| The
Pimi-Mele were a race of tiny creatures. They had black glassy eyes,
like those of a grasshopper. Their arms and legs were singly jointed
and thus stubby. With skin that bathed in the rainbow, a crowd of
them looked as a meadow of summer flowers, and just as gentle was their
mind and behaviour. These were a meek and disciplined society that
offered no possible threat to anyone. Their only mistake was to open
a gateway between their world and the mortal realm.
When the first expeditionary team of Pimi-Mele into the mortals’ realm
was unknown to the faerie dominion. The humans were the first to
discover these new explorers. Four of the little beings wandered
into a small village. Naturally, the people of the village were amazed
and afraid of the strange visitors. At first, the villagers believed
the creatures to be some form of bizarre animals. When the Pimi-Mele
attempted to speak to some of them, they immediately recognized the intelligence
of these little folk. Strange talking animals could only be the work
of malevolent magical forces. The villagers had heard many stories
of rogue mages who had strayed from the guard of the faeries. The
little beings were perceived as daemons, forces of evil that sought to
corrupt and destroy their lives. Unlike the mortals, the faeries
bore no onus to the Pimi-Mele. However, to prevent them from committing
the great crime of racial warfare upon an undeserving species, they intervened.
Anrail, the faerie of vision and illusion, turned sour the villagers’ aim
so that the arrows would miss the helpless Pimi-Mele. The trail of
the Pimi-Mele through the forest was obscured by Eirendi, the faerie of
tracking skills. Faemydi, with the help of Pheres, the faerie of
fear, gave the fleeing Pimi-Mele a sense of urgent terror. The expeditionary
team fled through a vortex back to their homeland while the humans were
left with only a memory of the horrible daemons.
Though the Pimi-Mele had fled, the memory of their passing still burned
in the minds of those who had chased them. Like a raging blaze, the
weak image of docile beasts quickly erupted into an inferno of malicious
daemons capable of travelling the heavens and changing their form.
Guided by fear, the humans sought the powers of magic to banish the daemons.
The mortals have the same access to the forces of magic that the faeries
do. Being such a young race, however, results in volatile results
when human attempt to cast enchantments. Part of the faerie onus
calls them to monitor the development of magic within the mortal realm
and suppress it when it becomes powerful enough to kill. Regrettably,
no faerie is omniscient, not even Faemydi, the faerie of knowledge.
A guild of dark mages existed at the time the worked with spells and alchemy
in great secrecy. It is to these men that the frightened villagers
ran.
The events that took place next were unknown to any save the mages of
the humans, but the results were horrific. Faemydi first became aware
of something malevolent when the first mage was killed. She flashed
to the mages’ chamber and discovered their secret society. They were
gathered in a circle of thirteen mages with hands joined. The gestalt
of the mages had been used to summon a force from beyond the immortal planes
that would eradicate the Pimi-Mele wherever they fled. Faemydi looked
upon the scene before her with dismay. In their attempt to destroy
a perceived daemon, they had in fact summoned a real one. The creature
was a wispy form of dark gases and penetrating thought. One of the
mages in the circle lay on the floor, apparently slain by the beast, but
he bore no signs of physical abuse. Faemydi looked into the fallen
man’s mind, but found only a destroyed nothingness. Suddenly, an
overwhelming force touched her mind: the Mrough. Faemydi felt the
creature wrapping its essence around her body, penetrating it, infesting
her mind. She was totally unprepared for this alien assault and was
quickly overtaken. Only her soul was spared the vile thing’s claws.
She felt it, she saw it, she knew it.
Though it was very different from anything she had ever experienced
before, she could understand some of its thoughts. The Mrough arose
from a plane below hers where all creatures are as it is. She could
not discern its true nature, but she could indeed feel that the magical
forces that brought it here had warped the being. It was totally
bent upon the quest given to it. It had to destroy the Pimi-Mele
in all of existence by whatever methods it could employ. Faemydi
had given it a source of immense power. The daemon had attached itself
onto her mind and in that state it could use all of her senses. Through
her eyes it saw the dark mages, by her ears it heard the sorrowful cries,
by her nose it smelled burning candles, and with her skin it felt the cold
floor. One element of Faemydi’s being marred the Mrough’s plans:
her soul. With her essence free of the being’s influence she could
control her own thoughts and actions.
Horror and revulsion consumed her as she realized the terrible extent
of her infestation. A genocidal entity had permeated her being.
Instinctively, she drew forth from the currents of the universe all powers
she could wring forth and upon herself she cast a mighty spell of fear
and banishment to rid herself of the magical beast. The Mrough, sensing
her use of magic, suddenly seized control of the enchantment. Instead
of striking the daemon within her, the magical force was directed outward.
The target of the spell had been a magical creature. It found such
a creature, the faerie. The power of the spell allowed it to flood
the whole realm with its influence, spreading terror to all the faeries
of the dominion. Faemydi immediately sensed what had happened to
her sisters. Each faerie was struck with an uncontrollable compulsion
to escape some unseen terror that chased it. Using their native powers,
they fled the earth in blind terror. Screams of horror and madness
greeted her ears as the faerie dominion faded from her world. In
mere moments, she was the last faerie left upon the world. She was
lost. |