We walked over the open plain for a bit more than fifteen minutes, during which we amused ourselves by watching the faery children picking on Rory, before we reached a semicircular hole in the red walls of the palace where thick wooden trunks formed an entrance barrier. Irulathun whistled loudly, his voice carried upward by the soft breeze created by the faery-swarm leaving us. Almost instantly, the large bars started rising off the ground, allowing us to enter into the faery palace.
I glanced at my companions. Their faces looked as dumbfounded as I felt when I first stepped into the grand, stone-paved foyer of the building. The suns were still high in the sky outside, and their light shined through the stained glass, producing a symphony of colors in the massive open space of the entrance.
Everywhere we looked inside this grand chamber, there was intricate golden filigree decorating every wall. Beautiful lifelike marble statues of beasts straight out of a biologist's wildest imagination stood on each side of the corridor we walked down, and a long wooden table stood at its end.
"You will need to present yourselves there," our guide and protector said, pointing at an old-looking female faery. "I wish you good luck."
"Are you going to leave?" Louie asked, surprised.
"My work here is done," the man replied. "I have successfully delivered you to the city. It was a pleasure meeting you all. Welcome to Mommur."
"The pleasure was all ours," Louie said and wagged his tail. "Thank you for your help."
"Always the kind one," the faery said, patting Louie's back. "Farewell."
"Thank you and goodbye," I said, while Rory and Leo simply waved at him.
With renewed determination, I smiled at Louie and took a step forward, taking us closer to the wooden desk and our chance to meet the Faery Queen. Upon closer inspection, I realized the woman there was wearing glasses and her hair was completely white. If faeries showed the same signs of aging as humans did, this woman must have been quite old.
Name: Leelah Jul
Race: Faery
Class: Divine Archivist
Level: 49
"Why, hello there, little one," she said, in a voice that immediately reminded me of my Greek grandmother and created a wave of fond memories that rushed over me. The woman immediately flew to Louie. "Are you here for your quest?"
"Yes!" Louie said and barked happily. "My name is Louie and these are my friends."
The faery pushed her specs closer to her eyes as she inspected Louie and then smiled. She flew even lower, her thin wings moving fast enough to keep her still in the air, and brought her small hands down under Louie's snout.
"Louie Thunder, is it?" she said and scratched his chin. "A spellcaster. You want to protect your friend?"
"Yes, Miss Leelah," he replied. "How did you know?"
"A noble cause for a noble dog," she remarked, but her face darkened momentarily. "Alas, you're not the first dog to be enlightened and want to protect their former master with their lives. Unfortunately, many dogs do so. Before they even manage to complete this quest."
"You mean, they die?" Louie asked, his tail now slowly falling between his legs.
"It is the sad truth of companions," the faery replied. "What do you think of that?"
Her question caught me off guard and that was when I realized we weren't here just to be processed and request an audience. The quest was already underway. Louie was being screened.
"That is sad," Louie agreed, "but it is a wonderful way to die."
"Louie," I whispered, surprised at his answer.
I knew he'd trade his life for mine as I would for his. But it was one thing to know this and quite another to hear him say it. Especially with such ease and joy.
"If I knew my life would keep Alex safe," he said, and then reconsidered his statement. "No, if I knew there was even the slightest chance my giving my life would keep Alex alive, I'd do it."
"That is the core of selfless love," the old faery said, and for a moment she turned her eyes to face me. Even if Louie was the one being questioned, I couldn't help but feel as though she was assessing something in me too. It was extremely uncomfortable.
"But why are you doing this?" Louie asked, now sounding a bit agitated. "Why do you charge so much for this quest? If you let everyone do it, people wouldn't have to be separated from their companions."
I cleared my throat, trying to make him understand that it wasn't our place to judge how they conducted themselves, though I of course thought that all this was a bunch of bullshit. If this faery, or Alieria, or the Faery Queen herself gave a single fuck about people's dogs and cats not dying, they wouldn't have put a fifty-million-dollar price tag on the quest item. But I knew better than to mention this now. Especially since this woman seemed to be the gatekeeper to the queen's court.
"If only it was that simple, dear dog," she replied, and flew back to her desk again, apparently not annoyed by Louie's question. "Our Queen has devoted thousands of years to creating and perfecting these quests. It is because of her love for animal companions that you can now communicate with your friend, and because of her that so many have bound their souls together. The cost of what is needed in order for this spell to be forged permanently are a lot higher than that."
I wasn't sure what to make of this information, since I hadn't heard of spell-forging before but Rory nodded his head, confirming what the faery was saying.
"Yet this was not where our goddess stopped," she continued. "The process is not only expensive but
