I liked it not one bit. My pointed ears, hidden under a small illusion, flicked under the sonic assault. “What do you call that terrible noise again?” I asked.
Reynard cut his eyes at me, mildly amused. “These are all types of cars, vehicles. And the noise is the horn.”
There was no avoiding the hideous cacophony. Even if I had left the vehicle, which, stuck as we were on this roadway I could, many more of them surrounded us, moving slower than men in knee-deep mud.
No escape. I slumped down in the unyielding leather seat and glanced out of the window. A large part of me hoped against hope that this wouldn't be a representation of all life here on Earth. “Please do not force the elementals, confined within and providing the magic to power these vehicles, to make such a noise again,” I requested, to which Reynard only snorted. I hadn’t much hope. Recent experience indicated it was a false ambition.
Even better, I might be out of this transport soon, and not worrying the trapped elemental would rediscover its freedom and the entire road would become consumed in flames and wind. What was humanity thinking, to settle their magic in this form?
“Bran, get a grip. This isn’t an elemental. It’s fossil fuels converted into a liquid called gasoline. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but this world has adapted to no longer use the magic that exists right in front of their faces.”
I had not called up my own power to examine these constructs, since the sheer mass of magic here was far beyond what I was accustomed to in Dream, my home realm.
Most of this Gaialy magic, Earthly as Reynard had called it, had been frozen by humanity’s concept of science, but that magic which was still loose here exceeded that of Dream the way an ocean was larger than a puddle of fresh rain.
“You’ll get used to it.” Reynard gave an uncharacteristically sincere smile. The world had changed so much since I, along with my goblins and the other magical peoples, had been driven into the land of Dream by the mages. When last I walked in this, therealworld, humanity had just started working bronze for weapons. In the absence of the other races, mankind had embraced the science paradigm and channeled all of their magic into maintaining that static world view.
The fruits of science were impressive where they did not contain the rage of thousands of confined elementals, though. Buildings made all of glass, the fact that humanity’s numbers had expanded to rival bee swarm levels—fascinating and disturbing all at once. So many new things to see and explore, creatures to meet, even vehicles soaring through the sky. It was hard for attraction and educated terror to be in bed together, but it described my feelings best.
Times would get interesting for the sky constructs when the dragons arrived, however. Dragons were not well known for sharing territory.
On the whole, this new world was enticing. Especially if the creations could be duplicated without freezing the magic and elementals into one form.
Except for the noise. That I firmly put in the ‘get rid of as soon as possible’ list. Gaia, Earth, was far too noisy.
Reynard, the first of those imprisoned in Dream to return to Gaia, had warned all of the kings upon his visit to Dream that the magical races needed to step carefully in this new world. Humans, as the only race living on Gaia for so long, now numbered in the billions, and had created a technology that rivaled the most talented and powerful fire magic in its destructive potential.
The news that so many humans could either be an ally or a threat had been a revelation—to me, to us all. It was dizzying to try to remember the customs Reynard had described to interact with humans successfully, especially since they had so many variants.
We goblins, as the magical people who had settled closest to the barrier, had watched many human dreams in the mists. We’d been lucky to have a chance to see how humanity’s wants and needs and fears had changed over time. The mists in Dream contained all the nonsensical and aspirational places the human minds went when they slept.
Those dreams had served as a distraction from a terrible truth, discovered soon after the banishment: the Gaian mages, our jailers, had released a disease upon all of us, one that made children born in Dream revert to more savage roots, losing their intellect and twisting their bodies. It could at times infect adults as well, with similar results.
The need to ally with humanity fueled my push to return to Gaia, since finally the wall had weakened enough for me to press through.
While Reynard the trickster had been blessed with the calmest spirit, I’d cultivated in myself the mildest manner. Though, admittedly, aggression came easily to me.
The other leaders had agreed with my reasoning, albeit with a few snide comments on just how passive I was. My council, however, who knew me better, had argued against it. For once, I had ignored them. The privileges of rule were few enough, and I’d invoked one. I would cross and experience the world without an entourage. Be made a fool of by way of lack of knowledge without a scribe recording every moment for the entertainment of generations to come.
I had enjoyed seven days of guilty freedom from observation and responsibility as I’d learned, and now came my second task. Time passed differently in Dream. This week in Gaia should only have been a few hours, and my people were long lived. They had not been harmed by this short break I’d taken to learn the language and to practice my magic again.
The car lurched to a sharp stop a finger’s width from the one in front. If the machines met, would the elementals fight, or be freed and kill all in the area? I clenched my hands on the straps across my chest that held me in place, my knuckles whitening, and clamped my magic around us, ready to fight the elemental, should it break loose.
Reynard, my brother king who scorned his title, smiled at me encouragingly. "I promise. You’ll grow accustomed with time."
I decided to forgive the very faint ripple of amusement in the trickster’s voice. Reynard had dwelt some decades here, smoothing the way for the others to follow. According to him, at no little personal cost, forced to serve a capricious human woman. I was not entirely sure even now if I believed the tale that Reynard was selling, but it was worth a smile, at the least.
Because of that service, and what he’d learned in the years dwelling among humans, Reynard had decided he would woo and wed a human woman to bind his people closer to humanity.
His reasoning was simple: bind humans to our cause, and we would not be banished again.
The reverberations of that logic and decision had echoed throughout Dream. Upon great consideration, I had endorsed Reynard’s plan and had decided to do the same. As soon as I could figure out what the current customs for wooing were. Reynard said they varied even more than those for greetings.
This world had made women even more complex. A difficult task, to woo and win one.
Towers reared around us as we followed the wide black road into the center of the city. I had watched the seeing device in Reynard’s home and had learned that humans concentrated their numbers in small areas to do their business, then vanished away at night to tiny identical homes where their fields should have been. What would they do if someone sieged them? The city could be taken swiftly and easily by any worthy war leader. The arrangement made no sense.
I remained unsure if I approved of all of this change or not, but my approval was unnecessary. Survival of my people and the others was.
