(( That's Ok. I just  wasn't on for two or three days myself, and I'll be camping tomorrow through Thursday. Here's my tentative storyline. The other seven of the Council never arrive, I think, and Kanti (now the Terror) taunts Jacob about it. He and Mari gather all the fairies in Paris into a forlorn resistance against the Terror, but Kanti wins that battle and the fairy kingdom (or rather councildom :P) falls into darkness (whatever that means - fairies can't die, exactly, I think) and all is lost. Terribly tragical ending, and no chance for Jacob and Mari to fall in love. ('cause I stink at love scenes and hate 'em anyway) What do you think? No, maybe either Jacob or Mari survives and is doomed to wander the world forever, fighting the Terror of the East. Again, horribly tragic ending. Let me know if you want to make any changes at all, or if you think that's too depressing, or whatever. :D))

 

-EH

That's weird.... my posts aren't coming up in order. I hope I didn't lose what I wrote.... Anywho, hi, Admins! Methinks you're on now!

-EH

((((That was a really nice ending, Emily!! I LOVED it. Okay, now I'm to gather it all together and put it here. Admin, I think I read somewhere on here that you didn't like people to post very long posts because it takes you longer to read through it all? Would it be OK if I copied and pasted this story into one big post? Because you already read through the story. But it's also OK if you shortened it to a couple of posts.))))

 

If you walk past the Eiffel Tower, past the chocolate shops, past the old warehouses in France, you'll find yourself by a discarded milk bottle, rimmed with metal and birch bark.....

Mari slipped out of her rose petal heels into some comfy slippers. Ahh, that's better, she thought as she sank into a chair.  After a long day discussing France's war, it was nice to relax in her specially made spiderweb loveseat.

The glass roof and walls began to let off one sharp ping after another as rain began to slant out of the heavens, glancing off the milk bottle. Mari smiled to herself. She had only just beaten the rain, and Kanti and her friends would be stuck in it. Serve them right, dragging out the debate at the Council like that, she thought.

 

The round scrap of metal that served her for a door shuddered as something pounded on it. Mari half sat up and called, "Who is it?" but only the rain and more  hammerings answered her. Then, through the rain-streaked glass, she saw that it was a bedraggled crow who had caught a gleam of brightness from teh weak sun that refleceted off the door. The crow was pecking at it industriously, but then a burst of wind shook his feathers, followed by a rumble of thunder, and he took off, leaving his prize for his warm, dry nest.

 

Mari yawned. France was not doing well in the war, and the fairies were worried. If England advanced too far, they could burn Paris, and the fairies, or at least their homes, would go up in smoke with it. They were divided into three factions: Mari's  grouping, which believed that they should wait out the war adn stay with their homes and families, only leaving if worst came to worst; Neimu ((you can change that name if you want - it was random because I needed one fast)) and his friends, who advocated deserting Paris and rebuilding in the countryside like some of their more rustic cousins, and, most corntorversial of all, Kanti, who was in favor of revealing their existence to the king and offering their services for protection. Mari's following was the biggest, and Neimu's closest, but it was Kanti's, the smallest, that caused the most problems. she never knew when she was beaten, never would give up a hopeless argument. And while it made her look bad, it also dragged out proceeding drastically. 

Mari sighed happily. At least Kanti and her group wouldn't be playing any tricks in this weather- their wings would get too wet by the pounding rain and they wouldn't be able to fly quietly. So she didn't need to worry about anything for a day or two.

She gazed out the side of the bottle. A leaf skimmed along the dirt and crashed into a nearby brick. Mari hoped no fairy was trying to use that to get to their house because their wings were basically dead. Hmm. Something was catapulted from the leaf. Mari decided to go check, just to make sure nothing happened.

Mari grabbed some spare pieces of a shattered window. She held it over her head and dashed out into the pouring rain.

Wow, it's pretty rainy out here, she thought. I hope I don't catch a cold. Mari coughed, as if in reply.

Her muscles twitched as they became number and number because of the icy rain slicked all over them. I've got to hurry to that leaf, before I or anybody catches pnemonia.

The wind slammed Mari against a broken bucket, hard. She bent over, gasping, trying to catch her breath. The leaf spun away in a whirlwind of dancing debris, but the small figure was left behind. Mari bent her head against the wind and trudged forward, her makeshift umbrella forgotten. A newspaper blowing wildly in the wind whoshed over her head draped over the bucket behind her, and a corner slapped her back, soggy from the rain and surprisingly heavy. She stumbled and almost fell, only to find that she was right in front of the motionless fairy.

 

It was a fairy. There was no doubt about that - it was too small to be anything else. But Mari couldn't even tell if it was male or female, much less alive. Its hair was cut short and ragged, its face tanned and hard from exposure to the elements. Birch-bark trousers and a shirt made from a kind of leaf she didn't even recognize were its only clothing - no shoes, no head covering, not even a jacket for protection against the bitter weather. It didn't stir when Mari touched its shoulder. "Well then, I guess you're coming back with me, whoever you are," she muttered under her breath. The wind was with her now, a good thing, because carrying the limp fairy and trying to stay upright was all she could do. The wind all but moved her itself. In seconds she was at her front door, noting with satisfaction that a sheet from the newspaper was caught against the milk bottle. It sheltered the front door, so she should be able to get herself and her guest inside without soaking and ruining everything. The door slammed behind her, sealing itself well, and the newspaper blew off, shaking the bottle, but Mari's home held fast between the bricks she had braced it with. 

 

 

Jacob  stirred, light breaking through the darkness that had enveloped him for so long. Where?.... What?.... He sat up, amazed that he could. The last thing he remembered was pain - mind-numbing, dulling pain, and crawling under a leaf for shelter while he still had some vestiges of consciousness left. So where..... 

 

He glanced around, mind still fuzzy and slow. Glass walls, ceiling, floor. All round. Blurred, like they were wet. He was in.... well, it looked like a bottlecap, padded with bits of cloth, scraps of yarn, and a few bits of feather. There as a wall in front of him; more of a curtain, really, bits of everything from canvas to silk patched together. He, living far from civilization as he did, didn't recognize most of the fabrics. Even just the sight of a leaf would have cheered him trememdously. 

 

Jacob stretched his arms, and immediately regretted it. He winced; he must've broken some bones in the accident. Feebly, Jacob took his legs out the bottlecap and slowly rested his back on a clear, rounded wall. Clear? Rounded? How could  that be? Jacob thought. And where am I? How did I get here? All Jacob remebered was that he was walking in an unfamiliar town and rain started falling. He had slipped on a leaf and it had skid down the road. All of a sudden, an object had loomed over him and he crashed into the brick, headfirst. I'm lucky I'm still alive. I could've suffered major head injuries.

 

Jacob gazed around the shelter. There was a female fairy at the far end of it. She was chopping up berries with a sharpened stick and pouring the remaining juices into a small container. The fairy stuffed the container into a lopsided shelf and started frying the berries in a piece of scrap metal. He sniffed; the food sure didn't smell very good. Jacob softened. Maybe this fairy was trying to prepare a meal for him, even if she didn't have very much food. The food might actually taste good, she just needed to add some seasonings to the berries. Wonder what it's called, he thought. I could've had it before in the country. At least he knew that these fairies had growing plants and they didn't eat any fabrics or animals.

 

The fairy whirled around and looked at Jacob. He lowered his head guiltily, as if he had done something wrong. She smiled happily. "Hi, I'm Mari! You crashed into a brick and you were knocked unconsious. I brought you into my milk bottle so you didn't die. Luckily for you, I have a surplus of berries- I was treated to dinner last night by a friend. We can have a nice meal." Her braids bounced in excitement.  "Who are you? Where do you come from? Fairies around here don't wear your kind of clothes." Mari motioned to his leaf shirt and birch-bark trousers. "And any fairy with a brain would've worn some protection from the weather; didn't you know it was rainy today?" She blushed suddenly. " I'm talking too much, aren't I? Go ahead, your turn."

 

Jacob replied gruffly, "Um, I'm uh, Jacob. I live out in the country, where I see other fairies only about once every other month at marketday. Yeah, I remember slightly being lifted up. I thought I was dying." He paused, trying desperately to remember Mari's other questions.  "I'm wearing a maple leaf shirt and softened birch bark pants. Where I live, it wasn't supposed to rain today. I was just bored and decided to fly to another town. I ended up here. Then poof! Rain came poring down on me. I didn't know what had happened when I fell onto a slippery leaf." Jacob decided to tell Mari that he had no idea where he was. "Where are we? And why are we in this thingy?" He pointed his eyes around the walls.

Mari laughed. "It's shelter, isn't it? And it works well enough for a house. Is your arm all right? I couldn't tell if you'd been hurt without you being awake."

 

Jacob winced as he lifted it a little. "I don't know. It hurts, that's for sure. Maybe broken. Can't tell. Let's see...." He trailed off into silence as he held his left hand over his sore right arm. His eyes narrowed in concentration and his forehead wrinkled. His left palm began to glow a little, then the golden, dancing light enveloped his right arm. The flesh of the arm began to turn transparent, the same bright hue as the light. Soon the bones showed through, shining like burnished gold, and sure enough, the translucent skin and muscle showed that they were both broken near the wrist. The larger was snapped clean through, the smaller chipped. Jacob began to murmer softly, and Mari joined in, chanting the healing verses from fairy lore. The glow slowly turned from gold to purple, and there was a blinding flash of green, and the light was gone. Jacob bent over his arm in agony for a moment, then straightened again and lifted it. "There, that's better. I think I'm all right otherwise." 

 

Marie whirled back to the stove. "Good! These are almost done...." She began to flip the berries, one by one, like pancakes. Jacob had to admit that they did smell better after being cooked, and he was hungry. Now Mari began to slide them onto a rounded bit of glass shaped like a bowl. She drizzled the juice she had collected earlier onto them and sprinkled them with a handfull of raw flour from a bag to her left. They did look good. Jacob grinned. 

"Like we do with pancakes, only opposite. We fry the flour and put berries on it. I'll try that sometime." 

Mari waved a hand at the table set against the wall with its chairs, half the legs longer than the others so that it would sit flat in the bottle. "Have a seat. Best to eat while they're hot." Jacob sat gratefully and they both dug in. The rain had long since stopped, and halfway through the meal, the bottle jerked a little to one side despite the bricks that supported it. Mari jumped up, alarmed. Then through the glass she caught a hint of greenish-orange sparkles in the air. Every fairy left a similar trail behind when it flew, although the color depended on the individual. And Mari knew that particular color all too well. 

 

Kanti!

Mari groaned. Not when she had company! Now, of all times, Kanti had to come bother her. She looked at Jacob. "It seems that we have visitors," she said through tightly pressed lips. Mari trudged to the door, but stood stock-still, wondering if she should actually open it. The bottle shook again, harder this time. She scrunched her forehead in frustration and reached out to grab the door handle.

 

It started to turn, all by itself. The door opened, and in flew Kanti. Her icy blue eyes and dark, pointed bangs implied that she was not a fairy people wanted to deal with. Kanti had on her usual clothing- a rose petal blouse trimmed with golden canvas and green dyed dress pants. Her "work" outfit, Mari thought. Some work she does. In a sugary voice, Kanti said, "Hello, Maaaaari. Long time, no see, yes? My, that Debate certainly was a nice one, although it was rather boring, the way your side dragged it out, always contradicting my team. Too bad you lost, kid." She tapped Mari lightly on the nose. "But of course, nobody could prove it. It might as well have been a tie." Kanti fake-brightened. "Guess what? The mayor has planned a "sequel", as you may call it, to today's Debate. You better try hard, Maaaaari. Maybe you'll beat me. But I think not."

 

Mari's eyes narrowed. "You know Kanti," she said sarcastically. "It does my heart good to have unwelcome neighbors drop in, right when I'm trying to relax after a terrific Debate. Maybe some people I know should do that more often. Mmm."

 

Kanti didn't reply, and glanced innocently around the room. She picked at the odds and ends of the insulating fabics. "Tacky little place you've got here." Her eyes rested on Jacob, leaning weakly on the wall, trying to hide, apparently intimidated. "Why, hello there! Who are you?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to Mari. "Oh, and who is this? A new boy?"

Mari glanced at Jacob, mentally begging him not to back down. To stand up for himself. Maybe there was something in telepathy after all - he seemed to get the hint one way or another. He stood up straighter and said in the most sickeningly polite tone he could muster, with a saucy tilt of his head, "Well hello yourself! Mari, do hand your guest a towel. It appears a bird chose her face as an unfortunate target. Won't you, there's a dear."

 

His taunting tone acted like a whip on Kanti. Her face hardened and her eyes narrowed into stony slits of frost. She tried to match his syrupy tone but was sadly lacking in self-control. Her voice shook with anger. "Don't display your alarm so plainly, child."  She lifted her arm, fingers stiffened, and all but shouted a holding spell at Jacob, her voice grating and gravelly with fury. He smiled condescendingly and flicked a single finger at her. In an instant the holding spell was gone and had been replaced by a much stronger one on Kanti. Jacob began walking grimly toward her, punctuating each slow, ponderous step with a scathing sentence. 

 

"Child, you said? Child? Well, consider your position, Kanti. You know nothing about me. You don't know my name or my age or where I come from. For all you know, I could be one of the NINE!" Here his voice thundered through the bottle and Mari shrank against the wall, suddenly conscious that her guest had greater powers than she had suspected, whether or not his threat was true. She didn't think it was - he looked too young. "But you didn't consider that, did you? No, you felt it necessary to insult a guest the way no proper fairy would to regain your sense of self esteem. Congratualtions. You've just made a complete and utter fool of yourself." By now he was right in front of Kanti, and she was backed against the door of the bottle, trembling like a frail leaf. He smiled contemptuously and turned away, scorn packed into every fiber of his bearing. "Fortunately for you, I'm not one of the Nine. But...." Here he let the silence hang ominously and stood with his back to Kanti, his hands clasped behind him, bearing regal. He spoke without turning around, each word ringing like a peal of doom. "But my father is!" Kanti and Mari let out simultanious gasps, Kanti's of horror, Mari's of awe that she had entertained the successor to the Council in her own home unawares. There was no doubt that what he said was true. When fairies lied, their wings fluttered and they couldn't stand still, and Jacob looked like he had been carved of granite just now. He spun around and glared fiercely at Kanti, a shrinking coward with all her false bravado gone. His voice was quiet and threatening, layered richly with scorn. "You're a liar and a bully, you who call yourself Kanti. I would suggest you leave. NOW!" She turned and fled through the door in terror, regardless of the rain that had turned to hail. In an instant, she was gone.

 

Mari raised one eyebrow at Jacob. "And why, pray tell, didn't you tell me that before?" She was a little annoyed, even if he was the son of on of the Nine. 

He raised an eyebrow back. "I don't like how people walk on eggshells when they're near me and treat me like I'm made of glass and might explode. I do blow up now and then, like when there's a bully like that one. I should have done something more - she's of the sort that will be bent on revenge now." He wrinkled his nose in an amazingly ordinary way. "It really doesn't make me different from other fairies, you know. Sure, I'm stronger in magic than most, but I can't help that - it's hereditery. Please don't be mad that I didn't tell you, Mari."

"Of course I'm not angry with you, Jacob! I would've done the same in your position. You didn't want to attract attention and make me all fluttery and anxious or anything," Mari said.

Mari paused for a minute, then added, "Not that I would be. I'd be acting the same as I am now even if the king was here." Not waiting for a response, Mari scooped the berries onto a plate and poured a little extra juice on them. Then she reached into the cabinet again and pulled out a large cheese curd and a roll. Mari took a piece of metal and sliced each in half. She put it on the plates. "Here we are," she said as she picked up the plates. "Ahk!" Mari buckled under the weight. It was all she could do to stand up. She staggered over to Jacob and set his plate down. She pulled over another bottlecap and sat down, putting her feet up on a feather. "Ahhh." Mari looked at Jacob and gestured to the food. "Eat," she commanded. "Or else I'll eat it for you."

 

Jacob wholeheartedly grabbed the roll and began stuffing it in his mouth. "Mmm. Dish ish really good, Mari." He finished the roll and began on the berry. It tasted better than it looked. "What'sh dish called?" he asked with his mouth full of berry. "I've gotta recommend dish to my fasher." After he finished the berry, he gulped down the cheese curd. Realizing that Mari was still chewing her roll, he blushed and looked at his hands, embarassed. "I guess I need a little training to become one of the Nine," he said quietly. He tried to defend himself before Mari could say a word. "I was really hungry. Hitting your head does something to your stomach."

 

"I guess," Mari giggled, amused. She stood up and dusted her skirt, scattering bread crumbs all over the floor. "Whoops!" She mumbled a few words and the crumbs flew into the garbage. "There we go. All better."

Jacob yawned suddenly, hugely. Mari slapped her forehead. "I'm sorry, Jacob! You've got to be tired. Not to mention sore. Go all the way back and take the bottlecape at the end of the bottle. I'll make myself a bed up front here." She tossed him a towel and walked back with him, carrying an acorn cup of steaming water. When she set it down on a chair in the back room, she spoke quietly to him. "And don't be surprised if Kanti tries something tonight. She's petty and vengeful. I just hope she doesn't do anything really stupid. Last time she almost burned down half of Paris. Neimu and his following all had to cast a damping spell." She blushed. "And, well, Kanti was trying to melt the glass of my bottle, so it was getting pretty hot in here. It was all I could do to keep myself cool enough to stay alive." She straightened and walked to the doorway. "All that to say that Kanti will try to get back at me, and you too. You especially, really. Just be warned." She pulled aside the light, silky curtain that formed the door and disappeared behind it.

Jacob sat still for a while, thinking about what Mari said. "Oh, I'll be ready, Mari. I'll be ready," he murmured. "Kanti might actually be sorry after she deals with me." He cracked his knuckles and laughed. "Jacob," he said to himself. "You are being silly. Kanti is just a small troublemaker who doesn't have the guts to fight against the succesor of one of the Nine. Besides, you don't like to fight. Kanti won't even bother us. I'll sleep very nice and then I'll wake up in the morning with the same color hair in the same place. Don't you worry." He paused. "Ok, I need to stop trying to reassure myself. Nothing is going to happen, I'm just rambling on like I usually do." He curled up in a little ball, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

 

The door of the milk bottle creaked as a fairy tiptoed into the house. All was dark except for the light glow that surrounded the fairy. She looked around. No movement- Mari and Jacob were both deeply asleep. The fairy sneaked over to the wall and began ripping all the cloth down which served as insulation. She muttered a spell and clumped the cloth together in a ball which she squeezed out of the door. The fairy shivered as the room grew icy. "There you go, Mari. Here's a small gift." The fairy flew out of the door and shut it tightly, sealing it with another spell.

 

A few hours later, Mari woke up and shivered, knocking icicles to the ground. Icicles? It's summer. That can't be right. I must be dreaming. She pinched herself and looked around the house. It was covered with frost and must've been very far below freezing. Mari narrowed her eyes when she realized what had happened. Oh, Kanti. It's on.

Jacob opened his eyes, his vision still bleary. Someone was shaking him, and he was shaking himself. At least, that was the way it seemed. Then he realized that Mari was shaking him a little, and he was shivering so hard that between the two motions, he was practically rolling back and forth. A silvery light danced throught the room; then he saw that the light was reflections reflecting off reflections from ice crystals. He was awake in an instant.

 

He sat up and saw the full extent of the damage the cold had wrecked on the bottle. Without looking at Mari, he stood up and said in a voice grim and icy enough to match the room, "Kanti?" "Kanti," came the affirmation from his friend. He cast an opening spell on the door. Nothing. This can't be only Kanti. His mind raced, remembering the lessons his father had taught him. "Stand back. This might hurt." He raised his arm and began to chant methodically - 

 

"Open door and open wide

Bring the outer world inside.

Open ice and open cold

Let your inner warmth unfold."

 

Over and over, again and again, first forwards, then last line first. Mari was confused. They sounded so... so... childish. Like a jump-rope rhyme. Then again, aren't the rhymes of lore the same way? The spells of healing? Of binding? Of light? They're all like this. In a vain hope, Mari began to whisper the lines with Jacob, adding what force she could. She could feel the power from Jacob, like a river, an elephant, an irrisitible gust of wind. It could do nothing. Hers was a stream, a mouse, the faintest summer breeze. What could it do? 

 

Everything.

 

With the addition of her few drops, her pattering footsteps, her breath of wind, the door, against the will of some mighty binding-spell, began to force its way open. The cold air whoshed out, the ice began to melt. But before the ice melted, it obeyed the spell; that is, it opened. Every crystal unfolded like a blooming flower, a flower of such beauty and clarity it seemed to Mari she had never seen any other blossoms. 

 

And the door was open.

Mari stood still, staring at Jacob, partially afraid of his powers. "What happened?" she asked, holding her head. "It feels like something.....flew out of me, like I'm weak." She leaned on the table and eventually sat down, head atop her folded hands.

Jacob though, seemed as strong as ever, stronger even. He stood straight and tall, shoulders back, staring at the opened door where the ice flew out. "I- I'm not sure," he stammered after a few moments of silence.

It wants you....wants you....you...dead..... An eerie voice echoed around the bottle, and seemed to travel out the door, leaving nothing but the sound of ice dripping from the ceiling. The sound grew fainter and fainter as it repeated what it said. Suddenly, it flew inside the bottle again and boomed so loudly it fractured the glass bottle, I want YOU dead! Black-colored winds swirled around Jacob, lifting him in the air. He floated there for a second, then the mists disappeared and dropped him down on the floor, hard.

Mari rushed over to Jacob and picked him up, dragging him over to the bottlecap bed. "That couldn't have been Kanti," she said, shaking and shivering at the same time.

"No," he agreed, clutching his leg in pain. He turned to face Mari. "But what was it, then?"

And Kanti was there, laughing silently. "Wouldn't you like to know!" she said, exulting. "Wouldn't you just love to know!" She laughed again, a grating, malevolent laugh, and she disappeared.

Just disappeared.

No fairy could do that.

Something clicked in Jacob's mind, and he sat paralyzed for a moment, in dismay. Mari say his mouth moving silently, and his head began to shake, back and forth, with increasing vehemence as the true horror of their situation dawned on him. No, no no! And then in an agony of terror, "NO!!!!!!!!!"

 

Mari stayed kneeling by him for a moment, dumb with the realization that if Jacob was so frightened, chances were slim that she would survive if she stood by him.

Then again, from what she had seen, she definitely wouldn't survive if she stood agains him. There was really no choice, was there?

So she said, "Tell me." In a voice quiet, frightened, but firm, with a sort of desperation in it, "Tell me."

Jacob took a shuddering breath and whispered, "You remember in the Histories when King Aka turns traitor and almost destroys the fairy kingdom with his magic? And he was so strong that all the Nine together barely managed to hold him back and destroy him?"

"Of course I remember! It's the first thing you learn as a fairling."

His voice was getting a little stronger now. "Well, it's not true. That is, it's true, but that's not all of it. The Nine decided to keep the truth a secret, saying that it was too horrible for everyone to know." Mari, indignant, tried to say something, but Jacob plowed on. "The truth is that he made a trade with a being we know only as the Terror of the East, when we do talk about it, which isn't often. The trade was that Aka would be given immense power and magic by the Terror in return for giving the Terror bodily shape. He got his power and magic, all right - which the Terror, controlling his body, used to destroy his people. I don't know all of it, but apparently the Terror has no power unless embodied in a fairy, in which case it is the most powerful being alive. It's happened before - remember Slane? and Karteer? and....."

Mari cut in. "And every other fairy who has come dangerously close to destroying us all."

"Well, yes. And each time it's been by only the full power of the Nine that it was driven off. And now...." He shrugged helplessly. "Now they aren't all together. That is to say, their opinions are divided over this war, so they aren't all at the Hall. I've got to get a message to them.... Truth be told, Mari, I came here because I was sick of my father arguing with the HEad of the Council, who's staying at our house. And, well, I guess...." In a voice so quiet she could barely hear it, he said, "I don't think we have much of a chance, Mari, if Kanti has given the Terror form. I don't think we have much of a chance at all."

 

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and Mari opened it. A young fairy stood there and said, "Pardon me, but is Jacob Aldenson here?"

Jacob pulled himself upright, standing on his uninjured leg. "Tristen! What are you doing here?"

Tristen licked his lips. "Jacob, your mother sent me to tell you that your father and the Head of the Council have disappeared. And when she tries to See them, all there is is orange." 

Mari whispered under her breath, "Orange. The color of death."

"She thinks, she thinks that there aren't many things powerful enough to do away with both of them, and you'd better stay away. She thinks it may be....."

Jacob stiffened for a moment, then said, " It's the Terror. I already know that. And it's no use hiding. Tristen, assemble the Nine. No, the Seven, now. Tell them to hurry, Tristen!" 

Jacob's friend looked him in the eye and said, "No, not the Seven. The Eight. You're one of them now, Jacob. You know that. I'll bring them here." 

Jacob nodded dumbly, and Tristen left. Just before he shut the door softly, he said, "I'm sorry, Jacob." 

"I knew Kanti was behind this," Jacob muttered, his heart thumping. He was terrified at the thought of being one of the Nine, even though as a fairling he was thrilled. I don't think I can do this, he thought to himself. Not in a time of danger. And who ever thought that the Terror would come back?

Mari was scared, also. All her life she had known only peace- the Terror hadn't been around in so long it was almost a fairytale. Fairytale. She smirked, but then her mind came back to the terror looming above all the fairies. "What can we do, then, Jacob?" Mari asked, wings drooping. "We're all doomed to die. The Terror won't stop until every fairy has been wiped out."

"But we can't die!" Jacob protested. "We'd only become...." his wings drooped also at the thought of it.

"Nobody knows, Jacob. For all we know, we'd only add strength to it to wipe out anything else magical," Mari pointed out. "But we've got to at least try." She paused meaningfully. "Starting with you flying over the the Nine...er, Seven and telling them."

Jacob sighed- the sigh of defeat. "Why bother?" But he opened the door anyway and stepped out. "When there's only seven of us, we won't be powerful enough to defeat the Terror."

"No, you won't!" somebody cackled, agreeing. Jacob swiveled around. It was Kanti! "You're right. Why bother fighting the most powerful thing on earth?" Kanti looked meaner than ever, her face paler than white, her eyes squinty black stones. Being the Terror had its effects. "Why did they leave, anyway?" she drifted closer to Jacob. "Maybe, somehow, somebody told them. Maybe somehow they knew. Maybe...."

"You!" Jacob growled. "Just- why are- please- you- STOP!"

"Why? Why bother fighting me? But, still. Meet me at the Cathedral of Notre Dame later today. I'll show you why NOT to bother."

Jacob's tiny hands balled up into fists and he flew off towards the Council building, knowing enough not to argue any more with Kanti.

Mari sent a look of pure hatred at Kanti, and unable to think of anything else, flew off as fast as she could after Jacob.

Mari knew what to expect even before she flew into the Council building behind Jacob. Every window was shattered, every piece of furniture splintered. There were two small stains of orange fairy blood, but nothing else. Jacob lowered himself to the ground and picked up a shard of window glass. "I'll try to See them, Mari, and if they're not there....." Mari knew enough to fill in the blanks. If he couldn't See the other six of the Council, they would run. Or fly. As far and as fast as they could. And still, it wouldn't be enough. 

They were doomed.

Jacob bowed his head, dreading what he would see when he murmured the words of Power. In a sort of desperate effort, he said them, willing the glass to show him the Council, running maybe, but alive. The glass turned white as an eggshell and seemed to pulse gently for a moment, then it cleared. It seemed to be an ordinary piece of glass again, only it was tinged...

Orange.

The color of blood.

The Council was dead.

Tentatively, Mari asked Jacob, "What color is it?" She feared every Council member was- no, it was unthinkable. Some of the most powerful fairies couldn't be dead- they just couldn't. The Terror would've saved them, right? Nothing was evil enough to kill even the Nine. Please don't say it, Jacob, please let it not be true.... Don't say the color.

Jacob looked down at his hands. "Orange," he whispered. "I'm the only one left. It's no use now." When he tried to See the color, there was orange splattered all over the Council room. The color of Death.

Mari halfheartedly patted Jacob's back. "I'm sorry about your father, Jacob." She said sadly. "I really am." A tear trickled down her cheek. Everything she knew, everything she lived about, was slowly falling apart. And she couldn't do a thing.

"We're nothing now," he said. "Nothing. Nothing we can do." It was strange how calmly Jacob responded to his situation. Maybe the sadness of it all did it to him. Normally, if he was about to die, he would be doing everything possible to prevent it. But now, he had no feelings whatsoever.

"What will we do?" Mari asked urgently. "I'm not going down without a fight."

Jacob heaved a big sigh. "There's nothing we can do, Mari. All the fairies together still wouldn't be able to fight the Terror and win."

Mari took a deep breath and bowed her head until she was gazing at her hands. After a deep breath, she said, "I have to try. If we're all going to die anyway, Jacob, we might as well go out in a blaze of glory. Even if the stories will never be told, if no one will write our songs and sing them, I still have to try. You can stay here if you're coward enough. Or brave enough. I don't know which it is, really." She held out her hand. "May we meet again, and may peace follow you." Jacob took her hand, still apparently in a daze, and then dropped it limply. Mari flew out, her trail of pale purple sparkles whispering into nothingness when she was gone.

Neimu had proved easier to convince than Mari had anticipated. Within an hour of first seeing him, they and the other unofficial leaders of their people were holding a council of war in Neimu's underground home. "The biggest problem," Neimu said, leaned over the table and gesturing at a map, "is that the Terror can disappear and reappear instantly in a place miles away. Unless we can find a way to keep her from teleporting like that, we're done for. Any ideas?"

At that moment there was a pounding at the door. Mari drew her eyebrows together. "That can't be Kanti. She wouldn't bother knocking - she'd just appear in the middle of us. Open the door."

A fairy seated near the entrance unbarred it, and Kanti's political following stood there. Mari stiffened, but the fairy at the head shook her head and raised one hand in a gesture of peace. "I am Arnu. We have come to join you. Kanti has betrayed us, and alone we are no use. We'll fight with you, if fight we must."

She stood stone-still, ((remember, fairies fidgit if they're lying)) and Mari knew she was telling the truth. She beckoned toward the empty half of the table. "Then come. We need all the help we can get." She restated their problem, and Arnu's eyes seemed to take on a strange cast. She leaned her head forward and touched her nose, absently running a finger up and down it. Mari looked at her quizically. "Well?"

"You know...." She paused, then began again. "We... we all know the rhymes of Lore." She paused again, and every fairy nodded. "None of them mention the Terror. From what you've said, I think the Council was very careful about that. But so many of the rhymes of Lore are bouncy, simple, childish rhymes so that they are easy for our children to learn. There was one rhyme... one rhyme that wasn't in the Lore. Do you remember? It was something like

'Long time ago when the French were yet to be

The Terror of the East came down....'" 

Mari took it up, nodding slowly. "I remember. 

'The fairies all fought her but they didn't stand a chance

They ran away to caves underground.'"

Neimu chimed in, stumbling over the long-forgotten words.

"'But one little child, he was caught unawares

She chased him like a falcon through the night.'"

All three together, with a few other fairies joining in, went on.

"'And he tripped and he fell in a tiny forest pond

That was overlooked in his frenzied flight.

She stopped short and looked into the pond between the trunks

Of the forest trees that towered overhead

And she saw her own reflection in the water rippling yet

And she fell down and lay like she was dead.

And the fairies they had triumphed o'er the Terror of the East

And a child he had brought their victory

Cause the Terror cannot stand the sight of its own face and so

A mirror brings the end to misery." 

Mari sat down. "Well. When all we have to go on is  an old skiprope rhyme, we must be pretty desperate. Then again, we are, so I vote we try. If a mirror works, why not?"

Neimu raised the practical objection. "But the Terror has to know its own weakness. Kanti will be wary, to say the least, of reflective things. There aren't that many mirrors we can use. And she had no problem when she was in your bottle, Mari, so reflections on glass must not be of any use. But in the rhyme water worked." He rubbed his face. "What are we going to do?" 

Mari sighed. "Well..... I don't know." 

But Arnu leaned forward. "Seems obvious enough to me. Most of us fly out to meet her. ((I hereby insert a challenge into Kanti's last conversation with Jacob. Like just add it onto her last line, "Why? Why bother fighting me? But if you're fool enough, meet me at __________ in four hours. I'll be waiting for you." It's your peice there though, so rewrite it however you feel like when you put it all together.)) In the middle of the group, hidden by those of us in the front ranks, a few of us carry the biggest mirror we can find. Meanwhile, a small group stay hidden and fly around behind Kanti. They distract her, then we all get behind the mirror and make some loud noise so she turns around and voila! She looks straight into a mirror."

Neimu nodded. "But there is the small problem of what she would do to the tiny group of fairies who try to surprise her from behind. Remember, we're dealing with one of the most powerful beings in the world here."

Arnu shrugged. "It's a risk we have to take. I, for one, will be in that group. In fact, it may take no more than one person. I can go alone."

Mari shook her head, suspition worming deep inside of her. "First swear that you mean no harm to us or any fairy except Kanti. For all we know, you could be a spy who will betray us." Arnu swore solemnly, and his wings were still the whole time. 

Neimu nodded. "Then go. It's almost time. And as for a mirror, there's one right here." He gestured to a room behind them. "Its whole wall is mirrored. We can get a peice as large as we can easily hide, and no problem. Off you go, Arnu. May we meet again, and may peace follow you! Or, rather, follow all this chaos." All of them knew it was unlikely that Arnu would live through what lay ahead.

While they were organizing the fairies they had, Neimu said, "I wish we had more people."

Mari nodded. "But you're a major leader, and you were on the other side of town from the Council building. I didn't have time to fly through the really populated areas."  

 

Neimu shrugged. "I understand, of course. Just wishing."

Mari grunted as she and a half-dozen other fairies hefted the mirror piece they had chosen. "If wishes were dishes, we'd never have to do the washing up." Her head tilted to one side. "Supposing they were clean wishes, of course." She winced as a sharp glass edge nicked her finger and a ribbon of blood showed through the skin. "We'd best be on our way. If we're to be at the Catherdal of Notre Dame in time."

Neimu nodded. "Into formation, everyone! Mari and I will lead." He listened as church bells in the distance chimed a quarter till. "We've got fifteen minutes. Hide the mirror well, remember." They flew slowly on account of the extra weight, but two minutes ahead of time were hidden behind a spire of the cathedral. As the bells began to toll ponderously, Mari, peaking out from behind the spire, watched as Kanti appeared. She was about to step out from hiding when another voice rang out - one of the last she would have expected.

"I believe you were expecting me?" Mari's eyes widened when Jacob landed lightly behind Kanti. She was even more surprised when Arnu's head popped out from under a leaf a few yards away and winked and nodded. Then she understood. Jacob had been coming to face Kanti after all, and Arnu had found him.

Kanti swaggered forward a few steps, but the effect was rather ruined because she was squinting into the sun. "I see you are a fool, Aldenson. Well, you won't be one for much longer." She raised her hand.

Mari had been signalling to the mirror-holders to stand up when she did. But she was too late. A whorl of light in Kanti's peculiar green-orange hue was already shooting toward her friend. She stood up in an agony of sorrow. "NO!"

Kanti wasn't worried about Jacob anymore. She knew where she had put that whorl. She spun in the air...

Her wings fluttered in the light breeze...

And with the sun of the late afternoon streaming her shadow far ahead of her...

The Terror of the East was staring straight into her own eyes that stared back at her from the mirror.

And she fell, down

down

down

from the cathedral's roof and melted into dusty sparkles as she fell.

And the Terror was no more.

 

 

Neimu turned to Mari. "If her reflection in disturbed water made her faint, I guess the clearer reflection in a mirror killed her. So Arnu was right! The rhyme...."

But Mari wasn't there. She was running to Jacob's still form that lay draped half over the edge of the roof. She pulled him back, even while tears poured from her eyes at the sight of the burn on his chest. "Jacob...."

His eyes fluttered open, ever so softly. "Mari." His head lolled to one side and he coughed feebly. "Mari.... you were right. It's strange, isn't it, that just today we were wondering what happens. When you die." Jacob coughed again and gasped for breath. "And now I'll know. In just a moment." He drew a shuddering breath as his hand fumbled with a tiny pouch hanging around his neck. He opened it and took out something she couldn't see. He took her hand and pressed whatever it was into her palm, gently curling her fingers over it. With a breath like a summer breeze, he murmered, You were right.

And he was gone.

Mari knelt, sobbing, while his body disolved into dark blue dust motes that floated away on the wind and faded into nothingness. Then she opened her hand. Nestled into her skin was a dark blue enameled glass disk with words engraved in gold on it. Heir of the Council, it said.

And in that moment she felt so alone.

Then Neimu knelt by her side and said, gently, "The Terror is gone, Mari. And your friend knew what he was doing. He would not want you to despair. Mourn, yes, if you must. But also know that we won a great victory today. He won it for us. Do not despise the peace he bought us." He stood and walked away, leaving Mari to watch the dancing leaves on the wind. After a moment she stood up and walked after him.

The Terror was gone, but there was still much to be done.

 

THE END!!!

 

(((That was pretty fun! I think I'll do another author pairs again sometime.)))