Reversal of Fate 5

"This is an awful idea."

"Maybe, but you sure as hell ain't staying in the motel room alone."

"I can't see anything, I'm not gonna be any help to you in here. What if someone sees me, or bumps against you or..."

Dean pressed his hand gently against the pocket, cutting off the fairy mid-sentence. He could still feel Warren trembling against him whenever they talked, and the fairy jumped in surprise at the pressure from the hand.

"Don't stress so much. No one will come near me, and since we're looking for a freaking fairy spell book, I'm going to need your help with it." Removing his hand, Dean opened the top of the pocket slightly and peered down at the tiny Fae huddled in a corner. "It can't be all bad, can it?"

"Yeah," Warren muttered. "Held captive by an enormous human, stuffed inside of a pocket and I can't even see the outside world at all. Life's fantastic."

Dean sighed and rubbed his forehead, growing tired of the argument. "I'm not going to button it up this time so you should be able to see out if you want. Just no funny business, no trying to 'escape from the big, scary human.' I don't have time to go chasing after you. Once I get this book, I'm going to need your help to read it." He let go of the pocket flap and stood up. Standing in front of the mirror of the motel, he couldn't see any sign that there was a fairy hiding in one of his pockets. Warren was small enough there wasn't even a telltale bump. Good.

Dean headed out to the Impala parked right outside, doing his best to ignore the tiny fairy in his pocket now. It was still just as awkward to have someone just chillin' in there. He turned the car toward the local library. On the way, he thought of a question for Warren. "Have you seen this book before?"

His pocket shifted and the flap opened as Warren peeked out of it at Dean. "Once. Before Akar took it."

"Will you recognize it if you see it?"

"Yeah, it's pretty distinctive. Very thick, tall. Black leather bound with gold laced pages and gold inlay on the cover. It should be easy to spot."

"Alright, once we get to the library, keep an eye out for it. So we don't miss it. You'll have a better shot of spotting it than I will."

Warren disappeared back into the pocket with a unenthusiastic "Sure" sent Dean's way.

Dean rubbed his head again. He couldn't wait to be done with the fairies and have his brother back.

---

Warren slumped back down into the darkness of the pocket. He found himself wishing fervently that his sister had been able to rescue him when she'd got Sam away. Lucky bastard. It was undignified to not be able to get out of something as simple as a jar or a pocket. Embarrassing.

He traced the markings on the amulet hanging around his neck. He could remember the day that Tenanye had gotten it. She had been so excited to celebrate her name day that year, the first year that their father had come home from the war with the dark fairies. He had brought home the sapphire used to make the amulet with him from the war, and had the dwarves work their magic to create the magical chain the amulet was bound too. Her face had lit up the forest when it was placed around her neck.

He smiled, leaning his head against the side of the pocket. His brief isolation gave him time to indulge the memories he'd suppressed. Her smile had always been able to light up his day. She had always been so happy and carefree compared to the other fairies. Nothing had ever dampened her spirits, not war, not being stranded in this strange world cut off from their own. She always just smiled and went on with life as normal. Even if 'normal' wasn't so normal anymore.

He was shaken from his thoughts when the roar of the car was silenced outside. Gravity pushed him down into the pocket briefly, and then he began to sway to the cadence of Dean's footsteps. Pulling himself up slowly enough so the human hopefully wouldn't feel him moving, he pushed open the lip of the pocket just high enough to see out. He couldn't see much of the outside world, but he did catch sight of a huge building that Dean was approaching. It had the look of a small, red castle. Warren was rattled when Dean shoved open a massive door at the entryway. He felt some jealousy creep in at the ease with which the human did that. If only his people could go home... everything could get back to normal. They wouldn't be so helpless anymore. Finally things would be easier again. Then he got a look at the inside of the library and his jaw dropped open, losing his train of thought.

Sunlight streamed through tall, elegant stained glass windows. It gave the entire area the look of being bathed in gem light. It was all so much like the cities back home, he had to close his eyes to push away the sudden homesickness that threatened to overwhelm him. He saw other humans walking around the library, either holding books or glancing through the shelves. Warren let the lip of the pocket drop so he wouldn't be spotted. The last thing he needed was more humans getting a look at a fairy. One was already too much to handle.

After a few more minutes of walking around, the movement stopped. Dean's huge voice echoed softly around Warren. "So, here we are. Let me know if you spot anything."

Warren peeked out of the pocket again nervously. A huge bookshelf was directly in front of the human. He started scanning the shelves as quickly as he could, trying to ignore the sight of Dean's huge hands as the human pushed through a few of the volumes there. Time passed at a crawl while they both browsed through the books in the library. Once in a while Dean would move to a new bookshelf. Warren wished he was able to do more. He couldn't even tell Dean when he was done scanning a shelf with all the other humans around.

After going through at least half of the shelves in the library, Dean was digging through books right under the stained glass windows. Warren couldn't stop himself from glancing up at them occasionally, feeling a sense of longing fill him. Suddenly he caught a flash of gold out of the corner of his eye. Excitedly, he pounded on the wall of Dean's chest, hoping the human would take the hint.

Warren felt relieved when the top of the pocket opened up and the huge green eyes peeked down at him curiously. He gestured enthusiastically toward where he had caught the flash of gold, careful to not make any noise. The flap closed on him and he felt the human moving in the direction he'd pointed.

He slouched back down in the corner for support as the human started to move about more rapidly. All the motion around him was disorienting. Up until that point Dean had apparently been taking more care with his movements. Now he was on the move fast. Warren stayed that way until he felt his stomach drop again and heard the car engine start up again. He pushed up the flap once he was sure there was no one else around.

"Did you find it?" He asked hopefully.


Dean glanced down at the pocket. "Yep, got it right here." He patted a brown paper bag next to him. "Once we get back to the motel, it's time to get some spells from this bad boy."

Once they arrived back at the room, the flap above Warren's head opened up and a massive hand crowded into the pocket. Long fingers gently wrapped around his body and he was lifted up and placed down on the table next to the bag with the book in it. Warren took a deep breath once he was freed of the stifling pocket. He stretched his arms over his head, glad the trip to the library had been fairly short. Pocket travel was nothing to write home about. He stood back as Dean pulled out the massive, ancient tome and placed it in the center of the table. Walking over to the book, he rubbed his hands along the gold inlay on the cover. "Yes.... this is it," He said, closing his eyes. He could FEEL the magic that the book contained in it. It felt like... home.

He bounded out of the way when Dean's hands suddenly overshadowed him, opening up the cover to the first page. Delicate gold script covered the thick parchment inside. Warren found himself leaning over the book in order to see what the writing said, and even then, it wasn't easy the way the text was stretched away from him. He tried hoisting himself up on the book slightly to try and see better. Without warning, the shadow of Dean's hand came back, this time scooping up Warren without any warning. Warren found himself trying to scramble away in surprise. He was shocked when the human simply lifted him up to his shoulder. Warren found Dean looking at him out of the corner of his eye with a smile. "Won't it be a little easier to read from here?"

Warren nodded in shock before scrambling out of the hand onto the broad shoulder. He grabbed onto the raised collar of Dean's shirt for support, breathing heavily from the surprise. From his new vantage point, he found himself high enough to see the entire page they were looking at without a problem.

"So, can you read any of this crap?" Dean asked while they considered the page together, which was covered in an elegant, foreign script. Each of the letters was expertly scribed in gold ink, with gems outlining the page. Warren recognized the style from his realm. The dwarves had created it long ago, their love of gems and gold making them craft it in all things, even books and clothing. They had even found ways to bind the gold into hair, obsessed with creating beauty everywhere.

"Uh, yea, of course. It's in ancient Gnommish. That's our most common written language in the realm I'm from." Warren leaned slightly over to see better. "So reading it won't be a problem."

"Alright. So, I'm gonna grab a notebook. Keep track of anything you translate for me." The human pushed himself up to a standing position, Warren clinging desperately to his shirt collar and doing his best not to fall off. Grabbing the ancient tome and a notebook from his pile of stuff across the room, Dean settled on the bed, leaning his back against the wall. Once he was done moving, Warren was able to release the collar from his death grip and sit down on the shoulder without fear of being tossed off.

For a while, all they were able to work on was flipping through the book and translating the names of the spells it contained. Dean carefully marked down the number of the page each spell was found on as well as the spell name in his blocky handwriting. Some pages contained stories from Warren's realm as well as lessons in history, alchemy and even more bizarre crafts. One of Warren's favorites that they passed was the linking of the fairy realms, something he had only ever heard rumors about. He'd have to go back to that when everything was over and read it in depth. To be able to travel from realm to realm was a mystery that they had thought long thought lost to the depredations of time.

The spells began to get more complex the further into the volume they got. The beginning chapters started out with small enchantments. The Blooming of a Flower. The Language of the Birds. Following those chapters were what Warren could only describe as intermediate spells. The Transmutation of Gold. The Blessing of Strength. Dean liked that one until they discovered it required the blood of a virgin.

"Why do so many rituals need virgin blood?" Dean muttered as he wrote that down on the page.

Warren shrugged. "True innocence is hard to come by in any world. That makes it powerful and valuable."

Dean sighed, looking down at all the spells they had translated thus far. They were a little more than halfway into the book. "Let’s take a snack break before we get any further into this." Standing, he scooped Warren off of his shoulder before he toppled off from the quick movements and placed him down on the bed next to the massive book.

Warren watched as the human walked toward the mini fridge. It still made him nervous to be around Dean, but he could feel some of the fear starting to dissipate. It felt odd to start... trusting... any human. Once the loss of magic had truly began to be a problem, the Fae had begun to have difficulty staying out of sight. He remembered being captured and placed in a birdcage for a week, poked at by a six year old child before his sister had been able to find and rescue him.

Being one of the last able to use magic, she had been the one to open the lock that had been placed on the cage and Warren had scrambled out of as fast as his legs could carry him. He'd been covered in bruises and cuts from when the child had pulled him out of the cage. And the boy had just been curious, not sadistic like the human that had captured Warren's sister before she had moved away.

He closed his eyes against the memories of her lying there... broken. The man had snapped both of her arms, crushing her ribs. He had slowly rubbed iron along her back, causing massive burns all over, and had sliced up parts of her legs. They never even found any reason for it aside from he did it because he could. Bastard. Warren had never wanted to hurt someone more, but all they were able to do was free her... barely in time to save her life. When he was carrying her home the most heartbreaking part happened...

He scoops her up into his arms, trying so hard not to cause her any more pain. Tenanye moans when her ribs are crushed into her as he shifts her into a position for carrying. Warren smiles down at her and tries to reassure her. "We're almost home, Ten. I've got you. I won't let you go."

She looks up at him, tiny crystal tears glistening in her eyes. She tries to lift her arm up and has to let it drop back down, as she hisses in pain. "You're ok." She smiles up at him, her voice cracking. "I didn't want you to worry...” Her head slumps to the side as she passes out from the agony she's in, leaving Warren staring down at her in disbelief. She never seems to take any notice of herself, giving everything she has for him and the others...

She had moved away from him and everyone else after she'd recovered. She had chosen to live farther out than any other fairy in their small community, able to stay in touch only with her waning magic. And like everyone else, the more she used it, the less she had. In the end, even she, who had been the most powerful of them all, would run out of magic.

And here he was, after all of that. Trusting a human. Wanting the human to succeed. And so far, the human had been more reliable than alot of other fairies that Warren knew. His world felt like it was being tipped on its head. He felt awful now for being a part of taking Dean's brother away. Sam seemed like a nice guy, and Dean was as devoted a brother as Warren had ever tried to be. Nothing was going the way it was supposed to have. It felt like everything he knew was crumbling around him. If only his sister was here...she'd know what to do.

---

"I have no idea what to do."

Hands on her hips, Tenanye stood in the semi-darkness, staring down Sam. They'd spent the last few hours arguing about what they should do next. Sam wanted to wait until nightfall, sneak back into the motel room and try to grab Warren out from the jar. Tenanye was getting more and more antsy throughout the day, torn between wanting to just get back to the motel room and trying to save him on the spot and waiting until nightfall when everyone was asleep. Sam had so far talked her out of storming off after her brother four times that day. Now, she'd just started venting about everything that had gone wrong so far.

"I don't have enough juice to knock Dean out again if we go after him tonight and he's still awake. You think that you'll be able to get Warren out of the jar with those supplies, but you've never done anything like this before so we don't even know what can go wrong there. And, to top it all off, we don't know whether or not you are a human, or if this Dean is even your brother. So there's a 50/50 chance he'll either be willing to help you or just dump you back in the jar with Warren. And me."

Sam watched her pace back and forth for the millionth time that day. The hours stretch on, slowly crawling by with them sitting in a tiny room with nothing to do all day.

She glanced over at Sam. "I NEED to save him. I can't let him down after all he's done for me." The pleasing I'm her voice caught him off guard. She sounded on the brink of tears.

Sam walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Your brother is going to be fine. I know one thing, and that's that Dean is not going to let anything happen to him."

A skeptical glare crossed her face. "You don't even remember IF he's really your brother, but you think you know him human well enough to know what he'll do?"

Sam sighed. "It's just this feeling I have. I don't think we have anything to fear from him."

Tenanye put her hand on his chin, forcing him to meet her eyes. "YOU might not have anything to fear from him. That doesn't necessarily include all of us. Humans are humans and humans can't be trusted."

Sam found himself studying her eyes and saw something that hadn't been there before. "What happened to you?" He said softly.

She broke away from his stare. "Nothing I ever want to remember."

"So, do you trust me? Even if I end up being a human?" Sam said, considering what she said about not trusting humans. After all, if his suspicions were right, he was just as human as Dean. He just happened to be the same size as her. For now.

The mischievous look came back into her eyes when she glanced back at him. "Only on days that end with a y." She said with a wink. He smiled back at the flirting, unsure if it was real or just a way of hiding her true feelings. He gently held her arms and tilted her chin so their gazes met.

"Well, if that's true, you need to relax. We won't be able to help anyone if you're panicking. Warren will be fine. How about we go back to the motel room they're in and scout it out quickly. We'll make sure Warren is alright and we can plan for tonight. That way we know what we're getting into ahead of time."

"I like that idea." She smiled at him, back to her cheerful self. "It's a date."

---

Still lost in his thoughts on the gigantic motel room bed, Warren lay back on the pillow he'd been left by while Dean was away doing whatever it was humans did. He kept his eyes trained on the human, still unwilling to let down his guard. After all...

"Hey, Warren!"

Warren practically jumped out of his skin at the feminine voice coming from behind him. Adrenaline surged, almost like an electric shock. He twisted around in place and saw... his sister, Tenanye. She was standing behind him, using the pillow as a shield so the human couldn't see her.

"Oh my god, Ten!" He reached toward her.

"Wait, Warren." He froze at the serious tone in her voice, something he almost never heard from her. "If he sees you looking at me, I'll get captured." She smiled sadly at that. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you last night." Her smile fades, tears glistening at the corner of her eyes. "Almost all my magic is gone."

Warren pulled his gaze away from her. "I know." He glanced quickly toward Dean, watching the human finish getting the salad together and starting on the pizza. Time was running out. He turned back to her while the humans back was toward them. "We found the spell book."

She stared back at him in amazement. "THE book? You actually found it?"

"Yeah, and Dean's trying to find a way to send us back to our realm, and a way to make his brother human again and give him back his memories." He saw Ten's eyes widen at this statement. "What?"

"So he is a human," she stated, watching him for confirmation. Her excitement drained away.

"Yeah, Aelfric found this spell that can change a human to a Fae, and he's been using it to try to get the human's to understand us. That way they might not try to capture us so much. When he used it on Sam and Dean, it backfired and shot out the kids’ memories instead of replacing them. And it didn't affect Dean at all." Warren sighed and leaned back against the pillow keeping his eyes on the human. "As far as we can tell, the spell won't let Sam remember anything at all. Everytime he tried when I was around, he held his head like he had a migraine."

She sighed briefly, then focused back on why she was here. "Tonight, we'll be able to get you out. I've got something to get you out of that jar. I just need the human to fall asleep on his own tonight. I don't have enough juice left to knock him out again."

Warren caught her eye. "No. You can't."

"Of course I can! If it's about the risk, I don't care about that, you know that..."

He shook his head quickly. "That's not what I mean, I know you'd do anything to save me." He met her eyes. "Just like I'd do anything for you. I want to help Dean."

"You...what?" She gasped.

"I know how you feel about them. Hell, I feel the same after... what happened the last time I saw you. But Dean... I think he's really going to help us go home. He seems so... different than the other humans we've run into. He reminds me so much of Garin. And he's going into this blind. Without me to help him with this book, he won't be able to save any of us. Or his brother. I helped get him into this, I should help get him out."

He dared twisting around completely to look at his sister when her silence stretched out. Her face had turned whiter than it usually was. "Ten..."

"I'm sorry," she said with a whisper. "I... I've gotta go... " She backed away from him. "I just can't... he's... a human. I can't... "

"I know," he said. "I understand. But, if there's even a chance that we can go home, I'm going to take it." He turned back to the room. "You should go. But... " He looked back at her with hope in his eyes, "not too far?"

She went over to the side of the bed and started her climb down. "You know where I'll be."