"Welcome to Faerie."
"Faerie?"
"Yes. The Underground, specifically. That is, the dark side of faerie," He had smiled as he said that.
"Oh." She hadn't known what to say. Her mind had been too busy trying to cope with the concept of extraplanar travel to process the fact that there might be dark planes to travel to.
"This is my kingdom."
"So your kingdom is the dark side of Faerie?"
"No," he had seemed somewhat impatient at that point. "My kingdom is the Goblin Land, the Labyrinth, the Dark Path! …it is only part of the Underground…"
"Oh."
"This is your room."
That had been the entirety of the conversation she had had with the man who had taken her from her home. She was not even entirely sure who he was or where she was. Well, except that she was in a large suite of rooms, elegantly furnished in shades of green and purple.
She had wandered through these rooms for almost an hour after he left her. Probably, if she expected anything, Sorcha had exected the black hole in the wall that had appeared in her kitchen. Or possibly the darkness that had surrounded Maggie in the crystal. A lush carpet, well upholstered chairs, and a massive canopied bed had been nowhere on the list of possible endings of the night. The carved stone bath in the washroom and floor to ceiling windows interrupted by well-stocked floor to ceiling bookshelves in the sitting room were also not on the list. Eventually she had fallen asleep on a settee out of sheer confusion.
She awoke to the smell of food. Over the edge of the settee she could see two small figures setting a meal on a small gilt table in front of an open window. She pulled herself up and walked over to them cautiously. They were about four feet tall and slender with white hair and oddly colored skin: one a pale orangey pink and the other pale blue. They both had almost transparent wings that fluttered softly as they moved about.
"Er… um, excuse me…" The small faeries? stopped their task and looked at her. "Um, I don't suppose there's more food? I mean, um, that is, could I get some?"
The smaller one giggled at her, "But this is for you, Lady Sorcha."
"What?" Lady Sorcha? Add miniature servants and a title to the list of unexpected things. They both curtsied and finished setting out her breakfast. Sorcha sat and ate because she was hungry and amazement did not seem a sufficient reason to ignore her stomach.
In between bites, "So, um, are you faeries then? I mean, or, goblins?" They both giggled this time.
"No. We're not fae or goblins."
"Well, sometimes we're goblins," the orangey-pink one corrected.
"Well, yes, if we lived outside the castle we would be all sorts of things," the blue on admitted.
Sorcha simply looked her confusion and nibbled on a biscuit.
"We're actually invisible."
"In our natural state, that is."
"But in the castle we look however the king wants us to look."
"We've looked like this for a few centuries."
"Er…" Sorcha searched for an appropriate response. "So, what are you outside the castle?"
"His majesty has less control over that. We can be all sorts of things. Goblins or trees or walls. Whatever the Labyrinth creates it creates out of us. Usually we're scary things, but sometimes we get to help the people going through it."
"I was a headless pig once."
"Er, and you helped someone navigate the Labyrinth?"
"No, mostly I ran into things. I didn't have any eyes… I think I was supposed to be scary though."
The remainder of the conversation did little but make Sorcha feel more overwhelmed. Fortunately, once she had finished eating they had a bath ready for her, which did much to soothe her nerves.
Afterwards they tugged her over to another room of her suite. For all intents and purposes it was a giant closet, though it was larger than her room at home had been and contained its own couch, vanity, and multi-sided mirror. The walls were lined with dresses with neat rows of shoes under them.
The not-faerie/goblin servants pulled out an elaborate gray dress with navy trim and insisted that Sorcha wear it. Since she couldn't actualy find anything less elaborate she gave in but insisted on a pair of servicable half boots (still rather delicate for her tastes) over the ornate slippers they tried to put on her feet. Then they left her, promising to bring a midday meal and encouraging her to enjoy herself.
With nothing else to do, Sorcha scoured the bookshelves until she found something sufficiently mundane to lose herself in and headed outside to find a good place to read. And thus passed her first week in Faerie. She often exploded the gardens and fields outside the castle and sometimes inside the castle, usually in search of a good tree or nook in which to read. Fortunately the boots proved to be extremely comfortable over long distances.
She did not see the man who had brought her here. Slowly her confusion gave way to routine and she enjoyed being pampered and having all her time to herself.