Mistfall(Book One of the Mistfall Series)

7. Truth, Schmuth





After Hailz left, I walked through the forest for a few hours. It had been a quiet few hours too. The footsteps of creatures were like whispers on the wind. Occasionally pixies would dash between plants, weaving their magic into their very cells. Between chatting with a few of the pixies and admiring the scenery, straight out of Wonderland, I was able to clear my head.

With a fresh perspective of recent events, I came to a few conclusions. I had been set up for David’s death. Gauging Owen’s reaction, I was pretty sure he had something to do with it.

Werewolf law concerning fighting is pretty simple: Don’t go into battle without being prepared to die.

If I had killed David, it would have been justifiable. His badly managed attempt at sexual assault would have made it doubly so. If a pack leader had found out, in this case Owen, and David was still alive, Owen would have killed him for it. Instead, Owen had been on his way to my home to kill me. That wasn’t exactly kosher werewolf behavior.

At this point I was pretty sure David’s death had been staged to force me out into the open. An Iblian jinn accused of cold-blooded murder would cause enough outrage that The Powers would reinforce their resources in finding me. Hailz’s warning confirmed this.

How someone figured out my supernatural status in Harmony is beyond me. I never slipped up and forgot to drink the brew. Melissa was the only one, aside from Luca, who knew and she had sworn a blood oath to keep the secret. The spell of a blood oath would have boiled her blood inside of her if she had broken it. After Luca found out, he had stayed with me, unable to have had the time to tell anyone.

Unless…Was it possible one of the participant’s in Willa’s crazy plan had turned traitor? No, Willa would have never been that careless. I gave up, there was no way of knowing who and it really didn’t matter now anyway.

The sun was hanging a bit west of midday. Darkness would fall sooner in the forest from the tree cover. I needed to find shelter in the next few hours or risk exposure to any member of nocturnal beasties.

“Further up and further in,” I quoted C.S. Lewis. On I went. Soon after, I came across a small cave. I peeked inside to see if it was empty. A family of goblins and I spotted each other at the same time.

They were more than gracious, offering me room and board for the night. But the smell, ugh! Eau de Goblin was an odor best described as two week old rotting flesh. I politely declined and waited until I was back at the mouth of the cave until I broke out into a full sprint. The sooner I could get away from the smell of rotting garbage the better.

I finally came to a small clearing in the thicket of the forest. One of them had leaves as large as elephant’s ears. I bartered with the hamadryad of that tree and her friends. In return for leaves and branches, I magicked them up satin ribbons in a myriad of colors and tiny tinkling bells to decorate their trees with.

Why didn’t I just use my magic for, say four star hotel accommodations? For starters, it’s a lot more work and a waste of magic. Secondly, I’m trying not to attract attention.

The wind traveled upon the branches of the trees like spirits in flight. Were the hamadryad’s talking? If they were, I only hoped it wasn’t about me.

I imagined a crude sort of A-frame tent in my head and before me appeared my work. Satisfied with the shelter my leaves and branches had turned themselves into. The wind kicked up again and I turned around, looking for the gossiping hamadryads. Finding none, I retired for the evening. It had been a very long day.

I grabbed Willa’s letter from my bag, wanting to read the rest of it before nightfall. Lying on my side upon the soft grass and velvety moss, I removed the contents of the envelope and began where I left off.





This is the true story of what happened to our kind, the Iblian jinn. Two hundred years ago, our world was a different place. Otherworld beings weren’t as united as we are now. There were various alliances of course, but never lasting peace.

Various attempts were made to unite the myriad of species. It was one attempt, a shame on all of our histories, which brought us together as we are now.

The leaders of the factions agreed on one thing. They were tired of living in hiding from the humans. Together we drove the humans off their lands. We forced our superiority on them.

Only the Fae did not join us. They were the gods’ first creatures in this world, older and wiser than the rest of us. They warned us of what was to be our folly, but their words fell on deaf ears.

Many justified our actions, claiming we’ve done no worse to the humans than they had done to their own kind. Barbarism and genocide became the rule and not the exception. Some though, believed we should work with humans, not against them. This caused a rift between the leaders. Infighting began soon after.

Iblis wanted to rule over all, humans and Otherworlders alike. The Erlking Abelard (you know him as King Abel of the Elves) wanted a democracy, governed by a body of equal representation of all species of Otherworlders.

Though Abelard’s words and actions were just, his thoughts were not. He too wanted to reign supreme over all beings. Abelard was deceitful, using charisma and pretty words to sway those who sought equality.

He did it too. Most Otherworlders backed Abelard. Only those who resided in Hades: demons, Ifrits, and ghouls supported Iblis.

Iblis enslaved his own kind, the Iblian jinn, to counter Abelard’s mighty Aelfadl. He bound the Iblians using many forms of forceful persuasion. Murdered family members, torture, and kidnappings were modus opperandi for Iblis, a means to his own ends. In the end, all the Iblians agreed to be bound.

Both we and the humans fought a war with two fronts, against each other and against ourselves. The atrocities committed by both sides, human and Otherworlder were so great, the gods intervened.

We had angered the gods. Their children had turned against each other, trying to become like the gods themselves.

The gods reduced otherworldly numbers by a third as punishment to us all. Iblis was dealt with the harshest. His Iblian army was reduced to ash, cowardice being their crime. When Iblis showed no remorse for his actions that contributed to the loss of the Iblians by his own hand, he was condemned to spend eternity in Hades.

The humans were shown mercy. The youngest of all the species, they were still learning to be civilized. This fact would later be remembered by Iblis, fueling his hatred and empowering his future schemes.

The veil that separated our world was thin, easily passable by humans. Now the Mistfall was reinforced by the gods, so that no human would pass beyond it into our world again. That was the extent of the human’s punishment.

We were all warned that if we ever tried to dominate the Earth again, the gods would destroy us all.

Fighting on all sides stopped, in an effort to appease the gods. No one claimed victory and the war was largely forgotten. The humans today barely mention the War of 1812 and completely deny our existence.

The Powers That Be were created soon after. Our history too was altered. All Iblian jinn were blamed as belligerents. There were none left, save Iblis (and myself, but I’ll get to that), to defend themselves and he was stuck in the underworld. Otherworlders shifted their blame to ignore their own acts in the war.

The gods spared me. I fought against the evils that the Otherworlders were committing. As Iblis’s wife, I could never walk again in the lands of our people. I’ve remained on the human side of the Mistfall, these past two hundred years.

My actions and banishment were not forgotten by the gods. I still had a purpose to serve. Once finished, I was promised eternal peace in return.


If you remember anything I have ever taught you, remember what I have written here.





Willa





I was dumbstruck. Willa was Iblis’s wife? I just couldn’t imagine the master of evil and my kind, caring Willa as husband and wife, no matter how hard I tried.

On top of that, all these years of believing I was being hunted because of who I am and it turns out it’s more or less to keep the true history of the Otherworlders a secret. If anyone found out about me, the truth as they know it would fall to pieces. We all know how politicians like to tell the truth. I think my death is the more likely of those scenarios.

I know what you’re thinking. How do I even exist? I used to think that perhaps some Iblians escaped and made me before they were killed off. I asked Willa once who my parents were. She told me, “You are a gift from the gods.” I was beginning to think she may have been a bit more literal than I had previously thought.

Currently, I was repressing that thought. It was neatly stored behind the cobwebs in my brain. I never concerned myself with parentage before. There would only be more questions than answers if I went down that road. Who cares where I came from anyway? I’m here and that’s all there is to it.

Another long day had taken its toll on me, causing my eyes to droop and my brain to shut down. It was all I could do to put the letter away before sleep came over me. The dreams that followed would only screw with my head more than it had been reading that letter.