“They taught me to fear your kind.”
“Fear. Pah! You think you know fear? You scared my children. Nearly crushed their toes with your giant beasty boots when you came tomyland.”
“Your children?”
“Did you not see them playing near the rock? No, your beasty eyes were fixed elsewhere. No respect. No caution.”
I think back to our excursion to the faewall that day. When we crossed the wall to the other side, I remember seeing nothing but fog. We were hardly on the fae side for more than a few seconds, but I admit, I hadn’t considered our surroundings. I was so fueled with terrified excitement at the time. “I’m sorry if I scared your children, but you scared me and my sister. You glamoured her. You nearly bit her.”
“Just a nibble,” the goblin says. “A price for making my babies cry.”
I furrow my brow. I don’t know if I can forgive the goblin for the havoc he wreaked on me and Amelie, but I can understand his motivations, in a twisted sort of way. “I know what it’s like to want to protect the ones you love. To fight for them.”
“Safety. Security. Family,” he says with a nod. “The earth in you is the earth in me.”
The goblin disappears and darkness returns. I remain motionless, puzzling over the odd encounter. What is this place? Is any of this real? I continue on through the black nothing.
I take only a few steps before warmth envelops me. A ball of violet flame emerges from the black and floats around my head. I follow it with my eyes, watching as it undulates and grows, then takes the shape of a beautiful woman. Her hips sway as she dances around me, eying me with scrutiny.
“You think you’re better than me,” she says, voice light and sultry. “But we know each other well.”
“Passion,” I say with a shudder.
She nods, then lunges forward, feminine face shifting into a beastly snarl. “And rage.” I pull back, but her snarl dissipates into a trilling laugh. “That, you know well. The other, you are just getting to know.”
“Yes.” This time, I know what to say. “The fire in you is the fire in me.”
She winks, then disappears.
I take off into the darkness again, eager to finish this strange quest. I need to find the All of All, not these mischievous fae. How do I find this deity? The thought is barely finished before something emerges from the ground. It begins as a bead of violet water and grows, rippling into the form of a hulking horse-creature.
Kelpie. Of course.
The creature bares its teeth at me. “Twice you have gotten away. You won’t escape three times.”
“I won’t bargain with you this time.”
“No? Isn’t there somewhere you are meaning to go?”
I try my best to steady my nerves. None of the previous three fae were anywhere near as terrifying as the kelpie. “I am looking for the All of All.”
“You are lost,” he says. “Stupid human, invading places that are not your own and getting lost on the way.”
“I’m not lost,” I say. “Looking isn’t necessarily lost. I’m simply on my way somewhere that I have yet to find.”
“Sounds like lost.”
I take a deep breath, remembering what the kelpie said when he confronted me and Aspen. “I’m sorry my kind have invaded your land, and I’m sorry humans infuriate you. You love your land, your water.”
“Fury and love are human emotions.”
“Yet you have them just the same,” I say. “Admit it. You’re angry that I’ve escaped you twice. Anger is an emotion.”
The kelpie’s violet eyes burn brighter.
“You are more than just an animal. You feel emotion.”
“I don’t.”
