⋯

Thick bubbling liquid flooded the gateway, something thicker than water, but not quite like syrup. The consistency was heavier than it should have been, but still smooth and flowing. It was as if it moved in slow motion, suspended by some imaginary arcana. Warm air bled through weaving grasses, and flowers bloomed in the fresh morning air that rolled across open meadows. The sun hadn't yet risen, it was far too early for that, but bright moons in varying phases sat in the sky, plump with the brilliant reflective light of the sun.

Sulli might have been struck in awe by the overwhelming beauty of it all if they hadn't been busy puking up whatever liquid they'd been thrust into while traveling through the portal. Whorls of glittering white and blue splat across the ground, and the sight made them dizzy with sickness. Beside them, they heard a short, cheeky laugh, and a hand pat them on the back.

"Maybe I should have warned you."

Jesus, this is going to be a long trip.

"Sorry Sulli- but I really wouldn't have let anything happen to you."

Sulli's skeptical at that, and they grimace at the contents of their stomach on the ground, pushing themselves to stand back up. "I'm sure you wouldn't have." It comes out more sarcastic than it should have, and beside them, Cassiar wilts a little, crossing his arms over his chest like a child.

"It was a joke. We're friends, Sulli. I wouldn't have let you drown!"
Sulli waves him off, taking a deep breath and digging through their bag. Strangely enough, it doesn't feel wet, and it takes them a moment to realize that neither do they. "What the fuck was that?"
Cassair, having seemingly decided against acting petulant, grinned again, "We call it lacuna here, there have been other terms over some ages, but since around the 17th century, we stick to that."

"Can you get me a definition of that?"

"I'm not a lexicographer, Sulli! Or an etymologist. I don't know what the definition of every word is, I just know what context to use it in."

Sulli looked back down at the pool behind them, that same liquid was swirling on the surface here, encircled by mirroring bioluminescent mushrooms. Unlike the human plane, however, the liquid looked alive somehow, rippling and moving, crashing in shortened waves along the edge of the circled barrier. The mushrooms seemed to emit wavelengths of light, stretching between each of them, so the liquid would crash against some kind of force field, rather than splash outside of the designated circle.

"The portal is called lacuna or the liquid is?"

Cassair shakes his head a little, "The liquid is the portal, and vice versa- they're one and the same."

That's neat.

In complete honesty, Cassair could be a dick about the amount of questions Sulli had, but they didn't seem to get offended about any of them, which was a little comfort with all the other shit that they've had to deal with right now. They turned their eyes from the dúlachán, wandering instead to the open blossoming meadows that covered the landscape currently. Beside them, Cassiar fidgeted with the signet ring on his fingers, eyes scanning the horizon. He stilled suddenly, eyes narrowing ahead of them. Sulli followed his gaze.

It looked like a creeping fog. It crawled across the ground with unnatural speed, consuming the flowered meadows with a rapid darkness. It was a heavier dark than the night sky above them, inching towards them much faster than any, at least human, natural phenomenon would. "Dío." They aren't proud of the fear that sunk into their voice, the situation becoming a lot less humorous and surreal now that they were here. "What is that?"

Their friend watched the fog carefully, before taking a step forward, eyes aglow with ancient magic. "We're in coven territory."

"Witches?"

"No. Why do humans do that? Assume it's witches?"

"I-aren't covens by definition typically a gathering of witches?"

"That might be your definition of a coven, but that doesn't mean it's everyones. Besides typically insinuates only most of the time, not all the time."

"I thought you weren't a lexicographer? You couldn't give me the definition of lacuna five minutes ago."

"Is this really the time to be arguing about word definitions?" He shook his head insistently. "Not witches. I know most of the witch covens out there. I don't hear any wyverns."

Sulli thought they might faint on the spot, voice lowering to a whisper, "Wyverns?"

"It's not my fault humans no longer have them, they aren't responsible enough." Cassair watched the fog again for a moment, before moving slowly down to the earth, murmuring something in Latin- or perhaps old Celtic. "Sulli, do you have a favorite horse?"

"A favorite horse?"

"That's a perfectly reasonable question."

"I- no, not particularly."

"Fantastic." The word was almost sarcastic, but Cassiar looked back to the ground, instead calling for something else- an Irish sport horse. Sulli hadn't dealt a lot with horses generally, it's not that they were scared of them, they just never got around much to actually dealing with them. Before they could question what exactly their friend was doing, vortexes of varying shades of gray spun from the ground, warping and shaping until a cloud of mist descended, and a spiritual apparition of a horse was left. Beyond the horse, the fog continued to eat at the ground, picking up speed. Without missing a beat, Cassiar hoisted himself up onto the horse, reaching his hand back out to help Sulli.

It was a little surprising, how willingly Cassair was to help them, even only knowing them for half an hour at the most. It was sweet, actually, and that broken, cold part of Sulli that had been building slowly day by day, broke a little instead. They reached up, grasping the offered hand, and was hauled up beside the dúlachán.

"Hold on."

Sulli certainly didn't have any protest to that, and interlocked their arms around his waist, before the horse instinctually shot off, galloping away from the advancing fog. They almost didn't dare look back, the rocking, unfamiliar movements of the horse warned against it. Yet, curiosity was always the hardest emotion to fend off.

Curiosity is what got me here in the first place.

A grim reminder, and one that only forced Sulli to tighten their arms around the ironically grounding presence in front of them.

The fog was faster than they thought it would be, and a chill had crept along the tail ends of the horse, laughing and chattering coming from within the fog, ghostly tendrils of mist and necrotic vapor reaching for the imagined horse. In their peripheral vision, they saw flashes of overcoming darkness consuming the land of fields and flowers, gusting back and forth as it advanced on them.

A sick, twisted game of cat and mouse.

The kind where you know you're going to lose, and you run anyway.

Beyond the line of vision; meadows and fields began to morph, the landscape changing. Sulli isn't sure what from; the fog, or the natural state of the Feywild itself. They aren't completely sure they want to find out either. Scattered trees, both withered and alive, appeared in flashes as they galloped past, scattered and dotted over dying flowers.

"Crom Dubh." Cassairs voice was stressed, vocal strands being plucked at like a violin, and Sulli looked down in horror as they watched cold, bone-like hands nip at the horse's hocks. It was only a moment before one of the hands latched onto it and pulled it back.

The horse collapsed, vanishing into the ground with a hollow huff, vaporizing into the spirit of the land from where it came. Sulli rolled across the ground, hitting more than a few branches and rocks that skimmed along their skin, cutting into them. Cassiar did the same, thrown only a little farther than Sulli had been. Scrambling to regain their senses as the darkness overcame them, Sulli pushed themselves up against a tree, their back to it as shadowed figures danced within spiraling voids of onyx and obsidian. The fog overcame them at last, obscuring the view from each other as the wind picked up, howling against the edge of the meadow, crashing into the treeline where the forest began.

Sulli drew in a breath as cackling and snickering rang in their ears, piercing their rapidly acclimating thoughts. Digging their hands into the dead grasses as the wind picked up, their eyes drifted back and forth, desperate for any sign of their now-lost friend.

"Is that iron?"

Whispers softened the wicked laughter, the wind slowing substantially.

"A human? For Yule?"

Their voices are soft by nature it seems, because they don't get loud or soft, they simply echo into that void of blackness that has settled around them.

"No monster hunter certainly, they have no weapon."

"Humans don't need a weapon, Evaki, they're dangerous as they are."

"This one doesn't look so dangerous, they seem particularly frightened."

Sulli shifted their features, trying not to look so terrified as they were so blatantly saying. "Hello?"

The voices quieted for only a beat, before they emerged again, speaking amongst each other. "Does it know our language? Does it speak?"

"Perhaps an ambassador! King Orion and her Highness, Fawn, might have sent it. Oh, I did tell you they wouldn't abandon us."

"Yes, you're such a genius, Eva."

"That is quite rude."

"Crom Dubh, get over yourself."

"I can't believe you just said that to me! On the first day of Yule!"

"Get over it."

Sulli could barely keep themselves from a heart attack when a face appeared from the mist. Bright-eyed and young, with a pushed-up nose. Large, bat-like ears sat on either side of their head. They stepped closer, out of the darkness and into the short path of vision that Sulli could see. "Hello!" Their voice hadn't changed, still that soft-spoken, echoey sensation. It reverberated around them, bouncing off the trees before hitting their ears again. The bat ears in front of them twitched at the sounds, roving back and forth. Before she could say anything else, another figure, much taller, emerged from the manufactured abyss. The ears were dusted with hues of gray, eyes wrecked at the sides as a painted scowl rested against porcelain features.

"Who are you?"

It didn't send near as kind as the younger ones had, aged with the bitter realization of what the world was. Sulli braced themselves against the security of the tree at their back, sitting up, "Where's my friend?"

The figure took a step forward instead, almond eyes glittering with deep red. "Who are you?"

"You can't seriously expect me to answer that, can you? I'm a human, my name is irrelevant, I'm looking for my friends."

Friends.

"I thought you came with your friend?"

"I did. I have more than one friend." Sulli shot back, before retracting. That had come off too defensively, a product of their insecurity about it no doubt. "I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

The older one raised their eyebrow then, ears twitching. "You are quite right, Evaki. This is no monster hunter at all."

Seriously? An apology convinced them of that? Jesus Christ, we do need an ambassador for humans.

The younger one beamed at the words, clasping her hands together. Sulli could see now their skin looked leathery, short webs of it between their arms, near their shoulders. "I told you so Tehi. It seems nice."

"Hmm. Anything can seem nice, it doesn't mean it is. Don't you remember the human phrase - too good to be true?"

"Oh, yes. But I'd rather just believe it to be good."

The older shook their head at the response, before nodding to Sulli. "Get up."

Sulli, not one to argue with that, did. They spent a second brushing themselves off, grimacing at the skinned wounds that now littered their arms, droplets of bright blood splattered over even tan tones. The little one, Evaki, looked drawn to it. "You're bleeding." Without warning, they were in front of Sulli, brushing their arm- before being yanked back by the older one once again.

"What is wrong with you? You don't touch them without knowing what it is!"

"Sorry. Uh- I'm not an 'it'." Sulli picked out one of the rocks in a wound. "I'm a they, and my name is Sulli." They steadied themselves against a tree, using the reassurance of the bark to ground themselves metaphorically as well. "My friends were taken, by monster hunters - otherworldly- fuck, whatever. Hunters. Bad people. I came to the Feywild to find them, not lose another one. Where is Cassair? He's a dúlachán. About-" Sulli paused, raising his hand, before looking up and shaking their head. "He's tall. He was with me. On the horse."

"Oh! The headless horseman!" Evaki rocked on her heels, looking optimistically at their companion again, who grimaced more, if at all possible.

"A dúlachán, Eva. That's the proper term."

"My friends call them that, why can't I?"

"It's stereotypical. And feeds into human language. We try to avoid gendered terms when it comes to general races and species, remember?"

Evaki frowned, crossing their arms over their chest. "Well, we use gendered pronouns."

"That's different. It's like the human- mankind is another term for humanity or humankind. When 'man-kind' includes women along with various other identities. Sulli just said they were a 'they', not a man."

Evaki seemed to evaluate that, before begrudgingly relenting to their apparent mentor. Sulli cleared their throat, "Hate to break up a gender breakthrough, but my friend? We're kinda on a time-line. I don't want to be rude, I really just don't have a lot of time to find them."

The gray-eared bat nodded, "Cassair is a man of mischief, be careful with him."

"You know him?" Sulli doesn't bother masking their surprise.

"We've permitted him a couple of times to use the portal in our territory, especially because he usually brings us lovely fruit baskets, however, we did not expect him to bring someone with him. Unpermitted entry into the feywild is very illegal."

Sulli swallows the fear building in the throat, lumping it together. Surely, this wasn't over here, when they'd tried so hard already to get this far. Before either of them could continue, Cassair blasted through the darkness, eyes wide, and head on a swivel.

"The monster hunters- they're here."

Sulli's heart dropped into his chest, and his hand found the iron blade at his side, secured by it's sheath. "What do you mean they're here, Dío?"

The two supernatural beings had stiffened beside them, one of them hissing to the other in something Sulli didn't have the attention span to listen too. Cassair grabbed Sulli's arm, hands cold and clammy; face gaunt. "They're dropping one of us off- I think they're going to kill her. Her horns are gone."

"She's a tiefling?" True, it could have been something else, but Sulli's thoughts jumped to Magnus. They shoved past Cassair, faced with the boldened darkness. Without a second thought, they turned to face the two bat-eared individuals. "You have to lift the fog- I- We can help her."

"You want us to fight them?" Evaki looked horrified, and the older stepped in front of them, shielding them with their arm.

"It's not our fight. We have our own people to protect. Drawing their attention would be a mistake."

Sulli couldn't mask their disbelief. "Not your fight? They're monster hunters." Sulli brushed Cassair's warning hand off of their shoulder. "If you won't defend her, then I will, but I can't do that in the dark."

Cassair shook his head, "Sulli you don't even know this tiefling, your friends-"

"My friends wouldn't forgive me if I just let someone die. Forget my friends- I couldn't forgive myself if I just let someone die. I already disappointed my friends once because of how I reacted at Samhain. I disrespected the feywild, their families, their culture - and even if this won't make up for what I said to them, it certainly won't make things worse." Sulli snapped to Evaki, looking them dead in the eyes now. "Lift the mother-fucking darkness."

"Are you stupid?"

Sulli drew their sword. "It's a human thing, apparently. And if I have to get sent back home, at least I can know that I saved someone."

They lifted the barrier.

-----

Sulli's fingers wrapped around the hilt of their sword, watching from the treeline where the lugging footsteps of two guards led a tiefling. She was a shade of pretty pink, head hung down, with her horns cut off - just as Cassair had described. Beside them, Dío sat, fidgeting with the necklace that hung around their neck. "Is this really a good idea, Sulls?"

"It's a better idea than letting myself be sent home."

"The human world isn't so bad."

Sulli shot Dío a glare, one that silently communicated what they were going to say. Not without them. Even if Sulli wanted to go back, they'd made a promise to a set of young Fae that they wouldn't return without Club Lore. Dead or Alive. Instead of commenting, or setting up for an argument they'd already had, Sulli drew their eyes back in front of them, where the trio of individuals had stilled in the now revived meadows.

They'd made a deal, with no tattoo, fortunately, with the vampire coven. The fruit-bat vampire coven, as Sulli had discovered. As long as Sulli didn't mention them at all to the guard, even if they were captured, they wouldn't report Sulli to the kingdom for unpermitted entry into the Feywild. It seemed reasonable enough. They really only needed to buy enough time to find their friends anyway in these next few days.

One of the guards, assumedly the executioner, looked to be speaking to the tiefling down on her knees, leaning down and gripping one of the roughly cut stumps where her horns had been. She winced, grimacing up at him as he spoke before he threw down her head. Sulli slowly stood, silent as they stepped past the treeline.

Before they could take a step, an apparition of something flew past them, and to their growing delight, realized it was a horse, similar to the one that Cassair had summoned before, charging the figures. Another brushed past him, and then another, and then another, until a herd of ghostly horses ran rampant towards the two guards and young tiefling. A scattered, unsuspecting shout sounded from one, as the gathering trampled one of them upon contact, sending the other running back to where they had come from, with the horses in hot pursuit.

Sulli turned back to Cassair in an instant, their chest flooding with warmth upon seeing his hand pressed into the ground, mumbling those same ancient arcanic words he'd done before.

He really isn't so bad at all, is he?

Cassair looked up a second later, managing some sheepish smile, and standing, certainly going to excuse his actions before Sulli was hugging him.

It's been a long time, months really, that someone had made them smile like that.

Still, they had something else to take care of now. Sulli spun on their heel, subconsciously admiring the sunrise light that had sent the stars scattering for cover. The tiefling had crumbled to the ground, covering her head in desperation, and body trembling as Sulli approached her. They knelt on the ground upon arrival, "Hey- um, hey, it's okay, you're okay- are you okay?"

Golden eyes met his, specked with pink specks and masked with tears as she pushed on her arms, looking behind her, "Are they gone? Where- who-" She sat up more, pulling her knees to her chest. "Who are you?"

"My name is Sulli, this is Cassair-" Sulli turned, waving his hand to his companion, but stalling at the apparent enchantment that Cassair was now in at seeing a girl. Sulli looked at him in something like disbelief, before waving off his hand, "Never mind him. He's an idiot."

"Hey-Sulli! I just saved her!"

Sulli couldn't argue with that. "Good point, Dío. And what a great idea it was for you to save her." They nodded toward the tiefling, jabbing their thumb back to Cassair. "All his idea."

Cassair, that loveable annoyance, smiled cheekily. "Yeah, it was."

The tiefling rubbed her arm over her eyes, stifling a broken mix of a sob and a laugh. "Thank you, for saving me." She held out her hand to Sulli, "My name is Blythe."

───────────────

WYN

twenty-first chapter! I hope you all loved <3

And! as a reminder, Blythe is a part of our adoring side cast, and I love her. I'm glad Sulli went to save her. 

I hope you all are doing wonderful, and I'm very sorry it's been so long sense the last update. I've been experiencing quite the amount of writer's block unfortunately, but hopefully I can kick myself back into gear as I head back to school. Happy September as well! 

My goal is to finish this by Samhain/Halloween - cause I think the symmetry of that would be just wonderful.

I hope our beloved Club Lore is okay in there (as if I don't know)

Drink lots of water, and take care of yourself!