After a moment, she opened her eyes and looked up at the castle in the distance. It had seven tall, twisting spires that glowed and pulsed gold, white, pink and blue under a vast moon that hung in the black sky, bigger than it could ever be in the ordinary world. The walls were high and contained no windows, and jutted out in points to her right and left. She wondered if, from above, the castle was the shape of a seven-pointed star, and guessed that it was.
The mist melted away as she stepped forward and followed the path uphill. To her left, the path fell away into a sharp grey cliff that led down to the crashing blue-black sea. Faye felt no fear of it now, but stayed on the path, nonetheless. There was a smell of sea spray and, underlying that, the sour tang of seaweed. It was a steep climb, but there were steps cut into the rough grass and she took them evenly.
At the top, the path gave way to a carpet of pink rose petals, and the fragrance captured Faye in its soft, sweet kiss. Faye felt the sea breeze on her face and held out her arms in pleasure. The energy vibration was high here; it was like standing inside a rose quartz crystal, her favourite stone to use in meditation, in healing, in magic, everything. She liked to have a big piece of it nearby when she made her incenses in the shop. She thought ofit, her safe place, for a moment, but not because she needed to protect herself.
As Faye looked up at the castle, a golden door appeared in front of her where she couldn’t have missed it before. A sudden breeze blew the rose petals up around her feet and cleared a path to the door. This was the way in, then.
She pushed the door and it opened easily. Stepping inside, the sound of singing intensified. The space opened up to her as she walked in: a wide, circular palazzo, open to the elements; she could see the seven corners of the castle lead off the main centre. There did not seem to be any other rooms or floors.
The main courtyard was round, open to the stars and circled with gold pillars. She walked to the centre, wondering what she should do.
As Faye stood in the centre of the palace, at the very middle of the circle, looking up at the moon above her which seemed to fill the whole space, three wide moonbeams bathed her in a silver glow. A figure emerged, coalesced from the moonlight. Faye could see silver blood under her black skin. The shape merged and drifted in the moonlight; first, she was a pre-Raphaelite maiden, then a crone, then a harpy that made Faye gasp a little. The figure returned to a silver-haired, black-skinned queen with eyes like diamonds.
She stood in front of Faye and held out her hands.
‘My lady,’ Faye murmured. ‘Am I in the presence of the Faerie Queen of the Crystal Castle of the Moon?’
The woman was more beautiful than any human could be; made of moonlight, she was pure luminescence.
‘I am Morgana Le Fae, Mistress of Magic. Blessings on you.’ The queen nodded gracefully.
‘Blessings on you,’ Faye echoed, filled with the overwhelming sense of peace she usually felt when practising magic backin Abercolme; but if that offered a temporary sense of otherworldliness, this was total immersion.
Mistress of Magic.Had Moddie named the shop after Morgana Le Fae?
‘You may ask me a question,’ Morgana said, the moonlight glowing through her silver hair.
What to ask?Faye wondered, then spoke. ‘How can I step into my power as half faerie? Levantiana is teaching me. But I…’ Faye trailed off, holding Morgana’s hands and feeling her power sing through to her. ‘I want more,’ she murmured, as the faerie queen’s power encircled her like perfume, like lust.
‘The fae is in your heart; it is part of you. Relax and let it out. Feel your faerie heart. Hear its song,’ Morgana whispered. For a moment, Faye heard the singing again; it was louder, coming from the palace itself. ‘You have power. Coming to my realm will help you see it. Navigate the shores and the hills of this place. We are at the heart of the power of the faerie kingdoms: explore and gain your power, Faye Morgan.’
‘Thank you,’ Faye whispered, feeling Morgana’s power fill her; it began in her feet, travelled up her legs and exploded in her body with the power of a kiss, reminiscent of the eroticism of Finn’s mouth on her.
Morgana smiled, and where Levantiana’s smile was cold, hers was fire.
‘This is all you need. I am all, and you must let me in. Find yourself, Faye, remember your heritage, your ancestors, let them hold you. Let me fill you with my magic, and it will stay with you forever.’ She leaned forward and kissed Faye gently on the lips. Their mouths lingered together, and Faye felt the fire of Morgana’s kiss consume her. Morgana’s touch filled her soul with magic.
Morgana pulled away and traced Faye’s lips with her fingertip.
‘Get to know this place. This is the place of patterning. What you humans call the astral plane,’ she said. ‘And remember: I am here, forever. No one may supplant me, for I am immortal. You may visit me to refill your cup at any time.’
No one may supplant me.Did Morgana know what she and Levantiana had discussed?
This is the place of patterning.
Faye had spent her whole life learning magic: she knew that the astral plane was the dimension of energy, of being, next to the fully manifest plane of earth. The astral was where spells, once made in the material plane of earth, emanated their magic. The astral was where dreams lived, where ideas formed, where energy was available to be moulded and formed by thought.
That was where her carefully crafted poppet doll had taken its inspiration from, and this is where her instructions – her desires – had entered the ether as she sewed them into the doll. Inspiration flowed to the ordinary world from here; intention flowed upwards, to make patterns which were then transmuted into reality.
Faye nodded, and kissed Morgana’s unnaturally long-fingered hands. She had no fingernails, Faye noticed, and her skin was formed of neatly overlapping black scales. When she met the queen of the moon’s diamond-like eyes, she was startled that they were not eyes at all, but places where the moonlight streamed through.
Morgana withdrew her hands and stepped back into the three shafts of moonlight, dissolving into them. Faye felt the loss of her keenly and as suddenly as her desire had appeared; she was dazed, aroused and yet fulfilled at once. Morgana had lit something in her soul, and she felt different, though she couldn’t say how.
There was nothing to explore inside the Crystal Castle. Faye walked around the edges of the palazzo and in and out ofthe corners but found only the walls made of their glowing crystalline material. A piece of it came away in her hand, and Faye held it up in wonder. It glowed like a lamp. Carefully, she put it in her pocket, feeling that if Morgana didn’t want her to have it, it would not have come away so easily.
There were no other doors in or out except the one she had come in. Only the floor of the castle held any pattern at all, and that was the seven-pointed star of faerie, tiled in what looked like black glass or crystal against a pink-white stone.
Back outside the castle, she walked around it and approached the edge, and the wet grey cliffs fell away under her again.
