Fic: An Ancient Muse
Title: An Ancient Muse
Author: miss_m_cricket
Artist: scatter_muse
Main Pairing: Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy
Other Pairings: Spock/Nyota Uhura, Scotty/Chapel
Notes: Fantasy/Historical/Magical StarTrek AU
Rating: PG-13
For: Originally for trekreversebang
Summary: In a world full of magic and mystery, Jim Kirk is determined to explore the unknown and bring back amazing artifacts as he does. Leonard McCoy just follows along because someone has to keep him, and everything else, in one piece.
A/N 1: Thank you to the unbelievably incredible scatter_muse for her beautiful artworks found HERE!. And for being so understanding about technical difficulties.
A/N 2: Also a big thank you to mysterysquid who has listened to every painful step along the way. Cheers mate!
Part 1 | Part 3 (Coming soon)
Part 2
Leonard wasn’t there the day it all went wrong.
He was back at the camp, patching up a badly injured engineer when hoofbeats came pounding up the dirt road. Confused, it wasn’t time for the investigating party to come home yet, Leonard left his tent.
Spock was dismounting with the raggedly remains of the party, all of whom looked rather shaken and windblown. There was no Pike, Leonard idly noticed, but his eyes had noticed something else more important.
There was no Jim.
“Where’s Jim?” he demanded of Spock, striding across the muddy ground, shoving the brandy flask he had been using to numb Riley’s pain at the other man, “Speak man!”
Spock’s gaze sought out Nyota, exiting the tent after Leonard, before he looked properly at Leonard, “Doctor I regret to inform you...”
“Dammit you cold blooded bastard!” Leonard roared, “Where’s Jim!”
Spock didn’t flinch, just raised his dark eyes to look straight into Leonard’s.
“He’s dead isn’t he?” Leonard’s voice sounded faint to his own ears, the blood pounding through them at top volume.
Spock hesitated and a young man stepped forward from back in the party, “We dunno what happened to him...sir.” he added hastily as Leonard scowled at him, “One moment he was there, with...that thing...and the next he and Professor Pike are gone, with...that.”
“’That’?” Leonard barked at Spock, “Whattin’ blazes is ‘that’?”
“I do not know Doctor.” Spock admitted, heading for the tent where Jim kept all his maps and plans, “But it is an excellent question.”
~*~
Apparently Jim had found out a possible unlocking spell for the stone circle. And true to form he had decided to test it out, without any further preparation and without most of his exploration team.
“I believe it was his intention to surprise you Doctor,” Spock revealed, watching Leonard gulping down another gulp of bourbon, “He had every intention of just testing it’s effectiveness before alerting the general party to his success. It was not planned to enter the gateway.”
The unlocking words had worked, and the spell cast by Spock had been effective. The gate had opened, light fading around them to be sucked into the circle. There a figure emerged, dressed as a refined gentleman, with laced acid green tattoos across his face and body.
His ears had been pointed, “Like mine,” Spock confessed, not looking at either Nyota or Leonard as he spoke, “And his hair, had it still been coloured, would have been black.”
“Faerie.” Nyota breathed.
“Dammit,” Leonard growled, “Bet Jim wasn’t expecting that.”
Jim hadn’t been expecting it, and nor had he been expecting the silver magic to come flooding from the Faerie man. They had all been frozen in place, all pinned by a magic that was ancient and powerful and full of malice.
“We knew he meant us harm,” Spock looked to Nyota, “He wandered amongst us, taunting Pike and Jim who he correctly identified as the leaders. One by one he killed the men around them, his magic disintegrating them.”
Nyota paled and Leonard stared, “Disintegrated them? I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“He is beyond anything likely studied to date Doctor. Indeed it was quite fascinating, from a subjective point of view.”
“From a subjective...why you coldblooded...” Leonard spluttered but Nyota shushed him.
“Hush Leonard. What happened next Spock?”
What unfolded next made Leonard’s fingers curl into his palms, the nails digging into his skin. The Faerie had laughingly played with some of the men and horses, until suddenly he had caught sight of Spock’s ears and hair. From that point on his attention had been focused on Spock, especially when he heard his parents’ names.
Spock glossed over the details of the struggle between he and the Faerie, but Leonard had gone and questioned the boy who had spoken up when they returned, Garrovick. Apparently the Faerie had tried to antagonise Spock into a fight, which Spock had resisted.
Jim had not.
Despite the supposed ‘dislike’ Jim had a healthy dose of respect for the other man, and Leonard knew how much his best friend loathed bullies. The conflict had been short and brutal, leaving Jim gasping on the ground and Spock , along with Pike, trying to get through a magical shield to reach him.
“’I’m going to destroy everything you know and love.’” Garrovick and Spock reported the same words, Garrovick shivering, Spock impassive, “’Starting with these two.’”
“Then there was a flash of light and both of them were gone,” Garrovick told Leonard over a pair of drinks, “Just vanished and the world back to how it was, ‘cept for the dead men all around. Then we rode for home, at top speed I can tell you.”
“Do you think Jim and Professor Pike are still alive?”
Garrovick looked at him and there was pity in those young blue eyes, “I don’t know how they could be. Sorry sir.”
~*~
But they were.
Somehow Leonard knew he wasn’t dreaming, even though he knew he was asleep. Wherever his mind was, it wasn’t in a dream, that was for sure. Before him stood the being that Spock and Garrovick had told him about. Nearby were Jim and Pike, tied to glowing golden trees.
“And what are your names?” The Faerie asked, petting Jim’s cheek with a mischievous smile, “Should know your pets names after all.”
“I’m Christopher Pike.” The professor growled, “Who the devil are you?”
“Hi Christopher,” The Faerie taunted back in a mock friendly tone, “I’m Nero. No devil. And you...you’re Jim Kirk.” He smirked at Pike, “You should really quiet down your thoughts.”
“You can’t keep us here.” Jim’s blue gaze was fixed on Nero, “We haven’t eaten any faerie food, haven’t accepted your hospitality.”
Nero laughed, an unpleasant and mirthless sound.
“Those silly rules. I don’t listen to them. No one will know I have you, no one who matters anyway.” And his gaze wandered by Jim to rest on Leonard’s. “Your friends are helpless to save you. Perhaps they will go mad from knowing you’re suffering but being unable to help. Wouldn’t that be delicious? Mortals are such fun when insane...”
And the world melted around them, as Leonard ran forward, released by the spell that had held him in place, “Jim!”
But Jim did not hear him and the next moment Leonard had come awake in his bed, gasping for breath.
“He’s alive. Jim’s alive.” And he would rescue him, screw what Nero thought. Jim was his best friend. He would save him.
~*~
“We are left in a rather delicate and difficult position.” Spock said to the table at large the next morning. It appeared that both Spock and Uhura had had the same dream as Leonard, while Garrovick had just heard the words. None of the others had experienced anything so it was this four who sat at the table to work out a plan of attack, “We cannot let the general public know about Professor Pike or Jim Kirk’s disappearance. The expedition would be halted and we would have less than no hope of retrieving them.”
“What we need is some good solid information.” Nyota said, tapping a long elegant nail against her smooth cheek, “Something we can use against this ‘Nero’.”
“I know very little about Faeries.” Spock provided, deliberately not looking at any of them, “I found the notions fanciful.”
“I might have information on them in my library back at the manor in England.” Leonard said, running a hand through his dishevelled dark hair, “If nothing else I have a library of tomes on magic which might provide us with a handy weapon.”
“You have a library Doctor?” Spock quirked an eyebrow, “Fascinating..”
“Now you listen here you pointy eared hobgoblin...”
“Leonard...” Nyota admonished, touching his arm, “How quickly can we get to your manor.”
“It’ll be a good week’s travel if we leave right now.”
“It hasn’t rained in a few days so the roads should be good.” Garrovick provided, “I haven’t got any Gift so I would be next to useless to you. I can stay here and keep research going about the stone circle?”
“That is a sound idea Mr Garrovick.” Spock looked at Leonard, eyes impassive. “We should travel quickly with only two riders.”
“Three.” The two men looked at Nyota who looked back at them firmly, “I’m coming too.”
~*~
If Leonard had thought the journey there had been bad, he was forced to rethink it by the time they reached his manor home. It had gotten better once they had left Irish land; Nero’s influence wasn’t so strong over the water or in England. However the dreams of Jim and Pike continued, particular strong for Spock and Leonard and less so for Uhura.
“He’s tormenting us,” Leonard grunted, curled up in one of the great leather armchairs in the library room, a huge, ancient tome resting on his knees, “And so are these damn books.”
“We’ll find something Leonard.” Nyota said, standing up on the staircase leading up to one of the higher levels, “Your cataloguing system is a great help.”
“Indeed.” Spock said, hidden behind a parapet of books, “I find myself wishing I was not looking for something in particular. I could spend a lifetime in here reading.”
“You’re welcome to come back after we find Jim and the Professor, Spock.” Leonard said idly, turning a page, “Books are meant to be read.”
There was silence for a long moment and then Spock spoke again.
“Thank you Doctor.”
Nyota, perched on her staircase, book on her lap, smiled.
~*~
“This is hopeless!” Leonard slammed another volume shut, hours later, rubbing his eyes, “I have too many books. Never thought I’d say that but...”
“Next book Leonard.” Nyota said, looking up to see the Doctor lifting down another hefty tome, “Just keep going.”
~*~
“I find myself concurring with the Doctor on this.” Spock spoke up another few hours later, “It is beginning to look hopeless.”
“None of that Spock,” Leonard grumbled, “You aren’t allowed to agree with me, and you aren’t allowed to quit before me either.”
Spock looked affronted, “I was not considering abandoning the search Doctor, I was merely stating a fact.”
~*~
“Do you think we need a book on the mating of griffins?” Nyota asked, another three hours later, now sprawled across Leonard’s Egyptian rug, reading.
“Nope.”
“I do not believe so Nyota.”
~*~
“I think I have it.” Leonard spoke up the next morning, stirring Nyota from where she had fallen asleep on the rug and startling Spock from his meditation behind his book wall, “This will create a portal, where we will be able to see through to the faerie world and affect it with magic if we should choose to. The book doesn’t recommend it, says faeries are vicious with vengeance.”
“You don’t say.” Nyota said, sitting up, and pushing her dark hair back off her face, “What’s the spell, and what can I do to help.”
Together Leonard and Spock cast the spell on the large floor to ceiling mirror on one of the walls; Leonard’s copper Gift meshing with Spock’s green to create a mossy fire around the mirror. Slowly it began to glow and then it showed Jim. Jim who was pacing in a room of white marble.
“Jim!” Leonard lurched forward, unable to stop himself reacting to seeing his best friend, and being able to actually contact him, “Jim!”
Jim whirled, looking straight at the mirror and his eyes widened, surprise and fierce joy showing on his face, “Bones! I knew you’d find a way!” He hurried over, fingers touching the solid wall that was his side, and Leonard touched the same place on the mirror side, “I can’t get through.”
“We’re working on it Jim.”
A surge of green light and Spock’s magic rolled over the mirror frame, trying to part the glass and allow Jim through, “Almost,” Leonard grunted, lifting his left hand, his casting hand, “Maybe together.”
“My, my...” Leonard’s heart sank as he saw Nero standing behind Jim, leaning against one of the marble pillars, “What have we here?”
“Spock...”
“On three Doctor...one...two...”
Nero laughed, that horrible mirthless laugh and a surge of silver magic struck the mossy fire of Leonard and Spock’s magic. For long moments the two men struggled against the Faerie’s magic, but then with another contemptuous shove, Nero snapped their hold on the mirror.
Leonard heard Spock cry out, heard Nyota scream and then he knew no more.
~*~
“Bones!” Jim pounded against the stone, the stone where his best friend had been just moments before. He had heard the scream, cut off by the vanished magic, and did not know what had happened back in the room with the books. What if something horrible had happened to Bones?
He rounded on Nero, who looked utterly delighted by the expression on the young mans face, “What did you do to them?” the blond man hissed, stalking forward until Nero’s magic wound around him, binding him helplessly, “What did you do to Bones!?”
“Bones?” Nero asked, curious, tilting his head to the side as he used a tendril of magic to pry open Jim’s mind, “Oh the dark haired man. My, my you are quite attached to him aren’t you? Such wicked thoughts, not appropriate at all for gentlemen to be coveting each other in such a way, Mr Kirk.”
“Shut up!” Jim thrashed in the invisible bonds, “Shut up!”
“Ooh how delightful!” Nero stared up at him enthralled, “You love him! This is just perfect, I had no idea. Well then, I’m just going to have to make sure this ‘Bones’ makes it here aren’t I? Test him, break him. Ooh this is really just delicious.”
~*~
Jim was left to seethe impotently in a room with some other mortals that Nero had ‘collected’ during his times abroad in the realm of men. It seemed he did it quite regularly, judging by the clothes some of them were wearing. But there were a number who were wearing similar garments to Jim and they seemed to gravitate together.
“I am Chekov,” a young Russian boy said, his impish, youthful face turned up towards Jim openly, “Pavel Andreivich.”
“He’s some kind of whizkid.” The young woman said, rolling his eyes, settling down on Jim’s other side, “I’m Christine by the way, Christine Chapel. I’m studying to be a nurse.”
“Not any more y’not.” The last man said with a snort and in a voice with a distinct Scottish brogue, “At the moment lassie yer stuck here in Laird Nero’s hole, like th’ rest of us.”
“He is Montgomery Scott.” Chapel informed Jim, rolling her eyes at Scott as she did, “He’s some kind of engineer, thinks he’s going to ‘change the world’.”
“Hey! Y’know one day men’re gonna fly like wee birdies. Ah’m just gonna make it come sooner.”
“Are they always this bad?” Kirk asked Chekov, raising his eyebrow at the young man slightly. Chekov however just blinked at him in confusion.
“Bad? Zhey are on zheir best behaviour sir.”
~*~
“We need to look at this logically.” Spock said, pacing through the study. All of them had needed a break from the library room and time to recover from the backlash of the magic being severed by Nero.
Leonard was sitting in his chair, head resting on one hand, eyeing Spock like he was liable to explode any moment. Nyota was curled up on the leather couch, head buried in cushions, although one ear was visible, clearly listening to the conversation. Unlike Leonard and Spock, Nyota hadn’t been involved in the magical struggle, but she was very tired and was regaining some valuable sleep.
“Logically...”Leonard groaned, “Whattin blazes can logic tell us. ‘Cept that logically we’re stuffed like a good roast?”
“One.” Spock continued doggedly, “We, alone and together, are magically no match for Nero. I had hoped that our combined Gifts might be able to thwart him but it lamentably appears otherwise.”
“Wonderful.”
“Two. It appears that we can create magical portals into the Faerie world, but only portals which allow for audio and visual sensory contact as well as magical.”
“So we basically gotta find a doorway to the Faerie realm and something that will even up the balance of magical power? Gee...not tricky at all.” Leonard snorted and put a pillow over his face, “Sleep now I think. Maybe in the morning we’ll have a clue.”
Amazingly when they woke Nyota did have an idea.
“Dragons.”
Part 1 | Part 3 (Coming soon)
Author: miss_m_cricket
Artist: scatter_muse
Main Pairing: Jim Kirk/Leonard McCoy
Other Pairings: Spock/Nyota Uhura, Scotty/Chapel
Notes: Fantasy/Historical/Magical StarTrek AU
Rating: PG-13
For: Originally for trekreversebang
Summary: In a world full of magic and mystery, Jim Kirk is determined to explore the unknown and bring back amazing artifacts as he does. Leonard McCoy just follows along because someone has to keep him, and everything else, in one piece.
A/N 1: Thank you to the unbelievably incredible scatter_muse for her beautiful artworks found HERE!. And for being so understanding about technical difficulties.
A/N 2: Also a big thank you to mysterysquid who has listened to every painful step along the way. Cheers mate!
Part 1 | Part 3 (Coming soon)
Part 2
Leonard wasn’t there the day it all went wrong.
He was back at the camp, patching up a badly injured engineer when hoofbeats came pounding up the dirt road. Confused, it wasn’t time for the investigating party to come home yet, Leonard left his tent.
Spock was dismounting with the raggedly remains of the party, all of whom looked rather shaken and windblown. There was no Pike, Leonard idly noticed, but his eyes had noticed something else more important.
There was no Jim.
“Where’s Jim?” he demanded of Spock, striding across the muddy ground, shoving the brandy flask he had been using to numb Riley’s pain at the other man, “Speak man!”
Spock’s gaze sought out Nyota, exiting the tent after Leonard, before he looked properly at Leonard, “Doctor I regret to inform you...”
“Dammit you cold blooded bastard!” Leonard roared, “Where’s Jim!”
Spock didn’t flinch, just raised his dark eyes to look straight into Leonard’s.
“He’s dead isn’t he?” Leonard’s voice sounded faint to his own ears, the blood pounding through them at top volume.
Spock hesitated and a young man stepped forward from back in the party, “We dunno what happened to him...sir.” he added hastily as Leonard scowled at him, “One moment he was there, with...that thing...and the next he and Professor Pike are gone, with...that.”
“’That’?” Leonard barked at Spock, “Whattin’ blazes is ‘that’?”
“I do not know Doctor.” Spock admitted, heading for the tent where Jim kept all his maps and plans, “But it is an excellent question.”
~*~
Apparently Jim had found out a possible unlocking spell for the stone circle. And true to form he had decided to test it out, without any further preparation and without most of his exploration team.
“I believe it was his intention to surprise you Doctor,” Spock revealed, watching Leonard gulping down another gulp of bourbon, “He had every intention of just testing it’s effectiveness before alerting the general party to his success. It was not planned to enter the gateway.”
The unlocking words had worked, and the spell cast by Spock had been effective. The gate had opened, light fading around them to be sucked into the circle. There a figure emerged, dressed as a refined gentleman, with laced acid green tattoos across his face and body.
His ears had been pointed, “Like mine,” Spock confessed, not looking at either Nyota or Leonard as he spoke, “And his hair, had it still been coloured, would have been black.”
“Faerie.” Nyota breathed.
“Dammit,” Leonard growled, “Bet Jim wasn’t expecting that.”
Jim hadn’t been expecting it, and nor had he been expecting the silver magic to come flooding from the Faerie man. They had all been frozen in place, all pinned by a magic that was ancient and powerful and full of malice.
“We knew he meant us harm,” Spock looked to Nyota, “He wandered amongst us, taunting Pike and Jim who he correctly identified as the leaders. One by one he killed the men around them, his magic disintegrating them.”
Nyota paled and Leonard stared, “Disintegrated them? I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“He is beyond anything likely studied to date Doctor. Indeed it was quite fascinating, from a subjective point of view.”
“From a subjective...why you coldblooded...” Leonard spluttered but Nyota shushed him.
“Hush Leonard. What happened next Spock?”
What unfolded next made Leonard’s fingers curl into his palms, the nails digging into his skin. The Faerie had laughingly played with some of the men and horses, until suddenly he had caught sight of Spock’s ears and hair. From that point on his attention had been focused on Spock, especially when he heard his parents’ names.
Spock glossed over the details of the struggle between he and the Faerie, but Leonard had gone and questioned the boy who had spoken up when they returned, Garrovick. Apparently the Faerie had tried to antagonise Spock into a fight, which Spock had resisted.
Jim had not.
Despite the supposed ‘dislike’ Jim had a healthy dose of respect for the other man, and Leonard knew how much his best friend loathed bullies. The conflict had been short and brutal, leaving Jim gasping on the ground and Spock , along with Pike, trying to get through a magical shield to reach him.
“’I’m going to destroy everything you know and love.’” Garrovick and Spock reported the same words, Garrovick shivering, Spock impassive, “’Starting with these two.’”
“Then there was a flash of light and both of them were gone,” Garrovick told Leonard over a pair of drinks, “Just vanished and the world back to how it was, ‘cept for the dead men all around. Then we rode for home, at top speed I can tell you.”
“Do you think Jim and Professor Pike are still alive?”
Garrovick looked at him and there was pity in those young blue eyes, “I don’t know how they could be. Sorry sir.”
~*~
But they were.
Somehow Leonard knew he wasn’t dreaming, even though he knew he was asleep. Wherever his mind was, it wasn’t in a dream, that was for sure. Before him stood the being that Spock and Garrovick had told him about. Nearby were Jim and Pike, tied to glowing golden trees.
“And what are your names?” The Faerie asked, petting Jim’s cheek with a mischievous smile, “Should know your pets names after all.”
“I’m Christopher Pike.” The professor growled, “Who the devil are you?”
“Hi Christopher,” The Faerie taunted back in a mock friendly tone, “I’m Nero. No devil. And you...you’re Jim Kirk.” He smirked at Pike, “You should really quiet down your thoughts.”
“You can’t keep us here.” Jim’s blue gaze was fixed on Nero, “We haven’t eaten any faerie food, haven’t accepted your hospitality.”
Nero laughed, an unpleasant and mirthless sound.
“Those silly rules. I don’t listen to them. No one will know I have you, no one who matters anyway.” And his gaze wandered by Jim to rest on Leonard’s. “Your friends are helpless to save you. Perhaps they will go mad from knowing you’re suffering but being unable to help. Wouldn’t that be delicious? Mortals are such fun when insane...”
And the world melted around them, as Leonard ran forward, released by the spell that had held him in place, “Jim!”
But Jim did not hear him and the next moment Leonard had come awake in his bed, gasping for breath.
“He’s alive. Jim’s alive.” And he would rescue him, screw what Nero thought. Jim was his best friend. He would save him.
~*~
“We are left in a rather delicate and difficult position.” Spock said to the table at large the next morning. It appeared that both Spock and Uhura had had the same dream as Leonard, while Garrovick had just heard the words. None of the others had experienced anything so it was this four who sat at the table to work out a plan of attack, “We cannot let the general public know about Professor Pike or Jim Kirk’s disappearance. The expedition would be halted and we would have less than no hope of retrieving them.”
“What we need is some good solid information.” Nyota said, tapping a long elegant nail against her smooth cheek, “Something we can use against this ‘Nero’.”
“I know very little about Faeries.” Spock provided, deliberately not looking at any of them, “I found the notions fanciful.”
“I might have information on them in my library back at the manor in England.” Leonard said, running a hand through his dishevelled dark hair, “If nothing else I have a library of tomes on magic which might provide us with a handy weapon.”
“You have a library Doctor?” Spock quirked an eyebrow, “Fascinating..”
“Now you listen here you pointy eared hobgoblin...”
“Leonard...” Nyota admonished, touching his arm, “How quickly can we get to your manor.”
“It’ll be a good week’s travel if we leave right now.”
“It hasn’t rained in a few days so the roads should be good.” Garrovick provided, “I haven’t got any Gift so I would be next to useless to you. I can stay here and keep research going about the stone circle?”
“That is a sound idea Mr Garrovick.” Spock looked at Leonard, eyes impassive. “We should travel quickly with only two riders.”
“Three.” The two men looked at Nyota who looked back at them firmly, “I’m coming too.”
~*~
If Leonard had thought the journey there had been bad, he was forced to rethink it by the time they reached his manor home. It had gotten better once they had left Irish land; Nero’s influence wasn’t so strong over the water or in England. However the dreams of Jim and Pike continued, particular strong for Spock and Leonard and less so for Uhura.
“He’s tormenting us,” Leonard grunted, curled up in one of the great leather armchairs in the library room, a huge, ancient tome resting on his knees, “And so are these damn books.”
“We’ll find something Leonard.” Nyota said, standing up on the staircase leading up to one of the higher levels, “Your cataloguing system is a great help.”
“Indeed.” Spock said, hidden behind a parapet of books, “I find myself wishing I was not looking for something in particular. I could spend a lifetime in here reading.”
“You’re welcome to come back after we find Jim and the Professor, Spock.” Leonard said idly, turning a page, “Books are meant to be read.”
There was silence for a long moment and then Spock spoke again.
“Thank you Doctor.”
Nyota, perched on her staircase, book on her lap, smiled.
~*~
“This is hopeless!” Leonard slammed another volume shut, hours later, rubbing his eyes, “I have too many books. Never thought I’d say that but...”
“Next book Leonard.” Nyota said, looking up to see the Doctor lifting down another hefty tome, “Just keep going.”
~*~
“I find myself concurring with the Doctor on this.” Spock spoke up another few hours later, “It is beginning to look hopeless.”
“None of that Spock,” Leonard grumbled, “You aren’t allowed to agree with me, and you aren’t allowed to quit before me either.”
Spock looked affronted, “I was not considering abandoning the search Doctor, I was merely stating a fact.”
~*~
“Do you think we need a book on the mating of griffins?” Nyota asked, another three hours later, now sprawled across Leonard’s Egyptian rug, reading.
“Nope.”
“I do not believe so Nyota.”
~*~
“I think I have it.” Leonard spoke up the next morning, stirring Nyota from where she had fallen asleep on the rug and startling Spock from his meditation behind his book wall, “This will create a portal, where we will be able to see through to the faerie world and affect it with magic if we should choose to. The book doesn’t recommend it, says faeries are vicious with vengeance.”
“You don’t say.” Nyota said, sitting up, and pushing her dark hair back off her face, “What’s the spell, and what can I do to help.”
Together Leonard and Spock cast the spell on the large floor to ceiling mirror on one of the walls; Leonard’s copper Gift meshing with Spock’s green to create a mossy fire around the mirror. Slowly it began to glow and then it showed Jim. Jim who was pacing in a room of white marble.
“Jim!” Leonard lurched forward, unable to stop himself reacting to seeing his best friend, and being able to actually contact him, “Jim!”
Jim whirled, looking straight at the mirror and his eyes widened, surprise and fierce joy showing on his face, “Bones! I knew you’d find a way!” He hurried over, fingers touching the solid wall that was his side, and Leonard touched the same place on the mirror side, “I can’t get through.”
“We’re working on it Jim.”
A surge of green light and Spock’s magic rolled over the mirror frame, trying to part the glass and allow Jim through, “Almost,” Leonard grunted, lifting his left hand, his casting hand, “Maybe together.”
“My, my...” Leonard’s heart sank as he saw Nero standing behind Jim, leaning against one of the marble pillars, “What have we here?”
“Spock...”
“On three Doctor...one...two...”
Nero laughed, that horrible mirthless laugh and a surge of silver magic struck the mossy fire of Leonard and Spock’s magic. For long moments the two men struggled against the Faerie’s magic, but then with another contemptuous shove, Nero snapped their hold on the mirror.
Leonard heard Spock cry out, heard Nyota scream and then he knew no more.
~*~
“Bones!” Jim pounded against the stone, the stone where his best friend had been just moments before. He had heard the scream, cut off by the vanished magic, and did not know what had happened back in the room with the books. What if something horrible had happened to Bones?
He rounded on Nero, who looked utterly delighted by the expression on the young mans face, “What did you do to them?” the blond man hissed, stalking forward until Nero’s magic wound around him, binding him helplessly, “What did you do to Bones!?”
“Bones?” Nero asked, curious, tilting his head to the side as he used a tendril of magic to pry open Jim’s mind, “Oh the dark haired man. My, my you are quite attached to him aren’t you? Such wicked thoughts, not appropriate at all for gentlemen to be coveting each other in such a way, Mr Kirk.”
“Shut up!” Jim thrashed in the invisible bonds, “Shut up!”
“Ooh how delightful!” Nero stared up at him enthralled, “You love him! This is just perfect, I had no idea. Well then, I’m just going to have to make sure this ‘Bones’ makes it here aren’t I? Test him, break him. Ooh this is really just delicious.”
~*~
Jim was left to seethe impotently in a room with some other mortals that Nero had ‘collected’ during his times abroad in the realm of men. It seemed he did it quite regularly, judging by the clothes some of them were wearing. But there were a number who were wearing similar garments to Jim and they seemed to gravitate together.
“I am Chekov,” a young Russian boy said, his impish, youthful face turned up towards Jim openly, “Pavel Andreivich.”
“He’s some kind of whizkid.” The young woman said, rolling his eyes, settling down on Jim’s other side, “I’m Christine by the way, Christine Chapel. I’m studying to be a nurse.”
“Not any more y’not.” The last man said with a snort and in a voice with a distinct Scottish brogue, “At the moment lassie yer stuck here in Laird Nero’s hole, like th’ rest of us.”
“He is Montgomery Scott.” Chapel informed Jim, rolling her eyes at Scott as she did, “He’s some kind of engineer, thinks he’s going to ‘change the world’.”
“Hey! Y’know one day men’re gonna fly like wee birdies. Ah’m just gonna make it come sooner.”
“Are they always this bad?” Kirk asked Chekov, raising his eyebrow at the young man slightly. Chekov however just blinked at him in confusion.
“Bad? Zhey are on zheir best behaviour sir.”
~*~
“We need to look at this logically.” Spock said, pacing through the study. All of them had needed a break from the library room and time to recover from the backlash of the magic being severed by Nero.
Leonard was sitting in his chair, head resting on one hand, eyeing Spock like he was liable to explode any moment. Nyota was curled up on the leather couch, head buried in cushions, although one ear was visible, clearly listening to the conversation. Unlike Leonard and Spock, Nyota hadn’t been involved in the magical struggle, but she was very tired and was regaining some valuable sleep.
“Logically...”Leonard groaned, “Whattin blazes can logic tell us. ‘Cept that logically we’re stuffed like a good roast?”
“One.” Spock continued doggedly, “We, alone and together, are magically no match for Nero. I had hoped that our combined Gifts might be able to thwart him but it lamentably appears otherwise.”
“Wonderful.”
“Two. It appears that we can create magical portals into the Faerie world, but only portals which allow for audio and visual sensory contact as well as magical.”
“So we basically gotta find a doorway to the Faerie realm and something that will even up the balance of magical power? Gee...not tricky at all.” Leonard snorted and put a pillow over his face, “Sleep now I think. Maybe in the morning we’ll have a clue.”
Amazingly when they woke Nyota did have an idea.
“Dragons.”
Part 1 | Part 3 (Coming soon)