Arcadia, the sole city maintained in Avalon, the lands of the Fae, to describe it as a place of myth and legend was to sell it short. Myths and legends were just tourists when they visited Arcadia. Or so it was said. Where the laws of physics were little more than suggestions, bent upon the anvil of the strongest wills, where everything was for sale and where time was a memory.
But that, ironically, had been a long time ago. Arcadia endured, still wondrous, still vibrant, and no longer even bothering to hide the dark underside it maintained. The Fae were sticklers for rules, and as interest in them had waned they’d only gotten more predatory in their dealings with mortalkind. Anyone so foolish as to even say ‘thank you’ to a Fae lord would be lucky to still have all their children afterwards.
It was however still the most magical place in the known multiverse, the sheer chaos of all those spells clashing, mixing, annihilating and creating was a death sentence to any magic so delicate as a tracking spell. Scrying mirrors showed little more than swirling static when trying to scry into Arcadia, and even that only when Arcadia was feeling polite.
Alec knew none of this, he’d heard of Arcadia, but no one had ever gone into detail about it. Holly on the other hand… well dryads had always got along with the Fae, and Von Mori had even visited Arcadia, and she’d had a will strong enough that even the Fae Queen herself, in either of her guises, had been unable to reforge reality around her. To them Arcadia was not a place to be scared of.
Amara and Natalya however were not so naïve.
“Want to live? You’re joking, that place is little more than a meatgrinder for mages.” Natalya growled, “I’ll take my chances with the tracking spell.”
“Ditto.” Amara said hurriedly.
“Nat you were complaining at me just minutes ago that I must have been sloppy in my evasion of tracking, well if you want a guarantee that we aren’t being followed then we have no choice but to risk Arcadia, or at the very least the Avalonion wilds.” Erebus explained reasonably, and then continued unreasonably, “Besides, there are things I simply can’t tell you outside of a location of absolute privacy. Some serious sh- stuff happened today and I want to tell you what I can. Seruatis was one option, Avalon would frankly be the next easiest to access and most likely the safest.”
“You’re asking us to take a lot on faith kid, give us something at least.” Amara butted in before an argument could break out.
“Fine. There was a prophecy today, a big one.”
That stunned them into silence. A fortuitous one as it happened for it gave the assembled six a few moments noticed as something staggered out of the blizzard and through the barrier of Sato’s shield, the beleaguered hemisphere of calm popping like a soap bubble in the face of an unfriendly cactus.
Alec for his part dove to the ground, dragging Holly down with him, and just in time as hail the size of walnuts punched through the space they’d been standing in, the storm vicious as the wind tore at the two, the cold almost a living thing in its spite.
It lasted a few seconds longer than it should as three master mages tried to erect their own barriers to the storm, all with entirely different means and managing to completely foul each other’s efforts.
Erebus put up a barrier spell, a stronger version of Sato’s bubble of calm intended to act as a full shield rather than just break the teeth of the wind. That was torn apart by Natalya’s entropic pavilion, reducing hail to little more than sleet and snow and breaking up the coherency of the wind – and unravelling the barrier.
That in turn was blasted apart by the dome of fire that burst forth from Amara’s hands, the energy expended rendering it worse than useless, a flash of superheated air turned ice to water which then crashed down on all below soaking them through to the bone as the cold returned to bite even deeper than before.
Sato thankfully had held back his own spell, taking the mana from the frayed fabric of Natalya’s spell, the dissipating shards of Erebus’ shield and the wisps of fire mana fighting helplessly against the piercing cold and dumping them all into the teleport spell he’d been working on since before Erebus had even arrived there.
*
The new location was reasonably warm, that was a mercy given the soaked and bedraggled state of the spluttering mages. Sure even the lowliest apprentice had at least some waterproofing but when what could only be described as a wall of water descended it really was a case of hermetically sealed or bust.
Even struggling to see through the cascade dragged with them it was still just moments until they realised that the six in the mouth of the cave were in fact nine. One had been expected. Two were uninvited. The creature that had destroyed their protection had been caught up in the spell as well it was... an old man.
He was struggling to even stand as he leaned on his stick, his clothes torn to rags by the storm he’d just waded through, feet all but blue, veins visibly bulging everywhere and ribs visible through the gaps in his clothes. He certainly didn’t look like a threat and yet of the three that Alec was yet to meet he was the one that everyone was aiming at, Erebus’ staff charged with some kind of aetheric evil that glowed a soft green, Natasha’s crackling with barely withheld lightning whilst Amara had, inevitably, gone for fire, a small sun on the end of her own stave. Sato hadn’t gone for a stave, but he did have three phials held between the fingers of a hand, the arm raised to shatter them on the ground at a moment’s notice.
“I have the primary brain.” Erebus murmured soft, low and, above all, urgent.
“I have the secondary.” Amara hissed as the fireball on the tip of her staff went from red to blue.
“I have the heart.” Natasha added for good measure.
Sato didn’t say anything, frankly Alec was starting to suspect he was more than just taciturn but actually mute. Noone dared move a muscle as the old man stared them down, which allowed Alec to take in the other tableau, and was frankly astonished that it was the shrivelled fossil they were scared off when there was an honest to null demon in the room.
At over seven feet in height she cast an intimidating silhouette against the cave mouth, her skin was not the stereotypical crimson but rather a deep and rich purple, though really just her face was visible. Long spiralling horns led down to inhumanly angular features and ears so pointed they probably counted as weapons. Spikes of bone jutted from her chin.
Other than that it was hard to make out any details, the demoness clad entirely in thick, plated armour, though Alec had never seen an example of plated mail that was quite so gratuitously spiky.
He’d seen the nearly barren and battle-scarred armour of the rogue paladin Lutan, the resplendent and beautiful filigree of some of Seruatis’ retirees, the almost second skin of Alisha’s mail, and even the incredibly heavy steel of one of Seruatis’ dragons. This new example struck him as impractical, needle like spikes extending off of each joint, and the fingers and toes were claws in all but name.
Frankly he’d rather be the wearer’s enemy than ally, distance seemed safer.
They were in their own frozen moment of combat, one of the taloned gauntlets gripped tight around the throat what appeared to be a hole in the world, a void of colour so deep that Alec realised that everything he’d ever called black in his life had just been a form of grey.
The absolute lack of colour was roughly human shaped, or so he thought, It was genuinely hard to tell but he could at least make out an arm, head and dangling legs from this angle, the creature two dimensional in appearance. It was clutching at that taloned grip, trying to dissolve the armour in its hands but the metal regenerated almost as fast.
Erebus barely spared them a glance, whatever conclusions he’d drawn from their presence he was keeping to himself for now, not that Alec minded. The teenager was far too busy pressing himself against the cave wall alongside Holly, trying desperately to stay out of everyone’s line of fire and not appear to be a threat.
“If you four don’t put those spells away someone’s going to get hurt.” The old man rumbled, his voice like milled gravel with a side of grit.
“That’s the idea.” Erebus pointed out evenly, if anything the green glow on his staff only got brighter.
“How do you rate your chances?” He chuckled, sweeping a fairly dismissive gaze across the four mages arrayed against him.
“One in four.” The necromancer admitted, though there was a surprisingly hopeful note, “but I’m feeling lucky.”
“You always did have more courage than sense old man.” The living fossil growled as he leaned on his walking stick.
“I’m still here aren’t I?” Erebus countered.
“And more luck than courage.” He continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “What will it took to convince you of my peaceable intentions?”
“I’m not sure you can.” The necromancer shrugged, “You see in my head it always comes back to one problem, if I wanted me dead, and I mean really wanted it, I’d send you. A lot of people seem to want me dead right now Al, and here you are.”
‘Al’ appeared to mull that over, gaze slightly unfocused upwards and lips moving ever so slightly as he ran that argument back and forth in his head before conceding, “I see your point. But seems to me you just might have it backwards, what if someone really didn’t want you dead?”
“How’d you find us?” Erebus asked flatly.
“Look can we at least put away the spells folks? I’ve got a terrible itch developing on my nose and being unable to scratch it without having the hand blown off is a hell of a distraction.” He grouses, only to raise his hands higher at Erebus’ expression, “Fine. I just had a hunch.”
“A hunch that was so accurate it got you inside a bubble of calm in a barren wasteland, over a thousand miles from my last known location, whilst wading through a blizzard.” Doubtful didn’t even begin to describe Erebus’ expression.
“No. A hunch accurate enough that I cashed in a few favours to get a face to face with the Queen of Ice, who I then threatened until she agreed to cast an augur upon her domain for anything disrupting her weather spells, then got teleported just far enough away that Sato wouldn’t sense the incoming spell and have me shredded in transit.”
“That’s not that much better. How’d you know we’d be in Aegis territory?”
“Oh please. It’s practically a rule that the first step of fleeing is finding a nice barren wasteland to regroup in, somewhere nice and inhospitable where noone’s going to turn up by accident so anyone who intrudes will be a viable target. I’m old, not stupid.” Al grumbled.
Erebus gave a little half-shrug, “Plenty of wastelands out there.”
“Like I said, I had a hunch. Why are you so determined to pull on this thread old man? Especially when there’s a demon lord and an I don’t even know what fighting right next to us?”
It was a fair question, made all the worse because Erebus knew he couldn’t answer it. He could see some curiosity at the question from Amara, and Natalya’s lips were pursed and her brow scrunched, his fellow necromancer had already figured out he was hiding something. That was always the trouble with intelligent allies, they had a tendency to try and work things out on their own.
He still couldn’t tell them about the bard, even if he decided to show his hand now wasn’t the time or the place, but the lying didn’t sit well, and now he was on the spot.
“Just call me paranoid.” The necromancer hedged, but he lowered his battlestaff, his comrades doing the same.
Now that that situation seemed to have resolved itself attention finally turned to the more interesting tableau.
The demoness’ slitted eyes flicked to the assembled mages for just a moment, “This spawn of the outside claims to know you necromancer mine.”
That certainly got some sharp looks from those assembled, Erebus having to weather a storm of amusement, condescension and surprise.
“Not like that.” The necromancer grumbled, “She worked for my teacher in the hells. It’s good to see you well, Lana. Admittedly she was a cubus back then and not an egos but the eyes are unmistakable.”
The eyes certainly were distinctive, slitted like a cat’s, amethyst in hue but with the sparkle and shine of fool’s gold, it almost looked like they were producing light rather than reflecting it and Alec found he couldn’t look into them for more than a handful of seconds.
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“Sometimes I fear you were trained too well.” The demoness mused, “Now do I kill this lesser child of the abyss or not?”
“I’d rather you didn’t. Hey Susan, how’s things?” Erebus gave the living shadow a friendly wave.
“Oh you know… just hanging.” The hole in the world responded dryly as she was lowered back to the floor. “I don’t mean to be a downer but do you actually trust this hellspawn?”
“With my life, same as you.” Erebus answered without missing a beat. “I suppose a round of introductions are in order. I’ll be quite honest I was not expecting such a large response in my favour, it rather changes things. But first introductions.”
The old man chose to take the lead, “Call me Alice. Warshifter and hoping to die in glorious battle.”
Alec’s brow furrowed more than a little at that, “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”
“I am a girl.” Alice replied simply, giving a small and rather geriatric curtsy.
“More of a spinster now really.” Erebus chimed in helpfully.
“Yes thank you Ere. For just a moment I’d forgotten that I was old.” She said dryly, “But yes, despite the shrivelled husk you see before you I am in fact a woman. Lived most of my life as a woman and if I’d been thinking clearly would have died as a woman.”
“We did warn you you were in danger of getting stuck back in your original body.” The necromancer sighed, “Strenously. If you’d retired two decades ago then you would be enjoying your dotage on a pension large enough you could build out a house out of gold.”
“Yeah well unfortunately there were these idiots I was rather fond of and they kept doing idiot things.”
“She means us.” Natalya stage-whispered, indicating Alamaya and Erebus but surprisingly not Sato in the us.
“How many shifts are you down to?” Erebus asked, getting back to business.
Alice rubbed at her eyes, “One, maybe two if the first fight’s a short one, but I don’t think so good when the rage hits anymore. And no matter what I do my rearmost left leg has a limp, the docs say it’s psychosomatic but frankly I think they’re just making up words at this point.”
There was a heavy silence at that, well mostly heavy, Alec and Holly were simply confused.
“What else?” Sato prompted, putting to death Alec’s growing theory that the mage was mute, the words as soft and subtle as the flap of a barn owl’s wings. He had a very gentle voice to Holly’s surprise, in sharp contrast to his permanently austere expression.
For a moment it looked like Alice wasn’t going to answer, “Cancer. Lungs, heart, brain and blood. They say three months. A year tops.” And while Alec didn’t know what cancer was, the timescale was fairly declarative and for all her fire in the initial confrontation she sounded terribly resigned to this, and terribly tired.
That wasn’t quite right he realised in the second far longer silence that followed, it was her resignation that had given her that fire. Even in the span of a conversation it was clear that Alice was had burned brightly her entire life and that now in the twilight of her fading light she was faced not with a sharp snuffing of the candle nor the grand supernova of evil defied ‘til one’s last breath but the slow dwindling of the last ember in the fire, alone and made all the worse by the knowledge they’d chosen loneliness. There was no pill quite so bitter as regret.
It was the demoness, Lana, who broke the silence, those who knew Alice apparently too overcome by the news, the heavily armoured monster stepping up to place a gentle hand on the old lady’s shoulder, “Any hero can give their life in battle, it takes a true exemplar to give up themselves for their cause and have to live with it afterwards.”
“I didn’t do it to be a hero.” Alice growled, deep, sonorous and, for the first time, angry.
Lana laughed at that, “Of course not my dear, that’s practically one of the requirements of heroism. Trust me, I have some knowledge of what you gave up, to be confined to a single form is so… stifling. I honestly have no idea how the meatsacks stand it.”
“Careful Lana, you’re one of us meatsacks now.” Erebus chided, “Unless… what was your point of pride exactly?”
“Bodyguarding.”
Erebus winced, “She actually…?”
“Volunteers were requested, I won the privilege.” The demoness’ jaw stuck out obstinately, daring him to challenge her decision.
He didn’t, at least not directly. “I’m getting awfully tired of other people dying for me.”
“I’m afraid that path has a way to walk yet necromancer mine.”
“You can’t know that.” He hissed, fronting up to the towering monster.
“She can.”
To the absolute and visible shock of those who knew him Erebus stepped back without a word, face crestfallen.
“She had some advice for me to give you.” Lana continued, placing a delicate hand on the man’s robed shoulder, “You will need three aces for the battle that awaits you.”
“I have one…” The necromancer mumbled, “and I know where to find one more.”
“Aces?” Amara interjected, the vampire not enjoying the mildly coded conversation and enjoying the parts she had understood even less.
“Response term.” Natalya answered, “Basically a secret weapon, something to alter the balance of a fight that you’ve been holding back to avoid proliferation or countermeasures being developed.”
The pyromancer was mollified and a little relieved at that, “Three seems achievable.”
The elder necromancer’s laugh was bitter, “Secrets used are secrets wasted. I was unusually happy if I made it through a mission without using mine just to stay alive.”
“You make it sound like you can only use an ace once.” Amara prodded, the idea of using a powerful spell just once was more than a little strange to her.
“The opposition pays attention. If your ace is a way to shatter a particular type of spell-shield then there’s a very good chance the next time you’re called up they’ll have adapted it.” Nat explained with a ‘that’s how it is’ shrug of her shoulders. “That and a large number of aces tend to be single use artifacts. You can pack a shocking amount of energy into something if you don’t plan on it surviving the casting, in fact that’s half the reason to make one, so it’s doing the casting and not you.”
“So what’s the ace you’ve got Ere?” The vampire asked curiously, as much a fish out of water with this sort of thing as Alec and Holly were.
“What part of secret aren’t you getting flamebrain?” Natalya chided, shaking her head in mock disappointment. “Less than five minutes ago we discussed the importance of getting clear of any scrying or tracking, a decent seer or chronomancer could read this conversation if they found this location.”
“Getting back on track,” Erebus stated before an argument could break out properly, “These are Alec and Holly, my apprentice.”
“Sato, second response mage and precognizant.” The mage had lowered his hood, revealing a head shaved meticulously bald, narrow eyes and lightly tanned skin.
“Precog-what?” Holly asked, more than a little timid, being acknowledged as Erebus’ apprentice had muted her and Alec’s shared curiosity, not wanting to show up their mentor with their own ignorance but still it managed to rear its head.
“I can see the future.” Sato explained. “Not far like a seer can, just five seconds, but unlike a prophet, seer or reader of bones I see it very accurately.” As he said it he swatted away Natalya’s hand, the necromancer trying to poke him in the back of his head.
The demoness went next, “Well I figure you know most there is to know about me from little Ere’s questions but might as well get it all out in the open. I’m Lana, not my true name, and I’m a demon of pride who’s been sent by Erebus’ master to ensure he survives the coming days. I will happily sacrifice each and every one of you to achieve it.”
“That’s reassuring.” Amara muttered to herself, a sentiment echoed by Natalya and (in the privacy of his own head) Alec.
“It wasn’t meant to be.” Lana stated flatly.
Sato gasped just before the next person spoke, unable to conceal their reaction. “And then there was one.” The shadow mused, all but forgotten, but that had always been her great strength. “Well I’m Susan…” She carried on, ignoring the gasps from Natalya, Alice and Amara, the trio catching up to Sato at last, “and I was a umbramancer. Now… well I don’t know what I am…” Susan trailed off, not out of dramatic effect as mages were prone or even because she’d run out of things to say but because the mages and shapeshifter were busy slowly backing Erebus against a cavern wall.
“You knew she was alive!?” Nat all but screamed, knuckles white around her battlestaff as her former underling raised his hands, opening his mouth to try and say something placating but not being permitted a word in edgeways. His lack of reaction to the reveal had rather betrayed him.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Alice demanded, the old woman struggling for breath in her rage as Amara forsook her own anger to try and hold her back. It was surprising just how much strength the frail form had, the vampire having to dig her heels in to hold them back as that toast-rack chest heaved with exertion. “Let me go Amara, I’m going to scrag his neck.”
“We had a right to know.” was all the pyromancer said, more weepy than wrathful.
“He couldn’t tell you.” Susan spoke softly but it still carried. “It would have killed you all. Yes even you Alice, the Umbral has always been very protective of its secrets and the existence of creatures like me is the most deeply held.”
“What are you?” Alec asked, trying to keep Susan in profile, it was hard. He’d figured out that she wasn’t actually a shadow but the total darkness of her appearance made judging angle and distance difficult.
“I’ll answer that in a minute poppet, just give me a moment to ensure they aren’t going to hurt Ere.”
Erebus at least was finally getting to plead his case, “It’s like she said, it’s why they took a run at Karatas, the ungrateful gits, and I’m going to guess they’d have taken a shot at me too if they’d had anyone able to get past the Swordsman.”
“That’s still a choice we should have been given.” Alice growled, hard as granite and eyes positively flinty.
“And how was I supposed to give it to you?” exclaimed Erebus in frustration, “Hey guys there’s this super big secret that I know that would get you killed if I even told you it exists and whoops!”
“I would have wanted to know.” The warshifter told him, utterly unyielding and managing to drag Amara another few inches forwards.
“And I wanted to tell you, I just wanted you alive more.”
“This is going nowhere.” Natalya sighed, “Alice I’m as angry as you are, probably, but none of us came here to tear him limb from limb, as tempting as he makes it.”
“Fine but this isn’t over.” The shapeshifter insisted, stepping back from the besieged Erebus.
“Never thought for even a moment it would be. For starters if I survive this the Temple is going to have a lot of explaining to do over Karatas.”
“Oh that’s another thing I want answers to, why in all the hells does he get to know and I don’t? I thought we were friends.” Alice howled, a ripple of something chitinous passing across her face.
Natalya was at her side in a moment, a hand gentle upon the old woman’s shoulder, “Easy Al. Easy. You only get two, don’t waste one on him.” As the mage spoke Lana stepped to interpose herself.
Susan rubbed at her eyes, the action almost unnoticed in her shadowy state, “Karatas thought he’d killed me at Maltz… Erebus had him guarding the other end of the shadowgate when he rescued me. After that the Temple took me into custody to make sure I wasn’t a threat and swore them both to secrecy. Then… the experimentation was thorough.”
Pretty much everyone winced at that one. “Those absolute b-“
“It was necessary.” Susan stated with didactic certainty, “I could have been a threat to every thing that yet walks Reath… Temple’s blood, I am a threat to everything on Reath. My guess is that’s why they sent Nightblades after Karatas, to make sure no one even could find out they were keeping an apocalypse beast in the cellar. Even if they were trusted never to send me into battle, just that potential would have earned them some paranoia.”
“Well it’s going to backfire on them.” Natalya declared, her smile thoroughly unpleasant, “First town we’re in I’m going to send couriers to every councilmember, every Lord Protector and hire town criers in several cities.”
“I’d rather you didn’t do that.” Susan requested gently as she could, “They aren’t bad people, they just have bad leadership, and they aren’t the ones who’d get harassed in the streets over this.”
“Fine.” Nat conceded through gritted teeth.
Erebus took the momentary lull to seize back at least some control of the conversation, he adored his friends, he really did, but none of them were social animals and keeping things on topic was an act that moved past heroism into the realms of divine intervention. “Now that everyone’s got some idea who they’re working with, who’s actually visited Arcadia before?”
Only two hands went up, Alice and Lana’s.
“Well that makes this a bit more complicated than I’d hoped. For Lana and Susan’s benefit, we need a quick pass through Arcadia to scramble any tracking we’re still carrying. Okay let’s start with ground rules, you do not speak to the fae, you do not acknowledge the fae, if possible you don’t even look at the fae. You do not leave the path. If things escalate to violence you do not hold back and you fight to kill.” Erebus listed with deathly seriousness, “Now who’s carrying iron with them?”
Alec, Natalya, Amara and Sato put up their hands, the latter begrudgingly.
“Okay… Alec I’m going to need your backpack. Everyone else, put it in the bag, I don’t care how small it is, if it’s a belt clip, a hairpin or loose nail, it goes in.”
“Shouldn’t we be holding onto this?” Amara questioned, not that she had any iron on her, “I mean fae are weak to iron aren’t they?”
“Precisely. How would you feel if visitors to your home turned up covered in wooden stakes?” Erebus countered as people began to fill the pack, “It’s worse than that actually, you drop something made of iron in Arcadia and you’ll render the land uninhabitable for quite a distance, and earn the kinds of enemies that requires a person to live out eternity in Seruatis.”
“So no iron.” The vampire nodded, her concerns addressed.
“No iron. Now let me see your shoes.” He ordered, begin to check everyone’s footwear, or at least those who were wearing them. Somewhat bemusedly everyone did, though it was only Natalya who’s footwear came up short. “Nails in the boots. Take them off and I’ll remove them.”
The necromancer rolled her eyes, “You’re joking right? I like these boots, I’ve had them for years, there’s no way…”
“You’d kill the very ground you walked on.” Erebus told her flatly, “I don’t want to have to fight my way out of Arcadia because we pissed off every fae lord in Avalon, the king, the lord of autumn and both aspects of the queen.”
“Can’t you just transmute them to copper or something? I really don’t want to walk through Avalon barefoot.” Natalya grumbled, but did begin taking her boots off.
Her fellow necromancer shook his head, “Not well enough, if you wanted the whole boot copper that would be doable, energy intensive, but doable, but targeting the nails is a bit too much precision, I’d just end up ruining your boots.”
With that Erebus accepted the boots, but instead of just putting them in Alec’s pack he instead began removing the hobnails from them, making a yanking motion with his index and forefinger, the nail pulling free with telekinesis.
“What happened to not ruining them?” Nat snapped, “I don’t have spares.”
“I’ll put the nails back when we’re through Arcadia, have some faith in me.” As he said it he put the now nailless boots into the pack.
“It’s not so bad going barefoot.” Alice assured her, despite the fact her own feet were still all but blue from her long trudge through the snow, only a shapeshifter’s superlative regeneration allowing her to keep her feet. Even Holly, similarly lacking in footwear, gave the old woman a doubtful look, still the dryad tried to be supportive.
“She’s right, it’s great to be able to dig your toes into the soil, feel the bugs beneath your feet…” the dryad trailed off as she realised this wasn’t quite getting the reception she was after, Natalya simply looking more and more annoyed.
“Enough picking on the shoeless wonder here, everyone get ready for transit.” Erebus said, turning his attention to the cave wall as he began to chant.
“Though the path be long and weary, and winter’s bite is sharp,
Though rising sun makes blind and bleary, and birdsong becomes springs harp,
Let not the falling leaves beneath, nor burning sun above,
Distract me from the glorious idyll, that is Avalon’s love.”
The portal rose, a literal stone archway bursting from the ground of the cave, absolutely festooned with fresh blossoms, a beautiful and bountiful kaleidoscope of blues, yellows, reds and white and through it… Avalon, vibrant and green, the grass lustrous, the sky clear.
Just that small glimpse told Holly she would never love a place as deeply or as dearly as she would the land of the Fae. Every blade of grass a rich green, every bead of dew a glistening jewel. She longed to walk through it, to dig her toes into the earth and pretend for just a few moments to be a tree once more and to her surprise and bemused joy she could feel a similar desire from Alec, not quite as hungry but not just an echo of hers either.
Without thinking about it she stepped towards the gateway only to be blocked by a spiky arm as Lana stopped her. “Let the living siege engines go first child, just in case.”
Alice and Erebus gave her amused glances as they stepped through into the green idyll. Moments later something tried to kill them.