Faery Worlds - Six Complete Novels (58 page)

I felt like Alice must have felt when she fell into the rabbit hole. Yes, when I was in the forest, some next-level freaky shit was going on. Yes, I was now talking to trees. And yes, I just saw an army of orcs being attacked by an army of ... fae. But it wasn't until sitting through this little history lesson that I finally, finally felt like I was in another dimension. That shows how fucked up in the head I was at this point.

Dardennes continued. "Within the fae species are many fae races. You have already met some of them: the werewolves ... "

At this, the pack of guys who I assumed were the werewolves who had treed us the other day, bowed their heads to us.

" ... the gnomes ... "

Gilly and Gander bowed low, and once again I was thankful I wasn't standing behind Gilly. I saw one of the wolves glance over at the wrong time and quickly look away, swallowing hard.
That'll teach him to look at the ass-end of a gnome with a miniskirt on.

" ... the sirens ... "

The Lady of the Lake looked at us, without making any gesture at all, but we knew who he was talking about.

The big door opened and the guy I had nicknamed Robin Hood stepped through, nodding to Dardennes as he took his place among the fae.

" ... the Green Elves ... "

Robin Hood fae nodded his head briskly at all of us.

" ... the Dwarves ... "

Niles put a fist to his chest over his heart as some sort of warrior salute, no doubt.

" ... the Incubus and his female counterpart the Succubus ... "

From behind Dardennes stepped the vampire guy we had seen attacking Chase. He gave a little curtsy before stepping into the background again.

" ... the daemons ... "

Jared nodded his head at me only.

Dardennes gestured above his head. "And the orcs ... I believe you've met them as well. They're ... a little different ... but obviously not human." He gave us a weak smile, and some of us couldn't help but return it. Mine was of the bitter variety.
Yeah, we fucking met the orcs. One of your little dwarf friends did too, much to his regret.

Tony kicked my seat.

I turned around and gave him my mean look.

His return expression said, '
Give the guy some slack.'

I thought,
'Fuck that!'
as hard as I could back at him and stuck out my tongue.

He rolled his eyes at me.

"Don't forget the old hag posing as Samantha," I said resentfully. She was the first being I'd ever killed and I was still pissed they had pushed me into that.

"Yes, she was one of our witches - an unfortunate end, but our colleagues know the risks of participating in the tests. But we will get to that later. For now, let us continue with our history ... Céline?"

Céline stepped forward and picked up where Dardennes had left off. "You may be wondering how the fae came to have these supernatural abilities and the humans did not. Well, actually, if you believe this is the case, then you are of course forgiven for it, but you are wrong. You see, many humans do have these abilities, but they are too closed off from the source of their power to ever put their abilities into practice. There are some humans who have no abilities, that is true; but you would probably be surprised to know how many
do
. How can that be? Well, it is simple: Many of the humans who inhabit this planet actually have abilities like this because they are part fae. Let me ask you ... have you ever experienced a feeling of déjà vu? Have you ever had a dream about something, only to have it or some version of it come true? Have you ever seen someone you thought you knew from somewhere else? Do you ever meet someone and for some reason, get very bad vibes telling you to stay away from them? Do you ever have dreams where you fly above the trees or breathe underwater? Did you ever go somewhere new and feel as if you'd been there before? And finally, have you ever felt that you were special, but misunderstood - on the outside looking in? All of these are manifestations of fae ancestry."

We looked at each other. Even Chase swung around to look at me. I wondered if talking to trees meant something. Apparently my friends thought it did.

"Over the years, many fae have lost their connection to the magic that links them to their abilities." She looked around at our faces. "I see that several of you doubt the concept of magic."

She was including me in this observation, because her explanation was entering the 'too-far fetched to be believable' zone. Actually, we had passed that zone a
loooong
time ago, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Apparently, I drew it at the word 'magic'.

"Humans call sleight of hand and illusion magic. This is a misnomer. Magic is not a trick or something that fools your eyes. Magic is an energy present here on this planet and out in the universe. It is the energy that binds all of us together and to other living things - and even to things that are not living or that are only in a partially living state."

"The fae have a natural ability to tap into this magic without effort. It is, practically speaking, an automatic, involuntary connection that they use without thinking. The magic provides the energy for them to express and use their natural abilities - or as you would call them, their 'supernatural' abilities."

She stepped closer to our table, looking at each of us in turn. "Our species has a division in it, one that has existed for as long as our recorded history goes back. Each of the fae is on one side or the other of this division. There are the Light and the Dark; so we say there are 'Light Fae' and 'Dark Fae'. Some races of fae as a whole tend to belong to one division over the other - for example, the wraithes. They, almost to the wraithe, belong on the Dark Fae side. There have been some Light Fae wraithes, but it is rare. Sprites, on the other hand, usually tend to be Light Fae. Again, there are some exceptions, but they are rare. Finally, there are fae that equally go to the Light or the Dark. For example, there is nearly a perfect division of numbers for the witches - half of them are Light Fae and half are Dark."

"Some, or I should say, many, of the fae actually survive off of humans in one way or another. Some need human energy, some need human blood, and some, human meat. The main difference between the Light Fae and the Dark Fae is that they have opposing opinions about what our role among humans should be and how humans should be treated. The Light Fae believe that our survival depends on anonymity, not revealing our existence, and protecting our own kind, as well as protecting the humans from destruction by fae-kind."

She saw our looks of disgust and quickly responded. "Don't get the wrong idea here - we're not talking about the stuff of horror movies. The Light Fae value human life. They don't take human lives to satisfy their cravings or even their needs."

"Now, the Dark Fae believe that the fae are superior to humans, and as such, believe the ultimate goal for all fae should be to take over leadership of the world and essentially 'come out of the closet', as they say. They don't agree that to maintain the safety of our races we should live in anonymity and in harmony with the humans, with the humans remaining ignorant to our existence. If the Dark Fae were to have their way, humans would eventually be enslaved to them, and used for whatever they could give to the fae - including energy, blood, and meat."

I looked at my friends' faces and they mirrored the revulsion I felt.
Humans as sources of meat? Disgusting.
I thought about the dwarf in the orc camp.

"Apparently, the orcs don't just like to eat human meat," I said.

Céline sighed. "Yes, this is true. There are some ... creatures ... that have turned to eating their own kind; just as there are some humans on the planet who practice cannibalism."

Dardennes took over the history lesson. "We have reached a critical period in the history of the fae. Our numbers have dwindled, particularly in the Light Fae division. All of the fae you see here today are members of the Light Fae."

That little nugget made me feel a little bit better. I could see on Finn's face he felt the same. I looked at Jared and he met my stare, not looking away. He was proud of who he was, that much was clear.

"The Dark Fae are willing to use certain, shall we say, unsavory methods to maintain their numbers. Since we, on the other hand, have such high regard for our fellow species - the humans - we cannot do these things; it is against our moral code. Therefore, we had to devise other methods to find and recruit members of our species, that is to say,
humans
who may not know that they, in fact, are members of our species. Certain individuals of our kind are suited for identifying and recruiting possible candidates." At this he gestured to Jared who nodded back and then looked over at us.

Chase turned around in his chair again, first looking at me and then at the others. Tony was nodding his head in comprehension, along with Spike.

Finn and I looked at each other with questions written all over our faces.
What exactly does this have to do with us?

"We have found the best way to identify those with fae blood in their veins is to test for fae abilities in controlled studies ... tests such as the one you have passed - with
flying colors
I might add." He held up each of our flags.

Oh, the irony.

"Based on your performance over the past three days, you have been identified as very likely having fae blood and therefore, fae abilities."

Whaaaat?

Spike raised his hand.

Dardennes smiled. "Spike?"

"Yeah, uh, so what you're saying is that I ... all of us ... are fae?"

"Not exactly. What I'm saying is that it is
likely
that you have fae blood somewhere in your ancestry."

"So, how do you know for sure?"

"We won't know unless you choose to participate in the next step."

Here it comes - I knew it wasn't going to be this easy.

"So ... what's the next step?"

"Once all of you know the story, know what you could be participating in, you will be given a choice. We have in our possession certain ... amulets ... imbued with qualities that will essentially awaken or charge your fae blood and race-specific abilities. If you choose to use the amulet, and you are of the fae, it will bring about your change. You will become a 'Changeling'. Should you choose not to awaken your fae blood, you will be given the money you have earned and sent back to Miami, or wherever you'd like us to take you."

"So, what's the catch?" I asked.

"There is no catch."

"So, you'll just tell us your big secret, we say 'no thanks', and then you just let us go? How do you know we won't tell anyone?"

"Ah, yes, I did actually leave out one piece of information. Thank you, Jayne, for your question. Should you choose not to awaken your fae blood and realize your particular fae race, your memory of this test and everything I just told you will be erased by one of our colleagues who has that supernatural ability."

Finn cleared his throat and sat up a little. "Excuse me, Sir, I don't mean to be rude, but I need to ask: What's in it for us if we decide to do this thing - I mean, not get erased?"

"Another good question," Dardennes answered. "First, you will become what you truly are, the best possible version of yourself. Depending on which race of fae you are - and again we don't guarantee that you
are
fae, just that it is
likely
- you will have supernatural abilities beyond those which you could scarcely imagine or ever experience without your fae blood being charged by our amulets. The things you saw in the forest done by our colleagues are but a fraction of what is possible for many of you."

Céline stepped forward. "You will join our community which is vast and varied. We are in every state in the United States of America and every country in Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Orient, among other places. You will never again feel alone or lost or wonder what your purpose is. We all live and work together as a team. You will have a job, a place to live, and a family."

Niles stepped forward. "Many of you will also be trained to help us in our efforts to build our Light Fae forces and defend our way of life against the Dark Fae when necessary."

Spike spoke up again. "Do we get to choose which race we belong to?"

"No," answered Dardennes. "You have the blood of a certain race in your veins. The amulet merely wakes it up. We can try to guess what your race is by your current human qualities, but we are not always correct - and frankly, some of our races have died out over the years and occasionally we are confronted with a race we've never seen before ... one that hasn't walked the Earth in thousands of years. It's not often that this happens, but we have reason to believe it could happen with one of you." With this he looked pointedly at me. So did everyone else at the table.

Great. I'm a freak in the human world, and I'm probably a freak in the fae world too.