The Steward (8 page)

“Yes, I suppose. I, of course, was not privy to what she told you, but she has been the Steward of the Weald for some time and it is rather doubtful she would lead you astray. For one hundred eighty-four years, members of your family have been Stewards. Your family and my kind have been partners all those years, keeping to ourselves and protecting this mountain.”

“The magic cave?” I joked.

Though his laugh sounded like rubbing logs, his speaking voice had a melodic quality that reminded me of large wind chimes. “No, Maggie, there is no magic here, at least not in the mystical sense that humans use the term. This cave is no different than any other, except in size and shape. The stone here may be slightly different than in other places, but it is stone. Every particle of rock and soil, down to the smallest fleck of dust, is comprised of exactly the same thing. Every tree that grows and every animal that walks is made up of the same material. Different people have different names for it—we call it
Naeshura
. The Osage call it Wakondah, and human science generally refers to it as energy. Though they are getting closer to the true nature of Naeshura, human physicists are not quite there yet.”

“Sure, energy, the basis of matter—that’s fifth grade science.”

“Yes, so it is now, but it was not so long ago that your kind believed the world to be flat. A confounding notion, is it not? I will try to explain this in terms you will understand. Energy is attracted to itself, more so depending on what form it happens to be in … how it is arranged. Quarks, Higgs boson particles—interesting naming convention. So … human. The Fae have understood
energy
, rather intuitively, for thousands of millennia. We do not naturally exist as you do, in a physical form. We are Naeshura—energy—except sentient. We learned long ago that we could manipulate and change our form, and soon afterward we learned to manipulate and change the forms of other things.”

Devin told me that he could alter things like stone with his mind, and for the Fae it required no more effort than it took me to pick up a stone with my hand. Humans, he explained, manipulate matter on a physical level because we have physical form—it’s natural. The Fae manipulate matter the same way except at a more basic level because they naturally exist as pure energy. For the Fae, changing the shape and size of virtually any object, even transforming one substance into another, is quite simple. He said that some people have the ability to manipulate matter in the same way, and that being Earth inclined means that I am one of them.

“So, can Aunt May do this stuff, too?” I asked, sounding a little too much like a bewildered preschooler.

“Not exactly. Your loquacious great aunt is not inclined to the Earth element. She did not pass the Earth trial—she lacked the requisite control of her emotions, and therefore, her body, to …
commune
with the Earth element. To manipulate Earth, and to conform it to one’s intent, requires extraordinary control and focus. That comes from within.”

“I guess that means I have the
requisite
control?”

“Yes.” He nodded his translucent head. “You do not have enough control to manipulate the Earth element without Fae assistance, yet, but you demonstrated
uncanny
control, the likes of which I have seen only two times among your ancestors. Pete O’Shea, your forefather, and Lola, your great, great, great aunt—each Stewards of the Weald Fae—were both inclined to the Earth element.”

“Aunt May never told me any of this,” I said.

“No, and I shall thank her for that. You were not ready—you did not believe after all. That aside, it is not her place to instruct you. It is ours.”

Usually, he explained, there was one Steward from each generation, and Stewards were always inclined to at least one element—Earth, Air, Fire or Water. “Controlling the elements is occasionally necessary in order to protect and preserve the Weald Fae, but more than anything, it is a fringe benefit of working closely with us.” He told me that Aunt May was inclined to Air, as were most of my ancestors. “I suppose being inclined to an element is not completely necessary to serve as Steward. We simply prefer working with humans who are. They seem to understand us better—they are more likely to share our reverence for the physical world.”

“What is the
Weald Fae?
” I asked.

“Weald is the Fae word for woods or forest. The Fae gave the name to this area when they came here more than a thousand millennia ago. It simply means
Woods of the Fae.

“Aunt May told me that. I meant to ask why it’s important.”

“That will take much longer to explain,” he said. “For now, just understand that your questions will be answered as your training commences, and then you will learn the nuances of why the Weald is so important to my kind. Until that time, please, just be patient.”

“Has anyone been inclined to more than one element?”

He paused for a moment, and a smile formed on his face as he studied me.

“Yes, two of your ancestors were inclined to dual elements. An aunt, Constance, was inclined to Air and Fire, and Pete O’Shea, who I mentioned a moment ago, was inclined to Water as well as Earth, but Lola, now, she was inclined to Water, Air, and Earth. She was quite special. During her trials, there was speculation among us that she might be a Maebown, a human inclined to all four elementals and thus able to control the fifth element, Aether. There have been very few Maebowns, and they were not Stewards here. Only two people throughout history have been Maebowns, in fact.”

“A Maebown?”

“It is the Fae word for balance,” he said. “Perhaps you will be the first Maebown Steward of the Weald.”

I noted a hint of sarcasm.

“Are there many of you?” I asked.

“Tens of thousands in the world. You have encountered others already, but you simply have not recognized them as Fae.”

Her lithe movements and elegant features flashed in my mind. “Sara!” I replied immediately.

He nodded, as a smile spread across his cartoonish features. “Yes, she is Fae, and your aunt’s guide, though we call it
Treoraí.”

“Guide?”

“You cannot possibly think we would expect you, or your ancestors, to act as Steward without a Fae guide, can you?”

“No, that wouldn’t make much sense.” Honestly, I had no idea what would make sense at that point.

His face changed, becoming more solid and less cartoonish. “You do not fully understand or appreciate the Weald Fae yet. And that is not your fault, as you only just arrived. After you experience all four seasons, you
will
understand the Weald and that it is a gift in and of itself.”

Like the sound of harp strings being plucked, I heard a laugh from behind me. As I turned, I saw her standing at the entrance.

“Good morning, Sara,” Devin said.

“Good morning. I see our young Maggie has completed the Earth trial.” Sara turned to me. “Most impressive. May will be delighted to know she has such a worthy successor. I imagine your mind is filled with a sundry of questions?”

“Yes, ma’am. I have several, but I’m not sure where to start.”

Sara smiled at Devin. “I think she is ready to see now.”

Devin nodded, and turned his pleasant, glowing face toward me.

“See what?” I asked after looking at both of them.

“This!” Sara said.

In an instant she turned into a glowing orb, about a foot in diameter and so bright the entire room lit up for a moment. The brightness dissipated, but the colors became more vibrant. It looked like a spotlight shining through a kaleidoscope filled with every imaginable color. The beauty of it overwhelmed me. I had never seen anything so spectacular. Devin, too, changed into an orb equally as beautiful. I noted a difference, though: while Devin emitted what looked like every color possible, he was more green and orange, while Sara was more blue and lavender than anything else.

All around me, the walls of the cave changed. In just moments, everything radiated light. Even my body, my watch and my clothes emitted a faint light. Nothing appeared solid or fixed. Everything had an almost malleable quality—one layer shimmering below another, but all connected.

“This is your realm?”

“Yes and no,” Sara’s voice rang through my ears. “This is not our
realm
, as you call it, but this is as close to our natural existence as you can
currently
get. In the past, we taught humans to travel into our world, but the technique has largely been forgotten.”

“Will I learn to do this on my own—to visit your world?”

“That we do not know.”

“Devin is correct, Maggie. The journey is before you but it contains many different paths, options if you will, that lead to different destinations. The direction you take and the places you visit are largely up to you. You may learn to visit us.”

“So, is this your natural form?”

“You are seeing a facsimile of our natural form—a projection designed for your senses so that you can understand how we experience the world in our natural state,” Devin said.

“It’s simply stunning.” I felt a bit awkward, honestly. Visually it captivated me, but I didn’t have the words to describe it. An awkward silence slipped over me, because I feared that anything I said would sound idiotic. For a moment I considered just how wrong Hollywood had it, and wondered if its portrayal of fairies was insulting. “Does it bother you … well … you know … Tinkerbell?” I asked.

Sara answered, “Tinkerbell is as much our fault as anyone’s, I’m afraid.”

“Your fault?” It caught me off guard and I laughed.

Sara transformed in front of me. What had been an orb, just moments before, quickly took the form of a body—a small body no bigger than a doll. Sara, her face unmistakable, changed into the classic image of a fairy that I’d always attributed to
Peter Pan
. She had tiny gossamer wings on her back just like I knew there should be.

“This is what Devin said—you’re getting the image from my thoughts.”

“Yes.” Her voice seemed too big for the sylph body. “This is now what most people associate with our kind—tiny
mythical
beings with wings and an ornery streak.”

Sara smiled. “The Fae existed long before people. The first exchanges between Fae and humans were awkward because ancient people were exceptionally superstitious. Humankind simply didn’t understand that sentient beings could exist purely as energy—when they sensed us, they grew suspicious and frightened. …Maggie, has May told you about the Seelie and the Unseelie?”

“A little, yes,” I replied. “She said that there are two clans of Fae that are often at odds with one another but, like everything else, she was vague.”

“There are more than two clans, but I’ll save that for another time. All Fae that take physical form do it for one reason—to experience the sensations of the physical world,” Sara said. “Some Fae, many of those who eventually affiliated with the Unseelie, enjoy eliciting the emotion of fear. It’s an experience they cannot get in our natural form. Those Fae search the images buried in human minds to find the most terrifying things imaginable. The more fear generated, the more pleasurable the experience. Many of the darkest human nightmares are the product of my kind.”

She went on to explain that some Fae, while not particularly fond of early humans, found intentional torment very distasteful. Instead, they tried a number of forms to make interaction easier. “Initially, we took human form. We projected ourselves with limbs and faces—something familiar. People knew we weren’t human and were afraid of us, so we experimented with smaller and smaller forms to be less threatening.”

“What about the wings? You don’t have any in your natural form,” I asked.

“In our natural form, we move from one place to another by thinking …
go there
. It really is quite simple. It takes no more energy or concentration for us to
float,
for lack of a better word, across a field or room than it does a human to get up and walk the distance. But as we are not corporeal in our natural form, our movements are not limited by gravity like a human’s are. Even in physical form, locomotion took more concentration. We could still will ourselves from place to place without walking, but that created problems as well. Floating people, even little floating people, terrified humans—they couldn’t comprehend it. To ancient humans, if one flew, one needed wings. We read the images in people’s minds, and adapted.”

Devin coughed a bit, and Sara smiled without looking at him. She explained that not all Fae, or even a majority, adopted a
winged
form. I glanced over at Devin who appeared as a man, but only about the size of a chubby toddler.

“The form preferences of the four different Fae alignments tend to revolve around the element to which each is predominately aligned. It is true that all Fae could appear with wings if we wanted to, but most do not. Humans typically refer to our winged forms as the sylph, or faery. Devin is Earth aligned. He, and his kind, adopted a number of different forms.”

Devin smiled. “Thank you, Sara. Always the diplomat. We prefer to stay connected to our element, so we walk about when in physical form. I never saw the need for wings,” he said curtly.

“So, Air aligned Fae do call themselves sylphs and faeries? The books are correct? What do Earth aligned Fae call themselves?” I asked

“Fae,” Devin replied, dryly.

I laughed.

He shot a quick glance at Sara. “Names, divisions,
races,
those are all things of humankind. Categories created to typecast. We do
not
refer to Air aligned Fae as sylph, pixies, or faeries, we do not refer to Water aligned Fae as undines, selkies, sprites, nymphs, mermaids or naiads, but men do. Those and a hundred other names have been applied to our kind, and each is meaningless if you want to know the truth. We are Fae.”

“Devin, it’s an honest question. I know you don’t like labels, especially one of them, but they will help explain us to Maggie,” Sara said, spinning a quick pirouette in the air before taking her full form again.

“That is easy for you to say. You are a
beautiful fairy,
” he grumbled, in a mocking tone, before changing shape into an incredibly handsome man with long golden hair and impossibly beautiful features.