I am happy to be away from Ambramelin, but now I’m with a Fae I barely know.

Leading me to a set of large jumbled boulders in the thick shade outside of the glade we sit and Tamyson says, “You have many questions, ask what you will.”

Looking iat the man with a ram's head on such a tall thin body I framed my first question, “Are you really my grandfather?”

Without blinking his eyes and no change to the tone of his voice he answers, “Yes.”

Really? That’s all I get?

Ok, let’s take another try at this, “Did you love my grandmother?”

Those strange unblinking white oblong eyes stared back, “No”

“Why? Why all of this? I don’t understand why you did this.”

"We of the Fae lost our tie to this plane of existence you call earth. The Fae are magic and our magic was failing us. We were dying, we escaped to a plane where we could exist with our magic. But that plane, known as the Gray Lands, is exactly as it sounds. We preserved ourselves, our magic, but the cost, the cost was a nonexistent life."

“When Abramelin sent a message through the astral plane, we listened to him and his plan to forge ties back to earth. You must understand the lengths Abramelin went too. Abramelin bred his family for hundreds of years. From what we know he only breeds personally with every third female, while he breeds the others with men strong in magic or from a line of strong magic users.”

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but he continues before I can interrupt, “He needed powerful Fae to help. They chose myself as the first. I am from an ancient line of Fae. I am part Elven and Phooka. We thought that would tie all the Fae back to the Earth realm. When your mother was born Abramelin learned he needed more Fae blood. But, Maddie’s birth helped us get closer to this realm and occasionally watch the goings on. When he came back for another to breed with, we choose from a strong and powerful line of a pure blood Elf. If we added blood other than Elven, you had a chance of looking Fae and not human.”

Different planes? Breeding for hundreds of years? Every third woman? Grandmother slept with a Fae who has a ram’s head? Trying to get my thoughts to pick one path, I kept to my grandmother.

“Exactly how did grandmother agree to ‘breed’ with you?”

“She only witnessed my Elven form and none of my others. I will show you the others that you may understand part of your heritage.” Tamyson states as his body goes hazy.

The haze is a swirl around the body with wisps of grey and silver. Tamyson stands in the whirlwind as a silhouette. His form morphs into an animal, but the swirling keeps me from understanding the shape he is transforming into.

As the haze fades, a huge eagle stands before me. He is amazing and frightening at the same time. His eagle form stands 8-feet tall, pitch black feathers and very regal looking. He looks down at me over his very large beak. I see the intelligence in them and shudder. I know he is in there, but is the animal in control or is my grandfather? I end up embarrassing myself by shrieking and falling backwards over the small boulder I sat upon.

Throwing its head back, the eagle let out a terror inducing screech into the sky. Trembling, I watch the haze form again. Now, a hound stands in front of the stones. He stands tall as a small horse and looks like a mastiff crossed with Irish wolf hound. The only thing the same are his white eyes. If I thought the eagle fearsome, the hound is worse.

I think I would have peed myself if he hadn’t immediately hazed again. Now he became a terrifyingly black-as-night horse. Again, his shape is larger than a normal horse. His body has the muscle of a Clydesdale but sleek. Snorting and pawing at the ground, those same white eyes stare at me. Hazing again, he changes back to his Phooka form.

I need to get over being shocked all the time. I live in a time of fantasy.

Tamyson calmly sits down and stares at me.

Damn these Fae are weird. His actions are unlike a human's.

I scrambled back unto my rock regaining some composure, “Did grandmother know you could change forms?”

“No.”

Man, he really doesn’t show emotions.

“Ok, you ‘bred’ with grandmother. Let’s continue with this breeding program. Who bred my great-grandmother, Damiana?”

“Abramelin.”

I feel my face flushing, “Ok, this is simple math. Abramelin with Damiana and grandmother and mother with Fae. You will tell me I am the third, right? Abramelin has plans with me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, that is all you have to say?” This scares me. “Is that why you are helping me? You are trying to help your granddaughter escape his crazy plans?”

At least I got an eye blink this time as he answers the question, “Yes and no. He may try to control the Fae and our magic. To protect our people, we mustn’t allow him to control my decedent’s destiny.”

“Gotcha, no family reason, just about power and control. Great. What a great family I have.”

I stand and pace the tree line. Looking at Tamyson sitting in the darkness of the trees, sitting on the stones and then to the gorgeous meadow. The meadow with the sunny skies and stirring grasses. What a difference between the two. Like my life. I think my past is that meadow and the dark is now my future.

Walking back into that shadowy and shaded area of the rocks, I think of what I need to protect myself.

“Ok, grandfather. Since this has nothing to do with family ties, tell me how to gain power? How do I protect myself? How do I become strong enough to control my life?” I can’t help the next sad and sarcastic remark, “It’s not like my family is there for me, unless it deals with them directly.”

Tamyson nods his head, looking at me with approval, “Yes, you must look to yourself and build your power. We, the Fae, will help stop the binding of our blood with Abramelin’s… unless it means we lose access to this plane. Then we will decide which is worse, the gray lands or living under the rule of a wizard.”

I can only shake my head back and forth and look at the ground. Tamyson made his point; I have to grow up and grow up fast.

Tamyson continues speaking, “You gain power with help. Cork will help with the glamour and explore what you can do with your own magic. You and I will continue walking between, while I help you with our lore. Part of that lore is visiting with the different Fae. Make alliances or deals as you can. Last, you have more than the Fae magic inside of you. You can use magic like the witches. You will learn to bend the magic outside of yourself to your own will. You and your coven, you must work together.”

He stops speaking and we let the silence hang between us. I’m not in a hurry for more information. The silence doesn’t bother Tamyson, so we sit and absorb the surrounding beauty. The dark and the light.

Tamyson leads us back to the cottage via different areas of between letting me practice. I move the two of us easier and with more confidence. I enjoy the feeling of freedom this trick gives me. I can’t help but think of it as a trick. I am not sure of this power.

Is it a talent that will grow? Will I become comfortable with the power within myself?

I am tired as I arrive back at the cottage. I find Circe and Jadis waiting for me in the cottage drinking teas. Jadis gives me a tired smile and looking at Circe I can see she isn’t tired, but looks calm and pleased with herself.

Well, at least someone’s day was good.

Pouring tea for myself, I sit down and explain my day. I recall the conversation about Abramelin and the breeding program involving my family. I also tell them it was the birth of my mother and mine that brought about the Age of Lore. I wasn’t the only one to think this is crazy. I top it off with I am next inline to ‘breed’ with Abramelin.

Circe is finally speechless, but that doesn’t last long.

With a big sigh she says, “Well, that’s fucked up.”

“Yep... What do you say to that?” I ask with sarcasm.

Looking at Jadis and wondering why she looked tires I ask, “What did you learn?”

“Not a lot. I know we need to learn and train. The tarot cards show too many paths to get a clear idea for our way ahead. I tried several divinations, wearing myself out. I think we stick to focusing on one person at a time. I was trying to get a larger picture of us as a whole, as a coven and more. There are too many factors with us, Damiana and Abramelin.”

Jadis apologizes, “I am sorry. I know better than try to divine at such a large scale.”

Circe patted her hand, “Live and learn... now you know better. I had better luck.” With a large smile she tells us what she learned. “It is nothing specific, but it confirms your determination to focus on Gwen. My ceremony revealed a need to run from Damiana. We must stay as far from her as possible. But, our fates and Abramelin's are shrouded. I don’t know how he feels about us or how he will act against us. Tamyson and our paths felt… ok? I know that doesn’t sound firm but, he isn’t a major threat at this time.”

I sum up our situation, “I train with the Fae, learn what I can while we work together teaching me how to be a witch.”

Circe slapped my shoulder, “That’s the spirit.”

Cork suddenly appears on the table looking into my cup of tea. It was empty and looking up at me with his little head cocked and in his piping voice he says, “Cork need tea now and feed or I will go find for myself.”

The three of us jump and Circe curses, “Damn it! Can’t you remind us about your little friend? We need to figure out a way to see him. Can we put a bell on him?” Circe grins at the thought of Cork wearing a bell.

I feel silly forgetting about my little guardian. “Sorry, his glamour is fantastic. I don’t even feel him on my shoulder and I forget he is there. With Cork training me, maybe I can become as good as he is.”

I get up to fill my cup with tea and Jadis stands to gather some simple foods to munch on while Circe stays at the table glaring at Cork.

Coming back to the table we find Circe and Cork in a staring contest. This made me try to perform some kind of bonding math. Circe has a quick temper and I have an unknown Fae guardian. I think this is Temper vs. Trickster. What could go wrong? But the math is plain and simple, it equals a rocky relationship.

Jadis gives me a questioning glance and shrugging my shoulders I ask, “Hey Circe, Cork. You two good?”

Cork disappears from his spot next to my teacup and reappears with his head down in Circe’s cup of tea. Before the screech leaves her lips, Cork is back on my shoulder peeking out of my hair from over my ear... it is his favorite spot.

Holding my hands up, with my palms facing Circe and shaking my head no I explain, “I am sure he was joking with you. Maybe you two should stay away from each other?” I finish with that one simple hope.

Circe’s face turns red and shaking a finger at me she screeches, “Yes! Keep your little guardian away from me.”

“Sure,” and now we have awkward silence.

Jadis, always the easy-going one of our group changes the subject. “What should we start Gwen with? We can only train her so much and then we will need help.”

Jadis did it! The subject changes.

Thank you Jadis!

And with a smile I try helping, “Yes, what do you think Circe?”

After several deep breaths Circe allows the subject of Cork to drop with one last hard look at Cork.

Jadis and Circe ramble on about defensive wards, testing for manifestations; making a small flame appear, infusing my will into spells and much more. I try keeping up with them, but suddenly they are excitedly discussing alignments, colors, stones, astral signs… ugh!

This is making my head hurt.

I remember something that Tamyson had talked about. I broke into their excited chatter with a question of my own, “What is the astral plane? Abramelin can use it or go there. I’m not sure, but Tamyson mentioned this earlier.”

They stopped talking and with mouths hanging open they looked at me with wide eyes. “Astral plane? Really, like, The Astral Plane? Like only the top tier of all magical embodiments of power?”

I didn’t feel good about this. I knew Abramelin is like, old and has a sicko breeding program with my family. But the scary guy just became scarier.

“Gwen, you don’t understand what this means. The astral plane is like, well… like ‘The Bomb’!” Jadis excitingly explains. “OMG, holy crap, we need to see if you can do this. Obviously not now but, yeah, we need to look into this.”

Circe jumped in, “Figuring out who can teach Gwen will be hard .”

In a sarcastic and funny voice Circe continues with an eye roll. “Ok, Gwen will learn defensive wards, needs testing, train with the Fae and we have research to complete. And to wrap it all up, we need to figure out the Astral plane. Got it, no problem… what do you think… a week, maybe two?”

That made us laugh at our situation. What else could we do?

I leaned my head towards Cork, “You think that is good?” I felt a pat on my ear for an answer.

I will take that as a yes.

I enjoy the banter with my coven mates; laughing, chatting and cracking each other up with jokes. We can’t fix the world and we need something to laugh about. As Cork and I head to bed, I realize for the first time in my life I am taking control, making my own decisions and my own path. This feels good.

But, in the back of my mind, I still worry about my mother and grandmother.