Free Mistfall by Olivia Martinez Page B

No,
Willa would have never been that careless. I gave up, there was
no way of knowing who and it really didn’t matter now anyway.
    The sun was hanging a bit west of midday.
Darkness would fall sooner in the forest from the tree cover. I
needed to find shelter in the next few hours or risk exposure to
any member of nocturnal beasties.
    “Further up and further in,” I quoted C.S.
Lewis. On I went. Soon after, I came across a small cave. I peeked
inside to see if it was empty. A family of goblins and I spotted
each other at the same time.
    They were more than gracious, offering me
room and board for the night. But the smell, ugh! Eau de Goblin was
an odor best described as two week old rotting flesh. I politely
declined and waited until I was back at the mouth of the cave until
I broke out into a full sprint. The sooner I could get away from
the smell of rotting garbage the better.
    I finally came to a small clearing in the
thicket of the forest. One of them had leaves as large as
elephant’s ears. I bartered with the hamadryad of that tree and her
friends. In return for leaves and branches, I magicked them up
satin ribbons in a myriad of colors and tiny tinkling bells to
decorate their trees with.
    Why didn’t I just use my magic for, say four
star hotel accommodations? For starters, it’s a lot more work and a
waste of magic. Secondly, I’m trying not to attract attention.
    The wind traveled upon the branches of the
trees like spirits in flight. Were the hamadryad’s talking? If they
were, I only hoped it wasn’t about me.
    I imagined a crude sort of A-frame tent in my
head and before me appeared my work. Satisfied with the shelter my
leaves and branches had turned themselves into. The wind kicked up
again and I turned around, looking for the gossiping hamadryads.
Finding none, I retired for the evening. It had been a very long
day.
    I grabbed Willa’s letter from my bag, wanting
to read the rest of it before nightfall. Lying on my side upon the
soft grass and velvety moss, I removed the contents of the envelope
and began where I left off.

    This is the true story of what happened to
our kind, the Iblian jinn. Two hundred years ago, our world was a
different place. Otherworld beings weren’t as united as we are now.
There were various alliances of course, but never lasting
peace.
    Various attempts were made to unite the
myriad of species. It was one attempt, a shame on all of our
histories, which brought us together as we are now.
    The leaders of the factions agreed on one
thing. They were tired of living in hiding from the humans.
Together we drove the humans off their lands. We forced our
superiority on them.
    Only the Fae did not join us. They were the
gods’ first creatures in this world, older and wiser than the rest
of us. They warned us of what was to be our folly, but their words
fell on deaf ears.
    Many justified our actions, claiming we’ve
done no worse to the humans than they had done to their own kind.
Barbarism and genocide became the rule and not the exception. Some
though, believed we should work with humans, not against them. This
caused a rift between the leaders. Infighting began soon after.
    Iblis wanted to rule over all, humans and
Otherworlders alike. The Erlking Abelard (you know him as King Abel
of the Elves) wanted a democracy, governed by a body of equal
representation of all species of Otherworlders.
    Though Abelard’s words and actions were
just, his thoughts were not. He too wanted to reign supreme over
all beings. Abelard was deceitful, using charisma and pretty words
to sway those who sought equality.
    He did it too. Most Otherworlders backed
Abelard. Only those who resided in Hades: demons, Ifrits, and
ghouls supported Iblis.
    Iblis enslaved his own kind, the Iblian
jinn, to counter Abelard’s mighty Aelfadl. He bound the Iblians
using many forms of forceful persuasion. Murdered family members,
torture, and kidnappings were modus opperandi for Iblis, a means to
his own ends. In