It didn’t take Faelix long to find small boxes built into the walls. They were locked and on opposite sides of the room. I dug into my bag and then into my dimensional space to find an old set of picks I’d acquired from a troll who worked security for one of the eastern emperors. One out, it took me a couple of minutes to open each of the boxes revealing bright red buttons embossed with the words:

Do Not Push

“We’ll have to do this at the same time,” Faelix said.

I nodded and went to the opposite button. He said, “On three,” and started to count. We pushed and an alarm started to blare with red and white flashing and strobing lights.

“It’s time for us to evacuate the premises before the planned separation of matter takes place,” Faelix said.

I quickly slipped my picks back in the satchel, though not in the dimensional space, and we practically flew out of the room, up the stairs, and out of the main structure.

“Run!” I yelled as Faelix disappeared into my satchel again. I was assuming he would end up in my dimensional space and hadn’t bothered to close it up properly. What was the use if he didn’t need me to get inside?

As though everyone had expected to begin running the faeries and my companions all started to run as though their lives depended on it. Which, I was guessing, their lives absolutely did depend on it. I figured we only needed to get as far as the barrier that surrounded the campsite, which is where I was heading. Not that I needed to worry about being killed, things still hurt if they were powerful enough. I’d learned that more than once throughout my life.

When I crossed the border, on Bal’s heels, there was a thump followed by an explosion and a fountain of dirt and rock and trees and debris that flew high into the air. The concussive wave from the explosion sent Bal and me sprawling forward. I took it with a roll and a twist to see what was happening and then scrambled over to Bal to push her out of the way as a lot of the material started to fall back to earth.

Without thinking about it, I pushed my arms out thinking about a nice dome above the both of us and suddenly, almost as though it had always been there, my powers were back and I watched as the red and gold and green essence of my energy flew out pushing against the rock and dirt falling around us.

“That’s fortunate,” Bal said.

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“Think it’ll hold?”

“Which part, my dome or the magic?”

“Right now, the dome,” Bal said.

“As long as the magic holds,” I said and sat up.

“How’s it feel?” Bal asked.

“What?”

“The magic.”

“Life,” I said. “Don’t you feel it?”

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“I’ve never felt it,” Bal said. “I was born inside the barrier.”

Oh. I’d not considered the possibility of Bal or anyone else, except the mundane forest creatures, having been born inside of the barrier. Looking at Bal, I could see a sense of excitement and anticipation behind her gaze.

When the debris stopped falling, which didn’t take as long as one might think, I dropped the dome and stood up and looked around. Even though I’d only protected Bal there were others who’d somehow found shelter under and around things who started to peak out. Most of them were faeries, though I did spot Olga peeking up out of a burrow followed by Wander.

“I’m free,” Wander said.

“You can talk,” Olga said.

“It’s a miracle,” one of the squirrels and half a dozen chipmunks all said in unison.

I wasn’t entirely certain I understood what was so miraculous, though I did feel an internal cringe expecting Wander to start talking and not stop. He didn’t. Instead, looking around at the world and taking in deep breaths.

“It was like I couldn’t breath,” he said, quietly and mostly to himself.

I smiled at him and the rest.

“What’s next?” I asked.

“We should report back,” Bal said.

“Really? You don’t think they’d already know?” I asked

“That’s not the point,” she said.

I gestured back toward what was clearly a large hole in the ground and the small fires still burning, and said, “We could check on the damage. Explosions are cool, but the craters are even better.”

There was a moment if excitement and recognition in Bal’s eyes and now that I was looking for it, I could see the youth in the elf’s eyes and face. It wasn’t always easy, or even possible, to see age in an elf. But the younger ones were far easier to identify their age than the older ones. The older an elf got, the less their age showed until one could be as ancient as me or as young as the forest.

Bal had no experience with magic and even if she could feel it, she probably had trouble knowing what it was she was feeling. If she could even identify there was something new to feel.

“Now I guess I’ll be given to someone to train,” Bal said.

“What does that mean?”

“There are those who know magic and those of us who are too young. It’s elven tradition to give a new magic user to someone far more experienced in the use of magic.”

“That sounds ominous,” I said.

“I don’t know what it is,” she said. “Though, from the stories I’ve heard, it will probably be centuries of forced servitude, tied to someone else, until I can break the bond and head out on my own.”

I didn’t know what to say, but decided it was a better idea to start heading in the direction I wanted to go as opposed to where people wanted me to be. Bal didn’t take long to fall in behind me and I thought I caught a glimpse of Faelix before he disappeared back into the satchel.

Wander and Olga followed at a distance. I couldn’t tell what was going on there. They had a connection, Olga having acted as Wander’s voice, as the voice of the gnomes in the council, and now that role had changed. How their connection, which I guessed was more than a voice, had to be worked out and I had no desire to interject myself into anything personal.

My attention returned to Bal, who was deep in thought, and then to the forest floor as I picked my way through the debris and detritus, some of it from Ethan’s structure, until I got close enough to see the crater in the ground that dipped much farther into the ground than I was expecting. The structure was more of a complex than the small space Faelix and I had explored. I was wondering if Faelix knew the space had been bigger or if, like me, he was ignorant to the extent of the underground buildings. Plural.

There wasn’t a single crater, there had been several, some bigger than others, all connected by tunnels that looked like they were still, at least partially, intact. I looked around, trying to see what was left of what had been there and not understanding the complexity of the system.

“This place is old,” Bal said.

“How old?” I asked. I didn’t have a sense of time when it came to the building material and if blowing it up had released my powers and the natural magics of the forest, understanding more about what I was seeing would help.

“I’m two hundred years old,” Bal said.