Life in the rings is… difficult. That probably gave no context whatsoever so let me try again. Life in the Fairy Rings is difficult. I can already hear the questions 'Fairies? Like the little flying children stories?’ Yes, except a whole lot more dangerous. It's been a little under a hundred years since humanity was pulled down into the Fae Lands and since then those deal making, magical tricksters have run roughshod over our civilization to the point that it was completely different now. Life now depends on whether you are a skilled enough negotiator or a good enough escape artist, because around any corner could be some kind of magical creature trying to force you into a deal.

Deals are both the bane and blessing of every human, a deal can grant you incredible power or riches. Abilities beyond your wildest dreams, but they can come at a cost. Curses and Costs darker and fouler than anything before tailor made to inflict the most pain or torment on you. The fae gain their strength from these deals, any single fairy has their own winding network of deals and curses that grant them their power to warp reality using their magic. Now I know what you're thinking ‘Why don’t you all just stop talking to them?’ Well it’s a bit difficult to not talk to a fairy when you don’t if the person you’re talking to is one in the first place… Shapeshifters. All fairies and a few lesser magical creatures have the ability to shapeshift, though some are more skilled than others. You could be talking to a friend of yours and accidentally say something like ‘I’m as hungry as a horse!’ then have your so-called friend grin at you and snap his finger as they change you into a literal horse… True story, I saw it happen to a guy I knew.

So what I'm saying is that humans live in a constant state of fear, paranoia, and chaos… or at least most of us do. There are of course outliers on both sides of the spectrum, men or women who decided to take as much advantage of the fairies powers as possible. Feeding the fae anything they desire out of a thirst for more power until they have nothing left to give, then they start taking from others. Most people call them Intoxicated, drunk on the Fae’s power and doing anything for a drop more. You would find them here and there sprinkled throughout the ‘Human Kingdoms’ trying anything and everything to become more ‘Marketable’ to fairies. To the Fae the term ‘Marketable’ means to have things that they would want you to barter away in a deal like your friend’s lives, your family's happiness, your children, and etcetera. There are times where men and women would be so happy to become friends with you only to turn around and sell you to their fairy for a pittance… that’s why friends are so hard to come by these days.

Then we go to the other end of the spectrum, the ones who rebel. Fairy hunters and curse breakers, humans who dive deep into the knowledge of the arcane in an effort to kill magical creatures or break the holds they have over someone. It sounds impressive at first until you realize that humans don’t naturally have that magic or knowledge, that’s right. The whole thing was rotten from the get go, in order to get the power or the knowledge to fight against the fae you need to ask the fae for help. You can imagine just how difficult it was for them to learn anything worthwhile from their deals, years upon years of roundabout questions and answers until enough knowledge was built up to cut contact with the fae. Countless lives lost and ruined just to compile a compendium of magical knowledge, a compendium… that was supposedly lost. I’ll explain why I say supposedly in a moment, to do that I’ll need to give a bit of background.

The reason I know so much about the ‘slayer’ faction is because my parents were a part of it… kinda. My parents didn’t really want anything to do with the killing, they were firmly on the side of trying to stay alive long enough to raise me. So when they heard about a magical book with knowledge about how to survive and maybe even thrive in this world… they took their chance. That’s right, my parents stole quite possibly the largest hope of a whole collective then made a deal with a fae. They made two deals, one for each of them. My father wished for something along the lines of all of the knowledge in the book to stay with me forever, the fae twisted that one easily. Now I was stuck with a book only I could read and always came back when it was destroyed or lost, which sounds good at first until you find out that I couldn’t actually talk about it to anyone.

My mothers deal was a bit more… peculiar. She was always particularly clever, and even more so when it came to matters of family. She had gone over every detail, every loophole, every smallest issue in her deal. All so she could ask for me to be lucky, my mother knew I could learn to be clever, that I could grow stronger, that I could run faster, but not become luckier. So she stacked the deck in my favor so I could live a better life. I loved my parents, I love every hazy memory I have of them, and I loved them for everything they did for me, but no deal should ever be worth their lives. Even with such a high price the fae didn’t even hesitate in accepting it, no fairy would.

Quick side note, fairies don’t change or grow over time. They’re not immortal, their natural lifespans are actually shorter than humans. Their issue is that their bodies are completely stagnant, if a fairy gets a cut on their hand it will not heal… at least not until they make a deal with someone’s vitality as the price. That wide web of deals and curses that fairies rely on is also their life support system and if you want to kill a fairy… you have to kill the ones it made a deal with. Before humans entered the picture it was apparently a massive tug of war between the fairy kingdoms, deals for years of life flying left and right until somefae had the bright idea to pull the humans in.

Getting back to the story, without the book the slayer community pretty much collapsed. At first they tried to hunt down my parents but all they found was their empty corpses, then they tried to hunt down a small ten year old me but I was ‘lucky’ enough to lose them. After losing the book the slayers fragmented, faction after faction rose and fell over the years but I wasn’t concerned about that. I was a child who had just lost his parents and was let loose into the Fairy Rings. I guess I should probably explain what the Fairy Rings are. The Fairy Rings are locations where groups of human cities were summoned surrounding the kingdom of a particular fairy, a ring if you would. These cities pretty much fall under the control of the fairy king in the center of the ring, let take for example somewhere like… New York city. New York was pulled down to one of the most prolific Fairy Kings, The King in Autumn and immediately it was made the seat of his power.

Imagine New York with all its tall buildings then imagine it intertwined with a rainforest, now imagine all those massive trees being maple trees in fall. The King in Autumn apparently lives in a massive tree that he had grown around the empire state building. I don’t actually know what city the ring I used to live in used to be, but I do know that the New York ring is two rings over from mine. I can’t give a distance as space doesn’t work quite well outside of the rings. Outside of the Rings is the Fae Wilds, a wild place full of feral creatures and wild magic, a place that both humans and fae dread traveling through for any reason… so of course that’s where I live.

I have a magic book chock full of knowledge on how to not only survive magical creatures but how to defeat them, of course it has something on how to survive the Fae Wilds. Typically it’s suicide for any humans to step outside of their Ring without some kind of magical assistance or escort so when some kid has been seen going in and out of the Wilds for years and was not only surviving but thriving well… So it was only a matter of time before this happened.

“Fae of the wood! I have come to make a deal!”

The voice yelling outside my cabin startled me out of my potion making, I call it potion making but it’s really Fairy Wine brewing. Fairies can’t heal through normal means and after so many years of chugging this stuff all it does is get them drunk instead of healing them. Humans on the other hand can take a swig of this stuff and stop themselves from bleeding out… at least most of the time. Fairy Wine can be finicky, anyway back to the sudden disruption. Running over to my front room and taking a peek through the window I saw the graying beard of a woodsman, I actually recognized this woodsman. A woodsman is an essential profession in the Rings as they are the ones who carve homes out of the Fae wood that sprout overnight in the rings. This particular Woodsman is known for being very proud and skilled in his profession… and also having the worst temper. So imagine my surprise when I opened my door to see him kneeling on my porch with a locket held in his trembling fists, he had tears in his eyes.

“ I have seen you come and go over these long years. I had my doubts as to whether or not you were Fae-kin, but I hold no doubts now. I am ready to pay any price, please save my Julia” The woodsman clasped his hand and almost looked like he was praying, he was desperate. I was suspicious and scared and… really confused, does he think I'm a fairy? I shook myself and tried to pull the man to his feet, he looked up at me in fear and confusion as I gestured into my cabin. I would like to say that I built my cabin with my own two hands but it would’ve taken way longer than five years to build this place out here, I used magic. I used a spell similar to the ones Fairies use to make their tree castles and kingdoms but way smaller. I don’t personally have any magic but thankfully I was lucky enough to find some trash left behind by a fairy or something. Quick tip, around 90% of fairy trash is magical in some way so when in need of magical energy just hit up the fairy dumping spots. My cabin has four rooms, a pretty large living room with a table and a few chairs, my ‘kitchen’ which is full of whatever magical thing I'm working on lately, my bathroom, and my bedroom. My toilet was actually something I stole from an entwined house on the edge of the ring. I led the Woodsman over to the table and made him sit, I was still debating on how I would tell him I wasn’t a fairy. I haven’t actually spoken to someone in… I don’t know how long. The only other person I ‘talk’ to does all the talking for both of us and he usually understands me without the need for speech so… what I'm saying is I'm out of practice. Before I could think of anything the woodsman spoke again, his voice no longer trembling but his grip on the pendant just as tight.

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“She’s cursed… we don’t know if a fairy did it or someone made a deal to do it but… either way it’s k-killing her” His words caught in his throat in the end and I once again mentally scrambled for something to say until something occurred to me, I actually had something to fix this! I startled the man by standing suddenly and zipping to my kitchen. I took an old battered thermos and filled it with some of the fairy wine. I watched it for a moment as it swirled before turning back to the woodsman and making a vague gesture for him to stay there… which he did, albeit confused and still a bit distraught. I dropped the thermos into my bag before turning and grabbing a bucket before running out the back door. There was a small pond behind my cabin that I fished in sometimes. With the lack of natural predators the amount of fish in the pond was actually startling, it only took a few minutes of scooping before I caught a few minnows in the bucket.

Returning inside the Woodsmen was staring at me perplexed as I waddled back inside holding a bucket full of pond water and fish. The man flinched when I offered the bucket to him, it took a few moments of prompting before he took hold of the bucket and stood. I gestured out the door and walked out with him behind me. We both stood in silence on my front porch as I locked my door and gestured for him to lead the way. It was at this point that the woodsman realized that I was agreeing to help and quickly turned to lead the way to his suffering wife. The almost all encompassing sounds of nature didn’t follow us as we fully entered the Fairy Ring of the Lasting Joke. The Lord of the Lasting Joke was one of the few Fairy Lords that didn’t bother with constantly making deals with the humans under his reign, preferring more to politick with his fellow lords in the nearby rings. The fae under his employ tended to be more of a threat than him but more in a threatening way then in a magical deal way.

The Woodsmen led me through the crafting quarter entrance of the ring as that was where most of the woodsmen were forced to live despite their work making them travel all over the ring. I should probably explain the quarters of the ring, there's the crafting quarter that I just mentioned. It’s chock full of various artisans that market their trades or creations to anyone who would come through be it weapons, furniture, construction, stonework, anything hand or magic made. A few other sentient magical creatures even sold their wares, but I'll get to them later. The next quarter is the obvious residential quarter, though the name isn’t exactly accurate as many homes are scattered throughout all four quarters. The residential quarter consists mostly of the old houses and bunkhouses that were built back when the city first descended into the fae lands. Though not many people actually live through unless they’ve fallen on really, really hard times. That is because many low level fairies prowl and hide there trying to pull desperate people into deals or curse unsuspecting men and women. So it would be much more accurate to call it the Dealers Quarter.

On the other side of the Crafters quarter is the Farmer’s Quarter which speaks for itself, wide open spaces and parks converted to farmland to grow food that people can sorta eat. The magic of the fae lands tends to twist things at times. Potatoes planted could suddenly become citrus fruits or fruit trees that grow only carrots instead of apples. Farmers around here are known as masters of preparation and planning, able to plan around the randomness of the faelands and make a profit still. The last quarter is the Entertainment Quarter, all fairy rings have an entertainment quarter of some kind. It depends on the type of fairy lord that rules the ring, the Lord of The Lasting Joke prefers a more bread and circus direction to entertainment. Modern comedy clubs here and there, an actual circus over there, and a gladiatorial blood area… Yeah, almost all fairies have a sadistic streak of some kind but all love old fashioned blood sports. It’s a pretty big jolt of whiplash to be walking through a carnival only to take a wrong turn into a knock off roman coliseum.

Getting back on track, I followed the woodsman through the crafting Quarter, the various artisans parted for us as we hurried past. Mournful looks and pitying gazes were aimed at the woodsman, it seems it was no secret that his wife was cursed. Of course a few confused and even alarmed looks were shot in my direction, I could almost hear their thoughts wondering about my identity. In a world full of shapeshifters, a random child is much more alarming than you would think. The crafting quarter is one of the more cut areas of the ring, many of the overnight trees had been carved into permanent stalls leaving plenty of room to sell their wares. Multiple stalls carved into a single tree all stake up upon themselves connected by ladders and wooden walkways suspended between pruned branches. The woodsman and I stayed on the ground floor to avoid most of the traffic that went on above our heads. We reached a bend in the path that led to an overgrown storefront that had been carved into a home. The woodsmen didn’t waste any time and threw open the door. I followed him deeper into his house and down stairs into a basement level where a sparse bedroom opened up with a lowly groaning older woman laying on the bed. Her skin was flushed and sweating heavily, there were odd cuts around her mouth and lips. There’s a bin next to her bed and a quick glance inside just showed me bloody viscera and the glinting of glass shards and razor blades.

The Cutting Words Curse, an old favorite of most fae. Taking words spoken by the afflicted and turning them into objects just as sharp as their tongue. Someone must have gotten a talking to by her and wanted revenge, I hope this curse didn’t cost them too much. I stepped aside as the Woodsman checked on his wife, the sleepy smile on her face clued me in on just how much they love each other. I stepped past the woodsman and pulled the bucket of minnows closer and reached down to grab one of the slippery fishes in my left hand. I didn’t pull it from the water, just kept it securely in my hand. With my right hand I reached down into the bucket of blood viscera and dabbed my finger in the blood. Seeing me getting to work the Woodsman stepped to the side and hovered worriedly behind me. I reached over to the woman and tried not to stare directly into her eyes as I drew a bloody sigil on her forehead. Once I finished I reached back down into the viscera bin and picked out a blood covered piece of glass. I stabbed the shard of blood glass into the fish, not deep enough to kill but enough to get stuck in it. I made sure to wipe the blood off of my fingers first before reaching behind me just out of sight. As always I felt the leather spine of the compendium just within reach and grabbed it.

I heard the woodsman flinch behind me as I pulled the sizable book from what looked like nowhere. I didn’t worry about him reading it over my shoulder as I knew the words would look like nonsense to him. Under my breath I began to whisper the incantation for the Transfer spell. I would once again like to reiterate that Humans don’t naturally have the ability to generate magic, but we can manipulate what’s already there with the right incantations. Of course getting said incantations tend to be impossible for normal humans to obtain unless a fae teaches it to them. In my case I'm using the curse’s own magic to move it from the woman to the fish. There weren't any lights or effects from the incantation, just a sudden indescribable feeling of wrongness for a quick moment as the curse left the woman's body. The wrong feeling disappeared as it entered the now dying fish. I watched the fish for a moment as it squirmed and began squirting out small shards of glass and blood that twinkled in the bucket. Nodding I turned to wipe the blood sigil off the woman’s forehead and reached into my bag for the fairy wine. The wine would help stabilize her and heal all the internal cuts the curse caused… plus she would be too drunk to feel the pain. I was careful only to pour a little bit of the wine down her throat.

In real time the Woodsman and I watched all the cuts on her lips heal over and disappear. Her pained grimace smoothed out and became a drunken smile as she started to giggle slightly under her breath. I let a satisfied smile grow on my face as I cleaned up and stepped away, it was heartwarming seeing the two smile and cry tears of joy together over her new safety. I let myself stretch and relax, it's not often that I get to help others with what I know but when it does happen it's such a good feeling. Then all of a sudden I felt the warm, nice atmosphere disappear as the two remember that I was still in the room. I could visually see the woodsman tense up as he turned to me and I remember quite possibly the biggest detail of this whole thing... He still thinks I'm a fairy... this is gonna be annoying isn't it?