A Bump in the Road. Chapter Twenty-Four.
A Bump in the Road
Chapter Twenty-Four
By Roofles
It was huge. A castle sized mansion that stretched as far as the eye could see, within the dense forest that was all around us that is. The forest itself, surrounding this fortress, was trimmed perfectly so that each and every tree, were exactly, the same feet away from the others, the same size and width an diameter, length and volume and all that other math stuff. It was like someone had double clicked on one tree, copied it and then just paste a thousand more like it around this place. A personal forest. So primmed and neat and...perfect it alone wasn't normal.
The mansion was made of a rust red and looked like an identical twin of the famous Red Fort in Delhi. It wasn't made of the same red sandstone by any means but the wood looked as if the outside had been rolled in the same substance giving it a rather believable appearance of redstone. Massive walls stretched out like it was the horizon in the distance. As far as the eye could see amongst the trimmed growth of trees. Massive pillars rose up like watch towers and four towers held the main structure in place. The design was very middle Eastern, with those nipple like structure at the top of each tower. I forget the name of them.
I blame the overwhelming size of the place for that. It was both ah-inspiring, breathtaking and overwhelming to the point you just felt uncomfortable. As if it were a home to a giant.
A chill wind blew and I found myself rubbing my arms as I quickly looked side to side half expecting to see someone watching us. The place was huge, massive. And completely devoid of life. It was like walking into a crypt. You know there are people there but you also know they are dead and both are and aren't there. Yet their presence lingers and makes the hair stand up on your back and daddy long legs walk up and down your arms.
"Charming." I half-laughed looking over at Tezca for some kind of moral support.
"You know, when I said before, that this was a trap?" He eyed down at me, lifting an eyebrow before grinning widely.
"Stop being a freighty cat." I replied and got a rewarded with a growl. "Just shut it." I looked at him from the corner of my eye. "Shut you face hole." And with that we began walking up the hundred steps or so towards the door.
It felt like ten steps before we were at the top and looking behind me I could see, far below, the carriage still sitting there. Alone. And drawn by two nightmarish horses. Stupid enchanted stairs and horse carriages and Aztec gods that possess innocent by standards for fun.
The doors before us were wooden with black metal frames and several more nipple like points covering its surface. Tiny little points that could easily prick your fingers like thorns. And that's what they were. Or looked like anyways. Vines ran up the sides of the door and branches out with single strings of black webbing that coalesced into small mounds and into thorns. All made of the same black bordering metal of the doors. It could've fooled me though.
It was like walking into the wicked witches own cottage. At least it wasn't made of gingerbread. And the thought of Tezca's words (and that of general Ackbar), that it was a trap.
The doors opened at my touch.
An ice cold breeze washed over me as if someone had opened a freezer door rather than that of a mansion. That or they just had the air conditioner cranked on to the point it froze. There was something about that breeze, other than being ungodly ball freezingly cold. It was...fresh? Like out in the middle of a forest kind of fresh. The very smell of earth and rain met my nose, like how Tezca smelled. Wild, primal and natural. And though it stung my lungs to breath I became content within seconds, at ease and almost light headed from it. Kind of like when I was a kid an still smoked, and not cigarettes.
"Why is everything bewitching in this fucked up place?" I asked as I took my first step inside a bit in a daze.
"Spite?" Tezca offered with a shrug and followed behind. His tail quickly recoiled as the doors snapped shut. "It's the easiest way to get humans. Look at all the ones who smoke, drink, do drugs and huff fumes? Gamble away their life savings? All trying to get a high of some sort or another. It's just far more...concentrated with the people of the dark. And it works all too well."
"Right." And I held my tongue from any further snide remarks I could have easily made about all that.
I expected there to be more hallways and doors and stairs and other means of moving around. Thankfully I was wrong. The door behind us was the main entryway to the main room. A giant hall, a ballroom in fact, that rose up like the sky outside to a ceiling that hurt your neck to look up at.
Massive columns rose up at the bottom of the stairs we stood on top of, holding the sky itself at bay from crashing down onto us. They were smooth marble that were slightly opal in shape. They twisted around and a stairway had been designed for small miniature statues to walk up along like tiny people. Each were more pompous-er than the next putting even aristocratics to shame. And I soon saw why.
The floor had a golden tint to it with high balcony's above over looking it. A stage had been set up on the farther side where a band was already playing, what I could only assume to be, classical music. Giant archways were set up on the Western and Eastern wall opening up and out to gardens and towards the other buildings of this would be castle. A whole world in and of itself. One could stay in this place all their life and, I doubt, see every nook and cranny.
What stood out wasn't the charming Beauty and the Beast feel to the place, it did kind of feel that way being here with Tezca (he was Beauty, I'm the beast); what caught my eye were the people already below. Dancing to the music that played.
Those on stage, I was sure, had to be humans. They were flawed and grunge like hipsters. People you would see in back alley coffee shops or on street corners. Ragged cloths, dirty unwashed hair, french black hats (I forget what they are called) and glasses that are slid down their nose just enough to say what a douchebag they were. But when they played? It was, alone, memorizing. Beethoven himself couldn't do such work, well maybe he could. They were professionals is all I'm saying. Masters of the craft and skilled beyond any human means I thought possible. And it almost brought me to tears at times. Even note conveyed its message perfectly and even though I never attended any sort or kind of opera I was able to follow along the whole time.
Lights were on them from above and from the front of the stage; even from where up on high, that I stood, I could see the sweat glistening on their brows. Their arms never stopped moving, their fingers alone dancing across the violins, pianos and the like. Faster than the eye could see. Moving with a mind of their own as they played. Ever played. Without stopping.
And I soon learned why.
The guy on the far left was playing a massive sized bass between his legs. He was sitting on a chair and was playing his heart out. Sweat was pouring down the older man's face and it was twisted in pain and even before I could take a single step down I heard a sickening snap. I thought it was one of the strings but looking down I could see the index finger on his right hand twisted in an angle it was never made to move.
I watched in horror as the man continued to play. To play and play until there was blood on his instrument and his nails were breaking until, finally, his own body could go on no further and he simply collapsed onto his side, falling off the stage, and moved no more.
The dancers all stopped at this. Turned in perfect sync with one another and began clapping.
"Splendid, splendid!" One called one. A gentleman in and of itself as he gave a very soft golf clap with white gloves on.
"Magnificent." A woman said covering her mouth as she spoke, very lady like.
"So dignified and poise, even to the very end." Another agreed and there was a murmur amongst themselves as they nodded and confirmed with each other that it was a brilliant end.
I might've mentioned it before, but humans are human because they aren't perfect. They look...well grungy. These people did not, the dancers below. Their figures were that of models, their skin so fine I was sure it was made of the very marble of the pillars at my side; smooth, untarnished and far too pale. They were all descent height. The men were muscular and poised with their backs straight the whole time. The woman were slightly shorter and slender their arms alone could be nothing more than bone and skin.
And their outfits.
I could see why I was wearing this silly mask and suit. Each of them were both sophisticated and yet taken one step above that to the point of being comical. The masks were either oversized or too small, some wore only one long sleeved gloved on their arms while a knitted black one on the other. Their outfits were from the Victorian era and each had a very steam punk like feel to them. Most the men, without masks, were wearing far too small or oversized monocles. Or one guy had two monocles. Another had two monocles on the same eye. Top hats and bowler hats filled the room but not on anyone's head. Canes were carried and never walked with and every outfit looked like someone was trying to make fun of a gentleman or lady, like a jester would, rather than actually being one. Loose and baggy, oversized or so tight that it would cut circulation off on any real human.
"Faeries." Tezca said in a low, deep voice glaring down at the crowd. "I knew we shouldn't have come."
"I thought they were vampires." I whispered back looking over the crowd below.
"Well technically..." Tezca had began but seeing the look I gave him he changed his tune. "Some are vampires. Some are Fae Lords and Faeries. They've mixed together like the cousins they are." I chose to ignore the last part. The less I know about some things the better.
I watched as the body of the man was dragged away by goonish brutes that looked more orge than human. Large chins, heavy brows and heads oblong shaped with far too large shoulders supporting them with no necks to be seen. Their skin wasn't pale but was almost humanly pink with a heavy orange tint to it. And not bronze either but orange, like a...well an orange.
Other such brutish beasts were keeping to themselves, off to the side. Bodyguards to those who had began dancing again on the ballroom floor most likely. Most were large and as ugly as the next, scowling as they watched their lord or lady dancing around with such perfect grace I was sure the women had to be at least floating in their dresses. That or they were like ballerina's in those music boxes spinning aimlessly on a metal rod. And each dancer, though looking slightly different, were a cooky cutter of the next. Each dancing the same exact routine and way in such perfect grace and skill I was sure they were but mirror images of one another. Even if they did wear different outfits. The only thing that allowed me to tell them apart.
"Bodyguards." I muttered as I looked back at Tezca. At least no one would question why he was with me or wearing a tux. The other guards were, even if they fitted far worse than Tezca's did (which was saying something). "Stay close for now. Unless it's too strange. Then stay in the corner and keep an eye on things."
"Yeah." Tezca nodded. "No." He shook his head with a frown. "I'm not leaving your side while we're here." His ears had jumped up and were turning left and right and his eyes were doing much the same even if his muzzle never strayed an inch. He had reached out to place a large paw on my shoulder.
I wasn't about to argue with a giant, almost, seven-foot plus werejaguar and just headed towards the side where a buffet had been set out.
"And don't eat any food or drink anything either." Tezca warned, not that I would either. Most the food had a strange, far too healthy look to it. I was sure the apples were the very same snow white had been given, all too waxy and shiny red. Others on the other hand were already rotting and molding, the glamor placed over them fading away to reveal their true nature. I only knew this as Tezca was thinking the same.
"Hadn't planned on it." I said eying a piece of celery I was sure was trying to escape the plate it had been set on. Ants on a log indeed.
The man platting it looked up at me and I at him. He wasn't like the perfect people dancing on the ballroom floor. He was...well he was an animal. Like a forest critter one had dressed up. And damned if the squirrel didn't look good, better than I did.
"And don't accept anything given to you either, no matter what." And then Tezca eyes widened and he quickly added. "Or give. Never give anything to a fairy or they will have to return the favor."
Likewise, I didn't ask.
"My, my. What do we have here." A man said looking down his nose at me seemingly appearing where the squirrel had been a half second before. I don't think he meant too, look down at me that was. His very nose was pointed so sharp I was sure, for a second, it had been a beak. All his features were just as sharp and there was a very inhuman, birdlike look to him. He was wearing a black tux with equally black feathers around the end of the sleeves, lined the edges of the coat and around the collar that covered his neck from view. Black feathers washed through his wavy raven black hair. "A human?" Then those sharp eyes darted over towards the cat and there was a sneer to his face. "No, you are a practitioner. I am, of course, correct, aren't I?" He asked looking back at me and his face had turned from sour to pleasant in the split second he looked away from the feline.
Other supernatural, otherworldly creatures really didn't seem to like Tezca. And liked me too much. It was...annoying.
"Practitioner?" I asked about to correct him when he cut me off.
"Tut, tut. Can't fool me." And he shook a silver gloved finger in my face. "You cannot fool my eyes, dear boy." His voice was that of a man far older than he looked. While I guessed he looked to be in his mid thirties or Early (at most) Forties, he spoke as if he were twice that age. Three, four times that age. Like a sage in some bad kung fu movie. "Your kind has always had a fancy for the mystic arts. Quite capable of it too." He chuckled.
"I'm not-," I tried to say but his wrist flicked at me and somehow he managed to slip a card form his sleeve.
"Edgar, at your service." He offered the card and I looked at Tezca. "No strings attached, this time, silly boy." And he stuck it into the pocket of my tux before I could stop him. "When you are tired of this one. Give me a call and I shall teach you truly how to control your gifts." And with that the man walked off, not towards the dance floor, but off through one of the archways and into the garden.
A small badger, about hip height, appeared and ran after him wearing a small tux top and carrying a silver platter with tea cups and a pot of tea, honey, cream and sugar that bounced up and down as the small animal followed after. Never once did a single drop spill however.
"The Fae have several classes. The lower class aren't able to even take real form or shape. When they do, or able too, they appear as sprites and the tiny fairies you see in movies. The middle class normally take forms of animals and serve as the butler or retainers for the higher class. The ones that are able to take the most human of forms." Tezca snarled a bit glaring after the man. He grabbed one of the oranges and crushed it in his hand without even realizing. "The most dangerous are those who can appear human."
"And this was about." I asked nearly touching the card before it was swiped away and torn to shreds by my would be jaguar protector. I think he was just being a dram queen.
"Tricksters." Tezca glared. "He knows not to try to claim what is not his." Tezca voice changed when he said that and there was a subtle, dangerous power to it that felt like the very air had become electrified. It softened back to his normal deep tone the next second. "It changes but in the end it's always the same."
"The same what." I asked walking around the buffet to give a few more odd figures a chance to get something. They picked at the grapes and gossiped amongst each other, the woman fanning her face the whole time with a fan that barely fit into her hand. A small otter, much like the badger, popped up out of nowhere and quickly refilled the dish that had been taken before vanishing once more.
"The Fae are very big about their rules and games. Such as receiving or giving gifts. It is only proper," he scoffed at the word however, "to return the favor. Even if the other doesn't want it. The one thing they like more," he went on as we walked out into the garden. "Is to have fun. Playing games is their biggest way to kill time. And this usually involves tricking humans."
The garden was overgrown but resembled the rain forest. Lush leaves and exotic flowers bloomed, each were dewed heavily as if it had been raining. Colorful things that looked as beautiful as I was sure deadly. A pathway of stone had been set out to walk and not even a leaf dared to block the path from being walked on. Tezca seemed to relax a bit in the dense forest.
"Humans are wishful creatures," the jaguar's eyes rolled at this. "Wanting to be the best, or be rich or whatever." He chuckled with a shake of his head though I was glad he found it more amusing than not. "And the Fae are more than happy to grant said wishes. At a cost."
And then a light bulb went on over head and I looked back at the ballroom of dancers. "The musicians then?"
"Wanted to be the best." Tezca shrugged. "At the cost of their own life." He looked at me. "No. I don't think they even had a clue what they were getting into, let alone fully conscious. World's like this has an...influence effect on humans." And his voice trailed off then and he bit his own tongue and looked away as if said something he hadn't meant too. Tezca could be very talkative at times. Even if he didn't wish to be. Though, I found, this was only ever with me.
"Influence effect?" I asked but the cat went on with what he had been saying before.
"The other way is tricking a human into coming into...well a place like this. An opening, a door into their crazy world that both has too and doesn't make sense." He shook his head. "Like a wardrobe." And he laughed at the very notion or idea.
"Like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland?" I asked, watching him closely.
"Right. Like your proverbial rabbit hole. Not only the Fae do this though. We call it being spirited away. Or used to. Or some humans do." Tezca frowned as he tried to figure that out. Time didn't suit well with things that didn't age.
"And the Influence effect on humans?" I asked and he looked away once more. "Tezca." I was the one to growl now. "Tezca." I said again a bit harsher.
"Well..." He coughed into his hand, adjusted his tux and then began walking away rather quickly.
I snagged his tail and held it as he stopped and looked at the forest around them.
"This place used to be a garden." He spoke softly.
"Well duh." I added letting his tail go, the tawny yellow black rosette thing swayed back and forth behind him and coiled around my wrist before swaying away.
"A simple garden of flowers and grass." Tezca mused reaching out as if to pick a flower. He stopped and pulled back and looked for another one. "But it changed over time." The cat moved a few paces away before reaching out once more. "This world used to be part of yours but with the power of this place, the Influence of this world, this garden...is as you see now." And he pulled out a flower.
It was green and the edges were white. He turned and walked back, bent down and began fastening it onto my suit. He didn't look at me as his large, skilled fingers worked their magic and tied the stem into a button opening. I could feel his breath on my face as he spoke.
"It is the same with humans, if not more so." And he stood up fully and my eyes rose as he did. "A human who has come acrossed something of the dark," he used the term openly. "Will be more prone to, more likely to run across more and more things as well. Until they either become a part of this world. Or devoured by it." And the back of his finger ran over my cheek as he looked down at me. "Isaac..." And he let the world drift off his tongue without following it up with anything more.
I frowned at this, being treated like a child, and felt embarrassed as all hell. Glad no one could see me at least. "And what does that mean with us." I asked already knowing the answer.
"It means, even if I disappear from your life, you will always be a part of this world." And for a second I thought Tezca was going to shed a tear. "I'm sorry." And he looked away.
I found myself rolling my eyes and pushing him to the side. "Yeah, yeah. We've been over this a dozen and a half times already. I'm stuck in your world. Whatever." At least I knew why now and not just because I was bound to an old Aztec god. It was like I was marked and all the boogie men knew it and thus wanted to try and scare me. "Why did he call me a practitioner though?"
Tezca chewed this over as we made our way through the archway of plant life that draped over head and filled out like walls on our side.
"I assume it's because I'm radioactive." Tezca said trying to choose the right words. "My influence is greater than most. And as I've been in your presence for so long I'm beginning to effect you to the point you have the aura of a practitioner."
"I'm not going to get radiation poisoning am I?" I laughed, but got worried when he didn't reply.
We walked in silence until we reached the next chamber, which I was sure was the first. It was identical anyways though mirrored as everything was on the opposite side and on my right was another buffet. This time of chocolates and various sweets. Even knowing they were, basically, poisonous I had to stop myself from eating a chocolate strawberry. They were simply too tempting.
"So..." I started up as I looked around the room. Everyone really did look alike and I wasn't sure who I was looking for. Then again that raven dude stood out like a sore thumb. Anyone of semi-importance must be, standing out so much unlike the mannequins that danced on the ballroom floor. "Can I like shoot fire balls and magic missles then?" I chuckled remember the old DnD game a friend tried to get me to play.
"Who knows." Tezca shrugged. "All I know on the subject is that is why certain places of land need a land god to watch over them. The massive influence of the place would make everything grow out of control and mutate into...well nasty stuff." He tapped a claw to an exposed tooth a few times as he thought it over. "We may have to think of a way to deal with that in the future." And he offered a shrug in return as if I wasn't going to mutate into some horrible monster just because he was next to me. Or at least that's how I heard it.
"Lovely." Was the only possible reply I could give him after hearing that.
We didn't talk much as we made our way around the dance floor and towards one of the side chambers. I honestly wasn't sure where I was going or even why I was. Or what I was looking for or even the very fact I chose to come here.
And then I saw why.
Fairies loved to play with humans, to use them for their amusement. The only real way they can kill time and have fun. And their fun is sick, twisted and cruel.
Because, in a small cushioned room, I saw the person I wanted to see the least. Yue Ling, the fox woman.