The Land Set Aflame

Chapter 45: The Bedroom

Svenden couldn't remember a time when he'd felt so well rested. He sat up slowly and looked around himself. He was in a place of gentle light and soft pillows, and little else.

His memories came back gradually, and phantom pains raked across his body in several places as he relived each wound inflicted by the shadow beasts. There had been so many of those wounds, he could hardly distingiush them from one another. His hands subconsciously reached for a wound on his stomach, but he discovered that there was no wound there: his flesh was perfectly mended, as if nothing had ever happened.

He examined himself for other wounds, and found no evidence of any of them. Someone with incredibly potent magic must have healed him.

His head hurt a little as more memories flooded in. Callyndia had called him to her, pulled him away from helping Leofric to take the brunt of that shadowflame wave for her.

And, like a true idiot and mind slave, he'd done it for her.

Svenden sighed heavily and dropped his face into his hands. What a confusing, magic-ridden world he'd wound up in, where shadows have claws, wounds disappear overnight and someone else controls his every action! Maybe it would get better if he just gave up and embraced the nymph magic. It was a pretty good trade, right? What man wouldn't willingly give away his emotional and mental freedom for the love and affection of a nymph?

Half-nymph.

Whatever. She was still basically the perfect woman.

But she didn't really love him. Nymphs don't fall in love. They just make mortals fall in love with them. And they make stupid men do stupid things for them.

Callyndia didn't love him.

He really needed to get away from Callyndia. Away from this whole, crazy mess.

Something in the bed next to him stirred, and he jolted in surprise.

Naturally, it was Callyndia.

It was almost as if she'd heard him thinking her name. She moaned a waking moan and stretched languidly, a bleary smile pulling across her semi-conscious face as she looked up at him groggily.

He hastily stepped out of the bed and away from her, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks and the fire burning in his heart. "What's going on?" he asked, relieved to discover that at least they were both wearing clothes.

Clean clothes.

His hair was done all pretty, too. Somehow, sleeping in a bed hadn't done anything to mess it up, either.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around at the white room they were in. Actually, he wasn't so sure that it was a room: he couldn't see walls, windows, doors... anything except a featureless floor and a bed with too many pillows on it. It seemed as if everything more than a couple paces from him was ill-defined. He felt a mild panic rising inside him as the tingle of fairy magic threatened to overwhelm him.

"Where's Leofric?" he asked, "And Kithana?"

Callyndia sat up and took a look around the room for a moment. Then, she gasped in excitement, all the sleep having left her face in an instant. "Aevenwy!" she exclaimed, jumping out of bed and rushing to look out a window that seemed to only exist because she had gone to look out through it.

"What the..?" he said, trailing off as he marveled at the window, which he was quite sure wasn't there before.

He shook himself then. "Why were we in bed together?" he asked in distress.

"We're in the Garden of Aevenwy!" Callyndia said excitedly.

Svenden frowned. That didn't seem like an answer to his question, but somehow he felt like his question had been answered nonethless.

"My mother's home!" Callyndia continued, "She must have found us! Come on!"

She hurriedly rushed over to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the... door? He definitely hadn't seen a door there before, either. Was she just... conjuring these things out of thin air with her fairy magic?

He numbly followed her for a few steps, but then suddenly felt a singularly remarkable surge of will power, and pulled his hand free from her. "Wait!" he said urgently, "Just wait!"

She stopped, and the overly excited smile on her face faded slowly. "What's wrong, Sven?" she asked.

He sighed heavily. "What's going on here?" he asked, "We're in your mother's home? We were in bed together? How did you know there was a door there? Where are Leofric and Kithana? And these aren't my clothes..." He stopped and looked around in a sudden panic. "Wait... where's my bow?"

"You don't need a weapon in Aevenwy!" Callyndia said impatiently, "This is a place of peace and safety. Come on! Let's go meet my mother!"

But he was already looking all around the room for his bow. Things didn't seem to appear for him like they did for Callyndia, so there didn't seem to be anywhere to search. He'd never felt so... exposed before. "I need my bow!" he said, "I made it myself! It's... where is it?"

Callyndia grabbed him by the shoulders and wordlessly commanded him to look in to her eyes. He naturally obeyed. "Sven," she said slowly, "You'll be alright. Please calm down. This is Aevenwy: there will be no danger here, and you won't need a weapon. Take some deep breaths, and we can go find my mother and ask what happened. Okay?"

Before he realized it, he was already taking some deep breaths, as commanded, and he felt himself calming down. She was probably right: he was safe here, and he didn't need a weapon.

Then he snapped out of it.

"No!" he said, backing away from her, "Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" she asked.

"Your magic!" he said, "Stay out of my head!"

"What!?" she said, "I wasn't—!"

"Why were we in bed together!?" he asked again, "And why'd you make me throw myself in front of those shadowbeasts for you? What's going on here? And where are Leofric and Kithana?"

"I don't know," she said, "I didn't do anything to you, and I don't know why we were in the same bed. If you come with me, we can find my mother and she can explain all of this, I'm sure. Okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

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And now, they're finally entering the world of the fairies!  All that magic is sure to upset Svenden. But, at least they're safe, apparently.

Thanks for reading!