“It's hard to close your eyes with 'it' in front of you.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Fairy***

***Magnus***

I don’t bother to deal with the guards. They don’t even realize that I am right among them. A quick glance reassures me that they are still watching their surroundings, so I walk up to the tree and study the magic which was imbued into it.

After a minute without finding any malicious traps, I decide to go for it. I stop chewing on the gum in my mouth and take it out. Then I press it against the bark until it sticks. This one won’t explode immediately. The magic on it is delayed and will only trigger when the gum starts drying out, which should give me about a day. There is also the option to set it off manually.

I salute the guards, even though they don’t see me, and walk around the tree. Goodbye bitches!

As I walk, I adjust the GoPro which I am carrying on my chest. If I survive this, I want to have a record of this adventure. It would be so freakishly good to show a video of my deeds at the next gathering. With incontestable proof of my actions, I’ll become a hero overnight. Not to mention the deterrent effect it will have on anyone who wants to mess with me.

The world shifts around me and it feels as if I am covering hundreds of miles with each step. Then I reach the other side and find myself in a forest. There are no guards on this end. All that points towards intelligent beings inhabiting this place, is a trail which leads into the woods. I shrug and follow the path while I stretch out my senses.

I know the orb’s magic as if it were my own, so it doesn’t take long to sense its power. It feels like it’s far away, but I expected that. Fairy must be large, and Winter created his own doorway to escape my reality marble. There was no reason that I find an access point which is anywhere close to Winter’s domain. That’s why I brought the power stone.

Reaching into my pocket, I retrieve the power stone and start channelling its power. Leaving the trail, I start running straight towards the orb’s energy emissions. That’s why I never took the orb out of my reality marble. It draws too much attention. I am sure that it’s hundreds of kilometres away. With an average speed of about seventy kilometres per hour, I leap through the air, avoiding the forest’s thick underbrush.

Several times I sense fae, but each time I avoid them. Their society seems to be widely spread out among this endless forest. From time to time I come across an empty hut. The owners aren’t present, which is the only reason that I come even close to the buildings. I still avoid them, fearing that there are some sort of security enchantments to deter other fae. I’ve no idea how they protect their property. There seem to be cities, so I have to ask myself how large Fairy is.

After two hours of running I’ve to sit down and rest. I also use the pause to recharge the power stone, which is no problem at all. Fairy is saturated with nature magic and I’ve no qualms about damaging the environment or destabilizing the entire reality marble. I simply rip the power out of my surroundings.

It’s unlikely that I’ll manage to destabilize Fairy as a whole. Though the fae will sense that something is amiss. I plan to be long gone by the point at which they realize that something is wrong.

As soon as I am rested, I go on. The only things which interrupt my journey are small meadows and ponds. There are no mountains. It’s a flat, endless forest.

In the afternoon, the forest changes. So far, I travelled through genuine, old forest. Like it would grow if nobody takes care of it.

This place is definitely taken care of. There is no underbrush or dead wood. I slow down and stretch out my senses to make sure that I don’t run into guards. What I feel makes me tense up. There are dozens of people close-by, but their auras are somehow muted. It’s as if they are sleeping.

I decide to investigate. I avoided contact with the fae, but this is something out of the ordinary. Maybe it can be used against them. The closer I come, the more I feel uncomfortable. There is still no sign of civilisation. So what are those people doing out here.

Relying on my invisibility, I take care to walk as silently as possible and close in on a nearby aura. I am quite surprised when it turns out to be a large oak. I study the tree from afar. Normally, plants don’t have such a strong aura, but this one radiates like a large animal. The oak is old and large. Its trunk is at least two metres in diameter. Something that’s almost non-existent on Earth nowadays.

I slowly walk around the tree until I reach the other side. What I find turns my stomach. There is a woman attached to its bark. She somehow fused with the tree. Her arms and legs disappear inside it. What’s worse, is that she seems to be alive and pregnant.

Closing in, I study her. She seems to be asleep. Considering my options, I try to push a finger into the space where she is attached to the plant. But it doesn’t look like her body can be removed without killing her. Is that what the fae do with those who get abducted?

I reach into my pocket and retrieve a whole pack of chewing gums. There is no actual need to chew them, so I simple shove one of the gums into her mouth. Making sure that the camera is recording, I invest an hour in travelling this ‘farm’. The thought that Sely or anyone of my clan could be here makes me sick.

Searching my memory, I try to remember if there are any Bathomeus who were abducted or disappeared. There are none, but I am relatively young. Hatlix might know someone who found her end in such a place. After two hours, I run out of chewing gum, but there are still so much more.

There isn’t much which is important to my people. If there is something that’s treated with care, then it’s children and pregnant women. When my people see this video it’ll cause a war. I am sure of that.

I inspect yet another woman with all my senses. She seems to be a recent addition to this horror farm, so I try to pull her out of the tree. It doesn’t work as I expected and she wakes up. Her mouth opens to scream, but I crush her throat before she can do so. She is an elemental, so I don’t have the same inhibitions I would have with a pregnant Old One.

Using all my strength, I pull. She comes loose in a mess of blood and gore. The tree didn’t just fuse with her skin. It replaced big parts of her innards. Whoever created this spell, he didn’t think of a possibility to detach the victim from the plant.

A wave of rage engulfs me and I rip the foetus out of her belly to ensure that it also dies. The fae are nothing more than parasites. The elders should’ve wiped them out of existence all those years ago.

I’ve lost enough time with this and the video proves that retrieving the victims is most likely outside our capabilities. Most other supernaturals don’t have our regenerative abilities, even though they can take a lot. I am not sure that an Old One can be restored after fusing with the tree, even if we remove her as carefully as possible.

Turning around, I head in the direction of the orb. I really hope that I’ll find Winter there.

What I find, is a genuine castle. A castle in a tree. A tree castle? The area around the enormous structure is covered in snow and ice, as is befitting of a fae-lord who claims winter as his domain.

I shake my head and cross the empty ice field which is separating the castle from the forest. I study the heavily guarded stairway which leads up the tree’s sturdy trunk. The whole thing is at least two hundred metres in height and a hundred metres in width.

There is no reason to try my luck with the guards, so I circle around the structure and climb up the trunk. The bark is so rough that it’s almost like climbing up a cliff. A cliff with very sharp rocks, capable of cutting anyone who tries to climb it. There is also the fact that the surface is so cold that any normal person would simply freeze to the trunk.

A little magic from my side solves both of those problems. I have to rely on the power stone, but I make good progress until I reach a set of windows in the upper half of the castle’s central tower. They lead into a large corridor. Thankfully the windows aren’t especially secured, so can easily open one of them and enter the empty corridor.

The fae don’t seem to expect any attacks inside their domain. Well, Fairy was a safe haven for thousands of years. I also became complacent inside my own reality marble. That’s the only reason why they managed to steal the orb in the first place.

The orb’s energy emissions feel like the source is very close and I angle myself towards the large door from where I sense it. I approach and press an ear to the wood.

“...have to bow to my power! I’ll be the sole ruler of the fae!” A deep and icy voice says.

“Winter, you really think that it is wise to reach for more power? At a time like this, dividing our people could spell the end.” Another voice.

“I think he lost it. The artefact was made for Old Ones and they only used it in a large group. I don’t think that a single person can wield so much power.” A third, high voice.

The deep voice again. “Don’t question me! Do you even know how powerful I can get by mastering this artefact? I’ll rule everything! Now get out! I have to prepare the ritual! Don’t enter this room, whatever noises you hear. Don’t enter!”

“As you wish.”

“I wish you luck, Winter.” The third voice.

The door opens and I jump backwards, pressing myself to the wall. Five guards leave the room and stomp down the corridor, followed by three fae in fine clothes. Then a horrible creature appears, twirling around as if it is dancing. It looks like a collection of every disfiguration that’s humanly possible. Everything cramped into one being.

I fight the urge to lunge forward and end this thing’s existence. But that would reveal my presence and I can’t have that happen.

The creature stops at the entrance and holds the door open. It blinks and searches the corridor with its huge eyes. Turning, it addresses someone inside the room. “Are you sure that you want to do this?”

“Leave, Gardener!”

The creature rolls its eyes and for a short moment it looks as if it’s making eye contact with me. It looks around, searching the corridor. Then it shrugs and whistles. It departs by doing cartwheels down the corridor.

I quickly enter the room before the huge door falls shut. The freak seemed like he sensed my presence. I check on my invisibility, but it works perfectly fine. It’s improbable that the freak intentionally held the door open for me.

There is no way to know for certain without following it, so I turn and survey the large throne room. The freak isn’t the reason why I am here.