Chapter 4-1
2107 Words
“Magic is all around you. It’s in everything. Your amulet lets you see when people are manipulating it, like this.” Neelu’u held out her hand, and a small ball of light formed above her palm.
I nodded. “I see it.”
“Good. Now try to see it when it isn’t being manipulated.”
“What do you mean? Where?”
“Anywhere. Everywhere. Look around you. Focus.”
I looked at the ground, the bushes, the trees, my hands. Nothing.
“We’ve been doing this for hours,” I was exasperated. “It’s not working!”
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s try something else.”
We sat on stools, facing each other, a few feet apart. She formed another ball of magic over her palm and looked at me expectantly.
“Yes, I see it,” I told her.
“Good. And do you feel it?”
I concentrated on my perceptions, not sure of what I was doing.
“Yes,” I answered. “I think I feel it more, the bigger it is.”
She nodded. “Focus on it, your sight of it and your feel of it. Your connection to it through your senses.”
The more I focused, the more clearly I could feel the magic. It was almost like a tingling sensation, but not quite.
“Do you feel your connection to it?”
I nodded.
“Good. Keep that connection, keep that focus.” She paused. “Now, without losing the connection, close your eyes.”
When I closed my eyes, my connection to the magic started to falter and I concentrated harder. There! I could still feel it. It was there in front of me. And then, even with my eyes closed, I began to see it; a light in the darkness behind my closed lids.
“I see it!”
“Good, keep your connection.”
After a moment, a second light appeared.
“You made another one! I can see that one, too!”
Then the light began to shift, slowly. It was getting dimmer, but it was still there. Then it started to change shape, moving up Neelu"u’s arms to her shoulders, slowly spreading until I could see the magic glowing from Neelu"u’s entire body.
“Your whole body is glowing now!”
The light began to change again, dimming even further.
“Can you still see it? Feel it?” Neelu"u asked.
“Yes, it’s still there.”
“Very good. Now, I want you to hold onto that focus and that connection, and slowly open your eyes.”
I opened my eyes to look at her. She was still sitting in front of me, her hands relaxed in her lap. She had a faint glow around her that I could just barely see.
“Are you projecting magic from your whole body?”
“No.” She smiled. “I’m not using any magic at all.”
“But…” I looked at her more closely, and at the light. It didn’t look like it was being projected. It just was. But it wasn’t just her; it was everywhere. The trees. The rocks. The hut. Me. Even the air had a quality of magic. “It’s all around!”
was“Yes!” She grinned at me. “You’re doing it! Now, use your connection and try to feel it more.”
I nodded as I reached out with my senses. There was something, not quite a pulsing; an undertow, but I couldn’t identify a direction for it, or whether it was pushing or pulling.
“I feel something,” I said. “Almost like it could pick me up.”
“That is the Ralahin. The spirit of all things, and the interrelationship and connection we have with it all. That is magic.”
Ralahin“It’s wonderful!”
“In time, you will learn to see it without your amulet. For now,” she paused, “try to keep the awareness at all times. The more you can maintain the connection, the more natural it will become. Watch what happens when I do this.”
Suddenly, Neelu"u was enveloped by the magic and slid through it to the other side of the clearing in an instant.
“How did you do that?”
“The Ralahin. It has an ebb and flow, and it’s all connected with everything all at once. You can move with it, ride it. That’s how sprites can move so quickly.”
Ralahin“That’s what you’re going to teach me?”
She nodded. “It will take time. Few can naturally see the Ralahin; different races and disciplines see and interact with magic in different ways. Without your amulet, this first step might have been impossible.”
Ralahin“Should I try doing what you did now? Moving with the Ralahin?”
Ralahin“No!” Neelu"u was adamant. “Absolutely do not try to do that. We will start with simple things, like your hands and arms. You must master moving and stopping before trying to move your whole body. You wouldn’t want to end up smashing into a tree because you couldn’t stop yourself.”
I hadn’t considered that. “Okay, so what’s next?”
“Next, ” she scowled, “we need to get you some better clothes. Those won’t last you long.”
I looked down at the sweats I had put on before going to find Nora. The bright pink was already getting dingy.
“If I get really good at magic, will I be able to keep my clothes clean?”
Neelu"u laughed. “That’s easier said than done.”
“Why? Couldn’t I just separate the dirt from the clothes?”
“Of course! But doing it without also separating the threads from each other takes skill.”
“You know, whenever they write stories about people getting stuck in a fairy world, they don’t talk about things like clothes or toothbrushes or deodorant.”
“Using that word will mark you as a stranger.”
“Deodorant?”
“Fairy. Or fae, or anything like that. It is considered ignorant at best, insulting at worst. Those are human labels used by humans for races they didn’t understand. There are no such things as fairies or fae.”
“But you said that humans would call you a sprite. Isn’t that a human word, too?”
“Yes, but at least it acknowledges that we are our own species and are separate from other species. There are many species, which are collectively referred to as the Ralahi Jhané—for the way we connect with magic, with the Ralahin. This is what you are learning.”
Ralahi JhanéRalahin“But what do sprites call themselves?”
“We are Ulané Jhinura.”
Ulané JhinuraI replayed the word in my head. “Well, sprite is easier to say.”
Neelu’u laughed. It had a musical sound. “Be happy I don’t ask you to use my full name.”
“Do I want to ask?”
“Neelu’ Ulané Pulakasado.”
“Right. How about just Neelu?”
“That works, too,” she laughed. “We Ulané Jhinura rarely use our full names when dealing with others. We find the expediency reduces confusion for them.”
Ulané Jhinura “Unless you want them confused?”
She just shrugged at that.
“What about the goblins?” I thought about the creatures that had wanted to eat me. “What do they call themselves?”
“They are Urgaban,” her face clouded as she answered my question. “Come, we’ll go to my village and see what we can do about getting you some clothes. And maybe brushes for your hair and teeth.”
Urgaban“What’s your village called?”
“Su Lariano,” she answered. “Ulané Jhinura villages are named for the clan.”
Ulané JhinuraIt was a hike of several hours to the sprite village. I hadn’t mastered the correct name for the sprites yet. I hoped they were as relaxed about that as Neelu had indicated. And it was certainly easier to drop that third syllable from her name.
Supposedly, my amulet was making all this easier for me. It was a good thing I had it. Of course, if I didn’t, would I even be here? And why had that man shown up, and what did he want with me? If Nora hadn’t been there, I could have been kidn*pped or worse. But why?
Jill and Tony must be going crazy by now. I said as much to Neelu.
“Remember, time moves differently here than in your world,” she said. “I don’t know the exact difference, but many days here would only be hours there. A century or more here would be a year there. They may not even know you are gone yet. It’s only been minutes for them.”
“Great! Then maybe I can get back before they start to worry!”
“Ah, no.” Her face got very serious. “I didn’t mean to imply that. It is unlikely you will be able to return soon enough for that. I don’t want you to have false hope.”
“But it’s possible, right?”
“In an infinite universe, all things are possible,” she told me. “But in all likelihood, your life as you knew it on your home world is over.”
For the first time, this really hit me hard. I could feel my eyes welling up and my insides felt like broken glass. My sister. My parents. Gone. I would probably live my whole life here and they’d never know what happened to me.
I thought back to our last night together. Everyone, sitting around the table. Jill’s news.
“Jill made pot roast,” I said. “To celebrate that they were finally able to adopt me. Nora was so happy for me; she’s never had a family.” I could feel tears on my cheeks. “She told me once that I was the only family she’d ever need. But she was starting to connect with Jill and Tony, too. She’s only been with us for about a year. I don’t know what will happen now. Especially now that Nora is doing magic.”
I ran out of words and we continued in silence. Every so often, Neelu would make a whistling or chirping sound. It sounded like a bird call of some sort.
“It is a signal,” she explained at my questioning look. “If other of our Foresters are nearby, they will know we are here.”
I tried to copy the sound, but it didn’t come out right. But from Neelu’s expression, it was at least entertaining.
An hour later, we passed a meadow. Through the trees, I could see it was full of different types of flowers of all colors.
“Wow!” I paused in my step. “That’s amazing!”
“That’s a pixie garden,” Neelu told me. “Pixies and sylphs live off flowers and they cultivate gardens. You can tell the difference between a pixie garden and sylph garden because the sylph gardens are much more wild.”
“I think I know what a pixie is.” I was picturing Tinkerbell. “But what is a sylph?”
“A sylph is the same size as a pixie. But instead of, well, what you would call humanoid, they look like flowers and their wings look more like petals.”
“Can I see one?”
“Look from here,” Neelu told me. “Use your connection to the Ralahin. Try to See.”
RalahinI’d forgotten at some point to keep up the Ralahin vision thing. I closed my eyes for a moment to concentrate and get that connection back. I opened my eyes and the meadow had transformed. I still saw all the flowers and the colors, but now they all shone with light, and I could see small things moving among the blooms. As I focused on them, they became clearer and distinct. I guessed they were about three inches tall, and they had wings. Some of the wings looked more like dragonfly wings, and some more like butterfly wings. Their little bodies appeared to be like human bodies—and evidently had no need of clothing. I could feel my face getting a little warm.
- Writer
