Author's Notes:
Satyr Play 2 continues my surprisingly well-received first attempt to dabble in the realm of magic. Obviously, I learned nothing while writing the first story as I continue to ride roughshod over preconceived notions and the established guidelines of the genre. Mea Culpa.
No effort is made in this tale to explain the backstory, so it is highly recommended you read the stories in the following order:
Satyr Play
A Dark Heart (Short Story - for context)
Satyr Play 2, Part 1
Song for a Still River (Short Story - for context)
Satyr Play 2, Part 2
Bride in Black (Short Story - for context)
Satyr Play 3, Part 1
Satyr Play 3, Part 2
Satyr Play 4, Part 1
Satyr Play 4, Part 2
Satyr Play 5... to come.
All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older. Most aren't even human... or real. Or are they? Dun dun DAH!
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Satyr Play 2, Part 1
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Chapter 1
Henry fought off a strong sensation of déjà vu as he sat between the two beautiful ladies on the couch. He knew this was a recollection of the last movie night he'd attended in Sandy's condo.
Sitting between the bubbly, pale-skinned blond with her wide, delighted smile and the polar opposite of her BFF, Dayshia, whose expression was as dark as her complexion, Henry smiled tentatively at Tish, who was facing him on the plush chair to his left. It was rather obvious that she was undressing him with her eyes.
On the love seat across from Tish, Roger was making no effort to hide his suspicion.
"So, you're saying you're Stanley's brother. A brother he didn't even know he had up until just before this
family reunion
in, of all places, Ireland! You don't even have an accent—and neither did Stanley!" the tall male nurse exclaimed incredulously.
"Roger!" Sandy exclaimed in outrage. The man also drew an angry glare from Tish, but Dayshia barely glanced his way.
"No, it's okay. I get it. It was weird for me, too!" Henry said reasonably.
He'd only returned from Ireland a few days earlier to begin the next phase of his life as a new man.
Henry Gable.
For all intents and purposes, Stanley Garin was dead and had to stay that way.
Henry could no longer
be
Stanley unless he wished to commit suicide and take all of Humanity with him.
So, Henry, it was.
His new name even came with a backstory. He was the adopted son of the late Evan and Marie Gable of Aurora, Illinois. This information would be available should anyone do a hunt for it. Paper records, too!
His visit to the emerald isle hadn't been a family reunion. He'd gone there on the invitation of Mab, Queen of the Fae. With his ability to disguise his true nature corrupted by a deadly curse, he had to turn to the Fae for a new means to create a normal human visage. The Fae were masters at creating and bonding magical disguises to the Hidden Races, a collection of unique, magic-infused peoples. He'd only recently discovered he was a member of this mysterious group of beings.
While he'd been raised as a normal, if small, human being, to his dismay, he'd discovered that this was just an illusion. The night his magical protection temporarily failed, he reverted to his true self.
He was a Satyr, plucked from an ancient era in Earth's past by the witch Baba Yaga. He'd also discovered that humans wiped out
his people
millennia ago, leaving him as the only one of his kind.
That's not to say he was alone. He was a member of the Hidden Races. He had the company of the Witches, Fae, Succubi, Valkyries, Lycans, Dragons, Kitsune, Vampires, Goblins, Ogres, Brownies, Gnomes, and even spider people—no, they were called Arachnids.
And there were even more races he wasn't aware of yet. Magical, mythical creatures really and truly existed, but they had to hide amongst the far more proliferate human race or face extinction at the hands of the humans.
Unlike the magic glamor spells used by his new friends, his original disguise was bonded to and activated by a Dragon Bone ring. Unlike Fae Glamors, the ring's magic made him not just look like a human; he became one while it was active. The ring recharged as he slept in Satyr form.
He'd finally accepted this and had been slowly learning the limitations this duality imposed on his life and how he interacted with others, especially true humans. People who could never know his secret.
Then, he was used as a pawn in a cruel and evil plan.
A vengeful dragon placed a powerfully crafted curse upon the ring. Then, with the help of Queen Mab, ruler of the Fae, the curse was linked to her globe-spanning, area-effect spell, expanding the curse's deadly reach. If the ring were ever used to activate his human disguise, Henry and every human on Earth would vanish completely, leaving the planet to the Hidden Races.
The curse forced Henry to remain in his Satyr state, no longer able to use the ring to hide himself as a human.
The curse's existence also had to remain a secret as some of the Hidden Races might attempt to compel him to use it to rid the Earth of the human plague. Queen Mab was outraged to discover that her globe-spanning spell was now irrevocably linked to Henry's life. The spell's main function, held an ancient Fae disease at bay and kept her people alive. Henry needed to remain alive for the spell to be active!
To resolve the loss of his disguise, the Queen invited him to Ireland, promising him an impenetrable glamor. She'd spent the first week summoning her most seasoned mages, wizards, or whatever their name. Magic and its use were still strange to him.
The attempt to bond a Fae glamor to Henry's core was the largest challenge the Fae had faced in millennia. His link to the realm of Wild Magic was much, much stronger than a typical connection, though he had no idea why, nor could he even feel it. It just
was
.
The Wild Magic was also much stronger than the old realm magic, making the task that much more difficult and dangerous.
Queen Mab had insisted her people use extreme caution and pull out at the first sign of losing themselves in the powerful and incompatible energies. The gathering of magical talent had been significant.
In the end, it was the sacrifice of one old Fae master who discovered the trick was to give his skills over to the very raw energy they'd fought to control and to let the Wild Magic work itself into the spell he shaped. He'd shielded the others from the brunt of the magic as he showed them the way until he succumbed to the torrent. Working in unison, the others finished the old master's work, then escaped from Henry's inner being, only slightly crispy from the effort.
Ultimately, Henry had a glamor, but it was unlike anything the Fae had ever created before. Most importantly, it allowed him to hide his Satyr form behind the image of a human equivalent.
However, the serious and diminutive Stanley everyone knew was no more. In his place was a six-foot-two man with broad shoulders, strong arms, and big hands. Long, soft brown hair now fell in waves to his shoulders. He had a muscular torso, which led to a trim waist and powerful legs. His disguise more closely resembled his true size and shape while hiding a few significant features of his Satyr form. Gone were his furry lower half and goat legs, big black cloven hooves, ram horns, and pointy, drooping furry ears.
Instead, he looked like a human. A big one.
Best of all, his hands were human. He could perform intricate network hardware assemblies and the administration and maintenance tasks that required a keyboard.
On top of this basic glamor functionality, he discovered it had unexplainable physical and metaphysical attributes. Where a Fae glamor was visual trickery affecting the perception of those around the wearer, including the perception of human technology, Henry's did that and more. It seemed to twist the laws of physics, and he hadn't completely grasped the extent of its boundaries.
Those who used a Fae glamor remained partially aware of the separation of their true physical attributes and those of the image they hid behind.
From inside
his
glamor, Henry perceived himself as the image he portrayed. He felt the four human fingers and thumb on each human-looking hand even though he knew he only had three much thicker Satyr fingers and thumb on each hand. He couldn't feel the weight of his horns, and his ears were back to being mostly immobile.
Oddly, his strength when the glamor was active was that of the human displayed. He only had access to his true levels when he dropped the glamor.
Best of all, due to the strength of the magic feeding his disguise, Henry didn't have to turn it off to recharge it. He could remain as a human indefinitely. The spell remained in place even while sleeping. However, it was strongly suggested that, when possible, he maintain the habit of switching back to his true self at night. Doing so would help him maintain a healthy attitude towards what he truly was.
So here he sat, looking like a human with his human neighbor and her human friends, hoping to be accepted into their group as Stanley had once been. While it had only been three weeks since Henry came into being, he'd completely adopted his new persona. It felt like
him
.
He looked to Roger as the man seemed to be demanding an answer. He'd give him the best he had.
