Doors, Part 23 - Memory

I look at Aidan and he looks at me, confused, expectant. I don't know what he's gone through during all these years, but I bet it is a dream come true for him to see someone actually come and take him back home. Everything I have learned about human life in the Faerie Realm makes you want that.

"It's okay, Aidan. I came here to bring you home, and that's what I'll do it. Trust me."

He trembles slightly from excitement and maybe disbelief and hope. He glances at Lin's mom from the corner of his eye, and stays silent. He has learned to watch his mouth -- the hard way, no doubt. Oh, I need to help him so bad.

He looked so uncaring, apathetic even, when he first appeared, but now that has completely changed. His cheeks are burning red and he moves his hands restlessly. He understands that this day, this game, will likely change his life.

"You remember the rock behind the barn, where we used to play knights? You will see that soon," I say. From his eyes, I can see how he suddenly flies back all those years, to his childhood. The rock is not that large actually, but it felt like that when I was a child. And Dad has told they played there, too.

"Enough chitchat," she says impatiently. "I have a game to win."

Aidan's eyes widen suddenly, a terrified expression settling on his face, as it only now hits him for real: if we lose, she will own my debt and because of him I would be stuck there, too. Forever, maybe.

"It will be fine. Trust me," I say and try to look as comforting as possible, despite all the butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

"I will ask first," she says in her soft, dangerous voice. "And do keep in mind they must be real riddles, not just some self-invented impossible questions."

"Go ahead," Lin says bluntly.

"Most people need it, some ask for it, some give it, but almost nobody takes it. What is it?"

"Oh, you couldn't skip a chance to show superiority," Lin says. "You are implying that we don't take it."

I am trying hard to solve it, but Lin seems to already know the answer. What are we not taking?

"It's advice. And yes, we won't take it from you any more."

"Not bad. Your turn," she says and smiles.

"What flies when it's born, lies when it's alive, and runs when it's dead?" Lin asks.

"Oh, you are going for this forest-y style, aren't you?" She smiles ironically. "I don't need to spend all my winters there to know enough about this. It is a snowflake."

I glance at Lin, who bites his lip. Her insults are like daggers hidden in silk. I only now start to understand how lonely Lin has been all those years in the snowy forest. How he chose solitude over this life among other fae.

"Let's see whether you are clever enough for this: If you tell me the truth, I will kill you with my sword. If you tell me a lie I will kill you with my spell. What must you say to survive?"

Lin quickly looks at me, confused, and I look back. What's the point here? Either a truth or lie, and you'll be dead. So what is there to say? Lin shrugs his shoulders, hoping for me to give some ideas. I try to start from somewhere.

"Er, escape, or what?" I say, hesitantly. She lets out a short laugh.

"No, this is some logic trick," Lin says, "but I cannot get my head around it."

Logic -- logic trick. That reminds me of a riddle where you ask way from a liar or truthteller and don't know which. "Ah, you must somehow trick the logic ... using double negative I guess."

Lin's face brightens. "Yes, we use the logic agains itself. Let's see .. sword ..spell, I need to think this carefully."

He pauses for a while and moves some immaterial objects in the air to new positions with his hand, at the same time murmuring to himself. Meanwhile, I make as comforting and encouraging looks as I can and make eye contact with Aidan. He looks back, now more excited than scared. That's a good sign.

"You will kill me with your spell," Lin says suddenly.

She is about to reply something to that, but instead pauses, and a second later says: "Oh don't repeat my words if you don't know the answer."

Aidan's face turns pale and he gasps.

"Don't try to cheat," Lin snaps. "That was the answer and it is correct. You can't kill me with a spell because that would make it true, and you can't kill me with a sword because that would make it a lie."

The smile that comes to her face seems to require a lot of effort. "All right, dear," she says. "Very good, and I must say that your human impressed me. She is less stupid than I thought."

Oh, how someone's praise could make you feel inferior, and sadly she knows how to use that weapon. But now I won't allow my brain to think about that. I must focus. I look again at Aidan, who is now clearly relieved. I nod to him.

"It's my turn to ask," I say. "I heard this riddle on the first day of school and I really like it."

"Oh my, I thought you wanted to play an adult game, but go ahead," she says and snorts.

"Look to your right, see a new friend.
Look to your left, still another.
Ask and tell to learn and bend.
What is the name of his brother?"

She blinks and pauses. Aidan startles, he seems to have recognised the riddle. His eyes widen, and he looks at me, then at her. His cheeks blush again, even more than before.

She has a blank face for a second, apparently not knowing the riddle but going through it word by word. Then she looks at her left -- directly to Aidan. When she realises the meaning, her face turns into grimace for an instant before she is able to hide it.

I knew it!

Aidan has been here for years, and she has not been interested in learning anything about him personally, not to speak of his family. Lin's face starts to look sure of victory.

"What is the name of his brother?" I say louder and look directly into Aidan's eyes.

"Eirian!"

"What!?" Lin cries in disbelief.

"Stupid boy!" she sneers. "His brother's name is Eirian."

Lin looks shocked. But that is nothing compared to Aidan, whose posture is now collapsing and he has covered his face with his palms. He squeaks quietly.

"Oh why, why did I say it? Oh my gods..."

I bite my lip and try to keep myself calm. This is not over yet.

She looks awkward, too. Some emotion is forcing its way to her face and she is struggling to keep calm. She turns her back to Aidan and looks away for a while. She takes a few deep breaths. Aidan is still whining and crouching.

"Aidan, please stand up. It's not your fault. We are still here for you," I say and try to sound comforting although I doubt there is little I can do to make him feel better.

She turns back and smiles vaguely.

"Now we are even. Let's continue. It's my turn to ask."

"No, that was definitely cheating," Lin roars. "You did not know the answer!"

"Oh my, please," she says in her usual cool, spine-vibrating voice. "I did nothing wrong, you know.  Teams have to be allowed. She insisted."

She points at my chest with her sharp index finger nail, like imagining that she will pierce me like a chicken soon enough.

"We must go on," I say. "Lin, Aidan please concentrate. We must get the next riddle right."

"Twelve pears hanging high, twelve men passing by. Each took a pear and left eleven hanging there. How can this be?" she says.

Lin looks at me for a while. I try to figure out the idea. Twelve men taking pears, but how come they are still there? There must be a trick somewhere.

Suddenly I feel something in my pocket, like I had something hot there. I put my hand in the pocket. It's the matchbox.

My green stone. From the rabbit's gall bladder. It's vibrating softly. I squeeze it in my hand, and suddenly I see a vision of trees. Trees in a row. And pears... What the heck...? Men are approaching the trees.

"Stop!"

I snap back from the vision.

"Magic is not allowed. Put your token away," she says firmly.

"Token? What are you talking...?" I don't understand. I look at Lin for an explanation.

"Did you think I wouldn't figure out that you had a token? It was too obvious from your excellent language skills. So it was quite obvious you would try to cheat with it to get answers," her voice is cold like ice.

"Er, what??" Now I am completely lost.

"That is a Token that the Forest gave you," Lin says. "I guess I forgot to explain it, I'm sorry. If you used it, the Forest might help you with this riddle of trees. But unfortunately she is right, we can't use magic. Otherwise she could use magic too, and we wouldn't have a chance."

"So... this is a magic token and it makes me speak in languages...?"

"Yes," Lin says simply. She laughs.

"I take back what I just said about her. She is not less stupid, she is just very lucky."

I feel insulted and annoyed that something this important was going on without Lin explaining me anything. I shove the matchbox back in my pocket and try not to think about the whole issue any more. Just the riddle. Twelve pears.

"Twelve men pick pears... how come there's eleven left?" Lin thinks aloud. I get an idea.

"Maybe twelve men pick a pear, together."

"Hey, right! She never thinks about genuine collaboration, so she thought we wouldn't either. Our answer is that each of the twelve men participated in the picking of a single pear, together."

A wide smile spreads on her face.

"Sorry dear, you failed. The man who picked the pear was called Each."

I am stunned. When said aloud, that makes so much more sense. This was a typical language riddle.

"We still have one riddle and you need to answer that correctly to win," I point out.

Lin tries to pull himself together. Aidan is now quiet but he looks sick, the poor boy.

"Okay, I have the final riddle," Lin says.

"Late at night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?"

She is silent and looks at Lin.

"Come now, dear, I have lived long enough to learn these nature riddles. The answer is stars... wait...!"

A smile started to appear on Lin's face but now it is gone. She keeps talking and watches Lin's every movement and expression carefully.

"No, the original riddle says 'at night', not 'late at night' so you have adjusted it and the answer is also different. It is not just stars in general,"

I see Lin swallow. He tries to hide it but she notices it too. Aidan has raised his face and looks at her and then Lin and then me with mostly desperate but at times excited face. Where is this going?

"So it is not stars in general but a particular constellation or a single star... that appears late at night rather than early... it could be the Swan, or the Morning Star... and that's it! Thank you my dear, you are like an open book. It is the Morning Star."

Lin is stunned, his mouth open and eyes full of pain. I can't avoid thinking that he has experienced her victories too many times before. I step by Lin's side. We need him now badly.

"Lin, Aidan. it's okay, we are fine. We are together."

"Yes, you are mine now. Wouldn't you stay here with your friends, Lin? Just think what we could do together."

"No! We are leaving, aren't we, Lin? Lin! We are leaving."

Lin looks at me, and I try to encourage him as well as I can. I grab his arm. We must leave.

Lin pulls himself together, grits his teeth and nods.

"Yes, we are not staying with you, despite anything!"

"Oh dear, you are so wrong. Don't forget that I won the game and you are indebted to me."

"Lin is not indebted to anyone," I shout. "Let him be alone. You don't deserve to be his mother."

She is stunned and stares at me eyes wide open. She has real difficulties in keeping her appearances.

"I will teach you some respect," she hisses furiously. "It may take years but I will teach you, be sure of it!"

"Oh, let's get the debt business our of way, shall we," I say. "We lost the game, you are right of that. And now you rightfully receive my debt to Lin."

I open my fist, and blow from my palm towards her. She shakes a little, not comprehending my gesture.

"There's your debt -- what's left of it. Which is nothing. I have paid my debt and I owe you nothing."

She cannot hold a shriek. She glances from me to Lin and back. Lin says nothing and seems distracted. I continue.

"You should pay more attention to what people need. You might have noticed that Lin needed support against you, and that's what I gave him. You helped me pay for my debt. Ironic, huh?"

"No.. no..."

"We really should be leaving now. You have no power over us. Not any longer."

She takes a few breaths and looks at us, furiously.

"You don't want to leave your friend here. You want to stay and keep him safe."

"It will come haunt you if you try to use people as means," I say.

"Don't try to teach me how to live my life, brat," she hisses.

"Aidan, come here. You are with us now."

"Don't go, if you ever want to get back to your family!"

"Aidan, she is bluffing. That is not true."

"You are indebted to me," she shrieks.

"No, only until you helped her with something she needed. And you did, just a few minutes ago."

Aidan raises his head in surprise. Then his face light up.

"With the riddle about my brother! She wouldn't have known without my help!"

"So, you are free to come with us, if you just want!"

"No, you can't go! I forbid! I will stop you."

She tries to grab Aidan by hand, but he slips away.

"Run outside, Aidan and Charlie!" Lin shouts.

I grab Aidan by the hand and we start running toward the front door. She runs after us, but Lin blocks her way.

"I will stop you!" she's screaming. "You won't be able to leave this house without my permission!"

"Run outside and through the door," Lin shouts after us.

I push the handle and  pull the door open. In the middle of the front yard, there is an open door, leading to apparently nowhere.

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Extra riddles that were not used.

I fly without wings and cry without eyes. What am I? (a could)

Two girls were born to the same mother, on the same day, at the same time, in the same month and year and yet they're not twins. How can this be? (they are part of a set of triplets)

Two goblins are standing on a bridge. One is the farther of the other one's son. What is the relation between them? (husband and wife)

What jumps when it walks but sits when it stands? (frog)

I never speak unless spoken to, many have heard me but none have seen me. What am I? (echo)

At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they? (stars)