Hello, Everyone!
Last time, after a scuffle with her friends, Mary got summoned by her Patron Gillean in his own realm. They had tea and cookies, and they talked about Mary’s fears and worries. He advised her to trust her friends and reassured her that they were going to be there for her when she needed.
Gillean is so cool! 😍
“So, about your new task,” Gillean said. He took out an orange seed and handed it to Mary. “This time it’ll be difficult.”
Mary straightened her back. She thought about Nurvureem and wondered what could be more difficult than that.
“The place is the Unicorn pond in Myth Adofhaer,” Gillean continued.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, somehow relieved. “I know it! I’ve already been there!"
“But you’ll have to ask for permission," Gillean said.
Mary frowned. She imagined the Council looking down on her, Kirios Ibre laughing at a request like that, and Tiriel Elaire straight-out forbidding it. Even Balaine Endoras wouldn’t really be compliant after the way she'd behaved in his office.
“Can’t I…” she tried. “Can’t I plant it without permission? You know, sneakily?”
She’d done a lot of sneaky things the past several days, and she thought she was getting better in it.
“You can certainly… try,” Gillean said, shaking his head slightly. “But they’ll remove it. You see, the elves have a very particular… hmmm… vision, for how their forest looks. When the tree starts growing--and it will!--they’ll uproot it if it’s not planted with their approval.”
Mary grumbled, looking at the ground. Then she thought of something and grinned triumphantly.
“But Balaine Endoras knows you!” she said. “You gave him his bow! He must respect you enough to fulfill the request, if it’s coming from you!”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Gillean said. “Endoras knows me, yes, but this doesn’t mean he'd do you a favour because of that.”
“How did you actually meet him?”
“He gave me this back.” Gillean patted his heart-shaped amulet. “Before becoming an Elder, he used to be an adventurer like you and your friends. On one of his quests he found my amulet and returned it to me. That’s why I gave him Fen'thras. But there’s nothing more. And I wouldn’t trust him too much if I were you. His main focus is the superiority of the Elven race. He’d do anything to make it a reality.”
“I see,” Mary said, without much optimism. "Then I’d have to think of something else."
“You’ve done great so far,” Gillean assured her. “I can feel my influence in the material world growing, as well as our power – both yours and mine. For the future, I’d like to point you to Zerakas tol, Ekoba, the jungles of Orborea and the lands west of the Teeth. But you should stay away from the deep North. The frozen waste is home to creatures far beyond your abilities.”
Mary nodded. She hoped it’d be Zerakas tol she was going to visit next. It was on her list of places to go to, anyway. She’d been curious about Franceska Findabair for so long! Aurum meeting her before she was able to, was a bigger blow to her ego than she cared to admit.
“Mary?”
“Mm?”
“Are you tired?”
Suddenly, she felt like her limbs were heavier than ever. She realized she’d been exhausted for a while now. Not necessarily physically--although there was that, too--but mentaly and emotionally, for sure. She yawned.
“Come, let’s rest,” Gillean said.
He stood up and walked to the big windowed door leading to the outside. It currently seemed to be late spring, everything was green and inviting, and birds were singing in the orchard. There was a split second when Mary rejoiced in the scenery, and in that time, two hammocks appeared out of nowhere, spread between the trees.
Gillean looked at the sky. The sun was crossing it with amazing speed, as if time was going faster than it was supposed to. He followed its path in the sky and right when it was at its zenith, he clapped his hands and it froze in place.
“Wow!” Mary said, wide-eyed. “Did you just… stop time?!”
Gillean laughed.
“No, not quite. See, we’re not in the Feywilds, not exactly. We’re, let’s say… adjacent to it. This place is mine and I have the power to change everything here, including time.”
“This is amazing!” Mary exclaimed.
“You know, there is a spell that can stop time,” Gillean continued, “but it’s only for a very short while, and it needs a really powerful caster. I hope that someday you’ll get there.”
“Me too!” Mary said.
She lay down on her hammock but there were so many questions in her head that she just couldn’t leave it like that.
“Gillean, do you…” she began.
And then her mind went blank, as if wrapped up in cotton, her eyes shut and her breathing slowed down. She was, suddenly and unexpectedly, asleep.
Mary slept soundly and steadily, with no interruptions or dreams of any kind. When she woke up, the sun was in the same spot it’d been when she dozed off, but she knew that had nothing to do with how much time had passed. Gillean was lying in his hammock, one leg swinging on the outside, humming a soft melody under his breath. He was reading ‘Mary Windfiddle’s Grand Adventure’.
“Hello,” Mary said, rubbing her eyes. “Where did you find that?”
“Hello, Mary,” Gillean raised his head from the hammock to be able to see her. “I got it from your bag. I love it so far! That Patron of the main heroine seems like a really cool guy!”
Mary chuckled.
“It's been about two hours,” Gillean said. “You look well-rested.”
“Yes, I feel so, too. Is there magic here that makes you sleep better?”
“No, it’s just the ’sleeping’ part,” Gillean chuckled. “You should try it from time to time. The fact that you don’t need to sleep doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. I have the feeling that a lot of your nervousness lately is the product of your sudden transition to full-time wakedness.”
Now that she thought about it, Mary could trace her steady decline into confusion and bad decision-making all the way to Belfast and the last time she’d napped.
“But what about the nightmares?” she said.
“Nightmares are not necessarily a bad thing, Mary. They give us insight on what we are afraid of, and that can be useful.”
She nodded. She had been apprehensive to sleep after the tunnels, but maybe enough time had passed and she could try to go back to that.
“It’s time to send you back. Are you ready?” Gillean said, jumping from his hammock.
Mary didn’t feel ready ready, but she knew she had to go at some point. Even if her friends didn’t forgive her right away, she’d try and make it up to them in time.
“I’m ready,” she said.
Gillean took out the silver tuning fork and did the spell Mary had already seen. She knew more about this sort of magic now. There was a sound frequency for each plane of existence and, obviously, this instrument was in tune with hers.
While she was flying through the nothingness (it took much longer than last time), she was thinking of how awesome Gillean was for being able to get her in-and-out of the Feylands precisely when he meant to. Time was different in the two planes, and traveling between them was kind of a gamble. You could spend minutes in the Fey Realm and return to your home a year after you'd departed; or spend your whole life with the Fey and come back, having been missing for mere hours.
She arrived at Tesaya's living room just a few seconds before her friends showed up.
Gillean is the greatest! Let’s see how Mary is going to reconcile with her friends, in the next episode of our story!
Also, did you catch the tiny Critical Role reference I included in this one?
See you!
Take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.