After #4 Dreamfever

Glossary From Mac’s Journal

…. after Dreamfever

 

*AMULET, THE: Unseelie or Dark Hallow created by the Unseelie King for his concubine. Fashioned of gold, silver, sapphires, and onyx, the gilt “cage” of the amulet houses an enormous clear stone of unknown composition. A person of epic will can use it to impact and reshape reality. The list of past owners is legendary, including Merlin, Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Charlemagne, and Napoleon. Last purchased by a Welshman for eight figures at an illegal auction, it was all too briefly in my hands and is currently in the possession of the Lord Master. It requires some kind of tithe or binding to use it. I had the will; I couldn’t figure out the way.

Addendum: The LM still has it, and I think he uses it to help control the Unseelie Princes. He had it with him but didn’t try to use it on me. Why? Is he afraid it might not work on me?

BARRONS, JERICHO: I haven’t the faintest fecking clue. He keeps saving my life. I suppose that’s something.

Addendum to original entry: He keeps a Sifting Silver in his study at the bookstore, and when he walks through it, the monsters retreat from him, just like the Shades do. I saw him carry the body of a woman out of it. She’d been killed, brutally. By him? Or by the things in the mirror? He is at least several hundred years old and possibly, probably, way older than that. I made him hold the spear to see if he was Unseelie, and he did, but I found out later from V’lane that the Unseelie King can touch all the Hallows (as can the Seelie Queen) and, although I can’t fathom why the Unseelie King wouldn’t be able to touch his own Book, maybe that’s exactly why Barrons thought he would be able to touch it. Maybe it evolved into something more powerful than it began as. Also, I can’t rule out that he might be some kind of Seelie/Unseelie hybrid. Do the Fae have sex and reproduce? Sometimes … I think he’s human … gone very wrong. Other times I think he’s nothing this world has ever seen. He’s definitely not a sidhe-seer, but he sees the Fae as plain as day, just like me. He knows Druidry, sorcery, black arts, is superstrong and fast, and has heightened senses. What did Ryodan mean by his comment about the Alpha & Omega? I’ve got to track that man down!

Addendum to original entry: He admitted he killed the woman he carried from the mirror! I’m pretty sure I figured out where that Silver goes, but I haven’t the opportunity to try it yet. I think it connects to the underground floors beneath his garage. I stood in that garage, looking across the hood of the Hummer at Barrons, while whatever he keeps trapped down there bayed. He refused to answer any of my questions about it. (Gee, that’s hardly a surprise.)

Addendum to original entry: What he did to bring me back from being Pri-ya … I can’t stop thinking about it. What I saw in his head, the child, the grief, it slays me. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to be anything but a fine beast again. That I could forget again. Everything. And just be.

*CAULDRON, THE: Seelie or Light Hallow from which all Seelie eventually drink, to divest memory that has become burdensome. According to Barrons, immortality has a price: eventual madness. When the Fae feel it approaching, they drink from the cauldron and are “reborn” with no memory of a prior existence. The Fae have a record keeper that documents each Fae’s many incarnations, but the exact location of this scribe is known to a select few and the whereabouts of the records to none but him. Is that what’s wrong with the Unseelie—they don’t have a cauldron to drink from?

CHESTER’S: Ryodan’s nightclub, 939 Rêvemal Street. Former gathering place of the rich, bored, and beautiful. Like a cockroach, Chester’s would probably survive any fallout. Since Dublin fell, it went underground and now serves an entirely new clientele. Or, rather, serves us to an entirely new clientele. Chester’s is now the Fae hot spot for preying on humans. The Gray Woman had no interest in her waiter’s menu, only her waiter. Ryodan lets it happen, right under his nose, watching from high in his glass aerie. Fae worshippers sacrifice themselves left and right for a chance at immortality, and I’m pretty sure it’s not even a real chance, just a temporary high. I’m going to shut the place down, one way or another.

COMPACT, THE: Agreement negotiated between Queen Aoibheal and the MacKeltar clan (Keltar = hidden barrier or mantle) roughly six thousand years ago to keep the realms of mankind and Fae separate. The Highland clan of Druids has performed certain rituals and tithed every Samhain (pronounced Sow-en, also known as Halloween) to honor the Compact. The walls Queen Aoibheal erected to separate worlds weren’t sung into existence with the Song of Making, because the Fae lost it so long ago, but were somehow rigged from a portion of the Unseelie’s prison walls and reinforced with blood and oaths. Rigging the new walls that way seriously weakened the prison walls. When our walls came down, all the walls came down.

CRUCE: A Fae. Unknown if Seelie or Unseelie. Many of his relics are floating around out there. He cursed the Sifting Silvers. Before they were cursed, the Fae used them freely to travel through dimensions. The curse somehow corrupted the interdimensional channels, and now not even the Fae will enter them. Unknown what the curse was. Unknown what damage it caused or what the risk in the Silvers is. Whatever it is, Barrons apparently doesn’t fear it. I tried to get into the Silver in his study. I can’t figure out how to open it.

Addendum to original entry: I found out what the curse was! Cruce hated the Unseelie King and cursed the Silvers to keep him from entering them again, so he couldn’t get to his concubine. Cruce wanted the concubine and all the worlds inside the Silvers for himself. But the curse went wrong and screwed everything up. Cross-reference with Silvers.

CUFF OF CRUCE: A gold-and-silver arm cuff set with blood-red stones; an ancient Fae relic that supposedly permits the human wearing it “a shield of sorts against many Unseelie and other … unsavory things” (this according to a death-by-sex Fae—like you can actually trust one).

DANI: A young sidhe-seer in her early teens whose talent is superhuman speed. She has to her credit—as she will proudly crow from the rooftops given the slightest opportunity—forty-seven Fae kills at the time of this writing. I’m sure she’ll have more by tomorrow. Her mother was killed by a Fae. We are sisters in vengeance. She works for Rowena and is employed at Post Haste, Inc.

Addendum to original entry: Her kills now number nearly two hundred! The kid has no fear.

Addendum to original entry: She’s the Shit. She saved me from the LM and his minions. We’ve become like … sisters. I swore I’d never let anybody as close to me as Alina again, but I can’t help it. Beneath her toughness is a kid who melts my heart. She’s got secrets. I can sense them. And deep emotional scars from things she might never talk about. I hope one day she trusts me. The things we carry inside and refuse to talk about are the things that can end up destroying us. I can no longer even begin to count her kills. She took down an Unseelie Prince!

DARK ZONE: An area that has been taken over by the Shades. During the day it looks like your everyday abandoned, run-down neighborhood. Once night falls, it’s a death trap.

Addendum to original entry: They’ve spread all over the world, now that the walls are down. The huge one next to Barrons Books and Baubles is now empty. They moved on to greener pastures, literally. Other Unseelie are working to restore the power grids the LM took down, because they don’t like how quickly the Shades are devouring their potential prey. I’ll take all the help I can get to drive the buggers back into the darkness. It buys us more time.

DEATH-BY-SEX FAE (e.g., V’lane): A Fae that is so sexually “potent” a human dies from intercourse with it, unless the Fae protects the human from the full impact of its deadly eroticism.

Addendum to original entry: V’lane made himself feel like nothing more than an incredibly sexy man when he touched me. They can mute their lethality if they so choose.

Addendum to original entry: This caste of Fae springs only from royal lines. They can do three things: protect the human completely and give them the most incredible sex of their life, protect them from dying and turn them Pri-ya, or kill them with sex. They can sift space.

Addendum: It’s hell being Pri-ya! But I survived.

DOLMEN: A single-chamber megalithic tomb constructed of three or more upright stones supporting a large, flat horizontal capstone. Dolmens are common in Ireland, especially around the Burren and Connemara. The Lord Master used a dolmen in a ritual of dark magic to open a doorway between realms and bring Unseelie through.

DREAMY-EYED BOY: Huge question mark. Why does he keep popping up? Who is he? I first encountered him in the streets of Dublin, then in the museum while I was OOP-detecting, then discovered he worked at the Ancient Languages Department with Christian MacKeltar, and now he’s bartending at Chester’s, Ryodan’s infamous den of iniquity. When I was talking to him there, something really weird happened. I saw him in the mirror above the bar and he didn’t look the same. It scared me. Really scared me. In the mirror, his reflection spoke to me, warned me. He said not to talk to “it.”

DRUID: In pre-Christian Celtic society, a Druid presided over divine worship, legislative and judicial matters, philosophy, and education of elite youth to their order. Druids were believed to be privy to the secrets of the gods, including issues pertaining to the manipulation of physical matter, space, and even time. The old Irish Drui means magician, wizard, diviner (Irish Myths and Legends).

Addendum to original entry: I saw both Jericho Barrons and the Lord Master use the Druid power of Voice, a way of speaking with many voices that cannot be disobeyed. Significance?

Addendum: Christian MacKeltar descends from a long, ancient bloodline of Druids.

FAE (fay): See also Tuatha Dé Danaan. Divided into two courts, the Seelie or light court and the Unseelie or dark court. Both courts have different castes of Fae, with the four Royal Houses occupying the highest caste of each. The Seelie Queen and her chosen consort rule the light court. The Unseelie King and his current concubine govern the dark.

Addendum to original entry. Iron has some kind of effect on them. Weird that on the periodic table, iron is Fe.

FIONA: The woman who ran Barrons Books and Baubles before I took over. She was wildly in love with Barrons and tried to kill me by turning out all the lights one night and propping a window open to let the Shades in. Barrons fired her for it—gee, now that I think about it, getting fired for trying to kill me sure feels like underkill. She’s hooked up with Derek O’Bannion, and he’s got her eating Unseelie. I have a bad feeling that she and I aren’t done with each other.

Addendum to original entry: She’s working with the LM now. She knows what Barrons is. Barrons killed her before she could tell me. But she was too laced with Unseelie flesh to have died from a mere knife through the heart. Later he went to see her and gave her a message for the LM. They used to be lovers. I don’t like her at all.

FOUR STONES, THE: Translucent blue-black stones covered with raised runelike lettering. The key to deciphering the ancient language and breaking the code of the Sinsar Dubh is hidden in these four mystical stones. An individual stone can be used to shed light on a small portion of the text, but only if the four are reassembled into one will the true text in its entirety be revealed (Irish Myths and Legends).

Addendum: Other texts say it is the “true nature” of the Sinsar Dubh that will be revealed.

Addendum: We have three now. I learned they were chiseled from the walls of the Unseelie King’s fortress. They chime hauntingly, disturbingly, when placed together. I think they must make a lesser Song of Making. They are poison inside the network of Silvers because of Cruce’s curse. The Silvers reject the Unseelie King and the stones because they bear the taint of his touch. I think V’lane has the fourth.

FREEZE-FRAME: The way Dani moves. She calls it freeze-framing, as she blips from place to place so fast it gives me motion sickness. But what a tactical advantage! The kid rocks.

GLAMOUR: Illusion cast by the Fae to camouflage their true appearance. The more powerful the Fae, the more difficult it is to penetrate its disguise. Average humans see only what the Fae want them to see and are subtly repelled from bumping into or brushing against it by a small perimeter of spatial distortion that is part of the Fae glamour.

GRAY MAN, THE: Monstrously ugly, leprous Unseelie that feeds by stealing beauty from human women. Threat assessment: can kill but prefers to leave its victim hideously disfigured and alive to suffer.

Addendum to original entry: Allegedly the only one of its kind (BIG FAT NOT; SEE BELOW!) Barrons and I killed it.

Addendum to original entry: It could sift space.

GRAY WOMAN, THE: The Gray Man’s female counterpart. Saw her outside Chester’s and later inside. Unlike the Gray Man, she doesn’t leave her victims alive. A sifter. No longer consider them singularities. Could be dozens of them.

GRIPPER: Dainty, diaphanous Unseelie that is surprisingly beautiful. Grippers look like the modern media’s representation of fairies—delicate, shimmering nude beauties, with a cloud of gossamer hair and lovely features, only they’re nearly the size of a human. I named them Grippers because they “grip” us. They can step inside a human’s skin and take them over. Once they’ve slipped inside a person, I can no longer sense them. I could be standing right next to a Gripper inside a person and not even know it. For a while, I was afraid Barrons might be one. But I made him hold the spear.

GUARDIANS, THE: What the Garda have begun calling themselves under Inspector Jayne’s leadership as they fight to protect Dublin’s remaining citizens. They eat Unseelie and kick serious Fae ass.

HALL OF ALL DAYS, THE: The central hub of the Silvers. Barrons describes it as a quantum travel agency for the Fae, like an airport terminal. The walls and floor are made of pure gold, and it seems to stretch on forever. The walls are covered with billions of mirrors that are portals to other worlds, dimensions, and times. It’s a dangerous place. Time feels skewed there, not linear at all, and if you stop moving, you can get lost in memories that begin to play out around you as if they’re real. Whatever you think seems to materialize. You have to keep moving. I passed skeletons on the floor. When the Silvers were originally created, all mirrors that were a part of the network (outside the Hall) would immediately deposit you in the Hall of All Days. From there, you could choose your destination. Cross-reference Silvers.

HALLOWS, THE: Eight ancient relics of immense power fashioned by the Fae: four light and four dark. The Light or Seelie Hallows are the stone, the spear, the sword, and the cauldron. The Dark or Unseelie Hallows are the amulet, the box, the mirror, and the Book (Sinsar Dubh, or Dark Book) (A Definitive Guide to Artifacts, Authentic and Legendary).

Addendum to original entry: I still don’t know anything about the stone or the box. Do they confer powers that could help me? Where are they? Is it possible the four stones make the stone?

Correction to above definition: the mirror is actually the Silvers. See Sifting Silvers or Silvers. The Unseelie King made all the Dark Hallows. Who made the light ones?

Addendum to original entry: See the story of the Unseelie King and his mortal concubine, as V’lane told it to me (p. 77, this journal). The king created the Silvers for her to keep her ageless and give her realms to explore. He created the amulet so she could reshape reality. He gave her the box for her loneliness. What does it do? The Sinsar Dubh was an accident.

HAVEN, THE: High Council of sidhe-seers.

Addendum to original entry: Once selected by popular vote, now chosen by the Grand Mistress for their loyalty to her and the cause. They were the only ones besides Rowena who knew what was being kept beneath the abbey. Some of them died and/or disappeared when the Book escaped twenty-some years ago. How did it happen? I’m twenty-two. Is it possible my mother was one of them?!!!

Addendum: Yes, my mother, Isla O’Connor, was one! She was, like Alina and me, immensely gifted. Must find out more!

IFP: Interdimensional Fairy Pothole. These things drive me nuts! When the walls came down on Halloween, parts of Faery splintered into parts of our world, and now, if you’re not careful, you can end up walking or driving into one abruptly and without warning. You don’t know what’s in one until you get inside. They’re hard to get back out of. Someone has been “cutting them loose” and they’ve begun drifting on the wind, making them even harder to avoid. There are IFPs inside the network of the Silvers, too. When Cruce cursed it, the collision of realms caused similarly fractured realities. According to Ryodan, IFPs are static microcosms and can be mapped. Some contain dolmens to our world. Most contain other IFPs. One can hop from world to world through them. It’s pretty much a mess.

IRON: Fe on the periodic table. Inspector Jayne discovered that it bothers the Fae. He and his men fashioned bullets from it, lined their helmets with it, and carry it all over their bodies. It can imprison nonsifting Fae. Who knows what massive quantities of it might do to a sifting Fae?

IYCGM: Barrons gave me a cell phone with this number programmed in. It stands for If You Can’t Get Me. The mysterious Ryodan answers when I call.

IYD: Another of Barrons’ preprogrammed numbers; stands for If You’re Dying.

Addendum: God, I know what it is now!

KAT: I think she’ll end up leading the sidhe-seers one day, if she lives long enough. I hope she does, because I can’t stand Rowena. She’s about twenty-five, levelheaded, smart, pure-hearted, and is the only one who has consistently kept an open mind and stood up for me. If anything happens to me, trust Kat. And Dani. If I’m dead, go to them for help.

 LIBRARIES, THE TWENTY-ONE: Dani knows where they all are, even the forbidden ones, and we got into one, left Kat and her most trusted searching it, but I couldn’t get into the other one Dani took me to. Not only was it massively warded, but there was some kind of “guardian” blocking the way that just kept repeating that I wasn’t one of them and wasn’t permitted there. There’s some kind of insurmountable obstacle in the corridor. I summoned V’lane to help me. When he appeared, he hissed at me, contorted in pain, and vanished. I haven’t seen him since. I’m getting a little worried.

LORD MASTER: Darroc. My sister’s betrayer and murderer! Fae but not Fae, leader of the Unseelie army, after the Sinsar Dubh. He was using Alina to hunt it, like Barrons is using me to hunt OOPs.

Addendum to original entry: He offered me a trade: Alina back for the Book. I think he really could do it.

Addendum: Bad enough that he had me turned Pri-ya, but now he has my parents!

MACHALO: My invention. Very cool. Hot-pink and covered with lights. It’s the ultimate in fashionable Shade protection.

MACKELTAR, CHRISTIAN: Employed in the Ancient Languages Department of Trinity College. He knows what I am and knew my sister! Have no idea what his place in all this is, nor do I know his motives. Will find out more soon.

Addendum to original entry: Christian comes from a clan that once served as high Druids to the Fae and have been upholding the human part of the Fae/Man Compact for thousands of years, performing rituals and paying tithes. He knew Alina only in passing. She’d come to ask him to translate a piece of text from the Sinsar Dubh.

Addendum: He disappeared on Halloween, when the Keltars and Barrons performed the ritual to try to keep the walls up. We both had a bad night! He got sucked into the vortex that destroyed the stones of Ban Drochaid, the sacred stone circle where the Keltar Druids have performed the rites and paid the tithe to uphold the Compact for millennia. I found him trapped in the network of the Silvers.

MALLUCé: Born John Johnstone, Jr. On the heels of his parents’ mysterious death, he inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, disappeared for a time, and resurfaced as the newly undead vampire Mallucé. Over the next decade, he amassed a worldwide cult following and was recruited by the Lord Master for his money and connections. Pale, blond, citron-eyed, the vampire favors steampunk and Victorian Goth.

MANY-MOUTHED THING, THE: Repulsive Unseelie with myriad leechlike mouths, dozens of eyes, and overdeveloped sex organs. Caste of Unseelie: unknown at this time. Threat assessment: unknown at this time, but suspect kills in a manner I’d rather not think about.

Addendum to original entry: Is still out there. I want this one dead.

Addendum to original entry: Dani bagged the bastard! Could he sift space? Which ones can and can’t?

NULL: A sidhe-seer with the power to freeze a Fae with the touch of his or her hands (e.g., me). While frozen, a Nulled Fae is completely powerless, but the higher and more powerful the caste of Fae, the shorter the length of time it stays frozen.

O’BANNION, DEREK: Rocky’s brother and the Lord Master’s new recruit. He wants his brother’s spear back, and he wants to kill me for killing his brother. I should have let him walk into the Dark Zone that day.

Addendum to original entry: He’s eating Unseelie and has hooked up with Fiona, who’s also eating it!

Addendum: Did the Book get him, or was all of what happened that night an illusion?

O’BANNION, ROCKY: Ex-boxer turned Irish mobster, and religious fanatic. He had the Spear of Destiny* in a collection hidden deep underground. Barrons and I broke in one night and stole it. His death was the first human blood on my hands. The night we robbed him, Barrons turned out all the exterior lights around the bookstore. When O’Bannion came after me with fifteen of his henchmen, the Shades devoured them right outside my bedroom window. I knew Barrons was going to do something. And if he’d asked me to choose between them or me, I’d have helped him turn the lights out. You never know what you’ll be willing to do to survive until you get backed into a corner and see what explodes out of you.

OOP: Acronym for Object of Power; a Fae relic imbued with mystical properties. Some are Hallows, some aren’t.

OOP DETECTOR: Me. A sidhe-seer with the special ability to sense OOPs. Alina was one, too, which is why the Lord Master used her.

Addendum to original entry: Very rare. Certain bloodlines were bred for this trait. Rowena’s sidhe-seers say they’ve all died out.

ORB OF D’jAI: No clue, but Barrons has it. He says it’s an OOP. I couldn’t sense it when I held it, but I couldn’t sense anything at that particular moment. Where did he get it and where did he put it? Is it in his mysterious vault? What does it do? How does he get into his vault, anyway? Where is the access to the three floors beneath his garage? Is there a tunnel that connects buildings? Must search.

Addendum to original entry: Barrons gave it to me so I could give it to the sidhe-seers, to use in a ritual to reinforce the walls on Samhain.

Addendum: Barrons swears it was spiked when he got it. Found entry to the floors beneath his garage—through the Silver in his study!

O’REILLY, KAYLEIGH: One of my mother’s friends and also part of the Haven. Something bad happened, and I think my mom and Kayleigh tried to stop it. I think that’s when the Book escaped.

O’REILLY, NANA: Nearly a hundred years old, lives by the sea in County Clare, knew my mother! My mother’s name is Isla O’Connor. I could say that a thousand times. My mother grew up with Nana’s granddaughter, Kayleigh. I think Nana knows what happened when the Book escaped. I need to question her again. Preferably without Kat standing guard.

PATRONA: Mentioned by Rowena, I supposedly have “the look” of her. Was she an O’Connor? She was at one time the leader of the sidhe-seer Haven.

Addendum: Patrona was my grandmother!

PHI: Post Haste, Inc., a Dublin courier service that serves as a cover for the sidhe-seer coalition. It appears Rowena is in charge.

Addendum: After the Book was lost, Rowena opened branches of this courier service all over the world in an effort to track and reclaim it. It was very clever, really. She has bicycle couriers serving as her eyes and ears in hundreds of major cities. The abbey/sidhe-seers have a very wealthy benefactor who funnels funds through multiple corporations. I wonder who it is.

PRI-YA: A human addicted to Fae sex.

Addendum: God help me, I know.

RHINO-BOYS: Ugly, gray-skinned Fae who resemble rhinoceroses with bumpy, protruding foreheads, barrellike bodies, stumpy arms and legs, lip-less gashes of mouths, and jutting underbites. They are lower mid-level caste Unseelie thugs dispatched primarily as watchdogs for high-ranking Fae.

Addendum to original entry: They taste horrible.

Addendum to original entry: I don’t believe they can sift space. I saw them locked in cells and chained up in Mallucé’s grotto. It didn’t occur to me at the time how odd that was, then later I thought maybe Mallucé was somehow containing them with spells. But after Jayne made his comment about imprisoning Fae, I realized that not all Fae can sift, and I’m starting to wonder if only the very powerful ones can. This could be an important tactical edge. Must explore.

Addendum: They have a taste for pretty young human girls and will swap the incredible high of Unseelie flesh for sex. Ew!

ROWENA: In charge to some degree of a coalition of sidhe-seers organized as couriers at Post Haste, Inc. Is she the Grand Mistress? They have a chapter house or retreat in an old abbey a few hours from Dublin, with a library I must get into.

Addendum to original entry: She has never liked me. She’s playing judge, jury, and executioner where I’m concerned. She sent her girls after me to take my spear away! I will never let her have it. I’ve been to the abbey but only briefly. I suspect many of the answers I want can be found there, either in the Forbidden Libraries, which only the Haven is permitted to enter, or in their memories. I need to figure out who the Haven members are and get one of them to talk.

Addendum: I’ll topple her reign of power yet. She won’t let the sidhe-seers do their job. She keeps them under lock and key, but I think I’ve smashed the first cracks in the abbey walls. I think they’re going to mutiny.

ROYAL HUNTERS: A mid-level caste of Unseelie. Militantly sentient, they resemble the classic depiction of the devil, with cloven hooves, horns, long satyrlike faces, leathery wings, fiery orange eyes, and tails. Seven to ten feet tall, they are capable of extraordinary speed on both hoof and wing. Primary function: sidhe-seer exterminators. Threat assessment: kills.

Addendum to original entry: Encountered one. Barrons doesn’t know everything. It was considerably larger than he’d led me to expect, with a thirty- to forty-foot wingspan and a degree of telepathic abilities. They are mercenary to the core and serve a master only so long as it benefits them. I’m not sure I believe they’re mid-level, and, in fact, I’m not sure they’re entirely Fae. They fear my spear and I suspect are unwilling to die for any cause, which gives me a tactical edge.

Addendum to original entry: I rode one!

RYODAN: Associate of Barrons, and IYCGM on my cell.

Addendum: Top on my list of people to track down.

Addendum to original entry: See Chester’s. This man is one of Barrons’ eight, whatever that is. They are all big men, preternaturally fast, most badly scarred, and they ooze something that just … isn’t human. Ryodan worries me.

SEELIE: The light or “fairer” court of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, governed by the Seelie Queen, Aoibheal.

Addendum: The Seelie cannot touch the Unseelie Hallows. The Unseelie cannot touch Seelie Hallows.

Addendum: According to V’lane, the true queen of the Fae is long dead, killed by the Unseelie King, and with her died the Song of Making. Aoibheal is a lesser royal, who is one of many that has tried to lead the People since.

SEE YOU IN FAERY!: Catch phrase for sycophantic human sex kittens who will trade anything and everything for the high of eating Unseelie flesh. They believe if they eat enough, it will make them immortal and they’ll get to go to Faery, too. Said in the most annoyingly chirpy tone possible!!!

SHADES: One of the lowest castes of Unseelie. Sentient but barely. They hunger—they feed. They cannot bear direct light and hunt only at night. They steal life in the same manner the Gray Man steals beauty, draining their victims with vampiric swiftness, leaving behind a pile of clothing and a husk of dehydrated human matter. Threat assessment: kills.

Addendum to original entry: I think they’re changing, evolving, learning.

Addendum: I know it is! I swear it’s stalking me!

Addendum: They’ve learned to work together and shape themselves into barriers.

Addendum: They’re all over the world now!

SHAMROCK: This slightly misshapen three-leaf clover is the ancient symbol of the sidhe-seers, who are charged with the mission to See, Serve, and Protect mankind from the Fae.

SIDHE-SEER (SHE-seer): A person Fae magic doesn’t work on, capable of seeing past the illusions or “glamour” cast by the Fae to the true nature that lies beneath. Some can also see Tabh’rs, hidden portals between realms. Others can sense Seelie and Unseelie Objects of Power. Each sidhe-seer is different, with varying degrees of resistance to the Fae. Some are limited; some are advanced, with multiple “special powers.”

Addendum to original entry: Some, like Dani, are superfast. There’s a place inside my head that isn’t … like the rest of me. Do we all have it? What is it? How did we get this way? Where do the bits of inexplicable knowledge that feel like memories come from? Is there such a thing as a genetic collective unconsciousness?

Addendum: In that sidhe-seer place in my head is a dark, glassy lake. It scares me.

SIFTING: Fae method of locomotion, occurs at speed of thought. (Seen this!)

Addendum to original entry: Somehow, V’lane sifted me without my awareness that he was even there. I don’t know if he was able to approach me “cloaked” somehow, then touched me at the last minute and I just didn’t realize it because it happened so fast, or if perhaps instead of moving me, he moved the realms around me. Can he do that? How powerful is V’lane? Could another Fae sift me without me having any advance warning? Unacceptably dangerous! Require more information.

*SIFTING SILVERS, OR SILVERS, THE: Unseelie or Dark Hallow; an elaborate maze of mirrors created by the Unseelie King, once used as the primary method of Fae travel between realms, until Cruce cast the forbidden curse into the silvered corridors. Now no Fae dares enter the Silvers.

Addendum to original entry: The Lord Master had many of these in his house in the Dark Zone and was using them to move in and out of Faery. If you destroy a Silver, does it destroy what was in it? Does it leave an open entry/exit into a Fae realm, like a wound in the fabric of our world? What exactly was the curse and who was Cruce?

Addendum to original entry: Barrons has one and walks around in it!

Addendum: Cross-reference Hall of All Days. The way it worked before the curse was this: The Hall of All Days was the central airport where you could choose from millions of mirrors that connected to a second mirror on another world, dimension, or time, and travel there. The mirrors were two-way portals at that time, and to return, you just stepped back through them into the Hall. I think they concealed the mirrors on the other worlds in inanimate objects, so only a Fae could find them.

The queen sensed the power of the Silvers, which the king had created for his concubine. To allay her suspicions that he was still keeping the mortal the queen despised, he had to give her the main part, including the Hall, but he kept a portion separate, where he built the White Mansion on a hill for his concubine.

The way it works now, since Cruce cursed it: Everything is screwed up. The mirrors in the Hall multiplied exponentially and now number in the billions. They are no longer two-way, the places they show as destinations aren’t necessarily where they deposit you, and the worlds connected by the Silvers have all been badly splintered with IFPs. Cruce messed up billions of worlds, dimensions, and times.

However, they are, as Barrons puts it, navigable if one knows what one is doing and has the necessary Druid arts at his disposal. It seems Barrons has been in the Silvers quite a bit. Usually, one mirror connects directly to the next. When you look in that Silver, it shows its destination. But sometimes people (like Barrons and the LM) “stack” Silvers, forming tunnels to create space to force the person (i.e., me!) stepping in to drop their weapons and show the ransom, or, in Barrons’ case, so he can litter the corridor to his garage with killing demons who won’t let anyone through. Don’t strain your brain trying to understand the Silvers. I don’t think anyone does. Just expect the unexpected.

*SINSAR DUBH, THE (she-suh DOO): Unseelie or Dark Hallow belonging to the Tuatha Dé Danaan. Written in a language known only to the most ancient of their kind, it is said to hold the deadliest of all magic within its encrypted pages. Brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé during the invasions written of in the pseudo-history Leabhar Gabhåla, it was stolen along with the other Dark Hallows and rumored to have found its way into the world of man. Allegedly authored over a million years ago by the Dark King of the Unseelie (A Definitive Guide to Artifacts; Authentic and Legendary).

Addendum to original entry: I’ve seen it now. Words cannot contain a description of it. It is a book, but it lives. It is aware.

Addendum: The Beast. Enough said.

Addendum: How the feck am I supposed to contain the thing? Is this a joke?

*SPEAR OF LUISNE, THE: Seelie or Light Hallow (a.k.a. Spear of Luin, Spear of Longinus, Spear of Destiny, the Flaming Spear). The spear used to pierce Jesus Christ’s side at His crucifixion. Not of human origin, it is a Tuatha Dé Danaan Light Hallow and one of few items capable of killing a Fae—regardless of rank or power.

Addendum to original note: It kills anything Fae, and if something is only part Fae, it kills part of it horribly.

*SWORD OF LUGH, THE: Seelie or Light Hallow, also known as the Sword of Light, capable of killing Fae, both Seelie and Unseelie. Currently, Rowena has it and dispatches it to her sidhe-seers at PHI as she deems fit. Dani usually gets it.

Addendum: Saw it. It’s beautiful!

Addendum: Stole it from Rowena and gave it to Dani permanently.

TABH’RS (TAH-vr): Fae doorways or portals between realms, often hidden in everyday human objects.

Addendum: I think they’re actually Silvers, like the cactus on the desert world where I found Christian, only apparently I can’t see them. Sure could use a sidhe-seer who could!

“TAKING BACK THE NIGHT“: Song Dani and I made up, now the sidhe-seer international anthem.

TUATHA DÉ DANAAN, OR TUATHA DÉ (TUA day dhanna or Tua DAY) (See Fae, above): A highly advanced race that came to earth from another world, comprising the Seelie and Unseelie.

UNSEELIE: The dark or “fouler” court of the Tuatha Dé Danaan. According to Tuatha Dé Danaan legend, the Unseelie have been confined for hundreds of thousands of years in an inescapable prison. Inescapable, my ass.

UNSEELIE PRINCES: Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War. According to the LM, one of them was killed eons ago, and Dani killed another, which means only two remain. Then who was the fourth at the church? The LM claims it wasn’t him and that there was no fourth. Did I just imagine it? There are memories from those earliest hours, even days that are terribly blurry.

V’LANE: According to Rowena’s books, V’lane is a Seelie Prince, the light court, member of the queen’s High Council, and sometimes consort. He is a death-by-sex Fae and has been trying to get me to work for him on behalf of Queen Aoibheal to locate the Sinsar Dubh.

Addendum: He gave me Georgia back! When the walls came down, he protected my parents and preserved Ashford. He restored power and order to the entire state for me. Our relationship is changing, now that I am immune to his death-by-sex Fae eroticism. Are we becoming equals? I’m worried about him. Why did he disappear from the abbey? Why did he look so pained?

VOICE: A Druid art or skill that compels the person it’s being used on to precisely obey the letter of whatever command is issued. Both the Lord Master and Barrons have used this on me. It’s terrifying. It shuts down your will and makes you a slave. You stare helplessly out from your own eyes and watch your body doing things your mind is screaming at you not to do. I’m trying to learn it. At least to be able to resist it, because otherwise I’ll never be able to get close enough to the Lord Master to kill him and get vengeance for Alina.

Addendum: I can resist and use it now! Funny the steel you find inside when it’s either that or die. But Barrons was right: The student and teacher lose the ability to use it on each other. Proficiency cancels it out.

WARD: Just learning about these. They’re all over outside the Forbidden Libraries. I can pass through most of them for some reason. I don’t know why. It’s either one of my sidhe-seer talents or something I acquired through all my struggles. They’re tricky things.

Z-LO: Barrons’ version of the MacHalo. Black. Lighter, brighter, and more efficient, but I’m not about to tell him that.

 

*Denotes a Light or Dark Hallow.