A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 66. Scene 66

29th January 1995

Dear Lydia, Unn and Lóránt,

This is Kris writing to you. Nessa cannot remember anything of the layout of the house. Zhofie's spell was so strong it wiped her memories of how she got here.

Now I wish I had taken the time to teach you how to defend against that spell. If I had done as Lóránt said and sought other people's friendships instead of trying to deal with my issues on my own, we would not have to worry about you falling for Zhofie's trap. But Daisen should have been a safe place. I did not think I would have to deal with demons again after my exile. And I thought my family had no further use for me either. But Zhofie's insistence on keeping me alive proves otherwise.

You will want to come into the house via the back. The Howlwulfs do not go there because it is the area Zhofie grows her poisonous plants and has her boiling water pool. Canine droppings are not healthy for those kinds of plants. Neither is their fur easy to clean if they fall in the pools.

But do not think for a second that the back door is unguarded. Zhofie would never have such an obvious weakness. It is merely a slightly easier way to reach the house. Bring all your protective clothes. The first obstacle is the poisonous garden itself. The plants are taller than Lydia and a prickle of their thorns is enough to get the poison inside your body. Most invaders die before they reach the front door. You should be fine as long as your body is covered and you walk slowly enough to avoid your clothes being ripped.

However, walking slowly means the sentinel birds have more time to notice you and announce your presence to Zhofie. When I tried to rescue Nessa, I was prepared for the plants. Any self-respecting demon garden has at least a few of those. But the sentinel birds are new to me. I was ambushed by five of them, though there must be more spread around the house’s perimeter. They look like what would happen to vultures if they gained pelican beaks, falcon eyesight, and the vocal chords of an opera singer. The sagging skin under their beaks acts as some kind of reverberation chamber that allows its cry to perforate ear drums and stun their targets long enough for Zhofie to come and apprehend the intruder without having to put up a fight. In other words, bring ear plugs.

You should also pay attention to the boiling water pool. It is not "water hot enough to make tea out of", but "water in perpetual bubbling state that is prone to spill on those who get too close". Your skin will not burn. It will melt, peel away from your bone, and likely kill you from pain alone. You will notice the floor around the pool is completely devoid of any life, and even the concrete is eroding from the high temperatures. If Lóránt attempts to fly you over the pool, be aware that the squirts will reach up to four meters. Flying at that height will, however, put you in plain view of the second floor windows. You will be easily spotted. And the birds are not affraid to attack you mid-air either.

Lastly, Zhofie also employs modern technology to keep intruders away. The floor has motion sensors in strategic locations that are triggered when someone steps on them. She has cameras hidden everywhere. If by a miracle you manage to evade all of those security measures, the backdoor will only open with Zhofie's hand print. The windows do not look like it, but they are alarmed.

With all this in mind, my suggestion is that you let yourselves get captured. Or at least have one of you be the bait while others try to outsmart Zhofie. I do not know any angelic power that can bypass her security. You are unlikely to have a fair chance of getting us out of here.

But please do not think I am not glad to hear you will try to help. If you are desperate enough, if you think Nessa and I are worth that much for you, then go ahead.

The house itself has a common Daisenian layout. You will want to head to the ground floor kitchen and walk into the pantry. It is there that Zhofie keeps the entrance to the dungeons. It seems to be activated by Zhofie's voice. The secret doors open to a dark tunnel that goes to at least 20 meters underground. Nessa and I are in a cell with no light, little ventilation, and a mixture of cold condensation and warm stale air. We are at the far end of a corridor. Nobody else seems to be here. However, the dungeon is a labyrinth of tunnels. I do not know how to get here, or how to get out of here. The cell is locked with magical energy. I do not see a key or even a door. The only light we have is the yellowed pages of this diary, which glow faintly when opened.

If we are ever out of here, I will tell you more about my suspicions regarding this diary, but now is not the moment.

I hope you receive this message safely and have enough time to plan your rescue. Nessa is losing her mind in the darkness. She finds it agonising not to be able to see anything. She is unsettled by the lack of nature around us. I tell her to sleep so she can dream of better times and be distracted. Unfortunately I do not have the right personality to be able to provide that distraction myself.

And I resist as much as possible the thought of falling asleep. Every time I do, dreams of my escape flood my mind. Not even the lack of horns has dulled their vividness.

I can do without this kind of nightmare.

Kris

Thanks for reading!
And thanks  Kris for providing an exhaustive list of all the dangers our heroes will face in the upcoming battle. Nothing says "building sense of danger" like a 1000-word exposition piece on everything the villain has planned, right?
Next Tuesday you will see whether our heroes will actually fall for all those traps or if they found a way around them (why would they, though, now that Kris has so painstakingly described everything?).
Meanwhile, why not take a look at my Patreon page? It now includes advanced chapters of The Orchestra, a romance about Icelandic orchestral musicians that is just as weird and wonderful as FOHT, despite the lack of fantasy elements.
See you next week!