Contrary to popular belief, draoi live in the same world as everyone else. Otherworld is the home for faerie, seely and otherwise. There you will find elf and troll, unicorn and mermaid. In fact there are few mythological creatures in our world that haven’t been spawned by a real creature from Otherworld that happened to find its way here. Of course that’s not to say that Otherworld’s inhabitants are limited to our mythology, no it is home to creatures completely outside of our imagination. Long ago the sídhe learned the secret of travel between worlds, and they have been the gatekeepers ever since. The sídhe have alternately granted or denied passage, seemingly at whim, but have somehow neatly regulated travel so that we have a shared commerce but it is nearly transparent to most humans. Sure, every so often something accidentally found its way across, but it was rare.

Knowing I needed a staff, I set out to acquire the necessary materials. Namely, a long straight length of an appropriate wood. Every wood had different qualities, and any could be used, but I needed something right for me. A paopu limb would be fantastic, as would a length of geshwood. Unfortunately neither grew in our world. My options were to beg a favor from Dryael, hit the markets in the fae quarter, or simply settle for some ash or oak from the local lumber yard. Local wood was more prosaic but could still work well if prepared properly.

I hated to bother Dryael for what might end up amounting to illegal smuggling, so I decided on the markets. I lived in suburbia, actually in the space between suburbia and farmland - the suburbs of the suburbs. But I worked in the city. It’s a great place for a computer programmer, and a great place for draoithe. Many people wouldn’t consider Pittsburgh a big city, it actually has more of a small town feel to it. It’s size is limited by the surrounding rivers (the local folk legend is that Pittsburgh is home to more bridges than Venice.) It’s quaint, a town full of stone churches and history, where the people refer to themselves as Pittsburgers, eat sandwiches with French fries on top and drink Iron City beer. Pittsburgh survived the death of the steel mills by reinventing itself as a tech town, but if the industry has changed, the people haven’t. They are tough as the city that is their home. A city that is full of iron and steel. One wouldn’t think that faerie would care to set up shop in such a town, knowing their severe distaste for ferrous metals, but Pittsburgh happens to meet certain requirements set up at the Diet Dismal. Draoithe and faerie agreed upon certain rules, and one of these was that faerie were allowed to congregate only in areas that were relatively unpopulated, or where there was enough iron to mute their natural abilities to an unnoticeable level. Pittsburgh contained enough iron, and so also contained a reasonably sized Otherworldly community. The fae quarter.

I was able to walk back to my house from Valentine’s and arriving I found Sia fussing in a flower bed. My house technically belonged to Sia’s father who had inherited it from his mother. It was a small house, but well built. Sia had a great deal on rent, which I split with her. She smiled when she saw me. Sia was my best friend.

"How did things go with Valentine today?" she asked as she stood. Even in that small act she was graceful. Like a butterfly stretching its wings for the first time. Sia’s long glossy black hair hung straight down her back making her look regal in spite of the dirt smudges covering her clothes. She looked like a model to me, but never seemed to notice her own beauty. She never used it to her advantage. In fact, she taught preschool, probably the one profession where she would be idolized for something other then her face.

"We went after a Witherwraith" I explained. Sia knew all about me. After all we were best friends. She was a believer. "And some kids amped up on her power."

"Witherwraith?"

"Monster under your bed."

"Oh. I see. What did you do with it?"

"Her. Her name is Éan. I sent her out on a date with Valentine."

"You’re kidding!" Sia laughed.

"Nope. But during the initial battle I sort of burnt up my wand. I’m headed down to the fae quarter to see if I can grab some Otherworldly wood for a staff."

"Ooh - can I come? I promise to behave," Sia pleaded with her most innocent expression.

"I’d be glad to have you along, but you have to do exactly as I say. It’s mostly safe, but the culture is different. You could get into trouble easily."

"If I want to buy something, do they use cash like us?"

"It varies from vendor to vendor. Most will accept US dollars or mona, which is the currency in Otherworld. Many are willing to barter if you have something they want. Be careful what you offer though, not every exchange is as straightforward as it might seem. Stick to money. That’s the safest. One mona is worth about sixteen cents, if that helps. I’ll be right there with you, so don’t agree to anything without my OK."

"Do I need to dress up?"

"Typically no, but we’ll be going to some higher end shops so you might want to clean up a bit."

Twenty minutes later we were both dressed in business skirts and button-down dress shirts, and on the parkway heading south towards Pittsburgh. The fae quarter wasn’t always in the same place, but sort of floated around the city taking up residence in an abandoned building or under a bridge. There were plenty of both in Pittsburgh. If you knew the signs it wasn’t hard to find, and it was always full of faerie as well as draoithe and often a few college students who were looking for adventure. Sadly many of the adventurous students wouldn’t ever return to class, foolishly allowing themselves to be drawn into dances or other activities dangerous to mortals.

Sia drove so that I could concentrate on sniffing out the quarter. It really is something akin to sniffing, following strands of Draft to their origin. If you can catch scent of a strand and figure out to whom it connects you can follow it fairly easily. In our case I was just sniffing for threads that were non-human. Lots of them, going in the same direction. In a circle it would be child’s play, but even riding in the car it wasn’t too hard. It actually was quite similar to the way we tracked Éan, although that time we used a focus to zero in on the specific scent of a Witherwraith.

My eyes closed in concentration I mumbled out directions to Sia until we were fairly close. She parked at a meter and we walked a few blocks to the massive stone structure of an abandoned church. Signs out front testified that the property had been "SOLD" but long ago. Trespassing, it seemed would not be forgiven if by some miracle the absentee landlord caught you in the church. We were not concerned. To the right of the main entrance was a wooden door, small but quite thick, propped open with a brick. The warm murmuring of muted voices invited us in, and with a final word of warning to Sia I opened the door and started down the narrow stone steps.

The church held a basement, and a sub basement, crammed full of tables tents and booths where creatures which were to varying degrees humanoid plied their wares. Sia and I looked almost regal in our business attire as we waded through the crowd of dirty goblin and bickering gnomes. We worked our way toward the sub basement, where the higher class merchants would be found. The steps down were even more narrow than the entrance to the church, but the air seemed somehow less dank. No goblin here, but sídhe flitted on gilt wings and elves walked about with silver bells in their hair. The impression was wholly musical with the elven chimes and sídhe vocals. I approached a vender with a reasonable offering of wood from Otherworld and asked for prices.

Elves are usually friendly, kind and humble. Their one vice is that they like to project an air of mystery about themselves. I suspected that the young veiled elf-maiden could speak perfect English, and the fact is that my Elvish (they actually called their language Gaeilge) was quite good. Still the girl preferred to use a sídhe translator.

"Do you have any gesh?" I asked, "or perhaps paopu?"

"Fíor, ach an-daor."

; translated an antlered sídhe male. He was well muscled and heavily armed. As small as they were sídhe warriors could hold their own against much larger foes. This was clearly a guard as well as a translator.

"How much? I need enough to make a staff."

The sídhe warbled my question on to the elf-girl behind her veil.

"Míle mona."

;

"I heard what she said. Tell her that’s too much. I’ll give her four hundred mona, not a button more."

"Go bhfuil sé chomh deacair a fháil ar adhmad trasna na teorann," she began to complain about the hardships of smuggling wood. "ach tá sé i ndáiríre faoi sholáthar agus éileamh."

; the sídhe finished translating.

She was right. If I wanted the gesh wood I’d have to get it here. My only bargaining chip was that I could settle for oak or some other wood from our realm. I said as much, and in response the elf drew back a napkin that laid across a bowl. In the bowl was the star-shaped paopu fruit, so intertwined with Draft that any two people who shared the fruit would find their destinies impossibly entangled.

"Is féidir aon rud a mheaitseáil leis an crann" she bragged.

;

There was a crash as a table overturned across the basement. "Stay her," I called over my shoulder to Sia as a rushed over to the scene.

Two tall elves had squared off and drawn their long curved knives. They moved like reeds in the wind, gently swaying their lithe bodies in a deadly dance. The elf with pale blue skin gritted his teeth in pain. There was blood on the other elves knife. I hadn’t even seen him strike.

"Stop a chur!" I shouted. "Enough! No more fighting. If you want to duel do it in Otherworld. Here you follow my rules."

"And who are you cailín," one elf sneered without even cutting his eyes toward me.

"I am draoi," I quietly explained. "My world, my rules. Put the knives down before I join your battle and kick your narrow little elvish buts."

"Go away before you get hurt cailín beag."

Little girl. That’s what they called me. I decided to demand their attention, and made myself a cup. The Dusk coalesced around me, but I didn’t touch it. I had promised Valentine. Still, the gaping elves didn’t know that I wouldn’t use the roiling power around me. They just knew that I could. They knew that I could pummel them both without even breaking a sweat.

"I may be a little girl, but the two of you are starting to look like toothpicks. Knives on the ground." Two stone knives clattered to my feet. "Now what is this about?"

"Humble apologies draoi liath, we meant no disrespect. We thought you simply a foolish maighdean meddling in the business of adults."

Grey draoi, that was far better than little girl. Maighdean, though -- did that mean innocent or virgin? Apparently i did need to brush up on my Gaeilge. I knew quite a bit, and it was very similar to the Irish my grandmother used to speak but every so often I was stumped. At any rate they weren’t treating me like a child any more.

"I am draoi," I repeated. "Will you accept me as an impartial mediator?"

"You know our ways," the pale elf hesitated. "You know there must be blood."

"There will be. I’ll satisfy your traditions, but I can’t promise you’ll like my judgement." Two elven heads nodded accepting me. Honestly I hadn’t given them much choice. "Fine. You will each get your opportunity to speak, but I’ll tell you when. Do not interrupt. You first," I pointed at the pale-skinned combatant, "you drew first blood and shall speak first."

"Three days ago I bought a pigeon from this cheat. He charged me fifteen mona, but his trained bird flew away and today I found it in his pens."

I pointed at the other elf. "I didn’t train the pigeon, it simply returned. I catch and sell birds. Am I now responsible to every fool that forgets to shut their pens?"

"Pigeons fly home boys. It’s what they do, no training required. You obviously took good care of your birds," I complimented blue, "but you probably could have provided you customer some better information on how to do the same. However ignorance doesn’t commute responsibility," I told pale. "You could have learned on your own how to keep the bird. Anything this elf owed you has been paid by his blood on your blade.

"I know that you don’t care that much about the pigeon, or about the two dollars and forty cents. This is about honor, and honor is bought at a high price. The insults i have heard pass between you are worthy of a duel, but far more honor could be found by recognizing a misunderstanding and apologizing for rash words." The elves glared and I picked up their knives. Holding them parallel, I made a quick but careful slash across my forearm. Instantly twin red lines appeared in a brief flash of heat. The knives were razor sharp and caused little pain, and the shallow wounds would close quickly.

"Now do what honer requires: make peace if you can or fight if you must, but not here. A dead elf is not something I’m prepared to sweep under the carpet, and not something I can let the authorities discover." I threw their knives down at their feet, hoping my understanding of elf honer was leading me down the right path. There was barely a drop of blood on my arm, but it was drawn by their weapons. Using a weapon known to have drawn maighdean blood was anathema. They couldn’t use the knives for something like a duel. I hoped I qualified as maighdean in their eyes. I thought I would be considered innocent, although with the power I’d been displaying I might not seem exactly unarmed. Certainly I qualified as a virgin, but they might not know that. Not knowing if they would really accept my ruling I turned and stamped away, hoping at least to squelch any attempts at appeal.

Back at the table where I had left Sia the vendor had lifted her veil. "That was well handled," she addressed me in a clipped but perfect English which had not been learned in America. "Even if they won’t abandon their duel, they are forced to postpone."

"That was the idea," I admitted. Sia was panting, her eyes glazed. "Sia? Are you OK? What happened to her?" I turned toward the elf-maiden.

"I had an item she desired, and she in turn had something to offer me. We bargained."

"What was the bargain?" I growled. Anger. I had most likely just saved an elf life and she had taken something from my friend. Tricked her. Feeling as I did Dusk was nowhere to be found. I could cast a circle, I realized, but the time and effort would afford me a chance to cool down. Dusk would be dangerous in the hands of someone who felt no anger. A psychopath. I pulled a chunk of chalk from my pocket and started casting. I’d need Draft to help Sia or to lash out at the elf.

"Wait," the elf hissed, a crack showed in her calm demeanor. She was afraid. "Your cara has not been harmed. She traded me a handful of buttons for my help. I use the buttons to compensate my sídhe minder, and he perhaps became over excited. He sang. The girl will recover."

I finished the circle and Intended it into being. Then I peered at Sia with my heightened senses. Her eyes were glazed, but not vacant, and her chest rose and fell in a rhythmic (if exaggerated) pattern. With each breath I could see her shirt gape slightly, as if it had been buttoned crooked. But it hadn’t been buttoned crooked, most of the buttons had been removed. I read the fading trails of Draft like a woodsman tracking prey. They told a story that supported what I had learned from the elf. I braided a thin strand of Draft into a sort of brush and threaded it gently into Sia’s right ear, through her brain and out the left side of the head. She gave a brief cry as the memory of the faerie song was cleaned from her mind. I let my braid evaporate and carefully stopped Intending before opening my circle.

Sia shook her head and I glared at her. "Collect what you bought." I snapped, then turning toward the elf girl "Please be more careful around mortal customers. As for me, I’ve always found paopu wood to have something of a mind of its own. Keep your fruit and the wood that produced it. I’ll make my staff from oak."

"I’m sorry my business practices offend you draoi liath," she nodded with respect. "I meant no harm. Your friends purchase will be delivered to her, and I will refund the price."

"That will not be necessary," I sighed. "No harm was done, just please be more careful. A few accidents and they will close the market."

Sia was fine. I guess I should have been relieved, but I was mostly mad. Mad at Sia for not listening to me. Mad at the elf-maiden for allowing it all to happen. Mad at myself for putting her at risk in the first place. We drove home in silence, never knowing what was in store for us.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5