Lyre of Tears Ch. 01: Like Honey

Riding atop a white, armored horse, Tor Moraine lead two columns of mounted soldiers along a road that wound around the top of a hill. He was hunting fairies.

"Shh! Quiet!" he commanded, suddenly, at the same time he raised a clenched fist. In unison, the riders who followed him reined their horses to a stop and became as quiet as possible. "There are fairies nearby," he added after several moments of hushed alertness.

A tall, armored, and athletically-built woman rode up beside him as quietly as possible. Gracefully, she leaned over in her saddle and whispered, "How can you be certain?"

"Simple. There are dancing lights down there." Tor pointed down the side of the hill upon which they were stopped. Following his finger, the woman, Bethe, saw what he was talking about: there appeared to be soft, blinking lights somewhere beyond the trees. She was impressed by how he could spot such dim lights at this distance. But then again, Tor always did have a keen sense for the supernatural.

"Finding them was even easier than I had hoped." Tor slid down from his saddle, wrapped his dark cloak around his long, lean form, and made his way towards the incline that was between him and those lights. "Wait here," he whispered over his shoulder. "I'll check it out, myself."

In an instant, Bethe was on her feet, beside him once again. "Is it wise to go down there by yourself, Lord Loviotor?"

Tor grinned at her, the contrast between his teeth and his dark skin making his smile appear bright even in the low light of early evening. After all these years, Bethe still insisted on using his title and full name in public. The only time she relaxed was when they enjoyed each other behind closed doors.

"Stand down, Captain," he said, reciprocating the formality, although there was a playful tone in his voice. "I think I can handle a handful of fairies enjoying their sundown frolic. If it turns out I need your help, I'll scream hysterically.

"In the meantime, you and the men can watch the road. Make certain we don't get any unwanted passersby making too much noise and scaring away my little friends."

Bethe tapped her fist to her left breast in a salute. "As you command, my Lord." Tor flashed a new grin at her, for he always found her strict adherence to military protocol amusing, as well as endearing. Turning around, he made his way down the hill, while behind him his guard captain used gestures to order riders to watch the road in both directions.

The boots that Tor wore were enchanted to make his movements more quiet, which was why his half-jog, half-slide down the hill didn't make nearly as much noise as it should have. He had enchanted his cloak as well - it made him blend in with his surroundings far better than non-magical camouflage could.

Once at the bottom of the hill, he quietly made his way towards the source of the lights. He tiptoed over thick roots and sneaked around tree trunks until he spotted what he was looking for: multiple wisps of living light dancing above flowers in a clearing. The fey folk - like all creatures - were predictable as long as one knew what to look for. Tor knew that in this region of Sildare, if he could locate a clearing full of lilies or violets at dusk, and if he was careful in his approach, he could sneak up on some fairies.

Convincing them to give him what he wanted was a different challenge, however.

Hiding in the shadow of a tree, the wizard watched the fairies frolic. More importantly, he listened for the song they were all but guaranteed to be singing, for a good sundown frolic always came with singing. Once he heard the faint tune and memorized the gist of it, he began to whistle it. As he whistled, he opened up his cloak, thus ending its camouflage spell, and stepped out into the open.

The sudden appearance of a human made most of the fairies fly away, but some stayed, just as he predicted. The tomes said that the fey were a curious folk. Tor suspected they wouldn't be able to resist asking this man why he knew their song, and that suspicion turned out to be right.

Wisps of green, yellow, blue, red and one purple light floated over to him. Some flew slow circles around his torso, while others hovered near his head. He could feel a few of poke at his brown cheeks or tug on the unnaturally white hairs of his neatly trimmed beard. Letting them do whatever they wished, for now, the mage assumed they were not at all familiar with things like facial hair or complexions like his. They likely didn't know much about humans, at all.

"Why are you whistling our song, human?" One of the fairies asked. Once that first question was asked, several more followed in quick succession. It was like a dam of curiosity had broken.

"Yeah! And how did you learn it, man thing?!" another one asked.

"What's this under your clothes? Metal? Why are you wearing metal?"

"I think that's called armor. It's for protection."

"Protection from what? Us? Is he going to hurt us?" One of the floating lights sped upward, out of Tor's reach, even though he wasn't doing anything except standing there.

"I bet he was spying on us!"

"There's no way he could've spied on us! He's so big and loud, we would've noticed him in a second!"

"You wouldn't have, Tillicent! You wouldn't notice if your fanny were on fire!"

"That's so mean, Zenzephiriil!" Tor heard giggling from the purple light, followed by the noise of maybe a dozen diminutive voices exploding into diminutive arguments. The fairies began to circle around one another as they argued and yelled over each other. He smiled to himself, for this showed that they had already forgotten to be afraid of him.

"Now, now, little ones. No need to argue," he said, gently. Tor needed to be careful around the fey, for a shout or a deep exhale was enough to send one or two them flying. Once they were reminded that a strange human was among them, the fairies resumed revolving around him or hovering above his head.

"I was whistling your song because it's so catchy. Truly, your kind are gifted musicians to compose such a memorable melody." Tor saw a few of the lights bobbing, as though they were nodding in agreement. "Tell me, please, little singers, would you be willing to teach me another one of your songs?"

"That depends," the purple light said, suspiciously, now hovering in front of Tor's face. He could tell from the sound of its voice that the purple one was female. "If we teach you, what's in it for us?"

"Yeah! What's in it for us, huh?" More of the fairies flew right in front of his face.

"Do you have any candy? I tried human candy once, and I really liked it."

"Yeah, I tried candy, too!"

"No you didn't, Hartus. Stop lying, you liar."

"I'm not lying! And don't call me a liar, you dink!"

The mage interrupted them before they got distracted by more arguing. "As a matter of fact," he said, "I happen to have some candy on me. If your most talented singer teaches me one of your favorite songs, I'll give you some.

"Now, who among you is the most talented singer?"

"I am!" the purple light exclaimed while bobbing in the air, excitedly.

"I don't know, Zenzephiriil, you're quite good, but Hinly..."

"Hinly nothing!" Zenzephiriil got right up in the other fairy's face. "Sure she's good, but I've got more vocal range. I can go really high, and I can sing low if I really want to. She can't go as high as I can, and you know it!" The other fairy didn't respond. He just sort of drifted backwards.

"Well? Who here agrees that I'm the best singer?" No one responded to Zenzephiriil immediately. But eventually, begrudgingly, some of them muttered an agreement.

Spinning in the air as though she were running a victory lap, the purple light flew up to Tor's eye line. "See? I'm the best. Everybody says so."

The mage suppressed a laugh. He liked this purple fairy. She had moxy. "Yes, I heard. I also heard your name: Zenzephiriil. Am I saying that right?"

"Yep!" She did a backflip in the air, happy to hear a human say her name and get it right.

"Zenzephiriil is a pretty name. It's long, though. How about I call you Zeph, for short?"

"Zeph, for short?" She parroted him, perhaps because the concept of shortening a name was unfamiliar to fairies.

"Yes. It's called a nickname, or a short version of your full name. Your nickname will be Zeph, if it pleases you."

She considered it in silence for a few moments, then suddenly danced before his eyes. "Yep! I like it! You hear that everybody?! My nickname is Zeph!"

"Hey, I want a nickname too!"

"Yeah, me too!"

"Give me one next!"

Tor quickly learned that dealing with fairies required a lot of patience. He felt like a teacher trying to control a class full of rowdy children. This single encounter reminded him why he never did like school as a kid, and why he preferred to learn on his own his whole life: because children were stupid.

Pushing back the annoyance he could feel bubbling up within him, the white-haired wizard sought to calm them down. "Now, now, little singers, one thing at a time. I'm only a man. And I'm not as quick as you are."

"You can say that again!"

Tor ignored that quip. "Now that I know your nickname, I'll tell you mine: Tor. That's easy to remember, right?"

"Tor," the fairies repeated his name.

"Yes. Tor. It's short for Loviotor." Again, the fairies repeated his name. Tor was reminded of that class full of children image he thought up moments ago, only this time the children were well-behaved.

"That's right, you got it. Now, Zeph here will teach me a song, and then, before I leave, I'll give each of you a nickname. I'll also give Zeph some candy. If she teaches me really well, I'll give her enough candy to share with the rest of you. How does that sound?"

"Wait a second," Zenzephiriil said. "Before I do anything for you, man thing, I want to see the candy, first."

"Of course. That's wise of you, making sure that I can uphold my end of the bargain before you uphold yours. Not all men are as honorable as I am," he assured her with a smile.

"Tell me, have any of you ever heard of alchemy?"

There was a moment of thoughtful silence before someone answered. "I have, I think. It has something to do with mixing stuff, right?"

"What kind of stuff?" Another asked.

"You know, stuff. Crushed flowers and insect wings and a gnome's nose hair and things like that."

"Why would anyone want to crush flowers?"

"Humans, obviously. They crush things just by walking around on their big, dumb feet."

Yet again, Tor had to interject before his little friends completely lost focus. "That's basically right. Alchemy involves mixing things in order to make new things. For instance, alchemy can make candy. Here, I'll show you the alchemical candy I made."

The fairies bobbed up and down. "Yes! Show us candy!"

From one of the many pockets in his clothes, the mage removed a little pouch. He untied it then tapped some of its contents out into the palm of his hand. Whatever it was, it looked like sugar.

"That doesn't look like candy."

"Sure it is," Tor assured them. "Go on, take a closer look. It's really yummy, I promise." To show them just how tasty it was, he dipped a fingertip into the pile of sugar-like grains, some of which stuck to his skin. Then he licked it off. "Mmm hmm! It's delicious!"

As he suspected she would, Zeph was the fairy brave enough to have the first look. She drifted close to his upraised palm. That was when the wizard struck.

Tor blew the particles right at the fairy, who was momentarily covered in a little cloud of white. At first, nothing happened besides her becoming irate. "Hey, whaddya think yer doin', ya doofus?!" she yelled.

But then, Tor spoke a single command word: "Lux!" The magic contained within the particles activated. Seconds later, Zeph began to cough uncontrollably and spiral towards the ground.

"Look out! He's attacking us!" Warned one of the other fairies as he flew towards the sky.

"Fly away! Fly away!"

"What about Zenzephiriil?!"

"She's a goner! Save yourselves!"

"But I wanted a nickname!"

"It's all a trap, you idiot! Fly away, now!"

Tor could hear a collection of tiny screams as the bright lights scattered this way and that, abandoning the one, purple light that landed on a blade of grass. Nothing else happened immediately afterwards, and for a few moments he was worried that the enchanted substance wouldn't do what it was supposed to: foil the fairy's ability to control her size. But his worry turned out to be unfounded when she began to grow right before his eyes.

For roughly half a minute, Tor watched the coughing fairy become bigger and bigger until she ended up becoming a human-sized fey woman crushing the grass and the flowers she lay upon. It really did work! That was the first time he had ever mixed that particular substance, and there was no way to know it would work until he used it.

While waiting for the now much larger fairy's coughing to subside, Tor got a nice, long look at her. Her hair, like the light she radiated in fairy form, was purple. It was also long and intricately braided. She still had a faint purple aura around her, but the longer she stayed human-sized, the more it faded away.

Zeph wore nothing except a slip of a dress which left much of her creamy, pale skin bare. Her delicate shoulders, arms, and much of her legs were naked. She also wore no shoes; Tor noted that she had pretty little toes. He knew that the slip she wore wasn't made with any material humans worked with - obviously - but it looked like cotton to him. It was very thin, almost sheer. It was definitely thin enough for him to see that the slender fairy was surprisingly curvy in the right places. Her breasts weren't especially large, but for one of her size - he reckoned she was now a dainty five foot even - they were bigger than expected.

Zeph looked like a young woman who had seen perhaps nineteen or twenty summers. He realized, however, that the fey lived considerably longer than humans. She could have been over one hundred years old for all he knew. What he knew for certain was that she was really easy on the eyes, she was practically naked, and her coughing was just about done.

"Wha...what have you done to me?!" Zeph asked between coughs, trying to crawl away from him. "I'm...I'm stuck like this?! What have you DONE?!"

"Relax, Zeph. What I did to you isn't permanent." The mage followed her, step by unhurried step. "The powder I used on you forces you to grow to my size and stay that way for a while. Maybe it will wear off in a couple of nights or so, at which point you'll be able to go from big to small and back again whenever you wish.

"Trust me, I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to get a better look at you while we spoke. But if you do me a favor, I'll cancel this spell I've cast on you right away. How does that sound? One little favor, then you'll be back to normal." Under normal circumstances, Tor looked like a trustworthy guy, thanks to his handsome, young face and that bright smile of his. But considering what he had just done to her, Zeph didn't feel like trusting him.

Stumbling to her feet, she started to run away. When she turned, Tor got a better look at her wings, which had grown along with the rest of her. They looked like they were made of the same purple light that enveloped her in her tiny wisp form. And like her fairy aura, her fragile, radiant wings were fading away due to her current size.

It was obvious that the fairy wasn't used to running. Tor dashed forward and caught up with her, easily. Wrapping his arms around her arms and belly, he lifted her up off the ground. Her bare feet pedaled at the air while she struggled as mightily as she could, but to no avail.

"Let go of me!" Zeph screamed. "Let go! I'm not going to do anything for you, you creep!"

Although she was the size of a human, Zeph felt as light as a feather to the wizard. He guessed that had something to do with her magical nature. Without breaking a sweat, he kept her imprisoned within his arms and carried her out of the clearing, towards the nearest tree. He then let go of her just long enough to spin her around, grab her by the wrists, and pin her against the trunk. Between the vice-like grips that kept her arms above her head and his sinewy, carob-colored body leaning heavily against hers, Zeph wasn't going anywhere. But despite the futility of her situation, she kept fighting him.

In the short time since they met, Tor learned enough about her to expect her not to merely cower before him. That was fine - he enjoyed challenges.

"Listen to me, Zeph." She tried to bite his nose, and he was barely quick enough to snap his head back and avoid what would have been a nasty injury. He laughed, admiring her spirit. "Shhh. Relax. And listen to me.

"All I want is a little favor. Do something easy for me, and I'll turn you back to normal. You can be flying away and looking for your friends in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is work with me."

Lowering his face close to her ear, he repeated those words with a whisper. "All you have to do is work with me."

It was then that Tor noticed a few a few things. Because his face was so close to hers, he could see that her eyes - which were as green as mint - were dilated. He could feel and hear how ragged her spring-scented breath was. Looking down, he saw that her nipples were erect and poking against her virtually sheer, white dress. Finally, her attempts to free herself from his grip were beginning to weaken.

Any one of these things could have been caused by different things. Perhaps her pupils were dilated because it was getting dark out. Maybe her labored breathing was due to fear. It was chilly out, so that may have been why her tits had stiffened. And perhaps she did not struggle so much because she was getting tired.

Yes, there could have been a different cause for each of these things, but together they made it clear to him that this fey woman was aroused.

That was an unexpected development, but certainly not an unwelcome one. Tor guessed that she liked being treated roughly. He'd known many women who liked that, and apparently some fey women liked it, too. Right away, he could feel that all too familiar swelling within his trousers. Although this started as a fact-finding mission, the wizard wondered what was stopping him from having fun, too?

'Nothing' was the answer.

Testing the waters, Tor slowly leaned forward, inching his lips closer and closer to hers. Zeph turned her head, but only a little bit. He was certain she could have resisted more if she truly wanted to; maybe try to bite his nose again. Smiling, he dared to flick the tip of his tongue against her lips.

The fairy's lips tasted sweet. More importantly, she shivered when he licked her, which said more in that instant than words possibly could. Immediately emboldened by her reaction, Tor let go of one of her wrists, took her delicate chin between his calloused fingers, and captured her lips with his. He indulged in the soft sweetness of her kiss for several seconds before he slipped his tongue inside of her mouth for a much deeper tasting.

Pressing his thicker body against hers, Tor pinned her to the tree even harder, making sure she couldn't wiggle away. Although Zeph was, indeed, wiggling, it was not out of resistance. She moaned as he kissed her, greedily, using his tongue to tickle and tease the sides of hers. The mage was delighted by the fairy's moaning and wiggling; he was so delighted he had to moan, as well, especially when she started to kiss him back. Their tongues frolicked in a way that wasn't entirely dissimilar from the fairies' dance in the clearing.

Using his tongue to lure her tongue fully into his mouth, Tor released her chin so that that hand could slide, languidly, down the side of her body. Zeph felt as good as she tasted. When he felt her thigh in his palm, he gave it a firm squeeze. Then he lifted her leg, wrapped it around his waist, and then thrust his pelvis against hers so that she could feel how hard he was for her. At the same time, he suckled on her tongue, which he had successfully lead into his mouth. Zeph melted against him.