A Desperate Gambit

I emerged from the Shadow to find myself standing in the shallow water of hidden lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I had been once before with Cerrydwen and the Frau. I had Ravyn’s body cradled in my arms.

It was a desperate plan that was unlikely to succeed, but it was something I felt that I had to try. I hoped that the Lady of the Lake would bring Ravyn back to life the same way that she brought back Naomi.

The water lapped quietly around my boots as I set my shoulders and began to take the last few steps toward the shore.

I had tried to step through the Shadow directly onto the island itself, up by the stone altar where Cerrydwen had worked from the last time that I was here, but I had the hardest time even finding this place. It was almost as if the Lady had raised a barrier against anyone coming onto her island through that means.

As I tried to get closer to the island, a stream of the will-o-wisps streamed up from the water and began dancing directly in my way. I stepped to the left, but was stonewalled again as they shifted to block my way.

Finally, I got frustrated and tried to push my way past them. “Dammit, get out of my way! I have to see the Lady.”

At that last word, the wisps stopped their dancing and joined together. Hundreds of them took on the rough outline of a feminine form. Before I could move or say anything, the Lady spoke to me in a distant, dream-like voice.

“You have not been invited here, nor have you asked permission to come to my sacred space. You come bearing weapons and the body of a comrade. Why are you here?”

“Lady, please, I need your help. This is Ravyn Fyre. She was slain tonight by a Bane. Please, please bring her back!”

She looked at me with her eyes, formed out of the brightest of the wisps. The wisps that formed her mouth moved as she spoke, but like a badly dubbed foreign film, they didn’t seem to form the same words that she spoke in mind.

“You presume much. I do not meddle in the affairs of humans. There is always much sorrow and loss in your world.”

“I saw you bring back Naomi! Can’t you help Ravyn?”

She shook her head as she responded. “I cannot help this one.”

I took a step forward, unwilling to give up so easily. I held out Ravyn’s body in my arms for her to see. “Why not? You brought back Naomi without her body!”

The form glided back as I moved forward, keeping an even distance between us. She began to turn away, but stopped, looked back over her shoulder and spoke once again. “You demand for that which can only be given. Return to your world and perform your rituals of loss and mourning. Only there will you find the solace you so desperately seek.”

As her form began to dissolve into the hundreds of individual wisps again, I tried one last time. “I don’t want solace, dammit, I want Ravyn back!”

But my objections did not sway her or the wisps. They resumed their blocking dance as I stood there frustrated and angry.