A group of younger faeries come to a stop as they round the corner and see me. One of them points at me, not quite as discreetly as they probably meant to. They whisper between themselves and I hurry past them.
Let's just get this over with.
Filandis' hut is on the outskirts of the village. It's decently sized, must have enough storage room for ingredients, and a thick plume of colorful smoke is rising from the chimney. The smell of herbs mixes with the saltwater air as I get closer.
"Welcome!" a young faerie I've not seen before greets me when I open the door. And I mean young. They're at least two heads shorter than me, and they still have that youthful glint in their lilac eyes. The ribbon tied around their neck suggests a feminine presentation, or... at least it did back when I was young. Faerie gender is an ever-evolving and frankly speaking unnecessarily complex mess, so who knows what kind of self-representation the kids are up to these days. They might've come up with a bunch of new genders again for all I know. It's not like I'm really in the loop anymore, so.
There is a reason I personally go for a neutral look and this is it. It is too much effort to stay up to speed with the gender fads, especially since I live alone and it literally doesn't matter one way or another.
"Is Filandis here?" I ask the young one. They stare at me, wide eyes and slack jawed, which means they probably have an idea of who I am, but I don't really have the time or the energy to deal with that right now. "Kid? Filandis?" I repeat and they snap their mouth shut.
"Yeah, uh..." they start and then the door to the back storage opens.
"Lin," Filandis says by way of greeting. I give a little wave. "What brings you here? I'm not due another delivery for a while."
"No, I'm actually here to get a potion," I explain.
"I see," Filandis nods then starts to walk towards a long shelf lining the back wall, stacked with bottles of different coloured liquids. "What kinda potion, then? Healing? Vigour? Strength?"
"Arcane," I say and Filandis stops. Then turns to look at me.
"What." It's not even a question, it's just a flat statement of disbelief. The young faerie stares as well, though I'm not entirely sure they every stopped.
"Yeah..." I say. I was expecting something like that.
There's a pause.
"Okay," Filandis says. "Okay. What kind of arcane potion?"
"The kind that helps the drinker take control of their own arcana flow." Another pause. "That is also big enough for a human."
"I'm sorry but what is going on!?"
To my surprise it's not Filandis, but the young faerie that has the outburst.
"Master, I am sorry if I am speaking out of line, but is that not the Betweener?" they ask, pointing a finger at me. Rude. "What are they doing in your shop? Are they not dangerous?"
Filandis lets out a long tired breath and then turns to me. "Lin, this is Meriza, she is my new apprentice. Meriza, this is Lin. Yes, they are the Betweener and no, they are not dangerous. You should stop listening to rumours."
Meriza flushes. "It's not rumours," she says, adamant.
"Right. It's myths," Filandis says. Meriza flushes deeper. "The biggest threat that Lin poses is to themself. Speaking of which," Filandis turns to stare me down again, "why exactly do you need a human sized potion to help use magic? What have you done this time?"
I consider protesting for a split second and then think better of it. "I... got a human stuck in the In Between."
There's a long silence.
"Figures," Filandis says and then goes over to a bookshelf, picks up a book and starts leafing through it. "Well, it's gonna take a while--"
"You're actually going to do this?" Meriza interrups. She doesn't seem malicious, per se, but rather... frightened? Makes sense.
"Yes, I am," Filandis says, not looking up from the book. "But only because Lin is my best ingredient gatherer, what with that ability to jump between the realms."
Understanding dawns on Meriza's face. "So that's how you have so much toadstool..." she says, more to herself than to either of us. Filandis stops flipping through the pages and sets the book down on a book stand.
"This will take a while. Come back tonight, and we'll see how much we've managed. Meriza." The faerie snaps to attention. "Go get some water from the spring, I don't think we have enough in the house."
"R-right, of course, Master!" Meriza says and speeds out the door. I stay there for a moment.
"So, an apprentice?" I ask finally.
"I ain't getting any younger, am I?" Filantis counters. "It takes decades to become a brewing master, so if I want to have anyone competent following my steps, I have to start training now."
"Right, right," I say, nodding. There's another silence, though this one a lot more pleasant than the ones before. I sigh softly. "Well, I ought to get back to my human, before she gets nervous," I say finally.
"Uhhuh," says Filandis, too concentrated on the book. I smile a little.
"Thanks, Fil," I say. "I'll see you tonight."
I walk to the door.
"Wait."
I stop, hand on the door, about to push it open. I turn to look back. There's a serious look in Filandis' eyes.
"Be careful out there."
I smile again, a little bigger.
"Sure."
~x~
Forgetting about an anchor was kind of an oversight on my part, I will admit that, but to be fair I have no idea what is happening right now. I don't even know if the anchor will help, or rather if it is needed. If it is needed, the copper will definitely help, but it is entirely possible that stopping to exist isn't even a possibility in this case.
Well, better safe than sorry, I guess. And having the anchor does seem to make Charlie feel a bit better.
Next is figuring out how to explain Manifesting. That, and food.
We've made our way back towards Charlie's village. She seems very quiet as she trots behind me and it's making me worry. I'm not very good at casual chitchat, the only person I regularly speak to being Morning Star, whom I see for about 45 minuted every morning, so it's very straight to the point with us. What do humans talk about? I don't know, really...
"Uh, nice weather we're having?" I try. It sounds bad.
"Please don't," Charlie says. She sounds a bit dejected.
"Sorry, you seemed a bit quiet is all," I say and sigh. "I don't have that much experience with social interaction," I admit, "so I don't really know how to engage with other people like this." This is awkward...
"Why aren't you wanted at your village?" she asks then and while I don't particularly like talking about this specific topic, at least is something. And I feel like I should be honest with her now.
"Well, that's because I'm what the faeries call a Betweener," I say.
"Betweener?" Charlie repeats. "Because you live in the In Between?"
"More because I can be there. I only live there because I can't really live anywhere else. They don't want me in the Faerie Realm."
"Why not?"
"I have the power to rip apart both realms and all of existence," I say, dry. "Theoretically."
"Whoa," says Charlie.
"I don't actually know if I could, nor would I know how to, but that's what they're afraid of, I guess." I sigh, look up at the sky. "There's been a few others like myself that we know of, and they've all ended up pretty bad. The previous one is the reason the Human Realm barely has any arcane energy left in it."
"Is that why there's so little witches?" she asks. "I've heard stories that there used to be a lot more, before."
"Yeah, that's why. But it's been a long time, longer yet for you humans. And now there's me and everyone is freaking out."
"That's sad."
There's is a pause.
"It is," I say. "I have a lot of power, I know I do, but... I've never had anyone to teach me how to use it, you know. I move myself from one realm to the next easily enough and take with me things that aren't bigger than me, but I could be able to do so much more. As I am right now, I could barely manage to open one Door for you." I chuckle. "I mean, normally opening a Door takes at least a good ten highly skilled faeries, but... I know I could do more, but I don't know how."
There is another pause. I can feel my face start to heat up.
"I'm sorry, I over shared a bit there," I mutter.
"No, I get it," Charlie says. I look over at her. "You're lonely, right?"
"Yeah," I say.
"There's no one in the village my age," she says. "I'm too young to be an adult, but I'm too old to hang out with my brother and all the other kids. Working on the farm helps with boredom, but it doesn't help with loneliness. That's why I walk in the forest so often. It makes me feel less alone. I guess I know why now." She laughs a little, looks at her hands. "I... I'm not happy I'm stuck here," she says, "in fact I'm still very upset about this. But," she looks at me, "I am glad I got to meet you."
I feel a huge smile spread across my face and there is nothing I can do to stop it.
"Thank you," I say. A lump is forming in my throat and I swallow it down. "Thank you."
Her stomach growls loudly. We stare at each other in silence for a second and then start to snicker.
"Alright, now let's get you that food," I say and continue down the path again.
"We're at the village," Charlie says, looking around. "We're not going to steal food from someone's kitchen, are we?"
"No, of course not," I scoff. The shrine of Loghenge is right up the hill.
She stops as it comes to view.
"The shrine?"
"Yeah, people leave out offerings here and a lot of it is food," I say happily. I fly the rest of the way to see what has been left out at the altar. "Oh, nice! It's still fresh!" Charlie makes her way over and I spread out my arms and look at her. "Look at this! There's fresh breads! Dig right in!"
"This... still feels a bit like stealing," she says while I pop into the Human Realm to retrieve one of the bread rolls. They're still slightly warm. They must've been left here minutes ago.
"Why? It's an offering. Offered here. For us."
"It's not really meant for us though, is it?"
"Actually, it is," I say, dropping the bread onto her hand. "This is a faerie shrine. Or was, originally. I'm not sure the humans know anymore what they offer for, but it is meant as a peace offering to the faeries." I sit by the small saucer of cream on the altar as Charlie inspects the bread sceptically. "It's more of a tradition to you at this point, I suppose." I pick up the cream and then pause. "I thought you were hungry."
She looks away for a moment, a red flush on her cheeks and then she shoves the bread in her mouth. I smile and drink the cream, setting the saucer back down when I'm done.
"You want the other one too?" I ask, leaning against it.
"Yes, please," she says.
After she's done eating we make our way a bit into the forest. I'll try to explain to her how Manifesting works now, and if she does manage to figure it out, we don't want her to pop up in the middle of the village and spook everyone out. Here we're properly out of sight.
"Now then," I start and clasp my hands together. "Let us begin."
___________________________________________________________________
Wooooooooooo poor Lin :(
Next topic is "Haze"
Pie out.
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