I finally caught you! When you got into that beast, I thought I would for sure lose you! I squint; trying to see this thing in-front of me; “hello?” I say cautiously; what do you want from me?
“Did you do this to my car?! What are you a ball of light? You’re blinding me you, thing.”,

“The fact you can see me tells me everything I need to know; people of this world shouldn’t be able to see me.”  I stare at this thing with a blank expression; “What do you mean? Who are you?”

I must be hallucinating, how can there be a floating ball of light? How can it speak?

“The bravery of this one… watch how you speak to me”

I give a confused look.  Why? Should I be on guard of a small firefly thing? Did this thing, did this thing melt my car?! No, impossible, this is a dream, this isn’t happening.

“I killed your beast!” It shouts; “you didn’t stop, and since you didn’t stop when you definitely saw me, I killed it!” 

“Huh?!?.... So, me seeing you is why you melted my car? “Yes, I heard someone yell, but there was no one there?” “I see you now, now that your right in front of me, but how could you expect me to see something so small so far away?” “That is hardly reason to destroy someone’s personal property!”

“Ugh that’s not the point! Shut up human!”  “How is it that a human has the audacity to talk to me like this!? You see your precious beast die by my hand, yet you persist?”  “Humans really are ignorant!” “I knew it, I should have just killed you!” The little thing barked.

Some time passes, silence, in fact deafening silence.  I begin to spiral in my mind; Did this thing just threaten to kill me? She did this to my car, what the hell else could she do?

The thing in front of me changes her tune, from one of rage filled to calm, and says, “Did you do something wicked to be able to peer through?”

The only thing I can ascertain is its female because of the voice, but I’m probably still past out, I mean it looks like a fairy from some book, and those aren’t real.  Therefore, this is a dream; no, a fever dream.

“Heeelllloooo” she taunts.

This little ball of light whose figure I haven’t been able to discern, as she is exceedingly small and seems to travel faster than I can keep up, is very rude.

“Listen, this is my dream, you can’t yell at me, I might wake up soon anyway.”

She looks perplexed; “This isn’t a dream human, are you dumb?!”

While trying to peak through that golden veil, to see this creature, the little ball has been relentless in her flurry of words. Every moment is getting increasingly negative.

“Helloooo?! Anyone there? I’m talking to you. It’s not every day you get to talk to a fairy, so what’s the deal, answer my questions!”

Wait if this isn’t a dream…. What did she say?! Fairy?! Their real?! Then, she, she really is a fairy?! Like from a book?! No, no, no way man.  If this is all real, then, am I in actual danger?! ****! She destroyed my car, and more than that she did some kind of bubble thing to me! She really could kill me in a blink couldn’t she!

Calm down, I need to calm down, I cant die.  Not as if I have anything to really live for, but, still, I don’t want to die!

As I look up to try and utter even a sentence to this Fairy, I see two feet tiny and intricate; a hand small smooth as porcelain.

I gather myself, calm, calm and collected.  I cant die here, not until I figure out what the hell is going on!

I calm myself and speak as softly and kindly as I can.  This, although a fairy, might still be a woman, and as a man, I need to be kind.  “I do apologize little sprite; I do not mean to offend. I have no idea how it is I can see you or anything else for that matter, the things I have seen cannot be explained by ordinary means, might you help me?” 

As if taken aback by my words, the little sprite stops her flurry of words and takes me in. flying around my figure: a ribbon of light, flying in circles around me, as if she is scanning every detail.

“What have you seen…. human?”

“Little sprite, might you dim your light, so I can see you?” “It’s really hard to keep staring at such a bright light.”

At this the little sprite stops her scan of me, stops in front of my face and pauses to what I can assume is to think.

“Since you asked nicely” akin to turning down the dial on an oil lamp, so too did her light dim.

“I’m only showing myself because you changed your tune, and I killed your metal beast “without provocation.” She throws up hand quotes, as if to lessen her fault.  No matter, take it in stride, if this is all real then so be it, I guess.

 “Do you want to land? I would assume flying takes a deal of energy” “You can trust no harm will come unto you” I say in a soft tone.

 I hold out my hand for the little sprite to land in my palm.

“What is your name little sprite, why do you feel the need to be rude to me? I'm special since I can see you, right? Want to start over? A fresh slate? My name is Thomas, I live alone and am currently in college.”  

“Hmm... So be it; my name is Ifrit, I'm a fairy… obviously, and I live with thousands of my species, and I’m here because it seems you broke the One Rule.”  

What’s the One Rule? I say with a look of confusion.

“You don’t know the One Rule?! Wow you humans really have forgotten everything huh?” “Huh… Ok” She says exasperatedly.

“The One Rule is exactly as it sounds; it’s the one freaking rule humans need to follow.”

“Wait, what rule?! Little sprite I don’t know what you’re saying. What rule is the One Rule?”

“The One rule is humans can’t peer through the veil, it’s like the one rule all must follow, and it seems humans don’t even know it.” “So, to be fair you didn’t know, I can’t really fault you, not as much as I want to anyway.”

“Seems the Founders did a **** job of passing along that information.” “I bet instead, they decided to use it for their own gain, money or power or something, humans are all greedy little sacks of meat.”

“So, they didn’t share the information, that’s annoying in more ways than one.”

She pauses for a minute, wondering how to tackle the situation.  “Seems they screwed their descendants for no reason, well they screwed you; it’s been a while and you’re the first to break it.”  It’s not as if this situation is very common, this is the first time I’ve been dispatched to this realm.”

“Ok so I broke the One Rule, how did I break it? I’ve been minding my own business since birth.” “I know for a fact I didn’t shatter the sky” “And realm? You’re implying there’s more than one?

“Dude, where the hell do you think I came from?” “Idiot.”

“You haven’t read any old books recently? Enter any sketchy rooms?”

“No; not that I remember, I would remember a creepy book or cave.”

“Do you have any enemies? Anyone who wishes you harm?” She said finger pressed to chin

“Not that I know of, I had bullies in school, but that was the same for everyone.”

“It could be you’ve been blessed by some god or divine being” she said calmy’

“How can you say that so calm, a GOD?!!? What the ****!?, why would a god want anything to do with me? I’m not even that religious!”

“Ok calm down, human I shouldn’t have mentioned it”

“It could be your just an unlucky human who had a bad day and had a run in with an extremely thin section of the veil.” She says unconvinced.

“Huh!” “Well, there was something… I could have sworn there was like a creature or demon in my room, there was this pressure; it was awful!” “It was just moments ago, that’s why I was leaving!”

 “I thought it was standing on my shoulders, and then there was something in my glass! But then I threw it, and it disappeared. I was on the way to the hospital because I thought I was losing it!” “Now there’s a sprite in front of me explaining things like gods, blessings, and enemies, so clearly, I’ve gone insane. Or I really did crash, and this is that final burst of chemicals making me hallucinate.” I look on with a crazed look.

“Human…. I just saved your life, just now, like a minute ago, that happened, you’re a bit pathetic.” “You didn’t die, do you want to? If you keep spouting like a mad-man, I could just kill you?”

“?!” “Ugg my heeeaad….”

I fall to my knees clutching my hair and resting my face in my forearms, my eyes frozen, stuck to one position unblinking, cold sweat forming on my brow, yup panic attack.

A panic attack?! Now?! Of all the freaking times.

I need air, I need a break from world shattering news. Clutching my chest to fight the pressing convulsions of my heart.

As I gasp for a breath, I notice the air changing around me, I look up to the little sprite; she has her hands out Infront of her, and what seem to be fluffy streams of golden air are coming forth from her fingertips. Is, this…. magic? I’m feeling a warmth akin to a mother’s embrace, safety, security. I feel myself returning and my chest calming, this golden air its healing me!

Eventually I stop shaking and can get upright. “Thank you! Little sprite, thank you! I thought I was going to die!”

“It’s ok, humans are fragile, now I just feel bad…”

“Oh no don’t be sorry, this happens all the time, and you made it up to me just now!”

The little sprite’s face blushed lightly, it was clear she was happy to be forgiven, but still cautious of me.  Understandable I guess; wasn’t the best first impression.

I took the moment to gather myself, the golden wind calmed me down, but I got to collect my thoughts.  It’s so much information, and I don’t want to look incompetent for any longer than I already displayed.

“So, I can see you, so that means I can see other things, correct?”

“That’s correct human”

“Thomas, call me Thomas” I ask. “Oh, ok Thomas, the human”

“Stop stating the obvious, yes I’m human.” “Pffft.” She blows.

“A raspberry? Seriously? …. well. Pfffffft to you too!” a faint giggle can be heard from the sprite, but I don’t draw attention to it, it seems she’s warming up to me.

“Ok, can we talk about my apartment? What was it that accosted me in my own home? I didn’t even get a good look at it; I couldn’t even remain conscious.”

“Well, that’s not good” She lets out a long sigh; clearly upset with how bothersome this has become for her; “it could have been a ghoul, they tend to lurk in the corner of your view, or worse.” “The thing on your shoulders also could have been a stimerra, their vicious on the soul, they sort of absorb it.”

“Absorb it?!” I shouted.

“That might be why you passed out, or it could have just been an overdose of flight from your flight or flight response, when you didn’t run because you couldn’t your brain shut-off instead.”  Humans are interestingly weak, when it comes to conservation of self.”

“Well how could I defend against; or in this case run, from something I couldn’t see or pinpoint?”

“Oh, you couldn’t, ha-ha, I was just saying.” She retorts with a smile.

“You don’t like humanity too much do you?” “I mean I can’t blame you, were a cancer on the environment and kill anything we don’t understand.” 

“You get it ha-ha” chuckled the little sprite; Tired I say: “You don’t even hide your bias.”

“Well why the hell do you think we have the veil, y’all can’t be trusted, not even a little bit!”

“The veil?” “What’s the veil?”

“The veil, the last resort, essentially a barrier separating us from you, since, once again, y’all can’t be trusted.”

I wonder if that was what had shattered, the glass that fell from the sky. “Was that the thing I saw shatter?” I ask; “The falling glass that couldn’t be seen by anyone other than me?”

“Probably, I was sent here when we saw the thing break, we thought this place exploded or something.  Luckily, I was able to pinpoint the cause when I came over; the cause being, you.”

“Why was there a veil to begin with?” I ask.

“Oye, that’s a long story” “I mean looong, you sure you want to know?”

“Yes, well no, but I feel I don’t have a choice but to learn about it now.”

“Ok…” She shrugs.

“This goes way back about five hundred years ago give or take, we separated ourselves from your world with old magic.  Humans were just awful, overbearing and greedy.”  “Since the humans destroyed what little trust they had with us, we separated” “Humans wanted the magic of the land for themselves, they built machines that sucked up the magic from the soil and the air.”  “Before long they had taken most of the magic from the world, it was devastating.” “The land became hard; harvests weren’t always plentiful disease and illness swept the land.”  “To save our people, who can only exist with the presence of magic, we used Old Magic to cause a rift between the worlds.”

“Hence why your world doesn’t have magic.”

“Wait so we suffer because of lack of magic?! We used to be magical? Does that mean there’s a storage of magic somewhere in this world?” I question.

“Well, no, the chances of humans being born magical were one in five hundred-million or something, and humans didn’t account for much of the population at that time.”  “Since most humans weren’t born magical, they felt inferior, and tried to harvest and manipulate it to work for them.” “Devices they made allowed them to manipulate it, but it never became a part of them.”

“Can I? Is that maybe why it broke? Because I can use magic?”

 “Ha-ha no, remember? I told you we took the magic with us, there was only one out of ten thousand-million chances of it happening.  There’s another reason you can see us, but if I’m honest, I don’t have a clue what that reason is.” “Hmm Thomas, sit down over there”

“Let me have a look at you”

“Wait, you just said a different number just now, do you even know of a human being born with magic?” I ask, questioning whether she even knows what she’s speaking about.

“No, ok? No, I have no idea.  Like I said, it didn’t happen, ever, hence the machines and everything.  There has never been a human born to wield magic.”

“Oh, ok, sorry.”

 The little sprite starts to push her palms together, struggling, as if she was trying to compress a ball of titanium, a small orb of light begins to take shape within her palms. 

I can see this ball in the center of her palms begin to change colors, like some sort of strobe light at a rave.  Is she gathering energy or something, is she scanning me or going to launch this thing at me?  I try and figure out what is happening before me until finally the ball stops changing color and stays at reddish white.

In a slit second it explodes, surrounding the both of us in a field of small red glowing balls, akin to fluffy snow. 

“This will be uncomfortable for you” says the Fairy.

She brings her arms up and around her head in a circular motion, all while chanting something I cannot comprehend.  It was beautiful, they all took their own shape in the air, as if her words were invoking life.  The dust turns and morphs into words I’ve never seen before.  The script shifted from the bright red to a golden sheen, waving through the air.