News
about
Administrators and moderators will post important news here. Please be sure to check back regularly. :)

freebies
Freebies are sometimes posted on this board. Please be aware that a freebie can only be claimed up to one week after it was posted.

Freebies are often granted to "all active characters". A character is considered active if it has made an IC post within the last 2 weeks. Posts made after the freebie was posted do not count.

part six
IP: 82.14.67.140
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 04:59:19 PM by georgia

PART SIX Apeliotes Island On June 28th, 1919, the victorious Allies sat in the famous Galerie des Glaces in the Palace of Versailles and signed what was to become one of the most famous documents in history: the Treaty of Versailles. Little did David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemencaeau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the USA and the other human politicians who gathered there that day know that their actions would have a huge impact not only on their own species, but on another too. Not a single fairy sat at the table, but just like the humans, fairies all over the world were waiting with bated breath for the Allies to announce their decision. For this one day only, the originals had linked every fairy in the world onto the same telepathic network so that they would all know instantly when the news was announced. It was a considerable step forward, considering the fighting amongst fairies during the Great War; tension between those belonging to the Allies and the Central Powers still existed. Every single one of the originals was waiting in the Galerie, each magically disguised as a member of the press or delegation. Even the staunch feminist Allianah had adopted the body of a man as she waited, clutching a reporter’s notebook and pen with white knuckles. Fairies, by and large, did not war against one another. They sometimes chose to join in on the humans’ military campaigns, but the spilling of another fairy’s blood was generally avoided and there had not been a full-blown fairy war since approximately 1300 BC. The Great War had changed that. Not for nearly three thousand years had fairy unity fallen into such chaos, and never before had fairy-on-fairy murder been seen on such a scale. Until 1915 the Council had maintained a fairly strong and united front, refusing to take sides and offering assistance to any and all fairy victims of the war, but as time had worn on their loyalties to their own nations began to turn against them. In mid-1915 the Council agreed to disband on the condition that they would not use divinity until the war was over. That agreement was amended in the September of 1918 when the original based in Germany was killed by the oncoming attack from the allies. When the ceasefire was declared on 11th November 1918, the originals came together again and promised to provide neutral, unbiased protection in a new, peaceful era towards all fairies of all nationalities. The same could not, sadly, be said for the humans. The rest is history. When the Treaty of Versailles was signed and announced on June 28th, 1919, fairykind fell into pandemonium once more. How could fairies hope to rebuild their lives if the humans insisted on treating the Central Powers like naughty, irresponsible children? The Council promised a full evacuation of fairykind from Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, but the evacuation was poorly organised so that many families were still stranded there when the economic crisis hit. Some refused to leave their homes. In the August of 1919, Aura finally lost her temper and announced that she would be creating a sanctuary for fairykind on another world, far from Earth, where the humans could no longer threaten them. She went ahead without the Council’s permission and was consequently exiled from politics. Versailles was the key. The Council had moved its headquarters temporarily to Paris after the ceasefire; it was the first time they had ever met anywhere outside of Egypt. It was reasonable to assume that Aura would have been in France when she created Shaman. When a new world is created, traces of it are left behind in the original world – which meant that if Tsi could find the place where Aura had made hers, he could enter it without encumbering himself with any magical enchantments she may have laid over the place. Ordinary fairies could go to Shaman simply by wishing themselves there, but while that way was quicker and easier, this was safer. Tsi decided to try the Palace of Versailles first before the old Council HQ in Paris. Trusting in his old friend Zed to deal with anything which might arise, Tsi teleported directly from Cairo to Versailles. Since speed was vital, rather than waste time facing difficult enquiries he chose to mask himself behind a veil of invisibility before strolling towards the palace entrance. In the distance he could hear the sound of car horns and two pretty girls giggled as two young men on bicycles whizzed past. Tsi smiled. France. He’d forgotten. Unseen, he jogged up the royal court and saw, to his dismay, that the entranceway was surrounded by visitors. On a busy day like this, he had no hope of sneaking around invisible, lest someone stand on him or something. Damn. Making a snap decision, he caused a loud BANG to sound some way away, and switched back into the visible spectrum while everyone’s heads were turned. In order to blend in, he quickly altered his features to resemble the Europeans around him and changed his clothes to match the smartly dressed attendants waiting at the door. Satisfied with his appearance, Tsi strolled confidently through the doors, nodding and brightly returning in kind a French greeting from one of the doormen. Thank heaven for the gift of tongues. If he remembered correctly, the nearest staircase was round to the left. Forcing himself to walk slowly so as not to arouse the suspicions of his ‘colleagues’, he passed the restaurant and climbed the ornate steps up to the first floor. The Galerie des Glaces was located to the back and towards the right of the main building; to get there he had to pass through many other important rooms, including the appartement de la reine, which Marie Antoinette had once occupied. Ordinarily passing through these historic chambers would stir some kind of emotion in Tsi, who well remembered the days of the Ancien Régime, but today his mind was on other things. None of the rooms felt out of the ordinary. Finally he pushed the door open to the Galerie des Glaces – the ‘Hall of Mirrors’ – feeling a touch of excitement warming him from the inside. Here. This was the very room where the Treaty of Versailles had been signed nearly a century ago; surely this is the place Aura would have chosen to construct her world from. Surely? Apparently not. Tsi walked up and down the length of the hall a few times, frowning at the feeling of disappointment which was beginning to settle. Nothing. Magic leaves traces which divinity can pick up; if someone had created a whole new universe in this very room, it should have left a trace strong enough for him to pick up, even after all this time. He sighed softly, attracting some odd looks from a few of the nearby visitors. Obviously he’d gotten the wrong place… next stop, Paris. Tsi turned to retrace his steps when he caught sight of something which made him pause. When asked later, he couldn’t explain quite what it was which had caught his attention, since it took him a whole ten minutes of staring at it before he figured it out. In the seventeenth century mirrors were among the most expensive items to possess, so it made sense for a monarch to dedicate a gallery to them as a flamboyant display of his wealth. Tsi was staring into one of these mirrors for longer than he would care to admit before he realised what was odd about it – he had no reflection. The walls behind him did, and so did all the various people milling around, but he didn’t. Baffled, the fairy hopped to his left and saw his temporary European face blinking back from the mirror there. The mirror to the right showed his reflection to, but it vanished when he moved back to the first one. A ripple of excitement flickered through Tsi as he glanced around, checking the number of other people in the room. Unfortunately, due to its historic war role, the Galerie des Glaces was a popular exhibit. He had to create another of his loud noises as a diversion before he took a deep breath and passed through the mirror, adrenaline pumping in his brains. Clever of Aura to conceal the trace in a mirror, where only other fairies would recognise it for what it was: a portal to another realm. He didn’t know what he expected. A lunatic asylum, perhaps? Or a playground with little boys and girls running around with Aura’s mahogany hair and vibrant blue eyes? Whatever Tsi had imagined he might see didn’t even come close to the reality. Fairies. Lots of them. Below him was some kind of village, although there were more fairies than could possibly live there. And, were those…? Tsi magnified his vision and felt his stomach lurch. Lamrions. What were lamrions doing here? There was an unnatural quiet about the place, and after a moment or two he noticed that some of the fairies were standing and observing while all the others trundled past, entering the houses in complete silence. A few more minutes’ watching confirmed everything he needed to know. The walkers were ambling along with slow, jerky movements, occasionally bumping into one another; classic symptoms of hypnotism. The use of divinity to coerce another fairy was technically forbidden under Council law, although the Star Chamber usually turned a blind eye to small cases of possession and hypnotism for harmless purposes. After all, if ordinary fairies could do it legally, why not them? This wasn’t harmless, though – somebody had created a slave army. Tsi felt sick. Aura, Gwythr or some unknown foe? He’d seen enough. Shutting his eyes tightly, he wished with all his heart that he was back in his hotel room in Cairo. He kept them closed for a few long minutes after he felt the hot air and the stench of the Egyptian city wash over him.

Replies:

• part seven - By georgia October 14, 2011 at 04:59:05 PM
• part eight, first half. - By georgia October 14, 2011 at 04:58:51 PM
• part eight, second half. - By georgia October 14, 2011 at 04:58:37 PM
• epilogue - By georgia October 14, 2011 at 04:58:23 PM

You must register before you can post on this board. You can register here.

Post a reply:

Username:
Password:
Email:
Subject:
Message:
Link Name:
Link URL:
Image URL: