Chapter 5

Holly had expected that her latest destination would draw some interest, and even had a story planned if Trouble actually deigned to ask. She was a bit of a danger seeker after all; she felt the reason would have been accepted... but Trouble didn't even bother, just thumbing the time off request without even an indifferent shrug.

The Face of the Lower Elements was in truth an edge of the continental shelf connecting the Eurasian and African tectonic plates. Seismic activity was prevalent, and the entire geological strata was unstable to say the least. Holly had ignored the area for scanning because it seemed so very inhospitable for permanent structures.

Then again, for a people who could manipulate time like others dam a river, what's an earthquake really?

The rail ended an hour's flight from her destination at that; but fortunately the population was so sparse that she felt she could deploy her wings without causing a panic. This was a good thing, because she was running late, and this was one meeting she did not wish to be late for.

The cavern wall loomed ever more ominously as she approached the designated location. A half-kilometer of earth separating the cavern from the Mediterranean Sea above and the harsh unpredictability of a major fault line might seem like a lot, but in the grand scale of geology it was analogous to sitting in front of a furnace with a sheet of paper as protection.

Which was why the second thing she noticed was the braces and levee systems above, and the long columns of steel that anchored into the more stable rock below... although as a part of the oceanic crust it wasn't exactly the most stable of strata to begin with.

Outside of the small cadre of civil engineers and mechanics who maintained the equipment, this part of the Lower Elements was as uninhabited as anywhere. By that criteria, it would be a great hiding place to stay out of sight.

The meeting location was a barren stretch of rock a good kilometer away from any brace or other sign of civilization. There wasn't even any sign of the Fey she was supposed to meet. Worried that she had missed her deadline, she consulted her wrist-mounted computer. 1:29.

So she still had a couple of minutes, by her reckoning. The Fey's instructions were for her to be present at solar noon, which was 1:31 by Haven reckoning. Now she was worried that she had arrived too early, and would potentially draw attention that would scare the Fey off.

Her fears were unfounded. Precisely at the solar noon, she felt the hairs on her neck stiffen from an undetectable energy and a sense of foreboding drop upon her surroundings. The Fey were here.

Reality seemed to split in front of her like a curtain, only an inky blackness behind the parted world. And from there, they emerged.

Holly had expected them to be like what she had seen the day before, elf-like but with black eyes. She had been wrong. Well, she was right about the eyes, but nothing else.

The pair of Fey that floated through the gap in reality were well over two meters tall and gangly even with the black robes providing cover for their frames. Their faces were sunken, yet smooth, lips thin and drawn, entirely black eyes that seemed to take up half of their faces drawn deep into the skull, no eyebrows, and barely anything resembling a nose. The arms were also unnaturally long, with bony fingers equally out of proportion, and she figured the legs and feet would be the same had they been visible.

Both Fey pulled back their hoods to reveal thin strands of hair that literally gleamed like silver, and absurdly long pointed ears that curved around the back of their skulls.

Every instinctual action in her body and mind screamed, "Run." But by that point, fleeing was not an option in her mind. Not that she could move anyway, her limbs held fast by a mix of terror that paralyzed her.

They didn't speak. The one to her left merely extended a bony index finger, and beckoned her forward, while the other gestured with its arms for her to step through the tear.

Her legs really didn't want to comply, but a silent insistence that this was for Artemis, and their happiness, finally got the action she desired. Holly forced down her fear, and took as brave of steps as she could through the door...

Only to have that bravery abandon her on the other side, surrounded by six Fey who looked none too pleased at her presence.

Wherever she now stood was black as pitch, the only illumination had no visible source, and as the surroundings blended with their robes, the only thing she could see were the pale heads and lanky hands of the six in a tight circle around her, glaring down at her with an indifference that could have just as easily been outright malice.

"Calm yourself, elfin." One of the Fey said, though she couldn't tell which as none of the lips of those in her vision moved. When she turned to locate said speaker, another one behind her took up the role.

"You are in shifting phase."

"Our den does not exist wholly on your reality."

"We exist in a limbo between Earth and the Grey."

"You will see more as you come into phase with us."

As annoying as it was to never actually see who was speaking at any given time, they were correct. With each second, more details of her surroundings became clear. The black retreated, although what replaced it wasn't entirely comforting either.

The geometry of everything seemed... off. Above her a series of what felt like parallel girders intersected at the other wall. The way they merged suggested that the wall was far shorter than its twin, yet it didn't feel like it.

The Fey Den that now she was now inside of... wait... was she inside the den? It seemed like an exterior, though there were walls all about now. And the girders above, held up nothing. Yet there was no sky. Now the walls appeared at skewed angles, though simple geometry suggested they would have to add up to a number her mind couldn't process.

"You are not inside."

"I would also recommend you not worry."

"The physics of this realm are not yours."

"You will only go mad trying to understand them."

For all the attempts to be comforting, they were doing a miserable job of it. But perhaps it was advice to be heeded. It certainly wasn't doing her any good going cross-eyed looking around.

The Fey then all turned in the same direction, to the north (maybe?), and the head of the procession said with its back turned to her, "Come. Follow."

A small hole in the wall expanded as they approached, yet only seemed to get further away the more they walked... until it was abruptly right in front of her, forming a porthole of sorts leading to an interior room that she couldn't quite perceive. Her escorts had shifted all behind her, but as she turned to face them, another Fey voice from inside said.

"Major, please enter. I assure you that you will find it much more stable to your sensibilities in here."

She didn't need to be told twice. She hopped through the porthole, into the interior, and certainly enough, her brain was thankful for it.

Her surroundings were instantly more sorted out, and she could now clearly tell she was in a circular room, bare walls of stone with glowing orbs of light hovering along the perimeter. Another Fey was waiting for her, his black robe trimmed with silver runes of a language she had never seen.

Like the others, it turned away to speak. "Inside the den, we establish laws more akin to what you are used to. Welcome, Major Holly Short. I am Zartoo, acting Magister of the Fey of the Lower Elements."

With a sense of normalcy restored, Holly found chief among her thoughts to be annoyance. "Alright. Why do you all refuse to look at me while talking?"

Zartoo demonstrated why when he rotated back around and spoke with a mouth filled with rows of dagger-like fangs resembling a shark's maw. "We have found that guests were taken aback by our display of teeth."

Holly was rather proud that she kept her reaction to a bug-eyed, "Oh."

A long two seat sofa appeared behind her, and as she turned to process the red leather seating, Zartoo said, "Sit. Please. There are some things we must discuss before we proceed."

Holly agreed, "We do, in fact." Having seated, she looked back towards the Fey Magister, and discovered he was now seated in a chair made of similar materials.

Zartoo got right to the matter without further pleasantries. "First, I want you to be fully aware of just what you are asking for. Changing to a human isn't simply a new body. It's an entirely new life. A life that is much shorter than the one you know. Elves can easily live past 900 years. You will be fortunate to see a tenth of that time as a human."

"I am aware." Holly replied.

"In addition, I cannot imagine that fairykind has become all that much accepting of humans, especially ones that know of fairy secrets. You will become an enemy to those who were once your friends."

Holly had already done that math as well. "Believe it or not, I have more friends on the surface with the humans than below with my kind."

"You sound so certain of that, Major." Zartoo said warily.

"I'm not like most that have come to you, Magister Zartoo." Holly explained. "I've spent considerable time on the surface. I've been a part of their world already. There are those who already accept me there, as I am. I do not believe becoming one of them will change that affection."

The Fay drummed his fingers together in front of his face. "You may be correct on that, Major. But it is important, for my sake, that I be at ease with this deal. Far too many times, fairies have made deals with us that have gone badly, and blamed us for their lack of foresight. It's given us a fairly poor reputation among the Lower Elements. My predecessor cared little about that reputation. I, on the other hand, would like to be able to show myself in Haven as I really am and not face an army of LEP wanting to shackle me for the stupidity of their citizens."

"Helping fairies defect to the surface isn't going to engender any good will with the people who set that sentiment." Holly noted.

"True. But these arrangements often give us other things that are of use to us while we wait for the day that our reputations are less sullied. So, in this case, it is warranted."

To which Holly replied, "Which brings us to the price you want me to pay."

Zartoo nodded. "Indeed, Major. So let's get right to it. We require your LEP credentials."

Holly blinked. That really was not at all what she was expecting. "Really? That's what you want? Not my soul... or something?"

Zartoo laughed, a sound she had not expected to come from a Fey, yet just as unnatural to her ears. "Not even the oldest among us practice the ancient soul magic. It is a very... dirty and uncomfortable art. Best left to eras before even the fairies had an oral tradition. Rest assured, Major, a Fey has never asked for a soul, and I see no reason why we would ever want one."

Holly was quite relieved by that. There were a lot of very old fairy legends of magics and artifacts that were fueled by souls. They were very dark, very scary stories that were still used to scare fairy children into obedience. Her short experience in the Fay Den had stirred up many of those stories in her own memories.

"The reason we desire your LEP credentials is fairly benign and boring, I'm afraid." Zartoo continued. "About two years ago, your technology was upgraded with an operating system foreign to us, and one that we couldn't infiltrate."

Holly remembered that upgrade. INFOS, it had been called. Foaly had been irate that the LEP and LEAF was imposing this "hackneyed, mass produced operating system" onto his "beautiful and carefully designed hardware." Within three months, he reluctantly admitted that it was faster, more-responsive, more customizable, and less prone to critical faults than anything he had designed. "Guess thirty heads can be better than one sometimes." He had groused.

Zartoo jolted her attention back to the situation at hand. "Using your credentials, we would finally get that inside presence we need. Knowing that the Lower Elements are always giving sideways attention to finding us, as well as where and how they are looking, will help us remain out of sight and largely out of mind."

"If this turns out the way we both hope, those credentials won't be good for much longer."

The Fey Magister was unconcerned. "All we need is the door in. We can set up our own ears once inside." He then asked, "Will that be a suitable trade for you, Major Short?"

"If that's honestly all you require."

"It is not a Fey's manner to add stipulations after a deal is made. What we ask of you now is all we ever will." Zartoo said. "Would you like our deal in writing to ease your mind?"

The Fey didn't wait for Holly's answer, a leaf of parchment like gold appearing between him and Holly. With a flick of his fingers, his signature appeared on the top line, then floated in front of her, an ink quill popping into existence above her right hand at the same time.

It was a fairly simple document, yet one that left little room for interpretation. Holly was used to contracts that went on for pages and covered every possible stipulation. Fey contracts were apparently quite simple; it listed what they were giving, what you were giving, and nothing else could ever be included or removed at any time. The Fey would not be allowed to add anything...

… And Holly would never be able to go back.

Her resolve wavered at the finality of it. As bad as things were now, was there any reason to think they would always be this way? Was it really worth giving up the entire life she knew to get away from it?

Then she thought about Artemis... about watching him grow old while she remained vital, seeing his life end and hers going on, and what her decision was really about. At some point, it had stopped being about what she was leaving, and where she was going. This was about making a full life with someone who cared about her; not some silly bureaucrats with an axe to grind and fear to peddle.

And from that, signing her name was easy.

The contract then rolled up in something a third its original size and dropped into her hands. With confusion, she held up the now bound gold parchment and asked, "You don't want this?"

Zartoo had already stood and had been ready to leave. "I know what deal was made. That was entirely for your benefit. Here, put it in this and follow."

A red handbag dropped right into her lap, and Zartoo said, "That will contain the necessary documentation for your new identity on the surface. As far as the humans know, you are Amelia Ponder from Surrey. By the time your transformation and acclimation is complete, the necessary memories will be implanted in the right people, and you will be cleared to be sent to the surface world."

Holly did as suggested, finding that the contract shrunk even smaller to be non-conspicuous once inside. She then hopped off the sofa in pursuit of Zartoo when said handbag smacked her ankles and plopped to the ground. "This thing is... awfully big." She said.

"Of course it is. It's a human handbag. You'd look terribly silly walking around on the surface with an elfish one, don't you think?"

Holly clenched her eyes in embarrassment. "Right. Sorry."

"Now come along. It's time to fashion your new body."

Zartoo led Holly down two levels, into another circular room and another Fey waited in front of a two meter tall block of shimmering brown clay underneath a torrent of crystal clear and sparkling water. He (or she, Holly supposed... maybe they were all female), unlike the other Fey, had no problems looking at her and smiling broadly to reveal that menacing maw.

"Major Short, this is Nebazanar, he is the Living Claysmith. He will be the one in charge of fashioning your human body that you will transform into.

Holly was so relieved to have someone here display a personality and have no problems speaking directly to her that she was able to ignore that he looked like he was about to rip out her neck with his teeth.

"I'll take it from here, Magister. No doubt you have a hundred other things you could be doing."

Holly reached into the breast pocket of her suit, "I should give you..."

Zartoo flashed Holly's credential card between the fingers of his right hand. "Already have it. Acquired it the moment the contract was signed. I shall return once the transformation is finished and we begin the acclimation process."

The magister disappeared in a flash, leaving her alone with the claysmith.

"Alright, dear girl, how do you want to look?" Nebanazar asked, then seeing Holly's blank expression, he explained, "The living clay here can take any shape you wish. You don't like your hair color? We can change it! Eyes? No problem? Want to be taller than a troll? Have a hooked nose? Want skin like ivory? Consider it done! The human form is remarkably varied... just about anything goes! I do so love it more than most others."

"You've done other transformations?" Holly queried.

Nebanazar nodded vigorously. "Oh indeed. One time there was a djinni who came to us, wanted to change himself into a giant cobra twenty meters long to get the better of a rival. It was kinda sad really."

"Oh?"

The claysmith shook his head in dismay. "Tried to tell him. Turning into a giant snake never works. You just look really silly when you're killed by a giant spider."

Holly blinked rapidly. "A giant spider?"

"His rival. Came to me to be transformed into a massive tarantula thirty meters long. That didn't end too happily either. Tried to tell him that a giant spider only works against giant snakes."

"What happened to the rival?"

"Killed by a human with a torch in a tar field. Boy then went on to claim the princess both of the djinni lusted after." He said with dismay, only to brighten back up and say, "But enough of the past, dear girl. How do you want to look?"

Holly had never even considered that it was possible to change her appearance so drastically. She just figured that it'd be roughly who she was now, only human, kinda like...

With a bolt of inspiration, she activated her holo-camo, and asked. "Can you see this? Can we do something like this?"

Nebanazar nodded enthusiastically. "It's a good starting point! Now, let's get to work!"

The fey's long fingers twiddled over the clay, and it followed his ministrations. Nebanazar more looked like a sculptor than a smith, really, as the material bent and flowed with each gesture and ministration. He never once looked back at the holo-camo image, and even told Holly that she could turn it off after a handful of minutes.

Slowly, but surely, the image of Holly as a human took shape. "Truth be told, I could make it quicker, and let your form fill in the details when they merged." He admitted at about the hour mark, rolling his fingers to form texture in what would become her new hair. "But I like working it all out by hand. Feels more genuine that way, don't you agree?"

Holly actually found herself fascinated by the process, and waved him off approvingly. "I wouldn't dream of questioning a master at work."

"Hah!" The claysmith chirped happily, "I do like you so!"

Still the slow process came into further shape, and Holly felt her boldness rising. She was doing this for Artemis as much as her... "Nebanazar, you said you could do any alterations... right?"

"Of course!" He boasted, having just put the finishing touches on her nose. "What would you like? Big pouty lips? Maybe some bright blue eyes? Humans do seem to adore blue eyes."

Holly flushed. She almost couldn't believe she was about to suggest this. "Actually... could you give me a little more..." she then grabbed her chest for emphasis, "Here?"

Nebanazar chuckled, "Absolutely. Breasts seem to be what is 'in' among the humans lately." With a swooping of his hands below the clay figure's chest, he drew his hands back and the clay's chest filled out... and inflated to cartoonish proportions.

"Whoa." Holly said sharply. "Too much. Way too much."

The claysmith winked, a gesture that looked odd, even for the oddity that was Fay expressions. "Oh, I know. Just teasing." He then reversed the movement, shaping the chest into a much more suitable size.

Then Holly gave it some thought and said, "Now... let's see what we can do about those hips..."

It was another hour of fine tuning, but Holly found herself immensely pleased by the result.

Nebanazar agreed, nodding happily. "Brilliant, if I do say so myself."

It looked perfect, as far as Holly thought, especially after the claysmith had worked the color into the clay. That... would be her. It already felt like her.

"Alright, dear girl, next step!" The claysmith said. "Get undressed!"

Holly was taken aback by the command. "Say what?"

He pointed at the clay. "She's naked, isn't she? You have to be to! Clothes muck up the entire merging process. I know fairies have healing magic. Surely you know what happens when foreign matter is introduced into developing flesh!"

Holly slapped her forehead. Of course she knew that. Butler pretty much had a chest made of Kevlar because of it, and they both were pretty lucky that it hadn't been disastrous. "Right. Sorry. I'll... strip down quick."

"Don't worry about me, girl. You'd hardly be the first elf I've seen naked." Nebanazar said with a playful wink. "Though you'd be the prettiest."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Holly said with a roll of her eyes as she tugged down the zipper of her flight suit. She found herself reminded of stripping down to travel back with Artemis on the ill-fated mission to save his mother.

It had been one of the darkest times in their friendship, where she realized the lies he made to coerce her assistance. And yet, by the end of that misadventure... that was really where the romantic affection she had started to blossom. "In another time..." She whispered to herself as she slipped the straps of her underlayer off her shoulders. Then she smiled, "Better strap in, Arty. That time is coming."

Her modesty didn't let her turn to face the claysmith once she was naked. "There we go. Do your..."

She was interrupted by the Fey grabbing her around the neck, yanking her off her feet, and plunging her straight into the clay model. She shouted instinctively, her nose and throat quickly plugged by the clay and stealing her breath away.

Holly tried to struggle, but the clay seemed to harden and steal away her movement as well. She tried to cough, and found that bad air forced back into her spasming lungs. She couldn't breathe...

"Of course you can't breathe." Nebanazar said, as if surprised she would have that thought. "You're imbedded in clay. What do you expect?"

Why... was the Fey doing this?

"The clay will merge with your body, and come to life. If everything goes smoothly, your soul will then fill the new vessel, completing the transformation."

Her mind started to haze from lack of oxygen. What did he mean by that?

"Well, there's a possibility that your soul won't be able to accept the shock of the transformation, and you'll die. But that's very, very, very rare. I do exceptional work, after all!"

Any further questions Holly could have had were lost in the encroaching blackness of suffocation.

"I'll see you in a couple hours. Rest now. Best that you not be awake as the magic of the clay begins to do its work..."