Fiona, Queen of the Fairey’s in the dimension of Alta looked on in horror at the devastation of her forest. The majestic trees were splintered, the serene clearings with their placid pools, dried up. The flowers and plants that nourished the animals and humans, destroyed. Alta was nearly gone, swallowed up by the Devil Piru in his quest for domination.
The Queen flew slowly through what was left of her domain, tears streaming down her cheeks for all that had been lost, for the lives that she could not save, for the ultimate sacrifice so many had made trying to protect their world.
Fiona stopped her inspection and hovered over a boulder where her people had once gathered. It had been a huge, beautiful piece of carved marble. Now, it was a pile of rubble. She flew down to the pebbles that were left and picked up a palm sized fragment. It still held life. If she could gather enough believers, they could work to resurrect the standing stone.
A wicked laugh caused her to turn, wings fluttering furiously in a mixture of anger, despair and hopelessness. Her lady’s maid Malia hovered over one of the larger pieces of marble, laughing cruelly at the destruction. Destruction she had precipitated.
Fiona flew to her, got nose to nose with her subject and whispered, “Why Malia? What did the Devil promise you that you didn’t already have?”
The stunning blond fairey smiled wickedly, showing fangs that no proper fairey sported as she said, “Eternal life.” and stabbed her queen between the ribs with one quick, deadly thrust, straight into her heart.

Piru snapped his fingers and Malia flew to him as quickly as she could. The treacherous fairey had been his eyes and ears in Alta. She’s shown the deahmons where all the sacred places were, told then how to destroy the forest, and by destroying the forest making the inhabitants easier to kill, or subvert.
All he had to do was promise her eternal life. He chuckled to himself as he turned his hand palm up so the fairey could land. As always, she was impeccably groomed, so beautiful it almost made his eyes hurt. The Devil’s saving grace was her black heart and ruthless ambition. She wanted his job, and he knew it.
He smiled as she jutted one hip at him suggestively and said, “Your time has come Malia. I have a very special task for you.”
The fairey batted her eyelashes and wings at him as she replied, “Oh master, whatever can I do for you? Or more to the point, to you?’
Piru rolled his eyes as he launched her into the air, then flicked a tiny bolt of power at her. When her feet touched the floor, a voluptuous blond human stood before him.
Malia looked down at her naked body and lack of wings. At the glorious blond hair that fell to her waist, the shapely breasts and legs that greeted his eyes and her hands.
She curtsied, staying low until he continued. “Stand up. Yours is a difficult task I can entrust to no-one else, not even Elias.” Malia smiled at him, ran her tongue over her perfect teeth, noting the lack of fangs.
“Yes master. Your wish is my command.” He studied her and she basked in his scrutiny. Finally, after what seemed like decades he said, “You are going to not one, but two dimensions.”
She raised one perfect eyebrow at him as she waited. “You will go to Zandor to assist Elias, now called Chimera Shield, in the subjugation of the country and,” he paused, wondering but not caring how she’d react to what he had to say next. “You will go to Earth to find, watch and eventually destroy the Staff Bearers the elders of Zandor have hidden there, at the same time.”
Malia stopped looking seductive and just looked confused as she began to say, ‘How?’ as he hit her with streaks of brilliant light, one from each hand. The light hurt, the power coursing through her body threatened to kill her and she fell as if she were being torn apart.

When next the former fairey woke she was dressed in outland clothes, lying in a cobblestone courtyard next to a bed of roses. Malia sat up, licked dry lips as she blinked at the bright sunlight.
The tip of her tongue encountered a fang and she smiled, pieces of her memory returning as she stood up, staggering, nearly falling into the thorny plants behind her. A breeze blew a strand of her hair across her face and the sound of footsteps on the cobbles caused her to turn.
Elias, now Chimera Shield, was walking towards her, hands outstretched. She dropped a brief curtsy as he took both her hands in his, raising her to her full height. He had a look in his eyes she knew and understood. “Come rakas, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the council.”
There was no feeling between their hands other than dry skin and it immediately began to grate on her nerves. She pulled her hands from his, wiped both down her skirts over her hips and managed a weak smile. This one was in charge. This was the one she’d been sent to watch, to help, but for whom? How had she gotten here and what was she supposed to do?
A distant chuckle in her mind opened a floodgate of memories which threatened to overwhelm her, and the woman staggered. Chimera caught her elbow and this time she had a flash of insight. She was here to watch him, gather information, keep him under her thumb by any means possible, report back to, whom?
A fleeting picture showed behind her eyes of a horned creature in a fiery pit, sitting on a throne of carved granite as she heard, ‘All will come back to you, in due time.’
When next the former fairey woke she was dressed in outlandish clothes, lying in a concrete courtyard next to a Dragon fountain surrounded by yellow eyed Shadows. She recognized them for what they were, the tortured people who’d sold their souls themselves to the devil. They knew she was in charge and even though they couldn’t help her to her feet the filmy minions urged her to stand, shaky as she was.
Images flashed behind her eyes of things that made no sense. A forest being destroyed, fire, the flutter of wings, a horned creature on a granite throne. Hot on the heels of the sights came a torrent of sounds, voices crying in agony, a deep, evil laugh and a name, Karen. It was her name and she wondered at it for a moment, then looked back down at the shadows.
One of them beckoned to her to follow it towards a building full of tiny windows and hundreds of people. As she entered her focus was immediately drawn to two women sitting in little squares, with things on their head seeming to talk to themselves. A pain hit right behind her eyes, and she knew what everything was. Headsets and phones and cubicles, people that worked for her. She smiled wickedly thinking about how much fun it would be to torture these puny creatures until she heard in her mind, ‘Find the Staff Bearers and destroy them. They are within your reach.’
Once again Karen looked around the crowded room, just now noticing that the shadows hadn’t followed her inside. She hurried to a window overlooking the courtyard below and saw them waiting for her, saw one lift a filmy hand in greeting, heard, ‘We’ll be here when you’re ready to go to your new home.’ The woman smile as she turned back to the room and began planning the Staff Bearers demise.
Alta Lost
