“One down,” I said as I pulled out another photograph.
Chapter Seven
It didn't take as long as I expected to hit all of the spots Jake had photographed. Unfortunately, not only was it merely a band-aid slapped on a catastrophe, but there were also likely several other locations that we didn't know about. I mean, really, what was the likelihood that Jake just so happened to find every place Faerie had seeped through and they were all in the UK?
“We're going about this the wrong way,” I said. “We need to find the open paths in Faerie and follow them to Earth. Then we can be sure that we've closed all of the paths and protected any patches of fey land that have formed.”
“We need to go home anyway,” Arach noted.
“Yes, to investigate the Dark Kingdom,” I agreed. “But I think we should locate the open paths first. These are a priority. If any more are open—and it stands to reason that there are—people or animals could be stepping through them even as we speak.”
“That will be harder than it sounds,” Mallien pointed out.
“Why?” I asked.
“These are not the original raths to Faerie.”
“The paths, you mean,” I corrected him.
“They are called raths, with an R,” Mallien insisted. “And they were never found hanging in midair as several of the ones we saw today were.”
“Raths were also called faerie mounds because they were usually found under hills,” Arach added. “Some were in caves, but all of them required earth to anchor them. Without soil and stone surrounding them, the magic would, theoretically, be unstable. Air is flighty after all.”
“Just so,” Mallien agreed. “The ways were always anchored within rock. That leads me to conclude that these are fresh raths—opened by the magic.”
“Which means that they could be anywhere,” Arach concluded.
“Yes, my King.” Mallien inclined his head.
“There must be a way to locate them,” I argued.
“Faerie would know where they were,” Lugh suggested. “Let's go back and ask her.”
“We'll see if she answers,” I muttered. “She's been as distracted as the rest of the Fey.”
“She may not be able to sense them if the magic is fluctuating,” Mallien pointed out. “But as I have no better solution to offer, I agree with the High Prince.”
“Fine, let's go speak to.... hold on,” I interrupted myself. “We're forgetting someone—someone who isn't distracted and who could tell us where there's faerie magic on Earth.”
“Who?” Lugh asked.
“Alaric,” Arach answered with a grin.
I was wondering when you were going to remember me.
Chapter Eight
“Al!” I exclaimed. “It's good to hear the voice of a sane consciousness.”
Alaric, Consciousness of the Void, laughed in my mind before saying, Yes, Faerie seems... well, not herself these days.
“Did she tell you anything about what's happening in the Faerie Realm?”
Enough that I've determined the situation to be unstable and a threat to this realm.
“Yeah, that's about right,” I muttered. “Any thoughts? Maybe a suggestion?”
I would recommend warding the Earth as the Faerie Realm is warded but I don't think that's possible.
“I don't think even my star could do that.”
“Do what?” Arach asked.
“Ward the planet.”
“Why not? It has brought thousands of people back to life and wiped away the memories of millions more,” Arach reminded me. “How much harder can warding a world be?”
Remind the Fire King what a ward around the world would mean.
“It's not merely setting a ward. I'd have to create tracing points as well,” I explained. “And they'd have to be all over the world and then, all of the Gods would have to be notified of their locations and if I skipped one or someone forgot, they could get lost in the Aether forever. There's probably even more to it than that; those are merely the issues that spring to mind immediately.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Al, what about our theory on Faerie expanding. Do you think that's likely?”
It's entirely possible. You have changed the Faerie Realm a great deal, Vervain. Fertility, the seasons, time, and even a new kingdom. Such things can have a cumulative effect, collecting magical sparks until it becomes an explosion.
“Please tell me you mean that figuratively.”
“What?” Lugh asked. “Share with the rest of the class, Vervain.”
Mostly figuratively, Al said. It could have been literal—a magical explosion that has rippled out to Earth. All I can see are gleaming lines connecting the realms through the Aether—lines that weren't there previously.
“Alaric says there may have been a buildup of magic from all of the changes the Faerie Realm has gone through,” I finally clued the others in. “It may have resulted in a type of explosion that burst out to Earth. He says he can see new connections between the realms.”
“He doesn't happen to know how to cut those connections, does he?” Lugh asked.
You cannot cut magic like a thread. You must stop the flow and to do that, you either have to go to the source of the magic or the source of the explosion. You can touch the Great Nine Magics through your star, Vervain, but how you could manipulate them into pulling back those tendrils is beyond me. Finding the origin of the explosion might have better results.
“But if the explosion is the result of several things, how do we find the source of it?”
Not the source, the origin—the place where the explosion happened.
“Wouldn't that be all of Faerie?”
It could be, he conceded. But usually, explosions have an origin. I believe there's a precise location in Faerie where all of the magic came together.
“So, this could be a wild goose chase,” I grumbled.
Unfortunately, I have nothing else for you to hunt.
“He says we should find the origin of the explosion,” I summed things up for the others. “The possible site where the magic collected and exploded out to Earth.”
But first, you need to staunch the flow as best you can. I can tell you, or show you rather, where Faerie is leaking into the Human Realm.