A week went by, and the three managed to save up enough to start searching for permanent living quarters. They had spent the past several days staying at an inn.
"We finally get a day off tomorrow," Jyri said on their way to the mines. "We can sleep in, and then try finding a place for rent."
"Sounds like a plan," Faye said. Though her tone was nonchalant, she was actually ecstatic on the inside. Never before had she ever had a place to call home. Other than the orphanage, anyway.
Once they entered the mine, they all fell into their usual routine. Ran and Faye had been doing well enough at their jobs, while Jyri continued to struggle. His work only improved slightly, and Tusgral and Sakhec still poked fun at him whenever they could.
"Still can't put more than a dent in it, eh?" Tusgral said to Jyri with a sneer.
Jyri responded by whacking his pickaxe hard against the wall. Rumbling filled the air as the floor shook.
The sudden jolt jerked Faye violently against a wall. Ran bumped into Jyri, who fell on top of the dwarfs. All landed in a pile on the ground as the earth continued to shake. Small bits of rock showered down on them. Faye covered her head with her hands until the floor stopped shaking. Gasping for breath, she shared a frantic look with everyone, and turned around to find a wall of boulders and rubble blocking them in.
Jyri clutched at his hair. "We're trapped! How will we get out? We're gonna die in here!"
"We are?" Ran asked in a voice filled with concerned.
Tusgral pointed a finger at Jyri. "This is your fault!"
"I had nothing to do with it. It was just an earthquake." Jyri pressed his hand to his forehead. "We're stuck in here. Oh Odis..."
"Calm down, all of you. We can push it," Sakhec said. He stood up and shoved at the boulders, but they didn't move. "Help me with this!"
Faye, Jyri, Ran, Tusgral, and Delia took places behind Sakhec, and pushed. It barely budged.
"We can always mine our way out," Tusgral said. "I think I lost my pickaxe though."
"Me too," Sakhec muttered.
"I got mine still," Jyri said, holding his up.
Tusgral and Sakhec shared a look. Sakhec cleared his throat. "Yeah... That's not gonna work."
Jyri frowned. "What do you mean?"
"We gave you the bad pickaxe- the one that isn't enchanted with gnome magic to make mining easy."
"What!"
"We thought it would be funny," Tusgral mumbled.
Jyri let out a loud groan, and slammed his pickaxe down on one of the boulders. Nothing happened.
"Can you two use magic?" Ran asked Delia and Faye.
"Fairy magic isn't strong enough to move these," Delia said. Then, as though to prove it, she held her hands out, and shot a spell at the rubble. A rock twitched, but stayed in place.
"We're going to die," Jyri moaned.
"Calm down," Faye said. "Eventually, someone will come down here wondering why we haven't left, and they can help get us out."
"I can't breathe," Ran said.
"We're going to suffocate down here," Jyri added.
Faye wanted to argue, and say he was exaggerating, but she found breathing to be a struggle. She closed her eyes. No, it was all in her head, since Jyri brought it up. Right?
There was a thud next to her. Jyri had fallen onto his side on the floor.
Faye struggled to draw breath. This was it. This was the end. She knew because she could see her whole life flashing before her eyes. Scenes of her childhood whipped through her mind, and one memory struck out in particular. Her last week at the orphanage, some girl thought it would be funny to push her into a cupboard and block the door so she couldn't get out. The feeling she got in there was similar to her current feelings. How she knocked, and pounded. Her crying was met with laughter, and as she slapped and pounded on the door, the strangest thing had happened.
Faye gasped. Could she possibly make it work here? But how did she make it happen then? She never figured that out, though she had tried many times. Maybe if she tried now...
Weakly, Faye crawled to the rock pile, and slapped her hands against the largest boulder. Nothing happened.
"What are you doing?" Delia asked, her voice hoarse.
Faye ignored her and slapped again, then pounded, at the boulder. "Why won't you melt!" Faye shouted at it, tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the palm of her hand, and slapped it again at the boulder.
Slowly, the boulder melted into a puddle of a lava-like substance. Everyone stood up and watched, as all the rocks under the boulder tumbled into a pile where the boulder once sat. Leaving a gap big enough to crawl through.
"We're free!" Tusgral shouted. Sakhec whooped and the two gnomes crawled through the new opening, and raced out. Jyri and Ran stared at Faye.
"What happened?" Jyri asked. "I've never seen any magic like that."
"Me neither." Delia frowned at her suspiciously. "Fairies aren't capable of that level of magic."
"I'm a half-fairy." Faye avoided her sharp gaze by crawling up and over the pile of rubble.
"But half-fairies have weaker magic than regular fairies," Jyri said in his matter-of-fact voice as he followed behind.
"Does it matter?" Faye asked irritably.
"The earth shook," Delia said. "And you caused it."
Jyri snorted, and started walking. "It was just an earthquake. They happen on their own."
Delia jerked her head towards Faye as she fluttered behind him. "Do you know what this supposed 'half-fairy' really is?"
"Someone who just saved our lives. Maybe half-fairies are more powerful than we give them credit for."
"Or changelings," Delia said. "Their magic is far stronger than a fairy's. Deadly, even."
Jyri let out a laugh. "Are you telling me our Faye here is a changeling?"
Faye gulped, and wiped her sweaty palms on her pants as the group marched on.
"I am indeed," Delia said. "I mean, just look at her. Odd-eyed. Crippled wing. Terrible personality. Ugly."
Faye scoffed. "Excuse me?"
"Fairies are beautiful," Delia continued. "Even half ones, though not as much. But changelings..."
"That's enough," Jyri said. "There is nothing wrong with Faye."
"Yeah," Ran added. "It's a changeling that made her... like that."
Delia shook her head. "She's a changeling, and I can prove it once we're out."
The tone of her voice made Faye shiver, though she couldn't help but wonder how her changeling identity could be proven. Hopefully it would be yet another false superstition that she could get out of.
After what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than minutes, fresh air greeted them.
Tusgral and Sakhec were sitting next to each other on a tree stump, and stood up when the three emerged.
"I've got bad news," Delia said to them. "It turns out we've had a changeling around us all this time."
Tusgral and Sakhec gaped at her, then turned to Faye, and studied her.
"How can you be so sure?" Sakhec asked.
Delia pulled something small and yellow out of her pocket. It looked like some sort of bumpy rock. But how could a rock prove anything?
"Take this," Delia commanded.
Reluctantly, Faye grabbed the rock from her. And dropped it immediately. Touching it felt like touching fire. She inspected her fingers, which had a small welts from where the rock touched her skin.
Ran and Jyri stared at her fingers, then peered closely at her.
"I don't believe it," Jyri said. "You're..."
"What did you give me?" Faye asked Delia, shaking her burning hand. She glanced down at a small pile of ash near her foot which she supposed was once the rock.
"Orpiment," Jyri said breathlessly.
"What?"
"It's a kind of rock," Ran said.
"More like a mineral," Delia said. "One hated by a certain... species."
"We read about it when we were researching," Jyri quickly explained. "Something about the properties of orpiment and the magic of changelings doesn't mix well. And that... Didn't mix well." He looked at her with rounded eyes. "Did you know you were a changeling?"
"I- um."
"All this time? And you kept it from me?" His voice wavered, as though she had betrayed him.
Faye wanted to explain. Wanted to call him a hypocrite, given all the secrets he kept from her. But her throat tightened. And then... she bolted.
"Get her!" Tusgral cried.
The group ran after her. Faye tried to summon magic, powerful magic that changelings were supposed to possess, but nothing came out. Great. How was she supposed to escape? She tried flapping her wings but of course that only got her about a foot off the ground for a short moment before falling to her feet again. Ran, in lynx form, was hot on her heels. Something pushed at her back, causing her to fall into a large bush at the edge of a ditch. She held her breath, expecting to be found any second. From a distance, she heard Jyri shout, "She went this way!"
Although she expected to hear approaching footsteps, none came. Twigs scratched at her arms, but she remained still. Many minutes passed by before she dared to stick her head out from the bush. The forest floor was empty. She breathed a sigh of relief, and removed herself from the bush, brushing off bits of leaves and twigs.
"I'm pretty sure she went over here," Sakhec's voice called.
In a flash, Faye shot up the nearest tree. She sat on a high branch, hidden in the leaves, and watched the group appear below her.
"Where'd she go?" Tusgral asked, grabbing at his knees between loud breaths.
"She's gone," Delia said. "She probably used her dark magic to get away from us."
"She won't be around for long," Sakhec said. "We'll alert all towns of her. There'll be a bounty, I'm sure."
"And an execution," Tusgral added.
"Is that necessary?" Jyri asked.
Tusgral rolled his eyes. "Of course it is, human. The only good changeling is a dead one. Now, let's alert authorities."
The group left, and Faye let out a breath. But what was she to do? Vustaria didn't welcome her. And now Dorendi wouldn't either.
An idea struck her. The portal. She could find Nephele before news of her true identity reached her, and convince her to provide blood. But what about a purple lotus? The ones she had collected were back in her pack at the inn. No way could she return there. Maybe Nephele knew somewhere else they could get one.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
