“And you were born inside,” I said, looking for confirmation. “At least two hundred years old.”

She nodded and I considered moving off so I could get some information from Faelix. I suddenly had the idea that Faelix probably had a far better understanding of everything than everyone else. But he wouldn’t come out and he certainly wouldn’t talk to me if there was anyone else around. I’d already figured that part out.

The part I wanted to figure out, though, was why male faeries were so rare or were kept away from the rest of the world. Faelix was smart, smart in a way that demanded I respect his mind even if I was still mad at him accessing my dimensional space. We could get into that later.

Bal cleared her throat and I turned, brought out of my thoughts I turned to look back at the way we we’d come. Barrowind and others were now making their way through the debris as well. I watched them for a minute before turning back to the crater in front of me.

“I think I may drop down,” I said.

Bal nodded and I could tell she would most likely follow me if I jumped.

I jumped and felt her presence following me as I dropped several meters down, letting the air flow past me in a rush. The feeling whelmed me as I hit the ground and tuned to look up. Barrowind was standing at the edge looking down. Even though bears didn’t necessarily smile, I thought I could see a bit of delight on his face looking back at me, the elves and others stranding around him clearly perturbed.

I’d learned a long time ago not to be worried about what other people are thinking or wanting from me. The reality of life is that people will be people and sooner or later I’m going to disappoint you. Which was exactly what was happening in the crater. I wanted to see more. I think Bal didn’t want to have to address either what had just happened or the prospect of her fate and before I could turn back around, I was a little surprised when Clippings appeared, almost as if out of nowhere.

“Let’s see what’s left,” I said.

“Not going to be much,” Bal said. She closed her mouth when she saw Clippings staring at her. “What?” Bal said to Clippings who just shrugged in that way only a woodchuck can shrug.

“Still need to look,” I said. “If for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity and to keep away from them.” I said, not directly indicating the group around the edge now having a rather animated discussion of whatever groups like that discuss.

I knew, from experience, that the agreements that had existed in the forest through the barrier of magic were going to dissolve into madness, chaos and disorder, and while that is absolutely my bailiwick, I had no desire to participate in making things worse, right now.

Instead, I stepped around some of the remains of what I was told was a cement wall and then down some stairs until we reached a place where the dirt met something else entirely.

“What in the great gods existence is that?” I asked.

“That is a very large bit of mycelium,” Clippings said. “Most of the time those things are closer to the surface and really well hidden.”

“What things?” I asked.

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“It’s one of the larger biomasses in this part of the world,” Clippings said. “As I understand these things, it’s existence here is probably very important.”

“Important how?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

I wanted to open my satchel and bring Faelix out and considered it as I turned to look and see whether or not we could be seen from the edge.

With a deep breath, I opened the satchel and looked inside. “Come on out,” I told Faelix.

He didn’t respond.

“Come out. I’m going to make everyone vow not to talk about you,” I said.

I watched as Faelix peaked out and the flew out of the opening and onto a small outcropping of cement and steel.

“What the …” Bal started to say and stopped, her mouth hanging open.

Clippins was also staring as Faelix looked at me expectantly.

“Fine,” I waved a hand and said, “none of you will be able to talk about Faelix with anyone. If you do really bad things will happen and my powers will turn you into something unpleasant and yadda, yadda, yadda. Happy?”

“Definitely,” Faelix said.

“This is Faelix. He is, as you are probably already aware though never having seen one, a male faerie. I don’t really know what his deal is, but if we’re going to get any answers down here we’re going to need the incredible smarts he has,” I said.

Clippings took a moment to clear his mind, forcing himself to look away from Faelix for a moment, before he said, “We’re looking at the biomass right there.”

“It’s a mushroom. Wouldn’t it be great if it was one of those that made you bigger on one side and smaller on the other?” Faelix said and then darted off. He remained close, very aware of the group still at the edge of the crater, but less worried at this distance.

“Yeah,” he said, returning, “it’s a big, powerful mushroom and I can guarantee this is why your monster built right here.”

Yay! I thought. More answers. Rather than asking any questions, though, I looked toward the biomass and took a step toward it. There was, in many areas, lights that seemed to be leaking from the edges. “What are those?” I asked, pointing at one of the red streams rising and then disappearing into the air.

“Sprites,” Faelix said. “Told you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. They’re going to take a while to escape. I think your monster and his kind were trapping the sprites here, though how I don’t know. I should go and talk to a few,” Faelix said.

“Should be able to,” he said.

“Wait. How could a bunch of trapped sprites keep the magic from working in the forest?” I asked.

“I didn’t think they could,” Faelix said. “Never read anything about that before. I don’t think anyone has ever experienced anything like this before.”

He took off, flying around one of the streams of light, first red and then green, yellow and then blue, before focusing on a purple stream and alighting next to it. I could see, but not hear, him speaking and turned to look at Bal and Clippings.

“What else do you think we need to be doing?” I asked.

“Keep looking,” Bal said.

Sure. That was as good an answer as anything else. Clippings, for his part, took off in one direction, Bal in the other. I made my way toward Faelix and the purple stream of light.

“What’s the skinny?” I asked.

“The skinny is they don’t know,” Faelix said. “There’s something about a group being really mad and doing something, but exactly who or what is unclear.” He pointed more center and to the left of the large mass, “they say there’s still a problem over there, but that I should probably avoid it.”

“Why you?”

“Because I’m more like the sprites than I am them,” he said, pointing to Bal and then Clippings. “It’s a male faerie thing, you wouldn’t understand.

I didn’t argue. Probably because I lacked any desire to understand and partially because I really wanted to check the barrier and see of the castle was still there or if we could get past the river. Ant had told me not to get wet, which I hadn’t, so far, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t anxious to see if blowing up this underground complex allowed me access to more of the world.

“Should I go over there?” I asked.