Twelve

Once they were back in the house, Roy found that the fog of desire and excitement had lifted enough for him to be able to actually think about asking questions.

"Syl'fair," Roy said with a speculative lilt.

"Yes Roy," Syl'fair answered, knowing that she would have to start explaining herself.

"Umm, about what we've been doing. You said it's sometimes for fun, and you hinted that it's sometimes not. Then you did that spitting thing in the grove..."

"I think we need to start thinking of it as The Grove," Syl'fair replied, and Roy could hear the capital letters when she said it. "We have started a sequence of events that are important, more important than you realise."

"Why don't you tell me what we've started then..."

"You know how going out affected me, what you don't know is why," Syl'fair started at what Roy thought was a tangent, "Well, what I slowly came to realise is that none of my kind, or any kind other than humans and animals, was left out of Dreamtime. That was a huge shock to me. I couldn't believe how little magic was left in the world, just millions and millions of humans and all that stone. All the beautiful forests gone and from what you tell me, a lot of what is left horribly polluted. My job, and that of my sisters, has always been to husband the forests and the fields, nurture the trees and plants and work towards keeping the balance. We are part of that balance, and concerned with ensuring that it all works. It seems that things have gotten completely out of control."

"What's that got to do with The Grove?" Roy interjected.

"I cannot turn the tide on my own. I was just a small part of keeping the balance. What I did was to start the process of calling some of my sisters back from the Dreamtime so that we can start working on restoring the balance."

Roy stared at Syl'fair in shock as the realization struck him. "Twelve! There are going to be twelve more Nymphs?"

Syl'fair giggled. "Yes, exactly. I didn't know you were counting."

"Why twelve?"

"You didn't think it was Christians who invented the magical significance of the number thirteen did you?"

"Actually, I did. It's because of the Last Supper..."

"No, that's not the cause, merely a symptom; just another example of Christianity absorbing something much older and giving it an explanation that allows it to fit. That number has been magical since before Noah's time. There is power in numbers, some numbers magnify magical effects. Thirteen is one of those, one in control and two groups of six. Six is a special number all on it's own, reflected it doubles the power, then adding one to make seven is special all over again. So ... That is why another twelve, plus me, to make thirteen."

"You make it sound as if you are going to be a coven of witches..."

"What is that? If you think about it, a witch is simply a female magic user ... So that's not that far from the truth."

"What about Wiccan?"

"Oh, you mean 'the old religion'?"

"I suppose so."

"It's not really you know, the old religion I mean. The differences between all these religions is mostly just nonsense. Ways that humans choose to try to make themselves special. There are just the gods, all of them, and we interact with them as we see fit. Mostly, they don't really care, as long as there is some form of worship, it strengthens them. What form it takes ... Makes no real difference."

"You'd better be a little careful saying that around here, there are some people who might just decide that they had the right idea at Salem."

"Yes, that is a problem. Being accepted. That's one of the things that we need to talk about. My sisters will need to be sustained..."

"You mean they will need more Essence from me? All twelve of them?"

"Well, what I thought was that seeing as we only need to get Essence from you once every three days, two of my sisters could join me with you. That would mean that we need to find some human men for the other ten. I would prefer one of my sisters per human, as that would spread our influence out a lot, but they could double up if necessary."

"I'm sure I can get some of my friends to come around and visit. I'm not sure how I'd explain all this to them though. They'll think I'm crazy."

"Don't you worry about that, let me take care of it."

Roy laughed. "Yes, I'm sure you will."

Syl'fair cocked her head, listening, then told Roy, "Your sister's coming back. I think I need to have a chat with her. Why don't you go and 'work out' for a while so I can have some time with her?"

"Ok," Roy answered, "I've been so consumed with thoughts of you that I've forgotten everything else in my life."

Syl'fair just smiled sweetly at Roy as he kissed her affectionately before heading off to get his towel and head downstairs.