Alchemy of Love

The Trap

My skin crawled from having to interact with the humans. I had never expected it to be so difficult to find the materials I needed for my trap. Did no one else want to capture fairies, or even believe the monsters existed? After several conversations, each more humiliating than the last, I stumbled onto my solution. I’d build the trap myself. I knew the basics, after all, it just required some modifications.

This had brought its own issues of course. I was a scientist more than a tradesman and I couldn’t weld at all. Which of course meant I had to endure more conversations but April was truly worth all the pain. To see her smile again would free me from any of the suffering I had endured and the ridicule since no one in the town believed me. But that was okay, they'd understand when they saw April again.

I set the trap in the middle of the forest a route I knew that most others didn’t even know of. The beasts liked their privacy almost as much as I did. I deposited a small sugary sweet in the center. I didn’t want to part with more than was necessary.

I coiled foliage around the iron bars and went a safe distance a way to watch. Many curious animals approached, but none set the trap off. My research couldn’t be wrong. This was the exact same candy that April had possessed on that fateful day.

The last of the rays of sunshine dimmed down around me and left me in the dark. I tried my best to see through the dark but to no avail. I strained my ears and heard the faintest tinkle of a bell. A smile crept onto my lips at the sound and I changed my breathing to short and shallow breaths.

The bells got louder and than they paused several yards from me, exactly where my trap waited. Just a few more minutes. A precious few and then my April would be one step closer to her glorious return.

“What’s this?” The voice had the same quality as the tinkling bells.

I hadn’t given thought to a female fairy being caught. No matter, the entire race needed to be exterminated. Perhaps I’d invest in something for that strategy after I got my cure. The being went quiet and I fought the urge to lean closer. Patience, Simon, patience. If I tried to hurry things I’d lose my subject.

“Oh!” her happy voice made me smile, not because her happiness was contagious, but because everything was working out for me so very well. The flutter of wings, the trap swinging shut behind her, and the startled scream. An orchestra of perfection.

I crept out of my hiding place and picked up the small iron cage. The fairy inside was buzzing around with the candy held close to her chest. She’d fly into one end of the trap and then the other. “There’s no use fighting, fairy. You belong to me now.”

She stared up at me her gray eyes literally sparkling. “I belong to no one, human. Let me go.” She had stopped her frantic escape attempts and settled in the middle of the cage still clutching her candy close.

“No, you are the most vital element of my newest experiment.” I produced a red heart-shaped locket filled with a dense liquid and wove the chain around the bars. “And with this, you can never leave my side until I will it, and I assure you that will never happen.”

The fairy skidded across the bottom of the cage and banged into the bars. She grabbed onto them to get her bearings and a tiny scream ripped from her lips. “Monster!” she yelled at me as she rose into the air and tried to keep herself centered.

“Iron can hurt, I’d advise you to not touch the bars again, Fairy.”

“My name is Nicon, at least use my name you animal.”

I grunted. “Simon, but you can refer to me as Master, I’d rather not have filth like you use my name.”

Nicon turned red as she hovered in the air. “You’re insufferable! First, you kidnap me, now you insult me! What’s wrong with you humans?”

I raised an eyebrow at the tiny being. “Human? I might appear similar to those foolish creatures, but I am not human. I am an alchemist.”

“Alchemist?” Nicon repeated the word in a slow and calculated way. “I thought that was a made-up thing, they didn’t really exist.”

I brought the cage to my face and Nicon scurried back to avoid me. “Do I look like a figment of your imagination?” my lip curled into a smirk. “Or a fairy tale to you?”

Nicon shook her head sending her golden braid swinging. “No, you look like a big scary monster.”

“Good, there’s no point in getting attached, Fairy.”

“It’s Nicon,” she persisted with a sniff. “And I’m not going to call you Master, ever.”

I grinned. “Oh? I think you’ll change your mind. I have ways of making others do what I want, and it will be a pleasure to see what works on something as small and pathetic as a fairy.”

“Do you really think this is my full size?” Nicon asked as she quieted down and landed on the floor again. She stared up at me with narrowed eyes. “Do you?”

It was my turn to pause. “What are you talking about, Fairy?”

“No,” she shook her head. “You have to at least address me by name. I’m not some pet for you to handle.”

I chuckled. “Oh, I had no plans of making you a pet, Nicon,” she shuddered as I said her name and it made me smile. “Now, what do you mean that isn’t your full size? Why would you run around as a smaller form? That makes no logical sense. It’s far more dangerous to do that, what is your full size?”

Nicon held her candy to her waist. “For one, Simon,” she smiled as I winced. “A piece of candy like this lasts far longer when I’m pint-sized, then when I’m my full size. For another, it’s easier to sneak around and not disturb others or be disturbed. Life is just easier when you’re small. I rarely switch over to the other, but let me go and I’ll show you.”

“Let you go?” I laughed at the idea. “You must think I’m crazy. I’m not letting you go. I’ve already told you, Nicon, you are mine until your dying breath. No matter what you do, no matter what you try you’ll never get away from me. You might as well make yourself as comfortable as you can, for now. We have another mission to go yet while we’re out here in the forest.”

Nicon tilted her head and stared up at me once more. “And what would that be, Simon?”

I looked down at her and smirked once more. “Oh no, you will call me by Master or you will not find out. Two can play that childish game of yours, Nicon.”

She shuddered again from my name on her lips. Good, I wanted her scared. “Fine,” she grumbled as she hugged her treat close. “I just will wait and see. I can be very patient, I’m not interested in it, not even a single itty bitty bit.”

I chuckled as I looked away. I knew fairies more than they knew themselves. It was just a matter of time. I could almost hear the countdown as her little fairy brain short-circuited with the burning curiosity.

“Okay, Master, what are we doing out here?” she ground out between grit teeth as she bowed her head in submission. 

“Good job, Nicon. I should give you some sort of treat for behaving finally. As for your question, we’re going to go catch a unicorn, and you are going to help.”