Athol - Perditus Meets the Nixie

"My poor blog is so lost and forgotten! I really need to do a better job of updating it, no matter how scrapped-together and embarrassing this stuff might be.

Anyway, here's one of the opening scenes from Athol that I've already visited once and have re-visited from a different character's POV. Does it make any difference? Maybe not, but it was helpful in the writing process. Beware of Spoilers ahead!"

-Casey

Perditus struggled through the forest with Ciar slung over his shoulders. The young man was still unconscious and even though his head was resting on Perditus’ shoulder the elf could hardly hear the sound of his friend’s breathing. He had started out so feverish and it was just getting worse and worse. How long had they been walking already?

“Glaoim ar an cumhacht ag an Chúirt Seelie. Sprites, le do thoil teacht ar mo chúnamh,” he called out, imploring the fairies for help. He’d called out to them several times already with no success. They were too close to the edge of the woods where all types of fairies were scarce.

At last they made it to the edge of a stream that Perditus had had to cross when he first entered Athol. He had climbed knee-deep into the water and then leapt across before, but that would probably prove more difficult with Ciar over his shoulder.

“Sprites, le do thoil teacht ar mo chúnamh,” he called again, but there was no answer. In fact, things had become eerily quiet and the elf wasn’t sure why. The sound of the running water, the chirping of birds, and the subtle noises of the forest were all still there. What had changed?

“Ciar?” he asked as he turned to look at the boy.

That had been the reason things were quieter, the faint sound of Ciar’s breathing had stopped. Perditus Quickly dropped to his knees and eased Ciar off his shoulders and onto the grass.

“Ciar!” he called nervously, leaning in closer to listen for even the slightest sound of life. He grabbed the boy’s wrist to take his pulse, but he couldn’t find it.

“Dúisigh!” he commanded, trying to awaken Ciar from his sleeping spell. He didn’t respond.

He put his hand to Ciar’s neck, trying again to find his pulse. He was panicking too much, he couldn’t remember if he was even doing this right.

“Glaoim ar an cumhacht ag an Chúirt Seelie!” he shouted into the woods. “Please, if any of you can hear me, please help!”

He was still a whole day’s walk from his village and Ciar was out of time. He’d gotten the only good human in all of Athol killed. “Please God, don’t let him die,” Perditus prayed as he wrapped his arms around Ciar and lifted him into his embrace. “Please Lord, thy will be done. Thy will be done.”

“You shouldn’t call for anyone, as anyone could answer,” a voice answered, soft but stern.

Perditus turned towards the voice and found two bright yellow eyes staring at him from the edge of the stream. The creature lifted herself out of the water and the elf could now see that she was in fact a Nixie, her long dark hair veiling her face and her rich blue skin covered in freckles.

“Dia leat, Nixie!” Perditus greeted hastily as he lifted Ciar in both his arms. “I beg your help! He’s not breathing! He was poisoned by a witch!”

“You want me to save a human life at the risk of my own?” she asked sternly.

Perditus didn’t remember much about how Nixie magic worked, but he didn’t doubt that it could leave her vulnerable somehow. And even the Seelie were no friends to the humans.

“Please, I promise that I’ll make it up to you!” he insisted. “I’ll give you anything you desire!”

“You have nothing, traveler,” she argued, eyeing Ciar nervously as if he might suddenly spring to life and attack her.

It was true; Perditus had nothing but the clothes off his back. What could he possibly promise her in exchange for Ciar’s life?

“I offer my life for his,” he bargained. “I shall be at your service ‘til the end of my days!”

“You are a fool,” the Nixie sighed. “I will not rob an elf of his freedom only to set loose a known traitor.”

“He is no threat! I swear!”

The Nixie turned her back to him and shook her head. “Your people have made that mistake before,” she reminded him. “If I can help you, I shall, but I will not endanger my brothers and sisters.”

This was why Perditus had left his home in secret. No one trusted the humans anymore, not even human children on the brink of death.

“Is there any way that I might convince you?” Perditus begged as he knelt beside the girl with Ciar still held limply in his arms. “Just tell me your terms and I will accept them no matter what!”

The Nixie looked down at the elf and the boy remorsefully. She was Ciar’s only chance right now and if Perditus let her go he would never forgive himself.

“The human’s life is truly in your hands and yours alone?” she asked searchingly. “No one else can help him?”

Perditus nodded, not sure what she meant by the question.

“Then his life would be yours if he survived,” she nodded. “And thus it will be mine. You offer me his service and I will save him.”

Perditus hesitated, knowing that he had no right to swear on Ciar’s behalf, but what choice did he have?

“What exactly do you mean,” Perditus insisted.

“If I save the human, he will be my servant,” she pledged.

“Until you choose to release him,” Perditus added. The Nixie grimaced, but she nodded in agreement to his amendment.

She then knelt down and lifted Ciar out of Perditus’ arms and then stepped into the stream. She placed the boy in the water and closed her eyes, likely examining him through some sort of extrasensory power she had through the water.

She began humming a soft tune and was soon singing a melody that Perditus couldn’t quite make out. She then let Ciar drop beneath the water where he was unaffected by the flow of the stream and stayed in place.

Perditus sat at the water’s edge and watched his friend anxiously. Nixie’s had very powerful healing magic, greater than even the most powerful of the elves. He just prayed that it wasn’t too late.

The sun soon set over the forest and Perditus could hear the sound of the witches’ sentries flying overhead in the forms of crows. He concealed them as best he could with his glamour spells, but he knew it wouldn’t do them any good if they came in person to find them. Maybe the witches would assume they were already much deeper into the woods by now.

Perditus fell asleep midway through the night and awoke to realize just how beat up he was after the last couple of days. Being tossed around, dragged around, tackled, and used for target practice really did take a toll once he had time to stop catch his breath.

Every decision he had made the last few days had ended badly. Should he have told his family his plans after all? Would they have stopped him or helped? Could he have spotted the dragon if he hadn’t been so tired? Would Ciar and his sister have been better off if they’d never met him?

He tried going over everything that happened with the Nixie, but she seemed to be in some sort of trance most of the time, though she did shake her head from time to time.

It was another day before Ciar finally woke up. The boy burst out of the water in a panic and Perditus quickly tried to calm him down. “Ciar! It’s alright, you’re safe,” Perditus assured him, happy to finally be able to say that himself.

Ciar climbed out of the water and immediately shoved the elf over. “You want to drown me now?!” he demanded, brushing his wet hair out of his eye.

“I’m sorry,” Perditus insincerely apologized. “The poison had done its damage. If I hadn’t gotten you help, you’d be dead now.”

Ciar kneeled dripping wet on the ground as Perditus stood up and dusted himself off. He hadn’t thought much about how he’d explain the situation to Ciar once he woke up. Until now he’d just been hoping that he’d wake up at all.

“Help?” Ciar asked with suspicion in his voice.

“He is an ungrateful little human,” the Nixie interrupted, catching Ciar’s attention. Perditus cringed at the fact of these two finally speaking to each other.

“Well, at least now that I have him, he’ll be no trouble to the rest of the forest,” she shrugged.

Perditus rubbed the back of his neck nervously. It was probably best to get it over with quickly.

“Ciar, this is the water nixie of this stream,” Perditus sighed. “She is the one that saved you.”

“Humans are not easily mended,” she stated, coming to the edge of the water. “But Perditus’ deal was fair.”

Ciar turned to Perditus slowly with a look of both realization and distain. Perditus stepped back as Ciar’s fist clenched at his side.

“Nixies do not offer help without the promise of reward,” Perditus tried to explain, hearing how insufficient it sounded even to him. “And she would not take my service as payment.”

“Service?!” Ciar snapped, grabbing Perditus by the collar of his jacket. The elf wanted to add that he had bargained with his own life, that he had tried to get help elsewhere, and that Ciar was basically dead when this all happened, but he felt that he had no right. He had done this to Ciar and really would feel better about the whole thing if Ciar punched him in the face.

“Now, now! None of that!” the nixie interrupted again. “The human will unhand the elf immediately!”

Ciar’s eye widened and Perditus felt the boy’s hands flinch as he struggled to disobey the order. Perditus couldn’t look him in the eye as the Nixie called out again.

“I gave him an order!” she snapped, pulling herself onto the edge of the stream.

Ciar released Perditus without hesitation this time and then stare down at his hands in disbelief. He turned to the nixie lying at his feet. “How did you do that?” he asked.

“There is a magic in a nixie’s voice,” she said simply.

Ciar turned to Perditus again and the elf could only sigh helplessly.

“Their commands can control anyone within earshot,” he explained, remembering that Ciar wasn’t familiar with magic.

Ciar shook his head angrily and then turned to run off through the forest.

“Stop!” the nixie called after him.

Ciar stoped at the edge of the tree line a few feet away, his back to both the nixie and Perditus. The Nixie sighed in annoyance as she turned to Perditus.

“Such a stubborn boy!” she complained. “I liked him better when he was asleep.”

“You mustn’t be so strict with him,” Perditus whispered. “I told you about what transpired with his sister.

“So the humans are turning on each other now,” she scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “Do not expect me to weep for a traitor betrayed.”

“They’re not all witches and warlocks, dear nixie,” Perditus reminded her.

The girl looked at him sternly for a moment before replying, “They’re all alike, Perditus. I know that better than most. I can only pray that the damage this human will cause is minimal. You never should have brought him here.”

The Nixie then pushed off the shore and drifted into the center of the stream. Perditus couldn’t allow her comment to stand. She’d been nothing but disrespectful towards him from the moment they met.

“There was a time when an elf could vouch for a human before the rest of the Court,” he said.

“You are the last of your species thanks to that trust,” she shot back.

“Those were the actions of his ancestors, not of Ciar himself,” he argued.

“Just as your foolish actions are yours and not anything akin to your Grandfather’s.”

Perditus had no comeback for that. He hadn’t realized that the Nixie had actually guessed his heritage.

“He is a testimony to your people and you should have listened to him,” she rebuked. She then jumped into the air and dove into the stream and out of sight.

Perditus watched the water flowing for a moment longer. He’d never won any of the arguments with his grandfather either. Didn’t anyone understand what he was trying to do?

He looked up at last to see that Ciar was also staring down at the stream from where he stood. Perditus walked up to him, once again just feeling relieved that his friend was alive.

“I did not enter into this deal lightly, Ciar,” he assured him, though Ciar didn’t respond. “I shall find a way to free you from this contract.”

Ciar turned to him and narrowed his eyes, making the elf flinch. “Promise?” he asked.

“Well, I’m afraid that I can’t swear to an action against what I already swore to the nixie,” he admitted.

“Just what did you swear to her?” the boy asked.

“That if she saved you, you’d be her servant until she released you,” he recited.

“How do we get her to do that?”

“I’m still working on that part.”