World of Make-Believe: Khirsten's Story

It's Begun

The next day dragged on forever, not that anyone complained. According to Devon, who was a little tense, his forces from his last mission were gathering the remaining warrior fae to launch a full scale attack against the Unseelie, though Khirsten couldn't see why. She thought that maybe there was slight exaggeration on Devon's part. She saw the aftermath of that one battle, but she couldn't grasp the full concept of what was happening.

Perhaps I'm too detached from the situation. After all, she held the throw blanket around her tighter as she wandered onto Lisa's back porch, I only found out about all of this maybe a week ago?

She sighed and looked out over the troubled ocean. The waters were dark, stirring. The sky above was gray, fading into an ominous black in the distance. She felt a tremor of excitement run through her. She loved storms. Especially in the rickety little shacks they lived in. The windows would rattle, walls would shake, the whole house would creak in protest to the harassing winds. Khirsten looked up as Lisa's screen door slid open, Chelsea surprised her. She was expecting Joe.

"Hey!" Khirsten smiled, scooting over on the bench swing, "What's up sunshine?"

"Oh, nothing much." Chelsea seemed so calm, so resolute.

Khirsten looked at her enviously. She was so beautiful, everything Khirsten wasn't. Small, graceful, brave, delicate, wise, elegant...

"I'm not all that great, you know." Chelsea retorted, "I can feel your jealousy from here. Calm down, girl. I have my faults like everyone else."

Khirsten couldn't stop the snort that came out of her, "Oh, sorry." She covered her mouth, eyes wide with shock.

"I really do." Chelsea insisted, "But my faults aren't what I came out here to talk to you about. The guy who is heading down here, killing people- I know you don't know much of what's going on in this war right now, but in layman's terms the Unseelie are sending a Herald. Basically, it's a creature of darkness that cuts a pathway for the line of war. California isn't the only state facing this right now. In Montana, my home state there's two or three of them going around slaughtering, in Ohio, Iowa. It's becoming a nationwide epidemic. Now the government is scrambling to cover it up, to subdue to terror and panic that is spreading. Mostly because there's not much that you mortals- er, sorry, the mortals can do against the weapons of magic- which is why our kinds normally live separately."

"That battle we showed you?"

Khirsten nodded, she remembered.

"That was the battle that our side lost trying to keep these heralds from reaching the portal that led to your world." Chelsea sighed, she rubbed the spot between her collar bone and breast. "It was a battle we lost."

Khirsten felt haunted by the dead look in her eyes, "But I thought your portals could be opened anywhere."

"Oh they can be. If you have the right magic and supplies you can summon a portal leading you into a predestined area. It's like... the in door that leads to the outdoor in the fae realm is completely moveable. It's what helps the fae abduct children, seduce humans, feed on humans, plant their changelings. But that door that leads into the fae realm is set. In part to protect their kind, in part to protect your kind...er, my kind."

"Chelsea, not to interrupt, but are you human or fae?"

"I'm mostly human." She smiled softly, "I used to have quite a bit more fae magic in me. It was quite astounding to think that simple me could have harnessed such magic at one point." She looked at Khirsten, her face betrayed no emotion, "It was astounding. I was something of a phenomenon. The only explanation I have for it is that when Robin awakened my magic some of his infused with me. And then the longer I spent with Devon the closer we became intertwined and the more our souls merged. I fed off some of his magic as well. It was an astounding chimera of three different magics."