Beyond the Roselands

Chapter 7

   I slowly picked it up and yanked it off the bed frame with a single tug. I held it in my hands and snarled, wanting to crush it into dust in revenge for what my fiance had been put through as a young girl. "Who are you?"

   I gasped and whirled around, coming face to face with a woman. I screeched and my wings flared, knocking over the bedside table and upsetting the mattress on the bed. Our of panic I swung the chain fast and hard. It never made impact with her. The woman barely flinched. She shook her head and chuckled sweetly. "You can do that all day, but it'll get you nowhere. I'm afraid I'm just a ghost now."

   I looked closely at her. She was transparent and she hovered merely inches from the floor. She had a grey foggy appearance to her and she wasn't quite right when I looked at her. She held such a close resemblance to Sprite that it was almost scary. "Are you…Sprite's mother?"

   She gasped and then sniffed, a small ghost tear trickling down her transparent cheek. When it fell from her face, it disappeared into the floor. "I'm afraid so. Although I wish I wasn't. Oh the things I was forced to put on that girl." "Wait. Forced?"

   She looked up at me and nodded. "I'm guessing Sprite told you I sold her to men? Well yes. That's true. But I was under the influence of Faery magic. My husband was a Faery." "Avery?"

   She looked closely at me. "You know quite a bit about Sprite. May I ask how you know her."

   I smiled and leaned against the bed. "I'm her fiance. And apparently she's pregnant with my child and now I need to find out Faery weaknesses so I can protect her and the baby from Avery. It's a long story but that's the best sum up of it I can think of."

   The woman sighed and shook her head, clenching her fists angrily. "Avery! That son of a bitch! I was thirteen when he first met me. He told me he was twenty five, but with Faerys I infinite lifespans, he could be been ages old. He sweet talked me into following him into the woods. Once out as far from civilization as he could get me, he used magic on me to be completely irresponsible for my actions. He took control of me and forced me to strip off my clothes and lay down for him. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but there was no stopping it. Once I'd slept with him I begged him to let me go home. He allowed me, but the next day he magicked me from a distance and I walked into the forest, knowing what he was gonna do. He repeatedly controlled me for days on end, forcing me as a thirteen year old to go into the woods to sleep with him. By the end of the month I realized I'd become pregnant and I had no choice but to stay with him permanently. So he brought me here and put a permanent spell on me. It forced me to sell Sprite to men with no control over my actions. I was running out of options and I didn't know what to do. Then I got smart. The spell was meant for me to sell Sprite to men. So I snuck off and sold her to a group of male soldiers from Kilhar, telling them what she was and ordering them to take her far away from me to a place where she'd be safe."

   I paused and absorbed all of this. "So you weren't responsible for anything. You lived your whole life as a puppet for Avery."

    She crossed her arms and shuddered. "Yes. A sex puppet. He'd leave for months and sometimes years on end and then once he came back he'd cast the same spell on me which forced me to have sex with him until he released me from it. I remember he had me on that spell for nearly twenty four hours. Once he released me I was so exhausted and ashamed that I cried myself to sleep. He always made me seem like the bad guy to Sprite when he was the one doing the demented work. He always spoke about preparing Sprite and himself for the higher cause and the revolution from another side. He always made me keep silent about these things, but once he killed me I suppose I could come out and say it."

   Once again I had to wait a moment before speaking to this woman. "Higher cause? Did you ever figure out what that was?"

   She nodded. "Oh yes. I discovered it the hard way. He took me with him one night into the woods. I expected it to be a round of sex in the forest, but he suddenly summoned a portal. On the other side were sounds of screams and strange chants in other languages."

   That's what Sprite heard that night she watched. "He grabbed my hand and drug me through. We were standing beneath a twisted weeping willow tree and the ground was covered in almost purple grass. It was strange. The sky looked shattered and there was no Sun moon or clouds. It wasn't dark. Nor was it light. It was almost as if we were somewhere where they're one in the same thing. All around us were tall Faerys doing the chanting. Six others stepped forward and followed me and Avery as we turned and walked to a cave to the side. Avery explained to me that one day a revolution from this realm would arise like it had ages ago and dark magic would rule the world. Once he finished his gallant speech, he flung me to the floor and all seven had their way with me."

   She sobbed, but her eyes were filled with limitless hatred. I'd never seen a woman so mad. I don't think I'd ever seen a man so mad. "All my life I've been touched and raped by Faerys and black magic alike. You don't understand what it's like to be a puppet and to have someone else take over parts of your mind."

   Silence stretched out over several moments. I reached out to take her hand, but my fingers slipped right though her. "I forgot you were a ghost. I'm terribly sorry for everything you've ever been out through. But I need to know something. Do Faerys have any weaknesses I should know of to defeat them. I know the seven who raped you and if I can kill them I'll get you the revenge you seek."

   She smiled at me and reached out, touching my wings. "A Zytrey. I bought books from Kilhar and I loved reading about the Roseland creatures. Hmm. Maybe you do know what it's liked to be touched by black magic."

   "Yeah. I've had my dealings with the stuff. So is it true that Avery killed you simply with his power?"

   She snarled. "No. Everything he's told you is probably a lie. When he discovered I'd sold Sprite to the hybrid lands of Kilhar, he was outraged because he'd lost his one source of human money he could use. He didn't simply kill me. He took me back to that portal and when he took me in there, I knew I wouldn't be coming out for a long time. He let as many of the Faerys there rape me as they wished. I probably spread my legs for hundreds of those things. Once the last one had gotten off me, Avery took me off to  secluded cave where he raped me himself. Once he was finished with me, he brought me back here and then unleashed some sort of powerful black magic on me. I'd gotten used to black magic's touch. It had grown to just be another force I felt everyday. But that blast was so strong it overloaded my brain. I learned so much in the matter of a second. Including the Faerys secret weakness."