Bianca wove me clothes out of light and shadows, flower and fern, wood and stone.

You can tell how good I feel if I'm using words like those.

'Couldn't you just make a shirt and jeans?' I asked her. She had her back to me, and was bent over as she worked her magic.

Do you have any idea how lame it feels to look at a beautiful woman and feel nothing, nothing at all? It's like looking at food while full, or finding an empty bathroom while constipated. Both things have happened to me.

I better stop before my mind comes up with weirder comparisons.

'Bia?'

'Yes, I heard you the first time,' she said without turning to face me. 'And yes, I could. But my sisters could take it the wrong way. They have little love for the modern world and its works.'

'Damn hippies,' I said lightly. When she replied, I could hear the smile in her voice.

'Closer to the Amish, actually... you should be happy you're dealing with iele, and not, say, the Fae. Sociopathic little...'

She started cursing under her breath. Well, this explained why she'd been in such a bad mood after returning from that trip to Britain. Probably.

'Done!' She said brightly, then straightened up and spun around. I looked at her blankly.

'Ie and ițari? I don't think it's a national holiday...'

She huffed. 'It's not, smartarse. I told you, they have no love for the modern world. They yearn for simpler, older times.'

'Times they've never know,' I felt the need to point out. 'None of them should be able to remember anything before the Shattering.'

'Oh, David...do you truly think the Shattering only touched the present and shaped the future? How do you think the stories were born in the first place?'

I didn't answer. I had nothing to say, partly because my mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities, of a past that had never existed, but had, and-

'David!' Bianca snapped, bringing me back to reality. 'This is not the time or place to contemplate such things. Now, come on. Put these on, and let's go to my sisters before you turn into the world's first undead eunuch.'

'Actually, there's this jiangshi in China...'

'Don't you "actually" me, David Silva. Why are you so damn reluctant, anyway?'

'The iele...'

'Yes? It's not like you can be affected by our songs, or cursed.'

'That wasn't quite what I was thinking of.'

'Then what...' she broke off, laughing. 'David, be serious! We don't waste barley on geese, heavens...'

She handed me the clothes, which fit surprisingly well. I asked her if she had known my measurements beforehand, or had just guessed.

'Woman's intuition,' Bianca said airily.

And we set off. As we walked, the dark, twisted woods gave way to a brighter, airier, more open forest. It was so damn pretty, I half-expected Snow White to burst out of a bush, singing, with little animals around her. I told Bianca this, and she didn't appreciate my opinion.

'Heartless! This is all wasted on you, I swear...'

Eventually, we reached a clearing, quite unlike the one where Mihai had done his best to help me. The woods here were taller, closer together, but light still streamed through them like through an open sky, falling in all the colours of the rainbow.

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Very pastel. Someone put this on a puzzle box.

Still, I couldn't help but notice something: ever since we'd entered the forest, I hadn't seen or heard any critters, or birds, or even any insects. It was unnatural, and it's never a good sign when a strigoi starts describing things like that.

I turned to ask Bianca if she knew what was going on, but she wasn't there anymore. How even...I swear she'd been at my side until I'd turned, talking about this or that, humming some nonsensical song.

I looked down and saw that I was clutching a slip of paper in my left hand. The sinister hand, some would say.

Fuck sinister. I was just sick of so much slipping past my senses recently. My dead flesh couldn't feel, so if I, say, closed my eyes, I could only tell I was holding something by its weight. The paper was too light for that.

I opened it, revealing Bianca's spidery handwriting. She was saying that, while she had made the iele agree to help me, that was all she could do. She didn't feel comfortable participating in what was going to happen.

And, if my instincts were even halfway correct, I fully agreed with her choice. No need to muddle our friendship by...by...

I closed my eyes, shook my head and, when I opened them again, I was standing inside a circle of iele.

Bianca's sisters looked like she had before her disappearance, in the sense that none of them even bothered pretending to look human. Or, rather, they did not look like anything. Their appearance was constantly shifting, like light moving through a prism, but always beautiful.

I remembered a quote about water changing shape to fit its vessel, and wondered whether they would look different if I were, say, a zmeu, or werebeast, or something further from humanity.

They smiled and sang and spun around me, dancing on air. I knew what they were trying to do...and it wasn't working. Iele could induce feelings with their voices, but their songs were just empty sound in a strigoi's ears. Maybe they hoped that, if I felt joyful, my body would just heal itself. Stupid.

They stopped singing and frowned, in unison. Less like a coordinated group of people, and more like creatures that shared a hive mind. After this was over, Bianca and I would have a long discussion on her nature. Just to make things clear.

I took in their expressions, and stretched my arms above my head. 'If you ladies need a moment to rest your throats, feel free to sign so. Sadly, I didn't bring any water or mint drops.'

They were only trying to help me, and it wasn't their fault for failing, but I wasn't in a reasonable mood. I was dying, again, or something like it. And a treacherous voice in the back of my mind whispered that this time, it wouldn't be quick.

One of the iele, with long hair like dancing flames, floated forward, hands moving in a series of arcane gestures. I felt polymorphic magic lapping at the sides of my being... and finding no hold. Finally, the spell retreated, sullenly.

It had been harmless, but had she known it would be? And anyway, what damn purpose would a shapeshifting spell serve.

I wouldn't take this lying down.

I strode out of the circle, the iele reluctantly moving aside to let me pass. Good. I would have walked right through them otherwise.

I walked to one of the trees they loved so much. A knotted old thing, as thick as my arms were long, covered in bark you couldn't scratch with an axe.

I chopped through it like it was made of air.

The tree split with an almost pained groan, and fell forward, parted neatly in two. I sat down on it, trying to ignore the way it was squirming beneath me.

The iele gasped, one of them dropping onto the ground and striding purposefully towards me. I prepared myself for another spell...and then she slapped me.

I didn't feel anything, of course, but I was shocked.

While I stared at her like a moron, the iela glared down, tears in her eyes. 'Monster!' she hissed. 'Why would you-'

'Why did your sister try to turn me into something else?' Before she could answer, I continued. 'You think I don't know the stories? Like that poor boy who was too shy to respond to your advances, so you turned him into an animal?'

She tried to slap me again, but I caught her arm in a vicelike grip. 'Careful,' I said coldly. She tried to meet my eyes, and quickly changed her mind. She was squirming, though I couldn't tell whether in disgust, because of my cold flesh, or just in a need to get away from me.

I let her go.

'Your heart is dead. Why would it soar at the sound of our music? We should have thought of that earlier, but we were too proud,' she laughed briefly, humourlessly. 'My sister hoped she could turn you,' she said sardonically. 'Into a happy man. She should have known that would be pointless, too. We wasted barley on geese.'

I though of Bianca saying that earlier, and something closed around my heart. 'She tried to...but how? A happy man isn't a type of being. It...'

The iela scoffed, rubbing at her arm, as if to scrub off the taint of touching me. 'Magic is shaped by intention, not logic. But no magic can help one such as you.' Her eyes turned cold.

'Go,' the iele spoke in unison. 'Leave the forest. We should have never allowed you in. And tell the one you call Bianca...that we'll have words.'

I rose from the severed trunk. 'I acted foolishly, but Bianca has no place in our quarrel. She just arranged for us to meet. If you want revenge, take it out on me.'

'We will, strigoi.' And they were gone. Still, despite everything...thank God Bianca hadn't been here for this. I don't think I could have forgiven her for trying to alter my mind, or for that matter, that she could have forgiven herself.

And, just like that, I made some new enemies, chopped a probably sentient tree in half, and manhandled a woman because I was too damn impatient to have things explained to me.

God, I'm such a fucking arsehole.