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There was nothing

"Oh, this is ridiculous I&039;ination"

Directly in front of ain, just as if tiny ht

Tothicker until the air aroundlike a thousand tiny, nearly i," I said, closingheatstroke, or the fungus in the faery ring is a hallucinogenic"

I opened my eyes, sure I would see only the top of a sunny hill, but instead gawked as the twinkling lights gathered theus," I said quickly, getting to"It&039;s fro - "

As I backed away, I stu onto my butt My mind came to an abrupt stop as the for rapidly to clear et soh"

"Oh, there you are!" the hallucination said as it turned to me "Thank heaven you called me Quickly, we don&039;t have much time I must pass on the Gift and be on my way before they find htly shorter thanblack hair and brilliant blue eyes - stood over me with her hands on her hips, an exasperated look on her attractive face "Merciful sovereign, are you faery struck?"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous," I answered,out as a croak I cleared s as faeries Oh,to a hallucination?"

The woman - I couldn&039;t help but think of her as such when she looked so real - rolled her eyes for ame to my feet "Don&039;t tell me they didn&039;t conduct the preliminaries with you? You passed the trials, yes?"

"Thatthe bits of grass off"I could swear I felt someone touchhere!"

"It&039;s aet a saerous if children ca they would hallucinate" I dug throughI could use to hold a sa on um "Damn I&039;ll just have to wait for Sarah, then pop back to town to get so - "

"Are you deaf?" the wo her arination would go to under the influence of a delusionary drug She looked quite norreen pants and a chunky tan and green sweater She was frowning, clearly unhappy about so her "At least until Sarah gets here Hello"

"What is wrong with you?" the wos "Didn&039;t you hear me? We don&039;t have tie!"

"You&039;ll have to forgive us spores What did you want to know? Andthis is silly of me, I know, but could you tell me your name, if you have one?"

"Oh, for the love ofthey were supposed tospells! Honestly, the incohtful You&039;d think they could do so a few millennia to work it out My name is Hope Who are you, please?"

I sus full , of Sacramento, California, and I&039;m currently employed by a bioy Is there anything else about me you&039;d like to know? Favorite color? Perfume? Shoe size?"

The look fro for a moment that she wasn&039;t real "Your shoe size is irrelevant We don&039;t have much time at all, and even less now that I have to do everyone else&039;s jobs and fill you in I swear, if I ever get back to the Court, I will file a grievance about their slack waysWhere was I? Oh, yes, we don&039;t haveWhat I ae your life"

"Oh dear - the fungus isn&039;t doing so away from the circle a bit more I took a few deep breaths of sweet summer air and tried to cal tius off a blade of grass, could I? If it was truly dangerous, surely the authorities would have done soer, and I cannot stay or all will be destroyed Do you understand? Everything! Life, existence as we know it, light and dark - it will all be destroyed Your request ca the fungus spores paced aroundthe delusions would last "I hate to sound stupid, but what request - "

"There is no ti upit between her own I stared down at theers tightened around rip that I was almost ready to sas realalmost "I must leave now As you summoned me, so I answer: unto you I bequeath the Gift Use it wisely The penalty for abuse is too horrible to speak of"

The hipped past us as ," I said, wishing I had my laptop to take notes on the experience Heat fro speed and intensity "I&039;m sorry, but I have to try this"

I tried to yank

Her eyes lit with a soft glow as she looked deep into , intense gaze, that for ame unable to move As she spoke, she released my hand and touched me on the center ofMay the sovereign protect you from those ould destroy you"

The heat that had started in h me, a fever of such intensity that I wanted to shred my clothes and find the nearest body of water My skin burned, reat Now this stupid fungus isto end up in thethewhatcha to quench the raging inferno insideout all other thoughts but relief I struggled to maintain control, to breath slowly and deeply until the worst of it passed, but the fever that burned me frodepths until I threw back my arms and screamed to the heavens for deliverance

A cold, wet drop hit my forehead Another struckonder as, out of nowhere, clouds for into clu Soft little pats of noise indicated the rain that gently touched inationall aroundbehind a calently eased the fire within I closed my eyes and tipped my head back to welcome the blissful wetness "Sweet ood in my life This is sheer heaven"

"No, this is the Gift I thank you for your help And now, I one before they find otten for a moment about my hallucination I cracked an eye open to see if she was still there The faery ring, and everything around it, was een is losing its power," I said as I swung around toodd struck ain, slower this ti as I looked upward to the cloud that still gently rained down on me

There were no other clouds visible in the sky - just a small one over ," I told the cloud "I&039; that I&039; and disappearing without cause Oh, hurrah, Sarah is back Sanity returneth"

Through the trees that ringed the hilltop, a flash of red heralded led with the idea of notto her that I&039;d been inadvertently poisoned by potent fungus, but concern that I e convinced me that it would be best to ad I had a little difficulty with a right turndear god in heaven, what are you doing?" Sarah stopped about ten feet away fro, if you us ring Would youme to the nearest hospital? My mind is under the influence of some pretty psychedelic mushrooms, and I think I need to detox so!"

"No, that&039;s just part of the hallucination" I stopped, a little chill rippling downyou can see the cloud abovearoundcircle "I&039;d have to be blind toon you Nowhere else, just you How on earth are you doing that?"

"No," I said shakingto believe the impossible "It&039;s not really here; it&039;s just an illusion brought on by hallucinogenic fungus Youto have breathed it in as well We should get to the nearest hospital if this fungus is so potent"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous, Portia," Sarah said, coht "It&039;s the faery ring! This is part of the h I have to admit I&039;ve never heard of rain faeries Still, even you can&039;t dispute that this is so well out of the realh off of fungus found lying around on the top of a hill, but it&039;s certainly nothing that can&039;t be explained by an understanding of cheht for a few seconds,as I mulled over a possible explanation "It could have been Hope"

"It could have been what?"

"Who, not what A woman by the name of Hope Perhaps she was real after all It&039;s entirely feasible that this whole thing was a setup, you know She us here with properties that left soestion"

Sarah fixed aze "Soone?"

"It would explain the delusion about the rain cloud And the lights could have been the hallucinogenic starting to work onto bet that if Hope hadn&039;t heard you co up the hill, she would have tried to rob me It&039;s probably some sort of a scheme to fleece innocent tourists We should definitely report this to the police, after we go to the hospital to get checked out, naturally"

"Portia, you&039;re nother head and pointing to where the fantasy cloud hovered over"I have not been hypnotized, nor aenic or otherwise You have a cloud over your head, raining only on you You are standing in thethat grew out of that ring"

"You&039;re right," I said, stepping outside the ring The rain cloud followed nored it as best I could

Sarah looked remarkably cheerful "Really? You admit I won the bet? You concede that this is a bona fide paranorht abouton Not that I ate theal spores had been brushed onto them, and I put them into my mouth, it could well mean that Hope had no part in it, and it&039;s all just an unfortunate coincidence"

"I think you&039;d better tell one," Sarah said, pulling out a small voice recorder "Start with the o away?" She pointed to the cloud

"It&039;s not really here You just think it&039;s here No, I mean I just think it&039;s herewait, that doesn&039;t fit the hypothesis"

"Start at the beginning and tell ," she said in a businesslike, brisk fashion

I spent the ti out how she could be witness to my delusion "Itthe dirt ring "There&039;s just no other explanation for it"

"There&039;s one all right, only you are too stubborn to ad! I never thought to have met someone who&039;s seen a real faery, but you&039;ve done it!" She gripped ave you soift? What is it?"

I lifted ot for my effort was an eyeful of rain "We need to leave Now This fungus is clearlyfor Sarah to answer, I spun around andby the tiht be free fro in a couple I want to get so," Sarah called after e, paranoid woman, don&039;t say I didn&039;t warn you"

The wind picked up as I approached the trees, the circular arrange the wind that whipped past an oddly hollow sound, like a h For some reason, the sound of it s," I told myself as I pushed aside a branch, the hair on the back of ination right no - grk!"

For a fraction of a second I thought a tree branch had slapped backward, striking my neck, but as a dark face hove into view, I realized that it was a lehold

"What have you done with Hope?"

I was so surprised at being assaulted thatup with an escape plan, took a few minutes to notice that his voice was low and mean, with a faint Irish tone to it, while the eyes that burned into htly exotic tilt to thehhis eyes were black, solid black, with no difference in color between iris and pupil

With both hands I grabbed the man&039;s ar off rip on o of o of his ar I could use to defend ainst the attacker

He hauled me closer until little black dots swam before od, I will snap your neck"