Truth Magic Works in Mysterious Ways

*Featuring characters from "Let's Face the Future"

 The longer Lhan walks, the more he realizes the danger he's in. His supplies wouldn't last long, and frankly, he wasn't sure how to tell what was safe up here and what would kill him gruesomely. He felt panic clawing its way up his throat, threatening to choke him. What was he going to do? He couldn't make it on his own! He stumbles over a mossy stone and catches himself on a slender tree that bends with his weight. "Sorry!" He exclaims, shuffling back as soon as he's steady. He checks it carefully to make sure he hadn't broken in. Satisfied, he turned to find a woman watching him. With tea-green hair, celadon green skin, and eyes the shade of bluish-green found in Persian pottery, she strikes Lhan as an embodiment of the forest. An elegant pin holds her hair back from her face. Her dress fits her body only to flare out at her hips, seemingly made of water given form rather than anything solid. Droplets fall to the ground as her skirt floats about her thighs. Lhan feels his face heat as he tries to make sense of the material. She's not indecent, but it almost feels like she is. Uncomfortable, Lhan lifts his gaze. His mouth falls open. Magic, that's the only word to describe what drips from her in golden streams of light. Magic floats from her temples as a breeze picks up. Magic pools in her hands, illuminating how they are delicate and clawed. Lhan has never seen anything like her despite all the books he's read. That terrifies him.

"You are new." Talena steps forward, eager to see what creature this is. "Where have you come from?"

"There's a camp..." Lhan hitches a thumb over his shoulder back in the direction he came in.

"Camp?" She frowns. "What camp? I did not know creatures of your kind existed. I thought it was just the wildlife."

"I've been in a bunker." Lhan gulps. "A-Are you from before?"

"Before? Before what?" She sits on a nearby log and pats the spot beside her. She was truly fascinated with this creature. He looked so close to like her own kind.

Lhan hesitates for a few seconds. She wasn't going to hurt him, at least not yet, so should he sit with her? He ultimately decides to join her on the log. "There was this huge disaster decades ago... are you a human that didn't make it underground?"

"Human? I am not human. There is no disaster. When we arrived, this world was vacant. You have been living underground?" She studies him carefully. "That doesn't seem like a reasonable living environment."

"It beats dying horribly up here," Lhan says. He turns to face her. "Where did you come from? Space? Are you an alien?"

She laughs. "I am Talena, princess of the Eiralsia one of the huldrafolk. We were in search of a new world, and this one appeared to be empty. So we fixed it."

"I have so many questions," Lhan breathes.

"Feel free to ask. My kind has no secrets." Talena's ears perk up, and she stands. "What a strange call..."

"Lhan!" a voice rings through the trees, a desperate echo.

Lhan leaps up. "Kiele! I'm here!" He searches for her despite himself. "Talena, my name is Lhan. My friend, Kiele, is looking for me."

"Is a Kiele like what you are? A human?" Talena scans the trees. "I sense her presence from over that way."

Kiele's voice shouts, "Lhan!? Oh, thank God!"

"She is," Lhan says, distracted. "I'm okay!" He yells. "She's a girl, like you. I'm a boy."

"Interesting... I've never seen a human up close before." Talena studies the human female when she emerges through the trees.

Kiele comes up short. "Whoa..." She eyes the woman. "I guess there really was a nuclear explosion up here."

"This is Talena," Lhan says, running to Kiele. "She's a princess of the huldrafolk, which I'm pretty sure are aliens."

"That word... What is an alien?" Talena asks.

"Huldrafolk... She is green... but folk is usually given to fairies..." Kiele reaches over and takes his arm, yanking Lhan to her.

"Whoa!" Lhan crashes into Kiele, knocking them both to the ground.

Kiele looks up at him as they land on top of her back. Lying like this made her feel like a turtle. She read once that a turtle on its back couldn't get back up. "Ouch."

Talena peers over to look at them. "Is this a ritual of some sort? A greeting?"

"I'm clumsy," Lhan says, struggling to get up without pulling Kiele's hair. "I cause problems like this all the time."

"Clumsy. I do think I am clumsy." Talena stills and looks around. "My guardian is searching for me. She won't be pleased."

"Guardian?" Lhan freezes. "Like, your parent?"

"Parent. No. She was assigned by my parents to watch over me. I'm not supposed to be in the forest alone." Talena sighs softly.

"And ... where do you live?" Kiele asks. She hadn't seen any other camps near theirs.

"In the City of Sya. Do you need shelter? We'd be happy to offer it to you." Talena turns to greet the buzzing of her companion, who thankfully reached her first. The petite female had round luminescent eyes that glow green, a slender build, and sturdy wings that buzzed when she flapped and ran a triad of colors from blue to green to silver. She often kept her hair styled with the various shiny trinkets she found appealing.

"Madam!" Lielle cries, zooming towards princess Talena. "Madam, oh, I'm so pleased to find you well!"

"Would now be a bad time to take you up on that whole shelter offer?" Lhan asks, disentangling himself from Kiele and helping her sit up.

Kiele gets to her feet and brushes herself off. "We can't exactly go back to our camp."

Talena gestures toward them. "Lielle. Meet my new friends. Lhan. And a Kiele. They will be accompanying us back to the city."

Lhan shoots Kiele a questioning look but is ignored.

"Oh!" Lielle gasps. "But madam, they are so strange!"

"They are humans. They were the inhabitants of this world, but a disaster drove them to live underground. Isn't that fascinating?" Talena takes Lhan by the arm. "We shall keep them."

"Keep?" Lhan asks. "Um. I don't - I don't want to be a pet."

"You are a friend. And you shall stay in the royal palace." Talena turns to her companion. "We should be heading back before she stumbles upon us."

Kiele casually pulls Lhan toward her. "As long as it's clear, we aren't KEPT."

"We should hurry." Lielle flutters about Kalena's shoulders. "The Lady is not far behind."

"There's a Lady now?" Lhan asks, exasperated. "Look, you seem trustworthy, but I need to know that your butterfly friend won't work against us."

Lielle opens her mouth to assure the human Lhan she would never do anything against Talena's wishes. Before she can get the words out, she's a butterfly.

Talena's eyes widen at the sight of her companion. "Fascinating..." She waves a hand over Lielle and reverses her friend's state of body back to her own.

"Maybe you did turn him into a duck..." Kiele breathes and turns to look at Lhan.

Talena turns to the humans. "You turned my companion into a bug. Have you always had Truth Magic?"

"I swear I didn't do it on purpose!" Lhan cries. He's downright frantic about causing someone to become something else again. "I'm so sorry! I..." he catches Kiele's look and deflates. "I didn't do it on purpose."

"Milady!" Lielle flies between the not-quite-human and her princess.

"Lielle, I am perfectly fine." Talena nudges her companion out of the way. "You Lhan are a harbinger of Truth Magic. It's the ability to turn truth into power. Your words that you speak, such as referring to my companion as a butterfly, becomes the truth." She takes his hands. "My father will greatly wish to meet you. You are one of us."

Kiele pushes Talena's hands away from Lhan. "And how's that?"

"Only Huldrafolk have magic. And only the Harbingers have Truth Magic. He... and you... belong with us." Talena turns to Lielle. "We shall be off now. Before the Lady grows closer. I can feel her presence merely a mile away. It won't be a moment longer, and she'll be here."

"Too late," the Lady says, appearing suddenly next to Lielle.

Lhan screams; he can't help it. The sight of the woman before him sends all other thoughts fleeing. The Lady was seven feet tall. Her skin was black, her eyes glowing embers. There was nothing human in her eyes. Tentacles took the place of hair and wove about her head and shoulders with the energy of a trapped predator. Her fingers were unnervingly long and tipped in sharp claws. Her gown was moss from bodice to mid-thigh, then cut away at the front, becoming sheer lace where it fluttered behind her. Her throat and arms were covered in the same sheer lace, and the whole of the gown was shot through with glowing vines. The Lady wore sandals that wrapped about her shins.

Kiele yanks Lhan backward at the sight of the enormous creature. "We run. Run. We run!"

"Eirsha, keep them from leaving!" Talena shouts quickly. She watches as the Lady's tentacles grew from her head and wrapped around each of the humans' waists. "Don't hurt them!" She approaches them. "I want to help you. My guardian is not a threat to you. But you will die on your own out here or... by not controlling your Truth Magic, you could harm your Kiele."

"How am I supposed to control something I don't understand?" Lhan pleads.

"That's why you need to come with us. I thought that was very clear," Talena says. "Eirsha, put them down, please."

Eirsha complies with a sigh.

Lhan clutches Kiele's arm. "As your friends... You'll help me?"

"Of course, you are my guests." Talena turns to Eirsha. "You can drag me back now, dear guardian. I shall not fight you."

"Now that you've finished your business." Eirsha offers Talena her arm. "I trust Lielle can see your friends along?"

"Yes, Lady!" Lielle chimes in.

Talena takes her guardian's arm. "I will be just ahead. But Lielle is rather scrappy."

Kiele smiles slightly at the woman. "Thank you..." She clings to Lhan's arm. "We don't split up," she hisses in his ear.

"Agreed," Lhan whispers back.

"This way!" Lielle calls, flitting up and down.

Kiele tightens her hold on Lhan's arm as they make their way behind the strange beings before them. "I don't like this..." she whispers. She digs her nails into his arm.

"Not much further," Talena calls back. They come upon where she and the Lady have stopped upon an overlook to a valley below.

Down below, Kiele could see vast buildings of glass, stone, and crystal sprawling throughout the valley, with gardens in between the buildings in plots and glass bridges over streams that ran through. "I don't like this one bit..."

Lhan stares out over the shimmering beauty stretching out below them. "I don't know," he says. "This seems like home."