Lady of Power

The Lesson and the Feast on the Hill: The Fae Lands

"The first thing you need to know about your magic is that it is different from your human magic." "With-your human magic you can do quite allot." "With Faerie magic its not so much about control and will." "With human magic you will what you want." "If you want rain for example you will it into being." "You may call upon the winds and water to aid you, but you are the master of the magic."
"With Faerie magic its less about will than it is about feelings, desires, emotions, what you think." "Its less of a struggle than it is with will." "If for example if you want rain perhaps you think about what kind of rain you want." "Is it a refreshing cooling rain, a sad and drippy rain, a misty rain where you cloak yourself in showing depression and despair?" "Is it a quick shower of rain that keeps humidity in the air, is it a drenching pounding rain?"
They stood in a clearing, Réalta and Queen Phyrenla. She paced the round meadow ringed with trees. The stream glistened to her left and the trees hung heavy with intoxicating flowers. She wore a misty silvery robe that clung to her body. "The magic of we Fae is about connection with everything and everyone around you." "Its not about just shoving yourself into the magic." "True some of your magic is about runes, oils, rituals, and incantations but again."
She lifted a hand and gestured to a flower growing from a branch nearby. It was still not open, "Faerie magic is about being in tune with all that is around you." "Your emotions and your desires, your energy your power are all connected as this meadow is connected with the land around ."
"I could will this flower open, any Faerie could." Said the Queen. "I could trace runes through the air and say an incantation." "But with my Faerie magic its connected with how i feel, what I want, more than demanding." "Will and magic as a partnership is more about command and demand." "Faerie power is about a partnership of listening, drawing on the energy around you." "Its more about rhythm and wisdom than it is about willing." "Human magic is about willing, Faerie magic is about wishing."
"i could force this flower to open with my will." Said the Queen with a nod. "It would get the job done." "But its a more clumsy magic, what if the flower doesn't want to open just then?" "You force it open rather than connecting with its energy."
"With my Faerie magic I become one with what I want, and wish, instead of will." "I ask instead of command." She smiled at the flower beside her. "With human magic, you need not open to yourself, with the power." "You simply throw it where you want it."
"I." Said the queen smiling at the flower, "Must be open to the world around me, open to myself, and." With a slow smile she touched the flower. It opened before her, unfurling petals of creamy white, pink, and orangey yellow. "Sunset flowers they are called." Said the queen stroking the flower's petals inhaling the scent.
She lifted a hand, "If I wish to moisten the flower, so the sun doesn't burn it I merely ask and wish." A few drops from the stream lifted and fell in a gentle cascade, moistening the flower which glowed more vibrantly.
Petting the flower the queen smiled. "Does that all make sense?" Réalta nodded, "I think so." With another wide smile the Queen said, "Good." "Now you try." "See if you can't lift water from the stream without using your will." "You will notice that your human magic, though strong for a human is only a tiny drop of water compared to that which you hold as an Ilindé." "If you rely on will you will burn through your magic quite quickly." "Whereas if you focus on your inner magic as a faerie you will have an endless supply of it."
Réalta walked around the meadow stopping near the queen. "But how do I wish without willing?" "A wish is like a gentle tug on the leash of your horse, like a gentle tug on its halter." "Will is a firm you must come with me tug." Said the Queen.
Réalta sighed. "I understand it, yet I don't." She sighed again and looked at the water. "How do I wish?" She asked, "Haven't you ever wanted something with all your heart?" Asked the Queen.
"Faerie magic can be explained perhaps in a simpler way." "When you will you are like a child throwing a temper tantrum, I want therefore I will have." "Wishing is about desire, the dreams and wishes of your deepest heart." Réalta nodded as tears came to her eyes, "I did once wish." "I wanted my parents to come back from the war." "But they didn't."
The queen came close placing a hand on Réalta's shoulder. "I'm sorry." "that is terrible." "I couldn't speak for two years when they didn't come back." Said Réalta.
"Your grief was the thing that moved you." "Your wish wasn't granted, so your voice closed up." Said the Queen. Réalta sit on the ground. "Try something." Said the Queen. "First demand of the water, will it to you." Réalta lifted a hand and a large puddle of water lifted itself and fell around her. "Now try gently calling, wishing."
Réalta breathed gently then with a shrug she said, "I can't its, strange." "No its not." "Try again." Réalta looked at the stream and water flew up from it, splashing back down into it.
The Queen only nodded, "You should stay here until you get it right." "What?" Asked Réalta, "You will stay here until you master this technique." "Believe me, once you open yourself to it the magic will be much easier to master." "There's plenty of water and if you are hungry, the flowers on the trees here are edible." "For a bed there is the grasses." "It should be warm enough to keep you from shivering."
"You are going to just leave me here?" Asked Réalta, "the magic will let me know if you have succeeded." Said the queen lifting a hand. Before her the air rippled and she simply stepped through it and vanished.
Réalta kicked at the dirt. "She just left me here." She thought angrily.
She walked to the tree touching flowers which opened then closed quickly at her touch, shrinking in on themselves. "What?" Asked Réalta.
She sat down tired after a while. The sun set and she was indeed hungry. But she didn't want to eat flowers. But as the night crept in she picked a few and ate them. they were sweet and delicious. After two though she was full and she lay down in the darkness, the grass around her soft and springy.
the silvery moon woke her. Standing she walked toward the stream where the moonlight glistened on the water. Réalta called the water, wished it to be like a moonlit shower.
Droplets of water lifted from the stream and fell in a gentle rain upon her, washing her, making her damp yet refreshed. She thanked the stream. She felt something from it, was that mirth tinged with amusement?
the air seemed to lurch around her and she found herself on the top of a hill inside a ring of stones. Arlond smelled as he handed her a goblet of wine. "You passed." "Passed what?" Asked RRéalta just a bit put out, "You passed your first ordeal as a Faerie." "It took me a lot longer to pass." "Welcome to your feast."