"How is it that you are not of the fae?" the young girl asked. Her courtiers had fled, the room was empty. She tilted her head. "You are a… prop of this dream and yet none of the other props have shown such power."
"A prop? Like yourself?" Merlin asked.
A figured appeared in front of him, shrouded and holding a great axe.
"Beware of what you say to me, Merlin." A chorus of angry voices joined the woman's. "I am queen here."
"Queen of what?"
"Of whatever I choose to be!" the voices grew powerful.
"Than you would not fear the truth, would you?" Merlin asked. "An oath, from the queen, to offer no violence for any truths granted her?"
"What truths do you think I desire?"
"What truths do you think I have to give you?"
"You said you were not a jester, and yet here you are, speaking in riddles, mocking me. Why should I not slay you now?"
"Courage? One who kills a messenger is one who fears the message." Merlin tilted his head. "And you have not yet answered my question.
Glaistig Uaine stared at him, and then spoke and now her voice was almost lost among the rumbling sound of a hundred others. The very walls resonated with her words.
"Foolish man! I give you this oath, that I shall listen to you and not harm you for whatever message or insult you give me…" then she smirked. "For so long as you remain within the Birdcage with me."
Merlin chuckled. "Now that is a promise worthy of the Fae."
"Will you be as happy when your soul dwells with me?"
Merlin laughed out loud. "Oh, my dear, trust me, my soul, or the soul of the lowest 'prop' as you call them, is far beyond your reach, or that of your benefactors." He raised his hand. "But first, some stage dressing for the show. We find ourselves in a forest, beneath a lonely highway, the guard rail shattered."
"What?" Glaistig Uaine said, her voice suddenly sounding softer. The surrounding walls faded out, and the sound of chirping birds filled the air, the scent of growing things. Her throne morphed into a treestump. She looked around. "It has been long since I have smelled growing things."
"This is a terrible place." Merlin paused. "Not as terrible as some, but still terrible. Come, our show begins." He pushed some branches aside, and Glaistig Uaine stood up—then stopped still.
"I no longer wish to be here," she said, staring at the overturned, shattered camper, impaled on a branch.
"But my dear, you offered me your solemn promise," Merlin said. "Surely the Fairy Queen would not break her oath?"
A dozen figures appeared and vanished in quick succession.
"You will beg for me to end you."
"Ah-heh, you'll have to stand in line behind all the others who have said that." Merlin gestured. "Come, the show beckons. We are here, to see the wrecked camper." He walked to it, gestured, and moments later, the world shifted and they were inside it.
A woman was impaled by a treebranch, her hands still on it, trying to push it out of her body. Next to her, a headless body lay, blood, brains, and bone spattered over the heavy branch that had smashed through the side. The woman's head was turned, as if she'd looked back in her last moments.
"Cease this!" Glaistig Uaine said. Her voice sounded breathless.
"Nay," Merlin said. "For you have lived a dream and all dreamers must eventually awaken." He turned to the back of the camper. There were books and DVDs piled, thrown across the interior. Merlin bent down and picked one up. A cartoon fairy looked back at him from the cover. He picked up another book. "Collected Fairy Tales." He paused and looked back at the dead in the front. "I must complement them. They did not only pick the sanitized tales most children read."
"You will stop this!"
"I have to now, for we go beyond what I saw with my eyes, and come to what you saw with your eyes." Merlin glanced to a corner, where some force had ripped the side open, with several shattered, bloodstained shards of glass by it. "You were there, were you not? Tell me, what happened?"
"They… they died. The male died first, before he could say something. The woman… She bid me join my kingdom."
"Your mother knew that you were dying and that she would die first," Merlin said, his voice quiet. "And because she could not be with you, she told you something to comfort you. How long?"
"The…" Glaistig Uaine paused, staring at the books, then looking at the dead in the front. "The sun fell…" The air darkened, casting the room into shadow. "The lesser fae arose, I could see them."
"Ah…" Merlin nodded, as fireflies started rising, signaling their mates with flickering light, some of them rising into the sky.
"But they did not come to me. I was alone, and I called out to the Queen to succor me." Merlin glanced at one of the books, showing a queen like fairy on it. The title below it read: THE TALE OF TITANIA.
"And what happened, as the night passed and you became cold, your body growing stiff…"
"I realized what I was," Glaistig Uaine said. "I rose up, and my body healed itself. My first attendant came to me." By her, a shadowy form arose.
"A small-time parahuman criminal was shot down on the road above," Merlin said. "By coincidence? Unlikely. Your power ensuring it would not to go waste, I expect."
"It was then I realized that I was the Fairy Queen, and that there were only fairies, and those who were… props."
"Such as your parents."
Instantly, a huge figure replaced one of her attendants, and Merlin was slammed against the side of the illusion, the scene flickering. "Have a care, Jester!"
"Breaking your oath, so soon? My…"
The figure dropped him. Glaistig Uaine stared at Merlin. "I did not promise you would spend your time here in comfort."
"No, no you didn't. Ah well, comfort is overrated." He sighed. "But if I am to spend my life in torment for this, tell me… Tell me, Fairy Queen, how long did you spend hoping to recover their spirits? How long to hear their words, or feel a comforting hand tuck you in at night when the storms rumbled and you were afraid? How long did it take you to make the campsite outside and go through all the food… and realize that your parents were forever beyond your power, that you would never hear or touch them again? How long before you fled your failure?"
"Be silent."
"You have not answered my question."
"D…days… My first fairy knew how to make a camp. I spoke to him…" Glaistig Uaine seemed to be in a dream. "He told me to leave but I commanded him to be silent… It was then that I realized that they were… They were but props and never more to be seen."
"And that was an easy dream to fall into. The queen, after all, never hurts," Merlin said. "And useful enough to the power that came upon you. Useful to make you its tool. Make you its slave."
"You do not know!" the hiss was furious.
"I know more than you think. I have spoken to the fae. You are far kinder than they. And I bring you good tidings. You could not bring your parents back, because their spirits were beyond the touch of your power, as are any spirits. You bring the memories back, the personalities, form your own imitations, but the soul?" Merlin snorted. "That is one power you do not have, and if your shades are granted a soul, it is not the one your victims had."
"They never answered." The girl's voice was quiet. "I begged and pleaded with them to come back and speak one more time… but they never answered."
"No. You will not hear from them again. Not until it is your time to pass beyond the Circles of the World," Merlin said. "But the sorrow left an in to that which would make you its slave."
"You would call me a slave?"
"Do you think she who bore you expected you to walk into this place? To spend your days serving another?"
"And what would you tell me to do?"
"Why your majesty, I would tell you nothing. Save that if you wish to be free, you might ask yourself, what name your parents granted you when first they held you in this world." Merlin tilted his head. "I confess I couldn't find it."
"Ciara," she said. "And perhaps one day I will kill you for that."
"Ah, well, it's always pleasant to have something to look forward to," Merlin said. "Though I expect you'd want to chat before then." He nodded. "But I am remiss, I did have a request for you."
"A request, after all you have done?" Ciara asked.
"Yes. You see, we have some rather annoying parahumans, and I was wondering if you'd kindly seize their passengers."
Ciara blinked. Then the illusion faded and Merlin stepped aside, just in time for the ruined body of William Manton to sail through a portal. Ciara stared at it, reached out with her hand, and moments later, something that looked like a ghost was pulled into her body.
"The others will be coming momentarily, thank you for your assistance."
"You—you think that you are safe?"
"Not at all." Merlin smiled. "But it is an interesting life, is it not?"
"I will not kill you if you leave the Birdcage," Ciara said "Because I am coming with you and I will speak to you, and I will decide whether or not to spare your life on the day I determine if you are a madman, fool, or…"
"Wizard?" Merlin asked, raising his eyebrows. "I look forward to it, Your Majesty."