Where? A Prison Realm

"What a somber note we've come to in this festive dinner!" Larry spoke, his voice groaning as his lips moved. "We haven't even gotten to Steven and his absence for over a century and we've come to a distraction." He was mocking us in his own way. Larry, a leader of the warrior guild thought that only extreme focus and excess discipline were the answers to all life situations. Well, that and if it's not moving use more force and if it doesn't go down hit it more and hit it harder.

"Why are we talking about the distant past when there are current pressing matters that need to be dealt with? Steven, your stone is out, the floor is yours. Share your story of the last hundred years." Larry was direct as he spoke to our brother, his deep voice flat and plain as a smooth, black stone.

David and Mathew had been uncharacteristically quiet. They must be planning something.

David, Mathew, and Karen all typically wore mundane clothes but not being affiliated with any guild they wore pure, bright white indicating that they embraced all of the guilds.

"Larry is right, Steven we've had fun, we've had food, hell we have even covered the ancient history of our family." I said, my blue robe radiating blue hues into the room in light and shadow as my essence flowed out of me with my voice. "Where have you been and what have you been doing all these years? Moreover, why haven't you contacted any of us?" I asked as I had finally calmed down.

Steven's memory stone suddenly flashed into life again, the mouth of a tunnel or a cave was suddenly right in front of me. As Steven started talking the opening became clearer and we saw falling. The memory was falling down a tunnel.

"It's a dark world, not that different from here really." Steven says as his stone shows an end to the tunnel we saw before us. It opens to a place in the woods, a clearing that looked like any other. There was something strange that I couldn't place at first but as the stone brought us into a closer view my eyes narrowed."You notice it too, Jonesie?" Steven sat forward in his chair as he addressed me. The places where shadow should be there was light and where light should be shining there was darkness radiating down. It was such a small difference and the magic of the place made it seem normal.

This should be so simple for me to write!!!! Ok, the magic of the land made the switch seem normal, and seemed small. Only our rank in the magical realms protected us from the illusion.Steven spoke up and said," We are protected but any other being wouldn't even notice the change. While I was there I saw entire families that have gone down there." Steven was narrating for us as we watched. "The Fey beings don't notice that they aren't even gone from their homes. They don't know that they are in an illusion." Steven was telling us as the stone showed us a fey family walking by the clearing, each one of them holding green stones and picks. I couldn't help but feel like they should have been whistling and wearing funny hats like in the movies. This isn't a funny situation but it's what my mind does when I'm stressed.

Each member of the family passed right by Steven, him just standing in the center of the clearing. They passed by as if they didn't notice him. We could see their faces, we could see wrinkles and lines, and we were so close that we could see individual nose hairs as they poked out from under the bubbles of their noses. Yet no one even glanced at Steven. "It seems that we don't show up to them. It's something about the magic that causes the illusion. I was there for a century and no one saw me." Steven spoke around the lip of the glass of elderberry wine he had at his mouth.