Which is exactly what I was doing, a memory of this one time in a Court of the Lord Mayor, when Faelix flew into my face and startled me back into the present.

“Having a nice daydream?” He asked.

“Not particularly,” I said. “What did you find?”

“Nothing good,” he said. “These tanks are designed to grow artificial bodies, the monsters, and the system it’s connected to is also connected to somewhere else outside of the forest and this valley. I’m not sure how. I don’t think there’s enough time for that right now.”

Wait! This place grew artificial bodies and it was magically connected to another location while also blocking and magic.

“I’m not sure I understand,” I said.

“You and me both,” Faelix said. ”I think the bigger point we need to focus on is leaving this place before the monsters now dead body tries to connect with the systems here and something unpleasant, I’m guessing, starts to happen.”

“We need to get out,” I said and felt a little dumb saying it.

“Yes. That’s what I said,” Faelix said and darted toward the door. I followed.

“When we get outside you have to tell the gnomes what we found. Computers. Growth tanks. Data connections. Describe as much as you can, but don’t talk about me. To anyone,” he said.

I opened the door to the spiral staircase and continued to follow him up. When we got to the main floor, the computers, were a lot more active and unhappy. I’m not sure why I could tell the computers were unhappy, I just could. Faelix darted into my bag as I made my way through a new cacophony of noise and machinery and let the main entrance fall closed behind me without making sure we could get back in.

Once outside, there were considerably fewer people or animals around. Borrowind had left as had Moment, though there were still faeries flitting about the camp. I saw Olga, but no gnomes, which didn’t mean anything to me. And there were others, almost like there’d been a changing of the guard.

I looked around for Ethan’s deactivated body and head and noticed neither was where they’d been when I’d been sent inside. Whatever that meant would have to be explored later, though I was fairly certain everyone who was trapped in the forest knew more about what they were sending me to investigate than they were letting on. Not Faelix, necessarily, but he was hiding his own set of information from me and without my powers, without magic, I couldn’t make anyone tell me what they were omitting.

When I looked at Ethan’s tent, it wasn’t a tent anymore and had magically transformed into a cement and steel box. There were dishes on the roof and long metal rods and other things, I wasn’t being given enough time to observe much of anything. Before I could ask any questions, Olga made her way to me and said, “The council is meeting, we need to go.”

Wander was suddenly next to her, motioning for me to follow. He was moving at a very clipped pace. It wasn’t so fast that I had trouble following, though it did seem fast for a gnome or any other short individual of magical origin.

We didn’t make it very far before Borrowind was galloping beside us.

“You need to hurry,” Borrowind said.

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He lumbered past through the trees, not waiting for any of us to keep up. I decided to stick with Olga and Wander and I followed them as they switched to the path Borrowind had taken. It was bigger and as Borrowind had made his way through the underbrush had created what I could only assume was a temporary path toward the gathering area.

When we entered the clearing, there was already a quorum of creatures and animals in loud discussion over something. I couldn’t tell what everyone was upset about or discussing and wanted to get Faelix out to give me a heads up. But I was guessing if he wasn’t in my dimensional space, he’d been tossed about inside the bag and in either case I knew it wasn’t in his interest to show himself.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking around.

“Things aren’t any better,” Olga said as she watched Wander wave his arms about around.

“I already know that,” I said.

“No,” Olga said. “Not better and definitely less than we had before.”

I had to shake my head to keep up with Wander, through Olga, as she began to tell me the barrier that surrounded the woods seemed to be closing in more on the forest. There were signs that it was getting worse and as I tried to feel for my powers or even the magic that should be naturally available, was not as available as it had been before I’d beheaded Ethan.

“What happened that had the opposite effect?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” Olga said. “The gnomes are working on a theory, but as it stands they are as in the dark as everyone else.”

“Yay us,” I said and looked at Borrowind, “what do you think is going on?”

Borrowind shrugged his shoulders in a way that only a bear can shrug their shoulders and said, “The barrier took a step closer. Like it was being held back by something.”

“Did that happen when I separated Ethan’s head from his body?” I asked. Might as well start asking questions because, otherwise, we weren’t getting anywhere.

“No,” Borrowind said. “It was a while after that. When you were in his structure.”

“How long was I in there before it happened?” I asked.

“We’re not entirely sure. The gnomes were starting to check the body and head, the head is almost completely useless, and then the faeries all flew through announcing the change,” Borrowind said. “I was watching the gnomes as their work is the most interesting happening and when the faeries flew through they saw me and demanded a quorum.”

“Which is where I come in,” I said, nodding.

“Yes,” Borrowind said. “Which is where you come in.”

“I didn’t change anything inside the structure,” I said. “Though there were a lot of machines down there, another door, and even farther underground a large chamber with clear tubes filled with some kind of liquid and other things.”

“What kind of other things?” Olga asked, waving at Wander to pause while she talked to me.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Parts of things. They looked almost like they were parts of some biological entity, but exactly what I don’t know.”

Olga turned back to Wander and watched him for a moment before asking, “Can you get back inside?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I left when it felt like it was time to say goodbye and haven’t had time to think about anything, nor was there time to test the door before I was summoned.”

“Yes, yes,” Borrowind said. He made a loud guttural noise to grab everyone’s attention, a noise that didn’t seem loud enough to actually pierce the talking, but brought every head turning in his direction.

“We will begin the quorum,” Borrowind said. “Who is here to speak?”

A group of three faeries, led by Moment, flew into the clearing, “We are here to speak for the queen,” Moment said.

Borrowind said, “The faeries are recognized by the quorum.”

“We cannot go into details, but there has been a change among the faerie that is concerning. We’re not certain whether or not this change is in any way influencing the barrier around the forest. However, the queen has asked the quorum for leave to focus on our internal issues as an avenue of inquiry into the bigger problem.”

Borrowind nodded and said, “How do the gnomes feel?”

Before Olga could speak for the gnomes Bal and Gad stepped into the circle and said, “The elves feel the need to withdraw as well, for the time being. We too have internal matters that must be addressed before we can proceed.”