Barrowind had reached out and filled his own cup and then selected some small finger sandwiches, which I’d somehow missed.

“There are those in the forest with much longer memories than others, even the faerie and the elves. Though, from outside of our homes you wouldn’t know that we bears have a long interest in the world and what is happening,” he said.

He indicated, absently, the books that were lining the walls. “There are literature and history, memoirs and biographies, books on logic and science and more. Most of these are histories of the world. The things we bears keep records of since the beginning.”

I looked at the spines of the books, many of them leather bound with gold embossing. The titles were written in a language I couldn’t read or understand. I assumed it was bear script, but didn’t feel as though this was the best time to ask questions about the books. Books have power and these belongs to Barrowind and the bears.

“The key to understanding,” he said, “is the idea that there is far too much going on in any given moment than to allow the immediacy of the word dictate the goals of the past and the needs of the future.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgement though I wasn’t concerned with the books or what they contained. Barrowind had brought me here for a purpose and I was more interested in getting to that purpose more than any other bit of curiosity. There were a lot of thing going on and I was still convinced the hierarchy of the forest was going to fall apart, especially given what I’d done to Moment and the faerie guards.

“You haven’t been given a lot of opportunity to question or understand what’s going on in the forest, what preceded the barrier and the creatures being trapped,” Barrowind said.

He was correct in that no one had bothered to give me time and I did need to figure things out, but he wasn’t right when it came to needing information now. There were things I did need such as a period of downtime, though that could wait. I needed to see the river and the castle. I needed into my suite of rooms inside the castle even if it looked like it had been completely razed.

Then there were things I wanted. I wanted to know more about Barrowind, though I recognized that as being something of a long shot. I wanted to know when the block on magic started and how so many inherently magical creatures had been trapped. I could go on, the gnomes being unable to talk. Giant mushrooms. How an impossibly large complex had been built underground without anyone knowing. The entirety of the situation I’d found myself in was pretty messed up. And I’m the almighty ruler of messing things up.

“I suppose we should begin somewhere near the beginning,” Barrowind said. “Hundreds of years ago a man walked across many lands and then past the bridges to and from the castle to end up in this forest. No one knows his name, nor was anyone particularly interested in finding out what it was.

“For most of the animals, the man was a nuisance, but nothing to worry about. The magical creatures kept an eye on the man as he found and then setup his campsite. The same space where your man had his campsite.”

Okay. Barrowind was really starting at the beginning and I had to do everything in my power to encourage to go faster. Knowing these things might prove useful, but my goal right then wasn’t to stay in the forest. I needed freedom and the more I could feel the return of magic and my powers, the greater that need felt inside of me.

“We believe,” Barrowind continued, “that was when the seeds of the barrier were planted. At first, the man was just another creature among the trees and then he packed everything up and left. No one saw him leave, though the faerie claimed to have an around-the-clock watch. One day he was here and the next he was gone and the forest was left as it was.”

“When did things start changing?” I asked.

“Immediately, though few could tell there was a problem and those who could were confused by what was happening. More than one faerie and elf and gnome went mad trying to figure it out. Some are still with us, locked up and crazy. Unable to fend or take care of themselves.”

I knew there were often creatures, magical beings as Barrowind referred to them, who were more sensitive to the natural world, the magic and changes it wrought. I’d dealt with more than one (more than one hundred) in my time traveling. Those were often the best creatures or people to take cues from when doing my thing. But to have several in the first and affected by something so different and, I didn’t know what.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

If I could feel sadness or remorse for others, that is exactly what I’d be feeling. Especially since the fear that does exist within me, all things posses fear, was a loss of faculty and ability. To be deprived of my autonomy and freedom.

Barrowind continued telling me of the changes. First small and felt by the truly sensitive. Then bigger, more acute, as the magic started to slow down and then fail. The barrier, while not necessarily present the entire time, was suddenly in place and it didn’t care who or what was on the inside. Everyone and everything was trapped.

At first, the forest found itself at war. No one knew what was happening and everyone assumed it was a different species that had caused the problem. Because Queen Maeve had been trapped inside, the faeries became more aggressive and violent. They were unwilling to back down. No one could speak to them without fear of dismemberment. Which had been true for the bears and less-magically inclined animals.

Eventually, the gnomes made friends with the woodchucks, which led to alliances with the other woodland animals and finally the bears. “We weren’t interested in investing in the wars and contentions,” Barrowind said. “We wanted to hibernate and wander in peace. But our path to the river and the migrating fish had been blocked and many of my kind were desperate for change.”

I nodded.

Then things with the faeries started to change and they came to the bears first and then the elves and gnomes and others. Queen Maeve designated a voice to our council and Moment was left to discuss what the bears and others knew or understood about what was happening.

“When did the camp reappear?” I asked, having been drawn into Barrowind’s story.

“We don’t know, but we guess it was around the time the faeries came to us,” Barrowind said. “There was a softening in the forest and while it wasn’t enough to help those who’d been driven insane by the subtle changes in magic, it was enough to allow Queen Maeve to see the faeries needed help and they could help us.”

“Except by then no one was watching the camp and human-like creatures, the monsters, started to appear.”

“Sometimes on. At other times many. But from that point forward, there was always one of the monsters in the forest. Walking about. Using tools no one truly understood. Returning to their camp and disappearing. Reappearing, at times, years later. The barrier and the camp both resistant to anything we did or tried.

“And then you appeared,” Barrowind said. “Even the least magically attuned of the forest could sense something was very different. Before we could find you, you’d found the camp and the monster and had consumed its food and moved into one of its structures.”

“I was an unknown,” I said.

“For some,” Barrowind said. “Not everyone. There are always some who choose to trust rather than doubt.”

“You’re one of those,” I said.

“Not always,” he said. “But now, I’m one who prefers to hope for the best and as you’re one of the subjects of many of these books,” he gestured at the shelves. “I was never certain why and I may never truly understand the thinking of bears or other creatures, but that much effort cannot be for naught. When you identified yourself, I not only chose to believe, I’d been prepared to believe in you.”

I didn’t know what to say. Books about me. Several, maybe even a lot, that allowed Barrowind to put his trust in me before anyone else.

“I’m not the only one,” Barrowind continued. “My friend, I think it’s time to come out and properly meet each other.”

Faelix popped out of my satchel and alighted to the table between Barrowind and me. I looked from one to the other and found myself without words and then got over it, “How do you two know each other?”

“Letters, mostly,” Faelix said.

I was admittedly aghast at that little bit of info: letters. How would something like that even start? Male faeries were hidden and protected, kept locked up and never allowed to commingle with outside species. Extending that to getting letters out to a bear, or anyone else, pushed the limits of my willingness to suspend disbelief almost to their limits.

All of which seemed to be written all over my face as Faelix said, “I’m more magic than you are.”

“And it took no effort to figure out how to exchange information and ideas via the written word.”

“Bear scratch is almost as easy to learn as ancient Mesopotamian and a lot easier to structure than schematics and plans for an aircraft carrier,” Faelix said over Barrowind’s guttural grumph.

I couldn’t help but continue to look between the two. They’d never seen each other before, which was obvious because Faelix was a male faerie and they are hard to ignore once you see them, so I’d learned as a result of Faelix. Barrowind, though, seemed to handle the almost magical draw of Faelix better than I think I was still handling it. There was a bit of chitchat between them, catching up where their correspondence had failed. I was curious how this, the letters, had started but wasn’t quite prepared to get either of them to break their silence on the details.