The emergence of expandi.., p.26
The Emergence of Expanding Light, page 26
“You were already in love with Phoebe when you truly met him,” Pippa said. She grasped Pan’s hand and he smiled so lovingly at her.
“Three of three…but we were supposed to destroy each other. The Queens were supposed to fight but instead they are too involved in whatever is going on with us to fight each other either. We’ve been a distraction. We’ve kept them from destroying so much. And Ruinae in the Core, he was supposed to destroy them, and destroy himself but Pan made him feel whole for the first time in so long. Three…three of three. There are three of Ruinae,” Pan said.
“And there are three Queens,” Eros added.
“And the land is three,” a voice came from nowhere. It was all around them and when Pippa turned her mother, Olwenn, larger than the sky, appeared. She was so much and yet Pippa could make out even the most delicate of her features. “This land, the Ether, is pure peace. No one else may enter it.”
“Then we must break it,” Pan said with finality. “A place like this that has so much and exists to benefit so few must go. No creature can enter save the chosen very few and yet it holds so much goodness that could benefit so many more.”
“Destroy this? We can’t destroy this,” Pippa said.
Pan started to pulsate and all of the light around them, all the light he’d been talking about, spun inside him. He grew to the size of her mother; he was everywhere and yet Pippa could make out the dimples on his cheeks as if he were standing right there with her. Pippa stumbled back. She grasped her brother’s hand, terrified of her boyfriend and the light he emanated as he loomed so large. Then she remembered what her mother had told her. Never be afraid of him.
Whatever fear she’d possessed turned to love. It pulsed inside her, and her green lights flashed white and calm inside her shaking palms. In another moment, Pan returned to normal size. Her mother was gone, and they stood still in this place.
“The world hasn’t ended,” Pan said to Eros. “What you experienced was the world that could be but is not. We will not destroy each other, brother, and so that world can never be.”
“We won’t,” Eros said. “And the world is not unchanged, Pippa, like you saw in California. That was a world that could have been and is not.”
“It’s funny, my mother was there, I was safe in my old house and yet I felt so lost, so empty. I don’t want what I had back if it means I lose all of you.”
“We must go,” Pan said. “We cannot stay in this place. It’s not meant for us. It wasn't meant for anyone.” The white birds vanished, and Pippa grasped Pan’s hand and linked arms with her brother. “We must go see the fairies,” Pan said and in an instant, the Ether flashed away like its very existence had fallen behind them.
Chapter Twenty
This time the shimmering worked. Together they emerged in the Heavens. This place was different now that the light had returned to it. The sky hung bright white before them and it emanated light, not from the sun or stars, but from all over, like the sky itself was a single source of energy. The Heavens were busy. They’d seemed so dead and broken before, as if they’d stopped in the Middle Ages. But perhaps they’d stopped around that time, when castles and moats were all the rage? Once the fairies left, the Heavens went into stasis and Sky disappeared, spending most of his time in Paris when he wasn’t needed. Then again, Paris was not the beautiful city of light it is today back in the Middle Ages. All but the ultra-wealthy and powerful lived-in abject poverty in Medieval Paris. Perhaps Sky had found another earthly place then.
“Where are they?” Eros asked, looking around.
“The buildings were older before; how come they look so new?” Pan asked.
Gone were the crumbling castles and in their place stood modern glass and metal structures. The stone walls of the older builders had been incorporated for aesthetic purposes. There was an accent wall of stone holding up a modern-looking skyscraper and a stone turret stood connected to a house that looked more like a Frank Lloyd Wright than anything Pippa had seen in Upstate New York.
“The fairies learn fast,” a voice said, and Pippa turned to see Shayleigh standing with her brood. A few flew near her holding books, while others had smartphones and iPads.
“Did they invent those, or did you take those from the Human World?” Pippa asked, wondering if these fairies were better at using a cellphone than she. She still couldn't figure out how to get her ringer to change tones. Maybe one of the fairies could help.
“The concept comes from your world,” Shayleigh said. “My fairies merely improved upon it.” A few fairies buzzed around her, showing her something on their pads. Pippa smiled and nodded kindly at them before they flew off. “They’re working on a very important project,” she went on. “But they won’t tell me much. They’ve been working up in the hills.”
“The Heavens have hills?” Pippa asked. She ran her hand through her hair and looked first at Pan and then at her brother. How much of what they’d just experienced should they tell the others? Should they wait until more are together?
“They do. But the light machine, that is their greatest accomplishment. Come,” she said, walking slowly on the roads made of wind. Pippa, still worried that the gusting wind would whisk her away, walked very unsteadily on this solid ground, as the air currents howled under her. They marched up a path to a small outbuilding that looked like an old shed. Inside, a few fairies wearing lab coats and safety goggles stood together near something that looked like an old-fashioned car of the Henry Ford Model-T variety.
“What does it do?” Eros asked.
“Can it drive?” Pippa inquired. She leaned closer and one of the fairies flew up to her, landing on her nose before playfully flying away.
“It is a light machine,” a tiny voice buzzed in Pippa’s ear. She could barely hear it but when she turned, she saw a blue haired fairy with a clipboard in her hands. “It will make light. We never want to be away from the light again.”
“Never away from light,” Pippa mused. “Like a lamp? We have those in our world.”
“No,” Shayleigh said. “This will not create illumination, but light. It was the light that went, and they fear it will happen again. There is a machine for that. There is a machine for everything, you just have to find it.”
“Queen Mab would say that is not natural,” Eros said.
“Your mother is not always correct,” Shayleigh said. Then she looked away, still obviously hurt by the way the Fairy Queen had taken her fairies for so many years. But it was like those fairies had never left this place. It was so booming with life and beauty.
Suddenly, the clouds started rumbling and the wind-filled streets started to lose their solid form and after a second they parted. Pippa gasped and grasped Pan’s hand as the street opened up and Sky flew through it. “Hello,” he said. “I have returned.”
“From?” Pippa asked.
“I had to see Paris. My home. The city is not okay. There have been earthquakes. And there was a tidal wave off the coast of Japan.”
“So, the Human World is feeling the blows of all this?” Pippa asked.
“We must go down to Ruinae…we must see the Queens.” Eros said.
“In the Ether, it told us to come here,” Pan said. “The Ether brought us to this place. It looks fine and the earth is in trouble and yet….”
“You guys really don’t remember the end of the world?” Eros asked Sky. “It happened like five minutes ago?” Sky and Shayleigh looked at him like he was crazy.
“The world did not end, Prince,” Sky finally said.
“I thought maybe– nevermind. Pippa got a better fantasy. I saw and I felt the end of the world. It wasn’t fun.”
“But it was sad to think that I wouldn't have known this place or Pan – it felt so wrong in my fantasy. It wasn’t the right world and I felt like I was going to fall through the ground at any moment.”
“And you basically did,” Eros said. “Something is messing with us.”
“Something is trying to get us to the truth,” Pan said. “How have things been in the Heavens?” Pan asked Sky as Shayleigh turned to help her fairies with whatever newfangled machine they were building.
“When the light returned to the Fairy Forest, it returned here as well. That is very good. The fairies have made this place more lively, more fun. I almost do not want to leave but Paris, it has been my home for many years, and it is in trouble. Your world is faltering.”
“What about near my father’s house? Do you know about Upstate, New York?”
“I do not. But there have been rumblings here. The windy streets have gusted too far and too fast, sending fairies flying. The fairies have gotten confused and all run into each other like those old Benny Hill shows. They’re not so used to this place after being away so long, yes, but it was like something scrambled their brains for a second. The nymphs have reported similar confusion in the Fairy Forest.”
“How long has it been since we left?” Eros asked.
“It has been a day. We thought perhaps your aunt needed more help. It has not been too bad, we did not need to search for you,” Sky said.
“I should return to Phoebe and see what she says about the books.”
“She is happy with the Lady of the Lake. I visited them recently. They get along well,” Sky said. “They sit together in her castle and tell stories about books and things they have learned. The Lady has told her about the Knights of the Round Table and how she met Arthur. She has not opened up to someone in so very long. It is like she has a daughter.”
Phoebe had always been eager to learn, to truly learn, not just to please her teachers and get good grades. She was always a very serious person. It made sense that she would get along so well with the Lady of the Lake. Queen Mab was much less her cup of tea.
Something came into view from overhead, like a hot air balloon coming down from a trip. After a few seconds, the shape of a person emerged. Then, Pippa saw that it was not one, but two people with mechanical wings strapped to their backs. They flew through the air with the same finesse as the fairies. Their wings, though they looked mechanical, did not act mechanically at all and moved with the fluidity of a butterfly or moth. Vincent and Vero glided through the air; they even did somersaults as they approached the ground. Vero waved and Eros lifted himself on his wings, flying to meet them until they glided down to the ground together.
“Have a nice honeymoon?” Pippa asked as Vincent stood before her on satyr’s legs. Vero descended, draping an arm around his husband.
“Honeymooning in the Heavens, what a lovely idea? And Pippa, you simply have to try flying on fairy wings!” Vincent said. He smiled wide and moved in to hug her.
“What did we miss?” Vero asked. He’d always been more of a pragmatist. “And how can we help?”
“Right back to work then?” Pan asked.
“I wish we didn’t have to work so hard, but the pans are called to this job. We feel our realms, we know how to help them. We track and problem solve. Your eyes are different?” Vero asked Pan.
“We need to talk,” Pan said to his friends almost cryptically.
“About what?”
“The Ether,” Pan said just as cryptically. He glanced around, as if he sensed something the others couldn’t. In another moment, the windy street began to shake. It opened once more and this time a gaping hole formed. Pippa jumped out of the way and Sky flew above the road to keep himself upright.
“It is happening again,” he said. “It has been happening so much.”
“We’ve been up in the clouds,” Vero said. “The clouds seemed fine.”
“The clouds are always fine. Head in the clouds, isn’t that what they say?”
Lightning flashed from above but instead of flashing light, liquid oozed into the sky. It was greenish at first, almost sickly, but in another moment it bled black until the bleeding flash looked like a hole in the sky, as if the larger universe were forming right in front of them.
The sky changed. Pippa felt the emptiness and the utter largeness of a universe without form or reason, without purpose or logic or play. It was so empty and so cold, and she sensed it bleeding into her soul so she could barely look up at it.
Pippa hugged herself and shivered. Pan draped an arm around her and there was something about his body so close to hers, it was a blanket of warmth, a wall of strength at just the right moment. But a second later, he stepped away. He pointed up just as another hole, this one even blacker, bearing Argios, the blue headed monster, appeared. He flashed in the sky and in another instant hovered before them. Vero and Vincent stepped back, as Sky looked to a gathering of fairies. More fairies amassed as the sky swirled and another hole opened up, letting the snake slither his long body out.
“They come in pairs,” Eros said. “Why always two of them?”
“I’m going to the Forest to get the Satyr Guard,” Vero said. He approached Vincent and kissed him quickly before shimmering away.
“What can they do here?” Vincent asked. The snake landed on the clouds and slithered on solid ground. He lifted his snake head, scales pulsating. Black venom oozed from his skin, it bled onto the white clouds and burned them. As the clouds that were the ground burned away, Pippa jumped back with Vincent and Eros lifted into the air to hover away from the holes.
Eros was the first to strike, using the lights in his hands to hit the snake’s scales. When the snake was hit, he stood up to a height of almost two stories, as Argios, who still hovered near them, roared. The breath of his roar burned hot and sent a wall of blistering heat at them. Pippa cried out as her skin started to burn. It peeled away from her arms and hands and in another moment, Pan whisked her away. They shimmered near the fairies, and he took a jar of balm out of his pocket and applied it with shaking hands.
“I must look terrible,” she said as Pan plastered the sticky balm all over her arms and hands, even her neck and face. “What do I look like? Am I like Eros when we met him?”
“Beautiful, always beautiful,” Pan said in such a way that said this wasn’t just a line, he really meant it. A cool spray washed over her, like she’d been spritzed with water on a hot summer day. The blisters on her arms and hands vanished and she could only assume the rest were healed.
In the distance, Sky struck Argios with a sword the fairies handed him, and Vincent took a bow from Shayleigh and began to strike. It was like the battle in the Lake all over again and Pippa wondered what would be disrupted in the Heavens. There did not appear to be mountains to destroy in this place but there were so many buildings.
“We have to help them!” Pan said, pulling Pippa back into the fray.
The fairies, who as a group had stayed back, rushed into the fight. They came as a throng, tiny flickering lights that buzzed so fast. It was their speed that surprised Pippa. They’d always been so silly and slow in the Fairy Forest. They sat around and only moved with any purpose when it was play. But they buzzed and hovered so fiercely as they went for the enemy. A group of fairies formed a cloud around Argios. He covered his eyes as if their presence hurt him. He swatted some away and others took their places. A few fairies went for his eyes and Pippa could not see what the tiny creatures were doing, but Argios cried out as he tried to tear at his own flesh.
In the confusion, the others regrouped. Sky focused on the snake, slashing it with his sword as Shayleigh flew to her fairies. She held an ax in her hand and whacked at Argios as he struggled to see amidst the swarm of fairies. She slashed his shoulder and the monster bellowed so low and deep, it seemed to come from the depths of his soul.
One of Vincent’s arrows struck the snake between the eyes, and it fell to the ground. Its head was still but the rattling tail moved slowly, ready to strike. Sky grasped his sword and tried to cut the tail off but at the last second, the snake stood up, ready to strike again.
“Should we kill them?” Pippa asked, looking to her brother as he flew over the monsters, flashing lights in their eyes as they hissed and cried out.
“They aren’t sentient anymore,” Eros said. “The light is gone from their eyes, it’s like they don’t have thoughts. They’re animals’ intent on action.”
“They’re blind followers. Nature has betrayed itself. But blind they are, and we cannot help–” Pan said. The snake wacked its tail in his direction and in another second, an Access Point opened near one of the stone and glass buildings. Vero emerged, followed by Aemon and many more of the Satyr Guard.
The group marching on this place, looked around, in awe of the Heavens. Pippa was sure they’d never seen anything like this, and it was a sight to behold, even now. To see the sky open like that, all of that space…the emptiness. It was foreboding, yes, but also beautiful.
The Satyr Guard regrouped around Aemon. Renla, who’d defected to follow Eros, stood with him. They talked like they were game planning together. Renla pointed to a group of satyrs with bows and Aemon nodded to her before she led the archers to the backside of the monsters. Aemon brought the sword-wielding satyrs closer to the front. Renla had been the enemy only weeks ago. But now that Eros' followers were back in the Fairy Forest, Pippa could only assume that amends had been made while she was gone.
The snake’s tail lifted into the air as Aemon led his army. “Watch out!” Pippa cried and Renla rushed to Aemon’s side, knocking him out of the way and nearly getting hit herself as the rattling tail flopped violently to the ground.
“What happened?” Pippa asked Aemon. “I thought you two were enemies.”
“Before we were enemies, she was my friend,” Aemon said. “And my commander. I only took her place when she left. We agreed that she couldn’t take command, not after what she and her fellow mutineers had done, but we know we need to work together and so she’s my second.”
“Where is Sabine? I thought she was your second?”
“With the Queens. I couldn’t bring the entire Guard, which would be folly. There is too much going on right now and we must spread out. Sabine is in command of the troops at the Fairy Forest. Even if nothing happens, they need to stay put.”
