Fey'd Up

143.

The journey to Rolf's resistance group crossed path's with the US military multiple times. There were check points and patrols to avoid, and the evidence of conflict was apparent all over the fey with craters and trees pock marked with gun fire. Clarissa didn't ask what was going on, it was apparent from the journey, the US had invaded the fey.

"This is the other one sire." Rolf had bowed to their leader a woman in a gleaming set of armor who was armed with multiple swords. She looked bigger than every other elf around, Clarissa figured she was probably the war leader in times like this.

"You may leave Rolf." It wasn't exactly a throne room, more of a nicer dirt hut that had been hastily constructed, but there was a lot of fancy things around the room. The leader left Clarissa her weapons, so little she feared of the young exterminator.

"Where's Gilbert?"

"No hello, no who are you or what is your position, or thank you for allowing me into your camp, just straight to business."

"Oh I'm sorry your majesty, I apologize for crudely expecting us to get to the part of what's going on instead of keeping up pomp and circumstance."

"Humans such impatient creatures, always rushing off to die, if you want it so badly girl I can end you right here and now."

"If it would save me from the internminble bullshit of the elves go right ahead." The elf leader drew her sword and advanced on Clarissa and then stopped with a big smile on her face.

"You've got fire in you human, more so than most of your kind faced with a Shaleche of the Elves."

"What's a Shaleche?"

"In your words closest would be executioner, but I'm also the war leader and just flatly right now leader leader after your peoples incursion."

"Why are they here why did they take Gilbert?"

"They are here for power, an ancient power that someone foolishly told them was in the fey, as to why they took Gilbert? I assume they believe he can lead them to that power."

"And do you think he can do that?" The leader smiled.

"No, for one its not actually in the fey, and for two your boss does not know where it actually is or how it can be found."

"What can I do?"

"Join us in rescuing your boss, and with hope convincing the general leading this foolish assault on my lands and peoples why this is a very a bad idea."

"Deal." Clarissa didn't exactly know what she'd signed up for, but she and Gilbert had come to the fey to figure out why they were stealing souls, and now they were having to solve a new conflict some idiot started. Just another day in the life recently.

Interloping

142.

The meadow looked otherworldy to Clarissa, like a perfect story book meadow only missing the singing animals. She knew of course the danger in the place now, but she was still drawn to its allure, the beauty of a place that was real and still incredibly dangerous. Like a real unicorn, it was the stuff of her adolescent trapper keeper dreams. Gilbert was missing, or somewhere else. He warned her this too could happen, but she had expected like his other warnings this was just like a rare chance. She didn't even really know what they were after or were set to do, and now without Gilbert she had to just wing it.

Clarissa did at least know this was hostile territory, and though she hadn't needed the survival skills she'd learned in the jungle she still had them. She made a quick check of her gear and then made her way into the foliage, not wanting to be out exposed in open terrain for whatever might come by. Almost as if summoned by her moving aside a rumbling column of US soldiers smashed through the meadow Clarissa had just been in.

They looked surreal in the fey, men in flack jackets carrying rifles and escorting tanks, but there they were. Clarissa watched silently hoping to not be noticed out of fear they'd kill her on the spot as a spy or something else. As she watched the army column roll through she felt a presence behind her, humanoid from how it moved. Clarissa remained still, but drew one of her daggers. She waited for it to draw close and then swung around with the weapon directed at where she assumed it's neck would be.

"Whoa whoa lets keep things calm." He was an elf, his outfit looked a little ragged and the stubble on his face spoke to being without toiletries for a while.

"Right keep calm to the person sneaking up on me." They spoke in whispers, the army columns tanks were loud, but they didn't want one of the soldiers escorting them to hear.

"Sneaking is such an ugly word for a pretty woman."

"Flattery will get your throat cut."

"Right right ok, look I didn't know if you were with the soldiers or not, clearly you aren't though you clearly shouldn't be here either." The column of military people passed by, the last of their vanguard walking to where ever they were going. Clarissa kept the knife up but pulled it back a bit.

"How do you know I'm not with them."

"You're literally wearing an exterminators outfit." Clarissa could feel her cheeks blush.

"Also I was sent to find you, Gilbert has been taken."

"Why didn't you lead with that?"

"You had a knife at my throat, cut me some slack."

"Well come on, take me to my boss."

"My name is Rolf by the way." Clarissa shrugged and Rolf sheepishly put his hand back from the hand shake that wasn't coming. "On to the resistance!"

Morgan of the Fey

141.

"Picking on a poor troll like that, beneath you Gilbert."

"No it isn't Morgan, and you know that." The fairy waved a ridiculous butterfly wing of a fan on herself and yawned as if to show her boredom with the conversation.

"So what help can I not help you with today Dunkley?"

"Why is the Fey attacking souls?" Morgan yawned again.

"The what in the what? I'm sorry exterminator your kind if so specific and I'm just not that kind of girl."

"Cut the bullshit Morgan, you know god damn well what I'm here for." The meadow shifted, Morgan transformed in front of Gilbert and Clarissa, she went from being an overly large fairy to a thin incredibly pale woman with sharp features. Gone was the normal fairy outfit, replacing it was a nice suit. The glade itself became an office, very spartan and a display of power.

"You take the fun out of theatrics."

"I don't have time for theatrics."

"So you said, power Dunkley power, the fey want it and souls offer it."

"Power for what?"

"For the war you idiot, what do you think is going out there in the world? There's a war brewing and the creatures of the Fey will not sit idly by while your people plunge into our realms with reckless abandon."

"My people?"

"I've said what I'm going to say, you can leave now." Gilbert wanted to ask more, but he figured he'd already pushed his luck enough with Morgan. Clarissa wanted to say something to Morgan, but figured she too wouldn't want to push her luck.

***

"So her name is Morgan and she's of the fey? So she's literally Morgan La Fey?"

"Thank god you didn't say that to her in person she'd have killed you where you stood." Gilbert and Clarissa were already down the road.

"Seriously?"

"She once threatened to cut my balls off when I asked her if she knew Arthur."

"Yikers."

"That is not a word please stop using it."

"So what's our play from here."

"Our play is the worst one."

"We're going into the fey lands."

"We're going into the fey lands."

A Soul War

140.

"Fruitless conjecture Mr. Dunkley." Duffy had taken them back to his office for a celebratory drink and their payment. Gilbert did not like how tidy this had been considering how it started.

"It wasn't just one lost fey creature Mr. Duffy."

"It was, and you killed it, and now you'll be paid and be on your way." Before Gilbert could say anything else they were in front of the building. It caught both Clarissa and Gilbert by surprise.

"Rude of him."

"And stupid, he's in trouble and he's throwing us out? Well that won't stop me." Gilbert put his gear away in the back of the van, Clarissa followed suit and hurried to her seat Gilbert seemed in a hurry.

"Where are we headed."

"The other side in this conflict."


****

"She will not see you." It was a strip mall in Des Moines Iowa, the sign out front promised palm reading Clarissa felt her skin crawl just being inside. The receptionist was an overweight man who smelled of alcohol.

"I thought it was just the summer court that hated me right now."

"It's all of the fey Dunkley, and you know that." Gilbert took a set in one of the three chairs in the lobby. Clarissa did as well. "She won't see you even if you wait."

"We'll see about that, go ahead and do whatever you're going to do troll." The man at the front desk snorted and went back to whatever he was doing prior to them entering.

"Kind of rude to call him a troll for just telling us how things are Gilbert."

"He's literally a troll, he's just got an illusion to not look like it, its the smell that gives them away."

"I just thought he drank his breakfast."

"Well that too."

"I can hear the both of you you racist judgmental assholes." Everyone stayed quiet for a moment, than a phone rang at the front desk and the Troll answered. Gilbert couldn't make out the full conversation but by the Troll's anger at its resolution he knew he got what he wanted.

"She'll see you, but you watch it pal if you so much as breathe improperly in her direction."

"Right I'll make sure to be on my best behavior." Clarissa had no idea what to expect as they went down the narrow hallway into the room beyond, but she didn't expect a blooming fountain garden, with a rather large fairy sitting in a fountain staring back at them.

"Morgan."

"Dunkley." The door shut behind him and not for the first time Gilbert wondered if he should have just let things go.

Cut Off

139.

It was fruitless to go back, they had tried to retrace their steps and had found there were no steps to retrace. Gilbert blamed himself not thinking about their safety and remaining gear before charging ahead. He'd gotten too interested in the mystery and not enough in the making sure things were ok and now they were lost in some kind of spirit purgatory with a teleporting bull creature.

"So what is that thing?"

"Not a clue, but I imagine we can kill it or it would have stuck around, its as afraid of us as we could be of it."

"Yeah except I can't teleport and I'm not the size of a small car."

"You never know about your hidden strengths Clarissa maybe you can teleport."

"Really?"

"No you can't teleport, that's just nonesense to make you feel better." Clarissa lightly hit Gilbert on the shoulder and he smiled. They still had some of the salt and had at least set up a new safe zone for what good it could do against the creature Gilbert wasn't sure.

"So what's the plan?"

"Iron, it's good against fairies, and this creature looks like something of the fey, and attacking souls definitely is a fey kind of thing to do."

"So iron?"

"Yeah they hate it, something about being connected to the earth, I dunno creatures of the Fey are assholes and Iron kills them if applied properly its all you need to know."

"Is this why Doris hates regular silverware?"

"No that's just Doris thinking she's better than regular people." Clarissa laughed, it broke up the tension of being potentially stuck in the world of lost souls. They did still have the question of how to get the bull fey to attack them, but Gilbert figured if they just stepped beyond the salt it might do that on its own. Gilbert made the first step outside of the protection of the salt, he didn't figure his first step outside would cause the creature to charge them, but fey creatures were weird like that and it just might have. Gilbert was able to step out without issue and Clarissa joined him, they didn't want to travel too far from safety because they didn't have anything anchoring them to it and the building had already changed on them once.

The bull fay charged almost immediately. Gilbert heard the hoof beat first before he turned and fired. Three shots landed home and the creature came screeching to a halt. Clarissa took up an arrow and fired two shots into the head to be sure. The bull fay was at least as Gilbert surmised killable.

"Now how the hell do we get out of here?" Just then the elevator seemingly materialized out of nowhere appeared behind them.

"All done?" He had a smirk on that told Gilbert he knew more than he was letting on, and that this job was just getting started.

The Safe and the Unsafe

138.

"First we must establish a zone of safety." Gilbert was pouring salt in one direction while directing Clarissa to the do the same in the other direction.

"I guess if something attacks us it will be assaulted." Clarissa laughed at her joke but Gilbert did not.

"Next we'll have to pick out directions to scout from, this isn't a real building or a place, so the location will probably change, think Hansel and Gretel."

"You have some bread crumbs to leave behind Gilbert?"

"Nope we'll use climbers rope, its a bit safer than hoping mice don't eat your bread crumbs." Gilbert anchored the rope in his protection area, and then handed Clarissa a harness to and line to attach to.

"Do you have any idea what can kill spirits?"

"Well these aren't exactly spirits, these are souls, it sounds like a distinction without a difference but think of these as more raw energy with faces, and less angry people. So its less something killing them and more something siphoning that energy. I can think of a couple things and neither of them are something I hope is here, stay close." Clarissa felt a little silly attached to a climbing rope moving through a broken hallway, but having known how quickly things can go from ok to not ok, she would deal with the silliness. They weren't really talking as they went, both seemingly convinced whatever was hunting the souls could hear them even though there was no proof of that. The further they got from their "safe" zone the worse the damage looked, walls were ripped out, signs of struggle were apparent, but no "bodies" or any kind of remains of a victim.

"Maybe its just really big spirit rats?" Clarissa speaking kind of startled Gilbert.

"Spirit rats?"

"Yeah I mean rats have spirits right?"

"You know never thought of it like that, but maybe?" Just then there was a snort like that of a large bull. Gilbert took out his pistol, Clarissa readied an arrow. They crept up on the noise and found nothing, not a trace of a creature or even a foot print.

"That's just fucking weird right?"

"Could be the spirit world has a lot of residual shi... GET DOWN!" The creature appeared behind Clarissa ready for a full on charge. Gilbert only saw it for an instant before she ducked underneath its gore, but it certainly didn't look like anything he'd seen before. After dodging it the creature disappeared in a puff of black residue, aside from the lingering smell Gilbert and Clarissa could find no sign of it.

"Well that was scary."

"Quite, but at least we saw the beast." Clarissa nodded and then she looked down in a panic, while she had successfully dodged the bull creature, it had severed their climbing rope, they were now untethered and the way they had come definitely looked like it had changed.

"Gilbert we have a problem."

Hello Mr. Duffy

137.

"Come in out of the cold, no need to be standing there in the doorway." The concierge was that level of upper class servant polite rudeness. Gilbert was put off on him immediately.

"What is this place?" Clarissa said it with a level of awe that had Gilbert be suspicious the building was affecting her.

"What is a pedestrian question, where or why is a more important one, but we'll get to that, first you must meet Mr. Duffy in his office and he must discuss our situation with you, come along." The concierge showed them to an elevator, and inside was an old timey looking elevator operator complete with a silly hat.

"To Mr. Duffy's office." The concierge informed the operator and he nodded, but did not speak himself. Gilbert was beyond questioning the weirdness, so when the elevator closed one second and opened to an office with no hallway in between he just accepted it.

"Mr. Dunkley do come in." Mr. Duffy looked like a shady used car salesman, from the tacky suit to the slicked back hair and unnaturally tanned skin. His every word was a sales pitch you didn't want.

"What is going on here Mr. Duffy."

"Do call me Quin, its short for Quinlin, and sit please." The chairs were big leather recliners, sitting in them Gilbert and Clarissa felt small.

"Mr. Duffy please."

"Fine, we're not ghosts, we're not demons, this place isn't in your head, it's a," His eyes went up in his head for a moment as if he was trying to find the right words, "A hostel of sorts for the dead who don't want to admit they are dead, originally the native americans had this land as sacred so as to not disturb the spirits on their journey, of course the white man had to throw a damn building on top of it, but we managed just fine."

"So you're a ghost."

"No I specifically said I'm not a ghost, I'm a caretaker of sorts, and I need your companies help, you deal with monsters correct?" Gilbert didn't like the way he phrased monsters.

"What kind of monster can harm ghosts?"

"That is the question I'd like for you to answer, bell hop!" Duffy signaled the elevator operator and shooed both Gilbert and Clarissa inside with himself. He nodded at the operator and the elevator arrived somewhere else, though when the doors opened it was on a black corridor that looked like a murder or a war had been fought there. Lighting fixtures, and even whole walls were damaged and  barely hanging on.

"What's going on here?"

"That Mr. Dunkley is what you are hired to find out." Gilbert didn't even notice he and Clarissa had been moved off the elevator until the door closed behind him and left him in Clarissa in the busted hallway.

"Well at least we're prepared right?" Gilbert looked at Clarissa sternly for a moment and smiled.

"Yeah at least we're prepared." As if in response something screamed in the darkness and the mood of happiness was instantly gone.