Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 216: Changeling

Most of my attention had been subsumed by the chanting and dancing required for the ritual we had decided on. The end result would be the parting of the veil, the barrier that existed between everything and the Summerlands. There would be a second as if the Universe paused for breath, and in that second Fairy would expand. A spatial anomaly that sundered the area we had delineated with Sidhe blood during construction.

A hole in time and space would exist for the briefest second, anchored by the four cardinal positions we had prepared. Enticements of milk and honey had been placed, along with elements of blood and Silinium. The emotional frenzy of dance and song would serve to call. Each part of the ritual defining and limiting the temporal anomaly that we would create.

Arrays triggered bags of holding that had been prepared to contain construction materials as well as plants native to Fairy. Plants native to Talahm and the Summerlands were made available. The Sithern would grow without this intervention, but these gifts of material and life would serve as feedstock to help that growth.

Illusion would be inter-woven with these items to create an exterior that followed the pattern of the pyramid our craftsmen had created at Lord Clive's direction. Illusion and glamour were so real that it would take an army to shatter what we created.

Inside this faux edifice of sandstone and mortar would be Sithern, the realm of Fairy. The power of creation, that momentary harmony of benevolence the Gods shared at their birth would be reproduced allowing the Tuatha de Danaan to expand. A Universe created and claimed by the Tuatha de Danaan. A realm of Fairy created by the spark of our will, our intent the impetus that ignited the blaze that caused the Heavens to shake as the Wild Magic answered song and dance.

And Fairy blossomed.

The concussive force, the titanic explosion of magic that was released to allow Fairy to pierce the veil radiated outwards with the building that was being constructed as the epicenter. The force of magic shattered enchantments and windows for nearby buildings and forced local ley-lines to change course.

Fairy would exist in this place as long as magic existed. It drew power both from the ley-lines that existed in the physical world, and the wisps of Divine energy the Tuatha de Danaan released even in sleep, connected to the Summerlands, this new Sithern would provide a safe harbor for the Sidhe forever.

Saanvi who was supposed to break the glass vial of blood she had collected, to throw the item on the ground in front of her door at this moment, ignored the repeated instructions I'd given. The vial of blood needed to be broken to ensure that the Sithern would create a ripple in the weft and weave of the temporal displacement we were creating. A path that would exist betwixt and between Fairy and reality.

Instead, she retained hold of the vial, her intent clear. She would allow her home to become part of the Sithern, certain that any ramifications her decision created would have to wait for the ritual to be complete. I believed her actions altruistic; her thought only to more completely protect her home and children, to remove any possible method for Rajah Indrajit to enter her home.

Her gambit would work, but not without a price.

For those not of Fairy, it was as if they were standing within the eye of the hurricane, the changes that the Wild Magic were constrained by ritual to make might be delayed, but they could not be ignored. Fairy, the Wild Magic, the Sithern would accept her sacrifice, but like most transactions in Fairy it came at the cost of blood.

The tales of revels lasting hundreds of years, of mortals leaving the halls they found Underhill and returning to a world many years into the future were based on fact. Without the protection of certain items, or the safety that one was gifted as part of guest rites, Fairy claimed those that entered its sphere of influence, making them a part of itself in the process.

The stories of Changeling's, individuals that were remade, those that became part of Fairy were true. Saanvi had made a choice for her and her children, a choice that would see them change. As the Wild Magics responded to ritual and the land of Fairy accepted the limits we had proscribed, Saanvi, Ishaan, and Hiran became the first Changeling's created by Fairy on this world.

There were some real benefits to the change. Saanvi and her children were now considered Sidhe and were gifted with the immortality that change meant. The paradigm to System they leveled under would be re-integrated, their connection to the Hindu Pantheon would be riven, and a new connection would be created with the Tuatha de Danaan.

Whatever experience Saanvi had earned on Derva was exchanged for the equivalent Rank and level she would find on Talahm, and the limitations to System for her children were updated. They would have to wait until the age of majority for whatever species of Sidhe Changeling they had become.

Unfortunately, the changes did come without disadvantages. Fairy claimed her, and her children more tightly than those Sidhe born. We, every Sidhe was filled with the spark of Fairy at birth. It was why the discrimination the Seelie and Unseelie had practiced made no sense.

We, each of us, carried Fairy as part of our potential. Changelings were of Fairy but not Fairy. Their connection was tenuous at best and could only exist as long as the person remained within the bound of Fairy's realm.

For Saanvi, Ishaan, and Hiran that would mean they would have to remain within the Sithern that we had just created, travel the Summerlands, journey to Talahm, or migrate to Ijal if we managed to claim it and make it part of Fairy. In truth that seemed like a small sacrifice for the gift of immortality, but for the Sidhe to be so restricted was anathema. It was why we hated Olympus and Asgard so fiercely. They had thought to stifle our nature for all these years; the debt owed for that temerity would take eons to payback.

Leaving Fairy was no longer an option for Saanvi and her family. Perhaps she wouldn't mind. She had little chance of leaving Derva as a Vaidya's wife, she would have gained [Portal: Summerlands] and [Portal: Talahm] as part of the change, giving her so much more freedom than she had ever had.

Immortality was a harsh mistress, and a Changeling would pay with their life by crossing the boundary between realms. The time which had been held in abeyance would return, the person lashed by forces of temporal disturbance as the body aged and withered until nothing, but dust remained. Even now, with Saanvi just having changed, those forces were absolute. She would be destroyed, aging to dust in seconds if any part of her body crossed that boundary.

The first half of the ritual was completed, and I was able to focus on the changes Saanvi was undergoing. She was already a beautiful woman, but the Sidhe were more than beautiful. Her caramel complexion deepened, the pores of her skin becoming more refined. Any blemish or scar was repaired, and a burnished, almost polished copper-like skin-tone was revealed. Her skin radiating a glow that went beyond the vitality of good health.

It would be noticeable even when the change was complete, that glow was the connection to Fairy that every Sidhe enjoyed. It would always be there, always visible, but it was something that seemed to fade into the background, never remarked upon or noticed. She also began to grow, her small frame gaining over two feet, still leaving her on the short side for our race but towering over any of the people of Derva.

Hair that had been hidden beneath a ghoonghat; hair of deepest black could no longer be contained as the Wild Magic freed those locks. Her hair allowed me to define what kind of Changeling she was to become. Perhaps because she had only ever spoken with me, Fairy had endowed her with certain traits that existed only among the Kelpie.

I wasn't certain if she would have access to each of our shapes, but my body responded to the pheromones she was releasing. She would have access to our horse form, and Fairy had played the harshest trick on her, adapting her to our world as the last phase of the ritual was about to commence, because the revels that mortals spoke of were yet to come.

Fairy had answered our call, had expanded and claimed the area we had proscribed, but now that it was here, it needed to be anchored. The ritual we were using required two parts, the first to call, the second to bind. And for Sidhe, the binding method required blood and sex.

Saanvi had become changeling at this moment when ritual required orgy. We would drink wines long stored, eat foods commissioned from the best ingredients of Fairy, and engage in a wanton abandonment of sexual depravity and delights that the Bards would regal listeners with forever.

This was the first expansion of Fairy in this Universe, and the Sidhe would mark this moment in glorious debauchery.