I had invited Feile to the amphitheater/kitchen out of an immature need for validation of my artwork. In doing, so I had brought her to a place that I had begun to think of as mine but realized that despite my doing all the work, providing the materials, and the thirty-three time lockers that were intended for me, I had no real claim on any of it except maybe eleven of the time coolers. I had almost nothing just a few years back. Now I was worried about possessions and keeping towns from being poisoned while not really owning anything. Maybe the world with bananas was mine.
The original owners of the world with bananas had attacked me. I went for medical help, and the medical help cleared out the world and planted bananas. Maybe that world was really mine. I shadow stepped to the spot where I hid the gateway and looked through.
Down below the gateway, the pair of winged Fairies were still playing Go. I slid the gateway to the roof of the gazebo, turned into an owl, and went through the gateway. I took off flying.
Below me, I saw a gazebo on the edge of a banana field with two streams running from it and into a wooded area. I flew quietly into a woodland swamp with slate-roofed stone houses and stone trails with arched bridges, along with larger buildings and some larger houses. I didn’t see anyone as I flew, just a few small deer, a few rodents that tempted my owl instincts, and some fish in the water.
I circled back and went over a few islands with bamboo growing and landed a distance from the gazebo. I said, “Hello?”
The Fairies got up and stepped out from under the gazebo.
One of them asked, “Wouldst thou likest a banana?”
I looked up at the nearest banana tree. The bananas were shorter than the ones I had eaten before, but they didn’t look poisonous or tainted.
I smiled. “I am Phil and I am a bit scared to say anything to thee about anything or ask about anything. I would feel terribly guilty if I said the wrong thing and a really bad thing happened. Please don’t take this as me being rude. Just accept that I am scared to say anything at all.”
They both stood blinking at me.
The Fairy that talked to them before flew up and said to them, “It’s time to go now.” She looked at me. “Thou art not making this easy.”
I gestured like my mouth was zipped shut.
She said, “Nothing terrible will happen if thou talk to me.”
I looked at the two Fairies that were packing up the Go board and stones. I shook my head.
She said to the two Fairies, “Leave the Go board.” She turned to me. “Look, this is not supposed to play out this way. Thou art supposed to eat a banana and then be recognized as the king of this Fairyland.”
I looked around. The two Fairies were gone. I looked back at the Fairy in front of me. “Promise me thou won’t die if I ask the wrong question.”
She coughed. I rushed to grab her and transform with her still alive, so I could take her to someone who could save her.
She backed up and flew higher. “What art thou doing?”
I said, “I was worried thou might have swallowed a tiny bit of iron and wanted to try and save thee.”
She shook her head. “No one, and I mean no one, ever said thou wert this smart. Thou art making this harder than it has to be. Look, let’s just say those two Fairies got kicked out of their Fairyland for giving away secrets and now thou art going to kindly take them in.”
I nodded. “They seem nice, but I don’t want them to suicide over me.”
She asked, “Look, can I speak plainly with thee?”
I nodded.
She said, “If there were a reasonable chance that these precautions were set up to save the world, couldst thou just accept things and consider that maybe other folk are willing to take risks because they believe in a cause?”
I nodded.
She flew up, picked a banana, and flew back down to hand it to me. “Now eat a banana, enjoy thy new kingdom and don’t worry about upsetting the boys, but keep in mind that there are a lot of things we don’t want to say out loud.”
I nodded and examined the banana.
She said, “Good. Now try, please try, to come up with a better name for this Fairyland than Banana McBananaFace. It’s getting old.”
I looked at her without understanding why anyone would name a Fairyland like that, as she disappeared.
The banana was harder to peel than I was used to, but the taste was better than any banana I’d ever had. I felt the link with this world.
Swampy summoned me, “Phil, this is Swampy. Bring me there.”
I brought the small bat-winged goth-looking Fairy through the summons, and she landed on my shoulder. “Phil, speed time.”
I sped up time.
“Now make it dark and pay attention to the world’s mass.”
I made it dark and then shook my head. “No change.”
Swampy said, “That means we’re probably alone. Keep talking Fairy talk. It’s mostly telepathic so if we’re being spied on by gateway they can’t hear us. Let’s put some distance between us and this gazebo though so we can find out what is going on. Keep it dark. I’ll summon you as soon as I find a good place.”
She flew off. In darkness, I waited and wondered how she saw.
She summoned me and I went to her.
“Now make it light and cut me a pole.”
We were standing on a path in the middle of a bamboo patch.
I looked at her and imagined her fishing. A two-foot pole would be about right.
I made a gossamer blade and cut a pole.
She gestured. “Cut it here for me. Keep the long section for yourself.”
I stripped the leaves off and offered her the pole.
She took it and turned into a raven. “Follow.”
She took us to one of the slate-roofed stone house and landed on the rail of a tall arched bridge leading to another island in the swamp. A tall thorny honey locust tree gave us shade.
Still in the form of a raven, she hopped down the rail until we were at a low area just a couple of feet above the water, then hopped from the rail, and sat on the edge in her bat-winged Fairy form.
She held out her hand. “My pole, please.”
I sat beside her with my feet stirring the water. There was a nice breeze and the bridge was going to be a nice place to fish. “Anyone live in the house?”
She said, “You can. The houses are all empty. Keep stirring the water with your feet. That is how I see the future. I was going to use the cane, but this is better. When I was a little girl, I used to stir the water with my feet and watch the ripples. I started seeing things in the ripples. The Goblin that first took me to shadow knew magic and taught me what she could.”
I asked, “Have you summoned her to tell her you are okay?”
She shook her head as she peered into water I was agitating with my feet. “No, for so many reasons. She adopted a boy and he was trouble. I left when I was being blamed for something we all knew he did. She always saw her magic as ‘Christian Magic.’ That didn’t make it nicer, but a summons from someone who passed on, like me, would not end well. A lot of the living have an instinctive fear of us dead people. They should have that instinctive fear of those who would possess you, but being dead doesn’t make you evil.”
I looked out at the trees on the various islands. “If you linger in Real, you might just be haunting and causing grief just by spying on folk. A lot of Goblins are like that. They don’t see it as bad, but it never ends up being good.”
She said, “You can feel a camera in shadow.”
I smiled. “They take in light and give little back. They end paths.”
Swampy looked up from the water. “Tiny apertures on cameras. Few Goblins go to shadows so small.”
I nodded. “A willow leaf’s shadow is about the limit if it moves. A power line’s shadow is a good highway though.”
She looked back at the water. “So you don’t fear the dead?”
I shook my head. “Never did.”
She asked, “You slew things that possessed you.”
I nodded. “They make my skin crawl.”
She smiled up at me. “Then you can detect them. Use that.”
She leaned out and looked into the water. “You’re linked with this world.”
I nodded. “I ate a banana.”
Swampy smiled and looked at her rippling reflection. “But you do it instantly. Does it have to be food? Have you tasted dust to see if you could link with more?”
She looked back at the water. “If you can feel the shadows that end when the light is taken, then you can find gateways that are looking.”
I nodded and slipped into shadow. I found a gateway that was only letting light through. But shadow is the edge of light so I entered the Fairyland on the other side.
#
The world I was in took a moment to resolve. There was a scaffolding around a spherical room that held gateways with cameras. Inside that scaffolding was another scaffolding holding up monitors. Inside that scaffolding was a platform with four chairs with monitors and keyboards mounted to them.
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In two of the chairs were Goblin girls.
One of them got up. “Chive, is that you sneaking around in shadow?”
The other pointed at a monitor. “Phil disappeared.”
It was at that moment it sunk in. I was important. Even as a king of Fairy, I never had the feeling that my disappearance would cause much grief. In my original family, my disappearance was a relief. My Goblin family left me behind.
I felt important to Hubert until I wasn’t important to him. I still felt like he wass family and I was again important, but within a lot of us Goblins, there is an unanswered need to be needed. That is, until we are needed and then we’re desperate to make whoever needs us need us less.
I had been given things by these people who kept me at more than an arm’s distance. Since I knew they were watching, maybe it was okay that they were watching. I would just have to check for spies when I went to the bathroom.
The monitors showed views of places in the Fairyland that I hadn’t seen. The monitors were right in front of the camera and gateway so I could see where the gateway went and see what was happening there. The gateways only let light go through one way.
But light knows when light is divided and split. It knows when and where it arrives. I prefer to travel in the direction of shadow, and that is the direction of light. But you can’t just go in the direction of shadow, half the time you have to go towards the sun unless you find an odd reflection or artificial light source to use.
I went back out through the gateway that only allowed passage one way and sat beside Swampy.
#
I resisted the urge to wave at the gateway they were watching us through. “We’re being watched, and I’m okay with that. As a result of their spying, I have a way to see and get to a lot of interesting places quickly.”
Swampy nodded. “Look down. Do you see the footprint?”
I just saw the water being stirred and the reflections of the trees rippling. I started moving my feet in the water. Perch swam by. I shadow stepped to a thorny tree and cut a small branch with large thorns. Too large for perch. I found a better branch and went back to sitting by Swampy.
I stirred the water with my feet as I lay back on the stone path and carved a hook using a thorn on a branch. Blackberry thorns, if they are strong, do pretty well, and these thorns seemed stronger. I broke the hook I was carving and set it down.
Swampy asked, “How many of the dark spirits have possessed you?”
I sat up and looked at the ripples she was watching. “Five have tried.”
Swampy leaned against my leg. “Tomorrow, three more. Wizards will try to take a Fairyland from you. Play by their rules until one cheats. One of them will insist that you lick his boot. Lick the bottom of his boot before you consign the creature possessing him to death.
I stuck my tongue out. “Really, lick the bottom of his boot?”
She nodded. “Be ready for him to kick. He has spent months getting along with beings he considers well beneath him. In that moment, he will be unable to resist his impulses. Mercy is not something he enjoys pretending to have.”
I asked, “But you really want me to lick his boot?”
She nodded. “A broad wet lick and then swallow.”
I shook my head. “Ewwww.”
She said, “He has visited a place where treasures from worlds long gone are stored. The dust on his boots may be your doorway. His unending greed for things that others valued and died for has driven him to accumulate treasures that no one else has seen for hundreds of thousands of years.
“If you can link to that world or any of his others, you’ll have what no one else has been able to obtain. Your humility may grant you what no one living has ever seen.”
I asked, “What do I do with such things?”
She said, “You take the gateway they’re using to watch us. Then you put it in that world. Then everything you have been given. Every gift, world, and stone has been paid back in full. Their debt to you will be as a bottomless well.
“This moment and this opportunity may not come again. This window is a window that might turn your enemy against itself. How’s that for a prophecy?”
I looked at the water she was stirring. “Can they hear us through the gateway?”
Swampy sat up and leaned over the water. “We aren’t saying anything out loud. If we are subvocalizing, the water being stirred is going to make the faint vibrations scarce. The sound of the trees in the breeze will cover most of what is left. Only if one of them is clairaudient do they have a chance of hearing. I scratched a ward against that on the stone I’m sitting on.
“I can’t say that no one can hear us, but the odds are very, very low. Only because this is a quiet moment before a pivotal one is there a chance. Your enemy thinks the pivot is your death. Let them. Your friends think the pivot is the death of three dark spirits. Let them. Only you and I know the pivot is access to a treasure larger than the memory of mankind.”
I lay back again. “And I give it all away?”
Swampy lay back with me. “Apart from this one, you have a few other Fairylands. But right here, you have a swamp with fish, places to sit and watch the water go by, and trees to climb. You have houses to explore, and a cute little girl with bat wings beside you. How much more do you need?”
I shook my head. “Seems like I have just about everything I need apart from a fishing pole without any iron parts. I have a few nice fishing poles, but swinging so much steel around seems kind of rude in Fairy.”
Swampy nodded. “That would definitely be rude. Day after tomorrow, let people overhear that you’re looking for a good fishing pole that won’t hurt Fairies. I don’t need to be a prophet to tell that you might end up tripping over a few dozen.”
I felt someone trying to spend mass in the Fairy Dynamics Fairyland. I slowed time there. “Swampy, someone in the Fairyland that is about to be fought over just tried making something using the Fairyland. Do you want to come with me?”
She said, “Not yet. They may be testing you. Try not to give anything away as you deal with it. Wait a moment.”
She stirred the water with her pole. “Best stick to their rules, but don’t believe it is one of their rules until they have a convincing argument, yield no authority.”
I matched the time in Fairy Dynamics and went there.
#
I was in a courtyard with dead bushes that were at one time shaped to fancy spirals. The gardens had small plants that did not fill or cover the bare soil in the planters around them. I looked around at the small castle around the courtyard and slid into shadow to explore. The castle was old and was built in reverse. This castle protected itself from the courtyard inside instead of the area around the castle. In shadow, I watched a pair of men wearing the sort of clothing you would expect a wealthy hiker to wear. Their clothing announced that they grew up in cities, but I suspect they thought it made them look like outdoorsmen.
The one with the Fidel Castro looking hat pointed with the end of his walking stick. “That will be a good open place to do the dueling. Do you think the current Fairy king will show up?”
The one with the cargo pants said, “He may show up afterwards thinking he will only have to fight one of us.”
Another man shouted to them from the distance. “The current Fairy king is still active and stronger than we thought. I couldn’t access the mass on this world, and he slowed time here for a short time. Probably to test us.”
The man in the cargo pants asked, “Do you think he will agree to the rules?”
I stepped out of shadow, arranged gateways around me, and walked towards the three of them. The one who said he accessed the mass had a creepy feeling. If Swampy’s advice applied here, the odds were good that this man had an evil spirit possessing him. He turned and looked at me. The other spirits seemed to notice and attack me, so there must be something about me that they detect.
He said, “Well, if it isn’t the missing Fairy king. I am afraid the Order of Crepuscular Gloaming has set its collective gaze upon this realm. Are you ready to yield this land and all your chattel?”
I looked at the three men all standing casually but ready to move and strike.
I asked, “Thus far I see trespass and see no reason why I should yield to any of you.”
The man with the walking stick smiled.
The man who gave me the creepy feeling said, “Darren, feel free to explain his plight to him.”
The man with the walking stick looked at the man in the cargo pants. “Vic, Fazil wants me to explain, are you in agreement?”
Fazil frowned.
Vic said, “Please continue.”
Darren said, “You were unfortunate to claim a Fairyland that had lots of connections and many named Fairies that were far from loyal. So thy land is one that only a very strong king could hold or a group of Fairy kings bound by oaths to come to the aid or avenge their brothers. We are such a group. Since you are not a member, we will offer you three options.
“Your first option is to release your claim and be bound by oath to never come back to this world.”
“Your second option is to defend your claim by successive duels ruled by our order’s guidelines for battle arcane. If you lose, then you are out and must make vows to never get in the way of our order. If you manage to win until you have defeated all who choose to face you, you can join our order and retain your world after paying all the appropriate fees and making the required vows.
“Your third option is to face all of the wizards in the Order of Crepuscular Gloaming.”
I said, “This sounds like extortion and quite unfair.”
Fazil said, “When has the pursuit of power ever sought to be fair? There are rules the game is played by, but fair is a term made up by imagining that the powerless should have any rights at all. I feel quite offended just talking here. We battle tomorrow but you have slowed time on us. That is by all measure an attack.”
Darren said, “He did not know, and he is still ruler of this realm until the battle tomorrow.”
Fazil said, “An offense is an offense and made worse by one that yields to the Fairies. He’s a boot licker.”
I looked at his boot and saw what was coming. I said, “What happens if I am attacked before the duels tomorrow? Do you all attack me if one of you starts a fight?”
Darren said, “No, but if you used a ruse to fake being attacked, we have spells to tell the truth and you would have to answer due inquiry about the attack.”
I asked, “And if there were witnesses?”
Fazil said, “You tire me, boot licker. Lick my boot and I will forgive your slight. Otherwise, I will claim injury.”
I asked them, “Can he get away with this?”
Darren said, “Possibly. He does have a position of authority in the Order of Crepuscular Gloaming.”
I got on one knee and said, “Your boot, sir.”
My thought was that Swampy had better not have decided to play a trick on me as I licked the offered boot.
I had barely pulled back my tongue and started to swallow when the kick I was ready for came.
#
I took him to the Fairyland where I had taken the rest of the evil spirits. I bound him to the world and turned the spirit into a Fairy. It worked.
I wasn’t sure if I had just made a wizard a Fairy and killed a man. Then I felt the connection to three Fairylands. The boot trick had worked at least a little. The Fairy was looking for something to attack with.
The wizard got up. “This is a world where life cannot last.”
I nodded. “Welcome to my most peaceful Fairyland. Well, it will be soon. After I leave and speed things up, it’ll get peaceful again.”
The wizard said, “It wasn’t me, it was him.”
I said, “Fine, give me your boots, and I will take you back.”
He started taking off his boots. The Fairy found a small rock, so I took the wizard back to Fairy Dynamics.
#
We were in the courtyard inside the castle again. I sped time for a bit in my Fairyland of Death until I felt the mass given.
The wizard sat on a bench and went back to taking off his boots. “I found a spirit and used him to learn what others were doing. I didn’t realize it but he was measuring me. As a Fairy king, I was strong enough to resist him, but as he became more familiar with me he found my weaknesses and took me over. Then he used me as a wizard and with two other spirits doing the same thing with other wizards, they founded the Order of the Crepuscular Gloaming. I was there but I had no control.”
He handed me his boots. “Flee this world. The order will destroy you no matter what decision you make. If you are not one of the leaders then they will use you up. Flee and take me with you.”
I put the boots away in another form. “I can perhaps put you somewhere safe, but I have two more unclean spirits to deal with. The idea of your order doesn’t sound terrible but the way it works is a nasty thing. Do I have to kill people to end the order?”
The wizard said, “My name is Dwight, but keep calling me Fazil. I don’t know my last name. Fazil punished me by taking memories. I don’t know where I grew up. Most of my memories are embarrassments and failures. Thank you for freeing me from that monster.
“The three dark spirits, as founders of the order, never took the vow but let the rest think they did. So I am not bound by their orders.
“The ancient evil that dwelt in me needed me for practicing magic, but there is a lot I do not know. He put me to sleep when he didn’t need me. This I do know, if you don’t defeat them, they will hunt me. I know where the oath seal is hidden. Since I am not bound by the oaths, I will go after the seal while you are fighting. I wish you luck in your fights. You managed one of them, but they are an ancient evil, and they have faced and destroyed countless opponents before.”
He stood and made gossamer boots. “Fazil would want you to lead the way but he would tell you were to go. If you are going to fight, then we need to walk out together so there is no evidence that you defeated me.”
He walked to one of the doors to the castle and pulled it open. He gestured for me to lead the way. We walked in silence until we reached an area Vic and Daren were pacing out.
Daren shouted. “We moved it out here since Mason likes blasting things to bits. Less to ruin out here.”
Vic said, “I am more worried about Henry’s sticky fire burning everything down again. Fazil, since you’re back, we can probably leave until tomorrow when the entire Order of the Crepuscular Gloaming meets here for battle.”
Dwight, pretending to still be Fazil, said, “I have other things to attend to. I will not be joining you.”
Vic and Darren made illusions of patterns for performing summoning and started chanting.
I watched as they slowly went through the steps and connected with someone before disappearing.
Dwight looked at me. “I have names I could call for summoning, but I fear meeting any of the ancient ones. They will know that I am no longer ridden if I get withing a hundred yards of them. At the duels tomorrow, I will need to stay away from them all. If I don’t show up, they will wonder. Are you certain you don’t want to run? We could probably last a few years. If we sped up our time in Fairy, we could live long lives and might even miss the destruction they plan.”
I asked, “Do you ever wish you could stop the destruction?”
His jaw clenched. “You took one of them down. Maybe we could take another down and slow them. Let’s train you. I will teach you each member’s strengths and weaknesses. I will teach you how to fight them. Fazil studied them all and made sure I was gifted to manage them. Be careful though, the other two ancient ones are certain to have done the same and have secrets they have not shared.”
I nodded.