I stepped out of the gateway on a large rock in a large sandbar on a bend in a large river. The water level had risen a bit so the sandbar wasn’t as big as it had been the last time I was here. I walked to the nearest shadow cast by trees and took to the shadows.

In the carriage house, I opened a freezer and looked at the frozen lamb Mr. Hubert kept there. I opened the freezer I kept my trout lines in. They were iced and frozen, but they already had bait on them ready to thaw in water and start catching fish. I looked around for something to put things in and saw pallets with solar panels and other things that had been ordered to provide power in Fairy. There were ovens and freezers and all sorts of other equipment. I picked up the box of rags and smelled it. I hosed them out and ran them through the washer and dryer before putting the rags in a new box and storing the box in another form of myself.

I looked at all the equipment. I didn’t know how to set up any of this, and I didn’t have a good way to get it to Fairy. I could get it to Fairy, maybe, but then I would have to go the entire route back each time.

The lady from across the street shouted, “Yooohoo!”

She was walking a pair of her dogs and came right into the yard. “It looks like it’s going to rain, and that nice gentleman, Anthony, left the roof down on his convertible.”

I nodded and got into the back of the car to flip the latches that held the roof back.

When I got out of the car, I locked it. I would need to find the keys if I wanted back in. That or wait til the shadows were right to pass through the window.

The lady was looking at Archer’s hummer. “When does Mr. Archer leave?”

I gave her a questioning look.

She whispered, “Those of us who live lives longer than most don’t like recorded images for obvious reasons. Mr. Archer is impossible to talk to. He threatened one my dogs years ago.

“But I want to ask Mr. Hubert to take down those cameras on the roof. They are ugly and sometimes we need our privacy. I would love it if we could be sure the tapes were erased.”

I asked, “Do you know someone who could figure out all the electronics? I am almost scared that Archer’s room might be trapped.”

She smiled. “My son knows all that stuff. He even studied with Tesla when he was in the circus. Just come over when Archer is gone.”

I said, “He’s gone.”

She looked at the Hummer.

I said, “We will probably be moving out of the neighborhood for a while.”

She asked, “Is that because of the prophecies? Goodness. Everyone is moving out. My son wants us to find a Fairyland to shelter in. He says he has a way to get past the Persephone limit. But to be honest, none of the Fairylands around here are safe. I was thinking about a boat or an island, but I may just try and weather through the plague.”

I smiled up at her. “Mrs. Nelson, I have a Fairyland that might be safe. I mean, I don’t think any of them are entirely safe, but you might like it.”

She asked, “Could I bring my animals?”

I said, “Probably. I am speaking without really being sure. I don’t know all the rules.”

She nodded. “Does it have a king or a queen?”

I said, “A king.”

She looked at the Hummer again. “You know that isn’t even a real Hummer. The military ones have more clearance underneath. Is the king reasonable?”

I checked the door to the Hummer to see if it was locked. It was. “I like to think so. It’s my Fairyland. I’m King Snipsnort.”

She turned to face me. “Don’t laugh and don’t tease. Duchess Byebye lives there and, if you offend her, you need to say bye-bye to all your friends quick.”

I nodded. “I think she likes animals. I would take you there to see if you like it, but I don’t have a good way back.”

She crouched in front of me, and her dogs started sniffing me. “You’re serious. Well, my son can summon us back. No, wait. Let my son go with you. Wait here, I’ll be right back with Caerwyn.”

I was looking at one of the huge coils of wire on a pallet when Mrs. Nelson came over with an athletic albino boy that looked like he was about to start high school. He had brown eyes that were startling as a contrast with his nearly angelic features.

Caerwyn tipped his large straw hat. “I’m Caerwyn.”

I nodded. “Phil.”

He looked around. “Is Archer likely to come out?”

I looked up at Mrs. Nelson and decided to share the truth. “Archer killed Mr. Hubert and Uncle Anthony. He ran from me, but I’m scared he’ll be back. I’m trying to nurse Mr. Hubert and Uncle Anthony back to life, but it may take a while.”

Caerwyn asked, “How did he kill them?”

I held back tears. “He turned them to stone. He put the cameras up, at least in part to track me and try to kill me. The cameras flash when I get near them.”

Caerwyn asked, “Where do they send information to? You don’t want Archer watching your movements.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I can mostly use my cell phone. I never got into electronics. We had no internet out where I lived and I stayed busy.”

Caerwyn looked at the solar power equipment stacked around me. “Kind of a waste getting all this gear and not knowing how to use it.”

I nodded. “Yep. I’m going to try and take it to my Fairyland. We have tested and solar power will work. I’m just going to have a hard time getting it all there.”

Caerwyn looked up at his mother. “We won’t have the internet in Fairy.”

Mrs. Nelson said, “On a boat or an island, it will all be slow. If the plague is as bad as they say for our ancient race, it could be worse. As far as I know, there is no internet when you’re dead.”

I looked down and thought about it. “Second grade was the last grade I attended so I don’t know much, but you may be older than you look, and since you’re both still physically young, you should be safe.”

Caerwyn nodded. “For humans that might be true, but when plagues kill off a quarter or more of the population, over and over again, disease resistance is selected for. When diseases from overseas were introduced to the Native Americans, they ran through a populace that had no resistances. My mother and I are of the healthiest stock that was possible, but we aren’t the result of selection that has strengthened the resistance of mankind through the years.”

Mrs. Nelson said, “We have to be more careful than anyone. We resist most of it, and a lot of diseases can’t even live in our systems. But some of the illnesses that humans consider minor can take us out quickly.”

Caerwyn asked, “Can I check out the house? I may be able to figure out where the cameras are sending their information.”

I said, “Yes, but be careful. Archer is the sort to trap things.”

Caerwyn smiled. “That’s what makes it all fun.”

I felt Hippydippy trying to slow time in Snipsnort. I let her since it seemed like I was going to be here a while.

Mrs. Nelson said, “What’s wrong?”

I said, “I want to get all this stuff to Fairy and set it up so I have freezers in there. I just let Hippydippy slow time since I wasn’t going to be back for a while, and I don’t have a good way to get back here.”

Caerwyn said, “Just summon me, Caerwyn Nelson. I’ll answer and bring you through.”

I nodded to him, sped up time, and went to Snipsnort.

I sailed through shadow and ended up at the manor house. The gates were open, and there were stakes in the ground in front like they were planning to do some expansions. I walked in and waved to the people bowing and greeting me. Once past the gates, I ran to the basement.

Mr. Hubert and Uncle Anthony were still intact and soaking. The area around the bandages looked a little different, but it was still stone.

I went to a large room with a large balcony and examined it. I looked at the floor below to be sure it all looked strong enough to bring equipment in. To protect the floor, I made a thick pad.

A man came in and bowed to me. “Long live King Snipsnort.”

I waved. “Please rise.”

He asked, “More and more steel keeps showing up. Is there a reason for worry?”

I said, “I’m protecting two friends that almost got hauled up into the sunlight. I’m also going to be bringing a lot of equipment into this room. A lot of it will be dangerous.”

He said, “That will reduce the number of Fairies that will be able to serve you.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I said, “That’s probably for the best since I don’t have a way to pay anyone. You should probably warn everyone that until I get my fishing operation going, I won’t have a source of income.”

He asked, “Are you teasing me, your highness?”

I said, “Call me Phil. Look, everyone here has been doing okay since well before I showed up or was born. Because of a few things I can do, and because I’m linked to this Fairyland, I’m a king. That’s all kind of fun and sort of tiring. I have some houses and stuff and I like that, but I don’t think I can just take things that others worked for just because I have a few powers that no one else does.”

He said, “You have a treasury.”

I said, “I’ll be returning to this room with dangerous stuff. Can you warn folk not to come in here?”

He bowed. “Of course, your highness.”

I said, “Just Phil.”

He said, “I am but a servant. That would be looked askance upon by others.”

I said, “Fine. I dub thee Sir—”

I looked around the room for inspiration. “Sir Balcony. I order you to just call me Phil. Now that I have a name for you, canst I use you to summon my way back here?”

He bowed. “Yes, Phil.”

I summoned Caerwyn Nelson, and he brought me out in Mr. Hubert’s kitchen.

#

Caerwyn had several laptops out and an odd shaped keyboard in front of him. “Thanks, Phil, I haven’t had so much fun in ages. I found his router. He was sending everything to a computer in his room, and then he was sending it all to a managed server in Atlanta. He’s a total newb as far the net goes. He makes some pretty wild weapons, but breaking the security on his server was child’s play. I used script kiddo methods and broke in.”

He noticed my blank stare and shook his head. “Slow time in Fairy, this may take a while.”

I slowed Snipsnort.

He said, “This is going to be no fun explaining any of this if you can’t follow along. Are you up for being gifted?”

I nodded. He kissed my forehead a few times and pointed to a bag with three more laptops in it. “Grab a laptop and charger and plug it in. The reason why will come to you. You can have the laptop. I’m upgrading as soon as my new order comes in. I always buy two dozen at a time. Gives me spares and multiple screens. I use a lot of macros, and I hate waiting so I switch between computers so I don’t have to sit through all the grinding.”

I took a laptop out of the bags and smiled at the stickers on it. A year ago, these specs would have been impossible. Odd how gifting made me suddenly an expert on things I knew nothing about a few minutes earlier.

I plugged in the flashdrive Caerwyn handed me and turned the laptop on. I looked at the boot screen that came up and chose Linux. He wrote down the password for the router he was using and slid an open laptop over to me with a webpage for setting up an email account.

I smiled at him. “You have a keylogger on this?”

He smiled back. “Would you?”

I shook my head and set up my email account. He would be able to break it as fast as he found out my mailing address so it wouldn’t even matter.

I nodded and went through the process of setting up the laptop. When I got a browser up, he had already sent me slew of emails.

I asked, “Is that your mail server?”

He shook his head. “Might as well be. I keep it secure for them. They don’t know, but I quietly pay for all the perks they don’t know they give me.

“I sent you Archer and Lottie’s cell phone data. They’re in Denver now but they have a place outside Huntsville, Alabama. By the way, you’re really good. The only time I got an image of you was when you checked the door on the Hummer. You manage to avoid cameras like the best of them. You might be the best of them.”

I said, “Cameras do something odd to shadows. I hate them.”

He said, “There’s a problem with taking them down. They’re set to blow up if you move them. Not a huge explosion, but here.”

He fast forwarded through a video Archer had made on his phone of the assembly and a test demolition of the camera setup. Glass slivers flew as the explosion went off.

He closed the window to the video. “I would have blow them up already but it would upset the dogs.

“Archer has a EMF burst generator set to destroy his stuff in Huntsville. I kept a copy of the plans. Well, all his plans. Anyway, as soon as I have everything downloaded from his systems, I will scrub his drives, fill them with incriminating evidence, and activate the EMF. He’s so paranoid about his files being gotten by someone that he doesn’t even keep an off-site backup. But then a lot of folk with perfect memories don’t understand the value of backups. The stuff should be scrubbed by the EMF, but if anything survives and gets examined, Archer is going to have a few agencies get interested in him.”

I started looking through emails and brought up several videos in small windows to check for content.

Caerwyn looked over and said, “I’ll give you another two laptops since you are slogging through the videos. Keep them, they’re yours.”

I set up the extra computers and had to run an extension for more power. I cooked us a meal of lamb and potatoes, and we spent the afternoon looking through Archer’s files and hacking his contacts.

As it got dark, a thunderstorm rolled in, and our internet started getting flaky so I asked Caerwyn, “It’s the second night of a Goblin Music Festival. I can probably get you in. Do you want to try it?”

He smiled at me. “On account of my skin, I don’t spend much time in sunlight. So there are two things that I can’t get enough of. Sunblock and a good party.”

I summoned Monroe.

Monroe didn’t answer. I tried Jordan. No answer. I tried Brad and Nick, no answer at all. I was getting worried. They had a lot of money on them. Anything could have happened.

I tried Miles, Hugo, and Dennis, no answer. I was really worried. I had given them a lot of money, and they didn’t usually go far from the swamp. The big city wasn’t our thing.

I tried again and got nothing. “Caerwyn, none of them are answering.”

Caerwyn asked, “Where is it?”

I said, “Gary, Indiana. I would normally shadow step, but with the weather that doesn’t look like an option.”

Caerwyn said, “I have a contact in Chicago. Let me see if he’s on Discord.”

Caerwyn clicked for a bit while I tried unsuccessfully connecting with my brothers.

Caerwyn said, “Okay, I remembered this guy, bugteeth68, because he was always saying he would pay to meet someone who could do real magic. I don’t want to reveal what I can do so you are going to summon him. Are you okay with revealing yourself to a mundane?”

I nodded.

He said, “Good, ‘cause you’re way more of a wizard than I’ll ever be.”

He clicked a bit more and typed a bit. “Idiot bugteeth68 doesn’t want to reveal his real name in chat. He wants my email first.”

I said, “That sounds smart to me. So we just register a quick email on a free server and email him.”

Caerwyn said, “There is usually a reason email servers are free. Okay, let’s find his name. It’ll be good practice for you.”

I said, “Fine, I’ll search for instances of bugteeth as a name in social media.”

He said, “May take a while. I’m gonna cheat while you try and beat me to the punch. Will I be distracting you if I tell you what I’m doing while you search?”

I shook my head. “No prob at all, and good luck.”

He said, “He plays Minetest. Ages ago, I got tired of a group of griefers and decided to track them down. They all spoke Spanish, but that really doesn’t reduce the area much. So I set up a server and told the admin about a great deal for hosting his game. So he contacted me, but me with a different id, and I helped him move his domain and server to my hardware. He told some friends, and I got them set up as well.

“Then I just blocked the griefers’ ip addresses. So right now, I’m finding what IP address bugteeth68 uses. Since my service blocks VPNs, he can’t use a virtual IP. Unless he has a good proxy setup, I can find out what web service he uses and maybe access his router.”

I said, “I think I found him. Fellow’s kind of creepy.”

Caerwyn said, “Yeah, that would be him. Well, probably. Got a name yet?”

I gave Caerwyn a sour look. “Not yet. Hey, I’m a newb, give me some slack.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but you take gifting well. Do you gift?”

I shook my head. “No one has gifted me that.”

Caerwyn shouted, “Got him! Rodger Emanuel Qin. That’s quite a mix, English first name probably, Spanish middle name, maybe, and Chinese last name almost for sure. So, let’s make a plan. He’s going to want to see some magic, Summoning’s good, what else can you show him?”

I said, “In Real, not much. Not much in Fairy either but a bit more. I can turn into something, I guess. Do we really have to do show and tell?”

Caerwyn said, “I guess summoning is pretty impressive if you’ve never seen evidence of magic. Look, when you summon, don’t give your real name. Can you really transform? Never mind. I was gifted it, but it never took. You need to use a name that you sort of identify with but it doesn’t really give you away. Something like ‘The drummer.’”

I asked, “You know I do percussion?”

He said, “Come on. You go out to the yard and play. I have a pair of binoculars. Of course I know you play. You had no presence on the net though, so I couldn’t figure out much more than the fact that you’re the only Goblin I’ve seen with perfect human-style ears.”

I shook my head. “I don’t really think of myself as a drummer. How about I say ‘I am The Fishmonger?’”

Caerwyn nodded. “Great. It tells me more about you while not giving me a single clue. You tend those big fish tanks though, so I guess it makes sense. So I guess we just summon in, you nod to him, and then shadow step us out of there. I’m going to spend a while doing makeup. I don’t want to give away that I’m an albino. That makes me easy to track. What do you think? Black, brown, or red hair?”

I said, “Black. Let’s keep it simple.”

Caerwyn said, “Hmm. Check this out. Rodger Emanuel Qin is probably not his real name either. But it gets a bit interesting. A picture of him from six years ago and his recent driver’s license. He hasn’t aged.”

I looked over at the screen. “His ears are neat, no scars at the top, so unless he had cosmetic surgery, he’s not a Goblin. He looks college aged so maybe he’s a normal human but holding onto a youthful look.”

Caerwyn shook his head. “He’s not a Daemon, unless he managed to get no sparkle at all. And even then, I don’t think so. Look at that face, I bet he doesn’t even know what he looks like in a mirror. A Daemon might not smile, but a Daemon wouldn’t be able to keep from posing. Best way to test if you think someone might be a Daemon is to point a camera at them from behind. If they pose without looking at you and then turn to show their best angle while still looking casual, the odd are good. This guy is a gamer nerd, but he ain’t aging. We probably shouldn’t risk this.”

I winced. “I’m worried about my family. I’ll summon him. If it looks odd, I’ll back out.”

Caerwyn said, “Bad idea. What if he has you in a ward and this is a trap? You could be held, unable to escape.”

I said, “You’re probably right.”

Caerwyn said, “Don’t do it. I can tell you are planning to do it anyway.”

I shook my head. “My family isn’t answering. They could be in trouble, and it might be my fault.”

Caerwyn said, “Come with me then.”

He took me to his house and up stairs to his attic. He took out a pitted, rusty knife about a foot long and put it in a sheath. “Cut a hole in one of your backpacks so the hilt can be reached. We’ll super glue it in place since we don’t have time to be neat. We just want it where you can reach into the hole in your backpack and pull this out.”

I nodded and took out a backpack. I started tossing cash out of it to make room for the modification.

Caerwyn pouted. “Damn, being able to polymorph is convenient. I would love to be able to carry a stash of money like that and not have it on me. Do you buy backpacks like that in bulk?”

I said, “Uncle Anthony got me a bunch of matching backpacks the moment he found out that I could transform into myself.”

Caerwyn said, “He always seemed like a nice guy. I probably should have introduced myself.”

I said, “I’m gonna take this to Fairy and make it right. I’ll summon you when I have it done.”

He nodded and I went to Snipsnort.

#

On the platform in the center of a seven-way intersection, I sat and started making illusions to fix up a backpack. I sped up time since the iron blade was dispelling them instantly. I examined the blade. It had inscribed runes and traced lines on it. I made an illusion of it in bronze, and then I made a bronze one to work with.

The bronze blade was a lot heavier. I made a gossamer mirror and then made a bunch more mirrors to improve my view. I had been gifted with a lot of materials when I was gifted with making things, but I wasn’t able to practice back then so a lot of it was fuzzy. To make the backpack out of real materials I was going to have to use leather.

I made a few gossamer tests and made a backpack that I liked with a pocket I could reach in and draw the blade out of without cutting the leather or my own hand. Putting it back was harder. I was going to have to take the backpack part all the way off to put the knife in properly. I made it in real materials. It was heavier than my other backpack, but it was dark toned and wouldn’t make me as obvious when hiding as the shiny fabric of my other backpacks.

I smiled at the look and summoned Caerwyn.

#

“Here you go, Caerwyn. We have matching backpacks. I made a copy of the knife, only without the rust. I made you a steel one, and you can have the bronze one I made to test with.”

Caerwyn put the backpack on and stood in front of a mirror. “It’s cool, thanks. ‘Til we test to see if these copies can break wards, keep the original. Let me gift you with using the ward breaker.”

He kissed my forehead a few times. Then he asked, “Can you go back to Fairy and make some softer ones to practice with?”