After the Fall

  Triden's continued explanation cut off my self-directed philosophizing. "The witches have made overtures, to be sure. Especially now. But we are not interested in their new age magical mischief."

  "Why now?" asked Spike. "What's changed around here?"

  The dwarf didn't really answer, he just grumbled.

  "What was that?" I asked. "We couldn't hear you."

  He turned around, now seriously cranky and no longer walking. "I said, young fae, that certainly ya must know the answer to yer question, and so I wonder why ya would bother to ask me if that be the case."

  "We don't know," said Spike before I could get a word in edgewise. "Tell us."

  The dwarf looked from Spike to me, probably trying to judge whether we were full of crap or not. When he finally made his decision, it was like the air drained out of him. He shrank inward noticeably before he said, "The Overworld is being overrun."

  "Overrrun?" I asked, feeling a little sick inside. "By who?"

  "Not by whom ... by what."

  "What then?" asked Spike, his voice a hoarse whisper.

  Triden stared at us, his brows furrowed and his back stiff. "Demons," was his response.

  My heart sank. What does it mean for the Here and Now if there are demons in the Overworld?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  TRIDEN BEGAN WALKING AGAIN AND we followed as before, only now there was this dark cloud floating above us and my mind was racing, trying to make sense of what was going on.

  "How can there be demons here?" I asked. "How are they getting in?"

  Triden glanced back over his shoulder but answered without stopping his forward movement down the path. "Through the void."

  "That's how they're getting into the Here and Now too. There's a tear in the veil. I've seen it," I said. "So has Spike. Well, at least, his body and mind were there. I'm not sure if he remembers it." I looked over at my friend, but he was shaking his head in a weird way, lifting up his eyebrows at me and jerking his head towards Triden.

  "Who be Spike?" asked the dwarf.

  "I be Spike ... I mean, I'm Spike," said my incubus friend, raising his hand.

  "What were ya doin' in the void, then?"

  "We were trying to get back from the Underworld," I explained.

  The dwarf stopped again and turned, his hand squeezing the handle of his axe more than necessary, his knuckles going white with the effort. "And what were ya doing in the Underworld if ye not be demons?"

  I tried to laugh off his distrust. "It's a funny story, actually. Heh, heh."

  "Do tell." Triden's nostrils flared, and he was definitely not amused.

  "Well, we were fighting some demons by our compound, and in the process of doing that, I was working with this other elemental to send the demons back to the Underworld; and I accidentally sent myself and a friend of mine there with them. It was just a tiny mistake that was soon fixed when we got back. Through the void."

  Triden cocked his head to the side, his hand loosening its grip just a bit. "You consider sending yourself into the bowels of hell a tiny mistake?" He straightened up and shook his head slowly before turning and continuing our journey. "Youth of today ... "

  The last comment wasn't for me, but I responded anyway. "Well, I'm kind of new at this, and we were able to get back without too much trouble, so it was cool."

  "And ye say ya were workin' with another elemental, did ya?"

  "Yes. His name is Ben, and he's here in your realm now too, doing the same thing we're doing." I wanted to add the fact that he was a total jerk-off, but I figured it might be seriously bad karma to try and get a dude messed up in the Overworld by a bunch of angry dwarves, so I stayed silent on that part of Ben's personality. He'd probably show his true colors over here anyway without any help from me.

  Before Triden could ask anymore questions, we were interrupted by sounds of more wings buzzing, which I now knew to be pixies - the light-web-spinning kind. Triden stopped in his tracks and held out his arm behind him. "Get back! It be the pixies again, and by the sounds of it, a whole bleedin' flock. I'll do me best to protect ye, but I cannot promise there won't be casualties." He was staring off in front of us, trying to lay eyes on them.

  "I hear my momma," said Willy, who I thought had fallen asleep, he'd been quite for so long.

  "No, you don't, shhhh. It's a bad lady pixie again."

  Willy's voice took on a whiney quality. "I don't like the bad lady pixie."

  "Me neither," I said, moving closer to Spike.

  "Do you think your web cutter's going to work this time?" asked Spike, putting his arm around my shoulders.

  "I don't know. I guess we're going to find out." The first bits of sparkly light were coming towards us on the path, three pixies flying in tight formation right for us.

  "Ready yerselves!" warned Triden. "Here they come, bloody bastards!"

  "Wow, he really hates those pixies, doesn't he?" asked Spike, watching our guide in fascination.

  Triden swung his axe out as the pixies got near, sending blue streaks through the air, the sounds I was used to hearing from Tony's weapon singing out around us.

  The pixies bobbed and weaved around the light show, laughing and singing as they went. Four more joined them and appeared to be delighting in harassing the little dwarf still swinging his axe gamely from the ground.

  They were slowly driving him towards us, so craftily I wasn't even sure they were doing it on purpose. But when he came within range of us, he had to quit waving his weapon around quite so forcefully, and they took advantage of it. Within seconds of him being near us, they started dropping lassoes of light from their butts around the group of us, flying so fast they just looked like streaks of light themselves.

  Triden was yelling some kind of crazy war cry that was almost as interesting as the web that now surrounded us. He was chopping the axe out in front of him, trying to cut through the web and only being partially successful. After about a minute into the fight, we had so many layers of it around us, it was like we were standing in a showcase at a jewelry store. Everything was sparkling and bright, and the trees were almost impossible to see through it all.

  "Bloody hell!" yelled the dwarf, dropping his axe to the side. He hung his head in shame. "Well, that be all then. I've brought you no more than a stone's throw through the forest before I've been laid waste. I don't know how long we'll be waitin' here before one of me brothers or sisters can come to save us."

  The sounds of giggling pixies disappeared into the distance.

  "Maybe we can help," said Spike.

  Triden turned to face us, being careful not to brush up against the sides of the web that was now at his back. "Have ye not had a meetin' with the pixies already? Oh, that's right. You said they didn't work on ye, isn't that what ye said?"

  I nodded.

  "Ha! Well, I guess I've caught ya in your first lie, then haven't I?" He crossed his arms, leaving his axe to lean up against his leg.

  Spike had reached out with his finger and gently touched the inside of our prison. "Youch!" he yelled, jerking his hand back. He looked over at me. "Still nasty."

  "Pretty lights," said Willy. "I'm hungry."

  This web was nothing like the couple of strands that had surrounded us before, but I had to try to cut through them anyway. Having a hungry pixie in my hand gave me the impetus I needed to stick my finger into what looked like a mighty electrified fence. "Wish me luck," I said to Spike, glancing at him nervously before reaching my hand out.

  "Stop!" yelled Triden. "What're ya doin' there, lass? It's a painful bite you'll be gettin' if ya touch that web!"

  I shrugged. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?" I reached my finger out until the tip was just an inch away from the inside of the web.

  "Just touch it for a second, Jayne. Don't put your whole hand in there," advised Spike.

  I nodded, pushing my finger forward farther. I was expecting a nasty shock, but when I finally made contact, there was nothing. I breathed out a sigh of relief
, sinking my whole hand in and making a rip in the fabric of light that imprisoned us.

  "Well, I'll be a pixie-lovin' swamp wallower ... you don't feel the pricks of pixie pain, then?" asked Triden.

  I smiled, relief filling up my chest. "Nope. Nothing." I moved my finger up and down, cutting away the strings of light like a hot knife through butter. They fell away in layers, dropping to the ground and disintegrating as they went. "This is so cool," I said, mostly to myself as I walked around my friends cutting as I went. "Goodbye, Pixie ass web."

  "Nice work, girl," said Spike, leaning over to kiss my cheek as I stood next to him, removing the webs near his shoulder.

  I smiled. "Thanks, incubus." I patted him on the cheek a couple times before finishing with the webs on the other side of him, nearest Triden.

  Triden was staring back and forth from me to Spike and back again. When the last of the web fell and dissipated completely, bringing the trees back into view, he said, "So ya be an incubus, and ye an elemental, is that right?"

  "Yes," I said, examining my cutting finger, verifying there were no injuries or marks there. It was exactly as it always was, blemish-free with a slightly jagged fingernail at the end in bad need of a filing.

  "And ye want to find a dragon to talk to em and the pixies have no power over ye."

  I shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

  He shook his head. "In all the days 'n all the scores of years in all the centuries I've been here ... I never thought I'd see the day ... "

  "The day of what?" asked Spike, stepping over to be at my side.

  "Yeah, what's the big deal?" I asked, wondering why the old guy was smiling now.

  "Ach ...," he waved us away and turned to go again, "we shall see, we shall see. Let us get to the mountain before we lose the best light. There will be plenty of time to consider all the outcomes, eh?"

  We followed along silently, me choosing not to answer like I wanted to, which was to say that we didn't plan on staying any longer than necessary. We still had one more realm to cover, and I had no idea how we were going to get there or even if I was going to be able to get out of this realm first. I probably should have brought a map or a witch with me. I sighed, thinking about how unprepared for this journey I was. Next time, I was going to leave the adventuring to someone else. And Tony was just going to have to do the same.

  Thoughts of my best friend had me squeezing Spike's hand just a little tighter. He looked at me in question, but I brushed him off with a shake of my head. I couldn't start talking about Tony now and wondering aloud where he was and what he might be doing. Hopefully, if the pixies bothered him with their butt-webs, Ben could take care of the problem and use his lightsaber finger like me. I had a big enough mission as it was, finding a dragon and talking it into doing this portal guarding job for the rest of eternity. I didn't need to add anything else to my plate like rescuing other dumbass fae like me who should have stayed in the Here and Now.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  TRIDEN DIDN'T ASK US ANY more questions the rest of the way to his mountain home. It took us what felt like about an hour, which in reality was probably half that, but I had a hungry pixie in my hand who would not shut up the entire way.

  "What's the matter?" asked Spike as we approached a large cliff face that looked like it had been cut into the side of a huge foothill of an even huger mountain that rose up into the sun and clouds so high I couldn't see the top of it.

  "Just tired of the baby whining all the time. I don't know how Abby does it," I whispered. I didn't want Willy to hear me because it would probably send him off into another wail-fest about his momma and wanting to be with her.

  Spike nodded before raising his voice a little to be heard by our guide. "Excuse me, Triden? Do you have any fruit or berries or anything we can feed this baby pixie?"

  "Inside," was all he said, staring at the cliff face, glancing back to follow our progress in his direction. Once we were standing just behind him, he turned fully to face us. "And now the moment of truth. Enter if ye have pure intentions. Be repulsed if ye do not."

  My jaw dropped open. "I thought you said no friggin riddles!"

  Triden frowned at me. "I thought you said it was a freggon dragon not a freggon riddle. Ye need to make up yer mind, lassy."

  I rolled my eyes. "Spike, help me out before I say something stupid."

  Spike squeezed my hand once and then let it go. "What she wants to know is whether this is a riddle we have to solve or something else? Do we have to say something or press some buttons or, I don't know, unlock a door somewhere so we can get inside your mountain?"

  "There be no riddles in Sliabh gCuillinn. Just an entrance and the purity of the stone it's made of." Triden walked up to the face of the cliff and inserted his axe into a crack that looked like no keyhole I'd ever seen. As soon as he let go of the weapon's handle, a huge section of the wall turned inward, revealing a tunnel or dark yawning hole in the side of the mountain. It could have been a path there for us to walk down or just a huge pit - it was impossible to see more than a foot into the space it was so completely black inside.

  "After you," he gestured towards the opening, resting his hand on the handle of his axe.

  I got the distinct impression he was not just putting it there to get his key back. If we got rejected at this point, we were probably going to be missing some kneecaps.

  I stepped forward, looking back over my shoulder at Spike. "Here I go, I guess."

  "I'll be in right after you," said Spike, concern marring his features.

  I looked over at Triden right before crossing the threshold. "Do I need to say or do anything special?"

  He shook his head, saying nothing, but flexing his hand on the axe a little.

  I took a deep breath and stepped forward, my foot crossing out of the light and into the darkness. I felt a tingle throughout my body, as if it was waking up from having its circulation cut off for a few seconds, and then nothing.

  "Oooh, that tickles my tummy," said Willy, sounding much less anxious than he had in a while.

  I was fully inside now, and my body was back to its regular self. I turned to face Spike. "Your turn," I said, my voice echoing in the space around me a little.

  Spike took a deep breath and then strode into the space with me, not even hesitating at the line dividing the inside from the outside. He stopped when he was next to me, pulling me into a hug. "One down, hopefully none left to go," he said into my neck.

  "One what? Door?"

  "Obstacle. Door. Magical mystery ... whatever," he said, standing straight again. "I thought for a second there I was going to be stuck outside and you were going to be stuck in. That would have made me crazy."

  "Yeah," I said absently, not having even considered the possibility of being a prisoner in here until he said that. Great. Something else to freak out over. I watched as the door swung shut behind our host, and tried not to feel totally creeped out over the fact that the entrance was cut into stone about five feet thick and I had no key to open it.

  "Follow me," said Triden, moving past us into what turned out to be a wide hallway. Lucky for us, it was much taller than it needed to be for dwarves. A light glow seemed to appear as we advanced farther into the mountain, but I could see no obvious sources. There were no lanterns or switches or anything - the orangey color seemed to be coming from the stone itself. It made the insides partially visible, and I felt my mouth fall open at the beauty that was hidden in the massive rock. The entire mountain looked like it was made out of cloudy amber.

  "Preeeettyyy," said Willy. "I wanna touch it." He began struggling to free himself from my fist.

  "No, Willy, you can't touch anything. Just stay still for a little while longer. Then I'll let you go." I prayed they had a bathroom or a utility closet or someplace where I could put him and let him fly around for a little while. The kid had ants in his pants and along with the pee, it was not a good mix.

  "Don't wanna. I wanna touch it now."

  "You can touch
it soon. But only if you're a good baby and don't talk or try to fly away."

  "I'm not talking."

  "Yes, you are. Stop. For just a little while."

  "But I'm not talking. I'm only answering. You are talking. How come you can talk and I can't talk? You're not my momma, Lellamental."

  "Willy, trust me, I don't want to be your momma. Just relax, okay? We're almost there." I prayed I wasn't lying about that, too. This baby was on my last nerve, but all I could think about were his poor parents freaking out about their missing child. What I was dealing with now was nothing compared to the misery they were dealing with and the tongue lashing I was going to get when I returned. If I return.

  Willy continued to mumble but mostly to himself. "I'm not gonna stop talking and I wanna touch dat wall and she's not my momma and my momma is gonna give her a stink flower cuz she's a bad girl and I can touch dat wall if I want to and I'm gonna fly to my momma ..."

  The rest of what he was threatening faded out when I realized we were approaching what looked like a cavern of sorts. I could see a high ceiling up ahead, the entire thing glowing with the orange light that we'd seen coming from the walls. The sounds of a large gathering reached our ears, echoes of voices and the clanging of wood or dishes or something mixing with chairs scraping across stone floors and laughter.

  "What's that?" asked Spike. "Is it your dining hall?"

  "No," answered the dwarf, slowing his pace.

  "Sounds like a group of fae eating," I said, slowing down too so I wouldn't run into our guide.

  Spike took my hand in his and stood next to me. We'd all stopped just around the corner from fully revealing whatever was in the large cavern. A loud cheer rose up and then some laughter as it died down.

  "You be entering the celebration of Mí na Samhna."

  "What's that?" I asked in a near-whisper.

  "We thank the Great Spirit for the harvest that we enjoyed in the Here and Now. It is our way of staying connected to the realm we most want to return to."

  "What did you call it again?" asked Spike.