Chapter Three

Alexandra was alone, standing before a small doorway, beside herself with a rush of emotions.

For the first few moments in this strange place, she had been utterly delighted with the scenery, the people, the tingling feeling that ran through her… and now she was abhorring herself.

She felt that she had made a definite mistake – bringing Nihl with her to this foreign earth. It was all quietly disconcerting, and she chastised herself in her mind. If only she knew what was wrong with him…

She paused—her thoughts having blurred together past making much sense—and began to look around her.

The doorway which she stood before was just in the middle of three halls—one before her, one to her left, and one to her right. All of them curved after a while, so that one could not see what was past them after a few steps or so.

At first she did not recognize a change in the silence—but then gradually, she became aware of a soft jingling sound, like light bells brushing against each other, rustled by movement.

She looked around, but saw no one in front of her or to her right. Then she looked to her left.

Coming around the corner, some distance from her, was a figure about her size—coming most spectacularly on cat-like legs. The person did not hardly move their arms, except to sway them a little, as in a dance.

She (for it certainly was no man) was humming as she danced, and held a fan in one hand, that she fluttered most avidly beside her, but did not move much.

She must be practicing something, Alex thought, but didn't have time to think much more as the girl stood and looked up.

The other girl did not look the least bit shocked. In fact, she looked rather able to handle any amount of strange happenings.

This fact might have been told by her eyes—which were very large, and dark brown, and were strange—but Alexandra could not have told you why. They were rather… child-like.

The other girl's skin was an olive color, her features very dark. Her hair was black, and cut raggedly, but clean, and streaked with a bright red dye. She was altogether very colorful.

"Hello," she said, and held the fan close to her face. She had a very lively voice.

Alexanrda, who was used to hearing the very common "Alowan" might have been quite pleased to hear a familiar greeting, if she had not been a little transfixed by the other girl, and her wild (if not also a bit immodest, showing a bit of belly and thigh, hidden behind gossamer fabric) clothing (which Alexandra did not like, but she felt as though she did like the other girl herself).

The other girl began to look Alex up and down, as Alex was doing to her. They were both a bit enchanted with each other's clothing and actions.

"LON-DON," the olive-skinned girl pronounced very well (reading Alexandra's t-shirt). "Is that were you live?" (She said this next sentence with a heavy accent, making "is" sound like "eez" and "live" sound "leev".)

"Hm?" Alex said, and then met the girl's large eyes. She like looking into peoples eyes.

"Oh, well, no—" she started, but thought it might be difficult to explain any further.

"You are new here. I haven't seen you before," the other girl said quickly. Her voice had strong inflection in it, and was somewhat high pitched, very different from the calm, soft voice of Candock.

"Yeah," Alex said, but couldn't think of anything else.

"My name is Rigamaron. I am new too," the other girl said. "I come from Akharashafin. So does the other young man. You know him?"

Alex wasn't sure what she meant.

The other girl laughed.

"Don't worry. We will be good friends soon!" She spoke very good English, and sounded very confident of her words.

She (who had called herself Rigamaron) laughed again, and this time pulled the fan away from her face, where a sudden burst of light was revealed.

Alex was not prepared for this, and she rather leaned back a little, with a sort of jump.

The stream of lights spread out, and glowing orbs rushed out from behind the fan and began to surround the olive-skinned girl.

If Alex had counted them (which she had not the presence of mind to do) she would have counted exactly seven.

At first they seemd rather amorphous, changing sorts of lights. But then they faded a little, and became solid and lively. There were only two that stayed rather glowing and white – the rest were extremely colorful; red, purple, green, blue…

Alexandra stared.

When Rigamaron had finished laughing, the creatures stopped swarming her, and seemed content to hover in a rainbow colored aura around her.

She met Alex's gaze again, and seemed to recognize the surprise in it.

"Oh, have you never seen them before?" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Alex, still staring, managed to blink and reply; "No—what are they?"

"Fae!" the girl said quickly. (The word sounded like Pha-ee to Alex.)

"Fae?" she asked.

The girl laughed loudly and raised her hands.

"Are they not very wonderful? Run free, little sprites!"

The creatures wildly dispersed, some fluttering about with flaxen sorts of wings, some soaring above with the flapping of heavier, feathered wings.

Alexandra watched in awe as one of the more shapeless, brightly glowing things came to her. She looked straight at it, and was somehow delighted and horrified all at the same time to realize that it had large, bulbous black eyes (all of them did!). That was about all it was—large black eyes and a glowing white body.

At first she was not sure what to do—she dared not swat at it as though it were a stray insect (this seemed like a very bad thing to do, although it was her first instinct, which she stifled), so she stood very still, and let it come to her.

It nuzzled against her neck, where her long brown hair hung down, and then settled softly to hovering above her shoulder, which it seemed to have claimed.

She looked at Rigamaron for help.

"Oh!" the other girl said. "Don't you have a Fae? Or are you a keeper, like me?"

"What?" Alex said. "I don't even –really- know what they are!"

The other girl laughed and laughed, her face bright.

"Don't you see? It is your friend now! You can call it your 'sprite'."

"I thought it was yours," Alexandra said, very much confused.

"Oh, but none of them are really mine," she said. "Only Chuwachun have I had the longest—" she pointed to a ragged, feathery-winged Fae, colored purple and red. "—but the rest are from many places. Do not worry—I can't be Rigamaron of the Seven Fae with only six Fae! I will find another, I always do."

Alexandra looked beside her at the glowing blob.

"Does it eat?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not—physically," the girl said, as if proud of her phrasing. "It lives from you, the love you give it, and the things that you let it see. It will show parts of you to the world that the world cannot see—it can be good or bad. But love will teach it right. People who don't have Fae are not safe in this world. Fae are our little guardians."

This made an idea hit Alex squarely on the head (figuratively speaking).

"Can they make you… healthy?" she asked.

"They are good friends when you are sick," Rigamaron said. "A loved Fae will do all that it can to take some of the pain and ailing away from its keeper."

Alex nodded, now growing impatient.

"I know someone who doesn't have a… Fae," she said. "Do you think… you could spare one?"

(It didn't sound too polite to her, but she felt she had to say it.)

"Yes, there is one here that is still small," Rigamaron said, pointing to a Fae which looked very much like Alex's.

Alex found herself smiling a little.

"They told me to wait outside this hallway," she said, pointing to the hallway across from where she stood.

"Who?" Rigamaron asked.

"Candock, and…" Alex started, but couldn't remember if she had ever learnt the old man's name.

"Yes," Rigamaron said, as if that was good enough. "So you are still waiting?"

Alex sighed.

"Uh-huh. It's—" (she was going to say something about Nihl, because she was very worried about him, but all she blurted out was;) "—been a while."

Rigamaron seemed to think this was horrible.

"They shouldn't make a guest wait. Let's go find them." She started forward, her swarm of Fae ready to follow. Alex shook her head.

"I don't think so."

"Why not? Don't you want to know what they're doing?"

"I do—" Alex started, and then paused. "Sort of. I'll just wait. They told me to."

Rigamaron stopped, looked Alex up and down a little bit more, and the shrugged, her Fae bobbling behind her.

"Oh well. You are such a good person," she said, and started off.

Alexandra couldn't think of anything to say, though she did feel herself blushing, and wondered if this last sentence had been made as a compliment (though a rather strange one, if so). Even if she had to wait for another hour, she felt that it was better to not go against the nice people who had taken her in, and disobey their wishes.

And she didn't have to wait much longer, anyhow.