'Eating Faeries' 11

“Eating Faeries” 11

The air within the large tree room, for Alex had no other more appropriate term to think of it as, was sweet.  Her nostrils fluttered, as she smelled the tea Lisha was preparing.  Alex was surprised by magic abilities of Lisha, as the Fey woman had magically summoned fire forth as easily as anyone could’ve breathed.  She simply mentioned a name in her poetic voice and the water boiled in a instant.

Lisha handed Alex one of the cups of tea, which had a cinnamon aroma.  Alex looked down at the cup, which was filled with brown-green colored water.  She contemplated what exactly this tea was made of; although, it seemed harmless.  But from her experience lately, no liquid seemed to be safe from being magical in one way or another.

“Go ahead, drink.” Lisha urged her own.  Her voice was sweet and inviting, despite the horrific scarred side of her face that was facing Alex.  The light above them cast the unscarred side of Lisha in shadows, making her appear to be some sort of victim of some crime.  Alex looked down at her drink again.  Lisha placed her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Try it, its safe.”

Alex sipped the tea, just a little.  It was like tasting laughter.  It was warm, but more of the emotional type of warm.  All her wounds no long felt sore.  Her skin was no longer sweating.  She felt relaxed and yet her mind seemed to focus in even more.

“What was that?”

Lisha smiled at her.  “It is a old, old recipe.  A friend taught me it, before he left for war.”

“War?”

“Oh he’s dead now. It was decades ago.  But that was long ago.”

Lisha sighed as Alex began to understand how old this Seelie fey could be.  Alex probably was less than a tenth of this being’s age.  She suddenly felt really, really young.   Lisha’s eyes gazed back at Alex.  Their bright green colors shined brilliantly in the high contrasting light of the tree room.  

“So Alex.  What do you know about my kind, the Faeries?”

Alex quietly looked back at Lisha.  She took a moment to think of what to do.  Alex sighed as she tried to give the best response she could think of.  Before she could speak her mind, Lisha spoke up once again.

“You believe my kind to be cruel and very mean.  We attack you for no reason, and even when captured we seem to want to harm you.  However, I am Seelie.  The Seelie seek never to harm, nor do anything against humanity.  I am a Dryad, a kind of Seelie who are tied directly a tree, which we protect with our lives.” She gestured at the tree around them. “This tree and I are one, and any harm to it is harm to me.”

“And those scars are because the tree has been harmed?”

“Yes.  The imps that have a lair near here have been ripping on the roots of this tree for the better part of a year.” The Dryad placed a hand on her cheek.  “So yes.  Those scars are because the tree is being harmed.”


The Wolfdog was lying down as it waited for Alex to come back.  The animal was bored.  It had been half an hour.  The imps had been a little exciting, but the fight was too short for the Wolfdog to be of any use.

The Wolfdog let out a sigh.  The sky was cloudy still, so the animal wasn’t panting as much as it was the day before.  It heard something and its ears perked up for a second.  

The wolfdog turned its head at the source of the sound.  A shadowy figure was crawling out from under gravel.  The wolfdog let out a growl at the figure.  The dark figure rushed out at a run at the tree from the gravel pit.  The wolfdog jumped up and ran after it.

The imp ignored the canine and managed to hop onto the tree.  The wolfdog missed it narrowly and began to bark at the imp as it climbed higher and higher into the tree.  The Imp hissed at the wolfdog.

“Ssssstoooopid mutt!”



Alex nodded, although the thought of it made her feel pity for Lisha. “So any harm to the tree harms you? Are all Dryads like this?”

“Yes, all Seelie are tied to some other living creature.”

“But why do you stay kind to humans?  Don’t we cause more harm?”

“Alex, we Seelie faeries are few in number, but we remember when your kind was young and less in number than ours.  Your kind has always worried about nature.  Only a part of your species ever does us harm.  But we seelie, unlike our sisters, the unseelie, serve ourselves alone.  We try to be nonviolent and try to use only the most pure magic.”

“Magic? Is that what you said early? All that poetry?”

“Yes.  Magic is like playing a musical instrument… you must learn the proper notes and speak them with the right power, lest the magic devour the user.  Only those hungry for power, or even worse, in love with decay, strive to avoid the use of words.”

“Words? How could words be so important?”

“Words are the most powerful things, Alex.” Lisha smiled at her. “And when shared openly, it is a kind act to share words.  To hold words back in only your mind is a foolish act.”  Lisha sipped some more of her tea.

Alex sipped some more of her tea as well, her mind absorbing this information.  She still had trouble grasping all of this.  Magic, faeries, and demons… it all seemed to be so fake; yet she had seen it all, for real.  She had even felt it.  Lisha continued on with the conversation.

“They, that is, the veiled, have no idea of what goes on.  They only belief what they can see, and what they can see is determined by the words of creation, the words of reality.  Every time a spell is cast, a demon summoned or some other form of magic, the words of reality ignore it, as much as they can.  This keeps those veiled protected from the horrors of the world.”

“The veil?”  Alex had heard that before.  The man she had gone to meet had called her ‘veiled’.  “The veiled didn’t see any of that did they?”

Lisha nodded.

“The veil is often called the First Seal.  It is the first protection given to protect mortals from demonkind.  There are six other seals, making a total of seven.”

“Seven seals? What are the others?”

“I myself know only of three, the first seal, the second seal and the seventh seal.  The First Seal is the Veil, it protects by blinding the innocent to true evil.  The Second Seal is the Light of the sun, it protects by burning away the soulless shells of those possessed by demons.  The last Seal is the Seventh; it protects mortals by preventing portals to open between here and the-” Lisha paused for a second.  She then grabbed Alex and pulled her with against the wall of the tree room, away from the light coming from the ceiling above.  

Alex wondered what caused her to pause.  She still hadn’t explained why the demons outside were able to survive the sunlight earlier.  More questions were in Alex’s mind.  She opened her mouth in protest.  But Lisha cut her off before she could speak.  A loud bark echoed from the light above them.

“Quiet,” The Dryad whispered loudly at her. “They have returned.” I shouldn’t have got so easily distracted, Lisha thought to her self, but nonetheless, Alex must get out of here.  She quickly thought of where to send Alex.  She wasn’t safe until she knew everything.

As if to confirm Lisha’s suspicions, a giant claw came from the light above.  It slashed at them, trying to grab either of them.  Lisha pressed Alex against one corner of the tree.  She quickly shouted something into Alex’s ear.

“Go find the man they call Homer.  He’ll tell you what you want to know.”  Lisha shoved Alex through the wall, back out of the tree.  She jumped after her and soon, within an instant the two of them were outside the tree.  Lisha turned and faced the Imp.

“Alex, run! Find Homer!”

“What about you…?” Alex asked cautiously, her throat tight with emotion.  This had been a new ally and she didn’t want to abandon the Seelie faerie.  She had to know more.  Alex looked down at her hand.  The Gem of Ages was still in it, burning asking to be used once more.

A tear streaked down Lisha’s face.  “Go Alex.  I was already dead.  Don’t use the Gem again.  It won’t stop them.  More are coming this time… more than I or you could stop.  Just go find Homer.  He knows what will help you.”

Alex looked down.  The white wolfdog was still there, looking up at her with a sad look.  The animal seemed to agree with the Dryad as it motioned at her.  She put the gem back into her pocket.  This wolfdog hadn’t been wrong thus far.  She decided to leave.  Tears streaked down her face as she turned back to Lisha.

The Dryad was covered with a score of Imps, all slashing and hissing.  Her tree was also covered with Imps.  All the minute demons were laughing with glee as the faerie fell to the ground, her voice singing a song.

Alex ran off, the wolfdog not far behind.  Tears blinded her as she hurried home to grab the book and her jeep.  The imps would soon be after her unless she got far away.  The only thing that was in her mind was the words the faerie had song.  They repeated themselves over and over and over.

“Howling was the Wolf
His father dead
His friend dead
Nothing left
Nothing left
But for him to be dead…”