Chapter 2 Part 1: The Mansion

The waiting room was large and white – kept pristine by a team of housekeepers that worked every other day. It was an enclosed space filled with natural light which shone through every window that adorned the wall and the large patio doors as well. The architecture was pure folly as it was intended to blur the boundary between the inside and outside and was made of more glass than framework.

On the other side there lay furniture on the patio that quickly gave way to an acre of grass before the view was obstructed by hedges towering above Sarah’s head. Strewn throughout the yard there were weather vane’s of various animals and gods or goddesses from a number of pantheons. Each one blew in separate directions rarely matching with the direction of the wind.

Sarah heard enthusiastic conversations going on around the room. It was easy enough to find everyone she would be working alongside with. Including herself and Olivia there were only five humans present in the room with a number of other fae spread throughout mingling with one another. The humans were in a loose group as Henry engaged with a tall man with blond hair wearing a burgundy sports coat and next to him a younger guy with a tattoo on his arm was speaking with an elf with blond hair and curved features. The fae organized themselves so the more human like they were the closer they found themselves to the humans. Looking at the back of the room Sarah saw a large pot belied man with three faces, red saturated skin and sharp teeth speaking with a large snake twelve feet in length that had a woman’s head. Just a few months ago she would have sworn they were demons and while she didn’t know what they were she knew enough to know that they weren’t the minions of hell.

With the doors closed behind them Henry beckoned her and Olivia to him. Out of everyone in the room only Henry felt perfectly at ease. Olivia pulled Sarah to the side and asked, as discretely as she could. what was going on with all the monsters in the room. Sarah didn’t have a good answer, only that she recognized a one of them as her teachers. She whispered back that Olivia could hold on to her arm if she wanted and reassured her that this wasn’t dangerous. A statement she felt was at least eighty percent likely to be true.

Henry took Olivia’s hand and formally greeted her before turning to Sarah and welcoming her back. “Allow me to introduce the two of you to your peers, Luther and Marcus.”, Henry mused “The four of you will have time to get to know each other later but as a brief introduction Marcus recently graduated with his law degree, Luther is a mechanic, Olivia is a musician in a respected orchestra and Sarah here is your senior here by a month. She’ll be the one showing you around the estate. You will find another joining you in the coming days if not weeks – it’s proven to be a challenge garnering his attention.”  

“Now then.” Henry departed, leaving the four of them in his wake, as he moved to a location where everyone in the room could see him clearly. “With everyone present I believe there are a few words to be said. Among us there are four humans whom have only experienced the natural world through the lens of myths, stories and their own imaginations. Separated from it they have grown up and lived – as countless generations before them have – within the confines of the artificial. An environment kept groomed and tailored per agreements created long before any of us breathed our first breathe and maintained through policies of zero tolerance and all the fear and cruelty that stems from it. Let me assure all of you that your presence here does not violate any terms between our worlds and is in fact supporting those very agreements.

“Marcus, Luther, Olivia and Sarah, you four are here for your own ambitions – whether it is to serve yourself, to serve others, or a combination between the two. A demonstration of power has been shown to you that exemplifies a single skill that will help you in your life and accomplish your goals in ways you could never achieve without. I can promise you that what was shown to you is nothing more than parlor tricks compared what you can and will learn if you dedicate your time here for a short period of time. You will wield the power and learn the skills needed to accomplish your goals and achieve the pinnacle of success in your fields while also acquiring the knowledge to responsibly use it.

“You are undoubtedly wondering why you are here and the answer to that is as simple as it is complicated – prophecy. There are very few reasons that justify the unfiltered interaction between us and the natives of this world and prophecy is one of them.

“Please don’t misunderstand me though you are free to leave if the notion of a predestined path is too much for you, because here’s a secret – you don’t have one. Prophecies tend to be as vague as needed to give forewarning while also not obstructing it’s own visage. However, there are plenty of people who have made it a point to thwart a seers vision and have succeeded – though at high cost.

“Your presence here is an act of preparation to ensure you are capable and competent to handle the challenges you will one day face. I say this because you would not be called for in the prophecy if there were not forces already set in motion that would naturally involve you and the ones you care for. So I reiterate, you are free to leave at any point however, if history is any indication you will become involved sooner or later and the only question is whether you face destiny prepared or if you find yourself blind sighted and unable to make sense of what’s happening.

“If you choose to stay please look around you at the others in this room. In this house they are to be called fae. Different countries call them different things and each culture is familiar with a different group, so for simplicity you can call them fae. Some are human-like, others less so. They will be teaching you magic.

“You have a lot to process so the only thing I will say of the prophecy is that it threatens the agreements that separate the fae from this world and if things go poorly a lot of people will die. That is all.”

Henry grabbed a glass of champagne from a server standing nearby before returning to the group of humans still grouped together watching him. “Well, what are you all still huddled around for?” Henry called for the elf, Saphielle, and paired her with Olivia. The centaur, Aretes, he called over for Marcus and Luther and left Sarah to her own selection before bidding the occupants a farewell, saying he would be available later, and left the room.

Olivia looked over to her to see if everything was okay to which Sarah responded with a reassuring smile. Looking around the room the fae were once again mingling with each other save for Saphielle and Aretes. Moving to the outskirts of the room Sarah approached the snake woman and three faced man whom she could now see had multiple arms to go with his faces. As she approached, the two of them stopped their conversation and looked at her.

Sarah had a hard time finding solid footing and smiled weakly at them “Hi there,” she waved “I look forward to getting to know you. I’m Sarah if you don’t mind me asking who are you?” She held out her hand to shake while staring at the snake woman before realizing she didn’t have hands. She tried to recover by quickly pivoting her body so her hand was being offered to the man and she looked at one of his faces trying to focus on only one. Sweat was forming around her armpits as the man took his time looking her over.

After what felt like an eternity the man pulled in a large lung full of air and bellowed a passionate laugh that reverberated throughout the room. He grabbed Sarah’s hand and shook it. “I can’t, I can’t. Toyotama here and I were talking about how to absolutely terrify you all. We were not expecting any of you to approach us until you absolutely had to. You’re Sarah aren’t you?” the man didn’t wait for a response “Henry told us a bit about you. Where are my manners? I’m Xotarus, and I was not expecting you to come right up to us. I’ll be teaching you all about the destructive nature of magic and the more dangerous passions one can fall into if you aren’t careful.”

Sarah wasn’t sure if she would be able to repeat either pronunciation but after Xotarus let go of her hand Toyotama offered her tail to shake “It’s nice to meet you. I’ll be teaching you about stealth but mostly strengthening your mind. It’ll help you use magic and ward off intrusions.”

The remainder of the afternoon went by like this: individually or in pairs the four of them were paraded to the fae where they all started with their names and what their specialty was going to be. Seeing them all and speaking with the fae felt dream-like while also carrying the false bravado of formality. There was a goblin playing a yellow string still half in his pocket who would be teaching them to tether and bind various objects. A woman with the body of a scorpion looked a bit older than Sarah and said she was an Aqrabuamelu. She would be showing everyone how to defend themselves. The last one Sarah could recall easily was a man a head taller than her with muscles almost comically large. On his back were wings near translucent in color with faint hues of pink and gold. He was a half pixie and would be teaching them something about building boats and navigating.

Sarah had been residing on the premises for about a month but she spent most of her time learning the theory behind magic and spells. She only had two nonhuman teachers and one of them wasn’t present. This was a lot for her to take in and she only imagined how the others were responding.

Finally everyone had met everyone and all the introductions were complete. Looking around Sarah noticed a sizable influx of waiters and waitresses that she didn’t notice before. They carried the plates to a large table off on the side of the room where they set the plates and removed the lids displaying an assortment of food that steamed. With that, most of them left leaving a few behind to offer drinks and other small snacks to anyone who wanted it.

Taking a close look at the table there were some items that didn’t look edible though everyone found something they enjoyed and by the end there was hardly a scrap left. When everyone was full the fae departed bidding farewell to the four humans. Saphielle stayed behind and explained that they would be returning in smaller groups in the coming days. “Their schedules haven’t been finalized yet but you will be learning under them on alternate days.” Saphielle explained, “Sarah, why don’t you give us all a tour of the grounds.”

Room by room Sarah showed Luther, Mark, and Olivia the estate gradually making her way to where everyone would find there rooms. From the outside the mansion appears to be three stories but inside there were six and walking from one end to another had to be at least a quarter mile.

The outside of the estate was large, but the inside was comically so. In a way it made sense to Sarah why this was the case. During her time here she picked up the feeling that Henry didn’t like people very much and while he may not explicitly hide from others he had a few traits that made Sarah think he had no problem making it very difficult for anyone to find him if he wanted to be left alone.

Throughout the estate there were a multitude of libraries filled to the brim with books with podiums strewn about one could put a book on and read while standing or chairs deliberately placed to let someone read without having to turn on any lights. In other rooms there were half finished projects where glyphs graffitied the wall in the shape of a door or circle. On occasion Sarah glanced upon a machine half built hooked up to a computer with books lying about. In other rooms still there were shelves and chests filled with potions and enchanted items like the one she used earlier to play the violin.

The rooms never stayed in the same place for long and when Sarah asked about it was told that the house was subtly alive in it’s own way and chose when to show some rooms and hide others based on the mental state of the occupants. Someone stressed and wanting to be along may find themselves on the other side of the estate, while someone who has no knowledge of magic would experience a perfectly normal mansion that matches exactly to the dimensions seen outside.

With the help of Saphielle Sarah explained these concepts alongside the generalities of where everything was including showers, the bathrooms, game areas and more. The most difficult thing to get used to Sarah explained was that there wasn’t any Wi-Fi and there are only a few areas where a cell signal will work.

The next day Sarah took everyone to Andrew’s café where they pelted her with questions she did her best to answer. They ranged everywhere from what Henry was like to why she was brought in earlier than the rest of them, to what creatures are myth and which ones are real, and if she knew about the prophecy Henry was talking about.

They hesitated after the last question when Sarah answered that she only knew vague details. “All I know is that apparently there’s a heaven, a hell, the fae, an abyss, and what we would called eldritch horrors. Supposedly something is happening, or will happen, where a few old ones will make everything collide.”

“And we’re supposed to stop this?” Olivia interjected to which Sarah could only shrug her shoulders and look as lost as they were.

When they returned Toyotama was waiting for them near the entrance with Henry. Sarah was accustomed to lessons starting in the early afternoon and continuing until the late evening.

With the same gravitas as the day before Henry spoke “Well, I’m glad to see none of you decided to leave. I assure you that you have made the right decision. To that end your lessons start today with Toyotama so let me give a quick explanation” before being interrupted.

It was Marcus who interjected “Yeah Henry, you can explain – what’s going on with Heaven and old ones and how they’re going to kill us all?”

Henry paused where he stood while he collected his thoughts before replying brusquely “That’s Master Brickenden to you and I see Sarah has shared with you some details of the prophecy I mentioned yesterday. Rather poorly I might add.” Henry readjusted his suit before continuing “That’s to be expected though I suppose and perfectly fair.

“Yes, the prophecy – don’t be alarmed by it, it’s perfectly natural for the wording to be – overdramatic. Seers are like that. Before I tell you the actual prophecy let me assure you that there is no future where any of you will be learning magic that makes you unique among the fae. You will not be learning, neither will you be capable of performing, any witchcraft that cannot be accomplished by myself or the other institutions already in place. There is no magical realm filled with hidden secrets just waiting for you to find that will carry you to victory in whatever wars you are imagining. In fact, I doubt you will be doing anything dangerous at all. Because at the end of the day you are not warriors, no one is expecting you to fight. Considering the scope of the prophecy it is absurd to think that any of you would be able to do much with a punch here or a stab there.

“The prophecy goes like this: Two Old Ones have awakened their power and are returning to the world they left so long ago. In their wake the borders between the afterlife and mortal realms will crack and breach and with this schism blood will follow. A child of the abyss will either let them devour the world, devour it with them, or guide them away while others of his kind will ward against the worst of the incursions be it fae, angel or demon.

“You see, no mention of any of you fighting. If anything, you’re more likely to have tea and bond with an angel which will lead them to discover that, considering the circumstances, any differences they feel towards demons are of little concern and that we all need to work together if we’re to push back the Old Ones. No one is capable of fighting an Old One. None of you are ever going to be able to fight something like that, or angels, or demons, or most other fae. I’m certain that whatever makes you unique is in some personality quirk that makes you oddly relatable to some divine figure. So get any thought of fighting out of your head, because you just aren’t built for it. The only thing I’m concerned about is that one of you is the child of the abyss – and while I was able to locate you all, as figures connected to the prophecy, I can not tell which one of you is that child.”