Satyr Play

They went inside and walked through the concourse to a service elevator, which took them several floors down into the basement. Then, it was a trek through blank hallways to a set of stairs that took them down once more. They exited into more blank hallways, and after uncounted turns, Stanley was looking at huge metal doors that wouldn't have looked out of place in a bank's vault. Two men in dark grey suits stood on either side of the door. They stared hard at Stanley, but after a few quiet words from Walter, they nodded to the lawyer and pulled the massively heavy doors open.

The area beyond the doors was impossible to see clearly. It was like trying to see through rippling water. The group moved forward and passed through the barrier, which tingled on Stanley's skin.

After a walk down a short hall, he gasped as he took in the vastness of the space. They were... outside!

The sky above them was a crisp blue Stanley had never seen before. Birds chased each other and sang in the trees. The sun was just beginning its descent to Stanley's right, but its warm light filled the area ahead.

The air smelled wonderfully fresh, and he picked up the delicate scent of the flowering bushes that encircled the round clearing they were approaching. Butterflies and bees flew from flower to flower. Behind the flowers, the forest began.

"How?" Stanley gasped.

"It's a form of illusion. A shared memory. I've been informed this is a present for you," Walter said as he admired the flowers.

"For me?" he squeaked.

"This is a memory of the world as it was when you were born. It's a present from Queen Mab," he said with another of those Dragon smiles.

Stanley looked away from the teeth towards the people awaiting their approach. They were separated into two groups. The larger group on the right was comprised of a variety of people. He saw a tall, slim man in thick plastic-rimmed glasses standing beside an older woman in a business suit. Next to them was a short but strong-looking red-bearded man with braids in his beard.

Stanley blinked in surprise as he recognized his beautiful brunette neighbor, who was returning his surprised look. She looked away with a blush.

There was also a large blond man Stanley thought looked like a male version of Sigrid. He glanced over at her, and she smiled at him and shook her head slightly. She knew what he'd seen. He smiled in embarrassment.

Turning his eyes to the left, his gaze was trapped by eyes so green and so deep he forgot to breathe. Marisa touched his arm, breaking the trance, and he took a deep, gasping breath as Queen Mab turned her eyes aside with a pleased smile on her lips.

"Shall we get started?" Walter asked.

-=-

Detective Harmon cursed under his breath as he backtracked again in the basement hallway. He'd lost sight of his target when they got into the elevator, but he'd noted the floor they got off on and tracked them this far.

When he'd seen the big security agent stop the smaller man from escaping, he knew something was up. Something Mr. Garin wanted nothing to do with.

But now, he was lost.

He walked around a corner and almost bumped into a stunningly handsome man carrying a small cooler. The man looked at his frustrated expression, and a wide smile appeared on his sensual lips.

"Lost?"

Harmon felt himself relaxing in that smile and struggled to maintain his caution.

"Just a little turned around." He flashed his badge. "Detective Harmon, NYPD."

The man's smile just got wider, though the look in his eye was a little manic.

"Well met, detective! I'm Ulysses. I believe we were meant to meet here!"

Harmon stared at Ulysses in surprise.

"I can help you find who you are seeking and help you get the answers you are after," Ulysses said with a grin.

"How do you know I'm looking for some—"

"Stanley Garin."

The detective paused again and looked closer at the man.

"He's at the center of everything. I've come to ask some questions of my own. Perhaps you will join me?" Ulysses asked, and Harmon found himself nodding.

Ulysses set off down the hall in the direction Harmon had just come from, but he rushed after the man.

As they reached the end, Ulysses touched the wall, and a door to a stairwell swung open. Ulysses looked back at him with an odd smile.

"You couldn't see that, could you?"

Harmon shook his head.

Ulysses chuckled and descended with the detective following.

They reached another basement level and more hallways, but Ulysses never slowed. Then, he abruptly stopped as they approached yet another corner.

"The guard dogs aren't going to appreciate seeing you down here, so stay hidden until I deal with them," the smiling man said quietly.

"Deal with them?" the detective asked.

He lifted the cooler. "Feed them something to help them sleep. Stay put!" Ulysses said as he strode around the corner boldly.

Detective Harmon heard some low murmuring and the air pressure changed in the hall as if a window had opened. Then came roaring and the sound of the cooler splintering.

Harmon peeked around the corner just as two large men slumped to the floor.

Ulysses gestured for him to hurry over but quietly.

Harmon did but looked at the men nervously as their mouths were smeared with blood. Inside the door, his attention was drawn to a rippling curtain of...water? He had no time to investigate this as Ulysses grabbed his arm and dragged him inside, grinning merrily to himself.

Then they stepped... into the impossible.

-=-

The big blond man had a surprisingly high-pitched voice. At Walter's request, he began with introductions.

"My name is Isaac Nils. I'm the Minister of Diplomatic Affairs. I'll be the arbitrator for tonight's meeting. Firstly, I am honored to introduce Her Royal Highness, Queen Mab, ruler of the Fae."

Everyone bowed towards the Queen, but she only had eyes for Stanley, and he was beginning to sweat. Isaac introduced the two Fae agents next to the Queen, but Stanley missed their names due to the roaring in his ears.

The arbitrator turned to introduce the Hidden Races Council members. The older woman in the tailored suit was Lise-Anne Hoek, Minister of Security. The tall, lanky man with the glasses was Clive Darrowess, Racial Affairs Minister. The man with the braided red beard was Rand von Deussel, Council Investigator in charge of the Eastern United States.

Michelle Beaumont was a historian working for the Council. Stanley immediately had a million questions for her. She knew stuff! Once more, she blushed under his excited and pleased look.

"Mr. Zhou, I believe you mentioned you would like to make an opening remark?" Isaac said. Walter nodded and stepped forward to address the gathering.

"We are gathered here tonight to review a very delicate matter. Nothing less than the legal standing of an individual from a race long thought lost. In fact, we have learned that he is the only one of his kind. He came to the attention of the Fae council after a series of unfortunate miscommunications."

Marisa had been trying to keep from looking at Stanley as even her muted seer sight was beginning to show her confusing and frightening flashes around him she couldn't interpret.

While she'd averted her gaze from everyone on the way in, she looked sharply at Walter when he blatantly minimized the Fae's horrid attacks. Her sight flared to full power as she peered at the small man and saw his aura was filled with darkness, fire, and death on a scale unimagined! There was such a finality to the images that he lacked the layers of potential. He was on a single track, and it only led to death. Her head spun from the horror. Sigrid managed to catch her as the strength in her legs gave out. Camila was immediately at her side.

As Stanley turned to face Marisa, Walter seized the opportunity. He looked to the Queen. She nodded and whispered a word of power. The grass under Stanley's feet glowed almost imperceptibly as he was linked into the Fae's Global Overlay spell.

Walter immediately stepped forward into the circle and gripped Stanley's right hand as he bound his payload spell to the small man with a few brief utterances. His use of the reliquary when creating the spell ensured its potency, and he still felt the extra strength of his link coursing through him. He smiled as he felt his magic sink into the Dragon bone ring Stanley wore. He released Stanley's hand as the man snatched it back and shook it as if it stung. Walter hoped it did.

"What?" Stanley asked, having missed what Walter had just said.

"You'll be expected to switch to show the Council your true form," he uttered.

Stanley looked at him in surprise, then scowled. He was going to have to get naked before them? He angrily began taking off his clothes and tossing them aside as he looked back at Marisa, who was only now opening her eyes from her faint.

Marisa felt the urge to vomit but pushed it down deep as she felt her mother and Sigrid supporting her. Their energy was in tune with hers, and they gave her strength. She opened her eyes and saw Stanley standing before her, pulling his pants off and shucking off his underwear. His back was to the Fae and the Council Ministers, the last group watching with shock. She looked back to Stanley as he reached for his ring, and her seer sight flared once more.

Death. One path. Death.

Behind him, the specter of death unfurled Dragon wings and grinned madly.

"NOOOOO!!!" she screamed and tried to leap to her feet.

Space bent around Stanley, and a Satyr stood in his place. Huge, powerful, and naked.

"NOOOOO!!!" Marisa wailed as she finally made it to her feet to fling herself against his chest. He wrapped his powerful arms around her, and she dropped her glamor.

"What's wrong?" he exclaimed.

"He cursed you! He's stolen your life!" she cried against his shoulder.

"WHAT? WHO?"

As she clung to his body, her visions were sharpening. "Walter! He's planning to kill you... no... EVERYONE! Oh my god! You're the trigger!"

The lawyer's professional smile wore thin as he watched the young Succubus disclose his plot. His expression turned sour.

Eyes turned in his direction. Lise-Anne stepped forward. "We were told your seer abilities were untrainable."

Marisa was shaking in Stanley's arms, but she faced the Minister of Security. "I'm untrainable by current seers because they aren't powerful enough to guide me." Her eyes turned to Walter, who stepped back as the young woman's eyes flared bright white. "I see you for the monster you are, bringer of death, you diseased wyrm—"

"ENOUGH!" Walter roared and exploded upwards into his true form. He cast his wings wide and glared down at the pitiful beings at his feet. "It's too late for your whining. The spell is cast and primed. You can do nothing to keep young Stanley from fulfilling his true destiny."

Sigrid was suddenly glowing with an intense white light in her armor. "And what destiny is that, foul creature."

"The Death of Humanity," the Dragon said with a wide smile.

-=-

Ulysses walked down the short hall towards the gathering, still clinging to the arm of the detective. He looked back at the man and grinned at the stupid look of incredulity on the detective's face. He loved seeing how lost the man was.

He pulled him next to the wall, and they stopped, partially hidden behind some bushes. It wasn't the best cover, but nobody seemed to notice them.

Ever since he'd woken screaming in the night two days ago from a nightmare he couldn't remember, he'd had a burning desire to confront the source of his current misery. Stanley Garin. The name resonated in his head. It drove him forward.

And there he was. The little runt himself.

He was next to Camila. Ulysses couldn't stop a whimper of fear from escaping his lips when he saw her. His eyes shot to the detective, but the man was still too stunned to notice any sound he made. He looked back to the people standing in the clearing. The young woman was falling, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Magic was being used. Powerful magic. He saw the Queen's lips move to cause the grasses below Stanley's feet to glow faintly. Then, the old man grabbed Stanley's hand and spoke the words of another spell. Ulysses had no idea why this excited him so much. Something big was happening, and he had no idea what it was, except he had the weird sensation that it was exactly what was supposed to happen.

When the young woman screamed, he felt a sudden sharp pain at the base of his skull, like a pin prick or an insect bite. He no longer felt the excitement of a moment ago and couldn't understand why he was here. He didn't want to be. The pain at the back of his head got worse and worse, and he felt himself getting weaker and weaker.

What was happening?

-=-

Harmon was lost. He'd stepped through the looking glass, and nothing made sense. He was in the subbasement of a skyscraper in Manhattan and he was in a room that looked like a forest clearing. The air was fresh and sweet with the scent of flowers and trees. Insects were flying around, and the sky above was... sky. Impossible sky!

He'd long stopped paying attention to the nutcase who'd brought him here. He was lost to his own thoughts.

Looking at the group of people ahead, he spotted Stanley Garin in the midst of them. He saw both of the Villamor women, the security man from VRL, the three people from the hallway outside Stanley Garin's condo, and others.

Stanley was stripping naked? The young woman was screaming something—

Harmon felt his mind struggling to comprehend what his eyes were seeing. What happened to Stanley? What the hell was that? He glanced back at Ulysses and screamed as he leapt away to land on his back, watching in horror.

The husk of Ulysses hung from the lips of an old crone who was sucking him dry as she filled out. She spat the remains of the man from her lips and smiled at the detective.

"It's almost time to make our dramatic entrance," she cackled. She pointed forward, and Harmon couldn't stop himself from standing and turning to face the group. When the old man transformed into a Dragon, Harmon just shook his head as this couldn't be real. The Valkyrie's sudden brilliant presence pushed his mind a little further toward madness. The Dragon was saying Stanley was destined to destroy humanity?

Something broke inside his mind.

-=-

"That's our cue. Let's join them, shall we?" Baba Yaga said, and the detective stiffly offered her his arm to support her as they walked forward.

The others suddenly gasped as they became aware of the witch walking towards them, supported by the arm of a Human.

The Dragon hissed at the old woman, but she paid it no attention as she was smiling at the Queen.

"Hello, Mab."

"Hello, Witch," the Queen said coldly.

Baba Yaga looked to Stanley and the young Succubus clinging to him. She snorted and winked at the girl.

"Hello, boy."

"Hello, Baba."

The witch looked at the gathered people, all staring back in shock and fear, and Baba frowned. "Do you think it's polite to expect my Stanley to stand before you in his true state while you hide behind these feeble disguises?"

Mr. Duncan was the first to drop his glamor and stood before them in all his vicious glory.

Camila dropped hers but glanced at the detective, who seemed to be suffering shock after shock to his mind. She grew worried for him.

Sigrid allowed her armor and weapons to fade but kept her eyes on the Dragon, who was moving uneasily, his eyes never leaving the witch. The hate in them was clear, but she could tell he was plotting his next move. She'd be ready for it.

The Council Ministers were less willing to drop their glamors, and Baba flicked a hand towards them in annoyance, ripping their disguises away.

Isaac's buff body was replaced with a skinny, scale-covered one with a fish head. Stanley blinked in surprise.

Lise-Anne stood before them or rather hovered in place on delicate translucent wings. Her fairy body was only six inches tall, and she looked like a young girl. With a frustrated pout, she allowed her body to expand in size until she stood before them, appearing as a four-foot-tall child... with wings.

The tall man in glasses was replaced by a small man dressed entirely in brown. He was smaller in stature than Lise-Anne's expanded child.

Rand's change was minimal. He was a dwarven warrior. The only real change was the appearance of his leather battle armor and the two axes strapped to his back. He snorted at the witch.

Moaning in fear, Michelle tried to hide herself, but there was nowhere for her to go in the circular clearing. Her transformation was the greatest. She was Humanoid from the tip of her scalp to her lower abdomen, where her spider body began. While her Humanoid parts were covered in pale, almost white skin, the rest was covered in black chitin armor. While the rest of her facial features were distinctly Human, her eyes were large and black, with two additional, smaller eyes at her temples.

"Is there a need for such cruelty?" Queen Mab said to Baba Yaga.

The witch fixed her old eyes on the frowning Queen. "Cruel, you say? Well, the Fae are experts in that, aren't they! Attempting to mind-rape the girl. Actually raping the mind of my Stanley!" she finished with a yell, and the ground rumbled with her anger.

"So why didn't you protect your Stanley?" Queen Mab asked sweetly, ignoring the other woman's rage.

The witch snorted and fixed her eye on the Queen. "Though we like to pretend otherwise and are far more aware than these children, we aren't omniscient, are we Mab. Besides, the boy learned a valuable lesson on the true nature of the Fae from that experience. As you know."

"What about Mr. Zhou's cruelty! He's cursed Stanley!" Marisa cried out.

The Dragon hissed at the young Succubus, but Sigrid suddenly stood between them with a spear of blindingly white light in her hand.

The witch looked to Sigrid. "Put away your toys, woman. The Wyrm isn't about to risk his death. He covets time more than any treasure to risk losing the rest of it."

"Baba Yaga, please. Let me treat the Human," Camila said, unable to take seeing the detective's distress any longer.

The witch glanced at the twitching Human, gave the Succubus an annoyed frown and a nod, and let her lead the man off to the side.

Camila turned him away from the others and held his eyes with hers as she caressed his temples to soothe him into a receptive state. Then she kissed him, overwhelming his mind with bliss to blank his short-term memories or at least fog them. She felt him relax further until she lowered him to the ground to rest his head in her lap. His mind was calm and resting. With luck, he'd put this down to a bad hallucination. Camila ran her fingers through his hair, and he smiled in his sleep.

Baba walked up to Stanley, picked up his shirt, and handed it to him. She gave his face a pat. It was the gentlest she'd ever touched him, and he smiled at her as he tied the arms of his shirt around his waist to wear it like an apron.

"What did Walter do to me?" Stanley asked quietly.

The witch turned to the Dragon and frowned at the crick in her neck she got from looking up at him. She pointed at the ground before her, and the huge creature was dragged down to thud against the dirt. He struggled for a bit, then held still, fear filling his eyes as he realized how outclassed he was by the old woman standing before him.

"Tell me Wyrm of this masterful curse you've linked to the boy," Baba said contemptuously.

The Dragon's eyes flared with hate once more. "You made it possible! Your heinous crime of killing a Dragon to harvest the switching abilities for your pet."

Baba Yaga laughed in his face, and the rage built in the Dragon's eyes.