Fillory
What started as a massive blob of pure magic floating in the void and because cosmic accidents apparently have hobbies decided one bored Tuesday to go boom. From that delightful conflagration sprouted Fillory: a magical Disney land for people who hate theme-park liability waivers and like their fairy tales with a side of existential dread.
If Disney did R-rated, with gods who spend their afternoons seducing, fucking naiads and nocturnally redecorating the landscape with your blood and intestines for dramatic effect… that's the beast by the way, this would be the flagship attraction. Add a few pleasant, not-at-all friendly fairies and you know, divine beings whose hobbies include long, complicated grudges, and you've got yourself an afternoon.
Not for children. Definitely not for soft-hearted tourists. Definitely not for anyone who wanted a normal vacation… someone should have told poor Vicky that but oh well.
Kai snorted as the group came up through the fountain, walking into a landscape that had lost its will to live. "Holy sweet Ryan," he muttered. "That's a lot of bad vibes."
The air here tasted of condensed power: thick, sweet, and a little conspiratorial. Magic pooled like humidity, you could feel it in the throat. It was at least three times denser than Earth.
Which could be blamed on the wellspring if you were the sort of person who liked neat explanations. Or, it could be blamed on an active god having a day off or maybe ninety different species of magical organisms exhaling in unison? Pick your poison.
Fillory loved ambiguity. They moved through a stretch of land that looked like someone had unplugged the color from reality and forgotten to plug it back in. Trees drooped, leaves browned before they hit the soil, and even the sun seemed apologetic. Quentin's face folded into confused disbelief. "This isn't how the the books make it sound. I mean, Fillory looked… alive in the books. This looks like someone left a magical casserole in the oven for thirty years."
Julia stared at a dying clump of grass and said quietly, "It feels… hollow. Like the life was taken out of it, not just the color."
Margo made a noise that could be a laugh or a curse. "My edition had illustrations, you know. Happy centaurs, sentient hedgehogs, glittering lakes. This looks like a gothic postcard from the end times"
Alice let the answer hang for them. "This is what happens when you leave a world to a predator who thinks 'maintenance' is a bad human concept," she said. "The beast doesn't care about balance."
She looked to Kai. "This is all his handiwork?"
"Yes. Predator without a soul, no less," Kai added, watching a raptor snatch a smaller bird out of the sky with all the blunt sincerity of a tax auditor. He made a face. "Also, vultures are not a décor choice, Fillory." Penny, hunched over and scowled. "Ok, enough of this bullshit guys. We need ti get to the knife maker. Now. We can't put all our eggs in one basket, or in Kai's dramatic interventions."
"Right," Josh piped up, like someone who'd been camping on the roof of the multiverse for a bit. "The knife maker. I know where he is."
"Finally," Margo said. "Lead the way, then."
—
The knife maker's cabin looked small and practical and scrappy in a way that made the local crows give it a respectful nod. The man on the a bench inform of his worn out desk. A girl who Kai recognized as the first actress to play Fen, his daughter, by the look of them carried a pile of split logs. They both fell still when the crew trooped up.
"Can I help you?" the man asked.
Quentin quickly moved forward and spoke with a formality that made Penny roll his eyes. "Uhhh, yeah We heard you forge knives with properties other smiths won't touch. We need a weapon that can kill…a master magician"
The man's eyes narrowed. "Why should I help strangers?"
Kai didn't bother to be polite. "Because the alternative is the world continuing to get worse and your daughter watching it rot. We want this for the beast." He said the word like a curse. "You'd be helping your home."
The man's daughter exchanged a look with him. He grunted and went inside. The group waited. Josh made a small, helpless noise. "Where is he off to?"
Margo raised a brow. "Either he's fetching whiskey or a crescent wrench for our expectations."
When the man returned, he carried a small box with a lid that clicked. He opened it. Inside lay two small pieces of white stones and the kind of silence that says this is not a trivial thing.
Elliot leaned forward. "Is that it? That's not even enough to make a needle."
The knife maker smiled without humor. "These aren't ore chunks. This are Moonstone's and they are alive. I can grow them by having them mate and breed." He tapped the box like a magician. "But it's expensive. Takes time. Care. The stones need a mate, a place, the right rhythm."
Kai let a laugh. "Ohhhhh, this fucking Disney land. Breeding rocks damn hearing it is one but seeing it is another. Sure Of course we need to breed the fucking stones this is Fillory: where you either breed rocks or die trying."
Margo made a face that said both things were probably options. "You can breed rocks? That is nauseatingly creative."
Penny said under his breath, "This place keeps outstripping my capacity for disgust."
The knife maker shrugged. "This place is fucked up. So are its solutions. But if you pay, we'll start the process." Kai's expression went slow and predatory. He looked between Quentin and Julia, then back at the knife maker. "We'll pay your price."
The man's eyes dipped to Kai without saying why. "Understand: this won't be quick. Moonstone needs seasons. It needs a womb to hold the seed. It's a process. You can have one blade in a year if all goes well."
"That wouldn't do," Kai said. "A year is is too damn long so I'll help speed up the whole process."
Elliot let out a long, weary sigh. "So our big plan is: wait a for two pieces of rocks to get it on and have a blast while we all wait huh? Sounds reassuring."
Penny scoffed. "Yeah well, What could possibly go wrong."
Kai's reply was soft and sharp. "You really don't want to tempt a couple of very old, very offended powers with that line, Penny especially not the three old bitches."
Kai shrugged. "Besides We're already in a fairy tale. Might as well pick one with decent exit not related to tempting fate."
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