds. It seemed like everyone were either sensible, like Keira and Naima, and decided to stay huddled in their tents, or they were like the rest of their unit and doing an activity.

While the sun had still been in the sky when they were walking to the food tents, it had almost completely set when they set off back to their campsite. It produced enough light to see, but coupled with the storm clouds overhead, it cast a grey light over everything. Naima took off her flip flops and embraced the mud sloshing around on the ground, as well as the rain flooding down from the sky. Meanwhile Keira was huddled up in her waterproofs and shivered every time she felt droplets of water run into her coat and down her neck. She was only thankful that despite the awful weather, the wind kept calm and wasn’t trying to tear her hood down.

“How can you like this?” Keira called out as Naima skipped along, occasionally turning back to wait for her to catch up.

“The rain? It’s quite nice if you stop caring about your cloths getting wet. After the walk over here, a mild shower like this is downright pleasant.”

“So if it was any other situation you would hate it?”

“Not really. I remember this one time, when it was my fifteenth birthday, my parents hired this temporary hot tub for the week and I went in it every night. As it was during the colder months it was pretty cold, and one night it rained. Feeling the freeing rain fall on my face and shoulders while I kept warm was super relaxing. And the sound as well…” Naima slowed down her pace. “My mother wouldn’t let me stay like that for too long though. She insisted on setting up the little shelter that it came with. Her and Dad decorated it together with fairy lights and even though they used it too, they’d always give me a little free time.”

“…You don’t bring up your mother a lot.”

“Why would I? She didn’t want me in the end. She gave Dad custody for most of the time and then ran off to another country with her new boyfriend.”

“Ah…” Keira wasn’t sure how to segue out of the suddenly awkward silence. “Your Dad is still here though.”

“He let her. They had a mediator and a settlement. He never fought for her to be more present in my life. He never fights for anything! When I first told him that I wanted to follow Furdanism he was all accepting and shit!”

“How dare he.” Keira remarked dryly, which earned her a betrayed look from Naima. Keira shrugged and continued. “Why do you want him to be angry at you? He obviously cares and while your mother may not be in your life anymore, it sounds like it was for the best.”

“Well, no. She’s… I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Can we change the subject?”

“Oh- sure. Um…” Keira felt a little strapped for topics. Honestly she was tempted to recommend they walk in silence and enjoy the sounds of nature as their path slowly got muddier and took them away from the residential campsites and back around the lake. Eventually though, she decided that she was interested in what Naima knew of the area. “What do you know about the history of Junein Forest?”

“It has a lot of history. The most interesting parts are the myths around the forest. Old druids, the first Furdanists, talked about how it was the beating heart of the world and how it housed the most powerful fae. Fae that represented impressively large sections of nature and kept everything in balance, ruling over the minutia in their courts.”

“Arch-fae?”

“Yep! Much like the name and design of most of the major cities in Junein, the Arch-fae ruling in the courts each represent major aspects of nature and there are other unaffiliated ones as well. So, mirroring the cities, we would have the courts of death, water, wind, fire and earth.”

“You mentioned unaffiliated ones as well. I’m afraid I’m not quite as aware of those as I am with the courts.”

“There are a lot of stories about those, but the most infamous are the boogeymen types. The ones that are supposed to teach children morals, ‘don’t go out at night’, ‘don’t be superficial’, ‘don’t grave rob’.”

“That last one seems a bit-“

“I find those the most interesting, although there are more general ones that are about the changing of the seasons and dreams. Which ones are your favourite?” Naima asked, giving Keira verbal whiplash. She let the gentle sounds of rain and distant thunder permeate the atmosphere before offering her reply.

“Honestly I’ve always had a soft spot for the local legends,” Keira began. “We’ve made an effort to remember as very little survived after the Conquest of Unnantus, which was exasperated as we only carved the important information in stone shrines. The local council managed to get enough information from the left over stones to fund the trail around the village, which you might have run into if you’ve explored a lot.”

“Those little wooden statues around the area you went missing? I’m pretty sure everyone is aware of them, even if they weren’t before.” Keira shot Naima a look, and she decided to move the conversation along. “What is the local legend?”

“There’s a guardian spirit that lived around the village and protected the inhabitants from external threats. Specifically she was referenced to be a mother and extend larger amounts of her power to protect children and young adults, though her love extended to all villagers. It was also implied that she worked together with the guardian spirits of the surrounding settlements which is why some of the carvings are of women dancing in a circle together.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever done that when meeting with friends.” Naima mused, and a chorus of giggles sounded off to the side. They both stopped and looked in the direction of the noises, with Keira pulling out and turning on her phone light. The leaves looked grey under the faint light and cast shadows onto the trees behind them that looked far larger than she remembered. There was no one there.

“Must’ve been a prank.” Keira mumbled. Though that was mainly for Naima’s benefit than hers. She remembered Kheka’s and Gastele’s words well. The fact that they were supposed to be the only people around had not escaped her. Naima however seemed to accept the explanation and continued with her thoughts.

“I’d imagine confirming the existence of other guardian spirits would be easy if they also had shrines dedicated to them.”

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“Our village was the only one that survived the Conquest.” Keira muttered, turning off the phone torch light, but not putting it away. “Or at least our ancestors were the only ones that survived. We could probably dig up a few relics if we knew where to look for them, but that would include going through multiple acres of forest to even find the remains. Anyway, enough about my favourite stories, what about yours?”

“Hands down my favourite stories are the ones about the Court of Death. I like how ancient they seem as Morsemt sacrificed himself to house the souls of the dead when the first human died, so any stories involving him are old and few. The few that do exist though, are really fun. There was one that stuck in my mind where the Lady of Fire lost some flowers, and after asking all of the others she became convinced that the Lord of Death took them. However, she couldn’t find the court as no one goes there and it’s supposed to be hidden. She wanders the lands and sacrifices more and more in order to trespass on different territories until Morsemt finally hears her motive and approaches her.”

“Is this where it comes out that she made assumptions, and the moral of the story is that looks can be deceiving?”

“No. He absolutely took her flowers. The actual moral is that things are only beautiful because they are fragile and that death comes for us all eventually. We should treasure what we currently have more.”

“Ah…” Keira said, as she was a little unsure on how to follow on from that. Instead she decided to ask the question most prevalent on her mind, and the one that was most important. “I’m guessing the fact that no one knows where to find the Court of Death is a universal fact.”

“Pretty much. Or at least there aren’t any stories that detail the journey there. After Morsemt left there weren’t any fae left to occupy it, and it’s separate from the realm of the dead so there aren’t any reasons to go there. The only stories that are associated with the Court after Morsemt’s passing are those to do with the Chamberlain of Stone, as their courts are closely associated with each other in the stories. Even then there aren’t a lot as the Chamberlain only gets involved with the squabbles of the other courts when they have to step in to mediate.”

“I don’t think I’ve heard that the two are closely associated with each other before.” Keira mused, shivering as another droplet of rain snuck through her hood. “It does make sense though, as the Court of Stone is centred around stability. You can’t really enter a more stable state than death. Not to mention the fact that stone isn’t important in the cycle of life.”

“Earth is, but generally yes. That’s not what the Court is known for.” Silence settled between them again, with the only sound being the white noise from the rain. Naima carried on after the pause. “Why are you asking me these questions anyway. It kind of sounds like you’re actively seeking out death.” Keira figured that she shouldn’t answer honestly. Instead she let out a nervous laugh and wiggled her hand in the air to signify a ‘kind of’. Naima laughed and started walking ahead. “Good to know this now, I guess.”

“Of course! What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t give you a heads up.” Keira sped up to overtake Naima, not quite running but she was getting there. Naima started speeding up as well, taking the challenge for what it was, but then a flash of lighting stopped her. Keira slowed down and looked behind herself to see what Naima was staring at, but there was no one there.

She didn’t write anything off though. While she may have lost Palotl’s watchful eye pointing out any supernatural dangers, she had faced them enough times to know the wrongness that usually permeated the area. Abruptly Keira recalled the distant giggles and the skin on the back of her neck prickled. The damp that had soaked through her coat suddenly felt a lot colder, and the trees that towered over them seemed a lot more claustrophobic. Their leaves looking like black clouds on the already dark sky, with the only light being from the moon that still managed to shine some light through the storm. Keira looked back at Naima to spur her into action once again, but then the lighting flashed once again and she knew what Naima had seen.

On the ground, in the split second it took for the lighting to strike some tree or one of the towers, was a silhouette. There wasn’t much she could discern, having her back to the subject and all, but she could see that it looked like a humanoid with a hat. The trees and bushes around them started to rustle constantly and voices drifted towards them from the woods. Keira met Naima’s gaze, and she could tell that she was scared. Keira was too, but she kept that bottled as best she could. Quietly she spoke.

“Naima. Look at me, and keep looking. I’m going to start walking backwards, and I need you to keep your eyes on me, okay?” Naima nodded. “Good.” Keira started to inch backwards and used that bottled fear to reach for that sensation she felt during the ritual in Oceanview. While she had no idea what she was doing with the gift, Keira hoped that her fear would be a suitable driver for whatever power was there. That it would read her emotions and realise that she wanted to be somewhere safer, and not level that section of the forest if it were possible.

Eventually the whispers died down and the voices sounded human again. Light shone in from the various campsites that lines the path, which had gone from a muddy sludge to slightly gravelly sludge. Keira turned around again and relaxed at the warm light coming from fairly lights and electric lanterns dangling from the rows of tents and marquees that they passed on the way there. She led the rest of the way back, and at some point Naima caught up to her and began walking at her side. Keira could sense her confusion, and admittedly she could get away with giving a reasonable explanation for it. Some Pioneers who wanted to play a nasty trick, or a strangely shaped stone. The more she thought about it however, the more she knew that something like that wouldn’t work.

If she came clean about the nature of everything now not only would it be good for their relationship going forward, but it would also be good for the investigation. They could align stories and while Keira could spend all of her free time in the fae realm and finding Morsemt’s Lotus, Naima can enjoy her time on the holiday without being beholden to what anyone else wanted to do. Keira smiled to herself, but then the expression dropped when she thought how best to explain the situation. She should probably wait until they got back to the tent. While anyone could still overhear them, if they kept quiet enough they wouldn’t be able to hear any specifics. And it would get them out of the blasted rain.

As they drew closer to their marquee though, Keira found herself surprised at seeing a group of people back before them. There was one of the leaders looking at someone’s head with two others standing around and looking halfway between giggling and being concerned. Even the leader was biting back a smile. They looked up in confusion when they saw Keira and Naima approaching.

“Did you do something else on your way here?”

“No? I though you guys were heading to the rave.”

“We did and then-” The guy she was talking to burst into a fit of snorts, leaving his friend to pick up the slack.

“This idiot got himself concussed by a fish.” Keira blinked at them and then looked at the one who was pouting as his head was being inspected by a leader.

“…How?”

“We didn’t stick around long due to the whole injury thing, but one of the Junein units were stood in the corner of the place with a wheelbarrow filled with freshly caught fish, the big kind too. They were just throwing it into the crowd. One unfortunate placement of our friend here was all it took for it to turn into a bit of a disaster.”

“Okay, but how did they get the fish? And a wheelbarrow full at that. I thought there was a fishing ban on the lake.”

“There is. If you want to ask them yourself I think it was unit eighty… eight? Something close to that anyway.”

“I might…” Keira muttered, and then found herself under the scrutiny of the leader who appeared to have finished with her patient.

“Are you sure you came straight back?” Keira wasn’t sure why, she had known the woman for close to a year at that point, but she felt as if she was under intense pressure.

“I didn’t say that.” Keira lied, “I just said we didn’t do anything. We got a little turned around in the woods, but we found our way back in the end.” The woman nodded her head and began packing away the first aid supplies. When Keira turned around to check on Naima, she found herself under a calculating gaze.

Then Naima brushed past her and walked towards their shared tent without saying a word. When Keira went to talk to her, she found Naima rummaging through her bags with fervour before walking past Keira again without saying a word. She supposed the conversation could wait until the morning.