Exorcising a Fae

The sun was setting in the west by the time we returned to the garden. A shadow cast over the flowery land as Cynthia and I sat at a picnic table. Kiw'u, the girl fairy, landed on top of the table, carrying with her a worried expression for her corrupted friend.

“Ca sava ha?” It sounded like Kiw’u asked if we could save The male fairy.

Cynthia rolled out a small towel she was carrying in her apron, then placed Ui'o, the male fairy, over it.

He twisted and turned, sweating profusely as black veins stretched across his skin. Kiw’u kneeled over him. Her skin gained glowing green swirls in contrast. She waved her hand toward Ui'o and sent a cool wind that eased his struggle.

“That tree is known as a Mali tree. Ones just like it grow all around the world, but in shaded places. You'll never see them in the sun.”

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that there’s more of those trees out there. If it was actually related to the Boni tree, then it would have produced saplings, which could be planted in other places. We have two of them planted back home at The Hive.

“Each of them is a nexus of dark energy, and does everything in their power to have creatures eat their fruit.”

“They want to corrupt people,” I concluded.

“Not just humans, as you can tell.” She gestured to Ui’o. “At some point in time, someone must have realized the danger of them, so they built large chambers to seal them away. One of those chambers is a bit closer to the estate than I'm comfortable with.”

She gave a disapproving look to the fae, prompting Kiw’u to shrug.

“I have no idea how the seal on this chamber was broken, but it spells danger for anyone in the area.”

Fairy are pretty mischievous little things. These two were probably playing around in places they weren’t supposed to be in and found that tree by accident. I could only imagine what happened from there.

“Why doesn't anyone cut the trees down?” I asked.

“It might seem odd, but they do serve a purpose. Those trees pull in a lot of dark energy, preventing that darkness from corrupting anything.”

What an awful concept. What was all this darkness doing in our world in the first place?

“I don't know how Ui'o and Kiw’u found it, but normally they're very difficult to locate.” Cynthia explained. “The church has even made an effort to figure out where all the trees are and cover them up from any prying eyes.”

At least the church was aware that these trees are a threat. I might even want to ask them where all the trees they've found are located. They'd have to give the info to me, since I'm the Eighth Star of Heaven.

Miss Cynthia waved the tip of her wand over Ui’o and cast a pink light over him. His rolling around eased a little.

“Marek’s told me about who you really are,” she said. “And if you are the Eighth Star, then you’ll be able to help shine the darkness out of him.”

Initial worry struck me when I thought that I’d have to find a way to save poor Ui’o from his dark plight, but Miss Cynthia’s calm tone told me that there was nothing to worry about.

There was an old art known as stardust exorcism. Cynthia wasn’t incredibly familiar with it, but she Knew how it worked. I've honestly done it before, but that was mostly on people who were drained of all their mana. This was a little different.

When a person or creature is filled with darkness, their mana energy is usually sapped out of them, causing them to transform into a demon-like creature. But in the case of little Ui'o, he just was possessed by dark energy, leaving him more or less in his normal form. I couldn't stab him with my stardust weapon, because that would kill him in this state.

Instead, all I needed to do was flood his eyes with light. Stardust light, to be specific. The catch was that he needed to stay still and keep his eyes open. Cynthia held him down in her patented ‘maid grip of death.’

I didn’t come up with that name, for the record. She called it that.

Anyways, I put my hands over the tiny creature, letting stardust energy radiate out of the skin of my palm. His eyes fluttered, fighting against the brightness. It wasn’t going into him.

Upon Cynthia’s orders, Kiw'u came in and used her tiny fingers to hold his eyelids open, forcing him to comply.

He made an assortment of loud grunts and rage filled screeches, but the light was going in now.

I hope it doesn't blind him…

Ui’o convulsed several times. His chest bounced as Cynthia held him down. Foam formed at the edges of his mouth and he snarled.

“It didn’t work!” I shouted.

“Keep watching,” Cynthia said.

The foam began to turn into a dark gas that floated up and away from him. Once it all cleared, he laid still and fell sound asleep.

I wasn’t detecting anymore dark energy in him. He didn’t look like he was in great shape, but at least I could tell he wasn’t being possessed by darkness anymore.

“Excellent work.”

Cynthia’s accolades made the victory all the more sweet. But honestly, I kinda’ felt a littlr like Ui’o right now. I was dead tired. The last few days have been so busy that I just wanted to go back to bed and sleep the next few days off.

Dizziness caused me to tip over, but Cynthia caught me and carried me in her arms.

“I'm tired,” I said. “Is Ui’o going to be okay?” I asked her.

“Thanks to you, he’ll be just fine.”

She gave an order for Kiw’u to take Ui’o back home and let him get some rest. In a rather menacing voice, she also made sure that the two of them would be properly scolded for playing in places they shouldn’t.

“Miss Cynthia, how do you know how to exercise darkness out of people?” I asked her.

“Although I can't use it, it's very common for magical girls to have stardust affinities. My mentor was a retired magical girl, actually.”

EEEEHHH!!!

She really was a magical girl! I knew it!

While I was gushing over her cute magic class, a male voice off in the distance started calling Cynthia and I. In my lethargic state, I recognized it was Marek.

“There you two are.” He turned a corner around a big flower bed and saw us. “I was worried. Dinner is almost ready and you both disappeared. Nobody could find you anywhere.”

“We had a little situation, but it’s all cleared up.”

Marek approached, poking his finger against my shoulder and looking worried. “Yalda, is everything okay?” he said, noticing how exhausted I was.

“An evil tree corrupted a fairy, and I saved him.”

I don’t think I was supposed to say anything about that, because Cynthia was giving me a disappointed purse of her lips.

“Evil tree?” Marek turned to Cynthia. “Corrupt Fairy?”

“I request that you keep it a secret for now. I’ll inform you and Master Mel about it later tonight in private.”

He nodded, making a motion that his lips were zipping shut.

“Are you two hungry?” he said, waving for us to follow him back to the mansion. “Dinner is going to be ready soon.”

Suddenly, a second wind revitalized me. Those cookies we needed to make for dessert were the whole reason we were out here to begin with.

“Cynthia, we have to hurry!” I looked at the nonexistent watch on my wrist to exaggerate our time crunch. “If we don’t make those cookies before dinner, we won’t get dessert!”

She snickered, then booped my nose with her finger.

“Don't be silly. I can always cook while you're all eating.”

“Aww…” I slouched in disappointment. “I wanted to cook with you.”

Those Cookies were really good. If I learned how to make them, I could eat them any time I wanted. Maybe that was a little selfish,

Marek smiled, taking me from Cynthia’s hands and letting me sit on his shoulders. “It’s been a while since we've cooked together, no?” Marek said to Cynthia. “The three of us splitting the work should have them done in no time.”

“Yeah yeah yeah!” I cheered. “Let’s hurry back! I want cookies!”

Miss Cynthia was a little reluctant, but softly smiled as she took hold of the bottom of her big maid skirt and sprinted back toward the house.

“Little child and audacious man, I'll allow you to help, but you'll need to race me there if, you can.”

Her feet started glowing pink and she zoomed up into the air at super speeds!

“Oh no!” I poked at Marek's forehead. “Warp-speed, Mr. Marek!”

He bolted off with me on his shoulders. It was a lot of fun! But there wasn’t a chance we'd beat Cynthia back. Luckily, I had a feeling she'd let us help regardless.