Storytime: Mage's Assistant

The following occurred in Wales back in a time when the "Land of the Faerie" was widely believed in and therefore accessible by humans. It's only when humans stopped believing in it that it became inaccessible. You can only access what you believe you can perceive, after all. This has elements of a "Fairy Tale" to it, because in a way...it is a Faerie Tale.

Where is Faerie? Faerie is a place, but it's more a dimensional layer of Earth. Faerie exists in the regions of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and northern England, but it does not exist in Third Density. There have been times in humanity's history when the Earth was not always so dense. The planet itself would go up and down in vibrational levels, and even specific regions of the planet could exit Third Density periodically and open itself up to higher density experiences.

This is why Earth has so many stories of times of magic, because magic is real and the "times of magic" are the times when the Earth was higher in vibration. It is not as Earth science believes--that science has defeated magic with its cold and constricting circular logic. No. It just so happens that modern Earth science developed as a result of Earth dropping in vibration.

But let's get on with our story today before I pontificate my way out of alignment.

The year is 1243 AD, or thereabouts. The location is Powys, Wales.

My name is Gwaiyn, and I have just been taken on as an assistant to the court mage for my fief. I live in a small castle in one of the tower rooms, not the top one of course. The top room belongs to Morrun, the mage I assist. I'm a couple of floors lower than he, being only an assistant, but the position is a good one. I can look out and see the hills from the little window and there's a northerly breeze that, while cold, keeps the room feeling airy. I have a simple wooden bed of straw, but I get the advantage of having fresh heather fluffed into the mattress so it never smells stale. There's a little fireplace, a plain chair, a small table, and later on in life I am gifted the luxury of a single bookshelf. This I fill with notes and keepsakes. I do not have many books, because books are handwritten at the time, though there is one day where I am gifted a book for my service.

It's a book on the Fae that the Lord obtained, but found he wasn't interested in. He gave it to Morrun, who gave it to me. I carefully maintain this book, because it is worth more than gold to me.

As far as the Lord is concerned, I'm just another servant. As far as the servants are concerned, I'm over-pomped. As far as Morrun is concerned, I am indispensable. Therefore, I get a tower room. I'm indispensable to him, because Morrun has trouble understanding Earth. He doesn't comprehend math hardly at all, cannot manage money, and calendars and time are elusive to him. He frequently wakes up in the middle of the night to look at the stars, and then sleeps in half the day.

These are aspects of life I excel at. I keep his schedule. I manage his finances. I organize his papers. I make sure his laboratory, which is the room above mine and below his, is kept clean and tidy. I make sure he always knows the current date, and sometimes he asks me for astronomical data. Unfortunately, tracking the stars is not something I have learned how to do. So, he teaches me so I can keep him on task in that regard as well. Stellar alignments are very important to him. He says it helps his magic.

Morrun could have hired anyone else to be his assistant, but there's something he knows about me that other people do not. I can See. I can see the Fae when they walk around among humans. I can tell them apart and see through their glamor. I can see Faerie itself sometimes, and I can see the ways into it. Morrun needed someone who could See, because he cannot See as well. His talents lie in alchemy, chemistry, transmutation, energetic manipulation, and telekinesis. What he called "practical magic". He calls what I can do "subtle magic", and most people won't recognize it as such.

As for the mage himself, he's tall for a Welshman, in fact I know he's not a Welshman I can See it, but we play along that he is. "It's safer that way," he tells me many times. His eyes are a piercing ice blue of a most unusual color, and he keeps his reddish-brown hair long and tied back most of the time. We look like we could be father and daughter if we stood next to each other, as I had red hair and similarly intensely blue eyes with a similar sort of "far-seeing" expression. Sometimes people who didn't know who we were confused us for such, and well, Morrun liked to treat me like a daughter anyway. And I liked to look after him as if he were my absent-minded father.

One day, I'm sent to the market to procure some herbs for an experiment and to restock the laboratory. Also to buy some apples that have just come in season. Morrun has a weakness for one specific variety that only shows up at a specific time. He says they grow in Faerie, and having tasted them, I believe him. I'm at the market, smelling the apples. I'm always smelling things when I'm shopping. It's the best way to tell if plants are at their peak.

"Excuse me, miss, you dropped this," a male voice says behind me. I turn, and am met with that sensation I have described before in other lifetimes. That feeling of time freezing and reality just plain dropping out from under my feet. A blonde-haired man is holding a flower out to me, and his smile makes my entire insides melt. I want to drown in his blue eyes forever. And then I See that this is a glamor, and behind the glamor is a sandy-haired elven man with green eyes. I can even see his pointed ears. But I do not complain about the glamor. It is very attractive.

Attempting to put myself back together, I say a little huffily, "I did not drop that, but I thank you for it if you're intending to give it to me." My mind is whirling. I have no idea how I'm supposed to act around this being. I have no idea why I'm all flustered. I've interacted with the Fae before with no issue. But this man has broken my ability to function. Completely, utterly, destroyed my ability to be "normal" in an instant.

"Ah! You have seen through my ruse. I suppose I simply must give it to you then," he replies, sounding mock-wounded. I hear softly in my mind the following as well, Do you remember me? It sounds pleading almost. Like "please remember me". I can even see it in his eyes. I take the flower from him, and our fingers touch for just a moment.

Suddenly, there's an unfolding and I See this same scene playing out countless times in countless places in countless bodies and shapes. I See the background change, and sometimes it looks strange and alien and I have no idea what any of it means or what I'm looking at. Sometimes I See strange lands. Other times I See impossible scenes taking place in a mess of stars. But there's always this moment, repeated. The moment of asking Do you remember me?

And even if I don't understand what has just happened, I feel myself call back, Yes, I remember you.

"My name is Edamos." He places his hand over his heart and bows a little.

"I am Gwaiyn," I reply, smiling and giving him a curtsy. I find myself wanting to blink away tears, but they don't quite fall.

"It is most lovely to meet you. Unfortunately, I do not have time to stay any longer. But, since you love apples so much," and he grins a little roguishly at this, glances at my lips, and I blush, "Will you meet me in the apple orchard the next quarter moon?" While there are many apple orchards in the area, when he asks this I see in my mind which one he means. It's the one behind the castle.​

"Yes. I am usually done with my work after sunset. I will be there then."

"Excellent!" There's a group of men calling Edamos' name over by the horses. I See they are also wearing glamors and are elves, too. "I must go. My friends need me. We are liberating--I mean purchasing--some horses." And suddenly he's gone, faded into the crowd and I look everywhere for him, but I cannot See where he went. Not even where the horses are. He's simply vanished.

​I walk back to the castle in a dream. The quarter moon is in two weeks. Morrun takes one look at me and knows I've been Touched, and knows my time with him is limited now. "Touched" is a term the locals use whenever a human has had a particular encounter with the Fae or with Faerie that calls them to Faerie. Someone who has been Touched will be called until they surrender to the calling and go, or until the end of their days where their dreams are forever pulling them into deeper dream. The general wisdom of the time is like so: If you have been Touched, it's better to surrender to the call, go, and get the adventure over with.

Except, not everyone who is called comes back. Sometimes people go to Faerie and don't return. I worry over this. I like my job.

The next two weeks pass simultaneous very slowly and very quickly. Before I know it, it's The Day, and I'm walking in the apple orchard as the stars are coming out. Edamos is waiting for me, minus the glamor this time. My lack of surprise tells him what he already suspected, that I can See right through it. We go for a walk in the orchard, my arms wrapped around his elbow. I don't want to stop touching him. The walk is completely innocent, but also not. Completely polite, but also not at all. Completely proper, and yet somehow not at all proper. Or decent. And I don't care about propriety anyway.

By the time we return to our meeting place, I feel we must have walked all over the hills all night as the moon is setting, but I don't feel tired at all. He invites me to come to Faerie to see his home. I accept. We arrange for this to occur the next full moon.

And so life passes. Time passes. The next full moon arrives and I find myself packing my things to go on a journey. When I told Morrun about what happened, he just nodded in his fatherly way, hugged me, and said, "Don't worry. I will find a new assistant. Besides, I think my time here is just about finished. You go have your adventure." We say a tearful goodbye, and I go to the apple orchard under the moon.

I wait for a time, and as Edamos is arriving, he's laughing with an elven woman. They're pushing each other in a very friendly fashion. My heart falls into my feet. He already has someone. Why does this always have to happen? I don't know why I think this, but I start to cry, I turn to run. I want to run far away. I want to jump off a cliff, actually. Or jump out of a tower. But Edamos calls my name, and I stop and turn back around.

"Gwaiyn, this is my sister, Adeliae." It's like he knew what I was thinking, and wastes no time in clearing it up.

"Oh," I say, wiping my tears hastily away. "It's nice to meet you, Adeliae." She hugs me, because I think she knows what I was thinking, too. We all go hand in hand through the orchard, and simply turning a corner, enter Faerie. It's a simple as that.

The next time I return to Wales, I'm unrecognizable and have to wear a glamor myself. But that's okay, because it's no longer home anymore. Morrun is gone, and so is that life.

There's more to this story, of course. But that is enough for now.

I thank you for your time. Adiamas.

​--Kyriel