Figured the Fae wouldn't be so pedestrian as to have normal, everyday spiders.
No, theirs probably glowed in the dark and had a special kind of venom.
The distraction of considering what type of venom their spiders had didn't last long.
Things could always be worse, I decided.
On one hand, the Scattered didn't seem to want me dead. That was a plus.
On the other, they had some other purpose for me and they didn't particularly care what type of shape I was in to do it.
One thing we all agreed on was that I couldn't stay like this. And an eternity as someone's pet held no temptation for me.
Which meant my first order of business was breaking this enchantment. Only then would I worry about escaping a Fae realm that I had no idea existed.
How exactly did I break magic I couldn't see? That was the important question.
Again, I strained to no avail. My limbs remained locked in place, paralyzed like the rest of my body.
The woo woo stuff wasn't working.
I was stuck. Well and truly.
I contemplated the ceiling, watching the web glisten and glimmer as I considered my predicament.
I missed sighing. Frowning would feel glorious right about now. Maybe even a blink or two.
No one ever tells you about the boredom that comes hand in hand with danger. All they cared about was the rush—when things were happening fast and furious and adrenaline flooded your veins.
People never remembered the times where all you could do was sit and think, wishing and praying for a future you might not see.
Break the magic. Right. Because it was that easy.
Maybe I could raise a mountain or part the ocean while I was at it.
Time, the elusive ticking of seconds that humans were so obsessed with, went a little pear shaped when it was just you and your tangled thoughts.
Eventually, my focus turned inward. I slipped into a meditative state, helped along by the lack of awareness of my own body. The very thing that prevented me from escaping this reality, was now an asset.
Over the last few years, visiting my internal mental landscape had become old hat—easy and familiar. It was my first line of defense against telepaths or other mental attacks, and it had saved me on more than one occasion.
As a result, I maintained its defenses with a diligence my mother would have been proud of when I was younger.
This visit, I bypassed the tangled forest I'd created, sinking deeper than I'd ever gone before. My consciousness was little more than a piece of drift wood, bobbing along the currents.
Velvet black greeted me. It was what I always imagined would be waiting for me when I finally went to my last sleep.
Slowly, I became aware of the dance of color trapped within, eddying around invisible obstructions. There were dozens of streams, reminding me of what I'd seen in the portal.
I paused, fascinated, watching as those colors grew more vibrant with each passing breath until they replaced the absolute black with a tapestry of never-ending light.
Power pulsed within every current, varied and infinite.
This was confirmation. I was in no barrow. This wasn't a shallow piece of the world carved from the spaces between.
This was a realm fed by a magic so immense my mind couldn't hope to comprehend it.
Some instinct told me it wasn't the Fae lands either. The conversation between the rest of my captors backed that up.
