“There is somewhere the Queen wants me to take you.”

Gytha’s voice seemed close, but I couldn’t see her. I stood up and looked around.

“You should trust your ears.”

The tones of her flesh shifted and I could see her clearly.

“You were invisible.”

“No, just blended.”

She smiled.

“Come on.”

She headed off through the trees and I followed. How did she ever know where she was going?

She led me to a gate. It was made of two large trees with intertwined limbs. I could see a path of stones that cut through the dense woods like a line of chalk. It was strange that a path was here, but nowhere else. I stepped up to the gate and laid a hand on a tree branch. The wood shuddered beneath my touch. I looked back to Gytha, but she had disappeared again. I turned back around and gently pushed. The trees trembled and then the limbs unwound themselves. Once completely untangled, the two trees pulled themselves up by the roots and lurched aside.

I followed the stones. They led me for a long and twisting stretch. I had to rest twice along the way before reaching the end. The stones stopped as abruptly as they had begun. I stood at the edge of them and looked down at the dark black soil they had taken me to. Beyond that was a small pool of dark water. The air was dry and warm. Steam rose off the water in curling white puffs.

Compelled, I stepped out into the soil. I could feel it through my boots, soft. Crouching down, I scooped up some of the soil. It was almost too hot to hold. I looked at it, confused. Why did I think this little blob of sand spilling through my fingers was beautiful? Granted, I had never seen anything like it, but it was still nothing more than sand. I stood up and carried my handful of dirt to the water’s edge and sprinkled it onto the still surface. That seemed right some how, like reconnecting broken pieces. I watched the ripples spiral outwards, reaching across the span of the water. Looking at the water I realized that it gave no reflection.

“Rachna.”

I whispered the word when it came to mind. I had never heard it before, but I knew it was the name of this place. I shuddered. It was as if something had stepped into my mind and was whispering to me. The beginnings. The Well of Creation. I stepped into the water. It was as hot as the soil and more as I moved towards the center. When I reached the middle of the pool, the waters had risen to my chin.

“This is the place of creation.”

I slowly turned. I lifted my arms up over my head and laughed. I felt bewitched. It seemed like magic was seeping into my skin. Throbbing and pulsing into my bones, I knew this magic. For that moment, I believed that the Fey created more than illusions. I closed my eyes I sank into the water. I surged up to the surface with a great cry. Water splashed out around me and I screamed again. This was where life began: here in these dark waters.

“Black is a beautiful color.”

I recognized the voice and wasn’t surprised to see Indra at the edge of the pool. He stepped into the water and stopped an arm’s length away from me. I smiled at him, no longer afraid.

“This place was created by humans.”

I shook my head.

“No. We don’t have power like this.”

“In some ways, the humans have more magic then the Fey.”

“You mean the mages?” I asked.

He nodded.

Indra came closer and touched my cheek, cupping my face in his palm.

“You have forgotten how to believe.”

“I never did.”

He dropped his hand.

“You did when you were young and your blood remembers this place. You know her name. I heard you say it. Being here, you begin to remember the things of magic and mystery.”

“How did I forget?”

I looked down at the water, avoiding his stare.

“Humans invented logic and locked their minds up within it.”

His body swelled a little, seeming larger. A fine mist hazed around us.

“The Magic faded in you, thinning in your blood as each mathematical equation was learned.”

“But you never stopped believing.”

I looked at him, seeing clearly what I had long been suspecting.

“Is that why the Mages took you?”

“I don’t know why they took me.”

“What did they do to you, Richard?”

I laid the palm of my hand on Richard’s chest and tried to feel his heart. There was no beat to feel.

“My name is Indra now. Rachna has changed me,” he said.

I splashed back to the edge of the water.

“Is that what this place is for? Have you brought me here to become Fey?”

I tried to pull myself up out of the water, but the edge was too steep.

“No.”

I looked at him.

“The Mages killed me here, in these waters and I would be gone if Rachna had not embraced me.”

Indra looked down at the water as if it were a lover. I thought the water clung to him like blood and realized that it was this water that had poured from Indra’s wound.

“So, that’s it?”

I sighed.

“We’ve lost then. You’re a Fey and part of the Mages then.”

“The Fey are not allied with the Mages.”

I shook my head, thinking how much that didn’t matter. Magic was wrong, it didn’t matter if the people wielding it were friends or not. If they could bind us up in it, how could we ever win against them?

“It’s easy for you to hate us. We remind you of what you used to have.”

“So we keep fighting until we’re all dead?” I asked.

“No.”

He sighed.

“We are running out of time. The Queen has decided she can no longer fight two wars. The Fey are going to leave. We are going to step into the Fold and send Enaid wandering.”

“Will you go with them?” I asked.

I didn’t want to loose him a second time, but knew that I would; that I must.

“There is an army approaching from the north. We cannot afford to fight them. Kali is weaving the Fold as we speak.”

I rubbed my eyes.

“What’s the Fold?”

“We’re going into the darkness, where you cannot follow. You don’t believe.”

“The darkness?”

“We will be in the shadows, a place you cannot hunt us.”

“How?”

“Magic.”

We embraced and I kissed him hard.