Gnomy tells all: stories from his lifetimes throughout the universes

Unfortunately, when I first met the local fairies I thought they were very much like large silver dragonflies. The fairies buzzed around people’s heads with annoyingly erratic flights and torrents of endless chatter. As a grounded gnome with no wings, I just didn’t get it.

It didn’t take long for Phyler to realize that I thought of fairies as big insects. She didn’t hide her annoyance. A magical being of light can’t really smack another magical being on the forehead when they are annoyed at their stupidity; that would be a breach of decorum. Instead, Phyler merely buzzed her wings in annoyance and proceeded to tutor this ignorant gnome.

Oh my stars and planets, did I learn a lot.

I didn't know that the primary work of any group of fairies is to guard rocky worlds against dark forces. Fairies are the first line of defense and bear primary responsibility for protecting the safety of any planet in their assigned security area.

Fairies are tuned to the nuances of the universe and are able to see alterations to its subtle forces. They can see the ripples and distortions in the universe caused by twisted evil intentions. Very little gets past them.

Gnomes work closely with fairies and get involved in planetary defenses too, but we are not planetary guardians. The primary role of gnomes is to care for plants and animals. However, we can also sense any abnormal energy around us. Gnomes notify the fairy group for their area and are part of the safety council that must decide how to handle any problems.

Phyler explained that she is the leader of Zelen’s fairies. She added that of course fairies prefer to give an air of indifference to outsiders. They show no interest in events happening outside of their own selfish activities so that visitors to the planet will relax, chat freely and casually reveal any transgressions. The real work is successfully presenting themselves as a clique of intellectually limited and continuously nattering fairies. The gossipmongering of fairies is an act, but their closeness and ability to work as a skilled team is not a pretense. They depend upon each other absolutely.

Now that I have been on Zelen for quite a few millennia, I have seen skirmishes and even battles in the stratosphere above Zelen. Thanks to the skill of our fair folk, the humanoids and animals don’t even realize a hostile encounter is going on right over their heads. Great clashes of energy are not very obvious to non-magical beings. Explosions caused by energy pulses or wild crashes of plasma ray cannons hitting spacecraft are interpreted as strong thunderstorms.

I can give you an example of how Zelen was saved from disaster.

At the other end of our galaxy, a space freighter captain mentioned the rumor that there were huge swarms of self-replicating nano bots headed toward Zelen’s cosmic neighborhood. These bots had long occupied the empty areas of the universe but had recently evolved into a single entity and started raiding planets.

The rumor made its way to security forces at several space stations, who then informed the fairies. The fairies called a security meeting to inform the gnomes and other magical beings on Zelen.

The nano bots were looking for rocky worlds to strip out minerals needed for their own reproduction. They would have removed every bit of quartz, potassium, bauxite and many other minerals on every planet. The nanoparticles were so tiny that they didn’t need to drill into a planet. They simply needed to dive into each planet and pull single atoms of minerals until they accumulated all of it. The catastrophic earth changes would collapse entire planets and kill every living being.

These bots had not been designed to be biological entities, they were simply tiny machines that were accidentally loosed into the universe by some ancient civilization. The civilization is long dead, but the havoc created by their inept technology has outlived them.

This problem was swiftly handled by Zelen’s fairy forces, set as watchers around our solar system’s orbit. The swarm of nano bots was barely visible as a shiny metallic swarm. The lookouts sensed the swarm more than saw it.

Since the bots were not actually alive, there was no issue of whether they should be destroyed or not. The fairies simply set up a trail of tasty morsels, meaning highly desirable rare minerals. The bots followed the morsels from our 3D space to a different, empty dimension. The strange physical laws of that dimension might have destroyed the bots anyway, but the dimension was blasted with plasma until every single bot was demolished. The operation was short, intense and successful.

Phyler pointed out to me that this was just another effective operation on Zelen. Our local fairies function as a well-trained and alert security force. In fact, they have such a reputation that it alone keeps potential evildoers away.

The fairies sort out the intentions of a huge variety of visitors: passing cloud beings or their cousins the water sprites; covert beings who have been moving within the earth; odd salamanders who bear a resemblance to dragons; malevolent energy forms hiding nearby; and they can even sense the flutter of angel wings stirring a breeze around them. All energies are evaluated and visitors are either welcomed or asked to leave.

The fairies always know who is here in the moment, who has been here in the past, and even who will be stopping here soon. They frequently hear helpful gossip from their many contacts locally, in the universes, and in the astral realms. They understand that negative energy cannot be destroyed, but it can be deflected or neutralized or changed into something more positive.