Chapter 46: 3.8 – The Keep Over the Borderlands

The small evergreen copse bore little resemblance to the enchanted woodland lower down the mountainside. The air was clear and cold and sharp with the scent of pine. But it was still a natural woodland and the suggestion of faces lingered in the bark of the trees, wild and fey.

Robin was not alone here, though he wouldn’t feel that he was were he the only other living thing on the mountain. There was a presence here, and it wasn’t just the trees. It wasn’t Avanus either, though the warlock stood next to him, in one of those cliched robes.

No, there was an intelligence threaded through the stones and the trees. Robin could feel it. It wasn’t a feeling he’d associate with a being known as the Queen of Air and Darkness, but perhaps he was wrong. Or he was right and this was some kind of ancient and sacred ground, with a sentience all its own.

The last light of evening was dying in the sky and a touch of breeze just barely stirred the treetops around them. Avanus hadn’t said when they would begin, but Robin’s money was on some time after the last of the daylight had gone. Probably when clouds hid the stars and the wind moaned through the pines.

Wait. There were stars. He’d seen them on other nights. But he’d also seen the way this world existed, how it differed from the one he knew. So what were the stars here? Were they some kind of illusion? A twist in space-time allowing them to be seen even though that shouldn’t be possible? The actual spirits of the dead or just massive frakking fireflies stuck to the bottom of whatever continent-sized chunk of land was orbiting over them around the same sun?

The mystery would have to wait until a later time. The last of the light had vanished a while ago and only a green smudge of it remained. Wait. Same problem as the stars. Where was the darkness coming from?

A chill thrilled down his spine. What if the title Queen of Air and Darkness wasn’t mere fancy? What if she quite literally brought the night to this land? If so, he was likely dealing with a being of demigod-level power, if not outright deific levels of the stuff.

Robin swallowed. If he hadn’t already been planning on playing things with respect and deference, he certainly would be now!

The wind moaned through the pines. Darkness glittered like black diamonds above their heads. Avanus threw wide his arms and uttered a dramatic declaration.

‘’Tis time!’

His robes swirled around him and the shadows were suddenly deeper, as if before they were merely two dimensional things and now they had warped into full-on three-dimensionality. Avanus’s eyes became two glittering pits of ebony, visible in the darkness because they were somehow darker.

‘Hello Robin, beloved of the Memory of Rhyth.’

It was Avanus’s face, but not his voice. The voice that tumbled from the handsome warlock’s lips was rich and dark as wine, as alluring as a spring smile, and cold as a moonlit arctic night.

‘Your Majesty,’ Robin immediately genuflected. Pine needles pricked through the thin cloth of his trousers and the thinner veil of illusion that transformed them into finery worthy of an appearance before a queen.

‘Rise, Robin Far-Traveller.’ The voice was amused. ‘You have aided my dear Avanus and have fairly won this boon of me. Let us be about it, for it is not wise for me to linger long in this place. There are unfriendly eyes keeping watch over yon Keep. Ask the first of your questions and I shall answer.’

It was a good thing Robin had made a list to help him decide what to ask, and practiced the wording beforehand, or he would have frozen in that moment, all thought forgot before even this small sliver of a Fairy Queen’s dark glory. But he had. He’d approached the whole thing as if he were trying to get a wish out of a recalcitrant genie.

‘Your Majesty—’ There was no way Robin was going to slip out of formality, not here, not now. ‘My first question is this: what knowledge of Rhyth do you possess that you are both willing to share candidly and would be of the most use to me with what you know of my current situation?’

That wine-rich voice laughed with Avanus’s lips.

‘You have had dealings with those of the Twilit Lands before, or you listen well to your grandmothers’ tales. Very well. Prettily asked, so prettily I shall answer.’ The smile on Avanus’s face was suddenly sharp. ‘Rhyth is lost, but neither gone nor forgotten. He can be brought back, should you manage to riddle out what happened to him and a way to open the door that he may step back into this world. I will tell you now that your feet are pointed in the correct direction and your path will lead you to Noviel and beyond.’

That was more in the nature of confirmation, but Robin had asked this as his first question to not only see what he could get but to get a sense of how the Queen of Air and Darkness would play the game. So far, it seemed she intended to play things fairly straight. Well, as straight as a being of Fairy could. There was still a lot of vagueness in her answer.

But the queen was not finished.

‘I suppose I’m also willing to—quite candidly—tell you that I am one who greatly desires to see Rhyth returned to this world. Such visions of beauty and terror he wrought! The world is lessened for his absence.’

Robin suddenly realised he had perhaps been not quite so clever as he had thought. The queen saw right through him. Still, if what she said was true, she had a reason to want Rhyth back, and that meant she had a reason to want to see Robin succeed.

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He could take a risk here with his next question.

‘What single power, ability, or spell that I can reasonably acquire will serve me best in my quest to restore Rhyth?’

‘Ah, you’ve thought this through.’ Avanus’s face was amused.

Robin tried not to look too long nor too closely at the warlock. In addition to fearing that the Queen of Air and Darkness might take it as disrespect if he stared too openly, Robin found the way in which Avanus’s face moved in expressions that were not his own, disturbing. He hadn’t known the warlock long, but it had been enough time to find the experience unsettling.

There was a long moment of silence. Robin hoped it was merely Her Majesty thinking of the best answer, and not an indication that her patience had worn thin. His heart pounded and his mouth felt dry. His head swam with the effect of her presence. Please answer soon. This is…a lot.

‘There is a skill, a trick that those truly devoted to the primordial arts Rhyth employed would sometimes employ. I believe you might refer to it as a peculiarity. I know not what the guide behind your eyes might call it—’

Guide behind his eyes? The system? Robin perked up. This was the first indication he’d had that he wasn’t just hallucinating all of those messages!

‘—but the faithful of Rhyth, those few that there were, referred to the ability as “The Mirror’s Revenge”. The technique still exists amongst a rare few exceptional illusionists, and may be found in ancient texts across the land. Though I suspect your own invisible guide might be able to help you, should the need arise.’

Robin longed to ask what the queen knew about his ‘guide’, or about him for that matter, but he knew she wouldn’t answer. Or if she did, it wouldn’t be worth trusting. The deal was questions about Rhyth, and only about Rhyth.

‘What was he like?’ Robin surprised himself by asking.

He clearly surprised the Queen of Air and Darkness as well. He could read that on Avernus’s face as easily as he could read any of the mass-market fantasy paperbacks that populated his childhood hours.

The question was asked, however. There was no taking it back now. So Robin waited for the answer. When it came, he wasn’t disappointed in the least.

‘Rhyth was—he was unpredictable. He was a trickster, meaning he was both hilarious and deadly. Beautiful and terrible. He was older than most of the deities of this world, primordial in his origins, but you’d never know it from his face—any of his faces—or the way he acted. He was wonder and fire, both sublime and grotesque as the mood hit.’ Unexpectedly, the queen laughed with Avanus’s voice. ‘He played the most fearsome pranks on those he thought deserved it. Why, I remember one time he dragooned me into helping him, well, I suppose the best way to describe it to you is short-sheeting, but for a divine dominion rather than a camp bed. I can still remember the Lady of Pain’s howls of outrage!’ That laugh sounded again, clear and cold as a bell on Christmas Morn.

Robin listened as the Queen of Air and Darkness spooled out tale after tale of Rhyth and his exploits. Night’s swift dragons raced on apace and, before he knew it, hours had passed.

He wasn’t sure why he felt such a connection to Rhyth. After all, it wasn’t like he was a pious person back on Earth, nor that he knew much about the deity. Sure, he’d made an offering and received a blessing, but it was hardly enough to inspire devotion. Not that he’d call whatever he was feeling devotion, per se.

He did feel some connection, though, and it made him happy to hear about Rhyth. And to hear that the deity really stuck it good to the stuffed-shirt tyrants and other humourless deities of evil and suffering. Besides, he was in a fantasy world now. Didn’t everyone need a grand quest? And restoring a lost god of illusion to power seemed like as good a task to devote himself to as any.

‘Oh! And that dragon demigod he was always with. What was his name? Tlal-Aster Nightwing? Something like that. I never could keep draconian names straight. Too many ridiculous syllables and most of them take themselves far too seriously. Always with the ludicrous titles like “Chiefest and Mightiest and Greatest Most Calamatous Calamity of the Second Age” and the like. Tlal wasn’t like that, though. Sense of humour, that one. Got along famously with Rhyth. I think you’d refer to them as “bezzie mates” or something like that.’

‘Tha—’ Robin almost thanked the queen before he remembered one should ever thank the fey. ‘That is an amazing collection of stories and I am honoured to have had the privilege of hearing them.’

‘Good.’ Avanus’s voice was both sharp and amused. ‘And now that you have your payment, this audience is at an end. Fare thee well, Robin of Rhyth. I am sure we will meet again, though not, perhaps, as soon as you might like.’

With one last rich and echoing laugh, she was gone. The sense of her presence fled the copse, and the gentle chill of a regular mountain night once again filled the air.

Avanus collapsed to his knees, shuddering. It looked both painful and like he was in ecstasy, so Robin left him to recover his composure while he flicked through the various updates he hadn’t dared check while the Queen of Air and Darkness was speaking. Robin was barely in control of his own emotions after that audience and he desperately wanted something to distract him from the roiling well of wonder and terror the Fairy Queen had left him with.

Let’s see…there were experience discounts for Arcane Lore, Learning, and, surprisingly, Concentration, as well as for Persuasion and Gossip. No doubt he got a nice chunk of experience, though likely nothing spectacular as there was no trickery involved on his part. Not this time! Sure, he’d been garbed mostly in illusion, but that probably wasn’t grounds for an experience multiplier.

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