Chapter Four
When Fable had first stepped into the small cottage she had felt the warmth of the tiny home and had actually loved it. It was cute and clean and it had a small fire place, and Fable had thought about how it must feel to live like this, away from everything.
As she had listened to the story Anouke told her about Gods, Magic, Creatures and the Spell Worker, she kept thinking back to the times when she was a child and her parents would read her stories from different story books. Her parents had explored most of the world and had taken her with them often. Her parents had believed in all that could not be seen, in myths and legends. Now it all seemed so surreal but at the same Fable knew that everything that has happened to her since starting her volunteer work, was in fact...real.
"Me? The....Spell Worker?" Fable said as she let out a small laugh.
"I....I don't; how can I be the Spell Worker, I'm not even from this World; this doesn't make any sense" Fable mumbled and a bigger frown creased her forehead.
"Wait, does this mean I can do magic? Am I a witch?" she continued as she got up from her chair and started pacing, her hands in her hair. "If I'm the Spell Worker, that means I can do magic, right?; I mean like, wow; that's cool and all.......but...but....; Shit". Fable stopped her pacing and sat down in the same chair. Anouke looked at her with understanding.
"I understand that everything must seem a bit...too much. But I assure you, it is what it is. You are the next Spell Worker".
But before I tell you more about it, let me first continue the story of Empyrea; As I just said, a new Spell Worker is born every five hundred years. Once the spell is cast,it is magically forgotten so no one, not even the Spell Worker can use it again. Five hundred years ago, the last Spell Worker cast the spell and everything was what it was meant to be. The humans were devoted to their Gods and the Human realm thrived and there was peace and prosperity. But that ended almost a hundred years ago". Anouke got up from her seat and put a kettle on the fire and then returned to her seat with a few cookies on a plate.
"What happened a hundred years ago"? Fable asked curiously. "It was the start of the end.....some of the creatures escaped the prison realm and slaughtered many humans. They were eventually killed by the Iyrinn but it turned out, that things would get much worse". "Who are the Iyrinn?" Fable asked. "They are the Guardians of the Realm. They guarded the gate to the prison realm. No one knows how the creatures escaped, and the humans were on high alert, as were the Guardians. Soon after, more creatures escaped and the Guardians could not protect all of the humans, so they did the one thing that the Gods forbid them to do......they taught the humans the art of magic so they could protect themselves and their loved ones. The Gods punished the Iyrinn for disobeying them, and imprisoned them in the Valley of Darkness, where they have been chained up for the past hundred years".
"But why didn't the Gods do anything, I mean, they had the power to help protect the humans and kill the creatures, right?......and why would they punish the Guardians for something so little; not to be mean, but they make no sense at all" Fable said confused and took a big bite out of the cookie.
"Magic is a very powerful tool, and in the wrong hands it could it could do a lot of wrong. The Gods and the Iyrinn were the only one who could wield magic, aside from the Spell Worker who could only use magic once to create the spells necessary to contain the creatures in the prison realm. The Gods feared that if the humans also mastered the art of Magic, then they would consider themselves powerful, and then have no need for the Gods anymore. After the Iyrinn were imprisoned more creatures escaped and the prison realm ceased to exist. The Humans had mastered the art of magic and had managed to protect themselves using protection barriers. But over the years their magic weakened and the ability to protect, decreased dramatically. The creatures have since taken over the Human Realm, with only a few Human cities remaining. The only way to save the Human Realm is for the Spell Worker to cast the spell to contain the creatures where they belong....in the Prison Realm".
Fable tried to make sense of what she was hearing, "So....I have to...create this Spell. Anouke, I don't have any magic. I'm from a world where magic does not exist. How can I be The Spell Worker; I'm really trying to understand what you're saying, but....ugh..it's too damn confusing".
"The last Spell Worker, Kahina, was a very good friend of my mother. She entrusted my mother with a secret, and then my mother entrusted it to me. After Kahina had cast her spell, something unusual happened to her. Right before her magic faded, she told my mother that she had gotten a message of some sort, from the magic source. The message was that the next Spell Worker would not be of our World, but from the Old World of the Gods and that it would be up to my mother to ensure the next Spell Worker found her way here. Because she would not be from our world, her magic would only arise after she crossed into our world......My mother passed away some time ago, so it was up to me to bring you here".
"I understand that everything must be so overwhelming, but.....you are our only hope. You saw the burned forest. The whole Realm is slowly rotting away, the creature roam around killing everything in their path. The Realm needs you, the people need you" Anouke almost begged. Fable sighed "If I do this, is there a way for me to go home then?".
Anouke looked like she was deep in thought, "I truly do not know, but there is a possibility that you will find a way back home". "Alright, I will help you" Fable said. If there was any chance of going home, then she would take that chance.
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Anouke was glad that everything was going as planned. Now she still had one more thing to tell Fable. "There is one thing that you have to do, before you can take on your role as Spell Worker". "Uhm oke, what do I have to do?" Fable asked slowly. "You have to free the Iyrinn. They are the guardians of the Prison Realm and they have to be present when you cast the Spell" Anouke told Fable. "Uhh you want me to break them out of prison? Didn't you say they were imprisoned in the Valley of...Darkness? So that was like a hundred years ago, so....aren't they supposed to be, you know....dead?".
"Yes to your first and second question, and no to the third. The Iyrinn are immortal, when they were imprisoned, they went into hibernation. Only the Spell Worker can free them and wake them up from hibernation".
"Alllllllright, wake up the immortals,got it; Anything else I need to do?, When will I get my....uhh Magic?"
"For now you have to free the Iyrinn, from there everything else will go as it should. Your magic will arise, it is up to you how fast that happens" Anouke said.
Fable was nervous....and a bit scared too. The fate of a this world rested on her shoulders and she honestly didn't want to let anyone down. She would do this, she would free the Guardians, get her magic, do the spell and then get the hell outta here. Shouldn't be that bad right?. Anouke asked Fable if she would like to take a bath, and Fable almost immediately answered yes. After her bath Anouke lend her a soft cotton dress to sleep in. Tomorrow at dawn Anouke will take her to the Valley of Darkness so she can free the immortals. "I really need to stop calling them the Immortals" Fable thought. Tomorrow she will free the Iyrinn. But for now she just wanted to sleep.
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The next morning had come much faster than Fable had wanted it to. She stood before the thin mirror that looked ancient, and let out a small smile. The dress Anouke had lend her was....breath taking. According to Anouke she would stand out if she wore her other worldly clothes so Anouke had quickly looked in her small closet for anything that would fit Fable. She had eventually found an old box of her mother's with the dress inside of it. Fable had been reluctant to accept the dress, but Anouke had insisted. And it fit Fable perfectly.
The dress was sky blue colored with long sleeves and had small flowers embroidered on the bottom. The edges of the whole dress were also embroidered with a soft gold color. Fable looked beautiful. She had used a ribbon to bind her hair together and wore comfortable flats, also from Anouke.
Fable sighed and walked out of the small bedroom. Anouke had put together a small breakfast, and they both ate in silence. About what seemed like almost ten minutes later, they were on their way. They walked to the protection barrier and Anouke repeated the same incantation as the day before. The same glowing ball appeared and the invincible wall opened. Stepping through the barrier the smell of rotting and burning trees quickly overwhelmed Fable. She pinched her nose, "Yuck". They walked and walked through the forest, only passing rotten trees, sometimes burned ones, without stopping. "Who burned the trees?" Fable asked, breathing heavily. "The Mirovians, from the City of Mirovia, one of the last remaining human cities. Their city lies about ten Kilometers east from here. Their city borders the forest and because people were getting sick because of the rotting trees, they burned most of it".
Some time later Anouke stopped, with Fable almost bumping into her back. "We're here" Anouke whispered. Fable only then realized they were at a cliff and she stared down at the valley between the two mountains. When Anouke told her about the Valley of Darkness, Fable didn't think that because the name had darkness it it, it meant the place would actually be....in total darkness. But it was.....where Anouke and Fable were standing it was day; but in the valley it was as dark as night.
Anouke turned and looked at Fable, "This is until where I go, I cannot go any further" she said. Fable's eyes widened, "Uhh, I thought...".
"It's how it's meant to be Fable" Anouke said as she grabbed Fable by her shoulders. "Trust the Iyrinn, they will protect you and guide you to your destiny; I believe in you Fable, but the only thing that will help you succeed is believing in yourself". Anouke removed a small dagger from her dress pocket and gave it to Fable. "A gift, to accompany you on your journey". She also handed over the small lantern she had been carrying. Anouke then gave her a quick hug and left, Fable staring after her.
Fable turned and looked at the Valley again. She felt her heart beating fast and put a hand on her chest."It's gonna be alright, I can do this", she muttered as she looked for a way to get down from the cliff.
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