Silver Rose

Memories

“You remember the Ranleys?” Tara asked.

“Well… the name sounds familiar,” Mara said.

“Oh,” Tara replied, fidgeting with her cup.

Mara recognized that kind of “oh”. It meant she didn’t believe her.
“I must have known these Ranleys to remember the name.”

“Or maybe you’ve heard Keinan or me mention it.”

“Keinan tells me nothing. And I’ve only been around you twice; and you most certainly did not speak much about the human world the first time we met.”

Tara was silent for a long time, as if thinking back. A small bee hovered over a bowl of strawberries. Lingering above one berry and then another, it seemed to Mara that the bee was trying to decide which one was the best.

“So,” Tara said, “you remember a name. What’s that mean?”

The bee finally chose the ripest, plumpest berry of all, and slowly crawled upon the bright red fruit.

“It means the Ranleys hold a part of my life, no matter how small.” The bee suddenly flew away. Mara looked up to meet Tara’s blank stare. A need surged through her being to make someone understand. “It’s driving me crazy! Keinan wants us to marry as soon as possible, but I keep delaying it. I know I love him, but… but I can’t tell you the first time I knew. I don’t remember our first meeting, our first touch, our first kiss…” She pleaded to Tara’s wet eyes. “If we loved each other so much, why didn’t we marry before? What kept us apart?” Mara looked down at the table, her heart full of tears. “Maybe you don’t understand a word I’ve said. Maybe you’ve never loved… But I can’t move forward until I know what is behind me.”

The tears fell freely now. They’d run down her cheeks so many times these past weeks that she barely felt the wet stains anymore. Everyone thought she was crazy. Why would anyone care about the humans when they were in the idealistic Fauyen realm? Mara’s head agreed with this, but her heart held on to something in the human realm. She didn’t know what, or why, but she needed to find out.

Sighing, she wiped her face with her hands. Why she told Tara, she didn’t know. Why she thought the Gommoth would be any different from any other fairy…

She looked up as Tara gently placed her hand on top of Mara’s.

“I do understand,” Tara said. “Truly, I do.”

Mara politely gazed at her, waiting to see if she’d explain.

“I, too, have loved,” Tara said. “Twice, actually. Once to a Riea. And… and once to… Well, the Riea. His name was Cadeem. We grew up in Talis together. Gommoths and Rieas live in communities together there. He was amazing. He always won in our sporting games, he created marvelous illusions, and was the most handsome fairy. We grew up in trees that were next to each other. I always loved him, and I thought he felt the same, but… when I got the courage to tell him… he told me he loved another. She was a Riea. Grusella, she was beautiful, and much more talented than I. Besides, he loved to race, to fly, and that was something I couldn’t do. And Grusella was one of the fastest racers. At least, that’s what he told me.
I was devastated. I was only about 16—“

“16?” Mara interrupted.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve trained myself to think in human terms. I was actually 80-years-old, which is equivalent to 16-years-old in human. You see, for every one year they live to get from birthday to birthday, we live four more years for ours. So it takes five human years for one of ours. Of course, that’s until we reach 21, then it doubles and takes ten human years for our birthday to come around.”

“Interesting. Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” Tara replied. “But after a few hundred years I figured it out.”

“Hmmm. Oh, well. So, that awful Riea broke your heart. Then what happened?” Mara had always enjoyed hearing stories, especially ones about other worlds. And as far as she was concerned, the Gommoths and Rieas lived in another world.

Tara sighed.
“Then I wept for days and days. It was winter, we fairies just lived in our trees, flowers, shrubs, or underground, and kept our homes warm and nice as spring. One day I decided I couldn’t stand it. We would go on visits and I’d have to see Cadeem. Or worse, Cadeem AND Grusella. I felt like my heart would split, so I left. I’d never been outside in the winter, and it was so cold. But I left Talis that day, distraught and alone. I traveled through snow and ice until I came to a small camp of humans. That’s where I met Pene and Fen, the founders of Brovan, and later made my pledge to their daughter, Clon.
“I felt accept by the humans. I was more than just accepted; they worshipped me. Or
actually they worshipped my power. At 80 and 90, you can imagine how great that felt. But centuries passed and the humans, who were then called Brovanians, forgot what I was. The only ones ever told were the rulers. And I didn’t mind. I’d long grown weary of their groveling and high expectations. I simply used glamours to make it look like I aged, so no one would suspect. Then I’d “die”, and return to my post in my natural form as my own great granddaughter (always conveniently named after myself). I continued in this cycle every hundred years or so, until about 300 years ago.
“300 years ago a prisoner tried to use me as a hostage. I knew he couldn’t kill me, but I was scared nonetheless. The prisoner was killed from behind by one of Brovan’s greatest swordsmen at the time, Mahan Frerda. Sir Frerda came from a long line of knights, yet he wasn’t like most men. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever known. Believe me, I did not want to love this human. I had long ago made up my heart that I’d never love another after Cadeem. Yet… We’d been friends for some time. I’d know him since he was a little boy. But by this time I was cast in the illusion of being 80, much too old for a young man of 34. Yet he loved me, even in that form. And when the prisoner cut me with his knife, the illusion broke and the few people in the hall at the time saw my true form—including Mahan. I thought I was most fortunate that Reah was one of the few that saw the spell break. She grabbed me and rushed me away. Everyone else stood still as ice in shock.” Tara laughed.
“Reah scolded me for days over that! Dear Reah. I wonder what she’s doing these days?”

Tara suddenly felt an urge she hadn’t felt in years. She longed to go back to Akinsis and see her friend. Reah had been a truer friend than anyone. The urge came so strong that she almost felt like she was fading. Concentrating, she willed herself to stay in the Fauyen realm. Mara had seen it and raised an eyebrow.

“I think,” Tara said breathlessly, “I almost wished myself back to Brovan.”

Mara’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Don’t say that word out loud! It is forbidden here!” She whispered harshly.

“What word? Wish?”

Mara looked like she would fall out of her seat.

“I’m sorry,” Tara said, her eyes suddenly filling with tears, “but I can’t help it. I do want to go back. Back to the time when Mahan was alive. When he knew what I was and I could completely be myself. When we were married. When Reah was the only one who supported me because she was married to a human herself. When I was so happy… before Mahan’s death. It was such a short time. Humans don’t live very long.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
“…And as much as it pains me… I cherish those memories as if they were the purest of gold, the sweetest of nectar, and the most beautiful magic in all the world.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “To be deprived of them…” Her throat tightened. “I’d near die. Sometimes… they’re all I have…”

300 years of held back tears burst forth. Her throat burned, her head throbbed. Tara choked and drowned in her grief. Then there was warmth as Mara’s arms wrapped around her shoulders. Her mind told her this was silly and she should pull away. But she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, or her heart from hurting. Then she heard sobbing—it wasn’t her own. No, Mara was crying too. Suddenly, Tara didn’t care about being silly and weak. Suddenly, all she wanted was to sit in that chair and sob her soul out. So she did.
When the tears passed (and they slowly did), Tara sucked in a deep breath and exhaled. It was like a breath of new life. She never felt as good as she did at that moment. Pulling away from Mara, Tara smiled.

“What do we need to do?” She asked.

Mara raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“I know where the Ranleys live. Should we go there?”

Mara hands flew to her face.

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “Let’s go!”



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Marina chose the bottle of dragon’s blood, the bat’s wings, and the powdered unicorn’s horn as evidence of Renata’s witchery. But she needed more. There were lots of books. She decided she should take some, but which ones would be the best? She ran a finger along the books on the shelves. Which one? Most of them seemed to be about spells. Randomly, she grabbed a spell book and opened it. There were sleeping spells, frog spells, love spells, death spells… she flipped through the book only reading the titles of each chapter.

“Magic Potency,” she read aloud. It was the only one without the word spell after it. There were several spells to make one more magically powerful. The last one was the most interesting.

Only the most powerful can handle the Energon Spell. This can take years to accomplish since one’s blood must flow with magic. Yet the rewards of the spell are highly desirable. The effects will last for the rest of one’s life. Magic will be cast through the body without the help of other objects.

Beware: The power from the Energon Spell cannot be handled by most humans. Many die while casting the spell for they are too weak to wield it. All practitioners of magic should use the Absolute Truth Spell first, to find out if they should risk the Energon Spell.

Note: The Energon Spell should not be use on non-magic practicing enemies. For reasons unknown, the spell will NOT work on those who’ve never had magic.

Marina laughed. It was the dumbest thing she’d ever read. How could a few words and some odd ingredients in a bowl make someone more magical? Still laughing, Marina read the “spell”:

“Shavah shavah, hawass mone ish a’wach. Tatalat. Tatahog. Misshi a’wach gurash ne’vox. Shavah shavah, hawass mone ish a’wach osloo saish. Tatalat. Tatahog. Misshi a’wach gurash ne’vox. Shavah shavah, hawass mone ish a’wach foo. Badroos. Badroos. Bamaa a’wach. Shavah. Shavah. Shavah. Namous!”

Immediately, she felt very drowsy. She remembered that the spell book had said that the Energon Spell didn’t work on non-magic practicing person. Yet even as she thought this her legs wobbled beneath her. Trembling, she cried out. But there was no one in the room. There was no one in the entire corridor. Her head pounded as if a hammer landed on it. The room spun in circles. She threw her hands up and grabbed her aching head. The bottles she’d been holding fell with a crash to the floor. She needed somebody to help her. Bright colors of green and pink burst before her eyes. She dropped to her knees. Sweat rolled off her cold skin. Her breath came in short rasps. Tears fell from her eyes as she suddenly realized that she must be dying. She fell to the floor. Something ripped through her hand as it touched the ground. She tried to pull her hand away, but her body suddenly became too heavy for her to move. Pain ripped through her body. She let out a shrill scream. Why didn’t someone come for her? Then darkness cloaked her as she gratefully passed out.


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“My Lady, come quick. The mirror speaks of urgent news!”

Kyrin followed the dwarf, Joll, to the room with magic mirror. The mirror’s glass rippled and swelled.

“What is it, Shad?” Kyrin asked, standing before him.

“My Lady Kyrin,” Shad said, “I have urgent news.”

“Well, what is it?” Kyrin pressed.

“Today, a young woman entered my chambers. This woman was searching for something. She stole a few bottles, then read from one of the spell books. As soon as she read it, she seemed to fall to the ground dead.”

“What do I care about a dead woman?”

“Ah, she is not dead, but I’m sure you wish her to be,” Shad said.

“What do you mean, Shad?”

“I mean, the girl is wearing a very peculiar necklace. But maybe it would be better if I show you…”

The black glass formed waves that crashed into one another as if in a terrible storm. Slowly the waves calmed, until Kyrin was looking into a room filled with bottles and books. She recognized the room. It was the one she always saw when talking directly to Renata, the Dark Lord’s descendant. But instead of Renata, she saw a well-dressed black haired woman lying on the floor in what seemed to be a pool of blood.

“Are you sure she isn’t dead?” Kyrin asked.

“Watch the blood closely.”

Kyrin stepped closer to the glass. The pool of blood was getting smaller and smaller. It was draining away. Kyrin squinted. No, it was being sucked away—sucked into the palm of the girl’s hand!

“What is the meaning of this?!” Kyrin wondered out loud.

Shad laughed.
“Look!” He said. “What do you see around her neck?”

Kyrin’s eyes moved down the woman’s arm to her head and stopped. Around her neck was a thin silver chain. At the end of that chain was a crystal pendent held in silver and filled with a glowing red liquid. Kyrin’s breath caught in her throat.

“I never thought she’d come straight to us!” Shad laughed darkly.

Kyrin let out a shaky breath. After all those years, she had finally found—

“The necklace!” She croaked out, catching her breath. “We’ve found her. She’s the one!”