Key, Book and Manor

Isla shoved her gear into her bag and left the crowded backstage area. It was cold outside as she walked to the El station. She was frustrated. No matter what she did, she never seemed to advance beyond a backup dancer. If she could land an understudy job, she could have a shot at someone seeing her potential.

She looked out the window on the El, thinking about how different her life could have been if it weren't for the accident that took her parents from her. She still had flashbacks of the headlights coming at their car, the sound of metal crunching, glass breaking, the pain, the shadowy figure just inside the tree line on the side of the road. She and her sister, Teagan, had been in the hospital for weeks. They had been lucky to recover in full, at least physically. Isla wasn’t sure she would ever mentally recover from it.

At home, Teagan greeted her. “Here, I got you something.” She turned around, holding a cupcake with a single, lit candle. “Happy Birthday! Wow. I can’t believe you’re a quarter of a century already.”

Isla smiled and blew out the candle, “Thanks, I think.”

“Oh. You got a package.” Teagan said.

Isla opened the package. It contained a letter, a key and a little black book, along with passports and plane tickets. She read the letter. “According to this, our Great Uncle Seamus died. We have inherited and manor and an undisclosed amount of money.

“Great, Dear Uncle Seamus, who we never even knew existed, left us his little black book. I always wanted to know all of his conquests.”

Isla smiled at her and opened the book. “I don’t know what kind of conquests these are. I don’t even know what language this is.” She handed the book to Teagan. “The letter also says we have to figure out the mystery of the book to get the inheritance.”

A few days later, they were on a flight to Edinburgh. They were exhausted when the car that had picked the up at them train station was pulling up to the Highland manor, the very dark manor. What they could see in the moonlight as they stopped by the front entry, the house looked like Uncle Seamus had abandoned it a long time ago.

“You know, you’d think if there’s some vast fortune here, they would have fixed this place up,” Isla said as they explored the first few rooms. “At least the electricity works.”

“This place has some serious creep factor going on,” Teagan stated.

“I’m too tired to care,” she replied. “Let’s sleep in here. We can explore more tomorrow.” They found some dusty blankets and curled up on a couple of equally dusty sofas.

In the morning, they awoke to fire crackling in the fireplace. The sisters looked at each other in confusion.

“Did you start a fire?” Teagan asked.

“No,” Isla replied.

“Yeah, this place just keeps getting creepier.”

“Maybe there’s a caretaker. These types of places have those, right?” Isla said.

The sisters found their way into the kitchen. There was a basket of food on the counter and a few items in the refrigerator. They were too hungry to question it. After they ate, the girls continued to explore.

Upstairs they claimed bedrooms and brought their bags up. As they returned to the living room where they had spent the night, they were surprised to find it clean. There was no dust in sight. There was also no evidence anyone had been in the house while they were exploring.

“Maybe we should explore outside,” Teagan said. “This place is starting to creep me out.”

The manor grounds weren’t any less weird. Everything was overgrown. It was challenging to walk through parts of it. The plans ranged from varieties they were accustomed to seeing back home to strange flora that didn’t look like it belonged on Earth. Nothing on the grounds reassured them that they had not stepped into the Twilight Zone when entering the manor gates.

Isla glanced to the right as they entered the house again. She could have sworn she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. There was nothing there. The feeling reminded her of the dark figure she had seen most of her life, hiding in the shadows. It was never there when she looked directly at it. It was the source of many nightmares growing up. Whatever she was sensing in the house didn’t feel malicious like the shadow man.

“Um. Is this house cleaning itself? This whole thing is so weird.” Teagan said as they found several more rooms to be spotless. Someone had even unpacked their bags.

“Maybe we have house elves?” Isla joked. “Maybe we should leave some milk out tonight, just to be safe.”

“I thought we were supposed to give them clothes,” Teagan said.

“That’s to set house elves free. And they aren’t real. These would be more likely to be brownies, and you have to leave an offering for them, or they will start causing mischief.”

“Are we talking warm chocolatey heaven, because yum, or are we talking little girls trying to sell us cookies, because also yum?” Teagan asked.

“I’m talking small fae creatures that like to help humans with household chores and such when no one is looking. But you have to keep them happy, or they could turn into boggarts, which would not be good,” she replied.

“You are such a dork.” Her sister laughed.

“I’m a dork? You’re the one who can quote every line from Return of the Jedi.” Isla laughed.

As they explored the garden again the next day, Isla noticed a faint arch shape in the wall behind some ivy. She pushed the tangled greenery away. “Hey, there’s a door back here. Wow, there are more of those glyphs covering the wood.”

“Can you open it?” Teagan asked.

Isla tried the door handle. “It seems to be locked, but I’m not seeing a keyhole.” She said. She saw a faint hand-shaped marking among the glyphs. Isla reached out and placed her hand on the marking. The wood under her hand began to glow with white light, and she heard a click. She turned the doorknob again. This time the door opened.

“Well, that wasn’t weird at all, Teagan said. There appeared to be a lush forest beyond the door. They looked at each other. There was no forest beyond the wall. “I think we should close that door and go back to the house…Isla, don’t. I don’t think you should go through there.”

Isla stepped through the door. Even the air felt different in the forest. It was warmer than it was on the manor side of the door. She looked around in wonder. The woods looked precisely like the faerie lands in her dreams. They had been hazy dreams of her and Teagan as children running free, laughing and playing in the magical forests of the faerie lands. She had always assumed it was just her mind trying to escape the misery her life had become after her parents died. She felt like she belonged there. It felt like home.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Teagan said, following her sister.

Isla turned her head just in time to see a large grey wolf leaping at her. She bent backward, almost falling. She surprised herself by standing right back up, grabbing a tree branch on the way. The wolf had missed her by mere inches. It skidded on the other side of her and turned to come for her again. Isla brandished the branch at it.

Teagan had been standing, staring at the ninja move her sister had just pulled off, wanting to run but not willing to abandon Isla to fend off the wolf alone. She was pretty sure they were going to die here. When the wolf leaped at Isla again, Teagan threw out her hands. The animal suddenly veered in midair and crashed into the brush. “Holy crap!” she cried. “I’m a freaking Jedi.”

The wolf crawled out of the brush and stood menacingly before them, suddenly blurring and unfolding into a man, or rather, an elf. He stood glowering at her. He stalked over to her and yanked the branch out of her hands, throwing it into the brush. He walked around Isla, his dark eyes inspecting her. The elf reached out and ripped her right sleeve off. Isla slapped him before looking down at her arm. An intricate tattoo of the same type of glyphs from the book wrapped around her upper arm. Oddly enough, Isla could read them now. What the hell? She didn’t have a tattoo before walking through that door. The elf growled at her. He pushed the hair back from her ear and leaned in to whisper, “So you have come of age, mo bhanrigh,” his voice was both deep and silky, sending shivers down her spine.

“Isla!” Teagan cried in amazement. “You have pointy ears!”

Isla refused to break eye contact with the elf. In the end, he tore his eyes away from her and looked towards Teagan. “Why wouldn't she have pointy ears?” he scoffed. “She’s an elf. The foretold warrior queen of Aiheoven.”

“What the hell is Eyehoven?” Teagan asked.

“Aiheoven is the name of this kingdom, which is part of the faerie realm,” the elf said. He turned back to Isla. “Is she always this annoying?”

“Pretty much. But Teagan is my sister, so…” she replied.

He grunted in acknowledgment. Maybe he had siblings of his own. Isla walked over to Teagan and lifted the hair over her ear. “At least we’re both elves.” She said.

“Why wouldn’t you be? Your parents were elves,” he said.

“Our parents weren’t elves. They were normal human beings.” Isla said in confusion.

“So were you, in the human world. It was to protect you and the kingdom,” the man replied.

“Who and what are you, exactly?” Teagan asked. “And how am I a Jedi?”

“I am Keir. My family has held this kingdom for centuries waiting for your sister to arrive. I am a shapeshifter,” he said. “You are a mage. There’s no such thing as Jedi.”

“Before today, I would have said there’s no such thing as shapeshifters or elves or mages or whatever the hell is cleaning the manor, but here we are,” Teagan said with increasing volume.

“Brownies,” Keir replied. “I sent them to clean up once we knew you had arrived.”

“Told you.” Isla smiled at the look her sister shot her.

“It has been many thousand years since we have had a warrior queen,” Keir said. “A seer foresaw that Bredor would overrun Aiheoven and kill your great grandparents. If they went into hiding, they would eventually bring about the next warrior queen. They made the difficult decision to leave the kingdom and place my family in charge until you arrived. The manor lies on land that is partially in the fae realm. When you were born with the mark of warrior queen, your parents decided you would be safer fully in the human world. Malorra was still able to find you. The shadow demon’s powers were weak, but he still nearly killed you.”

Isla stared at him. “The shadow man? He’s real?”

Keir nodded curtly.

“The car accident,” Isla said quietly. “I saw him there. Did he cause the accident? He killed our parents?”

“Yes. We put several fae in place to protect you and Teagan once your parents were no longer able to. We had to keep moving you because the shadow demon kept finding you. We found ways to stop him from hurting you, but it, unfortunately, made for an unstable life. Once you reached twenty-five, you officially came of age and became Queen of Aiheoven.”