Chapter 45: When the Dream Starts to Fade
Titania, princess of the Wind Queendom, was a figure of beauty Natalie did her best not to envy, with slender limbs, an ample chest and exotic almond skin. On one side of her face, green hair swept down her body like long grass left to grow for centuries, while on the other her hair was short and spiky like summer leaves. With emerald eyes she watched the bustling of nature, which centred on her as if she were some kind of mother goddess.
“You’re not worried?” asked Natalie as she steadied herself against a tree, “She’s on the verge of tearing apart everything we’ve struggled to protect,”
A white smile blazed across Titania’s elfin face. “It’s so totally unpredictable! Don’t you just love it?”
Natalie took a deep breath, closed her eyes and reminded herself she was dealing with a Wind faerie, not a human. To them, the unpredictable was the natural order of things, just as domination and submission were to humans. “Princess, this is a dangerous situation we’re in, please try to take things at least a little bit seriously?” she said, frowning at the Princess’s giggling as a small bird rummaged through her hair, “Cethin Sarff attacked the Academy, which means they must be getting close to the source of corruption themselves – and I doubt their methods for uncovering it will be as benevolent as ours,”
“Totally! Those guys’ll just tear the place apart ’til they find what they’re looking for! We’re in a crazy race to the finish line now!”
Not only did Wind faeries love chaos, they were also fun-loving hedonists with no concept of responsibility. Trying to rely on one to help protect her students was perhaps one of the strangest decisions Natalie had ever made. “How much longer do you think it will take for you to narrow down the candidates?” she asked.
“Ooh, I don’t know! Do I look like a Water faerie? Of course I don’t, I have green hair!”
“Princess…”
“Okay, okay…” she sighed, “I’ve gotta list of possible suspects now, but it’s getting harder to figure out what with all those crazy guys n gals working their own magic to counter mine!”
As far as Titania was concerned, everything was ‘magic’ – including the various technological solutions some of the more observant students had come up with to fight off her dream-like illusions. Natalie had tried to explain the concept of computers to her once. She may as well have tried to teach her pet ferret.
“So who’s on the list now?” she asked. Titania proceeded to list everyone who had found some way or another to get around the false memories that drifted into their minds whenever the spell was augmented. Other than a couple of clever exceptions, the young first year students were still blissfully unaware of the truth, while most of the third year were off on field assignments and had been taught to fend them off. The second year, however…Titania listed off a stream of names.
