"Finally!" A high-pitched little voice chirped as Dorian stumbled into his quarters and closed the door. A tiny light, about five inches in diameter, started to flutter in front of his face.

"You must hurry! They have him! Please, you must hurry! You're the only one who can save him!" Dorian blinked several times, but it didn't go away.

"I am not having a conversation with a light bug." He informed the little creature as he stalked past it towards his bed.

The tiny thing made a noise of frustration, then flew after him.

"I am not a bug! Please, you must listen! You met him at the ball, you said he was as lovely as the night and you kissed him! He told me all about it! But then he went looking for you and it went all wrong and-"

Dorian groaned and rubbed his eyes. The evening was too late for this madness.

"Look, I'm drunk and you're a figment of my imagination. Can we not do this tonight?" The little light creature flew closer, and he could just barely make out the form of a tiny woman. She stomped her foot in mid-air, wings fluttering madly. It was the wings that gave of the light.

"Gah, why must humans be so stupid!" She yelled in her tinny, squeaky voice. If he hadn't been so tired, it would have been cute.

"Just… go. Please." He tried as he slumped down on the bed, rubbing his temples. The day that had ended hours ago had been just as craptastic as the ones before, since the ball. Where he had lost the one he thought might have been the one.

"Yes, yes you remember!" The tiny woman - pixie? - squealed happily and zipped madly around Dorian's head.

"Stop that, you're making me dizzy." He groaned, but she ignored him.

"The ball, the ball, you remember!" she sang, "At the ball, at the ball, at the ball, at the ball - Icthlarin was the young man at the ball!"

"Hold up a sec. What are you on about?"
"The ball! I saw you! You danced! I hid behind the punch bowl and watched as you danced!"

"His… his name is Icthlarin?" The name tumbled from his mouth, but didn't sound right.

"No, silly. Icthlarin. Stupid humans, can't move your tongues right." He repressed an impulse to bat at the little pixie to see if she'd take a tumble.

"And I am not a pixie!" She squeaked indignantly as she came to a stop in front of his face. If he squinted against the bright light surrounding her, he could just barely see her crossing her arms. "I am an avariel!" she went on, proudly.

"A what?"

"A winged elf! Gah, stupid human!"

"Look, quit calling me stupid and tell me what you want. I'm tired and pissed off and I'm not in the mood for innate babbling, especially not from pixies. Sorry, avariel."

The little elf stomped her foot again. It made her wings flutter.

"You stupid, stupid human! I told you! Icthlarin danced with you at the ball and then he went to the Old One to be made big again so you could be together again and he was captured and the spell wore off and now they have him in a glass bottle! And I can't break him out!"

"Who are they?"

"I don't know! Humans!" Her frustration was obvious. "You all look the same, giants with hair in strange places and booming voices!" She zipped over to the door.

"Hurry up, or they'll pluck him!"

Dorian didn't move.

"Pluck?" She made another noise of frustration, zipped back and grabbed his hand. Well, his index finger. Her arms were just long enough to close around it.

"Yes, pluck! Pull out his wings! They're our source, what makes us avariel, what gives us our magic and light and without them we die!" She tugged at his finger, then it was as if a facade fell. She started to sob.

"Please, he's my brother, I only have him and he wanted to be human to be with you and I helped him and it went all wrong and I'm too small to do anything and-"

Curse her. He had never been able to refuse a crying woman.

"Alright" Dorian sighed deeply as he stood up from his bed, ignoring the way the room swam. "Let's go save your brother from the bad humans."

The little avariel stopped sobbing and squealed with happiness.
"Yes, yes, save Lari! Then you will marry and live happily married ever after and have seedlings! I love seedlings, they're so cute, your seedlings will be so cute..."

She zipped out the door as he opened it and buzzed down the hallway. Her light shone brightly in the darkness.

"Calm down, little elf, I'm a bit shaky." He complained as he followed her.

Seriously, he was never having Orlesian wine again. It caused hallucinations.