Mishap
&
Mayhem
The Legacy Trilogy
By M. M. Shelley
****
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to any real people or event is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the express consent of the publisher and author; except where permitted by law.
Copyright © 2011 M.M. Shelley
Second Edition Ebook 2014
Table of Contents
Mishap & Mayhem
Prologue – A Time before recorded History
An Island Paradise
The Dare
Sita Knook
High and Low
Kye
Smithy’s
Doubts
Grandmothers
Kana’i
Kye II
Impressions
Legacy
New Friends
Changes
The Betrayal of Friends
Outrigger
The Truth about Friends
The Wrath of Pele
Surfboards and Crystals
The Big Island
The Hike
Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne II
The Secrets of gods
Fae
Painite
Pele
Eros
The old War
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Author
For my nieces; Grace, Marisa, Mia, Natalia and Sofia and for everyone who believes in fairies and magic.
And to Aaron who helped me so much with the design of these new covers and for showing me that the littlest details in design matter.
Prologue – A time before recorded history
Time was kept by the stars in the sky and there were not as many in the night’s sky as there are today. No faith in gods or goddesses for no humans ever died and all magical creatures’ souls went into the heavens. There was no need to pray for lost souls. All were at peace. All creatures respected one another and understood one another. There was no need to fight or hurt one another for none wanted what the other had. All this changed when the Cinerians arrived on the planet.
Cinerians lived in the woods and forest. Humans were the hunted. They were placed into slave camps to work in the mountains or in the swamps. The best way to stay safe was to live alone in hiding but no one had the heart to live alone.
Small villages were built in secret, carefully hidden away with the help of the faeries who took pity on humans. The life of a faerie was much different. Faeries were mortal. They had always been that way. They loved and were pure of heart. They used magic to conceal the human villages to keep them safe from the Cinerians.
The help of a faerie was never questioned and through the passage of time they were taken for granted. Humans began to desire the magic of the faeries and soon the faeries became the hunted.
Over time and quite by accident, humans learned removing the wings from a faerie allowed the humans to wield its magic. This killed the faerie within moments. The faeries’ power did not last long after death. Upon this discovery, it was decided faeries should be held prisoner and forced to do the bidding of the one who caught them. Thus the humans turned on their faerie protectors and became no better than the Cinerians.
One day a captured faerie was rescued, her name was Edythe. Edythe was held in a crystal jar, which was powerful enough to hold a faerie captive.
Edythe was captured because she had fallen in love with a man. At first he sought her out by bringing her flowers and reading her poems. As a faerie, she had the power to be any size she wanted. So whenever she was near him she was five feet six. She gave this man her heart and in return he used her love as a way to trap her.
She came to see him on a moonlit night; she did not know he wouldn’t be alone. Out from behind a tree another man jumped out from his hiding place, a crystal in his hand. The light from the crystal pulled Edythe in like a magnet. She could not repel its pull. Her body grew small; she cried and screamed, not quite understanding why this man whom she loved would entomb her inside. He would not do this to her.
In shock she froze in silence. She could hear every word spoken. The more she heard the more her heart broke. He had betrayed her.
Instead of pleading for her release with the other man, he laughed along with his comrade at a job well done.
He took her back to his home to put her to work. He asked for many things, a bigger home, more food on his table, money in his purse and what ever else took his fancy. At his will she did his bidding. She held back the tears in her eyes. She told herself this was not the man she had fallen in love with. She wondered where the man she had loved had gone.
One evening the man returned home from a party with a woman hanging on his arm, “What do you think of your new home?” he asked this woman.
The woman was dressed in a pale pink gown her long blonde hair spooling over her petite shoulders. Blue eyes sparkling as she spoke in a soft sweet voice, “It’s perfect. I will make it our home now.”
“Faerie this is my wife. You will obey her as you have obeyed me.” He left the room with his wife laughing.
Edythe’s pale hand gently touched the crystal tomb, the tears at last falling from her round violet eyes. Her dark hair covered her pale face.
Later in the morning she heard the man come down and enter the room, “Faerie,” he then added in a harsh tone, “food.”
She found her voice as she asked, “How could you have lied to me? Was everything you said a lie?”
He held out a plate and smirked as he said, “Food … now.”
For days his bride would give orders to Edythe and Edythe would have to obey. Edythe soon lost count of her days in captivity. She no longer cared. Even her own name faded from her memory.
The man entered the room. He was in the process of issuing his orders to Edythe for the day.
Without thinking Edythe asked him, “Why did you lie to me?” Her throat was very dry. She hadn’t even glanced at him when she asked him her question.
He replied, “You’re nothing to me.” He was about to leave and go out of the house when he suddenly stopped to add one final blow, “You are nothing but a faerie.” With a look of disgust on his face, he left.
Edythe would soon notice small children running about the house. She never looked up to see them or ever speak to them. She had no idea what they looked like yet she knew these were his children. She never spoke again to him or to anyone. There was no need to. The children would point at her and tap at the crystal in an effort to make her look up or move. They found her amusing. Edythe always sat in the same spot with her head bent down, her eyes vacant.
When she needed to perform a task, there was no need for her to move or to speak. Whatever was asked for was given.
It was not until one night her mind awoke. One night after everyone in the house slept, she was set free.
The house was lit up with light from the torches outside. There was shouting. The house was awakened. The man came running down stairs heading straight outside. His wife and children stood at the bottom of the stairs, frightened.
“Faerie,” the wife cried. “Protect my husband!”
Edythe stood on her feet waiting. She had grown so thin her legs ached as she forced herself to stand.
She waited.
Shouting could be heard through the open door. She heard the man sc
ream out in pain. Closing her eyes, she willed her mind to see what was taking place outside.
A woman in a black cloak had run down the pathway leading to the house. Behind her were several men chasing her, they carried torches. They shouted for her to stop. She did. As she turned to face them, her red hair shown brightly, like fire, as the light from the torches settled on her.
One man swung at her. She swept her left leg high in an arch, hitting his angry face with her foot. He fell to the ground, shouting in pain as his hands clutched his nose.
Another man ran up to her with a knife. She jumped down into a squatting position. She swung her body around into a circle, as she did so she extended her leg sweeping the man off his feet. As he fell, she grabbed the knife out from his hand.
She waited as three more men circled her. One of the men was the one who had captured Edythe. He had a smirk on his face.
With the knife still in her hand she readied herself, moving one foot back, resting on that leg. Her other leg was bent in a cat stance. Her arms and hands folded close to her body as she waited.
The woman did not look afraid. She looked very calm as her gaze moved from man to man. She was careful not to look up at their faces; she was looking instead at the upper part of the men’s chest, watching for movement. If one of the men were to attack the woman, the body language would give them away.
Predictably, the man who had so cruelly betrayed and enslaved Edythe lunged at her. As he did, she quickly side stepped to the left. Raising her right arm, she deflected his attack. Before he knew it, she was behind him dealing a lethal blow to the back side of his neck. He dropped face first into the mud.
The rest of the fight was soon over as she littered the ground with the men’s bodies. The woman’s eyes were a fiery green glow, as her gaze settled on the house. She did not enter right away. The fire from the torches lay on the ground at her feet.
Edythe heard the wife scream. The children ran back up the stairs the wife following them in distress.
The next moment, the woman with the fiery red hair stood in the house. She lifted the crystal into her hands. It was in that moment Edythe knew she was about to be set free.
The crystal was thrust up high into the air with a flick. A green wind burst in from the open door, and broke through the panes in the windows. The green wind swirled around the crystal as it stayed suspended in the air.
Turning green, then red, blue, and back to green, the crystal shattered. The shards splintered up into the air. They turned into a vivid blue. Raising her hand, the woman placed Edythe gently on her palm.
The villagers were gathering again outside. The woman walked out of the house, knife still in hand. She opened her palm releasing it; she looked at each one of the villagers.
One man came forward, “Please,” he sniveled, “If you take the faerie, we will be left vulnerable to the Cinerians. Please think of our children!” he whined.
“The Cinerians will come!” another voice cried out. “Don’t do this to us, please!”
The woman finally spoke, “And what of Edythe?” she asked as she raised her hand up high so all could see the faerie.
“Please! Don’t do this to us! What of the Cinerians?”
Seeing the faces, she knew they were terrified, as they should be. “The Cinerians are already here and no, you cannot keep Edythe. You all have become the Cinerians. In your desire for power, you have enslaved Edythe and her people. You showed her and her kind no mercy, and the same will be shown to you and your kind.” With this said, the mysterious woman left with Edythe.
They journeyed east for miles and came to rest at a stream. ”You know my name,” Edythe said as she was set gently on the grass. “You don’t think yourself better than me and you know my name.” As she lay there, Edythe grew in size, almost the same size as her rescuer. “I cannot speak of how grateful I am that you came for me.”
“You will be fine now.” Her rescuer tried to calm her. She wanted her to lie still and regain some of her energy.
Edythe was so relieved to finally be free of her prison. Her days of misery were over. Edythe was ready to move on from this world. She took deep breathes. Her voice was shaky as she spoke, “Let me bestow a gift to you, my friend. You have done more for me, than anyone else has ever done.”
“It’s fine. You should rest.”
“I don’t need to rest now. I know where I’m going.” For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Edythe truly felt alive. She was going to give her rescuer a great gift in return, the gift of her own power and life. “Do you know what its like, to love a man, whose only desire is to use you?” A lone tear escaped. “I don’t know how long I’ve been kept prisoner in the crystal. I thought I would be in there until the end of days.”
“You’re free now. You need to rest.”
Although Edythe had been set free, she was too weak to sustain her energy outside the crystal. Thankful to her rescuer she said, “To you I give my power with a secret that would keep it everlasting with you. Even though I die, my magic will not. Upon my captors and all man I put a curse that they shall…they shall be MORTAL! Those who are not gifted shall forget the existence of all things magic.”
Edythe was free, closing her eyes she let her spirit travel to the place beyond all human understanding.
With her death, her essence was drawn into the night’s sky, becoming one of the stars above.
Edythe’s rescuer removed her dark cloak, revealing vibrant red hair which fell to her hips and deep green eyes which had seen more than what a young woman of eighteen years should ever see. A sprinkle of freckles covered her pale face. She lied on the grass and gazed upon the night’s sky. The star that Edythe had become was twinkling down.
The young woman’s name was Grasiella and she had been born with magical powers. Her father managed to keep this a secret from the village. She looked like his wife, who had been taken by the Cinerians. He would not allow his daughter to become a slave for her magic.
Her father was captured by the Cinerians while collecting fish from the nets. She had been too late to save him. She vowed she would use her powers against the Cinerians and those like them, who would enslave for power.
Grasiella had learned of the captured faerie. She thought of her own enslaved family, she set out to right this wrong. She had waited until night fall. Her power was always strongest at night. Her hair glowing a fiery red, her eyes the purest green, she strode down the dirt street. As she past the homes which lined the street, using her magic, she sealed most of the occupants inside. This ultimately was why the rescue succeeded.
Walls had been created between all peoples, creatures and the like. The trust in one another had withered. Overtime anger and hate replaced all harmony. The Cinerians would soon dominate unless a weapon could be found to defeat them.
Edythe’s gift combined with Grasiella’s powers turned her into this weapon. Grasiella brought on the end of the Cinerians as well as the death of many humans, who were now mortal. Grasiella’s family had been lost to her. She never found her parents but her line would live on.
Although she would never learn where her own original powers came from, she knew the combination of hers and Edythe’s power would never diminish in her line. She trained her children and grandchildren in the usefulness of them.
Man did forget all about Magic. It did not mean Magic, had forgotten about man.