Old Land

         Sage grabbed Kelly’s hand and pulled her into the old mansion. She had never known anyone from her mother’s family, the family that disowned mother when she eloped with father. “Great-aunt Rosalin must have felt bad for me, for having never known this family,” Sage thought to herself.
         “Come on Sage, don’t you want to see the whole place?” Kelly urged tugging Sage forward.
         Together they entered the parlor, where the furniture appeared to be from the 1800’s. There was an old braided rung on the otherwise bare floor. Hanging above the mantle was a huge mirror that looked as if it were a hundred years old. Upon closer inspection, Sage noticed that there were no chips or fragments missing from the mirror. “How odd,” she thought.
         Kelly was busy moving on to look at the next room, while Sage stood and gazed in the mirror. Her red hair reflected vibrantly in the mirror’s old glass. She felt a chill up her spine and looked away to see where there might be a draft. There were no windows open. “This place is so strange.” She thought.
         She turned back to glance in the mirror one last time, and had to stifle a scream. There was a woman glaring back at her from the mirror. Kelly ran back into the room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the woman in the mirror.
         “Hello Sage, I am your great-aunt Rosalin,” the woman said. Sage noticed that she had the same flaming red hair. The woman looked back and forth between Sage and Kelly. “Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Sage?”
         “What the hell?” Kelly said, confused.
         “Th-this is Kelly,” Sage said, a little afraid.
         “Sage, there are a lot of things about your family that your mother never told you. It’s time you knew the truth. You see our family comes from Ireland. Do you know any of the mythology of Ireland Sage?”
         “Not really.”
         “Pull up some of my old chairs dears, and sit, this will take a while.” Kelly walked over to the nearest Victorian-looking sofa and with the help of Sage was able to move it closer to the fireplace. They both sat down with a plop.
         “Please be careful, the furniture is much older than you. Now, where were we? Oh yes, in Ireland there is a race older than humans. They are called the fair folk.”
         “I remember mother saying that if I wasn’t careful the fair folk would take me away. I never understood why she said that,” Sage said quietly.
         “Please don’t interrupt, we don’t have much time, but there is much you need to know. As I was saying, the fair folk are older than humans. They never die, but they have been forced into hiding because of humans. You, Sage, are only half-human. Your father was a mortal man, but your mother, she was a part of us. That makes you, Sage, the youngest of the fair folk.”
         Sage sat there, unable to speak. She had never thought anything interesting would happen to her, but this day had proved her so very wrong. Kelly looked just as dumbfounded as she stared back and forth between Sage and her aunt.
         “Does that mean I will never die?” Sage questioned.
         “Unfortunately, the answer to that question is no. When your mother eloped with a mortal man your ancestors felt as though she had turned her back on them. They placed a spell on her and her descendants. You will live a longer life than any human, but you will eventually die.”
         “How long will she live?” Kelly said, finally finding her voice.
         “For at least 500 years,” Rosalin replied. “However, Sage, there is one way for you to remove this enchantment. You must travel to Ireland and find the oldest man. He alone will be able to direct you to the entrance to the land of the Fair Folk. You will be challenged upon finding it. The answer to the guard’s question is ‘fifteen’. Your ancestors will then give you a quest that may seem impossible at first, but you will overcome.”
         “Wait a second, how can I possibly overcome a quest set by those who never wanted to see my mother again? Besides, aren’t the Fair Folk magical?” Sage asked.
         “They are magical, Sage, and so are you,” she said, “You may be half-mortal, but their blood also flows through your veins. That is why I am here, to teach you what you will need to know to become accepted by your family.”
         “How can you teach her from inside a mirror?” Kelly asked, very skeptical.
         Rosalin murmured a few words and disappeared from the mirror.
         “Like this.” Kelly and Sage whipped their heads around to look at Rosalin standing before them. “Any more questions, my dear Kelly?”
         “N-no ma’am,” Kelly replied.
         “Good, and don’t worry Kelly you have a part in this tale as well. You two are best friends for a reason. As I was saying, I am here to teach you, Sage dear. There is much you have yet to learn. Now stand up, both of you, and move the furniture out of the way, without moving yourselves.”
         The girls looked at one another confounded. How were they supposed to move furniture without moving themselves?
         “Well, you can’t move the furniture while you’re sitting on it,” Rosalin said growing impatient. The girls immediately jumped up from the sofa.
         “Much better, now Sage, I want you to think the word ‘move’ and only that word. The rest of your mind needs to be still. When you have that word and no other in your mind, point to the object you want to move.”
         Sage thought of the word ‘move’, but she couldn’t stop her mind from going a mile a minute. She stood there for well past ten minutes and still could not calm her mind.
         “Sage,” Rosalin said, snapping her back to reality, “Haven’t you ever done meditation? Calming your mind should be an easy task for you.”
         “We meditate together all the time,” Kelly piped up, tired of being ignored.
         “I know that Kelly, and please have some patience. Your turn to help is coming.”
         Sage closed her eyes and breathed in and out deeply. “Move,” she thought to herself. She finally succeeded in quieting her mind. She opened hers and pointed to the sofa they had been sitting on. “Move,” she thought. The sofa moved back about five feet. Kelly muffled a scream.
         Sage couldn’t believe she’d done that. She pointed to the mirror over the fireplace and once again thought, “Move.” The mirror lifted off the wall and crashed to the floor. Surprisingly, the mirror didn’t shatter.
         “It would take a lot more than that to shatter my mirror Sage,” Rosalin said, as if reading her mind, “Do you believe me now?”
         “I, yes, aunt Rosalin,” Sage replied, still stunned.
         “Good, now Kelly, it’s your turn,” Rosalin said turning to look at her. “Sit on the rug and close your eyes. Breathe in and out as though you were starting a meditation.
         Kelly did as she was told. She sat there for a long time just focusing on breathing in and out, in and out. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she opened her eyes. She was not in the old house anymore, but in a white room. There was a single window with bars over it. There was an old bed with hospital white linens. The door had no handle. Sage and her aunt were no where to be seen.
         She looked out the window and saw nothing but trees. She heard a click and then someone entered the room.
         “Kelly, it’s time for your morning medication,” she heard a ma