Chapter 7 : The last fairy (I vedui fairui)

Familiar indistinct shapes and colours swirled past Diana as they tumbled through the tunneling portal. Something silver caught her eye and she tried to focus on what it -Uffff!

"Ow!", Diana exclaimed, spread-eagled on the the ground, her chin stinging like crazy. A sense of deja vu enveloped her.

Broge chuckled, "Yes, it takes some getting used to. You should be very grateful to me, little fairy, for I have braved many such falls to get to you."

"Yeah. I am beyond grateful." She mumbled sarcastically rubbing her throbbing chin.

"We are an advanced race, fairy, otherwise travelling to Allohara would not be so easy."

"Allohara? I thought we were going to Vorantia."

"We are in Vorantia, the elven kingdom........ situated on planet Allohara." He looked at her as though wondering whether she was slow.

"We're on another planet??!" She grabbed a fistful of dirt in her palm but it seemed no different than the dirt on Earth.

"Nothing gave it away, huh?" said Broge, pointing at the inky violet sky dominated by a familiar duo of celestial bodies. The bright large moon-like orb gleamed next to the crimson gaseous planet, filtering the starlight into a pale pink.

"So what we traveled through ........ was a ...?"

"A portal linking different points in the fabric of spacetime." Broge was enjoying Diana's astounded reaction.

"A wormhole," she whispered.

Huh! Who's there?

"Who's where? It's just me here." She stood up dusting her jeans. "And why's your voice gone all funny?"

"What?" Broge stared at her bewildered.

Aletheia! Is that you?

Diana finally looked up, astonished. Broge hadn't spoken at all. "Who's there?" She looked around wildly - there was no sign of any living thing besides themselves in the deserted place.

Azul! Theia! This is not funny. Im gwest- im'll rac cin if cin cheb- hi or-. The strange words translated themselves automatically inside her mind. I'll curse you if you keep it up.

Diana held her hands to her ears. "Ughh Stop this! Stop talking! STOP TALKING!"

Huh! 'hat in i est- -o Terr'ane na- 'appening?!

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Diana screamed and everything went quiet for a second.

Rosa .....?

Broge's mouth had formed into an 'o' as realization hit him. It would've been comical if the situation weren't so strange. Diana rounded on him. "What? What is this?"

He scratched his head sheepishly. "I might've -uh.... forgotten to mention that.... you'd be hearing some voices." He gulped and then chuckled nervously. "Inside your head.... One voice actually." He put his free hand up in surrender. "It's nothing to worry. Nothing to worry at all." His voice had taken on an airy, high pitch by the end.

I think it is something to worry about.

"Make it stop!" Diana cried.

"I'm afraid I can't," Broge mumbled nervously.

"W-well -", she blustered, "Why! Why not? You're bloody magic!"

One side of Broge's face lifted in a knowing smile. "It doesn't work that way, fairy. Cironir will explain everything to you. You do want to know everything, yes?"

"Yes.. but-"

"Then off we go!" Broge walked up to a pair of majestic, silver gates that Diana hadn't noticed before. The twenty feet tall gates seemed to have simply materialized out of the gloom and she could now see the walls of black rock extending on either side of them. If there's a heaven, this must be what the pearly gates look like, she thought. Broge walked up to the gates and displayed the black band on his wrist. "Broge, son of Bow, Herdir at Realta Ban Academy of Eleven Arts." He stepped right through the solid silver. Diana followed him - or rather, she tried.

"You're going to love Realta Ban." He said conversationally, walking forward.

"Uh- Broge?"

"What a pity you won't be in my class this year. But you could choose it in a few years ti-"

"Broge!"

"What?" Broge turned around surprised to discover that Diana wasn't at his side. She was outside the gate pointing angrily at the hundred bows that had appeared on top of the gate, arrows nocked and aiming at her head.

"And guest." Broge chuckled sheepishly and the gate swung open to admit her.

Inside, the most beautiful piece of architecture that Diana had ever laid eyes on was revealed.

"Welcome to Realta Ban palace!" Broge smiled widely.

An artificial river lined by white marble extended forward, ending in a wide pool in front of the palace. Clad in the same white marble, the walls of the palace climbed high, imposing their presence on the violet sky. A gigantic glass dome rose in the middle of the structure with turrets that stood as silent as sentinels facing the four directions. Lush green lawns extended on both sides of the river as far as the eye could see.

Broge led Diana to a small white marble boat that bobbed in the river, its ripples dancing across the surface of the water.

"Here we go!"

They climbed in and the boat zoomed away with such speed that Diana had to hold on to the sides of her seat to keep from sliding off. There was no engine as far as she could tell and Broge seemed to be doing no steering as well. Only the lawns zooming by in a blur gave away the speed, otherwise the boat moved so smoothly it seemed like its bottom never touched the water.

In a few minutes, the boat arrived at the pool - it was much wider than Diana had thought - arcing across the statue of a marble elf in the middle, about twenty feet high, kneeling with his bow drawn, arrow pointing toward the heavens. Broge helped Diana out of the boat and they strode into the palace through the pearly engraved doors that swung open of their own accord.

The inside was even more surprising. The walls of the large antechamber that they walked into were engraved on every inch with different patterns of flowers and trees, furnished by plush black sofas and chairs. Three sets of imposing doors led out of the room, all of them closed at the moment.

"I would suggest that you wait here while I retrieve Herdante Cironir."

"Why can't I come with you?" Diana's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Because it's dinner time and every young elf in the castle would be in the dining room right now. We don't want to - what's is it that humans say? - uh freak everyone with your presence. Private business till Cironir says so, little fairy." He readjusted the covers on the body of the ogradite over his shoulder so that its boots would not be visible.

"Cool with me." Diana sat down on one of the sofas which sunk comfortably beneath her.

Broge disappeared through the door on the right.

The engraved forest across the walls mesmerized Diana - her eyes traced the intricate leaves of a banyan tree below which a deer stood, its eyes shining bright. Diana stretched out a finger to touch the deer's eye and......... it blinked.

Diana jumped off the sofa and the startled deer cantered away behind the trees.

"Suilad."

Diana turned, open-mouthed, to find a proud face with longish blonde hair slicked back. The elf, who appeared to be the same age as Diana, wore ocher clothes that were taken straight out of a novel set in the middle ages. His strangely colourless eyes were open, friendly.

"The deer .... it-it moved."

"You expect it to stay still while you try to poke its eye out?" The elf appraised Diana, smiling slightly. "You seem to be new here."

"Yes. How did you guess?" Diana chuckled in response and held out a hand. "Diana Drew."

"And you also seem to have a penchant for the English language." The elf looked a little perplexed at her hand and then at her face................ when he noticed something that made him recoil in terror.

"Gurgof! Tirith! Ennas's davizae in i cardhon!"

Everything happened so suddenly that there was no time for her to react. Guards in gray uniforms burst through every door and she was surrounded by blades pointing at her throat. The nearest guard held her arms in a vice-like grip behind her back.

"I re cin?" He asked menacingly.

The deja vu settled on Diana again at his words. "Seriously?!" She turned to the young elf who cowered behind one of the guards. "Leave me! I'm not here to hurt anyone."

"We w-will l-let the Queen d-decide that." He said in a voice brimming with false bravado.

The guards marched her through the door that Broge had taken. The dining hall was filled with young elves sitting at round tables laden with food. As the guards walked through the aisle, the cacophony of excited voices died, only to be replaced by fearful whispers. The young elf walked in front of the procession with the air of a man returning victorious from a great conquest. At the end of the hall, a long table was laid on a raised platform where all the adult elves seemed to be seated. They gaped at the line of marching guards, just like the younger elves.

"'ho na- hi?! 'hat na- 'appenin?!"

The elf who'd spoken was standing at the table, evidently in the middle of a conversation with a seated lady elf. He was overly slim, with features sharp enough to cut through steel and had a reedy mustache. His regal clothes matched the numerous bejeweled rings that adorned his scrawny fingers. He wore a giant gold medallion around his elongated neck. His dark eyes flashed with outrage.

"Im've 'aught a davizae, Priomh Aire." The young elf announced pompously. There was a collective gasp around the hall. The older elf looked closely at Diana and then drew back, gasping, when he noticed her ears.

"Im 're 'oing na 'ake hen na i rís," he gestured to the top of the stairs.

"Whui ceri- cin anír- na 'other i rís? Im will 'ake 'are -o hi. 'ake hen in i gador ir mín rad- 'ow she 'ot i- Vorantia," he ordered.

"Nai!" A powerful voice spoke from the top of the stairway.

The elf to which the voice belonged was tall, bald, but with a bushy white beard. He was aged, though his dark-skinned musculature suggested a well-built body in his prime, currently clad in purple clothes. His stance and expression radiated authority - a man used to being respected - but the sky coloured eyes behind his oval spectacles seemed kind.

"'he's ú- davizae...... 'he's a fairui." His voice thundered in the long hall.

Broge was just a step behind the powerful elf and beside him, a beautiful, golden haired lady elf stood with her hands covering her mouth. Another collective gasp sounded throughout the hall followed by pin-drop silence. The hands holding Diana slackened and she shuffled out of their grip. The soldiers moved to the sides clearing a path for her to the stairs.

The powerful elf smiled sadly. "We have found .... the last fairy."