Shipwrecked & Horny: A What Could Possibly Go Wrong Bad Boy Romance (Bad Boys After Dark Book 10) by Gabi Moore (26)

"Good for you," I muttered.

Shunting the dogs to one side of the rear cab, I lowered my seat.

Erol may have found his purpose, but I still had no idea what the hell was happening. The appearance of the Wilder Fae worried me more than an little. As far as I was concerned, I was stuck, operating on previous orders, with new information that threw a significant doubt into the nature of the mission overall.

The problem was that this new information only provided a source of cognitive dissonance, and not any sense of true evidence of betrayal. The problem with the Void was documented, and had no apparent solution. The entire reason I had agreed with Thane in the first place was because of the overwhelming evidence that our world was about to suffer catastrophic ecological changes, and nobody was doing anything about it.

"But why would they want to stop me..."

"Who's they?"

Ever perceptive, Erol had picked up his investigation where he left off not long ago.

"My brain hurt.

I strained to think of a way to explain it to him in a way he could understand. I didn't want to go through the entire history of a fictitious race with him, while contending with the long standing imaginary constructs that he held in his own mind.

"At a certain point, people end up believing what they want to believe, and I'm not sure it is worth while to attempt to change things after that."

"Well if I've got something wrong, and you can prove it, then why not just share it with me?"

"Because I can't prove it. Not yet anyways."

"Why are you here?"

"I need you to open a portal."

The car started accelerating, and Erol rolled down the window to feel the fresh air of the highway blow into the cab of the truck. Rosemary opted to join Erol in the indulgence offered by the breeze, while Amethyst was content to rest her head on my shoulder.

The comfort of another creature felt nice, and I allowed myself to be soothed by the dog's affection.

I had expected a stream of questions to come out of Erol's mouth, but instead, he let me alone for a while, and focused on his driving. The break was peaceful, if short-lived. As it turned out, he was simply taking my information and processing it within his own mind. He needed to reason why I wanted him to open a portal, and fit it within whatever paradigm that he had constructed for himself.

I was getting tired of dealing with his conflicted and limited paradigm. Letting him believe whatever hew wanted about the experience was liberating, in that I didn't have to explain everything to him, but it still felt manipulative and disconnected.

I'm no better than Thane, if I keep this game up, I thought.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait too long before Erol spoke up.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry," he began. "About the O.T.O, and the Shadow Government bit."

I shrugged, but he continued regardless.

"Things have happened to me in the past, before you showed up. You're not the only person who has ever taken an interest in my work."

"Is that right?"

I was genuinely interested, though still cautious about the significance of this information.

"Absolutely. I've gotten strange letters in the mail. Unnecessary clicks on the phone line. Even the sensation that I was being followed out in the middle of the wilderness."

None of that surprised me in the least. After all, I had been given information on him as a target before even coming to the Material Plane. Likely there had been other scouts in the past that had kept and eye on him. Still, there was no reason to discount this information out of hand.

"So what?"

"I know that I'm onto something, and I know that I'm not the only one that is interested in this information. Having you come into my life, and directly verify what I had suspected all along..."

"What exactly is it that you think these portals do?"

"Well, it's obvious. They open dimensions between worlds."

"And you automatically suspect Atlantis and the Shadow Government?"

"That's why I want to apologize. Sometimes, I get a bit carried away. The fact is, that I don't know what is on the other side, and I don't know why you want me in particular to open the portal."

He shrugged.

"It may just be that I have been studying these things my whole life, or it may be something else. Regardless of what it is, or who you are, I want you to know that I'm with you, though I might not be doing this for the same reason as yourself."

He had gaffed me.

"What do you mean?"

He continued to drive, quiet for a time, as though collecting his thoughts. All around us, I could see nothing except a sea of thick redwood trees. The highway itself had narrowed, and the little beat up truck continued to rumble along in spite of itself.

"I think humanity needs you. Whatever you are, wherever you've come from. I think humanity needs something in this world to pull them out of a state of philosophical depression."

"I'm not sure you understand what you are saying."

"Well, the way I see it, you are a representative of a race capable of things that we humans only dream of. I recognize that obviously you have the capacity for both good, and bad, which means that there is no certainty as to the outcome of an intersection between the two races. "

He paused for a moment, and let out a long sigh.

"As a matter of fact, in all likelihood, your culture will likely overthrow our own. I don't think it will be personal either. Historically, every time a more advanced civilization has interacted with a less technologically integrated civilization, there has been an unrepentant dominance and absorption of the previous culture into the dominant new culture. I don't think you'll have a choice."

"I don't understand how that is an advantage to humanity."

"Well, that's because you don't see humanity as I do."

"Elucidate."

He laughed.

"The problem is that most people in our world today don't have any kind of imaginative capacities whatsoever. Scientific reductionism has taken so firmly a hold on our cultural psychology that we can't seem to determine the difference between our own ass and an ad in a fashion magazine."

"No offense, but I've seen more than a few asses here that look nothing like they belong in a fashion magazine."

"Okay, well, maybe that was a bad analogy. What I mean to say is that there is nothing special about the human, in their own self-evaluation. Everything has been reduced to materialism and consumerism. All emotions and tendencies are commoditized. Religious instincts are used for political control, or subverted into dominance schemes. "

"Sounds like you did this to yourselves."

"It’s true! But, that doesn't make it any less depressing."

"I don't think you'll find us to be the benevolent saviors you hope for."

As I spoke, my mind replayed the battle with Xan, and all of the intricacies of the political system within the Capitol. The very fact that the Wilder elves had attacked meant that there was no final bastion of ideological purity within the Fae Realm. If there was no purity, then I could hardly believe that we could be seen as the saviors of another world.

"Your spiritual death sounds like a personal problem that each human needs to face. I sincerely doubt we will change that for you."

"That’s just it! I don't think you will change anything either. However, I think that opening the portal might lead to creating a catalyst, which challenges the basic assumptions of the world we live in."

"I see..."

He was right.

Not even the Fae knew how the rift would work out. We were working in entirely unknown territory. It went without saying that the opening of a Rift would change everything, but that didn't necessarily mean that everything would change for the better.

It was more like a desperate strike into the darkness, in hopes that whatever rested on the other side was somehow better than what was inevitable in the absence of such exploration.

Of course, whenever we struck out into new territories, there was always the risk that was associated with that process of discovery. Problems might be alleviated, but then again, things might only grow in their complexity, as well.

"Neither side knows what will happen."

"And both sides believe that there is a hope for things to change."

I looked at him, skeptical of how much he understood.

He caught the glance and laughed again.

"It's obvious that the stakes are high. Otherwise, why show yourself? Why expose yourself, or put yourself in danger to protect the life of someone like me?"

He shook his head and bit his lip.

"No, things are changing, for sure. All I can say is that I am going to do everything in my power to make that change happen. As for the consequences, I'll leave the burden of impact to someone else."

Amethyst lifted her head to stare at her master, and then lowered it down once more to the seat. I agreed with her sentiment entirely.

"We will see."

Whether it was the hum of the car, or the fatigue from the battle at the restaurant, I found that it was soon time for me to nap. Closing my eyes once more, I drifted off to sleep; passively riding along with Erol while he carted us forward to our destinies.

I woke up to the sight of fire.

The fire was contained within a sphere that was thousands of miles away. I adjusted my eyes to the light, and looked around my environment. The familiar car, and the comforting presence of the dog were no longer part of the picture. Instead, I had somehow found myself once more in the landscape of the Demon Realm.

With a mixture of revulsion and intrigue, I looked at the body that I once more inhabited. The same reptilian form as before covered my skin, and I thought about the words of Erol.

Could this be? I thought to myself.

I wasn’t sure if this was my true form, or if this was only another passing moment. The whole question brought deeper thoughts into my brain, and in the way that only dreams can provide, an answer arrived matter-of-factly in my consciousness.

Like a giggle, or a transformation of thought, the conclusion left me, as soon as it had arrived.

I blinked.

Whatever that thought was, it didn’t seem to matter much any more. I was here, and that was enough for me to worry about. I felt more capable than I did the time before. Already, I was keeping an eye on the ground, and making my way toward more stable places to rest.

I launched up into the air, and felt the beauty of my wings as they manipulated the air currents around me. I felt powerful, and strong. A smile came to my face, in spite of the horrific landscape, and I remembered the simple joys of flying.

Without any effort at all, my wings opened and caught the air currents on the way down, transforming my plummet into a graceful arc. I soared past the edges of the wasteland, and into the rocky grey mountains beyond.

The pleasure slowed when I realized that I was not alone, and that I most likely stood out like a bloodstain against the vacant sky. I opted to dive down to the ground, and fly along the parched and cracked soil beneath my shadow. In all likelihood, whomever I had observed would also have seen me.

As I grew closer to the mountainsides, it became clear to me that I had been seen by whatever beings had been standing on the cliffs. I could feel their eyes on my body as I approached. My body shrank, and I remembered the difficulties that I had experienced during my last visit to this place. I dared not stop on the ground, but I was also hesitant to approach.

In the end, curiosity won out over deliberation, and I decided to fly upward, along the incline of the mountain. Once I reached an altitude that was slightly higher than that of my target, I slowed to a stop.

The claws on my feet dug into the gravel and sand which made up the sides of the mountain. A feeling of relief, and also dismay followed thereafter. In front of me, on the plateau, was a demon whom I knew to be Thane.

"I see you've acclimated to your new form!"

He laughed and extended both of his wings for emphasis. He sounded victorious, as though none of this was any sort of surprise to him. Thane had always been a worldly type of person, but to believe that something as strange and perverse as this world was to be considered normal.

"How did you know it was me?” I called out, still hesitant to truly approach and close the distance between the two of us.

"The same way you knew it was me. The soul knows its partner, regardless of what plane it is on. The whole reason we are here speaking together right now is not an accident, Aria."

His words rang clearly in my mind, even though the distance between the two of us was still considerable.

Plucking up my bravery, I leapt into the air, and glided down the side of the mountain toward his position. I landed close, but not too close. Near enough to recognize him by his eyes, and some of his more basic characteristics.

Even still, the match was not exact. His body was stronger than I remember. The scales on his skin made his entire frame appear to be more boxlike in construction.

His chest was bold, and his tale was thick at the base of his spine, and tapered off toward the end, some five or six feet away.

He looked deadly, and dangerous to be around. What made me feel more sad than anything else, was that I knew he looked like me.

"Impressed?" he asked, his teeth glinting in the light of the sun.

I was more than just impressed. He had me terrified.

I stared at him, with inspired awe in my eyes. The way that he held himself was so warlike, and majestic in this form. I was speechless.

"You may see me as something which is worthy of admiration, but I can't be anywhere as beautiful as yourself."

He smiled, though the smile was edged with teeth which made my heart race.

"The way that you soared through the air. It had been such a long time since I had seen you express your natural beauty like that; it really is something."

Now it was my turn to smile.

"It really is you, Thane. Once the compliments start flowing, it’s like honey for flies, isn't it?"

He had to laugh.

"You sound upset."

"Well, a lot of shit has happened since I saw you last. I don't even know what to make of all of it."

He nodded, like he already knew what I was going to say. The non-verbal cue that he was aware of the attack too me by surprise.

"There are a lot of changes on the horizon, Aria. I just want you to know how very much all of your work here means to us."

"Us?"

"The Fae race, though we won't be called that any longer when this is all over with."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean we won't be called that any--"

"Take a look around, and tell me what you see."

He gestured out over the barren landscape. Not a single thing covered the ground, save for cracks and rocks. The whole absence of life was disconcerting, in a strange way. I felt like the world was somehow incomplete."

"I see death."

He shook his head and grinned.

I hated it when he did that; behaved as though he knew something I didn't. It was one of his many secrets. The problem was that he was both so convincing, and well-informed that I really didn't know what to expect from him.

I shrugged.

"What do you see?"

"Potential," he said, smiling obligingly. "When I look around here, I see an emptiness. You had mentioned that it reminded you of death, but can death not also be a form of transition?"

He reminded me of a winged serpent, or a fallen angel. The reference was obviously to one of the more familiar trends of occultism and esoterica within the Capitol.

Ever since a relative peace had taken hold of the city, the people's thoughts had grown increasingly philosophical. As a result, everybody and their mother were collecting Tarot decks. The cards themselves had a long life in the human realm, but their magic was trans dimensional, as was their efficacy. The Tarot was a pictorial map of the mind of the gods; well, one of many.

"I understand, but both you and I know that your a man of action, and not metaphysical speculation."

"Ha ha! Exactly!"

"And what follows Death?"

I strained my memory for a moment to think of the answer.

"Fuck your games, Thane."

"Ah ah, keep your Temper."

He squatted down and began stretching his hulking frame along the ground. I wasn't sure if it was just my eyes, but the rocks of the mountain appeared to crack and break beneath the shifting of his movements. Suddenly, the answer came.

"Temperance."

"That's right, my dear. Temperance. Let not a soul say that you are an unreflective person, and what does that mean?"

He smiled at me, and I kicked him. I didn't even bother to restrain myself.

The blow connected squarely beneath his arm. He had anticipated my movements, and captured my leg. As easily as I had kicked him, he dove in the same direction as the arc of my kick. The physics of the maneuver were brilliant. Thane had always been an incredible fighter, but the resulting power in his new form was not something I was prepared to handle.

I was immediately swept off of my feet, and launched like a throwing hammer into the air away from Thane.

The damage was minimal, but what was truly incredible was how quickly I was able to react. My wings extended out to either side of my body and stabilized my fall. Without much effort at all, I was able to hover there in the air, just off the side of the mountain.

"Temperance, means the regeneration of health, toward a balance and equilibrium!"

He shouted the sentence, and when I looked at him, I saw how happy he was with himself.

"This, is what follows after Death!"

I lowered myself down to the plateau once more. The fight was not sincere. The whole process had been an elaborate form of demonstration. Nothing more. Meanwhile, Thane was gesturing toward me, like I was some divine revelation sent here to prove his point.

"Don't you see it?" he asked with complete earnest. "Your wings! The angels of mythology do not look as beautiful as you."

The flattery was nice, but I had seen my reflection in this world. We were once Fae, but there was something darker about this place. I wasn't convinced that this form of renewal was exactly what was meant by the ancient knowledge of the cards.

"One could never fault you for your ambition."

"Precisely! But tell me, what have I accomplished in any of the realms without you by my side?"

I thought about his statement for a moment, and then decided he was right, again.

I let out a sigh.

Telling Thane that he was right more than once in a row was a terrible idea, even if it was true. He saw my expression, and it was too late to conceal my thoughts.

"You know it's true, and what's more, is I know that you and I have the same set of values, even if we tend to express them differently."

"Nope. Not this time," I replied in all gravity. "You know very well that there are things that you have done recently that I want nothing to do with."

"Well, don't hold back now..."

He smiled again.

"Well, like cozying up to all of the politicians at the Capitol."

"Keep going."

"And, trading in your combat ethic for those ridiculous boots you always wore..."

"You didn't like my boots!"

I looked up at him to see if he was being serious or not, but there was a smirk on his face.

"You think this is funny?"

"Not at all. I think it's one hundred percent accurate. The problem is that while you are accurate, I feel like that was a necessary sacrifice that had to be made in order to get where we are now."

Once more, he gestured around the wasteland like it was some kingdom he had inherited. In the distance, I saw storm clouds begin to roll across the desert.

"What I don't think you realize is that this entire experience is an opportunity to end all of that trivial bullshit once and for all. We're going to wash away all of the self-righteous babble, and bring the Fae back to the state of power that we should enjoy."

"And what's the cost?"

"What do you mean cost?"

What cost could possibly be prohibitive to bring the Fae back to their rightful place in the world?"

"What possible cost would be too much to insure that each young Fae grows old in the knowledge that they will not be depotentiated in the name of progress?"

"Depotentiated, that's a bit of a soft word, don't you think?"

"Well, I was going to say castrated, but you've never had a problem with that."

Another smile.

"So... I'm going to go on a limb here and say that I'm dreaming, because the last time I saw you, you looked different, even though you sound the same."

As I spoke those word, I saw his body change once more, though this time, it wasn't a new body, it was a fluctuating form. Something dark took over his body, and he changed from a handsome demon, into a horrifying creature. I continued to stand boldly in front of him, and allowed no emotion to cross my face whatsoever.

"Soon, you and I will be able to assume our rightful place in the world once more. We were never meant for the Capitol. We were meant for greater things, and this is going to be the opportunity which changes all of that for you and I."

His smile was toxic now, and the light in his eyes had changed into an unnatural green flame.

"Storm's coming," I said, nodding behind him.

The darkened clouds had risen up in the sky like tidal wave about to crash over the entire valley. The crest of the wave was a magnificent face of darkness, soaring so high it threatened even to blot out the oppressive sun.

"And with the storm, there will be floods, destruction, and complete structural change. When it has passed, the landscape that you see here will be unrecognizable. We will move forward into a new era of equality. Our tortured planet no longer oppressed by the structures of the planes."

During that final sentence, Thane's voice changed, if only for a moment. Something else had come through in its entirety, leaving me to wonder if any of us truly knew what the consequences of this Rift might actually be.

"You know how much I value equality."

"Exactly! And soon enough, balance will be restored. When that happens... I want you by my side."

His eyes narrowed, and the vision faded. The final impression that I held was being overwhelmed by a wall of darkness, except for two glowing eyes.

When I woke up again, I found myself back in the car with Amethyst licking my face. Erol was technically in the back of the car, pulling some gear out from the rear of the truck. Rosemary was nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh, alright Amethyst, I get it. I'm up."

How long was I out? I thought, looking out at a darkened sky.

Around us, I saw the familiar trees of the redwoods, as well as more barren hillsides than before. Either a fire, deforestation, or higher altitude. I couldn't exactly tell which, because the only light wee had in that place came from the ignition of the car, and the headlamp that waved about erratically as Erol struggled with whatever he was working on in the back of the truck. I hopped out of the car, and Amethyst followed suit.

"What's going on?"

"Oh! You're up." "

The lamp shone right in my face for a moment, and then was diverted self-consciously to the side.

"Well, glad to see that you've at least gotten some rest. You really passed out for a while."

I nodded, and walked back toward where Erol was working to try and understand what he was hoping to accomplish.

"What's that?"

"Well, it’s an emergency tarp that I keep in the back, in case I get stranded, and need to camp outside of the car. Um. Basically, I was thinking that we may need to take a break from driving for a while, and recharge. You were already asleep, and when I looked at you, I saw that your neck was a bit cramped. I thought that with a solid place to lie down, both you and I might feel more rejuvenated with the continuation of our journey.

"You're setting up camp; that's all you needed to say, Erol."

From the looks of it, Erol was more struggling with bungee cords, and unkempt tarps than he was setting up a campsite.

"Looks like you're just making things difficult for yourself."

"Well, I wouldn't normally do this by myself, but the next site is quite a ways away, and I've been driving all day. I need a break, and it looked like you were ready for some kind of break as well."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You're serious?"

"Just get in the truck. Get in the truck, and I'll drive the rest of the way. You can sleep."

I left him standing there in the dark with a half folded tarp in his hands, and walked around to the driver’s side of the car. He stood there for a minute, and then figured it was an easier decision than not. The tarp was folded up and both of the dogs were inside of the cab once more, sitting on Erol's lap.

"I swear... I will never understand how your brain works. Are all humans this insufferable?"

The keys were left in the ignition, and the truck turned on quickly; ready to continue forward in its journey.

"So where do I go from here?"

"Well, the next place I have in mind is not so much of a theoretical location for a portal event, but a place of great potential."

"Straight, left, right... directions, Erol."

"Right, oh. I mean straight. Go straight."

We were moving forward soon enough, at which point Erol revealed to me that we were moving northwest.

Our destination was a secluded beach somewhere northwest of our current position. He theorized that due to the excessive flush of psilocybin in that area every year around this time, it would be a favorable location for a portal to open. In addition to the flora, he also had some mathematical calculations which integrated Ley Line analysis of the region, along with the other 'documented' instances of portals within his research.

I tried to tell him that none of his research was legitimately 'documented', because if it were, he wouldn't be massaging Rita to pay his bills.

Naturally, his response to that was less than favorable, but I didn't press the point. I needed him to take us there, and there was no use in pushing any more criticism in his direction than necessary.

For a long while, I sat there, staring at the highway, and listening to talk radio. The stories were mildly interesting, as were the responses of the callers, but they weren't interesting enough to hold my entire attention. The only purpose that they actually managed to serve was separating myself from the silence that threatened to swallow the car in my isolation.

Before passing out himself, Erol had informed me of the highways to keep an eye out for, as well as a few major landmarks that would indicate we were headed in the right direction. The trip would take all night, and I would be driving for the rest of the time if I had anything to say about it.

I had the unshakable feeling like we were headed for a trap. Some terrible situation was about to unfold; yet there was no alternative available to either of us. We needed to move forward into the unknown and deal with whatever savage consequences existed before us. Meanwhile, all that was asked of me was to keep my eyes on the road, and maintain consciousness while the dogs and my passenger slept in the cab.

I had a hard time feeling anything but contempt for the man, but I got the feeling that it wasn't so much contempt that I was feeling, but frustration on a larger scale which was lashing out wherever it could. I was so unbelievably bitter, angry and depressed, that the full magnitude of it couldn't even be expressed coherently. All I could do was stick to the task at hand, and deal with whatever emotions were most aggressively emergent.

In all reality, Erol really wasn't a bad guy at all.

He was good looking, compassionate, intelligent, intuitive, and let's face it, even if he was driven in a way that the rest of his society didn't support, you couldn't exactly call him unmotivated. The way he laid down there with his dogs gave me plenty to think about, as I wondered what his life had been like before I showed up and made things more complicated for him.

And more complicated yet, I thought.

By the time this was all over, I had some serious doubts as to where he would find himself. Then again, none of us really knew what would happen when, and if the portal could actually be opened. As far as I was aware, the only information we actually had was some combination of actual experience and theoretical knowledge. The problem was that neither of us had experience with opening the portal for any extended period of time. There was no way of knowing what would happen.

My thoughts were interrupted by the strangest conversation coming out of the speakers of the car.

"You know when I wake up at night, and I look out the window, I see her and she's there waiting for me."

"Who's that? Whose there waiting for you?"

"They are. The people. The people of light. They are asking me questions, and hoping that I do good things for them, and I just want them to know that I'm doing my best. I am doing everything I can and I don't know what to say about it except that the dark ones."

"The dark ones?"

"That's right, I call them the shadow people."

"Are these actual people?"

"Well, no. I'm not talking about humans. These are extra-dimensional beings that a previous incarnation of the government came into contact with. They are not who they say they are... I can't trust them."

"Sounds difficult... are you all right where you are at right now. Are you safe?"

"Well, of course. I'm here by my bed. I've got one standing in the corner of the room, and one standing on the side. They are telling me they live here, and that this is their home too."

"So, they aren't doing anything to harm you, and they live there. Have you told them to go to the light?"

"I tried, and they laughed at me."

"The laugh, is it an audible laugh?"

"No, it sounds like the scratching of leaves against a frosted window...."

"Gods, that's enough."

I reached my hand out and switched off the dial. The absence of noise caused Rosemary to get up and look at me. She blinked lazily, and then settled down again.

"So much for the radio, can't believe you listen to that shit."

I didn't expect Erol to be up, but as soon as I spoke, he got up with a groan and a yawn.

"It's nice to know that there are others out there even crazier than myself."

His statement gave me pause.

"Gets lonely working on portal theories, and meditations on the paranormal. I need some company, and so I turn to the radio in order to find what I'm looking for. The strangest part about that entire conversation is that is just some snippet from someone's life."

"You were awake for that?"

"Sure. I was awake enough to listen. I allow myself to drift off like that, and the radio keeps me company. Of course not while I'm driving, but since you're taking care of that..."

I strained my mind to wonder what it was exactly that the man on the radio had been experiencing, but I couldn't come to any sort of conclusions. Erol must have known what I was thinking, because he responded to my unvoiced question.

"The problem is that most psychic phenomenon is a subjective experience. It's all dependent on the way that a person interprets information that enters their perception. It could very well be that a shadow person and a woman of light were taking up space in that man's room. The problem is that not everybody is even open to those sorts of possibilities, and so there is an inherent loneliness in experiencing psychic phenomenon. When you factor in the subjectivity of interpretation, all of the sudden, we are in territory that is even more isolating."

I nodded.

"So, you get aliens, angels, ancestors..."

"And all the rest of it. The point is, we have no idea what is on the other side of all of these experiences. All we have is the figurative finger pointing at the moon."

"I understand."

"That's why I think this mission we are on right now is so important. The entire premise here is that we might be able to create an opening between dimensions. The hope is that it changes something, and makes it so that people don't have to believe that people are crazy just because they are having psychic experiences. If I'm correct in my theory, I think we will all come to accept psychic experiences as an aspect of life, not as some unique phenomenon, or indicator of insanity."

I was stunned.

"I can't believe it..."

"What's that?"

"The audacity of males is cross-dimensional."

He had a good laugh about that, which was nice to hear. I was being completely serious, but it was nice to at least see some element of comfort in the situation. The laughter was short-lived, leaving us in the darkness of the car once more, but it was a moment.

"You know, I have the feeling that the audacity is complimented equally by some level of sacrifice that we are never fully aware of until it happens."

"Try not to complain too much for me."

"Oh, I'm not intending to be sexist. Women definitely have their own sacrifices that they need to make over the course of their lives. I just think that more often than not, men are called to make sacrifices that are more physical in nature; usually more permanent."

"Are you afraid?"

He shrugged, and winced involuntarily.

"I've had a few dreams. Nothing that prevents me from wanting to move forward, but I consider them to be warnings. Dreams are powerful things, and I don't think it is ever wise to ignore them."

"You know, I'm familiar enough with your culture to know that most of your stories have been written by men."

"Interesting, but I don't think it negates my statement."

I grinned.

"You would think that."

This brought out another laugh, though, this time it was less severe than the first. Both Amethyst and Rosemary were up for the occasion. Amethyst was even wagging her tail back and forth against the rear cab of the truck.

"If you see history, and the mythological process of storytelling as an anthropological record of the psyche of the storytellers, and the storytellers were predominately men, that doesn't preclude these records as being used to assemble an archetype of male experience. It might prevent anyone from talking about ‘human’ or ‘female’ experience, but one would hope that over enough time, something would have been distilled there, inside of those stories."

"Like the Tarot."

He nodded.

"Exactly. A pictorial account of human behavior throughout the ages."

I didn't bother to tell him that instead of being centered within a masculine viewpoint, he was also now centering himself within a human viewpoint. The point seemed moot, as I doubted he could have expressed his thoughts in any other way.

"Do you even know who I am, or where I'm from?"

Another smile, though this one was a bit more sad than the last.

"I see what you and I are doing as an adventure. Imagine you were driving late at night, and you were listening to a radio show..."

"And I heard you talking about how you went to discover a portal between dimensions with some type of alien visitor..."

A smile brought a squint to my eyes.

"You're right. People would think you were crazy."

"So I accept what ever is happening, and hope that at the end of it all, there's going to be something there worth while for me."

"Hm. You're just the passenger. Not a bad way to deflect responsibility."

"C'mon, let's roll down the window and put on some tunes."

"And Everything Looks Good Tonight..."

"La La La La La La La La..."

The dogs joined in, and we both sang the chorus. Sacrifices would most certainly be asked. No story was complete without them.

For the moment, I knew he was right.

No reason not to enjoy it while it lasted.

"Well, we're here."

"We may have bonded this trip, but that doesn't give you permission to make inane statements of observation."

"Oh, right, gotcha. You get to play a hardass now that you've been behind the wheel all night."

I let the response slide, and did my best to appreciate the scenery.

Our final destination was more beautiful than I had anticipated. There was definitely something magical about those beaches. The stones on the ground looked like they were made of gems. Some of the stones were pitch black, others were blue, green, and rose colored; all of them were smooth enough to where you could see your reflection in them if you squatted down toward the ground.

The sound of the waves and the wind provided a backdrop for the birds of early morning. We were there at dawn, and the sun rose behind us in the sky. Light shot outward toward the ocean, and I smiled thinking about how beautiful the sunset was going to be later on that night.

Assuming we make it that long...

The thought came into my head unbidden. There was no reason to believe that all safety and beauty should dissipate throughout the course of the day, but still I felt uncomfortable. I couldn't tell if it was because I was operating on a lack of sleep, or if it was because of some more legitimate reason. I was certain that our arrival meant my full awareness was necessary.

The memory of the dream from the day before was still fresh in my mind. The sun of the demon world cast a dark shadow in my thoughts. The soft glow of these coastal dunes at dawn was much more to my liking.

"Now what?"

I turned away from the lapping waves to find Erol was carefully attending to his rats.

They were running along his shoulders while his arms were spread outward from his body. Both dogs scampered around him and barked playfully at their master. He looked so loved, and yet he was alone.

I walked over closer, and gave Amethyst a scratch between the ears. She pounced after a stick on the ground and brought it to me expectantly.

"Did you hear me?" I asked, as I threw the stick into the ocean.

He started to speak, but was interrupted by a sharp bark from Rosemary.

The cry surprised both of us, and we watched as the dog positioned itself between the truck and a figure that was standing on the edge of the dunes.

"Rosemary.... Hush!"

Amethyst came back drenched in seawater, only to drop the stick at my side, and lower her gaze in the direction of the figure on the hill. Amethyst's stance grew closer to the ground, and a low growl came out from her throat.

"I think we've found out where we need to go."

Even as I spoke, the figure fled from the hill, opting to disappear backward into the depths of the sand dunes.

"You think following them is a good idea?"

His voice was laced with reservation. He didn't want to have another episode like the restaurant any more than I did. Still, I shook my head.

"I don't think it's going to be like that. If they wanted to attack, they would have done so already. Our guard was down. We need to follow."

Whether or not the decision to follow was an aspect of the will of fate, or not was not a concern for me. I had my own questions to answer, and I had a suspicion that the if we moved in the direction that this stranger lead us toward, I might find more than just the answers to my questions. I would find the transfer point. The portal used by the Wilder Fae to track us down.

I had been too blind before to piece things together. The battle had been too shocking.

“Put your stuff away, Erol, and stay with the dogs. I need to have a word with this stranger.”

“What if they come back while you’re gone?”

“Like I said, if they wanted you dead, you would already be gone. I’ll be back shortly.“

I sprinted off in the direction of the figure. They already had a fair enough start on me, but I had a feeling that we would talk soon. You don’t make yourself known unless you wish to be known — especially if you are the Wilder Fae.

My feet sank into the sand, and I could feel the grains of sand on the dunes slip in-between my toes. My muscles burned as I ascended the hill, but the exertion felt good. I smiled, thinking about how cramped my legs had gotten after driving all night. An early morning run was exactly what I needed to wake my body up again.

When I arrived at the top of the dune, I noticed that the figure I was chasing had left footprints along the crest of the next dune, which lead toward a hill. I accommodated for the change in trajectory, and made it my goal to balance along the crest of the dune with each footfall.

Scanning the peaks of the dunes, in mid sprint, I saw my target ahead of me by forty yards or so. All of the time I had spent in training came back to me, and my body assumed the position of peak physical performance.

The landscape around me came into hyper focus, and I became incredibly sensitive to the most subtle changes in the shape of the dune.

I wanted my feet to land at precisely the right angle, allowing me to minimize drag in the sand, and make up the distance left to cover.

The dunes went on for a half-mile or so, before transferring into more stable ground. The trade off was that instead of negotiating the surface of the dunes, the chase would lead up the trail toward a set of beachside cliffs.

My breath ran heavily, and my vision started to go soft. At that moment, I had only one goal:

I had to capture that person and make them answer for the intrigue surrounding the attack at the restaurant.

A leap from the final crest of the sand dune left me skidding down the side of the final hill. At the base of the dune, the ground assumed a different texture as I climbed upward on the hill toward the sea cliffs. The sand had been replaced by a more firm foundation. In addition to the foundational changes of the soil, sparse, wind-blown trees began to crop up on either side of the trail.

Through the switchbacks, I sprinted up the hill, until the trees around had grown tense enough to provide a semblance of protection. That coverage was all that the Wild Fae needed to deceive me in my pursuit. While I ran headfirst up the hill, I was tackled from behind by the very figure I had chased.

The impact threw me off balance, and I fell face first into the ground. My body burned from the abrasions on my skin. I also lost what breath was inside of my body while my assailant brought their entire weight down on my chest cavity.

Stars exploded in my vision, and for a moment, I lost all context. My body was little more than a vector for confusion and pain in that moment.

Without wasting any time, my attacker wrapped a cord around my throat, and pinned my shoulders to the ground with their knees. I struggled, and bucked my hips, but the more I thrashed around, the tighter the cord grew on my skin. I flailed around for a moment longer, refusing to give into the submission.

Then everything went black.

I woke up with cords wrapped tightly around my body. My neck ached, and my jaw was spread wide by rope. When I spoke, the words only came out as muffled yelps, but that was enough to let my captor know that I was conscious.

The figure I had chased was alone, by all appearances. More of them could have been waiting in the trees beyond. My wits were not the sharpest they had ever been. I was both fatigued, and in physical pain, but I was alive, and that counted for something.

"You don't recover nearly as quickly as you used to..."

My vision blurred, and I looked at the figure standing in front of me.

They were dressed in the garb of the Wilder Fae Assassins.

Dark green clothes.

Masks covering their faces, but their bodies displayed alluringly for all to envy. This one was a woman, and she looked not only beautiful, but also highly capable. I realized then, that even if I had not been in a state of fatigue, I would have had difficulty matching myself against her prowess.

While we all had trained hard during the years of conflict in the Revolution, the Wilder Fae had always trained. They exercised and ate like warriors even in times of peace, so that if, and when -- for it was always a when -- conflict arose, they would be prepared to do what was necessary to protect their way of life.

The Wilder Fae were some of the fiercest allies during the time of the Revolution, but they were also some of the most philosophically stoic. Their separatist attitudes protected them from getting caught up in the nationalistic self-righteousness that infected both the Revolutionary Troops, and Xan's Army.

The only reason they had become involved in the war was to protect their won autonomy. Anything beyond that, was never acknowledged. As a result, a great many of the Revolutionary Army soldiers never quite found it inside of themselves to trust the Wilder Fae with any aspect of battle at all. Even when the sacrifice of the Wilder Fae saved countless lives, and enabled the support and tactical knowledge necessary for us to survive the final battle against Xan.

I stopped moaning, and allowed myself to find a sense of composure. I knew that whatever this one wanted to talk about, it must have been important. I also noted that I was not dead... which meant that there was a great deal for me to learn from what they might have to share.

"Aria, you don't recover quite as quickly as you used to."

I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out who it was that spoke to me. The mask extinguished all defining characteristics of the face, and the eyes were not familiar enough to me to do any good.

"Don't try figuring out who I am. If I wanted to tell you that, you would already know. Just as if I wanted to kill you, you would already be done.

I'm aware of your mission into the Material Plane, and I'm also aware of the good intentions you have for moving forward. You are a strong and noble warrior; you always have been. In fact, this is the only reason you are alive right now.

I've come here to tell you that the reasons behind your current mission are not what they seem to be. Mistakes that you make will cause traumas to ripple outward across all dimensions. Our seers have warned us of your ignorance, which is why the plot had been formed against you and the human in your care."

At the mention of Erol, my eyes lit up again, and pain flashed across my face.

"No need to worry. The human has been drugged, and sleeps now by the sea, in the company of his animals. At this point, the only person you should be concerned about is yourself."

At this, she produced a knife which I knew to be wickedly sharp. She grabbed the knife by the hilt and began to press it slowly into my mouth. As the blade touched each cord, they were severed, without so much as a fraction of hesitation. The cords did not stand a chance against the edge of that blade. One by one, the thin cords snapped, each time relieving pressure on my jaw. I began to sweat, as the blade inched close and closer into my mouth. My muscles twitched with involuntary fear at the prospect of the sadistic intent of this rogue fae.

When the last cord was slit, I felt the blade just brush the side of my lip as the woman pulled the knife out from my mouth. The taste of blood seeped into my mouth, and I licked my lips subconsciously in an effort to heal this tiny wound.

"You killed a good friend of mine, and I would be happy to feed your blood to the hillside."

The statement was not a threat, but a cold and soberly delivered fact.

"Then why don't you?"

The woman hung her head for a moment, and then raised it up toward me once more. When she saw me again, she had a smile on her lips. The smile was one of a person who has inside information that they will never share. I myself have smiled that way at people in the past. The smile is one that says, ‘I know why, but you'd never believe me’.

"Let's just say you and I are little more than character being moved along by the hand of fate, and right now, it is not my responsibility to kill you, though at some point, it most definitely might be."

"Why not do it now, and save yourself the trouble?"

"For the same reason you wouldn't... which is perhaps another reason why I'm going to let you go."

"Doesn't make sense," I began. "If you were going to let me go in the first place, why go to the troub--"

*SLAP*

"Next time, I'll use the flat of my blade..."

Too cocky. I was getting too cocky.

"You are bright, and that has served you well, but you are dealing in matters that are far outside of your comprehension. I have brought you here to deliver you a warning."

The way she glared at me, I felt the heat of her stare burn through any defenses that I might have possessed.

"Do not forget where you have come from, as you move forward on your path. If you do, I swear to every one of the Gods that my blade will taste your blood once more -- and this time, I will let it drink its fill."

My lip stung as a subtle reminder as the woman backed away from the tree.

"If you and I have reached an understanding, I will take you and your friend to the portal you seek."

I was cut free from my bondage. What's more is I was gifted the very dagger that loosed my bonds.

"For you to remember all of the potential behind the power you possess."

"Or to stab you in the back..."

She didn't respond, she only walked through the underbrush, back toward the trail we had both ascended. She walked in front of me without fear. Of course the inclination to strike out at her would be there. She had totally and completely caught me. There was no other way of seeing the situation. The grace had to do with how she treated me after I was captured.

Ultimately, I realized she had actually given me a gift, in her own way.

The descent back down to the dunes was slow and contemplative. She was in no obvious hurry. What's more is that the sun was already low in the sky by the time we slid down the dunes that lead back toward the beach. In the lapse of consciousness, we had lost an entire day.

In the distance, both dogs started hollering at us, announcing our presence.

As though the dogs themselves had awakened Erol from whatever spell he was under, I watched as he sat up in the back of the truck. Amethyst ran up to see me, and stopped short of our approach. Her ears lay flat on her head, and she growled, but there was an air of uncertainty in her tone.

"Give it up Amethyst... we can't always win."

I got a small yelp in response, and our new 'guide' received nothing more than a sharp snorting blow from Amethyst's nose. Figuring she was as satisfied as she was going to get, she bounded back to Rosemary and Erol, communicating her concerns the entire time.

"Amethyst... that's enough girl."

When the two of us approached, both Rosemary and Erol were wary about our approach.

"How long was I asleep?"

"You slept the entire day," the woman responded. 'I had to have a word with your friend here in private. Your dogs kept you company."

"You poisoned me?"

"Best to let that one go, Erol."

He looked somewhat confused, and uncomfortable, then relented and sat down on the bed of his truck.

"Good. Now that we're all together, I have a few announcements. Erol. The information that got you here was sufficient, but you are going to need something else if you want to move forward. That information is what I am prepared to offer the two of you. You are both free to take the information or leave it. At this point, I am one hundred percent detached from whatever future you two choose to bring about."

"That's a lie."

"I didn't say I would remain detached."

"Exactly one hour ago, the two of you were dosed with the most potent psilocybin that grow in this region. Your psyches, as well as your physiologies are different, so I would not expect that the remainder of the night would be similar by any stretch of the phrase for either of you. However..." She took a long breath, and let her chest and shoulders fall into a relaxed and composed position."… they are certain to be highly formative. May the gods show you the way forward. I will lead the two of you toward your final destination. You will come together to perform the magic necessary to open the portal, and the hand of fate will guide you further from that place. May the gods care for us all."

"You aren't going to tell us your name?"

"I need no name, as to you, I am no more than Psychopomp."

"You mean to say we are going to the realm of the dead?"

"And beyond, is my hope."

The sun was already inches away from kissing the horizon. Stretching out over the vanishing point, brilliant hues of red, pink, and violet spread throughout the air. When the sun hit clouds, the light reflected and modified its appearance even more; creating one of the most beautiful sunsets I had seen in my entire life.

"Come, quickly. Leave everything behind. We will need to hurry if we want to get to the peak before the sun sets. If one is going to initiate the catalyst for Ragnorok, one might as well do it with auspicious timing."

"You think this is the end of the world?"

"It's the Death archetype, Erol. We are moving toward a closure of one mode of experience, and pushing into the next."

The words had been straight from my memory of Thane. Whatever synchronicities were guiding this moment, were far too ironic for my own liking.

"Very rarely does the Death card actually mean someone's physical demise, though that is something that has surrounded your movements thus far."

Her ominous warning echoed in the back of our minds as we followed her up the same trail I had ascended earlier. I realized that in my haste, I had missed out on the beauty of the area. The grasslands that jutted out from between dunes contained a mixture of soil that was conducive toward the growing of bright blue fungi.

"These are the clue," Erol said, mostly to himself.

The dogs padded along after us, and the rats were left to sit in the truck, alongside whatever gear Erol may have had the presence of mind to bring. We were on our own now, and on our way, even if we now kept stranger company than before.

Right when we started walking past the final area of the trail that I remembered before the assault, my vision began to shift. The world around me grew more vivid, and I felt an incredible burst of energy growing inside of my body. The fatigue that I had felt previously was gone, and I was left in a state of nervous arousal.

The fluctuation in my energetic state seemed to be tied directly to fluctuations in my field of vision as well. As I grew more and more aware, the world around me seemed to arc, and glow with the colors of the sunset. Leaves, that had moments before, been the colors of the changing of the season, now caught a light which brought them to life beyond my wildest imagination.

The hillside was on fire, yet none of it would burn up.

We were walking within a perpetually renewing world. In spite of the fact that we marched on toward the embrace of some form of death, the earth itself was reminding me, in its own morbid way, to be at peace.

I tried to understand what Erol was going through at that time, but could not.

He had withdrawn into himself, and stuck close to the two dogs which walked close by his side. I could tell by his expression that he was bewildered by his experience, but no more information was made clear to me. I realized in that moment just how little I had endeavored to connect with Erol, during my time here on the Material Plane.

A sense of guilt and frustration came over me, as I realized that to me, Erol had been nothing more than a tool to achieve my own ends. The questioning of my own assumptions meant that I could no longer be sure about whatever purpose I had set out for in this world. I could no longer be content to think of myself as a savior of the Fae race, or some agent sent on behalf of a failing government.

I had my own agency to worry about, and I would be held accountable for my own decisions in life, not the decisions I made in the name of some cause or paradigm.

One foot moved in front of the other, and the world around me grew darker with each step.

At the next opportunity, I stared off into the sunset in order to verify my delusions.

Was the sun actually setting?

Were we missing our key opportunity?

The glance revealed that while the sun was setting, it had far from disappeared behind the horizon. As a matter of fact, it appeared that only my eyes had grown more acutely sensitive to the light of the world.

When I looked forward, and saw our nameless leader, they seemed somehow more familiar than before. I recalled a moment from years ago when I had walked behind a figure such as this with Thane at my side instead of Erol.

Then everything came flooding back to me.

The fire that surrounded us came from the preliminary attack from Xan's army. The knowledge that I was moving forward, walking to my death. The feeling that I would be held accountable for my actions regardless of which side of the conflict I was on.

"It's all cyclical."

The woman turned her head toward me and grinned, though I could not see her face, I knew her expression from the light reflecting in her eyes. She knew where we had come from, and it seemed like she knew exactly what each of us would be getting out of this experience. There were things that she understood that she was not telling us, critical information about the events that would unfold.

She knew everything, but then again...

Then, as I saw her, and my conceptions began to change, so did she.

Instead of seeing a woman who was masterfully leading us down the road of our fate. Instead of seeing some puppeteer, I saw a woman who was brave enough to let us make our own decisions, instead of pushing forward toward some private goal, she was allowing others to play their role within the greater theater. We were all moving forward together. I realized that I was both correct, and incorrect.

What was more important was that I realized how impressionable my thoughts were as I worked to understand the world around me.

"I thought you knew what was going to happen, before it did."

The woman let out a long exhale, and composed herself. "I have an idea of what might come to pass, because I know what is needed to achieve that which you are searching for. However, I can't know the future any more than anybody else. As a matter of opinion, I sincerely doubt that any one of us can actually know the past."

"I remember you," I said, without hesitation.

"No you don't," she replied in an instant. "You remember impressions which lead up to the most traumatic experience of your life. Many Fae lost something precious that day, and you were one of those cases of interminable suffering."

"Your vision of the world in the past is just as narrow as your vision of the world in the present, and it's not your fault, though you could work to change it if you liked."

"How do you mean?"

She shook her head, and remained silent.

You already know, came a voice in my mind, as clear as anything she could have expressed in her words.

I struggled for a moment, and nearly fell faint on the trail.

"How did you do that? I closed those off years ago."

"Let's be real about it," she replied, her voice audible this time. "You put up very weak defenses of denial and isolation. Your abilities may have atrophied, but you have everything you need inside of you."

It was too much. The pain was fresh, and my reality continued to shift toward reliving the traumas of the past. I lost touch of where and when I was. The hillsides seemed unstable in my mind, and I couldn't tell if I was living in my memories, or my mission on the Material Plane.

From behind me, I heard the sound of a bark.

Leaning down to the ground, Amethyst came up to me and licked my face graciously. The warm, wet and enthusiastic affection of the dog brought me back to reality. For a moment, I was able to center myself again; though I realized in that moment just how easy it would be to slip into madness and trauma.

"If you must choose to be irresponsible, at least do yourself the favor of not lying to yourself."

Looking up in that moment, I saw Erol's sympathetic face.

He offered a hand, and pulled me up to my feet. His eyes were full of compassion, and I got the sense that while he didn't know what I was going through, he was suspending his own difficulties in order to care for my own. I felt selfish, but his smile dismissed those thoughts from my mind.

"We're almost there."

The message was simple enough. When I turned to face the peak of the cliffs, I could see the sun was more than halfway set behind the horizon line. The colors had changed from vibrant pinks and violets to a blood red sphere of fire that was sinking into the sea.

Our guide pushed forward, unheeding of my troubles. Her callousness brought me to hate her, but it was only a passing feeling. I saw her in that moment as the being she was. Her own hurts, and insecurities were as apparent to me as anything else in the vivid world that I occupied. I nodded, and followed her lead toward the top of cliffs.

Within a minute, we were on top of this hill, looking west, over the sea. The peak housed rocky soil, and a lonely, wind-blown tree whose roots dug fiercely into the side of the cliff. I felt the wind beating on my face, and heard the sound of the waves echo up the walls of the cliffside.

"Remove your clothes. Here you will open the portal."

She brought the two of us together like we were getting married.

When I raised my head up to look him in the eyes, I saw that he was turning his gaze elsewhere. A rich crimson glow filled his cheeks, and lines of worry wrinkled his brow.

"Cut it out..."

I had to tell him to come off it. There wasn't any room in our experience for that kind of bashful shit. I may have been feeling a bit nervous myself, but this wasn't the first time that I had been called to share my body in the line of duty.

"You'll enjoy it more if you don't think about it too much."

"Actually, I don't think that's going to work this time."

He caught me off guard, once more. I had pinned him for a total and complete wimp of a man. There must have been some kind of internalized prejudice there, because I totally misunderstood his statement.

"I've done research into this sort of thing. Using Sex as a mechanism for opening portal has a historical precedent. The problem is that you need to be one hundred percent present with the other person during the entire experience. There can't be any second-guessing about your intentions either. If you want this to work, we had better take it seriously."

"Now, human, you're running out of time."

Our guide brought us back into the present moment.

Realizing that I needed to take charge of the situation, I dove forward and grabbed a hold of his shirt with both hands. My push forward knocked him on the ground. Straddling him, I pushed our lips together and pulled the first kiss out of him with willpower alone.

I could feel something inside of him begin to unlock as he indulged in his senses. The kiss had been uncomfortable at first. but as soon as he opened up to me, I felt the first exchanges of passion starting to flow between the two of us.

He hooked his thumbs around my waistband, and began to tug on my skirt. The fabric slid easily over my hips, but I wanted him to work harder than that. My hand reached up by its own and grabbed his arm. I pinned him to the ground, and pressed my hips against his.

He grew hard beneath my body, and began straining against me, finally pushing back and giving me some of his actual strength.

That's right...

If I thought of this man as weak, I would never respect him as a person. I needed him to want me so badly that he couldn't control himself. When he felt that way about me, I needed him to be so in control of his emotions that he treated me with love, even as he fucked me raw.

Some men don't require any sort of cajoling in order to reach this state.

Others, like Erol, and likely like every single philosophically inclined male we were engendering with the new Fae society, need you to push and prod them until they finally give in and share themselves with you. There is something about them that is defective and insincere in their sensitivity; almost like they are afraid to actually sexually express themselves.

I can't tolerate that kind of fear in a lover.

He must have picked up on whatever form of derision I was directing his way because, something in his eyes changed. He began to push back on me, even going as far as to lift his knee up between me legs and press up against my crotch. I leaned in to give him another kiss, and he kissed me, but he also bit me on the lip. I tore away from his kiss, and slapped him hard across the face.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

I only shrugged, and glared at him, imperiously pinning his body down on the floor with my thighs on either side of his body. Given the size of his frame and his muscular capacity, he could have probably flipped me over on my side if he knew how to handle himself, or had the will to do so, but he wasn't there yet.

Our guide, who was sitting along the sidelines, watching all of this without the slightest trace of amusement attempted to clarify my position.

"She wants you to love her without restraint."

I couldn't have said it any more plainly, and was honestly grateful that I didn't have to say anything to him in the first place. He didn't quite flash on it right away, and had to be encouraged by the guide once more.

"Try not holding back."

As though those words held some secret over him, he reached his leg up over my neck, and pushed me down toward the ground. The move was obviously born out of frustration and ingenuity, as it was effective, though only for a moment.

He pulled himself into a sit-up position while strengthening the hold he had on my upper body. I tried to arch my back away from him, and ended up placing my crotch right at his fae.

The struggle had pushed my skirt up over my thighs, so he had little trouble pulling my thighs apart and tasting me.

As soon as his tongue made contact, I lost a critical component of my resolve. Just feeling the pleasure of possibility weakened my defense against him. He seized ahold of that weakness and grabbed ahold of my thighs with both of his arms, holding himself in a position to lick at my body, while still struggling to hold my upper body down to the ground. The position was unsustainable though, and ultimately not worthwhile for me, no matter how good it felt. I needed more from him if this was going to work.

My hand reached upward in the space between our bodies, until I found his cock. He was still clothed, but I could fondle him through his pants. Just reaching out to touch him melted his resolve slightly, which was all I needed to turn the position backward on himself.

While Erol may have had size and passion, I had the benefit of tactical training. Wrestling with men who wanted to fuck me was not something that was new to me.

Thane and I had given each other plenty of practice during our time in the core; this guy didn't have a chance.

With his back on the ground, I was free to lower my clit down toward his mouth. He was happy to have something to focus on, and eagerly began to lap at my body once more. In the meanwhile, I was free to unbutton his pants, and pull them down around his ass. The struggle was momentary, but the reward was great.

I had always heard that human men were more well endowed than Fae men, though the few times I had indulged in the pleasure, I guess I had been looking for all the wrong men. He was hard, and when released from his pants, his cock sprang upward and hit me in the face.

He was warm, and smooth. I bit my lip, and savored the feeling of the head of his dick on the side of my cheek. I could feel the blood pumping through his body. I had to swallow in anticipation as my mouth was already salivating at the thought of bringing him inside of me. My lips parted for a taste, while my hand wrapped around the girth of his shaft. I had to stretch my jaw just to fit him inside of me.

My entire experience became strictly sensual as soon as my lips wrapped around him. Being eaten out is one thing, but getting head while giving head is something else entirely.

I was free to spread my legs and totally let go, while I focused on more pressing matters. In the meanwhile, tiny ripples of stress relief passed through my body from between my hips to the crown of my head.

I worked the length of his cock with my hand, surrendering my saliva as an offering to his body. Each time his heartbeat pulsed inside of my mouth, I lost a bit of my drive to control or dominate him. The games I had played with him earlier seemed to be petty, to mean nothing at all. The only thing I wanted at that moment was to be closer to him.

His testicles were soon swollen with arousal. I pushed my fingers into the crevices of his body, and held onto the muscles and flesh that I found there. His cock went deeper into my mouth, and pressed up against the back of my throat. When his lips closed around my clit, and began to pull, I pressed my head down and took all of him.

Mirroring my movements, he pressed his nose below my clit, and fucked me with his tongue. The effect wasn't quite the same, but I appreciated the passion and the intent. Reaching a hand behind my back, I grabbed a hold of his hair and pulled him toward my body I wanted his face pressed as far up against my body as he could stand. I held him there for as long as my lips were brushing up against the hair at the base of his cock.

With a gasp, I released my hold on him, watching as his body reappeared from my lips. He was hard, and dripping with saliva. My hands gravitated back toward his cock, and I stroked him from top to bottom.

I pushed his pants down around his ankles and quickly positioned myself over his hips. I faced away from him, and squatted down over his dick. The two of us were already dripping wet, and our bodies joined together with no resistance at all. On one side of me, our guide was on the ground with her legs spread, pleasuring herself. She rubbed her clit, and stared shamelessly in our direction, touching her breasts with one hand while supporting herself with the other.

When she saw me, she smiled, and nodded to the other side of my body, where the cliff fell off into the sea.

The light had been changing while the two of us had spent time playing around. Now, instead of a deep crimson, the sky was fast becoming a dark purple. The gradient faded into a tiny point of flame somewhere on the distance. I stared at the sun while it disappeared behind the horizon line, refusing to blink for as long as I could stand it. I wanted the last images of that sunset to burn themselves into my retina while I built myself to orgasm.

Erol's fingertips brought me back into reality. They were not the gentle touch of a considerate lover, but the urgent hold of someone lost in the throes of passion. He held ahold of my hips, digging his nails into my skin while I rode his cock. I made a point of slowing down at that point, really savoring each inch of him as I rocked my hips back and forth on his body.

I found that if I arched my back just so, I could press my clit up against the bottom of his shaft, while the rest of him massaged the inside of my body. The two of us were connected in a way that I had needed desperately for the better part of a year. I wanted to give every single bit of my attention to the smallest details of our interaction, but a part of me wanted only to devour his body within mine.

The hunger grew inside of me, and I began to slide him more sharply inside of me. I slammed backward on his cock, and forward once more; each time trying to push him deeper. My only focus was on getting more of him, so I had hardly noticed his hands gripping upward on my body.

He pulled at my breasts, and brought himself upward so that his body was flush with mine. With timing that any warrior would have envied, he pulled to the side and twisted me off of his center of balance. The move was subtle, but just strong enough to push me backward and twist me onto my hands and knees.

Wasting no time whatsoever, he grabbed a hold of my hips and pushed his cock back inside of me. The thrust was strong, and the force pushed my torso down onto the ground. My breasts scratched up against the ground of the cliffside, and my mouth opened wide - gasping for air. With my eyes dilated and my gaze on the horizon, I finally felt well-fucked.

My ears were full of the sounds of wet bodies slapping up against one another. No matter where my mind went, I was wrenched back to the immediacy of the moment.

This was my body that was being ravaged.

The sound was of my own sopping wet body being pulled and pushed to the brink of orgasm.

Erol reached up and grabbed a handful of hair by the roots. His body was close to mine, and the sheen of sweat that began forming on our bodies caused him to slip along my ass and lower back as slickly as his dick pushed into me. He yanked hard and pain brought me back into the present moment. My fingers wrapped around my clit, and I began rubbing myself furiously.

"OOoh!"

As though my moan was a question to be answered, he let go of my hair and slapped my ass. His other hand remained rooted along the base of my spine.

"GAh! Don't stop... I'm gonna cum," I begged him in spite of myself.

Being well fucked had reduced me to a level of submission I didn't frequent very often. Every sound that came out from my lips was a plea for release. Another slap on my ass was followed by one final push. I felt the climax in my heart before anything else took place. Biting my lip, I strained my fingers against my clit, and then broke.

"NOW!" the guide shouted.

My senses were overwhelmed, but I did my best to focus on the magic necessary to open up the portal. Everything inside of me, and all of the power I was able to draw from him channeled inside of me. My eyes widened, and I lost control of myself.

A rush of sperm filled the inside of my vagina. His body collapsed on mine, and I felt his body push harder into me, each contraction seeking still more penetration inside of my body. My own body responded in kind to his, and wild contractions and gushing arousal seized my sex. My mouth opened, and I turned around to see his face. Our eyes met, as well as our lips.

The two of us were too sloppy and overwhelmed to make a proper kiss, but we did manage to convulse and fill in toward one another. I worked his cock until he had nothing more to give, and then pulled him into my arms so we could hold one another in the afterglow. After his cock slid out from inside of me, the sperm followed, as well as the alchemy of our union.

A blue arc shot out from the ground between our bodies, and he was torn away from me by the momentary tear between dimensions.

I struggled in my post-coital haze to make sense of my environment, while the guide's voice echoed in my mind alongside the crackling of the portal's energy.

"So we have arrived at the beginning of the end..."

I scrambled backward away from the portal. My body was close to the edge of the cliff, and through the portal, I could see a vague figure of Erol and the Wilder Fae.

Erol was on the ground panting. The Guide grabbed Erol's wrist, and slashed a blade across his palm. The blood dripped out onto the portal itself, and I watched as dark crimson stains dropped through the iridescent surface of the portal like dye through a vertical scrying pool.

"Gah!"

A cry of pain brought Erol back into focus within his own consciousness. He had been lost, as I was following the sex. Both dogs came into the scene at full tilt, seeking to attack the Wilder Fae. She must have held some power over beasts, as a simple glance pushed them away with a look of fear in their eyes. Their tails were wrapped between their legs, and their ears were flattened. They skirted around the periphery of the scene, growling as their master bled into the portal.

"You'll want to dismiss them, Human. There's no telling what would happen to them if they chose to follow where you're going."

Both of us were an easy target for whatever manipulations the Wilder Fae was working to achieve. However, there was no further attack on either Erol, or myself. She wrung his hand out in the portal, squeezing the last bit of blood into its aqueous surface, and then offered Erol the scarf which had been wrapped around her face. The scarf served as a bandage, and she held his hand while applying pressure to the wound.

"That should keep it going until around midnight."

The guide looked at the two of us, and smiled. "Thanks for the show." She winked at Erol, and then knelt down to kiss him on the lips.

"Sorry about your hand. These things get hungry you understand. No real way to go about it except regular feedings. Not quite sure how you're planning on reaping the benefits of the portal while staying alive yourself. Particularly if you want to keep your soul intact."

I narrowed my eyes at the Fae.

"What are you saying?"

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear in the beginning. At any rate, the rift will require sacrifice in order to remain open. However, the consequences of that level of sacrifice are dire for the person who is making them. You are involved in a very perverse enterprise, Aria, but I suspect that you knew that from the beginning."

"I knew nothing!"

"Don't lie to me. You knew that our world was dying, and you knew that the quickest way to make a change was by tearing a hole between the dimensions."

There was no malice in her tone, though she was admonishing me.

"The consequences of that situation are now being made clear to you -- if not now, then soon enough."

She stretched out her languid body, and arced her back toward the sky. She looked so beautiful, and reserved. She had composure, grace, and a softness in her eyes. She had definitely climaxed while watching us, but that had been nothing more than a bit of personal pleasure. A circumstantial bit of voyeurism, nothing more.

I was still dealing with the disorientation of being fucked. Sex itself didn't wear me out like this, but I had never been involved on the channeling end of sex magic before. In the past, in my work with Xan, I had been on the donating end of some of his... experiments. But I have never been the conduit.

"Now you know what is asked of you if you want to achieve your goal..."

She started to step forward, evidently intent on walking through the portal herself.

"Wait!"

"I have nothing else to say to you. Your decisions are yours to live out from this point forward. It will be a wonder if you make it out alive."

With no further words, the wilder fae took another step toward me. I reached out to stop her, but when my hand went through the portal, I reached into a different part of the planes than where she was already headed. I snatched my hand back quickly, not knowing where she was headed, or if the dimension of my nightmares would be at hand.

"Erol... I need you to back away from the portal."

I got to my feet, and fought to retain my awareness. The last bets of post-orgasmic haze were cleared from my mind, and I realized how precarious my position actually was.

I was only inches away from a trip into the rocky waters below. Somewhere, ten feet away, Erol's pants were on the ground. My skirt was filthy, and hiked up over my hips. I adjusted my skirt so it covered my sticky, sex-stained body, and walked over to where Erol sat on the ground.

The dogs had come back to their master now that the Wilder Fae had left the scene. Neither of the two was terribly happy to see me approach, but I didn't blame them.

"It's ok girls..."

Erol's voice was soothing and sincere as he addressed his family. It was obvious that the two dogs were concerned about him, but there was a tone of finality and resignation in his voice that seemed to spur them on even further. They refused to be consoled, in spite of his best efforts. Rosemary relentlessly licked the side of his face, while Amethyst nudged the palm of his injured hand with a concerned look in her eye.

I watched in silence, and adjusted my posture. One thing was certain about all of this. Our work had just begun.

Walking over myself, I grabbed him by his free hand, and gave him a hand to his feet. Whatever aggression had been directed toward him earlier, was not there any more. There was no more room for that level of derision. Only a softened, affection remained. I caught myself, in the way that I was treating him -- the hardness all gone from my stance.

"Thanks for loving me that way."

As I said them, the words rang hollow compared to the magnitude of the experience, but I consoled myself by at least knowing that they were accurate. I had been fucked solid before, but there was something refreshing about my human form that made me feel like I was experiencing it for the first time. It could have been a mixture of things -- my emotional state, a new flame -- who knows.

"I wanted to share that with you, because I'm not certain what is going to happen from this point forward. You ought to know that what we shared was powerful for me, even if we were working to achieve..."

"You don't have to do this thing..." he said. "Not that I don't believe you, or that I think this was all instrumental."

"Well, I try to speak my mind when I feel moved to do so."

I couldn't apologize for being honest; that was one of the things that was not in my nature.

"All I mean to say is that, I'm not sure this has to be the end. Let's go through, and see what's on the other side. Maybe we can figure out a few more pieces of the puzzle together, and nobody has to kill themselves on behalf of an experiment that we're not sure is even going to work."

A cloud grew over my disposition.

The sacrifice.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes. If Thane were here, I knew what he would do. He wouldn't have thought twice about it. Blood needed to be shed. Sacrifices needed to be made in order to serve the greater good. The only other solution would be to let the portal close once more, and accept whatever minor ripples came out from the experience.

We have become the conquerors, I realized, within the safety of my own mind.

"Don't worry about it. I think you and I can figure something out together. Let's see if this opening made any kind of impact on your world. You are from the Astral Plane, right?

"Not exactly. I'm from the Fae Realm, though we can't be certain that is where the portal is going to take us."

"The Fae Realm is less dense than the Material Plane?"

I nodded, that much was accurate, and didn't require a lecture on metaphysics.

He shrugged in response.

"Shouldn't it be easier to detect changes in your world, easier than say the impact this portal will have on the material plane?"

I paced away from the portal, and opened up my lungs. When my head was clear, I thought about what he was asking, and nodded an affirmative.

"The primary reason for opening the rift is to absorb some of the vitality of the material plane into our damaged ecosystem. Theoretically, I should be able to go through, visit the Capitol, and get a reading by the time the portal closes."

"Then that's what we'll do."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't think I was just going to stay here? For Christ's sake, we fucked, and I gave my blood and sperm to open up the damned thing. I'm not staying here."

"What about your dogs?"

Both of the dogs looked at their master with concern in their eyes.

"They can stay by the truck and keep Binksy company."

Rosemary barked straight in his ear, and pounced him with her paws. Amethyst on the other hand didn't seem to think it was such a bad idea.

"The rat?"

"Sure. Binksy the Rat. They will find their way back."

Amethyst seemed to agree with the sentiment, but Rosemary was more than a bit worried. I myself was not entirely sold. All Erol did was scratch Rosemary's chin encouragingly, and shrug.

"You're going to have to kill me if you want to stop me, which might end up helping both of us out anyways. But, if you're not interested in doing that."

"I don't think I would have enjoyed myself as much if I knew that I would have to kill you afterward."

He thought this was funny, but I was being serious.

"Buzzkill huh?"

"Yep."

I let out a long sigh, and realized that something fundamental had changed between the two of us. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. What's more is I got the sense that he was totally committed.

"All right, let's go. No sense in waiting around to lose time. If we're going to get to the Fae Realm and get a solid reading then we're going to have to move."

He nodded, and gave each of his dogs a hug. Then he leaned in toward them and whispered something into their ear. The dogs both cocked their head to the side, and without any mistake indicated that they understood their master's request, and would follow directions.

"Unbelievable. You and the Wilder Fae. I don't have that kind of touch with animals."

"You just have to believe that they understand you and be sincere about it; they can sense those sorts of things."

I watched as the two dogs bounded down the trail, away from the two of us. Amethyst stopped for a moment before heading down, but a short bark from Rosemary, and they were both on their way. Erol, on the other hand was showing no trace of sentimentality. He was balancing on one foot, working on pulling his pants up over his bare ass when I turned my attention in his direction once more.

"So, how does this work?"

My attention had been focused on his body, and it took me a moment to respond appropriately.

"Um, similar to the spell. Most magic works under a few common principles."

"Intention?"

I nodded.

"Yep. Intention, and recall. For instance, it would be nearly impossible for you to get over to the Capitol having never been there. You'd probably end up in the Wild somewhere, or worse."

A frown came across my face as I recalled the possibilities in the latter category.

"Worse," he shuddered. "Don't tell me about them, I don't want it in my mind. I'll just focus on going the same place you are going, and leave the navigation up to you. We can go to the Capitol, take the readings, and make a decision before we come back here at midnight."

"Decision?"

He ignored my question as though it were not even relevant.

"How's the time difference?"

I blinked, still caught on the depth taking place behind the scenes in Erol's mind.

"Time is a pretty flippant thing when dealing between dimensions. One to the other, I've never made much of a study. All of the work I've done has only been time sensitive within the context of one plane."

"Okay, we'll have to assume the worse then. Are you ready?"

I looked him over from head to toe, and then I looked at myself.

We were stained with cum, sweat and blood. Our clothes were dirty, and our bodies were scratched and scarred. All we had was a knife and a desperate hope to pin our actions on. There was no special equipment, and no real, verifiable information.

"I'd say we are about as ready as we're going to get."

"All right then."

He approached my side, and we turned to together to face the portal. The light reflected eerily against the inky black ocean beyond. All of the beautiful colors that had once painted the sky were now absent. The only source of light was the chaotic uncertainty that waited before us.

I closed my eyes, and pictured a clear vision of the Capital in my mind. I envisioned the two of us in our current location. I thought about every inch of Erol's body, and rendered the two of us together in my mind.

As he held my hand, I could feel the sweat coming off from the palm of his hand. He had come off as self-assured, but there was something comforting about the fact that he was just as terrified as I was. We both knew that there was no way to go but forward.

Seizing our bravery, and holding onto one another by the hand, we made the jump.

The colors swirled all around me, and I felt a tightening of Erol's fingers around my hand.

We floated through the chaos of the portal, and every single bit of my attention was focused on securing our arrival at the capital. I felt waves of panic rise up inside of me, and reality threatened to never quite pull itself together again, as it should. None of my fears became realized at that point. There was nothing to worry about after all.

The two of us arrived on our hands and knees in front of the great stone steps of the Capitol building.

The air was cool, and there was no light in the sky except for the bright blue fae fires which lined the stone pillars of the building like glowfish in some purple ocean.

My hands and knees were scratched, and I had to recover from a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, but the trip had gone smoothly into the Fae Realm.

Home...

I looked at my body and was honestly a bit sad to be back in my broken body once more.

One wing stuck out uncomfortably through the back of my dress. The fabric had been ripped, and since my breasts were now significantly smaller, the dress sagged at the top. My skin was a different color once more, and I seemed to be a reflection of the evening around the two of us.

The strangest thing about our arrival was that there was no one else around. The Capitol was not usually this empty. Something was terribly wrong.

Erol on the other hand was not yet able to get out of his state of shock from the transfer.

This isn't my body...

I took a sharp inhale, and tried to clear my mind for a moment.

Focus.

My hands immediately went to my face, and I began to rub the bones around my eyelids.

"We are in another dimension. All souls inhabit new forms for each dimension they visit. I personally haven't ever met a human who has come to the Fae Realm before, but that really shouldn't be our focus right now. Can you pull yourself together or not?"

He gulped, and nodded.

"Good, then follow me. We need to get over to the University."

I let go of his hand, and took a few steps. The acclimation to the new body was a bit slower this time. I ended up stumbling a bit, and losing my inner sense of balance. The vertigo passed while I held my head with both hands. Pushing forward, I willed myself to continue.

"If you die, then that is the course of your life, but for sake of the gods you are going to push through this."

The promise was spoken to myself, through grit teeth, but it had an impact on Erol as well, as he ended up getting his shit together as well. The two of us ran toward a transport station located nearby the capitol, and hopped on a pair of hover discs. Aristocratic government types who were accustomed to sitting in their desks all day were usually the ones who used these sorts of things. They were a relic from Xan's era, which had been stripped of its privatization and made available for public use.

"Lean into it," I nodded. "Yea. Like that."

He could have flown.

Most fae preferred to fly, rather than taking the hover discs. However, there were a few who, like me were no longer physically capable of flight. Whether they were handicapped, or indulgent business types, I always thought hover discs looked too flashy to be taken seriously. However, with no one around, and a limited amount of time, I didn't mind dealing with a bit of pretension in order to achieve our goal.

The portal remained behind us, as Erol and I cruised through the vacant streets of the Fae Realm.

Where is everyone? I thought.

The empty streets of the Capitol brought an urgency to the situation that stretched beyond what was reasonable. I had grown worried, but I needed to push that into the back of my mind.

Focus on the present moment.

The way the disc moved through the air became my sole focus. I allowed the wind to caress my body, and took pleasure in the way that the disc pushed long grasses down to the ground in my wake. In the distance, the University came into view.

The buildings were more deteriorated than the Capitol. The University was untouched by the superficial protections that were offered to the Capitol. Every financial resource that had been directed toward the University since before the revolution had been directed exclusively into research.

We pulled up along the side of the great library, and jumped off.

"I don't understand why we can't just bring something like that back through to the human dimension. That technology alone would change lives."

"Fundamental difference in physics. Now, can we please focus on the task at hand?"

Once we reached the inside of the library, I started to feel a sense of relief wash over me. The outer landscape had been eerily absent of people, but the University library had the most subtle indications that people were around. The space was comfortable in a very physical, old-sweater kind of way.

Going downstairs, I saw that the fae fire lamps hi-lighting the stairs were in operation still. Down in the basement, where our research lab awaited, there were the sounds of Fae at work.

When I opened the door to the lab, Erol just about lost his cool.

"My God!"

The scientists that had been hard at work, turned an irritated eye toward the source of the outburst.

I had been on an acquaintance-based relationship with these people for some time, but there was no real love present. When I had last seen them, I had been busily attempting to remove myself from the majority of prominent Fae society over the last year. A hand full of people had offered me sympathies, while the vast majority couldn't understand or relate to my depression.

These trollish Fae, that permanently dwelled in the basement laboratories of the University Library were a part of the latter group.

"We need your data on the approaching environmental instability."

He paused and regarded me suspiciously, while all of the others in the lab stopped what they were doing and turned toward Erol and myself. All movement in the room stopped, and all that was left was the monitors which surrounded the workstations of the lab.

"Aria, why are you still here?"

"I noticed that the streets were pretty empty on my way over here."

His laughter in response to that statement was sick, like something braking inside of his soul. He coughed, and squinted at me from behind his wire-framed glasses. Pulling a cigarette out of his pocket, he lit up and walked over to open up one of the windows which lead upward to the surface level through a ventilation shaft.

"There was an evacuation. Most of the populace is with the Wilder Fae right now in the outer forests. Most of the members of the Capitol are in negotiations with the Tribe about using their lands as an extended shelter, though from the looks of it, I'm not sure how much good that is actually going to do."

"Can you show us what you are seeing? We need to know if there have been any changes in metaphysical currents in the last hour or so."

His eyes narrowed, as he looked at me, smoke rising through the air from his nostrils.

"What do you know?"

I shook my head, and pushed his inquisition off to the side.

"No time. I'm here because we need to get real time information on what's happening with cross dimensional currents, and this lab is the only place where I can get an accurate readout in the time frame needed."

He stubbed out his smoke on the wall, leaving a black, ashy stain followed by a flick towards the nearest trash can. The rest of the attendants in the lab were watching the entire situation unfold like it was the most interesting social phenomenon they had seen in their lives.

"Get back to work!"

He walked over to a station that was covered in papers and monitors, and waved the two of us over.

"They don't understand why you are here. That or they do, and your celebrity is giving them pause. You hear to save the world?"

I had to close my eyes and swallow.

"Readouts."

"Sure. Well, right over here you can see that blip you're talking about."

He was pointing to a veritable cliff in data.

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't look much like a 'blip' to me"

He laughed, which managed to make me uncomfortable again, though the laugh clearly transformed into a cough by the end of his fit.

Just a bit of a joke, but I can see you're in no mood for it."

He scrolled the panel outward, with a wave of both hands. The entire picture panned out, and I could see how my initial ‘cliff’ was part of a much larger picture.

The data on the screen looked like a long and protracted crash of some sort, followed by an unexpected and sharp rise in something. The cliff itself was nothing more than the other side of that sharp unexpected rise. Beyond the cliff, and into the present moment, there were no patterns, only chaos.

"As you can see, from the data there are a number of reasons why we might be more than a bit surprised at your visit."

Turning to the side, I saw that a young scientist with curiosity in his eyes that could not be dismissed was peaking over to see what was transpiring between myself and the lead technician.

Erol, on the other hand, was absolutely stricken dumb. He was giving his entire attention to the screens, instruments and papers.

The technician pointed at the monitor with his nicotine stained fingers, and began to explain.

'This huge fall you see here is the data which caused the evacuation. We are calling this the destabilization of our ecosystem, due to the approach of the void. The readings center geographically around the capitol itself, while the outer forests are relatively unaffected. Of course, over time, we suspect that those too will become inhabitable."

"Inhabitable?"

"Well yes. We don't have extended data to work with, but there is a very grave risk for all those who stay within the contaminated area."

Finally, Erol spoke up.

"You mean this area."

The scientist grinned, showing his yellow teeth to the two of us.

"Sometimes, my boy, you need to make a decision about your priorities. For us, this data was more important, and I'd say since your arrival, we may have not thrown our lives away after all."

"What do you mean by that?"

This time the reply came from me. The scientist's tone grew more serious, and he brought his arms together over his chest in a resting position.

"Well that answer is pretty easy to manage, though I think you two would have a better job of providing the details yourself."

He pointed at the screen once more.

"If the destabilization had maintained its course, we would have reached some level of critical threshold by now, if not within the next four or five hours. The problem is that since just before you showed up, that downward trajectory has been halted. Now, thing's aren't exactly getting better, but if you were to take an average of these peaks, I'd say that we have reached some level of stabilization."

He paused again, and leaned back against the table, then he opened his hand out to both sides, indicating both his team, and himself by his gesture.

"Now you've seen your data. You come in here anticipating a modification which has been proven, and I'm lead to believe that you had something to do with that. Now, I've seen your memorials in the Capitol. I know what you're capable of, and I know that you have a history of involvement in questionable activities."

He shook his head.

"But I'd say that the people in this room, myself included, would be more than interested in knowing what it is you are up to, considering it may just indicate the salvation of our race."

I blew him off.

"Nothing that spectacular, I can assure you."

Of course, he didn't buy it, but I didn't have the time to explain everything to a team of scientists. I looked at Erol, and made eye contact.

"You get everything you were looking for?"

"Well, of course, but the problem is that we need stabilization. The portal needs sacrifice in order to continue to open."

I felt like slapping him.

“Gods damn you, Erol, for not knowing how to keep your fuckin' mouth shut."

"They are scientists! Don't you think it's a smart idea to let them in on what's going on? Maybe they will be able to help."

"It's not a regular portal... is it?"

The lab tech was already putting the pieces together. I let out a sigh, and decided to let this one go.

"Rift, technically speaking. The whole point is to take the portal and maintain it indefinitely."

"Oh, I know what it is all right. I just didn't know that someone would be foolish enough to try and do something like that."

This got under my skin.

"Foolish? You were thanking me a minute ago."

"You have no idea what kind of external factors could be involved in something like that. You may have immediately stabilized the situation, but there's no telling what will happen as a result."

He shook his head back and forth as though he was fully realizing something tragic in his own mind.

"That's dark magic... dark magic indeed."

"Look, hate to break up your little pity parade, but while you're sitting here looking into a mirror of your own doom, I'd rather take a chance on making some kind of change..."

My self-righteous tirade was interrupted by a cry outside of the library that sounded like a mixture between the wail of a banshee and a quake. The lab tech shrunk into himself, and stared with wide eyes at the data on the screen.

The needle was oscillating furiously; each dip lower than the last, and each peak more perilous.

"It's coming," he whispered, another cigarette compulsively shoved between his lips.

I didn't wait around for any explanation. I only grabbed Erol by the collar and yanked him toward the door.

"We're leaving. Now!"

Sprinting up the stairs was to be endured only with minor tremor. The ground itself was in revolt, and it seemed as though the central location was not too far away from our current position.

Erol stumbled to the floor, and yanked on my hand. I held onto him, turned around, and grabbed him with both hands. Yanking him to his feet, we pushed past the end of the stairwell, and into the main floor of the library.

Books had fallen all over the floor, and the doors hung wide open. Outside, a fierce wind blew and for the first time, I began to be truly afraid. I paused for a moment, and realized that my fear was magnified, as I was actually concerned for Erol's welfare, and doubted as to whether or not he'd be able to manage to get through the chaos that was growing outside. I turned around and looked at him.

He was pale, and his eyes were bewildered. His mind wasn't present, and he was struggling with some internal revelation. I knew that this had been too much for him. There was a reason why humans didn't come to the Fae Realm, as a general rule, but this whole experience was only pushing that boundary further.

"Look at me."

I grabbed him again, and held him close to my face.

"I won't be able to protect you once we're out there. We need to get to that portal, and you need to get your head together. Do you understand?"

The whole library shook as we stood there. I saw focus come back into his expression, and a nod come from his head.

"Good. It's time to go now. Just follow my lead, and we'll do what we can."

I let out one final exhale while we stared at one another. I wanted the eye contact to be significant; to provide him with the help that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to provide once we got outside.

"Those men downstairs are ready to die. I've seen it in the eyes of men before. You can join them, or you can follow me, but I'm not going like that."

With that, I spat on the floor, and set my brow into a glare. Blood and adrenaline returned to my entire body, and I sank into a predatory state of consciousness. Anything I had left in the past was now called to the present. There was no more room for dispossessed states of depression or powerlessness.

I broke out into a sprint, and didn't look back. I had given him the only warning he would receive, and that was more than most would have received. The rest was up to him.

The rush of the wind whipping past my face as I ran toward the door brought a sensation of elation. The doors themselves slammed to the side, as though the environment itself was frightened of my approach. The blue lights underneath the surface of the hover discs wavered eerily on the ground beneath them. In the distance, I could see the darkness approaching; it was headed straight for the Capitol.

"The portal!"

I hopped on the hover disc, and ducked down toward the ground to reduce the drag on my body. They didn't make these things to go extraordinarily fast, but if you knew what you were doing, there was an override switch available on the bottom of the disc. The switch is pressure sensitive, which means that if you want to get going, you have to be in a position to physically handle yourself. Most of the populace doesn't engage in risky behavior like this, but there are a number of youth that have caught onto the secret, and hold races in the older, more abandoned districts.

My hair whipped behind me, and I watched as debris flew beneath my transport. I thought about Erol, but I couldn't risk looking backward to see if he was all right or not. The environment was moving by so quickly that I had to keep my eyes on the road. To divert my attention for only an instant would mean a fall. At this speed, it would not only be painful, but I might actually do some serious damage to myself.

Narrowing my eyes, I squinted into the distance. Everything around me was growing darker, with the storm. The darkness that came out of the skyline and moved toward the portal held the same qualities as the tentacled creature from the hell realm. This time, it was projected against a sky that was only lit by faerie fire. The resulting atmosphere was a soft glue glow coming up from the Capitol. The light pushed upward through gradients of darkness into the stars of the sky. Between the stars, and the ground, a clear outline of inky black tendrils stretched toward the Capitol building.

The sight was so awesome, that I nearly ran into the side of the hedge which outlined the garden courtyard of the capitol. The hover disc spun wildly in the wrong direction, and I ducked down and clutched at both sides of the disc with my hands. I lowered my gaze and stared at the nearest fixed point possible. The fixed point in my vision was a bright source of blue light just outside of the Capitol building, some twenty yards away.

The portal was there, but something was wrong. Two figures were outlined by its light, and the approaching darkness from behind. My wild crash was so taxing that I couldn't be sure who was there, or if I had seen anything at all. Keeping track of the details around me was low on my list of priorities.

Spinning still closer, I slowed, and stumbled off the edge of my disc. My body hit the ground, and I skidded toward the outer ring of the Portal's light. My body burned once more from the scratches and burns that seemed to perpetually cover my skin. I bit my lip, and struggled to focus my eyes. I was acting on impulse. There was no room for forethought any longer.

To keep the portal open seemed to be an invitation to destruction of unknown magnitude, but to allow it to close would mean the end of the Fae Realm -- or at least the complete destruction of the Capitol.

A pair of figures walked over toward me.

Though my vision was blurry, I was still able to see the two of them approach. The details were lost to me, but seeing the gait of one of them, I knew it was Thane. Worry and fear consumed my body.

"Thane!"

The ground quaked once more beneath my body, and as I stood up, a thunderous crack sounded through the air, as a marble edifice broke into pieces and fell to the ground. Struggling to my feet, I sprinted the final distance toward the portal. Thane received me with open arms, and I dove into him.

"Thane, I heard that most of the officials are over with the Wilder Fae. I don't know what to do, but we should find a way to warn them."

"Shh..."

He stroked my hair, and held me against his body.

"Don't worry about a thing. You did great."

"Great? Thane. I had a dream about you. I think something really bad is happening. We really need to get out of here. Come on, if we all work together, I think we may be able to unweave the magic of the portal before it expires."

"Expires?"

"That's what the Wilder Fae said, when they scouted me. I thought you knew about that."

I pulled him toward the portal, but he resisted. Then it became clear to me; Thane did not want to close the Portal. I shook my head back and forth and made eye contact with him.

"This place is going into the Abyss, Thane. Take a look around; your idea isn't going to work. Not like you had hoped anyway."

Thane pulled his hand away, and the other man that was with him came up behind me. I saw Thane's eyes narrow at him, and the man stopped, just short of my body.

I bit my lip and stepped out to the side of the two of them.

"What's going on, Thane?"

I watched as he put his hands to his face, and took a deep breath to compose himself. When he had finished, he had attained full on political composure once more. He could have been going to a press release for the wedding of the minister's daughter. Seeing him change so drastically within the context of the deteriorating environment around us gave me chills.

I began to back away from him, unconsciously moving toward the portal.

My movement toward the portal seemed to put the other man on edge once more, but Thane held up a firm palm.

"That won't be necessary, Xavier. Our Agent-in-the-Field is an experienced Veteran. She knows how to handle herself. Likely even better than you."

Thane's vote of confidence was a nice thing to experience, but I was still caught behind the wall of bullshit he was busy erecting with his pretentious attitude. Looking forward into the future, I was entirely uncertain as to the intentions that Thane might have, but I could be certain of two things. Firstly, he was resuming his position as a militaristic expression of the Fae Government.

At this point, I couldn't be certain whether or not this was a sanctioned activity or not, but knowing Thane, it probably wasn't. His newest boy toy, Xavier, was likely in this for whatever prestige Thane had managed to convince him existed for him at the end of some rainbow of service. For all of the care that I felt for him, I fucking despised Thane. However, now was not the time or place to proclaim whatever mixed feelings I had for him.

Secondly, he wanted the portal to remain open, which made him a very dangerous man.

The fact that he wanted the portal to remain open meant that he was willing to sacrifice any and all life in order to achieve his goal. If the portal required any form of regular sacrifice, that also meant that he would be willing to kill, or order the death of people in order to pursue his goal. Likely he would have Xavier here to that work for him.

My mind was spinning out at a thousand miles a minute in an effort to get a hold of every aspect of the situation. I was in the middle of processing all of this information when Erol showed up on his hover disc. He was scratched to hell, and obviously had taken a number of falls himself on the way over. Thane caught my line of eyesight first, and then followed my gaze to Erol's approach.

"You know him?"

"He's a researcher... from the library."

Thane shook his head, and smiled.

"I could always tell when you were lying. You know that's a skill you really ought to either brush up on or forget all together."

His smile was smooth as silk as he walked out to greet Erol.

"So the man of the hour approaches... I don't believe we've met."

Fucking Thane. All I could do was sit and stare.

The apocalypse was nearly approaching, and yet here he was, practically sitting down for tea with some fucked up human who couldn't even manage to operate a hover disc.

I walked over toward Erol to try and position myself in such a way that I might be able to protect him if something went wrong, but Thane already had me beat.

"Erol, is it?"

He nodded, guileless and far too honest for his own good.

"I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate the efforts that you have made in come over here. You must feel like a very brave explorer."

Even Erol was having a bit of difficult swallowing what Thane was dishing out. I watched him look over his right shoulder toward the approaching storm. Rain was already falling down over us, and the wind was picking up to a point where the rain actually stung my skin almost as badly as the abrasions left from the ground.

"Don't you think we ought to talk more once we go through the portal?"

Erol's words rose high over the sound of the wind.

I tried to cut him off, or to redirect the conversation somehow, but Thane had already leapt at the opportunity. I watched as he offered Erol a hand so he could get off of his hover disc, like a princess descending out from a pumpkin.

"Right you are my friend. This place is in grave danger, and we need to do everything in our power to amend the situation. I just want you to know that the whole Fae Realm owes you a debt for your unflinching service in the face of this most perilous situation we face."

There was nothing to be done.

Thane would slaughter him right there and leave him bleeding on the steps of the capitol.

Whatever elder gods ushered forward from the depths of the abyss in the form of this storm would approach, and the rest of the dimensions would fall into chaotic disarray. I knew that I had to act out, but the end was already in sight.

"Did Aria tell you about the sacrifice?"

I watched helplessly, as Thane's teeth gleamed in the bright light of the portal. He walked Erol over to the portal with one hand around his shoulder, and the other hand at his side.

"Why she did mention that."

"The portal took my blood in the beginning," Erol offered. "I don't have anything more to live for at this point. I see this as the culmination of my life's work, and I know that the ripple effects into the Human Realm are going to be absolutely crucial."

I saw him wince, and then stand up straight, as though trying to regain his composure and nerve.

"I think you should take my life and use it to sustain the energy of the portal."

"We couldn't possibly do that!" Thane interrupted.

That clinched it.

Erol was hooked now by his own damned heroic impulse. The two went back and forth again for a minute, before I heard Erol make his final proclamation.

"I'm going to do it myself, regardless. I know we don't have time for this any more. You're very kind, and I know you care about the welfare of your people. Otherwise, you wouldn't have sent Aria to reach out to me. I want to help, and this is the best way I know how."

"Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

With the theatrics done, Xavier moved forward and drew a blade as he headed toward Erol's body.

"I'll do it," I announced, grabbing ahold of the soldier's back collar and shoving him roughly to the side. "I met him. I brought him here, I’ll take his life."

Thane's eyes narrowed like a cat focusing in on his prey.

"Interesting Development, Aria."

He drew his own sword and then bowed toward me theatrically.

"Do continue."

I hadn't properly thought about it before starting. All I knew was that I had a minute to express myself, and if I didn't Erol was going to meet his swift and deluded end at the hands of the new tyrant in training.

Thane wouldn't dare dirty his hand on something so menial. That's why you get thugs to carry around a weapon for you. The sword was meant for me; likely everyone except for Erol knew that much.

I turned to the side, and snubbed my nose at Thane. I didn't need to give him any more reason to believe he had power over me than he already had. There was something different about me. He had sensed it. Things weren't business as usual. We were at odds, and there was no way around the fact.

I strained my mind to think of a way that I could persuade him otherwise. All the while drawing the blade that the Wilder Fae had given me and stalking toward the portal.

"Hold him."

I shoved Xavier in the back, pushing him toward Erol.

"I've seen what a coward this guy is when push comes to shove. I don't want to bother cutting him twice."

"Seems like a sorry excuse to me..."

I narrowed my eyes at him, and then turned to Thane as though Xavier's presence itself was insignificant. In the meanwhile, the wind and rain abused our skin with its ferocity. Thane himself seemed to be more than a bit amused by my slight on his assistant. Xavier on the other hand didn't take the slight very smoothly.

I turned my back on him just as a test to see what he would do, and was rewarded with a sharp shove for my efforts. I ended up being pushed straight into Erol, who caught me before I fell into the portal itself.

"I say if the portal is hungry that we feed it until it's sated."

"Might be some time before that happens," Thane replied in a predatory fashion.

"Ha! Such a charmer."

I laughed, and then abruptly turned around to lash my dagger out toward Xavier. A lesser man would have fallen there on the ground. My arc was perfectly directed to slice his jugular and leave him nothing more than a puddle on the ground. He brought up his arm, and deflected my blow just before it struck home. Xavier himself was terribly angry, though Thane did little more than smile with surprise at my action.

I couldn't wait any longer. The moment had come when we needed to take a chance with the portal. I couldn't fly here, which meant that I would have been mismatched in an honest fight. The evasive maneuver was quick.

All I did was dive backward and shoulder Erol in the chest. He doesn't have a sense of balance to save his life, and the two of us toppled backward into the portal. The escape wasn't clean though. I got tagged along the outer thigh by Xavier while I was passing through the portal.

Blood sprayed downward from the hit and was absorbed into the ether of the gateway. The sight of the blood floating around me brought a lapse in my thinking. I wasn't able to focus my intention in any consistent format. I had planned to lure them both back into the human realm, but fear seized a hold of me, and I was pulled downward into the darkness.

Looking up over me, I swear I saw Thane laughing while the Void approached the portal.

We landed a decent ways away from one another, on ground that appeared to be closer to dust and rock than anything else.

Looking up at the sky, I searched for the telltale sun, but there was no sign of the orb of fire. Sure enough, we made it to the hell realm, but the storm that had been present in the Fae realm was worse in the Hell realm.

At least the Capitol had been somewhat sheltered by trees and buildings.

Dust and mud kicked upward into my face, and pelted against my skin. On a more positive note, the physical adaptation made it so that the wind spraying debris didn't hurt as much. Still, it was a pain in the ass to get my bearings. I can't say that I was happy to be there, but it was better than at least two alternatives I could think of in the moment.

Focus.

The command was imperative, as I knew there would be an encounter to follow. I had only enough time to avoid immediate onslaught, but there was no cover except the sheer rock face behind me. Coughing and sputtering, over to the left of me by thirty feet was another demon. I could only assume it was Erol, though had he arrived any later than myself, I wasn't in a position to be able to determine.

I ran over to the wreck of a creature, and looked at him. He was different in this realm. He didn't look like I did. He looked altogether separate from the nature of this reality. He was weak, and an interloper.

"This isn't good. Get over here."

I grabbed him by the robes that now covered his body, and threw him backward into the wall behind us. His body hit hard, and he slumped to the ground. I regret throwing him so hard, but I was glad to know that he appeared to be little more than a bundle of rocks that appeared too soft to mesh into the rest of the scenery.

Just then, Xavier arrived alongside Thane.

There was no strict portal per say, as much as there was a blast of light followed by an expulsion of two forms. The portal itself flashed and then faded, leaving only a trace of itself in the outline of the storm.

Taking my chance, I sprang into action and sprinted low toward Xavier. The hit connected strong, and I pushed my dagger viciously upward into his gut. As I stabbed him, he hugged me and raked at my back with his claws. I did not miss the fact that Thane immediately positioned himself behind the two of us. He was willing to see how the conflict worked its way into completion, and I was all right with that.

Finally, I felt teeth sinking into my neck, and I was forced to yield in my assault.

An abdominal wound is never something that you should strive for in battle. I struck at him, and I did some serious damage. My hands were both stinging from the caustic blood of my victim, as I'm sure his mouth was stinging from tasting my flesh. The final break away from that deadly embrace resolved itself through expanding my wings. Impulsively, both wings shot outward from my back. The position of his claws was such that they were both pushed to the side from the force of my extension. The wind currents caught me and lifted me upward into the air, dragging my dagger upward along the inside of his abdomen. The blade got caught on his sternum, dragging me back down toward the ground after him. His weight was too strong for me to pull up into the air, but I refused to let go of the blade of the weapon. My muscles strained, but my grip held fast. Two hands clutched at my own and yanked the blade from its place in his chest cavity.

"You thought it was going to be so easy, you bitch!"

With the hands on my wrist still, he strained downward, gripping more of my arm with each pull. The wind buffeted in circles. Instead of fighting to pull me down, he grinned, and opened his own wings. An explosive leap into the air pushed us both into the mercy of the wind currents.

My body was raked against the side of the cliffs and debris fell downward toward the ground. Darkness swelled all around the two of us. The blackness grew as we flew upward, to the point where it was difficult to see anything more than the light of his eyes.

Xavier was strong enough to hold onto me with one hand, which as soon as he realized was the case, started using to his advantage. His left hand was a gauntlet which was armed with several blades and spikes. Not something which a Fae would typically wear, but most definitely something a cruel fucker would wear if he wanted to strike fear into the heart of his enemies.

I felt the edges of that cruel metal dig into my own body. He wasn't able to get a good strike in, as our weight and momentum was tied together in an upward spiral against the currents of the sky. However, between the cliffside, and the gauntlet, I ended up shedding more than my share of blood into the darkness below.

His teeth flashed in the reflection of a lightning bolt, and I saw my opportunity.

Inverting the handle of the blade with a quick flip, I brought the tip of the dagger down dead center on the hand that held onto my body. The timing was critical, as I needed him to be in mid-attack, and not securing my body with his gauntlet hand. The blade actually pierced through his hand, and into my own forearm. Just then, I released hold on the blade and folded my wings inward.

I fell backward toward the cliffside, and as I fell, I dug the claws of my feet inward on the sides of his body. The vicious gauntlet swung over my body, missing a blow to my face by inches. My feet dug inward into him, along either side of his lower flank. He pushed into the cliffside in response, trying to beat my body against the stone until I fell into submission. I twisted my body around and then opened my wings once more so I came up behind his body. In that upward thrust of motion, my claws reached out and dug straight into the connective tissue of his wings.

With a cry of pain and anger, my claws severed his wings, totally destabilizing his flight pattern.

Thousands of feet into the air, he had just lost his ability to fly, giving me the critical advantage I needed to move into my own killing strike.

I grabbed either side of his abdomen and pulled with all of my strength. The knife wound moved deeper with the tear, driving into the core of his body. Muscles tore, and a shower of blood and entrails fell downward beneath his body.

Even as he was being disemboweled, he struck out at my body with the knife. No matter the piercing pain into my arms, I held on tight, and refused to compromise in my hold. Both of us were falling downward now, dead weight plummeting toward the ground of the Hell Realms. Refusing to yield until I saw the faint blue flash of the portal, I committed to the dive, and every bit of fear it entailed.

At the last possible second, I let go of the body, and opened my wings once more. The impact still hurt, but I was able to hit the ground at an angle and roll off the impact. Xavier on the other hand was little more than a twitching mass of broken bones, crumbled up on the bottom of a cliffside that reached toward the sky.

With my eyes narrowed, and a limp in my step, I walked over to the fallen body of Xavier, picking up the dagger that was now held weakly in his hands. I placed the dagger between my teeth, not even caring that his blood now tainted my mouth. With both hands, I dragged him viscerally against the rough, rocky floor, until the two of us were placed in front of the portal.

The sound of clapping brought my attention out of the moment as Thane stood there, applauding my apparent victory. In the light of the portal, I could see that he held Erol in his arms, with his own sword at the ready. While Thane was watching with a look of dark amusement, Erol had a look of horror in his eyes. He wasn't staring at the woman he had known, but a murderous demon, covered in blood, and dragging the body of her victim to sacrifice.

I saw all of that in his eyes, but it didn't phase me whatsoever.

Without so much as glancing in their direction a second time, I pulled Xavier's body up toward the edge of the portal, and slammed him down on the ground in front of the glistening blue light.

Feed your spirit into the rifts between dimensions...

With a single thrust, I brought my blade across his throat, and into the ground below. Blood pooled out onto the floor around us, and I shoved his broken corpse into the portal.

White light exploded all around us, and lightening came down from the sky. The atmosphere smelled like Iron and burning amber. The portal expanded into an iris the size of the missing sun, and blinked in my direction.

I held no fear, and stood there, honoring my own integrity above all else. The eye expanded upward toward the sky, outward in all directions like a static field, cutting the realm in two. Geometrical formations emanated outward from that central locus; throbbing outward like the after-tremors of an orgasm.

One glance at Thane, told me all that I needed to know.

Erol was horrified, and Thane was drunk with the power and awe of possibility.

"IT'S WORKING!"

The time for compassion and peace was past. I knew which side of this conflict I had to fall on in order to survive and make the best of the situation. I knew what would be asked of me moving forward, and I knew that if I showed the slightest qualm in performing the action, it would throw the entire operation at risk. From this moment forward, I was working for myself, first and foremost.

Xavier had to die as an example, and I knew what needed to happen next.

Walking over to Thane, I glared at him in the brilliant light of the portal and took Erol by the collar of his robes. Erol had lost all composure. He was absolutely terrified, and for good reason.

My eyes spoke more than my words could manage, besides I didn't feel like screaming over the storm or the violent cracking of the portal.

With one hand on my dagger, and one hand on Erol, I dragged his body toward the portal.

Time to finish this...

Gold and murderous, without the slightest inkling of care for what the future might hold, I brought the dagger up into the air. This strike would be for myself.

Not for Erol.

Not for Thane.

And not for some blood-thirsty portal.

My offering of the first sacrifice was for the portal. Xavier and whatever dark entities feasted on his soul were meant for one another. As for Erol, he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or perhaps this was his destiny. I couldn't tell, and at this point, it didn't really matter.

The dagger was brought down at a spot just to the left of his heart, while my other hand wrapped firmly around his neck. I brought my index finger and thumb upward on his jugular vein, and pressed into the space between his jaw and his neck. I watched dispassionately as he struggled to breath, and then stopped. The dagger was pulled out of his chest, and I watched as he collapsed onto the ground.

More blood poured into the portal, and I watched as the body began to disappear.

Thane walked up behind me and dared to put his hand on my shoulder. The interpretation of my actions meant that I had succeeded. There was no reason for anyone to believe that I was under the command of anyone but myself. I pushed his hand off of my shoulder definitively, and turned around to meet him eye to eye.

"Don't you ever push that shit on me again. There is no reason for you or anyone else to tell me what to do. And if you ever draw that sword on me again, you had better be prepared to run me through. I swear by the names of whatever Gods are left after all of this, that I will pull your own hear out, and eat if I have to. Do I make myself clear?"

The silence that surrounded us was deafening.

The storm and the portal had merged into one, and darkness came out from the center of the portal.

I saw the reflection of the portal in Thane's eyes, causing the effect of a strange illusion.

His eyes in demonic form were slit, just like mine. We both had the eyes like a serpent, but with the reflection from the portal, the eyes looked like the eyes of a cat.

He didn't respond to me, except to turn me around and face the portal itself.

The brilliant blue outer ring, and arcing rays of light were still there, though the portal had shrunk in magnitude since its initial expansion. From the inside of the portal a darkness had expanded outward from the center. The effect was similar to staring into the heart of an eclipse.

The image reminded me of the saying "Careful not to stare into the Void too long, lest you find it stares back."

However, the horror did not stop there.

There, in front of me, Erol was levitating in the center of the portal. His body was hung upside down like an occult crucifix. Blood streamed from his side, and his hair was pushed about in either direction. I couldn't tell if he was alive or not, but the pulsating rays from inside of the Void itself caused his body to shift and undulate as though he were still breathing.

The sound of the atmosphere around us grew to a deafening series of percussive blasts. All the while, the edges of the portal became more and more wild in their expression. The boundaries between the void and the outer ring of blue began to dissolve, and the void from inside of the iris began to leak outward onto the ground by our feet. That same inky blackness poured out slow at first, and then stronger so that a deluge had formed.

The desert of the Hell Realms was being flooded.

Transformative action was taking place, and all the while, Erol floated there like a martyr for a lost realm.

The void clung to our legs and climbed upward to encase our bodies. The moment it touched us, it held our bodies fast to the ground. No amount of struggle could undo the connection to it. No matter how hard I tried, I was not able to free myself.

My mind flashed back to the first time I had been here inside of this world, and of the creature that had dragged me through the bottom of the tar, and into the human realm. As Erol had died, I figured that I might as well resign myself to my own fate.

I stopped fighting, and decided to sit down instead. The void flowed over me then, like a river, off the side of my body, and into the landscape behind me. The rain that fell from the sky, mixed with the fluid from the void, and swirled around either side of me. I looked down and saw the liquid was rising and was just below my breasts.

"What are we going to do?"

Thane had lost his sense of composure.

My response was descriptive of my belief about what the right thing to do was, in a situation like that. I responded with nothing. I did nothing. I did my best to embody complete acceptance of my situation.

There was no reason to behave otherwise.

Staring unblinking into the face of Erol, I saw that the void was consuming him. He had been suspended, and the outpour had been flowing out underneath his body. Now, when I saw him, it was clear to me that the substance of the Void was slowly working its way upward around the edges of his body. His complexion was pale, and his body thin. He looked like the Franciscan Friers in the textbooks of Occultism on the Material Plane.

Then, his eyes opened.

A shot of terror ran through me, as I saw that though the outer ring of light had all but faded, the light was now coming out from inside of his body. His eyes were the same brilliant fire as my memories of the sun. He screamed, and instead of a voice, coming out, all that was left was light pouring out from his mouth.

The Void seeped upward toward the edges of his mouth, and through the tear ducts of his eyes.

In my horror, I found that my bottom lip had been touched by the rising level of that thick tar which now covered all things. I closed my mouth in time to prevent it from getting inside of me mouth.

Tears flowed down from my eyes, and joined the deluge. As the fluid rose up over my own face, I remember the last picture in my mind was the fire of being coming out from inside of Erol. Those three points of light had burnt themselves into my retina, as I was overwhelmed by the darkness around me.

Once underneath the substance, there was nowhere for me to go; nothing for me to do but surrender completely.

I opened my mouth, and felt the liquid rush inward and threaten to fill my lungs. My own body was fighting against me, so strong was my will to continue living that I couldn't bring myself to open my lungs and allow the fluid to claim me completely. The deprivation of oxygen pushed my brain into panic. I tried to open my eyes, but they remained clasped shut. The haunting lights still pierced my vision and grew more brilliant still as I faced the swift approach of my own death.

Tremors ran through my body and my chest seized. I opened the back of my throat involuntarily, and gasped for the oxygen that I knew would never be there.

The Void rushed inside of me, and I felt my heart explode with the light that stained my vision. When the light burned out, there was nothing.

Once more, I was lost to time and space.

The darkness to follow was not absolute. In all reality, I doubt that any darkness ever will be. Though, that doesn't mean that there won't be dark times in the future.

The theory comes from the place that says that things have existed in the past, and they will continue to exist, in the future, though their forms may modify. In addition to that theory, we also have the concept that there is a variety of content in this life.

Some content works for the destruction and degradation of other things, and other content works to rebuild. These sorts of things work cyclically, which means that for any progress to be made, there needs to be a certain level of destruction.

The difficulty comes not in accepting the components of destruction which are necessary to move forward, but in the way that we ourselves participate in destruction. What I mean to say specifically is that some destruction is fetishized, while other destruction is done out of carelessness.

As I lay floating in the void, a soft glow pulsed around me. I felt protection and a certain level of sacrifice given on my behalf. Something was protecting me from whatever elements were out there in the shadows. Large serpentine creatures swam past me, and inspected my body. I could not see them, but I could feel them. I could feel all things pass by me, and I had the freedom to reflect on their nature.

Even the monsters of the deep; creatures fierce and powerful from dimensions far away from the place where I grew up, you couldn't apply the concepts of good or evil to these things. The paradigm needed to accommodate them simply wasn't large enough to be effective.

There is a creature the size of a Leviathan who has just swam past a naked, floating body.

A body now bounces along the wake of the serpent.

There is no pain.

A soft, warm glow radiates from the inside of the vessel.

There is no fear.

Time itself has ceased to hold any meaning.

Attachment to the world of the living is absent.

There is no realm of the dead. The vessel floats in an amniotic stasis in the Bardo between the realms.

That last thought echoed around in my mind for a while, pushing me along toward whatever reflections may be forthcoming. From that point, I moved into nostalgia.

I thought about all of the relationships I had been fortunate enough to have, and all of the pain that was associated with each of those relationships. Every single time I had grown close to somebody, there was this feeling of total and complete betrayal. The sadness was profound, and then I realized that there was no reason for the sadness, or the anger, or even the joy.

Holding onto those concepts was about as realistic as holding onto those friends.

If relationships and emotions are impermanent, and all of my states of mind are impermanent, then what is this thing that is holding onto me?

I looked down at my body.

That same body that I had reviled and despised throughout all of my experiences. That same body that had carried me when I had needed to achieve some pressing and ultimately futile goal. That body was outlined in light, a small, slow light that came out from the inside of my chest, and pushed me forward through the darkness between realms.

Light, of that sort, can only be called hope, because it refuses to part, even when all sensibilities indicate that reality should be otherwise.

Would I retain this light if I had been eaten by the Leviathan?

The thought bounced outward, but no response came back. No verbal response anyways. The light, on the other hand, continued in spite of my question, and I felt both petty and childish at the same time.

At that point, I realized that I was in a place that had been designated for myself, by myself. Or, at least, I realized that this might be a possibility.

I started to unfold myself, pushing my shoulders around a bit, and turning my neck this way and that. I wanted to try and wake myself up. To see if I could push my existence toward something different. I wanted to know if it was possible to move myself through space with the same freedom as was available for my mind to reflect on whichever topic came to mind.

My body unfurled, and I directed myself like an arrow toward somewhere, anywhere that the light would grow, and this awful, terrible, oppressive darkness would be forced to subside. The thought itself modified the world around me, and I saw in the distance a clear reflective shimmer, the faint bit of hope that there was more to be found.

Traveling toward the light was easier than I thought. My body began moving upward of its own accord. There was nothing stopping me any longer. All I needed to do was push forward, and I was propelled by a force from within. The environment itself wanted me to move forward. I was being guided by the hand of fate.

The water around me grew less dense, and then when I reached the surface, I found that beyond the surface, was a brilliantly colored sky, full of pastel pinks and oranges. The light around me faded in the face of the light from without, and the temperature of the water dropped to a point where it was barely comfortable. Something changed around me, and suddenly, I realized that I was no longer floating in-between realms. I had in fact surfaced in one of them.

The air in my lungs came in gasping mouthfuls, and the water on my lips tasted like salt. I looked down at my body and saw that I was no longer a Demon. However, I was neither Fae nor Human at that point.

There were strange anatomical differences that were incongruent. I tried to place myself, and soon became overwhelmed and anxious. I began to panic, and the full awareness that I was a vulnerable creature once more, and too far from the shore for personal comfort. Moving my body now, and finding coordination once more, I began to swim through the water toward the shore.

Initially, I didn't make much progress, but I managed to figure out my coordination, and soon enough was making steady progress toward having land under my feet. The only time I got creeped out was when I remembered the sensation of the serpent that had passed by me when I was floating in the water below. The memory brought more than a bit of anxiety to my mind, though I didn't have the luxury of focusing on those fears at the moment. I had a solid trek to get through, and I was fast running out of stamina. My body felt like I had just woken up out of a dream, but the problem was that I did not feel nearly as refreshed as I would have felt after a solid night's sleep.

Quieting down my mind, I limited my activity to a series of motions. First focusing on pairing up alternating movements of my hands and feet, and then working on allowing my body to move fluidly through the water in its expression. Once I started to utilize more finesse, and let the abrasive anxieties and lack of coordination wear off, I made fairly steady headway toward the shoreline.

By the time I got closer, I was able to catch a few waves in, by surfing along the contour of the waves with my body. Feeling like I was propelled enough along the surface of the water by the currents themselves was a massive relief. The rush of the water in my ears, and the sound of the waves crashing around me was a beautiful sensation. The feelings that ran through me were more of a refreshing, and calm baptism, than the pain of uncertainty.

Each wave that I rode passed through me, until one of them carried me along and deposited me ungracefully on the shore. My body slammed into the sand, and I rolled beneath the final expression of the wave. The sounds around me changed to a soft hiss, accented by the sound of birds overhead. As the water receded back into the ocean, I felt the wet sand lodge itself in my armpits and hair. My body sank into the sand of the beach, and I absorbed the rays of light overhead.

Looking up overhead, I saw that there were not one, but two orbs of light in the sky. The second sun was a brilliant violet color. Colors changed all round it in gradients away from a pure bright center. The contrast between the two suns brought out strange burnt colors in the atmosphere like I had never seen before. Another wave rushed over me, and water poured into my nostrils. The feeling was abrupt, and unpleasant, so I stood up, and got my bearings.

My body retained elements from all of the different forms I had experienced thus far, though the overall combination was not terribly impressive.

My skin was fleshy and pale. There were no protective scales, or luxurious natural tones. A quick look down at my hands and I realized that my claws had diminished from their weaponized, demonic state, but not quite as refined and gracious as they had been when I was a human. I might still be able to do some damage with them, but they were significantly less powerful than I remembered.

I brought my hand to my mouth, and realized that my teeth were disappointingly sharp. I would still be able to eat well, and I could likely use them as a weapon as well, but the implications of tasting more blood in my mouth didn't quite sit with me.

The water wasn't still enough to give me any sort of affirmative about my eyes, but I imagined that if the source of light was different in this world, my eyes wouldn't be the same either.

Possibly the most disappointing aspect of my new form wasn't any of the physical characteristics just listed -- it was my wing.

At least while I had been a demon, I had enjoyed the pleasure of flight once more. When I had been a human, the tattoos had at least been appealing in their own way. Whatever form I was in now, was just as disabled as my Fae body.

I collapsed onto my ass and felt the first waves of loss pass through me. Each wave that followed made its own attempt at cheering me back up, and placing me back in that state of elation and purpose that had been so restorative. I looked around at the new world before my eyes and cried, alone on the shoreline.

What have I done?

“Mom, mom! There’s a dead man on the sidewalk! Come quick!”

The voices were faint, but they came through all right. The visions of afterlife still burned behind my eyelids. I had seen things that no man should ever be asked to see while continuing to be asked to live his life.

“See! See! He’s not moving, and he’s just laying there!”

“Oh my God. Somebody call an ambulance.”

“No luck ma’am, you think he’s the only one, you’re delusional. Take a look around, this place is in awful shape. He’s probably another one of those freaks. Better to leave the dead where they are.”

Freaks?

I struggled to move, and with some effort, I was able to push myself upward.

“Eeep!”

“This one’s still got a pulse!”

“Quick, roll him over.”

“Oh my God, what happened to him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe some kind of cult.”

“Mom, why does he have markings all over his face?”

“Hush…”

“I don’t like this… I don’t think we should help him.”

“Maeve said that she found a weird one the other day. Wings, and sharp teeth, like a demon. They tied it up and poured gasoline all over it. You know what happened next. They look human enough at first glance, but they’d just as soon eat your children as shake your hand.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Sure I do. Maeve told me herself.”

“What the hell does Maeve know? Besides, do you see wings on this one?”

“You know, I’d do it just to be safe… back off. I’ll bet the wings are hidden underneath those robes of his.”

A boot to the shoulder woke me out of my dream-state. The pain was so sudden and undeserved. A flare of anger grew inside of me. I tried to cut it out, but I couldn’t.

Another sharp kick to the side, and my hand reached out of its own accord and grabbed the man by his leg. I was weak, but all I really needed was a point of contact. I reached into his body, and touched the only part of him that I could see clearly anymore. My fingers grasped something delicate, and separated it from his body.

The man fell down to the floor, and his soul went free.

Everyone screamed — and then, there was silence.