The closer the trees of the forest beneath me became, the more I panicked. I tried to calm myself and focus on moving the muscles in my back and my wings as I had felt Sharai doing, but it was very hard to think clearly and do that with the air rushing past me and the ground coming ever closer. Sharai had said that flying was as easy as walking for Faerie but I did not have to think to walk, I just did it. If I could do it with flying too then I would not be falling, at least that was what I thought. Maybe that was the problem though; maybe I was overthinking it somehow.

I was truly afraid that I was going to hit the forest canopy. The treetops were close enough that my now acute night vision could see the shifting of the leaves from the evening breeze and I lost all focus on trying to control my wings consciously. The foremost thought in my mind was how much it was going to hurt when I collided with the ground. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my end coming

I could not breathe, could not think, I could only wait for the inevitable as my heart hammered in my chest. Suddenly, my wings began to buzz rapidly and I could feel the same sensations coming from them and my upper back as I had felt when Sharai had been controlling my body. Maybe Sharai had been right about it being instinctual after all. My eyes shot open as I began to hover just shy of the treetops and I let out the breath that I had not realized I had been holding.

Sharai still was not responding, so I seemed to be on my own regarding how to control my flight now that I was actually flying. Well, hovering, but it was a start. I just needed to put some of the advice and secondhand experience that Sharai had given me into effect. It took a while but eventually, I was able to turn my hover into forward motion and gain some altitude as well.

Once I had gained some altitude, I got my bearings and then continued on my way southwest. As I flew I experimented, putting into practice things that Sharai had done earlier while trying to coach me. I kept on flying until I began to grow weary and could see the woodlands below giving way to farms and fields in the distance.

Not wanting to venture into human lands without Sharai to help me figure out how to cast a glamour first, I decided to gather some food and find a place to make camp for the night. I managed to lower my altitude and dropped the last hand length or so, stumbling a bit when I hit the ground. “Not the most graceful of landings,” I muttered to myself, “but it was my first time. Hopefully, my flying and landings will improve with time and practice.”

Just to be safe, I removed my new cloak from my pack and put it on to obscure my wings in case I encountered any people. I did not think that was very likely but it was possible, and the cloak helped ward off the evening chill now that my wings weren’t moving and warming the air around me. With the cloak on and the hood up to obscure my face and ears, I began to search for food and a place to sleep.

My search netted me some wild mushrooms, berries, and nuts. There was enough game that I could have hunted but I did not want to risk a fire and only wished to eat and find a secure place to sleep for the night. Despite my short rest earlier, when I had fainted after my transformation, I was tired from flying and from what was probably one of the most stressful days of my life to date. I had not eaten at all either, and I had been hungry even before all of the excitement and the physically taxing transformation.

Now I was starving and my stomach confirmed it by growling loudly in protest, so I gathered and ate as I walked. By the time that I found a place to set up camp for the night, I had managed to sate the hunger that was gnawing at me. I found a hollow beneath the roots of a large ash tree alongside a stream that would do for the night and made myself as comfortable as I could with my pair of blankets.

I could not lay down and it was a somewhat tight fit but I thought that it would be safe for the night, even if I was not very comfortable. As tired as I was, comfort fell below security on my list of priorities. It would be secure and that was the important thing, comfort was of little concern, and as tired as I was, I soon fell asleep.

Confusion briefly gripped me when I awoke. I was uncertain of where I was, how I had managed to sleep in such an uncomfortable position, and what the source of the discomfort in my back was. It was several moments before I awoke enough to remember yesterday’s events. Once that had happened I quickly discovered that the discomfort was from having one of my wings pinched in an awkward position between myself and the wall of my small den.

Somehow, I had managed to twist the wing it seemed. It was uncomfortable but there was no damage that I could find, at least not once I left the den and had a good stretch to work out the kinks of sleeping in such close quarters. As Sharai had said, my wings seemed very durable but they were also quite flexible and only really seemed to harden in flight when drawing in mana to reinforce themselves. They were very pretty too, especially when the early morning sunlight hit them just right.

I wasted no time in shaking the dirt and leaves from my blankets and placing them in my pack. Once that was done, I put on my cloak, adjusted my sword belt, and went to gather some nuts and berries for breakfast. As I ate my scavenged morning meal, Sharai’s presence in my mind seemed to grow stronger. -My apologies, Kaelyn. I should have relinquished control to you sooner. I overexerted myself trying to put some distance between us and the Demon that was following our trail.-

“No harm done, Sharai,” I assured the Faerie spirit. “I was worried about you and a bit scared when I started falling, but it seems that you were right about me having the instincts. I think that perhaps I was still thinking of myself as human, regardless of my new body. I was able to get some practice flying on my own and kept my course to the southwest, but I decided to stop when I saw farmlands in the distance.”

-If you continued following the course that I set us on, those farms are probably those surrounding the capital. That means that we are beyond the Dukedom of Caspia. If the influence of the Demons has spread to the rest of Evalis, Majair is where we shall discover it,- Sharai offered thoughtfully.

“Do you know much about Majair?” I asked.

-Sadly, I do not,- my spirit guide replied. To me, it felt like the spirit might be frowning and her tone was wary. -I did not have cause to pass through the capital on my way to visit my troupe. Human cities can be stifling and I preferred to stick to the forests and glades. We shall have to rely on your knowledge of humans and their cities, Kaelyn.-

I gave a frown of my own at that news. I had only rarely gone into Greendell since my parents had been murdered and I had fled to eke out what life that I could in the forest. I had only interacted with its people when I had meat or hides to sell or needed food or supplies that I couldn’t grow, make, or hunt myself. If we needed to rely on my familiarity with humans, then we may well be doomed.

Perhaps I was exaggerating, but it certainly felt like I was as unfamiliar with them as a normal Fae would be. I had some money, but it was not much and probably would not go very far. I was a little worried about how I was going to navigate an unfamiliar city as well, one that was likely much larger than Greendell. “Can we not just wait for nightfall and then fly over the city? It would be faster, and I am certain that I could detect the dark magic of the church.”

-It would not be wise to fly openly over a human city. In fact, it is probably best if we do not fly in human lands at all, to be safe. If this ‘church’ of yours is present in the city then they will be on guard against our kind, as they were in Greendell,- Sharai countered.

“They aren’t my church,” I snapped, clenching my fists at my sides. “They killed my parents and would have killed me too if I had not kept my distance.”

-My apologies, Kaelyn, I did not mean to imply that you supported them, only that they are a human organization.-

“Well, I am not exactly human anymore, am I? If you asked the Church of One, I never was. They call us Demons when they… they…” I stammered, trying to collect myself as I closed my eyes, shoving away the memories that threatened to overwhelm me as tears stung my eyes. “The possessed man who was chasing you, he… he was the one who killed my parents. He threatened to kill me too if I ended up being Touched. I was so scared when I saw him, but I could not let him kill someone else in front of me… not again. And then you…”

-My death was not your doing, Kaelyn. You did your best to save my life and you did save my spirit. For that, I am grateful.- the spirit chided gently. -This only makes it more apparent that we must be cautious though. The Demons and their church are hunting the Fae and Touched. They know what we are capable of and they know our weaknesses. I believe that it would be wiser to attempt to blend in and gather information from the city’s inhabitants. For that, you will need to learn to cast glamours.-

With that in mind, Sharai spent the morning teaching me to use my other Faerie abilities in preparation for our foray into the capital of Evalis. She suspected that my instincts would give me a natural sense of my abilities, much as they eventually had with flying. Surprisingly, she began by teaching me to conjure faerie fires. I was able to learn the trick of how to summon and control them fairly quickly, as Sharai had guessed, but I was not entirely sure why I was doing it at all.

I looked at the faerie fire as I moved it with my thoughts, much as I would a piece of metal with my gift. It was an almost rose pink in color and Sharai had told me that the color varied from Fae to Fae. It would not change the properties of the fire though, only the appearance. It was the properties that concerned me though, as I reached out to touch the pink flame. Despite the heat that the flames gave off, they did not burn me, but Sharai had insisted that I needed to know this as well as how to cast a glamour.

“Why, Sharai?” I finally asked. “I do not see how this will help us in the capital. Using it to provide light and heat would only draw attention to me and it will not burn anything.”

-That is not entirely true. It will not burn anything in the physical world. Faerie fire is a purifying flame, the embodiment of light. As such, they will burn away darkness. Should you use it on the Demons while they are not in a host and their shadow forms are unprotected then you can harm them. You can even destroy them if you can completely consume their shadow form before they can take a new host or they return to the pit that spawned them,- my mentor explained.

“So we can return them to where they came from?” I inquired in piqued interest.

-The Demons require a host to be corporeal; they cannot remain anchored to our world for long without one. It is easier for them to possess people who they have made a pact with, but they can force themselves upon those who are weak in will and magic. It is far more difficult for them to hold that type of possession for long periods or use their demonic magic unless they get that person to make a pact and stop fighting against them though. As you saw, they will search for a new host as soon as theirs is killed and even if they are returned to the pit, those who summoned them before can merely do it again unless they too are killed. In either case, the Demon will return. It is far better to destroy them, in my opinion.-

I frowned as I thought about the Demons returning repeatedly and extinguished my faerie fire as I asked, “How do you know all of this, Sharai?”

Sharai responded in a solemn tone, -The knowledge on the Demons, and how to combat them, has been passed down from one wielder to another since Joarra first passed Neva’kul on to Gaivin, to ensure that we would have it should they return somehow. It is one of the reasons why we bind ourselves to Neva’kul again in death just as we did in life.-

Once she felt that I could reliably conjure and manipulate a faerie fire on command, Sharai moved on to teaching me how to cast a glamour. It was significantly more difficult than conjuring the faerie fires. First, I had to get an image of what I wanted to look like in my mind and hold it there while I drew in enough mana from the world around me. I could do it from my mana reserves as well but Sharai wanted me to learn to actively drink in the mana around me as well, so she had me work that way throughout the morning lesson. It also ensured that my mana reserves would not be drained should I need to use my gift for some reason.

When I had that image firmly in mind and the mana gathered, I had to focus on pushing mana into that image until it felt stable and then will that appearance to cover my own. It was not limited to just disguise either since she said that I could create glamours of clothing as well, so long as I had a solid image in my mind. To anyone that saw or touched me, the glamour would be as close to reality as I could imagine it. With that in mind, Sharai had me working on not just how I wanted the image to look, but how I wanted it to engage the other senses as well.

I had trouble at first with just the image but adding things like scents, textures, and other details took a lot of mental discipline, especially while trying to gather and manipulate mana as well. My instincts seemed to help with the magic portion but keeping all of the details straight in my mind was extremely difficult. Sharai kept encouraging me though and told me that I could do it. Fae minds were built for this type of thing, and I merely needed to keep my thoughts organized and build the image in my mind one piece at a time.

It was not until almost midday that I was able to produce a glamour that Sharai felt was acceptable. The image that I had used was that of a lanky young man who was toned and tanned from working outside wearing simple clothes; tunic, breeches, boots, and a cloak. It was not too different from what I was wearing and I had attempted to make the young man look as forgettable as possible with slightly shaggy brown hair, dull brown eyes, and otherwise bland features.

Once Sharai had given her approval, I was allowed to gather some food for a midday meal, which included berries, some tubers, and an injured rabbit that I had stumbled across and put out of its misery. Sharai felt that it would be safe to have a fire to cook it and we had decided to put off going to the capital until early the next morning. The rest of the day would be dedicated to improving my ability to cast glamours through repetition, with occasional mental breaks to exercise my body as Sharai began to teach me the basics of using a sword.

The latter did not go well. While my Faerie instincts and Sharai’s patience seemed to be helping with the glamour casting, learning to use a sword was considerably more difficult. Sharai had to keep correcting me on seemingly everything, and that took time since she had to explain what she meant since she could not show me. By the time I settled down for sleep that night, I was mentally and physically exhausted.