Part 4
While the journey to the lake was uneventful, when Cricket and Emma arrived at the lake 2 days later, in the early morning, Cricket could immediately tell something was off about the lake.
“Do you feel that, Emma?” Cricket asked, doing up his coat. “The strangeness in the air?”
“Yeah, it’s summer and yet I’m freezing. The winds in the forest completely stilled when we got near the lake. What in the hells is going on?” Emma responded, making sure the ring Cricket gave her was still on. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”
“Emma, I’m going to feel for the liminal barrier.” Cricket landed on the ground and stood still, eyes closed and hands turned upright but open for nearly a minute.
“Well?” Emma eventually asked.
“It’s there, but only just. It’s like this lake is slowly falling into the spirit world.”
Cricket was about to explain further when they heard a splash near the lake and turned to look. An eerily beautiful young woman with a tangled mess of long black hair was staring at them from the water. Only her head and shoulders were visible, the rest of her was beneath the surface of the lake. The rusalki stared directly into Cricket’s eyes for several minutes, but then it did something completely unexpected. It spoke.
“King of Fairies. Why you here?” the Rusalka asked in broken elven. “King here with human. Why?”
“There is no Fairy King.” Cricket bluntly replied, also in Elven. “What makes you think I am?”
“Smell regal. Tell human take off ring. We talk.” the Rusalka replied, pulling herself up onto the shore, revealing her long tangled hair and white dress. “Promise not eat.”
“Cricket, what’s going on? What did she say? I don’t know elven.” Emma asked, bending down close to him.
“Believe it or not, she wants to talk to us. Take off the ring, but keep your distance.” Cricket said back. Emma nodded and removed the ring, and the rusalka smiled, revealing an unsettling set of sharp teeth.
It was at this moment, more than a thousand kilometres away, that Vordea’s chains were shattered and she fully entered the mortal plane for the first time since the dawn. The other rusalki in the lake were the first to react. They began to scream, shouting in many languages that the great destroyer had returned, that all were doomed. The rusalka at the lake-shore with Cricket and Emma inhaled sharply, and looked down for a moment, her body shaking as if trying to overcome a deeply ingrained response.
“What’s happening? Who’s the Great Destroyer?” Emma demanded of the rusalka. “Why are all the other spirits of the lake so terrified?” Emma asked, motioning to the various forest spirits fleeing from the lake.
“Child of man, be grateful you cannot feel what I felt.” The rusalka responded in perfect Gilnan. “The Great Destroyer is what my people call her. To you, she would be better known as... Vordea.” The rusalka then turned her head to look at Cricket. “Perhaps an introduction is an order. I am Praetor Svetlana, of Her Gilnan Majesty’s Spiritual Garrison.”
Svetlana then proceeded to fully pull herself out of the water, revealing the full extent of the tangled mass of hair, which went down to her ankles, but seemed to twitch and move on its own. “What I just felt, is the world itself reacting to the presence of a Primordial God who should not be here. Fairy King, the time for disguises is over.” Svetlana held out her hand and a trident shot up from out of the water. She twirled it in her hands, then stabbed it into the ground at Cricket’s feet.
“There is no fairy king!” Cricket yelled, his anger growing. “I am not who you think I am!”
“Is that so, Miss Valmaris?” Svetlana asked. Cricket visibly paled at the name, as if hearing the name of someone long thought dead. “Like it or not, you are the Fairy King.”
“Ummm, excuse me?” Emma asked after remaining silent for some time. “Why are you referring to Cricket as this ‘Fairy King’, and who is Miss Valmaris?”
“You did not even tell your companion?” Svetlana asked Cricket with a look of disgust.
“Eigengrau-” Cricket began.
“You have been lied to, Fairy King.” Svetlana said, cutting him off. “Fairies are reincarnations by the Goddess of Death herself. Her warnings are false. There is no punishment, Syndra Valmaris.”
“How do you know who I am?” Cricket asked after a long silence.
“The rus know everything that has been forgotten.” Svetlana cryptically replied. “Your soul burns so brightly, the spirits know you well. Cricket Mossfall, the oldest fairy. How long has it been? Centuries?”
“Why must I live forever?” Cricket asked, sitting down in the grass. “Lady Eigengrau never told me I had this long to go.”
“Would you have even believed her?” Emma asked, crouching down next to Cricket.
“A word of advice before I go?” Svetlana said to Cricket. “The rus are not spirits. Keep that in mind.” Svetlana then turned toward the lake. “Rus! Avant deus posee!” she shouted. “I’ll be in touch with you two, later. Take care of yourself, Fairy King.” Svetlana then grabbed her trident and jumped into the lake, which stilled itself immediately.
Emma and Cricket sat on the shores of the now deserted lake for a few minutes before Emma broke the silence.
“What did she mean by the rus are not spirits?” she asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Emma.” Cricket replied. “We know far too little about them.”
“She introduced herself as Gilnan Army, though.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the Spiritual Garrison. Always thought it was just a myth, though.” Cricket responded, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“Our reason for coming here has resolved itself, maybe we should just head home for now?” Emma asked, standing up. “We can worry about everything else later.”
“Emma,” Cricket began.
“Don’t worry Cricket, I won’t tell anyone what I heard here.” Emma responded, to Cricket’s relief. “It’s your choice. Just like it’s Heather’s choice if she ever wants to tell James.”
“What?” Cricket asked.
“I figured it out only last year, you know. She’s James’s murdered father, isn’t she?” Emma asked, brushing off her clothing.
“You’re far too clever for your own good, child!” Cricket said, admonishing Emma.
“Why are you so surprised, Cricket? I’m a Rawlinson after all.” Emma responded with a big grin. “Race you home!” She began running before she even finished the sentence.
“Come back here!” Cricket shouted, taking off after her.
Svetlana poked her eyes above the water as she watched the two leave. While Cricket was a known problem, Emma was a new and interesting unknown. She would need to report on both of them immediately, after, she supposed, she punished her girls. They had been far too reckless, and took too many travellers from the same lake. She sunk back below the surface and rode the currents of the lake, down to hidden depths beyond the liminal barrier, and down to the sunken depths, the home of the rus.