Fairy Ring

Days later, the ship rocked as a nearby storm churned up the sea. The group sat inside as the waves slammed against the ship. Once again, they argued about what their next steps would be. In two days, they would arrive at a small fishing village that wasn't too close to the mountains or Forest Waypoint.

"Then let's continue into Ferreus and sneak down south towards the government occupied areas!"

"I told you that's not going to work! There's no way that the empire won't snatch the young master given his talents and the chaos surrounding the Forolan Family and Halcyon. His safety takes priority."

"At least the empire won't try to murder us like the magical beasts or brainwash us like the True Order. We don't have to use our own identities. Aayla would need a fake one anyways."

"That takes too much time and money. Not to mention we have no idea how to get fake identities."

Jacki and Chris glared at each other. Their conversation had once again devolved into a fierce argument. They simply couldn't agree on the best way to reach Halcyon.

"Spatial magic is always an option –"

"NO! Absolutely not! The True Order would definitely keep a look out for long distance transportation magic."

"We would need to use the military outposts, which are probably in True Order hands by now. Unless you know of a fairy ring, that plan is too unfeasible."

However, they could agree on rejecting Daren's plan. He pouted and looked down at his book again. Aayla poked his arm while Jacki and Chris continued plotting their trip to Halcyon.

"What's a fairy ring?"

"An ancient magical formation of stone structures arranged in a circle. By 'ancient' I mean from the Light Period over fifty millennia ago before the Great Disaster brought it to an end. Only a few survive. They can be used to transport people long distances."

Aayla barely remembered where Ramona first found her. Very little about that place remained in her memory. Aayla was too exhausted at the time. However, she did remember some odd stones surrounding the clearing. The central stones were smaller and worn down, but the ones on the edges were a bit bigger.

"Using them is a bit unpredictable, and random things tend to pop out of them every now and then. According to legend they can even transport people between worlds. Eventually the name 'fairy ring' stuck."

She had arrived at a clearing in the forest near Nafriton directly from another world. With the bright glow of the stars and twin moons, Aayla couldn't tell if anything else was glowing at that time. Ramona did mention that there was an unknown energy spike on the night she arrived.

"Since they're so old, is it possible to use them?"

"Theoretically, as long as the main parts of the formation is intact and we have enough energy. Why do you ask?"

Aayla hesitated for a second. This was related to closely to how she arrived on Tellus, but she had to find Ramona.

"You know the energy spike around the beginning of this school year? The one that had everyone agitated and nervous for weeks?"

"Yes. It occurred late in the night northeast of campus. It was too far away to be considered a threat, but too close to be ignored or delay the investigation until later."

"Well, I've kind of investigated the area and there was a clearing with stones in a circular pattern. I didn't get a good look at them, but the central rings had smaller rounded stones while the outer rings had larger blockier stones."

Daren closed his book and sat up straight.

"Did they have any patterns embedded on them or in the ground? What about how the stones were set on the ground?"

"That was a long day and we were moving quickly. I was exhausted and didn't get a good look at it."

"You're sure it's where the energy spike came from?"

"It might be possible. I didn't really pay much attention or look into it after that day. Ramona could have investigated more, but I was stuck working at the residence hall. Did Headmaster Marin happen to show you where the spike was."

With a pen in hand, Daren took out a piece of paper and began to draw on it. A map of campus and the surrounding area appeared on it. A few minutes later he placed an 'X' on the map before handing it to Aayla.

"Yes, he did as part of a training exercise. My teacher let me look at the data since it was related to spatial magic. Is this about where the clearing was?"

Aayla did some calculations in her head. She roughly estimated Ramona's flight speed and the time it took for them to get to the residence hall on the first night. After adding a healthy range of error, she grabbed the pen and drew a rough circle around campus to indicate the maximum distance flown that night.

That spot was barely within the circle. Meaning, it could have been where Aayla arrived on Tellus. Ramona was sent to investigate, and she did arrive on the scene first after Aayla. She nodded her head. That spot and the clearing were most likely one and the same.

"That looks right. I think so."

Daren's eyes sparkled.

"If it is a fairy ring, that would be extremely helpful. Uncle told me the basics of how they work, and I watched him use the one near Halcyon before. He even let me try one winter when usage was low."

"But won't the True Order detect it?"

"Yes, but it won't matter. The energy doesn't really spike until the end of the casting, and they'll probably think that it was a magical beast or something. That's what the university initially concluded as well, but the headmaster and Deputy Heston might have concluded something different in their private records."

Like a kid in a candy store, Daren eagerly started drawing diagrams. He would occasionally scratch one out then start again. Another page held a short list of items that grew longer as the number of diagrams increased.

"I have all of the headmaster's things that I could grab along with my own supplies. The fairy ring might have been dormant until recently. Its awakening could have caused the energy spike. We could definitely get it working. The fairy ring could take us directly to Halcyon!"

He paused and frowned. Daren bit his lips as he looked over his drawings again. A few items were marked off of his lists as he scratched out some of the diagrams. Those options wouldn't work at all.

"No, wait. The fairy ring just restarted, and Uncle only let me calibrate the fairy ring for a short, random hop. We won't be able to make it to Cuoq let alone Halcyon, but we should shorten the distance considerably."

"Will the True Order be able to track us? Could you set it sort of randomly? Like set the general distance and direction but not the exact location?"

"Possibly. I'll have to set the altitude a bit high so we don't appear inside solid rock or something, but that should work."

"What will you need?" Aayla grabbed Chris's storage artifact. "Let's see what Chris has as well. I'm sure he grabbed a lot of good stuff when we left the university."

Chris looked over when his name was mentioned just to see Aayla hand his storage artifact over to Daren.

"Did you call for me? Wait, that's my storage artifact!"

"Yes, and your young master needs it to solve our travel problems."

Aayla explained their theory about the fairy ring. Chris and Jacki became excited when they heard it. A fairy ring was extremely rare, but it could easily solve most of their travel problems. Except for the part about heading back to the university.

The True Order probably crawled all over the area to extract as much value as possible. The main troops could have pulled back to Forest Waypoint, but there were at least some scouts and a research team still in the area.

With no better plan, Chris and Jacki began plotting how to avoid the True Order's magical beasts. No one in their right minds would go back. However, the True Order wouldn't just leave Nafriton unguarded. The small team had to keep this trip as quiet as possible until they achieved their goals.

The next couple of days were spent preparing for their departure from the Sail Crane. The ship dropped them off at the next fishing village, and the team silently disappeared. They didn't even stay the night at a hotel out of Chris's paranoia that the True Order could be watching.

To be fair, he was probably right. Jacki and Aayla bought horses for the group while Chris and Daren stayed outside of the village to avoid being recognized. Posters had been plastered all over the city with their faces. When the ladies arrived with two horses, the team set off back towards Nafriton.