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I woke up to Kelra poking my shoulder. "Come on, get up.
You can't sleep in, we've got a lot to do."
"Juffive orminiths," I groaned.
"Oh, no. You get up now." She clapped her hands
and I felt wet and cold. Ice water.
"You are one cruel Faerie, you know that?" I
told her as I got up and peeled off the sopping wet nightgown. "You could have
just taken off the covers. That always works."
"Last time I had an apprentice, I had to light
them on fire for three weeks till she started getting up the first time I told
her to."
"Huh?" I staggered over to the closet and got
out that lavender dress I had set aside and put it on. It was quite comfortable,
for a dress.
"Now, hurry up and brush your hair so we can
go and see Fyora."
"Fyora?" I asked, trying to work out a particularly
difficult knot from my hair. "Why do we have to see Fyora?"
"I forgot yesterday, with the excitement of
having a new apprentice. Fyora keeps a record of all the apprentices, so she
knows whom to send where when a new Faerie comes up who hasn't been taught.
Here, let me help you with that." She reached over and took the brush, running
it through my hair and gently working out any knots she found.
"Anything else you forgot to tell me?" I grumbled.
"No, but there's something I forgot to ask you.
What's your name?"
"Vierna. People call me Vierna, here."
"Vee-er-nah. Hmm. I once read a story with someone
named that."
"Yeah, that's probably the story I got this
name from." I shrugged. "I just used it for a game a while ago in the Human
world, and it stuck."
"I just hope you're a better sister than she
is," she said with a small smile.
"Don't worry, I'm fine as long as my brother
keeps his promises and doesn't use his size or computer smarts to his advantage."
"So, either he's a taller younger brother or
an older brother way taller than you."
"Both. Acts like a younger brother, two and
a half years older than me."
"Ah. Well, we shouldn't keep Fyora waiting,
come on."
I followed her out of the house and down a street,
through some large gates and past hundreds of shops, most owned by Humans and
their pets.
We came to a stop in front of a large palace
near the center of Faerieland. "Big place," I commented as we waited for the
guards to open the sizeable doors.
"And getting bigger all the time. People and
pets move here from all over, building shops and such."
The guards finally finished opening the doors
and we went in. Kelra went over to a dog with long ears seated behind a desk.
A Gelert, I believed. I was still having trouble identifying the different pets.
"I must see Queen Fyora," Kelra told the Gelert.
"I am sorry, but Queen Fyora is busy at the
moment."
"I must see Queen Fyora," Kelra repeated. "It
is on the matter of a Human magic user."
The Gelert blinked, slightly taken aback, then
started scribbling something on a piece of paper. When she had finished whatever
she had written, she mumbled a few words and waved her paw, and the piece of
paper disappeared.
We waited for a few moments before another piece
of paper appeared, right in front of the Gelert. She read it over, then looked
up from the paper at Kelra. "Queen Fyora will see you in the throne room in
three hours. Wait over there," the Gelert told us, pointing to a padded bench
over by a wall. There were several other benches, all with some pet or another
occupying them. There were quite a few Faeries too, mostly fire and water, shooting
sour looks at each other. It was probably some political thing, or an Element
rivalry of some sort. You just never know with Faeries.
"Can you teach me anything while we wait?" I
asked Kelra.
"No, but I can show you a few things."
"Like what?" I asked, eager for whatever she
might show me.
"Watch." Kelra closed her eyes for a few seconds,
and I could tell she was deep in concentration. Then she put up her right hand
and turned it into a fist fist, her thumb sticking out to her left. Suddenly,
she snapped her four fingers up and put her thumb against her palm, then lowered
her two middle fingers down over her thumb, then snapped her fingers and her
thumb out. Some color flickered in front of her palm, then took on a form. It
looked like a cartoon version of my face.
"I can only do simple Illusions," Kelra told
me as the image faded from view, "and none of them last long. If I were a Light
Faerie, I would be able to make a much more detailed design, and have it last
much longer. But since playing with Light patterns is not my innate ability,
more a gathering of magic threads other Light Faeries have left behind in their
weavings, I am unable to make my 'Illusions' last more than a few seconds."
"How do you do it?"
"Gather color, and see the image in you mind.
It's a bit advanced, and seeing color in the Air is quite complicated. I doubt
you will be able to do it for a while."
I shrugged and closed my eyes. I was going to
try. I formed an image of one of the characters in a story I was writing in
my mind, and opened my eyes a crack to see if I could find color on the Air.
I couldn't. I remembered Kelra hadn't opened her eyes, so I closed mine again
and concentrated on making my image real. I made the fist with my thumb sticking
out, snapped my fingers up and my thumb in, lowered my middle two fingers and
feeling a strain at my wrist as my muscles pulled against those in my wrist,
then I snapped my hand completely open. I opened my eyes to check the result,
squinting at the area in front of my palm. There was nothing but a blur of white,
blue, green, brown, and metallic violet behind the green, all in order from
top to bottom.
"Not bad for a first try," I muttered as he
disintegrated.
"Not bad," Kelra agreed. "What was it?"
"He -- a shapeshifter, with blue skin and white
hair. He has a multitude of other abilities, ranging from instant healing and
holding fire to flying and teleporting in a flash of light."
"You know him?" She asked, incredulous.
"No, I'm writing a story and he's one of the
main characters. I haven't decided on a name for him yet."
"What were those purple things behind him?"
"His wings -- they look more like a bird's wings
than a Faerie's, though, and he can't fly anymore. He lost the end half of both
his wings in a battle one day."
"Oh… why was he leaning to the side?"
"You could tell? Personally, I thought it was
a bit blurred to tell details like that."
"Us Faeries have good eyesight. Well?"
"He was attacked by a Werewolf when he was a
kid. It hurt his left leg and arm pretty bad, so he favors that side."
"Quite an interesting character. Who are the
others?" I assumed she meant the other characters.
"Well, there's Kara. She's pretty close to nature,
and loves riding horses. She lives in my world, Earth, and in my time. She one
day finds a magical arch and goes into the world of Moralicir…"
I continued telling her about my story-in-progress.
It was about 185 pages in my notebook, but my writing was pretty big and I was
double-spacing, so it would end up about 60-50 pages or less when I finally
got around to typing it on the computer.
"The Faerie Queen will see you now," the Gelert
told us, interrupting me as I explained to Kelra what a dragon was.
We followed the Gelert into a large chamber
filled with Faeries of several different kinds, all sitting in throne-like seats,
the Queen in the center. I suspected that the higher in the hierarchy they were,
the closer to the Queen they sat.
"You claim you have found a Human magic user?"
the Faerie Queen demanded of Kelra.
"More than claim," Kelra told her evenly, he
tone revealing nothing. "Vierna, show Queen Fyora your stone."
I pulled the leather strap holding the bag over
my head, opening the bag and taking out the diamond, as gasps sounded around
the entire room.
"And why did you test this Human for magic?
What indication did you have that she might have the ability within her?"
"She is marked. Vierna, show Queen Fyora your
wrists."
I held up my arms, fingers pointing to the sky,
palms facing towards the Queen, thumbs pointing towards my ears. More gasps.
"And why did she show you her marks? Why would
she think that a Faerie would know what they meant?"
"She was lost, and fell into my Springs. When
I offered my hand to help her up, I saw the marks when she gave me hers."
"How did she get here? How did she know about
Faerieland?"
I knew that question was directed at me, so
I answered. "I was trying to find my way to the Bank in Neopia Central from
the Gameroom. I lost my way and stumbled through a thick forest. The next thing
I knew, I was standing on clouds. I had never before heard of Faerieland, and
had no idea where I was."
Queen Fyora nodded, and started talking in a
low voice with the other Faeries.
"You do understand what you hold, don't you?"
I wasn't sure if she meant my stone or the ability
to use magic in general. "I do," I told her, believing it was an adequate answer
to both.
"What magic have you worked?"
"I made an attempt at an Illusion earlier, and
managed to make a blur of color. Other than that, I have not done anything,
to my knowledge."
"Have you any idea what you marks mean?"
"I can become a mage."
She nodded, but I knew there was something she
had left unspoken.
"Show me an Illusion."
I hesitated. I had tried making Illusions of
Shae, Leo, and Lynn after my minimal success at the other character -- I had
to figure out a name for him! But none of them had worked. I had to try. I closed
my eyes and conjured a mental image of Fyora. I put up my fist again, thumb
out, and moved it like I had before, switching the positions my fingers were
in, then opened my eyes and squinted at the area in front of my hand. Nothing.
I sighed. Then I saw something. It was a formless purple blur, as tall as me,
slowly taking on form. Gasps once again sounded around the room as an only slightly
shorter version of Queen Fyora shaped itself perfectly in front of me before
vanishing in the wind. Well, not really the wind since there was none in the
Faerie Castle, but the way it vanished made it seem as if it was blown away
by a gust of wind.
"What…what do you wish to learn?" Fyora asked,
her voice shaking slightly.
"Healing," I all but whispered. Does the Illusion
have to be of someone living in order to work?
Fyora nodded. "Kelra, you will teach her?"
"I will."
"Fine. Now, this meeting is over. Everyone get
back to where you are needed."
I left with Kelra --the Battle Faerie held me
back for a moment, to ask me about my sword, but we eventually left with the
promise of lessons from her.
And so it began. I trained hard over the next
three years, learning all there was to know of every Element, until I could
create Illusions whenever I wished, until I could heal a Faerie, Human, or Pet
with just a wave of my hand. Eventually, Fyora called another meeting of the
Faeries, and I was 'released' into Neopia. By then, I had about fifty thousand
NP to start me off, as well as a home in the Tyrannian Marshes I had been constructing
during my training, but Kelra had told me something before I left. "We will
bring you your pets, or give you a sign to tell you whether or not to adopt
them, but you must never, ever, create them."
So I left, with a young orphan Draik with white
spots beside his eyes Kelra had found just outside the Meridell castle. I also
left with the greatest gift a Faerie can give me. That was the day I truly started
my life in Neopia.
The End
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