Over the next few months Daniel continued his normal life. Occasionally reading sections of the book Nalya loaned him. As it turns out the Trethons have two main abilities, apparently collectively known as their Mythos, an amalgamation of thousands of miracles layered up to create a permanent passive effect, and a powerful and cheap active effect, like a deep ravine cut by a flowing river, having an impact even when there isn't water flowing through it. The Trethon’s passive effect is Determination, an ability which allows them to get up and keep fighting, even when they should really have been killed, along with granting a general boost to their physical abilities, and their active is a nearly endless supply of magical knives, the Desired Weapons. The book revealed that he was descended from a god of thunder/lightning, whose progeny granted his descendents some power over his domain, and the ability to perform miracles. Miracles, as explained within, are incredible magical events, wishes granted via the power of ichor, which leave an impact on the world which can be used to create a less powerful echo of their effects. The Trethons thus rose to prominence during a time of strife. When man rose against the other races who oppressed them, wrath of the gods in hand, the elements at their beck and call, and even death as their ally, that is when they arose. Through conflict the Trethons rose to prominence, with countless heroes born to their bloodline, and countless miracles achieved. Within the book there were instructions to use most of these powers. On a whim, Daniel decides to try calling up the Desired weapons, discovering that they felt… Natural, to use. Upon calling up the daggers he immediately felt the proper way to hold them, knew in his heart how to throw them with enough force to penetrate armor, how to use them to injure, incapacitate, or kill. It was a weird feeling, mildly unpleasant, and a little disturbing, causing Daniel to drop them in shock. Unnerved by the knowledge flowing into him, how to kill, how to inflict harm without killing, how to use them with maximum effectiveness, how to cause incredible pain, Daniel was terrified of himself. So he shied away from the powers within him, trying to ignore them, to forget. To drown out that day of the fantastical in a sea of mundanity. Somewhat hindered by him getting fired due to vanishing during the middle of his shift. So, for a few months he went job hunting, but eventually he caved and asked Nalya for help, as it turned out she was both quite understanding and very apologetic about the whole thing. With her help, in the form of some loaned money and some time helping him track down jobs, he was able to get a job as a clerk at an insurance company. Though, something felt off, everything about his new job felt vaguely dissatisfying. Counteracting this was his growing friendship with Nalya, they encountered each other in the halls from time to time, and it was nice to vent a little to her, and in turn listen to her explanations of the various magical conundrums she has to deal with as protector of this city. (“God damn lancehorns… Why do they have to heal so fast?”) As it turns out her job as a mage has two main components, patrolling the maze of many worlds, a set of pocket dimensions where monstrous creatures roam deep within, a dungeon thing straight out of a video game, complete with loot, mostly cards with different effects, one of which, as it turns out, was responsible for the pocket dimension he got caught up in. Dealing with spirit incidents is another duty she has, incidents where the souls of the dead spawn a malignant spirit or a spirit manages to cross over from another dimension called the sea of souls, literal ghost busters stuff, though thanks to the other mage in the city, she doesn't deal with spirit incidents that much. Nalya also briefly mentions dealing with "Blood martyrs" which she explains as basically being vampires. Nalya doesn’t actually explain much, using general terms and analogies rather than completely explaining. He does learn that there’s another mage in the city, a Necromancer named Joe Johnson (yes really), and even meets the guy, who turned out to be a nondescript native of the city who became a necromancer after a plane crash, which he seems reluctant to talk about. Over the course of these months nothing much happened, till one day in mid fall.

“Hey Daniel! Want to go to the Festival of Lyn with me?” Nalya asks when she encounters him in the hallway. “I, I don’t mean to sound stupid but, what is that?” Daniel replies. “Oh, Lyn is your ancestor, we think, and also the founder of thaumaturgy, the type of magic I use and that you have in your blood. The festival is dedicated to her, and has singing, dancing, good food, and magic demonstrations. Traditionally you go with a friend, or an enemy. It’s this saturday and you looked… down, I thought you might enjoy it.” “Sure, how formal is it?” “Not too formal, it’s a festival after all, just wear a nice shirt and clean pants and you should be fine.” “Alright.” “See you then” Nalya says as she scurries off to her apartment. Soon enough the day comes and Nalya meets up with Daniel, she wearing a blue dress, and Daniel wearing a nice enough shirt and trousers. They exchange greetings, before she leads him off to a quiet alley. “Alright, we’re going to be going through the fae labyrinth to get to the Festival. Otherwise it would take forever on a plane. Turns out the connections between the pocket dimensions that make up the Fae Labyrinth can connect over arbitrary distances, so we magic users often use them for transport. Part of our duties is in fact charting, stabilizing, and clearing the lower layers of the Fae Labyrinth.” As Nalya says that she gestures, and a rift opens in the air. “Come on. Just through here.” As Daniel follows her through he sees that the world on the other side of this seems… Off. Like a version of the city constructed by someone who has never actually seen the place, based off of stories, dreams, and half remembered glimpses of its foundation. It’s also empty of life.

As Daniel follows Nalya, a little stunned, they enter another portal, and the world shifts. “Blue zone, safest place in the Labyrinth.” Nalya says as they enter a new pocket dimension.

This one seems to be an overgrown castle, hovering in the sky stars above, ocean below. At the center of the castle, whose architecture seems, old, and strange, yet… Functional. Like all the features that don’t make sense are actually just based on different design principles. At its center is a blue glowing crystal. Roughly spherical, and floating at the center of a large tree’s branches. On its surface is a symbol, which looks like a person with wings spreading behind them, and a spherical thing at their center, it looks like… a world, where their heart should be. Daniel looks at it, puzzled, it feels, Familiar, in the same way as the abilities within his blood. At his unspoken questions about it Nalya speaks up. “Oh, yeah, we don’t know what’s up with that, or actually why these places are like this in general. They all follow the same formula, flying castle, with a blue orb at the center, with that symbol on it. With some variation. Most are overgrown though.”

“That symbol, it feels… Familiar.” Daniel says, looking at the orb, a confused expression on his face. “Ah, yeah, it’s similar to the flag used by an old nation of the Fae. I don’t know where you would have seen it though.” Nalya says, even as she leads Daniel to another portal she opened. The pattern continues for a few more transits, entering places which are similar to places in the real world, or warped versions, folded or mutated in strange ways, or fantastical places that couldn't exist outside, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern.

Eventually, they come to a place which seems to be more inhabited, with a wall, gun mounts, a gate and guards, one of whom smiles and waves as he sees Nalya. “Hey, Nalya! Who’s your guest?” “Hey Trev! This is Daniel Trethon, my neighbor who I decided to invite, Daniel, meet Trevor, one of my cousins.” As Nalya says that, she continues forward towards the gate. “Right, stand still under the scanner. I trust you but we gotta be sure. And there are shapeshifters, possessing entities, mind controllers, and all other kinds of nasties, don’t want to take risks.” Trevor says, gesturing towards something that looks like the unholy lovechild of an airport full body scanner and a ritual circle, with a pentagram etched into the floor, a computerized readout and two arms of a full body scanner, but made out of what looks like obsidian with glowing runes etched onto it, attached to a cylindrical framework that holds them in place and rotates them around. Nalya steps up to the scanner, placing her feet on the outlines and raising her hands above her head as the two arms swing around her. “Clear, now onto the secondary check” As he says that he leads Nalya into a booth. Meanwhile Daniel steps up to the scanner as well. “How does this work?” He asks as he places his feet in the indicated spots and raises his hands above his head. One of the guards smirks. “It samples soul density, takes a normal full body scan for magical radiation, and does a few other things. Basically, it lets us tell if you’re human, and how much heat you’re packing, if any. We can’t check intention with this, or the inside of Fae inner worlds, though we can detect if you have one, but, we can verify you’re who you say you are if it’s in our data banks. For guests like you we just use this, while for registered magic users we go through some more thorough checks, and they are allowed one backup weapon, this is a VERY inviting target for any would be attackers after all” Daniel nods as the scan finishes, before stepping off and standing by the booth to wait for Nalya. Eventually she emerges and they get on their way to the feast of Lyn. “Have fun at the festival!” Trevor says as he waves them off. Nalya checks the time and realizes something. “CRAP! We have to hurry, we’re gonna miss the opening ceremony!” She frantically gestures down the road and sprints off, Daniel hot on her heels trying to keep up. They quickly run through a portal, after which the subtle strangeness of the Fae Labyrinth fades as they reenter the real world, this time the place they exit from seems to be built with the fae labyrinth entrance in mind. “Quickly, to the central plaza!” She leads Daniel down the road towards a large open area, where a massive crowd of people are standing. Looking up Daniel notices the city is built under a colossal tree with pitch black leaves that seems to be about a mile high and with a canopy several miles wide, glowing pinpricks of light visible on the underside of the branches, glimmering like miniature stars. They arrive just in time to catch the latter part of the opening ceremony, held by a man standing on a podium at the center, wearing white robes and apparently using magic to stretch his voice and project his image for all to see. “And so, in Lyn’s name we gather here, at the base of the Tree planted by Melchior, He who forged his own path, to celebrate. Another year, new friends, new ideas, new experiences. We come to celebrate the birth of the new. Let us offer a prayer and a moment of silence to thank Lyn for her work in making this wonderful time we live in possible.” After he says that things go quiet as people offer their thanks to a long dead saint. “Now that we have given our thanks, let us begin! Welcome, rejoice and make merry! The Festival of Lyn has Begun” And with that, a cheer goes up from the crowd, and they begin to disperse. “It’ll be a little bit before booths and activities besides dancing open up, everyone gathers for the opening ceremony so they need a bit of time to get back to their stations and get set up.” Nalya says to Daniel, “In the meantime how about I show you some of the sights of this place” Daniel looks around, noticing now that this city is almost certainly magical, with buildings hanging in the air, snaking in and out of alternate dimensions. A number of people with decidedly non-human features, like elvish looking ears or red skin, seal this realization. “Uh, sure.” Nalya starts pointing out various things about the city, from its sheer size, to the way buildings are built snaking in and out of the Fae Labyrinth. “You can’t see it, but this place is built on a massive convergence of leylines, it’s what feeds that massive tree and a lot of the magical defenses.”  As they walk Nalya continues to point out interesting locations. “Ah, and here’s the magic association Headquarters.” Nalya points to a building which seems heavily guarded and fortified. “It’s… Well defended. Most defended part of the city, which is saying something when the entire city is built like one massive fortress.” Daniel, remarkably calm all things considered, asks Nalya about that. “Why is this place built like a fortress though?” “Well, for one thing it’s the first, and only, city belonging solely to human magic users. And it was founded during a time when we were prosecuted and needed protection. Beyond that, this place has some… Dangerous items stored inside. And Magi have a tendency to end up slowly layering more and more magic over a place the longer they live there. Oh, looks like the food carts are starting up, let’s get something to eat.” As Nalya says that she leads Daniel off to go get stuff to eat. The festival passes by in a blur of food and games, though feelings of nostalgia build up inside Daniel’s heart, before they come upon a demo held by another Blessed. One of the Davis family, masters of projectiles. Berg, who demonstrated his ability to throw a rock hard enough to dent a piece of tank armor, and make his projectiles follow impossible paths, twisting and turning, orbiting around him, or hitting the opposite side of an object. As the Demo wraps up, a group of kids runs by, laughing and playing, triggering a nostalgic moment for Daniel, as he remembers simpler times, playing with his own childhood friends back in his home country. He shakes off the feeling and follows Nalya as she darts off to talk to someone she knows. At one point Nalya finds a merchant selling enchanted goggles that let one see the flow of mana, with a few examples out for demo purposes. Putting a set on, Daniel can see rivers of glimmering blue light that flow through the ground beneath him and saturate the air with power. The Tree the city is built under is especially fascinating when viewed through the goggles, appearing to be pulling the lights from the ground and into its leaves. “Wow, that is… Incredible” He says. The shopkeeper laughs “Yeah, I sometimes forget how beautiful it can look, probably due to using the damn things every day to arrange fiddly ritual arrays and having to check each one I make for defects. Kinda takes the magic away.” Eventually though, the festival comes to a close. Just not how anyone anticipated it would.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

KABOOM. An explosion rocks the streets as a column of smoke reaches skyward. “Alert, Rebel forces detected. The grail device is under attack.” An intercom hollers to the skies. Nalya pales. “Oh… Shit” Soon the streets fill with the sounds of combat as Fae forces pour out of portals to attack the city from within. “Take cover!” Nalya yells as she pushes Daniel into an alleyway. “I gotta go help. Stay here until things quiet down.” At that she runs off, grabbing something out of her hair, and chanting something Daniel doesn’t catch. He cowers there, in the alleyway, as combat fills the streets, before quieting down as the invading Fae are defeated by the literal army of mages attending the festival. Though, people seem… Distressed about something, abnormally more than this attack would seem to warrant, given how quickly it was subdued. “Damn it, Damn it. This is the start isn’t it?” He hears one magic user say to someone who seems to be their girlfriend. “I’m afraid so. It seems like it’s been destroyed… Hey, is that a guest? Uh, who brought you here?” Daniel stands up and says “Nalya, if you know her.” The girl nods in recognition. “Ah, alright, she should be back in a bit, she is one of the ones who needed to go through a debrief, she took down the leader after all, no surprise there, glory hog.” “Um, do you mind showing me the way there?” Daniel asks. “Sure, down this street, then take a left at the crossroads. She’s in the big building that looks a bit like a church.” Daniel nods and starts walking that way. An abnormal calm suffusing him, he should be freaking out, he knows, but he… Isn’t. And he can’t explain why. Unnoticed by him his eyes glimmer with flecks of gold as he wanders the streets. 

Interlude. Nalya’s fight

“Alert, Rebel forces detected. The grail device is under attack.” A speaker hollers to the skies. I pale. No, it can’t. I think, as I mentally switch to combat mode. Then I spot a large number of portals pouring out Fae forces, evidently Rebels… “Oh.. Shit.” I look towards Daniel, I know he has the potential to fight, but right now is not the ideal time for someone to learn how to use their powers in a fight. “Take cover!” I yell as I shove Daniel into an alleyway, he’ll be safe there, I hope. I sigh internally, no prepared charms, no rifle, and minimal Ichor in my pool. I’ll only have… 3 minor rites or 1 major and 1 minor before I’m empty, but, I do have… I guess I’ll have to use it. “I gotta go help. Stay here until things quiet down.” With that, I run off. It’s time to fight. As I look down the street I spot my first target, a Fae sword user, looking the other way, perfect.  “And so Lyn wove the light of the heavens into her blade, to cut through that which defends her foes.” I chant the words for the first scripture, Moonlight blade, which greatly enhances the damage of a weapon against things that are magical, while also letting the blade cut through any of their magical defenses. Perfect for this scenario. Enchanted silver hair clip switchblade I keep on me for just this purpose, activate. As I push some ichor into the rite, and through the rite my improvised weapon, which glows with power as I sprint up behind my foe. Before stabbing outwards, right for the back of the neck. The sword user’s magical defenses are pointless, and he is too focused on another thaumaturge to see me coming. One. Another Fae swordsman spots me and turns to attack. In response I activate Moonlight blade’s other ability, expending its remaining energy as a slash of silvery light that can cut through magic and flesh with equal ease. Bingo, right into an artery. Two Don’t like the look of that guy, he’s a caster by the look of his robes, but he’s too far away for me to get up close and use my normal method of attack. “As his enemies fled deeper into the dark forest He spoke, “The forest will provide no sanctuary for you, foolish humans” and from his words erupted flames enough to devour the forest and those who sought its protection.” Pushing Ichor into the words, the rite morph into a ball of fire which leaps out towards my foe, setting their clothing on fire and burning them a bit. Another short rite, down to one more. As they scramble to put out their now very much on fire clothing, the thaumaturge I had just helped takes a potshot at them and kills them. Three. Even as I move on to the last two fighters in this group. My Hair clip knife has pitiful reach, and I don’t have enough Ichor left to both renew moonlight blade and accelerate myself. I smirk, good thing I’m not just a thaumaturge. “And so Lyn wove the light of the heavens into her blade, to cut through that which defends her foes.” I say as I sprint forwards, the other mages on this street having either run off or being embroiled in their own fights. No more ichor, but I don’t need it. One of them, a caster by the looks of them gestures, opening some portals which start to spew out balls of fire, while the other winds up his sword for a slashing move, probably some sort of weapon technique, I need to take him out first. With a moment of concentration I prepare to open some gates to my inner world. Two, one as a platform, one as a shield. Turns out that a portal into the ground of your inner world can serve as both, making the prep time fast. I open one as a barrier just in time, fireballs slamming into it, while the other opens up, I leap onto it, then force it into the air before leaping off as well, sending myself hurtling skywards. Right above that swordsman’s attack. “Surprise, I can do inner world fuckery too jackasses.” I say as I Lunge in to stab the sword user before he can turn to face me. I then quickly slice the caster across the neck to kill them as well. Four, Five “Alright, now I need to get over to HQ, and gear up.” I quickly manage to get to a building owned by the Legacy of Lyn, bolting inside I grab a rifle, fill my inner world with bullets, slap some armor overtop of my dress, and grab some Ichor containing charms on the way out, quickly attaching them to my armor before draining them of all they’re worth. Topped up on ichor and magic bullets, and now armed with a rifle to use, I race off to try and make a difference. I manage to get up onto a rooftop with a good view of the route these intruder’s seem to be trying to push down, and I start sniping. BANG, Six, BLAM, Seven, BLAM BLAM BLAM, Eight, Nine. And so it goes for a good ten minutes. When it’s finally over someone with a higher rank pulls me over for interrogation, supposedly because I took out the leader, but we both know that’s false. It’s because I’m a suspect in this whole mess, wouldn't be surprised if some of the other people with fae blood are being pulled in for questioning as well, and also probably that they know if they don’t get it off me now I’m going to try and make off with this gear. They could be right.