Chapter 3-2
1583 Words
“Oh, yes! And to fight! You took out all of those…what are they?”
“Urgaban. You would call them goblins.”
Urgaban“Goblins, right.” I looked at the bodies. “You took out all of those goblins. You were incredible!”
“Very well,” she said. “I accept this geas you have laid upon me. I am bound to you until I have done this.”
“But…” This sounded much more formal than I had thought. “You saved my life, too. It sounded like they were going to eat me.”
She shook her head. “No. They were trespassing. I was enforcing my law. They cannot hunt here, no matter the prey. You saved my life for no reason other than you could.” She paused for a moment. “I am Neelu"u, of the Su Lariano clan.”
“I’m Mira. I don’t really have a clan,” I told her. “That goblin guy, Ragar, he called you something else?”
“Lucky guess,” she shrugged. “The goblins know of me as Dark Blade.”
“He said something else, too…something about…” I tried to remember, “Astrid something?”
“Astrina Ulané Poloso. She is our queen.”
“Oh, okay. Um, could you help me get home?” While I would love to learn magic, getting home would be more important.
“To your world?” She shook her head. “Portal magic is something else entirely. I do not know it. But there is a lot I can teach you. Where did you get that?” She indicated my necklace.
“It was my mother’s. My parents died years ago and I just got a box that had some of her things in it. It had this necklace, and these knives.” I held them up. “And some other stuff. Photos. Letters.”
“Those look like they could be powerful as well,” she said, looking at the knives.
I tucked one under my arm and held the other up, pulling the knife from the scabbard. The blade shone brightly in the sun.
Neelu"u grabbed my hands and shoved the knife back in the sheath.
“Do not pull it from the scabbard again! Not until you learn to hide it. You will draw too much attention. That is no simple knife. I wonder who your mother was to have such powerful talismans.” She gave me a hard look. “You have much to learn before you can travel safely in this world.”
“Are there a lot more of these goblins around?”
“Goblins will be the least of your worries if you do not learn to shield magic. Now, let us leave this place. The wolves will feed well tonight—” she gestured to the bodies around us “—but I don’t think you want to be here for it.”
Thinking she was probably right, I nodded my agreement and followed her as she began walking into the forest. After a few minutes, I thought of Jill and Tony and Nora, and how they must be wondering where I was.
“Neelu’u, you said you don’t know…portal magic? How long before we can find someone who can help me get home?”
“Mira,” she began, then paused. “This is your full name? Don’t humans usually have longer names?”
“Mirabella Cervantes. Ramirez.” I remembered Tony saying I could add that last one to the end. “But most people call me Mira. My dad, he likes to call me Mirella. Nora tried calling me Bella once, but after the whole Twilight thing…” The look on her face told me I was rambling. “Just call me Mira. That’s easiest.”
Twilight“Mira.” She nodded. “I do not want you to misunderstand the situation. It is possible you may never be able to return to your world.”
“What?” I pulled up short, blinking back tears. “But…no! I can’t stay here! I have to go home! You can’t keep me here!”
She put her hand on my shoulder. “If I could send you home this minute, I would. Travel between realms is not what it once was. Time was, one could move from the Daoine realm to many other realms without much difficulty. The easiest realm to access your world has always been the Dannu realm. Many of our peoples traveled from Daoine to other realms and made their homes there. But travel to and from Dannu has been blocked for centuries. To travel to your world from Daoine would be extremely difficult—if you can even find someone who knew how to do it and was powerful enough to manage it.”
“I’ve been gone for hours. Jill and Tony must be going crazy.”
“From what I’ve heard, time in Daoine doesn’t move at the same rate as on your world. Only minutes will have passed for them in the time you have been here. That is the effect of the travel block.”
“Daoine?” I asked her. “That’s where we are?”
“Yes.”
“And your people…sprites? They’re in charge here?”
She shook her head. “No, the Ashae rule here. They have also been known as Sidhe in some parts of your world.”
Ashae“Would one of these Ashae know how to get me home?”
Ashae “I do not know who would be able to help you. But I will do everything possible to find someone.”
I nodded, trying not to think of it. We resumed walking as we talked.
“What was the other place you were talking about?” I asked. “Dannu? Why is it blocked off?”
“The Ande-Dannu, the people of that realm, have erected their own magical barriers to prevent entry.”
“You said they went to my world a lot?”
“They went there easily, but more than that, I can’t say. Dannu was once home to what those on your world called the Tuatha de Danann. They and the Ande-Dannu lived in the realm of Dannu. But one day, the Tuatha de Danann were attacked by a race from another realm—the Fomorians. They fought a b****y war against this race, and both sides were devastated. Eventually, the Tuatha de Danann sought to go to another realm to recover, and the Ashae helped them in this. The Fomorians—what was left of them—pursued the Tuatha de Danann. Who knows what happened after that? That is when the Ande-Dannu put up the barriers. Probably to protect themselves from being similarly attacked.”
Ashae “I guess humans aren’t the only ones that have wars.”
She gave a short, mirthless chuckle. “No, not by far. Tell me your tale, Mirabella Cervantes Ramirez.”
“Mira,” I corrected her.
“Mira.”
As we walked, I told her about how I’d been fostered with Jill and Tony, and how they were finally going to be able to adopt me. I told her about Nora, about how broody she could be, but also how she always watched over me and tried to make sure I was happy. Then I told her everything that had happened to us since I’d gotten that chest of my mother’s things.
Once I finished, she said, “It is possible that when your sister attacked the mage, it destabilized his portal spell. That could explain how you came to Daoine.”
“But what happened to him? Or to Nora?”
“There is no way to know.” Neelu"u shrugged. “They could be in your world, or they could have fallen through the splintered portal and landed somewhere else.”
We came to a small hut in the forest. I could hear the burbling of a stream nearby.
“I sometimes use this for sleeping when I am away from my village,” Neelu"u explained. I think we should stay here for a bit until I can teach you some basics, then I will take you to the village.”
The hut was at the edge of a small clearing. There was a firepit that had been evidently set up for cooking, and a large pot was handy.
“I’ll make a pallet for you in the hut for sleeping,” Neelu"u told me. “The season is not cold, so you should be comfortable. Are you hungry?”
At the mention of food, my stomach began to grumble. “Yes!”
“I will make something.”
“I don’t know which I am more,” I told her, “hungry or tired. It was nighttime when I left home. I think I’m feeling something like jet lag.”
Neelu"u retrieved some enclosed baskets from inside the hut. “Here,” she said. “Some nuts and berries I gathered earlier. Have some of that to tide you over and I’ll make a pallet for you. Once you’ve rested, we can talk more over a proper meal.”
The nuts seemed similar to pine nuts. I couldn’t identify the berries, except to say they were tart and sweet. In the hut a few minutes later, the pallet was soft and heavenly.
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