Secrets & Shadows

“First things first,” I said. “We need to get away from here. Where’s your car?” I began looking around for one of Kaw City’s black and white cars. Puck was still sleepy and it seemed it hadn’t clicked what nearly happened to him and I as he had planted himself on top of my head.

“It’s over this way,” Green pointed to a location around the corner out of the alleyway we were in. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of going in a modern police cruiser due to magic not mixing with a lot of electronics, but beggars can’t be choosers.

We ran over to the cruiser and got in. The Detective had some issues starting the car. The engine was cranking hard, just about to that starting point. I focused on controlling what magic might have been radiating from me to a minimum. Damn modern cars with too many electronic parts. After about a minute of the Detective cranking the engine, it finally started and we were off like a bat out of hell.

“Where are we going?” Green asked. He was looking around as we drove. Probably the paranoia setting in. It’s pretty normal when you see something majorly paranormal and frightening like magic get thrown around. Or a strange creature trying to kill an innocent sorcerer. Not to mention seeing some unknown horror as well that shatters one’s perception of reality. Speaking of which…

“We’re headed to my place. I’ll point out the way, but drive around aimlessly first. I don’t want whatever that was to find us,” I said. “Also, I have a few questions for you too, Detective. First, what the hell were you doing out?”

“You’re not my mother, Frost,” he snapped. “But if you must know; I was checking on some informants for an unrelated case. Plus, I work the graveyard shift most of the time.”

Made sense to me. Never really thought about that honestly. Especially since I’ve only caught him in the early morning or very late at night. “Alright, well a more important question: were you actually able to see what was attacking me?” I asked, staying on the edge of my seat.

“Yeah, well-. No. I mean. Shit, I don’t know what the hell I saw.” There was a fear in his voice. The kind of primal fear that you don’t often see in people anymore. That stunning realization that you’re no longer on the top of the food chain. It was not something you want to hear from an ex-marine. “All I saw was a dark figure and it had you held up by your shirt against the wall.”

‘Now that was interesting,’ I thought to myself. ‘It masked itself to me, but not to others around it. It definitely didn’t feel like it was held up by my shirt either.’

“Alright, your turn to start answering questions, Frost,” Green said coldly. “You’re going to have to start explaining some of this weird shit. I saw something attack you, you created lightning and something that exploded out of thin air and who knows what else that I didn’t see before that!” The detective’s eyes went wide and he seemed like he was starting to panic. “You’re going to have to come clean, now!”

“Alright,” I said. “But you’re not going to like it or believe it.”

“Just lay it on me.”

“Okay, you asked for it,” I said forebodingly. “To start off, I’m a sorcerer. I have a lot of magical abilities such as you saw, using the natural elements of the earth, in this case fire.”

“So are you like, one of a kind or are there more of you?”

“Oh there’s millions more people like me of various degrees,” I explained. “Some are like me, sorcerers. Others are wizards who have to learn to use magic, some are witches or warlocks. Some are good and others, not so much. Some are good at magic, some aren’t. You get the idea. We’ve existed for as long as there has been a name for magic.” Even though I could see that Green was focused on driving, he was trying to take it all in, and very calmly too which was something new. Usually, people totally and completely flip out.

“So since there are so many of you, why not just take over the world or be like the illuminati or something?” Green asked. I kinda knew this question would come up eventually.

“Because we don’t. We have better things to worry about and we live far longer than your standard human to give a shit about what goes on in the majority of the world. Unless it’s something that directly affects us that is.” Which was true. Magic users really don’t care much about the mundane world, since almost nothing ever does directly affect us and hasn’t for the better part of 400 years. Not since the Inquisition. Even the last two world wars didn’t really affect us magic users. All we had to do was either veil ourselves from our enemy so they couldn’t perceive us. Or just use a Waypoint and go somewhere else that is safe.

“So how old are you then if you people live for so long?” Green asked with a sidelong glance.

“A valid question,” I responded. “I’m thirty-five.”

“Wait, what?” Geen said, astonished.

“I never said I was old. Just that we can live for a long time,” I continued. “For instance my grandfather, on my mother’s side, lived to be 348 years old. Only he had gone bat guano crazy near the end. Said he had joined the League of Bread-mages. At least that’s what his journal said. His last entry showed how he was going to use a tesla coil as an alternative to a philosopher’s stone, which can turn matter from one thing to another, and to turn a piece of wheat toast into untoasted pumpernickel. Unfortunately, he died trying.”

“How’d that kill him exactly?”

“Oh, his death was the result of an explosion. No idea what he did exactly as what was left of his notes were pretty much nothing but nonsense. But we heard an explosion from his workshop. We went to check to see what happened, and found him dead with a loaf of rye bread on his work bench. I suppose you could say his experiment went awry,” I said laughing. Green didn’t.

“What about your Mom and Dad?” Green asked.

“My Dad was a warlock, a male witch, who decided one day he wanted to just up and leave on a journey for “truth”,” my laughter had died down pretty quick. “He wasn’t around for very long. Left when I was about eight. Mom on the other hand was about my age when she died. She was a great sorceress!” I reminisced. “She taught me how to make potions, invent spells, everything. I don’t know what happened to her exactly. I was only seventeen and I had been out all day. When I came home I went to look for her since she wasn’t in the house. I went outside to her workshop, which was a large shed in the backyard, and all I remember seeing was that she had drawn a summoning circle on the floor and that there was a lot of blood, her blood. Her heart had been ripped from her chest. No idea what did it or what she was summoning.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Green said after giving me a moment.

“It’s okay. It’s just hard sometimes,” I said trailing off as I shook my head to get all the bad memories out of my head wiping away forming tears. “Anyway, I digress. What else did you need to know?”

Green continued to drive around with a concentrated look on his face. “I’ve heard you mutter to yourself like you’re having a conversation with someone other than yourself. Who are you talking to? Voices in your head?”

“Nah, that’s just Puck. Though I wish he was just a voice in my head sometimes,” Puck, hearing his name being mentioned, finally woke from his sleepy daze and let out a protest about my mild insult, and sat pouting on the dash of the police car.

“Puck?” Green asked.

“Yeah, he’s a faery that my mom and I brought back to health a long time ago after getting hit with a bug zapper. He’s been my friend since I was a kid, shortly after my dad walked out actually. He was hit by our bug zapper and Mom and I nursed him back to health. As a debt of gratitude Puck vowed to follow me wherever I go until the end of my days, acting kinda like a servant,” I explained. “You remember that Brady Bunch episode where Bobby ‘saves’ Peter’s life”

“Yeah,” Green replied.

“It’s similar only for real. Which, as I explained, when you’re a magic user is a very very long time.”

Green chuckled, “now there are faeries? What’s he look like, Tinkerbell?” he laughed a bit at his own joke.

“Only when he’s mad,” I snickered. “I got a way for you to see him. Typically only magic users and things from Faewild can see faeries.”

“Faewild?” Green asked.

“Call it a magical dimension for lack of a better explanation,” I said.

We had been driving for a while and it was getting even later. I needed to get better prepared for this thing and figure out how to actually hunt it down. I looked up to where we were going and realized our turn was coming up. “Turn left here then go until you see a big apartment building,” I said.

After another few minutes of driving, we got back to my home office. Puck had gone ahead and flew up to the door and waited. I unlocked the door, went inside and made a beeline for the kitchen. “Make yourself comfortable, Detective,” I told him as I started to dig through cabinets. “I’m going to whip up something to help you temporarily see magical creatures like Puck. And hopefully you won’t have the displeasure of seeing anything else worse than him.”

“What would be worse? You mean like that thing back there?” he said nervously as he sat on the couch.

“Worse than that,” I replied.

“Worse?!” Green exclaimed. “What can possibly be worse?”

“You really don’t want to know,” I said as I grabbed a beaker out from one of the overhead cabinets and placed it on the countertop. As the beaker filled with water from the tap I grabbed a tea infuser and started taking items off of my spice rack. I also grabbed a mortar and pestle and added a pinch of wolfsbane, crushed bezoar, a few drops of dragon’s blood and a sprig of peppermint. I ground it all together. Putting the infusion into the water, I placed my hands on the beaker, focused my magic, thinking of fire and heat acting kind of like a microwave oven. After a minute the water was hot, but not boiling, and let the special tea brew.

Once it was done I handed the beaker over to the detective, “well here ya go. Magic sight tea. I like to call it the ‘now-you-see-me’ potion,” The Detective grabbed it with a heavy look of speculation.

“What’s in it?” he asked, taking a sip.

“Just the usual,” I shrugged. “Eye of bat, toe of newt, virgin blood.” Green promptly spat out his drink. “Geez I was just kidding. Learn to take a joke.”

“Not funny, Frost,” Green said, staring daggers at me.

“It just has some herbs that happen to have magical properties,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “In the right combinations they allow you to have some magic energy inside of you. Not enough to do actual magic or anything like that mind you, just enough to see faeries and the like,” I explained. He seemed to accept the explanation as he chugged it down.

“Ugh,” Green grimaced. “Takes like week old ass.”

“Well, I never said that it tasted good. Just that it was tea,” I took the beaker from Green. “Do you see anything yet?”

The detective looked around everywhere he could. “I don’t think so. I’m not sure it worked.”

“Bah, nonsense. Puck!” I called out. He came right to me in an orange blur.

“Aye, sir?” he responded.

“Fly in front of the detective here until he sees you. I gave him that special ‘now-you-see-me’ potion,” I said. He flitted over and hovered in front of the detective making faces at him. “Do you see him now? He’s like, a foot in front of your face,” I asked Green.

“I don’t know. I think I might. My eyesight started to get all blurry a second ago,” he said unconfidently. I think his vision was finally adjusting. Puck had made a weird face by somehow putting two fingers in the corners of his mouth making it stretch wide, two up his nose, and two more pulling down his eyelids. “AH!” Green shouted as he tried to back up into the couch.

“Oh good, you can see him,” I said. “Puck, officially meet Detective Michael Green. Detective Green, this is Puck.” Green held out a hand as Puck took hold of Green’s forefinger and shook it.

“Pleasure to officially make your acquaintance, green-man-who-isn’t-green,” Puck said as he gave a polite bow.

“Likewise,” Green said in mild shock. He turned to me and asked, “what’s he mean by that green man comment?”

“Oh, Puck doesn’t quite understand humans. He learns what he wants and what he feels is important to him,” I explained. “In short, he’s a bit confused about your name since it doesn’t match your appearance.” After exchanging pleasantries and having the detective get a good look and examine Puck I started to feel an odd chill in the air.

Something was coming.

“Puck, hide. Quickly,” I ordered. The smile dropped from his face. He could feel the cold energy in the air too. He took off and hid beneath the covers of my bed.

“What’s going on, Frost?” Green asked, clearly about ready to shit a brick from fright.

“Something’s coming and I’m not sure what or who.”

The air became colder as a breeze picked up and swirled around the room. Suddenly with a quick, bright flash the coldness died down and so did the chill wind.

Leanan Sidhe was floating above my desk. Her nearly invisible dragonfly-like wings glinted in the yellowish incandescent lighting of my apartment.

‘That’s a relief,’ I thought, letting out my breath. I thought it was going to be something not as welcoming as her.

It was then that the fact that Leanan Sidhe was here in the mundane world suddenly hit me like a right hook to the jaw. My eyes widened, my heart started pounding and I got butterflies in my stomach. I thought I was going to vomit.

“What are you doing here, Leanan Sidhe?” I said. “How did you get here?”

Leanan Sidhe fluttered towards me and now about six inches off the floor, wearing her very thin toga which, still barely covered her upper thighs, was now a deep emerald green. She spoke in a panicked voice, her Irish accent being more pronounced than usual. “I was watching over you, like I said I would, and I came to see if you were alright after what had happened!”

“Yes I’m fine, the Detective here saved me,” I gestured over to Green who was still sitting on the couch awestruck by Leanan Sidhe.

She floated over to the detective and gave a low curtsy. “Thank you human peacekeeper for saving my beloved.” She kept her bow and looked up and smiled at the Detective.

Green was having trouble finding his voice and doing his best not to gaze down the top of her loose clothing, “Y-yeah, sure,” he finally managed to say. “Frost, you know what she’s talking about with this, ‘beloved’, stuff?”

“Of course he does!” she said, answering for me. “He is my betrothed.”

“I haven’t agreed to that yet, Leanan Sidhe,” I said sternly. “I still have two days to give you my answer.”

“Oh I know,” she said. “I just have the feeling that you’ll come around so I’m just practicing saying it.” She floated back over to me and hung off my left arm. I kept looking straight at Detective Green so I wouldn’t get distracted by Leanan Sidhe’s fire opal colored eyes.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Leanan Sidhe. I can still say, ‘no.’” I felt my arm being gently tugged downward. Her wings stopped fluttering and she had planted her feet on the floor. It was odd not feeling the subtle wind from her.

I never realized exactly how short Leanan Sidhe was. The top of her head barely came to my chest and her hair brushed her heels. She grabbed my hand and pressed it into her right breast. I reflexively gave it a squeeze.

“Don’t you want me, Lance?” she asked, still holding onto my hand on her breast.

“I, er…I,” I stammered trying to collect my thoughts. Not an easy task when a love sick fae has you in her clutches...or pressing your hand into her perfectly shaped boob.

“Just what?” Leanan Sidhe protested. Her eyes started to water. Man this was going to be hard.

“I need to stay on task and help my world first. I can’t keep letting people die,” I pulled my hand away and put it in my jacket pocket.

“Fine, I’ll just go then!” Leanan Sidhe said in frustration. She threw up a gust of icy wind and vanished.

“Did I get dragged into some relationship drama?” Green spoke up suddenly.

“No, it’s a long story. Remind me to tell you about it sometime,” I said, moving to sit next to Green. “Puck you can come out now, she’s gone!” I called out. Puck came buzzing in from the other room in his orange blur.

“What did she want, Sir?” Puck asked. I shook my head and got up to walked to my desk.

“I’ve no idea. But, I have a feeling that I better call Siren to make sure she’s alright,” I said. Everything was beginning to pile on top of me. The feeling of being Atlas washed over me. How long could I take the weight of the world on my shoulders before I finally collapsed? All I really wanted to do was sleep and hope that this was all a dream.