Of Gods and Fae (2 page)

The Fall
, oh, hell, here we go again.
The Fall
was the end of the Fae as we know them in legends and myths. The High Fae, or
the Gods as they came to be called, fought amongst themselves until none were
left. Kind of a Greek and Roman Fae version of
Ragnarök
, although the
Norse Gods seem to have suffered the same fate. The Fae worlds have never been
the same since.

"What do you mean your sisters haven't returned?"
I asked.

"None have returned and I fear they are dead. But Maia
had set out only recently. I was searching for her as well when I found Charlie,"
she answered.

"How long has she been gone?"

"Only a few weeks, but I did not wish to wait any
longer." She got out of the chair again and then knelt in front of me. "It
is my duty as an Aurae to ask, may we serve you as we once served the Gods?"

A few weeks? The other High Fae, Marissa, since sentenced
to Tartarus by none other than the father of the Titans, Ouranos, had been
taking out the more powerful Fae before I stopped her. But what else had she
been up too? Were her followers killing the other Fae as well? That was one
more thing to add to my to-do list. Damn, it just kept getting longer.

Since I'd already gotten the lecture from Bernd the Dwarf
about the duties of a High Fae, I knew what I had to do for now. Besides, it
never hurt to have allies and a messenger Fae could certainly come in handy.

"I accept your service," I replied as I pulled
her to her feet. "Now, tell me more about what has been happening."

The downside to being a regular Fae was that you were bound
to the elements you were born into. In Sendy's case, her clan was indeed of the
Aurae, but as one of their primary roles was to serve as messengers to their
Gods (or High Fae), there wasn't a whole lot of meaning to life left after
The
Fall
. That's not to say that their life wasn't worth living, it's just that
it can get awful boring. After listening to Sendy's story I could see why.

They had seldom returned to the human world after the wars.
So few had been left that they hid in the heavens and kept to themselves. Then
they heard a rumor that the High Fae had returned. I'm not sure where they
heard it, Sendy certainly didn't know. But about 50 or so years ago they began
to seek out if the rumor was true. They went out singly, or in pairs, as there
were so few of them that they didn't want to risk themselves unnecessarily.
Probably a good move, although it didn’t seem to help as most of them didn't
make it back. Apparently, few others were willing to risk such a venture
without more information, especially since their numbers were dwindling.

I think that's the problem with most of the Fae, except, of
course, those bold enough to live here. Hell, why take risks when you can live
forever? Especially after the wars between the Fae that led up to
The Fall
.

I don’t know, maybe it's not such a bad life. I mean, there
is magic. But the cost for that is, well, at least in my opinion, boredom.
Which is why, contrary to what others may think, I wasn't sure if this Fae
thing was all that it was cracked up to be. Maybe that's what makes humans the
way they are. If you have to be mortal, at least you can live your life to the
fullest. That's not such a bad thing.

I once asked Meredith, the eldest of the Nereids, why she
would want to live in the human world. You know what she told me? She said that
this is where the action is. It's too bad the first batch of High Fae had to
take it so far. Greed, pride, lust, hell, pick any of the seven sins you want—the
Fae really aren’t that different from humans after all. Let's just hope I can
do better. Of course, I still had to deal with Marissa, she wasn't going to be
in Tartarus for eternity, but maybe the time Ouranos had given me was a good
head start.

In Sendy's case, not too long ago, her sisters set out to
find out what had happened. When they didn’t return, another, Maia, left to try
and find them. When she, too, hadn’t returned, Sendy, even after being told not
to, started searching. Then she found me. I took a good look at her. Even with
her Tink garb you could tell she had gumption. Things just keep getting more
interesting, I thought to myself. Then I had a crazy idea. I did have something
she could do for me.

"Feel like going for a ride," I asked.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Have you ever had hot chocolate?" I asked with a
smile.

****

I'd like to say that I was taking her to my favorite local
coffee house, Leone Café, but the truth was we were just heading to a small
coffee shop not far from the house because it was closer. I pulled into the
shopping center just west of the freeway and found a spot in the back. It was
still early so we grabbed a table. We had a little time to talk before the
morning work crowd got too large. I told her what I wanted from her and then we
just sat and watched people a while. It was kind of nice just answering her
questions about this world. It's not every day you get to teach someone about
the crazy ways humans interact, or, for that matter, the importance of coffee
and hot chocolate to the human race.

I'd parked in the back for a reason. The shopping center was
expanding and the back lot bordered the construction zone. If the place had
been busy, we could have talked back there with less interruption than the
front lot which had a fair share of traffic. I suppose we could have just
talked back at the house, but for some reason I thought this would be more fun.
That, of course, had been my first mistake.

I sensed the danger just as I was opening the passenger car
door. Suddenly my world changed and I saw red as the magic had kicked in. I
pushed Sendy into the car and stepped to the side just as the first arrow
struck the vehicle. I turned and grabbed the second catching a quick glimpse of
someone, or something, stepping back two buildings down. Telling her to stay
down, I pulled my sword and went after him.

I wasn't sure what my attacker was, but his choice of
weapons hadn't been human. I knew this because I was holding a Fae arrow. I'd
encountered them before when battling the other High Fae and her minions.
Besides, how many human folks do you know that routinely carry bows and arrows
these days. Then again, I'd pulled my sword rather than my gun, but that just
proves my point. By the time I reached the corner the being jumped into some
kind of portal that appeared against a building wall. I ran as fast as I could to
catch up, but I was too late.

There was a flash and nothing was left of the portal but
falling ash. Well…shit! I'd caught a glimpse of a something inside of a circle.
That and the scent of evil before it disappeared. That scent I'd also encountered
before in my battles with Marissa's followers. I looked over the area where the
portal had been, I'd seen, I don’t know… some kind of symbol, but it had
disappeared too fast. I tried to sense if anything remained but it was gone. That
bothered me, this magic had been powerful. I should have been able to sense it
the moment it was used, or at least well before the arrow had been launched. Whatever
dark magic this spell had been made of had also been able to hide it from me
and knew that I'd be here. Who, or what, was I dealing-with?

I took a moment to calm myself down. When my magic kicks in like
that it has a tendency to take over. At least this time I had some semblance of
control. I quickly collapsed my sword and sheathed it, sticking the arrow into
my back pocket and covering it with my shirt. I reached out with my mind to see
if I could sense anyone, or anything else, still lingering, but there was
nothing. The lot was still empty, or would have been until the Faerie, Sendy,
now in a diminutive form, came buzzing towards me. So much for my order to stay
put in the car.

"Switch back, someone may see you," I yelled as
she approached.

There was a shocked look on her face as she realized it as
well. Then she suddenly disappeared. I didn’t know Faeries could do that. Hell,
how had she done that? It took a moment, but then I could tell where she was. I
assumed that was because of being a High Fae, somehow I knew that she would be
invisible to most others. Then a snippet of a song jumped into my head,
who
can see the wind
? Apparently I could.

"Over here," I said, motioning to her. There was a
'pop' as she grew larger and changed back, then dropped the few feet to the
ground, visible once more.

It wasn’t until then that I noticed she was topless. I guess
it'd be kind of hard to fly without your wings exposed. I put my arms around
her before she could say anything and hustled her back to the car. Luckily the
back lot was still empty as I grabbed her shirt from the seat and tossed it to
her.

"Motherf…!" I yelled.

"My Lord, I beg forgiveness, I wasn't thinking," she
said as she pulled her shirt back on.

"It's not you," I said as I put my hand up to stop
her apologies. Then I reached down and pulled the arrow out of the leather side
panel of the passenger seat. How was I ever going to explain this to the dealer
when I got it fixed. Trying to kill me was one thing, but screwing with my car.
Now I was really pissed.

"Who is trying to kill you?" she asked as we
pulled out of the parking lot.

"I'm not sure," I answered as I pulled out the Fae
arrows and looked them over. "I can only guess they are followers of the
other High Fae, these arrows look similar to those I've seen before."

"Fae arrows could belong to anyone," she replied. "Hephaestus
and Vulcanus forged most of the weapons used by the Gods. Even Odin and Loki were
known to wield his weapons, as well as their own before their demise, or so it
is said." She may look young but she obviously knew her stuff.

Not that that was any help, my list of suspects was getting
bigger. First, there's my promise to free the Lilin, the Vampires, like I said.
Then there's the history of Greek, Roman, and Norse Gods (as well as a few
other deities) all fighting amongst themselves during
The Fall
. As if
someone needed another reason to come after me. Who would want those times to
return? So much for it's good to be the king.

"Well, whoever it is, we'll meet them again. That I can
promise. You sure you still want to be my messenger?" I asked.

"Of course," she answered as she looked up at me. "Good
and evil, strife and conflict, these are always present when dealing with the
Gods. I will stand with you."

Like I said… gumption! But I was still gonna have to work on
that being called a God thing.

****

Charlie was already at the front as we pulled into the yard.
I barely got the door open before he was jumping on my lap.

"Come on, boy, down," I yelled as I tried to get
out.

"Bad, evil…" he growled as he spied the Fae
arrows. He had good reason. As I may have mentioned, he'd been shot with just
such an arrow during my battle with Marissa. Pushing him down, I got out of the
car as he ran to the other side to check on Sendy.

Grabbing the arrows I led them into the house. Placing them
down on the table I reached for my cellphone. Before I could dial out Lucinda,
my cat, jumped on the table and hissed.

"What of he that bore these?" she asked.

"Escaped," I answered.

"Unfortunate… Bernd must be told," she purred.

"Tell, me something I don’t know." I replied as
she gave me one of those disapproving feline looks. "Go find him then,"
I countered before she could tell me again. "But I have other things to do
at the moment so ask him to meet me here tonight."

She gave me another one of those looks and then jumped off
the table and headed for the backyard. Like Charlie, she wasn't a normal cat
either. She'd been brought to me by Bernd, the Dwarf, as a way to protect me
and the house, or at least so he said. Not that I had a reason to doubt his
motives. I'd seen her turn into a panther when she fought beside me against the
dark Fae so I was glad to have her.

Charlie and Sendy were just standing there, watching me. I
ignored them, phone forgotten, as I rummaged through my cabinet and grabbed a
cup that said,
I took the red pill!  
Not that I really needed more
coffee but
that about summed up my life at the moment. Hell, some days
it even felt like I was living in a construct. Of course they didn’t have
talking animals in the
Matrix
, did they?

"Charlie, tell Lucinda to make sure the grounds are
locked down. No one gets in or out except you, her, Sendy and her charge, and,
of course, Bernd," I said as I filled my cup with what was left of this
morning's coffee. "That means everyone else, friend or not, until I say
different, understood?"

The big dog just nodded, and then went out the same way Lucinda
had.

"Have a seat," I said, motioning Sendy to the
table as I sat down. I needed to think. Someone was trying to kill me. Ok, I
knew that had been probably coming but that didn’t make it any easier. I was
hoping it had been one of Marissa's followers. The magic seemed like something
a black Mage would do. That would at least give me someone to focus on, but the
reality was that it could be any one of several groups out there.

Although my situation (the High Fae thing) wasn't common
knowledge yet, the Fae around here weren't that numerous and I knew my decision
to free the Lilin from the Fae decree wasn't popular. I still hadn’t faced my aunt
in the Fae lands either. It wasn't good enough to just be the Fae I had become.
At some point I was going to have to declare my position in that realm as well.

I took another sip and then decided I was just going to
have to deal with it. I hadn’t asked for any of this but since when had that
ever changed anything? It was time to get my act together. I looked at over at
Sendy.