Eastern red cedar, common yew: Middlesex Fells -- I sensed the location more than recognized it. This wasn't the wildest area, but it was relatively close and this time of year, with the weather changing, apt to be mostly empty.
She left no trail, of course. I could sense magic in the area, but all places like this drew magical creatures, though mostly the little ones. Sylph stood out like a fire among them.
She wasn't far away, sitting in the shadow of a cedar with the dying ferns around her. Sylph looked spent, and I realized how much magic it must have taken to drag me up through the ground to safety.
"Thank you for saving my life," I said and settled on the ground in front of her. Maybe we would both have a little time to rest before we had to face the enemy again.
"I wasn't sure you would come here," she said. Her head tilted. "I'm not certain what that says for your sanity."
"Troublesome things, I'm sure," I replied, and she laughed a little this time. I saw that her feet had dug down into the ground. She fed herself that way, and I wished I had a ready source of food. I'd taken a liking to tacos in the last couple of years. "What attacked us down there?"
"I am not certain we were attacked," she said with a tilt of her head. "The power seemed -- unfocused to me. A field that the other generated --"
"I've never met anything like that, not on either side of the veil," I said and tried to think back to the encounter. Sylph might have been right, though all my thoughts had been so muddled that I couldn't get a clear picture. "Do you think it had come after the pixie crown? Or did it just happen by?"
"I do not believe in such coincidence, as much as I would like to think that it was not our enemy. I have never met such a creature." Her green hair snapped around a little in agitation, and I was glad not to be too close this time. "It did not have a feel of fae magic."
"No, I didn't sense that sort of power," I agreed. But then I closed my eyes for a moment and called back what I had sensed. "The power was overwhelming -- but there was a feel of nature in it, wasn't there? Not Fae... but something related?"
Sylph nodded, and she looked no more assured than I felt. It worried me when something so strong and tied to magic didn't seem any more aware of what to expect than me.
"Why are you in the human lands?" she said. "The full story."
I didn't think that really pertained to our problem at hand, but on the other hand, she needed information before she could fully trust me.
"I used to spend a lot of time in the human lands with a few of my cousins," I said and tried not to sound too much as though I missed those days -- even though I did. "We were a bit wild in those days, but we never did harm, and we never let the humans know about magic. We played tricks, yes -- but never anything evil."
She gave a definite nod, as though she never would have believed anything else of my behavior. How very odd. The belief threw me for a moment, but then I plowed on into the story.
"The Queen met secretly with me at my father's keep. She said that there had been visions about the human world of late, and eddies of odd power moving through their land. She feared that some of the visitors might not be from the fae lands exactly -- from outside, perhaps. I was supposed to find out what I could, but honestly -- I've been here for years, and as fascinating as I have always found humans, I have not seen much sign of anything else. Until now."
Sylph nodded and leaned back against the tree. I blinked. If I had not known she was there, I wouldn't have noticed her. Hair looked like moss, arms like branches, her face a bole against the trunk. It wasn't as though she was any less human-shaped, only that her coloring and the drape of shadows across her body and face.
Sylph was far more of nature than me, and the Fae have a special kinship with the wild. Facing her, I could see why we did not mingle much.
"What do you think is happening?" I finally asked.
"That your queen might be right. Or maybe she is not looking in the right places outside. What we had down there --" She stopped and shook her head, the rustle like wood and leaves in an autumn wind.
"I have never touched on that sort of power," I said. I called back the feeling of it. Even at a distance of time and space, I still shivered.
"I think you have never felt such a power so close," she said and frowned. "But you have felt it, and I have felt it. That was nature, Fae. The full power of nature."
I had to consider that thought for a moment. "You mean one of the gods."
"Yes, you might name it so. I do not think what came there was after the crown, though. Such trinkets couldn't mean anything to it."
I nodded and sat still, trying to feel out what might be going on. None of it made sense at all.
"There are too many things moving," I said. "We --"
"We ran too soon," she said and stood suddenly. "We thought ourselves I danger, but perhaps nature moved for another reason. Perhaps there was something more we did not see."
I wanted to curse. Sylph could be right, but even so --
"I am going back," Sylph said. "You --"
"Take me with you," I replied. "We dare not waste time."
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