“A burning ring of fire.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Atlantis***

***Magnus***

“There is a chance that this spell might have unexpected consequences. We just want that everyone is aware of the risk. It exists, but we deem it to be small.” Hatlix finishes his speech and the entire coliseum turns loud with voices. Everyone wants to discuss the implications of the new weapon. After an hour of answering questions about the marble, Hatlix looks at least as tired as I am.

We had to explain almost every detail of the marble's creation. The elders were very thorough in their task of gaining as much information as possible. At least nobody can say that we didn't warn them. Everyone who paid attention to the discussion is past the point of claiming innocence.

The elders didn't exactly jump at our idea. I can understand that. It would've been stupid of them to take the chance without second thoughts. Once the marble is used, there is no way back. And who wants to be labelled a mass murderer who caused the extinction of an entire race? Once the fae are gone, we'll eternally wonder if we made the right choice. What if there are good and innocent people among the victims? Every newborn is innocent, is it not?

I ponder over the thought. “Yeah, maybe not.”

“Did you say something?” Sely turns to me. She is sitting next to me and paid a lot of attention during our explanations.

Fiacre and Cecilia also joined us at the gathering. So far, the presentation of our 'solution' went well. At least nobody jumped up and accused us of being insane. I count that as a win.

I shrug. “Sorry, I was talking to myself. I just thought about the moral issues of using the marble.”

Sely clears her throat. “Excuse me? You made the damned thing. And now you consider the moral consequences? Isn't that something you should think about before you create a weapon of mass destruction?”

I try to defend myself. “It was a creative process! We need something that is powerful enough to end the fae once and for all. Not something that holds them back for another millenium. And I doubt that the creators of the first nuke wasted any thought on the morality of using their weapon.”

Not that I would have any nightmares about using the marble. After what I witnessed in that forest, I am perfectly fine with using it. The fae had it coming. Their breeding farm just shows how sick they are. None of them should be allowed to live.

My dark thoughts are interrupted by the elder who is leading the gathering. He gestures for everyone to be silent and, after a few seconds, he deems the coliseum as silent enough to speak. “I think that everyone got an understanding of what the new spell is supposed to do.” He pauses. “And of what can go wrong.”

He allows for his words to sink in, making sure that everyone understands the implications. “The question is, can we postpone its use? This weapon strikes me as a measure of last resort. Has anyone another solution in mind, or is close to finding one? If someone can come up with something within the week, we might not have to use it.”

The elder looks around, obviously hoping for an answer. “Then I guess there is the question of how long we are able to repel the fae. Or if we are willing to fight this war to its bloody end. Is there anyone who deems his territory indefensible if the fae break our containment?”

Someone to our left raises his hand. I recognize the symbol of his clan. He is from the Zhar, the clan which holds Moscow.

“We are holding out and reinforcements are coming in from the surrounding country, but the fae might break our siege of their fairytree at any time. They made several attempts to drive us off, not successful, but each counterattack is stronger than the last one. We clearly can't move our troops as fast as they come through their doorway.”

He growls. “So far, we've abstained from using nukes. Though we have them ready if we need to buy a little more time. The general consensus is that using a nuke would do more harm than good at this point. The fae are immune to radiation, while humans are not. It would rob us of the possibility to use human troops within the hot zone.

“The USA are still the only country which used those weapons against people. We would like to keep it that way. I propose that we use the weapon right now to avoid further casualties on our side. Postponing the inevitable if there are no other options in sight just forces us to pay for the time in blood.”

Tina pats my shoulder from the seat behind us. “He is a sly one. Did you notice how he mentioned the USA, instead of the clan Leiprech, who were behind the government at the time? He accused them without actually accusing them.”

I shrug. At the moment I could care less for political manoeuvres. We've larger problems than clan politics.

The elder continues to wait, but nobody else decides to add his problems. At last, he sighs and raises the marble. “I guess that makes the decision easy. Who wants to do us the honour.”

“You mean, who wants to take the blame!” Sely grumbles.

I raise my hand like a little child in class. “I'll do! I'll do it! Actually, it's best if we crush it right here and now. The doorways in Atlantis lead to all parts of the world. The spell will spread the quickest if we activate it at this nexus point.”

My words die away and I realize that I am the only one who is so enthusiastic about breaking the marble. Sely leans forward and covers her face with both hands. “I'll never be able to live that down.”

Cecilia pats her back. “Don't worry. In a few hundred years nobody will remember it, given that the marble works as intended.”

The elder sighs and stretches out his hand, indicating that I should come down to his side. Of course, I don't waste any time and jump over the balustrade into the coliseum. Then I walk over to his side and take the marble from him.

“Don't be surprised! There should be something like a wavefront of blue energy. Something like a distortion. It's a spell which keeps on replicating itself. Normally, it should use only energy with a fae signature, but there is enough background radiation which fulfils the criteria to allow it to spread even without targets.”

And that's it. Without further ado, I throw the marble onto the ground.

It breaks.

A growing bubble of blue energy starts spreading out. At first it grows slowly, but it keeps taking up speed. Then it bursts outwards and passes through me. A prickling sensation runs through my whole body as the little spell formations passes through. It's as if I was sitting for far too long on my leg, just that my whole body is affected. Everything prickles as if there are a thousand ants under my skin.

I wriggle to shake off the uncomfortable experience and stay focused on what's happening. As the wavefront spreads, it lights up a strange web of energy. It looks like roots, or a brain’s synapse network?

Other people are overtaken by the spell. It's clear that they find it equally uncomfortable. The spell's wavefront spreads until it's so large that I can't see the fringe any more. The sky is filled with the strange network and I watch in awe as the illuminated root system slowly fades away. What was that? I certainly didn't expect it to look so strange. Quickly shutting my mouth, I clear my throat and nod sagely. “Don't worry. I should have expected the sensation. Even if we aren't fae, the spell comes in contact with the skin and scans us as a possible target.”

The elder glares at me, but says nothing. He danced a weird dance alongside everyone else when the magic passed over him. He gestures at the large screen which the elders use to display information for everyone. “Show us the largest capitals!”

The screen comes to live and shows us several large cities. A large ring of fire starts blooming inside one of them. The same network of roots blooms with the wavefront and I file that little detail away for later. The network isn't unique to Atlantis.

The city still had a direct connection to Atlantis, so the spell started to spread from within. Another city is now approached by the wavefront. At first, it passes through without noticeable change, but then the streets light up with fire as every bit of fae magic is turned into fuel for the disintegration spell.

I cough upon seeing the damage it does to the infrastructure. The fae soldiers might be comparably weak, but each one still has enough power to blow up a small house if he uses all his energy at once.

Holy shit, the cities will be utter ruins, regardless of whether there was heavy fighting or not. I just hope that nobody demands reparations!

Slowly, I sneak away from the elder, who is watching the scene in awe. When I realize that everyone is focused on the destruction, I jump up to our pulpit and sit down as if nothing is wrong.

Maybe they'll forget about the damage to property?

Unnoticed by everyone, a man with a box attached to his head heads over to the place where I crushed the marble. He has a broom and a dust shovel in his hands. Dutifully, he cleans up the shards of glass and heads back to his place at the edge of the arena. There, he sits down and turns into an unmoving statue, waiting for his next assignment.

***Fairy***

***Gardener***

“One last push and we can break Moscow! Why don't you agree! We have the troops!” Summer screams at Autumn. Summer was furious ever since she learned that Spring ran away with her entire entourage. At least Spring left Summer her soldiers, otherwise Summer would've exploded.

Autumn shakes his head and raises a hand to stop Summer. “We have to keep the pressure up on all fronts. Otherwise they might invade Fairy.”

Summer ruffles her beautiful hair. “We have the barriers around the fairytrees! Let them sit in front of closed doors while we take one city after the other. We just need one decisive victory to get a foothold on Earth!”

Autumn doesn't waver and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “If we allow them close to our version of the Veil, they might come up with a solution to deal with it. It's better not to give them the chance to investigate.”

“It's not as if our Veil is perfect, or did you forget about the assassin?”

They continue to bicker while I turn my attention to the tree in the centre of the glade. “They'll never learn.” Why can't they just shut up and work together? Both of them are committed to the war, yet they can't find a common ground on how to fight it.

Is this tendency to disagree on everything something which the fae inherited from the humans?

The sudden thought makes me laugh. It's a joke. The fae took the worst and the best parts about being human. They reproduce without meter and bounds, unable and unwilling to control their numbers. Exactly like humans. They also fight each other over the smallest thing. Again, exactly like humans.

I scratch my bald head and try to remember. Yes, back then, I was the one who talked everyone into creating Fairy. They never would've worked together on their own.

“Mistress! Lord!”

A scream distracts me and I look up. One of Summer's generals arrived with a message. He is far away from us on the other side of the glade. I recognize that the man looks as if he just ran a marathon. My eyes are good. Better than most.

“Run, Mistress! The enemy has unleashed a terrible weapon. Run as far and as fast as you can!”

Wildlife breaks through the underbrush. Deer, bunnies, foxes, all running towards us and away from something. The general stumbles forward, but the roaring from behind him is much more interesting at the moment. Sounds like a wildfire, something that should be impossible in Fairy.

Then I see what he was running from, a wall of flames which is churning through the forest. It is consuming everything!

My brain kicks into overdrive as I try to cope with the new situation. To me, it seems like time slowed down.

I watch the magic in awe and fascination as tree, grass and animals are turned to ash by the unnatural fire. My pupils widen and focus as I watch all the little spell formations which are using Fairy's own magic to cast duplicates of themselves. Then they dissolve into a miniature disintegration spell.

Summer and Autumn stop their heated discussion and look at the general who is running towards us. He is overtaken by the wall of flames and blue magic. As he runs, his skin shears off and he crumbles to ash before his remains hit the ground. The scream never left his mouth. His own magic ignited even the air in his lungs.

The two fae lords look at each other. Then they turn and run.

I just stand there and wait. I know that there is no running from this. The Old Ones clearly outsmarted us with this spell. It spreads faster than anyone could come up with a counterspell. The only thing someone can do, is to proudly stand his ground. I always thought that I would find some way to escape their wrath. Whatever form it would take. The last time, they caused an Ice Age, but this is simply overkill!

I decide to do the only thing that's smart.

I cover my eyes with both hands, then I let out a girlish scream like the human women do in the movies.