Lanie turned over Tolus’ request. The part of her that was Kyma trusted Tolus, but Lanie was still a damaged woman with little trust to give. She looked into the eyes of the little man and saw nothing but concern and curiosity. She decided to start with a question of her own, “So, when Kyma knew you, you were barely as tall as her knee. Did you grow up while I was dead?”
Tolus chuckled. “Something like that, I suppose. As my people grow in strength, we grow in stature. I’ve gained much over the centuries, and some part of that growth was thanks to you.” Seeing the reticence in Lanie’s face, he went on speaking to put her more at ease, “I went back. It was half a year or so before I could return, but I intended to pay Kyma back for her help. I was greatly saddened to learn of her death. Her tribe had changed much in that time. Kyma’s final warning wasn’t in vain. They went west and joined up with another tribe. Together, they were able to bring down the warlord, but it took a great toll on both tribes. What was left of the two tribes combined into one. Kyma’s father, Olan, was killed in the fighting, as was the chief of the Horse tribe. Her brother, Olfan, was the new chief of the combined tribes. Her younger brother was a little terror, toddling around the camp and getting into everything. They named him Kylan in memory of his sister and his father. The tribes were still in mourning and learning to become one tribe when I visited, but combined, they formed a larger tribe than either one on its own, with twice the territory. When I checked back again, a few years later, they were thriving.”
Lanie nodded, brushing away a tear that had escaped to cut a clean trail through the dust on her cheek. “Thank you.” She looked away onto the grass, taking a moment to get her emotions back under control. She was still tired, and the emotions rode closer to the surface than she usually let them. Once she’d gotten them reined in and had swallowed down the lump in her throat, she came to a decision and started her own tale.
She edited it. There were specifics that Tolus didn’t need to know, and parts she wasn’t ready to say out loud. She told him about the heist and about Dieter, Cole, and Whisper. She told him that while they’d held her captive, she’d learned that magic was real, but left out how. Nips chimed in with his version of how they met and the battle with the gremlins in the alleyway. The Brownie made her sound much more heroic than she was. Together they narrated the chase through town and their escape through a Way into the spider cave, followed by the grueling trek down the mountain trail.
As Lanie’s recounting drew to a close with her escape from Dalgo’s shop and flight through the woods, she turned over the scope of what she’d been through since she’d slipped out of the museum in Turkey. It was all so far removed from her normal life: playing games on her console, laughing over beers with Jorge and the guys at the garage, hustling pool at a local watering hole, and the occasional burglary here and there. She’d worked by herself mostly, but occasionally as part of a crew. None of it had ever been as dangerous as what she’d been through these last few days. Sure, the people she stole from were mostly other criminals, so if she’d been caught, there wouldn’t have been a trial, just her floating face down in the river, but they were always well planned with plenty of contingencies in place, and cutouts to keep the blame from coming back to her.
But this? She’d been tortured, run for her life, fought for her life, faced magic and monsters, and she’d survived it all. And, for all the terror and danger, she felt more alive than she ever had before. She couldn’t help but wonder if there was something wrong with her. She might have spiraled deeper into introspection, but Tolus’ voice brought her back to the present.
“You have had quite the adventure, and I have the feeling that your trials are not yet over. I am limited in the help that I can give you. My folk cannot travel far from the grasses that are our home and our power, but I do have some gifts that may be of aid.” He gestured to the scarf around her neck, “First, I can do something about the men tracking you. If I might borrow your scarf for a moment?”
Lanie untied the scarf and handed it over, eager to see what he was going to do with it. Tolus took the scarf and shook it out, spreading the green silk out on the woven mat where the food had been. Leaning to one side, he plucked a stem from the grass and examined it, nodding. With a flourish and a mischievous grin, he produced a small lidded pot, seemingly from thin air. Dipping the grass stem into the pot, he started to draw on the scarf with a shimmering golden ink.
Lanie watched as Tolus added careful lines of flowing, looping script to the scarf. She could sense the magic flowing into each stroke. Tolus inscribed glyphs around the edge of the cloth, forming a border. When the border was complete, he drew larger sigils and glyphs in the center. The shapes were meaningless to Lanie, but the power Tolus was putting into them pressed and tingled against her senses. The fabric seemed to grow more vibrant as he enchanted it, the color got richer and the silk took on a deeper sheen.
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He finished with a flourish, then leaned in and blew across the fabric, causing the ink to dry in an instant. As it did, a shimmer ran across the scarf, and a chill ran down Lanie’s spine as she felt the magic settle into place. The ink had dried golden—not the gold of dead metal, but the living gold of late summer wheat, ready to harvest.
Sitting back with a satisfied smile, Tolus replaced the lid on his ink pot and made it disappear. He gestured to the scarf, “There. My first gift to you. So long as you wear this scarf, you will be safe from any mortal tracking or scrying magic. I am not strong enough to block the eyes of an Ascendant, but you need not fear mortal mages. Not even blood magic will find you.”
Lanie reached out her hand and gently ran her fingers over the symbols on the cloth, feeling the subtle brush of magic against her skin. The ink didn’t sit on the fabric, but it seemed to have sunk into it, becoming part of the substance of the cloth.
“Kyma’s language lessons became a powerful tool in my role as a Pathfinder for my people. I hope that this becomes an equally powerful aid to you on your own path.” He then turned to Nila and took something from her. Holding the object forward, he presented it to Lanie. The brown lump of soft leather sat oddly in his hands, and it took her a moment to realize what she was looking at.
“A water skin?”
“An enchanted water skin. Kyma gave me food when I sojourned in a foreign land, and with this, I return that favor. This skin will slowly fill with clean, cool water. In the mortal world, it might take between eight and ten hours for it to fill completely, depending on how strong the ambient magic is. The stronger the magic, the faster it will fill. And…” with a twist of his wrist, he made a disk of woven grass appear between his fingers, “…my final gift is this token. Kyma helped me to return home when I had little hope of returning on my own. We all need a little help from time to time. When you are in need, take this token to a place where the grass grows tall, give it a little of your magic, and call to me. I will come and give what help I am able.”
Lanie’s chest tightened with each gift. They were perfect, just what she needed, but life didn’t work that way. The universe was never that kind. She watched Tolus carefully, trying to figure out his game. He had to have an angle here. Everyone had an angle.
With each gift he gave, his back straightened and he held his shoulders just a little more square, as though a great burden had become lighter. The change was subtle, but Lanie caught it. That, more than the explanations Nips had given her, drove home to Lanie just how fundamental debts and balance were to the Fae. Tolus had borne his debt as a physical weight.
She had been on the edge of refusing the gifts, looking for the catch, the hook that had to be part of such generosity. In her life, she’d learned that nothing was free and that everyone had ulterior motives. Tolus had a very good poker face, but he hadn’t quite concealed the depth of his relief as he’d presented the gifts to her. They weren’t gifts at all. They were his freedom from an imbalance that he’d been carrying for thousands of years.
Realizing this, Lanie changed what she’d been about to say, accepting the offerings rather than protesting. “I’m at a loss for words, Tolus. These are amazing.” She took the waterskin and token and tucked them both away in her bag. Then she lifted the scarf. She ran the smooth cloth through her fingers, admiring the golden script against the vibrant green, then looped it to drape around her neck and shoulders. “I appreciate all of them. Hell, after going nearly three days with nothing to drink, I think that water skin is just about the best thing ever.” Her lips quirked upward in a genuine smile, perhaps her first in days. She stretched out a hand to Tolus, and he took it. “I’m not Kyma, but she’s part of me, and that part of me is very glad to see you again, to know that you’ve done well for yourself.”
“And I am glad to know that her bright spirit is still part of the world. I wish that we could take more time to talk, but my folk will only be able to confuse and delay those men for so long. If we were able, I’d order them taken care of in a more permanent way. They are a stain on the world. Alas, the fabric of power and politics in the Liminal Realms is a complex tapestry, and there are certain ripples my folk cannot afford to make. Be cautious. My scouts tell me that these men carry the Mark of an influential player in the games of Mortal power. I don’t know who the owner of that Mark is, but we’ve seen it before, and always around dark dealings.”
“I’ll be cautious. And this will help,” Lanie said, touching the scarf. “You ready to go, Nips?”
Nips stood and bowed to Tolus, “It was an honor to meet you, Pathfinder. And a balm to my heart to know that my mistress has such stalwart allies.”
Lanie’s eyebrow shot up at the word ‘mistress,’ but she kept her mouth shut. When it came to Fairy, he was better able to navigate its deeper waters than she was, and she didn’t want to step on whatever angle he was working with that choice of words. She’d sure as hell ask him about it later, though.
Feeling refreshed and rested, and with a last round of farewells, Lanie set off again, Nips safely perched in her bag. She felt lighter than she had in a while. Her fingers found the scarf again, and she smiled. Maybe she could shake these guys after all. Her smile faded, and a shiver ran down her spine as she thought about Tolus’ warning. Who did the terrible trio work for? How powerful must he be to worry an entire people, and what would he do when he discovered that she couldn’t give him the Samsara Stone?
