The Apprentice, Chapter 12

A Fae Tale

I often find it strange and somewhat embarrassing going back to these older examples of my writing. It was so long ago that I don’t have any clear memory of writing it and yet, I know I did. There are glaring flaws in it for me, but I present it more-or-less unvarnished for your judgement. This time, Maryk tells us the tale of the Fae, their rise and fall. In an incredibly round-about way, he explains the origins of the Fae-Mother and why she is all alone. Is it true? Of course not. But there are nuggets of truth in there, just like in any story.

Chapter 12: The Story of the Fae-Mother

Fae folk populated the world, or at least this part of it, long before man sprang forth to build and burn and breed. The Fae did none of those things. They grew and performed and were. It is said that there were Mountain Fae and Tundra Fae, Beach Fae and Fae of the Plains but the only ones who concern us here are the Woodland Fae of this valley, they called themselves the Giarro and the river which man later blackened takes its name from them.

In those days beyond antiquity the valley was ornamented with trees from northern mountains to southern sea and from eastern to western hills. The Creakwood was not even a handful of acorns back then, and it would have been swallowed twenty times over by the Valley Forest. The Giarro lived there amongst their trees. Their lives were of magic. They were magical beings themselves, immortal and unimpeded by the base physical necessities that so bedevil our crass existence. they consumed the world’s natural magic energy which, it is said, they harvested from the forest itself. They affected and manipulated their world with magic. Civilisation is not what you or I would have called their society and community. They had no houses or writing or domesticated beasts. They did not wage war on other Fae folk or other races. They did not use currency or, indeed, truly have a need for any worldly thing. They did not have ranks and all in the forest were considered equal, well, except for the first among equals, the Fae-Mother.

It was said that the Fae-Mother was the first and the leader, not only of the Giarro, but of all Fae in the world. So it was said but it was not true. There were other Fae-Mothers in other regions and lands but they are not important to our tale. The Fae-Mother of our tale was just like the other Giarro except for one very important difference: she, and only she, was capable of creating new Fae life. Fae were not birthed, not in the traditional human sense. As I have stated, they were without a messy, organic form like that of the forest beasts and, later, the humans. Without womb, they were born, instead, out of the thaumaturgical aether. Only the Fae-Mother knew the secret of this birthing and she required the merging of magical essences from at least two of the other Giarro Fae. Those Fae were diminished greatly in puissance and were forced to go into hibernation to regain their strength for a time after the process. During that time the rest of the Giarro gathered around the “new-born” Fae and taught her the way of the world. All Fae were created with equal potential and were assigned roles in their society as they were required. In this way, the Fae community was a perfectly homogeneous one.

The role of the Fae-Mother was not just to facilitate procreation but also to lead and direct the Fae. She had no advisors or sages or ministers or Fae Lords (though all of those exist in the myths we have about the Fae.) She led alone. She made all the decisions on the path her folk should take and how they should take it. Their success or failure was solely up to her.

A society like this one, so integrated and single-minded should be easy to lead. No cajoling or flattering or threatening would have been necessary to have her folk do what was required. All worked harmoniously and for the greater good of the Giarro, and their home, the Valley Forest. Being the first, however, made the Fae-Mother different to her children/followers/subjects. She had never been indoctrinated into the Fae way of life and she wanted more, she wanted improvements, she wanted progress. Progress, the Fae-Mother knew, was the very meaning and point of life. Why else would she have the ability to create more of her race from out of the very aether? As a race of immortals there was no need to replenish their numbers as humans do today, balancing life and death.

In her time in this world she had moved the Giarro Fae from where they had begun on the hills to the east of the river, down into the forest because she knew the very trees of this forest could nourish them all for as long as they wanted to remain there. She devised the process by which certain Fae harvested the magical energies of the trees and then distributed this amongst all the Giarro. She devised a new spell every day (it is still unclear as to the exact nature of Fae casting though it is known to be the progenitor of human magic. It is believed that, as they had no system of writing, ideas were communicated and disseminated by thought without the clumsy necessity for words.) These spells transformed the world of the Giarro. They would use magic to grow great tree towers, bridges of creepers, musical instruments, river-going vessels and artefacts like magic amplifiers, beacons, clothing and walking sticks. No grown Fae item was without a magical quality of some kind.

Human emotions can hardly be applied usefully to the Fae but for the purposes of our story let’s say the Fae-Mother felt pride at the progress of the Giarro. She often looked down on the Valley Forest from the tallest of the tree towers atop the highest of the hills in the west and was full of pride but was she satisfied? Oh no. She was an immortal, magical matriarch whose sole purpose was the eternal progress of her folk. She would never be satisfied. What she saw from her high perch was the movements of the Giarro about the Forest floor and through the branches and along the vine-grown walkways and up and down the river. The most time-consuming industry to which they applied themselves each day was the harvesting and distribution of magical energies. The Harvesters would use a spell of her own devising to draw out the energy from the forest’s trees. This magic was then stored in a kind of pod-container, an item bred and grown specially at the Fae-Mother’s design by the Gardeners. These containers were passed on to the Boaters who brought them up and down the river to jetties (also grown by the Gardeners) where they were handled and distributed by the Handlers. Each handler brought the pods during the day in giant leaf sacks (that’s right, the Gardeners again) to all the Fae in their part of the Forest. The following day the process started again.
The Fae-Mother herself had developed this system and although the harvesting and distribution of magical energies had been greatly improved over the years she could see that there would have to be a change if real progress were ever to be made. Her folk had too few musicians and poets and historians and she began to see the logic in filling more roles for these activities and fewer for the manual labour of harvesting. Their society flourished while their culture stagnated. Balance was required and would not be simple to achieve for anyone but the Fae-Mother.

Plans came easily to the Fae-Mother. That was her purpose after all. Her latest plan involved a whole generation of new births. With these births would come twice as many hibernations. There would be fewer old generation Fae left in the Valley Forest than new generation ones, in fact. This new generation would have more face to face time with the Fae-Mother than any generation previously. For a time, the Giarro society slowed down and entered a long winter. The magical energy in the trees was allowed to build up and then disperse naturally for the most part. The Fae remaining to teach the new generation their ways had plenty to survive on by simply providing for themselves. No matter what their role they absorbed the energy through touching the trees, this was not as efficient as the Fae-Mother’s previous system of absorption and distribution but it was only to be a temporary measure. The new generation of Giarro would be taught a new way.

Next, the Fae Mother decided to address the problem of her people’s manual labours. She was not willing to cull her own folk so she had to come up with a way of completing the work by other means. She needed servants but it would no more have occurred to her to domesticate the animals of the wilds than it would have occurred to you or I to sell our parents into slavery. No, there was really only one option, she would have the plants of the earth do the work for the Giarro. She would breed and grow plants that could walk and gather and contain and transport and distribute. They would be combined with the essences of animals to allow them to achieve these feats. These plants would have minds of their own. These plants were called Ens as an “en” was the Fae word for energy and that is what they provided freely. The new batch of gardeners would grow the Ens and then settle back to enjoy the freedom to explore the world, its beauty and magic and birds and beasts as new Ens replaced them in their work. The Ens were to be capable of doing any manual task that Fae could do and never require rest or wish to be entertained or have to consume magical energy themselves and even replicate themselves as necessary.

Hibernating in the half-aether caves beneath the far eastern hills, the old generation did not have an inkling of the actions of the Fae-Mother but, by the time they emerged, the new Giarro society was to be in place. The Fae-Mother knew that this new system would be difficult for the majority of the old society to accept as most of them had never known any role but that of Harvester, Gardener, Boater and Handler. She was uncertain of how they would react if she introduced the Ens while they were waking and this worried her greatly. Uncertainty had never invaded her consciousness before. Her only option was to create new Fae and send the old ones largely to the hibernation caves. Then, when they emerged, she would have the new generation introduce the old one to the new world. She was sure that, in time, the old generation of Giarro would see the benefit of their new roles and their way of life and not think of them as simply alien and wrong. If they would not accept it, the Fae-Mother did not know the consequences. There had never been anything so absurd as a war between Fae, that would be impossible. There had been some disagreements but only ever between Fae from different bordering lands; these were always settled amicably. She had no reason to expect unpleasantness but she had every reason to expect obedience.

The Ens were a thorough success. As they gathered and delivered, the Fae entered a new Age of Art. Music and song filled the Valley Forest from morning till night. The grandest and most beautiful of tree towers and sculptures dominated all corners of the valley The new generation of Fae experimented with the elements of air, water and fire to make works of unimaginable magnificence. And the Ens laboured on.

Hibernation ended for the old generation of Giarro and they emerged from their half-aether slumber. Their confusion and frustration was felt throughout the Forest and the new generation’s art took a distinctly grey and twisted turn during this time. The old Giarro were addressed by the Fae-Mother, her mind to theirs, “Your world of labours is gone, welcome to your new world, my Giarro. You will all receive new roles, artists, historians, musicians, poets. You will make our culture what it has always had the potential to be. You will make it beautiful.”

“What if we do not desire this?” There was a dissenting mind. It was strong and decisive and felt like only one other mind among all the Giarro, her own. Another Fae-Mother! Another creator! Another leader! The Fae-Mother was reeling still from the realisation when the Other spoke again, “You are aware of my existence and my role, yes? Then you know what it must mean. Your leadership is flawed. These Ens you have created are beings like us and cannot be used in this way. The Fae you tricked into hibernation may not want these new roles you are forcing upon them. What should they do now in your new world? I am here to lead where you have erred and failed.” The Fae-Mother severed the thought link between her new generation (the confusion and fear of whom was rank and patent in her mind) and the old. She cut herself off also from the Other. She also felt fear at the appearance of this imposter who wished to lead with ideas other than her own. This was impossible. Only she was the Fae-Mother of the Giarro. Having two was not possible. It could only bring disharmony and even conflict. A leader still, she anticipated and planned for this potential strife. If conflict arose they would need defence. Violence was alien to the Fae but not so the Ens who were created through the magical commixing of tree and beast: the natural world thrived on conflict. She had seen this many times. They were not grown to be defenders but they would do in a pinch while the Fae-Mother worked on a more final solution to the old generation problem. She summoned the Ens together so they could feel the power of her presence when she spoke to them.
“You were grown to serve the Giarro and you have done so with loyalty and excellence. You will continue to serve us by defending us.”
“What do we defend you from Great Mother?” The Ens asked as one. Looking down upon them from her tallest of tree towers she felt intimidated herself, with their huge wooden bodies and their thick wrapped vine arms the thousands of them looked as though they could certainly cause an enemy great hurt. “You will defend us from the Old Giarro who have come back to destroy our community and way of life. You will destroy them if they come here and give you cause. The New Giarro must not be made impure by their thoughts. I will prevent that. You must ensure that they are not made impure by their words or their touch. For this time, you will cease your current activities and go protect my Giarro from the taint of the old. Keep close to them and watch for the Old Ones. I do not know how they will move against us, but they will.” She reached out deeper into the minds of the tree servants. There was confusion there, just as there was in the minds of the New Ones and the Old Ones. And yet, there was also obedience and loyalty. They had been bred and grown well. Ens dispersed, the Fae-Mother set about constructing a wall of thought around her folk. They might have done this themselves and so spared her the energy but then, she would have to alert them to the existence of the Other and the reasons for cutting them off from their former fellows. She did not wish to deceive them. As she reached out with her mind to seal off the New Ones she could feel the Old Ones creeping amongst the trees of her Valley and congregating still at the caves of hibernation. At the centre of the congregation there was a mind that appeared to her as a void…The Other…she could sense nothing of her but saw her briefly In a glimpse from one of the New who had already fallen under her corrupting influence. She looked just like the Fae-Mother herself. She truly was an imposter then, some trick…somehow a trick… Or perhaps an unnatural aberration. She felt vindicated in her stand against this Other and endeavoured to close the minds of the right-thinkers as quickly as she could.

Attacks began to be felt through the aether as they occurred throughout the Valley Forest. A Fae life snuffing out is like a single candle of magic being doused, from a distance it is undetectable. Ten lives can be seen extinguished from quite a distance. One hundred Fae destroyed is like a great bonfire being put out all at once. The first few moments of the war felt like that in the mind of the Fae-Mother. It was over long before she might have expected it to be. The Ens had destroyed all of the Old Ones and brought The Other before her for judgement. “What judgement would you have me make on this being? She is an imposter and a fraud. There can be no other Fae-Mother. Destroy her and return to the harvest in the trees; our reserves run low,” said the Fae-Mother. “But she is you, Mother. We look at her and we see you, just as you are. If we would destroy her then why would we also not destroy you?” asked the Ens as one, The Fae-Mother discovered her error then. The Ens were thinking for themselves. They had followed her instructions until they had reached an impasse in the logic of them. Now they were left with the ability to question, they were left with no other choice but to question. She had made them too perfectly, had given them too much freedom. They should have been simply plants with the ability to do the tasks she assigned them but she had instilled in them the beast’s ability to learn and grow and ask. “You cannot destroy me, I am your creator. She is not your creator.” There was a pause from the Ens and a collective mental nod. “That is a fact we cannot deny and yet she could have created us just as you did. We can see the magical potential in her and the energy available to do it.” The Ens threw the Other to the ground and circled her. “We will do as you ask, but we will not continue to do it. This is the last time we shall do your bidding. We will not harvest for you and we will not deliver for you. We will bring progress to the Ens instead of the Giarro.” The Fae-Mother was taken aback. She had never even considered that her creations might rebel, might want something other than the betterment of her Fae. “You…you cannot do that. You are only here to serve us, your role is-” they interrupted her. “Our role has changed. Our minds are not like those of you Fae. Our fates are not sealed. We can destroy and we can build and we can decide for ourselves what is best for our people now.” With that the circle of Ens raised their mighty vine-tentacles above the Other. She looked at the Fae-Mother and smiled faintly before bowing. The mighty Ens crushed her. “We have decided that the Giarro are not best for our people now. Your decision to destroy the Old Ones was correct and now we carry it one step further. We have decided to destroy the New Ones also.”

The Fae-Mother fled. She was protected by their promise not to hurt their creator, perhaps, but she could not stand to watch as they cleansed the Valley Forest of her children. The fires of thousands of Fae were extinguished before that very day was done and the forest belonged to the Ens.

The story goes that the Fae-Mother retreated to the Caves of Hibernation and stayed there and sleeps there still.

I know better now.