THE FORBIDDEN MAGIC

When I was little, I was told by my guardian, Rhoda, that magic was everywhere. I asked her to show
me, and Rhoda lifted me onto her hip, taking me into the forest beyond our cottage. She walked until
we came to a grassy spot with a perfect ring of white toadstools. Rhoda had stepped carefully into the
center and closed her eyes.
A deep thrum began to emerge from her throat. Its tones were sad and haunting. They made me want
to cry, but at the same time, they made me want to laugh. And then, a tiny figure peeked out at us from
behind the toadstools, glittering in the dim light.
“Rhoda!” I whispered sharply in her ear.
She smiled. “I know...”
He soared to me with shimmering wings that fluttered like a rainbow, and I held my breath. He landed
on Rhoda’s shoulder and looked at me with the same entranced curiosity. He had green skin and a belt
made of leaf cuttings.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A pixie,” she answered. “This one is called Vanestep.”
He made a small angry sound and bit her ear. She flinched a moment but then giggled as he flew away.
I giggled too. It was all so wonderful. But I was only a child then, and could still believe that magic
was wonderful.
“You mustn’t tell Kyus about this,” Rhoda warned me as we returned home.
“Why not?”
“It is our secret, little one.”
And that was the end of the matter. Rhoda never spoke of magic when her husband was nearby. But
when we were alone in the kitchen, or in the herb garden, or feeding the goats, she would tell me about
the Fae. She told me about the Courts of Summer and Winter. Of kings and queens with golden skin,
who sat on thrones of Loneswing.
There was so much about my world I did not know. I didn’t know that the land where our little cottage
sat was within the Kingdom of Thornton.
But I knew about the Fae.
I knew the Undine was born in rivers. They were young and beautiful, with skin that glittered like an
early frost. They could sing so sweetly; you would happily follow them into deep water just to hear
their song. That’s where they would drown you if they could.
I knew the Oakbred would sweep the floors at night if we left a bowl of milk on the table. They were
thin, and brown, and had long pointed ears. They would catch me watching, and snarl at me with their
tiny, sharp teeth. When that happened, I would pinch my eyes shut tightly, and hear them laughing as
they continued their work.
But there were so many things I didn’t know.
I didn’t know the Fae were hunted in Thornton. I didn’t know that once they were captured, their heads
were cut off, and returned to the village to Watch for coins. I didn’t know that lords would buy them to
keep like pets in their castles. In time, I would learn.
But first I would learn my name.
For the approaching harvest, the fields were ripe and ready. The days were becoming shorter and the
leaves were changing colors. During the day, the sun was gentle, and when it set, it created a soft pink
and orange glow all over the sky.
“The Earl will be coming soon,” Kyus told me one morning.
“What’s an Earl?” I asked. “Is it a Fae?”
“No,” he replied, coldly. “The Earl owns the fields. He takes half the harvest.”
“Oh,” I replied, uncertainly.
“If the Earl comes while we are in the fields, you are to say NOTHING, you understand?” he asked,
gripping my arm, his fingers dug into the tender skin.
“I understand!” I promised.
“If you say a word, I’ll thrash you within an inch of your life!”
“I understand!” I cried again. This time, he let me go.
The Earl arrived while I was in the wheat. When I heard a weird noise, I peered through the stalks and
saw four riders straddling large mounts. I had never seen horses as magnificent as they. The only
horses I had seen before were the plow horses in the nearby fields. They did not shine like these; their
coats were a dull brown. Their manes didn't sparkle as fairies' wings did. Until someone shouted,
"Someone's hidden in the wheat!" I was so fascinated by the horses that I barely noticed the men riding
them. ”
It was a boy. I had not seen many children before. This one was pale, like milk, and had dark chestnut
hair that curled around his pink face. He pointed his finger at me.
“You there! Come here!”
I stood slowly, taking careful steps toward them. They all looked down at me through sneered
expressions, and I tugged at the hem of my tunic to keep from shaking.
“Are you a boy or a girl?” he asked.
“I’m a girl,” I stammered.
“What’s your name?” he continued.
I blinked. No one had ever asked for my name before. Rhoda always spoke to me in sweet words, but
she had never called me by a name. I felt my cheeks becoming flushed as I realized I had no answer for
him.
“I don’t know,” I muttered.
“What do your parents call you?”
“I don’t have any parents,” I admitted sadly. “I just have Kyus and Rhoda.”
“What did they tell you?” he pressed.
“Nothing,” I answered, too quickly.
He smirked. “Nothing? All right, Nothing. Until you give me a name, that’s what I’m going to call
you.”
“Her name is Aesha, Master Maru,” Kyus said, softly.
The boy cut his eyes at Kyus, and then back to me. My own eyes were wide with astonishment. Aesha.
I thought it sounded like a beautiful name. A musical name. A name that would float on the river and
dance amid patches of clover.
“That’s not much better than Nothing,” Maru remarked.
I kept silent.
The Earl told Kyus he would send wagons to collect his share of the crops soon, and then spurred his
horse into a trot, moving further along the road. I watched them crest the hill, and saw Maru turn back
to look at me.
The Earl only came at harvest time, to inspect the crops and demand his tribute. But Maru came many
times. He would top the hill astride his beautiful mount, dressed in garments of red and gold and black.
I would hear the hoofbeats approaching and stand up straight and tall. He had warned me not to hide,
after all.
His escort would help him dismount and wait at the edge of the field with the horses while Maru came
to me. I would stand perfectly still as he circled me. He reminded me of the scavenger birds who
circled along the roads, looking for trampled bodies to feed on.
“You’ve changed since I first saw you,” he said.
That was true. It was spring, now.
“You’re darker, and you look stronger.”
“I am,” I told him.
“Maybe so. But you’re still nothing.”
I glared at him with pure hatred. He always found ways to mock me. If it was not my clothes, it was
my hair. If not my hair, my skin. If not my skin, he would mock that I did not know my parents.
“You’re probably a bastard,” he taunted. “And no one wanted you.”
Even though he had both parents, I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting him. And at least my Rhoda
wanted me. But I had learned not to talk back to Maru. I did, once, and he grabbed me by the hair and
pushed my face into the soil.
“You’ll eat dirt for that! Go on! Eat the dirt, you worm!”
He didn’t let me go until my mouth was indeed full of dirt.
Every day, I listened carefully for the sound of the hoofbeats, hoping they would not come. But all too
often, they did. Sometimes, Maru would sit and watch me as I worked. He would talk, and I was
expected to listen.
“They found a Fae in the village yesterday,” he told me.
I knew it was my turn to say something, now. “A Fae?”
“You stupid girl. You don’t know anything,” he told me.
“I know everything you tell me.”
“That’s true. I take it back. You aren’t that stupid. But do you know what a Fae is?”

“What?”
“They’re an abomination. Sometimes they look like normal people, but they have magic in them.”
“Why is that bad?”
“Did you hear me? It’s an abomination! Fae are evil, and must be destroyed!”
A sick feeling began to churn in my stomach. “What did they do to the Fae?”
“They burnt it.”
The simplicity with which he spoke was horrifying, as though he were speaking of a block of wood
instead of a living thing. I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew it must be true. I suddenly began to
understand why Rhoda made me keep the magic she shared with me a secret.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” I muttered quietly.
“Fae are dangerous. They’re strange colors and have pointed ears and sharp teeth, like animals!”
“But, what if they’re good Fae?” I asked.
“There’s no such thing as good Fae,” he corrected me. “They steal children, curse people, and haunt
animals. They all need to die.”
My chest tightened as he spoke those words. He took my silence for agreement and began to speak of
other things. He told me of the royal city, Whitespire, where he would journey with the Earl that
summer to be presented to the nobility. He even told me of the new suit of clothes the village tailor
would be making for him to wear during the journey, but only a few things made their way through the
troubled thoughts that crowded my head.
That night, I ran all the way to the cottage and into Rhoda’s arms.
“Child, what is the matter?” she asked me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I replied.
“Tell you what?”
“That they kill the Fae,” I whispered.
Rhoda was silent for a moment. She pulled me into the house, and shut the door.
“Who told you about the killing?”
“Master Maru,” I answered.
“They don’t understand, Aesha. They’re scared of something they can’t control, and it makes them
afraid. So, they destroy it instead of having to live without it,” she told me, her voice laced with
sorrow.
A thought had been forming in my mind since midday when Maru had come to taunt me. I took a
breath, gathering the courage to voice it. “I’m one of them, aren’t I? One of the Fae. That's why I don't
have parents.”
Rhoda bent down and grabbed my face, making certain I was looking into her eyes.
“Aesha, you cannot let anyone know,” she said gravely. “People will be afraid of you because your
magic is powerful.”
I understood that all too well. The magic sang to me with the voice of an Undine. I would have gladly
drowned to be in its presence. Countless questions began to fill my mind, but I silenced them. I told
Rhoda goodnight, and laid on my crib, waiting for her and Kyus to fall asleep.
Because, that night, I made a choice. A choice to embrace my magic and test my power. I climbed out
the window, and ran to the forest, to the toadstool ring where Rhoda had first revealed magic to me. I
sat in the center of the ring, closed my eyes, and began the Summoning song. By now the tune came as
easily as a breath. The notes were enchanted to journey from the toadstool rings to the very heart of the
Court of the Seelie. They would echo outward and draw the nearest Fae to me.
The magic was stirring strongly tonight. I could hear the bells around the ankles of Nymphs as they
danced beneath some distant faery mound and wooden flutes of the Fauns who goaded the reveling.
She cried out in the depth of the forest, releasing its enchanted warning, shattering the night with
impending doom.
And I could hear the Fae that approached to answer my call.
It was a Drude, one of the dark elves who served both the Seelie and Unseelie courts. They were not
bound to a clan but chose their patrons as they pleased, and would give you nightmares if you angered
them. This one had black skin and long hair the color of smoke. Her wide eyes glistened with a deep
yellow hue through the darkness, her pupils widened so that the band of color seemed a slender ring.
Two thick horns curved backward over her head, like the horns of a ram. She crawled towards me on
all fours, hesitating to come nearer.
My lips parted, and my breaths released heavily. I shyly reached out towards her, and she glanced
down at my hand. When she looked up again, her eyes flashed as they reflected the moonlight, startling
me so that I gasped. The Drude grinned at me, showing her sharp teeth.
“I won’t hurt you,” I finally dared.
She chuckled. “But I might hurt you.”
Her voice was hushed, like a wind that rustled leaves, but strangely beautiful. I was so drawn to her, I
inched closer to the edge of the ring without even realizing it.
“I don’t think you will,” I told her. “Not while I’m in the ring.”
Her golden eyes narrowed. “So you’ve been taught.”
She crawled through the brush, her gaze fixated on me. Her movement held grace befitting a creature
of the forest and had my eyes not been blessed by Fae blood, it would have been impossible to see her.
I could imagine the fear that would come from hearing the Drude creeping through the forest, knowing
it was there, but unable to find it in the darkness.
“I’ve never been summoned to this ring before,” she remarked. “Whose dreams would you send me to
rend, little one?”
My eyes widened. “You would do that for me?”
“I thought you knew of my kind,” she whispered. “I’ll haunt any dream, for a price.”
She left the cover of the foliage to sit just beyond the toadstools, and I gaped at the sight of her. The
Drude were not like humans. They had no breasts to feed their babies, and nothing telling between
their legs, so they did not wear clothes. I felt my cheeks becoming hot as I looked at her naked body,
and cast my eyes down. She noticed, of course, and laughed again.
“You’ve never seen my kind before, have you?”
I shook my head. “But I was told what you’d look like.”
“Disappointed?” she asked.
I shook my head again. “No.”
“Am I as ugly as you’d imagined?”
I forced myself to look at her again. Her black skin glimmered like a precious stone, and her eyes were
even more luminous in the full light. Perhaps the villagers would have found her ugly, but I was
entranced.
“You’re not ugly. You’re beautiful,” I told her.
She stared at me; her eyes so intently focused that I became frightened. When I tried to move away,
she reached out and gripped my wrist tightly. Her touch was warm, and it made me shiver against the
cold around us.
She smiled again, “Give me a name. And I will plague their sleep.”
Which prompted my question. Fae did not believe in favors. They would never offer their blessings or
curses for nothing. There was always a price. And that was what made them dangerous. You must
never accept their magic without first knowing the price.
So, I asked again, “What’s the catch? What do you want?”
“Bone,” she replied.
I gave it some thought before using the tip of my tongue to push against a loose tooth. It wiggled
almost to the point of breaking, so I pulled and pulled it with my fingers. My tongue was assailed by
the taste of blood as I heard it snap as it broke. Red stains covered my fingertips as I held out the tooth.
“Will this do?”
Her eyes widened, and she jumped to snatch it from me. “Oh yes! This will do nicely! Now, give me a
name. Any name. I want to hear screams tonight. I’m… hungry for them…”
I felt an excitement, unlike anything I had ever experienced before as a diabolical thought slowly
started to weave its way through my mind.
My lips parted into a smile, and I whispered the name, “Maru.”
Performance
Task in
Creative
Writing
Submitted by: Botin, Althea Faith N.

Submitted to: Ms. Charmy Regidor

Genre: Fantasy