faerie rift chronicles 01 - faerie rift (18 page)

I was still dealing with the disorientation of being fucked. Sex itself didn't wear me out like this, but I had never been involved on the channeling end of sex magic before. In the past, in my work with Xan, I had been on the donating end of some of his... experiments. But I have never been the conduit.

"Now you know what is asked of you if you want to achieve your goal..."

She started to step forward, evidently intent on walking through the portal herself.

"Wait!"

"I have nothing else to say to you. Your decisions are yours to live out from this point forward. It will be a wonder if you make it out alive."

With no further words, the wilder fae took another step toward me. I reached out to stop her, but when my hand went through the portal, I reached into a different part of the planes than where she was already headed. I snatched my hand back quickly, not knowing where she was headed, or if the dimension of my nightmares would be at hand.

"Erol... I need you to back away from the portal."

I got to my feet, and fought to retain my awareness. The last bets of post-orgasmic haze were cleared from my mind, and I realized how precarious my position actually was.

I was only inches away from a trip into the rocky waters below. Somewhere, ten feet away, Erol's pants were on the ground. My skirt was filthy, and hiked up over my hips. I adjusted my skirt so it covered my sticky, sex-stained body, and walked over to where Erol sat on the ground.

The dogs had come back to their master now that the Wilder Fae had left the scene. Neither of the two was terribly happy to see me approach, but I didn't blame them.

"It's ok girls..."

Erol's voice was soothing and sincere as he addressed his family. It was obvious that the two dogs were concerned about him, but there was a tone of finality and resignation in his voice that seemed to spur them on even further. They refused to be consoled, in spite of his best efforts. Rosemary relentlessly licked the side of his face, while Amethyst nudged the palm of his injured hand with a concerned look in her eye.

I watched in silence, and adjusted my posture. One thing was certain about all of this. Our work had just begun.

Walking over myself, I grabbed him by his free hand, and gave him a hand to his feet. Whatever aggression had been directed toward him earlier, was not there any more. There was no more room for that level of derision. Only a softened, affection remained. I caught myself, in the way that I was treating him -- the hardness all gone from my stance.

"Thanks for loving me that way."

As I said them, the words rang hollow compared to the magnitude of the experience, but I consoled myself by at least knowing that they were accurate. I had been fucked solid before, but there was something refreshing about my human form that made me feel like I was experiencing it for the first time. It could have been a mixture of things -- my emotional state, a new flame -- who knows.

"I wanted to share that with you, because I'm not certain what is going to happen from this point forward. You ought to know that what we shared was powerful for me, even if we were working to achieve..."

"You don't have to do this thing..." he said. "Not that I don't believe you, or that I think this was all instrumental."

"Well, I try to speak my mind when I feel moved to do so."

I couldn't apologize for being honest; that was one of the things that was not in my nature.

"All I mean to say is that, I'm not sure this has to be the end. Let's go through, and see what's on the other side. Maybe we can figure out a few more pieces of the puzzle together, and nobody has to kill themselves on behalf of an experiment that we're not sure is even going to work."

A cloud grew over my disposition.

The sacrifice.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes. If Thane were here, I knew what he would do. He wouldn't have thought twice about it. Blood needed to be shed. Sacrifices needed to be made in order to serve the greater good. The only other solution would be to let the portal close once more, and accept whatever minor ripples came out from the experience.

We have become the conquerors
, I realized, within the safety of my own mind.

"Don't worry about it. I think you and I can figure something out together. Let's see if this opening made any kind of impact on your world. You are from the Astral Plane, right?

"Not exactly. I'm from the Fae Realm, though we can't be certain that is where the portal is going to take us."

"The Fae Realm is less dense than the Material Plane?"

I nodded, that much was accurate, and didn't require a lecture on metaphysics.

He shrugged in response.

"Shouldn't it be easier to detect changes in your world, easier than say the impact this portal will have on the material plane?"

I paced away from the portal, and opened up my lungs. When my head was clear, I thought about what he was asking, and nodded an affirmative.

"The primary reason for opening the rift is to absorb some of the vitality of the material plane into our damaged ecosystem. Theoretically, I should be able to go through, visit the Capitol, and get a reading by the time the portal closes."

"Then that's what we'll do."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't think I was just going to stay here? For Christ's sake, we fucked, and I gave my blood and sperm to open up the damned thing. I'm not staying here."

"What about your dogs?"

Both of the dogs looked at their master with concern in their eyes.

"They can stay by the truck and keep Binksy company."

Rosemary barked straight in his ear, and pounced him with her paws. Amethyst on the other hand didn't seem to think it was such a bad idea.

"The rat?"

"Sure. Binksy the Rat. They will find their way back."

Amethyst seemed to agree with the sentiment, but Rosemary was more than a bit worried. I myself was not entirely sold. All Erol did was scratch Rosemary's chin encouragingly, and shrug.

"You're going to have to kill me if you want to stop me, which might end up helping both of us out anyways. But, if you're not interested in doing that."

"I don't think I would have enjoyed myself as much if I knew that I would have to kill you afterward."

He thought this was funny, but I was being serious.

"Buzzkill huh?"

"Yep."

I let out a long sigh, and realized that something fundamental had changed between the two of us. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. What's more is I got the sense that he was totally committed.

"All right, let's go. No sense in waiting around to lose time. If we're going to get to the Fae Realm and get a solid reading then we're going to have to move."

He nodded, and gave each of his dogs a hug. Then he leaned in toward them and whispered something into their ear. The dogs both cocked their head to the side, and without any mistake indicated that they understood their master's request, and would follow directions.

"Unbelievable. You and the Wilder Fae. I don't have that kind of touch with animals."

"You just have to believe that they understand you and be sincere about it; they can sense those sorts of things."

I watched as the two dogs bounded down the trail, away from the two of us. Amethyst stopped for a moment before heading down, but a short bark from Rosemary, and they were both on their way. Erol, on the other hand was showing no trace of sentimentality. He was balancing on one foot, working on pulling his pants up over his bare ass when I turned my attention in his direction once more.

"So, how does this work?"

My attention had been focused on his body, and it took me a moment to respond appropriately.

"Um, similar to the spell. Most magic works under a few common principles."

"Intention?"

I nodded.

"Yep. Intention, and recall. For instance, it would be nearly impossible for you to get over to the Capitol having never been there. You'd probably end up in the Wild somewhere, or worse."

A frown came across my face as I recalled the possibilities in the latter category.

"Worse," he shuddered. "Don't tell me about them, I don't want it in my mind. I'll just focus on going the same place you are going, and leave the navigation up to you. We can go to the Capitol, take the readings, and make a decision before we come back here at midnight."

"Decision?"

He ignored my question as though it were not even relevant.

"How's the time difference?"

I blinked, still caught on the depth taking place behind the scenes in Erol's mind.

"Time is a pretty flippant thing when dealing between dimensions. One to the other, I've never made much of a study. All of the work I've done has only been time sensitive within the context of one plane."

"Okay, we'll have to assume the worse then. Are you ready?"

I looked him over from head to toe, and then I looked at myself.

We were stained with cum, sweat and blood. Our clothes were dirty, and our bodies were scratched and scarred. All we had was a knife and a desperate hope to pin our actions on. There was no special equipment, and no real, verifiable information.

"I'd say we are about as ready as we're going to get."

"All right then."

He approached my side, and we turned to together to face the portal. The light reflected eerily against the inky black ocean beyond. All of the beautiful colors that had once painted the sky were now absent. The only source of light was the chaotic uncertainty that waited before us.

I closed my eyes, and pictured a clear vision of the Capital in my mind. I envisioned the two of us in our current location. I thought about every inch of Erol's body, and rendered the two of us together in my mind.

As he held my hand, I could feel the sweat coming off from the palm of his hand. He had come off as self-assured, but there was something comforting about the fact that he was just as terrified as I was. We both knew that there was no way to go but forward.

Seizing our bravery, and holding onto one another by the hand, we made the jump.

Chapter 18

T
he colors swirled all around me, and I felt a tightening of Erol's fingers around my hand.

We floated through the chaos of the portal, and every single bit of my attention was focused on securing our arrival at the capital. I felt waves of panic rise up inside of me, and reality threatened to never quite pull itself together again, as it should. None of my fears became realized at that point. There was nothing to worry about after all.

The two of us arrived on our hands and knees in front of the great stone steps of the Capitol building.

The air was cool, and there was no light in the sky except for the bright blue fae fires which lined the stone pillars of the building like glowfish in some purple ocean.

My hands and knees were scratched, and I had to recover from a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, but the trip had gone smoothly into the Fae Realm.

Home...

I looked at my body and was honestly a bit sad to be back in my broken body once more.

One wing stuck out uncomfortably through the back of my dress. The fabric had been ripped, and since my breasts were now significantly smaller, the dress sagged at the top. My skin was a different color once more, and I seemed to be a reflection of the evening around the two of us.

The strangest thing about our arrival was that there was no one else around. The Capitol was not usually this empty. Something was terribly wrong.

Erol on the other hand was not yet able to get out of his state of shock from the transfer.

This isn't my body...

I took a sharp inhale, and tried to clear my mind for a moment.

Focus.

My hands immediately went to my face, and I began to rub the bones around my eyelids.

"We are in another dimension. All souls inhabit new forms for each dimension they visit. I personally haven't ever met a human who has come to the Fae Realm before, but that really shouldn't be our focus right now. Can you pull yourself together or not?"

He gulped, and nodded.

"Good, then follow me. We need to get over to the University."

I let go of his hand, and took a few steps. The acclimation to the new body was a bit slower this time. I ended up stumbling a bit, and losing my inner sense of balance. The vertigo passed while I held my head with both hands. Pushing forward, I willed myself to continue.

"If you die, then that is the course of your life, but for sake of the gods you are going to push through this."

The promise was spoken to myself, through grit teeth, but it had an impact on Erol as well, as he ended up getting his shit together as well. The two of us ran toward a transport station located nearby the capitol, and hopped on a pair of hover discs. Aristocratic government types who were accustomed to sitting in their desks all day were usually the ones who used these sorts of things. They were a relic from Xan's era, which had been stripped of its privatization and made available for public use.

"Lean into it," I nodded. "Yea. Like that."

He could have flown.

Most fae preferred to fly, rather than taking the hover discs. However, there were a few who, like me were no longer physically capable of flight. Whether they were handicapped, or indulgent business types, I always thought hover discs looked too flashy to be taken seriously. However, with no one around, and a limited amount of time, I didn't mind dealing with a bit of pretension in order to achieve our goal.

The portal remained behind us, as Erol and I cruised through the vacant streets of the Fae Realm.

Where is everyone?
I thought.

The empty streets of the Capitol brought an urgency to the situation that stretched beyond what was reasonable. I had grown worried, but I needed to push that into the back of my mind.

Focus on the present moment.

The way the disc moved through the air became my sole focus. I allowed the wind to caress my body, and took pleasure in the way that the disc pushed long grasses down to the ground in my wake. In the distance, the University came into view.