Maggie dreams she’s young and fighting goblins once again. Her sword is in her hand again, after being a questionable curiosity hanging over her bar.
She brandishes her blade, well aware she’s under four feet tall, emboldened by the fact that her opponents aren’t any bigger.
Maggie: Aye, I’m an adventurer and proud of it! I’ve fought your kind and killed them! (swinging wildly) Call me murderer! Call me thief! You would have gotten me, if I hadn’t gotten you! Come at me if you dare, beasties!
The beasties in question are far more clever and cowardly than they used to be. They run, swiftly making it for the woods on gangly legs. The most retaliation Maggie faces is a pair of bared teeth.
Maggie approaches the prize they were swarming about, a giant crystal coffin. Lying within, almost merged with the rock is a dwarf lying motionless within with his eyes shut.
Maggie: As prizes go, I’m not sure about you.
A voice comes from the stone, even though the dwarf doesn’t move his lips.
Quartz: I’m not sure about you either. Waving a sword about without a whisker, what are you doing here?
Maggie: Rescuing you, you ungrateful damsel. What does my sword have to do with a lack of whiskers?
Quartz: One, you’re a bit too tall, but you could be one of us, save for your lack of a beard. A beard is a measure of a dwarf’s beauty. I pity you, not having one.
Maggie: Spare me your pity. I have no use for whiskers and I’m not a dwarf. I thought all dwarfs had been wiped out, slaughtered by goblins, trolls, gnolls, dragons, and kobolds for their treasure.
Quartz: I was afraid that might happen. This is what comes of swinging swords around, trying to take treasure from other people. Violent things, swords.
Maggie: You sound like half of Caerac Keep these days. If you’re going to travel anywhere in Rowenda, you need a sword or some other means of defending yourself. Otherwise you’re monster food. Oh, excuse me. Prey for nonhumans with a taste for anyone they can catch.
Quartz: What’s a Caerac Keep? What’s a Rowenda?
Maggie: Caerac Keep is a walled city in the land of Rowenda. I’m guessing we’re not there now.
Quartz: Welcome to the kingdom of Dawn and Twlight. Beware of dragons, kobolds, and witches with an attitude. Oh, and faeries.
Maggie: Faeries? I thought they only appeared in circles upon a full moon.
Quartz: Not in the Forest of Tears. Faeries flit through the trees constantly, dancing in circles, only to disappear if you approach them. I think you just scared some off with that sword of yours.
Maggie: Those were faeries? I thought they were goblins?
Quartz: Aye, there are goblins among the faeries here.
Maggie: Weren’t they attacking you?
Quartz: Not unless you consider teasing and dancing around an attack.
Maggie: I see. Sorry about waving the sword about. I try not to make trouble, unless someone makes trouble for me.
Quartz: Was I troubling you?
Maggie: I thought you were in trouble.
Quartz: I suppose I am, but it’s my choice. I’m sorting out trouble by laying here in this trouble.
Maggie: How is that working out?
Quartz: Slow-going, but I’m cleansing this crystal of the curse it absorbed.
Maggie: Curse? What curse?
Quartz: I did mention witches, didn’t I? One cursed my human daughter. She lay in this coffin, which I hoped would heal her.
Maggie: Did it?
Quartz: She woke up, a witch herself, filled with sorrow, anger, and loneliness. She was ready to inflict it on others.
Maggie: I’m not sure if I’d call that healed.
Quartz: Right. I just hope happiness finds her, in spite of that, even if it has to hit her over the head.
Maggie: And while she does that, you’re stuck here…what? Absorbing the crystal’s curse?
Quartz: Absorbing and releasing it. It’s slow. Creatures come to the coffin and go while I do so, including yourself.
Maggie: I’m a creature, am I? Thank you very much. I think I preferred being a beardless, ugly dwarf.
Quartz: Well, what are you?
Maggie: Myself. Who also happens to be Maggie. Proprietor of the Tipsy Hedgehog in Caerac Keep.
Quartz: Right. Caerac Keep is that walled city built by your friend. What’s the Tipsy Hedgehog? An inn or a pub?
Maggie: Aye. It’s mostly a tavern, but we have a few rooms. I was letting one to a nice Aethyrian witch before she disappeared.
Quartz: Witches do that. I bet she didn’t pay the rent.
Maggie: (giving the coffin a scowl) Her sister did. She’s the one staying in the room now. Ariadne has more of an attitude than Alyx did, but she has reason.
Quartz: Right. Ariadne with the attitude and her sister, Alyx. What’s her reason?
Maggie: I told you! Alyx disappeared! Ariadne came to Caerac Keep from Aethyria to find her.
Quartz: That’s a lot of names. What’s Aethyria?
Maggie: A country to the south of Rowenda. It’s warmer. Everyone living there is female or female-presenting.
Quartz: Why?
Maggie: Some legend about twin princesses or princes quarreling after they left their mother’s empire to the south. They quarreled, claimed the lands opposite the river Selene. Graeca decided to be male, surrounding himself with beautiful men and satyrs. Aethyria chose to be female, gathering the strongest women she could find to guard her country.
Quartz: Huh, sounds like a lot of fuss over whether you’re male or female.
Maggie: I thought so, too. Alyx and even Ariadne seem pleasant enough girls, even if they’re a bit odd. I feel for Ariadne. I’m worried about Alyx. (Her face turns grim.) Too many people are going missing, including my Kevin.
Quartz: Kevin?
Maggie: A human boy I have working for me at the bar. He came to me with a pack of lies about who he was, where he came from.
Quartz: Heh, this sounds familiar. Only my Fairest didn’t lie. She just didn’t want to talk about where she was from. She’d only just escaped from a major part of it. Maybe your Kevin did the same.
Maggie: It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if he’s running from something, as long as he doesn’t bring trouble into my tavern.
Quartz: Did he?
Maggie: I don’t think so. I think this is something else. Something which didn’t just take Kevin and Alyx; but many people in Caerac Keep.
Quartz: Sounds like there’s been a lot of disappearances in this walled city of yours.
Maggie: Disappearances and attacks.
Quartz: Attacks?
Maggie: People are growing weak, pale, and listless. They’re sporting marks upon their necks, two tiny red dots.
Quartz: Right. They think it was vampires, feeding on people.
Maggie: One particular vampire. They claim the Vampire Corwyth has risen to prey upon the people of Caerac Keep once more.
Quartz: Why him in particular?
Maggie: We don’t have that many vampires. Ghouls, wraiths, some legends of succubi and incubi. Actually, succubi and incubi are as rare as vampires. The few who’ve existed tend to be legendary.
Quartz: This Corwyth is one of the legends?
Maggie: He is, now. I remember him when he was a fragile, pretty young man; very like Rhodry Nevalyn.
Quartz: Rhodry, Rhodry, I believe that’s one of the names our scribbler uses.
Maggie: What are you going on about?
Quartz: Never mind. All sorts of odd things go in and out of your head when you dream a cursed sleep. It’s hard to remember everything. Remind me. Who’s Rhodry?
Maggie: (giving the crystal a suspicious look) I’m wondering if I should tell you, but I suppose it does no harm. Rhodry is a very pretty young man with golden hair, Serpent-Born if you must know.
Quartz: I’m not sure if I must or not. What’s Serpent-Born?
Maggie: There are people who look human except for their extraordinary beauty, strange powers, and changing eyes. We call them Serpent-Born.
Quartz: Why?
Maggie: Every one of them is a blood descendent of Nevalyn, the Great Serpent. The Devourer. She Who Commands the Monsters. She’s got a bunch of names.
Quartz: Sounds like they were bad ones or at least threatening.
Maggie: Aye, they are. She was a threat, the biggest threat our world ever faced. One of the reasons all the lands of Ouroborous came together in an empire was to fight her. One of the reasons anything nonhuman is considered monstrous is because most of the nonhumans heeded Her call and developed a hunger for human flesh and blood.
Quartz: Sounds like she isn’t a threat any more.
Maggie: No. The Imperatrix, Serena Jasior faced Her and sealed Her away in the darkness. Some say she can still whisper to her descendants, commanding them.
Quartz: The Serpent-Born being those descendants.
Maggie: Aye, but Rhodry seemed like a very nice boy, very polite. He came to the Tipsy Hedgehog a lot. Kevin took quite a shine to him.
Quartz: Maybe your Kevin is off with this Rhodry? Maybe that’s where he’s disappeared to?
Maggie: I’d like to think so, but no. Rhodry himself is looking for his master, Daeric Nevalyn, who’s also disappeared.
Quartz: Nevalyn? Is this Master Daeric another of the Serpent-Born?
Maggie: More than that. He’s the Serpent’s Son. He’s a lot older than he looks, far older than me.
Quartz: I’d think a lot of people would be scared and suspicious of him if there’s trouble in your Caerac Keep.
Maggie: They are. I shudder to think what could have taken Daeric Nevalyn. I’m not sure Rhodry and Ariadne have a chance, even if the lord of Caerac Keep has tasked them with finding out what’s going on.
Quartz: Lord of Caerac Keep? Is that your friend, Caerac, who built the place you live in?
Maggie: No. Caerac was human. He’s long been dead, lying in his masoleum. No, the lord of Caerac Keep is the son of a son of a son of a boy whom Caerac took a shine to. Caerac left him his walled city.
Quartz: And he passed it on to his son.
Maggie: So he says. A son who looked remarkably like him. He in turn passed it onto another son, again his mirror image.
Quartz: Right. You think it’s the same man, pretending to be his own heir.
Maggie: Not long ago, the Servants of the Unicorn hunted down anything and anyone nonhuman or wouldn’t worship their Unicorn Goddess. Many of us played human, not that I’m saying anything.
Quartz: You’re saying a lot.
Maggie: I’m not pointing the finger. I’m just noticing how the attitude toward nonhumans has changed a lot since Caerac gave his Keep to Willie.
Quartz: Willie, was that the boy he was fond of?
Maggie: Aye. Ever since, there’s been a Lord William Caerac. I wonder about him.
Quartz: It sounds like he’s done some good if he’s convinced these Servants of the Unicorn to stop hunting.
Maggie: I’m not sure if he’s stopped them. He has slowed them down, maybe even changed their attitude a bit.
Quartz: That’s something.
Maggie: Aye, it is, and I appreciate it. I’m still suspicious of the Lord of Caerac Keep.
Quartz: I’m suspicious of many things, including people I’m quite fond of. This doesn’t stop me from being suspicious or fond.
Maggie: True. I was fond of Corwyth. It’s hard to believe he’s behind what’s happening, even if he is a vampire.
Quartz: You sure he is?
Maggie: Rhodry is sure he isn’t. I’m not sure if I believe Rhodry. He reminds me so much of Corwyth himself when he was young. It’s uncanny.
Quartz: You think Rhodry is this Corwyth?
Maggie: Rhodry walks in the sunlight. I’ve seen him drink ale. He may be Serpent-Born, but he’s not undead.
Quartz: You say that, but you don’t sound sure.
Maggie: There’s a connection between Rhodry and Corwyth. They look and act too similiar. At the same time, I believe Rhodry is trying to help with the Trouble of Caerac Keep. I know he wants to find Daeric and Kevin.
Quartz: You may be right.
Maggie: Oh, what am I doing? I’m pouring all my doubts and worries on a dream dwarf in a crystal coffin! Talk about strange.
Quartz: You want to talk about strange? I followed a kobold home and allowed a human princess into that home. We’re both strange.
Maggie chuckles at this.
A cloud of yellow smoke appeared right above the coffin. An irrate, high-pitched voice addresses Maggie.
Nimmie Not: (for stalking Quartz’s dreams is his perogative, just ask him) You can stop right there, the kobold of your dreams is here!
The yellow cloud vanishes to reveal a strange little man with a bell at the end of his red cap, dressed in yellow stockings and green slippers with bells on them.
Quartz: Gah! Nimmie Not, stop kicking the side of my coffin!
Nimmie Not: (banging his ankle for good measure against the crystal and pointing a long, bony finger at Maggie) All right, you’ve taken up enough of my dwarf’s time, so it’s time you woke up!
Maggie vanishes from the clearing as she awakens to lift her head from the bar, gazing with bleary eyes at an empty tavern.
Maggie: Just what was that all about?
Back in the clearing, the kobold perched on top of the crystal lets the dwarf in the coffin know exactly what it’s about.
Nimmie Not: You bewhiskered flirt. Not only do you let all the fae in the Forest party around your coffin, you make time with some sword-swinging, has-been adventurer!
Quartz: Gah! It’s not like that!
Nimmie Not: Oh, and what was it like, pray tell?
Quartz: Maggie thought I needed rescuing, that’s all.
Nimmie Not: I’ll bet she did! Just how big was that sword of hers, hmm?
Quartz: You’re going on about that?
Nimmie Not: Bet it wasn’t as big as my book, no, it wasn’t!
Quartz: No! It was a small sword, but just the right size for her.
Nimmie Not: Oh, her sword was just the right size, was it?
Quartz: Right, whatever! Nothing I say satisfies you, so why bother?
Nimmie Not: (stops kicking the coffin) I’m a bother?
Quartz: Erm.
Nimmie Not: (flushing) As in worth bothering with?
Quartz: Well…
The little man’s wrinkled face brightens, a radiant smile spreading from red cheek to red cheek.
Nimmie Not: Oh, you delicious dwarf! I just can’t stay mad at you, even if you’re a naughty flirt, yes, you are.
Quartz: (sounding resigned yet not entirely unhappy) Right.
If you wish to read about Quartz’s human daughter and how happiness did eventually find her, go to…
Nine Star Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/fairest/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fairest-ks-trenten/1123806892?ean=2940179155874
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fairest-19
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1483368
Apple Book: https://books.apple.com/us/book/fairest/id6472735190
Maggie comes from a story I’m working on called Trouble at Caerac Keep. Quartz’s own troubled story with Nimmie Not is another work in progress called Of Cuckoo Clocks and Crystal Coffins.
Wish me luck in finishing and publishing both!
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